The Entry of the Most Holy God-bearer into the Temple #
The events from the early life of the Most Holy God-bearer are not recorded in the Gospels nor in any other parts of the New Testament canon. They have been preserved through the Tradition of the Church, first committed to writing in antiquity in a text known as the Protoevangelium of James. Although this book was not included in the New Testament canon, the Church considers the events it recounts to be generally trustworthy, having established on their basis the feasts of the Nativity of the God-bearer and Her Entry into the Temple.
According to this text, when the Most Holy Virgin Mary reached the age of three, Her elderly parents, fulfilling a vow they had made to God before Her birth, gathered undefiled virgins of the Israelite people. With lamps and the chanting of psalms, they accompanied the Child to the Temple in Jerusalem. There, “She was met and blessed by the priest, who said: ‘The Lord shall magnify Thy name in all generations, for through Thee the Lord will reveal redemption to the children of Israel in the last days.’ And he set Her upon the third step of the altar,” the book continues, “and the grace of the Lord descended upon Her, and She rejoiced in gladness, and all the people of Israel loved Her.” The Protoevangelium of James does not name the priest, but the holy patriarchs of Constantinople, Germanus and Tarasius—who composed homilies for the feast of the Entry—hold that it was Saint Zacharias, who would later become the father of Saint John the Forerunner. Furthermore, both hierarchs recount that the Most Holy Virgin was not merely permitted to remain in the temple, but was even led by the priest into the Holy of Holies, into which he himself entered but once a year to offer sacrifice: “not without blood, which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of the people,” as the Apostle Paul explains (Hebrews 9:7). This detail is preserved in the liturgy of the feast: “The angels, beholding the entry of the Most Pure One, were astonished—how the Virgin enters into the Holy of Holies,” as the festal hymns proclaim.
In the house of God, the Virgin gave herself to prayer, the reading of Scripture, and handiwork, under the care of pious maidens. According to tradition, it was not men, but angels who brought Her food not made by hands. When She turned twelve, the priests, having offered prayer, deemed it better that She no longer dwell in the temple, but be entrusted to the guardianship of a righteous elder, who would preserve Her virginity. The lot fell to a devout eighty-year-old widower named Joseph, and Mary, after the sacred rites were performed, entered into the protection of Joseph’s household in the city of Nazareth.
“Let us go, let us hasten to the God-bearer and behold the divine mysteries begun in Her by the providence of God,” exclaims Saint Germanus in his homily. “See how the All-Holy One is led by Her parents into the temple of God through His priests; how the living Temple of the Lord is brought into a temple made with hands; how the prophet receives Her into his arms and brings Her into the inaccessible sanctuary […]. As a prophet who foresees what is to come, he surely awaited Her; and having awaited, he received Her with all his heart, just as Simeon later received Her Son” (Homily on the Entry of the Most Holy God-bearer).
That the Most Holy Virgin—alone among all women of the Israelite people—was granted to dwell in the temple of God testifies that both Her holy parents and the priests of the temple were enlightened by the Spirit of God to know that upon this Maiden something would be fulfilled that would surpass both the laws of nature and the ordinances of the Law of Moses. Truly, the Most Holy Virgin was, before all ages, chosen by God’s providence to contain within Herself—against the order of nature and beyond the bounds of created being—the Creator of the world, the eternal Word of the Father, “Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made,” and yet to preserve Her virginity inviolate.
The Holy Spirit, who of old spoke to the fathers by the prophets (Hebrews 1:1), foretold for many centuries—mystically, through the Psalms—the entry into the House of the Lord of a certain sacred Bride, a Queen chosen by God. “The Queen did stand at Thy right hand,” the prophet David proclaims to the Lord in Psalm 44 (LXX), “clothed in vesture wrought with gold, and arrayed in divers colors. Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; and forget thine own people, and thy father’s house.” These words the prophet speaks as if beholding with spiritual eyes the Virgin Mary, who forever leaves the house of Her father Joachim. “So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty; for He is thy Lord, and thou shalt worship Him. […] All the glory of the daughter of the King is within, adorned in gold embroidery and inwoven patterns.” These words are more applicable to Mary than to any other woman or maiden, for Her glory lies not in outward adornments, honors, or vain praise, but in inward virtues, with which the Holy Maiden blossomed among the sin-loving race of men like a white and fragrant lily among thorns. Therefore, in the Canon of Praise, She is hailed thus: “Rejoice, Thou alone undefiled among women and good. Rejoice, fiery pillar guiding mankind to the higher life.” Let us return again to the Psalm: “Virgins shall be brought to the King after Her; Her companions shall be brought unto Thee. They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing; they shall be led into the King’s temple” (Psalm 44:9–11, 13–15 LXX). The prophet proclaims this as though he sees with his own eyes the chaste maidens with lamps and psalmody escorting the Child Mary into the House of the Lord.
Thus, from the Holy Scriptures we see that the entrance of the God-maiden into the sanctuary of the Lord was part of the all-encompassing providence of the Heavenly Father in sending His beloved Son into the world. If the Holy Spirit Himself, through the mouths of the prophets, rejoices in this glorious and wondrous event, how much more fitting is it for us—whose salvation was served by the Most Pure God-bearer through Her humble faith and obedience to God’s will—to honor this sacred feast with reverence and joy. The voices of Protestants, unbelievers, and skeptics who claim that the Feast of the Entry lacks firm Scriptural foundation, and that the very event being celebrated could not have taken place, cannot deprive us on this day of our reverent and prayerful feeling and spiritual joy. For the image itself of the Most Pure Maiden standing before the Lord in the solemn silence of His holy temple, listening in prayer to the mysteries of His providence, is undoubtedly true—just as true as the image of Her as Mother holding the Savior of the world in Her arms, and of Her with hands lifted toward heaven in prayer for the earthly Church of Her Divine Son. Let us bow in faith before this image, full of the purest, most exalted love, devotion, and humility, and beseech that our own souls may be granted to receive even the smallest drop of the beauty and virtues of the soul of the Most Blessed Virgin, to the glory of Her Son, the Only-begotten and Everlasting Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, together with His Unoriginate Father and the Most Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
At Little Vespers, at “Lord, I have cried”, stikhera. Glory, tone 8.
David proclaimed Thee, O Most Pure One, foreseeing the sacred event of Thy entry into the temple. Today the ends of the earth celebrate and hymn Thee, O All-praised One—for before Thy birth Thou wast Virgin, and after Thy birth Thou didst remain incorrupt, Mother of the Word of life. Today Zacharias rejoices in the temple, receiving Thee, O Lady, and the Holy of Holies exults, receiving Thee—the source of our life. Wherefore we also cry aloud unto Thee in song: entreat Thy Son and God on our behalf, that He grant us great mercy.
At Great Vespers, at the Litia, stikhera, tone 1:
Let heaven above rejoice this day, and let the clouds shower gladness at the exceedingly glorious majesty of our God—for lo, the Door that looketh toward the East, born of a barren woman according to promise, and sanctified unto God as His dwelling place, is this day brought into the temple as a pure offering. Let David rejoice and strike the harp, saying: “Virgins shall be brought unto the King after Her; Her companions shall be brought into the tabernacle of God, into His inner sanctuary, to be reared in the dwelling place of Him who was born incorruptibly before the ages from the Father—for the salvation of our souls.”