Epiphany or Epiphany is one of the most important twelve holidays of Orthodoxy. Read all about the history of this event in the article!

Epiphany, or Epiphany - January 19, 2019

What holiday is it?

Forefeast of Epiphany

Since ancient times, Epiphany has been one of the great twelve holidays. Even in the Apostolic Constitutions (Book 5, Chapter 12) it is commanded: “Let you have great respect for the day on which the Lord revealed the Divinity to us.” This holiday in the Orthodox Church is celebrated with equal grandeur as the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Both of these holidays, connected by “Christmastide” (from December 25 to January 6), constitute, as it were, one celebration. Almost immediately after the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ (from January 2), the Church begins to prepare us for the solemn feast of the Epiphany of the Lord with stichera and troparions (at Vespers), three songs (at Compline) and canons (at Matins) specially dedicated to the upcoming holiday, and church hymns in The honor of the Epiphany has been heard since January 1: at Matins of the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, the irmos of the canons of the Epiphany are sung: “He opened the depths, there is a bottom...” and “A stormy storm is moving in the sea...”. With its sacred memories, following from Bethlehem to the Jordan and commemorating the events of Baptism, the Church in the pre-festive stichera calls on the faithful:
“We will go from Bethlehem to the Jordan, for there the Light is already beginning to illuminate those who are in darkness.” The coming Saturday and Sunday before Epiphany are called Saturday and the Week before Epiphany (or Enlightenment).

Eve of Epiphany

The eve of the holiday - January 5 - is called the Eve of Epiphany, or Christmas Eve. The services of the Vigil and the holiday itself are in many ways similar to the service of the Vigil and the Feast of the Nativity of Christ.

On the Eve of Epiphany on January 5 (as well as on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ), the Church prescribes strict fasting: eating food once after the blessing of water. If the Vespers happen on Saturday and Sunday, the fast is made easier: instead of once, eating food is allowed twice - after the liturgy and after the blessing of water. If the reading of the Great Hours from the Vespers, which happened on Saturday or Sunday, is postponed to Friday, then there is no fasting on that Friday.

Features of the service on the Eve of the holiday

On all weekdays (except Saturday and Sunday), the service of the Vesper of Epiphany consists of the Great Hours, Fine Hours and Vespers with the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great; After the liturgy (after the prayer behind the pulpit), the water is blessed. If Christmas Eve happens on Saturday or Sunday, then the Great Hours take place on Friday, and there is no liturgy on that Friday; the liturgy of St. Basil the Great is moved to the day of the holiday. On the very day of Christmas Eve, the liturgy of St. St. John Chrysostom occurs in due time, followed by Vespers and after it the Blessing of Water.

The Great Hours of the Epiphany and their contents

The troparia point to the division of the waters of the Jordan by Elisha with the mantle of the prophet Elijah as a prototype of the true Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, by which the watery nature was sanctified and during which the Jordan stopped its natural flow. The last troparion describes the tremulous feeling of Saint John the Baptist when the Lord came to him to be baptized. In the parimia of the 1st hour, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, the Church proclaims the spiritual renewal of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (Is. 25).

The Apostle and the Gospel proclaim the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, who testified to the eternal and Divine greatness of Christ (Acts 13:25-32; Matt. 3:1-11). At the 3rd hour, in special psalms - 28 and 41 - the prophet depicts the power and authority of the baptized Lord over water and all the elements of the world: “The voice of the Lord is on the waters: the God of glory will roar, the Lord on many waters. The voice of the Lord in the fortress; The voice of the Lord is in splendor...” These psalms are also joined by the usual 50th psalm. The troparia of the hour reveal the experiences of John the Baptist - awe and fear at the Baptism of the Lord - and the manifestation in this great event of the mystery of the Trinity of the Divinity. In parimia we hear the voice of the prophet Isaiah, foreshadowing spiritual rebirth through baptism and Calling for the acceptance of this sacrament: “Wash yourself, and you will be clean” (Is. 1: 16-20).

The Apostle talks about the difference between the baptism of John and the baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:1-8), and the Gospel talks about the Forerunner who prepared the way for the Lord (Mark 1:1-3). At the 6th hour, in Psalms 73 and 76, King David prophetically depicts the Divine greatness and omnipotence of the One who came to be baptized in the form of a servant: “Who is a great God like our God? You are God, work miracles. You saw the waters, O God, and you were afraid: the abyss was crushed.”

The usual 90th psalm of the hour is also added. The troparia contain the Lord’s answer to the Baptist to his bewilderment about Christ’s self-abasement and indicate the fulfillment of the Psalmist’s prophecy that the Jordan River stops its waters when the Lord enters it for Baptism. The parimia talks about how the prophet Isaiah contemplates the grace of salvation in the waters of baptism and calls on believers to assimilate it: “Draw up water with joy from the source of fear” (Is. 12).

The Apostle encourages those baptized into Christ Jesus to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-12). The Gospel preaches about the appearance of the Holy Trinity at the Baptism of the Savior, about His forty-day labor in the desert and the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel (Mark 1:9-15). At the 9th hour, in Psalms 92 and 113, the prophet proclaims the royal greatness and omnipotence of the baptized Lord. The third psalm of the hour is the usual 85th. With the words of parimia, the prophet Isaiah depicts the inexpressible mercy of God towards people and the gracious help for them revealed in Baptism (Is. 49: 8-15). The Apostle announces the manifestation of the grace of God, “saving for all men,” and the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit on believers (Tit. 2, 11-14; 3, 4-7). The Gospel tells about the Baptism of the Savior and the Epiphany (Matthew 3:13-17).

Vespers on the day of the Vespers of the holiday

Vespers on the Vespers of the Feast of the Epiphany is similar to what happens on the Vespers of the Nativity of Christ: entrance with the Gospel, reading of parimia, Apostle, Gospel, etc., but the parimia at Vespers of the Epiphany Vigil is read not on 8, but on 13.
After the first three paremias to the troparion and verses of prophecy, the singers chorus: “May you enlighten those who sit in darkness: Lover of mankind, glory to Thee.” After the 6th parimia - the chorus to the troparion and verses: “Where would Your light shine, only on those who sit in darkness, glory to You.”
If on the Eve of Epiphany Vespers is combined with the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), then after the reading of the proverbs there follows a small litany with the exclamation: “For art thou holy, our God...”, then the Trisagion and other sequences of the liturgy are sung. At Vespers, performed separately after the liturgy (on Saturday and Sunday), the parimia, the small litany and the exclamation: “For thou art holy...” are followed by the prokeimenon: “The Lord is my enlightenment...”, Apostle (Cor., part 143) and the Gospel (Luke, 9th).
After this - the litany “Rtsem all...” and so on.

Great Blessing of Water

The Church renews the memory of the Jordan event with a special rite of the great consecration of water. On the Eve of the holiday, the great consecration of water occurs after the prayer behind the pulpit (if the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is being celebrated). And if Vespers is celebrated separately, without connection with the liturgy, the consecration of the water occurs at the end of Vespers, after the exclamation: “Be the power...”. The priest, through the royal doors, while singing the troparia “The Voice of the Lord on the Waters...” comes out to the vessels filled with water, carrying the Honorable Cross on his head, and the consecration of the water begins.

The blessing of water also takes place on the holiday itself after the liturgy (also after the prayer behind the pulpit).

The Orthodox Church has been performing the great consecration of water on Vespers and on the holiday itself since ancient times, and the grace of consecrating water on these two days is always the same. At the Forever, the consecration of water was performed in remembrance of the Baptism of the Lord, which sanctified the watery nature, as well as the baptism of the orphans, which in ancient times was performed at the Forever of Epiphany (Lent. Apost., book 5, chapter 13; historians: Theodoret, Nicephorus Callistus). On the holiday itself, the consecration of water occurs in memory of the actual event of the Baptism of the Savior. The blessing of water on the holiday itself began in the Jerusalem Church in the 4th - 5th centuries. took place only in it alone, where there was a custom of going out to the Jordan River for the blessing of water in memory of the Baptism of the Savior. Therefore, in the Russian Orthodox Church, the blessing of water on Vecherie is performed in churches, and on the holiday itself it is usually performed on rivers, springs and wells (the so-called “Walk to the Jordan”), for Christ was baptized outside the temple.

The great consecration of water began in the early times of Christianity, following the example of the Lord Himself, who sanctified the waters by His immersion in them and established the sacrament of Baptism, in which the consecration of water has been taking place since ancient times. The rite of blessing of water is attributed to the Evangelist Matthew. Several prayers for this rite were written by St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople. The final execution of the rite is attributed to St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. The blessing of water on the holiday is already mentioned by the teacher of the Church Tertullian and St. Cyprian of Carthage. The Apostolic Decrees also contain prayers said during the blessing of water. So, in the book. The 8th says: “The priest will call on the Lord and say: “And now sanctify this water, and give it grace and strength.”

St. Basil the Great writes: “According to what scripture do we bless the water of baptism? - From Apostolic tradition, by succession in secret" (91st canon).

In the second half of the 10th century, Patriarch of Antioch Peter Foulon introduced the custom of consecrating water not at midnight, but on the Eve of Epiphany. In the Russian Church, the Moscow Council of 1667 decided to perform double blessing of water - on Vespers and on the very feast of Epiphany and condemned Patriarch Nikon, who prohibited double blessing of water. The sequence of the great consecration of water both at Vespers and on the holiday itself is the same and in some parts is similar to the sequence of the small consecration of water. It consists of remembering the prophecies relating to the event of Baptism (parimia), the event itself (the Apostle and the Gospel) and its meaning (litany and prayers), invoking the blessing of God on the waters and immersing the Life-giving Cross of the Lord in them three times.

In practice, the rite of water blessing is performed as follows. After the prayer behind the pulpit (at the end of the liturgy) or the petitionary litany: “Let us perform the evening prayer” (at the end of Vespers), the rector is in full vestments (as during the liturgy), and the other priests are only in the epitrachelion, shoulder straps, and the rector is carrying the Holy Cross on an uncovered chapter (usually the Cross is placed in the air). At the site of the blessing of water, the Cross is placed on a decorated table, on which there should be a bowl of water and three candles. During the singing of troparions, the rector and the deacon cense the water prepared for consecration (around the table three times), and if the water is consecrated in the church, then the altar, clergy, singers and people also cense.

At the end of the singing of the troparions, the deacon exclaims: “Wisdom,” and three parimia are read (from the book of the prophet Isaiah), which depict the gracious fruits of the Lord’s coming to earth and the spiritual joy of all who turn to the Lord and partake of the life-giving sources of salvation. Then the prokeimenon “The Lord is my enlightenment...” is sung, the Apostle and the Gospel are read. The Apostolic Reading (Cor., section 143) speaks of persons and events that in the Old Testament, during the wanderings of the Jews in the desert, were a prototype of Christ the Savior (the mysterious baptism of the Jews into Moses among the clouds and the sea, their spiritual food in desert and drinking from the spiritual stone, which was Christ). The Gospel (Mark, part 2) tells about the Baptism of the Lord.

