Christian Saints and Feasts – Page 7 – St. Paul Anglican Church

Feb 14

2024

Ash WednesdayAsh Wednesday

English: Ash Wednesday, watercolor, 78 x 113 cm (detail) Polski: Popielec, akwarela, karton, 78 x 113 cm (frag.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ash Wednesday is a Christian holy day of prayer, fasting, and repentance. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter. Ash Wednesday is observed by many Christians, including Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Old Catholics, Methodists, Nazarenes, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and some Baptists.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants to either the words “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or the dictum “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The ashes may be prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations.

Because it is the first day of Lent, many Christians, on Ash Wednesday, often begin marking a Lenten calendar, praying a Lenten daily devotional, and abstaining from a luxury that they will not partake of until Easter arrives.

Feb 02

2024

Presentation of Jesus at the TemplePresentation of Jesus at the Temple

Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple falls on 2 February and celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and some eastern Catholic Churches, it is one of the Twelve Great Feasts, and is sometimes called Hipapante (Lit. “Meaning” in Greek). Other traditional names include Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is a feast day occurring between the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle on 25 January and the feast of the chair of St. Peter the Apostle on 22 February. In some Western liturgical churches, Vespers (or Compline) on the Feast of the Presentation marks the end of the Epiphany season. In the Church of England, the Presentation of Christ in the temple is a Principal Feast celebrated either on 2 February or on the Sunday between 28 January and 3 February.

In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the Presentation is the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. The episode was also reflected in the once prevalent custom of churching new mothers forty days after the birth of a child.

Jan 25

2024

Paul the ApostlePaul the Apostle

Paul the Apostle

Paul the Apostle, original name Saul of Tarsus, was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the Gospel of Christ to the first-century world. He is generally considered one of the most important apostolic figures of The Apostolic Age. In the mid-30s to mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul used his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to advantage in his ministry to both Jewish and Roman audiences.

Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul, and approximately half of the Acts of the Apostles deals with Paul’s life and works. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. The Pauline authorship of Hebrews, already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries but almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries, is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul’s surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive. Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems.

Today, his epistles continue to be deeply rooted in the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Roman and Protestant traditions of the West, as well as the Orthodox traditions of the East. Among the many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith, his influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as “profound as it is pervasive.” Augustine of Hippo developed Paul’s idea that salvation is based on faith and not “works of the law.” Martin Luther’s interpretation of Paul’s writings heavily influenced Luther’s doctrine of sola fide.

Dec 28

2023

The Holy InnocentsThe Holy Innocents

By Matteo di Giovanni – The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH., Public Domain, Link

The Massacre of the Innocents is the biblical account of infanticide by Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been europaisches-roulette announced to him by the Magi. In typical Matthean style, it is understood as the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy:

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.”

The number of infants killed is not stated. The Holy Innocents, although Jewish, have been claimed as martyrs for Christianity, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents has long been celebrated.

Since the sole evidence for the event occurs in the Gospel of Matthew, New Testament scholars treat its historicity as an open question; and biographers of Herod deny that the event occurred.

Dec 27

2023

John the ApostleJohn the Apostle

John the Apostle, detail of the mosaic in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, 6th century

John the Apostle (Ancient Greek: Ἰωάννης; Latin: Ioannes c. 6 AD – c. 100 AD; Ge’ez: ዮሐንስ;) or Saint John the Beloved was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His brother James was another of the Twelve Apostles. The Church Fathers identify him as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, John the Elder, and the Beloved Disciple, and testify that he outlived the remaining apostles and was the only one to die of natural causes, although modern scholars are divided on the veracity of these claims.

John the Apostle is traditionally held to be the author of the Gospel of John, and many Christian denominations believe that he authored several other books of the New Testament (the three Johannine epistles and the Book of Revelation, together with the Gospel of John, are called the Johannine works), depending on whether he is distinguished from, or identified with, John the Evangelist, John the Elder, and John of Patmos.

Although the authorship of the Johannine works has traditionally been attributed to John the Apostle, only a minority of contemporary scholars believe he wrote the gospel, and most conclude that he wrote none of them. Regardless of whether or not John the Apostle wrote any of the Johannine works, most scholars agree that all three epistles were written by the same author and that the epistles did not have the same author as the Book of Revelation, although there is widespread disagreement among scholars as to whether the author of the epistles was different from that of the gospel.