Monday, 7 December 2026

St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan; Ven. Nilus of Stolobensk

Monday of the 28th week after Pentecost

239 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Apostle Tychicus of the Seventy

Saint Tychicus was one of the Seventy Apostles, a faithful disciple and companion of the holy Apostle Paul in the first century. A native of the province of Asia, he is mentioned several times in the writings of Paul: he is one of those who travelled with the Apostle from Greece into Asia, and Paul calls him "a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord." Tychicus was entrusted by the Apostle to deliver the Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians during Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, and was sent on missions to Crete and to Asia. After the martyrdom of his teacher he succeeded the Apostle Sosthenes as bishop of Colophon (or, according to some traditions, Chalcedon) and laboured zealously, by his preaching and example, to confirm the faithful and bring many pagans to the knowledge of Christ. He reposed in peace and is commemorated on 7 December and again on 8 December among the synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.

Holy Martyr Athenodorus of Mesopotamia

The Holy Martyr Athenodorus, of Syrian Mesopotamia, embraced the monastic life from his youth, devoting himself to fasting, prayer and the reading of the Scriptures. When he was denounced to the authorities as a Christian, he was arrested and brought before the governor Eleusius. Refusing every command to deny Christ, he was subjected to fierce tortures: he was hung up and torn with iron hooks, his sides were burned with fire, and he was cast onto red-hot iron, but the flames did not harm him. Many pagans, beholding the miracles that accompanied his sufferings and seeing the holy martyr unharmed, came to faith in Christ. When at last the governor ordered the saint to be beheaded with the sword, the executioner who lifted up his weapon dropped down dead, and his head was severed from his shoulders. The holy Athenodorus, kneeling in prayer, gave up his soul to God of his own accord and was crowned a martyr around the year 304 during the persecution of Diocletian.

Holy Martyrs Priscus, Martin and Nicholas of Blachernae

The Holy Martyrs Priscus, Martin and Nicholas suffered for their confession of Christ near Blachernae in the imperial city of Constantinople in the early centuries of the Christian era. Steadfast in faith, they refused to offer sacrifice to idols and rebuked the impious. Each of them endured fierce torments and received the unfading crown of martyrdom by the sword for the glory of the name of Jesus Christ. Their memory is kept by the Orthodox Church on 7 December together with that of Saint Ambrose of Milan and the Holy Martyr Athenodorus.

Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

This illustrious light of Orthodoxy in the Western Church was born in Gaul in 349, but his widowed mother took the family to Rome while he was still a small child. Brilliant and well-educated, he was made a provincial Governor in 375 and took up residence in Milan. In those days, the Arian heresy was still dividing the Church, despite its repudiation at the Council of Nicaea in 325. When the time came to elect a new Bishop in Milan, the Orthodox and Arian parties were so divided that they could come to no agreement on a new Bishop. When Ambrose came as Governor to try to restore peace and order, a young child, divinely inspired, called out “Ambrose, Bishop!” To Ambrose’s amazement, the people took up the cry, and Ambrose himself was elected, though he tried to refuse, protesting that he was only a catechumen (it was still common in those days to delay Holy Baptism for fear of polluting it by sin). He even attempted to flee, but his horse brought him back to the city. Resigning himself to God’s will, he was baptized and, only a week later, elevated to Bishop. Immediately, he renounced all possessions, distributed all of his money to the poor and gave his estates to the Church. Straightaway, he entered into a spirited defense of Orthodoxy in his preaching and writings to the dismay of the Arians who had supported his election. Soon he persuaded Gratian, Emperor of the West, to call the Council of Aquilea, which brought an end to Arianism in the Western Church. (Arianism, however, continued to prosper among the barbarian nations for many years; see the Martyrs of Africa, also commemorated today).

Several times the holy Bishop was called upon to defend the Church against domination by the secular powers. Once, putting down an uprising in Thessalonika, the Emperor Theodosius punished the city by ordering the massacre of thousands of its residents. When the Emperor later visited Milan and came to the Cathedral to attend the Liturgy, Saint Ambrose stopped him at the door, condemned his crime before all the people, forbade him entrance to the church and excommunicated him for eight months. The Emperor went away weeping, and submitted in humility to the Church’s discipline. When he returned after long penance to be restored to Communion, he went into the sanctuary along with the clergy, as had been the custom of the Emperors since Constantine the Great. But again the holy Ambrose humbled him in the sight of all the people, saying “Get out and take your place among the laity; the purple does not make priests, but only emperors.” Theodosius left without protest, took his place among the penitents, and never again attempted to enter the sanctuary of a church. (When the Emperor died, it was Bishop Ambrose who preached his funeral eulogy).

