Afterfeast of the Dormition. Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy
9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST—Tone 8
Afterfeast of the Dormition. Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy.
Martyr Bassa of Edessa.
Divine Liturgy of St. JohnChrysostom
Resurrectional Troparion, Tone 8
Thou didst descend from on high, O Merciful One! Thou didst accept the three-day burial to free us from our sufferings! O Lord, our Life and Resurrection: glory to Thee!
Troparion, Tone 1 (Dormition)
In giving birth you preserved your virginity! In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death.
Troparion, Tone 1 (St.Mark)
O blessed Mark, O voice of God. As an apostle of Christ you were taught by the chief apostle Peter – like the sun you brought light to the nations, enrichment of Alexandria. Liberator of Egypt from pagan delusions, as a pillar of light to the church you enlightened all by your evangelical teachings. Therefore we honor your memory with great festivity, pray to God the giver of the gospel that He will grant the forgiveness of sins.
Troparion, Tone 3 (Apostle Thaddeus)
Holy Apostle Thaddeus entreat the merciful God to grant our souls forgiveness of transgressions.
Resurrectional Kontakion, Tone 8
By rising from the tomb, Thou didst raise the dead and resurrect Adam. Eve exults in Thy Resurrection, and the world celebrates Thy Rising from the dead, O greatly Merciful One!
Kontakion, Tone 2 (St. Mark)
You received the grace of the Spirit from above most glorious Mark! And destroyed rhetorical snares, O Apostle. You captured all nations bringing them to your Master by the preaching of the Divine Gospel.
Kontakion, Tone 4 (Apostle Thaddeus)
The Church sees you as a shining star, Apostle Thaddeus, and is ever enlightened by your wonders. Save those who honor your memory in faith.
Kontakion, Tone 2 (Dormition)
Neither the tomb, nor death, could hold the Theotokos, who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions. For being the Mother of Life, she was translated to life by the One Who dwelt in her virginal womb.
THE EPISTLE READING
Priest:Peace be unto all!
Reader:And to your spirit!
Deacon:Wisdom!
Reader:The Prokeimenon in the 8th Tone. Pray and make your vows before the Lord our God!
Choir:Pray and make your vows before the Lord our God!
Reader:In Judah God is known; His name is great in Israel!
Choir:Pray and make your vows before the Lord our God!
Reader:And in the 3rd Tone: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
Choir:My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
Deacon:Wisdom!
Reader:The Reading from the First Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians.
Deacon:Let us attend!
Reader:Brothers and sisters in Christ, for we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. 10According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. 11For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw -- 13each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.[(128) 1 Corinthians 3-9:17 (RSV)]
Priest:Peace be unto you, reader.
Reader:And to your spirit. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, in the 8th Tone. Come; let us rejoice in the Lord! Let us make a joyful noise to God our Savior!
Choir:Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Reader:Let us come before His face with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise Him with songs of praise!
Choir:Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Reader:And in the 2nd Tone: Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark of Thy holiness.
Choir:Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
THE GOSPEL READING
22Then Jesus [He] made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. 23And after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, 24but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. 25And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. 26But when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out for fear. 27But immediately He spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”
28And Peter answered Him, “Lord, if it is You, bid me come to You on the water.” 29He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; 30but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”32And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshipped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” 34And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. [(59) Matthew 14:22-34 (RSV)]
Instead of “It is truly meet…” we sing:
The angels, as they looked upon the Dormition of the Virgin, were struck with wonder, seeing how the Virgin went up from earth to heaven!
The limits of nature are overcome in you, O Pure Virgin; for birthgiving remains virginal and life is united to death! A virgin after childbearing and alive after death! You ever save your inheritance, O Theotokos.
Communion Hymn
Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise Him in the highest! I will receive the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Today we commemorate the Afterfeast of the Dormition: The Church continues to honor the passage of the Most Holy Theotokos from death to life. Just as Christ once dwelt in the virginal womb of His Mother, now He takes Her “to dwell in His courts.”
The Saint we commemorate today: Saint Thaddeus, Apostle of the Seventy, was by descent a Hebrew, and he was born in the Syrian city of Edessa. The holy Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy must be distinguished from St Jude, also called Thaddeus or Levi (June 19), who was one of the Twelve Apostles.
When he came to Jerusalem for a feastday, he heard the preaching of John the Forerunner. After being baptized by him in the Jordan, he remained in Palestine. He saw the Savior, and became His follower. He was chosen by the Lord to be one of the Seventy Disciples, whom He sent by twos to preach in the cities and places where He intended to visit (Luke. 10: 1).
After the Ascension of the Savior to Heaven, St Thaddeus preached the good news in Syria and Mesopotamia. He came preaching the Gospel to Edessa and he converted King Abgar, the people and the pagan priests to Christ. He backed up his preaching with many miracles (about which Abgar wrote to the Assyrian emperor Nerses). He established priests there and built up the Edessa Church.
Prince Abgar wanted to reward St Thaddeus with rich gifts, but he refused and went preaching to other cities, converting many pagans to the Christian Faith. He went to the city of Beirut to preach, and he founded a church there. It was in this city that he peacefully died in the year 44. (The place of his death is indicated as Beirut in the Slavonic MENAION, but according to other sources he died in Edessa. According to an ancient Armenian tradition, St Thaddeus, after various tortures, was beheaded by the sword on December 21 in the Artaz region in the year 50).
The Martyr Bassa with her sons Theognis, Agapius and Pistus, lived in the city of Macedonian Edessa and she was married to a pagan priest. From childhood she had been raised in the Christian Faith, which she passed on to her sons.
During the reign of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), the husband denounced his wife and children to the governor. In spite of threats, the boys refused to offer sacrifice to idols, so they were tortured and put to death.
St Bassa was thrown into prison and was weakened by hunger, but an angel strengthened her with heavenly food. Under successive tortures she remained unharmed by fire, water and beasts. When they brought her to a pagan temple, she shattered the statue of Zeus. Then they threw the martyr into a whirlpool in the sea. But to everyone’s surprise a ship sailed up, and three radiant men pulled her up (St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (July 14) suggests that these were her children, martyred earlier). After eight days St Bassa came by ship to the governor of the island of Alona, not far from Cyzicus, in the Propontis or Sea of Marmora. After beating her with rods, they beheaded her.
By the year 450 there was already a church in honor of the holy martyr Bassa at Chalcedon.
1