Homily on the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos St. John of Kronstadt Today the Virgin standeth forth in the church, and with the choirs of the saints she invisibly prayeth to God for us.  (Kontakion of the feast). At the beginning of the tenth century, in year 910 after the birth of Christ, during the reign of the Greek Emperor Lev the Wise and Patriarch Tarasios, in the Blachernae Constantinople church, after the vigil the Mother of God and the angelic hosts appeared to the gaze of two chosen men. Covering the people there with her honorable omophorion, she prayed to her Son and God for their salvation from the enemies that threatened the capital city with destruction, and the people with enslavement and death. Through the prayers of the heavenly Intercessor the foe was routed, and the people saved. In memory of the merciful protection of the Mother of the Lord also over our own fatherland, the Russian Orthodox Church has from ancient times established the yearly feast commemo