www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Feast of the Conception of St. Ann

dear friends in Christ!

i never knew that roman calendar have the Immaculate conception (or the title before her revelation) on dec.9... could anyone direct to an article pertaining to that date.

Thanks! God bless!
eumir

Rose,

You were clear (At 5:40am, I was likely just as groggy as you). My point was just to confirm what Father Frank had posted in your bulletin.

But, now I'm confused because I just went and looked at the CyberTypicon - curious why it would differ in terminology from the Synaxarion. The Typicon shows the feast as The Conception of St. Anne, not the Maternity. Are you, perchance, using a downloaded version of the Typicon? (In which case Father Peter may have made some updates since you downloaded.) (I never got around to downloading it, since hard-drive space was once an issue.)

Many years,

Neil

Dear Friends,

The UGCC calendar has it as "The Conception of St Anne (Immaculate Conception)."

I find that satisfactory, at least for our Church since Patriarch Josef the Confessor wanted to restore the Eastern terminology for the Feast without upsetting all those in our Church who are used to it being called "the Immaculate Conception."

In addition, the inclusion of the Latin name for the feast can be a help in terms of understanding more clearly that the feast is about the Mother of God herself.

The UGCC and the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches have a long tradition of honouring the Immaculate Conception, especially during the Kyivan Baroque period in our history.

There were Orthodox brotherhoods of the Immaculate Conception at Kyiv in the 18th century whose members, according to one article written on the subject, wore the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, promised the "bloody vow" of defending to the death this doctrine and invoked the Mother of God by way of this version of the Panaghia prayer: All Immaculate Mother of God, save us!

St Dmitri of Rostov himself was called to appear before the Russian Synod to present his own understanding on the Conception of the Mother of God.

John Meyendorff also discusses some Greek Orthodox theologians in that period who understood and accepted both the Western view of Original Sin and the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Some have even suggested that the great St Gregory Palamas himself believed in the Western doctrine of the Immaculate Conception on the basis of terminology he uses in his sermon on the Dormition of the Mother of God.

There are several miraculous icons of the Mother of God portrayed as "Our Lady of Grace" that are venerated locally in Slavic Orthodoxy, as mentioned by Prof. Poselianin in his great book "Bogomater" (published by Jordanville). One such icon is called "the Immaculate Virgin" and is really a Western picture, much like the icon of St Seraphim of Sarov, "Joy of all Joys."

England was the first Western Catholic country to accept the Eastern feast.

In the Anglican Breviary, the Second Nocturn of the Third Day of the Octave of the feast of the Conception of St Anne has this to say:

"In early days, the Fathers of the Church began to make mention of our Lady's singular privileges, both before and after birth, in such wise as to indicate a special sacredness, not only in her birth, but in her conception as well. It is to be noted that the Church is not wont to pay honour to sin, whether actual or original, and therefore it is not deemed fitting to give honour in the liturgy to the conception of any soul conceived in original sin. It is for this reason that the nativity of the Saints is never celebrated, but rather their death-day. Only the Nativity of our Lady and of the Baptist is celebrated because in the case of them both, privilege of grace is believed to have been granted before birth. This same principle must be applied to her conception. That is to say, the Feast of the Conception was instituted in recognition of some privilege granted to Our Lady, even tough this privilege was as yet undefined in the minds of the worshippers. The Christians of the East were the first to make much of the sinlessness of our Lady and of the sacredness of her conception . . . the Eastern Fathers were more explicit in their assertion of the virginity of our Layd, as being in some sense immaculate than were the Fathers of the West. In particular, the Church Fathers speak of a peculiar privilege granted to holy Jeremias and Saint John Baptist, whereby from the very womb they were sanctified for the work which God had laid upon them."

In addition, popular piety in the East understands the holy conception of St Nicholas the Archbishop (I've seen one Troparion in honour of his nativity) and St John the Theologian (in virtue of which he was assumed bodily into heaven).

Alex