Like the Apostles, She helped plant and strengthen the Christian Church by Her
presence, Her discourse and Her prayers.
The reverence of the
Apostles for the Most Holy Virgin was extraordinary. After the receiving of the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the Apostles remained at Jerusalem for
about ten years attending to the salvation of the Jews, and wanting moreover to
see the Mother of God and hear Her holy discourse. Many of the newly-enlightened
in the Faith even came from faraway lands to Jerusalem, to see and to hear the
All-Pure Mother of God.
During the time of the
persecution initiated by King Herod against the young Church of Christ (Acts
12: 1-3), the Most Holy Virgin and the Apostle John the Theologian withdrew
to Ephesus in the year 43. The preaching of the Gospel there had fallen by lot
to the Apostle John the Theologian. The Mother of God was on Cyprus with St.
Lazarus the Four-Days-Dead, where he was bishop. She was also on Holy Mount
Athos. St. Stephen of the Holy Mountain says that the Mother of God
prophetically spoke of it: "Let this place be my lot, given to me by my Son and
my God. I will be the Patroness of this place and intercede with God for it."
The respect of ancient
Christians for the Mother of God was so great that they preserved what they
could about Her life, what they could take note of concerning Her sayings and
deeds, and they even passed down to us a description of Her outward appearance.
According to
Tradition, based on the words of the Hieromartyrs Dionysios the Areopagite (October
3), Ignatios the God-Bearer (December
20), St. Ambrose of Milan (December
7) had occasion to write in his work "On
Virgins" concerning the Mother of God: "She was a Virgin not only in body,
but also in soul, humble of heart, circumspect in word, wise in mind, not overly
given to speaking, a lover of reading and of work, and prudent in speech. Her
rule of life was to offend no one, to intend good for everyone, to respect the
aged, not envy others, avoid bragging, be healthy of mind, and to love virtue."
When did She ever hurl
the least insult in the face of Her parents? When was She at discord with Her
kin? When did She ever puff up with pride before a modest person, or laugh at
the weak, or shun the destitute? With Her there was nothing of glaring eyes,
nothing of unseemly words, nor of improper conduct. She was modest in the
movement of Her body, Her step was quiet, and Her voice straightforward; so that
Her face was an expression of soul. She was the personification of purity.
All Her days She was
concerned with fasting: She slept only when necessary, and even then, when Her
body was at rest, She was still alert in spirit, repeating in Her dreams what
She had read, or the implementation of proposed intentions, or those planned yet
anew. She was out of Her house only for church, and then only in the company of
relatives. Otherwise, She seldom appeared outside Her house in the company of
others, and She was Her own best overseer. Others could protect Her only in
body, but She Herself guarded Her character."
According to
Tradition, that from the compiler of Church history Nikephoros Kallistos
(fourteenth century), the Mother of God "was of average stature, or as others
suggest, slightly more than average; Her hair golden in appearance; Her eyes
bright with pupils like shiny olives; Her eyebrows strong in character and
moderately dark, Her nose pronounced and Her mouth vibrant bespeaking sweet
speech; Her face was neither round nor angular, but somewhat oblong; the palm of
Her hands and fingers were longish...
In conversation with
others She preserved decorum, neither becoming silly nor agitated, and indeed
especially never angry; without artifice, and direct, She was not overly
concerned about Herself, and far from pampering Herself, She was distinctly full
of humility. Regarding the clothing which She wore, She was satisfied to have
natural colors, which even now is evidenced by Her holy head-covering. Suffice
it to say, a special grace attended all Her actions." (Nicephoros Kallistos
borrowed his description from St. Epiphanios of Cyprus (May 12), from the "Letter
to Theophilos Concerning Icons."
The circumstances of
the Dormition of the Mother of God were known in the Orthodox Church from
apostolic times. Already in the first century, the Hieromartyr Dionysios the
Areopagite wrote about Her "Falling-Asleep." In the second century, the account
of the bodily ascent of the Most Holy Virgin Mary to Heaven is found in the
works of Meliton, Bishop of Sardis. In the fourth century, St. Epiphanios of
Cyprus refers to the tradition about the "Falling-Asleep" of the Mother of God.
In the fifth century, St. Juvenalios, Patriarch of Jerusalem, told the holy
Byzantine Empress Pulcheria: "Although in Holy Scripture there is no account
about the circumstances of Her death, we know about them otherwise from the most
ancient and credible Tradition." This tradition was gathered and expounded in
the Church history of Nikephoros Kallistos during the fourteenth century.
At the time of Her
blessed "Falling-Asleep", the Most Holy Virgin Mary was again at Jerusalem. Her
fame as the Mother of God had already spread throughout the land and had aroused
many of the envious and the spiteful against Her, who wanted to make attempts on
Her life; but God preserved Her from enemies.
