Fundamentals of Orthodoxy

• April 3/16 – Lazarus’ Saturday

  The story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus Christ is found in the Gospel of John 11:1-45. Lazarus becomes ill, and his sisters, Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus stating, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” In response to the message, Jesus says, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (vv. 1-4).

  Jesus did not immediately go to Bethany, the town where Lazarus lived with his sisters. Instead He remained in the place where He was staying for two more days. After this time, He told his disciples that they were returning to Judea. The disciples immediately expressed their concern, stating that the Jews there had recently tried to stone Him (John 10:31). Jesus replied to His disciples, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them” (vv. 5-10).

  After He said this, Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus had fallen asleep and that He was going there to wake him. The disciples wondered why He would go to wake Lazarus, since it was good for him to sleep if he was ill. Jesus, however, was referring to the death of Lazarus, and thus told the disciples directly that Lazarus was dead (vv. 11-14).

  When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Since Bethany was near Jerusalem, many of the Jews had come to console Mary and Martha. When Martha heard that Jesus was approaching she went to meet Him and said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of Him.” Jesus told her that her brother will rise again. Martha said that she knew he would rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus replied, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Jesus asked Martha if she believed this. She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world” (vv. 17-27).

  Martha returned to tell Mary that Jesus had come and was asking for her. Mary went to meet Him, and she was followed by those who were consoling her. The mourners followed her thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When she came to Jesus, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus saw her weeping and those who were with her, and He was deeply moved. He asked to be taken to the tomb of Lazarus. As Jesus wept for Lazarus the Jews said, “See how He loved him.” Others wondered that if Jesus could open the eyes of the blind, He certainly could have kept Lazarus from dying (vv. 28-37).

  Jesus came to the tomb and asked that the stone that covered the door be taken away. Martha remarked that Lazarus had now been in the tomb for four days and that there would be a stench. Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” The stone was taken away, and Jesus looked toward heaven and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When He had said this, He called out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus walked out of the tomb, bound with the strips of burial cloth, and Jesus said, “Unbind him, and let him go” (vv. 38-44).

  As a result of this miracle, many of the Jews that were present believed in Jesus. Others went and told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. In response the Pharisees and chief priests met and considered how they might arrest Him and put Him to death (v. 45ff).

  This miracle is performed by Christ as a reassurance to His disciples before the coming Passion: they are to understand that, though He suffers and dies, yet He is Lord and Victor over death. The resurrection of Lazarus is a prophecy in the form of an action. It foreshadows Christ’s own Resurrection eight days later, and at the same time it anticipates the resurrection of all the righteous on the Last Day: Lazarus is “the saving first-fruits of the regeneration of the world.”

  As the liturgical texts emphasize, the miracle at Bethany reveals the two natures of Christ the God-man. Christ asks where Lazarus is laid and weeps for him, and so He shows the fullness of His manhood, involving as it does human ignorance and genuine grief for a beloved friend. Then, disclosing the fullness of His divine power, Christ raises Lazarus from the dead, even though his corpse has already begun to decompose and stink. This double fullness of the Lord’s divinity and His humanity is to be kept in view throughout Holy Week, and above all on Good Friday. On the Cross we see a genuine human agony, both physical and mental, but we see more than this: we see not only suffering man but suffering God.

  www.goarch.org

• Rejoice, Thou full of grace, the Lord is with Thee! Annunciation of the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

  Sermon of Sainted Proklos, Patriarch of Constantinople

  Our present gathering in honour of the MostHoly Virgin inspires me, brethren, to say of Her a word of praise, of benefit also for those come unto this churchly solemnity. It comprises a praise of women, a glorying of their gender, which (glory) is brought it by Her, She Who is at one same time both Mother, and Virgin. O desired and wondrous gathering! Celebrate, O nature, that wherein honour be rendered to Woman; rejoice, O human race, that wherein the Virgin be glorified. “For when sin did abound, grace did superabound” (Rom. 5: 20). The Holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary hath gathered us here, She the pure treasure of virginity, the intended paradise of Second Adam, – the locus, wherein was accomplished the co-uniting of natures, wherein was affirmed the Counsel of salvific reconciliation.

  Whoever is it that ever saw, whoever heard, that within a womb the Limitless God would make habitation, Whom the Heavens cannot circumscribe, Whom the womb of a Virgin limiteth not!?

  He born of woman is not only God and He is not only Man: This One born made woman, being the ancient gateway of sin, into the gateway of salvation: where evil poured forth its poison, bringing on disobedience, there the Word made for Himself a living temple, bringing in thither obedience; from whence the arch-sinner Cain sprang forth, there without seed was born Christ the Redeemer of the human race. The Lover-of-Mankind did not disdain to be born of woman, since this bestowed His life. He was not subject to impurity, being settled within the womb, which He Himself arrayed free from all harm. If perchance this Mother did not remain a Virgin, then that born of Her might be a mere man, and the birth would be no wise miraculous; but since She after birth remained a Virgin, then how is He Who is born indeed – not God? It is an inexplicable mystery, since in an inexplicable manner was born He Who without hindrance went through doors when they were locked. When confessing in Him the co-uniting of two natures, Thomas cried out: “My Lord, and my God!” (Jn. 20: 28).

  The Apostle Paul says, that Christ is “to the Jews indeed scandal, and to the Gentiles yet folly” (1 Cor. 1: 23): they did not perceive the power of the mystery, since it was incomprehensible to the mind: “for had they understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory” (1 Cor. 2: 8). If the Word had not settled within the womb, then the flesh would not have ascended with Him onto the Divine Throne; if for God it were disdainful to enter into the womb, which He created, then the Angels too would have disdained service to mankind.

  That One, Who by His nature was not subject to sufferings, through His love for us subjected Himself to many a suffering. We believe, that Christ not through some gradual ascent towards the Divine nature was made God, but being God, through His mercy He was made Man. We do not say: “a man made God”; but we confess, that God was incarnated and made Man. His Servant was chosen for Himself as Mother by That One Who, in His essence did not have mother, and Who, through Divine foresight having appeared upon the earth in the image of man, does not have here father. How one and the same is He both without father, and without mother, in accord with the words of the Apostle (Heb. 7: 3)? If He – be only a man, then He cannot be without mother – but actually He had a Mother. If He – be God only, then He cannot be without Father – but in fact He has the Father. And yet as God the Creator He has not mother, and as Man He has not father.

