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| Old Style
May 8
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Saturday |
New Style
May 21
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| 4th Week after Pascha. Tone 3. |  No fast.
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Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian (98-117). 
St. Arsenius the Great, of Scetis (449-450).
St. Pimen the Faster, of the Far Caves in Kiev (12th c.). St. Arsenius the Lover of Labor, of the Kiev Caves (14th c.) Sts. Zosima and Adrian, of Volokolamsk, founders of the Sestrinsk Monastery (15th c.-16th c). Translation of the relics of St. Arsenius of Novgorod, fool-for-Christ (1785).
Synaxis of the Russian New Martyrs Who Suffered at Butovo.
St. Hierax of Egypt (5th c.). St. Iduberga, foundress of Nivelles (Neth.) (652). Sts. Wiro (710) and Plechelm (730), missionary bishops, and Otger, deacon (8th c.), in the Maas Valley at Limburg (Neth.). St. Macarius of Ghent, archbishop (1012). St. Emilia (375), mother of Sts. Macrina, Basil the Great, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste, and Gregory of Nyssa. Commemoration of the healing of the blinded Stephen by the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Cassiopia (1530).
Repose of Hieroschemamonk Michael of Valaam, confessor for the Orthodox Calendar (1934).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Saturday. [Acts 12:1–11; John 8:31–42]
The Lord said: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36). Here is where freedom is! The mind is bound with bonds of ignorance, delusions, superstitions, and uncertainties; it struggles, but cannot get away from them. Cleave to the Lord and He will enlighten your darkness (cf. Ps. 18:28) and dissolve all the bonds in which your mind languishes. The passions bind the will, and do not give it space in which to act; it struggles, like one bound hand and foot, and cannot get away. But cleave to the Lord and He will give you the strength of Samson, and will dissolve all the bonds of untruth binding you. Constant worries surround the heart and do not give it peace. But cleave to the Lord, and He will soothe you; then, at peace, and seeing clearly everything around you, you will march in the Lord without hindrance or stumbling through the gloom and darkness of this life, to the all-blessed, complete joy and spaciousness of eternity.
Articles
 The Inexhaustible Ocean of Christ’s Divine LoveHieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky)Where the spirit of love blows, it is easy and free to breathe. |
 Venerable Arsenius the GreatSaint Arsenius the Great was born in the year 354 at Rome into a pious Christian family, which provided him a fine education and upbringing. |
 Venerable Pimen the Ascetic of the Kiev Far CavesSaint Pimen, Faster of the Caves, won fame by his exploit of fasting. |
 Venerable Arsenius the Lover-of-Labor of the Kiev Far CavesSaint Arsenius the Lover of Labor lived during the fourteenth century. |