The Icon of the Theotokos of Kozeltshan Is Found

A Day of Joy for the Orthodox of Finland!

Nun Christodouli
February 9, 2011
Amen.gr

Last June sad news rocked the Orthodox in Finland: the miraculous icon of the Theotokos of Kozeltshan was stolen at night from the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos!

The icon is associated with Saint John of Kronstadt. In the early 20th century, in the then Finnish town of Viipuri, the young daughter of a wealthy Russian family, Anna, became seriously ill and doctors could not do anything anymore. Then her mother sent her oldest sister to St. Petersburg to call St. John of Kronstadt to come to their house to pray for the sick girl. She went and met Father John, but he did not have the opportunity to come. However he gave the girl an icon of the Panagia - which is the same we are now speaking of - and told them to say a prayer in front of the icon. They called for the priest and he made his prayer. Soon the little girl began to get better until she was completely well.

The pious mother thought that a miraculous icon must not be stored in a secular home, so she donated the icon to a small church in the city. There others were able to enjoy the miraculous power of the Virgin Mary through her icon. As proof increased of the miracles through the icon, it began to be filled with precious jewels and other offerings.

After World War II, when the city Viipuri remained in the Soviet Union, the icon with its offerings was moved to the big Cathedral Church of Helsinki. The miracles continued there also and the Panagia showed her love through her icon. For this reason the stealing of this icon deeply saddened the faithful. After a short time the perpetrators were found - three foreigners -, when they went to steal something else from the church, and they were sentenced to prison. Nothing was found with them and it was thought that the icon was already somewhere abroad. But on February 8th one of the perpetrators revealed that the icon was hidden in Finland, and he led the police there! Police in communication indicated that he had come to repentance.

The words of the protopriest of Helsinki Fr Mark came true: "The icon will come back. Do not worry!" It should be indicated that the three perpetrators of the theft originated from a country where the prevailing faith is Orthodoxy. I hope the three will repent and from now on may they and we live in the protection of the Panagia!

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos


Thief Tells Police Where Stolen Icon Was Hidden

Priceless work of ecclesiastical art missing from Uspenski Cathedral since June.

February 9, 2011
Helsingen Sanomat

A valuable icon that was stolen from Helsinki’s Uspenski Cathedral, the city's biggest Orthodox church, in June of last year was recovered on Tuesday.

Police got on the trail of the icon when a man who was imprisoned for the theft came forward with information on where it was hidden.

Police say that the man had suffered pangs of conscience. The priceless work of Orthodox ecclesiastical art was found in a forest hideaway in Turku.

Police did not find pieces of jewellery that had been placed around the icon by parishioners.

The metallic cover on the icon had been torn off, and the decorative objects on it were also missing.

The icon will be sent to the Valamo Monastery in Heinävesi for restoration before it is brought back to the cathedral.

The man is serving a two-and-a-half year sentence for the theft.

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Russian Orthodox Clergy May Run for Office

Sophia Kishkovsky
February 8, 2011
ENI News

The Russian Orthodox Church has ruled that hierarchs (church leaders) and clergy can run for office in exceptional cases when their presence is needed to fight "forces striving to use electoral power to fight the Orthodox Church."

A document passed on 2 February by the Bishops' Council, which was meeting in Moscow, describes potential opponents of the church as forces "including schismatics and those of other religions," without naming any specifically, and says the church has the right to pass moral judgment on political programs and statements when they touch on issues including moral relativism, family values, historical monuments and the environment.

The document stresses that each case would be considered individually, that candidates must be chosen by church hierarchs, and that even if they are running for office, candidates cannot violate the Russian Orthodox Church's rule against clergy joining political parties.

It also makes clear that it is referring not just to clergy within Russia’s borders. The jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church extends across the former Soviet Union. Ukraine, which has seen a volatile political situation, also accounts for a significant part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In another document, passed on 4 February, the Bishops' Council, led by Patriarch Kirill I, said clergy and lay people must use all legal means to fight "blasphemy and slander" against the church in modern society.

The Russian Orthodox Church is playing an increasingly prominent role in Russian society, but is also facing growing criticism. According to the document, "slander should be differentiated from criticism of negative phenomena in the life of the earthly church that need to be corrected and overcome from the point of view of Christian teaching."

Some Russian Orthodox clergy were involved in politics in the late 1980s and 1990s, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, and there were priests in Parliament under the tsar and in politics after the February Revolution of 1917 that brought down the tsar.

President Dmitri Medvedev, whose wife, Svetlana, is a prominent patron of the Russian Orthodox Church, received the Bishops' Council in the Kremlin on 3 February. Medvedev told the bishops that the church is essential to overcoming the ethnic strife that has shaken Russia recently, pitting young Russians against Muslim migrants from the Northern Caucasus. "Today, a great deal depends on your views, your sermons, your teaching, the pastor's word directly addressed to young people," said Medvedev.

