3 January Sunday
Old Style — 21 DecemberToday
Our Holy Father Macarius the Faster, Abbot of the Monastery of Khakhuli (XI)

This year's detailed calendar has not been published yet — these are calculated dates.
Commemorated — from the synaxarion
Tap a name to open the life
- Our Holy Father Macarius the Faster, Abbot of the Monastery of Khakhuli (XI)›
- Holy Martyrs Juliana and the Five Hundred Men and One Hundred and Thirty Women with Her, Martyred in Nicomedia (+304)›
- Holy Martyr Themistocles (+251)›
- St Peter the Wonderworker, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia (+1326)›
The tone and the day's psalms
What is a tone?
A tone is not a psalm number. It is the mode in which that week's resurrection hymns are sung — the whole week's Vespers, Matins and Liturgy are set in one tone.
There are eight tones, and they change each week. The cycle opens with the first tone on Thomas Sunday after Pascha and returns to the first every eight weeks; Bright Week itself has no tone of its own. A new tone begins on Saturday evening, with the new church week.
The Psalter is divided into twenty kathismata and, by the usual rule, is read through once a week. Appointed for this day:
- At Matins · kathisma 2Psalms 9–16›
- At Matins · kathisma 3Psalms 17–23›
- At Vespers · kathisma 18Psalms 119–133›
This is the usual rule. In Great Lent the Psalter is read twice a week, and the kathismata are divided differently.
Word of the day
To speak of God is a great thing, but a far greater thing is to purify oneself for God.
Icons of the day's saints — from our shop
All icons →For every day — candles and incense
Candles and incense →Icon: Icon of Christ — Sinai, 6th c. · Public domain