  We can be persuaded in this by the very name of the Archangel, making annunciation to Mary: his name – is Gabriel. What does this name mean? – it means: “God and man”. Since That One about Whom he announced is God and Man, then his very name points beforehand to this miracle, so that with faith be accepted the deed of the Divine dispensation.

  To save people would be impossible for a mere man, since every man has need in the Saviour: “for all, – says Saint Paul, – have sinned, and come short the Glory of God” (Rom. 3: 23). Since sin subjects the sinner to the power of the devil, and the devil subjects him to death, then our condition did become extremely hapless: there was no sort of way to be delivered from death. There were sent physicians, i.e. the prophets, but they could only the more clearly point out the malady. What did they do? When they saw, that the illness was beyond human skill, they summoned from Heaven the Physician; one of them said “Lord, bend the heavens, and come down” (Ps. 143 [144]: 5); others cried out: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shalt be healed” (Jer. 17: 14); “restore Thine power, and come yet to save us” (Ps. 79 [80]: 3). And yet others: “For if God truly be settled with man upon the earth” (3 [1] Kings 8: 27); “speedily send before Thine tender mercy, O Lord, for we are brought very low” (Ps. 78 [79]: 8). Others said: “O woe to me, my soul! For the pious art perished from the earth, and of the upright amongst men there is none” (Mich. 7: 2). “O God, in help attend to me, O Lord, shield me with Thine help” (Ps. 69 [70]: 1). “If there be delay, endure it, for He that cometh shalt come, and not tarry” (Hab. 2: 3). “Perishing like a lost sheep: seek out Thine servant, who doth hope on Thee” (Ps. 118 [119]: 176). “For God wilt come, our God, and wilt not keep silence” (Ps. 49 [50]: 3). That One, Who by nature is Lord, did not disdain human nature, enslaved by the sinister power of the devil, the merciful God would not accede for it to be forever under the power of the devil, the Ever-Existing One came and gave in ransom His Blood; for the redemption of the race of man from death He gave up His Body, which He had accepted of the Virgin, He delivered the world from the curse of the law, annihilating death by His death. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law”, – exclaims Saint Paul (Gal. 3: 13).

  Thus know, that our Redeemer is not simply a mere man, since all the human race was enslaved to sin. But He likewise is not God only, non-partaking of human nature. He had body, since if He had not clothed Himself in me, He then likewise should not have saved me. But, having settled within the womb of the Virgin, He clothed Himself in my fate, and within this womb He perfected a miraculous change: He bestowed the Spirit and received a body, That One only indeed (dwelling) with the Virgin and (born) of the Virgin. And so, Who is He, made manifest to us? The Prophet David doth point it out for thee in these words: “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord” (Ps. 117 [118]: 26). But tell us even more clearly, O prophet, Who is He? The Lord is the God of Hosts, says the prophet: “God is the Lord, and hath revealed Himself unto us” (Ps. 117 [118]: 27). “The Word was made flesh” (Jn. 1: 14): there were co-united the two natures, and the union remained without mingling.

  He came to save, but had also to suffer. What has the one in common with the other? A mere man cannot save; and God in only His nature cannot suffer. By what means was done the one and the other? Wherein that He, Emmanuel, being God, was made also Man; both this, that what He was, He saved by, – and this, that what He was made, He suffered as. Wherefore, when the Church beheld, that the Jewish throng had crowned Him with thorns, bewailing the violence of the throng, – it said: “Daughters of Zion, go forth and behold the crown, of which is crowned He of His mother” (Sng. 3: 11). He wore the crown of thorns and destroyed the judgement to suffering from the thorns. He Only is That One both in the bosom of the Father and in the womb of the Virgin; He Only is That One – in the arms of His Mother and in the wings of the winds (Ps. 103 [104]: 3); He, to Whom the Angels bowed down in worship, at that same time reclined at table with publicans. Upon Him the Seraphim dared not to gaze, and at the same time Pilate pronounced sentence upon Him. He – is That One and Same, Whom the servant did smite and before whom did tremble all creation. He was nailed to the Cross and ascended to the Throne of Glory, – He was placed in the tomb and He stretched out the heavens like a skin (Ps. 103 [104]: 2), – He was numbered amidst the dead and He emptied hell; here upon the earth, they cursed at Him as a transgressor, – there in Heaven, they exclaimed Him glory as the All-Holy. What an incomprehensible mystery! I see the miracles, and I confess, that He – is God; I see the sufferings, and I cannot deny, that He – is Man. Emmanuel opened up the doors of nature, as man, and preserved unharmed the seal of virginity, as God: He emerged from the womb thus as He entered through the announcing; the same wondrously was He both born and conceived: without passion He entered, and without impairment He emerged, as concerning this doth say the Prophet Ezekiel: “He returned me back the way of the gates of the outer sanctuaries, looking upon the east: and these had been shut. And saith the Lord to me: son of man, these gates shalt be closed, and not open, and no one go through them: for the Lord God of Israel, He Only, shalt enter and come forth, and they wilt be shut” (Ez. 44: 1-2). Here – it clearly indicates the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary. Let cease all contention, and let the Holy Scripture enlighten our reason, so that we too receive the Heavenly Kingdom unto all eternity. Amen.

  (с) 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

• Third Sunday of Great Lent, Veneration of the Cross

  On Sunday of the third week, during matins, the Life-creating cross of the Lord is brought out into the middle of the church for the veneration by the faithful, that is why this Sunday and the following week are called of the Veneration of the Cross. The cross stays in the middle of the church until Friday of the fourth week. According to the typicon, there are four set times for veneration during this week: on Sunday, on Monday, on Wednesday and on Friday. On Sunday, veneration takes place only during matins (after the bringing out of the cross), on Monday and Wednesday it takes place during the first hour, and on Friday it happens after the “dismissal of the hours.” This is done for the encouragement and consolation of the repenting Christians. The Holy Church compares the Cross with the tree of life from paradise. According to the teaching of the church, the cross is also likened to the tree, placed by Moses into the bitter waters of Marah, to make them sweet for the Hebrew people during the forty years of wandering in the desert. The cross is also likened to a tree, under the shade of which tired travelers stop to rest, as they are being led into the promised land of the eternal inheritance.