Some Muslim leaders in Russia have said Muslim clergy might follow the example of the Russian Orthodox Church and run for office as well.

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Saint Peter of Damascus and His Feast On February 9

Peter, the sacred martyr, is the name of two saints. The first Saint Peter, mentioned by Saint John of Damascus (ca. 675 - ca. 749), lived during the reign of Constantine V Kopronymos (r. 741-775). He was arrested by the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid II (r. 743-744), son of the Arab Caliph Hisham (r. 724-743), when he censured the cacodoxy of the heretics and the error of the Arabs and Manicheans. The saint suffered torture when they plucked out his tongue while he was in exile in South Arabia. Despite the excision of this organ of speech, Saint Peter still spoke clearly and distinctly as he celebrated the divine office of the Liturgy.

The second Saint Peter of Damascus (12th cent.) is identified by others as the author of several treatises in the Philokalia. Book One is titled A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, and Book Two comprises the Twenty-four Discourses. He occupies more space in the Philokalia than any other author, save Saint Maximus the Confessor. He is concerned throughout his writings with the personal ascesis and prayer of the hesychast. His writings are not only for monks, since he insists that spiritual knowledge is within everyone's reach. He advocates continual prayer and believes that it is possible in all situations.

Since The Great Synaxaristes, in Greek, mentions in the verse couplet that today's Saint Peter was a hieromartyr who was slain by the sword, an event which it appears was not endured by either of the saints mentioned above, some have identified the saint of this day as Saint Peter of Maiouma. Both eighth-century saints, Peter of Damascus and Peter of Maiouma, are found in the Chronicle of Saint Theophanes. There are others who believe that today's Saint Peter might be identified with the priest, Saint Peter of Capitolias (d. 715), commemorated by the holy Church on the 4th of October. For his rebuke of Islam, he suffered the rooting out of his tongue, brutal amputations, and finally beheading.

From The Great Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church, translated by Holy Apostles Convent, pp. 440-441.


"Philokalia" Introduction To Saint Peter of Damascus

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite*

Our holy Father Peter, who was bishop of Damascus, lived under Constantine Kopronymos, in the year 775. He, at first, followed the solitary and anchoritic life in the greatest poverty, not even owning a book, as he himself says. That is, he only borrowed from others the Old and New Testaments, and the books of the great masters of the Church, and, in a word, of all the other awakened and God-bearing fathers, and became so industrious that — meditating night and day on the law of the Lord and watering his life by the flowing streams that gush from there — he was thought of as a twin tree to that of the Psalm, with its high and heavenly foliage, planted next to the spring itself of the waters of the Spirit. Except, while that tree is said to give its fruit only in one season, it was not so for him: on the contrary, staying green in every season, non-stop and without letting up, he brought forth spiritual fruits, pleasing to the sight, sweet to the taste, perfumed to the scent, and that with the undying and fragrant delicacies that flow from them, offer a banquet to every sense of the body and of the soul.

He did, in fact, bring forth, while alive, many great fruits through his ascetic efforts, and many much greater with his death, grasping the crown with his martyrdom: indeed, having proved the unorthodox heresy of the Arabs and the Manichees false, he had his tongue cut out by al-Walid, son of the leader of the Arabs, Hishim, and was exiled to Arabia Felice; there he died, still speaking and exercising the priesthood faultlessly. After his death he brought forth an over flowing abundance of most numerous and great fruits, leaving us a paternal and inalienable inheritance, this truly most beautiful book, adorned with every virtue, in which he labored with so much eloquence and grace that I would not even know how to express it: it is the pride of all and most useful to the soul in all the virtues, a treasury of contemplations, a list of spiritual charisms, a Halcyon of divine beatitudes, a sanctuary of bodily practice, a most meticulous analysis of the passions one by one, a horn of the ascetic Amalthea, a storehouse of divine knowledge and wisdom: in short, it is the summation of sacred wakefulness.

Knowing then how this summation is naturally linked to the present book, and how it adds an enormous contribution towards the goal which we have in mind, we thought it extremely important to keep it. This puts it nicely: as a circle is to a circle, so a philokalia to a Philokalia - the great to the greater and the more vast to the more restricted. It did not, in fact, seem right to us to separate this work which is loaded with spiritual fruits — as we said above — from the choir of holy and sober fathers: this book itself would have accused us of the inability to recognize the beautiful, not allowing its friends and family members to become separated from the fathers; nor under any circumstance, did it appear to us permissible to mutilate our work in this way — which also needs the collaboration of this book — and to deprive the brothers of so great a profit: for the increase of good always makes for an increase benefit.

