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Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus
The commemoration of the holy Apostles Aristarchos, Pudens, and Trophimos of the Seventy (commemorated on Sl. calendar on the 15th of April), and our holy father among the saints, Martin, Pope of Rome (commemorated on Gk. calendar on the 13th of April), and his fellow bishops, and the holy Martyrs Anthony, John, and Efstathios, slain for the Faith in Vilmius, Lithuania.
Fast day, but Shell Fish, Wine and Oil Allowed. Holy & Great Fast
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews [§ mid 333]. Brethren:
12 28Since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be having gratitude by which we may worship God well pleasingly with reverence and piety. 29For also, “Our God is a consuming fire [cf. Deut. 4:24].”
13 1Let brotherly love abide. 2Cease being forgetful of hospitality, for by this some entertained angels unawares. 3Be mindful of those in bonds as bound with them, of those being ill-treated as being yourselves also in the body. 4Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5Let your manner of life be without covetousness, being satisfied with things at hand; for He hath said, “In no wise will I leave thee, nor in any wise will I abandon thee [cf. Deut. 31:6].” 6So that being of good courage we may say, “The Lord is a helper to me, and I will not be afraid; what shall man do to me [cf. Ps. 117(118):6]?”
7Be remembering those who lead you, who spoke to you the word of God, whose faith keep on imitating, observing attentively the end of their conduct: 8Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and to the ages.
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 39]. At that time:
11 1There was a certain sick man, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” 4And after Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God might be glorified by it.” 5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6When He heard therefore that “he is sick,” then indeed He remained in the place which He was for two days. 7Then after this He saith to His disciples, “Let us go into Judæa again.” 8The disciples say to Him, “Rabbi, just now the Jews were seeking to stone Thee, and goest Thou there again?” 9Jesus answered, “There are twelve hours in the day, are there not? If anyone walk about in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world; 10“but if anyone walk about in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.” 11These things He said, and after this He saith to them, “Our friend Lazarus hath fallen asleep; but I go that I might awaken him.” 12Then said His disciples, “Lord, if he hath fallen asleep, he shall recover.” 13But Jesus had spoken about his death; but they thought that He spoke about taking rest in sleep. 14Therefore Jesus then said to them openly, “Lazarus died. 15“And I rejoice on your account that I was not there, in order that ye might believe; but let us go to him.” 16Then Thomas, the one who was called Didymos, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we might die with Him.”
17Then after Jesus came, He found that he already had been in the sepulcher four days. 18Now Bethany was nigh to Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, 19and many of the Jews had come to join the women around Martha and Mary, in order that they might console them concerning their brother. 20Then Martha, when she heard that “Jesus is coming,” went to meet Him; but Mary was sitting in the house. 21Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died. 22“But even now I know that whatsoever Thou Thyself shalt ask of God, God will give it to Thee.” 23Jesus saith to her, “Thy brother shall rise up.” 24Martha saith to Him, “I know that he shall rise up in the resurrection in the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believeth in Me, though he die, he shall live; 26“and everyone who liveth and believeth in Me, in no wise shall ever die. Believest thou this?” 27She saith to Him, “Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, Who cometh into the world.” 28And after she said these things, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, and saith, “The Teacher is present and calleth thee.” 29And the latter, when she heard, rose up quickly and came to Him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha went to meet Him. 31The Jews then who were with her in the house, and consoling her, after they saw that Mary quickly rose up and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the sepulcher that she might weep there.” 32Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came down with her weeping, He rebuked His deep feelings in the spirit and troubled Himself, 34and said, “Where have ye laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36Then the Jews were saying, “Behold, how He was loving him.” 37But some of them said, “Was not this One able, Who opened the eyes of the blind, to have caused that this one should not die?” 38Then Jesus, again rebuking His deep feelings in Himself, cometh to the sepulcher. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying upon it. 39Jesus saith, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the one who was dead, saith to Him, “Lord, already he stinketh, for it is the fourth day.” 40Jesus saith to her, “I said to thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God, did I not?” 41Then they took away the stone where the dead one was laid. And Jesus lifted His eyes upwards, and said, “Father, I give thanks to Thee that Thou heardest Me. 42“But I know that Thou hearest Me always; but on account of the crowd which stood around I said it, that they might believe that Thou didst send Me forth.” 43And after He said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” 44And the one who was dead came forth, his feet and hands having been bound with graveclothes; and his face had been bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
45Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what Jesus did, believed in Him.
For the Martyrs:
The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians [§ 233].
