Saturday before Cheesefare; The Repose of our Venerable Father Constantine the Philosopher, in the monastic life, Cyril, Teacher of the Slavs; Our Venerable Father Auxentius; The Venerable Maron, Hermit and Wonderworker.

When

February 14, 2026

All Day

Polyeleos Feast.

VESPERS ON FRIDAY EVENING

Kathisma Reading

The appointed psalms are chanted.

At Psalm 140

Tone 2

If You mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?* But with You forgiveness is that You may be revered.

With what wreaths of praise shall we crown the divinely wise teachers who illumined with the light of the Gospel the Slavic nations who sat in the darkness of ignorance and the shadow of death? By them have we been grafted onto the right fruitful root of Orthodoxy like a wild olive-tree, and have received from Christ God, peace and great mercy.

I have waited for You as You have commanded; my soul patiently relies on Your promise,* for it has trusted in the Lord.

With what hymns of praise shall we bless the divinely wise teachers: Methodius, the lover of the wilderness, who was enriched with the fruits of the Spirit during his solitary sojourn, and Cyril of golden eloquence, who through his love of philosophy acquired higher wisdom and put to shame the vain belief of the foolish Moslem sages? For their sake hath Christ our God granted us great mercy.

From the morning watch until night* let Israel trust in the Lord.

With what beauties of hymnody shall we praise the divinely wise teachers: Methodius, who for love of Christ spurned all the beauties of the world and fought mightily for the King of heaven in the angelic habit, and Cyril, who from childhood chose wisdom as his companion and increased the talents given him by God unto His glory? Having come, through them, to know the one God, the ever-existing Trinity the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit-,we have received great mercy from Christ God.

Tone 8

For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plentiful redemption;* and He shall redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Come, all you faithful, and let us praise the assembly of the Holy Fathers,* Antony the Great, Euthymios the illustrious, and all their companions.* Let us call to remembrance the story of their lives,* for each is a spiritual Paradise of joy,* with gladness let us cry aloud:* These are trees which the Lord our God has planted;* they have flowered and borne the fruit of immortal life,* as an offering to Christ and as food for our souls.* Let us cry aloud to them:* O God-bearing and blessed Fathers, pray that we may be saved.

Tone 5

Praise the Lord, all the nations;* proclaim His glory, all you people.

Strong is the love of the Lord for us;* eternally will His truth endure.

Who among those born on earth* can recount your wondrous lives?* O Fathers of the whole world,* what tongue can tell of the holy contests you endured in the Spirit and by your sweat,* your feats of virtue and the wasting of your bodies,* your wrestling with the passions* in vigils, in prayers and in weeping?* Truly you lived like angels in the world;* utterly defeating the power of dark spirits,* working strange and marvellous miracles.* Wherefore pray, O all-blessed Fathers, that we may receive eternal joy.

Tone 2, Glory… Now…

O Virgin, the shadow of the Law passed away* with the realization of grace.* For as the bush had burned without being consumed,* so you gave birth while a virgin* and you remained a virgin.* Instead of the pillar of fire there rose the Sun of Justice.* Instead of Moses, Christ God came forth,* the Saviour of our souls.

Prokeimenon I, Tone 7

O God, You are my defender* and Your mercy goes before me.

verse: Deliver me from my enemies, O God; save me from those who rise up against me.

Reading I

A reading from the prophecy of Zechariah.

