Feast of the Discovery of St. Mary’s Box

According to tradition, while en route to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, two Greek princes come across a chest that once belonged to St. Mary. In Galilee, they see a large crowd gathered in front of a Jewish woman’s house. They inquire and find that the sick are being healed due to the inexplicable power of the chest. The princes bring the box to Constantinople and present it to the Patriarch, who places it in the Church of St. Mary.  The Patriarch then establishes the Feast of the Discovery of St. Mary’s Box.

The Armenian Church celebrates this feast upon the order of the Catholicos Simeon from Yerevan, who accepted this tradition from the Greek Orthodox Church in the late 18th century.