The Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos

the Memory of which the Holy Church Celebrates on the 8th of September

 

 

Saint Andrew of Crete (c.660-740) chants, O Bride of the Father, immaculate Mother of the Son, and holy and resplendent temple of the Holy Spirit; O most chaste of all creation, most suitable to His ultimate purpose, on this account the universe was created and, by thy birth, was the eternal will of the Creator fulfilled. [1]

What was God’s ultimate purpose for us and how did her birth fulfill the eternal will? It is our unification with God and deification. Suffice it to add these thoughtful words of St. Ambrose (339-397), Bishop of Milan: “Unless man were redeemed, it would avail him nothing to be born.” [2]

Saint Andrew of Crete also comments, “This day is for us the beginning of all holy days. It is the door to kindness and truth.” He then goes on to write: Let both the barren and mothers dance for joy; make bold and leap up in gladness, O ye childless: for the barren and childless woman brings forth the Theotokos, who is to deliver Eve from her pains in travail and Adam from the curse [Gen. 3:16-19]. [3]

Saint Gregory Palamas (+1359) comments that “for her sake, the God-possessed prophets pronounced prophesies, and miracles are wrought to foretell that future great miracle of the world, the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. Generation after generation of vicissitudes and historical events, make a path to their ultimate destination, to the new mystery that will be wrought in her. The rites and laws had provided beforehand a type of the future truth of the Spirit. The end, or rather the beginning and root of those earlier events and wonders of God is the annunciation to Joachim and Anna, who were accomplished in the virtues, of what was to be accomplished (in their daughter).” [4] In another homily, he comments, “all divinely-inspired Scripture was written for the sake of the Virgin who begat God.” [5]

Saint Photios (+c.897) also writes that “the present feast honoring the birth of the Virgin Mother of God easily carries off the glittering prize of seniority against every competitor...for without the Virgin’s feast none of those that sprang out would appear....The Virgin’s feast, in fulfilling the function of the root, the source, the foundation...takes on with good reason the ornament of all those other feasts, and it is conspicuous with many great boons, and is recognized as the day of universal salvation.” [6]

Israel as a community was not to give birth to the Messiah by means of natural generation, that is, by man’s seed. By natural means they would produce the Virgin-Mother, who is the beauty and excellency of Israel. The prophets prophesied of her, yet, most Israelites were unaware that they were awaiting the birth of a virgin daughter from their stock who, virginally, without Father, would bring forth the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God and Only-Begotten of His Father without mother.

Saint Photios clearly believes that the birth of the Virgin happened by a natural union, though the mother was barren and aged. “Dost thou accept Adam to have been molded out of clay and produced without a natural birth? Dost thou accept Eve to be the offspring not of intercourse but of his rib? Yet these things cannot be ascribed to natural law. Shall not grace which formed nature not be able to repair her? Cannot the Creator warm and irrigate that which has grown old? Shall not the Creator easily at His will restore her to the state in which He set her at first? Grace is not subservient to nature, but the Mistress of nature.” [7]

Saint Andrew of Crete chants, Anna, the barren and sterile, was not childless before God: for she was foreordained from many generations to become the mother of the pure Virgin, from whom the Maker of all creation sprang forth in the form of a servant. [8]

Saint Neophytos of Cyprus (1134-1220), styled the “Chrysostom of Cyprus”, treats our Lady in many passages of his writings. “Anna, delivered by the Creator of nature from the bonds of sterility conceives, by her spouse, Mary a daughter of God. Anna, today, gave birth to Mary, the first-fruits of our salvation, the immaculate Mother of God the Word, and the first-fruits of the renewal of our nature that had been aged and tarnished by transgression of the divine precept.” [9]

Saint John of Damascus (c.676-c.750) also writes: “On the birth of the Mother of God, the sorrow of our first mother Eve is turned to joy. While one heard, ‘in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children’ [Gen. 3:16], the other heard, ‘Rejoice, thou who art full of grace’ [Lk. 1:28]; one heard, ‘thy turning shall be to thy husband’, and the other heard, ‘the Lord is with thee.’” [10]

THE PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS PROPHESY

In the hymns of this feast, St. Stephen of the Holy City chants that Eve declares her daughter and descendant blessed, “for unto me is born deliverance, through which I shall be set free from the bonds of hell.” [11]

