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The Protection (Pokrov) of the Most Holy Mother of God: Commemorated on October 1 The Protection
(Pokrov) of the Most Holy Mother of God: "The Virgin today doth stand
forth within the Church, and with the choirs of the Saints invisibly for us
doth pray to God: angels with hierarchs make reverence, and apostles with
prophets sing forth: for us the Birthgiver of God prayeth the Praeternal God"
– this miraculous appearance of the Mother of God occurred in the mid-X
Century at Constantinople, in the Blakhernae church where there was preserved
the Robe of the Mother of God, Her Head-Veil (mathoria) and part of the
Belt-Sash, transferred from Palestine in the V Century. On Sunday, 1 October,
during the time of the all-night vigil, when the church was overflowing with
those at prayer, the Fool-for-Christ Saint Andrew (Comm. 2 October) at the
fourth hour of the night lifted up his eyes towards the heavens, and beheld
coming through the air our Most Holy Lady Mother of God resplendent with an
Heavenly light and surrounded by an assembly of the Saints. The holy Baptist of
the Lord John and the holy Apostle John the Theologian accompanied the Queen of
Heaven. On bended knee the Most Holy Virgin began with tears to pray for
Christians and for a long time was at prayer. Then, coming nigh the
Prestol'-Throne, She continued Her prayer, which having completed She then took
from Her head the veil and spread it over the people praying in church,
protecting them from enemies both visible and invisible. The Most Holy Lady
Mother of God was resplendent with Heavenly glory, and the protecting veil in
Her hands gleamed "more than the rays of the sun". Saint Andrew gazed
atrembling at the miraculous vision and he asked of his disciple Blessed
Epiphanios standing alongside him: "Dost thou see, brother, the Queen and
Lady, praying for all the world?" Epiphanios answered: "I do see,
holy father, and I be in awe". The Ever-Blessed Mother of God implored of
the Lord Jesus Christ to accept the prayers of all the people, calling on His
Most Holy Name and hastening in recourse to Her intercession. "O Heavenly
King, – sayeth in prayer the Immaculate Queen standing aethereally amidst the
Angels, – accept every person, that prayeth unto Thee and calleth on My Name
for help, let them not go empty away unheard from before My Visage".
Saints Andrew and Epiphanios, granted to behold the Mother of God at prayer,
"for a long time did gaze at the protecting veil spread over the people
and the lightning like flashes in glory to the Lord; as long as the Most Holy
Mother of God was there, so likewise was the protecting veil visible; but with
Her departure it likewise became invisible, and though having taken it with
Her, She left behind the grace of having been there". At the Blakhernae
church was preserved the memory of the miraculous appearance of the Mother of
God. In the XIV Century, the Russian pilgrim and clerk Aleksandr saw within the
church an icon of the Most Holy Mother of God praying for the world, and written
such, as depicting Saint Andrew in contemplation of Her. But the Greek Church
does not know this feast. [trans. note: i.e. does not historically celebrate
this feast. Our Russian source is here reticent concerning the historical
circumstances occasioning the necessary protective intercession of the Mother
of God, and it reflects a great irony, that for the Russians rather than for
the Greeks this should be an important feast, since it celebrates the Divine
destruction by a storm of a large pagan-Russian fleet under Askold and Dir
which threatened Constantinople itself, sometime in the years 864-867, or per
the Russian historian Vasiliev on 18 June 860. The Russian Primary Chronicle of
Saint Nestor notes this miraculous deliverance following the all-night vigil
and the dipping of the garment of the Mother of God into the waters of the sea
at the Blakhernae church, but without mention of Saints Andrew and Epiphanios
and their vision of the Mother of God at prayer. These latter elements, and the
beginnings of the celebrating of the feast of Pokrov, seem to postdate Saint
Nestor and the Chronicle. A further historical complication might be noted
under the 2 October entry for Saint Andrew – that of his demise in the year
936. Either this year of death might not be quite reliable, or that he survived
into quite extreme old age after the vision of his youth, or that his vision
involved some historically later pagan-Russian raid which met with the same
fate. The below suggestion likewise that the Saint Andrew of the vision was a
Slav (or a Skyth per other sources, such as S. V. Bulgakov) – is a nice touch,
but not necessarily chauvinism: the extent of historical South Slavic
penetration and re-population into Greece is the stuff of scholarly disputes]. © 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos. |
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