His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
Rating: 8|Votes: 4
We have counted off 1025 years of our common history which has developed under the cross of St. Andrew the First Called. And today the whole plenitude of the Orthodox Church, through her primates, bishops and priests, has assembled here, in the Kiev Laura of the Caves, to thank God before this very cross of St. Andrew for the fact that the apostle’s prophecy about Orthodoxy in our lands, about the truth shining forth in them, has come true.
Protopriest Victor Ilienko
Holy Prince Vladimir, seeking the good jewel, obtained the most invaluable of all jewels—Christ Himself. As did the man from the Gospel, who, finding a field with buried treasure, sells everything he had and buys the field, so did Prince Vladimir, obtaining Christ, abandoned his pagan lifestyle with all its pleasures.
Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)
Rating: 8,2|Votes: 5
Brothers and sisters, today the Holy Church opens before us our native heaven—all the Saints who shone in Russia. They shine as bright stars before us. And the first among them is St. Vladimir. He was a gifted military leader, statesman, a man of penetrating mind and strong will. The political situation among the Russian Slavs required just such a man. Many Slavic tribes were living at that time on the shores of the Dnieper River, and all of them had already been influenced by the Christian message—the dawn of a new life was approaching.
Abba Dorotheos
It is good, O brethren, to sing the words of the holy God-bearers, for they strive everywhere to instruct us in everything which leads to the enlightenment of our souls. From the words we sing on the feast day, we should always come to understand the meaning of the what is being commemorated, whether it be a feast of the Lord, of the holy martyrs, or of the holy Fathers; in a word no matter what saint or blessed commemoration it is.
St. Nicholai Velimirovich
Rating: 2|Votes: 2
When seed is sown, the power of warmth and light must descend upon it to make it grow. When a tree is planted, the power of the wind must come in order to make it strong. When a householder builds his house, he has recourse to the power of prayer, in order to sanctify it. Our Lord Jesus Christ has sown a most select seed in the field of this world. The power of the Holy Spirit had to descend in order to warm and sanctify that seed, so that it would grow and prosper.