Mark 16.9-20 (3rd Matins Gospel)

9A Isus ustavši rano u prvi dan nedjelje javi se najprije Mariji Magdalini, iz koje je istjerao sedam ðavola. 10A ona otide te javi onima što su bili s njim, koji plakahu i ridahu. 11I oni èuvši da je živ i da ga je ona vidjela ne vjerovaše. 12A potom javi se na putu dvojici od njih u drugome oblièju, kad su išli u selo. 13I oni otišavši javiše ostalima; i ni njima ne vjerovaše. 14A najposlije javi se kad njih jedanaestorica bijahu za trpezom, i prekori ih za njihovo nevjerje i tvrðu srca što ne vjerovaše onima koji su ga vidjeli da je ustao; 15I reèe im: idite po svemu svijetu i propovjedite jevanðelje svakome stvorenju. 16Koji uzvjeruje i pokrsti se, spašæe se; a ko ne vjeruje osudiæe se. 17A znaci onima koji vjeruju biæe ovi: imenom mojijem izgoniæe ðavole; govoriæe novijem jezicima; 18Uzimaæe zmije u ruke, ako i smrtno što popiju, neæe im nauditi; na bolesnike metaæe ruke, i ozdravljaæe. 19A Gospod pošto im izgovori uze se na nebo, i sjede Bogu s desne strane. 20A oni iziðoše i propovijedaše svuda, i Gospod ih potpomaga, i rijeè potvrðiva znacima koji su se potom pokazivali. Amin.

1 Corinthians 8.8-9.2 (Epistle)

8Ali jelo nas ne postavlja pred Bogom: jer niti æemo biti veæi ako jedemo, ni manji ako ne jedemo. 9Ali se èuvajte da kako ova sloboda vaša ne postane spoticanje slabima. 10Jer ako tebe, koji imaš razum, vidi ko u idolskoj crkvi gdje sjediš za trpezom, neæe li njegova savjest, slaba buduæi, osloboditi se da jede idolske žrtve? 11I s tvoga razuma poginuæe slabi brat, za kojega Hristos umrije. 12Tako kad se griješite o braæu, i bijete njihovu slabu savjest, o Hrista se griješite. 13Zato ako jelo sablažnjava brata mojega, neæu jesti mesa dovijeka, da ne sablaznim brata svojega.

1Nijesam li ja apostol? Nijesam li sam svoj? Ne vidjeh li ja Isusa Hrista, Gospoda našega? Nijeste li vi djelo moje u Gospodu? 2Ako drugima i nijesam apostol, ali vama jesam, jer ste vi peèat mojega apostolstva u Gospodu.

Matthew 25.31-46 (Gospel)

31A kad doðe sin èovjeèij u slavi svojoj i svi sveti anðeli s njime, onda æe sjesti na prijestolu slave svoje. 32I sabraæe se pred njim svi narodi, i razluèiæe ih izmeðu sebe kao pastir što razluèuje ovce od jaraca. 33I postaviæe ovce s desne strane sebi, a jarce s lijeve. 34Tada æe reæi car onima što mu stoje s desne strane: hodite blagosloveni oca mojega; primite carstvo koje vam je pripravljeno od postanja svijeta. 35Jer ogladnjeh, i daste mi da jedem; ožednjeh, i napojiste me; gost bijah, i primiste me; 36Go bijah, i odjenuste me; bolestan bijah, i obiðoste me; u tamnici bijah, i doðoste k meni. 37Tada æe mu odgovoriti pravednici govoreæi: Gospode! kad te vidjesmo gladna, i nahranismo? ili žedna, i napojismo? 38Kad li te vidjesmo gosta, i primismo? ili gola, i odjenusmo? 39Kad li te vidjesmo bolesna ili u tamnici, i doðosmo k tebi? 40I odgovarajuæi car reæi æe im: zaista vam kažem: kad uèiniste jednome od ove moje najmanje braæe, meni uèiniste. 41Tada æe reæi i onima što mu stoje s lijeve strane: idite od mene prokleti u oganj vjeèni pripravljeni ðavolu i anðelima njegovijem. 42Jer ogladnjeh, i ne dadoste mi da jedem; ožednjeh, i ne napojiste me; 43Gost bijah, i ne primiste me; go bijah, i ne odjenuste me; bolestan i u tamnici bijah, i ne obiðoste me. 44Tada æe mu odgovoriti i oni govoreæi: Gospode! kad te vidjesmo gladna ili žedna, ili gosta ili gola, ili bolesna ili u tamnici, i ne poslužismo te? 45Tada æe im odgovoriti govoreæi: zaista vam kažem: kad ne uèiniste jednome od ove moje male braæe, ni meni ne uèiniste. 46I ovi æe otiæi u muku vjeènu, a pravednici u život vjeèni.

