Saints of the Day: January 1st

Happy New Year!

Today we celebrate two very important feasts in the Eastern and Western Catholic Church.

In the Roman Rite, today we celebrate the Feast of the Mother of God. We acknowledge †Mary as having an important role in the Nativity of Our Lord God and Savior, †Jesus Christ. The precise title "Mother of God" goes back at least to the third or fourth century. In the Greek form †Theotokos (God-bearer), it became the touchstone of the Church's teaching about the Incarnation. The Council of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the holy Fathers were right in calling the holy virgin †Theotokos. At the end of this particular session, crowds of people marched through the street shouting: "Praised be the †Theotokos!" The tradition reaches to our own day. In its chapter on Mary's role in the Church, Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church calls Mary "Mother of God" 12 times.

In the Byzantine Rite, we celebrate today the Circumcision of Our Lord God and Savior, †Jesus Christ. According to Jewish custom, Saint Joseph and †Mary brought the Christ child to the temple eight days after he was born for the naming of the child and circumcision. We, to this day, still keep this tradition (minus the circumcision) in the Byzantine Catholic Church. It is customary for parents to bring their new born baby to the temple for its naming and presentation.

Also today in the Byzantine Rite, we honor Saint Basil the Great archbishop and "Patriach of the Eastern Monks".