Church History

Rating: 9,8|Votes: 13

Myths about the Byzantine Empire

On the Church, the state and emperor, the inner world of the Rhomaioi, wealth and piety, and Russia as the Byzantine Empire’s successor

Pavel Kuzenkov, Yuri Pushchaev

Myths and misconceptions about the Byzantine Empire (of which Russia is believed by many to be the spiritual and political successor) abound.

Rating: 8,1|Votes: 18

“Painful Points” of Nicholas II’s Reign: Truth and Fiction

Yuri Pushchaev, Theodore Gaida

Was Emperor Nicholas II a weak-willed ruler who led Russia to a revolutionary catastrophe? Who was guilty in the shooting on January 9, 1905 and the Khodynka tragedy?

Rating: 8,9|Votes: 50

Sola Scriptura

Fr. Lawrence Farley

Now however, among most Evangelical Protestants, the phrase “sola Scriptura” has come to mean something rather different—and something that their Reformed ancestors would not have been happy with.

Rating: 9,7|Votes: 18

Learning from the Council of Nicea

Fr. Lawrence Farley

The Council of Nicea ended a long time ago (in 325) and Arius is very, very dead. Why do we still make such a big deal about the Council and commemorate it at such an important time—i.e. right after Pascha and before Pentecost?

Rating: 8,9|Votes: 16

Holy Children

On the Rearing of the Romanov Children at Tsarskoe Selo

Marina Kravtsova

Idleness was completely foreign to all members of the imperial family even after their arrest.

Rating: 6,7|Votes: 6

Tsar Nicholas, Nazis, Louis Sullivan, and a Little Chicago Church: The Crazy Story of St. Luke’s Portrait of the Virgin Mary

William O'Connor

The Tikhvin Icon has traveled through history and across the globe on an arduous journey few pieces of art can claim to match.

Rating: 8,2|Votes: 46

Emperor Nicholas II: Rare Photos from Family Albums

We here present rare photographs of the tsar from 1907 to 1915 from six family albums that were taken abroad by the empress’ lady-in-waiting Anna Vyrubova.

Rating: 10|Votes: 21

Under the Wings of a Heavenly Bird

The Story of the First Monastery in Post-Soviet Russia

Maxim Vasyunov, Igumen Michael (Semenov)

Igumen Michael (Semenov), deputy abbot of Klykovo Monastery, speaks on Matushka’s role in the appearance of the monastery, on the difficulties and victories of the brethren, on the continuity of love, and much else in this candid conversation.

Rating: 7,1|Votes: 12

Fourth International St. George Knights’ Tournament

Photo Report

Around 120 leading historical reenactors gathered from around the world to participate in one of the largest historical reenactment festivals in the world, where Medieval chivalry was portrayed in all its details.

Rating: 9,5|Votes: 25

The Church in Seventh Century Celtic Britain

Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin

The period between the fifth and the eighth centuries was called “the age of saints” in Wales.

Rating: 10|Votes: 23

Participants in the Eternal Pascha

The Memory of the Optina Brothers Killed on Pascha in 1993

Olga Rozhneva

They were God’s chosen ones. To die for Christ is an honor that must be earned.

Rating: 10|Votes: 11

Two Paschal Celebrations in Prison

Vitaly Chekhranov

This was the most difficult Pascha of the four that I had celebrated during my imprisonment from 1923 to 1926.

Rating: 9,9|Votes: 22

A Pascha of Beauty – In a Soviet Prison – 1928

Fr. Stephen Freeman

This letter should become a classic of Orthodox writing and witness to the faith that sustained so many and is today being resurrected in so many places. The triumph of the Resurrection so transcends his prison cell it’s a wonder that the walls remained.

Rating: 9,9|Votes: 20

Irish Monasticism and the Paschal Controversy

From the history of the Irish Church in the seventh century

Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin

The main theological dispute in sixth and seventh-century Ireland was the controversy over the correct date for Pascha.

Rating: 9,9|Votes: 27

“This is Our Golgotha…”

The story of the Malyshevs’ church house and people who lived there

Dmitry Mikhailov

When the Church of the Theophany, the last Orthodox church in Vyshny Volochek was shut down, this was the house where the parishioners held secret worship services. When the owners of the house were arrested and all their relatives and friends, stricken by fear, turned their backs on the “children of the enemies of the state”, this house witnessed another act of courage as the children were saved by selfless people who became their guardians.

Rating: 10|Votes: 3

In Memoriam: Archpriest Alexei Zotov (March 10, 1930-February 12, 2012)

Olga Orlova

ew of us can imagine what it was like during the transition period from soviet times into our own times in Russia to begin the herculean task of restoring the desecrated churches. These reminiscences paint a fragment of this picture in describing the life of one true man of God in Moscow, Archpriest Alexei Zotov.

Rating: 10|Votes: 58

Christianity and Communism, Relics and Corpses, Truths and Half-Truths

Nun Cornelia (Rees)

After a number of media, mostly tabloid, picked up a story that President Putin supposedly equated communism with Christianity and Lenin’s embalmed but nevertheless decomposing remains with holy Christian relics, I was hoping to see an article somewhere discussing this sanely in either Russian or in English.

Rating: 9,7|Votes: 28

An Ancient Liturgical Tradition: The Babylonian Furnace Rite

Nicholai Bulchuk, Andrei Kotov

Only a handful of specialists now know about a liturgical rite called “the Furnace Act” practiced in Russia from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and mentioned as early as the tenth century in Byzantium. It was a rite that was celebrated on the great feasts. With this rite also began the forefeast of the Nativity of Christ.

Rating: 9,6|Votes: 26

A Church, or a Museum?

How should comtemporary Russians remember Soviet-era political repressions?

Vasiliy Shchipkov

In this article, Vasiliy Shchipkov, who holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, discusses the Christian approach to remembering the terrible time of Soviet repressions vs. a mentality of retribution.

Rating: 9,5|Votes: 40

As in Old Russia: Edinoverie Families Today

Vladimir Basenkov

We decided to ask a few questions to simple lay Old Believers about the way of life in their “little church” today.