The Protection of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

The Protection of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. This feast was established in remembrance of a miraculous appearance of the Mother of God: in the middle of the tenth century, on Sunday, 1 October, Andrew the Fool for Christ (commemorated 2 October) was at the Vigil in the church of the Mother of God at Blachernae in Constantinople, where the robe, the veil and part of the girdle of the All-holy Virgin were kept. At the fourth hour of the night he raised his eyes to heaven and saw the Mother of God, radiant with heavenly light, accompanied by angels and a company of saints. John the Baptist and John the Theologian were reverently escorting her. The All-holy one knelt and for a long time besought the Lord with tears for the Christian world; then she went to the altar and continued her prayer there, and at last took off her veil and spread it over the worshippers gathered in the church. The immaculate Virgin shone with divine glory, and the veil in her hands gleamed brighter than the sun. Trembling, Andrew asked his disciple Epiphanius, who stood beside him: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady praying for the whole world?” “I see, holy father, and I tremble,” Epiphanius replied. The blessed Andrew and Epiphanius gazed for a long time at the wondrous sight.

According to one view, the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God was established in Russia, while others think it is of Greek origin. In the Greek Church it must have begun to be celebrated in the first half of the twelfth century. Probably it passed from there into Russia as well. Afterwards the Greeks let this feast fall into oblivion, and the service books in which it was mentioned were also lost. The oldest surviving sources that mention the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God are Russian and date from the second half of the thirteenth century.