Slide 1
Legend
According to legend, on this day an army of ancient Rus led by Askold besieged the center of Orthodoxy — trying to capture Constantinople city. The inhabitants of the capital of Byzantium turned to the Mother of God in fervent prayer for salvation. And the Mother of God, according to stories, appeared before people and covered them with her veil (omophorus). After that, the enemies could no longer see these people.
As some sources indicate, the shocked Askold and his companions accepted holy baptism and became Christians.
According to another version, the inspiration for the holiday was a vision of Andrew the Fool during the siege of Constantinople by the Agarian troops. The Holy Mother of God appeared to the inhabitants of the city in the temple and took them under her protection. After that, the enemy troops retreated, and the city was saved.
Slide 2
Variant of the legend with the Saracens (as told by Dimitry Rostovskyi)
In 910, under Emperor Leo the Wise and Patriarch Macarius, the Byzantine Empire waged war with the Muslim Saracens (in a number of sources — with the Rus' tribes) and Constantinople was in danger.
On Sunday, October 14, during the all-night service, when the "Vlacherna Church" was filled with those praying, Saint "Andrew, the fool for Christ's sake" (Andrew, who witnessed this miracle, was a Slav, was captured in his youth and was sold into slavery in Constantinople to a local resident Feognost), at four o'clock in the morning, raising his eyes to heaven, he saw the Most Holy Mother of God walking through the air, illuminated by heavenly light and surrounded by angels and a host of saints (the Mother of God was accompanied by John the Baptist and John the Theologian).
Dimitrii Rostovsky reports the following details about the miraculous phenomenon:
When St. Andrew and Epiphanius contemplated this wonderful vision, the Mother of God prayed for a long time, shedding tears on Her God-revealing and Purifying face. Having finished the prayer here, she approached the throne and prayed for the people standing there. After finishing the prayer, she took off from Herself a large and terrible veil, shining like lightning , which She wore on Her Most Pure forehead, and, holding it with great solemnity in Her Most Pure hands, spread it over all the standing people. Surprised, these men looked for quite a long time at this veil spread over the people, and the "glory of the Lord" shining like lightning. And as long as the Most Holy Mother of God was there, the veil was visible; and when She left, it also became invisible. But taking him with her, She left grace to those who were there.
Slide 3
The celebration of the Feast of the Intercession has a very deep history in Ukraine. Although the holiday was introduced since the baptism of Russia, the special veneration of the Protection of the Mother of God dates back to the 12th century, under Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who built the Church of the Intercession — on the Nerl River near his country castle Bogolyubov. The first monasteries in honor of the Protection of the Mother of God arose in Northern Russia — Zverin Pokrovsky in Novgorod (12th century) and Pokrovsky in Suzdal (1364). On the territory of Ukraine, the oldest church dedicated to the Holy Intercession is the church in the village of Sutkivtsi, Khmelnytskyi region, built in 1467 р. like a fortress
Feast of the Intercession — an ancient Ukrainian holiday
A well-known sign of Pokrov is that it covers the ground with either leaves or snow.
Before the Intercession, the period of matchmaking and preparations for weddings, which began after the First Immaculate Conception, ended.
By the beginning of October, all the most important rural works on the land (including sowing of winter crops) will be completed —the agricultural cycle of works is completed. Harvested harvest (abundance) and more or less free time provide an opportunity for weddings. This is the most auspicious time for wedding festivities, the beginning of evening parties. This is where the autumn wedding weeks begin. This holiday is the patron saint of weddings, the beginning of the matchmaking and wedding season, which ended two weeks before Philip's Lent. Later, under the influence of Christianity, it took the form of the fact that girls who wanted to get married this year had to visit the Holy Intercession in the church and pray: "Holy Intercession, cover my head", "Mother Intercession, cover the raw Mother Earth and me young", "Holy Mother, Intercessor, cover my little head, even with a rag, so that I do not remain a virgin."
And in Podilla, the girls said: "Holy Mother, Protectress, wrap my head, whether in a piece or in a bundle —I will not torment this girl!"
There was even a sign: if it snows on Pokrov —there will be many weddings.
Snow gives a reason to compare a snow cover with a wedding veil, and since at this time the feast of the Most Holy Theotokos is deliberately appointed, then these comparisons are extended to her as well.
Among many peoples, in particular among the Slavs, the veil (veil) was considered a very important wedding decoration, and generally served as a sign of marriage. According to the descriptions of the Arabic writer XII st. it is said that if someone liked a girl, he put a veil over her head and she had to become his wife (more precisely, it was probably a marriage proposal). And even now we know that the wedding veil is still widely represented in the wedding ceremony.
As you know, after marriage, the girl was already a young woman and had to cover her head with a cape or a scarf. Namitka is an ancient garment of married women, which was tied around the head. Already after the proposal, the bride's head was covered with a scarf. For girls, Intercession is the biggest holiday: for young people, the season of evening parties began, and for hosts , it was the period of weddings, and the young men gladly participated in wedding ceremonies.
Cossacks believed that the Holy Intercession protected them, and they considered the Most Holy Mother of God to be their intercessor and patroness. In Zaporizhzhia, the Cossacks had a church of the Holy Intercession. In the Cossack Duma about Samiyl Kishka, the following is sung:
And silver and gold were soldered into three parts:
The first part was taken, imposed on churches,
On Saint Mezhygorsk Savior,
To the Terekthemirovsky Monastery,
On the holy Sichova Pokrovya they gave -
Who built with an ancient Cossack treasure,
So that for them, getting up and lying down,
They begged the merciful God.
Oleksa Voropai, a well-known researcher of the customs of the Ukrainian people, wrote that after the destruction of Zaporizhzhya Sich in 1775, the Cossacks who emigrated across the Danube took with them the image of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God.
The Cossacks believed so much in the power of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God and so sincerely and solemnly celebrated it during the feast of Intercession in Ukraine also of Cossack content and received a second name - Cossack Protection. Since recently, the holiday of Intercession in Ukraine is also celebrated as the day of the Ukrainian Cossacks.