Like families anywhere, monastic communities have their public and private challenges, and turn their best face to the world. Unstudied contentment reasserts its hold over the Sinai fortress each year however, as monastics converge on the Monastery from all directions, drawn back for the celebrations of the Dormition of the Theotokos from near or far flung hermitages throughout the Mediterranean world.
Because of the Blessing of Water, this first Feast of the Savior in August is sometimes called ‘Savior of the Water.” There may also be a Blessing of New Honey today, which is why the Feast is also called “Savior of the Honey.” From this day the newly gathered honey is blessed and tasted.
Dmitry Lapa
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
A true revival of English Orthodox monasticism and piety became possible only in the second half of the tenth century, under the three saintly figures known as the “Three English Holy Hierarchs.” These were the holy hierarchs Dunstan of Canterbury, Oswald of Worcester and York, and Ethelwold (originally Aethelwold) of Winchester, three great archpastors for whom veneration was nationwide.
Holger A. Klein
Rating: 10|Votes: 2
On August 1/12, the Dormition fast begins with the feast of the Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross, commemorating a tradition that began in Constantinople. How did the True Cross come to Byzantium, and what did this mean for that great Christian city?