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60-548: The celebration of the Great Feasts of the church year is extended for a number of days, depending upon the particular Feast. Each day of an Afterfeast will have particular hymns assigned to it, continuing the theme of the Feast being celebrated. At each of the divine services during an Afterfeast, the troparion and kontakion of the feast are read or chanted. The canon of the feast will usually be chanted on every day of

120-571: A Brit milah ceremony, at which they are also given their name . The circumcision of Christ became a very common subject in Christian art from the 10th century onwards, one of numerous events in the Life of Christ to be frequently depicted by artists. It was initially seen only as a scene in larger cycles, but by the Renaissance might be treated as an individual subject for a painting, or form

180-514: A day. The Forefeasts and Afterfeasts break down as follows: Forefeast Feast the festal period Five of these Afterfeasts have a special commemoration on the day following the Feast, called a Synaxis . In this context, a Synaxis commemorates a saint who is intimately bound up with the Feast being celebrated. The four Synaxes are: Other Great Feasts that have Afterfeasts (although no Forefeasts) are: Each of these three has only 1 day of Afterfeast, and no Apodosis. These are not counted among

240-492: A priest comes towards them with a small knife. This is typical of the early depictions, which avoid showing the operation itself. At the period of Jesus's birth, the actual Jewish practice was for the operation to be performed at home, usually by the father, and Joseph is shown using the knife in an enamelled plaque from the Klosterneuburg Altar (1181) by Nicolas of Verdun , where it is next to plaques showing

300-543: A qualification for conversion to Christianity. Circumcision soon became rare in most of the Christian world, except the Coptic Church of Egypt (where circumcision was a tradition dating to pre-Christian times ) and for Judeo-Christians . Perhaps for this reason, the subject of the circumcision of Christ was extremely rare in Christian art of the 1st millennium, and there appear to be no surviving examples until

360-599: A set, omitting the first three in the list above, and adding the Raising of Lazarus , Crucifixion of Jesus , and Harrowing of Hell . Mary was born to elderly and previously barren parents by the names of Joachim and Anna (now saints), in answer to their prayers. Orthodox Christians do not hold to the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in which it is taught that Mary

420-470: A young girl, where she lived and served until her betrothal to Joseph . December 25— Christmas . The nativity account ( Gospel of Luke 2:1–20 ) begins with Mary and Joseph (Mary's betrothed) traveling to Bethlehem to be enrolled in the Roman census ordered by Augustus Caesar . On the way, they look for a place for Mary to give birth to her child, but all the inns are full and the only suitable place

480-592: Is a cave (show as a stable in most Western descriptions) where animals are kept. The Theotokos (God-bearer, the Virgin Mary) gives birth ineffably (without pain or travail) and remains virgin after childbirth. This observance commemorates Christ's baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jordan , and the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry ( Gospel of Matthew 3:13–17 , Gospel of Mark 1:9–11 ). It

540-548: Is an event from the life of Jesus , according to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2 , which states: And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, his name was called Jesus, the name called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. The eight days after his birth is traditionally observed 1 January. This is in keeping with the Jewish law which holds that males should be circumcised eight days after birth during

600-619: Is known by the Orthodox as both Epiphany (i.e., manifestation ) and Theophany ( manifestation of God ). These are bundled, along with Christmas, differently in some eastern Christian traditions. In the Gospel of Luke 2:22–35 , Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. He was received in the arms of the elder Simeon , who then prayed, "Now let Thy servant depart (die) in peace,...for I have seen Thy salvation." This

660-465: Is seen as a first symbol of the resurrection of the faithful that will occur at the Second Coming of Christ. The event is normally called the "Dormition", though there are many Orthodox Churches with the name "Assumption". In Greek, "Dormition" is "Kimisis" (Coemesis) -- falling asleep in death—from which the word " cemetery " derives. Circumcision of Christ The circumcision of Jesus

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720-662: Is still celebrated by Old Catholics and also by traditionalist Catholics who worship according to the classical Roman Rite (that follows the General Roman Calendar promulgated in 1962). It was for many centuries combined on January 1 with the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus , before the two were separated, and now that the Feast of the Circumcision has disappeared as such from the official Catholic calendar,

