Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev)
Rating: 4|Votes: 4
The sakkos first appeared in Russia no later than the fourteenth century as a liturgical vestment of Moscow’s metropolitans. The sakkos of Metropolitan Peter (1308-1326) is preserved to this day. It was sewn in 1322 from light-blue satin material on which crosses in circles are woven with gold.
Fr. Stephen Freeman
Rating: 10|Votes: 3
The human relationship with time is a strange thing. The upright stones of neo-lithic human communities stand as silent reminders of our long interest in seasons and the movement of the heavens. Today our light-polluted skies shield many of us from the brilliant display of the night sky and rob us of the stars.
Anna Erakhtina
Rating: 10|Votes: 2
The civil New Year is once again upon us, and those who celebrage the Church feasts according to the Julian calendar are still on the Nativity fast. But that does not mean that we cannot rejoice and give thanks for the year passed, and look forward to the year to come. Pravoslavie.ru asked several priests of the Russian Orthodox Church how they celebrate New Year’s Eve according to the civil calendar.
Dmitry Lapa
Rating: 6,1|Votes: 7
St. Samthann was distantly related to St. Patrick who lived over 200 years before her. As a child she was given to the Irish king Cridan to be brought up. When Samthann grew up, the king found her a suitable, rich candidate as a husband. But the future ascetic did not wish to marry, but rather to live in chastity, prayer and service to God.
Ivan Rogov
In the zone being fired upon by the Chechen fighters there remained three on the ground—two rescuers and one special forces agent. Death seemed inescapable, but when an enemy hand grenade fell at their feet and didn’t detonate, they understood it as a sign from on high that their time had not yet come.