St. George Annual Festival

St. Mary’s Fast:
The fast of the holy Virgin Mary, a period of 15 days, begins on the first day of the Coptic month of Mesra and ends on the 16 day of the same month with the celebration of the Dormition and Assumption of the holy Virgin.  Tradition accounts that this fast was pressed upon the church by the believers, due to their love for the Mother of God, the Theotokos, and was added to the holy fasts of the Church. In origin, this fast was not part of the fasts assigned by the apostles and the early church fathers, and its addition was not until the early thirteenth century.

This occurrence was first recorded in a book written by the elder Abu-Elmakarem Saad-Allah Girgis Masoud.  It is documented that Abu-Elmakarem had died in the year 1209 A.D, thus, rendering the obvious conclusion that this fast was an addition to the church fasts only during the early thirteenth century. The Church has placed St. Mary’s fast in a fourth degree category; that is, it is placed after the fasts dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles fast.

St. Mary’s Virginity:
The prophet Isaiah writes, “Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and His name shall be called Emmanuel” (7:14).  This text refers directly and distinctly to Saint Mary as the Mother of the Son of God. It describes Saint Mary as Virgin yet conceiving and giving birth to a child. In the Hebrew language the term used for virgin in this text is “Almah,” which means a virgin maiden who may be engaged. The Scriptures here depict the extraordinary miracle of the birth of the Son of God through a virgin. It must be noted that the word “Almah” is etymologically used in this text to mean the continuation of the state of virginity, and hence it has been translated “The Virgin” and not “A Virgin.” This has been done by the guidance of the Holy Spirit to indicate St. Mary’s perpetual virginity, being the “Ever Virgin,” even after the birth of her Son.

St. Mary’s Conception:
By the collaboration of the Holy Spirit, the Christ was born of a virgin girl, according to the prophecies, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel” (Isaiah. 7:14). The Holy Spirit descended hypostatically into the Virgin’s womb in order to serve three quintessential purposes. First, the Virgin conceived without seed of man.  The Holy Spirit enabled that miraculous occurrence to happen that the Lord Christ may be in her womb through no man.  Hence the words of the angel, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you, therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). St. Augustine of Hippo exclaims, “The Word was born of the Father, without a mother, before all ages, and in the fullness of time the Word was born in the flesh of a mother, without a father, in order to save us.” Second, the Holy Spirit sanctified the womb of the Virgin that it may be a fitting place for the Creator of the universe. The womb of the Virgin became God’s kingdom; the Word dwelt within her for nine full months. Third, the Holy Spirit shielded the Word that by being born from mankind He may not be tarnished by the inheritable sin of Adam, for everyone born of flesh inherits Adam’s shame. The Holy Spirit purified and sanctified the Virgin’s womb so that the Child to whom she gave birth would inherit nothing of the original sin, hence the term “Immaculate Conception.”

Theotokos:
Saint Mary is referred to as the Theotokos, which is a term that was adopted at the Third Ecumenical Council as a title for the Virgin Mary. Theotokos was recognized by the Chruch at the Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus in 431.  The theological significance of the title is to emphasize that Jesus Christ, whom Saint Mary bore and gave birth to, is fully God and fully human, and that Jesus Christ’s two natures, divine and human, were united in a single Person of the Trinity. The competing view at that council was that St. Mary was to be called Christotokos, meaning “Birth-giver to Christ” rather than being called the Mother or Bearer of God. This was the view advocated by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople at the time. The intent behind calling her Christotokos was to restrict her role as merely the mother of Christ’s humanity and not His divine nature.

Saint Mary
Nestorius’ view was anathematized by the Council as heresy, since it was considered to be dividing Jesus into two distinct persons. The Council also retained the glory of St. Mary as the Theotokos, Mother of God, and not merely a bearer of a human. St. Cyril of Alexandria, also known as the Pillar of Faith, was a central figure in the Council of Ephesus, which led to the deposition of Nestorius as Archbishop of Constantinople. He contributed to the Church the composition of the Prelude to the Creed (We exalt you, Mother of the True Light etc.).

The Feasts of St. Mary:
1 ·The Annunciation to her parents (7 of Messra)
2 ·Her Nativity (1 of Pashans)
3 ·Her Presentation in the Temple (3 of Keyahk)
4 ·Her Dormition (death) (21 of Touba)
5 ·Her Assumption(16 of Messra)
6 ·Dedication of her Churches at Philliponis & Atrib, Egypt (21 of Ba-ouna)
7 ·Her Apparition in Zeitoun (Cairo) (2 of April)

Fr. Mina Shaheid
August 6, 2008