On this day it has been ordained to remember the birthday, namely the Dedication of the God-protected and God-magnified Constantinople, which especially ascribes her protection to our All-Immaculate Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, having been been preserved by her.
Verses
Your birthday is tied to an honorable day,
In you O City I happened to have been born.*
In you O City I happened to have been born.*
The Christian Emperor Constantine I the Great took the city of Byzantium, built it to be much greater than it was before, and changed its former name, giving it his own name, calling it Constantinople instead of Byzantium. Having completed all its walls and buildings and sacred churches, he dedicated it in a special way to our beyond-glorious Lady and Ever-Virgin Theotokos. Therefore he thanked God for this magnificent work, which he accomplished, and made a procession with the Patriarch of that time, together with all the clergy and laity, and they went up to the Forum, where the citizens set up his statue, which had in its head the holy nails by which our Lord was crucified to the Cross. Underneath this statue could be found the twelve baskets, which had received the abundance from the five loaves that were blessed by Christ and multiplied. From that time therefore it has been received from the Church of Christ to celebrate annually this feast in remembrance.**
Notes:
* It appears from these verses that Christopher the Patrician of Mytilene, who composed most of the iambic verses of our Church feasts in the 11th century, including this one, was born in Constantinople, therefore his parents may have been born in Mytilene.
** This took place on May 11, 330.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
The city of the Theotokos dedicates its foundation as an offering to the Theotokos. For it has been establish to remain in her, and it lives and is strengthened through her, crying out to her: Rejoice, the hope of all the ends of the earth.
