According to Holy Tradition, the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple took place in the following manner. The parents of the Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Anna, praying for an end to their childlessness, vowed that if a child were born to them, they would dedicate it to the service of…
The Holy Apostles of the Seventy Philemon and his wife Apphia lived in the city of Colossa in Phrygia. After they were baptized by the holy Apostle Paul, they converted their house into a house of prayer, where all those who believed in Christ gathered and attended services. They devoted themselves…
The Holy Right-Believing Prince Michael of Tver was born in the year 1272, after the death of his father Great Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich, the brother of Saint Alexander Nevsky (November 23). On his journey to the Horde, Prince Yaroslav fell ill, and was tonsured as a monk with the name…
Holy Prince Yaropolk Izyaslavich, in Holy Baptism Peter, was the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, and great-grandson of Saint Vladimir. He shared the sad fate of his father, the Kievan Great Prince Izyaslav, expelled by his brothers from Kiev. Yaropolk journeyed on various missions for his father to…
Saint Cecilia was born in Rome during the III century to wealthy and illustrious parents, who were idolaters. Hearing the Gospel preached, she came to believe in Christ, and vowed to preserve her virginity. Against her will, however, they betrothed her to a noble pagan named Valerian, and forced…
The Holy Martyr Procopius was a reader in the Church of Jerusalem. He led a strict ascetic life, for which he received from the Lord the ability to cast out demons. The zealous preacher of the Word of God was arrested and brought to trial in Palestinian Caesarea. For his refusal to offer sacrifice…
The Holy Martyr Menignus was a simple worker, a linen-bleacher. The Lord granted him His special mercy. Twice in his life, he heard a voice from Heaven calling on him to suffer for Christ. During the persecution of Christians under the emperor Decius (249-251) a miracle occurred: an angel led…
Saint Agabbas was by birth an Ishmaelite (Arab) and pursued asceticism in Syria. He was a novice under the Monk Eusebius, from whom he learned inner prayer and silence, and he lived thirty-eight years as a hermit. The saint always went barefoot, wore chains on his loins and never sat nor lay down.…
Saint Michael the Soldier of Bulgaria, was among the first of the Bulgarians to become Christian, and lived in the city of Potuka during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III (855-867). While still an infant, he was known as a “saintly child.” From his youth he led a blameless…
Saint Kallistos (Kállistos) lived a life of asceticism at the Magul Skete on Mount Athos (opposite Philotheou Monastery), abiding there for twenty-eight years. He was a disciple of Saint Gregory of Sinai (August 8), whose Life he wrote. He became closely acquainted with Saint Ignatius…
Born January 6, 1881 in the Tver region, the New Martyr Alexis Constantinovich Benemanskii was a priest of the Diocese of Tver, Russia, during the early 1900s. He widely opposed the Living Church, which had been set up in the 1920s by the Soviet state to challenge the legitimacy of the…
Born in 1869, the New Martyr Elias Gromoglasov was a priest of the Diocese of Tver, Russia, during the early 1900s. He was well educated in canon law, theology and other disciplines, had taught for many years, and had authored numerous pieces on a variety of topics ranging from canon law to the…