July 17, 2026

Events of the day

• Holy Royal Passion-bearers Nicholas, Alexandra, Alexis, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia

  Polyeleos rank

• St Andrew, Archbishop of Crete

  Commemoration

• St Andrew (Andrei) Rublev, Iconographer

  Commemoration

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

Wednesday and Friday: fast without meat, dairy or eggs. Whether fish is allowed depends on the day's feast — check the church calendar.

• Meat: not allowed
• Dairy & eggs: not allowed
• Fish: not specified
• Oil: allowed
• Wine: 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

  1 Corinthians 7:35–8:7

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  ³⁵This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

  ³⁶But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry.

  ³⁷But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well.

  ³⁸So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

  ³⁹A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

  ⁴⁰But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

  ¹Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

  ²But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.

  ³But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.

  ⁴Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

  ⁵For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”;

  ⁶yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.

  ⁷However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

• Gospel

  Matthew 15:29–31

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  ²⁹Jesus departed from there, and came near to the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and sat there.

  ³⁰Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them,

  ³¹so that the multitude wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the injured healed, the lame walking, and the blind seeing—and they glorified the God of Israel.

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

Saints and icons

• St Andrei Rublev, Iconographer
• The Trinity by Andrei Rublev
• Prayer of the day: Short penitential prayers