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April 4
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Wednesday |
New Style
April 17
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Sixth Week of Great Lent (Palm Week).
Tone 5.
Great Lent. |
 Monastic rule: xerophagy (bread, uncooked fruits and vegetables).
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St. Joseph the Hymnographer, of Sicily (883). St. George, monk, of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnese (5th c.-6th c.).
Martyrs Pherbutha (virgin) and her sister and servants, of Persia (341-343). St. Zosimas, hieromonk, of Palestine (560). St. Joseph the Much-ailing, of the Kiev Caves (14th c.). St. Zosimas, founder and abbot of the Annunciation Monastery at Lake Vorbozoma (ca. 1550). St. James, monk of Starotorzhok in Galich, Kostroma (15th c.-16th c).
New Hieromartyrs Benjamin (Kononov), archimandrite, and Nicephorus (Kuchin), hieromonk, both of Solovki Monastery (1928). New Hieromartyr Nicholas (Karaulov), bishop of Velsk, New Nun-martyr Maria (Lelyanova) of Gatchina (1932).
“Life-giving Spring” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
St. Isidore, bishop of Seville (636). St. Theonas, metropolitan of Thessalonica (1541). New Hieromartyr Nicetas the Albanian, of Mt. Athos (1808). St. Elias, schemamonk, of Makeyevka (Ukraine) (1949).
Repose of Elder Savvas of Little St. Anne’s Skete, Mt. Athos (1908) and Archimandrite John (Maitland- Moir) of Edinburgh, Scotland (2013).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Wednesday.
Cry aloud, says the Lord to the Holy Prophet Isaiah; spare not, convicting the transgressions of My people. What did the people do? They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways.[1] But is there really a sin in this? Indeed, they ought to do this. Yes, they ought to, but the fact is that they do this not as they ought. They hope to be successful in their seeking through fasting alone, not caring for works of righteousness and love. “Fasting is pleasing to Me,” says the Lord, “but only such fasting whereby people, in humbling their body, forgive offences, forgive debts, feed the hungry, bring the outcast out to their house, clothe the naked. When all of this is done together with fasting, then you will succeed in seeking Me and approaching Me; then shall thy light break forth as the morning … the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.… And the Lord shall guide thee continually (Isa. 58:1–11).
[1]
The Slavonic for the second quote reads: they seek
Me, take delight in approaching God.
Articles
 Venerable Joseph the HymnographerSaint Joseph the Hymnographer, “the sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church,” was born in Sicily in 816 into a pious Christian family. |
 Venerable George of Mt. Maleon in the PeloponnesusSaint George lived during the ninth century. His parents arranged a marriage for him, but he refused to marry the woman they had chosen. |
 Virginmartyr Pherbutha (Phermoutha) of Persia, with her sister and servantThe Holy Martyr Pherbutha (Phermoutha) and her sister and servants were martyred for Christ between the years 341 and 343. |
 Venerable Zosimas of PalestineSaint Zosimas was born near the end of the fifth century, and lived in a monastery by the Jordan River. |
 Venerable Joseph the Much-Ailing, of the Kiev Far CavesSaint Joseph the Much-Ailing lived during the fourteenth century. |
 St. Isidore the Bishop of SevilleSaint Isidore was born in the middle of the sixth century, and was related to the Visigoth royal family who converted to Orthodoxy from Arianism during his lifetime. |
 Venerable Theonas the Archbishop of ThessalonicaSaint Theonas was a disciple of Saint James of Kastoria (November 1), and lived at the beginning of the sixteenth century. |
