Holy Glorious Prophet Elias

July 20, 2025

Feast of the Holy Glorious Prophet Elias

And [Elijah] said to her, “Give me your son,” and he took him out of her arms and carried him up to a loft where he slept and laid him on his own bed. He cried to the Lord and said, “O Lord, my God, have You brought tragedy upon the widow with whom I live by killing her son?” And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord and said, “O Lord, my God, I pray that You let this child’s soul come into him again.”

The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he was revived. Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and returned him to his mother, and Elijah said, “See, your son lives!” (1 Kings 17:19-23)

The icon is of the Holy Glorious Prophet Elias (July 20th).

News

This Year’s Shared Easter Provides ‘Joy’ to Catholic-Orthodox Blended Families

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The Orthodox and Catholic Churches have a united celebration in 2025, for the first time in eight years.

Father John Basarab, pastor of Epiphany of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church, celebrates Easter 2024 in Annandale, Virginia. (photo: Courtesy of Father John Basarab )

Jim Graves, | Hannah Brockhaus | ncregister.com - World | 2025-04-17
In 2025, Western Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians will share a common Easter date, April 20 — for the first time since 2017. 

As in other years when Christianity’s central liturgical celebration coincides in East and West, it’s especially welcome for “blended” families that have both Catholic and Orthodox members.

“Since Easter falls on the same date this year, the only feeling one can have is joy,” Joseph Lovskiy, the only Catholic in his family in Yekaterinburg in Russia, told Catholic News Agency in a written interview translated from Russian.

Lovskiy’s wife, three children and six grandchildren are all Russian Orthodox, and his youngest son is a Russian Orthodox priest. 

Arina Agnew, who was born Orthodox and converted with her family to Catholicism as she grew up in New Jersey, is an American Catholic who is similarly excited about the opportunity to celebrate a joint Easter in 2025 with her family members. 

“But we still have family who is Orthodox, and we celebrate with them,” Agnew told EWTN News. “We are going to New Jersey to celebrate with them for this Easter since it’s at the same time.”  

Orthodox faithful who live in the U.S. are also looking forward to being able to celebrate Easter in common with their Catholic relatives this year. “Almost 70, 75% of the Greek Orthodox, all Orthodox Christians, are married to non-Orthodox husbands or wives,” Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America told EWTN News. “Can you imagine how difficult it is for a family not to be able to celebrate together at the same day, the same feast? That’s a problem.”

The convergence of Easter occurs occasionally when the Gregorian calendar, used by the Catholic Church, and the Julian calendar, used by Orthodox Churches not in communion with Rome, align on their calculations for Easter. (The two calendars will next converge on April 9, 2034.) 

Read the full story at ncregister.com. | Photo: Father John Basarab, pastor of Epiphany of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church, celebrates Easter 2024 in Annandale, Virginia. (photo: Courtesy of Father John Basarab )