The Twelve Great Feasts: Reflection of History in Iconography

The Twelve Great Feasts are the most important feasts in the calendar of the Orthodox Churches. Traditionally, they are divided into two main groups: The Lord’s feasts, which are associated with events from the earthly life of Jesus Christ, and the Theotokos feasts, which, respectively, glorify events that occurred during the earthly life of the Virgin Mary.

The Twelve Great Feasts: Reflection of History in Iconography

The special significance of a number of church feasts was emphasized in the first centuries of Christianity. However, until the 10th century, the holy fathers emphasized a somewhat smaller number of them. Thus, for example, St. Epiphanius of Cyprus in the Word on the Ascension of the Lord spoke about the four major feasts, St. Proclus of Constantinople in the Word on the Incarnation of Christ mentioned five feasts, and in the Homily on the Ascension, which is attributed by a number of researchers to St. John Chrysostom, there were six feasts, with the addition, however, of the seventh most important event – the future resurrection from the dead of the entire human race.

In Byzantine written sources, the idea of identifying the twelve main events of the sacred history and, accordingly, the church calendar, appeared in the 14th century, for example, in the work of the Constantinople poet of the first half of the century, Manuel Philes. He was also the one to use the Greek word δωδεκάορτον, which can be literally translated into Slavonic as the Twelve Great Feasts, for the first time. However, despite the fact that the very idea of the allocation of the major feasts in Russian liturgical practice was established at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, as can be seen from the appearance in the Sticharions of special sections with hymns of certain feasts, the expression “the Twelve Great Feasts” was first recorded in written sources only in the 17th century and entered into wide use only in the 19th century.

According to a rather widespread and popular hypothesis, the allocation of the great feasts in the Byzantine church tradition was influenced by the formation of iconographic programs for the decoration of Orthodox churches. This is an extremely curious situation for scholars, since most often, it is the artists, or at least the patrons of iconostases and frescoes, who react to the new theological disputes and concepts. However, in this case, according to the theory under consideration, the Twelve Great Feasts were originally formed into a full-fledged artistic program, revealing to the worshipers a panorama of sacred history in its most important events. Such scenes were traditionally placed on Byzantine templons, as well as on the walls and vaults of temples.

Byzantine and post-Byzantine iconostases (templons) were quite low and often included a festive row on the second level.

Of course, this tradition also had its origins, which are usually found in the First Word on Icons by St. John Damascene. This text was written in 728 as an apologia of iconoclasm and a detailed explanation of the essence of the icon from a theological point of view. Without setting out to list all the major feasts, St. John Damascene, nevertheless, told of a festive cycle of icons, which began with the Annunciation, the feast associated with the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ended with His Ascension. It is precisely this chronological principle of visual narration of the sacred history that was the basis for the first artistic programs, which included the feasts of the Twelve Great Feasts.

The festive rows of iconostases, dating back to the description by St. John Damascene, underwent a significant transformation at the end of the 15th century. Thus, after the formation in the first half of the 15th century of a tall five-tier iconostasis, which Byzantine tradition had never known, the feast row expanded. While earlier, both in Byzantine and post-Byzantine templons, it included only the Twelve Great Feasts, now it was expanded with the scenes of the Passion of Christ. The narrative in monumental painting also became more detailed: traditionally laconic medieval compositions were enriched with a large number of details, sometimes very dramatic and emotional.

Entombment of Christ from the festive row of the Gorodets iconostasis. End of the 15th century. The Russian North. State Tretyakov Gallery

Thus, the Twelve Great Feasts as a concept, although it has ancient origins, still does not belong to the original Christian ideas, and its development is closely connected with the development of the ideas of church philosophers, theologians, and artists.