Leavetaking of Pascha – Christ is risen!

We greet each other tomorrow at the service of the ninth hour with “Christ is risen!” for the last time this year. Christ is risen, however, is always a blessed greeting. Here is that greeting in many tongues. Aleut: Khristus…

Two Trees

A man went into the forest to choose a tree from which to make roof beams. And he saw two trees, one beside the other. One was smooth and tall but had rotted away inside, and the other was rough…

The Second Ecumenical Council – Commemorated on May 22

The Second Ecumenical Council was convened in the year 381 and consolidated the victory of Orthodoxy, attained in the year 325 at the First Ecumenical Council.       During the difficult years which passed after the acceptance of the Nicean Symbol of…

St. John Bishop of the Goths – May 19

Saint John, Bishop of the Goths, lived during the eighth century. The future saint was born in answer to the fervent prayer of his parents. From an early age, he lived a life of asceticism. The saint made a pilgrimage…

Jonah of Odessa the Confessor – May 17

Jonah (Atamansky) confessor Of Odessa Fr. Jonah Moiseyevich Atamansky was born in Odessa on September 14, 1852 (according to another source, 1855) into the family of Deacon Moses Florovich Atamansky, who served in the church of the Nativity of the…

Today- Fifth Sunday of Pascha: The Samaritan Woman. Tone four

Apostle Andronicus of the Seventy and his fellow laborer Junia (1st c.). Venerable Euphrosyne (Princess Eudocia) of Moscow (1407). Martyrs Solochon, Pamphamer, and Pamphalon at Chalcedon (298). St. Stephen, archbishop of Constantinople (893).Uncovering of the relics (1551) of Venerable Adrian,…