Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, Godmothers, and those who love and serve as mothers!
As every mother prays for patience, it seems fitting to remember a motherly saint named Patience who has one of her dates of commemoration on May 29th.
The holy and right-believing Empress Helen Dragas Palaiologos, also known by her monastic name of Ipomoni, was the daughter of the emperor of the Slavs Constantine Dragasis and the wife of emperor Manuel II Palaiologos of Constantinople. Her name Ipomoni translates in English as Patience. She had six children. The memory of our Righteous and God-bearing mother Ypomoni is celebrated on March 13th (the day of her repose) and May 29th (the date of the fall of Constantinople and the death of her son Constantine XI Palaiologos.
The mother who had so many children and who loved them so much, nurtured them with the streams of faith and the sweet teaching of our Orthodox Church, taking them to holy shrines and sacred Monasteries of the Kingdom, and sought prayers for them by the holy ascetics and Elders. She raised them “in the law of the Lord from youth”, and never “ceased with tears of prayer and love to instill the law in each one”. With patience and persistence, with care and prayer she shaped their characters, and together gave them “life” and “good life”. In this way, she managed, among others, to end 90 years of conflict between the members of the Imperial Family, which had extinguished the Empire. Any differences of opinion or conflicts that occurred (after the death of Manuel), were overcome silently with the prestige of her motherly intervention and her prayer.
Holy St. Patience the Righteous, pray to God for us!
Fr Jerry
As every mother prays for patience, it seems fitting to remember a motherly saint named Patience who has one of her dates of commemoration on May 29th.
The holy and right-believing Empress Helen Dragas Palaiologos, also known by her monastic name of Ipomoni, was the daughter of the emperor of the Slavs Constantine Dragasis and the wife of emperor Manuel II Palaiologos of Constantinople. Her name Ipomoni translates in English as Patience. She had six children. The memory of our Righteous and God-bearing mother Ypomoni is celebrated on March 13th (the day of her repose) and May 29th (the date of the fall of Constantinople and the death of her son Constantine XI Palaiologos.
The mother who had so many children and who loved them so much, nurtured them with the streams of faith and the sweet teaching of our Orthodox Church, taking them to holy shrines and sacred Monasteries of the Kingdom, and sought prayers for them by the holy ascetics and Elders. She raised them “in the law of the Lord from youth”, and never “ceased with tears of prayer and love to instill the law in each one”. With patience and persistence, with care and prayer she shaped their characters, and together gave them “life” and “good life”. In this way, she managed, among others, to end 90 years of conflict between the members of the Imperial Family, which had extinguished the Empire. Any differences of opinion or conflicts that occurred (after the death of Manuel), were overcome silently with the prestige of her motherly intervention and her prayer.
Holy St. Patience the Righteous, pray to God for us!
Fr Jerry
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