After reading the Holy Scriptures, the deacon pronounces the great litany with special petitions. They contain prayers for the sanctification of water by the power and action of the Holy Trinity, for sending down the blessing of the Jordan on the water and giving it grace for the healing of mental and physical infirmities, for driving away all slander of visible and invisible enemies, for the sanctification of houses and for all benefits.

During the litany, the rector secretly reads a prayer for the purification and sanctification of himself: “Lord Jesus Christ...” (without exclamation). At the end of the litany, the priest (rector) loudly reads the consecration prayer: “Great art thou, O Lord, and wonderful are thy works...” (three times) and so on. In this prayer, the Church begs the Lord to come and sanctify the water so that it will receive the grace of deliverance, the blessing of the Jordan, so that it will be a source of incorruption, the resolution of ailments, the cleansing of souls and bodies, the sanctification of houses and “for all good.” In the middle of the prayer, the priest exclaims three times: “You Yourself, O Lover of Mankind, come now through the influx of Your Holy Spirit and consecrate this water,” and at the same time each time he blesses the water with his hand, but does not immerse his fingers in the water, as happens in the sacrament of Baptism. At the end of the prayer, the abbot immediately blesses the water crosswise with the Honorable Cross, holding it with both hands and immersing it three times straight (lowering it into the water and raising it), and with each immersion of the Cross he sings the troparion with the clergy (three times): “I am baptized in the Jordan, O Lord...”

After this, while the troparion is repeatedly sung by the singers, the abbot with the Cross in his left hand sprinkles a cross in all directions, and also sprinkles the temple with holy water.

Glorification of the holiday

On Vecherye, after the dismissal of Vespers or Liturgy, a lamp (not a lectern with an icon) is placed in the middle of the church, before which the clergy and choristers sing the troparion and (on “Glory, and now”) the kontakion of the holiday. The candle here means the light of Christ’s teaching, Divine enlightenment given at the Epiphany.

After this, the worshipers venerate the Cross, and the priest sprinkles each with holy water.

Ecology of life: Epiphany is one of the great twelve holidays, celebrated in honor of the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The Baptism of the Lord is celebrated no less solemnly than the Nativity of Christ. The holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany of the Lord are interconnected by Christmastide and constitute a single celebration - the Feast of Epiphany.

The Essence of the Holiday

Epiphany is one of the great twelve holidays, celebrated in honor of the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The Baptism of the Lord is celebrated no less solemnly than the Nativity of Christ. The holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany of the Lord are interconnected by Christmastide and constitute a single celebration - the Feast of Epiphany. In the unity of these holidays are all three persons of the Holy Trinity:

in the Bethlehem den the Son of God was born in the flesh;

at the baptism of the Son of God, from the open heavens “the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove” (Luke 3:22);

and a Voice was heard from Heaven proclaiming: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Divine service

The Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated in the same way as the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. The day before, the Royal Hours, the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great and the All-Night Vigil are celebrated, beginning with Great Compline.

The special feature of this Holiday is two great blessings of water.(small blessing of water can be performed at any other time). The first great blessing of water takes place on the eve of the Holiday in the temple. The second - on the very holiday in the open air on rivers, ponds, wells.

On the day of Epiphany, the rite of consecration of water is performed in an ice hole made in the form of an Orthodox cross. The first, in ancient times, was performed for the baptism of catechumens and, subsequently, was converted into remembrance of the Baptism of the Lord. The second probably came from the ancient custom of Jerusalem Christians, on the day of Epiphany, to go out to the Jordan River and here remember the baptism of the Savior. Therefore, the Epiphany procession has the name of the procession to the Jordan.

Biblical events

Jesus Christ, who returned from Egypt after the death of King Herod, grew up in the small city of Nazareth, located in Galilee. With His Most Holy Mother He stayed in this city until His thirtieth birthday, earning food for Himself and the Most Pure Virgin by carpentry.

When the thirtieth year of His earthly life was completed, that is, the time before which, according to Jewish law, no one was allowed to teach in the synagogues or take the priesthood, the time came for His appearance to the people of Israel.

But before that moment, according to the prophetic word, the Forerunner had to appear to Israel, who had the task of preparing the people of Israel to receive the Messiah, the one about whom the prophet Isaiah predicted: “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of God in the desert.” ours.”

Far from people, in the depths of the harsh Judean desert, there was a word of God to John, the son of Zechariah, a relative of the Blessed Virgin, who, while still in the womb of his mother, the righteous Elizabeth, jumped joyfully, welcoming his Savior, about whom no one in the world had yet known except Him. The Most Pure Mother, who received the gospel from the Archangel. This word of God commanded John to go out into the world preaching repentance and baptize Israel to testify to the Light, so that everyone would believe through him.

The Jews coming to John had a natural question: Isn’t he, the Savior desired by everyone, the Consolation of Israel? The Baptist answered: “He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down to untie; I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

According to the Gospel story, Jesus Christ came to John the Baptist, who was near the Jordan River in Bethabara (John 1:28), with the goal of being baptized. John, who preached a lot about the imminent coming of the Messiah, saw Jesus and was surprised and said: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” To this Jesus replied that “we must fulfill all righteousness,” and received baptism from John.

Jesus Christ had no need for this baptism, as he was sinless and immaculate, born of the Most Pure Virgin Mary and Himself, according to His divinity, the source of all purity and holiness. But, since He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, He came to the waters of the Jordan to cleanse them through baptism.

He came to be baptized in order to sanctify the watery nature with Himself, in order to give us the font of holy baptism. He also came to be baptized so that John would see the fulfillment of the word of God, who commanded him to come out of the wilderness: “On whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Baptist obeyed the word of Christ and the Jordan accepted Him into its waters, by whose command it began its course. As the Gospel tells us, after receiving baptism the Lord immediately came out of the water. Church tradition tells about this “immediately” that Saint John the Baptist immersed every person baptized by him up to the neck and held him there until he confessed all his sins. Only after this was the person allowed to come out of the water. Christ, however, did not He who had sins could not stay in the water, so he immediately left the river.

During baptism, “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove, and there was a voice from heaven, saying: You are My Beloved Son; I am well pleased with you!” (Luke 3:21-22).

After his baptism, Jesus Christ, led by the Spirit, withdrew into the desert in order to prepare in solitude, prayer and fasting to fulfill the mission with which he came to Earth. Jesus Christ for forty days “was tempted by the devil and did not eat anything during those days, but at the end of them he was hungry” (Luke 4:2). Then the devil approached him and, with three seductions, tried to tempt him to sin, like any other person.

Location of Holy Baptism

The place where John the Baptist preached and baptized, according to church tradition, was called Bethavara (the area beyond the Jordan, where there was a river crossing, which explains the name of the city - the house of the crossing.

The exact location of Bethawara, possibly Beit Awara, is uncertain. Since the 16th century, it has been considered the place where the Greek monastery of St. John the Baptist is now located, a kilometer from modern Beit Avara, about 10 km east of Jericho and 5 kilometers from the confluence of the Jordan River into the Dead Sea. Already in the time of King David, a ferry was built here, and in the 19th century this place was called the “Pilgrimage Ford”, because of the many pilgrims who flocked here to bathe in the waters of the Jordan.

It was along this path, 12 centuries before the Nativity of the Savior, that ancient Israel, led by Joshua, entered the Promised Land. Here, a thousand years before the Incarnation, King David crossed the Jordan, fleeing from his own son Absalom, who rebelled against him. In the same place, the prophets Elijah and Elisha crossed the river, and already in the Christian era, the Venerable Mary of Egypt went to the Trans-Jordanian desert along the same route to mourn her sins.

Orthodox Christmastide

Christmastide in Orthodoxy is the twelve holiday days between Christmas (January 7) and Epiphany (January 19). In Catholic Christianity, Christmastide corresponds to twelve days of Christmas, lasting from noon on December 25 to the morning of January 6. Christmastide is also often called holy evenings, in memory of the events of the Nativity and baptism of the Savior, which took place at night or in the evening.

The church began to sanctify twelve days after the celebration of the Nativity of Christ in ancient times. This was indicated by the 13 conversations of St. Ephraim the Syrian, spoken by him from December 25 to January 6, as well as the “words” of St. Ambrose of Milan and St. Gregory of Nyssa.

The ancient twelve-day celebration of Christmastide is confirmed by the spiritual charter of St. Savva the Sanctified.

The same is confirmed by the Code of Justinian, published in 535. The Second Council of Turon, in 567, designated all days from the Nativity of Christ to the Epiphany as holidays. Meanwhile, the sanctity of these days and evenings was violated at many points by fortune telling and other superstitious customs that survived from the pagan celebrations of the same time.

There is an Orthodox law that prohibits “on the eve of the Nativity of Christ and during Christmastide, according to old idolatrous legends, starting games and, dressing up in idol robes, dancing through the streets and singing seductive songs.” published

Holy Epiphany. Baptism of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ

Description of the holiday

Feast of the Epiphany celebrated on January 19 (New Art.), is one of the twelve feasts of the Lord and has 4 days of forefeast and 8 days of afterfeast.

• Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
• 
  Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov)
• Metropolitan Filaret (Voznesensky)
• Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
• Metropolitan Kirill
• Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
• Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)

The establishment of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. Until the 4th century, in the Eastern and Western Churches, the feast of the Nativity of Christ was celebrated on January 6, was known under the name of Epiphany and initially related to the Baptism of the Savior.

The main and initial purpose of establishing the holiday is to remember and glorify the event of the appearance in the flesh of the Son of God. But there was another reason and purpose for establishing the holiday. Somewhat earlier than in the Orthodox Church, the celebration of Baptism was introduced by the Gnostic heretics (Ebionites, Docetes, Basilidians), because they attached the greatest importance in the life of the Savior to His Baptism. Thus, the Ebionites taught that Jesus was the son of Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary and that Christ was united with Him at Baptism; The Docetes recognized human nature in Christ as only illusory; finally, the Basilidians did not recognize the incarnation and taught that “God sent his Mind, the first outflow of the Divinity, and he, like a dove, descended in the Jordan on Jesus, who before that was a simple man, susceptible to sin” (). But nothing drew Christians into heresy, especially into Gnosticism, so much as the Gnostic worship service, full of harmonious and beautiful songs. It was necessary to oppose the Gnostic holiday with one of our own.

