During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Great, a Macedonian (457-474), the brothers Galbius and Candide, the king's confidants, went from Constantinople to Palestine to worship holy places. In a small village near Nazareth, they stayed overnight with an elderly Jewish woman. In her house, lighted candles and smoking incense attracted the attention of pilgrims. When asked what kind of shrine was in the house, the pious woman did not want to answer for a long time, but after persistent requests she told that she kept an expensive shrine - the Robe of the Virgin, from which many miracles and healings occur. Before the Assumption, the Blessed Virgin gave one of Her clothes to a pious Jewish girl from this family, bequeathing her to give it to the girl before her death. So, from generation to generation, the Chasuble of the Mother of God was preserved in this family.
The precious ark containing the sacred Robe was transported to Constantinople. Saint Gennady, Patriarch of Tsargrad (+ 471; commemorated on August 31), and Emperor Leo, upon learning about the sacred find, were convinced of the incorruptibility of the holy Robe of the Virgin and reverently venerated it. In Blachernae, near the seashore, a new church was erected in honor of the Mother of God. On July 2, 458, Saint Gennady, with due solemnity, transferred the sacred Robe to the Blachernae temple, putting it into a new ark.
Subsequently, Her holy omophorion and part of Her belt were placed in the ark with the Robe of the Virgin. This circumstance is captured in the Orthodox iconography of the holiday, which unites two events: the position of the Robe and the position of the belt of the Mother of God in Blachernae. The Russian pilgrim Stefan Novgorodets, who visited Constantinople around 1350, testifies: "I went to Blachernae, where the Robe lies in the altar on the throne in the ark is sealed."
More than once, during the invasions of enemies, the Most Holy Theotokos saved the city, to which She bestowed Her sacred Robe. This was the case during the siege of Constantinople by the Avars in 626, the Persians in 677, and the Arabs in 717. The events of 860, which are closely connected with the history of the Russian Church, are especially significant for us.
On June 18, 860, Prince Askold's Russian fleet, consisting of more than 200 rooks, devastated the shores of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus, entered the Golden Horn Bay and threatened Constantinople. Russian ships sailed in sight of the city, the landed soldiers "passed before the hail, stretching out their swords." Emperor Michael III (842-867), having stopped the campaign against the Arabs, returned to the capital; he prayed all night, prostrating himself on the stone slabs of the church of the Blachernae Mother of God. The Holy Patriarch Photios addressed the flock with a sermon, calling on them to wash away their sins with tears of repentance and in fervent prayer to resort to the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The danger was increasing by the hour. "The city was almost lifted up on a spear," says Patriarch Photius in another sermon. Under these conditions, it was decided to save church shrines, and above all, the holy Robe of the Virgin, which was kept in the Blachernae church, near the shore of the bay. After the national prayer service, the holy Robe of the Mother of God, taken from the Blachernae temple, was carried around the city walls with a procession, its edge was immersed in the waters of the Bosphorus with prayer, and then moved to the center of Constantinople - the church of St. Sophia. The Mother of God covered and pacified the militancy of Russian soldiers with Her grace. Having concluded an honorable truce, Askold lifted the siege of Constantinople. On June 25, the Russian troops began to withdraw, taking with them a large ransom. A week later, on July 2, the miraculous Robe of the Mother of God was solemnly returned to its place, in the shrine of the Blachernae Temple. In memory of these events, the Holy Patriarch Photios established an annual celebration of the Position of the Robe of the Mother of God on July 2.
Soon, in October -November 860, the Russian embassy arrived in Constantinople to conclude a treaty of "love and peace". The terms of the peace treaty included provisions on the Baptism of Kievan Rus, on the payment of an annual tribute by Byzantium to Russians, permission for them to join the Byzantine army, trade on the territory of the empire (primarily in Constantinople), and send diplomatic missions to Byzantium.
The most important point was the Baptism of Russia. The follower of the Byzantine Chronicle of Theophanes says that "their embassy arrived in Constantinople with a request to make them participants in holy Baptism, which was fulfilled." In fulfillment of the mutual desire of the Russians and Greeks, an Orthodox mission was sent to Kiev. Shortly before that (in 855), the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril the Philosopher (+ 869; commemorated on February 14 and May 11) invented the Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel. It was natural to send Saint Cyril and his brother, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius (+ 885) on a mission to Kiev.; Commemoration of April 6 and May 11), with translated Slavic books. This is what St. Photius, whose disciple was St. Cyril, did. The brothers spent the winter of 860/861 in Chersonesos, in the spring of 861 they were on the Dnieper, with Prince Askold.
Askold, as later before the holy Prince Vladimir, faced a difficult choice, he was seduced by either the Jewish or the Mohammedan faith. But under the gracious influence of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril, the prince made a choice in favor of Orthodoxy. At the end of 861, Cyril and Methodius returned to Constantinople and brought with them a message from the prince (or, as the Kievan princes called themselves in the IX–XI centuries, "kagan") Askold to Emperor Michael III. Askold thanked the emperor for sending "such a man who showed by word and example that the Christian faith is holy." "Having convinced ourselves," Askold wrote further, "that this is the true faith, we commanded everyone to be baptized of their own free will in the hope that we too would achieve holiness. We are all friends of your kingdom and are ready to serve you when you demand it."
Askold was baptized with the name Nicholas, and many of his retinue were baptized. Slavic Worship and Slavic writing came to Russia directly from Constantinople, the capital of Orthodoxy, through the works of the holy Apostles of the Slavs. Metropolitan Michael was appointed to Kiev by St. Photius, and the Russian metropolis was included in the notification lists of the dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In his District Letter of 867, Patriarch Photios names the Baptism of Bulgarians and Russians among the main achievements of his pontifical ministry. "The Russians, who raised their hand against the Roman empire," he wrote, quoting Askold's message almost verbatim, "at the present time even they have exchanged the unholy teaching that they contained before for the pure and genuine Christian faith, lovingly placing themselves in the rank of our subjects and friends." (The Byzantines considered all those who were baptized from Constantinople and entered into a military alliance with the empire to be "subjects".) "And the desire and zeal of faith flared up in them to such an extent that they accepted a bishop and a pastor, and kiss the shrines of Christians with great zeal and zeal."
The feast of the Position of the Robe of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Blachernae is thus simultaneously a celebration of the canonical foundation of the Russian Orthodox Metropolia in Kiev. With the blessing of the Mother of God and the miracle of Her holy Robe, not only the salvation of Constantinople from the most formidable siege in its entire history was accomplished, but also the salvation of Russians from the darkness of pagan superstition to eternal life. At the same time, the year 860 brought the recognition of Kievan Rus by Byzantium, marked the equal entry of the young Russian state into the arena of history.
Prince Askold's attempt to revive the Christian gospel of St. Andrew the First-Called on the Dnieper, the religious and state reform he conceived ended unsuccessfully. The time for the establishment of Christianity on Russian Soil has not yet come. The supporters of pagan antiquity were too strong, the princely power was too weak. When Askold clashed with the pagan Oleg in 882, the Kievans betrayed their prince. Askold suffered a martyr's death at the hands of assassins, tricked into joining the enemy camp for negotiations.
But the work of Blessed Askold (as the Joachim Chronicle calls him) did not perish in the Russian Church. Russian Russian Oleg, who, after killing Askold, took over the Kievan principality after him, called Kiev "the mother of Russian cities" - this is a literal translation of the Greek expression "Russian metropolis".