Synaxis of the Holy Forefathers and Foremothers
The whole company of the righteous of the Old Covenant — the forefathers from Adam, the patriarchs and matriarchs, the judges, the kings and the prophets — commemorated together on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, two Sundays before the Nativity of Christ. An open synaxis: every saint of the Old Testament era belongs to it, and each keeps his own day besides.
The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, kept two Sundays before the Nativity of Christ, gathers into one commemoration the whole company of the righteous who lived before the Incarnation — the forefathers from Adam, the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel, the judges, the kings of Judah, and the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah. The following Sunday, the Sunday before the Nativity, narrows the same remembrance to the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh as the Gospel genealogy names them.
The feast is the Church's answer to a question the Nativity raises. If the Son of God took flesh at one moment in history, what of all the generations that waited for Him? The Forefathers are honored not for having seen the promise fulfilled but for having believed it unfulfilled — "these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off." The hymns of the day set Adam beside Abraham and David beside the Three Youths in the furnace, as one household of expectation.
This is an **open synaxis**: every saint of the Old Testament era belongs to it, and each keeps his or her own day besides. The roster below therefore grows as the database does, and holds the forefathers of the genealogy alongside prophets, judges, righteous kings and queens, and the martyrs of the Maccabean persecution.
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- From AdamThe line of the promiseThe genealogy of Christ is traced from the first-created man through Seth, Noah, and Shem.
- The patriarchsAbraham, Isaac, and JacobThe promise is given to Abraham and carried by the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel.
- The judges and kingsIsrael in the landJudges, and afterwards the kings of Judah from David, keep the line and the worship of the God of Israel.
- The prophetsForetelling the MessiahFrom Moses to Malachi the prophets announce the coming of Christ, closing the Old Covenant in expectation.