Big calendar events in the Antiochian Patriarchate

(AOCANA) - "Wondrous is God in His saints!" Psalm 67:36

On the first day of its fall session, Oct. 19, the Holy Synod of Antioch canonized two new saints, a father and son, and also added St. Raphael of Brooklyn to its calendar.

After years of deliberation and research, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East, along with the metropolitans of the Holy Synod, canonized two priests, Fr. Nicholas Khasha and Fr. Habib Khasha, who were martyred for the sake of the Orthodox Faith in 1917 and 1948, respectively.

"Our Church of Antioch is this glorious, great Apostolic Church," His Beatitude said a week before today's session. "It is this Church that has been bearing witness and has been martyred at the same time throughout history, from the early days, with all the great fathers and holy ones, the Apostle Peter who founded this church with the Apostle Paul.

"This Church did not stop having saints among its people, whether monks or married, as evidenced by the Synod's decision to canonize these fathers. Therefore, the holiness of the Church of Antioch has never been interrupted and the Khasha Fathers were married priests. They had a family, and the Church will declare their holiness."

Patriarch Meletios (al-Doumani) II of Antioch delegated Fr. Nicholas as his vicar for the Diocese of Mersin (now Turkey), which was highly impoverished. Fr. Nicholas succeeded in reuniting its dispersed flock and caring for and strengthening the faithful, who were subjected to various forms of persecution and ethnic cleansing. Authorities arrested him, then tortured him to his martyric death.

Fr. Habib, the eldest son of Fr. Nicholas, despite his success in business, entered the priesthood, serving in Damascus and Cairo. His service was distinguished by a life of prayer, devotion to shepherding the faithful with love and self-sacrifice, and his closeness to the poor, for whom he cared like he cared for his own family, feeding them with their food and the money that his brothers sent to help them because of his poverty. His life was crowned with a martyric death on Mount Hermon, where smugglers beat him because he was a Christian priest.

In September and October, His Beatitude met with the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of these hieromartyrs. On Saturday, Oct. 21, His Beatitude will lead the service of glorification for these two new saints who will be commemorated on July 16.

Also in today's session, at the request of His Eminence Metropolitan Saba, the Holy Synod added St. Raphael of Brooklyn to its calendar, ensuring his commemoration by all the archdioceses of the Patriarchate of Antioch. St. Raphael, a son of Antioch and boast of America, was canonized by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in 2000. St. Raphael reposed on Feb. 27, 1915.

Finally, the Holy Synod announced the creation of All Saints of Antioch Sunday which will be celebrated on the Second Sunday after Pentecost (one week after All Saints Sunday). Some Orthodox Churches use this Second Sunday to commemorate their local holy ones. I had no idea Antioch had not already done this. It's almost ubiquitous in the jurisdictions to do so.