Old Testament types clearly manifest the Virgin Mary; for, She is the fountain of life that gushes forth from the flinty rock [Ex. 17:6]; she is the Bush [Ex. 3:2] springing from barren ground and burning with the immaterial fire that cleanses and enlightens our souls. [12] Saint John of Damascus adds to this, chanting, Inspired by God, the divine choir (the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament) spoke of thee in prophecy as the Mountain [Dan. 2:45], the Gate of Heaven [Ez. 44:2], and the spiritual Ladder [Gen. 28:12-17]; for out of thee was hewn a stone, not cut by the hand of man; and thou art the gate through which passed the Lord of wonders, the God of our fathers. [13] And, The East gate [Ez. 44:1-3], newly born, awaits the entrance of the Great Priest. [14]

The righteous David and Jesse exult and Judah is filled with pride, for from their root a blossom has sprung. Cry out, O David: what has God sworn to thee? “What God swore to me He has now fulfilled,” said he, “from the fruit of my body He has given the Virgin. From her the Creator, Christ the New Adam, is born, a King to sit upon my throne. Today He reigns, whose rule cannot be shaken” [Ps. 88:3-4]. [15]

The ninth century hymnographer, Sergios of the Holy City, chants, She is the treasure of virginity, the rod of Aaron [Num. 17:23] springing from the root of Jesse, the preaching of the prophets, offshoot of the righteous Joachim and Anna. She is born, and with her is the world become new again. She is born, and the Church clothes herself in majesty. She is the holy temple, the receiver of the Godhead: the instrument of virginity, the bridal chamber of the King, wherein was accomplished the marvelous mystery of the ineffable union of the natures which come together in Christ. [16]

THE BARREN WOMAN BEARS THE THEOTOKOS
WHO SUSTAINS OUR LIFE [17]

Saint Andrew of Crete then compares the holy Anna to the righteous foremother Sarah, saying, O Lord, Thou hast opened the womb of Sarah, giving her Isaac as fruit in her old age [Gen. 21:1-3]. Today, O Saviour, Thou hast likewise given to godly Anna a fruit born from her womb, even Thine own Mother without spot. [18]

Nevertheless, as the following hymn affirms: Although by the will of God other women who were barren have brought forth famous offspring, yet among all such children Mary has shone most brightly with divine glory. [19]

After nine months, Anna brought forth. She said to the midwife, "What have I brought forth?" And she told her, "A girl."

Then Anna said, "My soul has been magnified this day." And she laid her down. When the days of her purification had been fulfilled, and Anna was purified, she called her name MARY (Miriam in Hebrew, Mariam in Greek), in accordance with the prophecy uttered by the Archangel. [20]

A NAME DESTINED FOR GREATNESS

What is the etymology of the name and what is its significance? There have been numerous explanations put forward as to the meaning of the Virgin's name, in contrast to her parents. It is nearly unanimous that her parents' names Joachim (in Hebrew Jehoiakim) was understood to mean "the Lord's restoration" or "may the Lord raise up"; whereas Anna’s name means “grace”. Their names are indicative of their characteristics and qualities. But the name Miriam has been translated as “Lordless”, “Hope”, “Myrrh of the Seas”, “Star of the Seas” (Jerome), “Illuminated”, “Beloved one”, “Lady”, “Lady of the Sea”, “Drop of the Sea”, “Exalted”, “Highness”, “Excellency”, “Lady”, “One who surpasses” or “One who dominates.” Some translators give the meaning “bitter sea”, but this explanation has met with certain obstacles in Hebrew grammar, for it places the adjective after the noun, and the meaning seems to go against the positive attributes which are ascribed to the Virgin Mary. [21] The interpretation preferred by St. John of Damascus is “Lady”; thus he writes, “Accordingly it was grace (for this is the interpretation of Anna) that bore the Lady and Mistress (in Greek, Despina), for that is the meaning of the name Mary; for she became truly the Mistress of all creation, since she was vouchsafed to be the Mother of the Creator.” [22]

THE INDIGNITY OF OUR FIRST PARENTS
IS PURGED THROUGH THEE

The common salvation and glory of all generations is the appellation given by St. John of Damascus to her who bore our Creator and God. [23] Saint Germanos (c.635-733), Patriarch of Constantinople chants, As foretold by the angel, today hast thou come forth, O Virgin, the all-holy offspring of righteous Joachim and Anna...thou dost destroy the curse and givest blessing in its place. [24]

