Orthodox Calendar

Saturday, March 2, 2024

No Fast

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

1 Timothy 6.11-16 (Epistle)

11But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. 13I command you before God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, 14that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which at the right time he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.

Luke 20.46-21.4 (Gospel)

46“Beware of those scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts; 47who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”

1He looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury. 2He saw a certain poor widow casting in two small brass coins. 3He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, 4for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.”

Commemorations

Hieromartyr Theodotus, Bishop of Cyrenia

Known for his wisdom and virtue, he was chosen as Bishop of Cyrenia on the island of Cyprus. When a persecution broke out against the Christians under the Emperor Licinius, Theodotus was arrested and subjected to many tortures. His torturer Sabinus urged him repeatedly to renounce Christ and worship the idols, but Theodotus replied, ‘If you knew the goodness of my God, who, it is my hope, will by these brief tortures make me worthy of eternal life, you would wish to suffer for Him as I do.’ The pagans then drove nails into his body, for which he thanked God. Believing that his death was approaching, he calmly gave counsel and instruction to the Christians around him. By God’s providence, an order came from the new Emperor Constantine to free all Christians who were being held for the sake of Christ. Thus Theodotus was freed and, though greatly weakened by his torments, served his flock faithfully for two more years before reposing in peace.

The Four Hundred and Forty Martyrs of Lombardy (579)

Forty of them were beheaded in one place in Lombardy (in Italy) because they refused to eat food offered to idols. Another four hundred were massacred because they refused to join with the Lombard pagans’ practice of dancing around a goat’s head that had been brought for sacrifice to the idols. Their deaths are recorded by St Gregory the Dialogist (Gregory the Great).

We sometimes imagine that the Roman Empire converted almost overnight to Christianity during the reign of St Constantine the Great. This incident, more than two hundred years into Europe’s ‘Christian era’, reminds us that the progress of the Faith among the people was often slow and halting, and that paganism remained a force for many centuries.

Holy Martyr Euthalia (257)

She was a pagan maiden living in Sicily with her mother (also named Euthalia) and her brother Sermilianus. When Euthalia’s mother became ill with an issue of blood, the holy martyrs Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus (May 10) appeared to her in a dream and told her that she would only be healed if she were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heeding the dream, she believed, was baptized, and was healed. Her daughter Euthalia, seeing this wonder, was also baptised. Sermilianus, despising and hating the Christian faith, first mocked his mother and sister for their conversion, then threatened them. The mother fled the house in fear. Euthalia remained, saying to her brother ‘I am a Christian, and have no fear of death.’ The cruel Sermilianus persecuted her more and more harshly until finally, enraged by the futility of his threats, he beheaded his own sister by his own hand, unknowingly procuring for her a crown of eternal glory. “And thus in this example were fulfilled the words of Christ that He was bringing a sword among men which would divide those of one blood but not those of one faith (Matt. 10:34-35).” (Prologue)