WHY THE ORTHODOX HONOR MARY

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The most difficult part of my Orthodox experience to discuss with the non-Orthodox is the place and role of the Mother of God in the Church and in my life. It is, on the one hand, deeply theological and even essential to a right understanding of the Orthodox faith, while, on the other hand, being intensely personal beyond the bounds of conversation. I am convinced, as well, that the Orthodox approach to Mary is part of the apostolic deposit, and not a later accretion.

When I was doing graduate studies some decades back, I decided to concentrate my historical research on the “cult of Mary” (the veneration of Mary) in the historical Church. With that decision came a semester of intensive research, combing through materials of every sort. And throughout all of that research the question, “When did this begin?” was uppermost in my mind. I came to a surprising conclusion. It began at the beginning.

THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS

A homily on the commemoration of the Procession of the Cross and the Seven Maccabean Marytrs with their mother Solomonia and the priest Eleazar.

Fr. Seraphim Holland

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, today is the Procession of the Cross which we celebrate on the first of August, and also the holy Maccabean martyrs with their teacher Eleazar and their mother Solomonia. And we read today about the Cross in two readings, both because of the feast of the Procession and also because of the martyrs, because the martyrs followed the way of the Cross. Now St. Paul has two famous phrases that are in one of the epistles we read today—a very misunderstood phrase. Let’s talk about what it really means.

The Feast to the All-Merciful Saviour and the MostHoly Mother of God

Commemorated on August 1

The Feast to the All-Merciful Saviour and the MostHoly Mother of God was established on the occasion of portents from icons of the Saviour, the MostHoly Mother of God and the Venerable Cross during the time of a battle of holy Prince Andrei Bogoliubsky (1157-1174) with the Volga Bulgars in 1164.

This is the first of three feastdays of the All-Merciful Saviour, celebrated in August. The second – is the Transfiguration (Preobrazhenie, Metamorphosis) of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Comm. 6 August). The third – is the Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Not-Wrought-by-Hand Image of the Lord Jesus Christ (Comm. 16 August, during the Afterfeast of the Dormition of the MostHoly Mother of God). These three feasts, as it were, connect together the Dormition-Uspenie Fast.

Our Lady, the Mother of God and the Paraclitic Canon

Our Most Holy Lady, the Ever-Virgin Mary is a wonder and mystery which not even the angels can understand: “Heaven was astonished and the ends of the earth amazed, for God appeared bodily to mankind, and your bosom became broader than the heavens. Therefore, Mother of God, the leaders of the orders of angels and of men magnify you”, writes the poet of the Paraclitic Canon. She is, as Gregory the Theologian says, “God after God”. Of course, the Fathers also refer to her position elsewhere, clarifying it: “Let Mary be held in honour. Let the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be worshipped, but let no-one worship Mary”, (Saint Epifanios).

The Dormition Fast

The Dormition fast was established as preceding the great feasts of the Transfiguration of the Lord and of the Dormition of the Mother of God. It lasts two weeks — from August 1–August 14.

The Dormition fast comes down to us from the early days of Christianity.

We find a clear reference to the Dormition fast in a conversation of Leo the Great from around the year 450 A.D.: “The Church fasts are situated in the year in such a way that a special abstinence is prescribed for each time. Thus, for spring there is the spring fast — the Forty Days Great Lent; for summer there is the summer fast [the Apostles’ fast]; for autumn there is the autumn fast, in the seventh month [Dormition fast]; for winter there is the winter fast [Nativity fast].”