THE FEASTS OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF THE LORD AND OF SAINT BASIL
On Thursday, 1/14 January 2022 the Patriarchate celebrated the Despotic feast of the circumcision according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and the commemoration of Saint Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
This feast was celebrated with an All-night vigil at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with Matins in the Catholicon and of the Church of the Resurrection and the Divine Liturgy at the All-holy Tomb.
The Liturgy celebrated as a "small parresia", was officiated by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos with the co-celebration of their Eminences; Metropolitan Isychios of Kapitolias, the Archbishops, Theophanes of Gerassa, Aristarchos of Constantina, Theodosios of Sebastia, Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis, Hieromonks and Hierodeacons. The chanting was delivered by Hierodeacon Simeon and the Patriarchal School Students, at the presence of Monks, Nuns, and laity from Jerusalem and the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem.
After the Divine Liturgy, there was a procession three times around the Sacred Edicule and around the shrines, carrying the sacred relic of the right arm of Saint Basil the Great, which is kept all year round at the Sacristy of the Holy Sepulchre.
At the end of the Services, His Beatitude cut the New Year Cake at the Office of Geronda Sacristan, His Eminence Archbishop Isidoros of Hierapolis.
Early in the morning, after the Divine Liturgy at the Monastic Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, His Beatitude came to cut the New Year Cake for the Brotherhood of the Central Monastery at the Epitropikon.
In honour of Saint Basil the Great, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Friday morning at the Holy Church of Saint Basil in Jerusalem, by the Master of Ceremonies of the Patriarchate, Archimandrite Bartholomew, by the hospitality of the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nectarios.
There was a meal for the Brotherhood at noon.