The Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos: “Today the Virgin stands
in the midst of the Church, and with choirs of Saints she invisibly
prays to God for us. Angels and Bishops venerate Her, Apostles and
prophets rejoice together, Since for our sake she prays to the Eternal
God!”
This miraculous appearance of the Mother of God occurred in
the mid-tenth century in Constantinople, in the Blachernae church where
her robe, veil, and part of her belt were preserved after being
transferred from Palestine in the fifth century.
On Sunday,
October 1, during the All Night Vigil, when the church was overflowing
with those at prayer, the Fool-for-Christ St Andrew (October 2), at the
fourth hour, lifted up his eyes towards the heavens and beheld our most
Holy Lady Theotokos coming through the air, resplendent with heavenly
light and surrounded by an assembly of the Saints. St John the Baptist
and the holy Apostle John the Theologian accompanied the Queen of
Heaven. On bended knees the Most Holy Virgin tearfully prayed for
Christians for a long time. Then, coming near the Bishop’s Throne, she
continued her prayer.
After completing her prayer she took her
veil and spread it over the people praying in church, protecting them
from enemies both visible and invisible. The Most Holy Lady Theotokos
was resplendent with heavenly glory, and the protecting veil in her
hands gleamed “more than the rays of the sun.” St Andrew gazed trembling
at the miraculous vision and he asked his disciple, the blessed
Epiphanius standing beside him, “Do you see, brother, the Holy
Theotokos, praying for all the world?” Epiphanius answered, “I do see,
holy Father, and I am in awe.”
The Ever-Blessed Mother of God
implored the Lord Jesus Christ to accept the prayers of all the people
calling on His Most Holy Name, and to respond speedily to her
intercession, “O Heavenly King, accept all those who pray to You and
call on my name for help. Do not let them not go away from my icon
unheard.”
Sts Andrew and Epiphanius were worthy to see the Mother
of God at prayer, and “for a long time observed the Protecting Veil
spread over the people and shining with flashes of glory. As long as the
Most Holy Theotokos was there, the Protecting Veil was also visible,
but with her departure it also became invisible. After taking it with
her, she left behind the grace of her visitation.”
At the
Blachernae church, the memory of the miraculous appearance of the Mother
of God was remembered. In the fourteenth century, the Russian pilgrim
and clerk Alexander, saw in the church an icon of the Most Holy
Theotokos praying for the world, depicting St Andrew in contemplation of
her.
The Primary Chronicle of St Nestor reflects that the
protective intercession of the Mother of God was needed because an
attack of a large pagan Russian fleet under the leadership of Askole and
Dir. The feast celebrates the divine destruction of the fleet which
threatened Constantinople itself, sometime in the years 864-867 or
according to the Russian historian Vasiliev, on June 18, 860.
Ironically, this Feast is considered important by the Slavic Churches
but not by the Greeks.
The Primary Chronicle of St Nestor also
notes the miraculous deliverance followed an all-night Vigil and the
dipping of the garment of the Mother of God into the waters of the sea
at the Blachernae church, but does not mention Sts Andrew and Epiphanius
and their vision of the Mother of God at prayer. These latter elements,
and the beginnings of the celebrating of the Feast of the Protection,
seem to postdate St Nestor and the Chronicle. A further historical
complication might be noted under (October 2) dating St Andrew’s death
to the year 936.
The year of death might not be quite reliable,
or the assertion that he survived to a ripe old age after the vision of
his youth, or that his vision involved some later pagan Russian raid
which met with the same fate. The suggestion that St Andrew was a Slav
(or a Scythian according to other sources, such as S. V. Bulgakov) is
interesting, but not necessarily accurate. The extent of Slavic
expansion and repopulation into Greece is the topic of scholarly
disputes.
In the PROLOGUE, a Russian book of the twelfth century, a
description of the establishment of the special Feast marking this
event states, “For when we heard, we realized how wondrous and merciful
was the vision... and it transpired that Your holy Protection should not
remain without festal celebration, O Ever-Blessed One!”
Therefore,
in the festal celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, the
Russian Church sings, “With the choirs of the Angels, O Sovereign Lady,
with the venerable and glorious prophets, with the First-Ranked Apostles
and with the Hieromartyrs and Hierarchs, pray for us sinners,
glorifying the Feast of your Protection in the Russian Land.” Moreover,
it would seem that St Andrew, contemplating the miraculous vision was a
Slav, was taken captive, and became the slave of the local inhabitant of
Constantinople named Theognostus.
Churches in honor of the
Protection of the Mother of God began to appear in Russia in the twelfth
century. Widely known for its architectural merit is the temple of the
Protection at Nerl, which was built in the year 1165 by holy Prince
Andrew Bogoliubsky. The efforts of this holy prince also established in
the Russian Church the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God,
about the year 1164.
At Novgorod in the twelfth century there was
a monastery of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos (the so-called
Zverin monastery) In Moscow also under Tsar Ivan the Terrible the
cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God was built at the church
of the Holy Trinity (known as the church of St Basil the Blessed).
On
the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos we implore the
defense and assistance of the Queen of Heaven, “Remember us in your
prayers, O Lady Virgin Mother of God, that we not perish by the increase
of our sins. Protect us from every evil and from grievous woes, for in
you do we hope, and venerating the Feast of your Protection, we magnify
you.”
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