“More honorable than the Cherubim” is the opening line of one of Orthodoxy’s most beloved hymns to the Virgin Mary. You’ll hear it every Sunday at St. Michael’s during the Divine Liturgy, right after the priest consecrates the bread and wine.
The full hymn goes like this: “It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blameless and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, who without corruption barest God the Word, true Theotokos, we magnify thee.”
That’s a lot packed into a few lines. Let’s unpack it.
What It Means
The hymn makes an astonishing claim. Mary ranks higher than the Cherubim and Seraphim, the highest orders of angels, the ones who stand closest to God’s throne. Why? Because she did something no angel could do. She gave birth to God Himself while remaining a virgin.
The Cherubim guard God’s holiness. The Seraphim cry “Holy, holy, holy” before His throne. But Mary became the dwelling place of God. She carried in her womb the One whom heaven and earth can’t contain. That’s why we call her “more honorable” than any created being.
When we sing “without corruption barest God the Word,” we’re confessing two things. First, that Jesus is truly God, the Word made flesh. Second, that Mary remained ever-virgin. She didn’t just conceive virginally. Her virginity remained intact through the birth itself and afterward. This isn’t about biology as much as theology. God entered the world in a way that broke the normal rules because the Incarnation itself broke every rule.
When We Sing It
You’ll hear this hymn during the most solemn moment of the Liturgy. The priest has just called down the Holy Spirit on the gifts. The bread and wine have become Christ’s Body and Blood. At that moment, as the priest elevates the chalice, we sing this hymn to Mary.
Why then? Because without Mary’s “yes” to the Archangel Gabriel, there’d be no Incarnation. No Incarnation means no Body and Blood to offer. She’s the human link that made our salvation possible. So right when we’re standing before the greatest mystery, God giving Himself to us as food, we remember the woman who made it all possible.
The hymn also shows up at Vespers and at the end of other services. It’s woven into Orthodox life.
Where It Came From
The story goes back to Mount Athos around 980 AD. An elder monk left his cell to attend vigil in Karyes, leaving his disciple alone. A stranger showed up and joined the young monk for prayers. When they reached the hymn to the Theotokos, the stranger sang something the monk had never heard: “It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos…”
The icon of Mary on the wall began to glow. The stranger, who turned out to be the Archangel Gabriel himself, inscribed the words on a stone tile with his finger. Then he vanished.
The icon still exists. It’s called the Axion Estin icon and it sits in the Protaton church on Mount Athos. The hymn spread throughout the Orthodox world after that night. We’ve been singing it ever since.
Is the story literally true? I can’t prove it either way. But the Church received this hymn as a gift from heaven, and that’s how we treat it.
Why It Matters
If you’re coming from a Protestant background, this might feel like we’re elevating Mary too much. We’re not worshiping her. We’re recognizing what God did through her. The Incarnation required her cooperation. God didn’t force Himself on her. He waited for her consent.
That makes her the first Christian, the first person to bear Christ into the world. We do the same thing she did when we receive Communion, we become Christ-bearers. But she did it first, and she did it in a way nobody else ever could.
The hymn also pushes back against an old heresy. Nestorius taught that Mary gave birth to Jesus the man, and God just sort of inhabited him. Wrong. She gave birth to God the Word made flesh. One person, two natures. That’s why we call her Theotokos, God-bearer. It’s a statement about Jesus more than about Mary.
When you’re standing in church next Sunday and the choir sings “More honorable than the Cherubim,” you’re joining your voice to centuries of Christians who’ve magnified the woman who said yes to God. You’re also confessing that the child she bore is truly God, truly man, and truly present on the altar before you.
