8 March Monday
Old Style — 23 FebruaryToday

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
- Hieromartyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (+167)›
- Venerable John, Antiochus, Antoninus, Moses, Zebinus, Polychronius, Another Moses and Damian, Syrian Hermits (V)›
- Venerable Alexander, Abbot of the Monastery of the Unsleeping (+430)›
- St Gorgonia (+372)›
- Venerable Martyr Damian (+1568)›
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 4Psalms 24–31›
- At Matins · kathisma 5Psalms 32–36›
- At Vespers · kathisma 6Psalms 37–45›
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
Not a single good work is accomplished without a trial, because satanic envy rises up against such works.
— St Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet · #
For every day — candles and incense
Candles and incense →Icon: Icon of Christ — Sinai, 6th c. · Public domain






