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1st Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints. Tone eight.
Eve of Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast.
Today’s Commemorations
- Icons of the Mother of God “the Consoler of angry hearts” and “the Unbreakable Wall” ( movable holiday on the Sunday of All Saints ).
- Martyrs Manuel , Sabel , and Ismael of Persia (362).
- New Hieromartyrs Aberkius priest and Nicander (1918).
- New Hieromartyr Maximus (1934).
- Virgin-Martyr Pelagia (1943).
- Hieromartyr Philoneides, bishop of Kurion in Cyprus (306).
- Venerables Joseph and Pior, disciples of St. Anthony the Great (4th c.).
- Uncovering of the relics (1562) of the Alfanov Brothers of Novgorod (1389): Saints Nicetas, Cyril, Nicephorus, Clement, and Isaac of Novgorod, founders of the Sikolnitzki Monastery.
- Venerable Ananias the Iconographer of Novgorod (1581).
- Martyr Nectan of Hartland (Devon) (6th c.), and St. Botolph, abbot and confessor, of Boston (England) (680) (Celtic & British).
- Martyr Isaurus, and with him Basil, Innocent, Felix, Hermes, and Peregrinus of Athens (Greek).
- St. Aetius the Eunuch, enlightener of Ethiopia, baptized by the Apostle Philip (1st c.).
- Martyr Shalva of Akhaltsikhe (1227) (Georgia).
Scripture Readings
Matthew 28:16-20 (1st Matins Gospel)
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
Hebrews 11:33-12:2
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30
Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Saints and Feasts Celebrated Today
Icons of the Mother of God “the Consoler of angry hearts” and “the Unbreakable Wall” ( movable holiday on the Sunday of All Saints ). 
Upon the “Seven-Arrow” (“Semistrel’na”) Icon of the Mother of God is depicted a piercing by seven arrows. For a long time the icon was situated at the bell-tower stairway entrance of a church in honour of the Apostle John the Theologian (near Vologda). Turned face downwards, they mistook the icon for an ordinary board along which they walked, until a cripple in the city of Kadnikova had a vision; that he would receive healing after a prayer before this icon. They served a molieben before the discovered icon, after which the sick one became well. The icon was especially glorified in 1830 during the time of a cholera epidemic at Vologda.
Martyr Shalva of Akhaltsikhe (1227) (Georgia). 
The Holy Martyr Shalva was distinguished by his many Christian virtues. For his bravery and valour, the holy nobleborn Empress Tamara the Great (Comm. 1 May) appointed him governor of the Akhaltsikh district (in southern Gruzia-Georgia). While leading the Gruzian army, he gained a splendid victory over the Turkish sultan Nokardin, in consequence of which peace and prosperity accompanied the duration of the reign of Saint Tamara of Gruzia. But during the reign of the empress Rusudan (+ 1237), Gruzia suffered invasion by the Persian shah Jelal-ed-din. In the battle against the numerously superior forces of the opponent, Prince Shalva was grievously wounded and captured. Shah Jelal-ed-din surrounded Prince Shalva with frivolous concerns, but after the course of a year when he had recovered from his wounds, he urged him to accept Mahometanism. The promise of high position and all manner of honours were not able to sway the Gruzian confessor. He refused all these things and did not fear to suffer torture, and to his torturer he calmly answered: “I speak to thee with the words of Saint Ignatios the God-Bearer: “I seek not to gain anything, save the preservation of the Divine image, through which I was created”. The enraged shah gave orders to drag the naked confessor along the ground, and be beaten all over. During the time of torment the holy martyr joyfully cried out: “Rejoice, Shalva! Together with the clothing thou hast stripped off from thyself the old man and freed thyself from eternal perdition”. Half dead and with fractured bones, they threw the holy martyr in prison where he died in June 1227. After this, Jelal-ed-din overran Armenia and with a numerous army headed towards Tbilisi. The Gruzian army gave heroic resistance, but because of the treachery of the Persian citizenry they were unable to hold the city. Tbilisi was taken. “Not only public and private buildings, but also all the churches and sanctuaries were given over to fire and ruin; there was not left to rest in place even the bones of the dead, an inhuman sacrifice was made of altar servers and all the churchly clergy; in a word, Tiflis now presented the view of how Jerusalem looked under its destruction by Titus”. The fierce shah gave orders to take down the cupola from the Sion cathedral church in honour of the Dormition-Uspenie of the Mother of God, and therein to make his quarters, so as to look down upon the burning of the city and the torturing of Christians. He ordered the captured Gruzians to convert to Islam. Ten thousand men were driven to the bridge across the River Kura, near the Sion cathedral. They offered the captives freedom and generous gifts from the shah, if they recanted from Christ and spit at the holy icons put upon the bridge. The Christians, approaching by turns the holy icons, in place of insult rendered them due honour and veneration. These the executioners beheaded and threw the headless bodies into the Kura. Thus were executed all the ten thousand Gruzian confessors. It was possible to cross the river from one bank to the other on the bodies of the holy martyrs, without wetting one’s feet in the water. The water in the river, mixed together with the blood of the martyrs, became red. This terrible execution continued all day until late evening. At night there shone over the bridge a pillar of light illumining the bodies of the sufferers for Christ. After this there occurred a powerful earthquake, during the time of which the quarters of the wicked shah crashed down from the heights of the Sion cathedral. The commemoration of the holy Ten Thousand Tbilisi Martyrs is made by the Gruzian Orthodox Church on the same day with the memory of the holy Martyr Shalva.
