December is of course a very special month as we celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. We wish you all a peaceful and blessed month.

Καλά Χριστούγεννα/Happy Christmas

A reminder too that there is a gathering at our Church on Sunday 14th December following the Divine Liturgy service.

Day	Date	Start	End	Details	Holy Communion?	Saints Days Celebrated	Scripture Readings
Thursday	4th	9.30	11.30	Service of Great Martyr St Barbara	Yes	St Barbara	Matthew 25:1-13, Galatians 3:23-29;4:1-5, Mark 5:24-34
Saturday	6th	9.30	11.30	Service of St Nicholas & St Savvas	Yes	St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra, St Savvas	John 10:1-9, Hebrews 13:17-21, Luke 6:17-23
Sunday	7th	9.30	12.45	Divine Liturgy – 10th Sunday of Luke	Yes		Luke 24:1-12, Ephesians 5:8-19, Luke 13:10-17
Tuesday	9th	9.30	11.30	Conception of the Virgin Mary	Yes
Friday	12th	9.30	11.30	Service of St Spyridon	Yes	St Spyridon the Wonderworker of Trymithous	John 10:1-9 , Ephesians 5:8-19, John 10:9-16
Sunday	14th	9.30	12.45	Divine Liturgy – 11th Sunday of Luke	Yes		Luke 24:12-35, Colossians 3:4-11, Luke 14:16-24
Monday	15th	9.30	11.30	Service of St Eleutheris	Yes	St Eleutheris
Sunday	21st	9.30	12.45	Divine Liturgy – Sunday before Nativity	Yes		Luke 24:36-53, Hebrews 11:9-10; 32-40, Matthew 1:1-25
Wednesday	24th	8.30	11.30	Orthos, Great Hours followed by Vespers and St Basil’s Liturgy	Yes	St Basil	Hebrews 1:1-12, Luke 2:1-20
Thursday	25th	9.30	12.30	Christmas Service – The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ	Yes		Matthew 1:18-25, Galatians 4:4-7, Matthew 2:1-12
Friday	26th	11.00	12.00	Synaxis of the Holy Theotokos	Yes		Hebrews 2:11-18, Matthew 2:13-23
Sunday	28th	9.30	12.45	Divine Liturgy – Sunday after Nativity	Yes		John 20:1-10, Galatians 1:11-19, Matthew 2:13-23

St Barbara the Great Martyr

Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian.

She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly believed in the Holy Trinity.

About this time Dioscorus began building a bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen to build a third window in addition to the two her Father had commanded. She also inscribed the sign of the Cross with her finger upon the marble of the bath-house, leaving the saving sign cut as deeply into the marble as if it had been done with an iron tool.

When the Synaxarion of Saint Barbara was written, the marble of the bath-house and the cross inscribed by Saint Barbara were still preserved, and many healings were worked there.

When Dioscorus returned, he asked why the third window had been added; Barbara began to declare to him the mystery of the Trinity. Because she refused to renounce her faith, Dioscorus tortured Barbara inhumanely, and after subjecting her to many sufferings he beheaded her with his own hands in the year 290.

St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra

This Saint lived during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great and reposed in 330.

As a young man he desired to espouse the solitary life. He made a pilgrimage to the holy city Jerusalem, where he found a place to withdraw to devote himself to prayer. It was made known to him, however, that this was not the will of God for him, but that he should return to his homeland to be a cause of salvation for many.

He returned to Myra, and was ordained bishop. He became known for his abundant mercy, providing for the poor and needy, and delivering those who had been unjustly accused. No less was he known for his zeal for the truth. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council of the 318 Fathers at Nicaea in 325; upon hearing the blasphemies that Arius brazenly uttered against the Son of God, Saint Nicholas struck him on the face.

Since the canons of the Church forbid the clergy to strike any man at all, his fellow bishops were in perplexity what disciplinary action was to be taken against this hierarch whom all revered. In the night our Lord Jesus Christ and our Lady Theotokos appeared to certain of the bishops, informing them that no action was to be taken against him since he had acted not out of passion, but extreme love and piety.

The Dismissal Hymn for holy hierarchs, The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock … was written originally for Saint Nicholas. He is the patron of all travellers, and of sea-farers in particular; he is one of the best known and best loved Saints of all time.

St Spyridon the Wonderworker of Trymithous

Spyridon, the God-bearing Father of the Church, the great defender of Corfu and the boast of all the Orthodox, had Cyprus as his homeland.

He was simple in manner and humble of heart, and was a shepherd of sheep. When he was joined to a wife, he begat of her a daughter whom they named Irene. After his wife’s departure from this life, he was appointed Bishop of Trimythous, and thus he became also a shepherd of rational sheep.

When the First Ecumenical Council was assembled in Nicaea, he also was present, and by means of his most simple words stopped the mouths of the Arians who were wise in their own conceit. By the divine grace which dwelt in him, he wrought such great wonders that he received the surname ‘Wonderworker.” So it is that, having tended his flock piously and in a manner pleasing to God, he reposed in the Lord about the year 350, leaving to his country his sacred relics as a consolation and source of healing for the faithful.

About the middle of the seventh century, because of the incursions made by the barbarians at that time, his sacred relics were taken to Constantinople, where they remained, being honoured by the emperors themselves.

But before the fall of Constantinople, which took place on May 29, 1453, a certain priest named George Kalokhairetes, the parish priest of the church where the Saint’s sacred relics, as well as those of Saint Theodora the Empress, were kept, took them away on account of the impending peril. Travelling by way of Serbia, he came as far as Arta in Epirus, a region in Western Greece opposite to the isle of Corfu.

From there, while the misfortunes of the Christian people were increasing with every day, he passed over to Corfu about the year 1460. The relics of Saint Theodora were given to the people of Corfu; but those of Saint Spyridon remain to this day, according to the rights of inheritance, the most precious treasure of the priest’s own descendants, and they continue to be a staff for the faithful in Orthodoxy, and a supernatural wonder for those that behold him; for even after the passage of 1,500 years, they have remained incorrupt and even the flexibility of his flesh has been preserved.

Truly wondrous is God in His Saints! (Ps. 67:3 5)