The Holy Fathers who were slain at the Monastery of St. Sabbas: Sts. John, Sergius, Patrick, and others (796).
Martyrs Photina (Svetlana), the Samaritan woman; her sisters Phota, Photis, Parasceva, and Cyriaca; her sons Victor (or Photinus) and Joses; and Sebastian the Duke, the officer Anatolius, and Theoclitus, the former sorcerer—all martyred under Nero (ca. 66). Seven Virginmartyrs of Amisus (Samsun): Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia, and Theodosia (310). St. Nicetas the Confessor, bishop of Apollonias in Bithynia (9th c.). Suffering of St. Euphrosynus of Blue-Jay Lake (Novgorod) (1612).
Righteous Abel, first martyr in the history of mankind. St. Martin of Braga in Iberia (580). St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, bishop (687). Hieromartyr Tadros, bishop of Edessa, at Jerusalem (691). Martyr Michael the Sabbaite, at Jerusalem (691). St. Wulfram, missionary (Neth.) (703). Martyr Archil II, king of Georgia (744). New Martyr Myron of Mega Castro on Crete (1793). New Hieromartyr Nicholas Holz, priest, of Novosiolki (Chelm and Podlasie, Poland) (1944).
Saturday. [Heb. 10:32–38; Mark 2:14–17]
I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). Through the
mouth of Wisdom the Lord called the foolish to Himself. He
Himself wandered upon the earth, calling sinners. Neither
the proud, “clever ones,” nor the self-willed
and righteous have a place with Him. Let intellectual and
moral weakness rejoice! Mental and active power, step
aside! Total weakness that acknowledges itself as such and
hastens with faith to the Lord Who healeth the weak and
filleth the impoverished, will become strong both
intellectually and morally, but will continue to
acknowledge both its intellectual poverty and evil
inclinations. The power of God, under this unprepossessing
cover and made perfect in weakness, invisibly creates a
different person who is bright mentally and morally. This
brightness is often manifest here, but it is always
manifest there, in heaven. Behold what is hidden from the
wise and prudent and is revealed only to babes (cf. Matt.
11:25)!