Protodeacon Vladimir Vasilik
The Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the church during the Liturgy of the Faithful. At the very moment Fr. Vadim was praying for the Patriarch: “Our great Lord and Father, His Holiness Kirill...”, drones exploded nearby.
Svetlana Rybakova
Miracles from this icon occurred at the Church of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki and still continue. Most often, young mothers and those who about to have children seek its help.
Varvara Kashirina
At Vysha, St. Theophan prepared translations of Patristic writings and wrote theological works and hundreds of letters where he reflected on the Christian life, overcoming temptations and faintheartedness, and the final fate of mankind.
The monastery has gone through many periods throughout its long history: It was closed and abolished, but then, against all odds, like a mighty warrior, it rose again from oblivion.
Medieval wall paintings long hidden beneath plaster and limewash are reappearing inside the Byzantine monastery church of Agios Nikolaos (Saint Nicholas) in Mesopotamos, Albania, after conservators uncovered previously unknown frescoes during a continuing restoration programme.
Fr. Photios Parks
Between new calendar and old calendar Christmas, a time of great grace and mercy, we spoke with Fr. Photius Parks, priest of the St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Mission Parish in Hernderson, North Carolina about the mission’s origins, its life, and its hopes for the future.
Alexandra Kalinovskaya
"Its exterior is so majestic and its location so picturesque that you can’t help but regret its desolation, for this place seems as if purposely created for a monastery."
The blessed monastery is quiet and simple in appearance. The church services are quiet and peaceful. The reading and singing is slow and smooth. Everything is imbued with a spirit of deep humility and penitential compunction. Everything is so proper, according to the typikon, and yet so simple.
Sergei Mudrov
Orthodoxy is actually one of the three faiths, whose representatives have the right to teach the foundations of their faith at secondary schools.
Hieromonk Joasaph (Kurakulov)
Liturgy is a common work—I’m sure of it. Some amazing people, some amazing helpers have gathered around me.
Natalia Malakhova
Bell ringing is not merely a part of church services, but a special language through which the inhabitants of Ancient Rus communicated.
Abbess Olympiada (Baranova)
How we loved Mother, how we all wanted to do something nice for her, to at least make her smile.
Abbess Olympiada shared her story about her spiritual mother and her experience of the continuity of the traditions of Russian female monasticism.
Praying in front of the icon of the Mother of God, “Quick to Hear”—the one that the Russian hermit had donated to the Netherlands—Fr. Dionysius made a vow: if the Lord would rescue him and give him the opportunity to organize a parish or build a church someday, he would have it dedicated to the Icon of the Mother of God, “Quick to Hear”.
Mikhail Arsentiev
The main life, service and labor are concentrated here—in the heart of a city of many millions, where the monastery has become for many not just a church, but a house of prayer, a family and the last refuge.
The northernmost Orthodox church in America was built in 1992 and consecrated in honor of Saint Herman of Alaska. Last summer, the husband and wife film team, Mikhail and Ekaterina P, spoke with its rector, Father Andrew, about Orthodox traditions and the special nature of serving the Church in Alaska.
Abbess Elizabeth (Smelik)
The procession is chiefly dedicated to the estate owners: Empress Consort Maria Alexandrovna, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife, the holy Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, but many people also walk in the procession with icons of the holy Royal Passion-Bearers Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
St. James prays for us in the hustle and bustle of the modern world.
Bishop Joseph (Korolev)
Our elders could combine unceasing prayer and work. True, it’s not total stillness—we won’t see it at the Optina Monastery. But there was the path of cenobitic monasticism, there was monastic life in the skete and there was eremitic life.
In early September, summer gently retreats from the Solovki archipelago—a place of prayer but also of breathtaking natural beauty.
