Synaxis Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women

The Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women is celebrated on the third Sunday after Pascha and is dedicated to the memory of the holy women who, according to the testimony of all four Gospels, came early in the morning after the Sabbath to the Savior's tomb with prepared spices (myrrh) to anoint His body according to Eastern custom, and were the first to learn from the Angel of Christ's Resurrection. Church tradition names among them Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleopas (mother of James and Joses), Salome, Joanna, Susanna, and Martha and Mary, sisters of the righteous Lazarus, among others. On the same day the Church honors the righteous Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, secret disciples of Christ who asked Pilate for the Savior's body for burial. The feast also carries deep symbolic meaning: it has long been regarded as a day of special glorification of women's service to the Church and of Christian motherhood and self-sacrifice.