The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord is celebrated by various Christian communities in honor of the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain.
The feast was present in various forms by the 9th century, and in the Western Church, it was made a universal feast on August 6 by Pope Callixtus III.
The Feast of the Transfiguration is observed on August 6 every year in the Catholic Church.
In 2002, Pope John Paul II selected the Transfiguration as one of the five Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
Before 1456, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Transfiguration of the Lord was celebrated locally in a few places and on different dates including August 6.
After the victory in 1456, when the Kingdom of Hungary repulsed an Ottoman invasion of the Balkans by breaking the siege of Belgrade, Pope Callixtus III elevated the Transfiguration to a Feast day to be celebrated in the entire Roman rite.
Since the news of the victory arrived in Rome on August 6, the Pope declared August 6 as the day to celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
At that time, a victory of the Christian Church in battles against the Muslim invasions was very much celebrated by the Western nations.
| Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord | |
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| Feast Day | August 6 |
Transfiguration of the Lord History
Jesus Christ was in Galilee about a year before His sacred Passion. He took with Him St Peter, St James, and St John and led them to a retired mountain.
Tradition assures us that this was Mount Thabor, which is exceedingly high and beautiful, and was anciently covered with green trees and shrubs, and was very fruitful.
It rises something like a sugar-loaf, in a vast plain in the middle of Galilee. This was the place in which the Man-God appeared in His glory.
Whilst Jesus prayed, He suffered that glory which was always due to His sacred humility, and of which, for our sake, He deprived it, to diffuse a ray over His whole body.
His face was altered and shone as the sun, and His garments became white as snow. Moses and Elijah were seen by the three apostles in His company on this occasion and were heard discoursing with Him the death which He was to suffer in Jerusalem.
The three apostles were wonderfully delighted with this glorious vision, and St. Peter cried out to Christ, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents: one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”
Whilst St. Peter was speaking, there came, of a sudden, a bright shining cloud from heaven, an emblem of the presence of God’s majesty, and from out of this cloud was heard a voice which said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”
The apostles that were present, upon hearing this voice, were seized with a sudden fear, and fell upon the ground; but Jesus, going to them, touched them, and bade them to rise.
They immediately did so and saw no one but Jesus standing in his ordinary state. This vision happened in the night.
As they went down the mountain early the next morning, Jesus bade them not to tell anyone what they had seen till He should rise from the dead.
Today’s Catholic Quote
“This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him”
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