Miracles, Icons and Photos of St. Irene Chrysovalantou of Lykovrisi

The Life of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou from the Synaxarion:

Saint Irene, who was from Cappadocia, flourished in the ninth century. Because of her great beauty and virtue, she was brought to Constantinople as a prospective bride for the young Emperor Michael (842-867); however, as Saint Joannicius the Great foretold, it was God's will that she assume the monastic habit instead. She shone forth in great ascetical labours, and suffered many attacks from the demons; while yet a novice, she attained to the practice of Saint Arsenius the Great, of praying the whole night long with arms stretched out towards Heaven (see May 8). God showed forth great signs and wonders in her, and she became the Abbess of the Convent of Chrysovalantou. She was granted the gift of clairvoyance and knew the thoughts of all that came to her. She appeared in a vision to the king and rebuked him for unjustly imprisoning a nobleman who had been falsely accused. Through a sailor from Patmos to whom he had appeared, Saint John the Evangelist sent her fragrant and wondrous apples from Paradise. She reposed at the age of 103, still retaining the youthful beauty of her countenance. After her repose, marvelous healings beyond number have been wrought by her to the present day.

The following three miracles, of the hundreds regularly reported, come from the periodical published through Saint Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Lykovrisi, Athens. These are but a tiny portion of the reports that reveal the care and love and power of Saint Irene for those who call upon her with simple faith.

Miracle 1:

My name is Stamatia Zarbala and I live in Canada. In the past I was a subscriber of your magazine and I want to continue now. I have great love and respect for Saint Irene Chrysovalantou and I want to subscribe another five ladies as subscribers to your magazine thanking her for hearing my prayers.

One of these five ladies is very ill. For many years she suffered from serious illnesses and every so often she goes to the hospital for therapy. Her name is Athanasia Nidelkou. Saint Irene has helped her in the past.

Two years ago she had cancer of the knees. It had probably spread as she had cancer of the kidney, stomach, breast and her left hand. She had technical support on her heart twice a week and fluid was removed from her body. Her bones were deteriorating and her nails were falling off. There was not a place on her body where the doctors had not injected therapies which they did daily.

On Holy Thursday in the afternoon the great miracle was worked as will be explained. As usual the doctors were removing the fluid from her body. The door was closed as no one was allowed in.

Suddenly while the doctors were in the ward a priest came dressed in white. Nobody could make him out from the rays of light shining from his face which looked like sun rays. A Jewish doctor who was now a Christian for a long time asked him who he was and what he wanted as visitors were not allowed.

The priest answered in Hebrew that he was Father Christos and he had come to give Holy Communion to the patient Athanasia, He then turned to the other doctor and spoke to him in English to stop the treatment as it was enough for the day and to press well the place where he would remove the drip as he was giving Holy Communion and it was not allowed to lose blood.

He then spoke to Athanasia in Greek. He introduced himself as Father Christos and that he had come to offer Holy Communion. He had brought with him the Holy Chalice. He gave her Holy Communion and then wiped her with the Holy Cover of the Chalice which had on it an embroidered silver cross. He then gave her some Holy Bread and asked her: "What do you want now my child?"

Athanasia answered: "Father, pray to Christ to give me again the use of my legs so that I can walk."

Immediately he gave her his hand and said: "Come my child, get up and walk."

The doctors, who were afraid, said in one voice that she could not walk, as they were afraid she would fall. He assured them that she would not fall, and on leaving her hand he disappeared, leaving behind an icon of Christ. From that moment she walked as before with no difficulty. She still had the other problems though.

Glorious be God's holy Name, who through the intercessions of the Holy Virgin and His Saints takes pity on us. Athanasia is really a Christian as I have never heard her complain in spite of all her problems. What I often hear her say is: "Thank God. It's His will. There is worse around."

Many times I have asked myself how much worse there can be. God forgive me and have pity on me. I have known Athanasia for thirty-four whole years and she is always ill with something. The worst of all is that six years ago her husband died and he left her alone not having even the necessary money for a funeral. She is totally alone with no relatives and I feel very sorry for her. Please pray for her not to lose courage and for God to relieve her from her pains which are terrible. Her faith is great and strong until now. I hope it will remain like this until the end with God not allowing it to weaken and to reward her in heaven, which she deserves.

To thank God for working this miracle for Athanasia I have enrolled five subscribers to your magazine, Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, amongst which is Athanasia, so that she can have courage and strength from the miracle of the Miraculous Saint Irene Chrysovalantou.

I will always thank Almighty God for the miracles which He works for us and generously takes pity on us.

Your humble servant,

Stamatia Zarbala
Toronto, Canada

Miracle Two:

I thank you, Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, for your kindness towards us. Our little girl had burned herself to a great degree and the doctors had not given us much encouragement, telling us that her recovery would take long.

With your help and your Holy Oil from your Holy Lambada which I smeared on her day and night, our little girl after two months was completely well.

The doctors could not believe it. Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, we thank you and ask that you will always be near us and protect us.

Thousands of thanks,

The parents George and Theodora Skanavi
Neohorion, Artas

Miracle Three:

With great faith I thank you from deep in my heart, Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, for the miracle which you also worked for us.

For eighteen months I had a problem with my kidney. I went from doctor to doctor and there was no therapy until they decided to remove the kidney. When my mother heard this, she cried and prayed to Saint Irene Chrysovalantou to cure me.

The next day I came to your Monastery with my brother-in-law at Lykovrisi and I prayed with all my heart. That night my mother dreamed of you and you told her not to worry as you would help me get better. After two days I was well and I did not feel any pain in my kidneys. After three months I dreamed that you gave me two children and you asked me to name one of the children after you. That is what happened.

With great faith and thousands of thanks I prayed before your miraculous icon thanking you for your double miracle. You first gave me my health and secondly my two children, bringing happiness to my home. I will pray to you and tell of your miracles forever.

Maria Vasileiadou
Yannitsa, Pellis

Advice On Naming Your Child After Saint Irene Chrysovalantou

As in the last miracle above, it is customary that when Saint Irene helps a childless couple bear a child through her miraculous intervention, to name the child after Saint Irene. However, because the primary feast day for those named Irene falls on May 5th when Saint Irene the Great Martyr is celebrated, it is necessary to distinguish between the two. For this reason, it is customary to name boys Chrysovalantis and to name girls Chrysovalantou. The double name of Irene Chrysovalantou should not be given, since this alone belongs to the Saint. It is for this reason in the Orthodox Church that we do not name our children, for example, as John the Forerunner, John Chrysostom, Mary Magdalene, John the Theologian, John of Damascus, and many others. Rather, according to custom, out of reverence we only give the second name if the primary name is occupied by another Saint. This is why for those who want as their patron John Chrysostom, the name of Chrysostomos is given; for those who want Mary Magdalene, the name Magdalene is given; for John the Theologian, the name Theologos is given, etc. I believe this will help parents name their children accurately according to Orthodox custom when they want to offer their children to particular Saints.

Read also:

The Miraculous Icon of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou in Lykovrisi, Attica

A Tour of St. Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Lykovrisi

Saint Irene Chrysovalantou's Power Over Demons

The Hand of St. Irene Chrysovalantou in Astoria, NY

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the First Tone
Not a temporal kingdom on earth didst thou obtain, but Christ, thy most comely Bridegroom, vouchsafed thee heavenly crowns, and thou reignest as a queen with Him eternally; for thou didst dedicate thyself unto Him with all thy soul, O Irene, our righteous Mother, thou boast of Chrysovalantou, and mighty help of all the Orthodox.

Kontakion in the Third Tone
Leaving all the world behind with its impermanent glory, thou wast wedded unto Christ, the King immortal and holy, bringing Him as precious dowry thy maiden beauty and thy trophies won through abstinence over demons. O Irene, our righteous Mother, entreat thy Bridegroom to show His mercy to us.

The Monastery in 1961

The Katholikon and Courtyard

The Crucifixion Scene on Golgotha

Cells and Hospitality Rooms

Katholikon of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou

The miraculous icon of Saint Irene with its many tokens showing its miraculous power.

The icon without the jewelery.

2007 procession of the feast day of Saint Irene.

St. John the Theologian giving the miraculous apples to the sailor.

Saint Irene distributing the apple slices to her nuns.

Sketch of Saint Irene from 1957 by Metropolitan Gabriel, co-founder of the Monastery.

Sketch of Saint John the Theologian from 1957 by Metropolitan Gabriel, co-founder of the Monastery.

