St Nicholas Church Patronal Festival

The Orthodox Church of St Nicholas of Japan in Brixton, Johannesburg, celebrated its patronal festival (Panigiri) on Sunday 3 March. It was a month late, but it was the first Sunday that our bishop, His Eminence Metropolitan Damaskinos, Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria, could be with us.

Archbishop Damaskinos blessing the Slava Kolach (photo by Zinon Marinakos)

Since we are a multiethnic parish, we tend to incorporate cusoms from different branches of Orthodoxy, and one of them is the Serbian custom of the Slava. This is a kind of patronal feast for the whole family, held at home on the feast day of the patron saint of the family, usually the feast day of the saint on whose day the first members of that family were baptised. It works for a parish family too, and there is the blessing of the Slava Kolach a special loaf of bread (seen at the bottom left of the picture).

The turning of the Slava Kolach (photo by Zinon Marinakos)

After the bread is blessed it is turned around by members of the family (or in this case, the parish council), while the Song of Isaiah is sung.

O holy martyrs who fought the good fight and have received your crowns:
Entreat ye the Lord, that he will have mercy upon our souls.
Glory to Thee O Christ God,
the apostles’ boast, the martyrs’ joy,
whose preaching was the consubstantial Trinity.
Rejoice, O Isaiah!

A virgin is with child, and shall bear a son Emmanuel.
He is both God and man, and Orient is His name.
Magnifying him, we call the Virgin blessed.

O holy martyrs who fought the good fight and have received your crowns:
Entreat ye the Lord, that he will have mercy upon our souls.
Glory to Thee O Christ God,
the apostles’ boast, the martyrs’ joy,
whose preaching was the consubstantial Trinity.

The Church of St Nicholas of Japan, Brixton, Johannesburg, with Archbishop- Damaskinos (photo by Zinon Marinakos)