Day and night She
spent at prayer. The Most Holy Mother of God went often to the Holy Sepulchre of
the Lord, and here She offered up fevent prayer. More than once, enemies of the
Savior sought to hinder Her from visiting her holy place, and they asked the
High Priest for a guard to watch over the Grave of the Lord. But the Holy Virgin
Mary, unseen by anyone, continued to pray in front of them.
In one such visit to
Golgotha, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Her and announced Her approaching
transfer from this life to eternal life. In pledge of this, the Archangel gave
Her a palm branch. With these Heavenly tidings the Mother of God returned to
Bethlehem with the three girls attending Her (Sepphora, Abigail, and Jael). She
summoned Righteous Joseph of Aramathea and other disciples of the Lord, and told
them of Her impending Repose.
The Most Holy Virgin
prayed also that the Lord would have the Apostle John come to Her. The Holy
Spirit transported him from Ephesus, setting him in that very place where the
Mother of God lay. After the prayer, the Most Holy Virgin offered incense, and
John heard a voice from Heaven, closing Her prayer with the word "Amen." The
Mother of God took it that the voice meant the speedy arrival of the Apostles
and the Disciples and the holy Bodiless Powers.
The faithful, whose
number by then was impossible to count, gathered together, says Saint John of
Damascus, like clouds and eagles, to listen to the Mother of God. Seeing one
another, the Disciples rejoiced, but in their confusion they asked each other
why the Lord had gathered them together in one place. St. John the Theologian,
greeting them with tears of joy, said that the time of the Virgin's repose was
at hand.
Going in to the Mother
of God, they beheld Her lying upon the bed, and filled with spiritual joy. The
Disciples greeted Her, and then they told her how they had been carried
miraculously from their places of preaching. The Most Holy Virgin Mary glorified
God, because He had heard Her prayer and fulfilled Her heart's desire, and She
began speaking about Her imminent end.
During the time of
this conversation the Apostle Paul also appeared in a miraculous manner together
with his disciples Dionysios the Areopagite, St. Hierotheos, St. Timothy and
others of the Seventy Apostles. The Holy Spirit had gathered them all together
so that they might be granted the blessing of the All-Pure Virgin Mary, and more
fittingly to see to the burial of the Mother of the Lord. She called each of
them to Herself by name, She blessed them and extolled them for their faith and
the hardships they endured in preaching the Gospel of Christ. To each She wished
eternal bliss, and prayed with them for the peace and welfare of the whole
world.
Then came the third
hour (9 A.M.), when the Dormition of the Mother of God was to occur. A number of
candles were burning. The holy Disciples surrounded her beautifully adorned bed,
offering praise to God. She prayed in anticipation of Her demise and of the
arrival of Her longed-for Son and Lord. Suddenly, the inexpressible Light of
Divine Glory shone forth, before which the blazing candles paled in comparison.
All who it saw took fright. Descending from Heaven was Christ, the King of
Glory, surrounded by hosts of Angels and Archangels and other Heavenly Powers,
together with the souls of the Forefathers and the Prophets, who had prophesied
in ages past concerning the Most Holy Virgin Mary.
Seeing Her Son, the
Mother of God exclaimed: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God My Savior, for He hath regarded the low estate of His
Handmaiden" (Lk 1:46-48) and, rising from Her bed to meet the Lord, She
bowed down to Him, and the Lord bid Her enter into Life Eternal. Without any
bodily suffering, as though in a happy sleep, the Most Holy Virgin Mary gave Her
soul into the hands of Her Son and God.
Then began a joyous
angelic song. Accompanying the pure soul of the God-betrothed and with reverent
awe for the Queen of Heaven, the angels exclaimed: "Hail, Full of Grace, the
Lord is with Thee, blessed art Thou among women! For lo, the Queen, God's Maiden
comes, lift up the gates, and with the Ever-Existing One, take up the Mother of
Light; for through Her salvation has come to all the human race. It is
impossible to gaze upon Her, and it is impossible to render Her due honor" (Stikherion
on "Lord, I Have Cried"). The Heavenly gates were raised, and meeting the
soul of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Cherubim and the Seraphim glorified Her
with joy. The face of the Mother of God was radiant with the glory of Divine
virginity, and from Her body there came a sweet fragrance.
Miraculous was the
life of the All-Pure Virgin, and wondrous was Her Repose, as Holy Church sings:
"In Thee, O Queen, the God of all hath given thee as thy portion the things that
are above nature. Just as in the Birth-Giving He did preserve Thine virginity,
so also in the grave He did preserve Thy body from decay" (Canon 1, Ode 6,
Troparion 1).
Kissing the all-pure
body with reverence and in awe, the Disciples in turn were blessed by it and
filled with grace and spiritual joy. Through the great glorification of the Most
Holy Theotokos, the almighty power of God healed the sick, who with faith and
love touched the holy bed.
