At the end of the fifth week of Great Lent we are given great comfort and encouragement by the Most Holy Theotokos in the service to her called the Laudation of the Mother of God.
At the Matins Service, which is held on Friday evening, we read the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God, composed in 626 to commemorate the deliverance of Constantinople from the attack by the Scythes.
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