Prophet Nahum (7th c. b.c.).
Righteous Philaret the Merciful, of Amnia in Asia Minor (792). Martyr Ananias of Persia.
New Hieromartyr Innocent (Letyaev), archbishop of Kharkov and Akhtyra (1937).
St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon (Neth.) (660). St. Botolph, abbot and confessor, of Ikanhoe, England (680). St. Anthony the New, monk, of Kios in Bithynia (865). St. Theoclites, bishop of Sparta (870). St. Onesimus, archbishop of Ephesus. Sts. Ananias and Solochonus, archbishops of Ephesus.
Repose of Righteous Virgin Barbara (Shulaeva) of Pilna (1980).
Thursday. [Tit. 1:5-2:1; Luke 20:9-18]
The parable about the vineyard portrays the Old Testament
Church; the husbandmen are the hierarchy of those times.
Because it was not fulfilling its purpose, a sentence was
pronounced over it: to take its vineyard and give it to
others. These others were first the holy Apostles, then
their successors—the bishops with all the
priesthood. God’s vineyard has been the same from
the beginning of the world, and the purpose of its
husbandmen was, is, and will be the same until the end of
the world—to bring to the Lord fruit of the
vine—saved souls. This is the task of the Christian
hierarchy, and thus, our task. The extent of its
fulfilment we can all see. What can one say to this? About
many things—glory be to God! But about many, many
things one cannot help but to desire better. This
particularly concerns the preaching of the word of God.
Somewhere preaching is heard; and yet this is only one
garden knife in the hands of the husbandmen of God’s
vine. Let this not be fulfilled over us: The lord of
the vineyard shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and
shall give the vineyard to others. But what if these
others should break in on their own, and destroy not only
the husbandmen, but the vine itself…