Hieromartyr Athenogenes, bishop of Heracleopolis, and his ten disciples (ca. 311).
Martyrs Paul and two sisters, Chionia (Thea) and Alevtina (Valentina), at Caesarea in Palestine (308). Martyr Antiochus, physician, of Sebaste (4th c.). Virgin-martyr Julia of Carthage, at Corsica (ca. 440 или 613). St. Theodotus, monk of Glinsk Hermitage (1859). St. Magdalena, schema-abbess of New Tikhvin Convent in Siberia (1934).
New Confessor Matrona Belyakova, fool-for-Christ, of Anemnyasevo (1936). New Hieromartyrs James (Maskaev), archbishop of Barnaul, and priests Peter and John, and with them Monk-martyr Theodore (Nikitin) and Martyr John (1937). New Hieromartyr Ardalion (Ponamarev), archimandrite, of Kasli (Chelyabinsk) (1938).
Icon of the Mother of God of Chirsk-Pskov (1420).
Martyr Helier of Jersey (6th c.). New Martyr John of Turnovo (1822). 15,000 Martyrs of Pisidia.
Friday. [I Cor. 4:5-8; Matt. 13:44-54]
Arriving in Nazareth the Lord found no
faith there. His visible simplicity hindered the Nazarenes
from seeing His invisible glory and divinity. Does not the
same occur with a Christian? Christian dogmas are very
simple in appearance; but for the mind which enters into
them, they represent an all-embracing harmonious system in
and of themselves, which were not, nor ever could be
generated by any creature’s mind. Proud-mindedness,
casting a fleeting glance at the simplicity of the
Gospels, is repelled by it and begins to build its own
house of knowledge, which it deems enormous and full of
broad horizons. It is in fact no more than a towering
house of cards, and the horizons are no more than mirages,
phantom products of a heated imagination. But there is no
point in telling him. He and his brothers are ready with
their critical attacks to immediately cast anyone from the
mountain into the abyss who tries to dissuade them; but
the truth always passes unharmed through their midst and
goes on to other souls capable of receiving it.