Firstly, my apologies for not consistently posting over the past two weeks I’ve been enduring an intensive French course.

The feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple began on Saturday (21 November). It’s a great feast in so far as it openly celebrates the role of legend in our tradition. The presentation of Mary in the Temple at age 3, where she danced on the steps of the Holy of Holies, and lived there being fed and entertained by angels for the next 9 years is all from the Protoevangelion of James. An apocryphal text that like the Didache was given “unofficial” canonical status very early on in the Christian tradition.

St. Amphilochius was a theologian, a stalwart defender of orthdoxy against the Arians, and according to tradition, encouraged St. Basil to write his defence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Amphilochius, like many saintly bishops is also known for successfully standing up to “power” risking his life before the Emperor Theodosius to make a theological point.