And so, the Orthodox Church established the solemn holiday of the Baptism of the Lord and called it the Epiphany, instilling the idea that on this day Christ did not become God for the first time, but only revealed Himself as God, presenting himself as One of the Trinity, the Son of God in the flesh. In order to undermine the false thinking of the Gnostics regarding the Baptism of Christ, the Church began to add to the remembrance of Baptism the remembrance of the Nativity of Christ. And thus, in the 4th century throughout the East, Epiphany and Christmas were celebrated on the same day, namely January 6, under the common name of Epiphany. The initial basis for celebrating the Nativity of Christ on January 6 (as well as Epiphany) was not the historical correspondence of this date to the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was not exactly known in ancient times, but a mysterious understanding of the relationship between the first and second Adam, between the culprit of sin and death and the Director of life and salvation. The second Adam - Christ, according to the mysterious contemplation of the Ancient Church, was born and died on the same day on which the first Adam was created and died - on the sixth, which corresponded to January 6, the first month of the year.

The Feast of the Nativity of Christ was first separated from Epiphany in the Roman Church in the first half of the 4th century (under Pope Julia). By moving the holiday to December 25, the Church intended to create a counterbalance to the pagan cult of the sun and protect believers from participating in it. Moving the holiday to the 25th and celebrating it solemnly was intended to provide a counterbalance to pagan superstitions and thereby turn the hearts of people to the knowledge of the true God. It is known that the Romans had a pagan holiday in honor of the winter solstice on December 25 - the day (birth) of the appearance of the invincible sun, which winter could not overcome and which from now on goes towards spring. This holiday of the renewed “sun god” was a day of unbridled amusements for the people, a day of fun for slaves and children, etc. Thus, this day itself could not be more appropriate for remembering the event of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, Who in the New Testament is called the Sun of Truth, Light of the world, Savior of people, Conqueror of death.

The celebration of the Nativity of Christ on December 25 in the Eastern Church was introduced later than in the Western Church, namely in the second half of the 4th century. For the first time, separate celebrations of the Nativity of Christ and the Baptism of the Lord were introduced in the Church of Constantinople around 377 at the direction of Emperor Arcadius, according to the custom of the Roman Church and thanks to the energy and power of the eloquence of St. John Chrysostom. From Constantinople, the custom of celebrating the Nativity of Christ on December 25 spread throughout the Orthodox East.

The establishment of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ on December 25 had another reason. According to the thoughts of the Church Fathers of the 3rd and 4th centuries. (St. Hippolytus, Tertullian, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Blessed Augustine), the 25th day of December historically most corresponds to the day of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of the stichera and troparions considered in this service dedicated to the Nativity of Christ, the most ancient, presumably, are the 1st stichera on “Lord, I cried,” kontakion and ikos. Kontakion and Ikos were composed in the 6th century by St. Roman Sladkopevets. He compiled 24 ikos, of which the modern service retains only the first two (kontakion and ikos). The troparion and luminaries of the holiday are also very ancient.

Already in the VII-VIII centuries. Menaions with services to the Nativity of Christ are known in their entire form. In the 10th century there were already pre-celebration and post-celebration services. And in the XI-XII centuries. The service dedicated to the Nativity of Christ takes on the same form in the east in its changing parts, just like the modern service.

The compilers of the modern service for the Nativity of Christ are mainly songwriters of the 6th-9th centuries: St. (kontakion and ikos), St. (stichera on praise), St. (a series of stichera on “Lord, I cried” and stichera on the litia), St. (many of the stichera of Vespers, canon), St. (canon) and others.

Epiphany

Our Lord Jesus Christ, upon his return from Egypt, stayed in Galilee, in his city of Nazareth, where he was raised, hiding from people the power of His Divinity and wisdom until the age of thirty, for among the Jews it was not possible for anyone before the age of thirty to accept the rank of teacher or priest Therefore, Christ did not begin His preaching and did not reveal Himself as the Son of God and "the great high priest who passed through the heavens"(), until he reaches the specified age. In Nazareth He stayed with His Most Pure Mother, first with His imaginary father, Joseph the woodworker, while he was alive, and did carpentry work with him; and then, when Joseph died, He Himself continued the same work, obtaining food for Himself and for the Most Pure Mother of God through the labor of His hands, in order to teach us hard work (). When the thirtieth year of His earthly life was completed and the time of His Divine appearance to the people of Israel had come, then, as the Gospel says, "the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness"(), - a verb that sent him to baptize with water and announced to him a sign by which John was supposed to recognize the Messiah who had come into the world. The Baptist himself speaks about this in his sermon in these words: “He who sent me to baptize in water said to me: on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” ().

So John, heeding the word of God, went throughout the whole country of Jordan, preaching "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins"(), for He was the One about whom Isaiah predicted: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God in the desert.”(; cf). And the entire Jewish country, including the people of Jerusalem, came out to him, and they were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (). Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him (). He came at the time when John announced Him to the people, saying: “He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down to untie; I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (). After this announcement Jesus came to be baptized. Although He had no need for this, as sinless and immaculate, born of the Most Pure and Most Holy Virgin Mary and Himself the source of all purity and holiness, but, since He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, He came to the river to cleanse them through baptism. He came to be baptized, and in order to sanctify the nature of water, He came to be baptized, so that he could also build a font of holy baptism for us. He came to John also so that he, seeing the Holy Spirit descending on the baptized person and hearing the voice of God the Father from above, would be a true witness about Christ.

“John restrained Him and said: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”() He recognized in spirit the One about whom for thirty years "jumped joyfully" in the womb of his mother (), therefore he himself demanded baptism from Him, as being under the sin of disobedience, which passed from Adam to the entire human race. But the Lord said to John: “Leave it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” ().

By truth, Saint Chrysostom here means the commandments of God, as if Jesus were saying: “since I have fulfilled all the commandments that are given in the law, and only one remains - regarding baptism, then it is fitting for Me to fulfill this one too.” The Baptism of John was also a Divine commandment, as can be seen from the words of John: "He who sent me to baptize in water told me"(). Who sent it? Apparently God Himself: "was- it is said in the Gospel, - word of God to John"(). And also because Jesus was baptized when he was thirty years old, because the age of thirty, according to Chrysostom and Fephylact, is susceptible to all sin. For the age of adolescence is subject to the fire of carnal passions, but at the age of thirty - the time of full revelation of male powers - a person is subject to the love of gold, vanity, rage, anger and all kinds of sins. That is why Christ the Lord delayed accepting baptism until this age, in order to fulfill the law at all ages of human life and sanctify our entire nature and give us the strength to overcome passions and beware of mortal sins.

After receiving baptism, the Lord immediately, without any delay, came out of the water. There is a legend that Saint John the Baptist immersed every person baptized by him up to the neck and held him like that until he confessed all his sins; After this, the person being baptized was allowed to leave the water. Christ, who had no sins, was not detained in the water, and therefore the Gospel added that He came out of the water immediately ().

When the Lord came out of the water, the heavens opened above Him, a light flashed from above in the form of lightning, and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended on the Baptized Lord. Just as in the days of Noah the dove announced the diminishing waters of the flood, so here the likeness of a dove predicted the end of the sinful flood. And in the form of a dove, the Holy Spirit appeared because this bird is pure, loves people, is meek, gentle and does not tolerate anything stinking: so the Holy Spirit is the source of purity, the abyss of love for mankind, the teacher of meekness and the organizer of the world: moreover, He always moves away from man , creeping in the stinking mire of sins. When the Holy Spirit descended like a dove on Christ Jesus from heaven, a voice was heard saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"(). And to him belongs glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

Word of Saint John Chrysostom on the Epiphany of the Lord

I want, beloved, to celebrate and triumph, for the holy day of enlightenment is the seal of the holiday and the day of triumph. He captures the Bethlehem den, where the Ancient of Days, like a baby at his mother’s breast, lay in a manger; He also opens the Jordanian springs, where the same Ancient of Days is now baptized with sinners, granting the measure of His most pure body the remission of sins. In the first case, he who came from the womb of the Most Pure Virgin appeared to infants as a baby, to the mother as a son, to the Magi as a gift to shepherds - as a good shepherd, who, according to the word of Divine Scripture, lays down His soul for the sheep (). In the second case, it is at His baptism that He comes to the Jordanian waters in order to wash away the sins of tax collectors and sinners. Speaking about the extraordinary miraculousness of such an event, the wise Paul exclaims: "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people"(). For now the world is enlightened in all its parts: first of all, the sky rejoices, conveying to people the voice of God descending from the heavenly heights, the air is sanctified by the flight of the Holy Spirit, the nature of water is sanctified, as if learning to wash the souls along with bodies, and all earthly creation rejoices . The devil alone weeps when he sees the holy font prepared to drown his power.

What else does the Gospel say? “Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John restrained Him and said: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (). Who saw the Master standing before the slave? Who saw the king bowing his head before his warrior? Who has seen a shepherd to whom a sheep would show the way? Who has seen the head of a race who would receive a reward from someone practicing on the run? “I need to be baptized by You,” i.e. teach me, O Lord, You Yourself the baptism that You want to teach the world. I need You to baptize me, since I am under the burden of ancestral sin and carry the serpentine venom within me. I need to wash away the filth of an ancient crime, and for what sins did You come to be baptized? The prophet also testified about You, saying: “for He committed no sin, and no lie was found in His mouth.”(). How, by giving deliverance yourself, do you seek cleansing? Those who are baptized, according to custom, confess their sins; What do you have to confess when You are completely sinless? Why do You demand from me what I have not been taught? I do not dare to do anything that exceeds my strength; I don’t know how to wash the light; I don’t know how to illuminate the sun of truth. The night does not illuminate the day, gold cannot be purer than tin, clay cannot correct the potter, the sea does not borrow streams from the source, the river does not need a drop of water, purity is not sanctified by filth, and the condemned does not set the judge free. "I need to be baptized by You." A dead man cannot raise a living man, a sick man cannot heal a doctor, and I know the weakness of my nature! “A student is not higher than a teacher, and a servant is not higher than his master.”(). The cherubim do not approach me with fear, the seraphim do not bow to me and do not proclaim the trisagion. I do not have heaven as a throne, I was not foreshadowed by a star to the Magi, Moses, Thy saint, was barely worthy to see "behind you"(), how can I dare to touch Your most holy head? Why do You command me to do something that exceeds my strength? I do not have a hand with which I could baptize God: “I need to be baptized by You.” I was born of an old woman, for nature could not contradict Your command. Being in the womb of my mother and not being able to speak myself, I then took advantage of her lips, and now with my own lips, I will glorify You, the Incontainable One, Whom the virgin ark contained. I am not blind, like the Jews, for I know that You are the Master, Who only temporarily took on the form of a slave in order to heal man; I know that You appeared to save us; I know that You are a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, a stone in which he who believes will not be deceived. I will not be deceived by the visible signs of Your humility, and I understand in spirit the greatness of Your Divinity. I am mortal, you are immortal; I am from a barren woman, and You are from a virgin. I was born before You, but not above You. I could only go out to preach before You, but I do not dare to baptize You: I know that You are the ax lying by the tree (), the ax that cuts down the barren trees of the Judean garden. I saw a sickle ready to cut off passions and proclaimed that soon sources of healing would open everywhere, for what place would remain inaccessible to Your Jews? You will cleanse the lepers with one word, the flow of blood will stop through one touch of the hem of Your garments, from Your one command the paralytic will again be strengthened with strength. You nourish the daughter of the Canaanite woman with grains of Your miracles, You open the eyes of the blind with clay. How then do You ask me to lay hands on You? “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me? Looks at the earth, and it shakes”( ; ), they walk on the waters as on earth, - You, about whom I exclaimed many times during the sermon: “He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down to untie!”() I rely only on Your ineffable goodness and hope on Your immeasurable love for mankind, according to which You allow even a harlot to wipe Your most pure feet and touch Your most holy head.

