Troparion in Tone 8
Ever-Virgin Theotokos, protectress of mankind, you have given
given your people a powerful powerful legacy:
the robe and sash of your most honored body, which remained incorrupt
throughout your seedless childbearing;
for through you time and nature are renewed!
Therefore we implore you:
"Grant peace to your people and to our souls great mercy!"
Kontakion in Tone 4
O Pure One, full of the grace of God,
you have given your sacred robe
as a garment of incorruption to all the faithful,
with it you covered your holy body,
O divine protection of all mankind.
We celebrate its enshrinement in Blachérnae
with love and we cry aloud with awe:
"Rejoice, O Virgin, boast of Christians."
The Placing of the Venerable Robe of the
Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae: During the reign of the Byzantine
Emperor Leo the Great (457-474), the brothers Galbius and Candidus,
associates of the emperor, set out from Constantinople to Palestine to
venerate the holy places. In a small settlement near Nazareth
they stayed in the home of a certain old Jewish woman. In her house they
noticed a room where many lamps were lit, incense burned, and sick
people were gathered. When they asked her what the room contained, the
pious woman did not want to give an answer for a long time. After
persistent requests, she said that she had a very precious sacred item:
the Robe of the Mother of God, which performed many miracles and
healings. Before Her Dormition the Most Holy Virgin bequeathed one of
her garments to a pious Jewish maiden, an ancestor of the old woman,
instructing her to leave it to another virgin after her death. Thus, the
Robe of the Mother of God was preserved in this family from generation
to generation.
The jeweled chest, containing the sacred Robe,
was transferred to Constantinople. Saint Gennadius, Patriarch of
Constantinople (August 31), and the emperor Leo, having learned of the
sacred treasure, were convinced of the incorrupt state of the holy Robe,
and they certified its authenticity. At Blachernae, near the seacoast, a
new church in honor of the Mother of God was constructed. On June 2, 458
St Gennadius transferred the sacred Robe into the Blachernae church with
appropriate solemnity, placing it within a new reliquary.
Afterwards, the maphorion (i.e., the outer
robe) of the Mother of God, and part of Her belt were also put into the
reliquary with Her Robe. This circumstance also influenced the Orthodox
iconography of the Feast, in connecting the two events:
of the Mother of God in Blachernae. The Russian
pilgrim Stephen of Novgorod, visiting Constantinople in about the year
1350, testifies: "We arrived at Blachernae, where the Robe lies upon an
altar in a sealed reliquary."
More than once, during the invasion of enemies,
the Most Holy Theotokos saved the city to which She had given Her holy
Robe. Thus it happened during the time of a siege of Constantinople by
the Avars in 626, by the Persians in 677, and by the Arabs in the year
717. Especially relevant for us are events of the year 860, intimately
connected with the history of the Russian Church.
On June 18, 860 the Russian fleet of Prince
Askold, a force comprising more than 200 ships, laid waste the coastal
regions of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus, then entered into the Golden
Horn and threatened Constantinople. The Russian ships sailed within
sight of the city, setting ashore troops who "proceeded before the city,
stretching forth their swords." The emperor Michael III (842-867),
interrupted his campaign against the Arabs and returned to the capital.
All night he prayed prostrated upon the stone tiles of the church of the
Mother of God at Blachernae. The holy Patriarch Photius spoke to his
flock, calling for tears of repentance to wash away sins, and to seek
the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos with fervent prayer.
The danger grew with each passing hour.
"The city was barely able to stand against a spear," says
Patriarch Photius in another of his homilies. Under these conditions the
decision was made to save the church's sacred objects, especially the
holy Robe of the Mother of God, which was kept in the Blachernae church,
not far from the shore.
After serving an all-night Vigil, and taking it
out from the Blachernae church, they carried the sacred Robe of the
Mother of God in a procession around the city walls. They dipped its
edge into the waters of the Bosphorus, and then they transported it to
the center of Constantinople into the church of Hagia Sophia. The Mother
of God protected the city and quelled the fury of the Russian warriors.
