Sts Sergius and Herman (1353), abbots of Valaam
After helping to establish Orthodoxy among the Karelian Finns, they founded the famous Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga in northern Russia. Both reposed in the same year.
4th Sunday after Pentecost
Synaxis of the Icon of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos "Of the Three Hands"
Saint John of Damascus (December 4), the great defender of Orthodoxy against the iconoclasts, was falsely accused of plotting against the Caliph of Damascus through the intrigues of the iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741). The Caliph ordered St John’s hand to be cut off for his suspected treachery. The saint asked for the severed hand, and passed the night praying fervently for aid before an icon of the most holy Theotokos. Waking in the morning, he found his hand miraculously restored, with only a scar around the wrist where it had been completely severed. In thanksgiving, St John had a silver hand mounted on the icon. When he became a monk in the monastery of St Sabbas in the Holy Land, he took the icon with him. It remained there until it was given to St Sabbas (Sava) of Serbia (January 14), who brought it to Serbia. Later it was miraculously taken to the Hilandar Monastery on the Holy Mountain (carried, according to legend, from Serbia to Mt Athos by an unguided donkey), where it may now be found.
Translation of the Relics (412)of the Holy and Wonderworking Unmercenaries Cyrus & John
They are counted among the Unmercenary Physicians. For their lives, see January 31.
Our Holy Father Sennuphius the Standard-Bearer (4th c.)
“A great ascetic and wonderworker of the Egyptian desert, he was a contemporary of Patriarch Theophilus and the Emperor Theodosius the Great. He is called ‘the Standard-Bearer’ because he once helped the Emperor Theodosius to gain a victory over enemy forces by his prayers. When the Emperor summoned him to Constantinople, he replied that he was unable to go, but sent his torn and patched monastic habit and his staff. Going out to battle, the Emperor put on Sennuphius’s habit and carried his staff in his hand, and returned victorious from the battle.” (Prologue)
Readings
- Luke 24.1-12 (4th Matins Gospel)
- Romans 6.18-23 (Epistle)
- Matthew 8.5-13 (Gospel)