The Fourth Sunday of Lent is dedicated to Saint John Klimakos, the author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent. In this book the Igoumen of Saint Katherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai bears witness to the great effort which is required for entry into God’s Kingdom (Matthew 10:12). The spiritual…
Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and Apostle to America was born as Vasily Ivanovich Belavin on January 19, 1865 into the family of Ioann Belavin, a rural priest of the Toropetz district of the Pskov diocese. His childhood and adolescence were spent in the village in direct contact with peasants…
Saint George, Metropolitan of Mytilene, from his youth led a monastic life, and was especially accomplished in the virtue of humility. In the reign of Leo the Isaurian (716-741) the saint underwent persecution from the iconoclasts and became a Confessor. During the reign of the emperor Constantine…
Saint Daniel of Pereslavl (in the world Demetrius) was born around 1460 in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. He was the son of pious and God-loving parents, Constantine and Theodosia, who later was tonsured as a nun with the name Thekla. Therefore, it is not surprising that from his childhood,…
The Holy Martyr Calliopius was born in Perge, Pamphylia of the pious woman Theoklia, wife of a renowned senator. Theoklia was childless for a long time. She fervently prayed for a son, vowing to dedicate him to God. Soon after the birth of her son Theoklia was widowed. When Saint Calliopius…
After the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in 305, Maximinus Daia was elevated to the rank of Caesar and was given the eastern provinces and Egypt to govern. He continued Diocletian's severe persecution of Christians, and in 306 he issued an edict requiring every man, woman, and child to…
Saint Serapion lived during the fifth century in Egypt. He was called the linen cloth-wearer (Sindonite) since he wore only a coarse linen garb called a “sindon.” From his youth the monk lived like the birds of the air, without a shelter. For several days at a time he did not eat, not…