  What can better spiritually strengthen a person, who undertook a distant journey, and in this case, a fasting Christian, other than a look, directed toward the Cross, upon which Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself suffered? Lent is a difficult and responsible time for everyone, striving to draw near unto God. It is the time of the mortification within oneself of the “old” man, time for the expulsion of the passions, bad habits and passionate desires, therefore in the spiritual sense the very important is the reminder to the faithful about the sufferings and death upon the cross of our Savior, which He endured willingly for the salvation of the world. The Cross is the call to augmented repentance and weeping over one’s sins, yet at the same time it is the hope of the resurrection, for, if we suffer with Christ, then we shall be glorified with Him, and if we die with Him, then shall we be raised with Him. Let us recall the place in the Gospel, where the Lord says to every one of us: “Deny thyself and take up thy cross and follow Me.” Everyone has his own cross, his own difficulties, illnesses, sorrows and sins. We must bear it without grumbling, giving thanks to God for all things that we receive from His right hand.

• March 7/20 – 2nd Sunday of Great Lent. Commemoration of St. Gregory Palamas

  Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonika, was born in the year 1296 in Asia Minor. During the time of a Turkish incursion the family fled to Constantinople and found refuge at the court of Andronikos II Paleologos (1282-1328). The father of Saint Gregory became a prominent dignitiary under the emperor, but he soon died, and Andronikos himself took part in the raising and education of the orphaned boy. Endowed with fine abilities and great diligence, Gregory without difficulty mastered all the subjects which then comprised the full course of medieval higher education. The emperor hoped that the youth would devote himself to government work. But Gregory, just barely age 20, withdrew to Holy Mount Athos in the year 1316 (per other sources, 1318) and became a novice in the Batopedeia monastery under the guidance of the monastic-elder, the Monk Nikodemos of Batopedeia (Comm. 11 July), and there he accepted tonsure and began on the path of asceticism. A year later, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him in a vision and promised him his spiritual protection. Gregory’s mother and sisters likewise became monastics.

  After the demise of the monastic-elder Nikodemos, the Monk Gregory spent 8 years of prayerful effort under the guidance of the monastic-elder Nicephoros, and after the death of this latter elder Gregory transferred to the Laura-monastery of the Monk Athanasias. Here he served in the refectory, and then became a church singer. But after three years, striving for a greater degree of spiritual perfection, he re-settled in the small hermit-life monastery of Glossia. The head of this monastery began to teach the youth the manner of concentrated spiritual prayer – the mental activity, which by degrees gradually was appropriated and cultivated by monastics, beginning with the great wilderness ascetics of the IV Century – Euagrios (Lat. Evagrius), Pontikos and the Monk Makarios of Egypt (Comm. 19 January). Later on, in the XI Century in the works of Simeon the New Theologian (Comm. 12 March), those praying in outward manner received detailed elucidation on adapting the mental doing, and it was implemented by the Athos ascetics. An experienced useage of mental activity, requiring solitude and quiet, received the name “Hesychiasm” (from the Greek “hesukhia” meaning calm, silence), and those practising it were called “hesychiasts”. During the time of his stay at Glossia the future hierarch Gregory became fully embued with the spirit of hesychiasm and adapted it as fundamental to his life. In the year 1326, because of the threat of Turkish invasions, he together with the brethren retreated back to Soluneia (Thessalonika), where he was then ordained to the dignity of priest.

  Saint Gregory combined his priestly duties with the life of an hermit: five days of the week he spent in silence and prayer, and only on Saturday and Sunday did the pastor emerge to his people – he celebrated Divine-services and preached sermons. For those present in church, his teaching often evoked both tenderness and tears. Sometimes he visited theological gatherings of the city’s educated youth, headed by the future patriarch, Isidor. Having returned from being a certain while at Constantinople, he found near Soluneia the locale of Bereia, a place suitable for solitary life. Soon he gathered here a small community of hermit-monks and guided it over the course of 5 years. In 1331 the saint withdrew to Athos and lived in solitude at the skete-monastery of Saint Savva, near the Laura-monastery of the Monk Athanasias. In 1333 he was appointed hegumen of the Esthygmena monastery in the northern part of the Holy Mountain. In 1336 the saint returned to the skete-monastery of Saint Savva, where he concerned himself with theological works, continuing on with it until the end of his life.

  But amidst all this, in the 1330’s culminated events in the life of the Eastern Church which put Saint Gregory amongst the most significant universal apologists of Orthodoxy, and brought him reknown as the teacher of hesychiasm.

  In about the year 1330 the learned monk Varlaam had arrived in Constantinople from Calabria (in Italy).He was the author of tractates on logic and astronomy, a skilled and sharp-witted orator, and he received an university-chair in the capital city and began to expound on the works of Saint Dionysios the Areopagite (Comm. 3 October), whose “apophatic” (“negative”, “via negativa”, as contrast to “kataphatic” or “postive”) theology was acclaimed in equal measure in both the Eastern and the Western Churches. Soon Varlaam journeyed to Athos, where he became acquainted with the modality of spiritual life of the hesychiasts, and on the basis of the dogma about the incomprehensibility of the essence of God, he declared the mental doing an heretical error. Journeying from Athos to Soluneia (Thessalonika), and from there to Constantinople and later again to Soluneia, Varlaam entered into disputes with the monks and attempted to demonstrate the created creatureliness of the light of Tabor (i.e. at the Transfiguration); in this he reduced to the point of a joke the sayings of the monks about the modes of prayer and about the spiritual light.

