Holy Days in the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Just thought I would post this to let people know.

Holy Days of “Obligation”
Thursday January 6th, Theophany of Our Lord
Thursday May 5th, Ascension of Our Lord
Wednesday June 29th, Peter and Paul, Prime Apostles
Monday August 15th, Dormition of the Mother of God

All those and Sundays.

Solemn Holy Days

Saturday January 1st, Circumcision of Our Lord and Basil the Great, Archbishop
Wednesday February 2nd, Encounter of Our Lord with Simeon
Friday March 25th, Good Friday and Annunciation of the Mother of God
Monday March 28th, Bright Monday
Friday June 24th, Birth of John the Baptist
Saturday August 6th, Transfiguration of Our Lord
Thursday September 8th, Birth of the Mother of God
Wednesday September 14th, Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Saturday October 1st, Protection of the Mother of God
Tuesday November 8th, Archangel Michael and All Angels
Monday November 21st, Entrance of the Mother of God
Tuesday December 6th, Nicholas of Myra, Archbishop (patron saint of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church)
Thursday December 8th, Conception of St Anna
Monday December 26, Synaxis of the Mother of God - Memory of David, Joseph & James

Simple Holy Days

Tuesday March 29th, Birght Tuesday
Monday May 16th, Pentecost Monday
Wednesday July 20th, Elijah, Great Prophet
Monday August 29th, Beheading of John the Baptist
Tuesday December 27th, Stephen, Protomartyr
The feast day of the saint the parish church is dedicated to.

Now each parish will have services for the Holy Days of “Obligation” and then they will throw in a couple of the Solemn and Simple Holy Days too.

Just thought you might like to know. This also tells you why we byzantines tend not to reply when others as if a day is a day of obligation. As you can see the Conception of St Anna (Immaculate Conception) and New Year’s day are not days of “oblgation” for us.

 

[katherine2]

David,

Is it not also correct that the discipline for the Carpatho-Byzantine churches is that the obligation is for common prayer rather than specifically for Divine Liturgy (i.e Vespers or Orthos celebrated in the parish though not if read privately would fullfill the obligation)?

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

katherine2:

David,

Is it not also correct that the discipline for the Carpatho-Byzantine churches is that the obligation is for common prayer rather than specifically for Divine Liturgy (i.e Vespers or Orthos celebrated in the parish though not if read privately would fullfill the obligation)?

Katherine, it is true that Great Vespers, which is the Vigil Vespers on the evening before a Holy Day, fulfills the “obligation”.

But most of our parishes have a Vigil Divine Liturgy, another one of the left over latinizatoins. Some are starting to have a Vesperal Divine Litrugy, that is the beginning is that of Great Vespers but then it moves in the Divine Liturgy but sometimes that takes a bit longer than a normal Divine Liturgy. There are a few parishes that have Great Vespers though.

So to say it again, our Sunday “Obligation” and our Holy Day “Obligation” is fulfilled with either attendace of the Divine Liturgy on Sunday/Holy Day or at the Vigil Vespers the evening before.

We do not share the requirement to be at a Eucharistic services to fulfill the “obligation”

Now a Latin Catholic can fulfill their Obligation by attending a Divine Liturgy on Sunday but I do not think they could fulfill it by attending a Vigil Vespers.

Now some might have noticed and might want to question my use of quotes around the word obligation, this is because the idea of Days of Obligation is foreign to the Byzantine Tradition.

 

[mercygate]

Byz,

The Nativity of Our Lord isn’t on your list (or did I miss it?) – surely Christmas is a day of obligation. ??

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

mercygate:

Byz,

The Nativity of Our Lord isn’t on your list (or did I miss it?) – surely Christmas is a day of obligation. ??

Christmas day is a Sunday in 2005.

Sorry, I should have said that this list is for 2005.