Re: to translate (was: Re: I'M BACK!!! :))

At 08:49 PM 9/4/03 -0700, you wrote:
>--- Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> wrote:
>
> > In ecclesiastical usage (Eastern Orthodox
> > anyway), to translate the relics
> > of a Saint is to move them from one resting
> > place to a different one.  For
> > me, this usage is not archaic.  I hear the word
> > 'translation' used with
> > that meaning probably at least once a week.
>
>Do you move your relics around thát much?
Maybe be do.  In any case, whenever we do, the event is commemorated in the
calendar.  I think that some of the reason that I hear the term used in
that sense at least once a week is because we buy a calandar every year
that contains *all* the Saints commemorated on each day.  Each night at the
end of evening prayers, I read the entire list of commemorations for the
next day.  (For the next instead of the "current" day because the Eastern
Orthodox liturgical day begins at sundown.)  Not all households read *all*
the commemorations for each day; I suspect that most people list only the
top 1-3.

Whenever relics are translated or opened (or rediscovered), the date of it
is remembered and commemorated in the calendar.  After that, there is a
yearly commemoration of the event, so the calendar can become slightly
crowded with translations over the centuries.  (It's been a little less
than 17 centuries since St. Constantine legalized Christianity, so there's
been a lot of time for such event to accumulate on the calendar.)

I apoligize about taking so long to reply to your question.  I've been out
of town since Friday morning.

Isidora

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