NOVEMBER is the third month in the Church Year, and it is one in which we begin in earnest to prepare for the Saviour’s Nativity. This preparation consists of two parts. First, and most obviously, we begin the Nativity Fast, which is sometimes called the St Philip’s Fast because it begins the day after St Philip’s Day. Secondly, in church, we begin to chant hymns for the Nativity. Most dramatically this begins during the Vigil of the Great Feast of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (21st November / 4th December) with the Christmas catabasias chanted on the canon in Mattins. So we are prepared body and soul to greet the Saviour’s Birth in Bethlehem of Judæa.
The Great Feast of the Entry is itself a preparation for the Nativity, for in it we see the All-holy Virgin dedicating herself to the service of the Lord in preparation for her unique rôle in becoming His mother. But there are also other feasts that are preparatory to Christmas. At the beginning of December we shall have a series of days on which we celebrate Old Testament prophets and later in the month we have the two Sundays celebrating the Old Testament righteous and the forebears of the Saviour according to the flesh.
In November we anticipate this by celebrating the memory of the holy Prophet Abdias (Obadiah) on 19th of the month. This holy prophet was a contemporary and latterly a disciple of the great Prophet Elias, and when King Ahab and Jezebel persecuted the holy prophets of God he hid them in caves from this conflict. The saint’s name means “servant” or “worshipper of God.” In the fourth/fifth century, the Blessed Jerome related that Abdias was buried alongside St John the Baptist and the holy Prophet Eliseus. The burial place was near the caves in which Abdias had hidden the prophets of God, and many people who were afflicted with demons were healed at these tombs, as was reported by Jerome’s disciple, Paula.
Among other saints in November, we have:
Saint Benignus of Armagh (9th / 22nd) was a disciple and the successor of the great Saint Patrick. In 433 A.D. St Patrick was preparing to celebrate Pascha at Tara. Having travelled to the mouth of the Boyne by boat, he is said to have set out on foot for the rest of the journey. He and his companions were given hospitality and overnight lodgings at the house of a nobleman, named Seschnen. The latter was so moved by the saint’s words that he and his household were converted and baptised. This man had a young son, to whom St Patrick gave the Christian name Benignus at his Baptism because of his sweet disposition. The boy insisted on following St Patrick, and was educated by him and subsequently appointed by him to be the abbot of a monastic house at Druimlias. He continued in this obedience for twenty years. When, in 465 A.D., St Patrick died, Benignus was unanimously chosen to be his successor and was consecrated as Archbishop of Armagh. Like his Elder, he made missionary journeys in Ireland and even went further than St Patrick had, penetrating Kerry and Clare. He probably died in the year 468, although some scholars suggest he lived longer. He died inArmagh and was laid to rest there. 
