Every Christian knows about this great shrine. For more than one millennium, the Belt of the Virgin, woven by the Virgin Mary herself, is the only surviving relic that reminds people of her earthly life. And although today the Belt is divided into several parts, which are located in different countries of the world, each of them contains the great blessed power of the Mother of God.
News from heaven
Two ancient legends tell about the appearance of this great shrine. According to the first, the Mother of God wove the wonderful Belt from camel hair shortly before her death and gave it to two pious Christian widows. In the families of the descendants of these women, the gift of the Mother of God was kept for several centuries, passed down from generation to generation, and then was transferred to the Chalkopration temple in Constantinople.
Another legend claims that the first owner of the shrine was the apostle Thomas. The fact is that by lot it fell to him to preach in the lands of distant India, and therefore he could not say goodbye to the Mother of God on the day of her Assumption. Arriving in Jerusalem three days after the burial of the Queen of Heaven, Thomas greatly regretted that he could not give her the last honors.
The Mother of God, seeing from heaven the apostle's grief, in order to somehow comfort him, took off her Belt and threw it on the ground at the feet of the inconsolable. Seeing this message of the Blessed Virgin, Thomas rejoiced. For many years, the Apostle preserved the gift of the Mother of God as a great shrine, and shortly before his martyr's death he passed it on to a Christian family.
Whatever it was, but from the end of the 4th century the Belt was kept in Constantinople, where at the end of the 9th century it acquired its present appearance. And this transformation is connected with a great miracle.
It just so happened that the wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise Zoya Ugolokaya was possessed by a terrible disease. Day and night, the woman was tormented by evil spirits, and the court doctors could not find a remedy that would help the wife of the ruler. And then, after Zoya's fervent prayer, the Mother of God appeared to her, who told the sufferer: she would be cured only after she put on the same Belt. To save his wife, the Patriarch of Constantinople opened an old reliquary where the shrine was kept, and was amazed that the Belt, six centuries later, had not suffered at all from time. Moreover, it looked completely new, as if it had been woven only yesterday. It must be said that the great shrine really healed the empress, and Zoya, in gratitude for her salvation, embroidered the belt with gold threads.
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Salvation Bringer
After these events, the Belt of the Virgin was kept in Constantinople for another hundred years, but when the great hail fell, it again left its reliquary. At the same time, the shrine was divided into several parts, which ended up in different temples in Europe and Asia. The largest and most significant of them today is kept on Athos in the Vatopedi monastery, which is revered today by believers as the official seat of the Great Belt.
It must be said that the shrine to the Vatopedi monastery was transferred at the end of the XIV century by the Serbian prince Lazar I, and since then it has become famous for many significant miracles. Moreover, the power of the Belt saved not only individual people from misfortunes, but also entire villages and cities.
So, in the middle of the 19th century, the inhabitants of Istanbul turned to the monks of Vatopeda with a request to bring a shrine to them in order to save the townspeople from the cholera epidemic. The monks loaded the ark with the relic onto the ship, and at the end of the journey, as soon as the ship docked in the harbor, the plague immediately stopped. Soon in Istanbul, with the testimony of many eyewitnesses, another great miracle occurred. The father of a seriously ill boy turned to the monks who accompanied the shrine with a request to heal his son. However, when the monks of Vatopeda brought the relic to the petitioner's house, the child had already died. Then they put the Belt on the body of the dead boy, and he was resurrected in front of the amazed relatives. I must say that the great power of the Christian relic impressed the Sultan of Istanbul so much that the Muslim ruler invited the monks of Vatopedi to his palace and talked with them for a long time.
A few decades after the events described - in 1915 - the ark with the Belt was brought to the Greek city of Neochori, whose inhabitants suffered from the raids of the gluttonous locust that destroyed the crops. As soon as the ship approached the city, all the pests rose from the fields into the sky in a huge cloud and then rushed into the waters of the sea.
Another miracle caused by the power of the Belt of the Virgin happened relatively recently - in 1957. Then a delegation from the Greek island of Thassos arrived in Vatopedi, where a drought reigned for several years, which resulted in a terrible famine. The monks rushed to help the inhabitants of the island, but the ship could not land on its shores. When the ship from Vatopeda, carrying the shrine, approached Thassos, for the first time in many years a heavy downpour began there, sprinkling the shores of the island with torrential rain.
"Small" shrines
Today, the Belt of the Virgin of the Vatopeda wall rarely leaves. However, the power of the shrine still helps believers around the world.
Pilgrims turn to the Belt with requests to save them from troubles and misfortunes, to get rid of serious ailments, to meet their soul mate, and also pray with the hope of finding the long-awaited offspring. But women are not allowed in the Athonite monasteries, and Vatopedi is no exception. That is why the blessing of the Mother of God is given to them by "small" shrines - copies of the Belt, which are made in the monastery and consecrated at the great relic, and then from here they go all over the world.
Monks recommend wearing them over clothing for men and women who have problems with conception, as well as pregnant women who want to bear and give birth to a healthy child without complications. And these belts really help people.
For example, a middle-aged Muscovite who was finally diagnosed with infertility by doctors, after making a pilgrimage to Vatapeda, brought a "small" shrine from there. For several months, the man literally did not part with the belt, and soon the pilgrim and his wife became the happy parents of a boy named Athanasius in honor of the holy place that gave them an heir.
However, when wearing a copy of the Belt from Athos, certain rules must be followed. So, it is believed that the shrine helps to find the happiness of motherhood only for women in church marriage who are married in church with their spouse. In addition, the belt should be washed without soap and powders, only by hand, and not in a machine. The very first water in which it was soaked, in no case should be poured into the sewer - it should be watered with indoor plants or a tree growing near the house.
If you disregard the recommendations, the "small" shrine may lose its power and will not help its owner in any way.
Russian miracle
And although in recent years the Belt of the Virgin has practically not been taken out of the Vatoped monastery, in 2011 an exception was made for Russia. On October 20, the great shrine arrived in our country and stayed here until November 27, along the way, having visited 12 large cities of the country. It is noted that during this time about three million people were able to kiss the Belt. In Moscow alone (here the shrine was located in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior), several tens of thousands of believers approached the relic every day, standing in a multi-kilometer line from thirteen to twenty-three hours. However, neither the long wait, nor the chilly autumn weather could scare the pilgrims eager to bow to the wonderful Belt.
And waiting for them was not in vain. A year later, Vatopeda's post office received from Russia many letters with photographs of babies, the birth of which became possible thanks to the power of the great shrine. And one woman, who had been trying in vain for almost ten years to get pregnant, having prayed at the Belt, gave birth to four wonderful children at once.
In addition, the Belt of the Virgin helped many people suffering from serious and even incurable diseases. So, one of the pilgrims, who was rapidly losing her eyesight and almost resigned herself to the verdict of the doctors, venerated the ark with a shrine in Yekaterinburg and now forever forgot about the terrible diagnosis. And a man from Nizhny Novgorod, who had already been scheduled for an operation to remove a cancerous tumor, having prayed to the Belt of the Virgin, in a few days amazed the doctors with his ideal analyzes.
Elena LYAKINA