1.
Easter Saturday
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Easter Saturday, on the Christian calendar, is the Saturday following the festival of Easter, the Saturday of Easter or Bright Week. In the liturgy of Western Christianity it is the last day of Easter Week, in the liturgy of Eastern Christianity it is the last day of Bright Week, and called Bright Saturday. Easter Saturday is the day preceding the Octave Day of Easter, many people, especially religious authorities, regard this alternative meaning as inaccurate, but it remains in common usage. In Australia, the NSW State Government defines Easter Saturday as the day after Good Friday when gazetting public holidays for the Easter long weekend, the use of the term Bright Saturday avoids this confusion by clearly referring to the Saturday 6 days after Easter Sunday. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, this day is known as Bright Saturday, all of the services for Pascha are repeated every day of Bright Week, except for the hymns from the Octoechos. On Bright Friday, the Resurrection hymns from the Octoechos are taken from Tone Eight, before the dismissal of Matins a crucession takes place, going three times around the outside of the temple, while chanting the Paschal Canon. On this day, the Paschal Artos, a loaf of leavened bread which was blessed at the end of the Paschal Vigil on Pascha, is broken. This may either be done at the end of the Divine Liturgy, and given out along with the antidoron, or it may be broken at trapeza before the festal meal. According to the Supplemental Book of Needs, the fracturing of the Artos is done in this way, After the Divine Liturgy, the Artos is carried, as is customary, to the Trapeza and Christ is risen. For Thou art our sanctification, and unto Thee do we send up glory, together with Thine Unoriginate Father, and Thine All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit, now and ever, the Vespers on Saturday night is chanted in the normal manner, rather than the Paschal manner. However, the Paschal troparion Christ is risen, is read three times at the beginning. That Vespers is the beginning of Thomas Sunday, because the date of Pascha is moveable, Bright Saturday is a part of the Paschal cycle, and changes from year to year. Eastern Christianity calculates the date of Easter differently from the West, Easter Monday Easter Tuesday Easter Friday Bright Saturday Orthodox icon and synaxarion Paschal Week by S. V. Bulgakov
2.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, a few steps away from the Muristan. The tomb is enclosed by the 18th-century shrine, called the Aedicule, within the church proper are the last four Stations of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of Jesus Passion. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic, and to a lesser degree the Egyptian Copts, Syriacs and Ethiopians. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD built a dedicated to the goddess Venus in order to bury the cave in which Jesus had been buried. The first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, ordered in about 325/326 that the temple be replaced by a church, during the building of the Church, Constantines mother, Helena, is believed to have rediscovered the tomb. Socrates Scholasticus, in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a description of the discovery. The remains are enveloped by a marble sheath placed some 500 years before to protect the ledge from Ottoman attacks. However, there are several thick window wells extending through the marble sheath and they appear to reveal an underlying limestone rock, which may be part of the original living rock of the tomb. The church was starting in 325/326, and was consecrated on 13 September 335. From pilgrim reports it seems that the housing the tomb of Jesus was freestanding at first. Each year, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the anniversary of the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection on 13 September and this building was damaged by fire in May of 614 when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II, invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius restored it and rebuilt the church after recapturing the city, after Jerusalem came under Arab rule, it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the citys Christian sites. A story reports that the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony and he feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as a pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius added that Umar wrote a decree prohibiting Muslims from praying at this location, the building suffered severe damage due to an earthquake in 746. Early in the century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by Patriarch Thomas, in the year 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935, the Orthodox Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent the Church, in 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, the doors and roof were burnt, and the Patriarch John VII was murdered
3.
Monastery
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A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
4.
Joachim
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Joachim was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus, according to the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the apocryphal Gospel of James, Joachim and Anne are not mentioned in the Bible. His feast day is July 26, according to tradition, Saint Anne was born in Bethlehem, and married Joachim of Nazareth, both descendants of David. In the Protoevangelium of James, Joachim is described as a rich and pious man, tradition has it that the parents of the Blessed Virgin, who, apparently, first lived in Galilee, came later on to settle in Jerusalem. However, the high priest rejected Joachim and his sacrifice, as their childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure, Joachim consequently withdrew to the desert where he fasted and did penance for forty days. Angels then appeared to both Joachim and Anne to promise them a child, Joachim later returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate. There was ancient belief that a child born of a mother who had given up hope of having offspring was destined for great things. Parallels occur in the Old Testament in the case of Hannah, Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate was a popular subject in artistic renditions of the Life of the Virgin. The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend, no liturgical celebration of Saint Joachim was included in the Tridentine Calendar. It was added to the General Roman Calendar in 1584, for celebration on March 20, in 1738, it was transferred to the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption of Mary. It was then celebrated as a Double of the 2nd Class, in the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar it was joined to that of Anne, for celebration on July 26. The Eastern Orthodox Churches and Greek Catholics commemorate Joachim on September 9, the Synaxis of Joachim and Anne, in the Quran, Joachim is known as Imran, the father of Maryam. The name is mentioned in several locations and it is said that his family was one of those preferred over all of Gods creatures, St. Joachim is named as the patron of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents, married couples, cabinet makers and linen traders. Symbols associated with Saint Joachim include, a book or scroll representing linen makers, a staff for the Christian word. He is almost always clothed in green, the color of hope, the San Joaquin Valley, California was named after the San Joaquin river, which was given its name in the early 19th century by the Spanish explorer Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga. Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons, and Feast, Franciscan Media ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7 St. Joachim, Father of the Virgin at the Christian Iconography web site
5.