Entrance of the Katholikon

Holy Altar of the Katholikon

Iconostasis of the Katholikon

Abbess Meletia (+1977), founder of the first Monastery dedicated to Saint Irene Chrysovalantou

Metropolitan Gabriel of the Cyclades Islands (+1998), co-founder of the Monastery

Abbess Paisia (+1998), second abbess of the Monastery

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Relics Discovered in 5th Cent. Church on St. Ivan Island

July 28, 2010

Excavations on Saint Ivan island, the largest of five Bulgarian islands in the Black Sea, have unearthed an exquisite marble reliquary incorporated into the church's altar, the historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National History Museum and minister without portfolio in charge of Bulgarians abroad, told Focus news agency on July 28 2010.

He suggested that the reliquary might hold the relics of John the Baptist.
Once the island was converted to Christianity, a monastical complex was built between the 5th-6th century on top of the ruins of the old Roman temple, including the Basilica of the Mother of God. Around the 7th-9th century, the basilica was abandoned only to be reconstructed in the 10th century.

The Monastery of John the Forerunner and the Baptist grew into an important centre of Christianity in the region. Archaeological research was carried out after 1985 for a a period of two years, which revealed a royal residence, a library, part of the fortified wall with the gate and several monastic cells.

Kazimir Popkonstantinov, an archaeologist professor is overseeing the excavation on the island. Dimitrov said that the reliquary will be opened for the media in a few days after the "necessary religious ceremonies are carried out".

St. Ivan is the largest Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, with an area of 0.66 square kilometres just off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast near Sozopol, a town rich in history and a popular tourist destination, and is separated by a strait several hundred metres long from the small neighbouring St. Peter Island. It is 920m from the Stolets peninsula, the location of Sozopol's Old Town.

Source


Excavations on the island of Saint Ivan, one of five islands in Bulgarian territorial waters in the Black Sea, have unearthed an exquisite marble reliquary built into the center of the church’s altar, the historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National Museum of History and minister in charge of Bulgarians abroad, told FOCUS News Agency.

The archeologist professor Kazimir Popkonstantinov is managing the expedition on the island, which lies close to the town of Sozopol. Bozhidar Dimitrov says the reliquary will be opened before journalists in a few days after the necessary religious ceremonies are carried out and the necessary conditions are created.
He suggested that the reliquary might hold the relics of John the Baptist.

Source


“The reliquary found on St. Ivan Island is the first to be discovered within archaeological environment in the entire Southern Black Sea coast. Up to now, we knew about only one reliquary, found in the town of Pomorie in the beginning of the previous century and it is now exposed in the Byzantine Museum in Athens. This is interesting and important,” said Professor Kazimir Popkonstantinov, head of the archaeological mission on St. Ivan Island, in interview to FOCUS News Agency.

A reliquary with the relics of a saint was found on Wednesday during the study of the sanctuary section of the temple, which dates back to the early Byzantine era of the V century and not the temple of St. John the Baptist. The reliquary is always placed under the pillar on the alter table.

“The reliquary shelters relics – mainly of a saint whom the temple has been built for. Unfortunately, in the concrete case we do not know whom these relics belong to. However, if the temple dates back to the V century and the rest of the evidence, we may conclude that it has been dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Anyway, we cannot speak for certain before we open the reliquary,” the professor said.

Source

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

New Russia Holiday Marked As Kremlin Boosts Church

July 28, 2010
Reuters

Russia officially celebrated a new holiday on Wednesday marking its conversion to Christianity in 988, the latest Kremlin boost to an Orthodox Church that has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of Communism.

Rights groups have criticized the new holiday, approved by President Dmitry Medvedev in June, as undermining Russia's secular constitution and members of the country's large Muslim minority have complained that it excludes them.

Marking the anniversary, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, told state-run television: "Abandoning the historical significance of the baptism of Rus means discarding the supporting pillar of our entire civilization".

Kirill held a liturgy in Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine and mediaeval Kievan Rus, whose leader Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity over a millennia ago and adopted it for his state. Kievan Rus is seen as the precursor to modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Clad in a flowing gold cloak in Kiev's historic Pecherska Lavra monastery, Kirill told thousands of followers: "Facing aggressive atheism and resurgent paganism we remain firm in our belief in God".

The Orthodox Church is undergoing a revival in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago and Russia's leaders have endorsed it as the country's main faith.

The Russian patriarch also presides over the biggest branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, although some Ukrainian clergy have declared themselves independent of Moscow and Kirill's visit to Kiev has angered some Ukrainian nationalists.

The trend toward consolidation of the church as a national force in Russia has worried its 20-million strong Muslim population -- a seventh of Russia's people -- as well as those who believe church and state should be strictly separated.

Medvedev on June 1 signed a law making July 28 a National Day, a state holiday that is also a working day.

Across Russia, churches prepared to hold ceremonies and mass river baptisms in honor of the conversion.

Since Medvedev's law, Muslim lawmakers have asked for a national holiday to mark the arrival of Islam in modern-day Russia, which Arabs brought through the southern gateway city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea more than 1,000 years ago.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Did Herod Agrippa Die In The Theatre?

The death of Herod Agrippa I is one of the few events that is reported by both the book of Acts and Josephus. Bible readers recall that Agrippa was struck down by an angel of the Lord while delivering a public address in Caesarea (Acts 12:19-23). The account is brief, but the immediate cause of his illness is clearly given in the text: the crowd hailed Herod as a god and the king passively accepted their praise.

The death of Herod Agrippa I occurred in Caesarea according to both Josephus and the book of Acts. Josephus writes that the king was in the theater when the crowd hailed him as a god and he was struck down. Details in Josephus’s account, however, indicate that the episode occurred in the city amphitheater next door to the temple where the emperor was worshipped.

Read the rest of the article by Todd Bolen at the following link:

Not in the Theater: Challenging Josephus’s Location for the Place of Herod Agrippa’s Death

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Protodeacon Kurayev Congratulated Pozner On His Name Day

July 28, 2010
Interfax

Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Protodeacon Andrey Kurayev congratulated TV anchor Vladimir Pozner on his name day on the Day of Russia's Baptism.

"I congratulate you on your name day, Vladimir Vladimirovich! Anyway, you were named after so unloved by you holy Prince Vladimir - the Baptist of Russia," Fr. Andrey writes in his article posted by Interfax-Religion.

In one of his latest interviews the famous Russian TV anchor Pozner said that "one of the greatest tragedies for Russia is its conversion to Orthodoxy," and "the Russian Orthodox Church has inflicted a colossal harm upon Russia." The journalist compared the Church with the Central Committee of the Communist Party and blamed it for interfering with politics and education. His statement has caught public attention.

Commenting on Pozner's words that there was no Renaissance in Russia because of Orthodoxy, Fr. Andrey said that a Renaissance required a revival and it should have something to revive.

"The Renaissance is a revival of ancient Greek and Roman traditions. Russia has never been a part of Old Greek or Old Roman culture. Russia received this culture with the adoption of Orthodoxy, and it started in the tenth century and not prolonged to fifteenth," the article says.

Pagan magicians of the Dnieper Region heard nothing of Platon and Cicero, while Orthodox monks "started translating, reading and interpreting their books," Protodeacon Kurayev said.

See also: Russian TV Anchor Deplores Orthodox Church

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Hand of St. Irene Chrysovalantou in Astoria, NY

The Power of St. Irene's Hand: Relic Brings Clout and Miracle Seekers to a Queens Church

By MIRTA OJITO
December 23, 1996
New York Times

The hand of St. Irene -- or what worshipers believe to be the remains of it -- rests on a bed of red velvet in an engraved silver box carefully balanced atop an altar pedestal in a Greek Orthodox church in Astoria, Queens.

To the untrained eye, it is nothing but a piece of bone immersed in beeswax, and some doubt it is from the saint. But to the legions of faithful who go to see it every Sunday at St. Irene Chrysovalantou Greek Orthodox Cathedral -- a small church that belongs to a splinter branch of Greek Orthodoxy [they are now under the Ecumenical Patriarchate] -- the hand is a holy relic, a powerful symbol that their beloved saint has followed them to their new home in America not only in spirit but also in body.

As for the church, the possession of the hand is a sign that the denomination it belongs to, the Genuine Orthodox Christian Church, is cementing its place in America, 25 years after it ventured out of the Old World and six years after a string of events, fluctuating from miraculous to scandalous, threatened to dislodge it from its niche in the heart of Astoria's Greek community.