What does the Lord say to him? “Leave now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”(). Serve the Word like a human voice, work like a slave to the Lord, like a warrior to the king, like clay to the potter. Do not be afraid, but boldly baptize Me, because I will save the world; I give myself to death in order to revive the mortified human nature. You, despite My command, are still slow to stretch out your hand, but the Jews will soon not be ashamed to stretch out their unclean hands against Me in order to betray Me to death. “Leave it now, for it must be so.” Out of My love for mankind, I, before all ages, decided to save the human race. For the sake of people I became a man. What could be more surprising than the fact that I, as a simple person, come to be baptized? I do this because I do not despise the creation of my hands, I am not ashamed of earthly nature. I remained the same as I had been from time immemorial, and took on a new nature, and yet My being remained unchanged: “I will leave you now.” For the enemy of the human race, having been cast out of heaven and expelled from the earth, nests in the watery nature, and I came from there to drive him out, as I announced to the prophet about Me: "You crushed the heads of the serpents in the water"() Leave now." For this enemy wants to tempt Me as a man, and I endure this in order to prove his powerlessness, for I will say to him: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" ( ; ).

Oh new miracle! O ineffable grace! Christ accomplishes the feat, and I receive honor; He fights with the devil, and I turn out to be the winner; He crushes the snake's head in the water, and I, as if a real wrestler, am crowned: He is baptized, and the filth is removed from me; The Holy Spirit descends on Him, and remission of sins is given to me; the Father testifies of Him as His beloved Son, and I become the son of God for His sake; The heavens were opened to him, and I entered into them; before Him, the baptized one appears the kingdom on high, and I receive it as an inherited possession: the voice of the Father turns to Him, and together with Him I am called; The Father favors Him, and does not reject me either. For my part, I glorify the Father, who gave His voice from heaven, the Son, who was crucified on the earth, and the Spirit who descended like a dove, the one God in the Trinity, Whom I will always worship. Amen.

Word on the Epiphany of the Lord

Saint Demetrius of Rostov

As we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord on the waters of the Jordan, let us remember that the Lord our God had previously appeared above the waters in order to do various wondrous deeds. So when He appeared over the waters of the Black Sea, “the depths hid the entire bottom” and led His people on dry land; when he crossed the Jordan in the ark, he returned the waters of this river back: “The Jordan,” it is said, “turned back.”(). Finally, in the beginning, when the Spirit of God rushed “above the water,” God created the sky, the earth, birds, animals, man, and in general the entire visible world.

And now over the waters of the Jordan there appears one God in the Trinity: the Father in the voice, the Son in the flesh, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. What does He produce in this appearance of His? He creates a new world and renews everything, just as in the pre-holiday troparion he creates a new world, different from the first. "The ancient things have passed away,- says Scripture - everything is new now"(). The first world was heavy by nature, could not ascend to the sky and needed land on which it could stand, as if erected. And the new world, brought out of the waters of the Jordan, is so light that it does not need dry land, is not built on earth, has no “barriers, but seeks heights,” rushes quickly from the water to the heavenly doors open above the Jordan: “Jesus immediately came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him.”(). For the first world, burdened with everyday burdens, if it wanted to reach heaven, it would need a ladder established on earth, the top of which would reach heaven - but even that was only contemplated by Jacob, he himself did not ascend her, - for the new world, ascent to heaven is possible without a ladder. How? Behold, instead of a ladder, the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove, flies over the waters. And that means the following. The human race is no longer like a reptile that creeps on the earth or a crawling animal, but like a feathered bird emerges from the water of baptism; therefore, the Holy Spirit appeared over the waters of baptism like a bird in order to raise His chicks, which He gave birth to in the bath of baptism, to heaven without a ladder. And the words of the song of Moses are sung here: "flies over her chicks"(), or, as Jerome’s translation reads, calls his chicks to fly. It is precisely this new world that God creates by His appearance on the waters of the Jordan, which does not cling to the earth, but like a feathered bird strives on its wings to the open sky.

Let us recall here the expression of Scripture: “And God said: Let the waters produce, let the birds fly in the firmament of the sky.”(), and let us see how one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, who has now appeared over the waters of the Jordan at the renewal of the world, brings his spiritual chicks out of the water of baptism and calls on them to fly, so that they may ascend on their wings of virtue to the heavens that have opened above the Jordan. But before considering this, let us be convinced, on the basis of the teachers of the Church, that every person born of water and spirit is a heavenly chick. St. John Chrysostom says: “it was previously said: yes, “the water will bring forth reptiles, a living soul”; and since Christ entered the Jordanian streams, the water no longer produces “reptiles, a living soul,” but rational and spiritual beings - souls, which do not crawl on the ground, but like birds soar to the sky. Therefore David said: "Our soul is like a bird"(). This bird is not earthly, but heavenly, for our life, which is prepared for us starting from baptism, is, according to the word of Scripture, in heaven." Saint Gregory of Nyssa, reproaching those who, after receiving baptism, turn to their former evil deeds, says: " shameless people who have been baptized, driven, by unknown means, into a frenzy, lose the salvation received by the waters of baptism, although, having been buried in the body of Christ, they have been clothed with the wings of an eagle and through this have the opportunity to fly up to those birds of heaven, which are fearless spirits." Let us pay attention to these words: “having been buried in the body of Christ (through baptism), they were clothed with the wings of an eagle, so that they could fly.” By this, this holy teacher convincingly proves that people emerging from the waters of baptism are birds soaring to the sky. But we will also see this from history.

The Venerable Nonnus, Bishop of Ilipolis, when he was supposed to convert the obvious sinner Pelagia to God in Antioch, saw the following vision in a dream at night: he imagined that he was standing in the church at the liturgy - and then some kind of black dove, stained with dirt, began to fly near him ; he took it, washed it in the font, and after that the dove immediately became as pure as snow and beautiful, and flew straight from here to the sky. This vision indicated that this blessed father would turn the sinner to the Lord and enlighten her with holy baptism. So, the waters of holy baptism are so powerful that they can turn a person into a bird of heaven. The Jordanian waters also do this, giving a person wings on which he could fly into the “heaven that opens before him.” But not only the renewal of human nature in the waters of the Jordan is depicted in the phenomenon, but also the three venerable Persons of the Divine who appear take on the likenesses of various birds. So we know that Holy Scripture likens God the Father to an eagle: "like an eagle calls its nest"(). We also read that the Son is like a kokosh to God: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem,- He says, - how often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its young under its wings"(). We finally know that God the Holy Spirit appeared over the Jordan in the likeness of a dove. So, why are the Persons of the Holy Trinity likened to the aforementioned three breeds of birds? Truly because They flocks of the same chicks spiritually remove from the water of baptism, that is, they make people spiritual chicks, some like an eagle, some like a cocosh, and some like a dove.

The Church, triumphant in heaven, divides the faithful servants of God, who come from the militant Church, in the heavenly village into three special faces: the face of teachers, the face of martyrs and the face of virgins. We will not be mistaken if we say that these three faces are three flocks of chicks born and hatched from the water of baptism. The face of the teachers is a flock of eagles that soar in the sky and, without crossing their eyes, look at the sunshine; for holy teachers, meaning God, fly high, as if having wings, and with a bright mind, as if contemplating with an eye the light of the Tri-radiant Deity, they enlighten themselves and others with wisdom. The face of the martyrs is a flock of many-children, for through the shedding of their blood for Christ they gave birth to many other children of Christ: the blood of the martyrs indeed gave birth to many children for the primacy of the Church, of whom there were more than the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. The face of virgins has become like pure doves, for they offer themselves entirely as a living sacrifice to God and take care not to please the flesh, but the one and only Lord. These three flocks of spiritual birds said we were born in the water of baptism. Let's look at how this happens.

The book of Song of Songs says: "Turn your eyes away from me, for they trouble me"(). This means: look at me, Lord, with your merciful eyes and do not turn them away from me, for, by your mercy, I become a bird climbing to heaven. And in His appearance on the Jordan, God looked upon human nature: God the Father looked upon him, opening the heavens over the Son; God looked upon the Son, coming from Nazareth of Galilee to be baptized by John on the Jordan - he looked upon, I say, for all the filth of Adam’s sin, all the weaknesses of our nature He collected and brought here in order to wash them and cleanse us from our sins - God also despised The spirit descending on the divine man who was baptized. Having looked upon us, the one God in the Trinity has not revealed human nature? Truly he opened, for through this divine charity immediately flocks of eagles and doves appeared, that is, the faces of teachers, martyrs and virgins. Let us explain this on the basis of Holy Scripture.

