The Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women
On this day—the third Sunday after Pascha—the Church commemorates the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, the disciples of Christ who were the first to be deemed worthy to receive the news of the Resurrection of their Divine Teacher. Under cover of night, unafraid of the armed guard, they went to anoint with spices His much-suffering body, which had been laid in a tomb in the midst of the Garden of Gethsemane.
Along with the Myrrh-Bearing Women, the Church also remembers two secret disciples of Christ: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Both men, members of the Jewish ruling class, did not openly follow Christ during His public ministry as the apostles did. Of Nicodemus, it is said only that he came to Jesus by night to say, “Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:2). Yet when the hour of trial and sorrow came, and the apostles fled in fear to hide from the soldiers and hostile Jews—and only John remained at the foot of the Cross, comforting and supporting the Lord’s afflicted Mother—then Joseph and Nicodemus were not afraid to manifest their love for the Crucified One through action. It was they who took care of the removal of Christ’s body from the cross and His burial.
Joseph, as the Evangelist Luke tells us, was “a counsellor, a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;)… who also himself waited for the kingdom of God” (Luke 23:50–51). He went to Pilate and asked permission to take the body and lay it in a tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock for himself. When Pilate learned that Jesus was already dead, he gave orders for the body to be released. Then Joseph—presumably with the help of his servants—took the body down from the cross. “And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night,” adds the Evangelist John, “and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight” (John 19:39). (One Roman pound—litra—was over 300 grams, so a hundred litra was no less than 30 kilograms; Nicodemus would have needed a servant and a donkey or mule to carry it. —Ed.) “Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid” (John 19:40–41). This took place on Friday evening. And on Saturday, as the Evangelist Matthew records, “the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:62–64). Thus a guard was stationed at the tomb.
Before dawn on the first day of the week, a group of devout women, disciples of Christ, came to the tomb bearing spices with which they intended to anoint the Lord’s body, which had been wrapped in a shroud. Seven of them are named in the Gospels, but it is likely there were more. St. John Chrysostom and a number of other Church Fathers believe that the “Mary, the mother of James the less and of Joses” mentioned among the myrrh-bearers (Mark 15:40) refers to the Most Holy Mother of God herself. The women found the tomb empty. At that moment, wondrous angelic appearances took place, which are described—complementing one another—by all four Evangelists.
Church Tradition tells us that after the Resurrection of Christ, Joseph, for his brave and loving act of devotion, was imprisoned by the elders and scribes. But Christ appeared to him and miraculously delivered him—just as He would later free the Apostle Peter from his chains. The Myrrh-Bearing Women, inspired and strengthened in faith by all they had seen and heard at the Lord’s tomb, shared in the apostolic work of preaching the Gospel. Tradition says that St. Mary Magdalene brought the glad tidings even as far as Rome. Mary and Martha, the sisters of the righteous Lazarus—also counted among the myrrh-bearers—likewise undertook distant journeys for the sake of the Lord’s Word.
Thus, the righteous Joseph and Nicodemus are the primary witnesses of the Lord’s burial, and the Myrrh-Bearing Women are the first witnesses of His Resurrection—two unshakable truths of our faith, proclaiming that the incarnate Son of God truly endured death like all mankind for the salvation of the world, and truly rose again, beginning the future resurrection of all the dead. Faith in Christ’s Resurrection is the very heart of our hope, and if it were false, Christians would be the most miserable of all people on earth. “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God…” writes the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:14–15). Therefore the Lord, in order to confirm His disciples even more in this saving truth, “showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
At that time, the hearts of the disciples, having found again their Divine Teacher, were filled with unearthly joy. It was as though that sorrowful day and hour never occurred—the moment when they had all forsaken the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane and fled in fear at the sight of the armed soldiers and the crowd with clubs. Yet the women disciples, fearing neither man nor circumstance, stood by the Cross of the Savior together with His Mother, sharing in Her grief. In those days, full of horror and anguish, when the prophetic words were fulfilled—“I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7)—remaining faithful to the Shepherd might have seemed madness. The women showed this faithfulness not because they were wiser or braver than the apostles who fled and hid, but simply by an instinctive motion of the heart, at a time when nothing visible gave hope that such loyalty would be vindicated.
In the myrrh-bearing women was fulfilled what the Apostle Paul would later write: “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? […] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty…” (1 Corinthians 1:19–20, 27). Therefore, to them was granted the honor of first hearing and bringing to the apostles the news of Christ’s Resurrection. Their example remains forever in the Church’s memory, teaching future generations of Christians that none should think highly of himself, but always remember that love is higher than wisdom and above all natural and spiritual gifts.
In the 20th century, the feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women was destined to shine forth with new radiance in the history of our ancient Orthodox Church of Christ. In 1905, after two and a half centuries of persecution, when the Old Believers were granted spiritual freedom and the altars of the churches at the Rogozhskoye Cemetery were unsealed, the Holy Council of our Church resolved to commemorate this event with a Paschal moleben and a procession on Thomas Sunday. In the 1930s, during the height of anti-religious persecution and repression, the solemn celebration of this day became nearly impossible. But after the Great Patriotic War, when the persecution eased somewhat, the former celebration was revived—now held on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. Though this change was made purely for practical reasons, it revealed a vivid symbol. For it is undeniable that in the times of great trials for our homeland and Church, it was primarily simple women who kept the lamp of faith burning—by their lives repeating the very feat of the Gospel myrrh-bearers. And on this day, it is fitting for new generations—who did not bear the weight that their mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers once carried—to especially honor, with grateful prayer, their faith, endurance, and labors.
At Vespers, Stikhera at the Stichovnye, Glory… Tone 5:
Joseph, with Nicodemus, took Thee down from the Tree, O Thou who art clothed in light as with a garment. Seeing Thee dead, naked, and unburied, he was moved to sorrow and took up a mournful lamentation, weeping and saying: “Woe is me, sweetest Jesus! A little while ago, the sun beheld Thee hanging on the Cross and wrapped itself in darkness; the earth quaked in fear, and the veil of the Temple was rent. But now I behold Thee, who willingly endured death for my sake. How shall I bury Thee, my God? With what linen shall I shroud Thee? With what hands shall I touch Thy most pure Body? What songs shall I sing for Thy departure, O Compassionate One? I magnify Thy Passion, I sing praises to Thy Burial and Thy Resurrection, crying out: O Lord, glory be to Thee!”
Stikhera at “Lord, I have cried,” Tone 2:
The myrrh-bearing women, very early in the morning, taking sweet spices, came unto the tomb of the Lord. And finding what they did not expect, they were confused and said among themselves in fear concerning the stone: “Who hath rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?” Then they said to one another: “Where are the seals of the tomb? Where is the guard of Pilate? Where is the secure watch?” But suddenly there appeared before the astonished women an Angel, gleaming with light, who said to them: “Why seek ye the Living among the dead? He who hath raised the race of mankind is not here. Christ our God is risen from the dead, being all-powerful, granting incorruption and life to all, and light and great mercy.”