Placing of the Precious Sash of Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God in Calcoprateia (942).
Polyeleos Feast.
Hebrews 9:1-7. Luke 10:38-42. 11:27-28.
Read Hebrews 9:1-7
Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady placing her sash in the Church at Calcoprateia. In the ninth century, Empress Zoe prayed for the Most Holy Theotokos’ intercession and received healing after being blessed with the relic of her sash. This miracle confirms that Our Lady intercedes on our behalf to Her Son.
Our Epistle reading today is chosen to reflect this feast in that Mary is the new Temple. The Temple of the Old Covenant housed the Ark which contained the various articles of encounter with God: The Tablets of the Law, the budding staff of Aaron and the Manna from Heaven. The New Covenant has a new Temple, and although relics are still venerated, their meaning has changed drastically. Mary is the new Temple with God Himself dwelling in her womb. Christ has come to make us temples of the Holy Spirit.
Ephrem the Syrian writes:
Then Paul turns his attention to the temporary tabernacle and to all the things which were in it in order to prove and reveal that they also have passed away, together with the abrogation of their law. It could not happen that they remained after the cessation of the law, because they also were shadows and symbols of this true ministry, which will last. Therefore, he begins again to deprive of its authority the service of the ministry held in the temporary tabernacle, of which the priests were proud in their overconfidence, by saying, “The first tent was prepared” so, because “in it were the lampstand and the table” and the other things. In the inner tent, “called the Holy of Holies,” under its veil, there was placed one “golden altar of incense and the ark covered on all sides with gold,” together with the other things. However, is there now any need to describe these objects in detail, one by one? In fact, even though each of these things had been set in their proper place for the service of religious ministry, they were nonetheless symbolic shadows of this heavenly ministry; since the truth has now come, it is not necessary anymore that we deal with shadows. (Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews)