{"id":7343,"date":"2023-11-17T07:12:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T07:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/?p=7343"},"modified":"2024-01-10T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T08:07:07","slug":"feast-of-four-beasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/feast-of-four-beasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Feast of the Four Beasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feast of the Four Beasts<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Hidar 8 day is celebrated the festival of the Four Beasts, who have no bodies, and which are the Wheels of God that bear His Divine Throne according to the testimony concerning them by John the evangelist in his Vision, who says, \u201cI saw a throne in heaven, and He Who sat thereon was brighter than the sun, and more brilliant then the lightning.\u00a0 And I saw in the midst four beasts, full of eyes; the first had the likeness of the face of a lion, the second had the likeness of the face of a bull, the third had the likeness of the face of a man, and the fourth had the likeness of the face of an eagle; and each of them had six wings.\u00a0 And they cried out by day and by night, saying, \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy, God of Hosts.\u00a0 All the heavens and the earth are filled with the holiness of Thy glory\u201d (Revelation 4:6).<\/p>\n

Isaiah the prophet also said, \u201cI saw the Lord of Hosts sitting upon a high throne, and the whole place was filled with His glory.\u00a0 Seraphim and Cherubim surrounded Him, and His awe and majesty were exceedingly great.\u00a0 Each of these had six wings; with two of their wings they covered their faces, with two of their wings they covered their feet, and with two of their wings they did fly in the greatest glory by day and by night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. \u00a0All the heavens and the earth are filled with the holiness of Thy glory\u201d (Isaiah 6: 2).\u00a0 And David the prophet said, \u201cHe rode upon the Cherubim and did fly\u201d (Psalm 18:10), and he also said, \u201cHe Who sit upon the Cherubim make the earth to quake,\u201d And Ezekiel said concerning these wheels, \u201cI saw a wind blow from heaven, and in it there was a cloud surrounded by fire, and brightness, and lightning, and four beasts supported Him.\u00a0 Each face (or person) had six wings, and they went before them.\u00a0 And the first beast had the likeness of the face of a man, and they ceased not to praise God by day and by night, and they said, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, all the heavens and the earth are filled with the holiness of Thy glory\u201d (Ezekiel I).<\/p>\n

John the evangelist said, \u201cI heard a voice saying, Hallelujah!\u00a0 Salvation and power and blessing to our God.\u00a0 And the four beasts and the four and twenty elders of heaven worshipped God, saying, Hallelujah!\u00a0 God the Sustainer of the universe is King (Revelation 19: 4).\u00a0 After this I heard a voice saying, Praise our God with harp and psalms, Hallelujah!\u00a0 And I heard the voice of a multitude of peoples like unto the thunder, saying, God, the Sustainer of the universe, is King.\u201d\u00a0 And many of the Books of the Old and the New Testaments testify concerning the honor of these Four Beasts which God has set near Him to make supplication on behalf of all creation.\u00a0 He with the man\u2019s form make supplication on behalf of the children of men, he with the lion\u2019s form make supplication on behalf of the beasts, he with the bull\u2019s form make supplication on behalf of the cattle, and he with the eagle\u2019s form make supplication on behalf of the birds.\u00a0 Now these beasts are very much nearer God than all the other powers of heaven.\u00a0 For this reason, the doctors of the Church have confirmed the commemoration of them, and have built churches to them in every place, even as at this day, because they make supplication for the race of man.\u00a0 Salutation to the Four Beasts and to the horses of the Cherubim.<\/p>\n

On this day also is commemorated the festival of Afnin the Archangel, one of the nine and ninety archangels, who together with Surafel guard the throne of glory.\u00a0 Of him Enoch said that he goeth round that house; and Surafel, and Kirubel, and Afnin, \u201cThese are the [angels] who never sleep, and who guard the throne of His glory,\u201d Salutation to this Trinity of Angels who guard the throne of God.<\/p>\n

May the Saint Angels intercession be with us, Amen!<\/p>\n

Ethiopian Synaxarium <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Hidar 8 day is celebrated the festival of the Four Beasts, who have no bodies, and which are the Wheels of God that bear His Divine Throne according to the testimony concerning them by John the evangelist in his Vision, who says, \u201cI saw a throne in heaven, and He Who sat thereon was brighter than the sun, and more brilliant then the lightning.\u00a0 And I saw in the midst four beasts, full of eyes; the first had the likeness of the face of a lion, the second had the likeness of the face of a bull, the third had the likeness of the face of a man, and the fourth had the likeness of the face of an eagle; and each of them had six wings.\u00a0 And they cried out by day and by night, saying, \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy, God of Hosts.\u00a0 All the heavens and the earth are filled with the holiness of Thy glory\u201d (Revelation 4:6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feasts","category-holy-scriptures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7477,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343\/revisions\/7477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}