Rating: 4,5|Votes: 2

St. John of Damascus and the ‘Orthodoxy’ of the Non-Chalcedonians

Protopresbyter Theodore Zisis

Assuredly, the Holy Fathers and the venerable Elders did not have less love and understanding than the contemporary champions of union. On the contrary, their attitude was based on a pastoral and pedagogical concern that those who had deviated should become aware of their error and be led to the correct faith, which is the indispensable prerequisite for salvation. He who speaks the truth has love, even if he causes distress at the outset and creates a reaction, not he who misleads and conceals the truth, taking account of temporary human relations and not of eternal realities.

Rating: 6|Votes: 1

Saint Maelruain, Abbot of Tallaght in Ireland

Commemorated July 7/20

Dmitry Lapa

This holy man contributed immensely to the restoration of spirituality and serious monasticism in Ireland in the second half of the eight century. Under his influence the monastic life and asceticism in the country reached a high level such as can only be compared with that of the era of the great founding fathers of Irish monasticism of the sixth century.

Rating: 9,4|Votes: 14

Elder Arsenie (Papacioc) of Romania

†July 19

Archimandrite Arsenie (Papacioc)

Elder Arsenie Papacioc of Romania, blessed memory, was part of the great generation of confessors for Christ that had suffered much while imprisoned for their faith under the atheist [communist] regime of the east. His words, not academic but rather simple, down to earth, have great authority as they are spoken from an experience of suffering and with a burning love for everyone.

Rating: 6|Votes: 2

Uncovering of the relics of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh

Commemorated on July 5/18

The fifth of July, the day of the Uncovering of the relics of holy Abba Sergius, igumen of the Russian Land, is a crowded and solemn church feastday at the monastery.

Rating: 9,9|Votes: 13

In Memory of the Royal Martyrs, Through Personal Testimony

Jesse Dominick

Tsar Nicholas and his beloved family— the Tsaritsa Alexandra, the Tsarevich Alexei, and the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia—along with their faithful servants were eventually to go to their deaths in a dank basement in Ekaterinburg. In their lives they stood for family, humility, nobility, duty, the Russian people, and above all for the holy Orthodox faith. And in the end they gave their lives for their nation and for that holy Orthodox faith, prevailing as the early martyrs before the lions. Having given their lives for Christ, they now intercede for us before Christ.