Today's Vigil is for your family, not the other way around. If anything feels like too much, that's okay. Do the parts your family loves, and work your way up to the whole Vigil in one sitting.
Movement One
Light the Lamp
Do together: Light your lamp or a candle. Then say: "Today the Church keeps the Leavetaking of the Elevation of the Cross, and remembers Apostle Quadratus of the Seventy."
We begin the way the Church begins any new work
“O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the eternal Father, Thou hast said, 'Without me you can do nothing.' In faith I embrace Thy words, O Lord, and bow before Thy goodness. Help me to complete the work I am about to begin for Thine own glory: in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Then all together:
“Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.”
The Orthodox prayer before beginning any work, offered for our family and for yours, each time we begin again.
Movement Two
Read the Icon
Before we hear his story, let's look at how the Church has always shown him, and learn to read what this icon is telling us.
Apostle Quadratus of the Seventy · Holy Apostle Kodratos · traditional standing figure · illustrated Chet'i-Minei, 1903–1911 · public domain
What are we looking at?
An icon isn't a photograph, and it isn't a painting to admire. It's a window. Everything in it is there to teach us something true about the saint.
The gold of the page. This figure is printed in black and white, the way an old Church book keeps a saint when color is not given. The light is still around him. The saint stands where the Church has set him to be seen.
Quadratus, in the middle. He stands full-length, facing us, a little turned. He is not falling. He is not hiding. On this page he stands, and he teaches.
His apostle's name. Under the frame, in Church Slavonic, the book has already named him: Holy Apostle Kodratos. That is Quadratus. Every icon means to name its saint. We will not invent other letters.
His bishop's clothes. A long robe reaches his feet. Over his shoulders a wide pale band hangs down the front, marked with dark crosses — the omophorion, the Church's way of naming a bishop. These are the clothes of a man set apart to keep the word, and to serve.
His two hands. The left holds a thick Gospel book against his side. The right is raised at his chest, the way a teacher blesses. Even now the Church will not let us see him empty-handed. He was an Apostle of the Seventy. He was Bishop of Athens. The book and the blessing say the same thing: the word went out.
His face. Short grey hair, a high forehead, a short rounded beard. Simple sandals on his feet. He stands on a little patch of ground. We will not invent a city behind him. The Church has already named the places in his story: Athens, and Magnesia.
This is not yesterday's household, and it is not the Great Feast's lifting-up. This is the apostle the Church remembers today.
Unknown artist, Holy Apostle Kodratos, traditional standing figure from the illustrated Russian lives of the saints after Saint Dimitry of Rostov, published 1903–1911. Public domain. Image via Wikimedia Commons, derived from Жития святых свт. Димитрия Ростовскаго. Сентябрь. The day's own miniature in the Menologion of Basil II was inspected: it is a beheading scene and is not shown to the family. A seventeenth-century TsAK September Menaion bishop-type in the September 21 area was inspected and is held as unused backup. Modern OCA files were not used.
The ReadingsMovement Three
The Scripture the Church appoints for this day. Open your Bible at home and read the passages aloud together, then listen for these words echoing through the story and the rest of your day.
A Psalm to begin · Psalm 18 (19) : 4
“Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
The Septuagint (Brenton, 1851), the Old Testament of the Orthodox Church. In ordinary English Bibles this is Psalm 19:4. Brenton's printed verse number is 18:5, because he counts the psalm title as a verse. This verse is chosen for prayer today; it is not a separate lectionary appointment.
The Epistle · Ephesians 1 : 22–2 : 3
“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.”
Open your Bible and read the full passage together. Text: King James Version (public domain).
The Gospel · Luke 3 : 19–22
“And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”
Open your Bible and read the full passage together. Text: King James Version (public domain).
These are the readings appointed by the Orthodox Church in America for Monday, September 21, 2026. The monthly lectionary lists only this pair — Ephesians 1:22–2:3 and Luke 3:19–22 — with no feast label and no saint label. The Elevation feast pair of September 14, 1 Corinthians 1:18–24 and John 19:6–11, 13–20, 25–28, 30–35, is not listed again today. No separate saint pair is listed for Quadratus. This edition carries the appointed weekday pair.
Listen to today's story, read aloud · coming soon
Movement Four
The Story
The Cross is still in the house.
