Mark 16.1-8 (2nd Matins Gospel)

1I pošto proðe subota, Marija Magdalina i Marija Jakovljeva i Solomija kupiše mirisa da doðu i da pomažu Isusa. 2I vrlo rano u prvi dan nedjelje doðoše na grob oko sunèanoga roðaja. 3I govorahu meðu sobom: ko æe nam odvaliti kamen od vrata grobnijeh? 4I pogledavši vidješe da kamen bješe odvaljen: jer bješe vrlo veliki. 5I ušavši u grob vidješe mladiæa obuèena u bijelu haljinu gdje sjedi s desne strane; i uplašiše se. 6A on im reèe: ne plašite se, Isusa tražite Nazareæanina raspetoga; usta, nije ovdje, evo mjesto gdje ga metnuše. 7Nego idite kažite uèenicima njegovijem i Petru da pred vama otide u Galileju: tamo æete ga vidjeti, kao što vam reèe. 8I izišavši pobjegoše od groba; jer ih uhvati drhat i strah; i nikom ništa ne kazaše, jer se bojahu.

1 Corinthians 16.13-24 (Epistle)

13Pazite, stojte u vjeri, muški se držite, utvrðujte se. 14Sve da vam biva u ljubavi. 15Molim vas pak, braæo, znate dom Stefanin da je novina od Ahaje, i na služenje svetima odredi se; 16Da ste i vi pokorni takovima, i svakome koji pomaže i trudi se. 17Ali se obradovah dolasku Stefaninu i Fortunatovu i Ahajikovu, jer mi oni naknadiše što sam bio bez vas; 18Jer umiriše duh moj i vaš. Pripoznajte dakle takove. 19Pozdravljaju vas crkve Azijske. Pozdravljaju vas u Gospodu mnogo Akila i Priskila s domašnjom svojom crkvom. 20Pozdravljaju vas braæa sva. Pozdravite jedan drugoga cjelivom svetijem. 21Pozdravljam vas ja Pavle svojom rukom. 22Ako ko ne ljubi Gospoda Isusa Hrista da bude proklet, maran ata. 23Blagodat Gospoda našega Isusa Hrista s vama; 24I ljubav moja sa svima vama u Hristu Isusu. Amin.

Matthew 21.33-42 (Gospel)

33Drugu prièu èujte: bijaše èovjek domaæin koji posadi vinograd, i ogradi ga plotom, i iskopa u njemu pivnicu, i naèini kulu, i dade ga vinogradarima, i otide. 34A kad se približi vrijeme rodovima, posla sluge svoje k vinogradarima da prime rodove njegove. 35I vinogradari pohvatavši sluge njegove jednoga izbiše, a jednoga ubiše, a jednoga zasuše kamenjem. 36Opet posla druge sluge, više nego prije, i uèiniše im tako isto. 37A potom posla k njima sina svojega govoreæi: postidjeæe se sina mojega. 38A vinogradari vidjevši sina rekoše meðu sobom: ovo je našljednik; hodite da ga ubijemo, i da nama ostane dostojanje njegovo. 39I uhvatiše ga, pa izvedoše napolje iz vinograda, i ubiše. 40Kad doðe dakle gospodar od vinograda šta æe uèiniti vinogradarima onijem? 41Rekoše mu: zloèince æe zlom smrti pomoriti; a vinograd daæe drugijem vinogradarima, koji æe mu davati rodove u svoje vrijeme. 42Reèe im Isus: zar nijeste nikad èitali u pismu: kamen koji odbaciše zidari, onaj posta glava od ugla; to bi od Gospoda i divno je u vašijem oèima.

Commemoration of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae (Chonae) (4th c.)

In Colossae in Phrygia there were a church and a holy spring dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Malicious pagans diverted the course of two rivers so that they would inundate the church. But the Archangel appeared, bringing with him an earthquake that shook the whole area and opened a fissure into which the waters plunged, sparing the church. The place was thereafter called “Chonae” Greek for “funnels” instead of Colossae.

Holy Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elizabeth (1st c.), parents of St John the Forerunner.

The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Several of the Fathers say that Zacharias is the one who, the Lord said, was slain between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35); because he continued to call the Mary the Mother of God a virgin even after she bore Christ; and because his son had escaped the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod. St Elizabeth had hidden him in a cave in the desert; he remained in the wilderness from that time until he began to preach by the Jordan.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the “Unia,” by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim’s farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the “Greek Catholic” training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there.

When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying “Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!” But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of “Greek Catholic” priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities).

Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim’s labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism.

In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said “My only politics is the Gospel” — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands.

Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim’s grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.