Orthodox Klin. Patronal feast day in the church in honor of the myrrh-bearing women

On April 28 and 29, 2012, celebrations dedicated to the Week of St. Saints were held at Rogozhsky. myrrh-bearing women. This celebration has become especially majestic since the liberation of the Old Believers from persecution after Emperor Nicholas II signed the Decree “On Strengthening the Principles of Tolerance” in 1905; the holiday became a symbol of the triumphant Church.

Today, not only Old Believers of Moscow and the Moscow region take part in it, but also numerous pilgrims from almost all regions of Russia, countries near and far abroad. This year about two hundred and fifty of them arrived. Especially a lot of young people of all ages come to this holiday.

During the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, His Eminence Metropolitan Cornelius was concelebrated by Bishop Siluyan of Novosibirsk and All Siberia, Bishop Evmeniy of Chisinau and All Moldavia, Bishop Euthymius of Kazan-Vyatka, more than thirty priests and six deacons. On this holiday, priest Alexey Mikheev, rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Ustyanova, was elevated to archpriest by the icon of the Moscow diocese.

The lengthy service with a solemn meeting of the metropolitan, his cathedral vestments, a prayer service and a procession of the cross ended at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Representatives of other faiths, numerous journalists and residents of the South-Eastern district of Moscow arrived to observe the traditionally solemn Old Believer religious procession. At the end of the service, the priesthood and guests proceeded to the Church of the Nativity of Christ for a festive meal.

In the afternoon of Sunday, the folk crafts fair began. Due to the postponement of holidays to May holidays it only worked on April 29th. The organizers of the fair, the Cossacks of the Rogozhskaya village, took care not only of a wide range of goods presented, but also of a cultural program: scooter riding was organized for children, and lunch in the field kitchen was organized for everyone.

Six groups took part in what has already become a traditional evening of spiritual chants: the Moscow men's cathedral choir, the choir of the Moscow Theological School, the Choir of Old Believer parishes of Siberia, men's and women's groups from the Ligovskaya community of St. Petersburg and men's, women's and children's groups from the parish of Rzhev .

In total, more than seventy choristers were involved. The host of the evening, Protodeacon Ioann Chunin, noted that, unlike in previous years, this year the choir members selected the repertoire randomly, not limiting themselves to a clearly defined theme. Many Easter chants were sung, both in traditional chants familiar to everyone, and in rare ones - taken from handwritten hook books. The highlight of the evening was the performance of the children's group of the Intercession Church in Rzhev.

Children aged 6 to 13 years old sang independently and confidently held the pointer. Their clear, harmonious singing appealed to non-Old Believers who were interested in ancient chants - young clergy members from Rzhev were invited to International festival ancient Orthodox culture to Estonia, where “adult” choirs of the parishes of the Novosibirsk diocese and Nizhny Novgorod had previously visited.

After dinner, a theme evening was held in the assembly hall of the religious school. The subject of discussion this time was the problems of communication between young people and non-believers of other faiths. The hosts of the evening, Gleb Chistyakov and Roman Mayorov, during the discussion tried to identify whether young Christians experience difficulties in communicating with “secular” and non-religious peers, whether they have to talk about their faith, what opportunities for preaching they use. The topic of prayer and fasting for Christians who are permanently employed in secular institutions was also discussed.

On Monday, more than a hundred guests who arrived for the holiday took a bus trip to places, visited the places of military glory of the War of 1812, visited the Borodino field and the city of Maloyaroslavets, as well as the Pafnutyev-Borovsky monastery and an abandoned Old Believer temple in the village of Porechye.

On the Borodino field - today it is rural settlement Borodinskoye, Mozhaisk district, Moscow region - one of the oldest museums based on battlefields is located. The trip participants saw recreated redoubts, monuments to Russian generals, and a monument to the French who fell in the Battle of Borodino.

Around noon, the buses arrived in Borovsk for an excursion to the Pafnutev-Borovsky Monastery. For Old Believers, the Pafnutev-Borovsky Monastery is a place of special memory. Archpriest Avvakum was imprisoned here. The pilgrims looked at the “stone bag” - a small low room where the confessor was starved.

