The Protection of Our Most Holy Lay Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, known in Church Slavonic as Pokrov (Покровъ, "protection"), and in Greek as Skepê (Σκέπη), is a feast of the Mother of God celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. The feast celebrates the protection afforded the faithful through the intercessions of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary). It is one of the most important feasts of the Russian Orthodox liturgical year. In Russia it is celebrated as the most important solemnity after the Twelve Great Feasts. The feast is commemorated in Eastern Orthodoxy as a whole, but by no means as fervently as it is in Russia and Ukraine.