The Presentation of Our Lord and Savior in the Temple
Luke 2:2-39 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) (Exo 22:29, Exo 34:20, Num 8:17) And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons (Lev 15:29).
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
Gabriel the New Martyr of Constantinople
Gabriel II of Constantinople (died 3 December 1659) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for one week in 1657.
In 1659 he was hanged by the Ottoman Sultan for having baptised a converted Muslim, and after refusing to abjure his own Christian faith. He is hence revered as New Hieromartyr Gabriel II, Metropolitan of Prousa and his feast in the Eastern Orthodox Church is 3 December.
Jordan the New Martyr
Agathadoros the Martyr of Cappadocia
Saints Lists in General
I asked a friend “Why are there different saints lists on the OCA site than the Antiochian site?“. This is what he told me…
Certain saints are commemorated across all churches.
There are saints commemorated across all the churches, and local saints that are commemorated by those autocephalous churches
OCA sort of combines mainly the Russian calendar with some of the calendars of its ethnic episcopates (so they will have some Romanian or Bulgarian local saints, too)A second aspect is that calendars do not include all the Synaxarion saints of the day, and that depends on local veneration. For instance, most days if you read the Synaxarion there are 3, 4, sometimes 10 saints that are not in the calendar.
Even if they are in the calendar, the commemoration can vary from local to local church. For instance, a Romanian saint will have a different liturgic commemoration in Romania (“red cross”, that is his own stychera for “Lord I have cried” at Vespers, his own kathismata, Polyeleos, magnifications at Orthros, his own Epistle and Gospel reading at Liturgy etc), but none of that in a Russian church.
At the lowest level, the patron saint of a specific temple will have the liturgic equivalent of a Great Feast in that parish but say in other parishes of the same jurisdiction only his name read at Synaxarion.
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