Though the doors were shut at the dwelling where the disciples were gathered for fear of the Jews on the evening of the Sunday after the Passover, our Saviour wondrously entered and stood in their midst, and greeted them with His customary words, "Peace be unto you." Then He showed unto them His hands and feet and side; furthermore, in their presence, He took some fish and a honeycomb and ate before them, and thus assured them of His bodily Resurrection. But Thomas, who was not then present with the others, did not believe their testimony concerning Christ's Resurrection, but said in a decisive manner, "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." Wherefore after eight days, that is, on this day, when the disciples were again gathered together and Thomas was with them, the Lord Jesus came while the doors were shut, as He did formerly. Standing in their midst, He said, "Peace be unto you"; then He said to Thomas, "Bring hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not unbelieving, but believing."

And Thomas, beholding and examining carefully the hands and side of the Master, cried out with faith, "My Lord and my God." Thus he clearly proclaimed the two natures - human and divine - of the God-man (Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-29).

This day is called Antipascha (meaning "in the stead of Pascha," not "in opposition to Pascha") because with this day, the first Sunday after Pascha, the Church consecrates every Sunday of the year to the commemoration of Pascha, that is, the Resurrection.

This Martyr contested in 141 in Trajanopolis of Thrace, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. At a heathen festival, when Sabine the Governor of Trajanopolis was offering sacrifice, Saint Glyceria entered the temple and declared herself to be a handmaid of Christ. Sabine commanded her to sacrifice. She went to the statue of Zeus and overturned it, dashing it to pieces. She was subjected to many horrible tortures, and finally was cast to wild beasts; bitten once by one of them, she gave up her soul into the hands of God.

This Saint was a soldier from Alexandria. He came with the Roman fleet to Chios, where he was betrayed as a Christian to Numerian, Commander of the Fleet. Because he boldly pro-fessed himself to worship Christ as God and refused to worship any other, he was tormented and beheaded in 251, during the reign of Decius.

Saint Pachomius was born of pagan parents in the Upper Thebaid of Egypt. He was conscripted into the Roman army at an early age. While quartered with the other soldiers in the prison in Thebes, Pachomius was astonished at the kindness shown them by the local Christians, who relieved their distress by bringing them food and drink. Upon inquiring who they were, he believed in Christ and vowed that once delivered from the army, he would serve Him all the days of his life. Released from military service, about the year 313, he was baptized, and became a disciple of the hermit Palamon, under whose exacting guidance he increased in virtue and grace, and reached such a height of holiness that "because of the purity of his heart," says his biographer, "he was, as it were, seeing the invisible God as in a mirror." His renown spread far, and so many came to him to be his disciples that he founded nine monasteries in all, filled with many thousands of monks, to whom he gave a rule of life, which became the pattern for all communal monasticism after him. While Saint Anthony the Great is the father of hermits, Saint Pachomius is the founder of the cenobitic life in Egypt; because Pachomius had founded a way of monasticism accessible to so many, Anthony said that he "walks the way of the Apostles." Saint Pachomius fell asleep in the Lord before his contemporaries Anthony and Athanasius the Great, in the year 346. His name in Coptic, Pachom, means "eagle."

He was born around 484 at Tralee in Kerry, Ireland, and baptized by St. Erc. Originally, he was to be named “Mobhi” but signs and portents at his birth and baptism led to him being called “Broen-finn’ or “fair drop.” He began his education in the priesthood at a young age, studying under St. Ita at Kileedy, and completed his studies under St. Erc, who ordained him in 512. For the next 20 years, he sailed around all the islands surrounding Ireland, spreading the word of God and founding several monasteries. The most notable was Clonfert in County Galway, founded around 577, which was active well into the 1600s.  His missionary and pastoral travels took him on voyages to the Arran Islands, where he founded a monastery, and Hynba Island off of Scotland, where he is said to have met St. Columba (June 9.) He also traveled to Wales, where he studied under St. Gildas (Jan. 29) then to England, and even Brittany on the northern coast of France.    His nickname “the Voyager” is probably based on his actual voyage to a  “Land of Promise” far to the west, of which he had heard from another monk. He and a small group of monks fasted for 40 days, then set sail west to investigate and convert the inhabitants.

The story later appeared in an 9th century Latin saga, Navigatio Brendani (The Voyage of Brendan) which made him the hero of a Christian adventure that included voyages to unknown lands far to the west. The account provides strong evidence that Irish voyagers visited America as early as the 8th century, before the Vikings; whether St Brendan himself made these voyages was disputed. The book takes a lot of literary license and contains references to hell where “great demons threw down lumps of fiery slag from an island with rivers of gold fire” and “great crystal pillars.”  (Many now believe these to be references to the volcanic activity around Iceland, and to icebergs.) Upon reaching their destination, they found a guide to help them explore inland until blocked by a great river. St. Brendan and some of the survivors then sailed back to Ireland. Altogether, the journey took seven years. The story was later dismissed as pure fantasy, but in the 1970s, a man named Tim Severin decided to replicate St. Brendan’s journey. He built a traditional boat made of tanned hides and oak bark, sailing from Ireland and actually made it to Newfoundland! This trip was documented in his book The Brenden Voyage: Across the Atlantic in a Leather Boat.

When St. Brendan returned to Ireland, he founded a men’s monastery and a convent for his sister Briga at Annaghdown, where he reposed in peace in 577. Fearing that his remains would be taken as relics, he had arranged to have his body secretly carried back and buried at the  monastery he founded at Clonfert, where his grave can be found today.

These Apostles are mentioned by Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, where he writes: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me" (Rom. 16:7).

These Saints all contested in martyrdom during the reign of Decius (249-251)- Peter was from Lampsacus in the Hellespont. For refusing to offer sacrifice to the idol of Aphrodite, his whole body was crushed and broken with chains and pieces of wood on a torture-wheel; having endured this torment courageously, he gave up his soul.

Paul and Andrew were soldiers from Mesopotamia brought to Athens with their governor, there they were put in charge of two captive Christians, Dionysios and Christina. The soldiers, seeing the beauty of the virgin Christina, attempted to move her to commit sin with them, but she refused and, by her admonitions, brought them to faith in Christ. They and Dionysios were stoned to death, and Christina was beheaded.

Heraclius, Paulinus, and Benedimus were Athenians, and preachers of the Gospel who turned many of the heathen from their error to the light of Christ. Brought before the governor, they confessed their Faith, and after many torments were beheaded.