29 December 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

The Holy Prophet Haggai

Born in Babylon in the time of the captivity of Israel, he was of the tribe of Levi. He prophesied in 520 BC, and visited Jerusalem as a young man. He urged Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest to restore the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, prophesying for this Temple greater glory than the former Temple of Solomon: ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts’ (2:9), for the Lord, the Saviour, would appear in the new Temple. He lived to see the first half of the new Temple completed by Zerubbabel, and died in old age, and rested with his fathers.

Catholic calendar

St. Thomas Becket

Of Norman ancestry. Educated at Merton Priory, Paris, Bologna and Auxerre. Civil and canon lawyer. Soldier and officer. Archdeacon of Canterbury. Friend of King Henry II. Chancellor of England. Archbishop of Canterbury. Opposed the King’s interference in ecclesiastical matters. Exiled several times. Martyr. Born 1118 at London, England and died murdered in 1170 in the Cathedral at Canterbury, England. Canonised in 1173 by Pope Alexander III.