Thus says the Lord Almighty: “Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets, from the day that the house of the Lord Almighty was founded, and from the time the temple was built. For before those days, men’s wages will not be profitable and a price for livestock will not even exist, and because of affliction there will be no peace for those going out and those coming in, and I will send forth all men, each against his neighbour. But now I do not do to the remnant of this people as in the former days,” says the Lord Almighty. “Rather I will show forth peace, for the vine shall give its fruit, the earth her produce, the heaven its dew, and I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. And it shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be for a blessing; be of good courage and strengthen your hands.” For thus says the Lord Almighty: “As I purposed to afflict you when your fathers provoked Me to anger,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I did not relent, so now in these days I have prepared and purposed to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; be of good courage. These are the things you shall do: speak the truth, each man to his neighbour, and judge with peaceful judgment in your gates, and let none of you plan evil in his heart against his neighbour, and do not love a false oath, for all these things I hate,” says the Lord Almighty. And the word of the Lord Almighty came to me, saying, Thus says the Lord Almighty: “The fourth-month fast, and the fifth-month fast, and the seventh-month fast, and the tenth-month fast shall be for joy and gladness and in good feasts to the house of Judah. And you will rejoice, and you will love truth and peace.” Thus says the Lord Almighty: “Yet many people will have come and those inhabiting many cities; and the inhabitants of five cities will come together to one city, saying, Let us go to beseech the Lord and to seek out the face of the Lord Almighty; and I will go also. And many peoples and many nations will come to seek out the presence of the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem and to obtain the favour of the presence of the Lord.” Thus says the Lord Almighty, “In those days, if ten men from all the tongues of the nations stop you, even if they grab hold of the hem of a Jewish man, they will be saying, We will go with you, for we heard God is with you.”

Zechariah 8:9-23

Prokeimenon II, Tone 4

Let Israel hope in the Lord,* from henceforth and for evermore

verse: Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lofty.

Reading II

A reading from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon.

The righteous live forever, and their reward is with the Lord; and their care is by the Most High. Therefore, they shall receive a kingly dwelling of dignity and a crown of beauty from the hand of the Lord, because He will shelter them with His right hand and protect them with His arm. He will take His zeal as His full armour and will turn His creation into weapons against His enemies. He will wear righteousness as a breastplate and put on impartial judgment as a helmet. He will take holiness as an unconquerable shield and sharpen His relentless wrath for a sword; and creation will fight with Him against the senseless. Well-aimed flashes of lightning will strike and leap to their object as from a well-drawn bow of clouds; and hailstones full of anger will be hurled as from an engine of war. The water of the sea will be vexed with them, and the rivers will wash over them severely. A powerful wind will oppose them, and like a storm it will winnow them away. Lawlessness will lay waste all the earth, and wrongdoing will overturn the thrones of rulers. Listen therefore, O kings, and understand; learn, O judges of the ends of the earth. Give ear, you that rule over multitudes, and take pride in yourself over a multitude of nations. For power was given to you from the Lord, and your lordship from the Most High, who will make a careful search of your works and examine closely your plans.

Wisdom 5:15-6:3

Reading III

A reading from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torture will ever touch them. In the eyes of the undiscerning they seemed to have died, and their departure was considered to be misfortune, and their passage from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in man’s view they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. Though chastened in a few things, great kindness will be shown them, for God tested them and found them worthy of Himself. He tested them like gold in a furnace and accepted them as a whole burnt offering. In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and they will run about like sparks through straw. They will judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall reign over them unto the ages. Those who trust in Him will understand truth, and the faithful shall continue with Him in love, because grace and mercy are upon His elect.

Wisdom 3:1-9

Reading IV

A reading from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon.

Though a righteous man may die before his time, he shall be at rest. But a righteous man who is dead shall condemn the ungodly who are living, and a youth who is quickly perfected shall condemn the ripe old age of a wrongdoer. For they will see the end of the wise man, but will not understand what the Lord purposed for him or why He kept him safe. They will see and despise him, but the Lord will laugh them to scorn. After this they shall be dead without honour and an insult among the dead continually; because He will dash them headlong and speechless to the ground and shake them from the foundations. They shall be left dry and barren to the very end; they shall be in pain, and their memory shall perish. They will come with dread in the day of reckoning for their sins, and their lawless deeds will convict them to their face. Then the righteous man will stand with confidence in the presence of those who afflict him; and those who reject his labours, when they see him, will be shaken with dreadful fear; and they shall be amazed at his unexpected salvation. They will speak among themselves with regret, and in anguish of spirit they will groan and say, This is the man whom we fools once held in derision and made a byword of disgrace. We considered his life to be madness and his death as without honour. How has he been numbered among the sons of God? And how is his portion among the saints? Therefore, we went astray from the way of truth, for the light of righteousness did not shine on us, and the sun did not rise upon us. We were satisfied with the paths of lawlessness, and we travelled through impassable deserts; but the way of the Lord we have not known.

