Conception by St Anna of the Theotokos
Doxology. Kept with the Great Doxology.
Fast day.
Commemorated today
- The Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God
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.
- St Hannah (Anna), the Prophetess, the mother of the Prophet Samuel (12th c. BC)Prophet
What is known
A prophet in the Orthodox calendar is almost always one of the Old Testament prophets, commemorated by the Church that reads them as speaking of Christ.
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.
- St Stephen the New Light (Neolampes) of Constantinople (912)d. 912
What is known
The title places them at Constantinople. The year given is 912.
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.
- Narses the Martyr of PersiaMartyr
What is known
A martyr died rather than deny Christ. The word is Greek for witness, and the Church uses it in that sense: the death is testimony, not merely a fate. Most of these deaths fall in the Roman persecutions before 313, though the title is not restricted to them.
The title places them at Persia. Kept in the Greek tradition.
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 Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) in the Holy City of Jerusalem
What is known
The title places it at Jerusalem. Kept in the Greek tradition.
What is kept is the building's own feast — the day it was consecrated — rather than the life of the saint it was named for.
Appointed readings
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on December 9 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on December 22 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.