Since 1990, the church has been the site of a proclaimed miracle (a weeping icon of St. Irene), a theft (of the same icon, by masked men with guns), another miracle (the return of the icon by mail, though without its jeweled frame), a legal squabble (a $30 million libel suit, since settled, over suggestions that the theft was a hoax), a fraud investigation (now closed, by the Queens District Attorney's office after an insurance company also asserted that the theft had been staged), an ongoing court fight (to get the insurance company to pay for the stolen jewels) and a clerical mess (the defrocking of a priest after it was revealed that he had worked at a brothel in Greece).

The church's zigzagging, from the evening news to police headquarters and from there to New York courtrooms, brought notoriety and recognition to its leaders, but not the kind they craved. The events of the last six years have marred the church's reputation and raised questions about its once low-profile leaders: Are they saints or schemers? Victims or villains?

Now comes the 'hand,' or what is said to be a piece of the saint's right index finger. Church leaders contend that it is the only known relic from the body of St. Irene, a ninth-century abbess who preferred the austere life of a convent to marriage and whose name is Greek for peace.

'We think she will bring us good things,' said Archbishop Paisios Loulourgas, leader of the Genuine Orthodox Christians in America. 'We feel blessed and renewed by her presence among us. She will bring us peace.'

She will also bring them people, hundreds a week. On some Sundays, busloads of visitors have flocked to the church at 26-07 23d Avenue, where membership stands at 2,000. The hand will be on display every Sunday until Christmas Day, which for this denomination is celebrated on Jan. 7. After that, the priests said, it will be stored in a vault.

The surge of attention and new members represents an important step in building not only the Queens church, the nerve center of the Genuine Orthodox Christians in the United States, but also in strengthening the group's influence among Greek immigrants, who tend to follow Greece's official Greek Orthodox Church. Although overshadowed by the Greek Orthodox Church, which is recognized in Greece's constitution as the state church, the Genuine Orthodox Christians have opened 22 churches in the United States. Six are in New York, two of them in Queens, where the majority of Greek immigrants in this country reside.

Some, like Michael Gamurakas, come to St. Irene's looking for a miracle. On a recent day, he prayed in front of the icon of St. Irene and asked the saint to restore health to his 5-year-old niece.

'St. Irene is my helper,' said Mr. Gamurakas, an unemployed 51-year-old Greek immigrant. 'I know she will help me now, too.'

The fascination with the icon and with the hand is part of Greek culture and religion, observers say.

'Greeks are very religious,' said Apostoli Zoupaniotis, editor for community affairs of Proini, a local Greek-language newspaper. 'They want to have holy items brought here, things that physically connect them to the saint. It's an extension of the ties between the motherland and the community abroad.'

Harry J. Psomiades, director of Greek and Byzantine Studies at Queens College, said the relic serves a more contemporary purpose: clever marketing. Devout Greek Orthodox people, he said, 'will go there, anywhere where there is a so-called miracle, a weeping icon, a hand, whatever.'

The hand, which was given to the church by monks who had kept it since 1922, was transported from Athens in October by security guards and three bishops. It traveled on Olympic Airways in a first-class cabin, where it was revered by crew and passengers. It arrived in Astoria in a black stretch limousine. Three blocks were closed to traffic near the church, where a huge party awaited. Local officials attended the party, or, as Governor George E. Pataki did, sent letters congratulating the church on its acquisition.

It was a crowning moment for a religious group that for years has struggled to find its place in the modern world, here and in Greece.

The denomination has been at odds with Greece's richer and more powerful Greek Orthodox Church since the early part of the century. The church split in 1924 when leaders adopted the Gregorian calendar commonly used in much of the world. Clinging to the old Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, a group of priests created their own sect.

The Old Calendrists, as they came to be known, founded their first church in the United States a quarter of a century ago. By then, many who had been members in Greece had switched allegiance and were attending services at mainstream Greek Orthodox churches. To lure them back, the church placed extra emphasis on parishioners' needs, feeding the poor, offering child care and establishing senior citizen centers.

'It paid off,' Mr. Psomiades said. 'They are highly respected and much admired by their people. Their people are poor, but they give the church all they have.'

The Cathedral of St. Irene gained national notoriety in 1990, on the eve of the Gulf War, when the church said its icon, a 6-by-8 inch painting of the saint, had begun to weep. Church leaders expressed fears of something ominous and they telegraphed President George Bush and other world leaders with a warning: be careful, they said, the world could be on the brink of war. Word of the so-called miracle on 23d Avenue got around. Television cameras followed.

People from all over the country visited the church to ask the saint for a miracle, leaving jewels at its feet. Church leaders arranged the jewels on the gold frame that surrounded the icon.

Then, in December of 1991, four masked and armed thieves walked into the church and, in the presence of two priests and several worshippers, ripped the icon with its jeweled frame from its pedestal. Soon after, the icon came back in the mail, undamaged but without the jewels. The thieves were never found.

By then, the church was embroiled in a controversy that would shortly end up in court. Two local Greek-language newspapers and a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, based in Manhattan, questioned whether the theft was staged.

St. Irene sued the Greek Orthodox Church and the two newspapers for libel, seeking $30 million in damages. Still, an insurance company, Cigna, refused to pay the $1.2 million the church claimed as the value of the jewels, and instead asked the District Attorney's office to initiate a fraud investigation. That inquiry was later closed for lack of evidence.

Last year, as part of an out-of-court settlement, the newspapers and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese retracted their previous comments. St. Irene's took Cigna to court, where the dispute still simmers.

In the midst of the legal conflicts, the Genuine Orthodox Church was informed that one of the two priests who had witnessed the theft of the icon, Father Ieronimos Katseas, had once worked in an Athens brothel. He was promptly excommunicated.

The icon of St. Irene, and now the hand, continue to be a magnet for jewels left by congregants. Genuine Orthodox officials said they appraise the jewels every year and periodically sell pieces of lesser value to finance church projects. More expensive pieces, they said, are kept in a vault.

Mr. Psomiades said he doubted that the hand once belonged to St. Irene. He also said he did not believe the icon ever wept.

'On the other hand, some people do believe in miracles,' he said. 'And if you believe in miracles I suppose anything can be true.'

Correction: December 31, 1996, Tuesday - An article on Dec. 23 about St. Irene Chrysovalantou Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Astoria, Queens, which recently acquired a relic venerated as part of the hand of St. Irene, referred incorrectly to the disposition of a lawsuit filed by the church against two local Greek-language newspapers, which had suggested that the theft of an icon from the church in 1991 may have been a hoax. While one paper printed a retraction as part of a settlement, a judge dismissed the suit against the second paper; they did not both print retractions.




See also:

The Miraculous Icon of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou in Lykovrisi, Attica

A Tour of St. Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Lykovrisi

Miracles, Icons and Photos of St. Irene Chrysovalantou of Lykovrisi

Saint Irene Chrysovalantou's Power Over Demons

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saint Irene Chrysovalantou's Power Over Demons

