Nativity of the Theotokos: Sept 8

The birth of the Virgin Mary to Joachim and Anna, who had been barren into old age, kept on 8 September, the first Great Feast of the Church’s year, which begins on the first of the month. Its story comes from the second-century Protevangelium of James, which the Church does not read as Scripture but whose account it sings. The feast is the first step of the Incarnation: the one through whom God would enter the world is herself born into it, and its troparion says so, Thy Nativity, O Theotokos, has proclaimed joy to the whole world, for from thee has shone forth the Sun of righteousness, Christ our God. St Andrew of Crete preached on it. Its first Great Feast answers the last of the year, the Dormition in August, so that the Church year begins with her birth and ends with her falling asleep.