Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Movable Calendar (Paschalion)

Monday of the Fourth Week of the Great Fast

There is No Divine Liturgy This Day Because of the Great Fast.

No readings given.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Evtropios, Kleonikos, and Vasiliskos.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 16th – Civil Calendar
March 3rd – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Eftropios, Kleonikos and Vasiliskos.

They were comrades of St. Theodore the Tyro. When glorious Theodore gloriously laid down his life, they remained behind in prison. They were not condemned for a long time because of the courage of the imperial governor of the town of Amaseia. When a new governor arrived, more inhuman than his predecessor, he ordered these three to be brought before him. All three were young men; Eftropios (Eutropius) and Kleonikos (Cleonicus) were brothers and Vasiliskos (Basiliscus) a kinsman of Theodore’s. But all three were, through their brotherly love, as blood-brothers. And they therefore said to the governor: ‘As the Holy Trinity is indivisible, so are we indivisible in faith and inseparable in love.’ All flattery on the governor’s part was in vain, as were all his efforts to bribe Eftropios. He first invited him to dine with him, which Eftropios refused with a quotation from the Psalms: ‘Blessed is the man who walked not in the counsel of the ungodly,’ after which he offered him vast wealth—150 liters of silver—which Eftropios likewise refused, reminding the governor that Judas lost his soul for silver. After all these attempts, followed by interrogation and torture, the first two were condemned to be crucified, for which they gave thanks to Christ that He had counted them worthy to die the death He had died; and the third, Vasiliskos, was beheaded. They all entered into the kingdom of joy, where their commander, Theodore, was waiting for them, glorified before Christ the Lord and Victor. They suffered with honor in 308.

2. St. Piama of Egypt.

For the sake of Christ she refused to marry, and gave herself to asceticism in her mother’s house. She took only a little food every other day, and spent her time in prayer and meditation, being gifted with insight. She departed this life peacefully, commending her soul to the Lord, in about the year 377.

3. An Unknown Girl in Alexandria.

She was from a wealthy house, having a good father who suffered much and had a difficult death, and an evil mother who had an easy life, died in peace and was buried with honor. In uncertainty whether to live by the example of her father or her mother, this maiden had a vision in which the state of her father and of her mother were shown to her. She saw her father in the kingdom of God, and her mother in darkness and torment. This determined her to devote her whole life to God, and like her father, follow the commandments of God without regard to any opposition or misfortune that she might have to endure. And she followed the commandments of God to the end, with His help, and was made worthy of the kingdom of heaven, in which she was reunited with her beloved father.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Speaking on a human level, Christ raised Himself to primacy in the Church, the world and human history by obedience. No one can be a good superior who has not gone through the school of obedience. Adam lost his power and primacy over the animals and the natural elements in the hour when he showed himself disobedient to God. ‘Obedience begets obedience; if a man listens to God, then God listens to him,’ said Abba Moses. However, it is obvious that God listens to man more than man does to God, when one counts up how many times a day people sin against the commandments of God. The fact that the immortal God listens to us corruptible beings more than we do to Him should fill with shame anyone with any conscience remaining. When St. Eftropios was martyred with his two friends, he prayed to God: ‘Come to our aid, as Thou camest to the aid of Thy servant Theodore!’ At that, the earth quaked and the obedient Lord revealed Himself with the angels and St. Theodore. And the Lord said to the sufferers: ‘During the time of your torture, I stood before your faces, witnessing your endurance. Your names will be written in the Book of Life.’

Daily Scripture Readings taken from The Orthodox New Testament, translated and published by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, copyright © 2000, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Daily Prologue Readings taken from The Prologue of Ochrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, translated by Mother Maria, published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham, England, copyright © 1985, all rights reserved. Edited by Dormition Skete.