Saint Romanos the Melodist (c.490-c.556) chants, O mystery brought about on earth! After the birth, Anna prayed to our God and Maker Who knows all things in advance: “Thou hast heard me, O Lord, as Thou hast heard Hannah who was accused before Eli of being drunk [1 Sam. 1:14]. She promised Samuel, after his birth, to the Lord to become a priest. Just as formerly, thou hast given me too, a gift, the barren woman gives birth to the Mother of God and the nurse of our life.” [25]

Saint Andrew of Crete, adds these words to Anna’s lips: Thou hast granted me today the fruit of the promise, her that among all generations and women was foreordained to be Thy pure and undefiled Mother. [26]

In the kontakion of this Feast, St. Romanos declares that Adam and Eve are now set free from the corruption of death. [27] Thus, St. Andrew continues speaking of Anna’s exultation: Now Anna makes glad and cries aloud exulting, saying, “Though barren, I have given birth to the Mother of God, through whom the condemnation of Eve has been remitted, and all her pains in travail.” [28]

Mary is born of a barren mother, thus renewing our nature that had grown barren. Through her cruel hell has been trampled underfoot, and Eve with all her line is established secure in life. [29]

Set free from the reproach of childlessness, The barren woman gives suck to her child Mary, and Joachim rejoices at this birth, saying, “A rod is born unto me, and from it the flower that is Christ shall blossom from the root of David [Is. 11:1]. Marvelous in truth is this wonder!” [30] For from her, in a manner past understanding, will be born the Maker of all, Who in His goodness shall purge all the indignity of our first parents.

AS A LILY AMONG THORNS,
SO IS MY COMPANION AMONG DAUGHTERS [31]

Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (c.816–886) writes that the spiritual Spouse found her alone, a lily among thorns and a flower of the valleys.

THE VIRGIN’S BIRTHPLACE

A discrepancy exists as to the place of her birth. Some apocryphal accounts speak of Nazareth as the home of her parents; others claim that the house of Joachim was located near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. This latter point is confirmed by St. Sophronios and further certified by St. John of Damascus. Thus, her Jerusalem home might have been very convenient to the temple. We read in the latter’s Sermon on the Birth of the Theotokos, “The Mother of God was born to us in the holy Sheep Gate. Rejoice, O Sheep Gate, the most holy temple of God’s Mother. Rejoice, O Sheep Gate, the wall of Joachim’s sheep.” [32] It is also quite possible, that a man as wealthy as Joachim had residences in both Judea and Galilee.

In icons depicting the Virgin being caressed by her parents, it was intended to show the infant before the incident of her first steps. She is usually shown inclining towards her mother for the parental kiss, though in the mosaic at Kariye Djami, the child is about to be kissed by Joachim, while she places her hand on the face of her mother. [33]

THE INFANT MARY

According to the Protoevangelium, a charming incident relating Mary’s first steps is recounted, where she displays miraculous precocity. The child grew and increased in strength daily. When Mary was about nine months old, Anna set her on the ground to see whether her daughter could stand. Mary indeed walked seven steps and came again to her mother. Anna then picked her up. [34]

Anna had made her daughter’s bed-chamber into a holy place, a sanctuary, permitting nothing common or unclean to pass through Mary. Anna then invited certain undefiled maidens of the daughters of Israel and they attended to Mary also, by carrying her about hither and thither. [35]

JOACHIM MAKES A FEAST

Mary’s first anniversary of her nativity, according to the Protoevangelium, was celebrated by Joachim with a feast to which he invited the priests, scribes, elders and all the people of Israel. [36]

Also the Church chants, What is this sound of feasting that we hear? Joachim and Anna mystically keep festival. “O Adam and Eve,” they cry, “rejoice with us today: for if by your transgression ye closed the gate of Paradise to those of old, we have now been given a glorious fruit, Mary the child of God, who opens its entrance to us all.” [37]

The hymnographer, St. Romanos, also chants, Consequently, the tribes of Israel heard that Anna had given birth to the pure Virgin, and they all rejoiced with great gladness. Joachim held a great feast and celebrated splendidly the miraculous birth. And when he had summoned to prayer the priests and the Levites, he placed Mary in the midst of all, in order that she be magnified. [38]

During the festivities, Joachim brought his daughter before the priests; and they blessed her, and said, “O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name throughout all generations.” And all the people replied, “So be it, Amen.” [39]

Patriarch Germanos (c.635-733) adds, No more are the gifts of Joachim turned away: for the lament of Anna is changed to joy. “Let all the chosen Israel rejoice with me,” she says, “for behold, the Lord has given me the living Pavilion of His divine glory, unto the joy and gladness of us all and the salvation of our souls.” [40]

