Where sin is rife, there grace aboundeth, as the Apostle teacheth; for in prayers and tears thou didst dry up the abyss of many offenses, O Pelagia, and didst finally bring to the Lord right acceptable repentance, and therein dost pray for our souls.
Glory..., in Tone VI —
On “Lord, I have cried...”, these stichera in Tone VIII: Spec. Mel.: “O most glorious wonder....” —
Now & ever…: Theotokion, or this stavrotheotokion: Spec. Mel.: “As one valiant among the martyrs…” —
Troparion, in Tone VIII —
Glory..., in Tone VI —
O most glorious wonder: A corrupt root hath put forth a fertile shoot, a befouled spring is filled with living water, darkness is illumined, a harlot becometh chaste, she who before lived in luxury hath exhausted herself by fasting, and a doorless cell doth open the gates of heaven; and entering therein, O Thais, thou art met with joy by the choirs of the righteous.
Now & ever...: the Dogmatic theotokion, in the tone of the week.
Reading from Genesis
O most glorious wonder! Fearing the everlasting fire, she casteth her treasures into the fire, enflamed with the fire of love divine, and loudly confesseth her sins, and maketh haste secretly to serve God, crying out: “Accept me, O venerable Paphnutius! Lead me forth from this sin-loving world, uniting me to Christ in purity!”
Now & ever...: Theotokion —
Reading from Deuteronomy
“How shall I, who am filled with sins, flee from God Who seeth all things, Who perceiveth all secrets?” Thais cried aloud. “For I know Him to be the Judge and the Sentencer, yet I know Him also to love of mankind; wherefore, trusting in His mercy, and washing away the filth of my heart with tears, I commit my life into His hands.”
Reading from Deuteronomy
“O God, Who hast created me,” the holy Thais fervently cried out, “loose Thou the chains of mine offenses, as of old thou didst loose those of the harlot. And if I cannot clasp Thy most pure feet, yet make I haste to embrace Thy mercy. I bedew the ground with my tears, that I may hear within my soul Thy blessed voice say: ‘Thy sins are remitted thee.’”
Glory..., in Tone III —
On “Lord, I have cried…”, these stichera, in Tone VIII: Spec. Mel.: “O all-glorious wonder…” —
O all-glorious wonder! Showing courage, a woman hath trampled the enemy underfoot and suppressed the passions of the body through great abstinence. Zealously taking the Cross of the Lord upon her shoulders, Pelagia shed the burden of life’s possessions and followed after Christ through the teachings of the wise Nonus.
Thou hast been revealed to us as a new Thecla! For, finding thy teacher Nonus to be another Paul, thou didst accept his teachings, O glorious one, having fervently embraced repentance; and through abstinence thou didst join thyself to Christ, O all-blessed and most honored Pelagia. Wherefore, cease thou never to pray to Christ, that we be saved.
Rejoice, O most honored Pelagia! For, most honorably enkindled by zeal divine, thou didst cast away the pleasure of fornication, O all-blessed one, and hastening to Nonus, didst cry aloud: “Thou must needs give answer for my deeds if thou wilt not seal me with the sign of Christ, O glorious one, investing me through baptism with the robe of purity!”
Glory…, the composition of John the Monk, in Tone IV —
When she beheld Thee, the Lamb and Shepherd, upon the Tree, the Ewe-lamb who gave Thee birth lamented and exclaimed to Thee maternally: “O my beloved Son, how is it that Thou hast been suspended upon the tree of the Cross, O Long-suffering One? How have Thy hands and feet been nailed by the iniquitous, O Word? How hast Thou shed Thy blood, O Master?”
In thee, O mother, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved; for, taking up thy cross, thou didst follow after Christ; and, praying, thou didst learn to disdain the flesh in that it passeth away, but to take care of the soul as a thing immortal. Wherefore, thy soul rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable Pelagia.
On “Lord, I have cried...,” we chant 10 stichera: 4 from the Octoechos, i.e., 3 to the Resurrection and one of those composed by Anatolius; and 6 stichera to the holy fathers, in Tone VI: Spec. Mel: “The despairing...” —
The Patriarch Germanus the New, taking the honored councils of the fathers, brought them together in one single canon, recording and holding their dogmas; and these valorous intercessors for salvation doth he present to the Lord, and to the flock and its pastors. Twice
The Scriptures of the law appointed the honored number seven for the Hebrew children, who wait in shadow and serve it; whilst the fathers who, at the command of God Who created all that exists in six days and blessed the seventh, met at the sevenfold Councils, have made it most honorable.
