An extract from the encomia
(hymns of praise) by St. Hierotheos who was physically present at Panagia’s
Dormition:
When was such a wonder of wonders ever seen by men? How does the Queen of all lie
breathless? How has the Mother of Jesus
reposed? Thou, O Virgin, wast the
preaching of the prophets; thou art heralded by us. All the people venerate thee; the angels
glorify thee. Rejoice, thou who art full
of grace, the Lord is with thee, and through thee, with us. With Gabriel we hymn thee, with the angels we
glorify thee; and with the prophets we praise thee, for they announced thee.
Habakkum beheld thee as an overshadowed mountain, for thou art
covered with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Daniel beheld thee as a mountain from whom, seedlessly, the solid and
strong King, the Christ, issued forth.
Jacob saw thee as a ladder upon Whom Christ came down to eat and drink
with us. And although we, His slaves, contemplate
ascending into the heavens, yet thou hast ascended before all. Rejoice, O Virgin, for Gideon beheld thee as
a fleece. David saw thee as the virgin
daughter of the King. Isaias called thee
Mother of God and Ezekiel a gate. All
the prophets prophesied thee!
What shall we call thee, O Virgin? Paradise.
It is meet, for thou hast blossomed forth the flower of incorruption,
Christ, Who is the sweet-smelling fragrance for the souls of men. Virgin?
Verily, a virgin thou art, for without the seed of man thou gavest birth
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Thou wast a
virgin before birth and virgin at birth and still a virgin after. Shall we call thee Mother? This is meet too; for as a Mother thou gavest
birth to Christ the King of all. Shall
we name thee Heaven? This thou art also
for upon thee rose the Sun of righteousness.
Wherefore, rejoice O Virgin, and hasten to thy Son’s rest and dwell in
the tents of His beloved. Hasten there
and make ready a palace and remember us and all thy people also, too. O Lady Mother of God, for both we and thyself
are of the race of Adam. On account of
this, intercede on our behalf; for this supplicate thy Son Whom thou hast held
in thine embrace, and help us in our preaching and then afterwards that we may
find rest in our hopes. Go forward, O
Virgin from earth to heaven, from corruption to incorruption, from the sorrow of
this world to the joy of the Kingdom of the heavens, from this perishable earth
to the everlasting Heaven. Hasten, O
Virgin to the heavenly light, to the hymns of the angels, to the glory of the
saints from all the ages. Hasten, O
Virgin, to the place of thy Son, to His Kingdom, to His power, where the angels
chant, the prophets glorify and the Archangels hymn the Mother of the King, who
is the lit lampstand, wider than the heavens, the firmament above, the
protection of Christians, and the mediatress of our race.”
Thus, with these words of praise he bid farewell and embraced
the body of the all-holy one, the Panagia.
Above text from The Life of the Virgin Mary, The Theotokos, Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, CO pp 476-77.
Originally sourced from The Great
Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church (in Greek), see footnote 134, pg 592,
in The Life of the Virgin Mary for
greater detail.
Slide show of the Dormition Feast at the tomb of the Theotokos in
the Garden of Gethsemane: http://www.demotix.com/news/1731093/greek-orthodox-feast-assumption-dormition#media-1730883
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