Famous Mothers and a Salute to Motherhood and Mothers on Mother’s Day
Famous Mothers and a Greeting to Motherhood and Mothers on Mother’s Day
Today I would like to speak about woman and mother. Every year, may all mothers be well. Were it not for mothers, we would not have come into existence, so they have great فضل upon us.
Honoring one’s mother is a sacred duty, as one of the Ten Commandments says: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land” (Exodus 20:12). Saint Paul the Apostle added that this is the “first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:2).
In honoring the mother, we remember how much she suffered in giving birth to each child, and even before birth during pregnancy, for she nourished him from her own blood and body, and thus he took his whole body from her. She fed herself in order to nourish him as well. Then she labored in nursing him after giving birth. She continued to labor in cleaning him, caring for him, and attending to matters concerning his health. Then she carried him upon her chest until he began to crawl upon the ground. She continued either carrying him or leading him along with her. Nor do we forget that the mother was the sponsor of her son in baptism, the one who carried him and presented him for baptism.
The relationship with the mother is the first relationship in a person’s life:
From the time he nurses, he gazes at her face while she smiles at him and plays with him. Therefore, if they were to offer him the greatest queens in the world instead of his mother, he would choose his mother, because she is the source of tenderness for him.
It is fitting that just as she labored for his sake, he should labor for her sake. As she cared for him, he should care for her. As she carried him in his childhood, he should carry her when she grows old, carrying her burdens and not becoming a burden to her. Otherwise he would be ungrateful for her goodness. We remember that the Lord Christ loved His Virgin Mother and was faithful to her. The Gospel of Luke says that He “was subject to her” (Luke 2:51). The Virgin also suffered for His sake. Because of Him she accepted to become a mother. For His sake she lived as a stranger in Egypt for three and a half years. She continued caring for Him. Nor do we forget that she fulfilled the law concerning Him as the firstborn and offered a sacrifice for Him, a pair of turtledoves, as Moses the Prophet commanded (Luke 2:22–23).
*The first mother whom we honor on Mother’s Day is Saint Virgin Mary…
The first miracle performed by the Lord Christ at the wedding of Cana of Galilee was done because of His mother’s request, although He did not wish to reveal His divinity at that time. But the mother told Him that those people were in need, so He fulfilled her request and gave them what they needed (John 2:1–11).
The Holy Virgin continued following the Lord Christ in His footsteps and stood beside Him at the Cross, saying to Him—according to our prayers—“As for the world, it rejoices in receiving salvation, but my inward parts burn like fire as I behold Your crucifixion, which You endure patiently, O my Son and my God.” Simeon the Elder also said concerning her: “Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luke 2:35).
The Lord Christ spoke seven words upon the Cross, two of which concerned His mother. He cared for her during His crucifixion and said to His disciple John: “Behold your mother,” and said to her concerning John: “Behold your son” (John 19:26–27). Then that disciple took her into his own home…
The Lady Virgin remained with her Son until He was buried, and she went to His tomb and witnessed His Resurrection.
And just as she was a mother to Christ according to the flesh, she was also a spiritual mother to John, to the rest of the apostles, and to the whole Church, as we say: “Our Mother and our Lady, the Holy Virgin.”
*Just as we celebrate Saint Virgin Mary as our mother, we also celebrate the Holy Church as a mother:
As one of the saints said: “No one can call God Father unless he has the Church as Mother.” The Church is the one who gave birth to us in baptism through water and the Spirit. She nourished us with Orthodoxy and all religious teachings. She raised us and delivered the faith to us. Without the Church we would not be believers. The Church grants us all the holy sacraments: she baptizes us, grants us the Holy Spirit, grants us absolution and forgiveness from the mouth of the priest, and gives us the Mystery of the Eucharist. She sanctifies the sacrament of marriage through her prayers. She also prays over the believer when he dies, commends him to heaven, and asks mercy for him.
*On Mother’s Day, we also remember our mother Eve…
Sadly, many people remember nothing about the grandmother of all humanity except Eve’s sin!! What ingratitude this is on Mother’s Day toward our mother Eve!
Eve our mother, whom God created in His image and likeness. He blessed her and said to her and to our father Adam: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).
Our mother Eve was very simple and innocent when God created her. The serpent took advantage of her innocence and simplicity, lied to her, and deceived her. At that time Eve did not know lying or deceit, nor did she have any connection with them. She did not know the cunning of the serpent. Nevertheless, the Lord punished Eve, but at the same time He said that her Seed would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).
