The Church’s hymns today invite us to “ascend the holy mountain” and “with the eyes of faith,” to “behold the radiant Transfiguration of the Lord.” Christ has transformed our fallen human nature and restored its original beauty “by the burning…
Glorification of Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America
A spiritual mission was organized in 1793, made up of monks of the Valaam Monastery. They were sent to preach the Word of God to the native inhabitants of northwestern America, who only ten years before had come under the sovereignty of Russia. Saint Herman was among the members of this Mission.…
The Holy Apostle Matthias was born at Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah. From his early childhood he studied the Law of God under the guidance of Saint Simeon the God-Receiver (February 3). When the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the world, Saint Matthias believed in Him as the Messiah,…
The Martyr Anthony, a native of the city of Alexandria, was a Christian. For his confession of faith they tied him to a tree and tore at his body with iron hooks, and then sentenced him to burning. Standing in the fire, he calmly exhorted those standing about to toil not for the body but for the…
Saint Psoi was the disciple of Saint Pachomios the Great (May 15), and lived during the IV century in the desert of Skḗtis (Σκήτις), also known as Wadi El-Natroun. Saint Psoi was born in the Egyptian village of Shansa early in the IV century, and his father died when the boy was young. He…
Martyr Julian of Constantinople and those with him
The Martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexius, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, Maria the Patrician, the Protospatharios (“Sword-Captain”) Gregory and Others suffered for holy icons in the year 730 under the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741). The emperor deposed the…
Venerable Makarios of Oredezh was a disciple of Saint Alexander of Svir (+ August 30, 1533). He contested on the Oredezha River near Lake Ladoga, where he founded a Monastery. He reposed in 1532. Saint Makarios is commemorated at the Synaxis of the Karelian Saints (the Saturday between October 31…
The Restoration of the Temple of the 40 Martyrs (March 9) is celebrated on this day. There were two churches dedicated to them at Constantinople: one, built by the emperor Anastasius I (491-518), and the other, by the emperor Tiberius (578-582). There is a service for this Feastday in a Greek…
The holy New Martyr Ignatius (Bazyluk) was born in Poland sometime in 1860s, and received the name Jacob at his Baptism. Very little is known of his early life or where he was born, but in the period between the First and the Second World Wars he was a monk at Saint Onuphrios Monastery in…
The glorious Hieromartyr Euthymios was elected as the Metropolitan of Rhodes, when the Ottomans occupied the island in 1523. During those difficult years, Saint Euthymios shepherded his flock in a God-pleasing manner. In 1529, he was arrested as the leader of a conspiracy against the Turks and was…