August: Day 26: Teaching 2:
Feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
(The History of the Celebrated Event With an Indication of the Power of the Intercession of the Mother of God for the Human Race)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
(The History of the Celebrated Event With an Indication of the Power of the Intercession of the Mother of God for the Human Race)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. This day is ever-memorable for the Church and our Fatherland because of the following great historical event.
At the end of the 14th century AD, in the depths of Asia, a brave military leader named Tamerlane managed to unite numerous Tatar tribes under his rule into one huge horde, in order to conquer all the kingdoms with this horde. Indeed, not a single nation that existed at that time could withstand the onslaught of the wild natives of the Asian steppes. Like locusts, the Tatars, led by the fierce Tamerlane, crushed everything that came their way. Thousands of flourishing cities of Asia were reduced to ashes by them, and populous states became deserts. Tamerlane, called the scourge of God by his contemporaries, moved more and more towards Europe and first of all turned his predatory gaze on our fatherland.
In 1395, he entered the borders of Russia, with the goal of conquering the Muscovite state. Everyone was horrified to hear of the invasion of the merciless and invincible enemy, who had already reached the banks of the Don and marked his path with blood and the devastation of Russian cities and villages. The then Grand Prince of Moscow, Vasily Dmitrievich, set out with his army to meet the enemy and stopped on the banks of the Oka near Kolomna. But the pious prince did not rely on his own strength, but solely expected salvation from the Lord, remaining with his army in unceasing prayer.
The pious prince commanded everyone to pray for the averting of the invasion of the terrible enemy. Throughout the Muscovite state, especially in the capital city of Moscow, people spent time in churches from morning until evening, offering prayers for the prince and his army. The fast that began before the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God was especially dedicated to the strictest abstinence, the most fervent prayers and repentance, to appease the wrath of God. In the midst of the approaching disaster, our ancestors could not forget the ancient mercies of God, which were often shown to our fatherland through the intercession of the Mother of God, the Protectress of the Christian race.
At that time, within the borders of the Moscow state, in the city of Vladimir there was a miraculous icon of the Mother of God, painted, according to tradition, by the Evangelist Luke and glorified by many miraculous signs. By the will of the Grand Prince and Metropolitan Cyprian of Moscow, to protect from the threatening disaster and console the grieving citizens of the capital city, this miraculous icon was brought from Vladimir to Moscow. In front of the walls of the city, where the Sretensky Monastery now stands, on a place then called Kuchkovo Field, the miraculous icon was met by the clergy and all citizens. Everyone prayed with tears and fell to their knees, without ceasing crying out: "Mother of God! Save the Russian land." And this diligent, nationwide prayer of the citizens of Moscow was not in vain.
On the very same day that this touching meeting of the miraculous Vladimir icon took place in Moscow, Tamerlane, without any apparent reason, having already reached the goal of his distant campaign and to the no small amazement of his commanders and troops, who had hoped for great booty from the plunder of the capital, ordered his hordes to retreat immediately. The chronicler explains that the invincible conqueror was prompted to such a hasty retreat by a menacing vision of the Mother of God, in the form of a wondrous Woman, surrounded by crowds of lightning-fast warriors, blocking Tamerlane's path. Modern historians cite other reasons for Tamerlane's retreat from Moscow. But whatever the reasons for Tamerlane's flight from Russia, our pious ancestors quite correctly recognized in this event the direct action of God's sovereign providence, which through the prayer and intercession of the Mother of God showed its saving power to protect the Orthodox faith in our fatherland, just at the moment when it was on the brink of destruction.
After almost five centuries, this ancient manifestation of God's mercy is just as vividly preserved in our memory, annually revived by the Church celebration of the religious procession from the Kremlin to the Sretensky Monastery, built in memory of the said event.
II. a) Let us give thanks, brethren, to the Queen of Heaven for such great blessings, shown for the strengthening and exaltation of our fatherland, brought to its glory through a difficult trial, only by the sovereign right hand of God. Let us always turn to the Most Pure Mother of God, that divine Love may have mercy on us and save us on all the paths of our life.
b) Let us imprint and listen more deeply in our minds and hearts this joyful truth, that the Most Holy Theotokos, who so many times and in so many ways showed her wondrous help to our ancestors in times of various calamities, is always ready to render the same help to each of us, if only we will resort to her with warm prayer and repentance. No one can move the Lord to mercy more quickly than the Most Holy Theotokos. There is no one more powerful to satisfy His righteous wrath than she, the all-powerful Intercessor! Ask, brethren, for help in all needs from this generous Mother. “For the Good One intercedes for all who resort with faith to her sovereign protection.”
