Feast Days of the Orthodox Church: Pascha, the Twelve Great Feasts, and the Ranks of Saints

The Orthodox year is not a grid of empty squares — it is a procession of feasts. Every single day commemorates saints or events in the life of Christ and His Mother, and the feasts come in ranks, from the quiet memory of a local ascetic to the blazing center of the year, Pascha itself.

Pascha: the Feast of Feasts

Above every feast stands Pascha, the Resurrection of Christ — in the Church's own language not merely first among the feasts but the “Feast of Feasts and Triumph of Triumphs.” It is movable, set each year by the ancient paschal reckoning (explained in When Is Orthodox Easter?), and the entire movable cycle — Lent before, Ascension and Pentecost after — swings with it.

The Twelve Great Feasts

Below Pascha rank the Twelve Great Feasts (the Dodekaorton), celebrating the great moments in the life of Christ and of the Theotokos. Nine are fixed; three move with Pascha. Fixed dates below are given on the New Calendar — Old Calendar parishes keep them thirteen civil days later (see Old vs. New Calendar):

Alongside the Twelve stand other great celebrations — the Circumcision of Christ and Saint Basil (January 1), the Nativity of the Baptist (June 24), Saints Peter and Paul (June 29), the Beheading of the Baptist (August 29), and the Protection of the Theotokos (October 1, especially beloved among Slavs).

Fixed and movable feasts

The calendar interlocks two cycles. The fixed cycle assigns feasts and saints to calendar dates — the same date every year. The movable cycle hangs on Pascha and shifts annually. Most name days belong to the fixed cycle, which is why a Nikos celebrates every December 6 without checking anything; a few, like Saint George's in certain years, are carried by the movable cycle instead (see Greek name days).

The ranks of feasts and saints

Not every commemoration carries the same liturgical weight, and the calendar's typography has always shown it — think of the red letters on a Greek wall calendar. Beyond the rank of the feast (great, middle, minor), the Church also distinguishes the classes of saints being honored:

• Apostles — the Twelve, the Seventy, and Equals-to-the-Apostles like Constantine and Helen
• Prophets — the righteous of the Old Covenant, from Moses to the Forerunner
• Martyrs — those who witnessed with their blood; Great Martyrs like George and Demetrios among them
• Hierarchs — sainted bishops and teachers, like Basil the Great and John Chrysostom
• Venerable (Ὅσιοι) — monastic saints, like Anthony the Great and Mary of Egypt
• Holy Women — the myrrhbearers, deaconesses, mothers and ascetics honored across the year
• Righteous, Unmercenaries, Fools-for-Christ and more

Knowing the rank tells you at a glance how the day is kept: whether the Liturgy will be festal, whether the fast is relaxed, whether the village with that patron saint will hold a panegyri.

How the Orthodox Calendar app helps

Each day in Orthodox Calendar shows its saints with their rank (Great Feast, Apostle, Martyr, Holy Woman, Venerable, Prophet and more), a short life and the Greek name. The month view marks feast days and fast days, and one tap switches between the Old and New calendars.

Related guides

• When Is Orthodox Easter? How the Date of Pascha Is Calculated

  How the date of Orthodox Easter (Pascha) is calculated, why it usually differs from Western Easter, and upcoming dates: April 12, 2026 and May 2, 2027.

• The Orthodox Fasting Calendar: Seasons, Fast Days, and Fast-Free Weeks

  The four Orthodox fasting seasons — Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, Dormition Fast, Nativity Fast — plus weekly fast days, one-day fasts, and fast-free weeks.

• What Is an Orthodox Name Day?

  What a name day (onomastiki eorti) means in the Orthodox Church, how it differs from a birthday, and how Greeks, Russians, Serbs and Romanians celebrate it.