The three Holy Hierarchs are pillars of the Byzantine church. Living in and around the 300s, Sts. Basil, Gregory, and John Chrysostom were great theologians during their age. And, not only were they highly acclaimed during their time, but we continue to read their words and be inspired by their lives now. Over a thousand …
A Reading from the Epistle of St. Jacob. How often have you heard that at Church? Well, if you attend Church with readings done in Ukrainian on weekdays you might have heard it. Because – get this – James is an awkward translation of the Greek Iacobus. Back when John Wycliffe made his English translation …
We celebrate the Synaxis of John on the day after Theophany (so January 7th). We have a lot of feast days for John the Baptist (also called John the Forerunner) in Byzantine Churches. First, we celebrate him for being the final prophet and for baptizing Christ. Then there are feasts for his conception, nativity, and …
Beloved in Christ! Today we celebrate the Byzantine Feast of the Conception of the Holy and Righteous Anna of the Theotokos, or the Immaculate Conception. BadgerDad was recently interviewed on this topic for the popular Byzantine Saints podcast series Hagios Dose by our friends over at The Sword & The Cloud. Bill and …
The Immaculate Conception, the motherhood/maternity of St. Anna, or The Conception of Saint Anna, is the feast when we celebrate St. Anna conceiving the Mary, the Theotokos. This feast is generally celebrated in Eastern Churches in December 9th. However, Roman Catholics celebrate this feast on December 8th. And in countries such as the United States, …
The Entrance of the Theotokos (also called the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary), is November 21st. This feast, which is one of the twelve major feasts, is an early tradition based on writings we have from the Church. There is some evidence that this feast was celebrated in the 400s, but the most solid …
The Nativity Fast That Nativity Fast, or St. Philip’s fast (because it begins after the feast of the Apostle Philip), starts November 15th. I wrote a short article last year about slowing life down in preparation for the Nativity. Looking back on the post, I don’t think I found enough ways to truly answer “How …
The Theotokos’ Great Commission: Pray the Rosary On October 7 in the Roman Rite, we celebrated Our Lady of the Rosary, or a commemoration of the Victory of Lepanto. This feast was celebrated for the 448th time this year. The Church attributed this Title to the Theotokos. Both as the heavenly originator of the Holy …
A prayer rope, which can also be called Chotki or Komboskini, is a Byzantine prayer tool which dates back to the fourth century. St. Pachomius the Great (born in the 3rd Century) started the prayer rope as a way to keep track of prayers and prostrations. The most popular prayers that the prayer rope is …
One important mark of a Christian life is praying for others. We pray for our family and friends, and ask friends and family to pray for us all the time. Sometimes we forget that we have even more family in heaven, in the saints! This week’s article is a quick exploration of why it is …