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| Old Style
August 14
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Saturday |
New Style
August 27
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11th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 1.
Успенский пост. |
 Wine and oil allowed.
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Forefeast of the Dormition. Prophet Micah (8th c. b.c.). 
Translation of the relics of St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves (1091).
Hieromartyr Marcellus, bishop of Apamea (ca. 389). Translation of the relics of St. Arcadius, monk, of Novotorzhok (1798).
New Hieromartyr Basil (Bogoyavlensky), archbishop of Chernigov, and with him New Monk-martyr Matthew and New Martyr Alexis (1918). New Hiero-confessor Alexander (Urodov), archimandrite, of Sanaxar and Seven Lakes Monasteries (1961). New Hieromartyrs Nazarius, metropolitan of Kutaisi, Georgia, and with him priests Herman, Hierotheus, and Simon, and archdeacon Bessarion (1924). Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Georgia who suffered under the Atheist Yoke (20th c.). New Hieromartyrs Matthew (Pomerantsev), archimandrite, of Perm and Vladimir Tsedrinsky, archpriest, of Lepsinsk (Turkestan) (1918); and Eleutherius (Pechennikov), schema-archimandrite, of the Holy Trinity Monastery (Smolensk) (1937). New Martyr Eve (Pavlova), abbess of Holy Trinity Convent in Penza (Saratov) (1937).
Martyr Ursicius, at Illyricum (305-313). St. Fachanan, abbot, of Ross Carbery, Cork (ca. 600). New Martyr Symeon of Trebizond, at Constantinople (1653).
Commemoration of the disciples of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: Monks Theophanes, Aaron, Nicander, Cosmas, and Metrophanes (18th-19th c.). Repose of Archimandrite Theodosius (Makkos) of Bethany (1991).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Saturday. [I Cor. 1:3-9; Matt. 19:3-12]
The Lord says that originally God Himself blessed the marriage union, and put this law into our nature. About those who do not want to get married He said: He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. It is clear that although He admitted that marriage is a natural law, it is not so indispensable and inescapable that there is no room for celibacy. He allows celibacy, but guards it with a condition which brings it nearer to the law of nature. A eunuch from birth is celibate according to a natural law; but he who by his own will puts himself in the same state as that of the natural eunuch’s by birth without the participation of will, moves onto one level with him in relation to natural needs. Consequently, in this sense, both the former and the latter are natural celibates. Why is the state of a spiritual eunuch—self-imposed celibacy—considered unnatural? Because people do not understand nature. For them “natural” means what is natural for the body, but what is natural for the spirit, and what becomes natural [for the body] as a consequence of the spirit’s influence, people do not want to consider natural. It would be a different matter if these were all materialists, but this is not so. Discuss some other subject with them and they will speak reasonably.
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