From the calendar, 2025.

Tuesday, September 16

Greatmartyr Euphemia the All-Praised

Fast-free

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. EpistleGalatians 2:21–3:7
2. GospelMark 6:1–7

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Epistle.

Galatians 2:21–3:7

1 min read

21I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.'

3:1O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?

2This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

3Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

4Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

5Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?-

6just as Abraham 'believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'

7Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

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Gospel.

Mark 6:1–7

1 min read

1Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.

2And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, 'Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!

3Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?' So they were offended at Him.

4But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.'

5Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

6And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

7And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.

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In remembrance.

Greatmartyr Euphemia the All-PraisedRead the life

She was born in Chalcedon to noble Christian parents. When Priscus, the locul Proconsul, celebrated a public sacrifice to Ares, forty-nine Christians including Euphemia hid themselves to avoid idolatry. Their absence was noticed, and they were found and brought before Priscus. After torturing all of them for eleven days, on the twelfth day he singled out Euphemia because of her beauty and began to flatter her, hoping in this way to draw her away from the Faith. When his efforts proved useless, he ordered her to be more savagely tortured than any of her fellow believers. She was miraculously preserved intact through many tortures, finally giving her soul into God’s hands when she was thrown to wild beasts. Her devout parents retrieved and buried her body. Her relics are preserved in the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

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Holy Hieromartyr Cyprian of Carthage (258)Read the life

He was born to wealthy and noble parents in Carthage (north Africa), and became a prominent lawyer in that city. Around the year 246 he embraced the Christian faith and was baptized by the priest Caecilianus. Immediately he gave all his goods to the poor and retired to a quiet place in the country to devote himself to prayer and study of Christian writings. In 248 or 249 he was elected Bishop of Carthage by the insistence of the people, though some priests opposed the consecration of such a new Christian.

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St Ninian, Enlightener of Scotland (432)Read the life

One of the great missionaries and early Saints of the British Isles, he was born in Britain around the year 360. Though Britain was still mostly pagan, Ninian was born of Christian parents. He traveled to Rome as a young man, and spent several years there engaged in study and ascetic struggle. He was ordained in Rome and sent back as a missionary to Britain around the year 400. On the way he probably met St Martin of Tours: many of the churches he founded, including his cathedral in Whithorn, were named in honor of St Martin. He established several monasteries, ministered to his Christian Briton countrymen and converted many more Britons to the Faith. He also converted many of the fierce Picts, inhabitants of today’s Scotland, to faith in Christ. He reposed in peace in Whithorn in 432.

Our Holy Father Dorotheos the Solitary of Egypt (4th c.)Read the life

He was one of the great company of Egyptian desert fathers of the fourth century. He lived alone in a cell in the Thebaid for sixty years, devoting himself to prayer, asceticism and renowned love of labor. He spent his days building cells for new monks, his nights making plaited mats, all the while immersed in prayer and psalmody.

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What this is.

The Scripture the Orthodox Church reads each day, the saints it remembers, and a study aid that answers from Scripture and the Fathers and shows its sources.

Divine Liturgy. The Church's main service, at which Holy Communion is given. Its Epistle and Gospel are what most people mean by the day's readings.

Matins. The morning service of praise. On Sundays and feasts it has a Gospel of its own.

Vespers. The evening service. The Church's day begins at sunset, so a feast's Vespers is served the evening before.

Hours. Short services of psalms and prayer at set times of the day: the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours.

Tone. The hymns of the week are sung in one of eight tones, or melodies, which follow each other week by week.

New Calendar. Fixed feasts are kept on the civil date, as in the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese. Churches on the Old Calendar keep them 13 days later. Pascha is the same for both.