Jude 11-25 (Epistle)

11Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. 14About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

17But you, beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.” 19These are those who cause divisions and are sensual, not having the Spirit.

20But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God’s love, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22On some have compassion, making a distinction, 23and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

24Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy, 25to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Luke 23.2-34, 44-56 (Gospel)

2They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”

3Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “So you say.”

4Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

5But they insisted, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee even to this place.”

6But when Pilate heard Galilee mentioned, he asked if the man was a Galilean. 7When he found out that he was in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem during those days.

8Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard many things about him. He hoped to see some miracle done by him. 9He questioned him with many words, but he gave no answers. 10The chief priests and the scribes stood, vehemently accusing him. 11Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate. 12Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before that they were enemies with each other.

13Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, 14and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and behold, having examined him before you, I found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. 15Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him, and see, nothing worthy of death has been done by him. 16I will therefore chastise him and release him.”

17Now he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast. 18But they all cried out together, saying, “Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!”— 19one who was thrown into prison for a certain revolt in the city, and for murder.

20Then Pilate spoke to them again, wanting to release Jesus, 21but they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify him!”

22He said to them the third time, “Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.” 23But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed. 24Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done. 25He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus up to their will.

26When they led him away, they grabbed one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry it after Jesus. 27A great multitude of the people followed him, including women who also mourned and lamented him. 28But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ 30Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”

32There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death. 33When they came to the place that is called “The Skull”, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.

44It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 45The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.

47When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” 48All the multitudes that came together to see this, when they saw the things that were done, returned home beating their chests. 49All his acquaintances and the women who followed with him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.

50Behold, there was a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man 51(he had not consented to their counsel and deed), from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was also waiting for God’s Kingdom. 52This man went to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body. 53He took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid. 54It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing near. 55The women who had come with him out of Galilee followed after, and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56They returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Apostle Onesimus of the Seventy

He was a Phrygian by birth, a slave of Philemon, to whom the Apostle Paul addressed his epistle. Onesimos escaped from Philemon and fled to Rome, where he was converted to the Faith by St Paul. St Paul sent him back to his master, who at St Paul’s urging gave him his freedom. He served the Church for many years before dying a martyr, beaten to death with clubs.

Saint Onesimos is also commemorated on November 22, with Sts Philemon, Archippus and Aphia; and on January 4 at the Synaxis of the Seventy Disciples.

Our Venerable Father Dalmatius of Siberia (1697)

Saint Dalmatius is venerated as a pioneer of the movement that took many ascetics to dwell in the wilderness of Siberia, establishing a new company of Desert Fathers and causing the Russian Far North to be called the ‘Northern Thebaid.’ He was born in Tobolsk and reared in piety by his family, recently-converted Tatars. When grown, he entered the imperial army as a Cossack and served with such distinction that the Tsar awarded him a noble title. He married and lived in Tobolsk in comfort and prosperity. One day — after the destruction of Tobolsk in a great fire in 1643 — struck by a realization of the vanity of worldly things, he left family, wealth and property and went to a monastery in the Ural Mountains, taking with him only an icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

He was tonsured a monk with the name of Dalmatius, and devoted himself to prayer and ascesis with such fervor that, a short time later, the brethren elected him Abbot. Fearing pride and fleeing honor, Dalmatius fled with his icon of the Theotokos to a remote cave, where he lived a life of silence and continual prayer. His presence did not long remain secret in that sparsely-settled region, and soon Christians were coming from far and wide to ask his prayer and counsel; many pagans came to him for holy Baptism. Soon his habitation became too small for those who had chosen to stay as his disciples, and the Saint received a blessing from the Bishop of Tobolsk to build a wooden chapel and some cells. This was the beginning of the great Monastery of the Dormition (also called the Monastery of St Dalmatius).

Over the years the brethren endured many tribulations. Once the Tatar Prince of the region, provoked by false rumors, planned to destroy the monastery and kill all the monks. The night before the attack, the holy Mother of God appeared to the prince in resplendent clothes, holding a flaming sword in one hand and a scourge in the other. She forbade the Prince to harm the monastery or the brethren, and commanded him to give them a permanent concession over the region. Convinced by this vision, the Prince made peace with the monks and became the Monastery’s protector, though he was a Muslim.

In the succeeding years the Monastery was repeatedly burned down by the fierce pagan tribes which inhabited the area; once all the monks except St Dalmatius himself were butchered, but always the monastery was rebuilt. The Saint reposed in peace in 1697, and was succeeded as abbot by his own son Isaac, who built a stone shrine at the Monastery to house the relics of the Saint and the icon of the Mother of God which he had kept with him throughout his monastic life.

Our Venerable Father Anthimos of Chios (1960)

He was born in 1869 to devout peasants on Chios; he left elementary school early to become a shoemender. At the age of nineteen he visited a monastery (founded by the monk Pachomios, who had been the spiritual counsellor of St Nektarios); he was so moved by the monks’ ‘angelic life’ that on returning home he built himself a small hut and dwelt in it. His only ‘help’ in his spiritual contests was an icon of the Mother of God, which soon began to work miracles, drawing many to his hermitage. After a time he retired to a monastery where he was tonsured under the name Anthimos. He fell ill there, and his abbot sent him home to his parents for the sake of his health. At home, despite the fact that he was caring for his aged parents and practicing his shoemender’s trade, he continued to live as a monk, spending nights on end in prayer and sometimes living only on bread and water for extended periods.

Increasing numbers of visitors came to his hermitage and wonder-working icon of the Theotokos, and in 1910 he received the Great Schema. The people of Chios wanted him to be ordained to the priesthood, but his bishop refused due to the Saint’s lack of education. At the prompting of Anthimos’ godfather, the Bishop of Smyrna ordained him instead. After a pilgrimage to Mt Athos, he returned to Chios, where he became chaplain to a leper hospital. Soon the hospital, which had fallen into corruption, became a spiritual center, as much like a monastery as a hospital. Saint Anthimos tended many of the sickest with his own hands, working many miracles of healing; some of his recovered patients became monks or nuns.

With the notorious ‘Exchange of Populations’ of 1922-1924, refugees poured into Chios, many of them destitute nuns and girls. In response to a vision of the Mother of God, St Anthimos built a monastery, which opened with thirty nuns and grew rapidly, despite the opposition of many who said that setting up such a community was out of date (in 1924!). The monastery soon housed eighty nuns and was known througout Greece as a model of monastic life. Father Anthimos served as priest to the nuns, and continued to receive the many faithful — often sixty or seventy per day — who came to him for prayer or counsel. He carried on this ministry for more than thirty years, working many miracles of healing. When he was too old to work with his hands, he retired to his cell and prayed that he be enabled to serve his neighbor until his last breath. He reposed in peace at the age of ninety-one, mourned and revered by the whole island of Chios.