Daily Devotional

Thursday, May 27, 2027 (NS), May 14, 2027 (OS)

No Fasting.

Thursday of the Fourth Week

The commemoration of the Martyr Isidore at Chios.

Jump to Prologue

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Fourth Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 26]. In those days:

10 ³⁴Peter opened his mouth and said, “In truth, I comprehend that God is not a respecter of persons, ³⁵“but in every nation, the one who feareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him. ³⁶“The Logos Whom He sent forth to the sons of Israel, preaching the Gospel, peace through Jesus Christ—this One is the Lord of all. ³⁷“Ye know the matter which came to pass throughout all of Judæa, which began from Galilee after the baptism which John proclaimed: ³⁸“how God anointed Him, Jesus, the One from Nazareth, with the Holy Spirit and with power, Who went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. ³⁹“And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom also they killed, having hanged Him on a tree. ⁴⁰“God raised this One on the third day, and gave Him to become manifest, ⁴¹“not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. ⁴²“And He commanded us to proclaim to the people, and to testify that He is the One Who was ordained by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³“To this One all the prophets bear witness that, through His name, everyone who believeth in Him is to receive forgiveness of sins.”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 29]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

8 ¹²“I am the light of the world; the one who followeth Me in no wise shall walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of the life.” ¹³The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “Thou art bearing witness concerning Thyself; Thy testimony is not true.” ¹⁴Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness concerning Myself, My testimony is true, for I know from what place I came and where I am going; but ye do not know from what place I am coming from and where I am going. ¹⁵“Ye judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. ¹⁶“And even if I should judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me. ¹⁷“And it hath also been written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. ¹⁸“I am One Who beareth witness concerning Myself, and the Father Who sent Me beareth witness concerning Me.” ¹⁹Then they said to Him, “Where is Thy Father?” Jesus answered, “Ye neither know Me, nor My Father; if ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also.” ²⁰These words spoke Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hold of Him, for His hour had not yet come.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the Martyr Isidore at Chios.

No readings given.

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 27th – Civil Calendar
May 14th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyr Isidore.

In the reign of the Emperor Decius, this Isidore was taken by force by soldiers from the island of Chios. He had held the Christian Faith from his youth, and had spent his life in fasting, prayer and good works. So when, in the army, he declared himself to be a Christian, the commander took him to task for it, and urged him to deny Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. The saint replied: ‘Even if you kill my body, you have no power over my soul. I have the true and living God, Jesus Christ, Who lives in me and will be with me at my death; and I am in Him and shall remain in Him, and will not cease to confess His holy name while the spirit is in my body.’ The commander ordered that they first beat him with iron flails and then cut out his tongue. But, even without his tongue, Isidore was able to speak, and confessed the name of Christ by the Spirit of God. Meanwhile the punishment of God struck the commander, and he suddenly became mute. The mute commander finally gave the signal to behead Isidore. Isidore rejoiced at this sentence, and praising God, went out to the scaffold, where his head was cut off in the year 251. His friend, Ammon, buried his body, and after that, himself suffered and received the wreath of martyrdom.

2. Our Holy Father Serapion the Sindonite.

‘Sindon’ means ‘linen cloth,’ and this saint was called ‘the Sindonite’ because he covered his naked body only with a linen cloth. He carried the Gospels in his hand. Serapion lived like the birds, with no roof and no cares, moving from one place to another. He gave his linen cloth to a poor wretch who was shivering with cold, and himself remained completely naked. When someone asked him: ‘Serapion, who made you naked?’ he indicated the Gospels and said: ‘This!’ But, after that, he gave away the Gospels also for the money needed by a man who was being hounded to prison by a creditor for a debt. At one time in Athens, he did not eat for four days, having nothing, and began to cry out with hunger. When the Athenian philosophers asked him what he was shouting about, he replied: ‘There were three to whom I was in debt: two have quieted down, but the third is still tormenting me.’ The crowd was roused to aid him. They asked him who these were who were tormenting him. He replied: ‘The first creditor is carnal lust, which has tormented me from my youth; the second is love of money, and the third is the stomach. The first two have left me alone, but the third one still torments me.’ The philosophers gave him some gold to buy bread. He went to a baker, bought a single loaf, put down all the gold and went out. He went peacefully to the Lord in old age, in the 5th century.

3. Blessed Isidore the Fool for Christ.

He was of German birth. Going to Rostov from an attraction to the Orthodox Faith, he not only became a member of the Orthodox Church but took on himself the strict asceticism of folly for Christ. He lived in rags, spending the day pretending madness, and through this madness, teaching men; and spending the nights in prayer. He spent these nights in a hut outside the town, built in a lonely swamp. Great and mighty wonders were performed by this saint, both during his lifetime and after his death. He appeared to a merchant who had been thrown out of his ship and was drowning. Isidore came to him through the water and led him to the shore. He caused the wine in all the containers to dry up one day, when the servants had driven him from the door of the Prince of Rostov without giving him a single cup of water. When he died in his hut on May 24th, 1484, the whole of Rostov was aware of a fragrant aroma. The merchant who had been saved from the sea built a church in the place where the hut had stood.

FOR CONSIDERATION

A sin that is a cause of scandal to others is a twofold sin. A wise man tries to ensure that he gives scandal to no one by his sinful example and leads another into sin. St. Ambrose applauds such wisdom in the Emperor Valentinian, who died young, in this example from his life: ‘The emperor, hearing that he was being talked of all over Rome as a passionate hunter of wild beasts—which he, in fact, was not—and that this passion was taking the emperor away from his duties of state, immediately commanded that all the wild beasts in his forests be destroyed. Hearing, on another occasion, that some malicious person was spreading word that he lunched early (wanting by this to make him out to be a glutton), he took on himself a very strict fast, both publicly and privately. At public meals, he was rarely seen to put a morsel of food into his mouth. When, again, his sisters were in dispute with a man over some land, the emperor, although he had the right to try the case himself, submitted it to trial in open court, so that he could not be accused of partiality.’ Truly this devout emperor kept with godly fear to the words of the Lord: ‘Woe to him that causes offence to one of these little ones.’

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.