In the Church’s annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is “the last and great day.” It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end—the achievement and fulfillment—of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the “birthday” of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness.

This double meaning and double joy is revealed to us, first of all, in the very name of the feast. Pentecost in Greek means fifty, and in the sacred biblical symbolism of numbers, the number fifty symbolizes both the fulness of time and that which is beyond time: the Kingdom of God itself. It symbolizes the fulness of time by its first component: 49, which is the fulness of seven (7 x 7): the number of time. And, it symbolizes that which is beyond time by its second component: 49 + 1, this one being the new day, the “day without evening” of God’s eternal Kingdom. With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s disciples, the time of salvation, the Divine work of redemption has been completed, the fulness revealed, all gifts bestowed: it belongs to us now to “appropriate” these gifts, to be that which we have become in Christ: participants and citizens of His Kingdom.

THE VIGIL OF PENTECOST

The all-night Vigil service begins with a solemn invitation:

“Let us celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit,
The appointed day of promise, and the fulfillment of hope,
The mystery which is as great as it is precious.”

In the coming of the Spirit, the very essence of the Church is revealed:

“The Holy Spirit provides all,
Overflows with prophecy, fulfills the priesthood,
Has taught wisdom to illiterates, has revealed fishermen as theologians,
He brings together the whole council of the Church.”

In the three readings of the Old Testament (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29; Joel 2:23-32; Ezekiel 36:24-28) we hear the prophecies concerning the Holy Spirit. We are taught that the entire history of mankind was directed towards the day on which God “would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.” This day has come! All hope, all promises, all expectations have been fulfilled. At the end of the Aposticha hymns, for the first time since Easter, we sing the hymn: “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth...,” the one with which we inaugurate all our services, all prayers, which is, as it were, the life-breath of the Church, and whose coming to us, whose “descent” upon us in this festal Vigil, is indeed the very experience of the Holy Spirit “coming and abiding in us.”

Having reached its climax, the Vigil continues as an explosion of joy and light for “verily the light of the Comforter has come and illumined the world.” In the Gospel reading (John 20:19-23) the feast is interpreted to us as the feast of the Church, of her divine nature, power and authority. The Lord sends His disciples into the world, as He Himself was sent by His Father. Later, in the antiphons of the Liturgy, we proclaim the universality of the apostles’ preaching, the cosmical significance of the feast, the sanctification of the whole world, the true manifestation of God’s Kingdom.

THE VESPERS OF PENTECOST

The liturgical peculiarity of Pentecost is a very special Vespers of the day itself. Usually this service follows immediately the Divine Liturgy, is “added” to it as its own fulfillment. The service begins as a solemn “summing up” of the entire celebration, as its liturgical synthesis. We hold flowers in our hands symbolizing the joy of the eternal spring, inaugurated by the coming of the Holy Spirit. After the festal Entrance, this joy reaches its climax in the singing of the Great Prokeimenon:

“Who is so great a God as our God?”

Then, having reached this climax, we are invited to kneel. This is our first kneeling since Easter. It signifies that after these fifty days of Paschal joy and fulness, of experiencing the Kingdom of God, the Church now is about to begin her pilgrimage through time and history. It is evening again, and the night approaches, during which temptations and failures await us, when, more than anything else, we need Divine help, that presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who has already revealed to us the joyful End, who now will help us in our effort towards fulfillment and salvation.

All this is revealed in the three prayers which the celebrant reads now as we all kneel and listen to him. In the first prayer, we bring to God our repentance, our increased appeal for forgiveness of sins, the first condition for entering into the Kingdom of God.

In the second prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us to pray and to follow the true path in the dark and difficult night of our earthly existence. Finally, in the third prayer, we remember all those who have achieved their earthly journey, but who are united with us in the eternal God of Love.

The joy of Easter has been completed and we again have to wait for the dawn of the Eternal Day. Yet, knowing our weakness, humbling ourselves by kneeling, we also know the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit who has come. We know that God is with us, that in Him is our victory.

Thus is completed the feast of Pentecost and we enter “the ordinary time” of the year. Yet, every Sunday now will be called “after Pentecost”—and this means that it is from the power and light of these fifty days that we shall receive our own power, the Divine help in our daily struggle. At Pentecost we decorate our churches with flowers and green branches—for the Church “never grows old, but is always young.” It is an evergreen, ever-living Tree of grace and life, of joy and comfort. For the Holy Spirit—“the Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life—comes and abides in us, and cleanses us from all impurity,” and fills our life with meaning, love, faith and hope.

