July sees four Sunday services and four midweek services. We will mark the Dormation of St Anna, mother of the Theotokos and Panteleimon the Great Martyr & Healer amongst others.
| Day | Date | Start | End | Details | Also Celebrated | Gospels | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | 5th | 9.00 | 12.30 | Matins & Divine Liturgy – 5th Sunday of Matthew | Luke 24:12-35, Galatians 5:22-26;6:1-2, Matthew 8:28-34; 9:1 | ||
| Tuesday | 7th | 9.00 | 11.30 | Divine Liturgy – Kyriake the Great Martyr | Galatians 3:23-29;4:1-5, Mark 5:24-34 | ||
| Sunday | 12th | 9.00 | 12.30 | Matins & Divine Liturgy – 6th Sunday of Matthew. | Euphemia the Great Martyr (Saints Day 11th) | Luke 24:36-53, Romans 12:6-14, Matthew 9:1-8 | |
| Friday | 17th | 9.00 | 11.30 | Divine Liturgy – Marina (Margaret) the Holy Great Martyr | Galatians 3:23-29;4:1-5, Mark 5:24-34 | ||
| Sunday | 19th | 9.00 | 12.30 | Matins & Divine Liturgy – Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council | John 20:1-10, Titus 3:8-15, Matthew 5:14-19 | ||
| Monday | 20th | 9.00 | 11.30 | Divine Liturgy – Glorious Prophet Elias (Elijah) | James 5:10-20, Luke 4:22-30 | ||
| Sunday | 26th | 9.00 | 12.30 | Matins & Divine Liturgy – Paraskevi the Great Martyr. | Dormition of St. Anna, mother of the Theotokos (Saints Day 25th) | Galatians 3:23-29;4:1-5, Matthew 14:14-22 | |
| Monday | 27th | 9.00 | 11.30 | Divine Liturgy – Panteleimon the Great Martyr & Healer | Luke 21:12-19, II Timothy 2:1-10, John 15:17-27; 16:1-2 | ||
Kyriake the Great Martyr
Saint Kyriake was the daughter of Christian parents, Dorotheus and Eusebia. She was given her name because she was born on Sunday, the day of the Lord (in Greek, Kyriake). She contested in Nicomedia during the reign of Diocletian, in the year 300. After many bitter torments she was condemned to suffer beheading, but being granted time to pray first, she made her prayer and gave up her holy soul in peace.
Euphemia the Great Martyr
In 451, during the reign of the Sovereigns Marcian and Pulcheria, the Fourth Ecumenical Council was convoked in Chalcedon against Eutyches and those of like mind with him.
After much debate, the Fathers who were the defenders of Orthodoxy, being 630 in number, agreed among themselves and with those who were of contrary mind, to write their respective definitions of faith in separate books, and to ask God to confirm the truth in this matter.
When they had prepared these texts, they placed the two tomes in the case that held Saint Euphemia’s relics, sealed it, and departed. After three days of night-long supplications, they opened the reliquary in the presence of the Emperor, and found the tome of the heretics under the feet of the Martyr, and that of the Orthodox in her right hand.
Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council
On this Sunday we chant the Service to the 630 Holy and God-bearing Fathers who came together for the 4th Ecumenical Council who assembled in Chalcedon in 451, to condemn Eutyches, who taught that there was only one nature, the divine, in Christ after the Incarnation, and Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who illegally received Eutyches back into communion and deposed Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had excommunicated Eutyches.
In the Slavic tradition, on this Sunday, the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils are all commemorated.
Dormition of St. Anna, mother of the Theotokos
According to tradition, Anna, the ancestor of God, lived for sixty-nine years, and her spouse Joachim, for eighty; according to one account, Saint Joachim died two years before Saint Anna.
The Theotokos had been orphaned of both her parents already when she was eleven years of age, when she was living in the Temple. Saint Anna is invoked for conceiving children, and for help in difficult childbirth.
Panteleimon the Great Martyr & Healer
This Saint, who had Nicomedia as his homeland, was the son of Eustorgius and Eubula. His father was an idolater, but his mother was a Christian from her ancestors.
It was through her that he was instructed in piety, and still later, he was catechised in the Faith of Christ by Saint Hermolaus and baptised by him. Being proficient in the physician’s vocation, he practiced it in a philanthropic manner, healing every illness more by the grace of Christ than by medicines. Thus, although his parents had named him Pantoleon (“in all things a lion”), because of the compassion he showed for the souls and bodies of all, he was worthily renamed Panteleimon, meaning “all-merciful.”
On one occasion, when he restored the sight of a certain blind man by calling on the Divine Name, he enlightened also the eyes of this man’s soul to the knowledge of the truth. This also became the cause for the martyrdom of him who had been blind, since when he was asked by whom and in what manner his eyes had been opened, in imitation of that blind man of the Gospel he confessed with boldness both who the physician was and the manner of his healing.
For this he was put to death immediately. Panteleimon was arrested also, and having endured many wounds, he was finally beheaded in the year 305, during the reign of Maximian. Saint Panteleimon is one of the Holy Unmercenaries, and is held in special honor among them, even as Saint George is among the Martyrs.