Holy Apostle Onesimos (ca. 109)

He was a Phrygian by birth, a slave of Philemon, to whom the Apostle Paul addressed his epistle. Onesimos escaped from Philemon and fled to Rome, where he was converted to the Faith by St Paul. St Paul sent him back to his master, who at St Paul’s urging gave him his freedom. He served the Church for many years before dying a martyr, beaten to death with clubs.

Saint Onesimos is also commemorated on November 22, with Sts Philemon, Archippus and Aphia; and on January 4 at the Synaxis of the Seventy Disciples.

Our Venerable Father Dalmatius of Siberia (1697)

Saint Dalmatius is venerated as a pioneer of the movement that took many ascetics to dwell in the wilderness of Siberia, establishing a new company of Desert Fathers and causing the Russian Far North to be called the ‘Northern Thebaid.’ He was born in Tobolsk and reared in piety by his family, recently-converted Tatars. When grown, he entered the imperial army as a Cossack and served with such distinction that the Tsar awarded him a noble title. He married and lived in Tobolsk in comfort and prosperity. One day — after the destruction of Tobolsk in a great fire in 1643 — struck by a realization of the vanity of worldly things, he left family, wealth and property and went to a monastery in the Ural Mountains, taking with him only an icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

He was tonsured a monk with the name of Dalmatius, and devoted himself to prayer and ascesis with such fervor that, a short time later, the brethren elected him Abbot. Fearing pride and fleeing honor, Dalmatius fled with his icon of the Theotokos to a remote cave, where he lived a life of silence and continual prayer. His presence did not long remain secret in that sparsely-settled region, and soon Christians were coming from far and wide to ask his prayer and counsel; many pagans came to him for holy Baptism. Soon his habitation became too small for those who had chosen to stay as his disciples, and the Saint received a blessing from the Bishop of Tobolsk to build a wooden chapel and some cells. This was the beginning of the great Monastery of the Dormition (also called the Monastery of St Dalmatius).

Over the years the brethren endured many tribulations. Once the Tatar Prince of the region, provoked by false rumors, planned to destroy the monastery and kill all the monks. The night before the attack, the holy Mother of God appeared to the prince in resplendent clothes, holding a flaming sword in one hand and a scourge in the other. She forbade the Prince to harm the monastery or the brethren, and commanded him to give them a permanent concession over the region. Convinced by this vision, the Prince made peace with the monks and became the Monastery’s protector, though he was a Muslim.

In the succeeding years the Monastery was repeatedly burned down by the fierce pagan tribes which inhabited the area; once all the monks except St Dalmatius himself were butchered, but always the monastery was rebuilt. The Saint reposed in peace in 1697, and was succeeded as abbot by his own son Isaac, who built a stone shrine at the Monastery to house the relics of the Saint and the icon of the Mother of God which he had kept with him throughout his monastic life.

Our Venerable Father Anthimos of Chios (1960)

He was born in 1869 to devout peasants on Chios; he left elementary school early to become a shoemender. At the age of nineteen he visited a monastery (founded by the monk Pachomios, who had been the spiritual counsellor of St Nektarios); he was so moved by the monks’ ‘angelic life’ that on returning home he built himself a small hut and dwelt in it. His only ‘help’ in his spiritual contests was an icon of the Mother of God, which soon began to work miracles, drawing many to his hermitage. After a time he retired to a monastery where he was tonsured under the name Anthimos. He fell ill there, and his abbot sent him home to his parents for the sake of his health. At home, despite the fact that he was caring for his aged parents and practicing his shoemender’s trade, he continued to live as a monk, spending nights on end in prayer and sometimes living only on bread and water for extended periods.

Increasing numbers of visitors came to his hermitage and wonder-working icon of the Theotokos, and in 1910 he received the Great Schema. The people of Chios wanted him to be ordained to the priesthood, but his bishop refused due to the Saint’s lack of education. At the prompting of Anthimos’ godfather, the Bishop of Smyrna ordained him instead. After a pilgrimage to Mt Athos, he returned to Chios, where he became chaplain to a leper hospital. Soon the hospital, which had fallen into corruption, became a spiritual center, as much like a monastery as a hospital. Saint Anthimos tended many of the sickest with his own hands, working many miracles of healing; some of his recovered patients became monks or nuns.

With the notorious ‘Exchange of Populations’ of 1922-1924, refugees poured into Chios, many of them destitute nuns and girls. In response to a vision of the Mother of God, St Anthimos built a monastery, which opened with thirty nuns and grew rapidly, despite the opposition of many who said that setting up such a community was out of date (in 1924!). The monastery soon housed eighty nuns and was known througout Greece as a model of monastic life. Father Anthimos served as priest to the nuns, and continued to receive the many faithful — often sixty or seventy per day — who came to him for prayer or counsel. He carried on this ministry for more than thirty years, working many miracles of healing. When he was too old to work with his hands, he retired to his cell and prayed that he be enabled to serve his neighbor until his last breath. He reposed in peace at the age of ninety-one, mourned and revered by the whole island of Chios.