To strengthen our faith in the all-powerful help of the Intercessor of the Christian race, let us recall the following very comforting words of Saint Dimitri of Rostov about the importance and necessity of the intercession of the Virgin Mary. "When the righteous Judge wanted to punish the whole world with the waters of the flood, then he left one refuge of salvation for all kinds of animals - Noah's ark, and whoever was not in this ark, all perished, and everyone who was in it with the patriarch Noah was saved from the death of the flood. In a similar way, the same impartial Judge, preparing eternal punishment for sinners after the end of the world by a fiery flood, gave the entire human race one most excellent refuge for salvation - the Most Pure Virgin Mary, who extends over us the veil of Her mercy, and whoever hastens under Her protection can easily be saved, but whoever does not want to hasten under this protection will undoubtedly perish in the eternal lake of fire."
“But I fear," I will say in the words of the same Saint, "that the Virgin Mary will not say about us, the new Israel, the same thing that Her Son and God said about the old Israel (i.e. the Jewish people): 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings; but you would not.' For many of us, perhaps, have little zeal to flee under the shelter of the kindness of the Virgin Mary, and some, perhaps, do not flee at all.”
c) On the other hand, it would be an insult to the Mother of God to think that She protects everyone equally. She saves the wicked, too, but only if they, "like the animals in the ark, change their rage to meekness: for in the ark the lion did not tear the deer, nor the hawk the dove, nor the wolf the sheep, nor the bear the cow, but all stood meek. So sinful people must change their disposition under the protection of our Lady, in order to be saved from temporary and eternal destruction."
III. Do not deprive us, Mother of God, because of our great sins, of those great and rich mercies with which You showered our fathers and our Orthodox Fatherland at all times of its Christian life!
b) Let us imprint and listen more deeply in our minds and hearts this joyful truth, that the Most Holy Theotokos, who so many times and in so many ways showed her wondrous help to our ancestors in times of various calamities, is always ready to render the same help to each of us, if only we will resort to her with warm prayer and repentance. No one can move the Lord to mercy more quickly than the Most Holy Theotokos. There is no one more powerful to satisfy His righteous wrath than she, the all-powerful Intercessor! Ask, brethren, for help in all needs from this generous Mother. “For the Good One intercedes for all who resort with faith to her sovereign protection.”
To strengthen our faith in the all-powerful help of the Intercessor of the Christian race, let us recall the following very comforting words of Saint Dimitri of Rostov about the importance and necessity of the intercession of the Virgin Mary. "When the righteous Judge wanted to punish the whole world with the waters of the flood, then he left one refuge of salvation for all kinds of animals - Noah's ark, and whoever was not in this ark, all perished, and everyone who was in it with the patriarch Noah was saved from the death of the flood. In a similar way, the same impartial Judge, preparing eternal punishment for sinners after the end of the world by a fiery flood, gave the entire human race one most excellent refuge for salvation - the Most Pure Virgin Mary, who extends over us the veil of Her mercy, and whoever hastens under Her protection can easily be saved, but whoever does not want to hasten under this protection will undoubtedly perish in the eternal lake of fire."
“But I fear," I will say in the words of the same Saint, "that the Virgin Mary will not say about us, the new Israel, the same thing that Her Son and God said about the old Israel (i.e. the Jewish people): 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings; but you would not.' For many of us, perhaps, have little zeal to flee under the shelter of the kindness of the Virgin Mary, and some, perhaps, do not flee at all.”
c) On the other hand, it would be an insult to the Mother of God to think that She protects everyone equally. She saves the wicked, too, but only if they, "like the animals in the ark, change their rage to meekness: for in the ark the lion did not tear the deer, nor the hawk the dove, nor the wolf the sheep, nor the bear the cow, but all stood meek. So sinful people must change their disposition under the protection of our Lady, in order to be saved from temporary and eternal destruction."
III. Do not deprive us, Mother of God, because of our great sins, of those great and rich mercies with which You showered our fathers and our Orthodox Fatherland at all times of its Christian life!
