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Because of his importance, John the Baptist is the only saint, other than Mary the Mother of God, whose conception (Sept 23), birth (June 4) and death (Aug 29) are all commemorated. Along with those dates are the commemorations of finding of his head (Feb 24: First and Second times, and May 25 the Third); and the Synaxis on January 7, the day after the Baptism of the Lord (Theophany, January 6).

Among the ancient Mediterranean cultures, it was common to begin a new year in the autumn, with the end of the previous year's harvest. The civil year of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire began in September, and September 1, the first day of the civil year, also called the "Indiction", became the first day of the Church's year as well. The First Ecumenical Council (325) decreed that the Church’s year should begin on September 1.

We celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary on September 8 as the first big festival of the Byzantine liturgical year, which began on September 1. All icons of this feast show the elderly but happy parents, SS. Joachim and Anne, and the birth is usually presented in a cozy family setting of women attendants bustling around Saint Anne.

September 14 marks the second great feast of the liturgical year, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Cross was being broken into small pieces to provide relics for churches and the devout by the 340s. The remaining main part of the Cross was lost after the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187.

October 1, is the patronal feast of our eparchy: the Holy Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrov in Slavonic). This feast, on the first day of October, celebrates the reality of Mary, the Mother of God (Theotokos) interceding for us before the throne of the Almighty. Both our own eparchy and the oldest Byzantine Catholic eparchy, Mukachevo, have this title.

Today we remember the Fathers of Nicaea II, or the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. Called to gather at the site of the first council, which had determined who Christ was, these Fathers had to grapple with the heresy of iconoclasm. The location was an appropriate choice, for the iconoclasts were close to denying the human nature of the divine person, Jesus Christ. His humanity and divinity had been affirmed at Nicaea back in 325.

Saint Luke is the author of both his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, which should be read as one unit. A Greek physician from Antioch, he was converted by the preaching of Paul. The Acts are dedicated to an unknown governor of the province of Antioch. He is also said to have been the companion of Cleophas on the road to Emmaus. Another tradition claims that he was among the Seventy Disciples who followed Christ during his preaching.

The church calendar is filled with warrior saints, soldiers who served in the military faithfully but stood up for their Christian faith when necessary. Demetrius was an officer in the Roman army, and belonged to one of Rome’s ancient patrician families with the right to speak in the Senate. He was killed in the last big persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian.

Blessed Theodore Romzha, the youngest Catholic bishop at 33 in 1944, became the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church's defiant leader amid Soviet annexation, as the sole free bishop in the USSR by 1946. He resisted pressure to join the state church, preached martyrdom, and secretly consecrated successors, ensuring the faith's underground survival after his October 31, 1947 martyrdom. Beatified in 2001, his feast honors that date. He is the patron of Bishop Artur's vocation.

November 8 is the “Synaxis of the Holy, Heavenly, Bodiless Powers”, or Saint Michael the Archangel, and all the choirs of Angels. This includes our own Guardian Angels. Some say that we have guardian angels assigned to us when we are conceived in our mother's wombs. Others say, as in the baptismal ritual, that they are given to us when we are baptized. Either way, we are blessed with angels who try to steer us in the right direction and watch over us.

The Presentation of the Theotokos into the Temple, also called The Entrance of Our Lady into the Temple, is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Byzantine Rite, celebrated on November 21.

Saint Nicholas is the special patron of our own Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic Church. The center of monastic life and the residence of the bishops of our Church was the monastery of Saint Nicholas in the town of Mukachevo, for at least 900 years. Such is his fame and importance that every iconostas in every church that uses the Byzantine rite, Catholic or Orthodox, must have his icon at the north end of the screen.

December 12 is the feast of the Theotokos of Guadalupe. Under this title, the Mother of God is invoked as the patroness of the Americas, as well as of Mexico, and as such is included in our liturgical calendar with all honor. In our day, she is invoked as the protectress of the unborn against abortion, as she is revealed in the miraculous image as being pregnant.

All the great Fathers and Mothers and Prophets of the Old Testament, starting with Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are called to mind this weekend including such figures as the Holy Prophets Elias and Daniel. The Church brings them to our attention now, right before Christmas, largely because of their faith – their belief in the promise given by God to Adam during his expulsion from the garden of Eden, that in the end a Savior will come into the world and will redeem mankind from original sin.

The Sunday of the Ancestors celebrates the men and women in Jesus' family tree. Just like ordinary families, there are some people of whom we know little, and some that we'd rather not know about at all! This genealogy shows that Jesus is open to all people, of all backgrounds, just as His Church is.

The Byzantine Christmas greeting Christ is born! Glorify Him! was already common in the mid-300s. St Gregory Nazianzen starts his famous Christmas sermon with those words, and Eastern Christians have been saying this during the twelve days of Christmas for over 1700 years. Jesus laid in the manger – the feed trough for the animals which is transformed into the feeding place for people who worship Christ.

Saint Stephen was one of the first seven deacons, and the first martyr to die for Christ. Thus, he is known as the protomartyr. He was one of the Greek deacons (Stephanos), and in Acts he is described as filled with the Holy Spirit and "full of grace and strength" (Acts 6: 5-8).

Today we celebrate three important saints who are connected with Jesus: David the King, Joseph His foster-father, and James the Just.