Schemamonk Panteleimon (Volkov)
Divine providence rules everything. Not a single process in the world is random. We need to be able to feel it inwardly. It’s like developing a ear for music.
Elena Detinina
July 5/18 is the feast-day of the holy Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, who was martyred for the faith of Christ in 1918.
Natalia Vashchina
Fr. Agapit survived nine years in total of continuous camps. Not everyone was able to survive this, given the monstrous conditions, inhumane treatment, hard labor, a huge number of infections, constant outbreaks of epidemics, and exhausting hunger and cold.
Hieromonk Ignaty (Shestakov)
In the much-suffering Soviet Union, soaked in the blood of millions, betrayal was repeated exactly according to the same pattern…
Maria Marchenko
And when, during the translation of their relics, some suggested separating the saints, leaving St. Longinus’ relics at St. Nicholas Chapel, those present protested loudly; the saints, in general opinion, had become inseparable, and “they should rest side by side.”
Archpriest Sergei Tishkun
The saint would often come to Bedouins’ homes at night, quietly leaving provisions and clothes at their doors. He was a St. Nicholas not only for Bedouins, but also for those living close to him.
Saint Edmund the Martyr was one of England’s great Orthodox Christian kings — a ruler, confessor, and martyr whose witness helped shape the spiritual history of England.
Hieromonk Agafangel (Davlatov)
So as not to feel so ashamed when looking at the icon of the apostles and to have hope and confidence of being shown mercy at the Last Judgment, we need to meet God within us in the same way as the apostles met Him.
Fr. James Guirguis
In God’s truth we see who we are and what we are.
Hieromonk Sebastian (Kuznetsov)
In our deceitful times, let us keep the faith pure, as the Apostles Peter and Paul and other disciples of Christ preached it to us.
At the age of fifteen, Arsenios was vouchsafed a miraculous appearance of the Savior. After that event, Arsenios began to struggle even more zealously. Whenever someone wanted to marry him off to some lady, he strongly objected: “No, I will be a monk! I am not for this world.”
Konstantin Tsertsvadze
This was the answer! A living, instantaneous answer to my prayers from His Holiness. All my life I had dreamed of simply being near him, to at least catch a glimpse of him… And now he left me a guardian at his tomb!
Hieromonk Philofei (Makharramov)
His life was very hard and even brutal. He wore clothing woven from camel’s hair, which was very rough and uncomfortable, ate locusts and wild honey, lived in the wilderness, and died a martyr’s death, suffering for the truth—the holy Forerunner was beheaded.
Archpriest Valery Lukianov
There he stands—a righteous man of our own times, a true non-possessor, seeking no glory in the dignity of the episcopate, aspiring neither to honors nor to splendid vestments; a good shepherd, ever the first to set an example of loving care for his neighbor; an intercessor before God for mankind, through whom many received healing and the fulfillment of their hopes.
Tatiana Kennedy (Urusova)
Although he could be strict with us, we were drawn to Vladyka, and whenever we saw him walking through the city, we ran to him to receive his blessing.
Alexandra Kalinovskaya
St. Methodius carried logs for the monastery on foot across the river—hence the name, St. Nicholas-Peshnosha Monastery, which he founded. St. Methodius built the monastery on his own, “performing great labors”, as the prayer to the saint says.
Elena Butarova
He baptized Prince Vladimir in Chersonesos, instructed him in the faith. It was he who headed the Baptism of the Kievan people in the waters of the Dnieper River.
The monastic community on Konevets Island, which St. Arseny had built, gradually grew, and in 1398 Archbishop John of Novgorod blessed the establishment of a cenobitic monastery in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos there. Pilgrims flocked to it from everywhere. St. Arseny welcomed everyone with a meal and comforting conversation.
The people had prepared a boat for him. But St. Basil removed his episcopal mantle, spread it upon the water, stepped onto it with the icon of the Mother of God in his hands, and, borne miraculously by the power of God as though by a mighty wind, swiftly sailed upstream against the current of the river.
Since time immemorial, the teachings of Abba Dorotheos have been an ABC on spiritual life for monastics and pious laypeople alike.
