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Today is the feast of the Conception of St. John the Baptist, the glorious Prophet and Precursor of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The foretelling of John's birth is recounted in the Gospel of Luke. The righteous priest Zachariah, and his wife, Elizabeth, had no children, and were advanced in age. They prayed that God would grant them a child.

One day, when Zachariah took his turn to enter the Temple and burn incense, an angel appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar, and told Zachariah that his wife would bear a son, to be called John.

Zachariah did not believe the angel's words, and the angel said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words....”

When Zachariah came out of the Temple, the people realized that he was unable to speak, and understood that he had seen a...

Today is the feast of St. Codratus (also known as Quadratus). He was successor to St. Publius as bishop of Athens, and is counted among the 70 apostles. He is said to have been the first of the Christian apologists, and wrote an Apologia in defense of Christianity in the year 126 AD. A fragment of this work is still extant, quoted in the works of Eusebius of Caesarea. He died by the sword some time before 130 AD.

Today is the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross, and also the feast of Sts. Sophia and her three daughters, Faith, Hope, and Charity. Sophia was a pious Christian widow who named her daughters for the three Christian virtues. They lived their Christian faith openly and joyfully.

While the girls were still children, they, along with their mother, were summoned to Rome. Once there, the Emperor Hadrian ordered them to offer sacrifice to the goddess Artemis. The young girls refused, and suffered martyrdom at the hands of the guards in an attempt to force Sophia to renounce her faith in Christ. Afterwards, Sophia buried her daughters' bodies and remained by their graves for three days, until she herself died. Even though she did not suffer for Christ in the flesh, she was not deprived of a martyr’s crown. Instead, she suffered in her heart. Believers buried her body beside her daughters.

Today is the feast of St. Euphemia the Great-Martyr, also known as Euphemia the All-Praised. She was martyred for the Faith of Christ in the city of Chalcedon, about AD 304. She was the daughter of Christian parents, and dedicated her life to Christ as a youth, practicing the virtues of prayer, fasting, and chastity. After her martyrdom, a church was built over her grave, which became the site of many pilgrimages.

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast commemorates the discovery of the Holy Cross on which Our Lord suffered, together with the nails, which is credited to Empress Helen, mother of Constantine the Great. The finding was made in Jerusalem, AD 326. In the Church of Jerusalem, erected by St. Helen over the Sepulchre of our Lord, the Patriarch St. Macarius elevated the Cross, and all the people beholding it cried out, "Lord, have mercy!"