ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2025
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Раиса Александрийская Мученники страстотерпцы благоверные князья Борис и Глеб, во Святом Крещении Роман и Давид Священномученик Афанасий Брестский
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Old Style
September 5
Thursday
New Style
September 18
15th Week after Pentecost. Tone 5.
No fast.

Совершается служба на шестьHoly Prophet Zachariah and Righteous Elizabeth, parents of St. John the Forerunner (1st c.). Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомMartyrdom of St. Athanasius, abbot, of Brest-Litovsk, by the Latins (1648).

Martyrs Sarbelus (Thathuil) and his sister Bebaia, of Edessa (98- 138). Virgin-martyr Rhais of Alexandria (ca. 308). Martyrs Juventinus and Maximinus, soldiers, at Antioch (361-363). Martyrs Urban, Theodore, Medimnus, and 77 companions, at Nicomedia (370). Hieromartyr Abdas, bishop of Hormidz-Ardashir, and Martyrs Hormizd and Sunin, of Persia (ca. 420). Martyrdom of the Holy Passionbearer Gleb of Russia, in holy baptism David (1015).

New Hieromartyr Alexis (Belkovsky), archbishop of Great Ustiug (1937).

Appearance of Apostle Peter to Emperor Justinian at Athira, near Constantinople (6th c.).

Repose of Priest Hilarion Felea of Romania (1961).

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Theophan the Recluse

Thursday. [Gal. 3:23-4:5; Mark 6:30-45]

   And people ran afoot thither out of all cities…and came together unto Him. This is to the Bethsaida desert, where the marvellous filling of five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes was performed. What drew the people to the Lord? Sympathy towards the Divine. The Divinity of the Lord, hidden under the cover of human nature, revealed itself in word, deed, gaze, and in all that was visible in the Lord. The manifestations of the Godhead awakened a feeling of the Godhead hidden in the heart, and through it drew people to the Lord. Nobody has power to hold back such a movement toward the Lord, not even the one who feels it, because it is deeper and stronger than all other movements. The same Divinity, manifested later by the Saviour, drew people of every tongue under the heavens to Him. It has been the same throughout the entire history of the Church, even to this day. A small trace of the Divine draws people to itself. What follows from this experience everywhere and at all times of our spirit’s aspiration for the Divine? What follows is that what is Divine, what is supernatural—is the Godhead, its source. This aspiration lies in the foundation of our spirit and constitutes its nature, as anyone can see from our intellectual, aesthetic and practical concerns. But in nature there cannot be lies and deception; consequently they do not exist in this aspiration for the Godhead. From this it follows that God and the Divine exist, and that the naturalists, in rejecting what is supernatural, are going against the nature of the human spirit.

Articles

Sts. Zacharias the Prophet and Elizabeth the Righteous, the Parents of the Precious Forerunner

The Holy Prophet Zachariah and the Righteous Elizabeth were the parents of the holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John. They were descended from the lineage of Aaron: St Zachariah, son of Barach, was a priest in the Jerusalem Temple, and St Elizabeth was the sister of St Anna, the mother of the Most Holy Theotokos. The righteous spouses, "walking in all the commandments of the Lord" (Luke 1:6), suffered barrenness, which in those times was considered a punishment from God.

Prophet Zachariah and Righteous Elizabeth, the Parents of St. John the Forerunner

Soon after the appearance of the archangel, Elizabeth conceived. At the birth of John the Baptist a miracle happened: Zachariah who had been stricken dumb after he questioned the archangel about this miraculous conceiving regained the gift of speech.

Holy Hieromartyr Athanasius of Brest-Litovsk, Confessor and Defender of Orthodoxy in Poland and Lithuania

Athanasius was charged with profaning the Latin Church and the Unia. When he again denounced the Unia before his interrogators, he was thrown into prison, where the Jesuits alternately threatened him with torture and cajoled him with freedom, if he would join the Uniates. The holy monk refused to renounce his faith, crying aloud, "Anathema to the Union!"

Martyrs Sarbelus (Thathuil) and his sister Bebaia, of Edessa

The Holy Martyrs Sarbelus and Bebaia of Edessa were brother and sister, suffering in the second century under the emperor Trajan for confessing Christianity.

Princes Boris and Gleb

Boris and Gleb were the younger and much beloved sons of Grand Prince Vladimir, the ruler of Kievan Rus, who in 988 brought his subjects to the waters of Holy Baptism.

Passion-Bearer Gleb, in Holy Baptism David

The Holy Prince Gleb, in Holy Baptism David, was one of the first Russian martyrs called “Passion-Bearers.” He suffered together with his brother Prince Boris (Roman in Holy Baptism).

Those Who Were Glorified by Their Deaths

Hieromonk Nikon (Parimanchuk)

Just as Christ trampled down death with His death, so the holy brothers, faithful to their cross, trampled through their passion-bearing upon the law of this world, in which enmity and strife, discord, pride and self-exaltation, obstinacy and stubbornness, and touchiness reign.

Holy Passion Bearers Boris and Gleb: What Gave Rus’ It’s New Faith

Archpriest Andrei Romashko

Such an act—sacrificing oneself for the sake of not participating in fratricidal strife—was incomprehensible to the newly baptized Rus, making the Christian feat of Boris and Gleb even more grand and astonishing.
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