Our Holy Father, the Martyr Joasaph
Commemorated October 26
A disciple of St Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople, he lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain. He had such great love for Christ the Lord that all his asceticism seemed to him inadequate, and he longed to suffer for love of his Lord. He therefore went to Constantinople, where he openly confessed the Holy Trinity and the Son of God before the Turks. The furious Turks beheaded him on October 26th, 1536.
Troparion
In thee, O father, was manifestly preserved what is in the image of God, for having taken up the cross, thou didst follow Christ and by thine own example hast taught that the flesh is to be despised as transient, but that particular care should be bestowed on the soul as a thing immortal; wherefore together with the angels rejoiceth also thine, O ascetic Joasaph, spirit.
Kontakion
As a keeper of fasts pious and skilled, as an honoured voluntary martyr and one that in the desert led the life of a hermit, — let us worthily extol in hymns Joasaph, the ever to be praised; for he hath trodden the serpent under his feet.
Source: Crkveni Kalendar


