Nativity of Christ
Great Feast. One of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church year.
Commemorated today
- The Nativity according to the Flesh of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ
What is known
This is a feast of the Church rather than the commemoration of a person, so there is no life behind it to tell.
- The Shepherds who saw the Lord
What is known
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- The Veneration of the Magi
What is known
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
Appointed readings
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on December 25 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on January 7 by the civil calendar. The movable cycle, which turns on the date of Pascha and changes every year, is on the calendar page. Where a life has been written on this site the name links to it; where it has not, only what the commemoration itself attests is shown, and nothing is added to it.