Ode 6. I pour out my entreaty.

Kontakion. Tone 8.

**T**he weakness of a girl’s nature was made strong by the Saviour’s power, for with longing for God she left off the ornaments of youth and boldly by night ran seeking the sweet-scented teachings of her Lover.

**Y**et by her own desire the far-famed first Champion Thekla marvellously exchanged the bridal chambers of marriage to dwell in the malefactors’ prison; for her longing for the Maker conquered the loves of creatures.

**S**piritually the Martyr kissed the bonds of her inspired Teacher; in the prison, as in a God-filled meadow, watered by his words she grew and truly bore the fairest fruit for the Master.

All-holy Virgin Mother of God, do not cease to intercede for us, for you are the support of the faithful, and we are strengthened by your hope, and with longing we glorify you and the One who ineffably took flesh from you.

I pour out my entreaty to the Lord and I shall declare to him all my troubles, for my life has been filled with evils and my soul has come near to Hades; and like Jonas I beg: Lead me up from corruption, O God.

You shone out with the beauty of virginity, you were adorned with a crown of martyrdom, you were entrusted with the work of an apostle, glorious Virgin; and you changed the fire’s flame to dew, while by prayer you tamed the raging of the bull as victorious first Champion.

The brilliance of an honoured feast brightly outshines the sun; for blazing with beams of light it is mirrored in the eyes of the faithful; therefore as we dance with the Angels, let us all shout aloud to God our Saviour, as we cry to him: You have multiplied your mercies, O Saviour, by giving a perfect gift to your people: the victorious first Champion.

On the 24th of the same month, Commemoration of the Holy Great Martyr and Equal of the Apostles Thekla.

He saved you, Thekla, when he rent the rock,

He at whose passion once the rocks were rent.

‘Twas on the twenty fourth day that a rock enfolded great Thekla.

She was from the city of Iconium; her mother was Theokleia of a noble and famous family. She was instructed in the word of the faith by the great Apostle Paul, when he was teaching in the house of Onesiphoros. When she came to the faith she was eighteen years old and betrothed to one Thamyris. Despising the fire into which she was cast, and her mother and her suitor, she followed Paul. After this, when at Antioch, she was condemned to the beasts by Alexander and cast to the bulls to be torn apart; but Christ delivered her from them all by his grace. She preached the Lord Jesus Christ in different cities and brought many people to faith in Christ, finally she came to her own fatherland. There she lived on one of the mountains and left this life, a rock opening up and receiving her. The whole span of her life was ninety years.

On the same day, Commemoration of our venerable Father Copris.

No dung was Copris , but another bunch

Of grapes that brought fair blossom to the Lord.

He was born on a dung heap outside the monastery of the great Theodosios, the Koinoviarch, of a woman who was being pursued by the Hagarenes with a large number of others of the neighbourhood, who fled to the Saint for safety. After the passage of the infidels the monks found the new born child on the dung-heap and, on the order of the great Theodosios, they adopted him and named him Copris; he was nurtured on the milk of a goat. When it reckoned that the time had come to suckle the child it would come down of its own from the mountain, and after it had suckled him, it returned again. This it did until the child was strong enough for stronger food.

When he had thus reached maturity he was well-loved by the great Theodosios; and so he was worthy of the Holy Spirit, and having kept intact that which is according to the image, he made wild beasts subject to him; for once finding a she-bear in the garden eating the lettuces, he took it by the ear, and kept safe by the prayer of the great saint led it outside. On another occasion he was going up the mountain with the donkey to collect wood, as he used to do the collecting, when a she bear appeared and struck the beast in the thigh. Copris seized the bear and loaded the wood onto it with the words: ‘I’m not letting you go; for you’ll do the donkey’s service until it gets well’. And by the prayer of the great saint the bear was subject to him, and carried the wood. Once when he was on duty in the kitchen the brass cauldron was boiling over and the lentils were spilling out. Unable easily to find the usual stick of wood, he plunged in his bare hand and stopped the boiling, and remained unharmed.

When he was ninety years old he shone among those Fathers like the sun, adorned with priesthood and with every kind of virtue, and standing in a secret spot he would offer prayers to the Lord, so that the great Theodosios, after his departure to the Lord, also appeared going with him and chanting with him, and finally he said to him: ‘See, brother Copris, the time for your release has arrived; come to us in the place of rest that has been prepared for you’. When the admirable saint heard this, a few days later he grew weak, and having greeted the Holy Fathers he departed in peace to the Lord.

Commemoration of the miracle that took place through the Mother of God on the island of Cythera, where the icon of the Mother of God found in the myrtles cured a paralytic.

At their holy intercessions, O God have mercy upon us. Amen.