Sorry for the month long departure. I try to post at least twice a month however Lent / Pascha season had my attention, but now I am back with another Theotokos Ethiopian short story. This story is another incession story, this time involving a pregnant woman. The English translation is provided by E. A. Wallis Budge (with some slight editing from me), and the iconography is of an unknown date.
THE VIRGIN MARY AND THE WOMAN WHO WAS ABOUT TO BRING FORTH.
A miracle of Our Holy Lady, the Virgin Mary. May the blessing of her prayer be with her beloved one, our king David, forever and ever! Amen.
Now there was a certain city wherein a church had been built, and this church was built in the name of the Archangel Michael, and each year, on the twelfth day of the month Hidar (November), which is the day of the festival of the Archangel Michael, great numbers of the people of the city did not fail to visit his church (May his intercession and his supplication keep our king David from the evil Enemy!). And behold, it came to pass one day when the people were travelling along the road to come to that church, that a mighty roaring rush of waters came from the sea, which burst upon the people and terrified and alarmed them exceedingly, and drove their senses’ out of them; and the waves thereof surrounded that place and rose to a height of about two measures, and the people were well-nigh drowned. Then each and everyone among them made supplication unto God, and every man sought out a means whereby he might save himself, and they took to flight and ran away from before the billows of the sea, so that they might not be drowned by the waves, according to that which was wont to happen. And behold, there was a certain woman travelling with them who was with child, and her time for bringing forth was nigh, and she was unable to run away with them; and she cried out unto those who had forsaken her and fled, but no man turned back to have regard unto her, and she found none to help her and despaired utterly of obtaining any help from man.
Then she cried out with tears unto God, the Most High, and unto our Lady Mary, the storehouse of compassion and mercy, who called everyone unto the love of her beloved Son, the Redeemer of the world. And it came to pass that when those who had taken to flight arrived at the seashore, they stretched out their hands, and turned their eyes upwards unto God in heaven, and they made supplication unto our Lady Mary with great outcry, and with much weeping, and with lamentation. And the waves of the sea stood still by the power of the billows thereof, and our Lady Mary brought tidings of hope and joy unto the woman, and covered her with her garments, and hid her from the sight of the sea; and it seemed to the woman that she was in a house which was well built and furnished.
Then, while she was in the midst of the sea, the pains of childbirth laid hold upon her, and our Lady Mary took the child from her womb; and she gave birth to a fine boy. And his mother called the boy “Abraskirospas”, a name which means in Greek and in Hebrew, “The Hand of Mary had touched him and blessed him in the womb of his mother.” Now neither pain nor blood came to his mother when she brought him forth. And it came to pass that, when the sea returned into it’s wonted place, and the waters thereof became quiet, and the waves went down, the woman went forth from it carrying her child in her arms. Now when the people saw her many of them marveled and were made speechless, by reason of the greatness of the wonderful and miraculous thing which had happened; and they all ran and followed after her.
And when they had come up with her, they asked her questions, and she related unto them this great and wonderful miracle which Mary, the mother of life, the vessel of prophecy, had wrought, and she told them how she had hidden her beneath the dark masses of water so that she should not suffer death. And those who heard this story, men, and women, and children, and old folk, and young men, and babes, and Jew and Gentile, and all the people of the world, marveled exceedingly, and they gave thanks unto the God of righteousness, and they multiplied the praises of our Lady Mary, who worked miracles without number, whose beauty of goodness is without measure, and whose rule is beneficent and hard to explain. May her prayer deliver our king David from the wrath of her Son forever and ever! Amen.
As thou did cover over with thy garments the woman who was with child, and was among the terrible waves of the sea, at the hour of her bringing forth and bearing a son, even so cover thou me over, and let not my need be too hard for me, O my Lady Mary, who did receive me into thy care from the womb, with vestments of light and not of skin.
-bP
Culmination of Wisdom 