The Nativity of the Holy Virgin is celebrated on September 8th, according to traditions based on the Proto Evangelium Jacobi, an apocryphal gospel with references to the birth of the Holy Virgin going back to AD 130-140. Although not named in Scripture, it very firmly supports Scripture, preparing for the Annunciation and Incarnation.
Joachin and Anna, bearers of the God-bearer, were named ‘theopatores,’ parents of God in the Festal Vespers, in accordance with apocryphal traditions that were revered from the earliest times, not condemned as heretical as some hard-line moderns do. For them, official orthodoxy excludes non-canonical traditions, which paradoxically separates them from the fulness of Holy Orthodoxy.
It is one year ago, to the day, that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth ii, died at Balmoral on this Holy Day. Her death is remembered by all who loved her but not the Feast that gave it theological meaning. She bore witness to Christ in her life and to the Holy Virgin in her death, pointing to the mysteries of Annunciation and Incarnation.