Circumcision of Our Lord
Great Feast. A feast of the Lord or of the Theotokos.
Commemorated today
- The Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ
What is known
Kept on the eighth day after the Nativity, as the Law required.
This is a feast of the Church rather than the commemoration of a person, so there is no life behind it to tell.
- Our Father among the Saints Basil the Great (379).d. 379 life on this site
The life we have written
Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea
A brilliant scholar, disciplined monk, courageous bishop, and tireless servant of the poor, Basil showed that right belief must become prayer, hospitality, and mercy.
- Era
- c. 330–379
- Region
- Cappadocia in Asia Minor
- Category
- Hierarch, Church Father, theologian, and one of the Three Holy Hierarchs
- Feast
- January 1
- St Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus (374), father of St Gregory the TheologianHierarch · d. 374
What is known
A hierarch is a bishop — including patriarchs, metropolitans and archbishops. The Church commemorates bishops in this rank whether they are remembered chiefly for teaching, for governing, or for holding a see through a difficult century.
The title places them at Nazianzus. The year given is 374.
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.
- Peter the New Martyr of the PeloponnesosNew Martyr — killed under Ottoman or modern persecution
What is known
A new martyr died in one of the later persecutions rather than the Roman ones — most often under Ottoman rule, or in the twentieth century under Soviet and other modern regimes. The word new distinguishes the era, not the manner.
The title places them at Peloponnesos. Kept in the Greek tradition.
They are kept together rather than separately, and for most of them the number, the place and the manner of death are the whole of what is recorded.
- Theodotos the MartyrMartyr
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.
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.
- Righteous Theodosios of TrigliaRighteous
What is known
The righteous are lay men and women commemorated for holiness in ordinary life rather than for martyrdom or monastic vows.
The title places them at Triglia. 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.
- Telemachos the MartyrMartyr
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.
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.
- Fulgentius, Bishop of RuspeHierarch
What is known
A hierarch is a bishop — including patriarchs, metropolitans and archbishops. The Church commemorates bishops in this rank whether they are remembered chiefly for teaching, for governing, or for holding a see through a difficult century.
The title places them at Ruspe. 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.
Appointed readings
- Composite 1 – Genesis 17:1–2, 4, 5–7, 8, 9–10, 11–12, 14
- Proverbs 8:22–30
- Proverbs 10:31–11:12 continues in 11
- John 10:9–16
- Colossians 2:8–12
- Hebrews 7:26–8:2 continues in 8
- Luke 2:20–21, 40–52
- Luke 6:17–23
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on January 1 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on January 14 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.