Daily Orthodox - December 18th, 2024
Today is Wednesday of the 26th Week after Pentecost.
Fasting Obligations
- OCA, GOARCH, Antioch: Strict fast.
Today, we commemorate...
- The Holy Martyr Sebastian, at Rome, and those with him (287)
This glorious saint was born in Italy and brought up in the city of Milan. While still young, he dedicated himself to military service. Being educated, handsome and courageous, he received the favor of Emperor Diocletian, who appointed him captain of his imperial guard. Secretly he confessed the Christian Faith and prayed to the Living God. As an honorable, just and merciful man, Sebastian was greatly beloved by his soldiers. Whenever he could, he saved Christians from torture and death, and, when he was unable to do so, he exhorted them to die for Christ the Living God without turning back. Two brothers, Marcus and Marcellinus, who had been imprisoned for Christ and were already on the verge of denouncing Him and worshiping idols, were confirmed in the Faith by Sebastian, who strengthened them for martyrdom. As he spoke with them, encouraging them not to fear death for Christ, his face was illumined. Everyone saw his shining face, like that of an angel of God. Sebastian also confirmed his words by miracles: he healed Zoe, the jailer Nicostratus' wife, who had been mute for six years; he brought her, Nicostratus and his entire household to baptism; he healed the two ailing sons of Claudius the commander and brought him and his household to baptism; he healed Tranquillinus, the father of Marcus and Marcellinus, of gout and pains in his legs which had troubled him for eleven years, and brought him to baptism together with his entire household; he healed the Roman eparch Chromatius of the same illness and brought him and his son Tiburtius to baptism. The first of them to suffer was St. Zoe, whom they seized at the tomb of the Apostle Peter, where she was praying to God. After torturing her, they threw her into the Tiber River. They then seized Tiburtius, and the judge placed live coals before him, telling him to choose between life and death, that is, either to cast incense on the coals and to cense the idols or to stand barefoot on the hot coals. St. Tiburtius made the sign of the Cross, stood barefoot on the hot coals, and remained unharmed. After this, he was beheaded. Nicostratus was killed with a stake, Tranquillinus was drowned, and Marcus and Marcellinus were tortured and pierced with spears. Then Sebastian was brought before Emperor Diocletian. The emperor rebuked him for his betrayal, but Sebastian said: "I have always prayed to my Christ for your health and for the peace of the Roman Empire." The emperor ordered that he be stripped naked and shot through with arrows. The soldiers shot him through with arrows until the martyr was so completely covered with arrows that his body was not seen because of them. When all thought that he was dead, he appeared alive and completely healthy. Then the pagans killed him with staves. He suffered gloriously for Christ his Lord and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ in the year 287 at the time of Diocletian the Emperor and Gaius the Bishop of Rome.
- Saint Florus, Bishop of Amisus
Florus lived at the time of the Emperors Justin II and Maurice (565-602). He was the son of nobles. He renounced the commotion and vanity of the world and withdrew to a monastery in order to live a life of asceticism for the salvation of his soul. Later he was chosen bishop of the town of Amisus in the province of Cappadocia. And as an ascetic and a hierarch, Florus pleased God, and he peacefully took up his habitation in the Kingdom of God.
- Saint Modestus I, Patriarch of Jerusalem (633)
Modestus was only five months old when his parents died, but by God's providence he was brought up in the spirit of Christianity. When he became an adult, he was sold as a slave to a pagan in Egypt. However, he succeeded in converting his master to the Christian Faith, and his master granted him freedom. Modestus withdrew to Mount Sinai, where he lived a life of asceticism until the age of fifty-nine. He was then chosen as Patriarch of Jerusalem and fed the flock of Christ as a true shepherd. He entered peacefully into rest in the year 633, at the age of ninety-seven.
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St. Gatianus, first bishop of Tours (3rd c.)
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Martyr Eubotius, at Cyzicus (318)
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St. Winebald, abbot of Heidenheim and bishop of Eichstatt (Germany) (761)
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St. Michael the Confessor, at Constantinople (845)
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St. Daniel the Hesychast, of Voronet (Romania) (ca. 1482)
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St. Sebastian, founder of Sokhotsk Monastery (Yaroslavl) (1500)
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Glorification (1694) of Righteous Symeon, wonderworker of Verkhoturye (1642)
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New Hieromartyrs Thaddeus, archbishop of Tver, and Nicholas, archbishop of Great Ustiug (1937)
For more information on today's saints or commemorations not provided, see https://www.oca.org/saints/lives (Slavic) and/or https://www.goarch.org/chapel (Greek).
Reflection
Reflections are added when it includes additional stories from the life of a saint commemorated today.
In this life, man is given a choice: either the earthly kingdom or the Kingdom of Heaven. God imposes no pressure on this choice, but each one freely decides. When the brothers Marcus and Marcellinus were condemned to death, the pagan judge allowed them a month to contemplate either renouncing Christ and His Kingdom or being put to death. Then their kinsmen came to the prison with one kind of advice, and St. Sebastian with another. The kinsmen wept and implored them to do as the judge willed and to spare their youth. Their tearful father showed them his gray hairs and his infirmity; their mother swore by the food of her breasts by which she nourished them; their children wept around them. In essence, all of them proposed that they should renounce the Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of the earthly kingdom, but St. Sebastian counseled them to the contrary, saying: "O courageous soldiers of Christ, do you want to lose the eternal wreath for the sake of the flattery of your kinsmen? Do you want to relinquish the victorious banner for the sake of women's tears? This life is transient; it is so unstable and unfaithful that it can never save even those who love it. What is this life worth even if one lives for a hundred years? When the last day arrives, do not all our past years and all earthly delights seem as though they had never existed? It is indeed unreasonable to fear to lose this quickly passing life, when one will receive that eternal life in which delights, riches and rejoicing begin and never end, remaining eternal ot the ages of ages. Remember the Lord's words: A man's foes shall be they of his own household." With these and many other words, St. Sebastian prevailed. The holy martyrs loved the Kingdom of Heaven more than the earthly kingdom, and they joyfully went to their deaths for Christ.
Daily Scriptures
Slavic and Greek
- Epistle: 1 Timothy 1:18-20, 2:8-15
<18> This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, <19> having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, <20> of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. <8> I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; <9> in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, <10> but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. <11> Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. <12> And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. <13> For Adam was formed first, then Eve. <14> And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. <15> Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
- Gospel: Mark 10:11-16
<11> So He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. <12> And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." <13> Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. <14> But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. <15> Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." <16> And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.