18 April 2026 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

The Holy Martyrs Agathopous and Theodulus

The first was a deacon and the second a reader in the Church in Salonica; the first adorned with the white hairs of age and the second with the chastity of youth. In the time of Diocletian’s hunting of Christians, these two were summoned for trial. They went there joyfully, and, each holding the other by the hand went in crying: `We are Christians!’ The whole court’s urging them to deny Christ and worship idols was in vain. After long imprisonment and starvation, they were condemned to death by drowning in the sea. Their hands were bound behind them and a large stone tied to their necks, and they were taken off to be drowned. When they went to throw Agathopous into the depths, he cried out: `Lo, by a second baptism we are washed from all our sins, and will go cleansed to Christ Jesus!’ The sea quickly threw their drowned bodies onto the shore, and Christians gave them burial. St Theodulus appeared to his friends in the form of a shining angel in white raiment and commanded them to distribute all his remaining goods to the poor. These great soldiers of Christ suffered with honour under the Emperor Diocletian and Faustinus, the governor of Salonica, in the year 303.

Catholic Calendar

Our Lady of Good Counsel

Records dating from the reign of Paul II relate that the picture of Our Lady, at first called La Madonna del Paradiso and now better known as Madonna del Buon Consiglio, appeared at Genazzano, a town about twenty-five miles southeast of Rome, on Saint Mark’s Day, in the old church of Santa Maria, which had been under the care of Augustinian since 1356. The venerated icon itself, which is drawn on a thin scale of wall-plaster little thicker than a visiting-card, was observed to hang suspended in the air without the slightest apparent support. Devotion to Our Lady in Santa Maria sprang up at once. Pilgrim bands began to pour in; while miracles in ever-increasing numbers were wrought, and continue to be, at the shrine.