Father Alexander Schmemann (1974)

The Holy Martyr Agrippina, was by birth a Roman. She did not wish to enter into marriage, and totally dedicated her life to God. During the time of persecution against Christians under the emperor Valerian (253-259) the saint went before the court and bravely confessed her faith in Christ, for which she was given over to torture. They beat the holy virgin with sticks so severely that her bones broke. Afterwards they put Saint Agrippina in chains, but an angel freed her from her bonds.

The holy confessor died from the tortures she endured. The Christians Bassa, Paula and Agathonike secretly took the body of the holy martyr and transported it to Sicily, where many miracles were worked at her grave. In the eleventh century the relics of the holy Martyr Agrippina were transferred to Constantinople.

Holy Righteous Artemius of Verkola was born in the village of Dvina Verkola around the year 1532. The son of pious parents, Artemius was a child who was courageous, meek and diligent for every good deed. On June 23, 1545 the twelve-year-old Artemius and his father were taken by surprise in a field by a thunderstorm. A clap of thunder broke right over their heads, and the child Artemius fell dead. People thought that this was a sign of God’s judgment, therefore they left the body in a pine forest without a funeral, and without burial.

Some years later, the village reader beheld a light over the place where the incorrupt body of the Righteous Artemius lay. Taken to the church of Saint Nicholas in 1577, the holy relics were shown to be a source of numerous healings. In this village a monastery was later built, called the Verkola. In 1918, the impious Soviets chopped the holy relics into pieces and threw them into a well. The memory of Saint Artemius is also celebrated on October 20.

Today we commemorate the second translation of the relics of Saint Herman, Archbishop of Kazan, in 1714.

St Herman is also commemorated on November 6 (his repose) and on September 25 (transfer of his relics in 1595).

The Holy Martyrs Eustochius, Gaius, Probus, Lollia and Urban suffered for Christ during the time of a persecution under the emperor Maximian (286-310).

Saint Eustochius was a pagan priest, but seeing the unyielding courage of the Christian martyrs, and the miracles worked by them, he converted to Christ. He went to Bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, was baptized by him, and was ordained to the priesthood. In the city of Lystra Saint Eustochius converted his nephew Gaius and all his household, among which included the children Probus, Lollia and Urban. Soldiers of the emperor arrested Saint Eustochius and took him for trial, but tortures could not turn Eustochius from his faith. They then sent the saint to the governor Agrippinus in the Galatian city of Ancyra. The newly-converted Gaius was also sent with him with his household. All of them, even the women and children, underwent fierce torture, but the martyrs did not deny Christ and so were beheaded.

The Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir was established in 1982 with the blessing of Patriarch Pimen on the Feast Day of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.

Martyrs:

Abram the Bulgarian (+ March 6, 1229)
Archbishop Mētrophánēs (+ February 4, 1238)
Holy Martyr Patrick (+ 1411)

Monks:

Nikḗtas of Pereyaslavl (+ May 24, 1186)
Elijah Muromets of the Caves (+ December 19, 1188)
Archimandrite Pakhomios and Igoumen Theodosios (+ 1237)
Igoumen Daniel of Uspensk (+ 1238)
Michael Vepizhnik (+ 1333)
Sergius of Radonezh (+ September 25, 1392)
Roman of Kirzhach (+ July 29, 1392)
Pakhomios of Nerekhta (+ May 15, 1384)
Euthymios of Suzdal (+ April 1, 1404)
Stephen of Makhra (+ July 14,1406)
Nikon of Radonezh (+ November 17,1426)
Kosmas of Yakhroma (+ February 18, 1492)
Archimandrite Job of Vladimir (+ XV century)
Arkadios of Vyaznikov (+ 1592)
Prokhor and Vassian of Zayastrebye (+ 1592)
Dionysios of Pereyaslavl (+ April 15, 1645)
Lukian of Aleksandrov (+ 1654)
Cornelius of Aleksandrov (+ 1681)
Zosima of Aleksandrov (+ circa 1713)

Nuns:

Maria (Martha in monasticism) (+ 1206)
Theodosia (monastic name: Euphrosyne) (+ May 4, 1244)
Euphrosynē of Suzdal (+ September 1250)
Vassa (in the monastery of Theodore) Nizhny Novgorod (+ 1378)
Sophia of Suzdal (+ December 16, 1542)
Theodosios of Murom (+ XII century)

Hierarchs:

Metropolitans

Maxim of Kiev (+ 1305)
Alexei (Byakont) (+ 1378)
Jonah of Moscow (+ 1461)
Hilarion of Suzdal (+ 1707)

