Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Movable Calendar (Paschalion)

Monday of the Fifth Week of the Great Fast

There is No Divine Liturgy This Day Because of the Great Fast.

No readings given.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Martyr Quadratus of Corinth and those with him.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

March 23rd – Civil Calendar
March 10th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Codratus (Kodratos) of Corinth, and others with him.

In a time of persecution of Christians, many of the faithful fled to the mountains and caves, as did Codratus’ mother. She was pregnant at the time, and gave birth to Codratus in a forest, dying almost at once. He was kept safe and fed by the providence of God and his guardian angel. Codratus grew up in solitude with nature. He Who gave manna from heaven to the Israelites in the wilderness released a sweet dew from a cloud onto the mouth of the child Codratus. When he was twelve years old, he went down to the town, and there some good people took a fancy to him and educated him. He studied medicine and then began to heal the sick, using both natural medicines, and more importantly, the spiritual power and prayer which had been with him from childhood. When a new persecution arose under Decius, Codratus was taken for trial and thrown into prison. Five of his friends stood beside him and confessed the name of Christ. They were: Cyprian, Dionysius, Anectus, Paul and Crescens. They were all dragged through the streets and struck with sticks and stones by the unbelievers, especially by the children, until they arrived at the scaffold. Here the martyrs prayed to God and were beheaded with the sword. A spring of water gushed out onto the earth at the spot, which to this day is called by Codratus’ name and commemorates the heroic death for Christ of the holy six. They suffered with honor for the truth in Corinth in the year 250, in the time of the Emperor Decius and his governor Jason.

2. The Holy Martyr Codratus of Nikomedia.

He was a rich nobleman and also a convinced and baptized Christian. In a time of persecution, when Valerian shut up many Christians in jail, Codratus bribed the warder and went into the prison to bring the captives food and uphold them in their faith. When they were brought before the judge and questioned about their names, place of origin and status, they were silent. Then Codratus appeared behind them and shouted at the top of his voice: ‘By name, we are Christians; servants of Jesus Christ the Lord by office and birth, and our city and place of origin is heaven.’ After this declaration he was brought to trial, and after long and harsh torture was beheaded along with the others.

3. Our Holy Mother Anastasia.

A patrician, she was a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Emperor Justinian. When she was widowed, and saw that the Empress Theodora could not abide her, she suddenly disappeared from Constantinople and took herself off to the Egyptian desert. A famous spiritual guide, Abba Daniel, tonsured her and presented her as the castrated monk Anastasius, by her wish, so that she might, as a woman under a man’s name, more easily evade the imperial searchers. Anastasia shut herself in a narrow cell, where she spent 28 years and where she entered into rest in the year 563. Before her death, the elder Daniel saw her face shining like the sun.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A tale by the elder Barlaam to Ioasaph: There was once a great and famous king; and it came to pass, when he was riding on a day in his golden chariot, with his royal guard, that there met him two men, clad in filthy rags, with fallen-in-faces, and pale as death. Now the king knew that it was by buffetings of the body and by the sweats of the monastic life that they had thus wasted their miserable flesh. So, seeing them, he leapt anon from his chariot, fell on the ground, and did obeisance. Then, rising, he embraced and greeted them tenderly. But his noblemen and counsellors took offence thereat, deeming that their sovereign had disgraced his kingly honor.... Then the king ordered four wooden caskets to be made. Two of these he covered over all with gold, and placing dead men’s moldering bones therein, secured them with golden clasps. The other two he smeared over with pitch and tar, but filled them with costly stones and precious pearls, and all manner of aromatic sweet perfume. The king set the four caskets before his noblemen, that they might appraise the value of these and those. Then he ordered the golden chests to be opened. And when they were thrown open, they gave out a loathsome smell and presented a hideous sight. Said the king, ‘Here is a figure of those who are clothed in glory and honor, and make great display of power and majesty, but within is the stink of dead men’s bones and works of iniquity.’ Next, he commanded the pitched and tarred caskets also to be opened, and delighted the company with the beauty and sweet savor of their stores. And he said unto them, ‘Know ye to whom these are like? They are like those lowly men, clad in vile apparel, whose outward form alone ye beheld, and deemed it outrageous that I bowed down to do them obeisance. But through the eyes of my mind I perceived the value and exceeding beauty of their souls, and was glorified by their touch, and I counted them more honorable than any chaplet or royal purple.’ Thus he shamed his courtiers, and taught them not to be deceived by outward appearances, but to give heed to the things of the soul.

Daily Scripture Readings taken from The Orthodox New Testament, translated and published by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, copyright © 2000, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Daily Prologue Readings taken from The Prologue of Ochrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, translated by Mother Maria, published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham, England, copyright © 1985, all rights reserved. Edited by Dormition Skete.