Acts 4.13-22 (Epistle)

13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16saying, “What shall we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can’t deny it. 17But so that this spreads no further among the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.” 18They called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

19But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves, 20for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”

21When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that which was done. 22For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

John 5.17-24 (Gospel)

17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”

18For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. 20For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires. 22For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

24“Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Hieromartyr Simeon, Kinsman of the Lord

He was the nephew of Joseph the Betrothed, and one of the Seventy. When the Apostle James, first Bishop of Jerusalem, was martyred, St Symeon was named to replace him. As second Bishop of Jerusalem he governed the Church there to a very great age. In the time of the Emperor Trajan a persecution broke out in Palestine against both Christians and Jews; Symeon was condemned on both counts, and was privileged to die, like his Lord, by crucifixion. He was 120 years old.

Our Holy Father Stephen, Abbot of the Kiev Caves and Bishop of Vladimir (1094)

He was a disciple of St Theodosius of the Kiev Caves (commemorated May 3), and became abbot of the Monastery of the Caves. After many years of faithful service he fell victim to the intrigues of a monk against him, lost his abbacy and was even driven from the monastery. In God’s time the holy monk was vindicated and made Bishop of Vladimir. There he guided the Church for many years, reposing peacefully in old age in 1094.

Burning of the relics of St Sava I of Serbia by the Turks (1594)

At the time of the Turkish occupation, so many Serbian Christians gathered around the relics of St Sava (at Mileseva), pleading for his intercession, that the Ottoman ruler, Sinan Pasha, feared that the relics would become the focus of a popular rebellion. He therefore had the relics brought to Belgrade and burned. The Pasha is long gone; the Saint continues to intercede for his people and for the world.