"So you are a king? Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king...for this I was born...to bear witness to the truth... 'Pilate said, 'What is truth?'...But Jesus gave no answer" (John 18:37; 19:7).

Mary (Mariam), the Theotokos and the child of God, whose nativity the Church commemorates on September 8th, was born of her aged parents Joachim and Anna. Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740 A.D.) chants, "O Bride of the Father, immaculate Mother of the Son, and holy and resplendent temple of the Holy Spirit; O most chaste of all creation, most suitable to His ultimate purpose, on this account the universe was created, and by thy birth was the eternal will of the Creator fulfilled."

Father of Saint John the Baptist and Forerunner, he was the son of Barachias, of the Tribe of Aaron, a high priest in descent from Abia, and held the eighth degree of service in the Temple in Jerusalem. His wife Elizabeth was sister to Saint Anna, the mother of the Holy Mother of God. In the reign of King Herod, the child-slayer, Zacharias was serving one day in the Temple in Jerusalem. An Angel of God appeared to him in the altar, and Zacharias was afraid.