780-425: Is that alabaster-box which Mary the sinner procured, and poured forth the ointment out of it upon the head and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wiped it off with the hairs of her head". The circumcision controversy in early Christianity was resolved in the 1st century, so that non-Jewish Christians were not obliged to be circumcised. Saint Paul , the leading proponent of this position, discouraged circumcision as

840-631: The Life of the Virgin . This reflected what had by then become, and remains, standard Jewish practice, where the ceremony is performed in the synagogue and the baby is held by the seated rabbi as the mohel performs the operation. Such an arrangement is seen in a miniature from a German Pentateuch in Hebrew from about 1300, showing the Circumcision of Isaac . Other depictions show the baby held by Mary or Joseph, or both. Many show another baby in

900-663: The Madonna and Child and other scenes of Christ's childhood, and also a foreshadowing of Christ's Passion to come in the context of the Circumcision . Having borrowed the large architectural setting in the Temple of the Presentation , later scenes may show the high priest alone holding the baby, as he or a mohel performs the operation, as in the St Wolfgang altarpiece by Michael Pacher (1481), or Dürer's painting (right) and his influential woodcut from his series on

960-540: The Circumcision of Christ in a similar vein, with the baby not held by his parents and the officiating Jewish officials given stereotypic features. In at least one manuscript miniature women are shown performing the rite, which has been interpreted as a misogynistic trope, with circumcision represented as a form of emasculation. By the 15th century the scene was often prominent in large polyptych altarpieces with many scenes in Northern Europe, and began to be

1020-525: The Eastern Orthodox Church , the feast of the death and Resurrection of Jesus , called Pascha (Easter), is the greatest of all holy days and as such it is called the "feast of feasts". Immediately below it in importance, there is a group of Twelve Great Feasts (Greek: Δωδεκάορτον). Together with Pascha, these are the most significant dates on the Orthodox liturgical calendar. Eight of the great feasts are in honor of Jesus Christ , while

1080-480: The Feast of the Circumcision , which was formerly marked by the Roman Catholic Church around the world on January 1 each year, and is now renamed as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The practice ended, however, when thieves stole the jewel-encrusted case, contents and all. Following this theft, it is unclear whether any purported Holy Prepuces still exist. Other philosophers contended that with

1140-638: The Holy Prepuce , the foreskin of Jesus, have surfaced. Luke's account of Jesus's circumcision is extremely short, particularly compared to Paul the Apostle 's much fuller description of his own circumcision in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Philippians . This led theologians Friedrich Schleiermacher and David Strauss to speculate that the author of the Gospel of Luke might have assumed

1200-525: The Holy Spirit descended upon them in the form of "cloven tongues of fire", with the sound of a rushing mighty wind, and they began to speak in languages that they did not know. There were many visitors from the Jewish diaspora to Jerusalem at that time for the Jewish observance of the feast, and they were astonished to hear these untaught fishermen speaking praises to God in their alien tongues ( Acts of

1260-648: The Immaculate Conception also recognizes that Mary was in need of salvation, viewing her as prevented from falling into the scar of sin, instead of being pulled up out of it. Orthodox thought does vary on whether Mary actually ever sinned, though there is general agreement that she was cleansed from sin at the Annunciation . The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (also called the Elevation of the Cross) commemorates

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1320-629: The Nativity of St. John the Baptist (24 June [ O.S. 7 July]), the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June [ O.S. 12 July]), the Beheading of St John the Baptist (29 August [ O.S. 11 September]), and the Intercession of the Theotokos (1 October [ O.S. 14 October]). In Byzantine art a slightly different group were often depicted as

1380-604: The 6th century. Thus eleven of the twelve feasts were celebrated in the Greek East for some time prior, as most of the hymnographic content is datable to the 5th century. Besides the Twelve Great Feasts, the Orthodox Church knows five other feasts that rank as great feasts, yet without being numbered among the twelve. They are: the Circumcision of Christ (1 January [ O.S. 14 January]),

1440-602: The Afterfeast (if two canons were chanted on the day of the feast, they will be alternated on the days of the afterfeast). Most of these Great Feasts also have a day or more of preparation called a Forefeast (most Feasts that are on the moveable Paschal Cycle do not have Forefeasts). Forefeasts and Afterfeasts will affect the structure of the services during the Canonical Hours . Some of the Great Feasts of

