​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​

Icon of the Cincture of the Holy Theotokos

​​

~Schedule~

Great Vespers, Saturday August 30th @ 5:30pm

Orthos, Sunday August 31th @ 8:30am

Divine Liturgy, Sunday August 31th @ 9:30am

​

​

​

Reading for the Feast of the Cincture of the Holy Theotokos:

Epistle, Hebrews 9:1-7

Gospel, Matthew 19:16-26

​

​

The Feast of the Cincture of the Holy Theotokos

​​

 

After her Dormition, the Holy Theotokos gave her cincture to the Apostle Thomas. That cincture was later brought to Constantinople and kept in a sealed reliquary in the Church of the Mother of God at Blachernae, founded by Empress Pulcheria. This reliquary was not opened until the time of Emperor Leo the Wise (886-912). Leo's wife, Empress Zoe, became mentally ill and, in accord with a heavenly vision, she desired that the cincture of the Most-holy Theotokos be placed on her. The emperor implored the patriarch, and the reliquary was opened. Then the cincture was removed and placed on the ailing empress. The empress was healed immediately. Today's feast was instituted in commemoration of that miracle. Currently, one part of the cincture is to be found in Zugdidi, Georgia, because the daughter of Emperor Romanus was healed by the aid of this cincture-and when her father married her to the Georgian Emperor Abuchaz, she took part of the cincture with her. By order of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, a special church was built at Mingrelia, in Zugdidi, where that relic of the miracle-working garment of the Most-holy Theotokos is kept.

​

-Excerpt from the Prologue of Ohrid by Saint Nikolai Velimirovic