Seven days ago the Church opened a Great Feast. She lifted up the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, and the people said, "Lord, have mercy." Then she kept the Afterfeast. Yesterday she named a household that would not bow.
Today is not that day again.
Today is the Leavetaking. The Church has another word for this last day: Apodosis. It is not the feast thrown away. It is the feast given its last full hour. The hymns of the Cross are sung once more as the feast's own.
And today the Church does another thing she loves to do while a Great Feast is still in the room.
She remembers an apostle who would not stop preaching.
Because this is the Leavetaking, the Church sings his service tomorrow. She still names him today.
The Church remembers more than one name on the twenty-first of September. She remembers the uncovering of the relics of Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov; Venerable Daniel of Shuzhgorsk; Venerable Joseph of Zaonikiev; Hieromartyr Hypatius of Ephesus and his presbyter Andrew; and other holy names. Those are true days. We will not tell those whole lives this morning.
This morning she asks us to look at Quadratus.
His name is Quadratus. The Church also writes Kodratos, and Codratus. Families may hear Quadratus of the Seventy, or Quadratus of Athens. All those names are one man on this page. The Church remembers him as Apostle of the Seventy, preacher at Athens and at Magnesia, Bishop of Athens.
Do you hear what she is already singing for him? "O Holy Apostle Quadratus, pray to our merciful God that He may grant to our souls remission of our transgressions."
That is today's word. Not a man who kept the Name in a locked room. A man who went, the way the Seventy went.
His biographer called him "a morning star" among the clouds of paganism.
Do you hear that? A morning star. Not the sun. The first light. The light that comes while the dark is still thick, and tells the world the day is coming.
The clouds were the old darkness — people who did not yet know the Lord's Name. Quadratus preached the Word of God at Athens, and at Magnesia, on the eastern peninsula of Thessaly. He converted many pagans to the true faith in Christ the Savior.
Athens. Magnesia.
The Church will not let us tell him as if he sat down after the first city.
Quadratus preaching the Word at Athens and at Magnesia, a morning star among the clouds. No extra speech invented
In the year 126, Saint Quadratus wrote an Apologia in defence of Christianity.
He presented it to the emperor Hadrian.
We will not invent the rest of that book. The Church says only part of it survives. The historian Eusebius kept these words, and the Church still keeps them:
"The deeds of our Savior were always witnessed, because they were true. His healings and raising people from the dead were visible not only when they were healed and raised, but always. They lived not only during the existence of the Savior upon the earth, but they also remained alive long after His departure. Some, indeed, have survived to our own time."
Those are the Church's words. We will not invent others. He did not make a tale. He said the deeds were witnessed, because they were true.
The Apologia affected the persecution of Christians. The emperor issued a decree saying that no one should be convicted without just cause.
Quadratus writing the Apology and presenting it to the emperor Hadrian. Only the surviving fragment is used. No extra speech invented
His preaching aroused the hatred of the pagans.
Once, an angry mob fell upon the saint to pelt him with stones.
Preserved by God, Saint Quadratus remained alive.
We will not linger on the stones. The Church knows them, and that is enough for us this morning. God kept him. He was still the morning star. The dark did not put him out.
An angry mob falling upon Quadratus with stones; God preserving him. No extra speech invented
Then they threw him into prison, where he died of starvation.
His holy body was buried in Magnesia.
Those are the Church's words. We will not invent others. We will not turn the prison into a longer night no one wrote down. He had preached the Word. He had written that the Savior's deeds were true. He gave his life there.
The Church also remembers him on the fourth of January, with the Seventy.
Quadratus in prison; his holy body buried in Magnesia. No extra speech invented
Do you hear what the Church is singing now? Not a long new hymn. The short apostle word: "O Holy Apostle Quadratus, pray to our merciful God."
And the Leavetaking is still in the house. "O Lord, save Your people, and bless Your inheritance." "And by virtue of Your Cross, preserve Your habitation."
The word we heard this morning is the weekday word the Church appointed for this Monday. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church." Christ is the Head. The church is His body. Quadratus belonged to that body. He preached so other people could belong to it too.
And the Gospel says a voice came from heaven: "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." The same Gospel has another word, close beside it: Herod shut John up in prison. The Forerunner was put in a prison for the truth. Quadratus was put in a prison for the Word. We will not make them the same man. We will let the Church set the two prisons in one day's hearing, and we will not invent a speech for either of them.
