The Protection (Pokrov) of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary — October 1 / October 14 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, October 1 according to the Julian Calendar (October 14 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Protection (Pokrov) of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

The Protection of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. This feast was established in remembrance of a miraculous appearance of the Theotokos. In the middle of the tenth century, on a Sunday, the first of October, Saint Andrew the Fool-for-Christ (commemorated October 2) was attending the all-night vigil in the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae in Constantinople, where the robe, the veil and part of the sash of the Most Holy Virgin were kept. At the fourth hour of the night he lifted his eyes toward heaven and beheld the Theotokos, radiant with heavenly light, accompanied by a host of angels and saints. Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Theologian escorted her with reverence. The Most Holy Virgin knelt down and for a long time with tears entreated the Lord on behalf of the Christian world; then she approached the altar and there continued her prayer, and at last she removed her veil and spread it over the worshippers gathered in the church. The immaculate Virgin shone with divine glory, and the veil in her hands gleamed more brightly than the sun. Trembling, Andrew asked his disciple Epiphanius, who stood beside him: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady praying for the whole world?” “I see, holy father, and I tremble,” Epiphanius replied. Blessed Andrew and Epiphanius gazed for a long time upon the wondrous vision.

According to one view, the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos was established in Russia, while others hold that it is of Greek origin. In the Greek Church its celebration must have begun in the first half of the twelfth century, and it is likely that from there it passed into Russia. Later the Greeks allowed this feast to fall into oblivion, and the liturgical books in which it was mentioned were also lost. The oldest surviving sources in which the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos is mentioned are Russian and date from the second half of the thirteenth century.