Synaxis Sunday of the Holy Forefathers

CONFIRMED: the image — an icon fragment inscribed "Sunday of the Holy Forefathers" — matches exactly this movable feast, not a fixed date. The feast invariably falls December 11–17 O.S. (December 24–30 N.S.), depending on the day of the week on which Christmas falls that year. It should be distinguished from the following Sunday — the "Sunday of the Holy Fathers" (1st Sunday before Nativity, within December 18–24 O.S.) — a separate, distinct feast.

On the Sunday of the Forefathers, the Church glorifies the Old Testament righteous "according to the flesh" who foretold and awaited the Savior's coming throughout the whole span of human history before the Incarnation. The feast's hymnography and iconography traditionally name: Adam and Eve, Abel, Seth, Noah, Shem, Melchizedek, the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Aaron, King David, the Judges and Kings of Israel, the Prophets (Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, and others) and Prophetesses — down to Righteous Joseph the Betrothed. Iconographically the feast is often depicted as a genealogical or hierarchical gathering of patriarchs and prophets, sometimes as a "Fatherland" composition or the Tree of Jesse.