  Saint Gregory, at the request of the Athonite monks, countered at first with spoken admonitions. But seeing the futility of such efforts, he put in writing his theological argument. Thus appeared the “Triades in Defense of the Holy Hesychiasts” (1338). Towards the year 1340 the Athonite ascetics with the assist of the saint compiled a general reply to the attacks of Varlaam – the so-called “Svyatogorsk tomos”. At the Constantinople Council of 1341 in the church of Saint Sophia there occurred a debate of Saint Gregory Palamas with Varlaam, centering upon the nature of the light on Mount Tabor. On 27 May 1341 the Council accepted the position of Saint Gregory Palamas – that God, inapproachable in His Essence, reveals Himself in energies, which are directed towards the world and are able to be perceived, like the Tabor light, but which are neither material nor created. The teachings of Varlaam were condemned as heresy, and he himself, anathemised, withdrew to Calabria.

  But the dispute between the Palamites and the Varlaamites was far from finished. To these latter belonged a student of Varlaam, the Bulgarian monk Akyndinos, and also the patriarch John XIV Kalekos (1341-1347); to them inclined also the emperor Andronikos III Paleologos (1328-1341). Akyndinos came out with a series of tracts, in which he declared Saint Gregory and the Athonite monks guilty of church disorders. The saint in turn wrote a detailed refutation of Akyndinos’ conjectures. The patriarch thereupon excommunicated the saint from the Church (1344) and had him locked up in prison, which lasted for three years. In 1347, when John XIV was succeeded on the patriarchal throne by Isidor (1347-1349), Saint Gregory Palamas was set free and elevated to the dignity of archbishop of Soluneia (Thessalonika). In 1351 the Blakhernae Council solemnly witnessed to the Orthodoxy of his teachings. But the people of Soluneia did not immediately accept Saint Gregory, and he was compelled to live in various places. In one of his travels to Constantinople the Byzantine galley-ship fell into the hands of the Turks. They offered to sell Saint Gregory in various cities as a captive during the course of a year, but he then also incessantly continued to preach the Christian faith.

  Only but three years before his death did he return to Soluneia. On the eve of his repose, Saint John Chrysostom appeared to him in a vision. With the words “To Heaven! To Heaven!”, – Saint Gregory Palamas reposed peacefully to God on 14 November 1359. In 1368 he was canonised at a Constantinople Council under Patriarch Philotheos (1354‑1355, 1362-1376), who compiled the Life and Services to the saint.

  © 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

• THE MEETING OF OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

  The event of the meeting, in other words the meeting of the Old Testament piety with the holiness of Christ, the Church remembers every evening, “at the setting of the sun”, repeating the words of St. Symeon the Receiver of God: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, Oh Master, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation…” (St. Luke 2:28-32).

  “Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast,” was commanded by the Lord through the prophet Moses. “and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem” (Exodus 13:2, 13). When the service before the tabernacle of the covenant was given to the tribe of Levi, in other words to the Levites, a special redemption was set for the firstborn (Leviticus 12:6-8).

  Thus, the Redeemer of the entire race of men was brought into the Jerusalem temple for redemption, while the More Honorable than the Cherubim, His Most Pure Mother had to undergo the ancient custom of the cleansing of the one who gave birth, who for the duration of the first forty days after the birth of a male child was considered unclean: in these days she was forbidden from touching holy objects, climbing unto the Temple Mount and taking part in the public worship (the unclean days of those, who gave birth to infant girls, altogether lasted for sixty six days (Leviticus 12:2-5). So it turns out that the Meeting is also, in a way, a Feast of the Lord’s humility.

  According to ancient tradition, repeated in the works of Ss. Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, and Andrew of Crete, the high priest (believed to be St. Zacharaiah – father of St. John the Baptist) by grace, contrary to the old law, led the Theotokos with the Infant from the place appointed to unclean women to the place where only the virgins stood, leaving without heed the rebukes of the scribes and Pharisees.

  “But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,” writes of this the Apostle Paul (Galatians 4:4-5). “And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth” (St. Luke 2:39).

  Corresponding with this indication of the Evangelist Luke, who made a special effort to follow the chronological continuity in his account of the Good News, one can admit that the Holy Family fled into Egypt not directly from Bethlehem, but from Nazareth, having spent a short time there. In reality, the events of the gospel history – prior to the flight into Egypt – look this way: Nativity in Bethlehem of Judea; Circumcision of the Lord on the eighth day (in the same place); visit to the Jerusalem temple on the fortieth day (Meeting); return to Bethlehem and stay there until the arrival of the magi (?); departure for Nazareth, and from there into Egypt.

  Wolfgang Pax in his detailed illustrated guide to the Holy Places of Palestine “In the steps of Jesus” notes, that, “supposedly Joseph and Mary with the infant moved to a small stone building; we don’t know whether it was built by the betrothed himself (he was a builder because of his occupation), or it belonged to some of his relatives. Now, nothing is left of it” (I cite the 1970 edition published in English).

  Traditions about some home of the Holy Family in Bethlehem, more specifically in its immediate surroundings, to name it, in Beit Jala, are kept to this day among the Christians of Palestine.

  Yet, according to the Lives of the Saints, the Theotokos during the forty days lived in the same cave, where the Savior was born. There is also a tradition to relate the arrival of the magi to the very first days after the Nativity: that is why it is said that the cleansing sacrifice of the Ever-Virgin – two doves (St. Luke 2:24) – was so small, because from the gold, brought as a gift by the magi, she left herself the smallest part, having given the rest away to the poor. Let us not forget, at the same time, that king Herod “sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under” (St. Matthew 2:16), but the Lord was not among them: notified by the Angel, the Holy Family left the city. How did that happen? It turns out that, by the will of God, the murderers missed Christ: Joseph and Mary with the Divine Infant were already in Jerusalem, when Herod’s special forces entered Bethlehem…

  “…the Holy Spirit was upon him,” says the Gospel about the elder Symeon, who came out to meet Christ (St. Luke 2:25). “Like the other old testament faithful, Symeon prepared to die with the faith in the fulfillment of the promises of God, but the Holy Spirit revealed to him that his was a much better lot” (Archbishop Nikodim. Soul-benefitting Reading, part 1,. 1861). Let us recall that this better lot was the punishment for unbelief: according to tradition, Symeon, who lived to the most profound old age, doubted the truth of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Virgin, Who shall give birth to a Son (Isaiah 7:14). As one of the creators of the Septuagint (“the translation of the seventy”), preparing the Greek text of the Bible for the king Ptolemeus Philadelphus, the young zealous scribe Symeon already wanted to change the unusual words, which he had to translate into Greek, but the Angel stayed his hand, having cried: “Believe in what is written! You shall see the fulfillment of these words and shall not die until you see their fulfillment.”

