The Agape Vespers

Gospel of John

Translated from Homeric Greek

By tradition, the Gospel of John (20:19-25) proclaimed at Agape Vespers on the Sunday of Pascha is read in multiple languages to highlight the universality of the Resurrection of Christ and its impact upon all mankind.

This Gospel has never been possible in Homeric Greek because many of the words used in the Gospel were not a part of the Homeric Greek language. For example, it would be impossible to describe that the doors were closed for fear of the Jews, as there was no word for Jews in the Homeric epic dialect.

But in the 18^th century, Saint Nicodemos the Hagiorite brilliantly and beautifully set this Gospel to Homeric Greek and meter. In order to do so, the Gospel had to be paraphrased while capturing and retaining its message. The Saint skillfully crafted …

NOTE: This English-language translation has not been approved by any liturgical commission. As it does not appear in the English-language Book of Needs, but yet is in the Grand Euchologe and the Agiasmatarion, it is being offered simply as scholarly work from the works of Schema-Archimandrite John (Lewis +2007).

AKOLOUTHIA FOR THE ADOPTION OF A CHILD

The priest, vested in his vestments, opens the beautiful gate. He/she who is going to be adopted as a son or daughter stands closest to the beautiful gate, he who is going to become the father stands in back; both carry a lighted candle.

Priest:       Blessed is our God, always, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Reader:      Amen.

Priest:      Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Heavenly King, O Paraclete*, the Spirit of truth, who art everywhere
present and fillest all things, the treasury of good things …

PRAYERS IN TIME OF INVASION
BY THE NATIONS

By Makarios of Philadelphia

FIRST PRAYER IN TIME OF INVASION BY THE NATIONS 

Deacon:     Let us entreat the Lord.

Choir:      Lord, have mercy.

Priest:      O Master Lord, our God, who is like Thee among the gods, O Lord our God? What
god is as great as our God, manifesting his power in mercy and his goodness in
strength, to console us and to save us?  O God, remain not silent nor allay the
retribution which Thou owest to the prideful, for behold, thine enemies are strong,
and them that hate Thee raise their head, against thy people have they woven their
plots, they have taken measures against thy faithful. They said: “Come, let us destroy
them, that their name Israel be remembered no more.” The nations have come into
thine inheritance, they have defiled thy holy …

AKOLOUTHIA TO BLESS A FURNACE OR AN OVEN

FIRST PRAYER TO BLESS A FURNACE OR OVEN 

Priest:       Blessed is our God, always, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Reader:      Amen.

Priest:      Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Heavenly King, O Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, the treasury of good things and bestower of life, come and tabernacle in us and cleanse us from every stain and save, O Good One, our souls.

Reader (trisagion prayers):

Holy God …

Glory/both now …

All-holy Trinity …

Lord have mercy (3x) …

Glory/both now …

Our Father

Priest:       For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

 …

NOTE: This English-language translation has not been approved by any liturgical commission. As it does not appear in the English-language Book of Needs, but yet is in the Mega Euchologion, Grand Euchologe and Agiasmatarion, it is being offered simply as scholarly work from the works of Schema-Archimandrite John (Lewis +2007).

AKOLOUTHIA OF INTERCESSION FOR A DYSLEXIC (TIRESOME OR DIFFICULT) CHILD

Priest:       Blessed is our God, always, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Reader:      Amen.

Priest:      Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Heavenly King, O Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, the treasury of good things and bestower of life, come and tabernacle in us and cleanse us from every stain and save, O Good One, our souls.

Reader (trisagion prayers):

Holy God …

Glory/both now …

All-holy Trinity …

Lord …

Saint Maximos of Serbia, Archbishop of Wallachia (1516)

Feast Day: January 18/31

Saint Maximos was the son of the Despot of Serbia, Saint Stephen the Blind (10 December) and of his wife Saint Angelina (30 July). Giving up all his rights as a prince he became a monk at the monastery of Manassia in central Serbia (founded by Despot Stefan Lazaravić between 1406-1418). When the Turks forced him to leave, he took refuge in Romania, where he was eventually elected Archbishop of Hungro-Wallachi and governed the Church of Christ with wisdom. In his old age he came back to Serbia, and retired to the Monastery of Krushedol. After a long illness patiently borne, he found rest there in the peace of Christ on 18 January 1516.

We learn additional information about his life from the akolouthia. We know that was handsome in appearance, that he preserved his chastity from childhood …

Saint Heldrad of Novalèse (c. 875)

Feast Day: March 13/26

Heldrad (Heldradus, Eldradus, Eldrad) was born in 781 into the wealthy family of Ardrad, the first Lord Lambesc, at Lambesc in Provence, a town at the foot of the Côtes Mountains in the south of France. Provence was then a part of the Carolingian kingdom, which was expanding towards Italy. It was in 814 while on a pilgrimage by boat, in Italy, that he “…discovered the Monastery of Novalèse in Piémont: at the passage of Mont-Cenis was a home of charity and of Christian perfection.” The Monastery had been founded in 726 above a pre-existing church. The new Monastery was dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Andrew, and adopted the Benedictine rule in 817. Thus, he “…left the joyous warmth of Provence for the rude climate of Mont-Cenis, in order to find in solitude the presence of the Lord.”

