November 7/October 25 – Dimitrievskaya (parents’) Saturdaytranslated

Although in Orthodox churches every day there is a prayer for the dead and every Saturday in the seven-day liturgical circle is a special memorial day, there are several other special dates in the church calendar dedicated to the memory of our loved ones who have left us. These are the so-called Parental Saturdays, when the entire service - from beginning to end - is, so to speak, addressed to the afterlife. In addition to the three small parental Saturdays (in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th weeks of Lent), there are two Great ones - Ecumenical (or “Meat Eating” - the penultimate Saturday before the start of Lent) and Trinity (Saturday before the feast of the Holy Trinity). And on the Saturday before the day of remembrance of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, the Russian Orthodox Church remembers all the soldiers who died for the faith and fatherland on the battlefield, as well as all those who died a sudden death, who were not guided to eternal life by the prayers of the holy church.

The establishment of the commemoration on this Saturday belongs to the blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who, having won a difficult and bloody victory on the Kulikovo Field (09/08/1380), on the advice and blessing of Sergius of Radonezh, established this commemoration annually on Saturday before the day...