The Greek and Slavonic names for the Feast may be translated as “good tidings.” This, of course, refers to the Incarnation of the Son of God and the salvation He brings. The background of the Annunciation is found in the Gospel of Saint Luke (1:26-38). The Troparion describes this as the “beginning of our salvation, and the revelation of the eternal mystery,” for on this day the Son of God became the Son of Man.
There are two main components to the Annunciation: the message itself, and the response of the Virgin. The message fulfils God’s promise to send a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15): “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.” The Fathers of the Church understand “her seed” to refer to Christ. The prophets hinted at His coming, which they saw dimly, but the Archangel Gabriel now proclaims that the promise is about to be fulfilled.
We see this echoed in the Liturgy of Saint Basil, as well: “When man disobeyed Thee, the only true God who had created him, and was deceived by the guile of the serpent, becoming subject to death by his own transgressions, Thou, O God, in Thy righteous judgment, didst send him forth from Paradise into this world, returning him to the earth from which he was taken, yet providing for him the salvation of regeneration in Thy Christ Himself.”
The Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth in Galilee. There he spoke to the undefiled Virgin who was betrothed to Saint Joseph: “Hail, thou who art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
In contrast to Eve, who was readily deceived by the serpent, the Virgin did not immediately accept the Angel’s message. In her humility, she did not think she was deserving of such words but was actually troubled by them. The fact that she asked for an explanation reveals her sobriety and prudence. She did not disbelieve the words of the angel, but could not understand how they would be fulfilled, for they spoke of something which was beyond nature.
Then said Mary unto the angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34).
“And the angel answered and said unto her, ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore also that which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.’ And Mary said, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.’ And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1: 35-38)
In his Sermon 23 on the day of the Annunciation, Philaret of Moscow boldly stated that “the word of the creature brought the Creator down into the world.” He explains that salvation is not merely an act of God’s will, but also involves the Virgin’s free will. She could have refused, but she accepted God’s will and chose to cooperate without complaint or further questions.
The icon of the Feast shows the Archangel with a staff in his left hand, indicating his role as a messenger. Sometimes one wing is upraised as if to show his swift descent from heaven. His right hand is stretched toward the holy Virgin as he delivers his message.
The Virgin is depicted either standing or sitting, usually holding yarn in her left hand. Sometimes she is shown holding a scroll. Her right hand may be raised to indicate her surprise at the message she is hearing. Her head is bowed, showing her consent and obedience. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon her is depicted by a ray of light issuing from a small sphere at the top of the icon, which symbolizes heaven. In a famous icon from Sinai, a white dove is shown in the ray of light.
There are several famous icons of the Annunciation. One is in the Moscow Kremlin in the church of the Annunciation. This icon appeared in connection with the rescue of a prisoner by the Mother of God during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Another is to be found in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow (July 8). It was originally located in Ustiug and was the icon before which Procopius the fool (July 8) prayed to save the city from destruction in 1290. One of the most highly revered icons in Greece is the Tinos icon of the Annunciation (January 30).
The Annunciation falls during Lent, but it is always celebrated with great joy. The Liturgy of Saint Basil or Saint John Chrysostom is served, even on the weekdays of Lent. It is one of the two days of Great Lent on which the fast is relaxed and fish is permitted (Palm Sunday is the other).
Troparion — Tone 4
Today is the beginning of our salvation, / the revelation of the eternal mystery! / The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin / as Gabriel announces the coming of Grace. / Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: / Hail, O Full of Grace, / the Lord is with You!
O Victorious Leader of Triumphant Hosts! / We, your servants, delivered from evil, sing our grateful thanks to you, O Theotokos! / As you possess invincible might, set us free from every calamity / so that we may sing: Hail, O unwedded Bride!
With its wars, persecutions, and oppressive regimes, the 20th century was an era of saints — martyrs beyond number on every continent.
Some of these martyrs were seized for living ordinary Christian lives; others seemed to delight in defying the powers that be.
Blessed Emilian Kovch (1884-1944) was one of the latter, a married Eastern Catholic priest and father of six who was persecuted under Communism and Nazism because he refused to lie low while others suffered.
Emilian Kovch was a Ukrainian man, the son of a Greek Catholic priest.
Emilian was ordained the year after his marriage and began to work in a parish as an ordinary parish priest. Early 20th-century Ukraine was no place for ordinary men, however, and Fr. Kovch spent 1919-1921 as a military chaplain. He was captured and briefly held as a prisoner of war, entirely unaware that this was training for what was to come.
After his service, Fr. Kovch returned to life as a husband, father, and small-town priest. He cared for orphans and the poor, organized Eucharistic congresses and pilgrimages, and worked in support of the Ukrainian independence movement; this last made him a person of interest to the reigning Polish government.
His house was searched some 40 times and on at least one occasion he was fined and imprisoned in a monastery. Despite this constant conflict, he preached passionately against any anti-Polish sentiment and was heartbroken when some of his parishioners looted the homes of Poles when the Soviets took over.
Though Fr. Kovch was arrested in the last days of Soviet rule, he and his two daughters managed to escape, learning soon after that all the prisoners in their group had been murdered by the Soviets as the Nazis approached.
With the arrival of the Nazis, Fr. Kovch began to remind his people that they had a duty to fight anti-Semitism, and soon came the day to act.
SS troops had chased some local Jews into a synagogue and were throwing firebombs inside. Without regard for his own safety, this priest of Jesus Christ raced to the synagogue, blocked the doors, and angrily ordered the soldiers to go away. To everyone’s shock, they did just that!
Having stared down a mob of Nazis, Fr. Kovch turned to the synagogue and ran inside, directing the effort to save the people burning within.
In an attempt to save them from the death camps, Fr. Kovch began catechizing and baptizing Jews by the thousands, with the approval of his archbishop, who was himself hiding 1,500 Jews. Despite pressures from the occupying force (and the dangers incurred by a letter he wrote to Adolf Hitler himself denouncing Hitler’s fascist policies), Kovch survived a year and a half before being arrested in December 1942. At one point, his Nazi-defying courage became evident in an interview conducted by a Gestapo officer:
Officer: Did you know that it is prohibited to baptize Jews? Fr. Kovch: I didn’t know anything. Officer: Do you now know it? Fr. Kovch: Yes. Officer: Will you continue to do it? Fr. Kovch: Of course.
Such defiance could only lead to a concentration camp, where Fr. Kovch celebrated Mass, heard confessions, baptized prisoners, and counselled men of all faiths and no faith. The only priest in his group of prisoners, he was the light of Christ shining in the darkness, and when his family attempted to have him released, he begged them to leave him there:
I understand that you are trying to get me released. But I beg you not to do this. Yesterday they killed 50 people. If I am not here, who will help them to get through these sufferings? They would go on their way to eternity with all their sins and in the depths of unbelief, which would take them to hell. But now they go to death with their heads held aloft, leaving all their sins behind them. And so they pass over to the eternal city.
Many who tell the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe say he was able to offer his life because he had no wife and children to mourn him, but the life of Bl. Emilian Kovch proves otherwise. Kolbe, like Kovch, was free to die because he was a follower of Jesus Christ.
Though Kovch surely lamented the grief his wife and children would endure, he was a Christian first and a priest at that.
In the camp he remained, suffering and serving for more than a year before dying on March 25, 1944.
Though his feast day is far overshadowed by the Solemnity of the Annunciation celebrated the same day, Blessed Emilian stands as a witness to married priests and to all who fight injustice.
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