The Visit of the Virgin Mary to Hades!

 

When the Virgin Mary passed away and before she ascended to Paradise, Christ asked her:  

 

“What would you like to see first, My Mother?” Do you know what the Virgin Mary requested?  

She asked to visit the realms of Hades! The Prophets were astonished! The Righteous were astonished! The Angels were astonished! The only thing she requested to see, before ascending to Paradise, was the place where the souls suffer—those who did not treat God properly, who deeply wounded Him, and through many sins were deprived of eternal life.

Christ did not refuse her request, only that she would be accompanied by Angels and Saints on this journey to the Kingdom of Hades, where souls are sad and troubled. When she entered the Kingdom of Hades, the demons were terrified by her shining light and moved aside in fear. She proceeded to see all the places of torment. The first soul she requested to see, do you know who it was?  

It was the poor Judas, who had betrayed her Son. When he saw her, he pleaded for mercy. When all the sinners within the fires of Hades saw and heard her, they opened their mouths and, in a pleading voice, all cried out and begged, “Mother of God, save us, the sinners.”  

For the first time, all the Angels and Prophets saw her eyes filled with such tears, so tear-streaked. She wept inconsolably for the souls suffering greatly. Satan had tormented them on earth, telling them there was no God and that they could do any evil, and she now saw the results and wept for these souls…

And Christ saw her beautiful, tear-filled eyes and felt pain. He wished very much for His Mother to leave Hades and not to see what she was seeing at that moment.

Yet the Mother continued, and wherever she went, she opened her arms and left her hands in a gesture of blessing. Wherever she passed, she stretched out her hand, like a mother who opens her arms, seeking her child. In that moment, the demons could not bear it, nor could Hades bear the punishments any longer.  

Punishments ceased! Wrath stopped! Evil ceased! Wherever the Virgin Mary passed, Hades was immediately calmed, as if it became paradise at once, everything lit up, except for one place. This place remained so dark that it did not want to brighten. This surprised the Virgin Mary, and she asked what this place in Hades was called. The Angels of the Lord told her that they had reached the bottom of Hades; there was no lower layer, and this place was called “Oblivion.”

She knelt at that place and asked to see who was there and why. The Virgin Mary’s prayer was heard, and the Angels revealed to her that in that place are tormented monks, clerics, and elder wives who betrayed their roles through immoral acts, and all heretics, because they caused many people to fall into damnation until the Second Coming.  

For example, Mohammed, who became the cause of damnation for many due to Islam. The Virgin Mary felt so much pain upon seeing in Hades all these souls that she asked one favor from Christ—that these souls might find some “comfort” until the Second Coming, as she is a compassionate Mother of the entire world, of both the saved and the lost.

And Christ granted her request, saying that from Easter until Pentecost, these souls would receive some relief and consolation. She then prayed to her Heavenly Father to allow her and her siblings from Heaven, the Saints, to be on earth, to fight for His people here and to help them so that no one would go to hell—no one at all!

**This is why we must have reverence for all the Saints of our Church, but especially for the Virgin Mary, because while all the Saints are “servants” of Christ, the Theotokos is the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and she pleads with the compassionate Christ for our sins.  

Even the torments of Hades stop in honor of our Virgin Mary! Such is her love for all of us!  

I desire, O Virgin Mary, the beauty of paradise! Amen!**  

(*Saint Kosmas of Aetolia*)