Afterfeast of the Dormition.
Translation of the Image Not-Made-by-Hands of Our Lord Jesus Christ from Edessa to Constantinople (944).
Martyr Diomedes the Physician, of Tarsus in Cilicia (298).
33 Martyrs of Palestine.
St. Chaeremon of Egypt (4th c.). New Martyrs King Constantine Brancoveanu of Wallachia and his four sons Constantine, Stephen, Radu, and Matthew, and his counsellor Ioannicius (1714).
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos of St. Theodore (“Feodorovskaya”) of Kostroma (1239), and of Port Arthur (1904).
St. Anthony the Stylite, of Martqopi, Georgia (6th c.). St. Joachim, monk, of Osogovo and Sarandapor (1105). St. Eustathius II, archbishop of Serbia (1309). St. Nilus of Erikoussa (ca. 1335). St. Romanus the Sinaite, of Djunisa, Serbia (14th c.). Monk-martyr Christopher of Guria (Georgia), at Damascus (15th c.). New Martyr Nicodemus of Meteora (1551). St. Gerasimus the New, ascetic of Cephalonia (Mt. Athos) (1579). St. Raphael of Banat, Serbia (ca. 1590). St. Timothy of Euripos, archbishop, founder of the Pendeli Monastery (1590). New Martyr Stamatius of Demetrias, near Volos, at Constantinople (1680). New Great-martyr Apostolus of the town of St. Lawrence, martyred at Constantinople (1686). Translation of the relics of Martyrs Seraphim, Dorotheus, James, Demetrius, Basil, and Sarantis, of Megaris (1798). St. Joseph of Varatec Monastery (Romania) (1828). St. Joseph the Hesychast, of New Skete, Mt. Athos (1959).
Repose of Matrona (Popova), in monasticism Maria, disciple of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk (1851).
Thursday. [II Cor. 1:1-7; Matt. 21:43-46]
The chief priests and Pharisees
perceived that the Lord was telling parables on their
account, that He was opening their eyes so that they would
see the truth. But what did they do with this? They
thought about how to kill the Lord. If their common sense
had not been distorted by their prejudice, then even if
they could not believe, as the obviousness of the
instruction required, they should at least have thought
over carefully whether what the Savior was saying is true.
Their prejudice pushed them onto a crooked path, and they
then proved to be God-killers. It always has been this
way, and it is this way now. The Germans, and our people
who have followed after them and become Germanized in
their thought, immediately cry out whenever they come
across a miracle in the Gospels, “Not true, not
true; this didn’t happen and couldn’t happen,
this needs to be crossed out.” Is not this the same
as killing? Look through all the books of these clever
men; in none of them will you find any indication as to
why they think this way. Not one of them can say anything
against what the Gospel truth proves, and not one cares to
comprehend the arguments which soberminded people use to
convict their falseness; they only continue insisting that
[what is written] could not be, and that is why they do
not believe the Gospels. And you cannot do anything with
them—they are ready to go against God
Himself.