Friday, 4 December 2026

Hieromartyr Alexander Hotovitzky

Friday of the 27th week after Pentecost

236 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Great Martyr Barbara

The Holy Great Martyr Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioscorus, was a rich and illustrious man in the Syrian city of Heliopolis. After the death of his wife he devoted himself to his only daughter, and seeing her extraordinary beauty, built a tower in which to hide her from the eyes of strangers, allowing only her pagan teachers to approach her. Beholding from her tower the mountains and rivers, the meadows and the harmonious vault of heaven, the maiden began to ponder upon the First Cause and Creator of the world. Through conversation with Christian women of the city she came to the knowledge of the true God and was secretly baptised. While her father was away she ordered the workmen who were preparing a bath-house for her to make a third window, that the light might come in honour of the Holy Trinity, and on the marble wall she traced a Cross with her finger which was deeply etched as if cut by iron. When Dioscorus returned and learned the truth, he fell into a fury and dragged her before the prefect Martianus. Saint Barbara confessed Christ steadfastly, and a fellow martyr Juliana came forward to share her confession. They were beaten with rawhide whips and their wounds rubbed with hair cloth; but in the night the Saviour Himself appeared and healed them. The next day they were paraded naked through the city and beheaded, the unnatural father Dioscorus himself striking the blow against his own daughter. Both he and Martianus were straightway destroyed by lightning. The relics of Saint Barbara were translated to Constantinople in the sixth century and to Kiev in the twelfth. She is venerated as a protector against sudden death and the patroness of artillerymen, miners and architects.

★ Venerable John of Damascus

760

Saint John of Damascus was born about the year 676 into a wealthy Christian family of Damascus. His father Sergius held high office in the court of the Umayyad Caliph, an office to which John himself succeeded. Together with his foster brother, the future Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, he was educated by a learned monk also named Cosmas, who instructed him deeply in theology, philosophy, music, astronomy and the natural sciences. When the Iconoclast persecution erupted under the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, John, who was outside the reach of the imperial power, took up his pen in defence of the holy icons, composing his three Apologetic Treatises against those who attack the divine images. Tradition relates that the emperor, by means of a forged letter, brought about the cutting off of John's right hand, which was miraculously restored by the Most Holy Theotokos through the icon known thereafter as "Of the Three Hands." Distributing his goods to the poor, John retired with Cosmas to the Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified near Jerusalem. There he was tonsured a monk and later ordained priest. In stillness and obedience he produced a vast body of writings: the Fount of Knowledge, of which the third part, On the Orthodox Faith, became the principal manual of dogmatic theology in the Christian East; commentaries on Scripture; sermons; and a great treasury of hymnody, including the Octoechos, the Paschal Canon, and many other canons of the Church. Saint John reposed in peace at the Monastery of Saint Sabbas around the year 749. He is honoured as a Father and Doctor of the universal Church, and his feast is kept on 4 December.

Holy Hieromartyr Seraphim, Archbishop of Phanarion and Neochorion

Saint Seraphim was born to pious parents Sophronios and Maria in the village of Mpezila in the Agrapha region of central Greece in the mid-sixteenth century, when Greece lay under Ottoman rule. From his youth he embraced the monastic life at the Monastery of the Mother of God in Korona, and was given the name Seraphim. Distinguished by his ascetic labour, prayer and learning, he was elected in 1587 archbishop of Phanarion and Neochorion, succeeding the late incumbent. He laboured zealously to comfort and strengthen his Christian flock under the heavy burden of Turkish oppression, building churches and supporting his people in the faith. When Dionysius "the Skylosophos" of Larissa rose in revolt against the Turks, Seraphim was unjustly accused of complicity. Going to Phanarion to pay the tribute owed to the Ottoman authorities, he was seized, beaten and tortured. Though urged to apostatise to save his life, he replied that he would never deny Christ, his God and Creator. He was put to death by impalement on 4 December 1601. From that day his sacred skull, preserved at the Monastery of Korona, has remained fragrant and a source of healing for those who entreat his intercessions.

Saint John the Wonderworker, Bishop of Polybotus

Saint John lived in the eighth century and was bishop of Polybotus in Phrygia Salutaris in Asia Minor. From his youth he gave himself to the love of God, and by ascetic struggle and prayer attained great purity of heart. As bishop he shepherded his people in piety and was a fearless defender of the Orthodox veneration of the holy icons during the iconoclast persecution unleashed by the Emperor Leo the Isaurian. By his prayers he wrought numerous miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, and turning aside the army of the Saracens that had attacked his city. He reposed in peace around the year 716, and his relics continued to work wonders for those who approached them with faith. His memory is kept on 4 December together with that of Saint Barbara and Saint John of Damascus.

Saint Gennadius, Archbishop of Novgorod

1505

He was of noble birth, but entered monastic life at Valaam. He lived as a hermit on the island of Solovki from 1430 until 1447, when he was appointed abbot of the Chudov Monastery in Moscow. In 1484 he became Bishop of Novgorod. He found that the Tatar invasions had so disrupted the Church that a complete text of the Holy Scriptures could hardly be found in all of Russia. He ordered and oversaw the publication of the first printed Slavonic edition of the Holy Scriptures, set up schools for the instruction of the clergy, re-established order in the divine services, and fought various heresies. His devotion earned him enemies, and he resigned his episcopate to withdraw once again to a monastery. He reposed in peace in 1505.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Timothy — 2 Timothy 1.1-2, 8-18

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, ²To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ⁸Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; ⁹Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, ¹⁰But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: ¹¹Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. ¹²For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. ¹³Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. ¹⁵This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: ¹⁷But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. ¹⁸The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 20.19-26

¹⁹And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. ²⁰And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. ²¹And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: ²²Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Cæsar, or no? ²³But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? ²⁴Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Cæsar’s. ²⁵And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s. ²⁶And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace.

Epistle

— St Alexander

Hebrews — Hebrews 13.7-16

⁷Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. ⁸Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. ⁹Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. ¹⁰We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. ¹¹For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. ¹²Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. ¹³Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. ¹⁴For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. ¹⁵By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. ¹⁶But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Gospel

— St Alexander

Luke — Luke 12.32-40

³²Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ³⁵Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; ³⁶And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. ³⁷Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. ³⁸And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. ³⁹And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. ⁴⁰Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.