| ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF THE DORMITION The commemoration of the Dormition of the Theotokos and the preparation for the Feast begin on August 1 with a period of fasting. A strict fast is followed on most of the days (no meat, dairy, oil, or wine), with the exceptions of fish on the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) and the day of the Dormition. Oil and Wine are allowed on Saturdays and Sundays. On the weekdays before the Feast, Paraklesis services are held in most parishes. These consist of the Great Paraklesis and the Small Paraklesis, both services of supplication and prayer for the intercessions of the Theotokos. The Feast of the Dormition is celebrated with the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom which is conducted on the morning of the Feast and preceded by a Matins (Orthros) service. A Great Vespers is conducted on the evening before the day of the Feast. Scripture readings for the Feast of the Dormition are the following: At Vespers: Genesis 28:10-17 ; Ezekiel 43:27-44:4 ; Proverbs 9:1-11 . At the Matins: Luke 1:39-49, 56 . At the Divine Liturgy: Philippians 2:5-11 ; Luke 10:38-42 ; 11:27-28 . HYMNS OF THE FEAST Apolytikion (First Tone) In birth, you preserved your virginity; in death, you did not abandon the world, O Theotokos. As mother of life, you departed to the source of life, delivering our souls from death by your intercessions. Kontakion (Second Tone) Neither the grave nor death could contain the Theotokos, the unshakable hope, ever vigilant in intercession and protection. As Mother of life, He who dwelt in the ever-virginal womb transposed her to life. RESOURCES Festival Icons for the Christian Year by John Baggley (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2000), pp. 160-166. The Festal Menaion. Translated by Mother Mary (South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, 1969) pp. 63-65. The Incarnate God: The Feasts of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, Catherine Aslanoff, editor and Paul Meyendorff, translator (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995). |
| The Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles was established by the Orthodox Church to indicate the equal honor of each of the Seventy. They were sent two by two by the Lord Jesus Christ to go before Him into the cities He would visit (Luke 10:1). Besides the celebration of the Synaxis of the Holy Disciples, the Church celebrates the memory of each of them during the course of the year: St. James the Brother of the Lord (October 23); Mark the Evangelist (April 25); Luke the Evangelist (October 18); Cleopas (October 30), brother of St. Joseph the Betrothed , and Simeon his son (April 27); Barnabas (June 11); Joses, or Joseph, named Barsabas or Justus (October 30); Thaddeus (August 21); Ananias (October 1); Protomartyr Stephen the Archdeacon (December 27); Philip the Deacon (October 11); Prochorus the Deacon (28 July); Nicanor the Deacon (July 28 and December 28); Timon the Deacon (July 28 and December 30); Parmenas the Deacon (July 28); Timothy (January 22); Titus (August 25); Philemon (November 22 and February 19); Onesimus (February 15); Epaphras and Archippus (November 22 and February 19); Silas, Silvanus, Crescens or Criscus (July 30); Crispus and Epaenetos (July 30); Andronicus (May 17 and July 30); Stachys, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus, Apelles (October 31); Aristobulus (October 31 and March 16); Herodion or Rodion (April 8 and November 10); Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon (April 8); Hermas (November 5, November 30 and May 31); Patrobas (November 5); Hermes (April 8); Linus, Gaius, Philologus (November 5); Lucius (September 10); Jason (April 28); Sosipater (April 28 and November 10); Olympas or Olympanus (November 10 ); Tertius (October 30 and November 10); Erastos (November 30), Quartus (November 10); Euodius (September 7); Onesiphorus (September 7 and December 8); Clement (November 25); Sosthenes (December 8); Apollos (March 30 and December 8); Tychicus, Epaphroditus (December 8); Carpus (May 26); Quadratus (September 21); Mark (September 27), called John, Zeno (September 27); Aristarchus (April 15 and September 27); Pudens and Trophimus (April 15); Mark nephew of Barnabas, Artemas (October 30); Aquila (July 14); Fortunatus (June 15) and Achaicus (January 4). |
| Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, March 1914. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, June 9, 1914. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, November 17, 1913. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. V.A. Troitsky, Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, October 27, 1913. Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, March 1914. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, March 1914. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, April 6, 1914. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. See, e.g.: Damascene (Orlovsky), Igumen. “Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verea, Vicar of the Moscow Diocese” in Martyrs, Confessors and Ascetics of Piety of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20 th Century, 391,393; Sergiy Golubtsov, Protodeacon, Materials for the Biographies of the Professors and Instructors of the MSA: Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), 116. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) |