An honorable truce was concluded, and Askold lifted the siege of
Constantinople.
On June 25 the Russian army began to leave,
taking with them a large tribute payment. A week afterwards, on July 2,
the wonderworking Robe of the Mother of God was solemnly returned to its
place in the reliquary of the Blachernae church. In remembrance of these
events an annual feastday of the Placing of the Robe of the Mother of
God was established on July 2 by holy Patriarch Photius.
Soon, in October-November of the year 860, a
Russian delegation arrived in Constantinople to conclude a treaty "in
love and peace." Some of the conditions of the peace treaty included
articles concerning the Baptism of Kievan Rus, the payment of an annual
tribute by the Byzantines to the Russians, permission for them to serve
with the Byzantine army, an agreement to trade in the territory of the
Empire (primarily in Constantinople), and to send a diplomatic mission
to Byzantium.
Most important was the point about the Baptism
of Rus. The continuator of the Byzantine "Theophanes Chronicles" relates
that "their delegation arrived in Constantinople with a request for them
to receive holy Baptism, which also was fulfilled." An Orthodox mission
was sent to Kiev to fulfill this mutual wish of the Russians and the
Greeks. Not very long before this (in 855) Saint Cyril the Philosopher
had created a Slavonic alphabet and translated the Gospel. Saint Cyril
was sent with his brother, Saint Methodius, on a mission to Kiev with
books translated into Slavonic. This was at the initiative of Saint
Photius, whose student Saint Cyril was. The brothers spent the winter of
860/861 at Cherson, and in the spring of 861 they were at the River
Dniepr, with Prince Askold.
Prince Askold was faced with a difficult
choice, just as holy Prince Vladimir faced: both the Jews on the one
hand, and the Moslems on the other, wanted him to accept their faith.
But under the influence of Saint Cyril, the prince chose Orthodoxy. At
the end of the year 861, Saints Cyril and Methodius returned to
Constantinople and carried letters with them from Prince Askold to
Emperor Michael III. Askold thanked the emperor for sending him
"such men, who showed by both word and by example, that the Christian
Faith is holy."
"Persuaded that this is the true Faith,"
Askold further wrote, "we bid them to baptize in the hope that we may
also attain sanctity. We are all friends of the Kingdom and prepared to
be of service to you, as requested."
Askold accepted holy Baptism with the name
Nicholas, and many of his retinue were also baptized. Directly from
Constantinople, the capital of Orthodoxy, through the efforts of the
holy Apostles to the Slavs both the Slavonic divine services and the
Slavonic written language arrived in Rus.
Saint Photius appointed Metropolitan Michael to
Kiev, and the Russian metropolitan district was entered into the lists
of dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Patriarch Photius in
an encyclical of the year 867 called the Baptism of the Bulgarians and
the Russians as among the chief accomplishments of his archpastoral
service. "The Russians, who lifted their hand against the Roman
might," he wrote, almost quoting literally from the missive of
Askold, "have now replaced the impious teaching which they held to
formerly, with the pure and genuine Christian Faith, and with love
having established themselves in the array of our friends and subjects."
(The Byzantines counted as "subjects" all accepting Baptism from
Constantinople and entering into military alliance with the Empire.)
"The desire and zeal of faith has flared up within them to such an
extent, that they have accepted bishops and pastors, and they embrace
Christian sanctity with great zeal and fervor."
The Feast of the Placing of the Robe of
the Most Holy Theotokos in Blachernae also marks the canonical
establishment of the Russian Orthodox metropolitanate in Kiev.
By the blessing of the Mother of God and by the miracle from Her holy
Robe not only was the deliverance of Constantinople from the most
terrible siege in all its history accomplished, but also the liberation
of the Russians from the darkness of pagan superstition to life eternal.
Together with this, the year 860 brought recognition to Kievan Rus from
Byzantium, and signified the emergence of the young Russian realm into
the arena of history.
