Revelation of the Axion Estin by the Archangel Gabriel (I)

Some distance from Karyes, the capital of Mount Athos, in the direction of the Monastery of the Pantocrator, lived a virtuous hieromonk and his young disciple. One Saturday evening, the elder left to attend the vigil celebrated, as each week, at the Church of Protaton, leaving his disciple alone. After the sun had set, a stranger dressed in monk's garb knocked at the door and the disciple welcomed him inside to spend the night. They joined each other at dawn to sing the Office of Orthros in the chapel. But when they reached the ninth ode, although the disciple began to sing the anthem "More honorable than the Cherubim?" in front of the icon of the Mother of God, the stranger sang the same hymn with the following prelude: "We do well to call thee blest, the Theotokos, the ever-blessed and all-immaculate and Mother of our God." Marvelling at the hymn's beauty, the monk asked his guest to record this new text in writing, which the Angel did by miraculously inscribing the words on a piece of slate, using only his finger, and straightaway he vanished from sight. He added before disappearing: "From this day, all Orthodox shall sing the hymn to the Mother of God with these words."