O thrice-blessed fathers! Using material things ye clearly taught unto all the Trinity, Who is the Cause of the world’s creation; for, as champions of Orthodox discourse, whose most mystical words compared seven councils as like unto the four elements, ye have made clear the doctrine of the Trinity, Who hath created these things and fashioned the world.
A single bending of the greatly renowned Prophet Elisha over the prone son of the woman who had rendered him service was sufficient to breathe life into him; yet he returned and bent over him seven times, proclaiming beforehand, as a seer of things to come, your Councils, whereby ye have brought to life the mortality of God the Word, slaying Arius and those who labored with him.
Who hath rent Thy garment, O Savior? It was Arius, Thou hast said, who separated the Trinity’s authority of equal honor into divisions. He hath denied that Thou art One of the Trinity. He hath taught Nestorius not to say “Theotokos.” But the Council in Nicæa hath proclaimed Thee, O Lord, to be the Son of God, equally enthroned with the Father and the Spirit.
This day let us praise the God-bearing fathers as clarions of the Spirit, which sound forth within the Church the melodious hymn of theology, that the Trinity is One and immutable in essence and divinity. They have cast down the Arians, are the champions of the Orthodox, who ever beseech the Lord to have mercy on our souls.
After the Entrance, the Prokimenon of the day, and three readings:
Abram, having heard that Lot, his nephew, had been taken captive, numbered his own home-born servants, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued after them to Dan. And he came upon them by night, he and his servants; and he smote them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is on the left of Damascus. And he recovered all the cavalry of Sodom, and he recovered Lot, his nephew, and all his possessions, and the women and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after he returned from the slaughter of Chedorla-omer, and the kings with him, to the valley of Shaveh (this was the plain of the kings). And Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth loaves and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed Abram, and said: “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Who made heaven and earth; and blessed be the Most High God Who delivered thine enemies into thy power.” And Abram gave him the tithe of all.
In those days, Moses said to the children of Israel: “Behold, God hath delivered the land before you. Go in and inherit the land, which He promised to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give it to them and to their seed after them. And I spoke to you at that time, saying: I shall not be able by myself to bear you. The Lord your God hath multiplied you; and, behold, ye are today as the stars of heaven in multitude. The Lord God of your fathers add to you a thousandfold more than you are, and bless you as He hath said to you. How shall I alone be able to bear your labor, and your burden, and your gainsayings? Take to yourselves wise men for your tribes, and I will set your leaders over you. And ye answered me, and said: ‘The thing which thou hast told us is good to do.’ So I took of you wise and understanding and prudent men, and I set them to rule over you as rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and officers to your judges. And I charged your judges at that time, saying: Hear causes between your brethren, and judge rightly between a man and his brother, and the stranger who is with him. Thou shalt not have respect to persons in judgment, thou shalt judge small and great equally; thou shalt not shrink from before the person of a man, for the judgment is God’s.
In those days, Moses said to the children of Israel: “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord thy God, the earth and all things that are therein. Only the Lord chose your fathers to love them, and He chose out their seed after them, even you, beyond all nations, as at this day. Therefore, ye shall circumcise the hardness of your heart, and ye shall not harden your neck. For the Lord your God, He is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, and strong, and terrible God, Who doth not accept persons, nor will He by any means accept a bribe: executing judgment for the stranger and orphan and widow. And as He loveth the stranger, to give him food and raiment, so shall ye love the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, and shalt cleave unto Him, and shalt swear by His name. He is thy boast, and He is thy God, Who hath wrought in the midst of thee these great and glorious things, which thine eyes have seen.
At the Litia, the sticheron of the temple, and then:
O holy fathers, ye were careful preservers of the Tradition of the apostles, for, having taught in Orthodox manner the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity, in council ye cast down the blasphemy of Arius; and having denounced both him and Macedonius, who contended against the Spirit, ye condemned Nestorius, Eutyches and Dioscorus, Sabellius and the mindless Severus. Pray ye that our life may be kept undefiled in the Faith, we beseech you.
Through the divine Spirit, by the will of the Father, without seed thou didst conceive the Son of God Who hath existed without mother from before the ages, and for our sake thou gavest birth in the flesh unto Him Who came forth from thee without father; and thou didst nurture Him on milk as a babe. Wherefore, cease not to pray, that our souls be delivered from tribulations.
Translated by Isaac Lambertsen. Edition menaion.en.lambertsen.