bless her. there is an opinion that this was saint zechariah, the future father of the prophet ion pritevich. the lord commanded zechariah to introduce mary to the holy of holies, a place where only the high priest was allowed to enter, and even then only once a year. from this unusual. for contemporaries the moment began a long, grace-filled, but filled with difficulties, path of serving the mother of god. for nine years, the holy virgin lived at the temple, spent her days in prayer, studied the holy scriptures, and did handicrafts; only when she reached the age of twelve was she forced to leave the jerusalem temple. according to the laws of that time, the virgin mary had to return to her parents' house or get married. then mary was betrothed to righteous joseph. joseph had already reached an advanced age by that time, so this marriage was not a complete marriage. sense of the word. joseph became more of a guardian and mentor to the virgin mary, since by that time her parents had already departed to the lord. she had nowhere to go. the feast of the presentation of the most holy theotokos in