Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ mid 333]. Brethren:

12 ²⁸Since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be having gratitude by which we may worship God well pleasingly with reverence and piety. ²⁹For also, “Our God is a consuming fire [cf. Deut. 4:24].”

13 ¹Let brotherly love abide. ²Cease being forgetful of hospitality, for by this some entertained angels unawares. ³Be mindful of those in bonds as bound with them, of those being ill-treated as being yourselves also in the body. ⁴Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. ⁵Let your manner of life be without covetousness, being satisfied with things at hand; for He hath said, “In no wise will I leave thee, nor in any wise will I abandon thee [cf. Deut. 31:6].” ⁶So that being of good courage we may say, “The Lord is a helper to me, and I will not be afraid; what shall man do to me [cf. Ps. 117(118):6]?”

⁷Be remembering those who lead you, who spoke to you the word of God, whose faith keep on imitating, observing attentively the end of their conduct: ⁸Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and to the ages.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 39]. At that time:

11 ¹There was a certain sick man, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” ⁴And after Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God might be glorified by it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶When He heard therefore that “he is sick,” then indeed He remained in the place which He was for two days. ⁷Then after this He saith to His disciples, “Let us go into Judæa again.” ⁸The disciples say to Him, “Rabbi, just now the Jews were seeking to stone Thee, and goest Thou there again?” ⁹Jesus answered, “There are twelve hours in the day, are there not? If anyone walk about in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world; ¹⁰“but if anyone walk about in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹These things He said, and after this He saith to them, “Our friend Lazarus hath fallen asleep; but I go that I might awaken him.” ¹²Then said His disciples, “Lord, if he hath fallen asleep, he shall recover.” ¹³But Jesus had spoken about his death; but they thought that He spoke about taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴Therefore Jesus then said to them openly, “Lazarus died. ¹⁵“And I rejoice on your account that I was not there, in order that ye might believe; but let us go to him.” ¹⁶Then Thomas, the one who was called Didymos, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we might die with Him.”

¹⁷Then after Jesus came, He found that he already had been in the sepulcher four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to join the women around Martha and Mary, in order that they might console them concerning their brother. ²⁰Then Martha, when she heard that “Jesus is coming,” went to meet Him; but Mary was sitting in the house. ²¹Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died. ²²“But even now I know that whatsoever Thou Thyself shalt ask of God, God will give it to Thee.” ²³Jesus saith to her, “Thy brother shall rise up.” ²⁴Martha saith to Him, “I know that he shall rise up in the resurrection in the last day.” ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believeth in Me, though he die, he shall live; ²⁶“and everyone who liveth and believeth in Me, in no wise shall ever die. Believest thou this?” ²⁷She saith to Him, “Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, Who cometh into the world.” ²⁸And after she said these things, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, and saith, “The Teacher is present and calleth thee.” ²⁹And the latter, when she heard, rose up quickly and came to Him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha went to meet Him. ³¹The Jews then who were with her in the house, and consoling her, after they saw that Mary quickly rose up and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the sepulcher that she might weep there.” ³²Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came down with her weeping, He rebuked His deep feelings in the spirit and troubled Himself, ³⁴and said, “Where have ye laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus wept. ³⁶Then the Jews were saying, “Behold, how He was loving him.” ³⁷But some of them said, “Was not this One able, Who opened the eyes of the blind, to have caused that this one should not die?” ³⁸Then Jesus, again rebuking His deep feelings in Himself, cometh to the sepulcher. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying upon it. ³⁹Jesus saith, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the one who was dead, saith to Him, “Lord, already he stinketh, for it is the fourth day.” ⁴⁰Jesus saith to her, “I said to thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God, did I not?” ⁴¹Then they took away the stone where the dead one was laid. And Jesus lifted His eyes upwards, and said, “Father, I give thanks to Thee that Thou heardest Me. ⁴²“But I know that Thou hearest Me always; but on account of the crowd which stood around I said it, that they might believe that Thou didst send Me forth.” ⁴³And after He said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” ⁴⁴And the one who was dead came forth, his feet and hands having been bound with graveclothes; and his face had been bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

⁴⁵Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what Jesus did, believed in Him.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of our venerable Father Nikon and his 199 Disciples in Sicily.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

April 5th – Civil Calendar
March 23rd – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Nikon.

Born in Naples of a pagan father and a Christian mother, he was an officer in the Roman army in Naples. He was not baptized, although his mother, unbeknown to his father, had instructed him in the Christian Faith. Once, when he was setting off with his company to war, his mother advised him that if he were in trouble, to make the sign of the Cross and call on Christ to help him. And so, when Nikon’s company was surrounded during the battle and close to final extermination, Nikon made the sign of the Cross and began to call upon Christ. At that moment he was filled with exceptional strength and rushed upon his opponents, killing some and putting the others to flight. Returning home, Nikon could not stop exclaiming in wonder: ‘Great is the God of the Christians!’ After he had brought joy to his mother with his report of the victory by the aid of Christ’s Cross, he set sail in secret for Asia, where the Bishop of Kyzikos, Theodosios, baptized him. After his Baptism, he shut himself up in a monastery and devoted himself to study and to asceticism. However, Bishop Theodosios had a vision before his death, in which he was told to consecrate Nikon as his successor. The aged Theodosios summoned Nikon immediately and ordained him deacon, and then priest and bishop. By divine providence Nikon came soon after this to Neapolis, where he found his mother still alive. On her death, he went to Sicily with nine disciples, one-time comrades in battle, and there devoted himself to preaching the Gospel. There was a terrible persecution of Christians at that time, and Prince Quintianus seized Nikon and his companions and gave them over to great torture. One hundred and ninety of his disciples and friends were slain. The torturer tied Nikon to the tails of horses, threw him from a high cliff into a ravine, beat him and flayed him, yet Nikon survived all these tortures. He was finally slain with the sword and his body was abandoned in a field for the birds to eat, but a shepherd boy, possessed by a raging evil spirit, fell on the dead body of Christ’s martyr, took hold of it, and was immediately healed. He spread the news about Nikon’s body, and Christians came and buried it. St. Nikon suffered and went to the Lord in the reign of the Emperor Decius.