Joachim then brought his daughter before the chief priests, and they too blessed her, saying, “O God Most High, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be an everlasting blessing.” [41]

In this incident, Mary’s divinely appointed role is being manifested to all people. An exceptional religious rite is also being performed, whereby, Mary, though a female, is sanctified by the invited priests. According to Jewish religious practice, birthdays were not celebrated. Also, only firstborn males, on the fortieth day after birth, received the priestly blessing in the temple. In this case, however, for a married couple after fifty years of marriage to produce a much desired offspring, became the cause of communal joy. Moreover, the elderly couple fully intended to dedicate their offspring, male or female, to the temple and service of God.

In the icons of the famous Monastery of Chora (Kariye Djami) Joachim is seen presenting his infant daughter, but Anna is excluded from the rite. Joachim advances to receive the benediction from the three high priests sitting on a long bench behind a table. The all-holy one (Panagia) is nestled in drapery that completely covers her father’s hands, thus symbolizing her sacredness and likens her to a holy vessel being borne toward the altar. [42]

THE BARREN WOMAN HAS GIVEN BIRTH
TO THE NURSE OF OUR LIFE [43]

Anna then snatched her up and took her into the sanctuary of her bed-chamber, and then gave her the breast. Anna then uttered a song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing a song to the Lord my God, for He hath looked upon me, and hath taken away the reproach of my enemies. The Lord hath given me the fruit of His righteousness, singular in its kind and richly endowed before Him. Who will tell the sons of Reuben that Anna gives suck? Hear ye, O twelve tribes of Israel, Anna gives suck!” [44]

She then laid Mary down to rest in the room which she had consecrated and went out and ministered to her guests. When the feast concluded, all went away rejoicing and praising the God of Israel. [45]

JACOB’S LADDER

Many objects have been regarded as types of the Virgin and have been depicted in the iconography of Orthodox churches. Analogies and interpretations of this kind abound also in the liturgy, hymnography and homilies of the Church. Within the literary authority of the Church, iconography developed a typology of the Virgin. One such "type" is described in Jacob’s vision, which is read in the service of Great Vespers of three of the Virgin’s Feasts: the Nativity of the Virgin, the Annunciation and her Dormition. We read that Jacob’s vision of the ladder reached to heaven, upon which angels ascended and descended, and above the Lord stood [Gen. 28:10-17]. [46] Saint Photios writes that Mary, "The ladder leading up to heaven is being built, and earthly nature, leaping over her proper boundaries, comes to dwell in the heavenly tabernacles." [47]

THE OVERTHROW OF THE ANCESTRAL DEFEAT

Saint Photios, in a homily on the present feast, explains that "After God had bestowed on man the enjoyment and mastery over everything in the Garden, it was meet for him who was entrusted with so great authority to be disciplined and trained with some command. However, after transgressing this command, the Creator did not overlook His creatures though they had plunged themselves into such great error. It was needful, therefore, that one Person of the Trinity become man, to make it manifest that the re-creation too, like the creation, was Its own work. Incarnation entailed a pregnancy and a mother. So it was needful that a mother should be prepared down below for the Creator, for the re-creation of shattered humanity. She was to be a virgin, just as the first man had been formed of virgin earth, so the re-creation, too, should be carried out through a virgin womb, and that no transitory pleasure, even lawful, should be as much as imagined in the Creator’s birth; for the Lord suffered to be born for the deliverance of him who was a captive of pleasure. [48]

“Who then was worthy? Clearly it was she who this day strangely issued from Joachim and Anna, the barren root. It was needful, yea needful, that she who from the very cradle had by a superior reason preserved her body pure, her soul pure, her thoughts pure, should be marked out to be the Creator’s Mother.

“It was needful that she who had been brought to the temple as an infant, who had trodden the untrodden places, should appear as a living temple for Him Who gave her life. It was needful that she who had been born in a wondrous manner from a sterile womb, and had removed her parents’ reproach, should also make good the failure of her forefathers; for she, the descendant, was able to repair the ancestral defeat, who brought forth the Saviour of our race by a husbandless birth, and molded His body.” [49]

Saint Photios also comments that, “The Lord’s throne (Mary) is being prepared on earth, earthly things are sanctified, the heavenly hosts are mingled with us, and the wicked one, who first deceived us and was the contriver of the plot against us, has his power crushed, as his wiles and devices rot away.” [50]

Thus, we chant with St. John of Damascus: The holy parents of the Mother of God received from heaven a gift worthy of God, a throne higher than the very cherubim [Is. 6:1; Ez. 1:4]—she who in childbirth would bear the Word and the Creator. [51]

 

NOTES

1. Theotokarion of St. Nikodemos [in Greek] (Volos, GR: Sot. Schoina, 1979), Prosomoion after Canon for Sunday, Tone Plagal First, Crete, p. 108.