| Western Church”s attempt failed, to supplant this pagan festival with the Feast of All Saints. The ancient Slavic counterpart to Halloween in ancient Russia was Navy Dien” (Old Slavonic for the dead “nav”), which was also called Radunitsa and celebrated in the spring. To supplant it, the Eastern Church attached this feast to Easter, for celebration on Tuesday of Saint Thomas” Week (second week after Easter). The Church also changed the name of the feast into Radonitsa, from Russian “radost” – joy, of Easter and of the resurrection from the dead of the whole manhood of Jesus Christ. Gradually Radonitsa yielded to Easter”s greater importance and became less popular. And many dark practices from old Russian pagan feasts (Semik, Kupalo, Rusalia and some aspects of the Maslennitsa) still survived till the beginning of our century. Now they are gone, but the atheist authorities used to try to reanimate them. Another “harmless” feast – May 1, proclaimed “the international worker”s day” is a simple renaming the old satanic feast of Walpurgis Night (night of April 30 into the day of May 1), the yearly demonic Sabbath during which all participants united in “a fellowship of Satan”. Paganism, idolatry and Satan worship–How then did things so contradictory to the Holy Orthodox Faith gain acceptance among Christian people? The answers are spiritual apathy and listlessness, which are the spiritual roots of atheism and turning away from God. In society today, one is urged to disregard the spiritual roots and origins of secular practices when the outward practices or forms seem ordinary, entertaining, and harmless. The dogma of atheism underlies many of these practices and forms, denying the existence of both God and Satan. Practices and forms of obvious pagan and idolatrous origin are neither harmless nor of little consequence. The Holy Church stand against them because we are taught by Christ that God stands in judgment over everything we do and believe, and that our actions are either for God or against God. Therefore, the customs of Halloween are |
| A Celtic cross on Lindesfarne. From a huge number of missionaries who were trained at Lindisfarne or elsewhere in Northumbria or were sent from there to preach in the lands to the south we must mention the following: St. Diuma (+ c. 658, feast: December 7) who became the first missionary in Mercia and was Bishop of the Mercians and Middle Angles, establishing his see in Repton in Derbyshire. Diuma founded a monastery of St. Peter in Peterborough in Cambridgeshire and tirelessly preached Christ, reposing in Charlbury near Oxford, where he built a church and where his relics still may rest under the floor of St. Mary’s Church. St. Betty (+ c. 655, feast unknown) who preached in Mercia and founded a church or monastery in Wirksworth in Derbyshire where the decorated lid of his Saxon coffin is preserved inside the local parish church. St. Wilfrid (633-709, feast: October 12) founded many churches and monasteries in England and played an important role in the establishment of the Church in the country. In the north he served as Bishop of York and later of Hexham and founded the monastery in Ripon and a splendid church in Hexham; in Mercia he served as Bishop of Leicester, establishing monasteries at Oundle in Northamptonshire, Wing in Buckinghamshire (where an early English church still stands), Evesham in Worcestershire, Withington in Gloucestershire and Brixworth in Northamptonshire (where a finely preserved Saxon church built by him still exists together with a preaching cross); in the south Wilfrid preached in Sussex and the Isle of Wight, with his main center in Selsey, since then he has been venerated as the apostle of Sussex; he also actively preached abroad, especially in Frisia. The holy brothers Cedd (+ 664, feast: October 26), Chad (+ 672, feast: March 2) and Cynibil (feast: March 2) evangelized a great part of central England. St. Cedd established a monastery in Lastingham (Yorkshire, where his relics rest in the St. Mary’s Church) and later became Bishop of Essex, where he erected a monastery in Tilbury and many churches, the most famous of them being the chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea which still stands relatively intact. |
