Rating: 6,3|Votes: 7
The feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God is like a second Pascha--it is the most important summer celebration and official holiday in Greece. Photographer Vladimir Khodakov was in the center of the celebrations on the island of Paros.
Rating: 6,9|Votes: 8
In many icons of the Dormition of the Theotokos, one can see a strange scene near the bottom: an angel invisibly cuts off the two hands of a certain man. What is the story behind this scene?
Rating: 10|Votes: 6
And when the fathers came, the Novice saw a wondrous vision, not sleeping but awake. That is, he saw a beautiful woman between two angels, who shined brighter than the rays of the sun. One held a cup full of heavenly bread, and the other a small cloth. And that beautiful woman, who was our Lady, held a golden spoon, and each brother came forward in his turn and the angel wiped their face with the cloth. After they venerated the Panagia, she took the spoon and gave them the heavenly bread.
Along with the entire choir of Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven, together with those also who live today in the trenches of life and with the prayers of those who support the world, we also send her our supplications. My Panagia, my joy, my consolation, my hope, my breath, save us from every circumstance.
Olga Rozhneva
Rating: 7,8|Votes: 8
August 12 is the commemoration day of Venerable Anatoly (Potapov), one of the last of the Optina elders. In contrast to the preceding Optina saints, there was no one left to compose the life of this elder after the Revolution. There remained only fragmented memories of pilgrims, notes of spiritual children, and letters of the elder, in which biographical details were often lacking, but in which his image rises up brightly and vividly. We honor the memory of the elder and reminisce with these recollections.