St. Irene Casts The Demons Out Of Chrysovalantou

A noble and beautiful woman from Cappadocia, the home-city of St. Irene, was engaged to a certain man. Later on, however, she thought better of it and decided against marriage. She decided instead to become a nun at the famed monastery of Chrysovalantou. The demon grew jealous, however, and filled her ex-fiancé with tremendous sexual passion. However, the man knew well that he would not be able to enter the monastery. Instead, he hired a powerful magician, a most able servant of the devil to whom he gave him a large amount of money for the deliverance of the woman he wanted as his wife. The magician wrought his evil art in Cappadocia and the woman in the monastery went completely out of her mind. She began to run around the convent screaming and crying out the name of her ex-fiancé and swearing that if they did not open the doors of the convent she would suffocate. Our venerable mother heard the up-rise and cried, "Woe to me the wretched one, if by the carelessness of the shepherds the wolves snatch the sheep away. However, in vain do you labor, O sly devil, because Christ will not allow you to swallow my lamb." She then called the sisterhood together and instructed them to guard themselves against the snares of the demons and she ordered them all to fast for the entire week while praying to God and each one of them to make a thousand prostrations a day with tears for this sister of theirs who was undergoing temptation. Our venerable mother prayed in her cell daily for this sister and on the third day, she saw St Basil the Great in front of her and he said to her, "Why do you deride us, Irene? We have left our homeland and all the vile and impious acts take place there now. When the sun rises take your sick disciple and bring her to Blachernae and there the mother of our Master Christ who is powerful will make her well." Having said this, St. Basil disappeared. St. Irene took the sick sister along with two other nuns and arriving at the Church of Blachernae, they prayed the entire day with tears in their eyes. At about midnight, St. Irene fell asleep and in her sleep she saw many people dressed in brilliant golden clothes and preparing the roads with the most fragrant flowers and incense. Our venerable mother then asked why so much preparation was taking place. They answered that the Mother of God was coming and warned her to prepare herself that she might be accounted worthy to venerate God's mother. Then the Mother of Life arrived followed by a vast crowd. So much did the face of the Virgin radiate that it was not possible for a mere mortal to gaze upon her. Our Lady having looked at all the ill, assembled in the church, looked at the disciple of St. Irene. Our venerable mother Irene fell at the spotless feet of the Mother of God, full of fear and trembling. The Mother of God then called on St. Basil the Great and asked him what Irene needed. St. Basil explained to the Theotokos exactly what St. Irene's need was. Hearing this the Theotokos said, "Call here, Anastasia!" When St. Anastasia had arrived, the Mother of God said to her, "Go with Basil to Caesarea, and study carefully the situation in order to cure this girl, for to you my Son and God has granted this grace." Venerating the Theotokos, St. Anastasia and St. Basil left in all haste in order to perform the ordained task. Our venerable mother Irene then heard a voice saying. "Go to your convent and she will be made well." On awakening, Irene explained to the sisters what she had seen and they went on their way rejoicing greatly. When they arrived at the convent it was Friday at the time of vespers and all the nuns were gathered at the church. St. Irene explained her vision and then ordered them all to raise their hands and eyes towards heaven and with all their hearts and burning tears to cry out, "Lord have mercy!" After a long time, when the entire floor of the church had become wet from the tears of the sisters, St. Basil and the Great and Anastasia the Martyr appeared floating in the air and the sisters heard them say, "Irene open your arms and receive this, and don't grieve us needlessly again." (St. Irene had been praying before the icon of St. Basil and begged him to free Caesarea from magicians). Stretching out her hands, St. Irene received from the midst of the air a package weighing about three liters and containing a host of charms including strings, hair, and lead, bound together with the names of demons written upon them. It also contained two small idols made of lead, one in the shape of the ex-fiance and the other in the shape of the sick nun, stuck together as if they were committing a sin. The nuns were amazed and remained praying the entire night. They thanked the Theotokos. In the morning, St. Irene sent the sick nun, along with two other nuns to Blachernae. Taking with them the charms, oil and prosphora, they attended the Divine Liturgy. After the liturgy, the priest anointed the sick nun with oil from the vigil lamp and later put the magical charms on live coals. As the charms burned, the nun became well and regained her senses. When the spell of the charms was totally broken, a crying sound came forth from the coals that resembled the squealing of pigs at their slaughter. The nuns returned to the monastery glorifying God that He does such strange and magnificent things and on entering the monastery they told all what had happened.

St. Irene Cures A Possessed Man

Let us relate to you another of her miracles during her lifetime: A young man by the name of Nicholas used to take care of the vineyard of the convent of our venerable mother. Nicholas fell in love with one of the nuns of the convent and could find no peace day or night for desire of this nun. The devil led Nicholas to this passion in order to punish St. Irene. So much did the evil one darken the mind of this young man that one night as he made his way towards the convent he fantasized that he found the gate of the cloister open, went into the cell of this nun, fell down with her on her mattress and did that which he desired. He then actually fell down on the ground and began to grind his body up against the earth. Not only did he cut and bruise his body but he also gave the demon a chance to disturb him. In the morning, the doorkeeper opened the gate of the monastery and noticed him outside possessed, foaming at the mouth and writhing. She went and told our venerable mother what she had seen and asked her if she knew the reason that Nicholas was now possessed. Falling down in prayer, St. Irene said, "Blessed are you O Lord, that you did not allow us to become neither the prey nor the victims of the demons." She then sent the young man to the Church of St. Anastasia to be healed. A few days later Irene saw a vision of St. Anastasia and heard the Great Martyr say to her, "To free yourself from this possessed man you sent him to me? Only you, my sister, can make him well." So, St. Irene ordered that the young man be brought to her. So that no one might learn of her miraculous power St. Irene did not cure the man immediately but rather they tied him to a column of the church. The saint, along with the other sisters, prayed daily for him. When the priest was serving the Divine Liturgy and had put down the holy gifts on the holy table after the Great Entrance the possessed man broke the chain that was binding him and ran into the altar. He grabbed the priest and began to bite his shoulder as if he was actually trying to eat his flesh. Immediately our saint of God rushed to the possessed man and ordered him to remain still. Seeing the saint, Nicholas wanted to run away, but he was not able to move at all being held tighter by the command of the saint than by any chain. When the Liturgy had finished, our venerable mother remained alone in the church with the possessed young man. She prayed to the Lord and then addressed the demon. She ordered the demon to tell her the reason and the manner with which he had entered this man. The demon, forced by divine power, answered all of our saint's questions honestly. She then commanded the demon to come out of the man. Shaking the man and throwing him down to the ground the demon came forth. St. Irene raised the man up and advised him as to how to always be careful in avoiding overeating and intoxication, never to be absent from church on any feast day and to pray without ceasing so that the demon might never again get a chance to bother him. When people would ask him, "Who cured you?" he would respond, "The Lord through the prayers of His angels." Nicholas went forth praising and giving thanks to God.

See also:

The Miraculous Icon of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou in Lykovrisi, Attica

A Tour of St. Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Lykovrisi

Miracles, Icons and Photos of St. Irene Chrysovalantou of Lykovrisi

The Hand of St. Irene Chrysovalantou in Astoria, NY

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Concerning Kindness

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Concerning kindness, St. Nilus of Mt. Sinai writes: "My son, always strive to be simple and kind. Do not have one thing in your heart and another thing on your tongue for this is a ruse and a lie. Be truthful and not false for falsehood is of the evil one. Do not return evil for evil but if someone does you evil, forgive him so that God may also forgive you. If you are tormented by the remembrance of evil thoughts, pray to God for that brother [the evil doer] with your entire soul and the remembrance of evil thoughts will flee from you."

It is told how a young man decided to serve a very eccentric old man so that God would forgive him of his sins. He endured twelve years in this most difficult service and presented himself to God. A great spiritual man saw the soul of the young man in Paradise as he was praying to God for the evil old man: "Lord, as You had mercy on me because of him, have mercy on him according to Your great goodness and because of me Your servant." After forty days this eccentric old man died and, again, that spiritual man saw the soul of that old man reposing in the Kingdom of Heaven. What a most beautiful and miraculous kindness of this patient youth, in truth miraculous!

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saint Panteleimon: Illnesses Are Gifts of God

In the Kalyva of St. John Chrysostom, which belongs to the Koutloumousiou Monastery’s Skete of St. Panteleimon, Monk Daniel is still alive and struggling in asceticism. As he himself assures us, and as we have also learned from other fathers, he has been sick for over twenty years: his head, back, kidneys, heart, feet, and sometimes his whole body, hurt. He has been to many doctors and has undergone many examinations, X-rays, and radiography, all with the same outcome.

The doctors cannot find any bodily disorder; nevertheless, the brother continues to suffer from an inexplicable illness, with which doctors and science are unable to help him.

A few years ago, on July 27, during the Vigil for the Feast of St. Panteleimon, Brother Daniel, with great faith and tears in his eyes, besought St. Panteleimon with these words:

“O Saint of God and Patron of our Skete, you who are a doctor and who, for the love of Christ, were martyred and shed your blood, beseech Christ our Master to grant me my health, so that I, too, will be able to glorify His Name and chant during Vigils in good health.”

Having said this, from his pain and exhaustion, Monk Daniel fell into a light sleep and saw St. Panteleimon in a vision kneeling before the throne of God and asking for the brother’s health to be restored.

Monk Daniel heard Christ the Master say to St. Panteleimon:

“My brother, Great Martyr Panteleimon, are you perhaps more compassionate than I? Or do you have greater love for the people than I do? I know that you shed your blood for My sake, but did I not also shed My Blood, and continue to shed it every day, for the salvation of men’s souls? Know that it is My will, and it is often to one’s advantage, that one’s body be sick, that his soul might be saved. This is how I desire many people to be saved.”

