Exapostilarion: Spec. Mel: “Hearken, ye women....”—
Irmos: Heaven was stricken with awe, and the ends of the earth were amazed, that God hath appeared in the flesh, and that thy womb became more spacious than the heavens. Wherefore, the ranks of men and angels magnify thee as the Theotokos.
Emulating the valor of the athletes of old, thou didst truly receive both their title and joy, O Theodore. Be thou mindful of us who piously keep thy holy memory, in that thou hast boldness before the Master, that we may be saved.
Theotokion: Without seed, and apart from the desires of the flesh, O Virgin, didst thou conceive the Word of God Who hath created all things; and thou gavest birth unto Him without corruption and maternal pangs. Wherefore, confessing thee with tongue and heart to be the Theotokos, we magnify thee.
He Who was baptized in the streams of the Jordan, joined in the river those who were baptized in their own blood and who emulated His death, joining to their bodies their cast-away heads and guiding them to a dry harbor.
O godly forty-two martyrs who now dwell in joy in the heavens, make entreaty, we pray, in behalf of us who celebrate your most holy and splendid memory on earth, that we may be delivered from every evil circumstance.
How can one who loveth the martyrs have enough of the divine memory of the martyrs, as Basil the Great said in the past? Before us now lieth the task of hymning the forty-two godly martyrs who suffered steadfastly for Christ the Savior.
O Virgin who gavest birth unto the hypostatic Wisdom, the transcendent Word, the Physician of bodies and souls: Heal thou the grievous and heavy sores and wounds of my soul, and still the pain of my heart.
Translated by Isaac Lambertsen. Edition menaion.en.lambertsen.