Martyrs Eulampius and Eulampia at Nicomedia; Blessed Fool for Christ Andrew of Totma (1637); Pinytos, Bishop of Knossos

For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life. ⁹Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us, ¹¹you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf.

After these things he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”

²⁸He left everything, and rose up and followed him. ²⁹Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. ³⁰Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”