My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

ON SEPTEMBER 1ST OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH CELEBRATES THE BEGINNING OF THE INDICTION, THAT IS, THE CHURCH NEW YEAR

The Holy Church of God celebrates on September 1st the Indiction. The Hebrews of old observed March as the beginning of the year, but for the Romans the beginning of the year was September, even though they previously observed the 1st of January. According to Archbishop Gregory of Taormina, when Julius Caesar defeated Anthony it was in the month of September. Being made exceedingly proud by this triumph he transferred the Roman custom of celebrating in January to September. "Indiction" is a Latin word meaning "to proclaim," which in The Great Synaxaristes is given the signification of orismos, that is, a decree or edict, which more specifically was a tax imposed by the emperor in order to meet the needs of the empire. A chronological unit or cycle of fifteen years was introduced into the calendar at Rome on the 12th of May in the first year of Julius Caesar, though in Antioch it was reckoned from the 1st of September. It was regularized on a yearly basis by Diocletian (ca. 240-316) with a five-year cycle. It was in 312 A.D., when Constantine (ca. 285-337) beheld the sign of the Cross in the sky and gained the victory over the Western autocrat Maxentius (ca. 279-312), that the official indiction of the inhabited world was initiated with a 15-year cycle starting in September of that year, which also agreed with the fiscal and calendar years, which coincided (1st of September-31th of August). The Feast of the Indiction was enacted by the Holy Fathers at the First Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea. Gradually, the word "indiction" acquired a chronological definition that it maintained after losing its determination of fiscal boundaries. Indiction-dating became mandatory after Justinian I's novel 47 of 537. The first day of the indiction was not identical in the various traditions. The Greek or Constantinopolitan Indiction began on the 1st of September; the Bedan or Caesarean or Constantinian Indiction began on the 24th of September; and the Sienese Indiction began on the 8th of September.

The hymnographers of the Church composed hymns for the Christians. We ask the Logos/Word, Who made all things in wisdom and appointed the seasons and times for our salvation, "to bless the crown of the year, preserving the multitude of the Orthodox Christians in peace, through the prayers of the Theotokos and of all the Saints" (Vespers, Mode Plagal Two). The faithful (Christian believers) also entreat Christ God, Who wisely renewed all that He brought into existence, for forgiveness of sins and setting aright the work of their hands, victory over their adversaries, the setting of heretics, the fertility of the earth, and seasonable weather.

The month of September was also the time to gather the summer fruits and prepare for winter. On the first day of the Seventh Month, the Hebrews kept the Feast of Trumpets: "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month, on the first say of the month, ye shall have a rest, a memorial of trumpets: it shall be to you a holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall offer a whole-burnt-offering to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:24-25). (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)

_________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George