Our Lord and God, wishing to prepare a Living Temple and Sacred Abode for Himself, sent an Angel to the righteous Joachim and Anna with word that the barren and childless Anna would conceive the Maiden. He had fore-chosen to be His Mother according to the flesh. Soon after marital union Anna indeed found herself to be with child, and in time bore the Holy Virgin Mary, according to the Divine promise. Only Our Lord and God Jesus Christ was conceived ineffably and without seed, by the Theotokos and through the operation of the Holy Spirit. At His Incarnation, the Lord received the fullness of His human nature (that same nature which He Himself created in the beginning) from the Maiden who knew not wedlock. Saint Anna became pregnant after she and her husband came together, and she carried the Queen of Heaven within for a full nine months.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen illustrates the difficulty of a priest's work by comparing it with that of a doctor. The priest's is the harder task because he deals with souls that resist their own healing instead of bodies that co-operate; because spiritual disease is hidden, whereas physical ailments are apparent; and because he aims, not simply to preserve or restore health, but to "deify those who belong to the heavenly host". Nothing less than this was the purpose of the Incarnation. Where doctors work merely to extend a possibly sinful life, we (says St. Gregory) work for the salvation of the soul.

The Saint was desirous to visit the all-holy Sepulchre of the Lord. He was filled with longing to see and venerate those holy sites, where the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ trod. It was also his keen hope to find a place of solitude and quiet, where he might abide alone. On a clear day, Father Nicholas boarded an Egyptian vessel with fellow Christians.

Nikolaos (Nicholas), the namesake of victory (The name Nikolaos comes from nike, meaning "victory", and "laos", which means "people'. The etymology of the name may be interpreted as "victorious people" or "victorious with the people." Thus, the Saint's name signifies either victory over a people, that is, either victory over vices, or a victory in the full sense; because by his way of life and doctrine, he taught the peoples to conquer sins and vice.)

The unknown village of Mutalaska, in the province of Cappadocia, became famous through this great light of the Orthodox Church, for Saint Sava was born there. He left the home of his parents, John and Sophia, at the age of eight and became a monk in a nearby monastery called 'Flavain's'. After ten years, he moved to the monasteries of Palestine, staying longest in the monastery of Saint Efthymius (Eutheymius) the Great (+ January 20th) and Theoctistus.

There lived nearby a Christian woman named Juliana who feared God and had seen the torturers lay hold of Saint Barbara. She watched from afar as Barbara was tortured, and after the Saint was taken to the prison, looked in at her through the dungeon window. When she saw that the Lord had healed Saint Barbara's wounds, she was herself filled with longing to suffer for Him. She began to prepare herself for the struggle, praying to Christ Jesus, the Judge of the contest, to grant her the strength to endure torture.