Daily Devotional

Tuesday, May 27, 2031 (NS), May 14, 2031 (OS)

No Fasting.

Tuesday of the Seventh Week

The commemoration of the Martyr Isidore at Chios.

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Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Tuesday of the Seventh Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 46]. In those days:

21 ²⁶Paul took the men, and on the next day he was purified with them, and went on into the temple and gave notice of the fulfillment of the days of the purification, until the offering was offered for each one of them.

²⁷And when the seven days were about to be completed, the Jews from Asia, having seen him in the temple, kept on confounding all the crowd, and they laid hands upon him, ²⁸crying out, “Men, Israelites, help. This is the man who teacheth all everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and even still more, he brought in Greeks into the temple and hath made common this holy place.” ²⁹(For they had previously seen Trophimos the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul brought into the temple.) ³⁰And the whole city was moved, and there came to be a concourse of the people; and they laid hold of Paul, and were drawing him outside of the temple; and straightway the doors were shut. ³¹And as they sought to kill him, tidings that “all Jerusalem hath been confounded” came up to the tribune of the cohort, ³²who at once took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And having seen the tribune and the soldiers, they ceased beating Paul.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 53]. The Lord said to His disciples:

16 ²“There cometh an hour that everyone who killeth you should think that he offereth God a service. ³“And these things they will do, because they know not the Father nor Me. ⁴“But I have said these things to you, in order that whenever the hour should come, ye may remember that I said them to you. But I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵“But now I go away to the One Who sent Me, and yet none of you asketh Me, ‘Where goest Thou?’ ⁶“But because I have said these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. ⁷“But I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I should go away; for unless I go away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ⁸“And having come, that One will reprove the world in regard to sin, and in regard to righteousness, and in regard to judgment: ⁹“In regard to sin, indeed, because they believe not in Me; ¹⁰“and in regard to righteousness, because I go away to My Father and ye behold Me no longer; ¹¹“and in regard to judgment, because the ruler of this world hath been judged. ¹²“Yet I have many things to say to you, but ye are not able to bear them just now. ¹³“But whenever that One, the Spirit of the truth, should come, He will guide you into all the truth.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Martyr Isidore at Chios.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 27th – Civil Calendar
May 14th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Isidore.

In the reign of the Emperor Decius, this Isidore was taken by force by soldiers from the island of Chios. He had held the Christian Faith from his youth, and had spent his life in fasting, prayer and good works. So when, in the army, he declared himself to be a Christian, the commander took him to task for it, and urged him to deny Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. The saint replied: ‘Even if you kill my body, you have no power over my soul. I have the true and living God, Jesus Christ, Who lives in me and will be with me at my death; and I am in Him and shall remain in Him, and will not cease to confess His holy name while the spirit is in my body.’ The commander ordered that they first beat him with iron flails and then cut out his tongue. But, even without his tongue, Isidore was able to speak, and confessed the name of Christ by the Spirit of God. Meanwhile the punishment of God struck the commander, and he suddenly became mute. The mute commander finally gave the signal to behead Isidore. Isidore rejoiced at this sentence, and praising God, went out to the scaffold, where his head was cut off in the year 251. His friend, Ammon, buried his body, and after that, himself suffered and received the wreath of martyrdom.

2. Our Holy Father Serapion the Sindonite.

‘Sindon’ means ‘linen cloth,’ and this saint was called ‘the Sindonite’ because he covered his naked body only with a linen cloth. He carried the Gospels in his hand. Serapion lived like the birds, with no roof and no cares, moving from one place to another. He gave his linen cloth to a poor wretch who was shivering with cold, and himself remained completely naked. When someone asked him: ‘Serapion, who made you naked?’ he indicated the Gospels and said: ‘This!’ But, after that, he gave away the Gospels also for the money needed by a man who was being hounded to prison by a creditor for a debt. At one time in Athens, he did not eat for four days, having nothing, and began to cry out with hunger. When the Athenian philosophers asked him what he was shouting about, he replied: ‘There were three to whom I was in debt: two have quieted down, but the third is still tormenting me.’ The crowd was roused to aid him. They asked him who these were who were tormenting him. He replied: ‘The first creditor is carnal lust, which has tormented me from my youth; the second is love of money, and the third is the stomach. The first two have left me alone, but the third one still torments me.’ The philosophers gave him some gold to buy bread. He went to a baker, bought a single loaf, put down all the gold and went out. He went peacefully to the Lord in old age, in the 5th century.

3. Blessed Isidore the Fool for Christ.

He was of German birth. Going to Rostov from an attraction to the Orthodox Faith, he not only became a member of the Orthodox Church but took on himself the strict asceticism of folly for Christ. He lived in rags, spending the day pretending madness, and through this madness, teaching men; and spending the nights in prayer. He spent these nights in a hut outside the town, built in a lonely swamp. Great and mighty wonders were performed by this saint, both during his lifetime and after his death. He appeared to a merchant who had been thrown out of his ship and was drowning. Isidore came to him through the water and led him to the shore. He caused the wine in all the containers to dry up one day, when the servants had driven him from the door of the Prince of Rostov without giving him a single cup of water. When he died in his hut on May 24th, 1484, the whole of Rostov was aware of a fragrant aroma. The merchant who had been saved from the sea built a church in the place where the hut had stood.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A sin that is a cause of scandal to others is a twofold sin. A wise man tries to ensure that he gives scandal to no one by his sinful example and leads another into sin. St. Ambrose applauds such wisdom in the Emperor Valentinian, who died young, in this example from his life: ‘The emperor, hearing that he was being talked of all over Rome as a passionate hunter of wild beasts—which he, in fact, was not—and that this passion was taking the emperor away from his duties of state, immediately commanded that all the wild beasts in his forests be destroyed. Hearing, on another occasion, that some malicious person was spreading word that he lunched early (wanting by this to make him out to be a glutton), he took on himself a very strict fast, both publicly and privately. At public meals, he was rarely seen to put a morsel of food into his mouth. When, again, his sisters were in dispute with a man over some land, the emperor, although he had the right to try the case himself, submitted it to trial in open court, so that he could not be accused of partiality.’ Truly this devout emperor kept with godly fear to the words of the Lord: ‘Woe to him that causes offence to one of these little ones.’

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.