Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos

Life

When the Most Holy Virgin Mary reached the age of three years from her birth, her holy parents, Joachim and Anna, brought her from Nazareth to Jerusalem to present her to God for service according to their earlier promise. It is a three days' journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem; but going on a God-pleasing deed, that journey was not difficult for them. Many relatives of Joachim and Anna also gathered to take part in this celebration, in which the angels of God also invisibly took part. Virgins with lighted candles in their hands went ahead, and then the Most Holy Virgin, led on one side by her father and on the other by her mother. The Virgin was adorned with royal beautiful garments and ornaments, as befits a king's daughter, the Bride of God. After them followed a multitude of relatives and friends, all with lighted candles. Before the Temple there were fifteen steps. The parents raised the Virgin to the first step, and then she herself quickly ascended to the top, where the high priest Zechariah, future father of Saint John the Forerunner, met her, and taking her by the hand led her not only into the Temple but into the Holy of Holies, the Holiest of Holy Places, into which no one ever entered except the high priest, and that once a year. Saint Theophylact of Ohrid says that Zechariah was "beside himself and seized by God" when he led the Virgin into the holiest place of the Temple, behind the second veil; otherwise this action of his could not be explained. Then the parents offered sacrifice to God according to the law, received blessing from the priests, and returned home, while the Most Holy Virgin remained at the Temple. And she abode at the Temple for a full nine years. While her parents were alive they visited her often, especially blessed Anna. But when her parents were called by God from this world, the Most Holy Virgin remained as an orphan and wished in no way until death to depart from the Temple nor to enter into marriage. Since this was contrary both to the law and to custom in Israel, after she turned twelve years old she was given to Saint Joseph, her kinsman in Nazareth, to live in virginity under the appearance of betrothal, so that she might both fulfill her own desire and outwardly satisfy the law. For at that time in Israel maidens vowed to virginity for life were not known. The Most Holy Virgin Mary was the first such maiden vowed to lifelong virginity, and after her followed in the Church of Christ thousands upon thousands of virgins, both female and male.

From the Hymn of Praise

The parents brought the Holy VirginInto the holy Temple,And according to their promisePresented her to the Lord: