Prophet Zephaniah (Sophonias) (635-605 b.c.). St. Sabbas, founder of Storozhev Monastery (Zvenigorod), disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh (1407).
St. Theodulus, eparch of Constantinople (440). St. John the Silent, bishop of Colonia and monk of St. Sabbas Monastery (558). Hieromartyr Theodore I, archbishop of Alexandria (609). St. George of Cernica and Caldarusani (1806).
St. Birinus, bishop of Dorchester (ca. 649). St. Sola, Anglo-Saxon missionary priest under St. Boniface (Germany) (790-794). New Hieromartyr Gabriel, metropolitan of Ganos and Chora, at Prusa (1659). St. Hilarion (Grigorovich), bishop of Krutitsa (1759). New Monk-martyr Cosmas of St. Anne’s Skete, Mt. Athos (1760). New Martyr Angelus of Chios (1813).
Repose of King Magnus II of Sweden and Valaam (Gregory in schema) (1371) and Archimandrite Theophanes of Novoezersk Monastery (1832).
Saturday. [Eph. 1:16-23; Luke 12:32-40]
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights
burning. We must be ready at every hour—one does
not know when the Lord will come, either for the Last
Judgment, or to take you from here; they are the same for
you. Death decides everything. After it comes the results
of your life, you can be content with what you have sought
to gain for all of eternity. If you sought what is good,
your lot will be good; if you sought what is evil, then
your lot will be evil. This is as true as it is true that
you exist. All of this could be decided this
moment—here at this very moment, as you read these
lines, and then—the end to all: a seal will be set
to your existence, which nobody can remove. This is
something to think about! But one never ceases to be
amazed at how little people think about it. What is this
mystery wrought over us! We all know that death is around
the corner, that it is impossible to escape it, but
meanwhile almost nobody thinks about it—and it will
come suddenly and seize us. Even then.… Even when a
fatal disease seizes a person he still does not think that
the end has come. Let psychologists decide this from a
scientific aspect; from the moral aspect it is impossible
not to see here an incomprehensible self-delusion, alien
only to one who is heedful of himself.