6 10Brethren, keep on being empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; 12because for us the wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the cosmic rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of evil on account of the heavenly things. 13For this cause take up the full armor of God, in order that ye might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having counteracted all things, to stand. 14Stand therefore, having girt your loins with truth, and having put on for yourselves the breastplate of righteousness, 15and having shod your feet in readiness of the Gospel of peace; 16on the whole, take up the shield of faith, with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 36]. The Lord said to His disciples:
10 16“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Become therefore wise as the serpents and guileless as the doves. 17“But continue being on guard against men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. 18“And also ye shall be brought before governors and kings on account of Me, for a testimony to them and to the nations. 19“But whenever they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what ye should speak; for it shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak. 20“For ye are not the ones who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father Who is speaking in you. 21“Now a brother shall deliver up a brother to death, and a father a child; and children shall rise up against parents and shall put them to death. 22“And ye shall be hated by all for My name’s sake; but the one who endureth to the end, this one shall be saved.”
April 27th — Civil Calendar April 14th — Church Calendar
1. St Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome.
Martin became Pope on July 5th, 649, at the time of a furious quarrel between the Orthodox and the Monothelite heretics. Constans the Second, Heraclius’ grandson, was on the throne at the time, and Paul was Patriarch of Constantinople. To restore peace in the Church, the Emperor himself wrote a dogmatic decree, the Typos, which leaned heavily towards heresy. Pope Martin summoned a Council of 105 bishops, at which the Emperor’s statement was condemned. At the same time, the Pope wrote a letter to Patriarch Paul, begging him to uphold the purity of the Orthodox faith and to counsel the Emperor to reject the theories of the heretics. This letter infuriated both the Patriarch and the Emperor. The Emperor sent one of his generals, Olympius, to take the Pope to Constantinople in bonds. The general did not dare to bind the Pope with his own hands, but instructed one of his soldiers to kill him with the sword in church. But, when the soldier entered the church with his sword concealed, he was instantly blinded. So, by the providence of God, Martin escaped death. At that time, the Saracens fell upon Sicily, and Olympius went off there, where he died. Then, by the intrigues of the heretic Patriarch Paul, the Emperor sent a second general, Theodore, to bind and take the Pope on the charge that he, the Pope, was in collusion with the Saracens and that he did not reverence the most holy Mother of God. When the general arrived in Rome and read the accusation against the Pope, he replied that it was libel; that he had no contact of any sort with the Saracens, the opponents of Christianity, ‘and whoever does not confess the most holy Mother of God and do her reverence, let him be damned in this age and in that which is to come’. But this did not affect the general’s decision. The Pope was bound and taken to Constantinople, where he lay long in prison in great sickness, tortured by both anxiety and hunger, until he was finally sentenced to exile in Cherson, where he lived for two years before his death. He gave his soul into the hands of the Lord, for whom he had suffered so greatly, in 655. The evil Patriarch, Paul, died two years before him, and when the Emperor visited him on his deathbed, he smote his head against the wall, confessing with tears that he had greatly sinned against Pope Martin and asking the Emperor to set Martin free.
2. The Holy Martyrs Antony, John and Eustace.
These three were all at first pagans and fire-worshippers. They were slaves at the court of the Lithuanian Prince Olgard in Vilna. Their former names were Krugletz, Kumetz and Neghilo. All three were baptized by a priest called Nestor. The three of them were hanged, one behind the other, from the same oak tree in 1347. Christians cut down this oak and built a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in which they laid the precious relics of these martyrs, making the Holy Table from the stump of the tree. Their relics are preserved in Vilna.
3. The Holy Martyr Ardalion the Actor.
The holy martyr Ardalion lived at the time of Maximain, 298 A.D. By profession he was an actor or a mimic, imitating the sorrows and woes of others. On one occasion he decided to imitate the resistance that Christians display when being martyred by the tyrants. So his friends staged an act where Ardalion was suspended from a height and supposedly mutilated because he would not sacrifice to the idols. The audience was so moved by his performance that they interrupted and gave him a standing ovation. Then Ardalion exclaimed in a great voice, telling the audience to stop their applause, and announced that he was a Christian in reality. The governor of that territory advised him to change his mind, but our martyr would not listen to him, and stayed firm in the Faith. He was cast into a bonfire which was lit on that spot, and thus he met his end and received the laurel of martyrdom.
FOR CONSIDERATION
‘A monk must love God as a son and fear Him as a slave’, says Evagrius. In fact, this is so of every Christian, even if he is not a monk. It is a great art to unite love for God to fear of Him. Many other of the holy fathers also, when they speak of the love of God, speak at the same time of fear of Him—and vice versa. St John Chrysostom, in his homily ‘On Perfect Love’, speaks at the same time of punishment and the torments of hell. Why? Because the greatest love towards God of which man is capable can be turned into pride if it is not accompanied by a sense of fear—and great fear without love leads to despair.
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.
