The Church today celebrates the Great Feast Day of the Dormotion of the Theotokos, the Ever Virgin Mary, one of the most reverent and venerated ecclesiastical dates on the Orthodox calendar and one of great importance for the Greek Orthodox faithful.
Aug. 15 is a national holiday in Greece.
The Feast commemorates the repose – called the Dormition, or “koimisis” in Greek – of the Mother of Christ. The Great Feast also commemorates the translation or assumption into heaven of the body of the Theotokos.
The Feast of the Dormition is celebrated with the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom which is conducted in the morning and preceded by a Matins, or Orthros service.
The Feast Day is celebrated with particular splendor on various Greek islands, including the pre-eminent Marian pilgrimages of Tinos and Paros, as well as around the mainland. Cathedrals, Chapels and Monasteries hosting miracle-working icons of the Virgin Mary attract pilgrims and worshippers from across the country and the world.
The Orthodoxia News Agency today again broadcasts the emotional and moving images from the Cyclades island of Tinos, the focal point for Greek Orthodoxy every Aug. 15.
Newly elected Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis led the government delegation on Tinos, among the tens of thousands of faithful that arrived from every part of the world to venerate the miraculous Panaghia Evangelistria icon – or, the Our Lady of Good Tidings – at the same-name Metropolitan Cathedral on the island.
A video feature is posted today on the Orthodoxia News Agency dedicated to the Cathedral, also known as the Panagia Megalochari, or “With all Graces” in English, considered as the protector of the Greek nation.
The Cathedral is located on a hill above Hora, the capital of Tinos. Many pilgrims cover this distance on their knees, from the port to the Church, in keeping with a solemn vow to the Virgin Mary. The site, along with Mt. Athos, is the most important pilgrimages in Greece.
Thursday also marked the somber 79th anniversary of the sinking of the anchored Hellenic Navy cruiser Elli, in Tinos’ harbor. The dishonorable and unprovoked attack came from an Italian submarine months before the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War, which ushered Greece into WWII.
The Elli’s sinking rallied the Greek people to defend the country from the Italian fascist invasion in October 1940 and to pummel back the invading forces back into southern Albania in the following months.
Elsewhere, the country’s head of state, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, attended the Divine Liturgy at the Monastery of Panagia Soumela, on the slopes of Mt. Vermion, in northern Greece, while also attending a procession of the Holy Icon of Panagia Soumela, painted by the Evangelist Luke – which is intrinsically linked with Pontian Hellenism.
From the isle of Hydra in the Saronic Gulf, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, presided at the Holy Communion sacrament at the Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral, while he later referred to the need for unity and cooperation, in a brief sermon.
Another significant celebration today on the occasion of the Great Feast Day is held on the Cyclades island of Paros, and specifically at the iconic Panagia Ekaton-tapiliani Cathedral, known as “Church of 100 Doors”, as the name states. Built in the 4th-century, it is one of the best preserved Byzantine-era Orthodox cathedrals in the country.
A concelebation of the Divine Liturgy was followed by a procession of a miraculous icon of the Theotokos, from the Cathedral to Paros’ main harbor, where a prayer service was held.
Similar services were held at Orthodox parishes around the world, from Damascus’ Mariamite Cathedral, which is dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest, to the Annunciation of the Theotokos Church in Paranaque, Philippines, halfway around the world, and to a procession of an exact replica of the Panaghia Soumela icon in Toronto, Canada.