The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary — September 8 / September 21 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, September 8 according to the Julian Calendar (September 21 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. In Christian literature there exists the apocryphal work of James, “The Nativity of Mary,” which recounts in detail how Joachim and Anna were given the future Mother of the incarnate Lord.

Joachim, who was wealthy but childless, offered a double sacrifice to the Lord every year. On one of the feasts, when the Jews were preparing to offer sacrifice in the Temple of Jerusalem, they refused to allow Joachim to offer his sacrifice first, citing as the reason the childlessness of Joachim and Anna (among the Jewish people, childlessness was regarded as a punishment from God).

The grief of the downcast Joachim was multiplied, and he went off into the wilderness without even stopping at home to see his wife. There, in a hastily built tent, he spent forty days and nights without food or drink in fervent prayer.

To Saint Anna’s sorrow was added her worry over her husband, and she hardly showed herself to anyone. Even her maidservant reproached Anna for her childlessness: “The Lord God has closed your womb and has not granted you fruit among the children of Israel.”

Then Anna took off her mourning garments, dressed herself festively, went down into the garden, sat beneath a laurel tree, and fervently entreated the Lord: “O God of my fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, just as You blessed our Sarah and granted her Isaac.”

An angel appeared to Anna and announced to her the good news that God had heard her prayer and that she would become a mother, and that her child would be glorified throughout the earth. Overjoyed, the woman, as a sign of her gratitude, made a vow to dedicate her child to the Lord, to be His servant for her whole life.

The angel also announced to Joachim, who was secluded in the wilderness, that God had heard his prayer and that a child would soon be born to them.

Joachim summoned his shepherds and ordered them to prepare the sacrificial offering. Anna was waiting for him at home. As soon as she saw her husband coming with the shepherds, she went out to meet him and told him the joyful news.

A daughter was born to them, whom they named Mary. When Mary was six months old, her mother set her on the ground. The child took seven steps and reached her mother’s lap. Her mother, rejoicing, took the child up in her arms and vowed that until she brought her to the Temple of the Lord she would not let her set foot on the ground again.

When Mary turned one year old, Joachim held a great feast and invited to his home the high priests, priests, scribes, and honored elders. “Hear, hear, O twelve tribes of Israel: Anna is nursing a child,” Saint Anna sang with joy.

When Mary turned three, her parents, in accordance with the vow they had made, brought her to the Temple. Pure maidens with lighted candles accompanied the child to the Temple; the high priest led Mary into the sanctuary and blessed her thus: “The Lord has magnified your name among all generations. In the last days, through you the Lord shall redeem the children of Israel.”

The Virgin lived in the Temple and received food from the hands of angels until she reached the age of twelve, when by the Lord’s command she was entrusted to the care of the elderly widower Joseph.

The Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary is one of the greatest feasts of the Church. This is the day on which the Lord looked with the eye of mercy upon humanity fallen into sin and sent to the world the vessel of God’s incarnation, the throne of the King, the ladder of heaven, the redeemer of Eve’s transgression: the Most Holy Theotokos Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.