Liturgical Texts
Here you will find the texts for various liturgical services. This page will be updated frequently.
Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, October 13th
Hieromartyr Jacob of Hamatoura; Martyrs Karpos, Papylos, Agathodoros & Agathonika at Pergamos
Great Vespers, Saturday, October 12th @ 6:00 PM
Matins & Divine Liturgy starting @ 9:30 AM
On October 13 in the Holy Orthodox Church, we commemorate the Martyrs Karpos, Papylos, Agathodoros and Agathonika at Pergamos.
On this day, we commemorate the Venerable Hieromartyr Jacob of Hamatoura. This saint struggled in asceticism at the Monastery of the Dormition of the Most-holy Theotokos of Hamatoura in Lebanon’s sacred Qadisha Valley at the time of the Mameluke occupation. His heroic spiritual labors and renown soon brought him to the attention of the Mameluke authorities who, being jealous of his fame, determined to convert him from his faith in Jesus Christ to Islam. St. Jacob adamantly refused. Eventually, they dragged him with a number of monks and laymen to Tripoli, Lebanon where St. Jacob endured harsh tortures for a year, before he was beheaded and burned on October 13, 1450. This saint was almost forgotten in the course of history, due to the severe sufferings of the Church under various Moslem sultanates that both weakened Christian spiritual life and reduced Christian literacy. However, recorded encounters by the Hamatoura Monastery’s pilgrims upon seeing visions of St. Jacob affirmed and authenticated his sainthood. In recent times, a forensic team determined one of the skeletal remains buried under the altar at Hamatoura Monastery to be that of St. Jacob.
On this day, we commemorate the holy and blessed Fathers who came together for the second time in Nicaea, during the reign of the pious and Christ-loving Sovereigns Constantine and Irene, against those who impiously, ignorantly and foolishly asserted that the Church of God worshippeth idols, and rejected the august and holy icons.
Verses
Thy champions, O Word, with words as their weapons,
Turn to flight the foes of the venerable icons.
The Council met in 787 to refute the Iconoclast heresy, whose camp believed that all depictions of Christ, His Mother and the saints should be destroyed. The iconophiles believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal teachings of the Church; and they considered icons to be man’s dynamic way of expressing the divine through art and beauty. The council decreed that the veneration of icons was not idolatry (Exodus 20:4-5), because the honor shown to them is not directed to the wood or paint, but passes to the prototype, or the person depicted. It also upheld the possibility of depicting Christ, Who became man and took flesh at His Incarnation. The Father, on the other hand, cannot be represented in His eternal nature, because “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18).
By the intercessions of all Thy saints, O Christ God, have mercy upon us. Amen.
On this day, we commemorate the Venerable Hieromartyr Jacob of Hamatoura. This saint struggled in asceticism at the Monastery of the Dormition of the Most-holy Theotokos of Hamatoura in Lebanon’s sacred Qadisha Valley at the time of the Mameluke occupation. His heroic spiritual labors and renown soon brought him to the attention of the Mameluke authorities who, being jealous of his fame, determined to convert him from his faith in Jesus Christ to Islam. St. Jacob adamantly refused. Eventually, they dragged him with a number of monks and laymen to Tripoli, Lebanon where St. Jacob endured harsh tortures for a year, before he was beheaded and burned on October 13, 1450. This saint was almost forgotten in the course of history, due to the severe sufferings of the Church under various Moslem sultanates that both weakened Christian spiritual life and reduced Christian literacy. However, recorded encounters by the Hamatoura Monastery’s pilgrims upon seeing visions of St. Jacob affirmed and authenticated his sainthood. In recent times, a forensic team determined one of the skeletal remains buried under the altar at Hamatoura Monastery to be that of St. Jacob.
On this day, we commemorate the holy and blessed Fathers who came together for the second time in Nicaea, during the reign of the pious and Christ-loving Sovereigns Constantine and Irene, against those who impiously, ignorantly and foolishly asserted that the Church of God worshippeth idols, and rejected the august and holy icons.
Verses
Thy champions, O Word, with words as their weapons,
Turn to flight the foes of the venerable icons.
The Council met in 787 to refute the Iconoclast heresy, whose camp believed that all depictions of Christ, His Mother and the saints should be destroyed. The iconophiles believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal teachings of the Church; and they considered icons to be man’s dynamic way of expressing the divine through art and beauty. The council decreed that the veneration of icons was not idolatry (Exodus 20:4-5), because the honor shown to them is not directed to the wood or paint, but passes to the prototype, or the person depicted. It also upheld the possibility of depicting Christ, Who became man and took flesh at His Incarnation. The Father, on the other hand, cannot be represented in His eternal nature, because “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18).
By the intercessions of all Thy saints, O Christ God, have mercy upon us. Amen.
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