When Brother Daniel heard these words, he woke up and glorified the Name of God, also thanking St. Panteleimon for his efforts and intercession. And immediately, as he himself told us, a burden was lifted from him and he was inwardly assured that he must bear his cross and his illness with patience and thanksgiving.

Source: Monk Andrew the Hagiorite, Gerontikon of the Holy Mountain [in Greek] (Athens: 1979), pp. 287-288.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Craziest Religions

by Benyamin Cohen
July 27, 2010
The Daily Beast

One man has made it his mission to document the bizarre, unusual ways people practice religion. Benyamin Cohen talks to Michael Largo about the strangest stories he’s uncovered and why he’s obsessed.

Mrs. Marion Keech of Missouri used to get collect calls from aliens. At least, that’s what she told people. It was the 1950s and the public believed lots of things. Mrs. Keech took careful notes of her extraterrestrial communications and informed America that a flood would destroy the world on December 21, 1954. But those who joined Keech’s cult could board a spaceship leaving her front yard at the stroke of midnight just barely avoiding the Apocalypse.

And one man has made it his mission to document and collect stories of religious fanatics, freaks, believers of all sorts just like this woman. That man, Michael Largo, noted author of half a dozen books on death, has just published: God’s Lunatics: Lost Souls, False Prophets, Martyred Saints, Murderous Cults, Demonic Nuns, and Other Victims of Man’s Eternal Search for the Divine. I recently saw him speak in Atlanta and then later interviewed him by phone.

Largo speaks of saints and sinners, of aliens and apostles. He regales the reader with tales of religion gone awry.

"He did mushrooms with a Druid woman, practiced a number of Eastern theologies, went on Christian spiritual weekend retreats, attended New Age lectures, ate matzoh ball soup in a Jewish sukkah, and met a medicine man in the mountains of Baja, California."

He tells the story of John Frum, a navy vet who washed ashore on an island in the South Pacific. The natives, who had little contact with the outside world, immediately hailed Frum as the messiah. Frum taught them that Uncle Sam and Santa Claus were revered gods and got them to believe that passing candy bars to each other was religious ritual. Frum died by falling (some say he was pushed) into an active volcano. His followers believe he’ll be resurrected in the year 2015.

Then there's the Patron Saint of Ice Skaters. The flying nuns (yes, there were many). There's heretic hunter Conrad of Marburg. There's Paschal T. Randolph, a nineteenth-century barber-turned-sex magician who allegedly coined the term "soul mate."

And then there’s the charismatic Pentecostal preacher known as Sister Aimee. In the early 1900s, her tent revivals often had standing-room-only crowds of thirty thousand. She built America’s first megachurch with a sanctuary could seat more than five thousand and reportedly had packed services three times a day, seven days a week. As if that wasn’t enough, she also created her own denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

She is perhaps most widely known for allegedly being abducted near Venice Beach in the spring of 1926. Most people assumed she had drowned, others thought she was kidnapped, and some believed she had orchestrated the perfect disappearing act. About a month after she disappeared, Sister Aimee miraculously emerged from a Mexican desert claiming she had been kidnapped and brutally tortured. But not many people believed her. Indeed, a male colleague who was reportedly romantically involved with Sister Aimee coincidentally also vanished around the same time, and the two were seen at a number of hotels during her disappearance.

It’s stories like these—hundreds of them—that fill the pages of Largo’s encyclopedic new work. To compile it, he kept an almost monastic writing regime, often researching for 18 hours at a stretch, and working on just four hours of sleep a night. God’s Lunatics sources more than 300 books, which Largo is still clearing out of his lakefront house. “I was getting kind of crazy at the end of the book,” he tells me by phone. “With all the different gods, it got hard to sleep. The blessing is I have insomnia.”

It seems whatever topic Largo tackles, he becomes a man obsessed. He has spent the better part of two decades laser-focused on death. Not his own mortality per se, but that of others.

In The Portable Obituary, he reveals how the rich and famous really died. In Final Exits, the book that brought him national acclaim, he painfully detailed the myriad ways humans can kick the bucket. In Genius and Heroin, he offered an illustrated catalog of how artists like Jackson Pollack and rock stars like Kurt Cobain have literally poisoned themselves for their work. No wonder he’s been dubbed the “Capote of kaput.”

He peppers everyday discussion with arcane and morose tidbits of deathophelia. He’s memorized famous people’s obituaries, he knows if more people die from toothpicks or lightning each year, and can cite trends of mortality from Roman times to last week. I ask him a question and somehow the answer includes the obit of atheist poet Percy Shelley. At the book talk he gave for God’s Lunatics, the audience was dotted with tattooed Goth groupies. Death has become him.

But Largo sees his new book on religion as a natural extension of his previous work. “Death and religion are good bedfellows,” he says.

A self-described “recovering Catholic,” (he vividly remembers the corporeal punishment he received from the nuns growing up), he doesn’t argue for or against God in his book. Instead, he opts for religious tolerance. “I try to present this as a consumer’s guide to religion,” he says.

God’s Lunatics is written in handy encyclopedic form. The first entry is “Abracadabra,” which at one time was an ancient code used by Egyptian priests, and ends with “Zoroastrianism.” In between, paired with rare photos from the Library of Congress, are hundreds of what he refers to as short stories on the banal and the bizarre. Everything from how to tastefully slit the neck of a kosher chicken to biblical masturbators. A section on divine hair reveals why Amish men don’t have mustaches and Orthodox Jews grow side locks. There’s even information on how to start your own cult. “A surefire way to get followers to your cult is to talk about the apocalypse,” he explains nonchalantly.

One of Largo’s favorite sections explores the “Ancient Astronaut Theory,” which hypothesizes that intelligent alien life forms landed on Earth thousands of years ago. Cro-Magnons were their failed genetic experiments and manna fell from their spaceships. “I think the early writers would make good sci-fi writers these days,” says Largo, who’s also written three novels.

While he enjoys writing about these religious quirks from a distance, Largo has experienced more than enough himself to fill a spiritual memoir. He was a Catholic altar boy who’s visited many of Rome’s holy shrines. He’s attended churches of every flavor—Baptist, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Calvinists just to name a few. He did mushrooms with a Druid woman, practiced a number of Eastern theologies, went on Christian spiritual weekend retreats, attended New Age lectures, ate matzoh ball soup in a Jewish sukkah, and met a medicine man in the mountains of Baja, California.

But he’s not yet ready to pen the stories of those personal journeys. At 56-years-old, Largo is waiting until he gets older when he sees death’s shadow on the horizon. Which isn’t surprising. With Largo, all roads are paved by mortality’s lining.

“It’s all part of the cycle,” he explains. “Focusing on death, I think makes the smaller B.S. stuff less important.”

Largo is now taking a few months off to figure out his next move. “My head got a little fried on this book,” he admits. But the grips of the Grim Reaper have already started to reel him back in. He says he’s tinkering with a book tracing dead people’s inheritances. “There’s that famous quote,” he says, “Nothing starts a good fight more than the death of a rich man.” And that’s in addition to the illustrated graphic take on burial customs he’s shopping around to publishers.

Michael Largo, it seems, can’t escape death for long.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Study: Few Americans Say Faith is Top Priority

By Jennifer Riley
July 26 2010
Christian Post

Although the United States is known worldwide to be a religious nation, few Americans say that faith is a top priority in their life.

Nearly 90 percent of Americans, according to the CIA World Factbook, identify themselves with a religion. But only 12 percent of American adults say faith is a top priority in their life, according to a new study released Monday by the Barna Group.

About three-quarters of the U.S. population is Christian.

“The gap is vast between self-described affiliation with Christianity and ascribing highest priority to that faith,” commented David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, in a statement. “When it comes to why so much of American religion seems merely skin-deep, this gap between what people call themselves and what they prioritize is perhaps most telling.”

The 12 percent who say faith is the highest priority in their life is up from nine percent in 2008, but down from 16 percent in 2006.

Looking at the Christian faith demographic, evangelicals are the most likely to say faith is the highest priority in life (39 percent), while Catholics are the least likely (4 percent), according to the Barna study.

Notably, the study highlights that the percentage of Catholics who say faith is the top priority in their life is only slightly above that of unchurched adults (2 percent).

About one in five Protestants (18 percent) and churchgoers (18 percent) – whose frequency of church attendance was not defined – say faith is the highest priority in their life.

