Svetlana Rybakova
The holy icon has been renowned for its miracles since ancient times.
Klim Palekha
It was she, Maria Shchegoleva, who would become the one responsible for the Church of St. Mary of Egypt, built in one of the most famous monasteries in Russia.
A carefully made replica arrived from Greece in 2008 with the blessing of the monastery that protects the original, and it has remained with a small community of nuns ever since.
Nun Alexandra (Markova)
St. Ephraim chose a special place for his church, and a man to serve him there.
There was something fitting about beginning the archpastoral visit this way. For more than two centuries, the story of Orthodoxy in Alaska has been inseparable from journeys across water.
Dmitry Kiryukhin
One day, already completely desperate, sitting at my laptop, I prayed: “Lord, help me!”
Standing above Lake Onega, the Church of the Transfiguration seems at once monumental and almost weightless. Its massive pine logs anchor it firmly to the earth, while the ascending tiers of silver-gray domes draw the eye upward.
Elena Nasledysheva
During a true pilgrimage on foot, with all its trials and joys and its atmosphere of prayer, one witnesses how all of this transforms people, inspires them, and strengthens their faith; how it unites people from different countries in a common aspiration—to become purer and kinder, and to draw closer to God and to one another.
Hieromonk Pafnuty (Fokin)
Preparations for manned spaceflight in the Soviet Union began in the spring of 1960. At that time, the concepts of “cosmonautics” and “religion” were regarded in the public consciousness as incompatible and mutually exclusive. And yet, almost all the cosmonauts of the first group were baptized Orthodox Christians.
Evgenia Rozina
Children who first came to church only for Sunday school gradually led their own parents to Christ. That is one of the remarkable paradoxes of our time.
Anastasia Lutcenko
The more noise fills our lives, the more important it becomes to recover the ability to hear silence. It is in silence that we most often encounter God.
Maria Tobolova
Shamordino is the child of the great holy Elder Ambrose (Grenkov; 1812–1891) of Optina.
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.
Conrad Franz
Orthodox blogger Conrad Franz tells us about his trip to the Donbas—what he saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears.
Returning from Poltava after the victory, Peter the Great en route called in on his associate and friend at the Borisovka estate in the Kursk province and stayed there for six weeks. There Sheremetev revealed to the Emperor his heart’s desire to build a convent.
St. Elizabeth Convent in Minsk was founded in 1999 on a site where no churches had previously stood. It is dedicated to the Holy New Martyr Grand Duchess St. Elizabeth Feodorovna.
Priest Leonid Bartkov
A candle is not a “payment” for the fulfillment of a wish. It is a visible sign of the invisible movement of the soul.
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 Detinina
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.
Priest Tarasiy Borozenets
A careful reading of the Gospel shows that Christ pronounces the word “blessed” much more often, and in very different circumstances.