  The feast of the Meeting, according to the rubrics, is considered to be one of the Theotokos, and is even sometimes called the Meeting of the Most Holy Theotokos; however, at the same time, some of the details of the service of the Meeting are the same as for the feasts of the Lord. This “dual nature of the feast, the joy of the Meeting and the sorrow of the Passion” (Monk Gregory Kroug, Thoughts about the Icon, 1969) is reflected in the prophecy of the holy elder Symeon, addressed to the Infant and to His Mother, and to the entire created world, which is “broken upon Christ,” is divided in two; is cut asunder by the same weapon (specifically – by the sword), that – according to the words of Symeon the Receiver of God – will pierce the soul of the Mother of God, in order that “the thoughts of the many hearts” may be revealed (St. Luke 2:35). Let us also note, that this is the last time until the very crucifixion, when that of Mary and that of Jesus is tied into one in the historical narrative of the Gospel, when the Mother is still trying to protect Her Son, to hold Him with her hands. Therefore, the Meeting contains within itself the Gospel of the Passion: on the icon of the feast “the Mother of God as though carries the Savior, but the Savior is no longer in her hands, He is held by Symeon the Receiver of God, and the throne, depicted in the very center of the icon, between the Mother of God and Christ in the hands of Symeon, creates as though the impassable wall” (monk Gregory Kroug).

  Nothing can be changed. The redemptive sacrifice must be offered.

  Child, what didst Thou do with us? – Mary will quietly ask her Son, Whom She looked for a long time in the noisy porticos of the Jerusalem temple. – Behold, Thy father and I looked for Thee with great sorrow.

  Why did you need to look for Me? – the twelve year old Child will answer. – Or, did ye not know that I must be about My Father’s business? (St. Luke 2:48-49)

  The feast of the Meeting in its essence sets boundaries. Our ancestors very well recognized this characteristic, saying: “for the Meeting the sun turns for the summer, and the winter turns for the frost.”

• THE HOLY THEOPHANY (BAPTISM) OF OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

  “The significance of Jordan cannot be overestimated, for the historical role of the river goes beyond all rational calculations,” wrote the famous archeologist Nelson Gluck about this muddy, somber, and in places dangerous river.

  According to the Old Testament book of Joshua the son of Nun, stones were put into the waters of the Jordan in memory of the miraculous crossing of the Israelites across the river as though it were dry land; blessed Jerome, who lived in the Holy Land in the ninth century, testifies that these stones were still visible during his time. It was there, near Bethabara (which means ford), that the last Prophet of the passing, Old Testament, was baptizing the people. Pointing to the white slippery boulders, solemnly, he said:

  “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9).

  However, according to other commentaries, the Baptist, by stones, meant the gentiles, yet it is difficult to understand where, in the crowd surrounding the prophet, could be found any noticeable number of those, who did not keep the law of Moses. One way, or another, yet the pilgrims used to carry away, and they do it to this day, from the holy river broken pieces of stone, filed and rounded by the streams of Jordan’s waters; and are not all of us made sons unto Abraham out of them?

  “Water is the beginning of the world, Jordan is the beginning of the Gospel”, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem. As in the second verse of the book of Genesis, on the day of the Baptism, the Spirit of God once again was hovering over the water, over the wet brown (“which reached to extremities” – church historian Nicephoras Callistos) hair of Christ, and God the Father, Himself, the Lord of Hosts, in the expression of one of the contemporary church author, did not hold back and exclaimed: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased!”

  In the year 28, having come to Bethabara, which was located a few kilometers away from the Dead Sea, the Lord knew “what He was doing, and what He was doing it for” (Prot. A.V. Gorskiy). “Jesus Christ asks for baptism for Himself, as a symbol of the repentance for the sins of mankind,” we read in one of the festive homilies. However, is it correct here, is it applicable here, the very meaning of the symbol?

  “He comes to the waters of the Jordan in order, to wash the sins of publicans and sinners, says St. John Chrysostom, oh, the new wonder! Oh, the unspeakable grace! Christ completes the feat, yet I receive the honor; He struggles with the devil, yet I am the victor; He is baptized, yet the defilement is removed from me…”

  And the Forerunner, filled with the prophetic spirit, knows that now, before his eyes, the Lamb of God takes upon Himself the sins of the world, and, as a man, he tries to halt Him:

  “I must be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?!” (Matthew 3:14)

  Three years later, His Apostle Peter asked Him in the same way:

  “Lord! Dost Thou wash my feet?” (John 13:6)

  The answer was similar: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Thus did the Lord answer John the Forerunner. And here is the answer for Peter: “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7).

  John agrees right away, the disciple first argues, but in both cases the Gospel ministry of Christ is fulfilled to the end.

  “…St. Paisios the Great prayed for his disciple, who renounced Christ, and when he was praying, the Lord appeared to him and says: “Paisios, for whom are you praying, he renounced me?” Yet the saint continued to pity his disciple and then the Lord said to him:

  “Paisios, you became like unto Me through love.”

  Thus is peace acquired and apart from this, there is no other way” (St. Silouan of Athos. About peace).

  Christ, in the words of the same St. Silouan, was “sorrowful for the people to such an extent,” that He went to the death on the cross for their sake.

  Here, on the Jordan was the beginning of the way of the cross, the way that leads to Golgotha and Resurrection.

  “The voice of the Lord upon the waters is crying out, saying: come, receive ye all the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit of the fear of God, of Christ manifest. Today the nature of water is sanctified, and the Jordan is parted, and it turns the streams of its waters, beholding the Master being baptized” (from the service of the feast).