Saint Ambrose, by teaching, preaching and writing, brought countless pagans to the Faith. His most famous convert was St Augustine (June 15), who became his disciple and eventually a bishop. Ambrose’s many theological and catechetical works helped greatly to spread the teaching of the Greek fathers in the Latin world. He wrote many glorious antiphonal hymns which were once some of the gems of the Latin services.

Saint Ambrose reposed in peace in 397; his relics still rest in the basilica in Milan.

Venerable Ammon of Nitria

Saint Ammon (Ammoun), one of the great fathers of Egyptian monasticism, lived in the fourth century. Born to wealthy Christian parents around the year 294, he was compelled by his uncle to marry, but on the wedding night he persuaded his bride that they should live together as brother and sister, dedicated to chastity and prayer. After eighteen years of common life thus consecrated, with the bride's consent he withdrew to the Nitrian desert in Lower Egypt, where his wife in turn gathered other women to live the monastic life. There Ammon dwelt for twenty-two years, attaining great heights of asceticism, the gift of wonderworking and the discernment of spirits. He is venerated as the first hermit to settle the desert of Nitria and is associated with the founding of the monastic settlement of Kellia further south, which he, together with Saint Anthony the Great, established as a place for those seeking a stricter solitude. Saint Athanasius the Great in his Life of Saint Anthony mentions Ammon and recounts how Anthony beheld in vision the soul of his friend ascending to heaven at the moment of his repose around the year 350. He is commemorated on 7 December and on 4 October.

The Martyrs of Africa, who suffered during the Vandal persecution

In the year 429, eighty thousand Vandals crossed from Spain into Africa and, in the course of ten years of massacre and pillage, gained control of most of the Roman territories of North Africa. Many people picture these barbarians as pagans, but they were in fact Arian heretics, who under their leader Genseric began a fierce persecution of the Church wherever they encountered it. The tortures that many thousands endured in their confession of the Faith are too horrible to describe here; the clergy were singled out for special cruelty. Today we especially commemorate the Orthodox faithful whom the Vandals burned to death in their church, who went on singing hymns and praising God until the moment of their death. We also commemorate the three hundred Martyrs in Carthage who died by the sword rather than submit to Arian baptism. The death of Genseric in 454 brought little relief, for after a short hiatus his successors Huneric (477-484) and Gonthamund (484-497) continued the persecution as viciously as before. Christian Africa lived under the Vandal yoke for almost 100 years: freedom from persecution was not secure until Justinian’s forces overcame and drove off the Vandals in 523-525. The African Church, once a beacon of Christianity, never recovered its former vitality.

Our Venerable Father Antony of Siya

1556

Saint Anthony is one of the holy protectors of iconographers. He was born in 1477 in a Russian village near Archangel. From an early age he devoted himself to reading sacred books and making icons. When his parents died, he entered the service of a wealthy lord in Novgorod, and later married the lord’s daughter. But less than a year after his marriage he was widowed. Despairing of earthly consolations, he gave his wealth to the poor and, owning only the clothes that he wore, went to become a monk at the Monastery of St Pachomius. There he excelled in prayer, vigil and ascesis, praying for most of the night, taking on the heaviest work by day, and eating only every second day. After a short time he was ordained to the priesthood. Some years later he and two companions, seeking a more secluded life for prayer, traveled to the frigid shores of the White Sea and established a small monastic brotherhood where the River Siya enters Lake Mikhailov. They lived in utter poverty, staying alive by gathering mushrooms and wild berries. Many times they heard the sound of bells, though there was no church or habitation anywhere nearby. In time other brethren were attracted to the site, and a monastery was founded with the help of the Grand Prince of Moscow. When the monastery church burned down, an icon of the Holy Trinity painted by St Antony miraculously survived unscathed, and later worked many miracles. The Saint himself withdrew into the forests, living alone for many years until he was called back by his spiritual children to serve as the monastery’s abbot. Having foreseen his own end, he reposed in peace in 1556. He asked that his body be thrown into the lake, but his disciples, obedient in every other way, did not fulfil his request. His tomb was the source of many miracles in the coming years.

Also commemorated: Ven. Nilus of Stolobensk

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Timothy — 2 Timothy 2.20-26

²⁰But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. ²¹If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. ²²Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. ²³But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. ²⁴And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, ²⁵In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; ²⁶And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 20.27-44

²⁷Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, ²⁸Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. ²⁹There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. ³¹And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died. ³²Last of all the woman died also. ³³Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife. ³⁴And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: ³⁵But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: ³⁶Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. ³⁷Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

³⁹Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said. ⁴⁰And after that they durst not ask him any question at all. ⁴¹And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David’s son? ⁴²And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, ⁴³Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. ⁴⁴David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son?