Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Third Sunday of Pascha, Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers

Mode Two — Fourth Eothinon

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 16].

6 ¹In those days, when the disciples were multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily ministration. ²And the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples, and said, “It is not pleasing to us to leave behind the word of God to serve tables. ³“Therefore, brethren, look out for seven men from among yourselves, whose character is approved by testimony, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint over this business; ⁴“but we will persevere in prayer and the ministry of the word.” ⁵And the saying was pleasing before the whole multitude. And they chose for themselves Stephen (a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit), and Philip, and Prochoros, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas (a proselyte of Antioch), ⁶whom they set before the apostles; and having prayed, they laid their hands on them. ⁷And the word of God kept on increasing, and the number of the disciples was being multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, and great numbers of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 69]. At that time:

15 ⁴³Joseph, a noble counselor, who was from Arimathea, and who himself also was waiting for the kingdom of God, came; and having become bold, he went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus for himself. ⁴⁴And Pilate wondered if He were already dead; and having summoned the centurion, he questioned him if He died not long ago. ⁴⁵And having come to know it from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. ⁴⁶And he bought a linen cloth, and took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen, and laid Him in a sepulcher which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the sepulcher. ⁴⁷And Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of Joses were beholding where He was laid.

16 ¹And the sabbath having passed, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of Iakovos, and Salome bought aromatic spices, that they might come and anoint Him. ²And very early in the morning on the first day of the week they came to the sepulcher, after the sun rose. ³And they were saying among themselves, “Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher for us?” ⁴And they looked up and saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was exceedingly great. ⁵And after they entered into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe, and they were amazed. ⁶And he saith to them, “Cease being amazed. Ye are seeking Jesus the Nazarene Who hath been crucified. He was raised, He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him. ⁷“But go and say to His disciples, and to Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him, even as He told you.” ⁸And they went out and fled from the sepulcher. And trembling and ecstasy held them fast, and to no one did they say anything, for they were afraid.

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.