Beauty of Orthodoxy

O, merciful and most compassionate Queen of heaven and earth, Mother of God, Ever-Virgin, have mercy through your intercession upon the orthodox people and all orthodox Christendom. Guard them under the shelter of your mercy, defend them with your honorable protection, and pray to Christ, our God, Whom you incarnated beyond nature, to gird us with power from above, so that we may defend ourselves against the enemies who fight against us.

God happens to do us good, not because good has been done to Him by us, but because He needs nothing, doing good to the human race out of goodness (from Homily 6 on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians).

,,The Mother of God herself is the Holy of Holies, a Saint higher than all saints. No saint reaches the measure of the Mother of God. We honor the Mother of God as the highest among all saints, as the most chosen, as she who is unique in this world. If she was prefigured by the Holy of Holies—that chamber of the Temple in Jerusalem where only the high priest could enter once a year—if she was prefigured by the Holy of Holies, then she herself is the Holy of Holies."

The Dormition of the Mother of God is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on August 15. This feast commemorates the death, resurrection, and glorification of the Mother of the Savior. The feast testifies that the Mother of God was taken by God into Christ's heavenly kingdom, in the fullness of her spiritual and bodily life. The Dormition of the Mother of God is celebrated after a two-week fast. This feast is one of the most beloved feasts of Orthodox peoples everywhere.

In traditional iconography, the scene of the Dormition is described as follows: A building on the right and left of the icon. In the middle of the foreground lies the Mother of God on a bed, asleep with her hands crossed on her chest. At the head of the Mother of God is Saint Peter the Apostle, bent over, holding a censer in his hands and censing. On the opposite side stand Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint John the Theologian, embracing her, looking at the Mother of God, with their right hand extended toward her in a gesture expressing deep piety. Grief can be read on the faces of both. Next to each of the two are five other apostles, with expressions full of sadness.

Behind the bed, in the center, is Christ in the light of glory. He is framed by angels, and, a little further away, by the holy hierarchs in liturgical vestments. At the far left are weeping women. Christ holds with both hands the soul of His mother in the form of a swaddled infant. He and the Mother of God – both her body and her soul – are depicted with halos; likewise the angels. The apostles and hierarchs are depicted without halos, to emphasize the faces of the Savior and the Mother of God. For the same reason, the angels – their faces, halos, and vestments – are painted in pale colors.

The hierarchs, who are recognized by the large crosses on their vestments, hold open the Holy Gospels. Their names are not inscribed. According to Dionysius of Furna, they are Saints Dionysius the Areopagite, Hierotheus, and Timothy. Kontoglou also adds Saint James.

Regarding the representation of the soul of the Mother of God as a swaddled infant, it must be said that it is depicted in this way to symbolize that, when she died, her spirit was born into a new life, into heavenly life.

In some old icons, the Holy Apostles appear carrying the bed on which the body of the Mother of God lies, obviously in a burial procession. We encounter them thus, for example, in the 14th-century fresco at Decani, Serbia. Somewhere further "behind", the Holy Apostles are depicted again, brought, carried through the air, to be present at the Dormition of the Mother of God, "from the ends of the earth", as tradition says.

On the right side of the house, Saint John Damascene is depicted, holding in his hands a paper on which is written: "According to merit, as a soul, heaven has received you". And on the left side of the house appears Saint Cosmas the Melodist, who also holds in his hand a paper on which is written: "Mortal woman, knowing you to be the supernatural Mother of God..."

Sometimes, in the foreground, there appears a man whose both hands are cut off by an angel with a sword. According to Leonid Ouspensky, this man, Athon, was a fanatical Jew who dared to touch the bed of the Mother of God. He adds that this detail is "apocryphal". Kontoglou offers a different explanation. He says that the man was a devout Jew named Jehonias, who was punished by the angel because he wanted to overturn the holy body. This element is not only unimportant, but also distracting. It diverts attention from the Mother of God, from Christ, and from the other saints. It is not found in icons of the Byzantine period.

The inscription of the icon is: "The Dormition of the Mother of God".

The icon of the Dormition is not based on scriptural accounts, because these do not exist, but on Holy Tradition. It is in accord with the hymnography of the Church. We note that, in the Orthodox iconographic vision, the icon of the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God is oriented around the mortal character of the Theotokos, of her full humanity. The presence of Christ here attests both to the fact that the Mother of God also needed salvation, like other humans, and to the fact that the glorification of the Theotokos is done only in relation to her Son. The presence of all the Apostles at the Dormition of the Mother of God shows her special honor both by the Lord and by the entire Church, represented also by the group of women appearing in the icon. Heaven and earth meet once more, testifying to the glorification of Her who entrusted her soul into the hands of her Son. The fact that the icon and the entire feast are oriented around the Dormition, and not around the bodily "translation" of the Mother of God to Heaven, shows that, while the entire Church was present at her death, the moment of her bodily translation to heaven remains a mystery.

"The King of the universe desired the mystical beauty of this Ever-Virgin, as David foretold [Ps 45, 12] and, bowing the heavens [Ps 18, 10; 144, 5], He descended and overshadowed her [Lk 1, 35] or, rather, the enhypostatic Power of the Most High dwelt in her."

,,We all carry a register of different sins, heavy or light, many or few, and no one is an exception, apart from God. Therefore, if we forgive, we will be forgiven; if we remit, the Heavenly Father will also remit our trespasses. It is in no way possible to receive forgiveness from God if we do not forgive our neighbor from the heart."

"The movement of thoughts in man comes about from four causes. First, from the natural bodily will. Second, from the imagination of worldly things by the senses, which he hears and sees.

Third, from passionate habits and inclinations of the soul, which he holds in his mind. Fourth, from the attacks (baits) of the demons who wage war against us through all passions, for the reasons shown above. Therefore, man cannot be without thoughts and warfare until death, as long as he remains in this physical life."

Surpatele Monastery, Vâlcea County, Romania

,,In the Mother of God we have in heaven a mother's heart, a heart that melted the most for her Son and has beaten and beats itself at His heart for His cause, which is our salvation, for salvation is not a matter of justice, but of love between God and human beings."

,,You know from history that our ancestors, Orthodox Christians, were very God-fearing people and always had strong and deep faith in the heavenly intercession of the Mother of God. And the Heavenly Queen did not leave their faith unanswered, but always sent help to all who fled to her with hope. It is difficult to show any trouble or misfortune from which the Mother of God did not deliver them when they fled to her with faith and fervent prayer."