A convent that was shut down, blown up and lost its last abbess to a firing squad marked 30 years since its monastic life was revived this week.
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.
For centuries, ancient writers have spoken of a grand bishop’s church in Altino, but no one had ever found a trace of it. Now archaeologists say they’ve almost certainly located it, along with the bishop’s palace next to it.
The three-day celebration at St. George Church drew three bishops, along with clergy and laity from around North America.
The Yaroslavl Diocese was established in the Rostov lands in 991, three years after the Baptism of Rus’.
The centennial traces back to the early twentieth century, when traveling priests ministered to Lebanese and Greek immigrants in Niagara Falls, planting the seeds that grew into St. George Church.
Nun Alexandra (Markova)
Mother Paraskeva treated all people with special understanding and respect—even those who didn’t love or understand her, or who had done her harm. She lived with a special sense of inner attention to her heart and soul, fearing to sin before God, whether in deed or thought.
In 1653, this icon was delivered to Russia as a gift to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, together with a document describing its origin and veneration and several copies of the icon.
Zhanna Kurbatova
In 1204, the Crusaders sacked Constantinople and carried the Image Not Made by Hands away from the Byzantine Empire. Its subsequent fate remains unknown.
Hieromonk Pafnuty (Fokin)
Although she grew up in an atheistic Jewish family, from the age of six she felt drawn to the Orthodox faith and was baptized in 1941.
Hundreds of young Orthodox Christians in Kenya gathered on August 6 to honor the recently canonized founder of their organization, marking 60 years since its establishment.
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.
Archaeologists excavating in the İznik District of Turkey’s northwestern Bursa Province have uncovered structural remains believed to belong to the Church of St. Neophytos, the church that hosted the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, offering what researchers describe as the strongest archaeological evidence to date for the location of the historic gathering.
Alexander Kuznetsov
Surprisingly, the path of Soviet hippies to the Church often began with the image of the “nice Jesus” brought from the West through records, samizdat magazines, and rare books.
Viktor Grigoryevich Bichikov
We planted our own garden; we tied ropes to the plow, and mostly women pulled it instead of horses, while we children planted the potatoes.
The critical edition is expected to be published by CSEL at the end of 2026.
St. Nikolai, one of the great saints of America who served in the United States for many years before reposing at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania in 1956, is venerated throughout the Orthodox world.
Archimandrite Zosima (Gorshunov)
The word “Znamenny” means “sign.” The Znamenny Icon, the Znamenny church—what kind of signs are these? I think they’re signs of God’s mercy, His boundless salvific love for us. Most important is to notice, recognize, and follow these signs.
Everyone wanted to be baptized then. There was a massive demand for the Orthodox faith. I remember, as soon as we’d arrive in some remote village, explain to the village council who we were and why we’d come, and make an announcement, all the people would come running right away.
Georgy Ogorodnikov
Metropolitan Chrysanthus studied Russian, made use of the rich library of the main seminary, and became acquainted with the history of Russia and its church structure