In Maloyaroslavets, Fr. joined the excursion. John Kurbatsky, he told the pilgrims about memorable places cities associated with the War of 1812, and escorted them to Porechye. In this once Old Believer village, a five-domed temple of amazing architectural beauty has been preserved. In 1911, it was consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, then closed by the Soviet authorities and came to us in a dilapidated state.

The granddaughter of a priest who served here, repressed in the 30s, at the request of Fr. Ioanna Kurbatsky unlocked the doors. Having difficulty positioning themselves between the cracks of the floor, the pilgrims from Moscow sang Easter stichera. After dinner and rest near the walls of the temple, the excursionists returned to Moscow.

On Tuesday, May 1, after the midnight office in the church-bell tower of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a trip to the religious procession was organized for young people in the village. Davydovo. Towards the end of the liturgy at the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a bus with sixty pilgrims arrived at the church gates. With the singing of the Easter prayer, the procession set off along the route that had already been developed over five years through the villages of Gora, Elizarovo, Lyakhovo. Led by procession walked the rector of the temple with. Davydov, Priest John Gusev, Priest Vasily Terentyev, Priest Mikhail Vitushkin, Priest Alexander Maslov. At two o'clock in the afternoon the worshipers returned to Davydovo, where a festive meal took place.

On the third Sunday after Easter, the Orthodox world celebrates the day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women.

They are the ones simple women who followed Christ throughout His entire life, remained next to Him during His death on the cross, they were the first, taking precious oil, to come to the Holy Sepulcher to anoint the body of the Teacher, and they were the first to learn about His Resurrection from the dead and this The good news was brought to the apostles. This day is also considered Orthodox Women's Day. The Church glorifies all Christian women because, continuing the path of the holy myrrh-bearing women, they follow Christ in their lives.

This year the celebration fell on May 15th. It is probably no coincidence that May 15 is also celebrated as International Family Day, because who are the myrrh-bearing wives in everyday life? Of course, loving wives, caring mothers and homemakers.

I went to the Divine Liturgy on the Nativity of Christ. For the temple, the holiday is a patronal holiday, since the lower chapel of the temple is consecrated in honor of the holy myrrh-bearing women. Much later, already sitting at the bus stop waiting for the return tram, I got into a conversation with a parishioner and learned the story of the consecration of the chapel. just being built and standing without a roof, it began to rain heavily. To prevent the lower aisle from flooding, grandmothers-parishioners scooped water out of it with their hands. Then, when they came up for the blessing, the priest saw that their hands were bruised. Such a simple feat with so much love in it. Then it was decided to name the chapel in honor of the holy myrrh-bearing women.

I enter the temple courtyard. The morning sun lights up the golden domes, the restless warm wind strives to tear off my scarf. Nature itself today strives to create a festive mood. Throughout the entire territory there are well-groomed flower beds, lush flowering bushes, and there is not a blade of grass on the neatly swept paths. But all this is the efforts of women helping at the temple. From such beauty, the heart begins to fill with joy. I smile and hurry to the lower aisle - the early liturgy is just ending there. The parishioners receive communion, and all the women are given greeting cards at the end of the service. Next is the late liturgy. It is already performed in the upper temple. The festive service is led by the rector, Archpriest Alexander Ignatov. There are a lot of people - there is no room for an apple to fall. My attention is drawn to a thin girl of about ten years old, standing slightly to the side and in front of me. So small, fragile, but so specially beautiful and recklessly believing. In her every movement one can already see that feminine principle, that love and faith that personify the myrrh-bearing women. If only I could keep it...

Valentina Lashina: “If only everyone knew that real women’s day is the day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, and not the eighth of March! Understanding the essence of the holiday is the most important thing. The purpose of a woman is to follow Christ, then everything will work out.”

Svetlana Babenko: “The holiday is very close to us, because, as the priest said, it is important to spread the news about Christ. We help a lot at the church, and for the holiday we always decorate and congratulate the women parishioners. And, of course, it was very pleasant to receive a gift from the hands of the priest.”

Natalya Tkachuk: “I’m new to Orthodoxy; I learned about the holiday last year. After reading about the roots of the holiday, which is celebrated on March 8th, I was at a loss. After all, it is being imposed on us. So I was glad to find out that there is Orthodox holiday, celebrating real women.”

