Daily Devotional

Saturday, February 5, 2028 (NS), January 23, 2028 (OS)

No Fasting.

Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week

23. The commemoration of Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ankyra.

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Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 293]. Child Timothy:

2 ¹¹Faithful is the saying. For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. ¹²If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. ¹³If we are faithless, yet that One remaineth faithful; He is not able to deny Himself.

¹⁴These things be putting in remembrance, solemnly testifying before the Lord not to dispute about words to no use, to the overturn of those who hear. ¹⁵Endeavor to present thyself approved to God, a workman that hath no cause for shame, cutting in a straight line the word of the truth. ¹⁶But profane and empty babblings, be shunning; for they will advance to more ungodliness, ¹⁷and their word will have spread as gangrene, of whom is Hymenæos and Philetos, ¹⁸who missed the mark concerning the truth, saying the resurrection already came to pass; and they are overturning the faith of some. ¹⁹Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal: “The Lord knoweth those who are His [cf. Num. 16:5]”; and, “Let everyone who nameth the name of Christ stand off from injustice [cf. Num. 16:27; Is. 26:13, 52:11; Jer. 20:9].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 104]. The Lord said this parable:

25 ¹“The kingdom of the heavens shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. ²“And five of them were prudent, and five were foolish. ³“Those who were foolish took lamps for themselves and took no oil with them; ⁴“but the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵“But while the bridegroom tarried, they all dozed and went on sleeping. ⁶“But in the middle of the night, there came to pass a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!’ ⁷“Then all those virgins were wakened and trimmed their lamps. ⁸“And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹“But the prudent answered, saying, ‘Peradventure there might not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰“But while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and they who were ready went in with him to the wedding festivities; and the door was shut. ¹¹“And afterwards the remaining virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹²“But he answered and said, ‘Verily I say to you, I know ye not.’ ¹³“Be watching then, for ye know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

23. The commemoration of Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ankyra.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 246]. Brethren:

3 ²⁰Our citizenship existeth in the heavens, from where we also patiently await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹Who shall transform the body of our humiliation, that it may become conformed to the body of His glory, according to the energy of Him Who is able even to subject all things to Himself.

4 ¹Therefore, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, thus be standing in the Lord, beloved ones. ²I beseech Evodia and I beseech Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord; ³yea, I ask thee also, genuine yoke-fellow, keep on assisting those women who struggled together with me in the Gospel, and Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

for Sl. usage, see [Heb. 13:7-16].

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 10]. At that time:

2 ²³During the sabbath days Jesus was going along through the sown fields; and His disciples began to make their way plucking the ears of grain. ²⁴And the Pharisees were saying to Him, “Behold, why do they that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?” ²⁵And He was saying to them, “Did ye not ever read what David did when he had need and hungered, he and those with him: ²⁶“how he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the loaves set forth before the presence of God, which it is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” ²⁷And He was saying to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. ²⁸“Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

3 ¹And He entered again into the synagogue; and a man was there whose hand had been withered. ²And they were watching Him closely, whether He would cure him on the sabbath, in order that they might accuse Him. ³And He saith to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand in the midst.” ⁴And He saith to them, “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵And having looked round about on them with wrath, being grieved for the hardness of their heart, He saith to the man, “Stretch forth thy hand.” And he stretched it forth, and his hand was restored sound as the other.

for Sl. usage, see [Jn. 10:9-16].

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

February 5th – Civil Calendar
January 23rd – Church Calendar

1. The Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ankyra.

He was born in 258 in the town of Ankyra of a pagan father and a Christian mother. His devout mother, Ephrosyne, prophesied a martyr’s death for her son, and left this world when Clement was twelve years old. Her friend Sophia took Clement into her own home as her son and saw that he was brought up a Christian. Clement became so famed for his virtuous life that he was chosen as bishop of Ankyra at the age of twenty. He acquired a mature wisdom in his early years, and harnessed and conquered his body by great restraint. He ate only bread and vegetables, and never anything slaughtered or with blood. In the reign of Diocletian, he was tortured as terribly ‘as anyone has ever been since the foundation of the world’. He spent twenty-eight years under torture and imprisonment. Eleven different torturers tormented him. One time when they were smiting him on the face, spitting on him and breaking his teeth, he cried out to Domentian the torturer: ‘You are doing me honor, O Domentian, not torturing me; for the mouth of my Lord Jesus Christ was struck in like manner, and His cheeks slapped; and lo, I, unworthy as I am, am now made worthy of this!’ When he was brought before the Emperor Diocletian in Rome, the emperor placed on one side various instruments of torture, and on the other side gifts—medals, clothing, money—whatever the emperor was able to bestow, and then told Clement to choose. Christ’s martyr, with a scornful glance at all the emperor’s gifts, chose the instruments of torture. And he was terribly tortured; piece by piece the flesh was flayed from his body until the bones showed white beneath. He was healed of these wounds, and was finally beheaded by a soldier in 312, while he was presiding at the Liturgy as bishop in the church in Ankyra. St. Clement’s miracles are without number.

2. Commemoration of the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

Held in Constantinople in 680-681 and 692, this council condemned the Monothelite heresy, which held the erroneous teaching that there is in Christ only a divine will and not a human one. In addition to that, it made some rulings concerning the order and discipline of the clergy.

3. St. Paulinus the Merciful.

He was first a Roman senator and then Bishop of Nola. Following the example of his friend, St. Ambrose, he received Baptism, after which he withdrew to the Spanish Pyrenees, where he lived a life of asceticism. But, as no light can be hidden, so St. Paulinus was found and chosen as Bishop of Nola. He was a good and merciful shepherd, and entered peacefully into rest in the year 431. His relics are preserved in the Church of St. Bartholomew in Rome.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Compassion has always been a characteristic of a true pastor of Christ’s flock. In his sermons, St. John Chrysostom stressed and praised nothing more strongly than compassion. St. John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, bewailed every day in which he was not given the opportunity to show mercy to someone. St. Paulinus was deservedly called the Merciful, for he was truly merciful in the fullest Christian meaning of the word. One time, when the Vandals were looting Nola, they also took many people into slavery. A certain widow, whose only son the Vandal prince, Rig, had carried away into slavery, came to her bishop, and in tears, sought money of him to buy her son back. Having nothing, the bishop dressed himself in the garments of a poor man and told the widow to take him before the prince and exchange him for her son. The prince returned her son to her and took Paulinus off to Africa, where he served as the prince’s gardener until he was freed by the providence of God and returned to Nola with the rest of the slaves.

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.