April 7

Annunciation, Armenian Apostolic Church

Mother of God, 
tabernacle of the Light, 
place of the uncontainable Sun of life! 
(from the Armenian Canon for the Annunciation)

On April 7, nine months before their Feast of the Nativity of Christ, some Orthodox churches celebrate the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear the Son of God. The Armenian Apostolic Church, recognized as a national church by the Armenian government, is one of these.

A landlocked nation east of Turkey, Armenia seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991. The new Republic designated April 7 a state holiday of Motherhood and Beauty, so the feast of the Annunciation is celebrated as Mother's Day, when people give presents to their mothers. Armenians observe the whole period between International Women's Day, March 8, and April 7 as Women's Month.

.Also commemorated this date:

bulletAnnunciation of the Birth of Christ, Coptic Church
bulletSanta Maria del Pianto, Fermo, Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy (St. Mary in Tears). Church consecrated, 1681.
bulletPodgoretsky Mother of God, Zolochiv, Zolochevsky, Lviv, Ukraine. Icon crowned, 1754.
Folio from an Armenian Manuscript: The Annunciation, ca. 1500, Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, www.asia.si.edu
 

 

Where We Walked ~~~ Mary Ann Daly