Church celebrates Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-Giving Cross

The icon of the Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. Photo: blagovistinfo

On August 14, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, also known as the 'Honey Spas' (Honey Feast of the Savior).

The feast was established in Constantinople in the 9th century “because of illnesses that occurred very frequently in August.” On this day, the Precious Wood of the Cross was carried out from the imperial treasury and the streets of the city were sanctified. “From this day onward until the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, processions were held throughout the city, and afterward the Cross was presented to the people for veneration,” according to a 19th-century Greek Horologion.

The Russian name of the feast, proiskhozhdenie (“origin”), is an inaccurate translation of the Greek word denoting a solemn procession. For this reason, the title of the feast is more accurately rendered with the word “procession” or “bringing forth.”

On the feast of the Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, solemn services are celebrated in Orthodox churches, similar to those of the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross and the Exaltation of the Cross. At Matins, before the Great Doxology, church rectors in full vestments carry the Cross out of the altar during the singing of the Trisagion and place it on an analogion.

As the faithful sing, “Before Thy Cross we fall down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify,” the people make three full prostrations before the Cross. The clergy then anoint the faithful with oil while special stichera are sung.

The Lesser Blessing of Water is performed on August 14 either before or after the Liturgy. Honey is blessed together with the water, and from this day the faithful are blessed to eat honey from the new harvest.

As the UOJ also reported, the Dormition Fast begins for Orthodox Christians on this day. It is a fixed fast lasting from August 14 through August 27 and, in its strictness, is comparable to Great Lent.

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