Afterfeast of the Dormition of the Mother of God
The Church continues to honor the passage of the Most Holy Theotokos from death to life. Just as Christ once dwelt in the virginal womb of His Mother, now He takes Her “to dwell in His courts.”
Lives of the Saints
Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy
Saint Thaddeus, Apostle of the Seventy, was by descent a Hebrew, and he was born in the Syrian city of Edessa. The holy Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy must be distinguished from Saint Jude, also called Thaddeus or Levi (June 19), who was one of the Twelve Apostles. When he came to Jerusalem for a…
Martyr Bassa of Edessa and her sons Theogonius, Agapius, and Pistus
The Martyr Bassa with her sons Theognis, Agapius and Pistus, lived in the city of Macedonian Edessa and she was married to a pagan priest. From childhood she had been raised in the Christian Faith, which she passed on to her sons. During the reign of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), the…
Venerable Abramius the Wonderworker, Archimandrite of Smolensk
Saint Abramius of Smolensk, a preacher of repentance and the Dread Last Judgment, was born in the mid-twelfth century at Smolensk of rich parents, who had twelve daughters before him, and they begged God for a son. From childhood he grew up in the fear of God, he was often in church and had the…
Venerable Ephraim the Wonderworker, disciple of Abramius, and Archimandrite of Smolensk
Saint Ephraim was the disciple of Saint Abramius of Smolensk. He compiled the Life of Saint Abramius, which provides many details about education in the remote northwestern part of Russia in those days.
Venerable Abramius the lover-of-labor of the Kiev Near Caves
It is hard to determine precisely when Saint Abraham and the other saints of the Caves lived because of the scarcity of written records. It is likely, though not certain, that they lived during the Mongol-Tatar invasions in the XIII century. In the Teraturgim of Hieromonk Athanasius (Kalophoisky),…
Saint Sarmean, Catholicos of Kartli, Georgia
The chronicles listing the generations of chief shepherds of Georgia reveal that Saint Sarmean was leader of the Georgian Apostolic Church from the year 767 (or 760, according to some sources) until the year 774. These were years of Arab-Muslim rule in Georgia. The Arabs persecuted the Christians,…
New Martyr Simeon of Samokov
No information available at this time.
Hieromartyr Raphael of Serbia
No information available at this time.
Venerable Cornelius of Paleostrov, Olonets
Saint Cornelius, the Igoumen of Paleostrov, Olonets was born in Pskov. He entered a monastery and was tonsured as an adult, and at first he began his monastic struggles at Valaam Monastery. Later he passed through Finland to the White Sea and enlightened the pagans there, and more than once he was…
Hieromartyr Raphael of Sisatovac
No information available at this time.
Venerable Schema-nun Martha of Diveyevo
Our Venerable Mother Martha (in the world Maria Semenovna Milyukova) was born on February 10, 1810 into a peasant family of the Nizhny Novgorod governorate, Ardatovsky district, in the village of Pozhidovo (now Malinovka). The Milyukov family, who led a righteous and God-pleasing life, was close to…