Orthodox Calendar: September 21 – the first of the twelve Great Feasts – The Nativity of the Blessed Mother of Godtranslated

Seventh Week after Pentecost.

Today, September 21, 2026, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Lady of God and Ever-Virgin Mary and commemorates the holy confessors St. John (1957) and St. George (1962), as well as the icons of Sophia, Wisdom of God (Kiev); and revered icons of the Nativity of the Theotokos: Syamskaya (1524), Glinskaya (XVI), Lukianovskaya (XVI), Isaakovsky (1659); and icons of the Mother of God: Kursko-Korenskaya "Sign" (1295), Pochaevskaya (1559), Dormition (1696), Holmskaya and Lesninskaya (1696).

There is no fast.

On September 21, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the first of the twelve Great Feasts – The Nativity of the Blessed Lady of God and Ever-Virgin Mary.

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – the beginning of all Christian feasts. Not only because it is the first feast in the ecclesiastical new year and marks the start of a new ecclesiastical year, but this feast signifies the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation for the human race, as on that day was born She who miraculously gave birth to the Savior of the world.