The theologian saw in the revelation that came to him, before the throne of God, a glass sea, as if made of crystal (); this sea signified the mystery of holy baptism, for between the throne of God and the person who intends to approach the throne of God, there is the water of baptism, and no other way can anyone approach God, who sits on the heavenly throne, than by first crossing the sea of ​​baptism, according to the Scriptures : "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God"(). But why is this sea, which signifies the mystery of baptism, glass and crystal? We know that the interpreters of Divine Scripture will say that it is glass because it contains purity that cleanses the soul of a person receiving baptism, and crystal because it gives hardness to a person’s heart. Another reason it is glass and crystal is that, just as a ray of sunlight passes through glass and crystal, so the grace of God penetrates through the mystery of baptism, and with it it comes to a person and enlightens the temple of his soul. Finally, for this reason, the sea, which is in front of the Throne of God and signifies the mystery of baptism, is glass and crystal, so that the Most Holy Trinity sitting on the throne is reflected and visible in it, as in a glass and crystal mirror, for in holy baptism the image of the Trinity appeared. “Go therefore,” said Jesus Christ, “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”(). Humanly speaking, if God the Father sat on His throne like an eagle, then in the sea, which is the throne, as if in a glass and crystal mirror, the image of an eagle should have been reflected. If God the Son is on the throne like a kokosh - for He calls Himself that way in the Gospel - then in that sea that was in front of the throne, it was as if in a mirror, the image of the kokosh would appear. If the Holy Spirit sat on that throne like a dove, then the image of a dove should have appeared in that sea. But let us explain the spiritual meaning of these images. We said that the sea seen before the throne of God signifies the mystery of holy baptism, in which our baptized nature is purified like glass, "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit"(), but our soul is strengthened and enlightened, like crystal. And when God in the Trinity looks at this mysterious glass and crystal during our baptism, then truly the image of the Trinity appears in it. Whether God the Father looks like a spiritual eagle or God the Son like a spiritual kokosh, or God the Holy Spirit looks like a spiritual dove, always the mysterious glass and crystal, that is, our baptized nature, reveals in itself a reflection of these spiritual birds and becomes an eagle chick or a kokosh or a dove, that is, a child of God, one in the Trinity - Father and Son and Holy Spirit, as it is said: "to those who believe in His name, He gave power to become children of God"(). The Most Holy Trinity looked upon human nature, those who were baptized in the waters of the Jordan, and was reflected in it, providing it, like a chick, with the spiritual wings of an eagle, a kokosh and a dove, that is, it multiplied in the militant church teachers, martyrs of virgins. So, it is clear that each person of the Most Holy Trinity brought out its special spiritual chicks from the waters of the Jordan. God the Father, like an eagle, brought spiritual eagles, that is, church teachers, out of the Jordan. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says: “the beginning of the world is water, the beginning of the gospel is the Jordan. From the water the light of day shone, for the Spirit of God, rushing at first “above the water,” commanded the light to shine from the darkness. From the Jordan the light of the holy Gospel shone. The First Teacher of the whole world , Christ is God's power and God's Wisdom, where did He begin His teaching? Was it not from the waters of Jordan? "Since then,- it is said in the Gospel, - Jesus began to preach and say: Repent."(). And immediately many teachers appeared after Him - these were the holy apostles whom He sent to preach. Thus, the waters gave life to both natural birds () and spiritual birds. For where were Peter and Andrew, James and John () called to the apostolic and teaching ministry? Isn't it from the water? The Lord chose His apostles from among the fishermen. Where did the Samaritan woman come from as a preacher about the true Messiah in her city? Is it not from the water of Jacob's spring (). Where did the blind man, who received his sight, come forward as a witness of the miraculous power of Christ? Is it not from the water of the pool of Siloam ()? All this was a foreshadowing of holy baptism, in which spiritual blindness is healed, sinful defilements are washed away, and church teachers receive divine wisdom. For through baptism that grace is given to a person, with the help of which he can acquire great understanding, and from there spiritual wings grow from the teachers of faith, according to the word of scripture: “They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not be weary” ().

God the Son, like a kokosh, gathering scattered children under His wings, brings forth from the water of baptism His chicks - the holy martyrs, Himself, first of all, giving His flesh, baptized in water, to the wounds, Himself, first of all, laying down His life for us on the cross, so that we too were ready to die for Him. Let us remember here the words of the apostle: "We who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death"(). This means almost the same as if the apostle had said: everyone who is baptized into Christ must die for Him, must "to be united to Him in the likeness of His death"(). And who was so baptized into His death if not the holy martyrs who said: "For Your sake we are killed every day"()? Who else was like this "united with Him in the likeness of His death"(), to which He "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter"(), like not the holy martyrs, saying: "they consider us to be sheep doomed to the slaughter"(). That is why they sing: “having preached the lamb of God, be doomed to the slaughter like lambs.” Forty-nine saints were baptized in his death, as well as ten thousand martyrs who, with Saint Romilus, were crucified on the same day in the Armenian desert. And all the holy passion-bearers who shed their blood for Christ approached “in the likeness of His death,” as those who were baptized into His death. Even in the water of their baptism they were already predestined to the crown of martyrdom. The common kokosh has the custom of choosing the best grains for food and, having found them, calls its chicks to itself. Having accepted as true that all virtues are spiritual food, everyone must admit that there is no better grain, or no higher virtue, than love: "but love is greater than all"(), - and it is precisely this kind of love that lays down its soul for its beloved: “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”(). This grain of love was found and pointed out to His chicks by the spiritual kokosh - Christ the Lord, laying down His soul for his friends: "You,- He said to the apostles, - my friends"(). Called chicks - holy martyrs - flocked to this grain and began, prompted by love, to lay down their souls for the Lord, as one martyr speaks to the Lord: “I love you, my bridegroom, and for you I will accept suffering,” martyrs who, having been cast with the saint Callistratus into the lake, “united with Him in the likeness of His death,” , . Where were these spiritual chicks called to the seed of love? Was it not from the water of baptism, in which they were baptized into his death? Let us listen to Saint Anastasius of Sinaiti, who, about the prudent thief, for whom the water flowing from the ribs of Christ became the water of baptism, says: “to these birds (i.e., to the heavenly spirits) the holy thief flew from the life-giving water that flowed from all the birds, soaring along air in a swarm of birds together with the king - Christ."

God the Holy Spirit, like a dove, brings forth from the water of baptism its chicks - pigeons pure in body and soul, i.e. virgins. For until human nature in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the condescension and action of the Holy Spirit, was united with the Divinity and washed by the Jordanian waters, until then marriage was higher than virginity, until then there was little about virgin purity, observed for the glory of God. where it was known. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh"(). Then the flesh alone gave birth, but the spirit remained barren, which is why God once said: "My Spirit will not forever be despised by men, because they are flesh"(). When human nature descended onto the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descended on it, then suddenly from the Spirit the highest life of marriage, virginity, was born, striving not for the carnal, but for the spiritual, according to the words of John the Theologian: "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"(). And since the spirit has greater honor than the flesh, then virginity, united into one spirit with the Lord, has become more honorable than a carnal marital union. Our nature, having ascended into a spiritual marital union with Christ in the Jordan, became fruitful and produced whole virgin faces. And such a spiritual marriage cannot produce anything other than virginity, as the prophet Zechariah pointed out when he said: "Wine belongs to the young women"(). By virgins the prophet means virgin faces. The Holy Spirit, according to the word of the prophet, is poured out like wine and produces virgins, for where the Holy Spirit pours out His grace, there virginity cannot but be born. Blessed Jerome, in his translation of the Holy Scriptures, successfully conveys the meaning of the said passage with the words: “wine that produces virgins.” In fact, that wine of grace of the Holy Spirit once poured out on the apostles and intoxicated them so much that to some they seemed drunk with wine and made them such virgins that no blemish remained in them and they became pure and whole as doves. On the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church sings: “the spirit of salvation creates pure apostolic hearts.” So now, this wine is poured onto the waters of the Jordan, and who doubts that the waters of baptism, mixed with the wine of the Holy Spirit, produce virginity, according to the words of the prophecy: “wine that gives birth to virgins,” and moreover, such virgins as the apostle speaks to : “I have betrothed you to one husband in order to present you to Christ as a pure virgin”()? From the spiritual marriage of our nature with God, virginity is born from the Spirit, which the Holy Spirit, having brought forth from the water of baptism, introduces it into the heavenly abode.

Thus, each Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who appeared on the Jordan, from the waters of baptism his special spiritual chicks and, having brought them out, calls on them to fly on the wings of virtue given to them into the openings of heaven.

Firstly, God the Father, as a spiritual eagle, calls His chicks to flight - spiritual eagles, i.e. teachers, as having special wings, about which the Church sings: “God distributed to the chicks that arrived, and they ascended to heaven.” What kind of wings do those chicks have? There is no doubt that, in addition to other virtues common to all, there are two: deed and word. He is a church teacher, he is a high-flying eagle, who himself actually does what he teaches others in words. And that the wings of spiritual eagles really are word and deed, this is clearly shown in the book of Ezekiel the prophet, who once saw four animals with four wings each, driving the chariot of God. Those animals made noise with their wings: “And as they walked, I heard,” says the prophet, “the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty (i.e., the almighty or, but Symmachus’ translation, like the thunder of the mighty God), a loud noise, like noise in a military camp" (). Truly a great voice, an extraordinary song! However, what is surprising is not so much the voice itself, but where this voice came from. This voice did not come from the larynx, the word did not come from the tongue, the song did not come from the lips, but from the wings of these animals. The prophet says: “I heard the sound of their wings.” They sang, but not with their larynx, they praised God, but not with eloquent and verbose lips and tongue, but with the same wings on which they flew: “I heard the sound of their wings.”

What secret is hidden here? This secret is this: the animals driving God's chariot meant church teachers, who are vessels chosen to spread the name of God throughout the universe, and with their teaching they draw the Church of Christ, as if God's chariot, onto the straight road leading to heaven , in which there are many tens of thousands of believing souls. The wings of these animals, emitting a voice and singing, signify the deed and word of the teacher. The wings, which make it possible to fly, indicate that the church teacher himself must first show himself as a model of virtue, he himself must first, in his God-pleasing life, soar to the sky, as if feathered. The voice coming out of the wings of these animals means a teaching word; the teacher must emit a voice that is consistent with the strength of his flight, that is, he must teach the herd and at the same time he himself must live as he teaches. For the voice of a teacher does not bring such benefit when the wings of a godly life are not visible. Only that teacher ascends directly to the open sky above the Jordan, who flies not on one wing of the word, but also on the other wing - a virtuous life, who at the same time teaches in word and deed. It is not so easy for both teacher and student to be lifted to heaven by an intricately left word or a sweet-voiced mouth or a loud larynx, like the wings of good deeds.

God the Son, like a spiritual kokosh, calls His chicks - the holy martyrs - to fly. And the wings of virtue, which belong to them alone besides other common virtues, are the following two: faith and confession. About these martyr's wings the Apostle says: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confesses unto salvation.”(). Unshakable faith in the heart is one wing; bold confession with the lips of the name of Christ before kings and tormentors is another wing. The first spiritual bird to fly into heaven, the prudent thief who suffered with Christ on the cross, flew precisely on such wings of Faith and Confession. For at the time when our Lord, who voluntarily suffered for us, was abandoned by everyone, and when even Peter, who promised to die with Him, denied Him, one thief believed in Him with his heart and confessed with his lips, calling him King and Lord: “Remember me, Lord,” he said, “when you come into your kingdom.” How great was this faith of the thief when it became scarce in all the disciples of Christ ()! When all those who believed were offended by Christ, He alone was not offended, but prayed to Him with faith, which is why I heard these words from Him: "Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise"(). Saint Ambrose speaks about it this way: “at that hour when heaven accepted Christ, it also accepted the thief, but this glory was bestowed upon the thief by faith alone.” So it is clear that this bird, that is, the martyr crucified with Christ on the cross, flew into paradise not on any other wings than by faith confessed with the lips. “This glory,” says Saint Ambrose, “was bestowed upon the robber by faith alone.”

