1 Corinthians 6.20-7.12 (Epistle)

20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 3Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 4The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. 5Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. 6But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. 7For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

8I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. 9But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. 10And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. 12But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

Matthew 14.1-13 (Gospel)

1At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, 2And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.

3For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife. 4For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. 5And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. 6But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. 7Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. 8And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger. 9And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. 10And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. 11And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. 12And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

13When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.

Sts Isaac, Dalmatus and Faustus, ascetics of the Dalmatian Monastery, Constantinople (5th c.)

St Isaac is also commemorated May 30; see his life there. St Dalmatus was a soldier in the Imperial army, but along with his son Faustus left all to become a monk at the monastery founded by St Isaac. He was present at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431; there he labored zealously for the Orthodox faith against Patriarch Nestorius. He was made Archimandrite of all the monasteries in Constantinople, and reposed in peace, having lived for more than eighty years.

Holy Myrrh-bearer Salome

She was the mother of the Apostles James and John, the wife of Zebedee, and the daughter of Joseph the Betrothed, who was a widower when he became betrothed to the Mother of God. She was a disciple of the Lord and one of the Myrrh-bearing women who first brought tidings of the Resurrection to the world.

Our Holy Father Antony the Roman (1148)

He was born in Rome in 1086 to wealthy and pious parents. When the Roman Church broke away from the Orthodox around that time, those who continued to uphold Orthodoxy, Antony among them, were persecuted. Antony gave away his worldly possessions and fled to a small rocky island in the sea, where he spent fourteen months in asceticism. During this time, the island miraculously floated like a ship to Novgorod. There, Archbishop Nikita received the young monk and helped him to build a church to the holy Theotokos, which in time became a monastery. St Anthony served there as abbot for many years, reposing in peace in 1148.

Holy Martyr Razhden the Persian, Protomartyr of Georgia (457)

Razhden was of a noble Persian family, and a Zoroastrian. When the holy King Vakhtang Gorgasali of Georgia married Balendukht, the daughter of the Persian king Hormizd III, she took Razhden with her to Georgia. In Kartli he became a Christian, and King Vakhtang gave him an estate and made him a military adviser and commander. Angered that Vakhtang was a Christian, the Persian king Peroz (reigned 457–484) invaded Georgia with an enormous army, and Razhden fought bravely against him. Peroz ordered him taken captive. He was brought bound before the King, who greeted him with feigned tenderness and asked why he had turned from the faith of his fathers; and Razhden declared without fear that Christianity is the only true faith, and Christ the only true Saviour of mankind. Peroz had him beaten without mercy: his teeth were knocked out, he was dragged across jagged rocks, and he was cast into prison in heavy chains.

When the Georgian nobles heard of his sufferings, they came to Peroz and asked him to set Razhden free. Peroz released him on his vow to return. Razhden went to Mtskheta, took leave of his family and of King Vakhtang and, though those who loved him begged him not to, went back to Peroz. When he still would not return to the religion of his fathers, Peroz sent him to the Persian camp at Tsromi, in central Georgia, and secretly ordered its commander to make him renounce Christ or put him to death. To these appeals Razhden replied: “Your flattery and bribes are insulting to me. With joy I am prepared to endure every suffering for the sake of Christ!” The Persians condemned him with the words “If he hopes in the Crucified One, then he also is fit to suffer crucifixion!” They crucified him and shot him with arrows. His last words were “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit!” He died on the cross in 457. That night Christians took his body down from the cross and buried it in secret. Some years later King Vakhtang translated his relics from Tsromi to Nikozi and laid them in the cathedral he had built there, and he built churches in his honour at Ujarma and Samgori. He is the first martyr of the Church of Georgia. (Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze, The Lives of the Georgian Saints)