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Great and Holy Saturday
Great and Holy Saturday is the day on which Christ reposed in the tomb. The Church calls this day the Blessed Sabbath.
"The great Moses mystically foreshadowed this day when he said:
God blessed the second day.
This is the blessed Sabbath
This is the day of rest,
on which the only-begotten Son of God rested from all His works…."
(Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Saturday)
By using this title the Church links Holy Saturday with the creative act of God. In the initial account of creation as found in the Book of Genesis, God made man in His own image and likeness. To be truly himself, man was to live in constant communion with the source and dynamic power of that image: God. Man fell from God. Now Christ, the Son of God through whom all things were created, has come to restore man to communion with God. He thereby completes creation. All things are again as they should be. His mission is consummated. On the Blessed Sabbath He rests from all His works.
THE TRANSITION
Holy Saturday is a neglected day in parish life. Few people attend the Services. Popular piety usually reduces Holy Week to one day - Holy Friday. This day is quickly replaced by another - Easter Sunday. Christ is dead and then suddenly alive. Great sorrow is suddenly replaced by great joy. In such a scheme Holy Saturday is lost.
In the understanding of the Church, sorrow is not replaced by joy; it is transformed into joy. This distinction indicates that it is precisely within death that Christ continues to effect triumph.
TRAMPLING DOWN DEATH BY DEATH
We sing that Christ is "...trampling down death by death" in the troparion of Easter. This phrase gives great meaning to Holy Saturday. Christ's repose in the tomb is an "active" repose. He comes in search of His fallen friend, Adam, who represents all men. Not finding him on earth, he descends to the realm of death, known as Hades in the Old Testament. There He finds him and brings him life once again. This is the victory: the dead are given life. The tomb is no longer a forsaken, lifeless place. By His death Christ tramples down death by death.
THE ICON OF THE DESCENT INTO HADES
The traditional icon used by the Church on the feast of Easter is an icon of Holy Saturday: the descent of Christ into Hades. It is a painting of theology, for no one has ever seen this event. It depicts Christ, radiant in hues of white and blue, standing on the shattered gates of Hades. With arms outstretched He is joining hands with Adam and all the other Old Testament righteous whom He has found there. He leads them from the kingdom of death. By His death He tramples death.
"Today Hades cries out groaning:
I should not have accepted the Man born of Mary.
He came and destroyed my power.
He shattered the gates of brass.
As God, He raised the souls I had held captive.
Glory to Thy cross and resurrection, O Lord!"
(Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Saturday)
THE VESPERAL LITURGY
The Vespers of Holy Saturday inaugurates the Paschal celebration, for the liturgical cycle of the day always begins in the evening. In the past, this service constituted the first part of the great Paschal vigil during which the catechumens were baptized in the "baptisterion" and led in procession back into the church for participation in their first Divine Liturgy, the Paschal Eucharist. Later, with the number of catechumens increasing, the first baptismal part of the Paschal celebration was disconnected from the liturgy of the Paschal night and formed our pre-paschal service: Vespers and the Liturgy of St Basil the Great which follows it. It still keeps the marks of the early celebration of Pascha as baptismal feast and that of Baptism as Paschal sacrament (death and resurrection with Jesus Christ - Romans 6).
On "Lord I Call" the Saturday Resurrectional stichiras of Tone 1 are sung, followed by the the special stichiras of Holy Saturday, which stress the death of Christ as descent into Hades, the region of death, for its destruction. But the pivotal point of the service occurs after the Entrance, when fifteen lessons from the Old Testament are read, all centered on the promise of the Resurrection, all glorifying the ultimate Victory of God, prophesied in the victorious Song of Moses after the crossing of the Red Sea ("Let us sing to the Lord, for gloriously has He been glorified"), the salvation of Jonah, and that of the three youths in the furnace.
Then the epistle is read, the same epistle that is still read at Baptism (Romans 6:3-11), in which Christ's death and resurrection become the source of the death in us of the "old man," the resurrection of the new, whose life is in the Risen Lord. During the special verses sung after the epistle, "Arise, O God, and judge the earth," the dark lenten vestments are put aside and the clergy vest in the bright white ones, so that when the celebrant appears with the Gospel the light of Resurrection is truly made visible in us, the "Rejoice" with which the Risen Christ greeted the women at the grave is experienced as being directed at us.
The Liturgy of St Basil continues in this white and joyful light, revealing the Tomb of Christ as the Life-giving Tomb, introducing us into the ultimate reality of Christ's Resurrection, communicating His life to us, the children of fallen Adam.
One can and must say that of all services of the Church that are inspiring, meaningful, revealing, this one: the Vespers and Liturgy of St Basil the Great and Holy Saturday is truly the liturgical climax of the Church. If one opens one's heart and mind to it and accepts its meaning and its light, the very truth of Orthodoxy is given by it, the taste and the joy of that new life which shines forth from the grave.
Rev. Alexander Schmemann |
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Venerable Nicetas the Confessor the Abbot of Medikion
Saint Nicetas the Confessor was born in Bithynian Caesarea (northwest Asia Minor) of a pious family. His mother died eight days after his birth, and his father Philaretos became a monk. The child remained in the care of his grandmother, who raised him in a true Christian spirit. From his youth St Nicetas attended church and was a disciple of the hermit Stephanos. With his blessing, St Nicetas set off to the Mydicia monastery, where St Nicephorus (March 13) was the igumen.
