1 Corinthians 15.29-38 (Epistle)

29Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead? 30Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? 31I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.” 34Wake up righteously and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?” 36You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind. 38But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

Matthew 21.23-27 (Gospel)

23When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

24Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

25The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet.”

27They answered Jesus, and said, “We don’t know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Ss Alexander, John, Paul, Pats. Constantinople

St Alexander took part in the First Ecumenical Council as delegate of Patriarch Metrophanes, who was too frail to attend; and succeeded Metrophanes on the Patriarchal throne. By his prayer to God that the Church might be spared the schemings of Arius, Arius was struck dead.

St John is, by one account, St John the Faster (Sept. 2), who reposed in 595; by another, St John Scholasticus (Feb. 21), who reposed in 577.

St Paul was Patriarch for five years, then renounced the Patriarchal throne to take the Great Schema.

Synaxis of Serbian Hierarchs

On this day are commemorated seventeen holy Serbian hierarchs, beginning with St Sava (Sabbas), first Archbishop of Serbia and Equal to the Apostles. They are:

• St Sava, first Archbishop of Serbia, Equal to the Apostles
• Arsenius, his successor
• Sava II, son of King Stephen the First-Crowned
• Nicodemus, who lived on the Holy Mountain, was abbot of Hilandar Monastery there and Archbishop of Serbia
• Joannicius, patriarch from 1346-1349
• Ephraim, chosen as patriarch against his will in 1376. He crowned Prince Lazar, then renounced the patriarchal throne and retired into solitude
• Spiridon, his successor (+1388)
• Macarius, a great restorer of old churches and monasteries; printed many Church books (+1574)
• Gabriel, a nobleman by birth. The Prologue says that he ‘took part in the Moscow Council under Patriarch Nikhon, because of which he was tortured by the Turks for treason and hanged in 1656.’
• In addition, Eustace, Jacob, Danilo, Sava III, Gregory, John, Maxim and Nikhon.