Martyrs Manuel , Sabel , and Ismael of Persia (362).
The Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael, brothers by birth, were descended from an illustrious Persian lineage. Their father was a pagan, but their mother was a Christian, who baptised the children and raised them with firm faith in Christ the Saviour. Having grown into adults, the brothers entered military service. Speaking on behalf of the Persian emperor Alamundar, they were his emissaries in the concluding of a peace treaty with the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian received them with due honour and showed them his favour. But when the brothers refused to take part in a pagan sacrificial offering, Julian became angry, and annulling the treaty, he locked up the peace emissaries of a foreign country in prison, like common criminals. At the interrogation he told them, that if they scorned the gods worshipped by him, it would be impossible to reach any peace or accord between the two sides. The holy brothers answered that they were sent as emissaries of their emperor on matters of state, and not arguments about gods. Seeing the firmness of faith of the holy brothers, the emperor gave orders to subject them to fierce tortures. They suspended the holy martyrs, having nailed their hands and feet to wood, at their heads they thrust nails, and under their finger-nails and toe-nails they wedged sharp needles. During this time of torment the saints, as though not feeling the tortures, glorified God and prayed. Finally, they beheaded they holy martyrs. Julian ordered their bodies to be burned. But suddenly there occurred an earthquake, and the ground opened up and took the bodies of the holy martyrs into its bosom. After two days, following upon the fervent prayers of Christians, the earth returned the bodies of the holy brothers, from which issued forth a fragrance. Many pagans, having witnessed the miracle, came to believe in Christ and were baptised. Christian reverently buried the bodies of the holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael. This occurred in the year 362. And since that time the relics of the holy passion-bearers have been glorified with wonderworking. Having learned about the murder of his emissaries, and that the law-transgressor Julian was marching against him with a numerous army, the Persian emperor Alamundar gathered up his army and started off towards the border of his domain. In a large battle the Persians vanquished the Greeks. Julian the Apostate was killed by the holy GreatMartyr Mercurius (Mercury, Comm. 24 November). Thirty years later the pious emperor Theodosius the Great (+ 397) built at Constantinople a church in honour of the holy martyrs, and Sainted Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople (Comm. 12 May), then still a priestmonk, wrote a canon in memory and in praise of the holy brothers.
Hieromartyr Philoneides, bishop of Kurion in Cyprus (306).
The PriestMartyr Philonides, Bishop of Cureia, suffered martyrdom on Cyprus in about the year 306 in a persecution under the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311).
Venerables Joseph and Pior, disciples of St. Anthony the Great (4th c.).
The Monks Joseph the Wilderness-Dweller and Pior pursued asceticism in the IV Century, and were students of the Monk Anthony the Great (Comm. 17 January).
Uncovering of the relics (1562) of the Alfanov Brothers of Novgorod (1389): Saints Nicetas, Cyril, Nicephorus, Clement, and Isaac of Novgorod, founders of the Sikolnitzki Monastery.
The Alphanov Monastic Brethren – Nikita, Kirill (Cyril), Nikiphor, Kliment and Isaakii (Isaac), of Novogorod: On this day is celebrated the general commemoration of the death of the holy ascetics. The Monastic Brethren Nikita, Kirill, Nikiphor, Kliment, Isaakii – Alphanovi (Sokol’nitskie) lived during the XIV Century at Novgorod. They led a righteous life and founded the Sokol’nitsk monastery. As the chronicles relate: “On the Sokol’ hill was erected a wooden church of Saint Nichola and a monastery organised” in 1389. The righteous Alphanovi were kinsmen according to the information of the chronicler Yakov Anphalov or Alphanov, who fled to the Dvina, saving himself from pursuit for dealings with Moscow, and the righteous ones were subject to misfortune because of their ties of kinship with Yakov, and by the grievous agony of innocent suffering cleansed themselves for eternal blessedness. In the “Tale” about the brothers is recorded a miracle, arising from their relics after death. The celebration of their memory is placed under 4 May and 17 June. As the result of a fire which destroyed the Sokol’nitsk monastery, the relics of the monastic brethren were transferred to the Antoniev monastery on 4 May 1775.
