The Three Holy Hierarchs

The Three Holy Fathers, Great Hierarchs and Ecumenical Teachers, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom are seen as the greatest of the Church Fathers whose teachings shaped Orthodox Theology. To honor their unparalleled contribution to education, their steadfast faith in God and incomparable pastoral and charitable activities, a common feast of the three great Saints was established by the Church in the 11th Century. Subsequently, the feast of the Three Hierarchs is associated with education and officially recognized as the greatest feast for Greek schools.

The three most great luminaries of the Three-Sun Divinity have illumined all of the world with the rays of doctrines divine and true; they are the sweetly-flowing rivers of wisdom, who with godly knowledge have watered all creation in clear and mighty streams: The great and sacred Basil, and the Theologian, wise Gregory, together with the renowned John, the famed Chrysostom of golden speech. Let us all who love their divinely-wise words come together, honouring them with hymns; for ceaselessly they offer entreaty for us to the Trinity.