Mary: Name Day

The Most Holy Theotokos, the Virgin Mary who gave birth to God the Word in the flesh, is honored by Orthodox Christians “more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim.” Her icons follow types the Church received from antiquity: the Hodegetria, “She who shows the way,” pointing to her Son as the path of salvation, and the Eleousa, “Tenderness,” in which the Child presses His cheek to His Mother’s. Her great feasts trace her life: her Nativity, her Entry into the Temple, the Annunciation and her Dormition, and the Slavic churches keep the Protection, when she was seen spreading her veil over the faithful at Blachernae. Orthodox Christians end almost every service crying, “Most Holy Theotokos, save us!” They pray to her for their children, their families, healing and comfort, and above all ask her to pray to her Son for their souls.

What the faithful pray for

• her intercession before her Son for the salvation of our souls (‘Most Holy Theotokos, save us’)
• protection under her veil from enemies visible and invisible
• the health and wellbeing of children
• comfort in sorrow and grief
• a good marriage and a peaceful family
• healing of illness
• guidance on the right path (Hodegetria, ‘she who shows the way’)
• a peaceful Christian death

Protection

• from enemies visible and invisible
• the family and the home
• children and mothers
• from despair
• travelers who ask her guidance

Miracles

• In tenth-century Constantinople, during the vigil in the Blachernae church, St Andrew the Fool-for-Christ saw the Theotokos spread her veil over the people, protecting them from enemies visible and invisible; this is the feast of Pokrov. (source)
• The original Hodegetria, said to have been painted by St Luke, was the most venerated icon of Byzantium; the Smolensk Hodegetria in Russia is held by many to descend from it. (source)

Read the life of the Mother of God

The last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their five children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei, lived as one household of the Church of Christ, bound together by love. The Church’s hymns praise how they built their home on love, kept their marriage honorable, and raised their daughters as wise virgins for Christ. Their son Alexei bore a grave illness from infancy as a cross from the Lord, without complaint. During the war the Empress and her elder daughters served the wounded as sisters of mercy. After the Tsar’s abdication in 1917 the family was held in captivity. They bore humiliation with Christian meekness, prayed together, and forgave their persecutors. In the night of 16-17 July 1918 they were killed together at Yekaterinburg. The Russian Church Abroad glorified them in 1981, and the Moscow Patriarchate glorified them in 2000 as passion-bearers, those who imitate Christ by meekly accepting suffering and death.

What the faithful pray for

• love and unity in the family
• a faithful and honorable marriage
• raising children in the faith
• healing of sick children
• comfort for parents grieving over children in sickness or sin
• patience and meekness in suffering
• forgiveness of enemies
• the spiritual welfare of Russia and her people

Protection

• the family hearth
• children from sickness and the passions of this age
• the persecuted
• Orthodox families from division

Miracles

• Tsarevich Alexei was born, after long prayer, as ‘the fruit of the prayers of the Wonderworker of Sarov’, the longed-for heir of his royal parents. (source)
• Collections of testimonies record many healings and answered prayers through the intercession of the Royal Passion-bearers since their glorification. (source)

Read the life of the Royal Passion-Bearers

St Mary Magdalene came from Magdala, a town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Gospel tells that the Lord drove seven demons out of her, and from that day she began a new life as His faithful disciple. With Joanna, Susanna and other women she followed Christ through Galilee and Judea and served Him from her own means. When the other disciples fled, she stood at the Cross with the Mother of God and the Apostle John, and she watched as His body was laid in the tomb. At dawn on the first day of the week she came with myrrh and found the stone rolled away. Weeping by the tomb, she saw the risen Lord, who called her by name, and she ran to tell the apostles, “I have seen the Lord!” This was the first proclamation of the Resurrection, and so the Church calls her Equal to the Apostles. Tradition says she later preached in Rome and brought a red egg to the Emperor Tiberius as a sign of new life, from which comes the Paschal custom of red eggs. In old age she went to Ephesus, where the Apostle John laboured, and there she reposed. The Church keeps her memory on 22 July (4 August on the Old Calendar). The faithful turn to her for her love of Christ, her loyalty in suffering and her joy in the Resurrection.

What the faithful pray for

• deliverance from the power of sin and evil
• those who mourn and seek Christ in their grief
• faithfulness to Christ in hard times
• courage to share the joy of the Resurrection
• women who serve the Church