Saturday Nov. 2/15 ns • Holy Martyrs Akíndynos, Elpidephóros, Anempódistos, Pegásios, and Aphthónios of Persia ~ II Cor. 8:1-5; St. Luke 9:1-6

S A T U R D A Y
November 2 / 15 ns 2025

Holy Martyrs Akíndynos, Elpidephóros, Anempódistos, Pegásios, and Aphthónios of Persia

The holy martyrs Akíndynos, Elpidephóros, Anempódistos, Pegásios, and Aphthónios were all Christians from Persia and suffered during the reign of King Sapor in the year 355. The first three were servants at the court of this same king but secretly served Christ their Lord. When they were accused and brought to trial before the king, he asked them where they came from. To this they replied: "Our fatherland and our life is the Most-holy Trinity, one in Essence and undivided, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God.'' The king subjected them to cruel tortures but they endured all heroically, with psalmody and prayer on their lips. 

During the time of their torture and imprisonment angels of God appeared to them many times, and one time the Lord Christ Himself appeared to them as a man "with a face radiant as the sun.'' When one of the torturers, Aphthónios, beheld a miracle, when boiling lead did no harm to the martyrs, he believed in Christ and cried out: "Great is the Christian God!'' For this, he was immediately beheaded, and many others saw and believed. 

Then the king ordered that Akíndynos, Pegásios and Anempódistos be sewn into animal skins and cast into the sea. But St. Aphthónios appeared from the other world with three shining angels, and led the holy martyrs to dry land and set them free. 

Elpidephóros was one of the king's nobles. When he revealed that he was a Christian and denounced the king for his slaughter of innocent Christians, the king condemned him to death and Elpidephóros was beheaded along with seven thousand other Christians. Then those first three martyrs [Akíndynos, Pegásios and Anempódistos] were finally thrown into a burning furnace along with twenty-eight soldiers and the king's mother, since they also believed in Christ-and thus, in the flames, they gave up their righteous souls into the hands of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 8:1-5

King James Version

8 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;

4 Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

Saint Luke 9:1-6

King James Version

9 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.

5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.

THE CONSCIENCE

St. Makarios of Corinth

FROM THE PHILOKALIA

Let us stand firm in the fear of God, rigorously practicing the virtues and not giving our conscience cause to stumble. In the fear of God let us keep our attention fixed within ourselves, until our conscience achieves its freedom. Then there will be a union between it and us, and thereafter it will be our guardian, showing us each thing that we must uproot. But if we do not obey our conscience, it will abandon us and we shall fall into the hands of our enemies, who will never let us go. This is what our Lord taught us when He said: 'Come to an agreement with your adversary quickly while you are with him in the road, lest he hand you over to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer and you are cast into prison (St. Matt. 5:25). The conscience is called an 'adversary' because it opposes us when we wish to carry out the desires of our flesh; and if we do not listen to our conscience, it delivers us into the hands of our enemies.

M O R E

from

St Hesychios!

He who does not know the truth cannot truly have faith; for by nature knowledge precedes faith. What is said in Scripture is said not solely for us to understand, but also for us to act upon.

We should therefore set about our task, for by doing so and advancing steadily we will find that hope in God, sure faith, inner knowledge, release from temptations, gifts of grace, heart-felt confession and prolonged tears come to the faithful through prayer. For not only these blessings, but the patient acceptance of affliction, sincere forgiveness of our neighbor, knowledge of the spiritual law, the discovery of God's justice, frequent visitations of the Holy Spirit, the giving of spiritual treasures and all that God has promised to bestow to men of faith now and in the future age - in short, the manifestation of the soul in accordance with the image of God — can come only through God's grace and man's faith when, he guards his mind with great humility and undistracted prayer.

We have learned from experience that for one who wishes to purify his heart it is a truly great blessing constantly to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus against his intelligible enemies. Notice how what I speak of from experience concurs with the testimony of Scripture. It is written: 'Prepare yourself, O Israel, to call upon the name of the Lord your God' (cf Amos 4:12. LXX): and the Apostle says: 'Pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. 5:17). Our Lord Himself says: 'Without Me you can do nothing. If a man dwells in Me, and I in him, then he brings forth much fruit'; and agam: 'If a man does not dwell in Me, he is cast out as a branch' (St John 15:5-6). Prayer is a great blessing, and it embraces all blessings, for it purifies the heart, in which God is seen by the believer. Because humility is by nature something that exalts, something loved by God which destroys in us almost all that is evil and hateful to Him, for this reason it is difficult to attain. Even if you can easily find someone who to some extent practices a number of virtues, you will hardly find the odor of humility in him, however you search for it. It is something that can be acquired only with much diligence.

Indeed, Scripture refers to the devil as 'unclean' because from the beginning he rejected humility and espoused arrogance. As a result he is called an unclean spirit throughout the Scriptures. For what bodily uncleanliness could one who is completely without body, fleshless and weightless, bring about in himself so as to be called 'unclean' as a result? Clearly he was called unclean because of his arrogance, defiling himself thus after having been a pure and radiant angel. 'Everyone that is arrogant is unclean before the Lord' (Prov. 16:5. LXX), for it is written that the first sin was arrogance (cf. Ecclus. 10:13). And it was in arrogance that Pharaoh said: 'I, do not know the Lord, neither will I let Israel go' (Exod. 5:2).

If we are concerned with our salvation, there are many things the intellect can do in order to secure for us the blessed gift of humility. For example, it can recollect the sins we have committed in word, action and thought; and there are many other things which, reviewed in contemplation, contribute to our humility. True humility is also brought about by meditating daily on the achievements of our brethren, by extolling their natural superiorities and by comparing our gifts with theirs. When the intellect sees in this way how worthless we are and how far we fall short of the perfection of our brethren, we will regard ourselves as dust and ashes, and not as men but as some kmd of cur, more defective in every respect and lower than all men on earth.