The Intercession of the Theotokos or the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, known in Church Slavonic as Pokrov (Покровъ, "protection"), and in Greek as Sképē (Σκέπη), is a feast of the Mother of God celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches. The feast celebrates the protection afforded the faithful through the intercessions of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary). In Russia it is celebrated as the most important solemnity after the Twelve Great Feasts. The feast is commemorated in Eastern Orthodoxy as a whole, but by no means as fervently as it is in Russia and Ukraine.
The Russian word Pokrov, like the Greek Skepê has a complex meaning. First of all, it refers to a cloak or shroud, but it also means protection or intercession. For this reason, the name of the feast is variously translated as the Veil of Our Lady, the Protecting Veil of the Theotokos, the Protection of the Theotokos, or the Intercession of the Theotokos. It is often translated as Feast of the Intercession.
Read more about Intercession Of The Theotokos: Tradition, Feast and Icon, Churches Dedicated To Pokrov
Famous quotes containing the word intercession:
“I cannot exaggerate the waste of the President’s time and the consumption of his nervous vitality involved in listening to congressmen’s intercession as to local appointments. Why should the President have to have his time taken up in a discussion over ... who shall be the postmistress of Devil’s Lake, in North Dakota? How should he be able to know ... who is best fitted to fill such a place?”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)