Church celebrates the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos

The Icon of the Protection. Photo: the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra website

On October 14, the Church prayerfully celebrates the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos and commemorates the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God to those praying in the Blachernae Church in Constantinople in 910.

This feast is not one of the Twelve Great Feasts, but it is beloved by Orthodox Christians.

The feast is established in honor of a miraculous event that took place in 910 in Constantinople when St Andrew the Fool-for-Christ and his disciple Epiphanius had a vision of the Protection of the Mother of God.

These were difficult times for Byzantium. The empire was threatened by the Saracens, who practised Islam. As the barbarian forces approached Constantinople, the residents of the Byzantine capital, preparing for death and seeing no help in sight, flocked in large numbers to the Blachernae Church, where the robe of the Theotokos and her veil were kept, and prayed.

On Sunday, October 1, 910, during the all-night vigil, St Andrew the Fool-for-Christ saw the Theotokos walking through the air, radiant with light and surrounded by angels and saints. First, she tearfully prayed for the Christians, and then she removed her veil from her head and spread it over the people praying in the church, protecting them from visible and invisible enemies.

The miraculous protection saved the city. A storm arose and scattered the barbarian ships, sparing the people of Constantinople from death.

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