In the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Axion Estin is sung immediately after the consecration, at the point where the church commemorates the Mother of God at the head of the saints, and the choir's hymn expands that commemoration into praise. On the twelve great feasts the liturgy replaces it with the proper hymn of the day, the irmos of the ninth ode of the festal canon, so its presence marks ordinary time and its absence marks festivity, a quiet calendar built into the anaphora.
The Slavonic churches sing it as Dostoino Est, and its core stanza, More Honourable Than the Cherubim, recurs at daily matins in the Magnificat refrains and in nearly every Orthodox service of intercession, making it among the most repeated Marian texts in Christianity. On Mount Athos the hymn is also a feast and a place.
The Axion Estin icon in the Protaton keeps its celebration on 11 June, the anniversary the tradition assigns to the angel's visit, when the icon is carried in procession through Karyes with the whole monastic republic in attendance. Musical settings run from simple congregational chant through the elaborate Athonite melodies to choral versions in the Russian repertoire, and new compositions continue, since a text sung at every liturgy never stops commissioning music.