• Entry into the temple of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

  Particular details, reflected in the feast – on the the Great Twelve Feasts – of the Entry into the Temple of the young Jerusalem Maiden Maria – the Living Temple, destined to be the New House of God (similarly as also the circumstances of the Nativity of the Theotokos) – we find in one of the ancient memorials of faith of the Palestinian christians: in the so called Protevangelium of James (the Story of James). The study of this book, it reflected in itself the Holy Tradition, confirms that the veneration of the Mother of God was established in the early Church in no way later than the beginning of the second century.

  “…The child reached the age of two, and Joachim said: “Take Her into the Temple of the Lord, as the fulfillment of the promise, which we took upon ourselves and must fulfill; in order for the Lord not to requite it from us, and that our gift would not become unacceptable to Him.” And Anna said: “Let us wait for the third year, so as not to tarry the Child with her father and mother.” And when the Child was three years old, Joachim said: “call for the pure virgin Hebrew daughters and give each of them a lamp, and let them light them, and let not the Child turn back, so that Her heart would not turn away from the House of God.” And they did so until they entered the Temple. And the priest met Her, and kissed Her, and blessed Her, saying: “The Lord God will magnify Thy name in all generations; in Thee, in the end of times, the Lord will proclaim the deliverance of the children of Israel.” (Protevangelium of James, 7:1-6; as published by Collins, London, 1980).

  Further, the Story of James tells that the young Mary was led to the third step of the temple altar “and the mercy of God was poured out upon Her, and the Child danced for joy”, – on account of the unspeakable joy of meeting with the Spirit of the Lord, – in the same way as, about a decade and a half later, the child rejoiced and leapt in the womb of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, when the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Temple Not Made with Hands, entered the house of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of the future Forerunner of the Lord (Luke 1:39-45).

  Pious tradition adds that the priest, whose duty it was to serve at the time, (some sources state that it was namely Zacharias) by the revelation of God led the three year old Mary into the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple; this caused not only the people to marvel, but also the Powers of Heaven: “the angels wondered seeing the entry of the Most Pure One: how the Virgin entered the Holy of Holies with glory”. One should remember, the tradition states that the apostle James, the brother of the Lord, to whom the Story of James is ascribed, had the right to see the Holy of Holies.

  The maiden Mary was raised at the Jerusalem Temple “as a dove and received food from the hands of angels” – meanwhile, the historical fact that She could have been left to live on holy mount Moriah is supported even by non-christian sources. It is known that there were built thirty three story “stone houses, spacious and beautiful… These houses had rooms for various persons: the virgins lived separately, until the time of consecration for the services to God” (I cite: S.V. Bulgakov. Handbook for the sacred church ministers. Kharkov. 1900).

  It is difficult to say when exactly the feast of the Entry into the Temple became a part of the circle of the divine services of the Twelve Feasts. It is only known that the beginning of the celebration is connected with the most famous Jerusalem building of the byzantine times: the Basilica of the Most Holy Theotokos, which was erected on the Temple mount by emperor Justinian in the sixth century A.D. The ruins of this basilica, known by the name of “nea” (new) were found during the excavations in Jerusalem in the first half of the 70s. It is possible that the fourth century historian Procopius mentions “Nea”. Among other things, in the last century, Russian church writer and historian Avraam Sergeyevich Norov talked in the Holy City with the Palestinian Christians, “who to this day point to the Church of the Entry of the Theotokos, which used to be in ancient times, and attribute its building to empress Helena” (See “Travel in the Holy Land in 1835”.).

  The consecration of the basilica “Nea” took place in 548 – and gradually, the annual church feast got tied with the corresponding narrative of the Story of James. Nonetheless, even one hundred years after the consecration, the ever-memorable Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronios, speaking in one of his homilies about the life of the young Mary in the Temple, does not mention the church feast of Her Entry.

  In the 638, “Nea” was converted into a mosque. The church feast was no longer celebrated. But specifically from that time, beginning with the second half of the seventh century, the service for the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple began to gain the features of an independent feast.

  It is said that the feast came to Constantinople from Jerusalem by the efforts of St. Andrew of Crete, although there is no specific proof of that. In any case, it was specifically at that time that the Patriarch of Constantinople, Herman I, dedicated two homilies to the Entry. It was said in them that the festive Entry services appeared very recently. The homilies of Patriarch Herman are dated in the beginning of the eighth century, and in the next century, stichera of the feast, which are sung to this day, were written by St. Gregory of Nicomedia.

  It is curious that the Greek Orthodox Encyclopedia mentions, without any details, some depiction of the young Theotokos, praying on the Temple mount, the depiction being located somewhere in Rome; it is dated in the fifth century.

  “The Virgin openly appears in the temple of God and proclaims Christ unto all”, – is said in the troparion of the Entry. “And the entire house of Israel loved Her”, – is said in the Story of James. Yet this is only the preparation for the incarnation of Christ, and today She, the three year old, without turning back, with wondrous ease runs up the high steps to the very altar, – and from this day of the Entry the Church, on the journey to meet the Nativity of Christ, begins to sing: “Christ is born, glorify…”.

• September 14/27 – The Elevation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross

  “From the first days of the preaching of the apostles, already persecution of the Church of Christ began… The very places of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of the Lord were covered with a multitude of stones and garbage in order only to take away from Christians the access to them and the ability to recognize them” (G. Lavrentiev. Twelve great feasts of the Orthodox Church, St. Petersburg, 1862). Yet, these holy places, keeping in memory the voluntary passion of the Saviour of the world, continued to draw the faithful.

  In the beginning of the second century A.D. the roman emperor Hadrian completely rebuilt the Holy City and took away its ancient name; from then on Jerusalem was called Aelia Capitolina. Among other things, a decision was made to fill the hollow between Golgotha and the garden of Joseph of Arimathea. Later on, the entire plot of land adjacent to the place of the sufferings of the Lord on the cross was levelled; in order to do that, the top of Golgotha had to be cut and the cave of the Holy Tomb had to be filled. On this levelled place, the emperor erected a temple of Venus and Cupid.