Wisdom 4: 7, 16-5:7

Deign, O Lord

Aposticha

Tone 2

Let us cleanse ourselves, O brethren, from all defilement of flesh and spirit.* Let us make the lamps of our souls burn brightly with the love of poverty,* not devouring one another by false accusation.* For the time of the Bridegroom’s coming is upon us,* when each shall be rewarded according to his deeds.* May we enter with Christ in the company of the wise virgins,* crying to Him with the words of the thief:* Remember us, O Lord, when You come in Your Kingdom

I have lifted up my eyes to You enthroned in heaven. Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maid are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God until He has mercy on us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been filled with shame; our soul is all too full of the mockery of the rich, of the contempt of the proud.

Because the holy martyrs intercede for us* and sing in praise of Christ,* all deceit has been destroyed* and mankind has been saved by faith

Tone 8, Glory…

The multitudes of monks are our teachers,* wherefore we honour you, holy Fathers,* for through you we have come to know how to walk upon the straight path.* Blessed are you, who have served Christ,* and thereby become victorious over the power of the enemy,* companions of the angels, fellow-citizens with the righteous and venerable saints.* With them entreat the Lord* that He have mercy on our souls.

Now…

Rejoice, treasury of purity;* Rejoice, pure dwelling-place of the immaterial light;* Rejoice, diadem of our salvation;* Rejoice preaching of the apostles,* Rejoice boast of the martyrs,* Rejoice all-immaculate fulfilment of the prophets.* Rejoice, adornment of monks and ascetics;* and the salvation of the faithful.

Then the Song of Simeon and the Trisagion Prayers, and then:

Troparia

Tone 4

From your childhood you befriended wisdom,* O God-inspired Cyril.* Behold her as a pure virgin all radiant* you took her as a brie for yourself,* and as with beads of gold* she adorned your mind and soul.* O blessed Cyril,* like your namesake of Alexandria* we have found you wise in name and truth.

Glory…

God of our fathers, You always treat us fairly.* Deprive us not of Your mercy* but by their prayers direct our lives in peace.

Now…

O Mother of God, the mystery hidden from all eternity* and unknown even to the angels,* was revealed through you to those on earth:* God took on our human nature* and united it to His divine nature in a perfect but unconfused union.* Then, He willingly accepted the cross for our sake* and thereby raised again the first created,* and saved our souls from death.

Ektenias

Three prostrations

Lenten Dismissal

DIVINE LITURGY ON SATURDAY MORNING

Troparia and Kontakia

Troparion, Tone 4: From your childhood you befriended wisdom,* O God-inspired Cyril.* Behold her as a pure virgin all radiant* you took her as a brie for yourself,* and as with beads of gold* she adorned your mind and soul.* O blessed Cyril,* like your namesake of Alexandria* we have found you wise in name and truth.

Troparion, Tone 4: God of our fathers, You always treat us fairly.* Deprive us not of Your mercy* but by their prayers direct our lives in peace.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Kontakion, Tone 2: With teaching that was sound and divinely inspired* you enlightened the world as with luminous rays.* Flashing like lightning and surrounding the world* you scattered the radiant word of God* in the west, the north, and the southern lands,* bringing light to the world with your wonders, O blessed Cyril.

Now and for ever and ever. Amen.

Kontakion, Tone 8: You enlightened the assembly of the God-bearers, O Lord,* making hem preachers of godliness.* They silenced impiety* and shone upon the whole world.* By their supplications* keep in perfect peace those who glorify and magnify You* that they may sing: Alleluia.

Prokeimenon, Tone 7

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His venerable ones.

verse: What shall I render to the Lord for all the things He has rendered to me? (Psalm 115:15,12)

Prokeimenon, Tone 4

The venerable ones will exult in glory* and they shall be joyful in their beds.

Epistle

Hebrews 7:26-8:2; Romans 14:19-26

Alleluia, Tone 6

verse: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord; he shall delight exceedingly in His commandments.

verse: His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth. (Psalm 111:1,2)

verse: They who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. (Psalm 91:14)

Gospel

John 10:9-16; Matthew 6:1-13

Communion Hymn

The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance;* of evil hearsay he shall have no fear.* Alleluia, alleluia,* alleluia. (Psalm 111:6)