One may ask: Who wove the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary? Well, She did, of course.

Although the answer may be obvious, let us think a little more deeply about it. The Virgin Mary was full of Grace and spiritual knowledge – she was, after her Son, the most perfect being in the world.

The modern outlook would encourage us to think that it would have been better if She had attended a lot of conferences, written a lot of thesis’, and so forth; however, it seems that She limited herself to doing the common handiworks and household chores. Besides that, her Son was a ‘τέκτων’ which is usually translated as ‘carpenter’, though it should more accurately be translated as a ‘builder’. Nevertheless, tradition state that he was in fact, a carpenter.

Be that as it may, what we see is that little importance is given to what sort of work they performed but rather some certain things are quite clear: they did actually perform manual tasks, in order to ward off idleness and to support themselves; while on the other hand it is most certain that they did not write anything.

Their example teaches us that, in order to acquire true virtue, we need to start with the practical virtues, and, that the aim of mundane or manual tasks is to provide for the everyday needs of ourselves and of others. Apart from this, their example illustrates that the main thing is not to write about God, but to acquire knowledge of God through prayer, humility, and the sacrifice of our own will on the altar of good deeds.

The following photographs were taken at the Feast of the Holy Belt. At the feast was present the Metropolitan George of Guineea as well as minister of Makedonia and Thrace, Theodoros Karaoglou

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