From the calendar, 2028.

Saturday, February 12

St Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch

Fast-free

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. Epistle2 Timothy 3:1–9
2. GospelLuke 20:46–21:4

Ask about these readings in Study

Epistle.

2 Timothy 3:1–9

1 min read

1But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,

4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

6For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,

7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;

9but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

Open in the Reader

Gospel.

Luke 20:46–21:4

1 min read

46'Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts,

47who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.'

21:1And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,

2and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.

3So He said, 'Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;

4for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.'

Open in the Reader

In remembrance.

St Meletius, Archbishop of AntiochRead the life

Our holy father Meletios, an Armenian by birth, became archbishop of Antioch at the height of the Arian controversy. Though he was appointed by influential Arians who thought that he shared their views, as soon as he was raised to the throne he began to preach the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father. “At this, the archdeacon, an Arian, put his hand over the bishop’s mouth; Meletios then extended three fingers towards the people, closed them, and extended one only, showing by signs the equality and unity of the Trinity. The embarrassed archdeacon then seized his hand, but released his mouth, and Meletios spoke out even more forcibly in defense of the Council of Nicea” (Great Horologion). It was St Meletios who ordained St John Chrysostom reader and deacon in Antioch. He presided at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381.

Read the full life

St Aleksy, Metr. of All RussiaRead the life

He was born early in the 14th century to a family of court dignitaries in Moscow. Despite a fine education, he was not drawn to worldly success and became a monk at the age of twenty. In time Alexis was consecrated Bishop of Vladimir, then Metropolitan of Moscow, at that time the highest rank in the Russian church (which was still under the Patriarchate of Constantinople). Russia was then under the cruel domination of the Tatars. Saint Alexis traveled twice to the Golden Horde, where the Tatar Khan kept court. On his first visit (1359), he healed the Khan’s wife of a blindness which had afflicted her for three years — a miracle that did much to soften the Tatars’ treatment of their Russian vassals, and to preserve the liberty of the Church.

Read the full life

Further.

The Library

The Fathers, the services and the lives of the saints.

Study

Ask a question about a passage. Answers cite their sources.

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.