Venerable Ananias the Iconographer of Novgorod (1581).
The Monk Ananii of Novgorod, an iconographer of the Novgorod Antoniev monastery, asceticised during the XVI Century. An account about him is included in the narration about the miracles of the Monk Antonii the Roman, from which it is known, that the iconographer Ananii wrote “marvelous icons of many holy wonderworkers” and, fulfilling a monastic vow, not once in 33 years did he go outside the monastery walls. Historical records impute the time of his blessed end as the year 1581.
Martyr Nectan of Hartland (Devon) (6th c.), and St. Botolph, abbot and confessor, of Boston (England) (680) (Celtic & British).
‘Saint Botolph was born in Britain about the year 610 and in his youth became a monk in Gaul. The sisters of Ethelmund, King of East Anglia, who were also sent to Gaul to learn the monastic discipline, met Saint Botolph, and learning of his intention to return to Britain, bade their brother the King grant him land on which to found a monastery. Hearing the King’s offer, Saint Botolph asked for land not already in any man’s possession, not wishing that his gain should come through another’s loss, and chose a certain desolate place called Ikanhoe. At his coming, the demons inhabiting Ikanhoe rose up against him with tumult, threats, and horrible apparitions, but the Saint drove them away with the sign of the Cross and his prayer. Through his monastery he established in England the rule of monastic life that he had learned in Gaul. He worked signs and wonders, had the gift of prophecy, and “was distinguished for his sweetness of disposition and affability.” In the last years of his life he bore a certain painful sickness with great patience, giving thanks like Job and continuing to instruct his spiritual children in the rules of the monastic life. He fell asleep in peace about the year 680. His relics were later found incorrupt, and giving off a sweet fragrance. The place where he founded his monastery came to be called “Botolphson” (from either “Botolph’s stone” or “Botolph’s town”) which was later contracted to “Boston.”‘ (Great Horologion)
St. Aetius the Eunuch, enlightener of Ethiopia, baptized by the Apostle Philip (1st c.).
The Holy Disciple Aetius was an eunuch and had the duty of protector of the treasury of the Ethiopian empress Candice. On the way from Jerusalem to Gaza he was baptised by the holy Apostle Philip (Acts 8: 26-40) and became the Enlightener of Ethiopia.
Additional Saints and Feasts Celebrated Today
New Hieromartyrs Aberkius priest and Nicander (1918).
New Hieromartyr Maximus (1934).
Virgin-Martyr Pelagia (1943).
Martyr Isaurus, and with him Basil, Innocent, Felix, Hermes, and Peregrinus of Athens (Greek).
Today’s Hymns
First Sunday After Pentecost or All Saints, Troparion, Tone IV
In all the world, O Christ our God, Thy Church is adorned with the blood of
Thy martyrs as with purple and fine linen. Through them she cries to Thee: Send
down Thy compassion to Thy people, grant peace to Thy community, and to our
souls the great mercy.
Kontakion, Tone VIII
The universe offers to Thee, O Lord, as the Planter of Creation, the
God-bearing martyrs as the first-fruits of nature. By their prayers, O Most
Merciful One, through the Mother of God keep Thy Church, Thy estate, in deep
peace.
Troparion of the Sunday, Tone VIII
Thou didst descend from on high, O Merciful One!
Thou didst accept the three-day burial
to free us from our sufferings!
O Lord, our Life and Resurrection: glory to Thee!
Hymn to the Theotokos, Tone VIII
For our sake Thou wast born of the Virgin
and did endure crucifixion, O Good One, /
destroying death by death.
Revealing the resurrection as God,
do not despise the work of
Thy hand.
Reveal Thy love for man, O merciful One,
and accept the Theotokos praying for
us,
and save Thy despairing people, O Savior.
Kontakion of the Sunday, Tone VIII
By rising from the tomb, Thou didst raise the dead and resurrect Adam.
Eve exults in Thy
Resurrection,
and the world celebrates Thy rising from the dead, O greatly Merciful One!
Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel & Ismael, Troparion, in Tone IV
In their sufferings, O Lord,
Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from
Thee our God;
for, possessed of Thy might,
they set at nought the tormentors
and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons.
By their supplications save
Thou our souls.
Download today’s octoechos HERE.
Download today’s menaion HERE.
Courtesy of St. Sergius Church
Hymns, Readings, Feast Day, and Fasting Information provided by Holy Trinity Orthodox Church.
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