Tatyana Zhigalkina: “I believe that this holiday is the personification of all Russian women, because we absorb the love of God with our mother’s milk. I am glad that at the end of my life both I and my children are in the temple. Although they say that the modern generation is no good, the process of spiritualizing Russia is underway. A completely new, clean country is being formed. All the dirt that was imposed on us will fall away. Russia will prosper and develop. All our Russian women will be like myrrh-bearers - they will serve God and family.”

Then the parishioners head to the backyard of the temple - here it is called a farmstead. On the occasion of the patronal feast day, a treat was organized on the farm. At this time, children are given a ride on harnessed horses. Everywhere there is cheerful laughter, kind smiles and a joyful mood. Here comes Father Alexander, who quickly changed his festive attire to everyday ones. We step aside from the already fairly hot sun and talk quietly.

Father, tell us in more detail how the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women differs for Orthodox Christians from International Women’s Day?

- The Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women is not the eighth of March for all women. For those who today do not think about God, do not preserve moral or spiritual traditions, and do not even visit temples, this is not their holiday. This is a holiday of those who love the Risen Christ, bear their difficult female cross and with this sacrificial service to God and their neighbors set an example of faith, hope and love. If a woman lives without God, without faith, without true love, and seeks only sinful, passionate love, then she is unlikely to be happy about this holiday. The purpose of today's celebration is to make those who do not know the way to the temple, accidentally find out or look into it, think: why is this not my holiday? Maybe it’s time for me to rise to God? The purpose of the holiday is not only to congratulate all believing women, mothers, wives, sisters, but also through the celebration of this event to invite to the joys of faith all women who are still on the path to the light of Christ's Truth.

IN modern world traditional values ​​for women (family and children) fade into the background. The main thing is often a career and the desire to achieve something in terms of personal ambitions. How do you feel about this?

Women who come in and understand that material assets- this is not the main thing, but the main thing is faith, love and service to others, they shun the aspirations of becoming a businesswoman. A person must see the light of faith, and then, no matter who he becomes, in any job, he can maintain faith and morality. Let it be a woman - a journalist or a weaver, an engineer or the director of an enterprise; there is nothing reprehensible in production growth. The main thing is that this does not awaken a sense of pride in a person - this damages the person’s soul and deprives him of true happiness. And if a person improves and learns, then let him grow, but remain a Christian inside. And the woman is a myrrh-bearer, loving the Lord with all her heart, while always remaining a faithful wife to her husband and a caring mother to her children.

How can a modern woman get closer to the ideal of myrrh-bearing women?

Modern myrrh-bearers strive, as in ancient times, to become a crown of blessing for their husband. Women who believe in Christ find peace in their hearts and bring Gospel peace and joy about the Risen Savior to their family and friends. They, by example of their virtuous life, continue the work of the first myrrh-bearers, bringing the love of Christ to everyone who lives and works next to them. A woman tries to support her husband in all his endeavors, inspires him, prays to God for her husband, so that the Lord Himself will help him reveal all his best qualities and abilities. Modern mothers living in marriage, and even more so various reasons those left without the care of a husband sometimes have to bear a heavy cross. They earn their own living, run the household, raise children, take care of relatives, and at the same time find the strength to maintain moral purity and femininity. This is the feat of modern myrrh-bearing women, for which the All-Seeing Lord will never abandon them.

There is a monument to unborn babies in the courtyard of your temple. How do you feel about baby boxes and how do you explain the contradiction: supporters of baby boxes are also supporters of abortion rights?

Firstly, there really are cases when people, if they can be called people, do not like children, do not want them, and they very actively support any initiative to get rid of children, even through baby boxes. It is a disaster in our society that boxes are made for children to be thrown into. This is the absence, first of all, of love. When love becomes scarce in the world, justice enters the world, wrote St. Nicholas of Serbia. When justice weakens, law replaces it. If a mother loves her child, she will never give him up. And if he doesn’t love him, she will fairly feed him, clothe him, and raise him. And if both love and justice weaken, then she strives to get rid of the child, without feeling any responsibility or remorse. This is now being promoted. I believe that this tragedy of society must be fought, not spread. Pro-lifers are people who live only for the flesh, for sensual pleasures and pleasures, these are those who do not love God, do not love light, but have loved darkness more. Today it is very important to remind with the monument “Angel of Unborn Babies” about the millions of babies lost in the wombs of women. On the pedestal of the monument there is a call for repentance and the inadmissibility of abortion. But many women do not consider abortion a sin. They raised money for the monument all over Russia, they wanted to install it in the botanical garden, but abortion supporters turned to state power, and we were advised not to put it there. We are not going into conflict, so we erected a monument in the courtyard of the temple, but this is a temporary location for now.