1500-529: The Apostles 2:1–11 ). Jesus had gone with his disciples (later called apostles ) Peter , James , and John (also called John the Evangelist ) to Mount Tabor . Christ's appearance was changed while they watched into a glorious radiant figure. There appeared Elijah and Moses , speaking with Jesus. The disciples were amazed and terribly afraid. This event shows forth the divinity of Christ, so that

1560-459: The Circumcision of our Lord" is a Christian celebration of the circumcision, eight days (according to the Semitic and southern European calculation of intervals of days) after his birth , the occasion on which the child was formally given his name, Jesus, a name derived from Hebrew meaning "salvation" or "saviour". It is first recorded from a church council held at Tours in 567, although it

1620-577: The Father ( Nicene Creed ). While the disciples were still looking into the air for Jesus, an angel appeared and told them that the Lord would return again in the same manner as they had seen him go into heaven ( Acts of the Apostles 1:9–11 ). Fifty days after the Resurrection, on the existing Jewish feast of Shavuot , while the disciples and many other followers of Jesus were gathered together to pray,

1680-592: The Holy Name of Jesus ) and virtually all Lutheran churches. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote several cantatas for this Feast, "Beschneidung des Herrn" ("Circumcision of the Lord"), including Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190 , for 1 January 1724 in Leipzig. It finds no place in the present Roman Calendar of the new form of the Roman Rite, replaced on 1 January by the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God , but

1740-708: The Lord have a special canon composed of only three odes, called a Triodion , which is usually chanted at Compline on each day of the Forefeast. (However, the Triodion of the Forefeast of the Transfiguration is said at Matins .) The last day of an Afterfeast is called the Apodosis ( Ancient Greek for "leave-taking", lit. "giving-back") of the Feast. On the Apodosis, most of the hymns that were chanted on

1800-710: The Twelve Great Feasts (i.e., Great Feasts of the Lord or Theotokos). The Feast of the Procession of the Cross (August 1), though it is not counted as a Great Feast, has one day of Forefeast, and no Afterfeast. Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: In

1860-603: The art of the Western church, and increasingly rare in Orthodox art. Various themes in theological exegesis of the event influenced the treatment in art. As the first drawing of Christ's blood, it was also seen as a forerunner of, or even the first scene of, the Passion of Christ , and was one of the Seven Sorrows of Mary . Other interpretations developed based on it as the naming ceremony equivalent to Christian baptism ,

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1920-675: The aspect which was eventually to become most prominent in Catholic thinking. Both in this respect and in terms of finding a place in a pictorial cycle, consideration of the circumcision put it in a kind of competition with the much better established Presentation of Jesus ; eventually the two scenes were to be conflated in some paintings. An influential book by Leo Steinberg , The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (1983, 2nd edition 1996), explores

1980-524: The background, presumably the next in the queue. Other late medieval and Renaissance depictions of circumcision in general show antipathy towards Judaism; caricatures show the procedure as being grotesquely cruel and the mohel as a threatening figure; Martin Luther 's anti-Judaic treatise of 1543, On the Jews and Their Lies , devotes many pages to circumcision. Some late-medieval German depictions depict

2040-404: The circumcision to be historical fact, or might have been relating it as recalled by someone else. In addition to the canonical account in the Gospel of Luke, the apocryphal Arabic Infancy Gospel contains the first reference to the survival of Christ's severed foreskin. The second chapter has the following story: "And when the time of his circumcision was come, namely, the eighth day, on which

2100-487: The connection made by theologians with baptism. A painting (1661, National Gallery of Art, Washington ) and an etching (1654) by Rembrandt are both unusual in showing the ceremony taking place in a stable. By this period large depictions were rarer in Catholic art, not least because the interpretation of the decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563 discouraged nudity in religious art, even that of

2160-559: The disciples would understand after his Ascension that He was truly the radiant splendor of the Father, and that his Passion was voluntary. Gospel of Mark 9:2–9 The Orthodox feast of the Dormition is analogous to what Roman Catholicism calls the Assumption of Mary . According to Orthodox Tradition, Mary died like all humanity, "falling asleep", so to speak, as the name of the feast indicates. (Catholic theologians are divided on

