Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates Mariamoba

The Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates one of the most significant feasts, Virgin Mary Day (Mariamoba), on August 28.

To mark the feast, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Metropolitan of Bitchvinta and Tskhum-Apkhazeti Shio is celebrating the Divine Liturgy at Tbilisi’s Sioni Patriarchal Cathedral.

The service began at 10:00 a.m.

In the Christian world, the Virgin Mary is venerated above all after the Holy Trinity. Three of the Twelve Great Feasts — the Nativity of the Mother of God, the Dormition of the Mother of God and the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple — are dedicated directly to the Virgin Mary.

According to Church teaching, following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary frequently prayed to God to receive her soul into the Kingdom of Heaven. Tradition says that while she was praying at the Savior’s tomb, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her holding an olive branch and announced that she would fall asleep in the Lord three days later. According to tradition, at the Virgin Mary’s request, God brought the Holy Apostles, who had gone out to preach, together to bid farewell to her on the day of her Dormition. At the third hour,  when the Virgin Mary departed this world, the room where she lay was filled with a miraculous light. Her sacred remains were transferred from Mount Zion to Gethsemane. According to Church teaching, Jesus Christ raised the pure and holy soul of His mother to heaven. As the Virgin Mary spent the final years of her life on Mount Zion, churches dedicated to her Dormition are traditionally called Sioni.