Wednesday, 23 December 2026

Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete

Wednesday of the 30th week after Pentecost

255 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete

The Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete suffered for Christ during the third century in the persecution unleashed by the emperor Decius (249 to 251). Their names are Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zoticus, Pompius, Agathopus, Basilides and Evaristus. They were drawn from various towns of Crete, but all bore witness with one heart and one confession.

Brought before the governor of the island, who likewise bore the name Decius, they boldly refused to offer sacrifice to the gods of Rome or to the deified emperor. Subjected to many torments over thirty days of imprisonment, they were finally led outside the city of Gortyna and beheaded. Their bodies were taken up by Christians and buried, and a church was raised over their tomb. The relics of these martyrs have ever since been honoured as the chief patrons of the Church of Crete.

Saint Naum of Ohrid the Wonderworker

Saint Naum was one of the chief disciples of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, the Equals-to-the-Apostles and Enlighteners of the Slavs. Together with Saints Clement, Angelarius, Sava and Gorazd he laboured in the mission to the Slavic peoples, helping to translate the Scriptures and liturgical books into the Slavonic tongue. After the death of Methodius and the persecution of his disciples in Moravia, Naum found refuge in Bulgaria. Welcomed by Prince Boris and later by Tsar Symeon, he taught and preached at Pliska and Preslav, training a great number of clergy and translators. Around the year 893 he withdrew to the region of Lake Ohrid, where in 905 he founded the monastery on the southern shore that still bears his name, dedicated to the Holy Archangels. There he ended his earthly course in great holiness around 910 and was buried in the church of his monastery, which became one of the most beloved centres of pilgrimage in the Balkans. Many miracles of healing, especially from mental afflictions, have been wrought at his tomb. His original feast on 23 December is still observed in many places, while a second commemoration on 20 June was added in 1727 by the Archbishop of Ohrid.

Saint Niphon, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus

Saint Niphon was born in Paphlagonia in the fourth century and was sent in his youth to be educated in Constantinople. As a child he was gentle and devout, but in his youth he fell into a wild and dissolute life. By the prayers of a holy elder named Nicodemus, who saw the dark face of Niphon's soul, he came to deep repentance, weeping bitterly for his sins and crying out to the Most Holy Theotokos until an icon of the Mother of God smiled upon him as a sign of his forgiveness. After many years of struggle and great spiritual gifts, including unceasing prayer, vision of demons and the sight of angels assisting souls at the hour of death, the now elderly Niphon journeyed to Alexandria. A delegation from Constantia in Cyprus had come there to ask Patriarch Alexander to consecrate a new bishop for them. The Apostle Paul appeared in a vision to the patriarch and instructed him to consecrate one who resembled Paul, save that he was bald. Niphon was thus ordained deacon, then priest, and finally bishop of Constantia. He governed his flock for only a short time, foreseeing his repose three days in advance. On his deathbed he was granted to behold martyrs, prophets, monastics and the Most Holy Theotokos herself before giving up his soul to God in the mid fourth century.

Saint Paul, Bishop of Neocaesarea

This holy bishop was so revered that he was summoned by the Emperor Licinius himself, who attempted to turn him from the Faith. When this failed, the Emperor ordered that molten metal be poured on the bishop’s hands, which left them paralyzed and horribly disfigured. Years went by, Christianity was legalized by Constantine the Great and, when the Council of Nicaea was summoned, St Paul was among those bishops who were called to attend. Many of the bishops who attended bore in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 6:17): noses, ears or eyes lost, scars and burns from their trials for Christ. At the Council, the Emperor Constantine knelt before St Paul and kissed his hands as holy relics, saying ‘I will never tire of kissing these hands which have lost their life for the sake of my Christ.’ After the Council, the holy bishop served in Neocaesarea for several more years, then reposed in peace.

Our Holy Father Nahum of Ochrid, Wonderworker and Enlightener of the Slavs

c. 900

He was a disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius (May 11), and traveled with them on their missionary journey to the Slavs. With them and their other companions, he endured many trials, including several imprisonments at the hands of the Latin Franks, who were seeking to seize control of the region of Moravia in order to impose the Latin language and to spread the heresy of the filioque. For a time their troubles were relieved by Pope Hadrian II, who supported the mission and made St Methodius Archbishop of Pannonia, with jurisdiction over the Eastern European Slav lands. But when St Methodius died, St Nahum and his companions were imprisoned once more, then sent into exile, where they finally found shelter in the Orthodox Kingdom of Bulgaria. There they were able to continue their work of evangelization in the Slavonic language. Saint Nahum founded the Monastery that bears his name on the shore of Lake Ochrid. After his repose his relics were brought there for burial, and are venerated there today.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Hebrews — Hebrews 10.1-18

¹For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. ²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. ³But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. ⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. ⁵Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: ⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. ⁷Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. ⁸Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; ⁹Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. ¹⁰By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: ¹²But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; ¹³From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. ¹⁴For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. ¹⁵Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, ¹⁶This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; ¹⁷And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. ¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 10.11-16

¹¹And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. ¹²And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

¹³And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. ¹⁵Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. ¹⁶And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.