Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Cheesefare

Epistle

The Reading is from the General Epistle of Saint Jude [§ 77].

¹Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of Iakovos, to those called in God the Father, who have been sanctified and kept for Jesus Christ: ²Mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

³Beloved, when I myself made every effort to write to you concerning the common salvation, I had need to write to you, exhorting you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴For certain men slipped in secretly, who of old were proscribed to this judgment, ungodly ones, transposing the grace of our God into licentiousness, and denying the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵But I wish to remind you, though ye know this once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who believed not. ⁶And those angels who kept not their first place, but deserted their own habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness until the judgment of the great day; ⁷as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in like manner to these, having committed fornication and gone away after other flesh, are set forth for an example, undergoing the punishment of everlasting fire. ⁸Yet in like manner also these dreamers indeed defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and blaspheme dignities. ⁹Now Michael the archangel, when he took issue with the devil and was disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to lay upon him a judgment of blasphemy, but said, “May the Lord rebuke thee [cf. Zach. 3:3].” ¹⁰But these blaspheme indeed whatever things they do not know; and whatever things they understand naturally, as the irrational animals, in these things they corrupt themselves.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 109]. At that time:

22 ³⁹Jesus, having gone forth, went, according to His custom, to the Mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him. ⁴⁰And having arrived at the place, He said to them, “Be praying not to enter into temptation.” ⁴¹And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw; and having kneeled down, He was praying, ⁴²saying, “Father, if Thou art willing to take away this cup from Me—; but not My will, but Thine be done.”... ⁴⁵And having risen up from the prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from the grief, ⁴⁶and He said to them, “Why sleep ye? Rise up and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”

⁴⁷And while He yet spoke, behold, a crowd, and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them forth and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him; for he had given this sign to them, “Whomsoever I shall kiss, it is He Himself.” ⁴⁸But Jesus said to him, “Judas, deliverest thou up the Son of Man with a kiss?” ⁴⁹And after they who were around Him saw that which was about to happen, they said to Him, “Lord, shall we smite with a sword?” ⁵⁰And a certain one of them smote the slave of the high priest and took off his ear, the right one. ⁵¹And Jesus answered and said, “Let it be, even to this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. ⁵²And Jesus said to those chief priests, and captains of the temple, and elders, who came against Him, “As against a robber ye have come out with swords and clubs. ⁵³“Daily, when I was with you in the temple, ye did not stretch forth your hands against Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

⁵⁴And having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the house of the high priest. And Peter was following from afar. ⁵⁵And after they kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard, they sat down together, and Peter was sitting among them. ⁵⁶And a certain young maidservant, having seen him sitting before the light of the fire, looked intently on him, and said, “This one was also with Him.” ⁵⁷But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” ⁵⁸And after a short time another saw him, and said, “Thou art also of them.” And Peter said, “Man, I am not.” ⁵⁹And after about one hour intervened, a certain other strongly affirmed, saying, “In truth, this one also was with Him; for he is a Galilæan also.” ⁶⁰And Peter said, “Man, I know not what thou sayest.” And immediately, while he was yet speaking, a cock crowed. ⁶¹And the Lord turned about and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He said to him, “Before a cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice.” ⁶²And Peter went outside and wept bitterly.

⁶³And the men who confined Jesus were mocking Him and beating Him. ⁶⁴And having covered Him all around, they were striking His face and were questioning Him, saying, “Prophesy: Who is the one that smote Thee?” ⁶⁵And many other things they were saying to Him, blaspheming.

⁶⁶And when it became day, the council of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together and led Him into their sanhedrin, saying, ⁶⁷“If Thou art the Christ, tell us.” And He said to them, “If I should tell you, in no wise will ye believe. ⁶⁸“And if also I should ask you, in no wise will ye answer Me or release Me. ⁶⁹“From now on the Son of Man shall be sitting on the right of the power of God.” ⁷⁰And they all said, “Art Thou then the Son of God?” And Jesus said to them, “Ye say that I am.” ⁷¹And they said, “What need have we still of testimony? For we ourselves heard from His own mouth.”