Archbishops

Dionysios of Suzdal († June 26,1385)
Arsenios of Elasson († 1625)

Bishops

Theodore of Rostov (+ 1023)
John of Rostov (+ 1214)
Simon of Pechersk (+ 1226)
Cyril of Rostov (+ 1262)
Serapion of Vladimir (+ 1275)
Theodore of Vladimir (+ 1286)
Basil of Ryazan (+ 1295)
Archbishop Sophronios of Suzdal (+ 1654)
Mētrophánēs of Voronezh (+ 1703)

Right-believing Princes

Gleb of Murom (+ 1015)
Constantine of Murom (+ 1129)
Michael and Theodore of Murom (XII century)
Boris of Turov (+ circa 1160)
Izyaslav Andreevich (+ 1165)
Mstislav Iziaslavich (+ 1172)
Andrew of Bogolyubovo (+ July 4, 1174)
Gleb of Vladimir (+ June 20, 1174)
Michael of Vladimir († 1176)
Peter of Murom (+ June 25, 1228)
Yuri Vsevolodovich (+ February 4, 1238)
Basil (Basilko) of Rostov (+ March 4, 1238)
Vsevolod Yuriyevich of Vladimir (+ February 4, 1246)
Mstislav Yuriyevich (+ February 4, 1238)
Vladimir of Vladimir (+ February 4, 1238)
Demetrios of Vladimir (+ 1238)
Theodore Yaroslavich of Vladimir (+ February 4, 1246)
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich (+ 1253)
Alexander Nevsky (+ November 23, 1263)
Demetrios Svyatoslavich of Yuryev (+ 1269)
Demetrios Aleksandrovich (+ 1294)
Theodore of Starodub (+ June 21, 1330)

Right-believing Princesses

Irene of Murom (+ circa 1129)
Febronia of Murom (+ 1228)
Agatha, Theodora, Maria and Christina (+ February 4, 1238)
Eudokia of Vladimir (+ XIII century)

Righteous

George (+ February, 1238) and Juliana Lazareva of Murom († January 2, 1604)
Karp of Medush (+ XVII century)
Savva of Moshok (+ 1592)

Fools for Christ

Cyprian of Suzdal (+ 1622)
Eudokia of Suzdal (+ 1776)
Parthenios of Suzdal (+ second half of the XVI century)

Today the church celebrates the miracle of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which led to the saving of Moscow from the invasion of Khan Achmed in 1480.

The Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is also commemorated on May 21 and August 26.

According to Tradition, a copy of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was painted in 1521 by the devout Hieromonk Arsenios Khitrosh. Between 1529-1570 the Icon was brought to the Pskov Caves Monastery by the merchants Basil and Theodore, when Saint Cornelius († February 20, 1571) was the Igoumen. Since then, the Icon has repeatedly shown its mercy and miraculous assistance to the Russian Orthodox people.

Not just once have blind persons been cured while praying before the Icon. On May 28, 1587, when the Icon was in Pskov, Maria Terent'eva, a widow who was blind for about three years, was healed after she prayed before the Tenderness Icon in Holy Trinity Cathedral. Another miracle occurred on March 26, 1603, when the peasant Patapios Grigor'ev was cured after six years of blindness. At the same time, Ivan Supitsyn, a young man from a noble family, was healed of his ailment: the muscles of his left hand had been paralyzed for two years.

An ancient chronicle of the Monastery says: "Not only are the Orthodox healed by the Mother of God, but even non-believers, who come to the Most Pure Theotokos and to her wonderworking Icon with faith."

The Pskov Caves Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God was especially venerated during the reign of Ivan the Terrible in 1581, when Pskov and the Pskov Caves Monastery were besieged by the army of the Polish king Stephen Bathory. Several days before the siege, the Mother of God appeared to the pious Elder Father Dorótheos. The Most Holy Theotokos warned him of the impending disaster and explained that the people's sins were the cause of the misfortune which had befallen them, and told him how they might escape it. Then the Archbishop summoned Igoumen Tikhon of the Pskov Caves Monastery and ordered him to take the wonderworking Dormition (August 15) and Tenderness (June 23) Icons from the Caves, and to serve Molebens in the places which the Mother of God herself had chosen at the time of her appearance.

Stephen Bathory's 100,000 man army went to Pskov, because if he succeeded there, the king planned to go even farther in order to conquer Novgorod and Moscow. The wonderworking Tenderness Icon was brought from the Monastery to the city of Pskov. The Polish army shelled the city and the Monastery with heated cannonballs from the bell tower of Mirozh Monastery. One of the cannonballs struck the Icon of the Mother of God, which was in an opening of the wall, but it did not harm the Icon, nor the people who stood around it. The siege lasted for five months, and thirty times the Poles attempted to take Pskov, but they were unable to do so.

