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Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Lord, who predestined to be incarnated for the salvation of the human race, gradually prepared for Himself His Most Pure Mother on earth - in the chosen offspring of Abraham; in the kingdom of Judah, in the royal tribe of David, in a humble and righteous family, in a highly humble and completely devoted Virgin. Her righteous parents Joachim and Anna surpassed their contemporaries in their piety. But God was pleased to test and further elevate the righteous through the sorrows of childlessness, so that through their barrenness they would become all the more worthy instruments of God’s grace, which is accomplished in human weaknesses. The righteous Joachim and Anna lived 50 years in marriage, lived to old age and had no children. According to his pious desire to participate in the blessing of God given to people - to grow and multiply (Gen.1:28,9:1; Exod.13:26; Deut.7:14), and in God's promises about the multiplication of God's chosen tribe and the birth of the Messiah (Gen.12:2,15:5), considering his childlessness as disgrace for himself (1 Samuel 1:6-7; Luke 1:25) and suffering shame from their neighbors for this, the mourning righteous Joachim and Anna did not lose hope in the all-good and all-powerful God. They fasted and in fiery prayers and vows asked God to resolve the bonds of their barrenness. Just as He once gave Sarah, in her deep old age, a son, Isaac, so, finally, God heeded the fervent prayer and vow of the humble and completely devoted righteous people to God, and announced to them through an angel that a gracious Daughter would be born from them. The legend of the conception of the blessed Virgin Mary has been preserved in the Christian Church from its very beginning. Based on the oldest church traditions about the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the 4th century Blessed Jerome wrote for the edification of Chromatius and Iliodorus - bishops who, reading these traditions, asked Jerome about their dignity. He answered them: “The blessed and ever-blessed Virgin Mary came from a royal family, from the house of David, was born in the city of Nazareth, raised in Jerusalem, in the church of God. Her father is called Joachim, and her mother is Anna. On her father's side she came from Galilee, the city of Nazareth, on her mother's side from Bethlehem. The life of Joachim and Anna was strict and right before God, honest and blameless before people. They divided all their property into three parts: one they donated to the church of God and its servants, the other for the benefit of strangers and the poor, and the third they used for their relatives and themselves. In St. They spent many years chastely loving God and doing good to their neighbors, without having children. However, they made a vow to God to dedicate their child to His service, if the Lord gives it to them. They used to go to the Church of God on great holidays in Jerusalem. The day of the church renovation was approaching. Joachim, along with some of his neighbors, went to Jerusalem. Issachar was then the high priest. Seeing Joachim with the sacrifice among his other compatriots, Issachar showed disdain for him and his offering, asking Joachim why he, childless, stands alongside his parents, and instilling in him that the gifts of him cannot be pleasing to God, whom God judged to be childless. Distressed by such reproof, Joachim withdrew into the desert to the shepherds of his flocks and did not want to return to his home, so as not to meet his neighbors, who were with him in the church and heard the reproach uttered to him. In the desert, the righteous man wept over his misery and reproach, dissolving his grief with prayer, fasting and hope. But while he was with the shepherds, Anna, who shared her husband’s sorrows about childlessness and dishonor with tears and prayer, appeared to the Angel of the Lord (Gabriel) and, to her consolation, announced that a daughter Mary would be born to them and would be blessed above all wives; ordered her to go to Jerusalem, predicting that when she reaches the golden gates in Jerusalem, she will meet her husband, about whose health she is worried.” An angel of the Lord also appeared to Joachim and said: “The Lord sees your humility and hears the reproach of childlessness. God deprived you of childbearing so that what you were born would be recognized as a special gift from God. Anna your wife will bear you a daughter, and you will call her name Miriam. According to your vow, from her childhood she will be dedicated to the Lord. The angel also commanded Joachim to go to Jerusalem, predicting that when he reached the Golden Gates in Jerusalem, he would meet Anna, his wife, who, being concerned about the slowness of his return, would rejoice when she saw him. And so the righteous spouses came to Jerusalem and, having reached the place indicated to them by the Angel, met each other. Delighted by the appearance of the Angel to them and encouraged by the promise of a baby to them, they brought thanks to the Lord, who exalts the humble, and, returning to their home, undoubtedly and joyfully awaited the fulfillment of the Divine promise. The joy of the righteous in the temple of Jerusalem and their living gratitude to God, who resolved their infertility and took away from them reproach among their