The Assumption

published on 8/15/11 11:42 AM

Photo: BGNES

The Assumption of Mary celebrated on August 15 is the biggest church holiday revering the Mother of God. According to the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, it was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life. Aged 64 Mary was praying on Mount Eleon, when Gabriel the Archangel appeared before her, a palm branch in hand, and announced her taking up into Heaven within three days’ time. Before she passed away, she wished to see once more all the Apostles, after which the angels took her soul with them. She was buried in a cave near the Garden of Gethsemane, which became empty on the third day, because the Virgin Mary resurrected.

The Apostles who mourned the parting with Jesus Christ revered her as their mother, and all worshippers looked at her in loving awe. She remained to live in Jerusalem on Mount Sion. She used to go and pray to the places, where her divine son had suffered and died a terrible death, known today as the Stations of the Cross. It is generally believed that the Christians borrowed the idea of revering the sacred places of the Saviour from what the Virgin Mary did in her lifetime. Her popularity grew by the day and people came to her from far away lands in search of comfort and consolation.

The Virgin Mary left the earthly world with joy illuminated by the aura of the Son of God. Without any suffering, as if transported in her sleep, she handed his immortal Most Holy soul to Him. To the entire Christian world she has remained a tender and loving guardian mother who sits by her Son’s side and advocates for the worshippers with the power of her own faith.

The worship of the Virgin Mary has not ceased in the contemporary world. It is no surprise that the largest number of miracle working icons bear the image of the Mother of God, which are believed to cure even the most fated sick. The image of the Virgin Mary fills the worshippers with hope that their earnest prayers will be answered and that the Mother of God will help them.

“All women come here to seek help, health and luck, and also success; in fact they come to pray for all kinds of things,” Velichka, who works as a sexton in a church in Sofia, says.

“The Holy Mother gives me strength to live,” says Georgi, who lost both his legs in an accident. “Each day, each morning I pray and ask her to help me make both ends meet. The Holy Mother helps me, I have never starved, and I earn enough to buy milk and bread.”

Each year on August 15 thousands of people flock to the churches and monasteries bearing the name of the Holy Mother of God to revere her memory. Some of the worshippers even stay the night there on the holiday’s eve. Bulgarian popular belief reveres the Mother of God as the patron of motherhood, womanhood and family life. The Assumption of Mary is the holiday of the patron saint of Troyan monastery in Northern Bulgaria. It is there that the famous icon of the Virgin Troyeruchitsa (of the Three Hands) considered a guardian of the Bulgarian nation is kept. After the Holy Liturgy a solemn procession starts from the monastery carrying the miracle working icon to the Mogilata locality, where it had been first brought by wandering monks. Tradition has it that large-scale celebrations of the Mother of God are also held at Bachkovo Monastery in Southern Bulgaria, and Rila Monastery in Southwestern Bulgaria. This is the holiday also of the Bulgarian coastal capital of Varna, and many villages across the country stage their rural fairs on that particular day.

English version by Radostin Zhelev

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The Assumption

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