2220-441: The explicit depiction of Christ's penis in art, which he argues became a new focus of attention in late medieval art, initially covered only by a transparent veil in the early 14th century, and by the second half of the century completely uncovered, and often being the subject of the gaze or gestures of other figures in the scene. This emphasis is, among other things, a demonstration of Christ's humanity when it appears in depictions of

2280-720: The first day of the Feast are repeated. On the Apodosis of Feasts of the Theotokos , the Epistle and Gospel from the day of the Feast are repeated again at the Divine Liturgy . For the Annunciation, the Meeting, and Palm Sunday, the Apodosis may be celebrated for part of a day, at Vespers , the remaining services of the day in question falling outside the festal period. This is indicated in the table below as 1 ⁄ 2

2340-539: The infant Jesus, which made depicting the scene difficult. Even before this, 16th-century depictions like those of Bellini, Dürer and Signorelli tended to discreetly hide Jesus's penis from view, in contrast to earlier compositions, where this evidence of his humanity is clearly displayed. Poems on the subject included John Milton 's Upon the Circumcision and his contemporary Richard Crashaw 's Our Lord in His Circumcision to His Father , which both expounded

2400-471: The issue of whether Mary died. Today most would favor an actual death before the Assumption.) The Apostles were miraculously summoned to this event, and all were present except Thomas when Mary passed from this life. She was buried. Thomas arrived three days later, and desiring to see her one more time, convinced the other apostles to open her tomb. To their surprise, her body was not there. This event

2460-421: The law commanded the child to be circumcised, they circumcised him in a cave. And the old Hebrew woman took the foreskin (others say she took the navel-string), and preserved it in an alabaster -box of old oil of spikenard . And she had a son who was a druggist, to whom she said, "Take heed thou sell not this alabaster box of spikenard-ointment, although thou shouldst be offered three hundred pence for it. Now this

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2520-521: The main scene on the central panel in some cases, usually when commissioned by lay confraternities dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus , which were found in many cities. These often included donor portraits of members, though none are obvious in Luca Signorelli 's Circumcision of Christ commissioned by the confraternity at Volterra . The devotion to the Holy Name was a strong feature of

2580-488: The main subject in an altarpiece . The event is celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision in the Eastern Orthodox Church on 1 January in whichever calendar is used, and is also celebrated on the same day by many Anglicans . It is celebrated by Roman Catholics as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus , in recent years on 3 January as an Optional Memorial , though it was for long celebrated on 1 January, as some other churches still do. A number of relics claiming to be

2640-576: The other feast may be regarded as celebrating this too. At various points in history, relics purporting to be the holy prepuce , the foreskin of Christ, have surfaced and various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it. A number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess Jesus' foreskin, sometimes at the same time. The best known was in the Lateran Basilica in Rome, whose authenticity

2700-604: The other four are dedicated to the Virgin Mary —the Theotokos . The Twelve Great Feasts are as follows (note that the liturgical year begins with the month of September): With the exception of the Presentation/Entrance of the Theotokos, appointed hymns for all of the Twelve Great Feasts are found in the Georgian Iadgari (Chantbook) of Jerusalem which was compiled in approximately the middle of

2760-550: The prophet of the Presentation, regarded by then as a High Priest of the Temple, performing the operation on Jesus held by Mary. In other depictions he is a figure in the background, sometimes holding up his hands and looking to heaven, as in the Signorelli. An altarpiece of 1500 by another Venetian painter, Marco Marziale (National Gallery, London), is a thoroughgoing conflation of the Circumcision and Presentation, with

2820-525: The realization that very sad events are soon to come. Among the Russian Orthodox, willow branches are substituted in the celebration of this event, owing to the lack of availability of palm trees in Slavic climes. Forty days after the Resurrection, while blessing His disciples ( Gospel of Luke 24:50–51 ), Christ ascended into heaven ( Gospel of Mark 16:19 ), taking His place at the right hand of

2880-421: The recovery of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The Persians had captured it as a prize of war in Jerusalem in the year 614, and it was recovered by the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire ("Byzantine Empire") in 629. The cross was joyously held up for veneration by the Christian faithful upon its recovery. According to Tradition, Mary was taken— presented —to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as