  As the result, exactly the opposite of what the enemies of Christ wanted took place: by the providence of God, the building of Hadrian as if marked the holy place, thus, excluding the possibility of loss of the knowledge that was preserved by the early Church.

  Therefore, from 135 A.D, (when emperor Hadrian allowed Christians to return to Jerusalem) and until 326 A.D. (when St. Helena, the elderly mother of Equal-to-the-apostles Constantine, arrived in Jerusalem) the topographical history of the Gospel events, preserved in the original community of the faithful, managed – in the expression of the Greek Orthodox Encyclopaedia – “without dark spots”. St. Helena was able to find the Tomb of the Lord and the Trembling Golgotha. “They removed layer after layer, – describes the dig the contemporary of the finding, “the father of Church History” Eusebius Pamphilus. – And suddenly, in the depth of the earth, beyond any expectation, there appeared an empty space, and then – the precious and all-holy sign of the saving Resurrection”. That was the cave of the tomb.

  In 351 A.D., St. Cyril of Jerusalem addressed the heir of St. Constantine – emperor Constantius – with a letter, where it is said exactly that “in the days of your father Constantine, may his memory be blessed”, near the Holy Tomb, the Life-giving Cross of the Lord was found. According to ancient tradition, the place, where the Holy Cross was buried, was pointed to – under duress – by someone named Judah, called “prophet’s son”.

  But the unconquerable power of the Lord’s Cross reached him as well: seeing with his eyes the wonders from the unearthed instrument of a shameful death, Judah, along with others, his fellow countrymen, believed in the Crucified One “and was baptized, and in the holy baptism he was called Cyriacus; later on he became patriarch of Jerusalem. In the time of the emperor Julian the Apostate, he was tortured for Christ and having received a martyr’s wreath, was numbered among the saints”. (Lives of Saints, Word about the Elevation of the Cross of the Lord).

  St. John Chrysostom says that it was possible to distinguish the Cross of Christ from those of the robbers, that were similar, by the table with an inscription made by the order of Pontius Pilate. In the description of the historian Sozomenus, that was included in the Lives of Saints, it is said that the tablet was found lying separately. It was possible to identify the Cross of Jesus only thanks to the miracle of the healing of a gravely ill woman and of the resurrection. “When the Patriarch with the Queen and the people, who were carrying the crosses out of the house of her that was healed, they met a large funeral procession of a certain Jew. Filled with faith, the Patriarch stopped the procession and having come up to the bier, placed all three crosses upon the dead man…; only the Cross of the Vanquisher of death and the Source of life broke the bonds of death and the dead man returned to life!”.

  The discovered Tree, as is said in a letter of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, spread throughout the entire universe, for its parts were given to churches. People say that, to this day, requests go to the Jerusalem Patriarchate, to give to this or that local church a piece of the Holy Cross, but it is, of course, impossible to fulfill them: exactly this way, little by little, the portion of the Cross sent by St. Helena to Constantinople, vanished, ceased to be.

  In 1799, during the reign of the Emperor Paul Petrovitch, the Ist, once he received the title of the great master of the Malta order, a portion of the Lifebearing Tree, along with other holy objects – the right hand of St. John the Baptist and the Icon of the Mother of God of Philermos – were brought from Malta to Russia, where they were kept in the Gatchina palace, then in the Winter palace, and when a cathedral in honour of Ss. Peter and Paul was erected in Gatchina, they once again returned to that town. The feast of the Philermos icon, in memory of the bringing of the wonderworking image to Russia, was set in 1800 on the 12th of October, Old Style.

  After the October revolution of 1917 the holy objects ended up in the vestry of the Archangels’ cathedral of Moscow Kremlin, then in Estonia, Denmark, Germany, and finally, in Serbia. During World War II the relics were preserved in the Montenegro monastery. Almost ten years they were hidden in the monastery of St. Basil of Ostrog, but when in the beginning of the nineteen fifties, communists seized the power in Yugoslavia, they were taken and placed in a museum. Only in the summer of 1993, on the day of the feast of the nativity of St. John the Forerunner, the right hand of St. John the Baptist and a piece of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord were returned to the Church and given to the Cetinjski monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.

  When the Holy Objects left Russia, a copy of the icon of the Mother of God and a painting of the right hand of St. John the Forerunner were made in Gatchina. In the nineteen nineties, Gatchina Ss. Peter and Paul cathedral received as a gift a piece of the Tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord.

• Nativity of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

  The Eastern Orthodox Church starts the count of the yearly circle of the feasts with the Nativity of the Mother of God and closes it with Her Dormition.

  “She is the flower that budded forth from the barren and old womb of the dry tree, – is said of the Mother of God in the Lives of the Saints, – the flower that withers not, ever blooming with virginity, a fragrant flower, giving birth to the sweet fragrance of the One King, the flower bringing forth the fruit – Christ the Lord God, the only sweet smelling apple” (September, day 8).

  The details of the Nativity of the Ever-Virgin, adopted by iconography and the order of the festive service, are contained in the Sacred Scripture, the essence of which is transmitted by the so called “Protevangelium” of James the brother of God. The content of “Protevangelium” is found in the Lives of the Saints of St. Demetrius of Rostov.

  “In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly,” – says the “Protevangelium” of James. When the feast arrived once again, and he brought before the Lord generous gifts and offerings, one from the tribe of Ruben stood before him and reminded that Joachim, as a man with no offspring, should not come with first offerings because “he didn’t produce a first born in Israel”. Joachim was exceedingly vexed; he didn’t return to his wife Anna, but went into the desert and there set up his tent. Then, he fasted for forty days and forty nights, saying to himself: I shall neither turn to food nor drink, until the Lord my God will look upon me. Prayer shall be my food”.

  Meanwhile, Anna’s maid tried to comfort her bitterly weeping mistress, but having heard: “Leave me!”, herself got offended: “Who am I that I should hear such a thing from you?! The Lord shut your womb, willing that your offspring be not accepted in Israel”. As we can see, the Lord’s choice demanded that the righteous couple humble themselves in the face of scorn, – for, in the words of the One, Who will soon come and be their Daughter, the Creator “sent the rich empty away”, however He heard the tearful and broken prayer of Joachim and Anna.

