Friday, 20 November 2026

Ven. Gregory Decapolites

Friday of the 25th week after Pentecost

222 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Forefeast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple

On this day the Orthodox Church keeps the eve, or Forefeast, of the great feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the year, which is celebrated on the morrow. The hymns of the divine office and of the Liturgy on this day are filled with the joy of the Church at the approaching mystery, calling upon the faithful to make ready their souls as a temple for the receiving of the Mother of the King, and rehearsing in expectant tones the events of the third year of the life of the holy Virgin, when, fulfilling the vow of her parents Joachim and Anna, she was led with rejoicing and the lighting of lamps to the temple at Jerusalem and entered into the Holy of Holies, there to dwell in prayer until the time of her betrothal to the righteous Joseph. The Forefeast is the only one of the prefestal days that falls within the Nativity Fast, and it joins together the themes of preparation for the Incarnation and of the consecration of the holy Virgin from her infancy to be the living temple of the Word.

Saint Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia

869

Saint Edmund was born about the year 841 of the royal line of the East Angles and was crowned king of his people on Christmas Day in 855, at the age of fourteen, having been raised in piety and trained in the Scriptures from his infancy. For some fifteen years he ruled his kingdom as a Christian king, defending it from the incursions of the heathen Danes and showing great care for the poor and the churches. In the year 869 the great army of the Danes under Ingvar and Hubba descended upon East Anglia, and after a battle in which his forces were defeated Edmund was taken at Hellesdon, or by other accounts at Hoxne. Refusing the demand of Ingvar that he renounce Christ and rule as a vassal under the heathen, he was bound to a tree, scourged, set at as a target by the archers until he was bristling with arrows like a holy hedgehog, and at last beheaded on 20 November 869. His head, cast into the wood, was miraculously preserved and reunited to his body, which afterwards was enshrined at the place that came to be called Bury Saint Edmunds, where his uncorrupt relics worked many miracles, and he was reckoned for centuries the patron saint of England before being supplanted by Saint George.

Saint Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Proclus was born at Constantinople in the latter half of the fourth century and from his youth was a disciple and reader of Saint John Chrysostom, by whom he was ordained deacon and then presbyter, and from whom he received the love of preaching and the careful study of the Scriptures. Consecrated bishop of Cyzicus by the patriarch Sisinnius about 426, he was unable to take possession of his see on account of opposition there, and remained at Constantinople preaching in the great church. It was Proclus who, on the feast of the Theotokos in 429, delivered in the presence of the patriarch Nestorius his celebrated homily on the holy Virgin, in which he confessed her to be truly Theotokos, the loom upon which the garment of union was wrought, the sacred shrine of the divinity, thereby publicly opposing the new heresy. After the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus he was at last raised to the patriarchal throne in 434. As patriarch he ruled the imperial church for some twelve years with peace and gentleness, brought back from Comana the relics of his master Saint John Chrysostom in 438 amid the rejoicings of the city, instituted the singing of the Trisagion as it is still sung in the Liturgy after a great earthquake, and reposed in peace in 446, leaving many homilies and dogmatic letters which remain among the treasures of the Greek Fathers.

Venerable Gregory the Decapolite

He was born in Irenopolis, one of the “Ten Cities” of Asia Minor. Though his parents wanted him to marry, he entered monastic life as a young man, and struggled for many years, living in reclusion under the guidance of a wise spiritual father. One day, while in prayer, he was carried away to Paradise and experienced the blessedness that the redeemed will know at the general Resurrection. The vision seemed to him only to last for an hour, but he learned from his disciple that he had been in ecstasy for four days.

Aware that the Enemy can appear as an angel of light, and that we should be suspicious of seeming revelations, he sought the counsel of his Abbot, who reassured him, and told him to give thanks to God by continuing in his ascetic labors.

Soon, he was told by revelation that he was to go forth into the world, living without an earthly home, to uphold the Orthodox faith, which was then under attack by the Iconoclasts. He traveled through Ephesus, Constantinople, Corinth, Rome, Sicily, Thessalonica, and Constantinople again, laboring in defense of the Faith and working many miracles. Usually he would stay with poor people who welcomed him into their houses, though it was forbidden by law to receive an Orthodox monk (that is, one who defended the Icons). In his last few years, afflicted by illness, he settled in Constantinople, where he reposed in peace in 832, just before the end of iconoclasm and the restoration of Orthodoxy. Since 1490, his incorrupt relics have dwelt at the Monastery of Bistritsa in Romania, where they continue to be a source of miracles for the many pilgrims who come to venerate them.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Thessalonians — 2 Thessalonians 3.6-18

⁶Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. ⁷For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; ⁸Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: ⁹Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. ¹¹For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. ¹²Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. ¹³But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. ¹⁴And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. ¹⁵Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. ¹⁶Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. ¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 16.15-18, 17.1-4

¹⁵And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. ¹⁶The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. ¹⁷And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. ¹⁸Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

¹Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! ²It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

³Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. ⁴And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.