July: Day 2:
Deposition of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos in Blachernae
(On Reverence for the Sacred)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Deposition of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos in Blachernae
(On Reverence for the Sacred)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. The present celebration of the Deposition of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos was established in the following way. Tradition says that the Most Holy Theotokos gave one of Her garments to a Jewish woman, a pious maiden, with the order, in turn, before Her death, to give it to the same maiden. In the 5th century, two brothers, Greek nobles, Galbius and Candidus, went to venerate the holy Places in Palestine. Going to Nazareth, the city where the Annunciation took place, they stopped to spend the night in one village in the house of a pious Jewish woman. Here in one of the rooms they saw a large number of lamps and smelled the smell of incense. The nobles asked the hostess about the room, and she told them that she kept a precious relic - the robe of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Greek brothers, considering the keeping of the robe of the Theotokos by a Jewish woman impious, decided to secretly carry off the holy robe. Having made a reliquary exactly similar to the one in which the robe was kept, they prayed to God that He would not impute to them a sin for stealing the reliquary with the robe, secretly took this reliquary at night, and put their own, and brought the robe to Constantinople, placing it in their house. But since many miracles were manifested from the robe of the Theotokos in their house, then, by order of the Emperor Leo, Patriarch Gennadios transferred it with reverence to the Blachernae Church of the Theotokos. This was in the year 474. Parts of the clothing of the Theotokos, separated from that which had been placed in Constantinople, are in various places: in the Dormition and Annunciation Cathedrals in Moscow, in the Lateran Cathedral in Rome, and on Athos in the Russian Skete of the Prophet Elijah.
II. The transfer of the holy robe of the Mother of God from Palestine to Constantinople to the private home of two noble Greeks who had secretly stolen this holy relic from the house of a Jewish woman, and from there to the temple of the Mother of God, occurred out of a "profound sense of reverence," that is, a high respect "for the sacred," which the Holy Robe of the Mother of God undoubtedly was and is, far surpassing, without any comparison, the cherubim and seraphim. This gives us, brethren, an incentive to discuss with you "the reverence for the sacred in general."
Reverence for the sacred is expressed mainly in reverence for the temple and its sacred relics. Every Christian should consider it a sacred duty to honor the temple and its sacred relics.
a) Temples of God in the strictest sense constitute for every Christian a sacred place, sacred not only by their holy purpose for prayer and sacred rites, but also by their very essence, as places of habitation of the Most High, as houses of God. Therefore, every Christian should have special feelings of reverence and veneration for them. Once the Patriarch Jacob was honored to see in a dream a mysterious ladder, along which the angels of God descended to earth and then ascended to heaven, and from the lips of God Himself, who appeared to him, to hear a significant promise about his descendants. Having risen from sleep, filled with horror from the vision of the greatness and glory of God, he exclaimed: "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:17). This feeling of reverent awe towards the places where the Lord deigned to manifest His presence to people is depicted more than once in the Old Testament. Thus Moses, seeing the miraculous bush, burning and not consumed, wishing to approach to see the miracle, heard a voice saying to him: “Do not come near here, take off your shoes from your feet: for the place whereon you stand is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5). And later, when God wanted to proclaim His law on Sinai, He forbade, under pain of death, to touch the mountain (Ex. 19:12). If the Lord demanded such respect and reverence for the places where He manifested His presence only temporarily, then does He not demand greater respect and reverence for our temples, in which He establishes a permanent dwelling for Himself?
In order to instill this feeling of reverence for the temples, our Lord Jesus Christ once clearly expressed His indignation against the desecrators of the Jerusalem Temple (John 2:14-16), which was only a type of our temples. What kind of “jealousy consumes His heart” (John 2:17), when He sees similar impiety in our temples? Each of our temples, as the house of God, as the place of the presence of the saints of the Most Holy One, must be a house of holiness: “Holiness is becoming of Your house, O Lord,” cried the Holy Prophet David (Psalm 92:5). In our temples the most holy mystery of the Eucharist is celebrated; in them the heavenly powers, standing with us at the sacred and terrible mystery, sing praises to Him together with us and glorify His incomprehensible goodness. Therefore, naturally, each Christian must have reverent awe and love for the temples of God and, entering and standing in them, must forget everything earthly, drive out all worldly thoughts from his soul, so that the Lord alone would completely fill it and illuminate his mind with pure faith, his heart with fiery love.
b) While showing the greatest feeling of reverence and veneration for the temples of God, we must also at the same time reverently venerate all the holy things of the temple, for example: the most holy Mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the holy myrrh, the most honorable cross of the Lord, the Holy Gospel, holy icons, the remains of not only the bodies, but also the garments of the saints of God, for example the robe of the Mother of God, the chains of the Apostle Peter, etc. sacred objects, as well as sacred vessels and in general all the sacred utensils of the temples of God. And we must show such reverent veneration not only during church services, but also every time we have to see them, touch them or pass by them. We can see an example of this in the Old Testament, in the veneration of the Tabernacle of Testimony and the things belonging to it and to the composition of the Old Testament worship (Ex. 36:8; Lev. 4:6; 22:10, 16).
The irreverent looking at and touching of the holy Ark upon its return from Philistine captivity brought with it a terrible punishment: many Jews were punished with death for this.
III. However, a Christian should honor all sacred things not for their own sake, but for the sake of the one whom they represent, or to whom they serve as an instrument of saving action upon us. Whether he honors the Holy Cross of the Lord, an icon, the Gospel, the robe of the Mother of God, or other sacred objects, his thoughts should be directed toward God, the Mother of God, and His saints, and every act of veneration should serve as an expression of his feelings for God, be a sacrifice of zeal for God.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
