Dear Friends,

Feast of the Discovery of the Jewel Box of the Holy Mother of God

Today is one of a number of days set aside in the Church Calendar to give special honor to Mary, the Holy Mother of God. She is the first among all the saints and is the one truly “blessed among women.” We have many hymns written in praise of her holiness and essential role in giving birth to the savior of the universe. Our hymns and prayers often invoke her intercession, that is her prayers on our behalf.

The following story of today’s feast of the Discovery of the Jewel Box of the Holy Mother of God is from Patriarch Torkom Kooshagian’s work Soorp yev Donk:

Since there are no relics of the Holy Mother’s earthly body (as she was assumed into Heaven), her personal belongings became articles of pious devotion. As they were secretly kept during the time of persecution of the early church, they began to appear in later times. The Box of the Holy Mother, in which she kept her veil, was the second item discovered (the first was her belt). According to tradition, two aristocratic brothers from Constantinople, named Galpius and Candidus, went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In a village of Galilee, most likely Nazareth, they observed that many people were making pilgrimages to a certain elderly Jewish woman’s house where there was a box to which many miraculous cures were attributed. Through cunning, they were able to have another box made like the one they saw and switched it with the box of the Holy Mother. They returned to Constantinople where they were received with great ceremony and the box was placed in the Cathedral dedicated to the Holy Mother.

Lord, receive our supplications through the intercession of the holy Mother of God, the immaculate bearer of your only-begotten Son, and by the supplications of all you saints. Hear us, Lord, and have mercy on us; forgive, expiate and remit our sins; make us worthy to give you thanks and to glorify you together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages, Amen.

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With prayers.
Hayr Simeon
July 1, 2007