Many residents of Tskhinvali saw the Holy Virgin during the shelling, the local bishop claims - Interfax

August 19, 2008

Moscow, August 19, Interfax - Many residents of Tskhinvali saw the Holy Virgin during the most violent battles, Bishop Georgy (Pukhate), head of the Alania Diocese acting in the territory of South Ossetia and not recognized in the Orthodox world.

"She was seen in long garments. She mournfully passed along the streets. She was seen in the evening and at night in places of most violent and cruel battles. Militiamen realized, the Holy Virgin didn't leave the city to save it from total destruction. She came to help us," Bishop Georgy said in his interview published on Tuesday by electronic paper Utro.ru

He confessed that when some residents told him they had seen the Holy Virgin on the first war days, he "yielded to a temptation" and decided that people "were hallucinating from fear and horror."

"But when many residents and policemen from various parts of the city described the same phenomenon, it couldn't be a hallucination," Bishop Georgy said.

The Alanian Diocese was established in South Ossetia in 2005. The Diocese is subordinated to "Synod in Resistance" of the so-called True Orthodox Church of Greece.

Слава Ісусу Христу!

Mae culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! In the 80’s when the all-holy Mother was sighted in Ukraine and promised independence as a sign, I dismissed it thinking “nationalist propaganda”. I have since been troubled wondering what I will say to her when she comes to stand by me at my judgment.

During our Lord’s crucifixion only one of the canonical patriarchal forerunners stood with her under the cross. Here is a prayer speaking of her heartbreaking steadfast witness in times of despair over man’s inhumanity to man. I became acquainted with it in the local Maronite Church, and it may speak to you in its haunting beauty. “My Beloved” (try the various versions) cut and paste in Google search:

YouTube-wa habibi

Wonderful if true --- but what is the history of this Bishop?

A fascinating report, but I should like ot know more if I could trouble you, and if more is available.

I am sure that any information can be had by a simple google search...the easiest portal to the great information highway known as the internet!

The reason that I posted this was to show that our blessed Lady does not forget us in times of trouble and sorrow...she has appeared to Copts, to Roman Catholics, to 'canonical' Orthodox and to 'uncanonical' Orthodox, and to every different ethnic nationality that holds her in esteem...

What this means to me is that all our man made jurisdictions and schisms mean nothing in Heaven...Many Christians condemn and judge each other and often call each other names-- yet-- it seems that for our God, no one is more 'correct' than the other.. that loving our Lord and His Mother is all that is needed for Heaven to speak to us and give us hope when hope is needed, and that God and the Theotokos, in their infinite love for mankind, do not differentiate when offering that hope.

Humbly,
Alice

We have much to learn from her.

We do, but our human pride does not allow us to learn...

...Holy Mother of God, save us!

Alice

Слава Ісусу Христу!

Knowing through experience is an unforgettable lesson. Our all holy Mother knows life as a refugee and the role foreign occupation plays on a people. These paths set the way for her own Child’s death.

When the Turks and Tartars invaded Pochayiv Ukraine in 1675 she appeared stretching her ormophoria over her holy monastery. In 1917 Fatima Europe she warned of the consequences of war. Communist domination she predicted which we thought we eradicated with a velvet revolution instead of the prayerful consecration of Russia she requested. Now she is walking amongst her besieged children in 2008 Georgia.

Papal angelus:
http://opinionatedcatholic.blogspot.com/2008/08/full-text-of-pope-benedict-augsut-10.html

"My beloved..."(by Pope Shenouda III, of the Coptic Orthodox Church,):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOGUVmgLX1M

Through the prayers of the Mother of God, O Saviour save us.