Selected hymns from the Feast of the Holy Venerable Martyrs of Ntaou Penteli

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

The Holy Venerable Martyrs of the Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, Ntaou (TAO) Penteli, Martyred on Holy Pascha in 1680, Celebrated most commonly on Tuesday of Bright Week, but variously either on another day of Bright Week or on St. Thomas Sunday (source)

  

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone.

As the sanctified lambs of the Lord chosen from various places, and gathered into your flock, O Pantocrator, you were therefore put to death violently by barbarians, and rejoicing, you proceeded to the heavenly mansions. Therefore, O Venerable Martyrs of Christ, you ever entreat on behalf of our souls.
  

Great Vespers Stichera of the Venerable Martyrs in the First Tone.

The Lord has shown forth many ways to salvation, for you, O divine Fathers, chose beforehand the way of asceticism and the way of the Cross out of love for the Creator. Therefore, you counted the joys of this life as refuse and vanity, O Most-venerable Ones.
  
You hastened to Penteli, O Blessed Ones, and desired to imitate the life of the Angels with purity and obedience. You ever proceeded forward from Earth towards Heaven in a godly manner, being shown to be Paradise.
  
You cried out: "Christ is risen", as you were being slaughtered, O lambs of the Lord and God-bearing Fathers, showing forth in deed that you had found the heavenly life together with the chosen, being sons of the Resurrection.
  

Doxastikon of the Stichera in the Plagal of the First Tone.

O Master Christ Pantocrator, You Who gloriously rose from the dead, and taught to us the power of Your Resurrection, and having the authority over death that is temporary. Therefore, these Venerable Fathers who rest here and who believed in Your Godhead, were taken up as upon the clouds by the cutting blade of the godless, and were made to be inheritors of Your gifts. Through their intercessions, O Good One, grant us a place as well in Your Kingdom.
  

Idiomelon of the Litia in the First Tone.

Rejoice in the Lord, O Mountain of Penteli, for from your crevices has sprung forth a resurrectional rose, the Venerable Martyrs of the Monastery of the Pantocrator, granting fragrance to the faces of the whole Church, and confirming in their souls love for God. For they appeared to be faithful, as champions of the conscience, and rightly received the honor of martyrdom, as they ceaselessly intercede with the risen Christ on behalf of our souls.
  

The Martyred Fathers of Ntaou Penteli (source)

  

Doxastikon of the Aposticha in the Plagal of the First Tone.

After Your life-giving resurrection, O Master Christ, You mystically appeared to Your greatly-burdened Disciples who had return to work, and You blessed their labors, and their nets were straightway filled with a multitude of 153 fish. While on the light-bearing day of Your Resurrection, You gathered a similar number unharmed from the Monastery of the Pantocrator of Your crown-bearing and God-bearing martyred Fathers. As they stand among us as communicants of Your [Mystical] Supper, they offer up intercessions on behalf of us to You the true Fish* [O Christ], and send down richly upon us Your mercy.
  
*Note: "Ιχθύς" is an ancient Christian symbol for Christ, as it stands for "Ihsous Xristos, Theou Yios, Sotir", or "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior".
  

Kontakion of the Venerable Martyrs in the Fourth Tone. You appeared today.

You took upon yourselves the Cross of the Lord, O Fathers, and shine like precious stones through your asceticism. Therefore, to the barbarians you cry out: "The Lord is risen!"
  

Oikos

You lived your lives pleasing to Christ, while in the dwelling place of the body, O Venerable Ones, desiring to be arrayed in the abiding [vesture] that is radiant and not made by hands. Therefore, you were received by the right hand of the Pantocrator, Who granted to you the betrothal of the Holy Schema. Praising the Resurrection of the Lord, as pure lambs you entered, by the cutting sword of barbarians, into the Kingdom founded by God, where you ever shine with the light of the Lord Who trampled upon death, and, O boasts of the Monastery of Tao, together you chant: "Truly, the Lord is risen!"
  

Synaxarion

On this day, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Glorious Venerable Martyrs of the Holy Monastery of the Pantocrator (Tao) of Mount Penteli, who were slain by the sword by the godless Hagarenes on the radiant day of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Verses.

You praise Christ Who is risen in glory,
Radiantly, O Fathers, and were rent by the sword together.

  

Detail of a fresco depicting the martyrdom of the Venerable Martyrs of Ntaou Penteli (source)

  

Exaposteilarion of the Venerable Martyrs in the Second Tone.

Celebrate, O Fathers of the Monastery of the Pantocrator, for you suffered martyrdom out of love for Christ Who trampled upon corruption, and Who grants the Resurrection to all those bearing the name of Christ, as an eternal gift.
  

Prosomoia of the Praises in the First Tone. O all-lauded martyrs.

At Christ's resurrection from the dead, the world rejoices, for the laws of nature are recreated, and the might of death is utterly deposed by the Author of our life, Whom you followed, O Fathers of the Pantocrator, by martyrdom, joining with Him in life.
  
Rejoice, O sacred Monastery of Tao, for your Martyrs were sent to Paradise as the myrrh brought to the Risen One by the Myrrh-bearers, and you became intercessors to the Lord, while those who venerate your Relics glorify Him, ever bearing in mind Your flock.
  
Verse: God is wondrous among His Saints.
As a thief in the night, the Bridegroom, O Saints, came and found you watching, and bearing your lamp with many virtues, therefore He gathered you into His eternal Supper, which the mind of man cannot fathom, nor has ever heard.

Verse: To His Saints that are on His Earth, the Lord has made them wondrous.
Seeking the things on high, where Christ is seated as Master on the right hand of His Father, after having fulfilled His glorious deeds of economy, O Blessed Fathers, the offspring of Tao and the great lights of the Church, you were granted to be with Him through the perfection of your life by the sword.
  

Doxastikon of the Praises in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone.

A voice was once heard in Ramah, and wailing for the incomparably evil slaughter of the Holy Innocents. But there is no mourning or wailing in Penteli at the sudden slaughter of the God-bearing Fathers of the Monastery of the Pantocrator, for among them stands the risen Master, Who harmoniously offers peace, saying: "He who believes in me, even if he dies will live, and will partake of eternal rejoicing before my supremely-radiant Face." As you were made worthy of this, O Venerable Athletes, intercede for us on the day of Judgment.

Megalynarion

Come, O famed Monastery of the Pantocrator in Penteli, and rejoice harmoniously at the struggle of your Venerable Children, who became martyrs of Christ's Resurrection.
(source)
  

The Martyred Fathers of Ntaou Penteli (source)

  

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!