Our venerable father Basil the Confessor was a monk and suffered during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian. When a persecution started against those who venerated holy icons, St. Basil and his companion St. Procopius of Decapolis were subjected to much torture and locked up in prison. Here both martyrs languished for a long while, until the death of the impious emperor. When the holy Confessors Basil and Procopius were set free along with other venerators of holy icons, they continued in their monastic struggles, instructing many in the Orthodox Faith and virtuous life.
Troparion
You made the wilderness your dwelling, O father Basil, the bearer of God. You became an angel in the flesh and a wonderworker. Through fasts, vigils, and prayers, you obtained from God special graces to heal the sick and to sanctify the souls of those who come to you with trust. Glory to the One who gave you strength! Glory to the One who crowned you! Glory to the One who through your intercession grants healing to all!
Kontakion
Holy and wise father, when you received your calling from God, you left the troubles of this world and embraced the ascetic life. Most holy Basil, you received the graces of miracles and healing diseases.
Readings for the day
Genesis 7: 6-9
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came upon the earth. Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that crawls on on the ground, two by two, male and female came to Noah into the ark, just as God has commanded him.
Proverbs 9: 12-18
If you are wise, wisdom is to your advantage; if you are arrogant, you alone shall bear it.
Woman Folly is raucous, utterly foolish; she knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house upon a seat on the city heights,
Calling passersby as they go on their way straight ahead:
“Let those who are naive turn in here, to those who lack sense I say.
Stolen water is sweet, and bread taken secretly is pleasing!”
Little do they know that the shades are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol!
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Tuesday, February 27 –
