Saints for Today

Sunday May 16, 2021 / May 3, 2021

Third Sunday of Pascha: The Myrrh-bearing Women. Tone two.

Sts. Myrrh-Bearing Women, righteous Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (celebration on the 3rd Sunday of Pascha).
Right-believing Tamara, Queen of Georgia (movable holiday on the Sunday of Myrrh-Bearing Women).
Sts. Mary and Martha, sisters of St. Lazarus (1st c.) (movable holiday on the Sunday of Myrrh-Bearing Women).
All Saints of Thessalonica (celebration on the 3rd Sunday of Pascha) (Greek).
New Hieromartyr Seraphim, archbishop of Phanarion and Neochorion (celebration on the 3rd Sunday of Pascha) (Greek).
New Monk-martyr Elias (Ardunis) of Mt. Athos and Kalamata (1688) (celebration on the 3rd Sunday of Pascha) (Greek).
New Martyr Demetrius of Peloponnesus (1803) (celebration on the 3rd Sunday of Pascha) (Greek).
Martyrs Timothy the Reader and his wife Maura of Antinoe in Egypt (286).
Venerable Theodosius, abbot of the Kiev Caves Monastery and founder of cenobitic monasticism in Russia (1074).
Venerable Peter the Wonderworker, bishop of Argos (10th c.).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas priest (1941).
Venerables Juliana (1393) and Eupraxia (1394) of Moscow.
St. Theophanes of Vatopedi, metropolitan of Peritheorion (14th c.).
Translation of the Dormition Icon of the Mother of God from Constantinople to the Kiev-Pechersk Far Caves (1073).
Pechersk Not-Wrought-by-Hand (1085), “Pechersk” (with Sts. Anthony and Theodosius) (1085), “Sven-Caves” (1288), “Yaskinsky” and Vlakhernsky” Icons of the Mother of God
St. Ansfried, bishop of Utrecht (1010).
Venerable Ecumenius the Wonderworker, bishop of Tricca (Greek).
Translation of the relics of Venerable Luke of Mt. Stirion (Greek).
New Martyr Ahmet the Calligrapher of Constantinople (Greek).
New Martyr Mary of Crete. (Greek).
St. Mamai, Catholicos of Georgia (744) (Georgia).
Venerable Fathers Michael and Arsenius the Georgians (9th c.) (Georgia).
Martyr Paul of Vilnius, Lithuania (17th c.).
Great-martyr Xenia the Wonderworker of Peloponnesus.
St. Glywys of Corwall.

Troparion

Sunday of Myrrhbearing Women. Troparion. Tone II —
When Thou, the Deathless Life, didst go down to death, then didst Thou slay hell by the lightning flash of Thy Divinity. And when Thou didst raise the dead from the lower world, all the Powers of Heaven cried aloud: Christ our God, Giver of Life, glory to Thee.

Noble Joseph took Thy immaculate Body down from the Tree, wrapped It in a clean shroud and spices, and having embalmed It laid It in a new sepulchre. But on the third day Thou didst rise, O Lord, granting to the world great mercy.

To the myrrbearing women at the sepulchre an Angel appeared and cried: Myrrh is fit for the dead, but Christ has shown Himself a Stranger to corruption. So cry: The Lord has risen, granting to the world great mercy.

Kontakion, Tone II —
Thou didst command the Myrrbearers to rejoice, O Christ our God, Thou didst dry the tears of our first mother Eve by Thy Resurrection, and Thou didst command the Apostles to preach: The Saviour has risen from the tomb.

Troparion of the Sunday, Tone II —
When Thou didst descend to death, O Life immortal, / Thou didst slay hell with the splendor of Thy Godhead! / And when from the depths Thou didst raise the dead, / all the powers of heaven cried out: / O Giver of life, Christ our God, glory to Thee!

Hymn to the Theotokos, Tone II —
All beyond thought, all most glorious, / are your mysteries, O Theotokos. / Sealed in purity, preserved in virginity, / you were revealed to be the true Mother who gave birth to the true God. / Entreat Him to save our souls.

Kontakion of the Sunday, Tone II —
Hell became afraid, O Almighty Savior, / seeing the miracle of Thy Resurrection from the tomb! / The dead arose! Creation, with Adam, beheld this and rejoiced with Thee! / And the world, O my Savior, praises Thee forever.

Holy Martyrs Timothy & Maura, Troparion, in Tone IV —
In their sufferings, O Lord,/ Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God;/ for, possessed of Thy might,/ they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons.// By their supplications save Thou our souls.

Kontakion, Tone IV, “Having been lifted up…” —
Having endured multifarious wounds/ and received crowns from God,/ pray ye to the Lord in behalf of us who celebrate your most sacred memory,/ O Timothy all-great and all-glorious Maura,/ that He grant peace to our city and people;// for He is the confirmation of the faithful.

St. Theodosius, abbot of the Kiev Caves Monastery, Troparion, in Tone VIII —
Exalted in virtue, having loved the monas­tic life from childhood, and valiantly attained thy desire, thou didst dwell within a cave; and having adorned thy life with asceticism and splendor, like one of the incorporeal beings thou didst abide in prayer, shining like a radiant beacon in the Russian land. O father Theodosius, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.

Kontakion of the venerable one, in Tone III, “Today the Virgin…” —
We honor today the blessed Theodosius, the star of Russia, who shone forth from the East and arrived in the West; for he hath enriched this whole land and all of us with miracles and goodness by the implementation and grace of the monastic rule.