And finally, what would you like? modern women on this holiday?

In our turbulent times, I would like to wish with all my heart to all women - mothers, wives, sisters, first of all, peace and family well-being. May their life, like the life of the holy myrrh-bearing women, become an effective preaching of the Risen Christ, the Giver of Life. Christ is Risen!

On April 30, the third Sunday after Easter, the Church celebrates the memory of the holy myrrh-bearing women who followed Christ and were the first to learn about His resurrection.

The night before, April 29, priest Sergiy Chistyakov performed all-night vigil in the Church of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, and on the day of the holiday, April 30, the Divine Liturgy.

At the end of the service, Father Sergius congratulated all parishioners on Sunday and the feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. In his sermon, Father Sergius spoke about the history of the spiritual feat of the myrrh-bearing women and drew attention to the feat that women carried out through their service to Christ.

The Church includes among the myrrh-bearing women several pious women mentioned in the Gospel: “Mary Magdalene, Mary of Jacob, Salome, Joanna and others with them.” These women persistently followed Christ during His preaching of the Gospel along with the apostles, and later followed Him to the place of crucifixion at Calvary. They were witnesses of Christ's suffering on the cross. On the third day after the crucifixion, Sunday morning, the myrrh-bearing women came to the tomb of Christ to, according to tradition, anoint His body with fragrant oil - myrrh.

When the women came to the tomb, they discovered that the stone that covered the entrance to the cave had been thrown away, the burial bed was empty, and an angel was sitting on its edge. The messenger of God informed the women that the Savior had risen, after which they hurried to the city to tell the apostles about this. With the apostles John and Peter, one of the holy women, Mary Magdalene, returned to the cave. Having found neither Christ nor the angel, the apostles soon left in bewilderment, but Mary remained at the tomb. Suddenly the risen Lord appeared to her. Christ commanded to testify about His resurrection, which Mary did, reaching the Roman Emperor Tiberius with this news.

The Orthodox Church honors many Christian wives as saints. We see their images on the icons - the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia, the holy venerable Mary of Egypt and many, many other holy martyrs and saints, the righteous and blessed, equal to the apostles and confessors.
Every woman is a “myrrh-bearer” in her life - she brings peace to her neighbors, her family, home, takes care of children, is a support for her husband. Therefore, the Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women is a holiday for every Orthodox Christian - “Orthodox Women’s Day.”

What date is Orthodox Women's Day (Day of the Myrrh-Bearing Women) celebrated? You will know about it if you read this article on the portal “Orthodoxy and Peace”.

In the third week (in church calendar Sunday is called a week) after Easter our Church glorifies the feat of: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, Salome, Joanna, Martha and Mary, Susanna and others.

These are the same women who witnessed the death of the Savior on the cross, who saw how the sun darkened, the earth shook, stones crumbled, and many righteous people rose from the dead when Jesus Christ was crucified and died on the cross. These are the same women in whose houses the Divine Teacher visited because of their love for Him, who followed Him to Golgotha ​​and did not leave the cross, despite the malice of the scribes and elders of the Jews, and the atrocities of the soldiers. These are the same women who, loving Christ with pure, holy love, decided to go in the dark to the Holy Sepulcher, by the grace of God overcoming the horror that made the apostles run away in fear, hide behind closed doors, and forget about their discipleship duty.

Weak, fearful women, by the miracle of faith, grow before our eyes into evangelist wives, giving us an image of courageous and selfless service to God. It was to these women that the Lord first appeared, and then to Peter and the other disciples. Before anyone else, before any man in the world, they learned about the Resurrection. And having learned, they became the first and powerful preachers, began to serve Him in a new, higher - apostolic calling, and carried the news of the Resurrection of Christ. Well, aren’t SUCH women worthy of our memory, admiration and imitation?