23 ¹And the whole multitude of them rose up and led Him before Pilate.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyrs Pamphilos the presbyter, Valens the deacon, Paul, Selevkos, Porphyrios, Julian, Theodoulos, Elias, Jeremias, Esaias, Samuel, and Daniel, at Cæsarea in Palestine.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 1st – Civil Calendar: Non-Leap Year
February 29th – Civil Calendar: Leap Year
February 16th – Church Calendar

1. The Twelve Holy Martyrs who suffered in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian.

The first of these, Pamphilos, was priest in the church at Caesarea in Palestine; a learned and devout man, he corrected the mistakes of various copiers in the text of the New Testament. He himself copied this saving Book and gave it to any who desired it. The second was a deacon, Valens (Valentine), old in years and white with wisdom. He was a great expert in the holy Scriptures, knowing them by heart. The third was Paul, a respected and eminent man, who had on a previous occasion been cast into the fire for the sake of Christ. With them were five Egyptians, brothers both in blood and soul, who were returning to their native land from serving a sentence in the mines of Cilicia. As they reached the gate of the town of Caesarea they said that they were Christians, and were therefore brought to trial. When asked their names, they replied: ‘We have cast away the pagan names given us by our mother, and are called Elias, Isaias, Jeremias, Samuel and Daniel.’ When asked where they were from, they replied: ‘From Jerusalem that is above.’ They were all beheaded, and a young man called Porphyrios, who had searched for their bodies to give them burial, suffered soon afterwards. Him they burned. An officer, Seleucus, who had come up to the martyrs and embraced them before the sword descended on their heads, was also burned, and an old man, Theodulus, a servant of the Roman judge, who had embraced one of the martyrs while they were under escort. Lastly Julian, who had kissed the dead bodies of the martyrs and honored them, followed them in death. So they exchanged the small for the great, the tawdry for the precious and death for immortality, and went to the Lord in 308.

2. St. Maruthas.

Bishop of the town of Tagrith in Mesopotamia, he was famed for his faith and goodness. Maruthas calmed the wrath of the Persian King Yazdgird (Yezdegeherd) against the Christians, begged from him the relics of the 400 martyrs in Persia and founded a town, Martyropolis, where he placed these holy relics. He finished his earthly course in this town in 422 and went to the Lord.

3. St. Flavian.

He was Patriarch of Constantinople after St. Proklos, in 446, and was a contemporary of Pope Leo. He battled firmly against Eftyches and Dioscoros, but did not live to see the triumph of Orthodoxy at the Fourth Council, for, before that, he was so mercilessly thrashed and trampled on at a heretical council in Ephesus that he died there. He was a faithful soldier of Christ and a courageous defender and confessor of the Orthodox Faith. He entered into rest in 449.

4. Our Holy Father the Martyr Romanos.

Romanos was a simple and illiterate villager from Karpenesion. Learning of the heroism and the glory of the martyrs of Christ, the young Romanos yearned for martyrdom himself. He went to Thessalonica, where he began to extol the Christian Faith in the streets, and to call Mohammed a writer of fables. The Turks tortured him terribly, then handed him over to a galley-captain. Christians rescued him from the galley and sent him to the Holy Mountain, where Romanos became a monk under the famous Elder Akakios. But he still yearned for martyrdom for the sake of Christ. With the blessing of his elder, he went to Constantinople, pretended to be a fool and began to lead a dog about the streets. When asked why, Romanos replied that he fed that dog as Christians fed Turks. The Turks threw him into a dry well, where he lived without bread for forty days. They then took him out and executed him. Light streamed from his body for three days, after which an Englishman took it to England. But a monk soaked a towel in his blood, and that towel is kept to this day in the monastery of Docheiariou. This glorious soldier of Christ suffered in 1694.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Only with the greatest struggle and sacrifice is the chaff of heresy separated from the wheat of Orthodox truth. Heretics have always made use of the lowest means and the meanest people in the undermining of Orthodoxy. Archimandrite Eftyches of Constantinople and Patriarch Dioscoros of Alexandria, who held the heretical teaching that in Christ there are not two natures—a divine and a human—but one, had for their friend at the imperial court the base eunuch Chrysaphios. The Empress Evdokia was secretly allied with them. Patriarch Flavian fearlessly defended Orthodoxy like a lion, being helped in this by the emperor’s sister, St. Pulcheria. The eunuch produced the foulest slanders against Patriarch Flavian for the Emperor Theodosios, in order to make the emperor drive him from his throne and replace him with the heretic Eftyches. When neither he nor others succeeded, the heretics decided to kill Flavian. At a pirate council in Ephesus, they so beat and ill-treated him that on the third day St. Flavian gave his soul to God. And what happened in the end? At the Fourth Ecumenical Council, Eftyches and Dioscoros were anathematized. The eunuch, driven from court in shame, lost his life. The Empress Evdokia was exiled from Constantinople to Palestine. Flavian and Pulcheria were proclaimed saints and the Orthodox Faith was triumphantly confirmed.

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.