---
title: "December 23, 2023 — Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus"
description: "Saturday, December 23, 2023. 10 December (Old Style). Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus. Fast day"
url: "https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2023-12-23"
language: "en"
---

Saturday

# December 23, 2023

10 December (Old Style) · 29th week after Pentecost

Russian Orthodox Church (Old Calendar)

[Old Style](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2023-12-23) [New Style](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/new-style/2023-12-23)

[Month calendar](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2023-12)

[← December 22](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2023-12-22) [December 24 →](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/calendar/2023-12-24)

## Events of the day

- Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus

  Commemoration

## Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: fish is allowed.

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

By the Typikon (ch. 33) Tuesday and Thursday of the Apostles' and Nativity Fasts call for oil and wine only, fish only for a saint with a polyeleos; lay practice per the ROC calendar allows fish.

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

  Ephesians 2:11–13

  **Show the text**

  11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands),

  12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

  13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

- Gospel

  Luke 13:18–29

  **Show the text**

  18 He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it?

  19 It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

  20 Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom?

  21 It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

  22 He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

  23 One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,

  24 “Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.

  25 When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

  26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

  27 He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

  28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.

  29 They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.

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

## Saints and icons

- Prayer of the day: [Prayer for the departed](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/prayers/departed)