Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 11]. In those days:

4 ¹³When the Jews saw the boldness of Peter and John, and comprehended for themselves that they were unlettered and laymen, they kept on wondering and began to recognize them that they were with Jesus. ¹⁴And seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they kept on having nothing to gainsay. ¹⁵But after they commanded them to go outside the council, they were conferring with one another, ¹⁶saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable sign hath come to pass through them is manifest to all those inhabiting Jerusalem, and we are not able to deny it. ¹⁷“But in order that it might not spread further among the people, let us forbid them with a threat to no longer speak in this name to any man.” ¹⁸And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right before the face of God to hearken to you rather than God, judge ye. ²⁰“For we cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard.” ²¹Now after they further threatened them, they released them, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people; for all were glorifying God for that which had taken place. ²²For the man upon whom this sign of healing had taken place was more than forty years old.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 15]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

5 ¹⁷“My Father worketh until now, and I work.” ¹⁸On this account therefore the Jews were seeking the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal to God. ¹⁹Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Verily, verily, I say to you, the Son is not able to do anything of Himself, unless He see the Father doing anything; for whatsoever that One may do, these things also the Son is doing in like manner. ²⁰“For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things which He Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may wonder. ²¹“For even as the Father raiseth up the dead and maketh alive, thus also the Son maketh alive whom He will. ²²“For the Father judgeth no one, but hath given all judgment to the Son, ²³“in order that all may honor the Son, even as they are honoring the Father. The one who honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father Who sent Him. ²⁴“Verily, verily, I say to you, that the one who heareth My word and believeth the One Who sent Me hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed over out of death into life.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Martyr Efpsychios of Cæsarea in Cappadocia.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 22nd – Civil Calendar
April 9th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Efpsychios (Eupsychius).

He was of gentle birth and was reared in faith and devotion. In the time of the Emperor Julian the Apostate, when St. Basil the Great was governing the Church in Caesarea, Efpsychios married a girl of good family. But he was not given even one day to live in wedlock, for, on his wedding day itself, there was a pagan festival with sacrifices to the idol of Fortune. Efpsychios went out with some others and smashed all the idols in the temple, then pulled down the temple itself. Julian was furious, and commanded that the culprits be beheaded, that many Christians be taken into the army, that an enormous levy be imposed on Christians, the proceeds of which were to be used to rebuild the Temple of Fortune, and that the town cease to be called Caesarea (as it had been named by Claudius Caesar), and revert to its former name, Maza. Efpsychios was first bound to a tree and cruelly tortured, and then beheaded, in 362. A little after this time, the wicked Emperor Julian visited that town on his way to Persia, against which he was waging war. St. Basil went to meet him, bearing three barley loaves as a sign of honor and welcome. The emperor ordered that, as a return gift, the saint be given a fistful of hay. Basil said to the Emperor: ‘You ridicule us now, O king; we bring you bread, by which we are fed, and you give us miserable food which you, with all your power, are not able to turn into nourishment for men!’ To this the emperor replied: ‘You can be sure that I will feed you with this hay when I return from Persia!’ But the wicked apostate did not return alive from Persia, but perished there by a fitting and unnatural death.

2. Our Holy Father Vadim the Martyr.

In the time of the Persian King Sapor, Vadim, abbot of a monastery and a man famed for his grace, was thrown into prison with seven of his disciples. With him in prison was a Prince Nirsan, also a Christian. Every day they were taken out and flogged. Prince Nirsan was afraid, and promised to forsake his faith and worship the sun. This was pleasing to Sapor, and he promised Nirsan all the possessions of Vadim’s monastery if he would, with his own hands, behead Vadim. Nirsan agreed to this. With trembling hands, terrified by the dignity of St. Vadim’s face, he let the sword fall several times on the holy man’s neck, barely succeeding in beheading him. But, very quickly after that, he fell into despair and ran himself through with his own sword; thus receiving at his own hands the punishment for slaying a righteous man. St. Vadim suffered in 376.

3. New-martyrs Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene of Mytilene

On the island of Mytilene (Lesbos) in the Aegean Sea, there was an ancient monastery in the fifteenth century. Its archimandrite was Father Raphael, and there also lived there the Hierodeacon Nicholas and other monks. During their lifetime, the city of Constantinople fell to the Turks (in 1453), and the Muslims continued their incursions into the surrounding areas, and soon they also wrested control of Mytilene away from the Genovese. In 1463, on this island there was an uprising, and Turkish reprisals against the Christian islanders were brutal. The mayor of the village of Thermi, Basil, together with his wife and daughter, and also the teacher Theodore, ran up to the monastery to warn the fathers of the danger, but were instantly arrested there by a company of Turks. It was Great Thursday, and the Muslims subjected the inhabitants of the monastery to torments for several days. In order to force the mayor to reveal the whereabouts of the other rebels, the Turks tortured his twelve-year-old daughter, Irene, before her parents’ eyes; finally she was burned alive in a large earthenware jar. Then they slaughtered her parents and beheaded the teacher. Finally, on the evening of Bright Tuesday, they took Saint Raphael and, tying him to a tree by his hair, severed his head from his body by cutting through his jaws with a saw. Saint Nicholas, who was tied to a tree and forced to watch, died of a heart attack when he witnessed this horrific execution of his beloved elder. The Turks threw the bodies of the saints into the spring, set fire to the monastery, and left. After many centuries, the locals only had a vague memory of what had happened at that ruined monastery. But God, Who never forgets the exploits of His saints, deigned to reveal those holy martyrs in modern times, and when some builders happened to dig up some of the sacred relics in 1959, the martyrs appeared to many different islanders in visions for the next several years in order to reveal the location of their relics and tell the story of what had happened to them. These miraculous revelations sent by the Church Triumphant are a great consolation to the Orthodox faithful of the last times, manifesting a living connection between the Faith we hold today and the Faith of those who have gone before.

FOR CONSIDERATION

It is said of Pericles that he was a man of almost perfect human form, except that his head was rather too long and narrow-like, so that he invited ironic smiles whenever he appeared bare-headed. To conceal this shortcoming of this great man of his people, Greek sculptors always portrayed him wearing a helmet. If pagans thus strove to conceal the shortcomings of their fellows, how much more should we Christians do so! ‘In honor preferring one another’ (Rom. 12:10), the apostle commands all who follow Christ. How can we say that we follow Him in meekness and purity if we poison the air every day with our talk of others’ sins and weaknesses? To conceal your own virtues and the shortcomings of others—in that lies the greatest spiritual wisdom.

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.