11/9/2024
Bishop Nestor (Donenko) of Yalta
And the experience of a martyr says that if an external evil is coming, evil thoughts are beginning to attack from inside, your neighbors appear to be very “distant”, and you are betrayed and sold, you understand that there is something that you cannot betray—and a hero appears in literature—but most importantly, a Christian, a martyr appears.
When the time of persecution, sorrows, and illness comes, a person mobilizes and realizes that earthly life is a special space, that it is not a health resort or a sanatorium. There is little point in seeking pleasures and pleasant sensations—that is the greatest illusion.
Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) is a very special figure in our national history, a great elder of a great era, a fragrant, God-given fruit of the Russian Orthodox Church, and a spiritual landmark of our time.