Saint Anne
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Saint Anne of Davids house and line, was the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus according to apocryphal Christian and Islamic tradition. Marys mother is not named in the gospels, nor in the Quran. Annes name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, the story bears a similarity to that of the birth of Samuel, whose mother Hannah had also been childless. Although Anne receives little attention in the Latin Church prior to the late 12th century, in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, she is revered as Hannah. The Dormition of Hannah is also a minor feast in Eastern Christianity, in Protestantism, it is held that Martin Luther chose to enter religious life as a Augustinian monk after crying out to St. Anne. Anne is also revered in Islam, recognised as a spiritual woman. The Quran describes her as the daughter of Faqud who remained childless until her old age, one day, Hannah saw a bird feeding its young while sitting in the shade of a tree, which awakened her desire to have children of her own. She prayed for a child and eventually conceived, her husband, Imran, expecting the child to be male, Hannah vowed to dedicate him to isolation and service in the Second Temple. However, Hannah bore a daughter instead, and named her Mary. Her words upon delivering Mary reflect her status as a mystic, realising that while she had wanted a son, this daughter was Gods gift to her, Then. Truly, I brought her forth, a female, and God is greater in knowledge of what she brought forth. And the male is not like the female, so her Lord received her with the very best acceptance. And her bringing forth caused the very best to develop in her, so her Lord received her with the very best acceptance. And her bringing forth caused the very best to develop in her, the oldest and most influential source for these is the apocryphal Gospel of James, first written in Greek around the middle of the second century. Ancient belief, attested to by a sermon of John of Damascus, was that Anne married once, the sister of Saint Anne was Sobe, who was the mother of Elizabeth. Adherents included the 16th century Lutheran mystic Valentin Weigel, who claimed Anne conceived Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than conventional conjugal relations and this belief was condemned as an error by the Catholic Church in 1677. In the fifteenth century, the Catholic cleric Johann Eck related in a sermon that St Annes parents were named Stollanus, the Catholic Encyclopedia regards this genealogy as spurious. In the Eastern church, the cult of Anne herself may go back as far as c,550, when Justinian built a church in Constantinople in her honor
6.
Valladolid
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Valladolid is a city in Spain and the de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It has a population of 309,714 people, making it Spains 13th most populous municipality and its metropolitan area ranks 20th in Spain with a population of 414,244 people in 23 municipalities. The city is situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within five winegrowing regions, Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Toro, Tierra de León, Valladolid was originally settled in pre-Roman times by the Celtic Vaccaei people, and later the Romans themselves. It remained a settlement until being re-established by King Alfonso VI of Castile as a Lordship for the Count Pedro Ansúrez in 1072. The Catholic Monarchs, Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, married in Valladolid in 1469 and established it as the capital of the Kingdom of Castile and later of united Spain. Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid in 1506, while authors Francisco de Quevedo, the city was briefly the capital of Habsburg Spain under Phillip III between 1601 and 1606, before returning indefinitely to Madrid. The city then declined until the arrival of the railway in the 19th century, among the events that are held each year in the city there is Holy Week, Valladolid International Film Week, and the Theatre Festival and street arts. There is no evidence for the origin of the modern name of Valladolid. Another theory suggests that the name derives from the Arabic expression Ballad Al-Walid بلد الوليد, yet a third claims that it derives from Vallis Olivetum, meaning valley of the olives. In texts from the ages the town is called Vallisoletum, meaning sunny valley. The city is popularly called Pucela, a nickname whose origin is not clear. Another theory is that Pucela comes from the fact that Pozzolana cement was sold there, the Vaccaei was a Celtic tribe, the first people with stable presence on the sector of the middle valley of the River Duero documented in historical times. Remains of Celtiberian and of a Roman camp have been excavated near the city, the nucleus of the city was originally located in the area of the current San Miguel y el Rosarillo square, and was surrounded by a palisade. Archaeological proofs of the existence of three ancient lines of walls have been found, the area was captured from the Moors in the 10th century, and Valladolid was a village until King Alfonso VI of León and Castile donated it to Count Pedro Ansúrez in 1072. He built a palace for himself and his wife, Countess Eylo, the Collegiate of St. Mary, in 1469 Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon were married in the city, by the 15th century Valladolid was the residence of the kings of Castile. In 1506 Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid still convinced that he had reached the Indies in a house that is now a Museum dedicated to him and it was made the capital of the kingdom again between 1601 and 1606 by Philip III. The city was damaged by a flood of the rivers Pisuerga. Despite the damage to the old city by the 1960s economic boom, the Science Museum is next to the river Pisuerga
7.
Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
8.
Harrowing of Hell
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After his death, the soul of Jesus was supposed to have descended into the realm of the dead, which the Apostles Creed calls hell in the old English usage. The realm into which Jesus descended is called Sheol or Limbo by some Christian theologians to distinguish it from the hell of the damned, the Harrowing of Hell is referred to in the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed which state that Jesus Christ descended into Hell. Christ having descended to the underworld is alluded to in the New Testament in 1 Peter 3, 19–20 and this near-absence in Scripture has given rise to controversy and differing interpretations. The descent into hell had been related in Old English poems connected with the names of Cædmon and it is subsequently repeated in Aelfrics homilies c.1000 AD, which is the first known inclusion of the word harrowing. Middle English dramatic literature contains the fullest and most dramatic development of the subject, as an image in Christian art, the harrowing is also known as the Anastasis, considered a creation of Byzantine culture and first appearing in the West in the early 8th century. The Greek wording in the Apostles Creed is κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα, the Greek τὰ κατώτατα and the Latin inferos may also be translated as underworld, netherworld, or abode of the dead. The word harrow comes from the Old English hergian meaning to harry or despoil and is seen in the homilies of Aelfric, in Classical mythology Hades is the underworld inhabited by departed souls and the god Pluto is its ruler. The New Testament uses the term Hades to refer to the abode or state of the dead, in some places it seems to represent a neutral place where the dead awaited the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Several passages from the New Testament have been taken by some to imply that Christ descended into this realm of the dead to bring the righteous ones to Heaven. Other New Testament passages imply it is a place of torment for the unrighteous, matthew 16,18, And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Luke 10,15, And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, luke 16,23, And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Acts 2,27, For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Acts 2,31. he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 1 Corinthians 15,55, “O Death, where is your sting, O Hades, where is your victory. ”Revelation 1,18, I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death, revelation 6,8, So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. Revelation 20,13, The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Revelation 20,14, Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire, in it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. In the original Greek, εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ νεκροῖς εὐηγγελίσθη…) Ephesians 4, 7-10 NIV and this is why it says, When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people
9.
Easter
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It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the fiftieth day, Pentecost Sunday. In Eastern Christianity, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the fortieth day, the Feast of the Ascension. The First Council of Nicaea established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified, these were worked out in practice and it has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March, but calculations vary. Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, in many languages, the words for Easter and Passover are identical or very similar. Easter customs vary across the Christian world, and include services, exclaiming the Paschal greeting, clipping the church. The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection, traditionally decorates the area of churches on this day. Additional customs that have associated with Easter and are observed by both Christians and some non-Christians include egg hunting, the Easter Bunny, and Easter parades. There are also various traditional Easter foods that vary regionally, however, it is possible that Bede was only speculating about the origin of the term since there is no firm evidence that such a goddess actually existed. In Greek and Latin, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called Πάσχα, Pascha, the word originally denoted the Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt. In most of the non-English speaking world, the feast is known by names derived from Greek, Pascha is also a name by which Jesus himself is remembered in the Orthodox Church, especially in connection with his resurrection and with the season of its celebration. The New Testament states that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith, the resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness. For those who trust in Jesus death and resurrection, death is swallowed up in victory, any person who chooses to follow Jesus receives a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Through faith in the working of God those who follow Jesus are spiritually resurrected with him so that they may walk in a new way of life and receive eternal salvation. Easter is linked to the Passover and Exodus from Egypt recorded in the Old Testament through the Last Supper, sufferings and crucifixion of Jesus that preceded the resurrection. According to the New Testament, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning, as in the room during the Last Supper he prepared himself. He identified the matzah and cup of wine as his soon to be sacrificed