Bewailing their
separation from the Mother of God, the Apostles prepared to bury Her all-pure
body. The holy Apostles Peter, Paul, James and others of the Twelve Apostles
carried the funeral bier upon their shoulders, and upon it lay the body of the
Ever-Virgin Mary. St. John the Theologian went at the head with the resplendent
palm-branch from Paradise. The other saints and a multitude of the faithful
accompanied the funeral bier with candles and censers, singing sacred songs.
This solemn procession went from Sion through Jerusalem to the Garden of
Gethsemane.
With the start of the
procession there suddenly appeared over the all-pure body of the Mother of God
and all those accompanying Her a resplendent circular cloud, like a crown. There
was heard the singing of the Heavenly Powers, glorifying the Mother of God,
which echoed that of the worldly voices. This circle of Heavenly singers and
radiance accompanied the procession to the very place of burial.
Unbelieving
inhabitants of Jerusalem, taken aback by the extraordinarily grand funeral
procession and vexed at the honor accorded the Mother of Jesus, complained of
this to the High Priest and scribes. Burning with envy and vengefulness toward
everything that reminded them of Christ, they sent out their own servants to
disrupt the procession and to set the body of the Mother of God afire.
An angry crowd and
soldiers set off against the Christians, but the circular cloud accompanying the
procession descended and surrounded them like a wall. The pursuers heard the
footsteps and the singing, but could not see any of those accompanying the
procession. Indeed, many of them were struck blind.
The Jewish priest
Athonios, out of spite and hatred for the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, wanted to
topple the funeral bier on which lay the body of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, but
an angel of God invisibly cut off his hands, which had touched the bier. Seeing
such a wonder, Athonios repented and with faith confessed the majesty of the
Mother of God. He received healing and joined the crowd accompanying the body of
the Mother of God, and he became a zealous follower of Christ.
When the procession
reached the Garden of Gethsemane, then amidst the weeping and the wailing began
the last kiss to the all-pure body. Only towards evening were the Apostles able
to place it in the tomb and seal the entrance to the cave with a large stone.
For three days they
did not depart from the place of burial, praying and chanting Psalms. Through
the wise providence of God, the Apostle Thomas was not to be present at the
burial of the Mother of God. Arriving late on the third day at Gethsemane, he
lay down at the tomb and with bitter tears asked that l he might be permitted to
look once more upon the Mother of God and bid her farewell. The Apostles out of
heartfelt pity for him decided to open the grave and permit him the comfort of
venerating the holy relics of the Ever-Virgin Mary. Having opened the grave,
they found in it only the grave wrappings and were thus convinced of the bodily
ascent of the Most Holy Virgin Mary to Heaven.
On the evening of the
same day, when the Apostles had gathered at a house to strengthen themselves
with food, the Mother of God appeared to them and said: "Rejoice! I am with you
all the days of your lives." This so gladdened the Apostles and everyone with
them, that they took a portion of the bread, set aside at the meal in memory of
the Savior ("the Lord's Portion"), and they exclaimed : "Most Holy Theotokos,
save us". (This marks the beginning of the rite of offering up the "Panagia"
("All-Holy"), a portion of bread in honor of the Mother of God, which is done at
monasteries to the present day).
The sash of the Mother
of God, and Her holy garb, preserved with reverence and distributed over the
face of the earth in pieces, have worked miracles both in the past and at
present. Her numerous icons everywhere pour forth signs and healings, and Her
holy body, taken up to Heaven, bears witness to our own future life there. Her
body was not left to the vicissitudes of the transitory world, but was
incomparably exalted by its glorious ascent to Heaven.
The Feast of the
Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is celebrated with special solemnity at
Gethsemane, the place of Her burial. Nowhere else is there such sorrow of heart
at the separation from the Mother of God, and nowhere else such joy, because of
Her intercession for the world.
The holy city of
Jerusalem is separated from the Mount of Olives by the valley of Kedron on
Josaphat. At the foot of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane, where
olive trees bear fruit even now.
The holy
Ancestor-of-God Joachim had himself reposed at 80 years of age, several years
after the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (November
21). St. Anna, having been left a widow, moved
from Nazareth to Jerusalem, and lived near the Temple. At Jerusalem she bought
two pieces of property: the first at the gates of Gethsemane, and the second in
the valley of Josaphat. At the second locale she built a tomb for the members of
her family, and where also she herself was buried with Joachim. It was there in
the Garden of Gethsemane that the Savior often prayed with His disciples.
The most-pure body of
the Mother of God was buried in the family tomb. Christians honored the
sepulchre of the Mother of God, and they built a church on this spot. Within the
church was preserved the precious funeral cloth, which covered Her all-pure and
fragrant body.
