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St. Athanasius Orthodox Church • Nicholasville/Lexington Kentucky

St. Athanasius Orthodox Church • Nicholasville/Lexington Kentucky

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December & our Lord’s Nativity

As we head deeper into December, the themes of Christmas are gradually growing stronger! Orthodox Christians are currently marking the Nativity Fast, which ends on Christmas Day, December 25:

  • St. Nicholas Day on December 6
  • St. Herman (and St. Lucy) Day on December 13
  • Two Pre-Festal Sundays before Nativity on December 14 and 21
  • Pre-feast of Nativity (with services each day) from December 20 through Christmas Eve

You can see how we mark all these days liturgically — building up to Christmas — with services and service times (and all the additional “usual” services and events that are part of our parish life) by reviewing our December calendar in pdf form below OR by going to our regularly-updated Google Calendar here.

We invite you to visit our daughter community, St. Nina Mission Church in Berea, which helps extend the reach of the Orthodox Faith along the I-75 corridor & Wilderness Trail. St. Nina Chapel is drawing people from Somerset, London, Corbin, and beyond. The chapel is now serving services twice a week on Tuesdays (630pm) and Saturdays (630pm.) We are also serving at least two Sunday Liturgies per month in Berea. Our lead priest at St. Nina this year will be Fr. David Thatcher, who can be reached at fr.david@bluegrassorthodox.org.

You can also attend our Mercer County Chapel, which meets for Vespers & Dinner the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month at 430pm at the home of Fr. David Thatcher (482 E. Lexington St., Harrodsburg, KY.) 

Below is a collection of photos from November up through December 5th (St. Nicholas Eve) showing the full range of our parish life. We hope these photos inspire you to visit our church or one of our chapels. If you have questions about our calendar or any aspect of our Faith or parish life, please reach out to our associate pastor Fr. Giorgi Lomsadze at fr.giorgi@bluegrassorthodox.org.

Bulletin December 28, 2025

December 18, 2025 News

Bulletin December 21, 2025

December 18, 2025 News

Bulletin December 14, 2025

December 11, 2025 News

December & our Lord’s Nativity

December 6, 2025 Featured

As we head deeper into December, the themes of Christmas are gradually growing stronger! Orthodox Christians are currently marking the Nativity Fast, which ends on Christmas Day, December 25: You can see how we mark all these days liturgically — building up to Christmas — with services …

Bulletin for December 7, 2025

December 5, 2025 News

Bulletin NOVEMBER 30, 2025

November 21, 2025 News

Bulletin November 23 2025

November 21, 2025 News

Bulletin November 16, 2025

November 14, 2025 News

Bulletin November 9, 2025

November 8, 2025 News

November: Preparing for Nativity

October 30, 2025 Featured

As we enter November, the Church pivots gradually towards the Nativity Season. In the Orthodox Church, the pre-Christmas season begins with the Nativity Fast, which starts on November 15 and lasts until we break the fast on Christmas Day, December 25. Here are some highlights coming up in …

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St. Athanasius Orthodox Church
18 hours ago

If you are a convert to Orthodoxy, do you feel burnt out? Have you seen yourself as a spiritual failure and feel adrift? Don't miss this video by a long-time convert. ... See MoreSee Less

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St. Athanasius Orthodox Church
23 hours ago

+Synaxarion for the 5th Day of Christmas with Feast of the 14,000 Innocents Killed by Herod+

14,000 Holy Infants were killed by King Herod in Bethlehem. When the time came for the Incarnation of the Son of God and His Birth of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Magi in the East beheld a new star in the heavens, foretelling the Nativity of the King of the Jews. They journeyed immediately to Jerusalem to worship the Child, and the star showed them the way. Having worshipped the divine Infant, they did not return to Jerusalem to Herod, as he had ordered them, but being warned by God in a dream, they went back to their country by another way. Herod finally realized that his scheme to find the Child would not be successful, and he ordered that all the male children two years old and younger at Bethlehem and its surroundings be killed. He thought that the divine Infant, Whom he considered a rival, would be among the dead children.