Of course, Eve is the great grandmother of the Lord Christ. May God repose her soul in His Paradise. Without her, none of us would exist. She suffered greatly when one of her sons killed his brother… Before that she suffered from God’s rebuke and from being cast out of Paradise. But when after Cain and Abel she gave birth to Seth, and Seth begot Enosh, “then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). Their descendants were called “sons of God” (Genesis 6:2).
*Among the holy mothers we mention the mother of Saint Mark the Apostle, whose house became the first church in Christianity (Acts 12:12). In her house the Lord Christ washed His disciples’ feet, spoke with them at length, and established the first Eucharistic Supper there (John 13–16). In this same house the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).
*Among the holy mothers who gave birth to prophets, apostles, and priests:
Jochebed, whose children included Moses the Prophet, Aaron the first high priest, and Miriam, who was a prophetess and who led the praise at the crossing while holding the tambourine in her hand, with all the women following her (Exodus 15:20). Here I recall the saying of Saint John Chrysostom: “A mother does not become a mother merely by bearing children, but by raising children.”
*Nor do we forget the mother of the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, who were two apostles among the twelve, nor the mother of Peter and Andrew, who also were apostles among the twelve.
*We also remember the mother of Saint Basil the Great and her four saintly children: Saint Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia; Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa; Saint Peter, Bishop of Sebaste; and their sister Saint Macrina, who became a spiritual guide to her brothers and a spiritual mother to them. When she departed, her brother Saint Gregory mourned her with an elegy that became a book and was published.
*We hear of another mother, Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, whose son went astray early in life. She continued weeping for him for many years until Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, told her: “The son of these tears shall not perish.” Indeed, her son repented, was baptized, became a monk and a bishop, and a fountain of spirituality… He published his book Confessions and the book The City of God. He defended the faith against the Pelagians and the Montanists and became one of the heroes of faith and one of the leaders of contemplation and spirituality in the world through the prayers of his saintly mother.
*Among the mothers of prophets also was the mother of Samuel the Prophet, who was barren and wept before the Lord, vowing that if God gave her a son she would dedicate him to the Lord. And so it happened. When Samuel was born and grew a little, she presented him—though he was her only son at that time—to serve in the temple at Shiloh. Samuel grew and became the prophet who anointed David the Prophet as king (1 Samuel 16).
*Likewise we do not forget Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who was barren and to whom God granted a son. She was filled with the Holy Spirit when the Virgin greeted her. Her son was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15), and he leaped for joy in her womb (Luke 1:44). Concerning him, when he grew, the Lord Christ said that he was “more than a prophet… among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:9–11). Scripture also called him an “angel.”
*Among the holy mothers is Sarah, the mother of our father Isaac.
God spoke to her and promised her a son although she was barren (Genesis 18). She was an elderly woman in her nineties. Yet she was among the most beautiful of women. King Abimelech desired her while she was nearly eighty years old, but God appeared to him in a dream and rebuked him, so he did not touch her (Genesis 20:2–7).
*Likewise Rebekah, the mother of our father Jacob and his brother Esau. She also was barren. God spoke to her and said: “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). She was the one who advised her son Jacob to flee for his life from his brother Esau (Genesis 27:43).
In speaking about holy mothers, we also mention the mother and grandmother of Saint Timothy.
This Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus, and Saint Paul the Apostle wrote to him saying: “I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice” (2 Timothy 1:5). Here I remember that when I visited Russia in 1972, I greatly admired the mothers and grandmothers who were truly blessed. They were the ones who taught the children the faith and prepared them for baptism, while the men did not openly confess their faith during communist rule.
Among the holy mothers we remember the mothers of martyrs and spiritual mothers:
Among the mothers of martyrs we mention Mother Dolaji, after whom a church in Esna is currently being renewed; Mother Rebecca in Sanbat; and Mother Julitta, the mother of Saint Cyriacus. We remember the mother whose sons were slaughtered upon her lap while she encouraged them that it would only be a moment before they would find themselves with Christ. She herself was also martyred.
*Among the spiritual mothers we mention the mothers of monasticism such as Saint Demiana, who guided forty nuns and was martyred with them… Mother Catherine in Sinai… and Mother Sarah, to whom the monks of Scetis came for guidance and revealed their thoughts. She would tell them: “Truly you are Scetians. The virtues you possess, you hide; and the faults you do not possess, you attribute to yourselves.”
*We also mention Saint Melania, who guided Saint Evagrius and led him to repentance and monasticism; and Saint Eustochium, who became head of a convent in Jerusalem, to whom Saint Jerome wrote his twentieth epistle; and her mother, who had been head of the convent before her after becoming widowed.
May the blessing of all these mothers be with us.
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