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April 4
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Friday |
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April 17
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| Bright Week. Fast-free period. |  No fast.
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Blessing of Water. The Life-giving Spring of the Most Holy Theotokos. 
St. Joseph the Hymnographer, of Sicily (883). St. George, monk, of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnese (5th c.-6th c.).
Martyrs Pherbutha (virgin) and her sister and servants, of Persia (341-343). St. Zosimas, hieromonk, of Palestine (560). St. Joseph the Much-ailing, of the Kiev Caves (14th c.). St. Zosimas, founder and abbot of the Annunciation Monastery at Lake Vorbozoma (ca. 1550). St. James, monk of Starotorzhok in Galich, Kostroma (15th c.-16th c).
New Hieromartyrs Benjamin (Kononov), archimandrite, and Nicephorus (Kuchin), hieromonk, both of Solovki Monastery (1928). New Hieromartyr Nicholas (Karaulov), bishop of Velsk, New Nun-martyr Maria (Lelyanova) of Gatchina (1932).
“Life-giving Spring” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. Commemoration of the appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos at Pochaev (the “Footprint”) (1340).
St. Isidore, bishop of Seville (636). St. Theonas, metropolitan of Thessalonica (1541). New Hieromartyr Nicetas the Albanian, of Mt. Athos (1808). St. Elias, schemamonk, of Makeyevka (Ukraine) (1949).
Repose of Elder Savvas of Little St. Anne’s Skete, Mt. Athos (1908) and Archimandrite John (Maitland- Moir) of Edinburgh, Scotland (2013).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Friday. [Acts 3:1–8; John 2:12–22]
There are certain individuals whom the holy fathers praise for their Christian lives, for they rose from the dead before the general resurrection. What is the secret of such a life? They mastered the characteristic features of a life according to the resurrection as they are shown in the word of God, and made them their own inner properties. The future life is devoid of all that is fleshly: there men neither marry, nor are women given in marriage, there they will not eat dead food, and they will receive a spiritual body. Thus, whoever lives estranged from all fleshly things receives in himself, or returns to himself, elements of the future life according to the resurrection. Reach the point that all fleshly things within you die, and you will be resurrected before the future resurrection. The apostle indicates the path to this when he says: Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). And he attests that through this path it is surely possible to attain what is awaited: he that soweth to the Spirit, he says, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (Gal. 6:8).
Articles
 Venerable Joseph the HymnographerSaint Joseph the Hymnographer, “the sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church,” was born in Sicily in 816 into a pious Christian family. |
 Venerable George of Mt. Maleon in the PeloponnesusSaint George lived during the ninth century. His parents arranged a marriage for him, but he refused to marry the woman they had chosen. |
 Virginmartyr Pherbutha (Phermoutha) of Persia, with her sister and servantThe Holy Martyr Pherbutha (Phermoutha) and her sister and servants were martyred for Christ between the years 341 and 343. |
 Venerable Zosimas of PalestineSaint Zosimas was born near the end of the fifth century, and lived in a monastery by the Jordan River. |
 Venerable Joseph the Much-Ailing, of the Kiev Far CavesSaint Joseph the Much-Ailing lived during the fourteenth century. |
 St. Isidore the Bishop of SevilleSaint Isidore was born in the middle of the sixth century, and was related to the Visigoth royal family who converted to Orthodoxy from Arianism during his lifetime. |
 Venerable Theonas the Archbishop of ThessalonicaSaint Theonas was a disciple of Saint James of Kastoria (November 1), and lived at the beginning of the sixteenth century. |
