The Entrance of the Theotokos is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated every year on November 21st. It commemorates the day when the Virgin Mary, as a young girl, was brought by her parents to the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicated to God’s service.
You won’t find this story in your Bible. It comes to us through Holy Tradition, particularly from an early Christian text called the Protoevangelion of James. And that’s okay, we’re not sola scriptura people. The Church has always known and celebrated things about Christ and the saints that aren’t written down in the New Testament but have been handed down faithfully through the centuries.
What the Tradition Tells Us
According to Tradition, Mary’s parents were Joachim and Anna. They’d been childless for years, which was considered a disgrace in their culture. When God finally blessed them with a daughter in their old age, they promised to dedicate her to the Lord’s service. So when Mary was about three years old, they brought her to the Temple in Jerusalem.
The high priest Zacharias (the father of John the Baptist, according to Tradition) received her. She didn’t just visit and go home. Mary actually lived at the Temple as a consecrated virgin, spending her childhood in prayer and service to God until she was betrothed to Joseph years later.
If you look at an icon of this feast, you’ll see little Mary climbing the steps of the Temple with Zacharias reaching down to receive her. Her parents stand behind her. It’s a moment of complete consecration, a young child being set apart for God’s purposes.
Why This Matters Theologically
Here’s the thing that makes this feast so significant. For centuries, God’s presence dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem. That’s where the Holy of Holies was, where the high priest entered once a year on Yom Kippur. The Temple was God’s dwelling place among his people.
But on this day, something shifts. The one who would become the living Temple of God enters the old Temple made of stone. Mary herself would become the dwelling place of God when she said yes to the angel Gabriel years later. The inanimate Temple receives the one who would bear God in her womb.
St. Gregory Palamas preached about this feast, calling Mary “the living Temple of God.” She’s the bridge between the old covenant and the new. The Epistle reading for this feast comes from Hebrews 9, which talks about the old tabernacle and its rituals, all pointing forward to what God was preparing in Mary.
When We Celebrate It
November 21st falls during the Nativity Fast, which begins on November 15th. So this feast comes right in the middle of our preparation for Christmas. That’s not accidental. It’s a feast of anticipation. The Troparion (the main hymn) calls it “the preview of the goodwill of God” and “the preaching of the salvation of mankind.” We’re celebrating what God is preparing, what’s coming.
If you’re in Southeast Texas and the weather’s finally cooled down by late November, this feast marks that turn toward Advent. We’re fasting, we’re preparing, and this feast reminds us why, because God is preparing something extraordinary.
What It Means for Us
The Gospel reading for this feast is Luke 10:38-42 and 11:27-28. That’s the story of Mary and Martha, ending with Jesus saying, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” We use this reading for all the Theotokos feasts because it captures what Mary did. She heard God’s word and kept it. She said yes.
The feast calls us to become temples of God ourselves. St. Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Mary shows us what that looks like, complete consecration, complete openness to God’s will, a life set apart.
For inquirers and catechumens, this feast might seem unfamiliar at first. Most Protestant churches don’t celebrate it. But it’s been part of the Church’s life since at least the sixth century, when Emperor Justinian built a church near the Temple site and dedicated it on November 21st. The feast itself is older than that.
We’re not making up stories about Mary to add to Scripture. We’re celebrating what the Church has always known and treasured about the Theotokos, the one who made the Incarnation possible by her obedience. When you come to Vespers and Liturgy for this feast, you’ll hear the hymns calling Mary the “Divine Fulfillment of the Creator’s dispensation.” That’s who she is, the culmination of everything God was preparing in the Old Testament, the beginning of everything new in Christ.