After seven years of virtuous life at the monastery, famed for its strict monastic rule, St Nicetas was ordained presbyter. St Nicephorus, knowing the holy life of the young monk, entrusted to him the guidance of the monastery when he himself became ill.
Not wanting power, St Nicetas devoted himself to the enlightenment and welfare of the monastery. He guided the brethren by his own example. Soon the fame of the lofty life of its inhabitants of the monastery attracted many seeking salvation. After several years, the number of monks had increased to one hundred.
When St Nicephorus departed to the Lord in his old age, the brethren unanimously chose St Nicetas as igumen.
The Lord granted St Nicetas the gift of wonderworking. Through his prayer a deaf-mute child received the gift of speech; two demon-possessed women were healed; he restored reason to one who had lost his mind, and many of the sick were healed of their infirmities.
During these years under the emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), the Iconoclast heresy resurfaced and oppression increased. Orthodox bishops were deposed and banished. At Constantinople a council of heretics was convened in 815, at which they deposed the holy Patriarch Nicephorus (806-815), and in his place they chose the heretical layman Theodotus. They also installed heretics in place of exiled and imprisoned Orthodox bishops.
The emperor summoned all the heads of the monasteries and tried to bring them over to the Iconoclast heresy. Among those summoned was St Nicetas, who stood firmly for the Orthodox confession. Following his example, all the igumens remained faithful to the veneration of holy icons. Therefore, they threw him into prison. St Nicetas bravely underwent all the tribulations and encouraged firmness of spirit in the other prisoners.
Then the emperor and the false patriarch Theodotus attempted to trick those who remained faithful to Orthodox teaching. They promised that the emperor would give them their freedom and permit the veneration of the icons on one condition: that they take Communion from the pseudo-patriarch Theodotus.
For a long time the saint had doubts about entering into communion with a heretic, but other prisoners begged him to go along with them. Acceding to their entreaties, St Nicetas went into the church, where icons were put out to deceive the confessors, and he accepted Communion.
But when he returned to his monastery and saw that the persecution against icons was continuing, he then repented of his deed, returned to Constantinople and fearlessly denounced the Iconoclast heresy. He ignored all the emperor's threats.
St Nicetas was again locked up in prison for six years until the death of the emperor Leo the Armenian. Enduring hunger and travail, St Nicetas worked miracles by the power of his prayers: through his prayer the Phrygian ruler released two captives without ransom; three shipwrecked men for whom St Nicetas prayed, were thrown up on shore by the waves.
St Nicetas reposed in the Lord in 824. The saint's body was buried at the monastery with reverence. Later, his relics became a source of healing for those coming to venerate the holy confessor. |
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Virginmartyr Theodosia of Tyre
Once, during a persecution against Christians, which had already lasted for five years, the seventeen-year-old St Theodosia visited condemned Christian prisoners in the Praetorium in Caesarea, Palestine. It was the day of Holy Pascha, and the martyrs spoke about the Kingdom of God. St Theodosia asked them to remember her before the Lord, when they should come to stand before Him.
Soldiers seized her and led her before the governor Urban after seeing the maiden bow to the prisoners. The governor advised her to offer sacrifice to the idols but she refused, confessing her faith in Christ. Then they subjected the saint to cruel tortures, raking her body with iron claws until her bones were exposed.
The martyr was silent and endured the sufferings with a happy face, and when the governor told her again to offer sacrifice to the idols she answered, "You fool, I have been granted to join the martyrs!" They threw the maiden with a stone about her neck into the sea, but angels rescued her. Then they threw the martyr to the wild beasts to be eaten by them. Seeing that the beasts would not touch her, they cut off her head.
By night St Theodosia appeared to her parents, who had tried to talk their daughter out of her intention to suffer for Christ. She was in bright garb with a crown upon her head and a luminous gold cross in her hand, and she said, "Behold the great glory of which you wanted to deprive me!"
The Holy Martyr Theodosia of Tyre suffered in the year 307. She is also commemorated on May 29 (the transfer of her relics to Constantinople, and later to Venice). |
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Martyr Irene
No information available at this time. |
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St Illyricus the Monk of Mt. Myrsinon in the Peloponnesus
Saint Illyricus the Wonderworker devoted himself to ascetic struggles on Mount Marsion in the Peloponessos. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. |
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Martyr Elpidephorus
The Holy Martyrs Elpidephorus, Dius, Bithonius, and Galycus suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ. They cut off the head of St Elpidephorus with a sword. |
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Martyr Dius
The Holy Martyrs Dius, Elpidephorus, Bithonius, and Galycus suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ. St Dius was executed by stoning. |
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Martyr Bithonius
The Holy Martyrs Bithonius, Elpidephorus, Dius, and Galycus suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ. St Bithonius was drowned in the sea. |
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Martyr Galycus
The Holy Martyrs Galycus, Elpidephorus, Dius, and Bithonius suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ. St Galycus was condemned to be eaten by wild beasts. |
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Icon of the Mother of God "the Unfading Bloom"
The "Unfading Bloom" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. On this icon the Most Holy Theotokos holds Her Divine Son upon Her right arm, and in Her left hand is a bouquet of white lilies. This bouquet symbolically signifies the unfading flower of virginity and spotlessness of the All-Pure Virgin, Whom the Church hymns: "Thou art the Root of virginity and the Unfading Blossom of purity." Copies of this icon were glorified at Moscow, Voronezh, and other places in Russia. |
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