The Transfiguration of the Lord

The Transfiguration of the Lord is a feast of Christ commemorating the moment, recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when Jesus led Peter, James, and John up a high mountain — held by tradition to be Mount Tabor — and was transfigured before them: his face shone like the sun and his garments became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appeared speaking with him, and from a bright cloud the voice of the Father declared, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him."

The event revealed Christ's divine glory to his closest disciples and strengthened them for the scandal of the Cross that lay ahead, showing the destiny of glory to which all the faithful are called. Long celebrated in the Christian East, the feast was extended to the universal Latin Church by Pope Callixtus III in 1457 in thanksgiving for the deliverance of Christendom at the Siege of Belgrade the previous year, and it is kept each year on 6 August.