| Hilarion (Troitsky), Hieromonk, " Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, July 5, 1913. " Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Ibid. “Journals of the Meetings of the Council of the Moscow Spiritual Academy for 1913” in “The Theological Herald,” 1914, No. 4, 549-550 (4 th pagination). [staff= штатный . In some European countries, including Russia, there are two kinds of professors: extraordinary and ordinary. The “ordinary” means “full,” while the “extraordinary” professor is not usually head of a department, and is not usually shtatny , either, is not a member of the Council. St. Hilarion’s “extraordinary” professorship seems to be lesser more in title than in actual fact, as it is shtatny (staff) and he is a member of the Council, and it is at any rate higher than his previous position of docent.—Trans.] Sergiy Golubtsov, Protodeacon. Materials for the Biographies of the Professors and Instructors of the MSA: Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), 158. V.A. Troitsky, Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, October 30, 1912. Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. “Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, April 6, 1914” from the archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; “Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914” (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelsky in January 1913.) Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. “Summary of the State of the Moscow Spiritual Academy in the 1915/1916 academic year,” “The Theological Herald,” 1916, No. 10/11/12, 7 (5 th pagination). Volkov, the Last at Trinity, 113. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. |
| To supplant it, the Eastern Church attached this feast to Easter, for celebration on Tuesday of Saint Thomas ‘ Week (second week after Easter). The Church also changed the name of the feast into Radonitsa, from Russian “radost” – joy, of Easter and of the resurrection from the dead of the whole manhood of Jesus Christ. Gradually Radunitsa yielded to Easter’s greater importance and became less popular. And many dark practices from old Russian pagan feasts (Semik, Kupalo, Rusalia and some aspects of the Maslennitsa) still survived till the beginning of our century. Now they are gone, but the atheist authorities used to try to reanimate them. Another “harmless” feast–May 1, proclaimed “the international worker’s day” is a simple renaming the old satanic feast of Walpurgis Night (night of April 30 into the day of May 1), the yearly demonic Sabbath during which all participants united in “a fellowship of Satan”.” The Modern Context When we try to protest to our neighbors, our schools, and even many of our own Orthodox brethren about the origin of Halloween, we usually get indifference and humor. Most who observe Halloween laugh at any suggestion that they are participating in evil, or honoring Samhain, or entertaining dead spirits. As an example, let me quote from an article “Hallowing Halloween-Why Christians should embrace the “devilish” holiday with gusto-and laughter.” by Anderson M. Rearick III. After ridiculing various statements of fellow church members about the evils of Halloween, he writes, “I have always considered Halloween a day to celebrate the imagination, to become for a short time something wonderful and strange, smelling of grease paint, to taste sweets that are permissible only once a year. How wonderful to be with other children dressed up as what they might grow up to be, what they wished they could be, or even what they secretly feared. All of us, dreams and nightmares, were brought together on equal footing, going from door to door to be given treats and admired for our creativity. |
| It is then evident that for an Orthodox Christian participation at any level is impossible and idolatrous, resulting in a genuine betrayal of God and Church. If we participate in the ritual activity of imitating the dead and wandering in the dark asking for treats or offering them to children, we then have willfully sought fellowship with the dead, whose Lord is not Samhain, but rather Satan. It is to Satan then that these treats are offered, not to children. There are other practices associated with Halloween from which we must stay away, such as sorcery, fortune telling, divination, games of chance, witchcraft and the carving of an ugly face upon a pumpkin and then placing a lit candle within making it the infamous Jack O'Lantern. The pumpkin (in older days other vegetables were used) was carved by the Celts in imitation of the dead and used to convey the new light (from the sacred oak fire) to the home where the lantern was left burning through the night. This " holy lantern " is nothing more than an imitation of the truly holy votive light (lampada) offered before an icon of Christ and the saints. Even the use and display of the Jack O'Lantern involves participation in this " death " festival honoring Satan. The Holy Fathers of the first millennium (a time when the Church was one and strictly Orthodox) counteracted this Celtic pagan feast by introducing the Feast of All Saints. It is from this that the term Halloween developed. The word Halloween has its roots in the Old English of All Hallow E'en, i.e. the Eve commemorating all those who were hallowed (sanctified). Unfortunately, either due to a lack of knowledge or understanding, the Celtic pagan feast being celebrated on the same day as the Christian feast of All Saints (in western Christiandom) came to be known as Halloween. The people who remained pagan and therefore anti-Christian reacted to the Church's attempt to supplant their festival by celebrating this evening with increased fervor. Many of these practices involved desecration and mockery of the Church's reverence for Holy Relics. Holy things, such as crosses and the Reserved Sacrament, were stolen and used in perverse and sacreligious ways. The practice of begging became a system of persecution designed to harass Christians who were, by their beliefs, unable to participate by making offerings to those who served the Lord of Death. |
