Fasting Rules
Saints & Commemorations
Synaxis of St John the Baptist
New Martyr Athanasius of Attalia (1700)
A native of Attalia, he lived in Smyrna. Once he unguardedly spoke the opening words of the Muslim confession of faith, “There is no god but God.” Hearing this, some Turks immediately surrounded him and took him to the court, claiming that he had embraced Islam. This he vehemently denied, assuring them that he was a Christian and that the words he had spoken would be unremarkable to any Christian. He
A native of Attalia, he lived in Smyrna. Once he unguardedly spoke the opening words of the Muslim confession of faith, “There is no god but God.” Hearing this, some Turks immediately surrounded him and took him to the court, claiming that he had embraced Islam. This he vehemently denied, assuring them that he was a Christian and that the words he had spoken would be unremarkable to any Christian. He was thrown into prison as an apostate and, after a sham trial, beheaded. His body was thrown to the dogs, but the usually voracious animals refused to touch his body, and it was removed by some pious Christians and given honorable burial.
Our Venerable Father Cedd, Bishop of Essex and Abbot of Lastingham (664)
He and his brother Chad (Mar. 2) were from an English family, educated under Saint Aidan (Aug. 31) of Lindisfarne. Both brothers entered monastic life at Lindisfarne and later became bishops. Cedd travelled as an evangelist among the people of Essex, where Saint Finan (Feb. 17) consecrated him to be their first bishop.
He and his brother Chad (Mar. 2) were from an English family, educated under Saint Aidan (Aug. 31) of Lindisfarne. Both brothers entered monastic life at Lindisfarne and later became bishops. Cedd travelled as an evangelist among the people of Essex, where Saint Finan (Feb. 17) consecrated him to be their first bishop. He founded two monasteries in Essex, one of whose churches still stands; he built yet another monastery at Lastingham in Yorkshire, where he lived until his repose. He spoke both Irish and Anglo-Saxon, and served as a translator for the Irish at the Synod of Whitby in 664. He reposed at Lastingham not long after the Synod.
Scripture Readings
☩Epistle
James 4:7-5:9
7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
13
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
1
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6
Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
7
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
☩Gospel
Luke 18:31-34
31
Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
32
For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
33
And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
34
And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
Liturgical data sourced from OCA.org and orthocal.info