The Barna study, conducted Jan. 27-Feb. 2 using a random sample of 1,006 American adults, sought to identify how the troubled economy has impacted the priorities of Americans.

By far, the highest priority for Americans is family. Forty-five percent of Americans say their family is the most important aspect in their life.

The second most important priority is health/leisure/balanced lifestyle (20 percent), followed by wealth/profession/making money/success/finances (17 percent), and faith (12 percent).

In terms of priority change – a possible effect of the economy – the Barna study found that over the past two years the percentage of Americans who say finance is their top priority increased from 12 percent in 2008 to 17 percent in 2010.

Also, more Americans now say health and a balanced lifestyle (20 percent versus 15 percent) or faith (12 percent versus 9 percent) is their top priority compared to two years ago.

Interestingly, there is a drop in the number of Americans who say family is their top priority (45 percent versus 52 percent). However, family continues to be the most important priority overall to Americans.

“The conventional wisdom says that when the economy turns bad people focus on ‘basics,’ like family and faith,” commented Kinnaman, who directed the study. “This research either calls that thinking into question or it tells us that the economy has not been bad enough to cause a significant reprioritization of family and faith.”

He also noted that faith is “the most volatile” of the top priorities in the Barna study. Faith is the only priority that went down from 2006, then up, “suggesting uncertainty about the interaction between faith and finances.”

“People are not turning to others – like family members or God – in the face of economic trials,” Kinnaman said. “Instead, they are focusing increasingly on themselves, trying to solve their problems by being more ‘balanced’ or by simply working harder.”

“[T]he economy has revealed Americans’ fixation with individualism and their illusions of being self-made,” he added.

The Barna group, a polling and research group that focuses on cultural trends and religion, plans to release a more in-depth report on the economy’s impact on religious belief and behavior.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Sociologist Debunks Myths on U.S. Christianity

By Lillian Kwon
July 26 2010
Christian Post

Things aren't as bad in American Christianity as many say it is, according to one sociologist.

Christianity isn't on the brink of extinction, divorce rates of Christians aren't equal to that of non-Christians and churches are not losing young people – at least not to the extent that some fear.

That isn't to say there aren't any problems in the church. But Bradley R. E. Wright wants all the facts to be laid out before any judgment calls are made.

In his newly released book Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites ... and Other Lies You've Been Told, Wright reveals that many of the commonly cited statistics regarding the state of U.S. Christianity or the behaviors of Christians are incomplete and inaccurate.

A lot of the data – especially the kind that get media coverage – are negatively slanted and paint a bleak picture of Christians and the church. Wright is concerned that the onslaught of inaccurate bad news could distract from what really is bad news and could demotivate Christians from being active Christ followers and from inviting others to join.

Wright, 47, is associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. He formerly studied crime and homelessness but switched his focus to American Christianity after receiving tenure.

"I wanted to work more merging my faith and my profession," he said in an interview with The Christian Post.

Raised in the Catholic Church, he became a born-again Christian in high school and is now part of an evangelical community.

His journey of discovering the real state of U.S. Christianity began when he had doubts about the popularly cited divorce statistic.

"We're all familiar with the idea that Christians have divorce rates as high, if not higher, than non-Christians," he explained in the interview. "I heard that for years but as I thought about it, it just didn't make sense."

He and his wife had received so much support from pastors, small group members, and the church as a whole that he could not understand how that couldn't make a difference on marriages.

After analyzing five different sets of data, he found that Christians actually have lower divorce rates. His analysis can be found on his blog, brewright.com.

"[People] found that gratifying to sort of bust that myth as it were," he commented.

In his book, he presents data from the General Social Survey, which he describes as "the Cadillac of national studies" that has collected data since 1972. The divorce rate among the religiously unaffiliated is 50 percent while that of mainline Protestants, evangelicals and Catholics is 41 percent, 46 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

The statistics are more positive when it comes to active churchgoers. Only 38 percent of evangelicals who attend church weekly have been divorced, compared to 60 percent of evangelicals who never attend.

Extinction?

Perhaps the most unhelpful perception Christians have about Christianity is that it's on the brink of extinction or that in a decade or two "we'll all be huddled in basements or something," Wright said.

"That's a problem because basically if we’re in the Titanic and we've already hit an iceberg, why would we want to invite anyone to join us? Why would we want to devote ourselves to it?" he posed. "Basically, if you have a sinking ship, you don’t invite people to it, you jump off and get away. And so I would say it’s perhaps the most harmful myth that Christians believe about ourselves."

Mainline Protestantism has indeed decreased dramatically from over 30 percent of the population in 1970 to less than 15 percent and the number of Americans not affiliated with a religion has doubled within that same time frame. But the percentage of evangelical Christians has grown to 25 percent and Catholics and black Protestants have remained stable in their representation.

The United States "is still very much a country of Christians" with three out of four Americans affiliating themselves with Christianity, Wright wrote.

Even among the unaffiliated, it turns out many of them are religious.

Thought they rarely attend religious services, more than half (56 percent) of them believe in God and another 22 percent believe in a higher power. Fifty-five percent believe that the Bible is either the literal or inspired Word of God and 49 percent pray daily or weekly.

Overall, over 90 percent of Americans have believed and continue to believe in some form of God.

Young people leaving?

The exodus of young people from the church has been a major concern. Popular speakers, including apologist Josh McDowell, have frequently stated that some two-thirds of the younger generation was leaving the Christian faith and that unless something was done now Christianity wouldn't survive another decade.

The popularly cited statistic is that only four percent of young Americans will be Bible-believing Christians as adults.

Wright found that the four percent figure came from an informal survey a seminary professor did 10 years ago. He interviewed 211 young people in three states.

"In terms of quality, this statistic is about as valid as someone putting a survey question on their Facebook page and then having their friends and acquaintances answer it," Wright wrote in his book. "There's nothing wrong with doing it, it's just not very trustworthy."

Yet Christian speakers and youth leaders have organized conferences and developed resources around such statistics.

"My sense is that they're using these statistics with the best intentions, that their goal is to try to save the church from what they perceive to be a terrible problem and imminent disaster," Wright noted. "The expression I use is 'scary statistics are useful,' that it helps us to create audiences and create a need for our message."

Wright went further to compare today's generation of young people to previous generations.

He pointed out that since the 1970s, between 20 and 25 percent of young people have been affiliated with evangelical Christianity. Currently, 22 percent of young adults affiliate with evangelical churches, down from 25 percent in the 1990s, but up from 21 percent in the 1970s.

Though the percentage of young people who are religiously unaffiliated increased to 25 percent over the past couple of decades, the increase in the unaffiliated is seen across all age groups. In fact, the percentage of the religiously unaffiliated almost tripled among people in their thirties to sixties.

Today's evangelical youth were also found to be more committed and more active than young Christians of previous generations.

In the 1970s, only about one-third of young evangelicals viewed themselves as "strong evangelicals" compared to 50 percent today. About half prayed daily in the 1980s but over two-thirds do so today. Church attendance also increased from about 35 percent in the 1970s and 1980s to over 40 percent now among young evangelicals.

Also, young people who leave organized religion often rejoin when they grow older and start families of their own, Wright noted. Citing the General Social Survey, the sociologist revealed that with previous generations – those born in the 1910s up until the 1980s – evangelical involvement increased with age. Only 19 percent of those born in the 1930s and 1940s identified as evangelicals when they were in their twenties. By the time they were in their seventies, 30 percent were evangelicals.

Though he can't make any predictions, Wright says he doesn't see evidence in the data "of a cataclysmic loss of young people."

Things are going well

When Wright set out to analyze data for a more accurate look at Christianity, he was expecting at least half of the data – on church growth, beliefs, participation, morals, how Christians treat others and how others view Christians – to be negative. But surprisingly, much of it was positive.

"I think it’s more accurate to have a more positive perception of Christians. In many ways, things are going well," he said.

But Wright doesn't want to ignore the bad news.

Even though the divorce rate among evangelicals is lower than reported, it has still doubled over the last three to four decades. Sexual promiscuity and porn viewing may be lowest among regular evangelical church attenders compared to other groups, but still many are struggling. And though evangelical Christians score high when it comes to selfless caring for others and accepting others even when others do things they think are wrong, their attitudes toward minorities and gays are dismaying, Wright said.

Wright has gained a much more positive outlook on U.S. Christianity after finishing his book, but he acknowledged that there are things Christians need to work on.

"But that’s part of the value of data is that it tells us where the real problems are," he said. "If we think everything’s a problem, then in a sense nothing’s a problem because it almost becomes white noise."

