Apostles of the Seventy Stachys, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus, Apelles, and Aristobulus (1st c.). Martyr Epimachus of Pelusium, at Alexandria (ca. 250).
St. Maura of Constantinople (436). Sts. Spyridon and Nicodemus the Prosphorabakers, of the Kiev Caves (12th c.). St. Anatolius, recluse of the Near Caves in Kiev (12th c.). 100,000 Martyrs of Tbilisi slain under Jalal al-Din (1227).
New Hieromartyr John Kochurov, archpriest, of Chicago and St. Petersburg (1917). New Hieromartyr Leonid (Molchanov), abbot, of the Sovlvychegodsk Monastery (Vologda) (1918). New Hieromartyrs Alexander Vozdvizhensky, archpriest, of Novo-Zagarye (Moscow), Peter Voskoboinikov, archpriest, of Batkopolye (Moscow), and Vsevolod Smirnov, archpriest, of Dermentsovo (Moscow) (1937). New Hieromartyrs Euphrosynus (Antonov), hieromonk of the Seven Lakes Monastery (Kazan), Anatole (Botvinnikov), hieromonk, of Dubrovskoye (Tver), and Innocent (Mazurin), hierodeacon, of Buigorod (Volokolamsk) (1938).
Martyr Quentin of Rome (3rd-4th c.). Martyrs Epimachus the Roman and his companion Gordian (361-363). St. James, bishop of Mygdonia (4th c.). Monk-martyr Foillan, Irish missionary, of Burgh Castle (East Anglia) and Fosse (Gaul) (655). New Martyr Nicholas of Chios (1754). St. Peter Kalnyshevsky, Cossack ataman (Ukraine) (1803).
Wednesday. [I Thess. 4:1-12; Luke 11:42-46]
The Lord reproaches His contemporaries
by saying that they pass over the judgement and the
love of God. The drying up of righteousness and love
is the root of all disharmony both in society and in every
person. It comes from the predominance of self-love or
egoism. When egoism enters the heart an entire horde of
passions is multiplied. It itself strikes out against
righteousness and love, which require selflessness; while
the passions generated from it chase away all other
virtues. And the person becomes, by his heart’s
disposition, unsuitable for anything that is truly good.
He can still tithe mint and rue and all manner of
herbs, but he does not have the courage to do anything
more substantial. This does not mean that his outer
behaviour is improper. No, in every way it is adorned with
decency, only on the inside he is as a grave which
appeareth not, and the men that walk over it are not aware
of it. The beginning of self-correction is the
beginning of the appearance of selflessness in the heart,
after which righteousness and love are restored. Then, one
after the other, all other virtues begin coming to life.
Then the person becomes noble in the eyes of God because
of his heart’s dispositon, although on the outside
he may sometimes seem unprepossessing to other people. But
the judgement of man is not an important thing, provided
that God’s judgement is not against us.
