Thursday September 17, 2026 / September 4, 2026
16th Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Hieromartyr Babylas, bishop of Antioch, with Martyrs Urban, Prilidian, and Epolonius, and their mother Christodula (251).
Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses (1531 B.C.).
Uncovering of the relics (1911) of St. Ioasaph, bishop of Belgorod (1754).
Uncovering of the relics (1989) of St. Metrophanes, bishop of Voronezh (1703).
Synaxis of All Saints of Voronezh.
Hieromartyr Parthenius, abbot of Kiziltis Monastery in Crimea (1867).
New Hieromartyrs Paul, John, Nicholas, Nicholas, John, Nicholas, Alexander, Peter and Michael priests, Hieromartyr Stephen, Martyrs Basil, Peter, Stephen and Alexander (1937).
New Hieromartyrs Gregory (Lebedev) Bishop of Shliserburg and Sergius (Druzhinin) Bishop of Narva (1937).
Virgin-Martyr Helen (1942).
Martyr Hermione, daughter of Apostle Philip the Deacon (117).
Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia, and with him 84 children (4th c.).
Martyrs Theodore, Mianus (Ammianus), Julian, Kion (Oceanus), and Centurionus of Nicomedia (305-311).
New Hieromartyr Peter, metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia (1941).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Unburnt Bush” (1680).
St. Joachim, patriarch of Alexandria.
Venerable Petronius of Egypt (346), disciple of St. Pachomius the Great.
Martyr Charitina of Amisus (Greek).
Martyrs Tathuil and Bebaia of Edessa (2nd c.) (Greek).
Martyr Jerusalem of Berroia (Greek).
Martyrs Theotimus and Theodulus the executioners (Greek).
St. Simeon, abbot and wonderworker of Garesja (1773).
St. Anthimus the Blind, new ascetic of Cephalonia (1782).
Translation of the relics of St. Birinus, bishop of Dorchester-on-Thames and enlighterer of Wessex.
Translation of the relics St. Cuthberg, bishop of Lindisfarne.
The Scripture Readings
John 10:9-16 Matins Gospel
9
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
12
But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
13
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
14
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Ephesians 1:1-9
1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6
to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
8
which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9
having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
Mark 7:24-30
24
From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.
25
For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.
26
The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
27
But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
28
And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
29
Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30
And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
Hebrews 11:33-12:2 Hieromartyr and Prophet
33
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36
Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
37
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented-
38
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
40
God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
1
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Luke 12:32-40 Hieromartyr and Prophet
32
Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33
Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
34
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
35
Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
36
and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.
37
Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.
38
And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
39
But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
40
Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Hebrews 7:26-8:2 St. Ioasaph
26
For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
27
who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
28
For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
1
Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
2
a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
John 10:9-16 St. Ioasaph
9
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
12
But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
13
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
14
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.