No relic of the Holy Mother of God had been recorded by her contemporaries, until her belt (often also called a girdle) emerged in Constantinople in the 5th century. It is credited with the miraculous healing of Empress Zoe, wife of Eastern Roman Emperor Leo VI the Wise, during his reign in 886-912. In gratitude, Empress Zoe embroidered the belt, which Mary herself had woven with camel hair, with golden thread.
The tradition bequeathed to us tells us that Thomas was the only apostle absent at the Assumption. Much saddened by this, he unexpectedly saw the Virgin’s ascent to Heaven. She gave him her girdle in response to his pleas for a blessing.
Yet for the Armenians there is also an earthlier aspect to the relic. We had forgotten about it for a millennium and a half.
For the Armenian Church, the revered belt of the Theotokos (“God-bearer,” in Greek) has an interesting historical dimension. It entered our liturgical calendar only in 1774, a full fourteen centuries after Armenia had become the first Christian state in the world, at the behest of Catholicos Simeon I of Yerevan, an enterprising patriarch of our church, who opened the first printing press in Armenia, the much larger homeland of his day which at the time was divided between the Persian and the Ottoman Empires. He also opened a paper factory to further promote book printing, introduced educational reforms at the seminary, embarked on a prolific construction program that saw Vagharshapat, the seat of Etchmiadzin, restored to new glory, and systematized the liturgical calendar, including the feast we are celebrating on Sunday.
The rediscovery in the 18th century by the Armenian Church of the existence of the Virgin’s belt and the beautiful story associated with her Assumption is a small testimony about the ever evolving nature of the Church and how it keeps learning about itself as it steadfastly continues our Savior’s mission.