 …

St. Droctoveus of Saint Germanus (c. 576-580)

Feast Day: March 10/23

Droctoveus (Latin: Droctonius), who is also known under the abbreviated name of Drotté, was born in the region of Auxerre. From his youth he was confided to the hegumen Germanus, then the superior of the monastery of Saint Symphorian of Autun, in Burgundy. It was he who formed him by teaching him the virtues practiced by the anchorites of the East. But this was above all by imitating Germanus himself that Droctoveus rose himself to an eminent degree in the monastic virtues. When Germanus became bishop of Paris, he attracted near him his disciple Droctoveus. At the death of Childebert, in A.D. 558, the bishop celebrated the dedication of the church which this king had built in order to preserve in it the diaconal orarion of the martyr Saint Vincent, brought from Spain. In order to serve this …

The Venerable Anchorite Saint Psalmodus of Limousin

(Saint Psalmode du Limousin) (589)

Feast Day: March 8/21 (Orthodox Commemoration) (June 13 in Eymoutiers & Limoges; June 14 by monks of Ramsgate; in other places: August 6; November 24; October 6)

On 8 March, the memory of our venerable father, the holy Irish anchorite Psalmodus or Saumon, disciple of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, who lived as a hermit near Eymoutiers in Limousin, where he domesticated the wolves.

Verses:

Psalmodus the Irishman, hermit in Limousin,
showed himself a sociable neighbor for the wolves.
He deserved an ode for his sweet patience,
the Limousian hermit who was called Psalmodus.
On the eighth day of March, we celebrate the exodus of him to heaven.

Also known as Psalmet or Saumay, his given name is unknown to us, however, because of his constant psalmodizing for God, reciting the entire Psalter from memory daily, he …

The Holy Martyr Solangia of Berry (880)

Feast Day: May 10

Saint Solangia (or Solange) was born to a poor but pious family in the small market town of Villemont, twelve kilometers from Bourges, in France. A pious child, at age seven, she consecrated her virginity to the Lord. As she shepherded, she remained in constant prayer, and was bestowed gifts; some claimed that even her presence healed the sick and cast out demons. Endowed with great beauty, she rejected the advances of a nobleman, Bernard of the Gothic people, the son of the count of Poitiers, who was smitten by her beauty and popularity. He argued with her to become his wife, and finally decided to kidnap her. At night, he prevailed over her on his horse. Solangia struggled violently and slipped from the horse while he was crossing a stream. Vexed, he cut off her head. According …

Saint Nicetius of Lyons (775)

Feast Day: April 2/15

Saint Nicetius (or St. Nizier de Lyons) was born in 513 at Geneva, then capital of the Burgundy kingdom. His mother was named Arthemia. His father, Senator Florentinus, married and already the father of two children, had refused the bishopric of that city. But the child was destined for the Church, and his mother had the premonition that he would become a bishop. His name in Latin was Nicetius, itself formed from the Greek Νικήτης, the Conqueror, and it was given in French as Nisier, then Nizier.

He was already in the clerical state when his father died, and he remained with Arthemia, his mother. An malignant ulcer on his face put his life in danger,his mother prayed to Saint Martin of tours, who appeared, made over him the sign of the cross, cured him and ordered him to arise. …

Saint Rumold of Malines (775)

Feast Day: July 1/14

Saint Rumold (or St. Rombaut de Malines, or Mechelen) was born at the beginning of the eighth century, the son of David, a Scottish king, and Cecila, a Sicilian princess. He had faithfully served God for many years as a monk in his own country, when zeal for the salvation of souls induced him to preach the faith to the idolaters. He made a journey first to Rome, were he was consecrated a bishop, and with the blessing of the Pope went to Brabant (modern-day Belgium), a great part of which country about Malines he converted. He had a great desire for martyrdom. For having rebuked two men for the wickedness of their lives (meanness and fornication), they slew him and threw his body into the river. It was miraculously recovered by fishermen when at night, a light shone into …

Saint Waldetrudis of Mons (688)

Feast Day: April 9/22

Saint Waldetrudis (or Waltrude or Waudru) was born in the time of Dagobert I, who was king of the Franks from 629 to 638. Fidelity was her virtue as a bride and as a mother, then as a nun and as a hegumeness (abbess). She died on 9 April 688: she had then, between fifty and sixty years. Several decades later, her body was taken from the earth by Saint Hubert, bishop of Tongres, Maastricht and Liège. In 1250, on 12 August, her head was separated from the body in the presence of Nicholas, the bishop of Cambrai. In 1349, on 7 October, her relics were carried in procession in the streets of Mons, in order to obtain the cessation of the plague. Each year, the day after the feast of the Trinity, that is, on Second-day [Monday] after our …

Saint Hilary of Arles (449)

Feast Day: March 30/April 12

Saint Hilary (or Hilarius) was born to a noble family in Lorraine, in northeastern Gaul (modern-day France). While still a youth, he sold his inherited estates to his brother, gave the profit away to the poor, and joined the abbey of Lerins on the island of Lerina, headed by his kinsman, St. Honoratus (an uninhabited island until Honoratus founded the monastery there, and since has been renamed to Saint-Honorat). After being elected bishop of Arles (in southern Gaul), Honoratus died, and Hilary was named his successor. He desired to stay isolated on the island, but accepted the episcopate as the will of God and went to serve the Church. He was esteemed for his great sanctity of life, and known for his ascetic deeds, strictness, almsgiving to the poor, and ransoming captives. Twice, he had difficult confrontations with Saint …

Righteous Euboula, Mother of Saint Panteleimon (304)

Feast Day: March 30/April 12

Euboula signifies in Greek: “good counsellor”. It is the name which the mother of the holy Megalomartyr Panteleimon bore. She lived in the city of Nicomedia, in Bithynia (at the northwest of Asia Minor, on the border of the Euxine Sea), and she had espoused a pagan with the name of Eustorgios. When a son was born to them, the father named him Pantaleon, which means in Greek: “totally a lion”. But the mother, who was a Christian, raised her son in her own faith, teaching him to confess a single true God, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and planting in his heart the inclination for an upright life and for good works. The following is known: his encounter with Bishop Anthimos and the priest Hermalaos, who made him an unmercenary healer, freely caring for the sick. A heavenly …