2. Vide St. Ambrose in Luke PL 15 col. 1368, 42,42.

3. Matins Canon, Ode Six, Tone Plagal Four. Unless otherwise specified hymns in this section are taken from the Feast on the 8th of September.

4. Saint Gregory Palamas, Homily 37 on the August Dormition of Our Most Immaculate Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary [in Greek], PG 151, 461B.

5. Homily 57, ed. Oikonomos (1861), cited from John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, trans. from French by George Lawrence (London: Faith Press, 1964), 216. See also PG 151.

6. Saint Photios, Homily IX: The Birth of the Virgin, The Homilies of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, trans. by Cyril Mango (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Dumbarton Oaks Studies Three, 1958), 165.

7. Ibid., pp. 167–170.

8. Matins Canon, Ode One, Tone Plagal Four.

9. Patrologia Orientalia, vol. 3, 530.

10. Nativity of the Virgin, The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church [in Greek], 5th ed., vol. IX (Athens, 1978), 185.

11. Lity, Tone One.

12. Doxastikon of Small Vespers, Tone Two.

13. Matins Canon, Ode Seven, Tone Two.

14. Vespers Sticheron, Ideomelon, Tone Plagal Second.

15. Matins Sessional Hymn, Tone Four.

16. Vespers Doxastikon of the Aposticha, Tone Plagal Fourth.

17. Matins Sessional Hymn, Tone Four.

18. Matins Canon, Ode Four, Tone Plagal Four.

19. Vespers Sticheron, Ideomelon, Tone Plagal Second.

20. Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D. and James Donaldson, LL.D., eds., Apocrypha of the New Testament: The Protoevangelium of James, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1986), 362.

21. Constantine Callinicos, Our Lady the Theotokos, trans. and rev. by Rev. George Dimopoulos (Upper Darby, PA: Christian Orthodox Editions, 1987), 12-13.

22. Saint John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, vol. IX, trans. by Rev. S.F.D. Dalmond, D.D., F.E.I.S. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1976), ch. xiv.  

23. Matins Canon, Ode Six, Tone Two, and Ode Three, Tone Two.

24. Vespers Aposticha, Tone Four.

25. Saint Romanos the Melodist, On the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Kontakia of Romanos, Byzantine Melodist, vol. II, trans. and annot. by Marjorie Carpenter (MO: University of Missouri Press, 1970), strophe 6, pp. 3-4.

26. Matins Canon, Ode Four, Tone Plagal Four.

27. Kontakion of the Feast, Tone Four.

28. Matins Canon, Ode Seven, Tone Plagal Four.

29. Lity, Tone Two.

30. Matins Sessional Hymn, Tone Plagal Fourth.

31. Song 2:1.

32. Sermon on the Birth of the Theotokos, 6, 11. PG 96, 669-677.

33. Paul A. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, Vol. I, Historical Introduction and Description of the Mosaics and Frescoes. Bollingen Series LXX (NY: Pantheon Books, 1966), 71.

34. Roberts and Donaldson, The Protoevangelium of James, loc. cit.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. Lity, Tone Two by Anatolios.

38. On the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Kontakia of Romanos, Tone Four, strophe 4, p. 3.

39. The Protoevangelium of James, loc. cit.

40. Vespers Aposticha, Tone Four.

41. The Protoevangelium of James, loc. cit.

42. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, 70.

43. Saint Romanos the Melodist, On the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Tone Four, strophe 4, p. 3.

44. The Protoevangelium of James, loc. cit.

45. Ibid.

46. Underwood, The Kariye Djami, pp. 223-224.

47. Homily IX: The Birth of the Virgin, p. 172.

48. Ibid., pp. 174-175.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid., p. 172.

51. Matins Canon, Ode Six, Tone Two.

Source: The Life of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, written and complied by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, CO, published by Holy Apostles Convent and Dormition Skete, 1989, pp. 12-23, 537-538.