IX
(p. [182])
The Greek Ecclesiastical Year
The Greek ecclesiastical year begins not with Advent but with Easter, or rather with the season preparatory to Easter, i.e. according to our phraseology, with Septuagesima Sunday.[864]
Κυριακὴ τοῦ τελώνου καὶ φαρισαίου. The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee; so called on account of the Gospel for the day, St Luke xviii. 9-14.
Κυριακὴ τοῦ ἀσώτου or προσφωνήσιμος. The Sunday of the Prodigal Son, the Gospel being St Luke xv. 11-32.
Κυριακὴ ἀπόκρεως,[865] corresponds with Septuagesima Sunday of the Latins, and is called Abstinence Sunday because with it Lent with its abstinence from flesh-meat commences. The week following is called Butter-Week by the Russians, because the use of lacticinia is still permitted. The Gospel, St Matthew xxv. 31-46, refers to Christ’s return at the last judgment. On this account, the Sunday is also called κυριακὴ τῆς παρουσίας.
Κυριακὴ τῆς τυροφάγου. Sunday of Cheese-Eating, because from henceforth the use of lacticinia is also forbidden (Sexagesima of the Latins).
Κυριακὴ πρὼτη τῶν νηστειῶν ἢτοι ὀρθοδοξίας. The first Sunday in Lent, called Orthodox Sunday in memory of the conclusion of the iconoclastic controversy (corresponding to Quinquagesima).
Κυριακὴ δευτέρα, τρίτη, τετάρτη, πέμπτη τῶν νηστειῶν. The second to the fifth Sundays in Lent, corresponding to the first to the fourth of the Latins.
Κυριακὴ τῶν βαΐων: Palm Sunday from βαΐς a palm.
Ἡ ἁγία καὶ μεγάλη πέμπτη: Maundy Thursday.
Ἡ ἁγία καὶ μεγάλη παρασκευή: Good Friday.
Τὸ ἅγιον καὶ μέγα σάββατον: Holy Saturday.
Ἡ ἁγία καὶ μεγάλη κυριακὴ τοῦ πάσχα: Easter Day; ἡ ἕβδομας διακαινήσιμος, i.e., the Week of Renewing, Easter Week.
Κυριακὴ τοῦ ἀντιπάσχα καινή: Whitsunday, called also νέα κυριακὴ τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου Θωμᾶ, as the Gospel relates St Thomas’s unbelief, St John xx. 19 seqq. At the end of mass blessed bread is distributed to the people.
Κυριακὴ τῶν ἁγίων μυροφόρων γυναικῶν καὶ Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ δικαίου: the Sunday of the Women who brought incense and Joseph the Just. See St Mark xvi. 1-7; St Luke xxiv. 1-10.
Κυριακὴ τοῦ παραλύτου: the Sunday of the palsied man. See Acts ix. 32 seqq.
Κυριακὴ τῆς Σαμαρείτιδας or Μεσηπεντηκοστῆς: the Sunday of the Samaritan woman, from the Gospel St John iv. 1-42.
Κυριακὴ τοῦ τυφλοῦ: the Sunday of the man born blind; the Sunday before the Ascension.
Τῇ πεμπτῇ τῆς Ἀναλήψεως with the following week, ἕβδομας άναλήψιμος.
Κυριακὴ τῶν ἁγίων 318 θεοφόρων πατέρων τῶν ἐν Νικαίᾳ συνελθέντων, dedicated to the commemoration of the first general council; the Sunday after Christ’s Ascension.
Κυριακὴ τῆς ἁγίας πεντηκοστῆς, Whitsunday.
Κυριακὴ τῶν ἁγίων πάντων: our Trinity Sunday is among the Greeks kept as the festival of All Saints, and is preceded by a fast. From this onwards until the exaltation of the Holy Cross, the 14th September, the gospels for the Sundays are taken from St Matthew. Hence the sixteen following Sundays are called Matthew-Sundays.
Κυριακὴ δευτέρα to δεκάτη τετάρτη τοῦ Ματθαίου.
Κυριακὴ πρὸ τῆς ὑψώσεως: Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (the 15th after Matthew).
Κυριακὴ μετὰ τὴν ὕψωσιν: Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (the 16th after Matthew).
Κυριακὴ πρώτη τοῦ Λουκᾶ to κυριακὴ δωδεκάτη τοῦ Λουκᾶ, also called the Sunday of the Holy Patriarchs (τῶν προπατόρων).
Κυριακὴ πρὸ τὴς Χριστοῦ γεννήσεως: the Sunday before Christmas, also called the Sunday of all the Holy Fathers.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ γέννησις: Christmas.
Κυριακὴ μετὰ τὴν Χριστοῦ γέννησιν: Sunday after Christmas.
Ἡ τοῦ κυρίου περιτομή: the Circumcision.
Κυριακὴ πρὸ τῶν φώτων: the Sunday of Lights. See above, [page 168]. The Sunday before Epiphany. Among the Latins a dominica vacans.
The remaining four Sundays of the Greek ecclesiastical year serve to fill up the inequality due to Easter falling earlier or later, in the same manner as in the Latin rite. One, two, or all four of them, as occasion requires, are inserted after Epiphany. They are the Sundays (1) κυριακὴ μετὰ τὰ φῶτα, the first after Epiphany, which is pressed into use when Easter falls in March; (2) the twelfth Sunday after St Luke; (3) the fifteenth after St Luke (the two Sundays in the Christmas season are reckoned as the thirteenth and fourteenth after St Luke since their gospels are taken from that evangelist); (4) the seventeenth Sunday after St Matthew. All four are required when Easter falls on the 22-25 April. In this way the gaps between the end of the old ecclesiastical year and the beginning of the new are filled up.
As far as the immovable feasts are concerned, the Greeks divide all feasts, both movable and immovable, into four classes. The first and highest class contains: Christmas, Epiphany (6th January), Candlemas (2nd February, ὑπαπάντη τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν), the Annunciation (ὁ εύαγγελισμός), Easter, Palm Sunday, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Transfiguration, the Assumption (ἡ κοίμησις, 15th August), our Lady’s Nativity (8th September), the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14th September), and the Presentatio B.M.V. (21st November).
Somewhat lower in rank are the Circumcisio, Nativitas S. Joannis Bapt. (24th June), SS. Peter and Paul (29th June), and the Decollatio S. Joannis Bapt. (29th August). It is not necessary here to enumerate the remaining feasts.