We are accustomed to speaking of twelve “great feasts” of the Church; at least one earlier traditional list contains only ten feasts and includes certain celebrations that we now consider minor. However, if we look at the service books of the Church, we find that there are around twenty feasts of the highest liturgical rank, and this number includes the Nativity and Beheading of the Forerunner. Just as an iconostasis is rarely complete without the figure of the Forerunner standing at the Lord’s side, likewise our celebration of the liturgical year is not complete without the observance of the Forerunner’s birth and death. The Forerunner’s feast days should be jealously observed in all of our churches to the degree humanly possible.
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