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Prophecied Scoffers of Holy Things (2 Peter 3:3-4)

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts" (2 Peter 3:3).

Does the mirror change and bend when the scoffer stands before it laughing and scoffing at it? No, the mirror does not change and bend but remains the same as it was. Brethren, neither does God change or bend when scoffers laugh and scoff at Him. The unchanging and All-pure God knows that the scoffer scoffs at himself. By his scoffing at the holy things of God, the scoffer bends himself and makes himself hideous and the holy things of God remain intact.

O, how already in our times, in our days, many scoffers are already here! Many, too many, but their multitudes are weaker than the One and Only One. What is a lot of dust before a strong wind? You have only to wait, to wait armed with patience until a strong wind blows.

Many and too many scoffers are already here, who scoff at God's word. They offer their own words in place of God's word; they offer the unholy in place of the holy, the putrid in place of the healthy, death dealing in place of life creating. The word of God is like a strong wind and their words are as dust.

The scoffers are already here, many and too many that scoff at God's works and still many more will arrive. They praise their works above God's works and say that the works of their hands are better and more comprehensible that the works of God. Their works are thievery; for all the good that they built, they built from God's materials and according to the likeness of God's buildings; and all the evil that they have built, they built from the devil's materials, and according to the likeness of the devil's buildings. Therefore, of what will the dust boast? With what will the scoffers praise today or tomorrow, when wild asses trample over their graves with their hooves?

All-pure Lord, Holy and Powerful are Your words, as a strong wind and holy are Your works, and there is no number or measure of them. All-pure Lord, save our tongues from scoffing and save our lives from the scoffers.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

"Where is the promise of his coming?" (2 Peter 3:4).

Thus ask the scoffers of the holy things of God. They who scoff at the words and works of God scoff at the promises of God. We the faithful say that the Lord will come and they scoff and say when will He come since He has not yet come? We say that the Lord promised to come and they scoff and say: "Where is the promise of His coming?" They say our fathers lived and died waiting for His coming and He did not come. Will we then still wait for Him, they say? Yes brethren, we wait for Him and we will wait for Him. He promised to come and He will come. The Holy apostle confirms the promise of the Lord; behold, he heard it from the lips of the Lord Himself, from the lips from which only truth proceeds. "With the Lord, a thousand years is as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). With these words the apostle seals the mouths of the scoffers and teaches us patience. Soon it will be two thousand years since the Son of God gave His promise that He will return again "in Power and in Glory" to save the faithful and to punish the unfaithful but He still has not yet come, so speak the scoffers. O ignorant scoffers, is two thousand years as long for God as it is for you? For do you not think that for Him two thousand years are as two days? Does He have to fulfill all of His promises in the course of two days? He, the Immortal One, is not in a hurry as you mortal ones are in a hurry. You are in a hurry for you will shortly die but He is Immortal and is not afraid of death. When He comes, He will find you in your graves. The trump of the angels will awaken you and you will rise, only to see that He is truthful and you will then be lowered into the dark kingdom of the slanderers, for you slander the Lord of Truth and drove Him into a lie. Brethren, the Lord does not want that we be inquisitive with regard to the day and the hour when He will come; He only wants that we believe that He will come. When He comes, be we dead or alive, we will see His coming. Is this not enough?

O Lord God, Our Savior, teach us patience and strengthen us in the Faith. You will come, we know.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Moscow Patriarchate: "Schism Is Outmoded"

July 27, 2010
Interfax

A growing number of schismatic communities in Ukraine see the need to come back to the canonical Church, one of the reasons being that the schism is becoming "outmoded", the Moscow Patriarchate believes.

"Schism is no longer stylish. It was fashionable in the 1990s to promote separatism and disintegration; there was resentment in the air. Now people are tired of that, they come to realize that they have to live in this country together with their children and grandchildren," the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said Monday in an interview to Inter, a Ukrainian TV channel.

According to him, a growing number of people in Ukraine start thinking, "whether they should continue to live in the atmosphere of hostility and accusations, or whether they would feel much better in peace and benevolence."

Metropolitan Hilarion noted that many schismatics living in various regions of Ukraine were increasingly inclined to come back to the canonical Church, and this was a "continuous process, though it not a widespread one so far."

"People don't feel good when they are unable to communicate with ecumenical Orthodoxy. Schismatics have an acute sense of inferiority," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

Besides, the Metropolitan believes that "the schism loses its weight immediately when the authorities cease to support it." According to him, today the opportunity for blowing up the schism in Ukraine is long gone.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Russia’s Parliament Takes On The Occult

27 July, 2010
RT

People are always fascinated by the possibility of catching a glimpse of the future. And psychics are always ready to turn people's curiosity into cash. But now the Russian parliament has taken the future into its hands.

The allure of the unknown and the showcasing of psychic abilities have become big business in Russia. While simple entertainment for some, others turn to these self-proclaimed mystics for healing and the promise of answers to the problems of everyday life.

“Six years ago trouble came to our family: my son was lured into a relationship by a woman who used some witchcraft,” said Larisa Kazakova, a victim of psychic fraud. “As a mother, I couldn't help seeing that his health was impaired and was getting worse. His mind was suppressed; he changed completely.”

Larisa put her trust in a psychic, who claimed to have special insight into the situation, but as time passed it became clear that all the psychic was after was more of Larisa’s money.

“I paid her about 600,000 rubles [$20,000] a year for three years. That’s not because we are rich, but for the sake of your child’s health you’d do anything – sell possessions, take loans, anything!” Larisa said.

Experts say the nature of this industry provides a prime opportunity for people to take advantage of those desperate for something to believe in.

“Some quasi-shamanic things in the worst meaning of this word are all too close to a hoax – but people want to keep believing, so they trust them,” said psychiatrist Sergey Enikolopov. “And when they finally turn for help to real doctors, they find out it's too late, too hard, and that a patient is in need of critical measures.”

Now there is a movement in the State Duma to protect people like Larisa from being conned.

“We’re prohibiting advertisement of services which are not backed by professional or commercial experience,” said Victor Zvagelsky, a State Duma deputy from the Economic Policy Committee. “We believe these people practice tax evasion and swindling. Moreover, they’re deceiving potential consumers with these occult services.”

The new law is aimed at articles and advertisements offering services of people who claim they can heal or tell the future using mystic abilities. But those who make a living at this say that a ban on such ads won’t really make a dent in their business at all.

“I’d say that today, the internet brings the most clients into this business, rather than printed resources or TV,” said fortuneteller and parapsychologist Darya Mironova. “The only ad that really works is the grapevine; you help someone, and they in turn bring their family and friends.”

And while it may seem counter-intuitive, some who claim to have such powers say they provide a valuable service and that a ban on advertising could actually be helpful.

“I help people in their family relationships, and I do fortunetelling, depending on their needs,” she said. “Most psychics do the same thing; however those who don’t know what they’re doing are trying to gain notoriety through ads and other means. I believe there should be a set of documents to prove their abilities.”

The Duma is trying to make the same point.

“They could get a diploma or a medical certificate, or undergo a medical commission,” Zvagelsky said. “Each region of Russia issues their particular diplomas, which makes each healer work in that region only. The same way, one can be deprived of their diploma if their healing doesn’t work, just like any other doctor.”

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

7 Astonishing Miracles of Saint Paraskevi

St. Paraskevi the Virgin-Martyr (Feast Day - July 26)

"Today Is My Feast"

This event occurred on a recent 26th of July in Koropi, Athens. The family described this event as follows:

In Koropi, there was a married couple where the husband was very religious and the wife was a non-believer and mocker of the faith.

The husband had great respect and devoutness for St Paraskevi. And always, on the day before we celebrate her memory, he lit a candle at his house. His wife would never light it herself.

So the next day, he got up very early in the morning, washed and dressed up as quietly as he could so he wouldn't disturb his sleeping wife and mother in law, locked the door (twice) and left to go to church.

When he got back from church he found the two women very scared and in great panic.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

They told him: "As you left this morning, a little later we heard someone unlocking our door. Two times we heard the sound of the door unlocking..klak..klak... We froze!!! Then a woman entered our house with black clothes, tall, very beautiful, and appeared in front of us, looking at us without saying a word. She then went into the room where the candle was. She goes there, takes the candle and goes into the kitchen, adds oil, and lit it. Then she takes the candle and puts it back into the room. She comes back to us, she looks at us and says, 'Today is my feast', and she left the house!!"

