Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady

Dr. Alexander Roman alex.roman@unicorne.org

The first of the great Twelve Feasts of the Church, the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos celebrates the birth of Her from Whom God took flesh and became Incarnate - Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Mother of God has been described by saints and prophets in various ways. She is the Fleece upon which the Dew which is Christ was pleased to descend. She is the Staff of Aaron from which Christ the Flower blossomed. She is the thickly wooded Mountain of Thaemon from which Christ came. She is the Jar in which the eternal Manna was contained. Her praises and descriptions are truly very numerous and point to Her exalted role as the Person with so central a role in the Incarnation of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

As only the Feasts of Saints may be celebrated, we hymn the newly born and All-Holy Theotokos and sing to Her Parents, Sts. Joachim and Anna. They are a great example and type of the Christian family.

We begin our participation in the new liturgical year, our participation in the Deifying Body of Jesus Christ through the Church and Her Mysteries by sharing the joy of Joachim and Anna, indeed the joy of humankind, in the birth of Her Who is the Mother of Joy, the Beacon of our Redemption and the Source of constant intercession before the Throne of Her Eternal Son. Through Her heavenly intercession, the Mother of God is with us and helps us still. As if to underline this, the Church honours a number of Her Miraculous Icons on this day as well, that is, Icons through which the Holy Spirit was pleased to bestow Divine Blessings on those who honour the Mother of God through them.

One such famous Ukrainian Icon is that of Pochayiv. Brought to Ukraine in the twelfth century, the Icon of Pochayiv depicts the Mother of God holding Her Child with a "rushnyk" or little mantle in Her Hand. The Icon is framed with Saints such as St Irene, Parasceva, Barbara, St Menas and others.

Before this Icon was brought to the Pochayiv Monastery, the Shepherd, Ivan Bossiy and a monk saw a vision of the Virgin Mary, crowned and holding a sceptre, standing above a rock. When the vision faded, they saw that the Mother of God left Her Foot-print on the rock and that water was dripping from it. The Monastery of Pochayiv (most likely coming from the name of the nearby river, "Pochayna") was then built with the Holy Foot-print as its main Sacred Relic. The Icon of Pochayiv was placed above the main doors of the Iconostasis of the Church of the Dormition. Hanging on ropes, the Icon is lowered to the level of the people for their veneration to this day. On the walls of the Cathedral are painted scenes from 21 miracles ascribed to the Mother of God of Pochayiv, including the curing of blindness of a Roman Catholic woman, who then converted to Orthodoxy in thanksgiving for this grace.

The main miracle of Pochayiv is the appearance of the Mother of God, with Her servant, St Job, Ihumen of Pochayiv, above the monastery in the seventeenth century to ward off a Turkish attack. The monastery was immune to the Turks' cannon at the moment the first verse of the Akathist Hymn was intoned. From that day on, the first verse became a prayer in and of itself, recited daily by the faithful.

In addition to the Icon of Pochayiv, the Relics of the Foot-print and those of St Job, there is another miraculous Icon with the Foot-print depicted on it donated by the people of Kyiv in the middle of the nineteenth century in thanksgiving for a miracle involving the cessation of a cholera epidemic there.

The Ukrainian aristocratic family of Domashevsky had the Holy Trinity Cathedral built, but this is no longer extant. We know what the Cathedral looked like based on the picture of the Domashevskys who hold a miniature replica of it in their hands. My ancestor, Auguste Yablonovsky, was a friend of the Domashevskys and was also a benefactor of the Pochayiv Monastery and a devotee of the Pochayiv Mother of God.

Pochayiv is the great Shrine of the Mother of God in Volyn and Ukraine and throughout the Orthodox world. People of other faiths also approach Her Icon and receive healing through Her intercession.

There are Akathists and Canons in honour of the Pochayiv Mother of God and of St Job. St Job founded an Orthodox printing press at Pochayiv to promote Orthodox liturgical and spiritual literature.

Every Ukrainian home should have a copy of the Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God of Pochayiv!

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