Orthodoxy
Pages of interest to Orthodox Christians or those learning about Orthodox Christianity. Topics include discussions on Orthodox feast days, customs, worship, beliefs etc. The selected feast days are only a small sample of the vast number of feast days celebrated in the Orthodox Feast Calendar (Εορτολογιο) each year. Selections are based on the curriculum of the 5th Grade Catechetical Sunday School which I teach in my Greek Orthodox Parish in Arlington, MA.
Selected Orthodox Feast Celebrations
Date
Feast
Icon
Commemoration
Comments
October 18
October 26
January 6
January 17
January 18
January 30
February 2
St. Luke the Evangelist
St. Demetrius the Great Martyr
The Theophany of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
St. Anthony the Great
Athanasios & Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria
The Holy Three Hierarchs
The Presentation of Our Lord and Savior in the Temple
On this day we commemorate St. Luke, one of the four Evangelists (Gospel writers) .
Additional details about St. Luke can be found in the attached document
The icon shown here is from the Nea Moni monastery on the island of Chios, Greece.
Nea Moni is an 11th century monastery recognized internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The famous mosaic icons of the monastery, destroyed in the past by invaders and earthquakes have been recently restored.
Both of these Saint are celebrated for their faith, courage and wisdom. Living in an era where various heresies run rampant among the Christian Churches of the East, these Saints council the Church and made important dogmatic interpretations about the nature of Christ and the Holy Theotokos.
During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos, a serious theological quarrel erupted among followers of each of these three great theologians. The three Hierarchs gave an end to this controversy by appearing and declaring in public their common theological and Christian beliefs. Since then, January 30th is set as a common commemoration day for all three and is celebrated with a special liturgy.
This event is described by the evangelist Luke.
St. Luke was a co-worker of St. Paul. He is the only of the 4 Evangelists who was not a Jew.
On this day we commemorate St. Demetrius, the patron Saint of Thessaloniki.
On this date we commemorate the Baptism of Christ by St. John the Prophet and Forerunner.
This is also known as Epiphany or Theophany (Θεοφάνεια in Greek)
On this day we commemorate two Church Fathers. St. Athanasios the Great and St. Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria Egypt.
The icon of St. Athanasios is shown here.
On this day the memory of three important Church Fathers, St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian is celebrated on a common date. Note that each Saint also has a separate feast day.
On this day the Church commemorates the Presentation of Christ to the Temple according to the Judaic law.
22 When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”[a]), 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”