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Other than the Theotokos and John the Baptist, which saints' birthdates are celebrated as Feasts?


For the Syriac/Malankara Churches, only the Mother of God and St. John are commemorated on their birth, all others' feasts are the date of their death or martyrdom.

I confess I do not know.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

This is a statement of great significance. We celebrate the birth of the Theotokos and St. John the Baptist. All other saints are celebrated at the day of their death, their departure from earthly life, the day they entered the Kingdom of God.

We do not know when in their life each saint attained holinesss that allowed him/her to enter the Kingdom of God. But because the Church has declared those persons to be holy saints, we do know that on the day of their death they had achieved holiness.

In this way, despite whatever unholy paths their life had formerly taken, there was metanoia, a change, which resulted in their achieving holiness at least by the day of their departure from early life. The declaration of sainthood by the Church affirms their achievement of holiness.

Two special individuals are recognized by the Church for achieving holiness throughout their lives. This would be the Theotokos, and St. John the Baptist. We see from Scripture that each was holy for all their life. So it is a special significance when the Church recognizes the Nativity of the Theotokos on Sept 8/9, and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24. Other than the Nativity of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ on December 25, there is nothing else like these two celebrations.

Deacon El

That's because it is not part of the liturgical deposit of the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. The West celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany by commemorating the Visitation of the Magi; we celebrate Theophany by commemorating the Baptism in the Jordan. Should the Latins then include the Baptism of Christ in their observance if Epiphany, or should we include the Visitation of the Magi in our observance of Theophany?

The answer, of course, is no--because each Church developed its own observance of the revelation of the incarnation of Christ in its own unique way, which is proper to their rite and their rite alone. The Latin Church has chosen to call the Conception of the Theotokos by Saint Anne the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Big deal. Both mark, in their own way, a milestone in the mystery of salvation, the conception of the woman who would bear the Son of God, thereby making salvation available to all.

Both the Latin Church and the Eastern Churches believe that the Virgin Mary was without sin. This is true theologia. Whether this happened at the moment of her conception, or some time afterwards, whether it was a one-time event or a continuous process, is not theologia, it's theoria, it's philosophy. As long as everyone agrees on the theologia, I fail to see the importance of its elaboration through theoria.

The same goes for the differences in the understanding of the consequences of Adam's fall. The theologia of the matter is man suffered a catastrophic separation from God as a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. For various reasons dating back as far as the third century, the West has viewed the nature of those consequences differently from the East. Both East and West have elaborated their theoria based on these different understandings.

The differences were known to the Fathers, but, for some reason, these differences were never seen as being a cause for condemnation or separation. Neither Church attempted to impose its understanding upon the other; neither claimed that its perceptions were the only true and valid way of seeing the matter. We have to wait until the Middle Ages for that degree of hubris to emerge on both sides, a function of their mutual isolation and alienation from each other.

Those who would continue that isolation and alienation insist still upon seeing their own Tradition's expressions of doctrine as being right and true. Hung up on formulations, they cannot see beyond them to discern whether both agree on the fundamentals.

And, it would also help if Orthodox leaders bothered to read what the Catholic Church teaches today, instead of looking back to long dead general synods and superseded encyclicals and decretals. One wonders why such charity has been extended to the Oriental Orthodox on the fundamental issue of Christology, but is not extended to the Latin Church on a tertiary matter such as the immaculate conception, on which the Eastern Churches, at least, have never, ever said anything dogmatic at all?

I want to make a point of clarification before this gets too far along. Not all saints have their feasts celebrated on the date of their death. In some cases the date of the feast was transferred as to give some solemnity to that saint. One of the prime instances that comes immediately to mind is Saint John Chrysostom. He reposed on the 14th of September, yet his feast is celebrated on the 13th of November as to be able to celebrate the Elevation of the Holy Cross on the 14th of September and Saint John separately, with no celebration of his memory on the date of his repose. The same can be said for various prophets and Old Testament saints, Saint Joseph the Betrothed, whose feast is celebrated in March in the West and December in the East, Saint Martin of Tours, etc. There are some other instances, and that can be picked up by reading the daily synaxarion.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Many saints have two feasts--one celebrating their repose in the Lord, the other celebrating the translation of their relics (such translations were literal festival days in places like Constantinople). John the Baptist has, I think, the record for feasts, since there is a feast of his nativity, a feast of his decapitation, a feast of the first and second discoveries of his head, and a feast of the third discovery of his head.

There is also the feast of the Conception of St. John the Baptist, celebrated on September 23 (source [orthodoxresearchinstitute.org]).

Quite right, Father. My own Patron Saint Ambrose of Milan has his feastday on the day of his consecration to the episcopate. I hope nobody is going to argue that he underwent some sort of radical immaculate cleansing at his episcopal consecration. <just joking! :-)>

Those of us named after the Holy Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist can validly celebrate our name days (with appropriate parties) SIX times each year! [And some of us manage to do it 12 as we keep both calendars!]

Those of us so named also have strong convictions on many issues, and so people do demand our heads on plates!

Since that was just a week after his baptism, 'tis near enough as makes no matter.

I got to choose my own baptismal name, and wanting one of the soldier-saints, I chose George (Demetrius brought up visions of Victor Mature in tunic and sandals)--so it is my fate to go hunting after dragons.

St. George is awesome, and do not forget that those dragons are symbols of demons...so, anyone named George should try to be a demon slayer by his good works and prayer!

St. George is very much a real saint, contrary to the questions brought up about his sainthood in the modern day Roman Catholic church. There is a monastery dedicated to him which is made up of many international Orthodox nuns in Greece, and many are the miracles attributed to him through veneration there.

Alice

There is very good reason to believe that all three of the great Military Martyrs--George, Demetrios and Theodore Tyro--were real people who were killed in the persecutions of 250-255. Naturally, some of the stories about St. George are meant to be read allegorically or metaphorically. I don't think any other saint has become the patron of so many countries so widely separated by geography.

There is another military martyr who is very popular here, I'm sure about other countries.
Saint Menas (Mina) of Egypt - 11 November.

Do you have the story of Saint Menas (Mina)?