Leavetaking of the Nativity
We like feasts in the Orthodox Church. We have the Prefeast, the Feast itself, the Leavetaking, and then the afterfeast. We have one of those today. Six days af...
Tag: Feast Days
5th Day of Christmas ~ Holy Innocents
Holy Innocents On the 5th day of Christmas the Church remembers the 14,000 Holy Innocents murdered by Herod after the birth of Jesus. The story is recounted in ...
Third Day of Christmas ~ Remembering the Martyrs
On the third day of Christmas we commemorate the Protomartyr and Deacon Stephen. Scripture tells us that Stephen was martyred. As the hymns of the feast declare...
Adoration of the Magi
Merry Christmas to all of the readers of the Blog! Today we celebrate the 2nd greatest feast on the Church calendar the Nativity in the Flesh of the Our Lord an...
Festival of Lights
Fr. Thomas Hopko The Winter Pascha Originally there was but one festival in the Christian Church for the Lord’s appearing. It was called the “festival of lights...
9 December ~ The Conception of the Theotokos
The Conception of the Theotokos by Saint Anna is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on December 9. St. Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, was the youngest da...
6 December ~ St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra
The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, thou hast achieved the...
14 September ~ Elevation of the Holy Cross
Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jer...
The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary
The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary: The Most Holy Virgin Mary was born at a time when people had reached such a degree of moral d...
Ecclesiastical New Year
The first day of the Church New Year is also called the beginning of the Indiction. The term Indiction comes from a Latin word meaning, “to impose.”...