THE COMING MONTH
THE WHOLE MONTH of December is spent either preparing for the feast of the Saviour’s Nativity in Bethlehem through the fast, which lasts up to and including Christmas Eve, or celebrating the feast itself which, in the Orthodox practice, lasts not twelve but seven days. On the two Sundays before the feast day itself, we have commemorations of the Old Testament Righteous Ones, and on the second of these, during the Divine Liturgy, the reading of the Gospel is St Matthew, chapter 1, verses 1-25, the genealogy of the Saviour according to the flesh. Those of us, who converted to Holy Orthodoxy in the days when services in English were rare, perhaps remember this reading with some affection, because it was the one Gospel reading in the year that we could largely understand! However, it is much more than just an affirmation of the reality of the Incarnation. The lives and witnesses of the forebears of the Saviour listed there teach us much about His ministry and His love towards us. Each one of them is a sermon in itself. Often, even the names themselves of these ancestors of His are instructive.
On the Sunday after the feast, we celebrate the Kinsmen of our Saviour: the Prophet King and Psalmist David who was His ancestor, His ostensible father, Joseph the Betrothed of the Mother of God, and Joseph’s son, the Holy Apostle James, who, though not one of the Twelve, was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and who is called by the Orthodox the Brother of God. These two are grafted in to His family tree with St David, as we also, the Orthodox Christians, are, so that now we comprise the Chosen People, the New Israel, the true descendents of all those righteous ones of the blessed Israel of old. whom we celebrated before the feast.
Among the Saints celebrated in December, we have the great Wonderworkers, St Nicolas of Myra of Lycia (6th/19th) and St Spiridon of Tremithus (12th/25th), whose feasts we keep with a Vigil. Also we have:-
The Holy New Hieromartyr Gavrilo (Gabriel), Patriarch of Serbia (13th/26th), who lived in the seventeenth century, when Serbia was under Turkish rule. He attended the Synod of Moscow in 1655, and for this he came under political suspicion and was thought to be plotting with the Russians against the Ottomans. Later he offended the Jewish community, who claimed that he had converted some of their number, and to make their accusations more effective, they suggested instead that he had converted Moslems to Christianity and baptised them. He was arrested and sentenced to forcible conversion to Islam. This he refused to do, remaining faithful to Christ. He was imprisoned for a short time and finally executed by being hanged in Prussa in 1659 A.D., thus gaining a double crown as a faithful hierarch and as a holy martyr.
The Venerable Winebald of Heidenheim (18th/31st) lived in the eighth century are was probably from the West Country. He and his father and brother made a pilgrimage to Rome, where eventually Winebald spent seven years studying before returning to England to serve the Church in this country. After some time, he made a second pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostles, where he met with his fellow-countryman, the future Hieromartyr, Boniface of Crediton. The latter persuaded him to go with him to Germany and serve the mission there. St Boniface subsequently ordained Winebald a priest, entrusting seven mission parishes to him. In the meantime his brother, St Willibald, had also settled in Germany and had been consecrated as Bishop of Eichstadt. He persuaded Winebald to found a monastery a Heidenheim. In the event, this was established as a double monastery, with our saint ruling over the men’s community, and his sister, St Walberga, over the separate sisterhood. In these synodias, the rule of St Benedict was observed. So greatly did St Winebald revere the great St Benedict that he desired to end his days at Monte Cassino near his tomb. He obtained a blessing from the fathers there to do so, but his brother, the Bishop, prevailed upon to stay at Heidenheim for the benefit of his monastic community and flock. There he died on 18th December, A.D. 761, and sixteen years later, on 24th September, his brother presided over the ceremony of the uncovering of his incorrupt relics, which were enshrined within the monastic church.