  As the most ancient – partly written – sources, that mainly came to us from the apostolic century, state, the parents of the Most Holy Virgin owned a home in Jerusalem not far from the Sheep’s Pool, where, later, the Lord healed the paralytic, who was bound to his bed for thirty eight years.

  A great basilica was erected at the place of this home, the memory of its location was passed down by the Palestinian Christians from generation to generation, during the Byzantine times; according to many archaeologists, this church at once covered both the home of the righteous God-parents and the Sheep’s Pool.

  After the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus, when the tradition regarding the Nativity of the Ever-Virgin enter the service books of the church, the home of Joachim and Anna became known to the majority of the communities of the faithful. The Council took place in the year 431 AD, and by the end of the fifth century, the Nativity of Mary began to be celebrated in Jerusalem: specifically in the church at the place of the home of the holy God-parents, St. John of Damascus gave his Divinely inspired Homily: “The Day of the Nativity of the Theotokos is the feast of joy for the entire world because the entire race of men was renewed through the Theotokos… She is entirely the abode of the Spirit, entirely the city of God, entirely good, entirely God’s neighbour”.

• August 15/28 – Dormition of our Most Holy Glorious Mistress, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

  After the ascension of the Lord, the Mother of God remained in the care of St. John the Theologian, and in his absence, she lived in the house of his parents near the mount of Olives. She planted and confirmed the Christian Church by Her presence, Her word, and Her prayers. During the persecution, initiated by Herod against the young Church of Christ (Acts 12:1-3), Most Holy Virgin Mary together with the apostle John the Theologian, in the year 43, moved to Ephesus, where it was his lot to preach the Gospel. She was also on Cyprus, visiting St. Lazarus the Four-days-dead, who was the bishop there, and on the Holy Mount Athos, of which, as says St. Stephen of the Holy Mountain, the Mother of God said prophetically: “This place shall be my lot, given to me by my Son and my God. I shall be a protectress of this place and an intercessor for it before God.”

  According to the tradition preserved by the church historian Nicephoros Callistos (XIV cen.), the Mother of God “was of medium hight, or as some say, somewhat taller than medium; had golden hair; quick eyes, as though of olive color; brows bowing and somewhat elongated, elongated nose; flourishing lips, filled with sweet speeches; face neither round, nor sharp, but somewhat elongated; long hands and fingers… In speaking with others, She preserved pious appearance, didn’t laugh, didn’t become indignant, and especially didn’t get angry; perfectly natural, simple, She did not think anything of Herself, and far from being pampered, was distinguished by complete humility. Regarding the garments that She wore, She was satisfied with their natural colors, a fact to this day testified to by Her sacred head covering. Shortly speaking, in all Her actions a special grace was manifest”. (Nicephoros Callistos borrowed his description from St. Epiphanes of Cyprus +May 12, 403).

  The circumstances of the Dormition of the Mother of God are known in the Orthodox Church from the apostolic times. In the first century hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite wrote about Her Dormition. In the fourth century, St. Epiphanes of Cyprus points to the tradition regarding the Dormition of the Mother of God. In the fifth century, St. Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, said to the holy right-believing Greek empress Pulcheria: “Even though there is no narrative about the circumstances of Her passing in the Holy Scriptures, still, we know about them from the most ancient and most true tradition”.

  For the time of Her blessed Dormition the Most Holy Virgin Mary once again came to Jerusalem. She spent days and nights in prayer. Often, the Most Holy Theotokos came to the Holy Tomb of the Lord, offered incense there and bowed Her knees. Many times, the enemies of the Savior attempted to prevent Her from visiting the holy place and asked high priests for guards to watch at the Lord’s Tomb. Yet, the Holy Virgin, unseen by anyone, continued to pray before it.

  According to the testimony of the byzantine Church historian George Kedrin, the falling asleep of the Theotokos was preceded by somewhat of a second Annunciation: “Once, the Most Holy Virgin, was praying on Her knees at the very place, where Her Son was praying about the Divine Cup, – then, suddenly, Archangel Gabriel stood before Her, and giving Her the sign of victory over bodily death, a branch of date palm from paradise, – announced Her imminent passing, that would come about in three days”. George Kedrin writes that this branch, after Dormition, was carried before the bier of the Theotokos by St. John the Theologian.

  On the third day after Dormition of the Theotokos the unconsolable apostle Thomas came to Gethsemane and weeping bowed before the cave of the tomb. Taking pity for his sorrow, the other disciples agreed to move the stone, covering the entry into the tomb, away, however, the Most Pure Body was no longer in it because the Most Holy Theotokos “fell asleep in death for a short time as though for a short sleep, and soon as though from sleep, arose and shook off the death in the tomb as sleep from Her eys, and saw in the light of the Lord’s Countenance eternal life and glory” (From the canon for the feast of Dormition).

  Testimonies remain that at the end of the seventh century there existed over the underground church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos a church, from the tall bell tower of which one could see the dome of the church of the Resurrection of the Lord. Now, there are no visible signs of the existence of this church. In the ninth century, next to the underground Gethsemane church a monastery was built, that was inhabited by 30 monks.

  In 1009 the church suffered great damage from the persecutor of the holy places, calif Hakim. Significant changes, traces of which remain to this day, were made by the crusaders. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a portion of cut stone, upon which the Lord prayed on the night of His betrayal, disappeared from Jerusalem. Until the sixth century, this portion of the stone was in the Gethsemane basilica.

  Yet, despite destruction and changes, the general initial cross-shaped plan of the church is preserved until today.

  Wondrous was the life of the Most Pure Virgin, wondrous also was Her Dormition, as the Holy Church chants: “The God of the universe manifests in Thee, O Queen, wonders above the laws of nature. At the time of Nativity, He preserved Thy virginity, and in the tomb He preserved Thy body from corruption” (Canon 1, Ode 6, Troparion 1).