March 17, 2025. + Orthodox Calendar

Orthodox Calendar 2025

Лествица Иоанна Лествичника

Прп. Макарий Калязинский

Преподобный Алексий - человек Божий

Old Style

March 17

Sunday

New Style

March 30

Fourth Sunday of Great Lent. Commemoration of St. John of the Ladder (Climacus). Tone 7.
Great Lent.

Wine and oil allowed.

Commemoration of St. John of the Ladder (Climacus) (649). St. Alexis the Man of God, in Rome (411). St. Macarius, founder of Kalyazin Monastery (Tver) (1483).

Martyr Marinus the Soldier, at Caesarea in Palestine (260). St. Patrick, bishop of Armagh and enlightener of Ireland (451). St. Parthenius of the Kiev Caves (1855).

New Hieromartyr Victor Kiranov, archpriest, of Berdyansk (Crimea) (1942).

St. Ambrose, deacon, of Alexandria (400). St. Gertrude, abbess, of Nivelles (659). St. Beccan of Rhum (677). St. Withburga, solitary at Holkham and East Dereham (ca. 743). Monk-martyr Paul of Crete (767). Hieromartyr Gabriel the Lesser, of Gareji, Georgia (1802). St. Gurias, archbishop of Tauria and Simferopol (1882). St. Theosterictus the Confessor, abbot of Pelecete Monastery near Prusa (826).

Repose of Archbishop Tikhon (Troitsky) of San Francisco (1963).

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

The Fourth Sunday of Lent. [ Heb. 6:13–20; Mark 9:17–31]

In His talks about blessedness, the Lord depicts a heavenly heart (Matt. 5:1–12). It contains: humility; weeping and contrition; meekness and angerlessness; complete love of righteousness; perfect mercifulness; purity of heart; love of peace and peacemaking; suffering misfortunes, false accusations and persecution for the sake of the Christian faith and life. If you want heaven, be like this, and already here on earth you will have a foretaste of heaven, into which you will enter prepared, like a forenamed heir.

Articles

Venerable Alexis the Man of God

The parents sought the missing Alexis everywhere, but without success. The servants sent by Euphemianus also arrived in Edessa, but they did not recognize the beggar sitting at the portico as their master.

Venerable Macarius the Abbot and Wonderworker of Kalyazin

The boyar Ivan Kolyaga, to whom the nearby lands belonged, began to fear that a monastery would grow up there, and that monks would begin to cultivate the wastelands. The Enemy of our salvation planted such spite and enmity in the boyar, that he decided to kill the saint.

Uncovering of the relics of Venerable Macarius, Abbot of Kalyazin

The igumen of the monastery, Joasaph, set up a cross at the spot designated for the altar, and gave a blessing to dig the trench for the foundation. During the work a grave was discovered, exuding an ineffable fragrance.

Martyr Marinus

After cruel tortures, the saint was beheaded.

The Confessions of St. Patrick

So for that reason one should, in fact, fish well and diligently, just as the Lord foretells and teaches, saying, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,’ and, again, through the prophets: ‘“Behold, I am sending forth many fishers and hunters,” says the Lord,’ et cetera. So it behoved us to spread our nets, that a vast multitude and throng might be caught for God, and so there might be clergy everywhere who baptized and exhorted a needy and desirous people. Just as the Lord says in the Gospel, admonishing and instructing: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the end of time.’

Saint Patrick and the Emptiness of Revenge

Gabe Martini

If literature and film that extols revenge is typical of our culture, most of us would have spent those six years plotting our own acts of vengeance against the Irish. But St. Patrick shows us a better way.

St. Patrick the Bishop of Armagh and Enlightener of Ireland

Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland was born around 385, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman decurion (an official responsible for collecting taxes).

Orthodoxy in the Low Countries. Part 4: Holy Women—Martyrs, Abbesses, Nuns and Queens

Matthew Hartley

Among the greatest adornments of the Low Countries during the period of their Orthodox history is their holy women.

Venerable Hieromartyr Gabriel the Lesser (†1802)

Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze

Saint Gabriel the Lesser was a major figure in the eighteenth- century Georgian Church. Few details of his life are known, but it is evident that the education he received was quite good for the period. Striving toward the monastic life but still living in the world, Gabriel tried in every way to close himself off from the vanity of the world. He kept a small sewing shop in Tbilisi and distributed most of his profits to the poor.

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