2940-433: The suffering of Jesus as a demonstration of his humanity and a foreshadowing of his Passion. These themes were continued by Protestant theologians like Jeremy Taylor , who in a treatise of 1657 argued that Jesus's circumcision proved his human nature while fulfilling the law of Moses. Taylor also notes that had Jesus been uncircumcised, it would have made Jews substantially less receptive to his Evangelism . The "Feast of

3000-509: The text of Simeon's prophecy, the Nunc dimittis , shown as if in mosaic on the vaults of the temple setting. There were a number of comparable works, some commissioned in circumstances where it is clear that the iconography would have had to pass learned scrutiny, so the conflation was evidently capable of theological approval, although some complaints are also recorded. The scene was often included in Protestant art, where this included narrative scenes. It appears on baptismal fonts because of

3060-408: The theatrical and extremely popular preaching of Saint Bernardino of Siena , who adopted Christ's IHS monogram as his personal emblem , which was also used by the Jesuits ; this often appears in paintings, as may a scroll held by an angel reading Vocatum est nomen eius Jesum . A smaller composition in a horizontal format originated with the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini in about 1500 and

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3120-450: The traditional symbolism. The circumcision of Jesus has traditionally been seen, as explained in the popular 14th-century work the Golden Legend , as the first time the blood of Christ was shed, and thus the beginning of the process of the redemption of man , and a demonstration that Christ was fully human , and of his obedience to Biblical law . Medieval and Renaissance theologians repeatedly stressed this, also drawing attention to

3180-400: The very end of the period, although literary references suggest it was sometimes depicted. One of the earliest depictions to survive is a miniature in an important Byzantine illuminated manuscript of 979–984, the Menologion of Basil II in the Vatican Library . This has a scene which shows Mary and Joseph holding the baby Jesus outside a building, probably the Temple of Jerusalem , as

3240-408: The very rare scenes (in Christian art) of the circumcisions of Isaac and Samson . Like most later depictions these are shown taking place in a large building, probably representing the Temple, though in fact the ceremony was never performed there. Medieval pilgrims to the Holy Land were told Jesus had been circumcised in the church at Bethlehem . The scene gradually became increasingly common in

3300-409: Was clearly already long-established. The feast day appears on 1 January in the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church . It also appears in the pre-1960 General Roman Calendar and is celebrated by churches of the Anglican Communion (though in many revised Anglican calendars, such as the 1979 calendar of the Episcopal Church , there is a tendency toward associating the day more with

3360-435: Was conceived at that time "by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary", as stated in the Nicene Creed . A mere few days before His brutal crucifixion , Jesus was received by adoring throngs at his entry into Jerusalem on the back of young donkey ( Gospel of Matthew 21:1–11 ). The crowds threw palm branches in his path in jubilation, and even the children shouted praises to Him. The Orthodox celebrate this day with joy, but with

3420-424: Was confirmed by a vision of Saint Bridget of Sweden . In its gold reliquary, it was looted in the Sack of Rome in 1527, but eventually recovered. Most of the Holy Prepuces were lost or destroyed during the Reformation and the French Revolution . The Prepuce of Calcata is noteworthy, as the reliquary containing the Holy Foreskin was paraded through the streets of this Italian village as recently as 1983 on

3480-442: Was extremely popular, with at least 34 copies or versions being produced over the following decades; the nearest to a prime version is in the National Gallery, London , though attributed to his workshop. These appear to have been commissioned for homes, possibly as votive offerings for the safe birth of an eldest son, although the reason for their popularity remains unclear. They followed some other depictions in showing Simeon ,

3540-457: Was one of the things that Mary "pondered in her heart"—the fact that others recognized that her Son was the Messiah . This feast is also known as the Meeting of the Lord , or Hypapante . According to the Gospel of Luke 1:26–38 , the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce to her that she would conceive and bear a son, even though she "knew no man." This date is selected to be exactly nine months ahead of Christmas, indicating that Christ

3600-484: Was preserved from the ancestral sin that befalls us all as descendants of Adam and Eve , in anticipation of her giving birth to the sinless Christ. The Orthodox believe that Mary, and indeed all mankind, was born only to suffer the consequences of the ancestral sin (being born into a corrupt world surrounded by temptations to sin), the chief of which was the enslavement to Death, and thus needed salvation from this enslavement, like all mankind. The Roman Catholic doctrine of

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