St. Luke Byzantine Catholic Church

The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman is celebrated on the fifth Sunday of the Pascha and this year it is May 18th. .   

Liturgy:

Saturday, May 17 - Vespers at 4:30 pm

Sunday, May 18 - Divine Liturgy at 10:00 am

In the year 721 before Christ, Salmanasar, King of the Assyrians, took the tribes of the kingdom of Israel into captivity, and relocated all these people to Babylon and the land of the Medes. From there he gathered various nations and sent them to Samaria. These nations had been idolaters from before. Although they were later instructed in the Jewish faith and believed in the one God, they worshipped the idols also. Furthermore, they accepted only the Pentateuch of Moses, and rejected the other books of the Holy Scripture. Nonetheless, they lived in Samaria, the former leading city of the Israelites, as well as in the other towns thereabout. The Jews rejected them as heathen and foreigners, and had no communion with them at all, as the Samaritan woman observed, “the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9). Therefore, the name Samaritan is used derisively many times in the Gospel narrations. 

After the Ascension of the Lord, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the woman of Samaria was baptized by the holy Apostles and became a great preacher and Martyr of Christ; she was called Photine, and her feast is celebrate on February 26.   

Kontakion:

The Samaritan woman, having come to the well in faith beheld You, the Water of Wisdom from which she drank plentifully and inherited the Heavenly Kingdom as one who is blessed forever.