SAINT MARIA, AUGUST 15!

2024-08-15 08:17:00, Aktualitet Ilia V. Ballauri

Great celebration of Christianity, celebrated by all: Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, etc. HAPPY!

There is no church that does not have an icon of Saint Mary, or as we say Saint Mary, there is no believer who has not prayed to the Mother of God, Saint Mary, there is no Christian family that does not have a Mary around.

There are endless names, adjectives, settings, attributes that have been said for centuries by the people about him.

Cesarios Daponte (1713 - 1784), the well-known Greek poet and chronicler, in his Hymn to Saint Mary, brings over 200 settings for the Mother of God, gathered in the people, here is a small part of them:

LADY, Heavenly, Guide, Who kisses sweetly, Clearest, Purest, Perfect, Fairest on earth;

LADY, Sweetest, All-Inspiring, Queen, Golden, All-Holy, Daughter of the Sun, All-Solar, All-Compassionate;

LADY, Fairest, Blessed, Blessed, Light, Light upon Light, Light-bringing, Light-bringing;

LADY, Temple, Highest, Most Hymnized, Strongest, Protector;

LADY, Lady, Appearing, Divine Forms, Life-Guidance, Nymph, Soul-Healer, Tear-Dryer, Stairway to Heaven, etc, etc, etc,…

Among the many churches of St. Mary in the area of ??Korça, I am mentioning two here: St. Mary of our city, which is the oldest church in the entire area, as well as St. Mary of Voskopoja (once the cathedral of the burnt city).

Saint Mary of Korça, or as it was once called by its full name, "The Dormition of the Mother of God", which had a girls' monastery for about a year, and which attached the church to the paleo-Christian catacomb of Saint Friday, according to Thimi Mitkos is the oldest shrine in the territory of Korça and has the date 1225, after successive burnings, in 1844 it was rebuilt for the third time, to disappear from the face of the earth and to return to the square of the red regime. Today, a chapel has been built in that place, where you can find believers with candles in their hands at any moment.

Even more. More than 30 years ago, when the systems were being built, when the boot system was still scary, but there was light on the horizon, when the sparks of faith secretly began to appear, in the grounds of St. Mary's church where there was nothing, which was just a square , people came at night and secretly lit candles, including me and my brothers. I remember a woman of the former system, shouting at that time from the balcony of the apartment, "Shame on you for lighting candles! (?) … …”

To be ashamed to light candles (?) and not to be ashamed to display the history, tradition and deeds of the people for centuries. And he screamed and screamed, I will call the police, etc., etc.

Oh God, have mercy on some of these, some have been ignorant but some are even evil!

In Voskopoja, the first church of Saint Friday, i.e. the oldest, the nucleus around which the city began to grow, was built in the century. the 14th; after it, the monastery of Saint Prodhrom was built in the century. the 17th; and a little later, the church of Saint Mary was built, which has always played the role of the cathedral, that is, of the metropolis, in Voskopoja. Saint Mary of Voskopoja, according to an inscription on the western gate of the church, is dated 1712. It was completed with the contribution of a number of archons and highly respected citizens, among whom the first, an Adham, of Pope Dhimitri Predos is written. While the bell tower, according to an inscription in it that still exists today, was built in 1888 (when its construction was also allowed by the Ottomans) under the care of the bishops, Naum Stirja and Efthim Dh. Ballauri.

SAINT MARIA, AUGUST 15!