Finally, God the Holy Spirit, appearing in the form of a dove, calls on His chicks - virgins - to fly, for it is His nature to make man a winged bird that could penetrate into the highest regions. Saint Damascus sings, calling the spiritual doves, the holy virgins, to fly. Those doves have special wings of virtue: mortification of flesh and spirit. And that mortification of the flesh is one of the wings that lifts a person to heaven, about this Saint Ambrose (of Milan), interpreting the words of the Gospel: "you are better than many birds"(), says this: “the flesh, disposed to fulfill the Law of God and put off by sin, in purity of feelings is likened to the nature of the soul and ascends to heaven on spiritual wings.” Here the holy teacher of the Church speaks of assimilation to the nature of the soul, meaning mortification, of which the actual nature of the flesh, as it were, passes into the nature of the soul, when the worst is subordinated to the best and the flesh is enslaved to the spirit, when a person is freed from sin and purifies his feelings, which is not possible without killing. Having mortified his flesh, a person becomes light and feathered like a bird, and ascends to the sky on spiritual wings. So, the mortification of the body for virginity, soaring to heaven, is the first wing, for whoever wants to maintain purity must first of all mortify his flesh, as indicated by the words of the prophet David when the Holy Spirit turns to Christ with these words: "All Your garments are like myrrh and scarlet and casia"(). Here the interpreters of the Divine Scripture mean by myrrh - mortification of passions, by stactas - humility, by cassia - faith. These fragrances come from the clothes of Christ, that is, from His holy Church, from the believers, in whom He put on as a garment, taking on His flesh and dwelling in those who live purely and holy. So the Holy Spirit seems to say this: mortification of passions, humility and faith, like precious aromas, are fragrant before Your Father from Your Church, from pure and virgin people who preserve the indicated virtues in their hearts, as if in vessels for preserving aromas. But let us ask: why does the Holy Spirit, glorifying the Church of Christ for various virtues, first of all praise it for mortifying the passions of believers, placing myrrh in the first place? In truth, in order to show that after the suppression of lawless lusts, after the cessation of carnal lust, after the mortification of the body, all other virtues follow, as if following their leader. So, the spiritual chicks of the Holy Spirit, that is, virgins who want to have heaven as their nest, first of all, need to have this wing, that is, mortification of the flesh.

Their second wing is mortification of the spirit, which consists of not only not committing sin in deed, but also not desiring it in the spirit, not thinking about it in the mind. You can be clean in body, but at the same time have various inappropriate desires, enjoying thoughts of the unclean. It is not in vain that the apostle exhorts: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit"(). These words clearly indicate that there is extreme filth - uncleanness of the flesh and uncleanness of the spirit. For the flesh is accustomed to manifest itself in deeds, and the spirit in the thoughts and dispositions of the heart. It is in vain that it boasts of its purity and hopes to achieve heavenly glorification, that virginity, which keeps only the body uncorrupted, but does not try to cleanse the soul, defiled by thoughts and desires. For just as a bird cannot fly on one wing, so a virgin with only bodily purity, without spiritual purity, will not enter the palace of heaven. The one who carefully preserves both purities, like a dove, will fly in the wake of the One who appeared “in the form of a dove.”

And so we heard what God did, one in Three Persons, who appeared on the waters of the Jordan during the renewal of the world - how He brought out from the waters of baptism the spiritual chicks of the church - teachers, martyrs, virgins and called them "into the open heavens." May there be, both from teachers, martyrs and virgins, and from us sinners - to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - to God who appeared on the Jordan, honor, glory, worship and thanksgiving, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon by Archpriest Rodion Putyatin. On the day of the Epiphany.

Sermon of Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky). Word on the day of Epiphany.

Sermon by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Epiphany.

What kinds of life-giving and what kind of terrible waters there are... At the beginning of the Book of Genesis we read about how the breath of God hovered over the waters and how all living beings arose from these waters. Throughout the life of all mankind - but so clearly in the Old Testament - we see water as a way of life: they preserve life... “And in those days John the Baptist went out to preach in the desert of Judea and said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is very near.” !" He is the one who was foretold through the prophet Isaiah, who said: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the ways of the Lord, straighten His paths!” This John had clothing made of camel’s hair, and a belt of skin on his thighs; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then they came out to him from all of Jerusalem and all of Judea, and were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Then Jesus came out of Galilee to the Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him... Twelfth Feasts of the Russian Orthodox Church . Epiphany. Baptism of the Lord.

On January 19, the Orthodox Church celebrates the great twelfth holiday - Epiphany and Epiphany (Vodokreshchi). On this day, the Orthodox people remember the Baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan. The holiday received its second name - Epiphany - due to the fact that at the baptism of the Savior, “the appearance of three persons of the Divine took place: the Father from heaven testified with a voice about the baptized Son, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, thereby confirming the words of the Father.”

The people called the holiday Vodokreschi. The name appeared because of the main baptismal rites - blessing of water, or baptism with water.

In the folk calendar, Epiphany was one of the most important holidays from the beginning of the year. From this day on, Christmastide ended, and people's contact with the other world was interrupted. In this regard, the main part of baptismal rites was of a cleansing nature. We prepared for Epiphany the day before: we washed the huts and carefully swept away the rubbish, in which, according to our ancestors, an imp could hide. According to legend, in the morning before the blessing of water, all the little devils must drown in the water. In the evening, if possible, all people went to church for a service, at the end of which the great blessing of water was performed. The peasants considered it a celebration of special importance.

Upon returning from service, people performed cleansing rituals, the whole family drank holy water, sprinkled it on their cattle, house and outbuildings. At Epiphany, snow was collected, and the resulting water was poured into a jug and saved in case of illness. It is believed that this water heals cramps, dizziness, and numbness in the legs. If you sprinkle snow Epiphany water on a canvas, it will whiten it in a way that neither ash nor the sun can do. Epiphany snow was also added to the feed of horses so that they would not get sick, and it was given to chickens so that they would start laying eggs earlier.

According to popular belief, the heavens open on the night before Christmas. According to legend, this happens at the moment when the Savior enters the river. A sign of this event is the agitation of water in a glass or cup, which most often occurs at midnight. Having waited for this sign, you need to quickly go outside. If a person is lucky enough to see the “open heavens,” then he can ask the Lord for whatever his heart desires.

Baptism: rituals and signs for January 19

The main celebration of the holiday was the blessing of water and the “walk to the Jordan.” To do this, an ice hole was made in one of the reservoirs at a previously established location - Jordan. The whole day of Epiphany for Christians was full of special meaning. They took part in the solemn procession and receiving holy water. After the prayer service, they bathed in the river to cleanse themselves of sins and be cured of illnesses. Those who dressed up for Christmastide swam in the ice hole to wash off the “demonic mask” from themselves.

The ice hole and the place near it are considered sacred. A stick was stuck into the hole so that pigeons and bees would breed. Cattle were driven to the Jordan, which the priests sprinkled with water blessed in the river.

After mass, the owners in the courtyard laid out unthreshed sheaves of various crops, bread broken into pieces and rye cakes left for Epiphany from the New Year and Nativity holidays. The cattle were released from the barns to the food that had been laid out, and while they were eating, they were sprinkled with water brought from the ice hole. At the same time, the owner who sprinkled the animals put on a fur coat with the fur facing out.

The use of New Year's and Christmas bread, as well as an inside-out fur coat, in the ritual is associated with the idea of ​​offspring: fur and ritual food in the traditional consciousness were endowed with producing powers. Feeding various types of unthreshed bread was carried out to ensure that the cattle were well-fed all year round.

As on Epiphany Eve, so on the day of Epiphany after the blessing of water, a ritual of cleansing of houses and households was carried out. buildings to drive out the Yuletide evil spirits from everywhere. Blessed water was used for this. Young people on horseback rode through the courtyards, hitting all the nooks and crannies with whips and brooms, screaming and squealing, reciting a special spell.

From January 19 and throughout the week, it was forbidden to rinse clothes on the river. According to popular beliefs, the evil spirit that goes into the water after Christmas time can grab hold of the linen and get out.

The candle, which was brought along with holy water from the service on Epiphany Eve, was carefully preserved. It was lit during a thunderstorm to prevent fire. She was credited with protective powers against evil spirits. On the day of the first cattle drive, a piece of this candle was attached to horses under the mane or under the bangs, and to cows - between the horns. It was believed that this would help protect cattle from goblin and water spirits.

People believed that a child baptized in Epiphany would become a very happy person. And those who dreamed of becoming rich and successful, or of acquiring an invisibility cap, performed a special ritual on Epiphany. It was necessary to dress in everything new and, during the Epiphany blessing of water, bury oneself in a haystack that had been mowed with a completely new scythe on the night of Ivan Kupala (July 6 to 7). Such hay must be collected with a new rake and carried on a new stretcher. While the person is in the heap, the evil one will begin to lure him out of there with various promises. You should go out after the devil gives you the invisibility cap, otherwise he may stab the person with a pitchfork.

Immediately after Epiphany, the meat-eating began - it was time for weddings. Therefore, the “Choice of Bride” ritual was popular on the day of Epiphany. On this day, young people dressed up in their best outfits. The girls wore several shirts with embroidered hems, whitened and blushed. A sundress was worn over the shirts, and on it were 3-4 aprons with abundant embroidery. A sheepskin coat trimmed with marl fur was thrown over the clothes. On the occasion of the “Choice of Brides” ritual, boys and girls from neighboring villages, planning to start a family in the new year, came to the larger local centers for the blessing of water and the festive service.

They began to look after brides in the church during the service, at the blessing of the water, when the girls stood on a hill above the river, and the boys stood below. The viewing itself took place after lunch. The girls stood in one or several rows near the ice hole or near the church fence, and the guys walked between them.

In addition to the boys, the “brides” were also examined by their parents. They assessed not only the girl’s external qualities (beauty, height, plumpness), but also her ability to weave, spin, sew, lace and embroider, which was revealed when viewing the outfits she was wearing. Attention was also paid to the health of future brides. In addition to external data, warm hands were a criterion for good health: the boys’ mothers took the girls’ hands, which remained without gloves during the viewing (about 2-3 hours). If a girl's hands were cold, then she was considered sick and unsuitable for marriage.

