Today is the prelude of God’s pleasure and the proclamation of man’s salvation. The Virgin is clearly made manifest in the temple of God and foretells Christ to all. Let us also cry out to her with mighty voice, “Hail, fulfillment of the Creator’s dispensation. -Apolytikion for the Feast of the Entrance
One of the Twelve Great Feasts, and the first major feast of the Advent period, is that of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple
at Jerusalem. As the hymn for the feast says, the Entrance of the
Mother of God into the Temple is the “prelude” of God’s plan for
Salvation: the Incarnation.
The details of the feast (Gr: Η είσοδος της Θεοτόκου στον Ναό; Ru:
Введение во храмare) are recounted in the 2nd century writing, the Protoevangelion of James, which details the birth and early life of Mary, before the Annunciation
of the divine plan for her to be the Mother of God. After God granted a
child to the elderly couple Joachim and Anna, it was decided that she
would be entirely dedicated to God. And so, when their girl was three,
Mary was brought by her parents to the Temple in Jerusalem
The Icon
Although the texts of the event are ancient, the feast didn’t appear
in the Church until the 6th century A.D., and then only in the East. The
feast was not introduced to the West until after the Great Schism, as
late as the 14th century. Neglected in the West, it is one of the Twelve
Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church and, as mentioned, the prelude to
the Nativity of Christ: Christmas. The relatively late introduction of
the feast to the Church means that icons are also relatively late,
normally after the 11th century. As a result, the icons show little
variation from the 15th Century example given above.
The infant Mary is shown as a small adult, wearing even the same
clothing (red-over-green, with the three stars of perpetual virginity)
as in icons of her as an adult. She is racing towards St Zacharias at
the entrance of the Temple, dressed unmistakably as the High Priest and
with halo, who stoops down to greet her. In her wake she leaves her
parents Ss Joachim and Anna (also with halos), and the retinue of young
maidens who accompanied the holy family to the Temple. All of this is as
it’s described in the Protoevangelion. On lifting up the young Theotokos, Zacharias declares:
“It is in you that He has glorified your name in every
generation. It is in you that He will reveal the Redemption that He has
prepared for His people in the last days.”
Mary was then raised in the temple, with the other maidens, until she
reached puberty. At this point, the Gospels take up the narrative: her
betrothal to the widower Joseph, the Annunciation, and the birth of
Christ. Church tradition further states that during Mary’s time in the
Temple, she was lead into the Holy-of-Holies – the most sacred part of
the Temple – where she was attended to by angels. This is shown in the
icon, where Mary is seemingly at the top of a tall tower; this is
figurative, as the Holy-of-Holies was not at the top of a tower, but
behind a veil (which is also sometimes shown in icons, flung back).
The Temple is usually shown in the background, often depicted
anachronistically as a church building with cupolas and crosses.
Depicting the Jewish Temple as a Christian church is done deliberately,
rather than in ignorance, in this and other icons: these holy images
show the spiritual reality of the Jewish Temple, which prefigured in
both form and use the things completed by the Jesus Christ’s birth by
the Virgin Mary. Often, a cloth is shown draping over the whole scene,
indicating that the icon’s main scene is actually happening inside the
Temple. Thus, the outside and the inside of the building is shown
simultaneously; a common iconographic technique used in other icons such
as the Nativity of the Mother of God and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
The icon below, from 14th Century Russia, contains all these features
but is rare in also showing Mary’s future fiancée – St Joseph – on the
left. His hands are covered, in reverence, anticipating his future
betrothal to the future Mother of God, pure virginal vessel of the Son
of God.
Today, the most pure temple of the Savior, the precious bridal chamber and Virgin, the sacred treasure of God, enters the house of the Lord, bringing the grace of the Divine Spirit. The Angels of God praise her. She is the heavenly tabernacle.
Source- http://iconreader.wordpress.com
