Synaxis of the Holy Startsi of Optina Monastery; Apostle Philip of the Seventy; Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer (the Branded) (847)

Then an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”

²⁷He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship. ²⁸He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”

³⁰Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him. ³²Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth. ³³In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth.”

³⁴The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”

³⁵Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus. ³⁶As they went on the way, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”

^{37 38}He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him; and he was very perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, ⁸and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. ⁹Herod said, “I beheaded John, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” He sought to see him.

¹⁰The apostles, when they had returned, told him what things they had done. He took them and withdrew apart to a desert region of a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹But the multitudes, perceiving it, followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them of God’s Kingdom, and he cured those who needed healing.