02 — The Autumn Feasts
The Church year, beginning on 1 September, opens with two feasts a week apart: the Nativity of the Theotokos (8 September), the first Great Feast of the cycle, and the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September). The first rests wholly on the Protoevangelium of James; the second commemorates the finding and elevation of the True Cross at Jerusalem — a tradition whose historical core must be carefully pinned to its earliest attestations.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox
Purpose
These two feasts inaugurate the liturgical year and set two of its recurring problems side by side: a feast built entirely on apocryphal tradition (the Nativity of the Theotokos) and a feast built on a historical event overlaid with a later legend (the Exaltation). Both are treated with attestation-pinning.
Navigation
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-nativity-of-the-theotokos.md | 8 September; the birth of Mary to Joachim and Anna; the Protoevangelium background flagged as apocryphal; the feast as the dawn of the Incarnation |
| the-exaltation-of-the-cross.md | 14 September; the Encaenia of the Holy Sepulchre and the elevation of the Cross; the finding of the Cross and its attribution to St Helena, attestation-pinned |
See Also
- The Great Marian Feasts — the Nativity of the Theotokos in the fuller Marian context
- The Twelve Great Feasts and the Calendar — why the year opens in September