2 Corinthians 1.12-20 (Epistle)

12For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you. 13For we write no other things to you than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end— 14as also you acknowledged us in part—that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15In this confidence, I was determined to come first to you, that you might have a second benefit, 16and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my journey to Judea. 17When I therefore planned this, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?” 18But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not “Yes and no.” 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not “Yes and no,” but in him is “Yes.” 20For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.

Matthew 22.23-33 (Gospel)

23On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, 24saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. 27After them all, the woman died. 28In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

29But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. 31But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, 32‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

33When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

Trans. Rel. Protomartyr Stephen

After the First Martyr Stephen was stoned to death, his body was left for the dogs; but his teacher Gamaliel had his body secretly taken to a place outside Jerusalem and buried by night. About the year 427, a Fr Lucian, the parish priest near the place, was told in a dream where the relics of the Protomartyr were buried. He told Patriarch John of Jerusalem, and they went together to the place revealed. Digging there they found a box labeled with the word “Stephen” in Aramaic letters. They took the sacred relics to Jerusalem in solemn procession.

Bl. Vasily, Fool-for-Christ

At the age of sixteen, he took up the podvig of folly for Christ, in which he continued for seventy-two years, living to the age of eighty-eight. He was homeless, barefood and dressed in tatters, wandering the streets of Moscow. Though mocked by many, he spoke to strangers of their secret sins, rebuked nobles for their hard-heartedness, and slowly became known as a Saint. Tsar Ivan and the Metropolitan of Moscow attended his funeral. He was buried in the church in Moscow that now bears his name.

Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome (257), and those with him

As Bishop of Rome from 254 to 257, he battled the Novatian heresy. By his prayers he once healed Lucilla, the daughter of the Roman tribune Nemesius; for this both father and daughter were baptized into Christ. Saint Stephen and twelve of his priests were beheaded during a celebration of the Liturgy, during the reign of Valerian.