After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” (Matthew 26:73)

Great & Holy Saturday
April 11, 2026

The Eve of another Pascha finds our family in eager expectation again for the Feast of Feasts. It has been a tremendous Holy Week with perhaps the last time all seven of us will be able to celebrate most of the services together (not less than 16 that have stretched from last Friday all the way into this coming Tuesday morning). I am now putting my thoughts together for a post on Pascha.

The reading that caught my attention this year is the portion from St. Matthew’s Gospel about St. Peter’s denial of the Lord. These bystanders, these inconsequential servants recognize Peter and call him out as a disciple. One of the times, they put the case even further by claiming his Galilean accent betrays him. I found this curious for two reasons: 1) What it meant to be a Galilean fisherman in a cosmopolitan city like Jerusalem and 2) What it meant for chatty, uppity servants (and even maidens) to talk above their station to a disciple of a prominent rabbi.