St. Pelagia the Penitent, of the Mount of Olives (457). St. Dositheus, founder of Verkhneostrov (Pskov) (1482). St. Tryphon, archimandrite, of Vyatka (1612). Synaxis of the Saints of Vyatka.
Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Antioch (303). St. Thais (Taisia) of Egypt (4th c.). St. Anthony, archbishop of Novgorod (1232).
New Hieromartyrs Demetrius (Dobroserdov), archbishop of Mozhaisk, Ambrose (Astakhov), archimandrite, of Aksinyino (Moscow), Pachomius (Turkevich), abbot, of Moscow, and John Khrenov, deacon, and with them Monkmartyr Barlaam, Nun-martyr Tatiana, and Martyrs Nicholas, Maria, and Nadezhda (1937). New Hieromartyr Jonah (Lazarev), bishop of Nevel (Pskov) (1937).
New Monk-martyr Ignatius of Bulgaria and Mt. Athos, at Constantinople (1814). Saint Triduana of Scotland (4th c. or 8th c.)
Friday. [Phil. 3:8-19; Luke 7:31-35]
Whereunto then shall I liken the men
of this generation? That is, unbelievers. If the Lord
poses this question as if in perplexity, is it not even
more proper for us to be perplexed by acts of unbelief?
One might ask: how can people go against something that is
obvious in every respect? And yet they do. The fact that
Satan resists is not surprising—such is his name:
the enemy of truth and goodness. He clearly sees that God
exists, that God will judge him and condemn him, that
death for him is already prepared, but is nevertheless
defiant, and not for the sake of anything but evil, and
consequently, for greater ruin to himself. Are not
unbelievers being controlled by this spirit of fighting
against God? At least according to the understanding we
have about the soul and its operations, unbelief, given
the obviousness of the foundations of faith, is as
inexplicable as a sinner’s slavery to sin after he
has clearly seen that sin is destroying him. And here is
another contradiction! Only unbelievers and lovers of the
passions deny the existence of Satan and unclean spirits.
Those who should have stood up for them most of all
totally renounce them. Does not this teaching come from
them? Those who are of the darkness love the darkness,
they teach people to say that they do not exist, and that
moral life takes shape by itself, without their snares and
deceit.