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| Old Style
April 18
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Sunday |
New Style
May 1
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| 2nd Sunday of Pascha. Thomas Sunday, Anti-Pascha. Tone 1. |  No fast.
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St. John, disciple of St. Gregory of Decapolis (ca. 820-850).
Martyrs Victor, Zoticus, Zeno, Acindynus, and Severian, of Nicomedia (303). St. Cosmas, bishop of Chalcedon, and his fellow-ascetic St. Auxentius (815-820). New Martyr John the Tailor, of Ioannina, at Constantinople (1526). St. Euthymius the Enlightener of Karelia (1435), and righteous laymen Anthony and Felix of Karelia.
New Martyr Tamara (Satsi), abbess, of Cheboksara (Chuvashia) (1942). New Hieromartyr Alexis Krontenkov, priest, of Ekaterinburg (1930). New Hieromartyrs Nicholas (1937) and Basil Derzhavin (1930), priests, and martyred lay people of the city of Gorodets (Nizhni-Novgorod).
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Glykophylousa” (“Sweet-kissing”) and “Maximov” (1299).
St. Naucratius, abbot, of the Studion (848). Hieromartyr Perfectus, priest, at Cordoba (850). St. Basil (Ratishvili) the Georgian, of Iveron Monastery, Mt. Athos (13th c.). Martyr Tunom, Arab emir who confessed Christ on seeing the Holy Fire in Jerusalem (1579). Martyr Sabbas the Goth, at Buzau in Wallachia (372). New Hieromartyr Protopresbyter Basil Martysz of Teratyn (Chelm and Podlasie, Poland) (1945). St. Athanasia the Wonderworker, abbess, of Aegina (850).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Thomas’ Sunday. [Acts 5:12–20; John 20:19–31]
My Lord and my God! (John 20:28) cried the holy apostle Thomas. Do you feel the strength with which he has grasped the Lord, and how tightly he is holding onto Him? A drowning man grasps the plank on which he hopes to be saved in the same way. We will add that whoever does not have the Lord like this for himself and does not keep himself this way in relation to the Lord, does not yet believe in the Lord as he should. We say: “Saviour and Lord,” meaning that He is the Saviour of all; but Thomas says: “my Saviour and Lord.” He who says: “my Saviour,” feels his own salvation proceeding from Him. The feeling of salvation lies adjacent to the feeling of perishing, out of which the Saviour pulls whomever He saves. The feeling of perishing, for a man who is life-loving by nature and who knows that he cannot save himself, forces him to seek the Saviour. When he finds Him and feels the power of salvation proceeding from Him, he grasps Him tightly and does not want to be torn from Him, though he be deprived for this of life itself. Such a nature of events in the spiritual life of a Christian are not only imagined in the mind, but are experienced in deed. Then, both his faith and his union with Christ become firm, like life and death. Only such a person can sincerely cry: Who shall separate me! (cf. Rom. 8:35).
Articles
 St. Cosmas the Bishop of ChalcedonSaint Cosmas, Bishop of Chalcedon, and his companion Saint Auxentius, lived during the ninth century, at a time when the Iconoclasts oppressed the Orthodox. |
 Venerable Euthymius the Enlightener of Karelia and FinlandSaint Euthymius founded the Karelian Nikolaev monastery. |
 St. Basil Ratishvili of GeorgiaSaint Basil Ratishvili, one of the most prominent figures of the 13th-century Church, was the uncle of Catholicos Ekvtime III. |