Orthodox Readings

Thursday, August 21, 2025

Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy; Avram, Archimandrite of Smolensk; Holy Martyrs Bassa and her sons Theognis, Agapios, and Pistis (4th c.)

Thursday of the 11th week after Pentecost

Tone 1. No fast. What this means

The Epistle

2 Corinthians 4:1–12

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

The Gospel for Thaddaeus

Mark 3:13–21

And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. 14And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: 16And Simon he surnamed Peter; 17And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: 18And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, 19And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house. 20And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

Commemorated today

  • Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy
  • Avram, Archimandrite of Smolensk
  • Athanasios Patelaros, Patriarch of Constantinople
  • Holy Martyrs Bassa and her sons Theognis, Agapios, and Pistis (4th c.)
  • Holy Forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Hymns and lives of the saints are on the Online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.

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