Daily Orthodox - November 28th, 2024
Today is Thursday of the 23rd Week after Pentecost.
Fasting Obligations
- OCA: Wine and oil permitted
- GOARCH, Antioch: Fish, wine, and oil permitted.
For Americans, consult your priest pertaining to any Thanksgiving-related dispensations.
Today, we commemorate...
1. The Venerable Martyr Stephen the New, of Mt. St. Auxentius (767)
As at one time Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prayed to God to give her a son, so did Anna, the mother of Stephen. Praying thus in the Church of Blachernae before the icon of the Most-holy Theotokos, a light sleep overcame her, and she saw the Most-holy Virgin as radiant as the sun, and heard a voice from the icon: "Woman, depart in peace. In accordance with your prayer, you have a son in your womb." Anna indeed conceived and gave birth to a son, the holy Stephen. At sixteen, Stephen received the monastic tonsure on Mount Auxentius near Constantinople, from the elder John who also taught him divine wisdom and asceticism. When John entered into rest in the Lord, Stephen remained on the mountain in a life of strict asceticism, taking upon himself labor upon labor. His holiness attracted many disciples to him. When Emperor Constantine Copronymus was persecuting icons more ferociously than his foul father, Leo the Isaurian, Stephen showed himself a zealous defender of the veneration of holy icons. The demented emperor accepted various obscene slanders against Stephen and personally plotted intrigues to break Stephen and get him out of the way. Stephn was banished to the island of Proconnesus, then taken to Constantinople, chained and cast into prison, where he was met by 342 monks, brought from all over and imprisoned for their veneration of the icons. There, in prison, they carried out the whole church typicon as in a monastery. Then the wicked emperor condemned Stephen to death. The saint foresaw his death forty days in advance, and asked forgiveness of the brethren. The emperor's servants dragged him from prison and, beating and pulling him, dragged him through the streets of Constantinople calling upon all those loyal to the emperor to stone this "enemy of the emperor." One of the heretics struck the saint on the head with a piece of wood, and the saint gave up his soul. As St. Stephen the Protomartyr suffered at the hands of the Jews, so this Stephen suffered at the hands of the iconoclastic heretics. This glorious soldier of Christ suffered in the year 767 at the age of fifty-three, and was crowned with unfading glory.
2. The New Martyr Christos the Gardener, of Albania
Christos was an Albanian Christian living in Constantinople and a gardener by trade. As he was selling his vegetables one day, he offended a Turk, who then slandered him before a judge, saying that Christos had promised to become a Moslem and then recanted. After interrogation, he was chained and cast into prison. In prison, someone offered him food, which Christos refused, saying: "It is better that I appear before my Christ hungry." After that, he pulled out some money that he had concealed under his belt and gave it to one of his fellow prisoners, requesting that the money be used for several Liturgies to be celebrated for his soul. He was beheaded by the Turks in the year 1748, and was glorified forever in the Kingdom of Christ God.
3. The Venerable Anna
Anna was a woman of noble birth who, after her husband's death, was tonsured into monasticism by St. Stephen the New. Emperor Constantine Copronymus urged her to say that she had engaged in illicit physical relations with St. Stephen, in order to humiliate him before the people. However, this holy woman refused to join in the emperor's intrigue against the saint, whom she venerated as her spiritual father. For that, she was whipped and then cast into prison, where she gave up her holy soul to God.
4. The Holy and Devout Emperor Maurice
Maurice was murdered with his six sons by Emperor Phocas in the year 602 (see "Reflection" below).
5. Martyr Irenarchus and Seven Women-martyrs, at Sebaste (303)
6. Hieromartyrs Timothy and Theodore, bishops; Peter, John, Sergius, Theodore, and Nicephorus, priests; Basil and Thomas, deacons; Monk-martyrs Hierotheus, Daniel, Chariton, Socrates, Comasius, and Eusebius; and Martyr Etymasius, at Tiberiopolis (361)
7. St. Theodore, bishop of Theodosiopolis in Armenia (end of 6th c.)
8. St. Oda, virgin, of Brabant (Neth.) (726)
9. Martyrs Basil, Stephen, Gregory (2), John, Andrew, Peter, Anna, and many others, who suffered with St. Stephen the New (767)
10. Blessed Theodore, archbishop of Rostov (1394)
11. New Hieromartyrs Seraphim, metropolitan of St. Petersburg, Raphael, hieromonk of the Zlatoustov Monastery (Moscow), and Monk-martyr Vincent of Optina Monastery (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.
Reading the examples of perseverance in the Faith and generosity of the saints of God, we also become persevering in the Faith and generous. When Copronymus' men urged St. Stephen to reject the veneration of icons to please the iconoclastic emperor, Stephen extended his hand, clenched his fist and said: "If I had in myself only a fist full of blood, I would shed it for the icon of Christ."
Emperor Maurice had six sons of which the sixth and youngest was not yet weaned. For this youngest son, the emperor kept a special wet-nurse at court who fed it. A terrible fate came upon Emperor Maurice: Phocas ousted him from the throne and condemned him to death together with all of his six sons. Before Maurice's eyes, his sons were slain, one after the other. When the wet-nurse had to hand over the emperor's sixth son to be slain, she genuinely felt sorrow over the fate of the unfortunate emperor and his children, and in a moment, decided to save the life of at least one of the emperor's sons. So, when they sought the emperor's son from her breast, she gave them her own young son and he was beheaded. Finally, the Emperor Maurice was beheaded. The emperor's youngest son grew up believing his wet-nurse to be his mother. However, when the wet-nurse revealed the secret to him, he became very serious, then resolutely left the world and withdrew to Mount Sinai, where he was tonsured a monk and dedicated himself to God. He did this to requite that innocent young child who was put to death in his place.
Daily Scriptures
Slavic and Greek
- Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-14
<9> For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. <10> You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; <11> as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, <12> that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. <13> For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. <14> For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,
- Gospel: Luke 20:9-18
<9> Then He began to tell the people this parable: "A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. <10> Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. <11> Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. <12> And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. <13> "Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.' <14> But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.' <15> So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? <16> He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others." And when they heard it they said, "Certainly not!" <17> Then He looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone'? <18> Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."