---
title: "January 5, 2021 — The Ten Martyrs of Crete | Church calendar"
description: "Tuesday, January 5, 2021. 23 December (Old Style). The Ten Martyrs of Crete. Fast day"
url: "https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2021-01-05"
language: "en"
---

Tuesday

# January 5, 2021

23 December (Old Style) · 31st week after Pentecost

Russian Orthodox Church (Old Calendar)

[Old Style](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2021-01-05) [New Style](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/new-style/2021-01-05)

[Month calendar](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2021-01)

[← January 4](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2021-01-04) [January 6 →](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2021-01-06)

## Events of the day

- The Ten Martyrs of Crete

  Commemoration

- Forefeast: Nativity of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ

## Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast (from 20 Dec Old Style), Tuesday and Thursday: cooked food without oil.

- Meat: not allowed
- Dairy & eggs: not allowed
- Fish: not allowed
- Oil: not allowed
- Wine: not allowed

Food rules are reference church information. Agree your personal measure of fasting with a priest; consult a doctor if you are ill.

## Readings of the day

- Epistle

  Hebrews 12:25–26, 13:22–25

  **Show the text**

  25 See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

  26 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”

  22 But I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation; for I have written to you in few words.

  23 Know that our brother Timothy has been freed, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.

  24 Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. The Italians greet you.

  25 Grace be with you all. Amen.

- Gospel

  Mark 10:2–12

  **Show the text**

  2 Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

  3 He answered, “What did Moses command you?”

  4 They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”

  5 But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.

  6 But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.

  7 For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife,

  8 and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.

  9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

  10 In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter.

  11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her.

  12 If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Source: Orthocal: lectionary data — Slavic tradition, Julian calendar. Text: World English Bible.

## Saints and icons

- Prayer of the day: [The Jesus Prayer](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/prayers/jesus-prayer)