At the beginning of the XVII century the Monastery was attacked by several armies of Swedish, Lithuanian, and Polish invaders. In 1812 the French army threatened Russia. Napoleon's soldiers captured Polotsk on August 17-18, 1812, and the city of Pskov was endangered as well. The citizens asked for the Tenderness and Dormition Icons of the Mother of God to be brought from the Monastery, and also a banner depicting the Icon Not-made-by-hands. On October 7, a procession with the miraculous icons went through the city, and that very day the Russian army retook the city of Polotsk. A church in honor of Holy Archangel Michael was built there (1815-1827) to commemorate the event, and the Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God is kept there now.

In the XX century the Pskov Caves Monastery had to endure two World Wars. But the ancient traditions faithfully preserved in the Monastery were not forgotten, even at that difficult time for Russian monasticism. On February 2, 1920, the Monastery and the city of Pechora were annexed to the territory of Estonia until 1940. For that reason, the Holy Dormition Pskov Caves Monastery was not subjected to ruin or desecration during the Soviet anti-Christian campaign. The Pskov Caves Monastery was one of few XX century Russian Orthodox monasteries which did not cease its prayerful service to God. Although neither the revolution nor the wars spared the Monastery (in May 1945 it lay in ruins), work and the prayer of the monastic brethren overcame further devastation, and again restored the Monastery to its beauty and splendor.

The Pskov Caves Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God belongs to the iconographic type "Eleousa," which comes from the Greek word for mercy. The Theotokos is depicted holding the Child Christ in her right hand, with His cheek pressed to hers. On the Eleousa Icons of the Theotokos (the symbol and ideal of the human race) there is no distance between the Virgin and the Son of God, their love is boundless. The Icon is a prototype of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, as the highest expression of God's love for His people.

The Pskov Caves Tenderness Icon is commemorated on the following days: May 21 (Meeting of the Vladimir Icon, 1521); August 26 (Meeting of the Vladimir Icon, 1395); June 23 (Main Feast Day); October 7 (Procession around Pskov with the Tenderness and Dormition icons of the Mother of God, 1812); and on the Seventh Sunday of Pascha, the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod (Movable Feast).

Saint Nikḗtas of Thebes was a resident of the seven-gated (Επτάπυλη) city of Thebes in Boetia. At the age of sixteen, he was tonsured as a monk, and other ascetics were drawn to him by reports of his spiritual character and moral purity. Among these were the monks Daniel, Theodore, and Gregory.

The Venerable Nikḗtas was deemed worthy of the charism of working miracles. He reposed in the Lord, full of days, in the year 1079.

In the Life of Saint Nikḗtas it is said that he once traveled to Patras, where he met Saint Daniel, a great ascetic and a man of prayer. He had received from God the gift of hospitality, like that of Abraham; that is, to receive people, offering them rest by giving them spiritual guidance.

No information available at this time.

The Most Holy Theotokos first appeared to Igoumen Evangelos, who was the Superior of the Monastery from 1864-1872. The late XIX century researcher I. Vinogradov dates the Icon's presence in the Monastery to that period. If he was correct in thinking that the Icon was painted during that time, then it was lost for almost thirty years.

The Icon was found in the Monastery storeroom in 1894. On June 23 of that year, a sick merchant from St. Petersburg arrived alone at the Monastery. Speaking to the Igoumen, he told him in detail about his illness, and of the vision he had in a dream. The Mother of God told the merchant to go to Úglich, where her Icon was located, and to pray before it, promising that he would be healed.

The Igoumen ordered that a search be made for the Icon. This was done, and the Icon was moved into the Monastery's Dormition church in great triumph. When the sick merchant prayed before the Icon, he soon recovered. In gratitude for the healing he had received, he covered the Icon with a silver gilded riza.

Since that time, the wonderworking Úglich Portaίtissa Icon of the Theotokos has granted healing and consolation to those who resort to the Queen of Heaven with faith in her intercession before God.

In this Icon the Mother of God is depicted as a nun with a staff and a prayer rope in her left hand, and a candle in her right hand. This image is located in the Alekseev Women's Monastery in Úglich, Yaroslavl Province, and it is also known as the "Inextinguishable Candle."

The Úglich Portaίtissa Icon of the Mother of God bears a striking resemblance to the Igoumeness of Mount Athos Icon, which is commemorated on the second Sunday after Pentecost, along with All Saints of Mount Athos.