The paschal season of the Church is preceded by the season of Great Lent, which is also preceded by its own liturgical preparation. The first sign of the approach of Great Lent comes five Sundays before its beginning. On this Sunday the Gospel reading is about Zacchaeus the tax-collector. It tells…
Saint Anthony the Great is known as the Father of monasticism, and the long ascetical sermon in The Life of Saint Anthony by Saint Athanasius (Sections 16-34), could be called the first monastic Rule. He was born in Egypt in the village of Coma, near the desert of the Thebaid, in the year 251. His…
Saint Anthony of Dymsk was born at Novgorod in about the year 1157. Once in church he heard the words of Christ: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt.16:24), the saint resolved to leave the world and receive monastic tonsure under…
Saint Anthony of Black Lake founded the Mother of God monastery at Black Lake [Chernoezero] in the Novgorod area, not far from the city of Chernopovets. The monastery was on an island of the Schirsk countryside. The monastery twice suffered complete destruction: in 1581, from the Lithuanians; and…
Saint Anthony of Krasny Kholm was initially a wilderness-dweller in the vicinity of White Lake. The hieromonk arrived in the region of Tver and settled near “Pretty Hillock” [“Krasny kholm”], at the bank of the River Mologa, building a chapel and cell there. After the…
The Holy Emperor Theodosius the Great during his reign (379-395) delivered a decisive blow to paganism by issuing an edict, under which any sort of service to the pagan gods was considered a violation of the law. The zealous proponent of Orthodoxy promulgated many laws in defense of the Church and…
Saint Achilles (Akhillás) was an anchorite of the desert during the V century. Saint Νikόdēmos of the Holy Mountain writes: "It is said of Saint Achilles in the Evergetinós that he once went to Abba Isaiah, and found him eating something which he had mixed with salt and water on a plate. When…