Synaxis of the Honourable Forerunner
Archimandrite Ananias Koustenis On 7 January, the Church celebrates the Synaxis of the Honourable Forerunner and Baptist, John. It is the oldest feast of our Church for John the Baptist and it came from God. God enlightened the Fathers of the Church and they appointed the day after Epiphany...
Encomium on the Beheading of the Great Forerunner – 3
Saint Theodore the Studite According to the Gospel, his disciples then came, took away his body and buried it (Matth. 14, 13). Those of you who love history, look at how the burial of this righteous man is depicted and gives the lie to those enemies of the holy...
Encomium on the Beheading of the Great Forerunner – 2
Saint Theodore the Studite So what did he say to Herod? “You’re not allowed to live with her”. He reminded him of the divine law, as if saying to him: “Look and see what the Law orders you to do. If there are two brothers and one of them...
Encomium on the Beheading of the Great Forerunner
Saint Theodore the Studite Dear God-fearing Christians, the feast which we have gathered here to celebrate together today is radiant and filled with divine joy. It is rightly called radiant because it shines from the very name of him whom we are honouring today, since he is called the...
Saint John the Baptist
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou We shall make a few comments on a passage that Saint Sophrony wrote about Saint John the Baptist. The Lord exalted Saint John the Baptist and bore testimony that he is the greatest among them that are born of women, because he made himself the least...
Welcoming the Witness to the Light: The Nativity of John the Forerunner
Roughly six months before we celebrate the nativity of Christ, our Church honors the coming of one of his most precious companions, the Glorious Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist. John’s conception in itself was miraculous, an event that could have never occurred in the absence of divine intervention. Born...
Christ’s Behavior (Matth. 4, 12-17)
Metropolitan Ioïl (Frangkakos) of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia ‘When he heard that John had been delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee’. Christ’s behavior towards people wasn’t monolithic. He reacted in a variety of ways. In any case, He became incarnate, was made manifest to people and revealed His wisdom...
The Birth of the Honourable Forerunner – 24th of June
Bishop Agathangelos of Fanari The events surrounding the birth of the Honourable Forerunner are mentioned by Saint Luke the Evangelist in the first chapter of his Gospel. He writes that in the days of Herod the king, there lived in Judea a certain priest called Zechariah. His wife was...
The Beheading of Saint John, the Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord – 2
Saint Justin Popovich Today (29th of August), we also specifically glorify the first Evangelist and Christian Confessor, the first to confess God in the New Testament world. Consider how fearlessly, openly and directly he confessed God’s Truth: ‘King, it’s not right for you to have your brother’s wife, your...
The Beheading of Saint John, the Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord – 1
Saint Justin Popovich Today is a little Great Friday, a second Great Friday. Today the greatest man of those born of women, John, the Holy Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, is slain. On Great Friday, God, was murdered, God was crucified. At today’s holy and great feast, the...
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