Saturday August 15, 2026 / August 2, 2026
11th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. Food with Oil2Translation of the relics (428) of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen (428) and Translation of the relics (415) of the Righteous Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and Abibus.
Blessed Basil of Moscow, fool-for-Christ (1552).
New Martyr Athanasius (1918).
New Hieromartyr Platon (1937).
Blessed Basil of Kuben Lake (1472).
Hieromartyr Stephen, pope of Rome (257).
Achair Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (21 c.).
St. Marco of Belavinsk (Vologda) (1492).
St. Friardus of Vindumitta (573) (Gaul).
Translation of the relics of Martyrs Maximus (286), Dada, and Quinctilian at Dorostolum in Moesia (Greek).
New Martyr Theodore of the Dardanelles (1690) (Greek).
Martyr Phocas (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
3
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,
5
that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge,
6
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
7
so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8
who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Matthew 19:3-12
3
The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
4
And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’
5
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6
So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.
7
They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
8
He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
9
And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.
10
His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
11
But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given:
12
For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.
Galatians 5:22-6:2 Blessed Basil
22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
24
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
1
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
2
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Matthew 11:27-30 Blessed Basil
27
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
28
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Acts 6:8-15; 7:1-5, 47-60 Protomartyr
8
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
9
Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.
10
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
11
Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
12
And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
13
They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;
14
for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
15
And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
1
Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2
And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3
and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’
4
Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
5
And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
47
But Solomon built Him a house.
48
However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49
Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?
50
Has My hand not made all these things?’
51
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53
who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.
54
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56
and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57
Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58
and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59
And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60
Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Matthew 21:33-42 Protomartyr
33
Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
34
Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.
35
And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
36
Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
37
Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
38
But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’
39
So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?
41
They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”
42
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?