Oration XXXIX. Oration on the Holy Lights.

TheOration on the Holy Lights was preached on the Festival of the Epiphany 381, and was followed the next day by that on Baptism.  In the Eastern Church this Festival is regarded as more particularly the commemoration of our Lord’s Baptism, and is accordingly one of the great days for the solemn ministration of the Sacrament.  It is generally called Theophania, and the Gospel in the Liturgy is S. Matthew iii. 13–17.  The Sunday in the Octave is called μετὰ τὰ φῶτα(After The Lights), pointing to a time when the Feast was known as the “Holy Lights,” as seems to have been the case in S. Gregory’s day.

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΙΖʹ. Εἰς τὰ ἅγια Φῶτα.