The women were in shock, but the man was touched by this miracle of St. Paraskevi to his wife, who was a non-believer and mocker of the faith.

The Holy Monastery of Saint Paraskevi in Milochori

Mouriki (Μουρίκι) is a municipality in the Kozani Prefecture, Greece. Milochori, or Milochorion (Μηλοχωρίου), is a mountain village (alt. c. 680 m) of Mouriki. In the past it was known as Lygka. Milochorion according to one source is named after the watermills (Milos) in the region, or the apples (gr. Milo) which are produced in the region. In this mountain village stands a monastery dedicated to Saint Paraskevi which was built in 1967 at the initiative of Metropolitan Augoustinos Kantiotis of Florina and dedicated in 1969. This monastery was built over a former dilapidated ancient church. There are presently three monks there.

In 1932 a pious woman from Foufas named Chrysa Kypti had a son named Tryphon who was blind. She was told that there was a spring of Holy Water nearby, though did not know its origins or the saint associated with it. Upon receiving some Holy Water from the friend who told her about it, she had her son wash his face with it. When he did, the son received his sight back. That night Chrysa saw St. Paraskevi in her sleep, who pointed out to her where she was buried and asked her to dig her out. After telling the villagers, they did not believe her. St. Paraskevi appeared again in her sleep and told her to seek the help of the residents of Milochori. The president of the village responded and helped her dig at the place indicated with other villagers: "Among the brambles where a rose bush is." There they discovered the foundations of an old church, a roofing tile, the icon of St. Paraskevi and some Roman coins. The findings confirmed the word of St. Paraskevi that this was an ancient church. Under the order of the bishop of Ptolemaida, a small church had been built. Chrysa Kypti stayed next to the church in cells that had been constructed until April of 1959, when she died on Good Friday.

Below is a video in Greek about the history of this monastery and the miracle of its founding, together with video of the monastery itself.




A Contemporary Miracle of Saint Paraskevi Healing An Eye Ailment

The following account comes from a woman named Georgia from Corinth:

From the age of two I suffered from a severe form of being cross-eyed, and according to the doctors who examined me in Athens and Corinth, I had to wear glasses for the rest of my life. It became customary for my parents to bring me every year, on the eve of the feast of St. Paraskevi, to a small chapel of St. Paraskevi which is found in Ancient Corinth. It was there, from the age of three, that I would make this small but serious prayer: "My St. Paraskevi, make my eyes well." I would light my candle and I had much hope in her.

At the age of eight, St. Paraskevi eventually worked her miracle outside her small chapel. A thought came into my head, like lightning, that urged me to remove my glasses and I was assured that I would not need them again. I removed my glasses and believed that I truly did not have the slightest problem. I could see very well, and I didn't have the slightest problem of being cross-eyed. I gave the glasses to my mother and told her I will never wear them again. Initially my parents believed I was displaying child-like enthusiasm, but over the next few days they believed in the truth of the miracle.

Today I am a mature woman with excellent vision. I never ceased to visit that chapel every year to thank St. Paraskevi for her miraculous intervention, and for hearing my humble child-like prayer. The Saints are always near us. It is enough to invoke them with faith, and they are ready to rush to our aid.

The Chapel of Saint Paraskevi in Nafplion

In Karathona of Nafplion there is a small chapel dedicated to St. Paraskevi. This chapel was built in 1693 by Hieromonk Gerasimos Rethymnioti above the ruins of an older chapel. In the 1920's there were Greek soldiers in the area. One of the soldiers became extremely ill from an infection. Being faithful, he prayed to God to make him well. In a vision he saw a female Saint who told him that he will get well. Indeed, what he was told came true.

When his sickness passed the soldier got up and went to the small chapel of St. Paraskevi and recognized the saint he saw was her. Upon his return to Athens, where he was from, he had an icon painted of St. Paraskevi, but withheld bringing it back to her chapel.

While in Athens the soldier had another visit from St. Paraskevi who told him to take his icon that he had painted and bring it to her chapel. He did this immediately.

Today this chapel is owned by the Argyropoulou family and on the feast of St. Paraskevi hundreds come from all over to celebrate.

Going To Greet Saint Paraskevi At Petraki Monastery

Petraki Monastery in Athens has the great blessing to treasure the holy myrrh-gushing skull of St. Paraskevi. Every Friday a Supplication Service is done to St. Paraskevi and her relics are displayed for veneration, and from 1962 an All-Night Vigil is conducted on the feast day of St. Paraskevi. It was on that night that a pious wife of a professor of the University of Athens saw in her sleep St. Paraskevi, who said: "Come tomorrow behind the Evangelismos Hospital to greet me."

Because the dream made quite an impression on her, she told her husband the next day the following: "I'm going by Evangelismo to St. Paraskevi, to venerate her, because I saw her last night in my dream."

"Are you crazy?" responded her husband. "I don't know of any St. Paraskevi there. You aren't going anywhere. We are going to the beach, for a swim."

They both got in their car and headed for the beach, first picking up a friend of theirs who was a journalist. As they were going down Siggrou Street, they passed the Church of St. Haralambos. The woman did her cross and asked the journalist if he knew of a church of St. Paraskevi nearby to go and light a candle.

"Oh brother", said her husband, "this woman is driving me crazy with her religiosity. From this morning she has been telling me she wants to go behind Evangelismo to St. Paraskevi, but I know there is no St. Paraskevi there."

"Ah, stop here", said the journalist. "The lady has a point, for behind Evangelismo is the Monastery of Petraki in which is kept the skull of St. Paraskevi. Furthermore, tonight is her All-Night Vigil. I read it in the newspaper."

Upon hearing this, they forsook going to the beach and all returned to go to the Monastery of Petraki to venerate St. Paraskevi's holy skull.

Elder Ephraim Katounakiotis Relates A Miracle of Saint Paraskevi

In 1979 Elder Ephraim Katounakiotis related the following miracle of St. Paraskevi:

Five years ago a blind man went to Koutloumousiou Monastery to venerate the skull of St. Paraskevi [part of her skull is at this monastery, and part of it is at Petraki Monastery in Athens]. She gave off an aroma and the blind man immediately could see and he hung up his glasses there.

Petraki Monastery

A Roman Catholic Receives Her Sight From Saint Paraskevi

The following is written by the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Petraki:

In 1946 I wrote a piece for the newspaper "Orthodoxos Typos" regarding St. Paraskevi. A subscriber in Piraeus read the piece, and as soon as he finished he received a letter from Germany. It was from a German-American, a Papist and not Orthodox. She was very fond of Orthodoxy however. She would even help them out financially for various projects. This woman had lost her sight and travelled to Germany, either because her daughter lived there or because there they had better doctors. But there was no healing and she totally lost her sight.

In her letter she wrote the following: "I learned that there in Greece there is a Saint who heals eyes. Write to me a little about her." He responded: "Truly she does exist. It is St. Paraskevi. In fact, I was reading about her in a newspaper, and as soon as I finished the piece I received your letter... This St. Paraskevi's holy head is kept at the Holy Monastery of Petraki. I am friends with the abbot there. His address is the following...."

A few days later I received a letter from her asking that I pray before the holy skull on her behalf, that St. Paraskevi give her back her sight. Indeed, the prayer was done. I sent her also a small icon of St. Paraskevi which we later learned she placed above her bed.

It took a while to receive a response from her however. And when she did after two months, she wrote the following: "Your Holiness, I received the small icon of St. Paraskevi successfully. Words cannot describe my gratitude, not only for your kindness in sending me the icon, but also for your prayers to receive my sight. My status is much better, though I still cannot see perfectly well. Since I am unworthy of such a precious gift, I ask you to continue praying for me... Your sister, Edith H. Moore."

This woman received her sight. She returned to the USA and we write each other, and she is able to write with her own hand. She is thinking of coming to Athens to be baptized Orthodox.

Read also:

Lives of Saint Paraskevi the Virgin Martyr

The Grotto-Shrine of Saint Paraskevi in Woodlawn, New York

Apolytikion in the First Tone
Appropriate to your calling, O Champion Paraskevi, you worshipped with the readiness your name bears. For an abode you obtained faith, which is your namesake. Wherefore, you pour forth healing and intercede for our souls.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
O most majestic One, we have discovered your temple to be a spiritual clinic wherein all the faithful resoundingly honor you, O famed and venerable martyr Paraskevi.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr