On 14 October 2021 the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Samarkand celebrated its patronal feast, the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos!
On the eve of the feast a solemn All-Night Vigil was served in the church.
On the morning of the feast a festal Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the church.
The Divine Liturgy was led by the dean of the Samarkand Deanery and rector of the Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny.
...The wondrous appearance of the Mother of God took place in the middle of the 10th century in Constantinople, in the Blachernae church, where the robe of the Mother of God, Her head covering (maphorion) and part of Her belt, brought from Palestine in the 5th century, were kept.
On a Sunday, 14 October, during the All-Night Vigil, when the church was filled with worshippers, St. Andrew the Fool-for-Christ, at the fourth hour of the night, lifting his eyes to heaven, saw our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos walking through the air, illumined with heavenly light and surrounded by angels and a host of saints. St. John the Baptist of the Lord and the holy Apostle John the Theologian accompanied the Queen of Heaven.
Kneeling, the Most Holy Virgin began to pray with tears for Christians and remained in prayer for a long time; then, approaching the altar table, She continued Her prayer, and when She had finished it, She took the veil from Her head and spread it over the people praying in the church, protecting them from enemies visible and invisible.
The Most Holy Lady shone with heavenly glory, and the veil in Her hands gleamed "more brightly than the rays of the sun."
The Most Blessed Theotokos asked the Lord Jesus Christ to accept the prayers of all people who call upon His Most Holy Name and have recourse to Her intercession.
"O Heavenly King," said the All-Immaculate Queen, standing in the air with the angels in prayer, "accept every person who prays to Thee and calls upon My name for help, that he may not depart from My presence empty and unheard"...
The feast was eagerly awaited, so that on this special day of the Most Holy Virgin's mercy to the human race the faithful might offer their fervent prayers to Her who is more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.
After the Divine Liturgy the glorification was sung before the icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The Protection is one of the best-loved feasts of the Russian people.
As the elder of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, Archimandrite John (Krestiankin), said:
"The sovereign Protection of the Mother of God has covered the whole Christian race for all time. Orthodox Russia is the portion of the Most Holy Theotokos. She revealed Herself in it to those saints whose hearts knew no shadow of vice: Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov and others. She visited long-suffering Russia, ever faithful to God, through Her many icons, by them showing the Russian people Her Protection. The Mother of God has always protected and shown mercy to Russia; She chastised it and again returned Her love to the people who, for their sins, passed through suffering and cleansed their hearts by repentance and suffering. But in our present grievous time, when the earth has grown old and is burdened with unbelief, lawlessness and ignorance of God's commandments, has not our fervent Intercessor departed from us, jealous for the glory of Her Son and God? No, that cannot be. To a mother a child in distress is all the dearer. And as long as even a little flock in Russia keeps faith with the precepts of Christ and hope in the intercession of the Mother of God, we shall not perish. And may our believing heart, which knows the great power of the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, always fall down at Her most pure feet with its sighs, needs and sorrows, in all trials, in moments of weeping over sins, and in joy, crying out:
"Rejoice, our Joy; cover us from every evil with Thy precious Omophorion!"