2. Our Holy Father Nikhon of the Kiev Caves.

Nikhon was a friend of St. Anthony of the Caves and the spiritual father of our holy father Theodosius. After the tonsuring of the Boyar Varlaam and the eunuch Ephraim he was threatened by Prince Izyaslav, but the princess turned the prince’s anger to godly fear and holy Nikhon was left in peace. Desiring to beautify the Church with icons, Nikhon prayed for assistance, and through his prayers some Greek iconographers suddenly arrived in Kiev from Constantinople. St. Anthony and St. Theodosius had appeared to them in a vision and sent them to Nikhon in Kiev. He was glorified for his daring asceticism and his spiritual wisdom. He became abbot of the Monastery of the Caves against his will in old age, and went to the Lord in 1066. His incorrupt relics are preserved in the Kiev Caves.

3. The Holy Virgin-martyr Basil of Mangazeya, Protector Against Homosexuality.

St. Basil was born in 1587 in Yaroslavl, and as a very small boy, he used to go to the church every time he could. He loved God’s house and he wanted to be there more than any other place. Because his father, Theodore, was a poor merchant and his family often had very little food, Basil agreed to become an apprentice for a merchant in the faraway Siberian town of Mangazeya. The young Basil was a very good and careful worker, and soon he was given a more responsible job in the company. Siberia was a very dangerous place, full of wild animals, warlike native tribes, and lawless men. There were almost no women in Siberia. Thus, some perverse men used to commit homosexual acts with young men and boys. Soon after the saint had arrived in Mangazeya, his boss tried to entice the youth into homosexual relations, first with flattery and bribes and finally with threats and punishments. Basil, however, rejected the depraved man and continued to fast and pray and ask God to help him remain pure. The boss hated Basil for his meek and humble personality and for his devout religious life. Yet no matter how much he persecuted and mistreated the innocent lad, Basil continued to perform all his duties faithfully and honestly.

During the Paschal Matins, thieves robbed the merchandise house in which Basil worked. Discovering the theft, the boss went to the governor and reported the theft, accusing Basil of the crime. Thus, on the day of Christ’s Bright Pascha, when the holy Church calls all people to peace and love, this innocent, God-fearing boy was betrayed by a false witness, just as Christ had been betrayed by false witnesses. The governor did not even investigate the charges but immediately sent officers to arrest St. Basil and drag him out of the church. The governor and Basil’s boss began to torture the boy in order to force a confession from him. In spite of all the fierce tortures, the blessed one would only reply meekly, “I am innocent.” The pain from the tortures became so unbearable that the youth fainted for a while. His meekness and patient endurance enraged the evil merchant even more, so he finally, in a demonic frenzy, struck the innocent virgin on the head with a heavy chain of keys. The righteous Basil fell to the floor, sighed heavily, and gave up his pure soul into the hands of the Lord, on the day of Christ’s radiant Pascha, 1600. He was thirteen years old.

In order to hide their foul crime, the governor and the passion-crazed merchant placed the body of the holy martyr into a rough coffin and lowered it into a nearby marsh, weighted down with stones. Fifty-two years later, God willed to reveal the glory of His holy virgin-martyr, and many wondrous events began to occur in the area around Mangazeya. Several pious people had dreams in which a beardless youth appeared to them, and many ill people were healed by this holy boy. A strange light was seen over the marsh and unseen voices were heard chanting nearby. Then, the coffin of this saint rose slowly to the top of the mud. A pious archer, Steven Shiryaev, noticed the coffin but did not approach it until St. Basil appeared to him in a dream and told him to open the coffin. Then the whole story of St. Basil’s martyrdom became known, and his relics, whole and incorrupt, were retrieved from the swamp. A chapel was built for the relics, and many people received healings through the prayers of the young martyr.

Author’s note: In the Greek Synaxarion and the Athonite Patrology, the New-Martyr Luke from Jedrene is commemorated on this day. He was taken to Constantinople by the Turks as a child and circumcised. He was greatly troubled in his conscience because of this, regarding his circumcision as the devil’s seal upon him, which he could destroy only by suffering martyrdom for Christ. He became a monk on the Holy Mountain and went with his elder, Vissarion, to Mytilene. There he was murdered by the Turks on March 23rd, 1802. Hanging in the air, the martyr’s body gave forth a fragrant myrrh.

FOR CONSIDERATION

St. Paphnutios prayed to God to reveal to him whom he (Paphnutios) resembled, and he heard a voice that said to him: ‘You are like a merchant seeking goodly pearls: get up, and don’t be lazy!’ But God could not say to all of us that we are like merchants seeking goodly pearls. For many of us do not seek pearls but bury ourselves under thicker and thicker layers of worthless dust. It is not only pearls that a fishing-net brings up from the bottom of the sea, but also mud and sand. An ignoramus grabs at the mud and sand as at the pearl. Only a merchant who can recognize a true pearl throws the net into the sea innumerable times, sifting out the mud and sand until he finds one seed pearl. Why did God compare Paphnutios to a merchant? Because Paphnutios had given all his goods and devoted all his efforts and his time in order somehow to find that one, true seed-pearl. That one pearl is a heart purified from passions and evil thoughts, and inflamed with love for God. Get up, man, and don’t be lazy! The day of your marketing is nearing its twilight.

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.