BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260714T071223Z UID:19-1079955@christchurchpelham.org DTSTART:20270815T120000Z DTEND:20270815T130000Z CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20260629T153132 DESCRIPTION:The Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin is celebrated on August 15 i n the Episcopal Church.  It is listed in the church calendar as one of se veral major Holy Days that "are regularly observed throughout the year" by Episcopalians.  A feast day celebrating Mary has been observed on August 15 across the Eastern\, Western\, Coptic and Oriental churches dating bac k to at least the late 7th Century.  \nThe 1979 Book of Common Prayer\, i n line with numerous other prayer book revisions across the Anglican Commu nion\, restored the feast of Saint Mary the Virgin on August 15th to our c alendar.  It had been removed during the Reformation in part because ther e were already two “Marian” Holy Days in the calendar.  In conjunctio n with restoring the Holy Day\, the 1979 BCP modified these two other Holy Days by intentionally emphasizing Jesus\, rather than Mary.  The first o f those modified days is the Presentation (February 2).  Prior to the 197 9 Prayer Book in the Episcopal Church this feast was officially referred t o as “The Presentation of Christ in the Temple\, commonly called\, The P urification of Saint Mary the Virgin”.  In 1979 the official title was changed to “The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple”.  The second modified Holy Day was the Annunciation (March 25).  Prior to the 1979 Prayer Book in the Episcopal Church this feast was officially re ferred to as “The Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary”.  In 1979 the official title was changed to “The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Ch rist to the Blessed Virgin Mary”.  In both cases (Presentation &\; A nnunciation) the modified title and other minor liturgical changes to the day were intended to make it clear the celebration was a feast of our Lord Jesus Christ rather than a celebration of Mary.  This allowed the Episco pal Church to restore to the calendar a feast celebrating Mary’s life an d witness as a saint.  \nIt is worth noting that the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin is known under different titles in the Roman Catholic and Ortho dox traditions\, and those traditions celebrate an event.  In the Roman C atholic Church\, it is called “The Feast of the Assumption of the glorio us and ever-blessed Virgin Mary”.  In Orthodox churches it is known as “The Dormition of the most holy lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary”.  In Catholic and Orthodox traditions\, respectively\, the Assumption and the Dormition are different names for the same event\, Mary's departure fr om the earth\, although the beliefs are not entirely the same.  The Ortho dox Church teaches that Mary died a natural death\, like any human being\; that her soul was received by Christ upon death\; and that her body was r esurrected on the third day after her repose\, at which time she was taken up\, bodily only\, into heaven. Her tomb was found empty on the third day . Roman Catholic teaching holds that Mary was "assumed" into heaven in bod ily form. Some Catholics agree with the Orthodox that this happened after Mary's death\, while some hold that she did not experience death.\nElement s of this tradition are found in the prayers and readings used on the feas t of Saint Mary the Virgin as it is celebrated in the Episcopal Church\, a nd certainly in the hymnody traditional for the day.  For example\, the o pening Collect of the Day proclaims: “O God\, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary… [Grant that we] may share with her the glory o f your eternal kingdom.”  Also\, in visual art and hymnody Mary is freq uently depicted crowned as queen of heaven\, in response to the psalmist w ho says\, “On your right hand is the queen\, adorned with the gold of Op hir.”  That said\, our tradition designates August 15th as a celebratio n of Mary’s entire life and Christian witness as recounted by the New Te stament writers\, rather than one event celebrated by later traditions but not found in the New Testament.   LAST-MODIFIED:20260629T153132 LOCATION:Church / Garden SUMMARY:The Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin URL;VALUE=URI:https://christchurchpelham.org/events/the-feast-of-saint-mary -the-virgin/2027-08-15 ATTACH;FILENAME=ChatGPT-Image-Jun-29-2026-at-03_31_18-PM.png;FMTTYPE=image/ png:https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2026/06/29/19/31/31/33baba69-10a3 -4234-baaf-b461c0bee15f/ChatGPT-Image-Jun-29-2026-at-03_31_18-PM.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR