A Woman Wrapped in the Sun
Pastoral Encyclical for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (2026)
Pastoral Encyclical for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (2026)
Today we celebrate the great feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, and we celebrate it with great splendor. Contributing to this is also the season of summer and the holidays, which provide an opportunity for physical rest and relaxation from the many activities of the winter. Thus, the feast of the Most Holy Theotokos, our Panagia, as we customarily call her, urges us to contemplate even more, as much as we are able with our limited capacities, the glory that surrounds her, the honor she possesses in our Church, but also the glory she possesses in the heavens.
Much has been written about the Most Holy Theotokos by the Fathers of the Church, who theologize about her, while the sacred hymnographers have also composed many hymns that we chant in honor of her glorious person, both concerning the work she accomplished through the birth of Christ and concerning her present state in the heavens, in the glory that Christ has bestowed upon her, as well as her intercessions on behalf of us all. Today I will interpret a vision that the Evangelist John saw and recorded in the sacred book of Revelation, which reveals her honor and her glory.
The Evangelist John writes that he saw a wondrous event in heaven. He saw a woman who was wrapped around with the sun; beneath her feet was the moon, and upon her head was a crown with twelve stars. This woman, who was surrounded by light, was pregnant and cried out because of the pains and anguish of childbirth. Then the Evangelist John saw another sign in heaven. He saw a great dragon that was red like fire. It had seven heads and ten horns, and upon its heads were seven crowns; its tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and cast them down to the earth. This dragon stood before the woman who possessed this glory and was about to give birth, so that as soon as she gave birth to what was in her womb, it might devour it.
Then this woman who was wrapped with the sun gave birth to a male child, who is destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. But then, in the face of this danger, her child was snatched away and brought to God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, to the place that God had prepared for her, where she would be nourished for 1,260 days (Rev. 12:1–6). The Fathers of the Church interpreted this vision that the Evangelist John saw in three ways.
- First, it refers to the Most Holy Theotokos, who is the One who is full of grace and conceived by the Holy Spirit the Son and Word of God. For this reason the devil waged war against her together with Christ, whom he wanted to devour, but God saved them both: that is, the Theotokos went into the wilderness that God had prepared, while her Son went to God and to His throne.
- Second, this woman who possesses great glory is the Church, which has Christ, but which also conceives and gives birth to many children. Yet the devil wages war against both the Church and the saints, but accomplishes nothing, because both have the protection of God.
- There is also a third interpretation, according to which the preceding two interpretations are connected: namely, that the Theotokos resembles the Church, but the Church also resembles the Theotokos, because Christ is the center of both. Whatever happened to the Most Holy Theotokos also happens in the Church, negatively through the devil and positively through Christ.
Because, however, of the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, we will consider here the first interpretation: that the woman who is wrapped with the sun is the Most Holy Theotokos. From this interpretation the following interesting points emerge.
The Most Holy Theotokos is the glorified woman who was deemed worthy by God to conceive by the Holy Spirit the Son and Word of God, to give Him her flesh, and for Him to become God and man. She is pure; she possesses the light of the sun of righteousness, the glory of God. Christ, who was conceived within her, encompassed and sheltered her as His Mother. Thus, the glory of the Theotokos is the glory of her Son. The moon that is beneath her feet is the worship of the Old Testament, which now that the Son and Word of God has become incarnate has been greatly diminished, since He has become incarnate — the One whom all the Prophets and all the nations were awaiting. All the saints, the Prophets of the Old Testament, and the Holy Apostles honor the Mother of Christ.
When the Most Holy Theotokos conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit, she endured temptations from the devil, who placed doubtful thoughts in Joseph's mind, which God corrected through His angel. She also encountered the murderous action of Herod, and consequently she was forced to flee into the wilderness, that is, to Egypt. Thus Christ was born as a man and was saved from the hatred of the devil. Even after the Cross, to which the devil led Him through his instruments, the devil was unable to accomplish anything, since the Resurrection followed, as did the Ascension into the heavens. The Most Holy Theotokos, too, remained in the wilderness — the perfect purity from worldly passions, freed from human and demonic assaults — and her soul, together with her body, is in the heavens, participating in the glory of her Son and her God.
This is the glory of the Most Holy Theotokos, whom we honor, bless, and praise with hymns and prayers, and whose help we seek in our own temptations and our complex trials. She knows about pain, about slander, about satanic warfare, about attacks, and for this reason she understands us, stands beside us, and prays for us. This is what we chant in the hymns during these days. The Most Holy Theotokos is the “unashamed protection of Christians,” she is “the ever-watchful Theotokos in intercession,” and “the steadfast hope in intercession.” The “grave and death” could not hold her, and as the “Mother of Life, she has been translocated to Life.”
With this theology concerning the Most Holy Theotokos, how can we not grieve when even today instruments of the devil blaspheme her, question her, and wage war against her with irrational teachings that do not honor her, do not respect her, and do not follow her life or the teaching of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ?
I wish you all many blessed years, under the protection and intercessions of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Mother of God, but also, by the utmost condescension, our own mother.
With paternal prayers,
The Metropolitan
† Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
The Metropolitan
† Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