| Howell, NJ: Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan leads Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church Source: Eastern American Diocese www.eadiocese.org On Wednesday, July 9, the feast day of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell, NJ, leading the parish’s patronal feast day. His Grace was co-served by parish rector Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov, Archpriest Alexander Belya (dean of New York City), Archpriest George Kallaur (rector of “Unexpected Joy” Church in Staten Island, NY), Archpriest Liubo Milosevich (rector of Holy Trinity Church in Vineland, NJ), Archpriest Mark Burachek (rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ), Archpriest Petro Kunitsky (cleric of Holy New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn, NY), Archpriest Boris Slootsky (cleric of neighboring St. George’s Church in Howell), Priest Seraphim Chemodakov (parish cleric), Priest Serge Ledkovsky (deputy rector of neighboring St. Vladimir Memorial Church in Jackson), and Protodeacon Michael Soloviev (cleric of Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Albany, NY). Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell became the first church in the Eastern American Diocese in which the newly consecrated Bishop Nicholas celebrated the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy. Greeting His Grace, Fr. Valery wished him God’s aid in his service to the Holy Church, and that in his Archpastoral service he might never forget his glorious forebearers the hierarchs of the Russian Church Abroad. Many of the church’s parishioners, as well as faithful from Brooklyn and across New York City, came to mark the parish feast day of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church and to honor the wonderworking Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. This icon, preserved in Howell, is renowned as the “Royal Icon:” in 1972, it was donated to what was then St. Alexander Nevsky Church by Lakewood resident Olga V. Astori-Astafiev, whose mother received the icon as a gift from the Holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in 1913. |
| The feasts of the Jewish liturgical calendar are biblical commemorations, either being commanded by God in the Bible to be observed or otherwise commemorating a biblical event. Why then do Christians not celebrate them? This question always comes to my mind around Hanukkah, which is a beautiful story surrounding a miracle that occurred at the reconsecration of the Second Temple after the Maccabean revolt and recapture of the Temple Mount. The story is found in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, which are included in the canon of the Old Testament for the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The festivals of Sukkot (Tabernacles) and Passover are likewise biblical commemorations. The simple answer to this question is two-fold: (1) Christian feasts are fulfillments of the various Jewish feasts, and (2) because of this, they have a distinctively Christ-centered focus. The Jewish feasts, for Christians, were “shadows and types” of what was to come, which have now been fulfilled by Christ. Therefore, by celebrating the distinctive Christian feasts, we celebrate also what the Jewish feasts foreshadowed. For this reason, the Christian feasts include many references and allusions to the Jewish feasts within the liturgical texts. Lets take a look at a few of these Jewish feasts: Jewish Feasts Fulfilled in Christ The Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles): This feast is a harvest festival, occurring just after the Fall New Year (which was moved from an earlier Spring New Year at the beginning of the month of Nisan). The custom of constructing and living in a booth or hut commemorates the Israelites’ conditions as slaves in Egypt and their wandering in the wilderness before entering the Land of Canaan. It was to be a reminder to them that God had brought them from being slaves and nomads to being a great nation. This feast does not have a Christian analogue, nor is it “fulfilled” in any one particular Christian feast. However, we have the monastic tradition, which has seen many people living has hermits in caves and hand-made dwellings. Saints such as St. John the Hut Dweller encapsulate a living embodiment of this feast, and through them we are reminded that we are pilgrims in this world, awaiting a New City, the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 11:13-16). |
|
|