Signs for Epiphany (January 19)

1. If there is a snowstorm on Epiphany, then expect a snowstorm at the end of April.
2. Cold and clear weather means a dry summer; snowy and cloudy - to a good harvest.
3. Cloudy skies, heavy frost and falling snow foretell a fertile year.
4. A clear day means a bad harvest.
5. At noon, blue clouds mean harvest.
6. Strong whirlwinds rise at Epiphany - a good swarm of bees.
7. If the day is warm, the bread will be thick.
8. Starry night - for the harvest of peas and berries. This is also a sign that the sheep will lamb well this year.
9. A full month means high water in the spring.
10. If the day is sunny and warm, then the good weather will continue for several more weeks.
11. If it rains, it will rain until the end of the month.
12. If snow piles up against the fence, the summer will be bad. If there is a gap, then it is fruitful.
13. Dogs bark a lot - there will be plenty of game.
14. The day is good for fortune telling.

A person born on January 19 will live a long and happy life. He should wear jade.

Video: signs for the Epiphany (January 19)

This holiday is called Epiphany because at the Baptism of the Lord the Most Holy Trinity appeared to the world, about which extremely vivid gospel evidence has been preserved (see: ; ; ; John 1: 33–34). God the Father spoke from heaven about the Son, the Son was baptized in the sacred Jordan River from, and the Holy Spirit descended on the Son in the form of a dove. God Light appeared to enlighten “those sitting in darkness... and the shadow of death” and to save the fallen human race by grace.

The baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ is in the closest connection with all His Theanthropic work of saving people; it constitutes the decisive and complete beginning of this ministry. The Baptism of the Lord in the matter of redemption of the human race has great saving ontological significance. Baptism on the Jordan exudes to mortals remission, remission of sins, enlightenment, restoration of human nature, light, renewal, healing and, as it were, a new birth. The baptism of Christ in the waters of the Jordan, thus, had not only the meaning of a symbol of purification, but also a transforming, renewing effect on human nature. The Baptism of Christ the Savior was in fact the foreshadowing and foundation of the grace-filled method of rebirth by water and Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism given after His Resurrection and Ascension. Here the Lord shows Himself as the Founder of a new, grace-filled Kingdom, which, according to His teaching, cannot be entered without Baptism (see: Matt. 28: 19–20).

The threefold immersion (of every believer in Christ) in the sacrament of Baptism depicts the death of Christ, and the coming out of the water is communion with His three-day Resurrection.

At the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan, true worship of God was revealed to people, the hitherto unknown secret of the Trinity of the Divine, the secret of the One God in three Persons was revealed, and the worship of the Most Holy Trinity was revealed.

Having been baptized by John, who trembled at Christ’s request, the Lord fulfilled “righteousness,” that is, faithfulness and obedience to the commandments of God. Saint John the Baptist received the command from God to baptize the people as a sign of the cleansing of sins. As a man, Christ had to fulfill this commandment and therefore be baptized by John. By this He confirmed the holiness and greatness of John’s actions, and gave Christians an example of humility and obedience to the will of God for eternity.

Problems of eortological syncretism: the holidays of Epiphany and Nativity of Christ
Dynamics of the celebration of Epiphany and etymological rethinking of its name

In the ancient Church, at least by the 4th century, three main holidays were identified: Easter, Pentecost and Epiphany. And it was precisely the last celebration that reminded us of the coming of the God-Man Christ into the world. In the East it was solemnly celebrated on January 6. At the same time, of course, it correlated not so much with specific historical moments from the life of the Savior, but with the very unique fact of His coming into the world, with the appearance to the world of the God-Man Christ, the Child, the Youth and the thirty-year-old Man who went out to preach the Gospel.

At the same time, individual Christian communities could place special emphasis, correlating the feast of the Epiphany with certain events in the life of the Savior: Christmas, the Adoration of the Magi, Epiphany. The Feast of the Epiphany was also the Feast of the “Lights,” although, according to the Byzantine tradition that developed later, this name was adopted by the Feast of the Epiphany, which had become an independent holiday.

It is known that the area of ​​distribution of the feast of the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6, was wider than Egypt: in ancient times it was widespread not only in the east, but also in Gaul. And a separate holiday of Christmas on December 25 began to be celebrated in the Roman and North African Churches. It should be noted that in the West, the Christmas holiday, which lasted for two weeks, ended with the worship of the Magi, which marked the appearance of the incarnate God-man to the pagan world. As is known, in the Latin tradition the celebration of Epiphany, although it was introduced after Christmas, did not receive the same significance as in the East.

There, the reverse process took place: gradually, in an increasing number of regions, the date of the Nativity of Christ was moved from January 6 to December 25. Thus, in the end, both in the East and in the West they came to almost maximum unification in the field of doctrine and worship. Despite the diversity of traditions and the slow spread of liturgical practice due to adherence to local customs, by the middle of the 5th century complete unity was achieved in Byzantium. Even in the Armenian Church, which later became the stronghold of the “single” holiday, for some time after the Council of Chalcedon a separate holiday of Christmas was celebrated.

Be that as it may, the question of the date of the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord still causes serious controversy. The oldest dated historical evidence of the celebration of Epiphany is contained in the pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who described the participation in the celebrations of Julian the Apostate even before his open transition to the side of paganism.

There are several, to varying degrees, reliable and, moreover, not unidirectional evidence belonging to St. John Cassian the Roman (360 - about 432) and the Syrian Monophysite writer Dionysius Bar-Salibi, which recorded the ancient tradition of a single feast of the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6 (January 19 to Gregorian calendar). See also the Syriac “Teaching of the Apostles” (no later than the beginning of the 4th century). However, these records cannot provide any complete answers to the following questions: January 6 was primarily the holiday of Christmas or, conversely, Epiphany; from what time does this date become the exact time of celebration of the two holidays, and also when the Nativity of Christ began to be celebrated separately; how these dates relate to the chronology systems adopted in Byzantium.

In the system of Byzantine new years, January 1 occupied a central place. In this regard, it is no coincidence that the celebration of Epiphany coincides chronologically with the beginning of the annual cycle of Gospel readings. In Ephesus, the city of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John, this cycle began with the Gospel of John, in which the theology of the incarnation is conveyed with the greatest depth. In Jerusalem, at the beginning they read the Gospel of Matthew with a detailed account of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem, and in Alexandria the Gospel of Mark, which opens with a description of the Baptism in the Jordan.

If we accept the reasoning that the suffering and resurrection of the Savior occurs at the same time as His coming into the world and the Incarnation of God, which means April 6 is the day of not only Easter, but also the good news of the Archangel, and January 6 is the day of Christmas, Epiphany in this case perceived as a holiday of “lights” (in Syrian “denha”), a festival of candles that were lit both at Christmas and around the baptismal font.

In addition, some ancient authors wrote about the feast of Epiphany on January 6 as the feast of Epiphany, others - as the feast of Christmas, offering different interpretations of its origin. The first group includes Origen, Saints Athanasius of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria. The latter claimed that the followers of the Gnostic Basilides celebrated the baptism of Jesus on the 11th and 15th tibi - respectively 6 or 10 January, which fit well into the system according to which the divine Christ first appeared on earth during the event described.

Other ancient authors describe the feast of Epiphany on January 6 as the feast of Christmas, namely: St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, St. Ephraim the Syrian, as well as in the ancient Armenian lectionary. Thus, Epiphanius reports that idolaters celebrated the Feast of the Century (Aeon) or Coreum on January 5/6. At the same time, the widespread spread of this pagan celebration is interpreted only as confirmation of the power and greatness of the Christian Nativity of Christ. Saint Epiphanius had a very original view on the dates of Christmas and Baptism: Christ was born on January 6, and baptized on November 8. He wrote in connection with the miraculous transformation of water into wine in Cana of Galilee that on the first day, that is, on the 11th day of Tibi, Egyptian Christians drew water from the Nile.

The Monk Ephraim the Syrian undoubtedly revered the feast of the Nativity of Christ on January 6, perhaps connecting it with Epiphany. However, the subsequent tradition of the Monophysite Syro-Jacobite Church, for which he was one of the fundamental pillars, prescribed that Christmas and Epiphany should be celebrated separately from each other.

Pilgrim Etheria mentions the custom of the Jerusalem Church - to celebrate the Nativity of Christ in the Bethlehem Church on January 6, but due to gaps in the manuscript, a detailed description of the holiday has not been preserved. These gaps are partly compensated for by the ancient Armenian lectionary, which mentions a meeting at the place of shepherds, a vigil in the church in Bethlehem, and a meeting for Epiphany in Martyrion in Jerusalem.

As for the Apostolic Decrees, in them the Epiphany is understood only as a celebration glorifying the Baptism of the Lord.

The hypotheses proving the joint celebration of Christmas and Epiphany in Constantinople at the beginning of the 7th century are also very polemical. Using extensive scientific and theological argumentation, Abbot Dionysius (Shlenov) comes to an unambiguous conclusion: “There remains no basis for the single feast of the Epiphany unexpectedly celebrated in Constantinople at the beginning of the 7th century, the restoration of which in those years could mean - no more, no less - refusal Byzantium from the recognition of dogmatic definitions".

From a review of a number of data on the holidays of Christmas and Epiphany, it is clear that ancient authors more often wrote about only one holiday, and those who declared two, celebrated on the same day, January 6, did so through the prism of contemporary practice - Orthodox or heterodox, as a rule Monophysite. One way or another, in subsequent times, for the Armenian Monophysites, the joint celebration became a symbol of their distorted Christology, while the separate celebration of Christmas and Epiphany meant Nestorianism for them. However, the separate celebration of the Nativity of Christ on December 25, celebrated in the Western Church and in the North African Churches (no later than the beginning of the 4th century) and gradually adopted - even before the Monophysite disputes - in the Antioch, Constantinople, Alexandria, and later in the Jerusalem Patriarchate, became an integral part of the liturgical traditions of the Orthodox Church.

Over time, the holiday of Epiphany became more and more related in meaning to Epiphany and its connection with Christmas events weakened. Currently, in Orthodoxy, Epiphany and Epiphany are different names for one holiday, which is the Lord’s and, celebrated on January 6, is considered impermanent. In this regard, a new interpretation of the word, absent in antiquity, appears. Epiphany, which goes back to the Greek Θεοφάνια, as well as Επιφάνια - as the appearance of God during Baptism in the fullness of the Trinity.

Holiday in Orthodox worship

Epiphany is one of the great twelve holidays. In the Orthodox Church it is celebrated with grandeur equal to the Nativity of Christ. Both of these holidays, connected by Christmastide (from December 25 to January 6), constitute one majestic and soul-saving celebration.

The eve of the holiday - January 5 - is called the Eve of Epiphany, or Christmas Eve. Its services are similar to the service of the eve of the Nativity of Christ.

