August 15 (feast day of the Dormition of the Theotokos)

 Happy Name Day on Tuesday, August 15 (feast day of the Dormition of the Theotokos) to my daughter Mara, my nieces, and all those relatives and friends named Maria and its derivatives (Panagiota (is), Despina, etc.) named after the Panayia. To my mother Maria Vorila Katsou who has given so much to me and many others may your memory be eternal.

The photos are from the Cathedral Church of the Panayia in the village of Agorgiani, next to Georgitsi where I was born in Lakedaimonia in the Northern Taygetos Mountains in the Epanou Riza/ upper highlands, and known for many years for its miracle producing icons. When young due to a oath by my mother based on a prayer to the Panayia I was consecrated in the original smaller church (2nd photo) as a kalogeraki /child monk for a year and dressed in black and not cutting my hair, etc.. This practice has been long gone in Hellas.

Kimisis Tis Theotokou/ Dormition/The Falling Asleep (Death in the West) of the Mother of God , feast day on August 15 is probably the second most important Orthodox holiday traditionally after Easter and Holy Week. The feast goes back to the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.) although there is evidence of a pre-existing feast of the Virgin Mary's Dormition. Early in Christianity August 15 was called the "day of Mary the Mother of God' but mainly devoted to her memory and not her Dormition. But gradually and by the 6th Century August 15 had been established by custom and decree (by Byzantine Emperor Mauricius) as the feast of her Dormition. Later the same date was adopted by the West and became the preeminent date in her honor.

In the West was formulated after centuries the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception (formally proclaimed in 1854) or that the Virgin Mary from conception was free from all stain of original sin, a concept rejected by Orthodox Christians who only believe that of Christ and no one else. Later the West (formally in 1950) proclaimed the doctrine of Assumption or to the effect that the Virgin Mary was bodily taken into heaven at the time of her death. Again like the concept of Immaculate Conception the Orthodox do not accept either of these doctrines.

Ilias I. Katsos