basilica.ro

Great and Holy Thursday (Matins); Martyr Eupsychius of Caesarea; Saint Vadim

Orthodox Calendar, April 9 Great and Holy Thursday Two events shape the liturgy of Great and Holy Thursday: the Last Supper of Christ with His disciples, and the betrayal of Judas. The meaning of both is in love. The Last Supper is the ultimate revelation of God’s redeeming love for man, of love as the…

Apr 9, 2026basilica.ro

Great and Holy Wednesday (Matins); Apostle Herodion of the Seventy, and those with Him; Saint Celestine, Pope of Rome

Orthodox Calendar, April 8 Great and Holy Wednesday On Great and Holy Wednesday, the hymns of the Bridegroom Service remind us of the sinful woman who poured precious ointment on Christ’s head at Simon the leper’s house (Mt. 26:7). The disciples complained about the wasteful extravagance, for the myrrh could have been sold and the…

Apr 8, 2026basilica.ro

Great and Holy Tuesday (Matins); Martyr Calliopius; St. George the Confessor the Bishop of Mytilene

Orthodox Calendar, April 7 Great and Holy Tuesday Great and Holy Tuesday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – these three days, which the Church calls Great and Holy have within the liturgical development of the Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations in the perspective of End Times; they remind us of the…

Apr 7, 2026basilica.ro

Great and Holy Monday (Matins); Hieromartyr Irenaeus, bishop of Sirmium; Holy Hierarch Eutychios, patriarch of Constantinople; Ven. Gregory of Sinai and Platonida

Orthodox Calendar, April 6 Great and Holy Monday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – these three days, which the Church calls Great and Holy have within the liturgical development of the Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations in the perspective of End Times; they remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha.…

Apr 6, 2026basilica.ro

Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer, George of Maleon and Zosimas (Lazarus Saturday; Commemoration of the departed)

Orthodox Calendar, April 4 Saint Joseph the Hymnographer  The sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church was born in Sicily in 816 into a pious Christian family. His parents, Plotinos and Agatha, moved to the Peloponnesos to save themselves from barbarian invasions. When he was fifteen, Saint Joseph went to Thessalonica and entered the monastery of Latomos. He…

Apr 4, 2026basilica.ro

Venerable Nicetas the Confessor and Illyricus

Orthodox Calendar, April 3 Venerable Nicetas the Confessor and Illyricus Saint Nicetas the Confessor was born in Bithynian Caesarea (northwest Asia Minor) of a pious family. His mother died eight days after his birth, and his father Philaretos became a monk. The child remained in the care of his grandmother, who raised him in a…

Apr 3, 2026basilica.ro

Ven. Titus the Wonderworker; Martyrs Amphianus & Edesius

Orthodox Calendar, April 2 Saint Titus the Wonderworker He displayed zeal for the monastic life from his youth. He pursued asceticism in the ninth century at the Studion monastery near Constantinople. By his deeds of fasting, purity of life and mild disposition, Saint Titus gained the love of the brethren, and at their request he…

Apr 2, 2026basilica.ro

St Mary of Egypt; Martyr Gerontius; Venerable Makarios, Igoumen of Pelēketḗ; Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina

Orthodox Calendar, April 1 St Mary of Egypt Saint Zosimas was a monk at a certain Palestinian monastery on the outskirts of Caesarea. Having dwelt at the monastery since his childhood, he lived there in asceticism until he reached the age of fifty-three. Then he was disturbed by the thought that he had attained perfection,…

Apr 1, 2026basilica.ro

St. Hypatius the Wonderworker and Bishop of Gangra. Martyr Benjamin the Deacon

Orthodox Calendar, March 31 St. Hypatius the Wonderworker and Bishop of Gangra Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra, was bishop of the city of Gangra in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor). In the year 325 he participated in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea, at which the heresy of Arius was anathematized. When Saint Hypatius was returning in…

Mar 31, 2026basilica.ro

Venerable John Climacus; St. Euboula, the Mother of St. Panteleimon

Orthodox Calendar, March 30 Venerable John Climacus Saint John of the Ladder is honored by Holy Church as a great ascetic and author of the renowned spiritual book called “The Ladder”, from which he is also called “of the Ladder” (Climacus). There is almost no information about Saint John’s origins. One tradition suggests that he…

Mar 30, 2026basilica.ro

Hieromartyrs Mark the Bishop of Arethusa, Cyril the Deacon; Martyrs Ionas and Varahisios; Saint Diadochos of Photiki; 5th Sunday of Great Lent (St Mary of Egypt)

Orthodox calendar, March 29 Hieromartyr Mark, Bishop of Arethusa Hieromartyr Mark, Bishop of Arethusa, suffered for his faith in Christ under the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). By order of the emperor Constantine (May 21), Saint Mark had once destroyed a pagan temple and built a Christian church. When Julian came to the throne, he…

Mar 29, 2026basilica.ro