6 November Saturday
Old Style — 24 OctoberToday
Holy Martyr Arethas and the Four Thousand Two Hundred and Ninety-nine Martyrs with Him (+523)
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
Holy Martyr Arethas and the Four Thousand Two Hundred and Ninety-nine Martyrs with Him (+523)›
Blessed Elesbaan, King of Ethiopia (+c. 553–555)›
Holy Martyrs Synclitica and Her Two Daughters (VI)›
Saint Athanasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (+1311)›
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 16Psalms 109–117›
- At Matins · kathisma 17Psalms 118›
- At Vespers · kathisma 1Psalms 1–8›
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
He who lives in the desert and has taken up the labour of silence is guarded from three kinds of temptation: his ears hear nothing unseemly, his tongue speaks no blasphemy, and his eyes see no indecency, and his soul is not harmed by them.
Icons of the day's saints — from our shop
For every day — candles and incense
Honey (Beeswax) Candles, 50 pieces
Incense, Grade III
Charcoal for the Liturgy
Censer
Icon: Icon of Christ — Sinai, 6th c. · Public domain