Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Ninth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans [§ 113]. Brethren:

14 ⁶The one who mindeth the day, mindeth it to the Lord; and the one who mindeth not the day, mindeth it not to the Lord. The one who eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth thanks to God; and the one who eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth thanks to God. ⁷For none of us liveth to himself, and no one dieth to himself. ⁸For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this purpose Christ both died and rose and came to life again, in order that He might become Lord both of the dead and the living.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 64]. At that time:

15 ³²Jesus called to Himself His disciples and said, “I am moved with compassion toward the crowd, because they continue with Me now three days, and have nothing that they might eat. And I am not willing to dismiss them fasting, lest they should be faint in the way.” ³³And His disciples say to Him, “From what place should come so many loaves in a wilderness, as to fill so great a crowd?” ³⁴And Jesus saith to them, “How many loaves have ye?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” ³⁵And He commanded the crowds to recline on the ground. ³⁶And having taken the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks and broke them and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the crowd. ³⁷And they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the fragments that which was over and above—seven large provision baskets full. ³⁸And they who ate were four thousand men, apart from women and children. ³⁹And He dismissed the crowds, and embarked into the ship, and came to the borders of Magdala.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Seven Youths ("the Seven Sleepers") of Ephesus: Maximilianos, Exakoustodianos, Iamvlichos, Martinianos, Dionysios, John, and Constantine.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

August 17th – Civil Calendar
August 4th – Church Calendar

1. The Seven Holy Youths of Ephesus.

There was a great persecution of Christians under the Emperor Decius. The emperor himself went to Ephesus, and there prepared a riotous festival in honor of dead idols and also a vicious slaughter of Christians. Seven youths, all of them soldiers, held themselves apart from the foul offering of sacrifice, and wholeheartedly begged the one God to save the Christian people. They were the sons of the most eminent nobles in Ephesus, and their names were: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian, and Antoninus. When they were accused before the emperor, they hid on a hill called Ochlon outside Ephesus, concealing themselves in a cave. When the emperor discovered this, he commanded that the cave be walled-in. God then, in His far-seeing providence, let a miraculous and long-lasting sleep fall on the young men. The imperial courtiers Theodore and Rufinus, secret Christians, caused a copper catafalque with leaden plaques to be made, on which were written the names of these young men and their death by martyrdom under the Emperor Decius. One hundred ninety-four years then passed. In the time of the Emperor Theodosios the Younger (408-450), there arose a great dispute about the resurrection of the dead, for there were some who doubted the resurrection. Emperor Theodosios was greatly grieved at this dispute among the faithful, and prayed God that He would in some way reveal the truth to the people. At that time of altercation in the Church, some shepherds of a certain Adolios, who owned Ochlon, began building pens for their sheep and took stone after stone from this cave. Then the youths awoke from their sleep, young and in full health as they had fallen asleep. This marvel was noised abroad on all sides, and Theodosios himself came with a great retinue and spoke apart with the young men. After a week, they prayed to God to take them from the clamor of the world, and again entered into sleep, the sleep of death, to await the general resurrection. The emperor wanted to place their bodies in golden coffins, but they appeared to him in a dream and told him to leave them in the earth, as they had been.

2. The New-Hieromartyr Kosmas, Equal to the Apostles.

Born in Aitolia, in the village of Megadendron (Great Tree), he went off to the Holy Mountain as a young man and there, in the monastery of Philotheou, was tonsured as a monk. But, urged by a constant desire to preach the Gospel to the people, he went to Constantinople, where he asked the blessing of Patriarch Seraphim II for this. He visited all the Danube area, preaching the Gospel, working especially in Albania, where he suffered at the hands of a certain Kurt Pasha, who was stirred up by the Jews against Kosmas. Kosmas was strangled by the Turks and then cast into a river, in 1779. His wonder-working relics are preserved in the village of Kalikontasi, in the church of the holy Mother of God, not far from the town of Berati. He suffered for his Lord at the age of sixty-five.

FOR CONSIDERATION

‘Keep on asking, and it shall be given you,’ says the Lord (Matt. 7:7). As parents give to their children all that they ask for that is good for them, so our God, in His love for mankind, gives to men all that they ask of Him that is of aid to their salvation. St. Kosmas, as a monk of the Holy Mountain, begged two things of God: to preach the Gospel to the people and to suffer a martyr for the Faith. For a monk of the Holy Mountain, linked by obedience to his monastery, these two desires might have seemed unlikely of fulfillment. But God is almighty. God perfectly fulfilled both of Kosmas’ desires. His joy when he received the patriarch’s blessing to leave the Holy Mountain and go among the people to preach the Gospel was indescribable, and he had another similar moment of joy when the servants of the Turkish pasha announced that, according to the pasha’s orders, he must die. Full of joy, the saint fell to his knees, thanking God for having fulfilled this wish also, and he gave his body to death and his soul to the living God.

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.