The Falling Asleep of the Theotokos
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘The Falling Asleep of the Theotokos’
In The Copybook
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘The Falling Asleep of the Theotokos’
In The Copybook
A mother is determined to see that her disabled daughter gets the help she needs.
Fr George Skaramangás (1867-1944) was an energetic and popular figure on the Greek island of Paros, both as priest at the Ekatontapyliani (Church of the Hundred Doors) and as founder of the island’s Byzantine Museum. His adopted daughter married Spiros Mavris, a local hero of the Resistance. The following events took place in his time.
Roman Emperor Julian was ready to destroy an entire Christian community over his wounded pride.
This story was told to his congregation by Elfric of Eynsham (955-1010) on the Feast of the Dormition of Mary. It is quite true that in 363, Julian the Apostate, pagan Emperor of Rome and cruel persecutor of Christians, was mortally wounded by an unknown assailant wielding a spear.
Elfric imagines how the Virgin Mary went to her eternal home.
When Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham near Oxford during the reign of Ethelred the Unready (r. 978-1916), came to preach on August 15th, the Feast of the Repose of Mary, he was unusually tightlipped. Some of what was passed around he regarded as legend, but he was sure of one thing: that Mary did not go home to heaven all on her own.
Three fishermen let their tongues run away with them, and were left counting the cost.
On August 15th each year, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God, that is, the death of the Virgin Mary. One of the oldest churches in the world, the Panagia Ekatontapyliani on Paros, was involved in a remarkable series of events on this day in 1931.
Once a year, regular as clockwork, the little snakes slither into the convent for a Feast of the Virgin Mary.
Every August, on a great feast of the Virgin Mary, small snakes slither into the chapel of a tiny village on the Greek island of Kefalonia. There is a curious story behind it, going back to the days when Greece was under the Ottoman Empire, and pirates roamed unchecked among the islands.