The attempt of Prince Askold to renew the
Christian evangelization begun by the holy Apostle Andrew the
First-Called, which he intended as a religious and state reform, ended
unsuccessfully. The time for the spread of Christianity in the Russian
Land had not yet come. The adherents of the old paganism were too
strong, and the princely power was too weak. In the clash of Askold with
the pagan Oleg in 882 the Kievans betrayed their prince. Askold, lured
into the camp of his enemies for talks, received a martyr's death at the
hand of hired killers.
But the deed of Blessed Askold (the Ioakimov
Chronicle calls him such) was not extinguished in the Russian Church.
Oleg the Sage, who killed Askold, occupied the Kiev princedom after him,
and called Kiev the "Mother of Russian Cities."
The most ancient chronicles of Kiev preserved
the grateful memory of the first Kievan Christian prince: the church of
the Prophet of God Elias, built by Askold and later mentioned in Igor's
Treaty with the Greeks (in 944), is on the site where the present church
of this name now stands, and there is also the church of Saint Nicholas
the Wonderworker, built in the 950s by Saint Olga over Askold's grave.
The most important achievement of Askold,
entering forever into the Church inheritance not only of Rus, but of
also all Orthodox Slavs, is the Slavonic Gospel and Slavonic services,
translated by Sts Cyril and Methodius. Their apostolic activity among
the Slavs began in Kiev at the court of Askold in 861, and continued
afterwards in Moravia and Bulgaria. Following Blessed Askold, in the
words of the ancient Alphabetic Prayers, "the Slavonic tribe now
soars in flight, all striving toward Baptism."
Several outstanding works of Byzantine Church
hymnology and homiletics are connected with the miracle of the Robe of
the Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae. There are two homilies of Saint
Photius, one of which he preached within days of the siege of
Constantinople, and the other soon after the departure of the Russian
forces. Also associated with the campaign of Askold against
Constantinople is the composition of a remarkable "Akathist to the Most
Holy Theotokos," which certain Church histories ascribe also to holy
Patriarch Photius. This Akathist forms an integral part of the services
of Praise to the Most Holy Theotokos (i.e., the "Saturday of the
Akathist," Fifth Saturday of Great Lent).
It is not only Byzantine sources that relate
the events of the year 860, but also Russian historical chronicles.
Saint Nestor the Chronicler, stressing the significance of the Russian
campaign against Constantinople, notes that from this time "it was begun
to be called the Russian Land." Certain of the chronicles, among them
the Ioakimov and Nikonov, preserved accounts of the Baptism of Prince
Askold and Kievan Rus after the campaign against Constantinople. The
popular commemoration of this event is firmly associated with the names
of the Kievan princes Askold and Dir, although in the opinion of
historians, Dir was prince of Kiev somewhat earlier than Askold.
The veneration of the feast of the Placing of
the Robe was long known in the Russian Church. Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky
built a church in honor of this feastday in the city of Vladimir at the
Golden Gates. At the end of the fourteenth century, part of the Robe of
the Mother of God was transferred from Constantinople to Rus by Saint
Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal.
The holy Robe of the Mother of God, which
previously saved Constantinople, later saved Moscow from hostilities.
Tatars of the Horde of the princeling Mazovshi approached the walls of
Moscow in the summer of 1451. St Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow, with
constant prayer and church services, encouraged the defenders of the
capital. On the night of July 2, the Chronicle relates, great confusion
occurred within the Tatar camp. The enemy abandoned their plundered
goods and speedily departed in disarray. In memory of the miraculous
deliverance of Moscow, St Jonah built the church of the Placing of the
Robe in the Kremlin, making it his primary church. It burned, but in its
place in the years 1484-1486 a new church, also dedicated to the Feast
of the Placing of the Robe of the Mother of God, was built thirty years
later. This temple, standing at present, continued to serve as the
primary church of Russian metropolitans and patriarchs until the
cathedral of the Twelve Apostles was built under Patriarch Nikon.