Why do all the evangelists pay so much attention to the coming of the myrrh-bearers to the Holy Sepulcher, and two of them add a story about how Mary Magdalene was chosen to be the first to see the Risen One? After all, Christ did not choose these women and did not call them to follow Him, like the apostles and 70 disciples? They themselves followed Him as their Savior and Son of God, despite His visible poverty, simplicity and the obvious hostility of the high priests towards Him.

Imagine what these women must have experienced, standing at the Cross of the Savior and seeing all the shame, horror and, finally, the death of their beloved Teacher?! When the Son of God gave up the ghost, they hurried home to prepare spices and ointment, while Mary Magdalene and Mary of Josiah watched where Jesus' body was laid in the tomb. They left only after complete darkness had fallen, so that before dawn they would come to the tomb again.

“And behold, more disciples - apostles! - remained at a loss, Peter himself bitterly mourned his renunciation, but the women were already hurrying to the Teacher’s tomb. Isn’t fidelity the highest Christian virtue? When the word “Christians” was not yet used, they were called “faithful.” Liturgy of the Faithful. One of the famous ascetic fathers told his monks that in last times There will be saints, and their glory will surpass the glory of all those who came before, because there will be no signs and wonders then, but they will remain faithful. How many feats of fidelity have been accomplished by good Christian women over the centuries of the history of the Church!” – writes historian Vladimir Makhnach.

Sin came into the world with woman. She was the first to be tempted and tempted her husband to fall away from the will of God. But the Savior was born from the Virgin. He had a Mother. To the remark of the iconoclast Tsar Theophilos: “A lot of evil has come into the world from women,” nun Cassia, the future creator of the canon of Great Saturday “By the Wave of the Sea,” answered weightily: “Through a woman, the highest good came.”

The path of the myrrh-bearers was neither mysterious nor complicated, but quite simple and understandable to each of us. These women, so different in life, served and helped their beloved Teacher in everything, took care of His needs, made His way of the cross easier, and sympathized with all His trials and torments. We remember how Mary, sitting at the feet of the Savior, listened with all her being to His teaching about eternal life. And another Mary - Magdalene, anointing the Teacher’s feet with precious myrrh and wiping them with her long, wonderful hair, and how she cried on the way to Calvary, and then ran at dawn of the day of resurrection to the tomb of the tortured Jesus. And all of them, frightened by the disappearance of Christ from the tomb, sobbing in inexpressible despair and amazed by the appearance of the Crucified One on the way, when they hurried to inform the apostles about what had happened.

Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov) drew attention Soviet women: “They are all the more dear to us and close to our hearts because they were the same ordinary people, like us, with all human weaknesses and shortcomings, but through boundless love for Christ we were completely reborn, changed morally, achieved righteousness and justified every word of the teaching of the Son of God. With this rebirth, the holy myrrh-bearing women irrefutably proved to all the followers of Christ that the same saving rebirth is not only possible for them, but also obligatory, provided they are sincere, and that it is accomplished by the grace-filled power of the Gospel reproof, admonition, strengthening, inspiration or encouragement to spiritual deeds , and ascetics acquire the Kingdom of God, which is truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

They achieved sincerity through their love for Christ and through perfect repentance they were delivered and healed from passions. And they will forever serve the entire Christian world as an example of strong and living love, Christian women’s care for people, and a model of repentance!

For many centuries we have had an Orthodox folk women's holiday, kind, bright, associated with the most important event in human history, the Resurrection of Christ - the week of the holy myrrh-bearing women. Authentic International Women's Day. It is very important to revive it, because the calendar is the most precious asset of our culture. “Through the calendar, the cult influences culture, determines our life, the life of our country,” writes Vladimir Makhnach. – From the order of worship, from liturgical texts - to folk customs, to the upbringing of children, to the moral health of society. And we, undoubtedly, should preserve everything that remains of our calendar, and gradually restore what is lost, stolen, distorted... Our state, of course, is secular, but the country is Orthodox. And the state exists to serve society, the nation.”

In the meantime, let's congratulate all good Orthodox women on the Day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. And celebrate. And rejoice. This year, the 3rd week of Easter (that is, the third Sunday) falls on May 7th.