neighbors, was the beginning of the celebration of conception. In the one who was conceived, not only her righteous parents, but the whole world had a sure guarantee of redemption, because her conception was according to the special grace of God. However, the beginning of the church celebration of the Conception of the Virgin Mary is difficult to determine with accuracy due to the lack of written monuments, but we can assume that this celebration began in ancient times; for all the circumstances of the life of the Mother of God were important and sacred for ancient and Orthodox Christians. Venerable Andrew of Crete in the 7th century. on the day of the Conception of the Mother of God he wrote a canon and a conversation. The Day of Conception is assigned to December 9, because this day occurs 9 months before the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. St. Righteous Anna, mother of the prophet Samuel The father of the prophet Samuel 152, named Elkanah the Ephrathite, had two wives: Hannah and Peninnah - Peninnah had children, but Anna had no children, and, despite the fact that she was Elkanah's beloved wife, she spent a sad life, lamenting her childlessness, especially since her rival Peninnah was jealous of the preference that her husband showed her Anna, constantly upset her with reproaches and reproaches that she would not have children, which was generally considered dishonor among the people of Israel. And so, one day, when the whole family was in Shiloh for the upcoming time of the sacrifice, since there was a tabernacle in Shiloh at that time, Anna, oppressed by spiritual grief, with special zeal in the depths of her soul called on the Lord in prayer. And, pouring out her melancholy in a silent ascension of her mind and heart to God, she mentally made a vow that “if Almighty God looks upon the sorrow of His servant, and remembers her, and gives her a male child, then she will give him to the Lord all the days of his life”... While Anna was deep in prayer, which her lips were quietly repeating, the high priest Eli, who was sitting at the door of the tabernacle and, noticing the movement of Anna’s lips, but not hearing the words, thought that this woman was drunk, and reproached her... No, my lord,” Anna objected to him then, “I am a wife grieving in spirit, I did not drink wine, but I pour out my soul before the Lord... Do not consider your servant a worthless woman; for out of my great sorrow and out of my sorrow I have spoken hitherto”... “And Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel will grant your request, which you asked Him for.”... And indeed God fulfilled Anna’s prayer, fervent, inner, heartfelt, which always reaches Him and which He never leaves unfulfilled... A son was born to Anna and was named Samuel, which means: “asked from God.” “And when Anna had nursed Samuel with her milk, she went with him to Shiloh to offer the prescribed sacrifice and to fulfill her vow regarding her son, and she brought the boy to the high priest Eli and said to him: “Oh, my lord!” May your soul live, my lord! I am the same woman who stood here with you and prayed to the Lord; I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted me my request, what I asked of Him; and I commit him to the Lord all the days of his life to serve the Lord. And she worshiped the Lord there.” “And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God; My mouth was opened wide against my enemies; for I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one so holy as the Lord; for there is no other besides You; and there is no stronghold like our God. Do not multiply arrogant speeches; Do not let insolent words come out of your mouth; For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him works are weighed. The bow of the strong is broken, but the weak are girded with strength. – The well-fed work from bread, and the hungry rest; even a barren woman gives birth seven times, but a woman with many children faints. The Lord kills and gives life; brings down to the underworld and raises up. – The Lord makes the poor and enriches, humiliates and exalts. He lifts up the poor from the dust, He lifts up the needy from the dirt, seating them with the nobles, and He gives them the throne of glory for their inheritance; For the Lord has the foundations of the earth, and on them he will build the world. He watches the feet of His saints, and the wicked disappear in darkness; for man is not strong by strength... The Lord will wipe out those who argue with Him; will thunder upon them from heaven. (The Lord is holy. Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not a mighty man boast in his strength, and let not a rich man boast in his wealth, but let him who would boast boast in the fact that he understands and knows the Lord.) The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed. And the father and mother left Samuel there before the Lord, and Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the boy remained to serve the Lord under Elijah the priest. And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said: May the Lord give you children by this wife in place of the one given whom you gave to the Lord! - And they went to their place. – And the Lord visited Anna, and she gave birth to three more sons and two daughters; and the child Samuel grew with the Lord" 153... Perv. book Kings, ch. 1 and II.