The Salutations and the Wonder

"In your Dormition you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos."

 

 

Yes, this is exactly how it is: Our Panagia has never abandoned us.

She is the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and is able to do all things.

In the Prayer of Compline, we say:

"And be thou ever with me, as thou art merciful, and compassionate, and the lover of good, being in this life a fervent protectress and help, to defend me from the assaults of adversaries, and guide me unto salvation; and in the hour of my departure, to care for my wretched soul, and drive far from it the dark countenances of evil demons..."

There is no service of our Church that does not mention the Most Holy Theotokos.

She especially helps us in the war against the demons.

And at the mere hearing of Her name, they vanish.

***

Elder Ephraim of Arizona, according to letters addressed to his spiritual children, urges that we read the Salutations daily. He acquired this habit from Elder Joseph the Hesychast and his fellow ascetic Arsenios the Cave-dweller, who throughout the entire year would read the Salutations.

Elder Paisios:

"The Salutations to the Panagia are a doxology. You can say them as thanksgiving to the Panagia when she fulfills some request of yours. Not always to be asking things from the Panagia, but to be thanking Her as well. The Salutations to the Panagia contain much grace."

***

Papa-Dimitri Gagastathis says:

You shall not abandon the Salutations to the Theotokos. You shall always greet the Panagia!

Such an incident also occurred with the reading of the Salutations:

They come and say to me… "Papa, we took and are reading the Exorcisms of Saint Cyprian." And they say it with such ease...

I tell them, these are words of the Priests — do not read Exorcism Prayers yourselves. You do not have the Priesthood.

What can I say? People do their own thing. I understand them — they are desperate — and that is why I say it both to them and to you:

Do you want protection from magic and demons? Say the Salutations, every day, many times, until you learn them by heart.

Ah… if only you knew how much the Salutations burn the demons...

I shouldn’t be telling you this, but let it be…

A young woman came to me with her mother, a worldly girl...

You can’t really blame the children; they do what they see being done.

They don’t understand that through a sinful life they are opening the door to the devil and his demons…

Well then, the young woman began not wanting to go to her University classes, she was studying at the University, but withdrew into herself, she had dark thoughts, to harm herself… Such things the crafty one was putting into her mind.

She fell into despair, and so did her mother, and they came here to our Saint, to venerate, to be delivered.

Her mother grabs me:

"My dear Father, this and that with my child, I beg you, read the Prayers so that the evil may leave."

What was I to do? I felt sorry for them and I brought her here where you see, and I gave her to read a little from the Paraklesis, while I began to say within myself the Salutations.

When I reached the letter "L," where it says what I told you, that is, "Rejoice, uplifting of men, Rejoice, downfall of demons," I repeated it two or three times… And oh, my Panagia, what happened…!

The calm little girl, who had been slowly reading the odes of the Paraklesis, suddenly turns her head, gives me a fierce look — how can I describe it to you — a grim, threatening look, I tell you and I shudder, and with a strange voice, harsh, wild, otherworldly, like a wild animal growling, she blurted out:

"Shut up, you old goat, shut up already — aren’t you tired of greeting Mary…"

…And then began a torrent of obscenities...

Ah, my Panagia, it wasn’t the little girl speaking — the vile one was speaking...

I was making the sign of the Cross over the girl with the Cross, and after a little while she calmed down and continued to read the Apolytikia of the Dormition and of the Annunciation and the Theotoke Parthene, calmly as before, as if nothing had happened; she did not even remember it afterward.

She came again with her mother once or twice and I read over her again, but the demon did not say those words again…

Afterward, the Abbess told me that when they went to venerate the Panagia, the young woman suddenly felt intense discomfort, went outside, and vomited a great deal — and afterward felt relieved...

Our Panagia delivered her in Her own house.

You know, of course, that the Panagia first began to stream myrrh at the moment when the Fourth Salutations were being chanted to her many decades ago…

I don’t think it was by chance that the girl was delivered there.

Well, from that time on I understood more clearly how much the Salutations burn the devil. And that’s why I say it and say it again:

Don’t take it upon yourselves to say the prayers of the priests, don’t read Exorcism Prayers — say the Salutations.

They tell me: "My dear Father, we read them, but they are in ancient language and we don’t understand them."

I tell them: It doesn’t matter — the devil understands them along with his demons, and they take off and flee.

Listen... he called our Panagia "Mary." He doesn’t even dare to call her by her true name, "Panagia" or "Theotokos" — he burns when he hears us invoke Her and greet Her with Her Salutations.

 

 

Greek source: Orthodoxos Typos, no. 2,536, March 28, 2025, p. 3.

Formatted and shared by the Metropolis of Oropos and Phyle:

https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2025/10/19/20251019aXairetismoi.pdf