On Bright Thursday the Gospel reading is John 3:1-15, which mentions the Pharisee Νikόdēmos who came by night to speak to Christ. The Lord told him that a man could not see the Kingdom of God unless he were born again. Νikόdēmos, taking Him much too literally, could not understand how such a…
No information available at this time.
Saint Theodora of Alexandria and her husband lived in Alexandria. Love and harmony ruled in their family, and this was hateful to the Enemy of salvation. Goaded on by the devil, a certain rich man was captivated by the youthful beauty of Theodora and began with all his abilities to lead her into…
Saints Sergius and Herman settled on the island of Valaam in 1329. The brethren gathered by them spread the light of Orthodoxy in this frontier land. The Karelian people had begun to regard Christianity with renewed suspicion, with its authority in the fourteenth century being undermined by the…
The Holy Martyrs Demetrius, his wife Euanthea, and their son Demetrian. Saint Demetrius was a prince and prefect of the city of Skepsis in the Hellespont. Saint Cornelius the Centurion (September 13), the first Gentile converted to Christ by the Apostle Peter, came into his city preaching the…
Saints Diodorus, Didymus, and Diomedes were born in Laodicea in the fourth century, and suffered martyrdom in that city. They were flogged to death.
The Holy Martyr Ia was arrested along with 9,000 Christians by the Persian emperor Sapor II, and they were all brought to the Persian city of Bisada. The chief of the Persian sorcerers demanded that the saint renounce Christ, but she remained unyielding and so she was tortured. Then Saint Ia was…
Our Holy Father Euphrosynos (Euphrósynos)1 the Cook was born into a peasant family, and had no schooling, but he was truly devout and faithful. As an adult, he became a cook, and was able to save money out of his expenses by depriving himself, but only for the sake of almsgiving. His position as…
At the end of the XVII century, 20 versts from the city of Akhtyrka, in Kharkov province, in the village of Kaplunovka, on the Khukhra River, lived a pious priest, Father John Umanov. On September 11, 1689 a wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God was given to him. On September 8, the Feast of the…