The murdered infants thus became the first martyrs for Christ. The rage of Herod fell also on Simeon the God-Receiver (February 3), who declared before everyone in the Temple that the Messiah had been born. When the holy Elder died, Herod would not give permission for him to be properly buried. On the orders of King Herod, the holy prophet and priest Zachariah was also killed. He was murdered in Jerusalem between the Temple and the altar (Mt. 23:35) because he would not tell the whereabouts of his son John, the future Baptist of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The wrath of God soon fell upon Herod himself: a horrid condition struck him down and he died, eaten by worms while still alive. Before his death, the impious king murdered the chief priests and scribes of the Jews, and also his brother, and his sister and her husband, and also his own wife Mariam, and three of his sons, and seventy men of wisdom who were members of the Sanhedrin. He initiated this bloodbath so that the day of his death would not be one of rejoicing, but one of mourning.

The Christian Church very rightly proclaimed these murdered children as Saints, because they died at an innocent age, and were, in some way, the first martyrs of Christianity. They may not have been baptized in water, but they were baptized in the blessed blood of their martyrdom.

Last but not least, the relics (or perhaps some) of the Holy Infants are found in Constantinople, in the Church of Saint James the Brother of the Lord, which was built by Emperor Justin. Most of their Holy Relics are at the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Portions of their Holy Relics are also to be found in the Pantokrator Monastery on Mount Athos.
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St. Athanasius Orthodox Church
2 days ago

On this 4th Day of Christmas, the Church remembers the 20,000 Martyrs of Nikomedia. Here is their amazing story from AD 302:

In the time of the wicked Emperor Maximian Hercules, the Christian faith flourished in Nicomedia, and spread from day to day. At one time the Emperor, staying in the city, came to know of the large number of Christians, and he was greatly enraged and devised a means of slaughtering them all. The feast of the Nativity of Christ was approaching, and the Emperor, discovering that all the Christians gathered in the church on this feast, ordered that, on that day, the church be surrounded by soldiers and set alight. When all the Christians were assembled in the church after midnight and the glorious celebration was beginning, the soldiers surrounded the church so that no-one could leave, and the Emperor's envoy went into the church and told the Christians of the Emperor's command that they either immediately offer sacrifice to idols or all be burned to death. Then the archdeacon, a courageous soldier of Christ, aflame with divine zeal, began to encourage the people, reminding them of the Three Holy Children in the furnace in Babylon. 'Look, my brethren,' he said, 'at the table of sacrifice in the Lord's altar, and understand that our true Lord and God will now sacrifice on this; so shall we not lay down our lives for Him in this holy place?' The people were fired with enthusiasm to die for Christ, and all the catechumens were baptised and chrismated. The soldiers then set fire to the church on all sides and the Christians, twenty thousand of them, were burned in the flame singing the glory of God. The church burned for five days, and a smoke with a fragrant and intoxicating smell rose from it, and a marvellous golden light was seen around it. Thus these many men, women and children died gloriously and received wreaths of eternal glory in the Kingdom of Christ. They suffered and were glorified in the year 302.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK
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Saint Athanasius Orthodox Church
100 Lime Lane
Nicholasville, KY 40356
Directions to the church

Priest Justin Patterson
Church: (859) 881-8144
Cell: (859) 361-2823
E-mail Fr. Justin

We are a parish of the Diocese of the South of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), under the archpastoral care of his grace, the right reverend ALEXANDER, Bishop of Dallas and the South. We are the first OCA parish in Kentucky. We are located in the heart of the bluegrass region just outside Lexington.

Click HERE if you’re looking for St. Nina.

  • Home
  • Welcome
  • About Us
    • Parish History
    • Leadership
    • Building News
    • Capital Campaign Update 2022
  • Ministries
  • Calendar
  • Directions
  • Pictures
  • Give

© 2025 · St. Athanasius Orthodox Church • Nicholasville/Lexington Kentucky