On the Eve of Epiphany, January 5 (as well as on the Eve of the Nativity of Christ), the Church prescribes strict fasting: eating food once after the blessing of water. If the evening meal occurs on Saturday and Sunday, the fast is made easier: eating is allowed twice - also after the liturgy.

The rite of the great consecration of water

The Church annually renews the commemoration of the Jordanian event with the rite of the great consecration of water, which is carried out (if the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is served) after the prayer behind the pulpit. If Vespers is performed separately, the rite is set at its end: after the exclamation “Be the power,” the priest through the royal doors, while singing the troparia “The Voice of the Lord on the Waters,” goes out to the vessels filled with water, carrying the Honorable Cross on his head, and the consecration of the water begins. It is also performed on the holiday itself after the liturgy (also after the prayer behind the pulpit). The grace of consecrating water on these two days is always the same. At Vespers, the consecration of water was performed in remembrance of the Baptism of the Lord, which sanctified the watery nature, as well as the baptism of catechumens, which in ancient times was performed on the Vespers of Epiphany. On the holiday itself, the consecration of water occurs in memory of the actual event of the Baptism of the Savior.

This rite got its start in the Jerusalem Church and in the 4th–5th centuries it was practiced only in it alone: ​​according to custom, everyone went to the Jordan River for the blessing of water in memory of the Baptism of the Savior: “Now this anxiously awaited moment of immersion has come. The entire crowd unanimously picks up the troparion of the holiday sung by the clergy and, without waiting for the cross to be immersed three times in water, begins to quickly immerse itself in the sacred streams, drink handfuls of them and fill their flasks, bottles, jugs, etc. with them, grabbing from under their feet from the bottom of the river as a souvenir. and her pebbles"; “in the middle of the Church of the Resurrection, an elongated elevated platform is prepared for this blessing of water... In the middle of the platform, a water-blessing table is placed on an elevation of several steps, covered with a shroud and decorated with a large exalted cross with a particle of the Life-giving Tree of the Lord, icons, ripids and candlesticks. Three silver vessels filled with water are placed under the canopy of these shrines.” Therefore, in the Russian Orthodox Church, the blessing of water in eternity is performed in churches, and on holidays it usually takes place on rivers, springs and wells - in the so-called Jordans, for Christ was baptized outside the temple. The rite of blessing of water is attributed to the Evangelist Matthew. Several prayers for this rite were written by Saint Proclus of Constantinople. The final execution of the rite is attributed to Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. The consecration of water on the holiday is already mentioned by Tertullian and St. Cyprian of Carthage. The Apostolic Decrees also contain prayers said during the blessing of water. In the second half of the 5th century, Patriarch Peter Foulon of Antioch introduced the custom of consecrating water not at midnight, but on the eve of Epiphany. In the Russian Church, the Moscow Council of 1667 legalized the double blessing of water - on Vespers and on the Feast of Epiphany. The sequence of the great consecration of water both at eve and on the holiday itself is naturally the same and in some parts has similarities with the sequence of the small consecration of water. It consists of remembering the prophecies relating to the event of Baptism (proverbs), the event itself (Apostle and Gospel) and its meaning (litany and prayers), invoking the blessing of God on the waters and immersing the Life-giving Cross of the Lord in them three times. In the evening after the dismissal of Vespers or Liturgy, a lamp (not a lectern with an icon) is placed in the middle of the church, before which the clergy and choristers sing the troparion and (on “Glory, and now”) the kontakion of the holiday. The candle symbolizes the light of Christ's teaching, Divine enlightenment given at the Epiphany. After this, the worshipers venerate the cross, and the priest sprinkles each with holy water.

Patristic exegesis of the holiday

On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Holy Church affirms faith in the highest, incomprehensible mystery of the three Persons of the One God and teaches us to equally honestly confess and glorify the Holy Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible, denounces and destroys the delusions of ancient false teachers who tried to embrace the Creator of the world with ordinary thoughts and words. The Church shows the need for Baptism for believers in Christ, instills a feeling of deep gratitude to the Enlightener and Purifier of the sinful nature. She teaches that salvation and cleansing from sins is possible only through the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and therefore it is necessary to worthily preserve the grace-filled gifts of holy Baptism in order to preserve the purity of the precious clothing necessary for salvation.

Conversations on the feast of the Epiphany are known back in the 3rd century: Saints Hippolytus, Gregory the Wonderworker. At the same time, in line with the debate about the separate or syncretistic celebration of Christmas and Epiphany, vivid works appear in which the first point of view is substantiated on solid theological grounds, but very emotionally. Thus, Saint Proclus of Constantinople preached: “On the previous feast of the Nativity of the Savior the earth rejoiced, on today’s feast of the Epiphany the sea is greatly rejoicing, since through the Jordan it received the blessing of purification.” And Cosmas Indicopleutus in “Christian Topography” briefly recorded what all Orthodox Christians eventually accepted: “From ancient times, the Church, so as not to forget about one of the two holidays, if it began to celebrate them together, decreed that they should be separated by twelve days according to the number of the apostles.” .

Subsequently - from the 4th to the 9th centuries - the great fathers of the Church (,) created their festive homily, skillfully combining dogmatic content and symbolic-allegorical imagery.

Holiday in pre-Chalcedonian and Western traditions

For historical and comparative liturgics, the dramatic history of the establishment of a single day of celebration of Christmas and Epiphany in the Armenian Church is extremely interesting. In Armenia, where, having rejected the Council of Chalcedon, they began to profess the Monophysite teaching, in the second half of the 6th century the former custom of celebrating Christmas and Epiphany on the same day was finally established at the direction of the Armenian Catholicos Nerses II (548–557). Undoubtedly, the return to this tradition was due to their desire for as much isolation as possible from Byzantium on religious grounds. This practice receives ample justification in many polemical works of such authors as Shirakuni (Ananias the Calculator, about 600–670), Zechariah Dzaghetsi († 877), Hovhannes Erznkatsi (of Pluz) (1220/1230–1293) and many others, who, among other things, they appealed to apostolic testimonies.

As for Western practice, the oldest mention of the celebration in question is contained in the letter of Pope Siricius (384–399) to Bishop Chimerius of Tarragona (Spain). However, subsequent pontiffs - neither Saint Leo the Great nor Saint Gregory the Great - do not mention this holiday. Later, according to the Roman sacramentaries of the 8th and 9th centuries, the Nativity of Christ and the Adoration of the Magi were celebrated, but not Epiphany. As a result, the last holiday in the Latin rite was completely separated from Epiphany and is celebrated on the Sunday following Epiphany.

According to the sermons of Pope Leo I (400–461), in Rome the worship of the Magi was the sole theme of the holiday. It was also enshrined in the perception of the Roman rite in the Frankish empire, but still in the Gallican service in the antiphons of the liturgy of the hours - apparently under the influence of the Eastern tradition - three miracles are mentioned: the adoration of the Magi, Baptism, the miracle of turning water into wine.

Due to thematic specificity, the memory of the Epiphany was moved to the day of the Epiphany octave. Presumably, the meeting of a strong Gallican tradition (the Baptism of Jesus - the adoration of the Magi - the miracle at Cana - the multiplication of the loaves) with the Roman tradition (the adoration of the Magi) led to a division of the festive plot. And the worship of the Magi remained behind January 6, and the baptism in the Jordan moved to the day of the octave. Hence the reading of the Gospel fragment about the miracle in Cana of Galilee on the second Sunday after Epiphany (now on the second Sunday of the annual cycle).

For the holiday on January 6, there is also an accompanying celebration - the Council of John the Baptist - on the next day.

Catholic Epiphany has many traditions. During the Mass, chalk is blessed, with which believers write letters on their houses. TO, M And B, symbolizing the names of the wise men - Caspar, Melchior and Baltasar, who came to worship Jesus. This day is also called a generous day, and the evening before the holiday is a generous evening, when it is customary to give gifts to children and relatives and distribute pies.

So, as a result of diachronic development, the feast of Epiphany in the Latin rite was completely separated from Epiphany and is celebrated on the Sunday following it.

Iconography of the holiday

The eventual complexity of the holiday, its significant dogmatic component influenced the fact that images of the Epiphany, which appeared already in the first centuries of Christianity, depicted not only the Baptism of the Savior in the Jordan by John the Baptist, but, first of all, the appearance to the world of the incarnate Son of God as one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity , which is testified by the Father and the Holy Spirit, who descended on Christ in the form of a dove.

In early Christian monuments of the 4th–5th centuries, such as the ampoules of Monza, the mosaics of one of the baptisteries in Ravenna, the plaque from the throne of Archbishop Maximian, Christ, baptized by the Baptist, was represented as a young beardless youth. However, in the future, in accordance with church tradition, the image of the Baptism of the Savior as an adult will become widespread.

Despite the fact that the main source of iconography for the event of Epiphany was the Gospel, on the testimony of which the descriptions of Baptism in the apocrypha are based, the images of the holiday contained elements not borrowed from the narrative of the holy evangelists. Thus, following ancient pictorial techniques, in the scenes of Baptism, isographers placed the personification of the Jordan River - a gray-haired old man sitting, as, for example, in the mosaic of the dome of the Arian Baptistery, on the shore or located in the river itself, together with the personification of the sea in the form of a floating woman.

In addition, the Gospel does not report the presence of angels at the Baptism of the Lord, although their figures in varying numbers, starting from the 6th–7th centuries, are always depicted standing on the opposite bank of the Jordan from John the Baptist, usually occupying the right side of the composition.

Above the Savior in the water, from ancient times, a segment of the sky was depicted, from which a dove descends to Christ - a symbol of the Holy Spirit, rays of the Trinity light, as well as the blessing right hand of the Almighty, meaning a “gesture of speech” - a voice from heaven (painting in the Daphne monastery near Athens, second half of the 11th century). This emphasizes the moment of the appearance of the Divine, theophany.

Over time, more details appear on icons, mosaics, book miniatures, etc.: on the banks of the Jordan, people undressing are depicted, waiting for their turn to be baptized; sometimes a cross is depicted on the water, the confluence of the streams of Jor and Dan, etc. (Church of the Savior on Nereditsa, Novgorod, 1199; St. Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai; Pskov churches, first half of the 14th century).

The greatest attention in all the images of Epiphany is attracted by the figures of the Savior and John the Baptist, who places his right hand on the head of Christ, which correlates with the Gospel and the hymnography of the holiday (icons from the Sergiev Posad Museum-Sacristy and St. Sophia Cathedral, 15th century).

In Russian monuments of the 16th–17th centuries, despite the prohibition by Church Councils of depicting God the Father, the figure of Hosts is often present in the Epiphany in the segment of the sky. And usually from His mouth comes a ray in which the Holy Spirit is depicted in the form of a dove.