Orthodox Calendar

Saturday, March 22, 2031
Memorial Saturday; Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

Lenten Fast — Wine and Oil are Allowed — Abstain from meat, fish, dairy, and eggs

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

Luke 21.12-19 (Matins Gospel, Martyrs)

12But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13It will turn out as a testimony for you. 14Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. 16You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. 17You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. 18And not a hair of your head will perish.

19“By your endurance you will win your lives.

Hebrews 6.9-12 (Epistle)

9But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this. 10For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them. 11We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, 12that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises.

Hebrews 12.1-10 (Epistle, Martyrs)

1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. 4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. 5You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; 6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? 8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. 9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

Mark 7.31-37 (Gospel)

31Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee through the middle of the region of Decapolis. 32They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside from the multitude privately and put his fingers into his ears; and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly. 36He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it. 37They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Matthew 20.1-16 (Gospel, Martyrs)

1“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. 4He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went their way. 5Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’

7“They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ “He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’

8“When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’ 9“When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 10When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius. 11When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, 12saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’

13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius? 14Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. 15Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’ 16So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Commemorations

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastia (Sebaste) (320)

They were all soldiers under one general, taken captive in the time of Licinius for their faith in Christ. They were stripped naked and cast onto a frozen lake at Sebastia in Pontus. They endured the entire night, encouraging each other to be patient. Some accounts say that their persecutors placed warm baths in their sight on the shore to entice them to renounce Christ. Finally one of their number, broken by his sufferings, apostatized and left the company. One of the guards, named Aglaius, saw in a vision thirty-nine wreaths descending from heaven onto the heads of the faithful sufferers, and was moved to declare himself a Christian. He was immediately sent to join the martyrs on the frozen lake, keeping the number of forty complete. In the morning all of them, almost dead, were cast into fire, and their remains thrown in the lake. On the third day the martyrs appeared to Peter, the local bishop, and told him to search for them in the lake. The bishop went to the lake on a dark night with his clergy, and one account says that the bones of the martyrs rose to the surface and burned there like a candle. The relics were gathered and given honorable burial.

This is the most common account. The Prologue gives a somewhat different version, in which the martyrs were made to stand, not on the frozen lake, but in the freezing waters.

St Caesarius (369)

He was the brother of St Gregory the Theologian and, like his brother, was a theological writer. In his works he gave an answer to the question: How long did Adam and Eve spend in Paradise before the Fall? Various writers had given estimates ranging from six hours to three days. Saint Caesarius wrote that our first parents’ time in Paradise was forty days; and that for this reason Christ fasted for forty days in the wilderness, being tempted by the Devil. “For, while the old Adam was not able to withstand the devil’s temptation in the abundance of Paradise, the New Adam withstood him as a true knight in hunger and thirst in the wilderness.” (Prologue)