The Feast of The Three Holy Hierarchs
This week we celebrate the feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs, St
Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian; and St. John Chrysostom. Our
Byzantine Church venerates
these three staunch pillars and defenders of our Church Doctrine against the
heresies that sought to deny the divinity of Jesus Christ St Basil was born in
Cappodocia in Asia Minor in 330A.D~ He was the Archbishop of Caesarea. St.
Gregory of Nazianzus, who is called the Theologian, was born in Nazianzus in
Cappodocia in 325 A D He was the ArchbishopOfC0nstafltm0P~* St. John Chrysostom
was born at Antioch in the year 347 A.D. He was renowned for his eloquence, and
was thus termed “Chrysostom”, which means “Golden Mouthed” in Greek He was the
Archbishop of Constantinople, and he revised the Divine Liturgy which we still
.. use today.. He~ is recorded in historical annals as the most eloquent
preachers of the Byzantine Church of his time, and his homilies are classics
even to this day This
feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs was introduced in the 11th century At that
time an argument arose among the people of Constantinople as to which of these 3
saints was the greatest Local pride was involved and tempers were dangerously
high All 3 saints appeared one night to
the saintly Bishop John of Euchaita, a suburb of Constantinople, telling him
that they were all equal in. the sight of God. The saints asked that a feast be
instituted to their common memory Subsequently, this feast became a major Holy
Day in the Church in order to pay tribute to these three great Saints of the
Byzantine Catholic Church
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