ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2016
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Old Style
September 16
Thursday
New Style
September 29
15th Week after Pentecost. Tone 5.
Fast-free period.

Совершается служба на шестьGreatmartyr Euphemia the All-praised, of Chalcedon (304).

St. Sebastiana, disciple of Apostle Paul, martyred at Heraclea (86). Martyr Melitina of Marcianopolis (ca. 138-161). Martyrs Victor and Sosthenes, at Chalcedon (ca. 304). St. Dorotheus, hermit, of Egypt (4th c.). New Martyrs Isaac and Joseph, at Karnu, Georgia (808). Martyr Ludmilla, grandmother of St. Wenceslaus, prince of the Czechs (927). St. Cyprian, metropolitan of Kiev (1406).

Hieromartyr Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (258). St. Ninian, bishop of Whithorn (Candida Casa) (ca. 432). St. Edith, nun, of Wilton (984). St. Procopius, abbot, of Sazava in Bohemia (1053).

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Theophan the Recluse

Thursday. [Gal. 3:23-4:5; Mark 6:30-45]

   And people ran afoot thither out of all cities…and came together unto Him. This is to the Bethsaida desert, where the marvellous filling of five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes was performed. What drew the people to the Lord? Sympathy towards the Divine. The Divinity of the Lord, hidden under the cover of human nature, revealed itself in word, deed, gaze, and in all that was visible in the Lord. The manifestations of the Godhead awakened a feeling of the Godhead hidden in the heart, and through it drew people to the Lord. Nobody has power to hold back such a movement toward the Lord, not even the one who feels it, because it is deeper and stronger than all other movements. The same Divinity, manifested later by the Saviour, drew people of every tongue under the heavens to Him. It has been the same throughout the entire history of the Church, even to this day. A small trace of the Divine draws people to itself. What follows from this experience everywhere and at all times of our spirit’s aspiration for the Divine? What follows is that what is Divine, what is supernatural—is the Godhead, its source. This aspiration lies in the foundation of our spirit and constitutes its nature, as anyone can see from our intellectual, aesthetic and practical concerns. But in nature there cannot be lies and deception; consequently they do not exist in this aspiration for the Godhead. From this it follows that God and the Divine exist, and that the naturalists, in rejecting what is supernatural, are going against the nature of the human spirit.

Articles

The Miracle of Saint Euphemia the All-Praised

The holy Patriarch Anatolius of Constantinople proposed that the Council submit the decision of the Church dispute to the Holy Spirit, through His undoubted bearer St Euphemia the All-Praised, whose wonderworking relics had been discovered during the Council’s discussions. The Orthodox hierarchs and their opponents wrote down their confessions of faith on separate scrolls and sealed them with their seals. They opened the tomb of the holy Great Martyr Euphemia and placed both scrolls upon her relics.

Saints Euphemia and Olga

St. John of Shanghai

St. Euphemia was tortured during the persecutions against Christians under Diocletian, and her death and suffering are commemorated on September 16/29. But today her memory is celebrated because of a miracle that happened during the Fourth Ecumenical Council. This council was supposed to decide who is right—those who believe that Christ was both God and man, the God-Man, or those who asserted that the divinity in Christ completely swallowed up His humanity, so that even His sufferings were only apparent.

Greatmartyr Euphemia the All-praised

The Miracle of Saint Euphemia the All-Praised: The holy Great Martyr Euphemia (September 16) suffered martyrdom in the city of Chalcedon in the year 304, during the time of the persecution against Christians by the emperor Diocletian (284-305). One and a half centuries later, at a time when the Christian Church had become victorious within the Roman Empire, God deigned that Euphemia the All-Praised should again be a witness and confessor of the purity of the Orthodox teaching.

Venerable Edith of Wilton

Dmitry Lapa

St. Edith (also Editha, Eadgyth, Eadgith) was one of the most venerated female saints of England.
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