SUNDAY OF THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN. Sermon by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
2nd Sunday after Easter
May 15, 1974

It is not convictions or even deep conviction that can overcome the fear of death and shame, but only love can make a person faithful to the end, without limit, without looking back. Today we celebrate solemnly and reverently the memory of Saints Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and the Myrrh-Bearing Women.

Joseph and Nicodemus were secret disciples of Christ. While Christ preached to the crowds of people and was the object of hatred and increasing vindictiveness of His opponents, they timidly went to Him at night, when no one could notice their arrival. But, when suddenly Christ was taken, when He was captured and brought to death, crucified and killed, these two people, who during His life were timid disciples who did not decide their fate, suddenly, out of devotion, out of gratitude, out of love for Him , in amazement before Him, they turned out to be stronger than His closest disciples. They forgot fear and opened up to everyone when others were hiding. Joseph of Arimathea came to ask for the body of Jesus, Nicodemus came, who only dared to visit Him at night, and together with Joseph they buried their Teacher, whom they never abandoned again.

And the myrrh-bearing women, about whom we know so little: one of them was saved by Christ from eternal destruction, from demonic possession; others followed Him: the mother of James and John and others, listening, accepting His teaching, becoming new people, learning Christ’s only commandment about love, but about the kind of love that they did not know in their past, righteous or sinful, life. And they, too, were not afraid to stand at a distance - while Christ was dying on the cross and there was no one from His disciples except John. They were not afraid to come to anoint the body of Jesus, rejected by people, betrayed by His own, a criminal condemned by strangers.

Later, two disciples, when the news of the resurrection of Christ reached them, quickly hurried to the tomb; one was John, who stood at the cross, the one who became the Apostle and preacher of Divine love and whom Jesus loved; and Peter, who denied three times, about whom the myrrh-bearing women were told to “tell My disciples and Peter” - because others hid from fear, and Peter three times in front of everyone denied his Teacher and could no longer consider himself a disciple: And to him bring news of forgiveness...

And when this news reached him, how he rushed to the empty tomb to make sure that the Lord had risen and that everything was still possible, that it was not too late to repent, that it was not too late to return to Him, that it was not too late to become His faithful disciple again. And indeed, later, when he met Christ by the Sea of ​​Tiberias, Christ did not ask about his betrayal, but only about whether he still loved Him...

Love turned out to be stronger than fear and death, stronger than threats, stronger than horror of any danger, and where reason and conviction did not save the disciples from fear, love overcame everything... So throughout the entire history of the world, both pagan and Christian, love wins. Old Testament tells us that love, like death, is strong: it is the only thing that can fight death - and win.

And therefore, when we test our conscience in relation to Christ, in relation to our Church, in relation to those closest or most distant, to our homeland, we will ask ourselves the question not about our convictions, but about our love. And whoever has a heart so loving, so faithful and unshakable in love, as was in the timid Joseph, in the hidden disciple Nicodemus, in the quiet myrrh-bearing women, in the traitor Peter, in young John - whoever has such a heart will resist torture , against fear, against threats, he will remain faithful to his God, and his Church, and to his neighbors, and those far away, and to everyone.

And whoever has only strong convictions, but a cold heart, a heart that is not lit up with such love that can burn away any fear, know that he is still fragile, and ask God for this gift of weak, fragile, but so faithful, so invincible love . Amen.

You have read the article. Read also.

Two weeks after the day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, the memory of the holy myrrh-bearing women is celebrated.

Jesus Christ, together with His disciples, preached the Gospel message about the coming to earth of the Divine Messenger - the Messiah - and the approach of the Kingdom of God.

Daily preaching, constant conversations with the people, numerous healings and even the resurrection of the dead - and so on for all three and a half years of the preaching activity of the God-Man.

At the same time, Jesus Christ and the apostles did not care about their own food, clothing and lodging. But there were always caring hands and loving hearts that placed all this work on their shoulders. Most of these workers were women, whom the Church would later call myrrh-bearing wives.

There were such people in many cities and villages. They considered it a joy to take care of the earthly needs of the Christian community. However, at the same time, they seemed to be in the shadows and never showed off their work. But without their help, it would have been much more difficult for the Savior and his disciples to carry out their messianic ministry.