The psalm we held in the hand is not a lectionary appointment. It is a word that already knows an apostle: "Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
Athens heard him. Magnesia heard him. A little of his written word still reaches us. The morning star did not stay under a cloud.
That is why the Church will not let the Leavetaking stand without this apostle. While she is still singing the Cross, she names a man who went out with the Word, and would not stop, and told the truth about the Savior's deeds.
And today, so many hundreds of years later, on the Leavetaking, we say his name once more, out loud, together — Holy Apostle Quadratus of the Seventy — and he is praying for us still.
Movement Five
The Prayer
Troparion of Saint Quadratus · Tone 3
O Holy Apostle Quadratus pray to our merciful God that He may grant to our souls remission of our transgressions.
Troparion of the Leavetaking · Tone 1
O Lord, save Your people, and bless Your inheritance. Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries. And by virtue of Your Cross, preserve Your habitation.
Kontakion of the Leavetaking · Tone 4
As You were voluntarily raised upon the cross for our sake, grant mercy to those who are called by Your Name, O Christ God; make all Orthodox Christians glad by Your power, granting them victories over their adversaries, by bestowing on them the Invincible trophy, Your weapon of Peace.
The troparion of Saint Quadratus, and the troparion and kontakion of the Leavetaking, appointed by the Orthodox Church in America on the September 21 hymn pages. Wording is exact; slash marks were converted to line breaks only. OCA prints no kontakion for Quadratus on this date; none is invented here. These are today's appointed hymns. They are not a second printing of September 14 as if the Great Feast had come again. The Leavetaking pair is the feast's own hymn, still appointed on this last day. Hymns for Demetrius of Rostov, Daniel, Joseph, Hypatius and Andrew, and the other same-day names are not printed here.
Movement Six
Let's Talk About It Together
Talk about it:
Quadratus was called a morning star among the clouds. Where does our family need a little true light this week — a word, a kindness, a thing we have been afraid to say?
He wrote that the Savior's deeds were always witnessed, because they were true. What is one true thing about Jesus we can say out loud together?
Today is the Leavetaking: the last day the Church sings the feast of the Cross as the feast's own. What is one joy from these days of the Cross we do not want to put down?
Movement Seven
Do This Together
Do this togetherAny time of day
The Morning Star
Stand near a window, or near the lamp, as if the room were still a little dark. Today the Church remembers an apostle who was called a morning star among the clouds, and who would not stop preaching the Word. This is not yesterday's household, and it is not the Great Feast's lifting-up. It is a going-out.
Stand still together for a slow count of ten. No talking. Quadratus kept the Word. The hard part is not the words. The hard part is remaining with them when the room is still dark.
Then one child says, slowly, his own day's shout: "The deeds of our Savior were always witnessed, because they were true."
That child does one small, real good work right away: clear a plate, help a little brother, say something kind. He went so other people could hear. We can keep one true word in this room.
Take turns. When everyone has had a turn, sit together and each name one true word you want to keep this week — a verse, a kindness you have been putting off, a light you do not want to hide when the feast's last hour is over. Write those words on scraps of paper and keep them under the lamp until next Sunday.
Little ones (2–4): help them stand still and say "thank You, God" while you count to five, then help them say "Quadratus." · Make it stick: say the psalm together each night this week — "Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
“Holy Apostle Quadratus, pray to God for us. Most Holy Theotokos, save us.”
And close, as the Church always closes, with the Lord's Prayer:
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.
Do together: Put out the lamp, or leave it burning a while. The lamp keeps watch until tomorrow. "Glory to God for all things. Amen."
A note on our storytellingEvery edition of The Vigil Lamp is an original retelling. The saints are real, and the names, places, events, and directly quoted words in this edition are drawn from the Orthodox Church in America's traditional account of Apostle Quadratus of the Seventy, from the Church's appointed leavetaking and apostle hymns and weekday readings, and from the King James Version of Ephesians 1 and Luke 3. The preaching at Athens and Magnesia, the name "morning star," the Apology to Hadrian, the surviving fragment, the stones, the prison, the burial at Magnesia, and the Leavetaking of the Elevation are told as the Church's tradition, without invented detail. No invented historical dialogue is presented as fact. The words of narration are our own, written to make a true story vivid and a joy for families to read aloud together.
