Today’s celebration is the midpoint of the fifty days between the Feasts of Pascha and Pentecost. Saint John tells us (John 7:14) that “in the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the Temple, and taught.” The Feast in question is the Feast of Tabernacles (celebrated in…
Saint Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Saints Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in Egypt. Saint Pachomius was born in the third century in the Thebaid…
Saint Isaiah was born near Kiev to pious parents who raised him in the Orthodox Faith. In his youth, he forsook worldly vanity and entered the Kiev Caves Monastery, where he was tonsured by Saint Theodosios († May 3, 1074). Aflame with love for the Savior, the young monk engaged in the difficult…
The Holy Right-believing Tsarevitch Demetrios (Tsarévitch Dēmḗtrios) of Uglich (Moscow) was born on October 19, 1582. He was the son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. During the reign of Theodore, the de facto ruler of the Russian state was his brother-in-law, the power-hungry boyar Boris Godunov.…
Very little information about the life and podvig1 of Saint Isaiah the Wonderworker has been preserved. He contested during the XI – early XII centuries. His life, by which he pleased the Lord, was one of silence and tireless work, for which he is called "a venerable and industrious Elder." In…
Saint Pachomius of Nerekhta, in the world James, was born into the family of a priest at Vladimir on the Klyazma. He was sent to school at the age of seven, since from childhood he knew the Holy Scriptures very well. Finding the bustle of the perishing world burdensome, he was tonsured at the…
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Saint Euphrósynos (Euphrósynos) of Pskov, in the world Eleazar, was born in about the year 1386 in the village of Videlebye, near Pskov, the same village where Saint Nikander of Pskov (September 24) had also been born. His parents wanted Eleazar to marry, but secretly he withdrew to the…
Saint Serapion of Pskov was born at Yuriev (now Tartu), which then was under the rule of Germans, who sought to stamp out Orthodoxy. His parents were parishioners of a Russian church in the name of Saint Nicholas. Saint Serapion was well versed in the Holy Scripture, and more than once he entered…
Saint Achilles, Bishop of Larissa, lived during the fourth century, during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great. Glorified for his holiness of life and erudition, he was made Bishop of Larissa in Thessaly. Saint Achilles participated in the First Ecumenical Council, where he boldly denounced…