The holy
Patriarch Juvenalios of Jerusalem (420-458) testified before the emperor Marcian
(450-457) as to the authenticity of the tradition about the miraculous ascent of
the Mother of God to Heaven, and he sent to the empress, St. Pulcheria (September
10), the grave wrappings of the Mother of God
from Her tomb. St. Pulcheria then placed these grave-wrappings within the
Blachernae church.
Accounts have been
preserved, that at the end of the seventh century a church had been built atop
the underground church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, and that
from its high bell-tower could be seen the dome of the Church of the
Resurrection of the Lord. Traces of this church are no longer to be seen. And in
the ninth century near the subterranean Gethsemane church a monastery was built,
in which more than 30 monks struggled.
Great destruction was
done the Church in the year 1009 by the despoiler of the holy places, Hakim.
Radical changes, the traces of which remain at present, also took place under
the crusaders in the year 1130. During the eleventh to twelfth centuries the
piece of excavated stone, at which the Savior had prayed on the night of His
betrayal disappeared from Jerusalem. This piece of stone had been in the
Gethsemane basilica from the sixth century.
But in spite of the
destruction and the changes, the overall original cruciform (cross-shaped) plan
of the church has been preserved. At the entrance to the church along the sides
of the iron gates stand four marble columns. To enter the church, it is
necessary to go down a stairway of 48 steps. At the 23rd step on the right side
is a chapel in honor of the holy Ancestors-of-God Joachim and Anna together with
their graves, and on the left side opposite, the chapel of St. Joseph the
Betrothed with his grave. The right chapel belongs to the Orthodox Church, and
the left to the Armenian Church (since 1814).
The church of the
Dormition of the Theotokos has the following dimensions: in length it is 48
arshin, and in breadth 8 arshin [1 arshin = 28 inches]. At an earlier time the
church had also windows beside the doors. The whole temple was adorned with a
multitude of lampadas and offerings. Two small entrances lead into the
burial-chamber of the Mother of God. One enters through the western doors, and
exits at the northern doors. The burial-chamber of the All-Pure Virgin Mary is
veiled with precious curtains. The burial place was hewn out of stone in the
manner of the ancient Jewish graves and is very similar to the Sepulchre of the
Lord. Beyond the burial-chamber is the altar of the church, in which Divine
Liturgy is celebrated each day in the Greek language.
The olive woods on the
eastern and northern sides of the temple was acquired from the Turks by the
Orthodox during the seventh and eighth centuries. The Catholics acquired the
olive woods on the east and south sides in 1803, and the Armenians on the west
side in 1821.
On August 12, at
Little Gethsemane, at the second hour of the night, the head of the Gethsemane
church celebrates Divine Liturgy. With the end of Liturgy, at the fourth hour of
the morning, he serves a short Molieben before the resplendent burial shroud,
lifts it in his hands and solemnly carries it beyond the church to Gethsemane
proper where the holy sepulchre of the Mother of God is situated. All the
members of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, with the head of the
Mission presiding, participate each year in the procession (called the "Litania")
with the holy burial shroud of the Mother of God..
The rite of the Burial
of the Mother of God at Gethsemane begins customarily on the morning of August
14. A multitude of people with hierarchs and clergy at the head set off from the
Jerusalem Patriarchate (nearby the Church of the Resurrection of Christ) in
sorrowful procession. Along the narrow alley-ways of the Holy City the funeral
procession makes its way to Gethsemane. Toward the front of the procession an
icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is carried. Along the way,
pilgrims meet the icon, kissing the image of the All-Pure Virgin Mary and lift
children of various ages to the icon. After the clergy, in two rows walk the
black-robed monks and nuns of the Holy City: Greeks, Roumanians, Arabs,
Russians. The procession, going along for about two hours, concludes with
Lamentations at the Gethsemane church. In front the altar, beyond the burial
chamber of the Mother of God, is a raised-up spot, upon which rests the burial
shroud of the Most Holy Mother of God among fragrant flowers and myrtle, with
precious coverings.
"O marvelous wonder!
The Fount of Life is placed in the grave, and the grave doth become the ladder
to Heaven..." Here at the grave of the All-Pure Virgin, these words strike deep
with their original sense and grief is dispelled by joy: "Hail, Full of Grace,
the Lord is with Thee, granting the world, through Thee, great mercy!"
Numerous pilgrims,
having kissed the icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, following an
ancient custom, then stoop down and go beneath it.
On the day of the
Leave-taking of the feast (August 23), another solemn procession is made. On the
return path, the holy burial shroud is carried by clergy led by the
Archimandrite of Gethsemane.
There is an article in
the "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", 1979, No. 3 regarding the rite
of the litany and Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Holy Land.
Today flowers are
blessed in church, and people keep them in their homes. During times of family
strife or illness, the flower petals are placed in the censer with the incense,
and the whole house is censed. See the Prayer at the Sanctification of any
Fragrant Herbage.
