Rating: 10|Votes: 3
All thy hope didst thou set on God, following His divine will; and in time of persecution thou didst take up the archpastoral staff as a cross, preparing thyself for martyrdom for the sake of Christ. Him didst thou confess before thy tormenters, enduring sufferings. And standing now before Christ, O Hilarion, thou dost rejoice with the holy Patriarch Tikhon. O Hilarion, most honored master, thy life was truly lived in accordance with thy name; for, having the serenity of prayer within thee, thou didst make manifest the joy of Pascha unto all.
Irina Sklyarevskaya
Suddenly in the midst of this motley and rather unpleasant crowd I saw a group of very beautiful young men and ladies. I understood that they were foreigners, but that they were somehow out of the ordinary and special. There was some sort of light in them. They walked around the churchyard fence looking lost and obviously searching for something—as it turned out, the entrance.
Holy Hierarch Ilya (Minyati)
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
How different is God from man! But God, becoming a man and in taking flesh, did not abandon the nature of the Divinity. And how different a Virgin is from a Mother! But the Virgin, becoming a Mother, in maternal childbearing did not lose the glory of virginity. What a strange communion of two natures—the Godly and the human, united unmingled in one hypostasis!
Rating: 7,3|Votes: 6
Once, when he heard in a court the inhuman sentence concerning the annihilation of Christians, St. George became inflamed with compassion for them. Foreseeing that sufferings were also awaiting him, George distributed his property to the poor, freed his slaves, appeared before Diocletian and, having revealed himself as a Christian, denounced him for cruelty and injustice. George's speech was full of powerful and convincing objections against the imperial order to persecute Christians.
Rating: 6,3|Votes: 8
Thus Great Week was born. The crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Christ, together with the event of the Mystical Supper, constituted the very heart and center of the Great Week. The solemn celebration of these events began on Thursday evening and ended on the early dawn of Sunday. During the course of the fourth century a process was set in motion by which the solemnities of the Week would be further enhanced and elaborated.
