The Icon of the Meeting
The Presentation or “Meeting” of our Lord Jesus Christ is better known in the West under the name of Purification of the Holy Virgin. Like the majority of feasts of Palestinian origin, that of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple belongs to Christian antiquity. Aetheria (end of the 4th century) saw it celebrated in Jerusalem with a procession and with great solemnity. This feast was to be introduced in Constantinople in the 6th century under Justinian, and thence passed to Rome in the course of the 7th century. The practice of holding candles during the Feast, introduced in Jerusalem about 450, has been preserved in the West: hence the name of Candlemas….
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