But now a terrible time has come for the Savior’s friends. Jesus, the Prophet of Galilee, Whom the disciples considered the Messiah and Christ, was arrested, unlawfully and dishonestly tried and handed over to a shameful and painful execution - crucifixion.

All close friends and apostles fled in horror and despair. Evangelist John writes: Standing at the cross of Jesus were His Mother and His Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.(John 19:25) and the young Apostle John (see John 19:26-27). These words are confirmed by church iconography, depicting all these people standing at the Cross of Christ.

The myrrh-bearing women with the Mother of Jesus Christ and the Apostle John the Theologian could not help the crucified Savior in any way; they silently sympathized with Him, deeply painfully and tragically experiencing what was happening. Their love for Jesus Christ was stronger than any fear.

The centurion standing opposite Him, seeing that He had given up the ghost after crying out like this, said: Truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women who looked from afar: among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and Josiah, and Salome, who even when He was in Galilee followed Him and served Him, and many others, together those who came with Him to Jerusalem(Mark 15:39-41).

Now they have nothing to expect from their Teacher. He died before their eyes. They were nearby and saw how He was laid dead in the tomb cave. In addition to the mortal grief for their beloved Teacher, they were saddened by the fact that they themselves did nothing for the burial, did not even bring the aromas required by custom for the funeral. We had to wait until Easter day was over. And already in the evening after Easter Saturday, when the shops opened, prepared incense and ointments(Luke 23:56).

All the Lord’s friends and disciples had to endure a terrible two nights and Saturday afternoon. On the one hand, an ardent love for Christ lived in them. On the other hand, they did not understand how to combine faith in the words of Christ that He was the Messiah with the inexorable fact of His death and burial. But the Messiah, according to popular belief, cannot die.

The love of the myrrh-bearing women turned out to be stronger and higher than all the arguments of reason. At night before dawn they go to the tomb cave, which was located next to Golgotha. In their hands they hold myrrh, an aromatic substance, which is why they began to be called “myrrh-bearing women.”

When the myrrh-bearing women came to the tomb, there were no traces of any warriors; they fled in panic at the appearance of the angels. The stone was rolled away and the coffin was empty. The angel pointed out to the women the empty shrouds: Don't be horrified. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, crucified; He has risen, He is not here. This is the place where He was laid. But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you(Mark 16:6-7).

And the myrrh-bearers became apostles for the apostles. They announced to Christ's closest disciples about His Resurrection, that is, they brought the news of His victory over death, sin and hell.

Feat greatest love to Christ of the myrrh-bearing women is that they not only created with their own hands and at their own expense the necessary conditions for Jesus Christ and His disciples to serve people, but also in the most tragic circumstances remained faithful to their Savior, even when, it would seem, there was nothing to hope for anymore. And such love is stronger than death, it conquers everything!

This ministry of myrrh-bearers has always been in the Church of Christ. And in the 20th century, such souls devoted to Christ maintained faith in persecution, saved churches from destruction, shrines from desecration. And when the time of rabid militant atheism ended, these women came to the ruins Orthodox churches and gave their strength and resources for their restoration. They warmed the frozen hearts of other people with their faith.

These women taught and teach their children and grandchildren the faith, restore and maintain churches, and sing praises to God at services.

We all need to learn such service to God, which is driven by genuine and fiery love - not for profit, but for fidelity.

The Church on Myrrh-Bearing Women Sunday glorifies women's service to God. This is a ministry of mercy, compassion and proclamation of faith in the Risen Lord with one’s very life. The Lord and His Church on earth always need such service, because the Savior expects from us a living response to His love.

We need to look into our own souls more often and examine our conscience in relation to Christ, His Holy Orthodox Church, to the people who live around us. Let's try to understand what motivates us in spiritual life. If this is ardent and fiery love, like that of the myrrh-bearing women, then such love for God will overcome all difficulties and trials on the path to immortality. If we only have strong convictions and a cold heart, then we must intensely ask the Lord for such love that can warm our heart so that Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Love is open to us.

Christ is Risen!

Truly Risen!

Reproduction on the Internet is permitted only if there is an active link to the site "".
Reproduction of site materials in printed publications (books, press) is permitted only if the source and author of the publication are indicated.