Maria Tobolova
Nun Maria spent almost half of her life—forty-four years—in seclusion and ended her days in the service of God in the angelic—that is, monastic rank.
Almost simultaneously, pagans rose up against Christ and the Church in Denmark, Germany, and the Baltic Slavic principalities. Everywhere the unrest was accompanied by the destruction of churches, and the killing of clergy and other Christians.
Thousands of Orthodox Christians joined in an annual procession on the Greek island of Tinos on July 23.
The relics, kept at the Sofia Theological Seminary, were taken to Romania by request of the Pantocrator Monastery in Drăgănești-Vlașca, Teleorman County, in honor of the monastery’s patronal feast of St. Mary Magdalene.
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church formally approved the canonization of 16 martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th century at its session on July 11–12.
Stanislav Minakov
When she returned to Kiev, Olga brought with her icons, liturgical books, and the determination to convert the Russian people to Christianity.
On Sunday, July 21, celebrations in honor of the 400th anniversary of the glorification of the wonderworking Vyazniki Kazan Icon of the Mother of God were held in the Murom Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Sergei Shmel
This ascetic holds a special place among ancient Russian saints and is traditionally revered as the “chief of all Russian monks” because the monastery he founded on the hills of Kiev served as a center and school of ancient Russian monasticism and enlightenment for all of Rus’, for many centuries.
Over the decades, the buildings at New Skete on Mt. Athos, where the saint spent the last years of his life and where he was buried, have deteriorated, and the cover of his tomb had cracked into several pieces.
All those whose destinies crossed the paths in life of the Royal Family unanimously testified to the moral purity of the eldest Princess, her kindness, modesty, sensitivity, and sense of justice.
Archpriest Gregory Dyachenko
The Most Holy Virgin Theotokos is the special protectress of pious Christians.
St. Raphael was the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in America, where he faithfully served the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church under St. Tikhon, the future Patriarch of Moscow, together with a number of other saints.
Nikolaos Sotiropoulos
I turned around and saw him. He was tall, with small, round eyes and slight wrinkles in the corner. His beard covered his neck, and from there it divided into three parts. It was black and a little curly.
The Romanian Patriarchate issued a statement noting that the canonization of a saint doesn’t mean that person never made any mistakes, even serious mistakes, and never had anything to repent of.
The Ekaterinburg Diocese is celebrating its annual Royal Days in honor of the holy Royal Martyrs, Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Nun Barbara, and others.
Hieromonk Ignaty (Shestakov)
In fact, it was not just a ruler who was killed, but a family. It was the terrible and demonstrative murder of a Russian family. They stormed into a domestic church and smashed everything inside, flooding everything with blood, desecrating everything, and then the history of our people in the twentieth century was stained with this blood.
Anton Pospelov
On the eve of the commemoration day of St. Sergius of Radonezh, we asked readers to share their stories about miraculous help from the Abbot of the Russian Land.
An Orthodox church in eastern Latvia has repaired and beautified the graves of the parents of the great Riga archpastor and New Martyr St. John of Riga (†1934).
Viktor Nemerovsky
Nicholas II simultaneously initiated, supervised, and financed more than 30 international-level peacekeeping projects.
Archpriest Stephan Pavlenko
Tsar Nicholas II and his family, like all saints, show people the path they should follow.