If then someone wants to take up the double wings of the spiritual dove, which one time David was also looking for but did not find, strip the leaves of this book with laborious care, and in it marvelously find them: here, the all silver wing of praxis, and there, that pure gold wing of theoria. Raising himself with both wings above all the things of earth, he will fly towards the eternal heights and, after having nested that dove in the nests on high, he will find rest in heavenly beatitude.

* Although Nikodemos the Hagiorite identifies the Hieromartyr Peter with this author, the saint whose works have been incorporated into the Philokalia must have lived several centuries later, since the holy Peter of the Philokalia mentions the name of Saint Symeon Metaphrastes (d. ca. 1000). He also makes many references to the holy fathers in his writings. Since none of his spiritual treatises makes mention of the great luminary Saint Symeon the New Theologian (d. 1022) or his disciple, the theologian and hegoumen of Stoudios, Niketas Stethatos (d. ca. 1090), there exists a 13th-14th century manuscript which places the work at 1156-7. He certainly lived before the hesychast controversy, so it is more than likely that he belongs to the 11th or 12th century. (See "Introductory Note to Saint Peter of Damaskos", in The Philokalia - vol. 3.)

Read also:

St. Peter of Damascus: Eight Types of Knowledge

298 Passions Mentioned In Holy Scripture

That There Are No Contradictions in Holy Scripture

We Should Not Despair Even If We Sin Many Times

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We Should Not Despair Even If We Sin Many Times

By St. Peter of Damascus

Even if you are not what you should be, you should not despair. It is bad enough that you have sinned; why in addition do you wrong God by regarding Him in your ignorance as powerless? Is He, who for your sake created the great universe that you behold, incapable of saving your soul? And if you say that this fact, as well as His incarnation, only makes your condemnation worse, then repent; and He will receive your repentance, as He accepted that of the prodigal son (cf. Luke 15:20) and the prostitute (cf. Luke 7:37-50). But if repentance is too much for you, and you sin out of habit even when you do not want to, show humility like the publican (cf. Luke 18:13): this is enough to ensure your salvation. For he who sins without repenting, yet does not despair, must of necessity regard himself as the lowest of creatures, and will not dare to judge or censure anyone. Rather, he will marvel at God's compassion, and will be full of gratitude towards his Benefactor, and so receive many other blessings as well. Even if he is subject to the devil in that he sins, yet from fear of God he disobeys the enemy when the latter tries to make him despair. Because of this he has his portion with God; for he is grateful, gives thanks, is patient, fears God, does not judge so that he may not be judged. All these are crucial qualities. It is as St. John Chrysostom says about Gehenna: it is almost of greater benefit to us than the kingdom of heaven, since because of it many enter into the kingdom of heaven, while few enter for the sake of the kingdom itself; and if they do enter it, it is by virtue of God's compassion. Gehenna pursues us with fear, the kingdom embraces us with love, and through them both we are saved by God's grace (Homily On 1 Timothy 15:3).

If those attacked by many passions of soul and body endure patiently, do not out of negligence surrender their free will, and do not despair, they are saved. Similarly, he who has attained the state of dispassion, freedom from fear and lightness of heart, quickly falls if he does not confess God's grace continually by not judging anyone. Indeed, should he dare to judge someone, he makes it evident that in acquiring his wealth he has relied on his own strength, as St. Maximus states. St. John of Damascus says that if someone still subject to the passions, and still bereft of the light of spiritual knowledge, is put in charge of anyone, he is in great danger; and so is the person who has received dispassion and spiritual knowledge from God but does not help other people.

Nothing so benefits the weak as withdrawal into stillness, or the man subject to the passions and without spiritual knowledge as obedience combined with stillness. Nor is there anything better than to know one's own weakness and ignorance, nor anything worse than not to recognize them. No passion is so hateful as pride, or as ridiculous as avarice, "the root of all evils" (1 Tim. 6:10): for those who with great labor mine silver, and then hide it in the earth again, remain without any profit. That is why the Lord says, "Do not store up treasures on earth" (Matt. 6:19); and again: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). For the intellect of man is drawn by longing towards those things with which it habitually occupies itself, whether these be earthly things, or the passions, or heavenly and eternal blessings. As St. Basil the Great says, a persistent habit acquires all the strength of nature (Long Rules 6).

A weak person especially ought to pay attention to the promptings of his conscience, so that he may free his soul from all condemnation. Otherwise at the end of his life he may repent in vain and mourn eternally. The person who cannot endure for Christ's sake a physical death as Christ did, should at least be willing to endure death spiritually. Then he will be a martyr with respect to his conscience, in that he does not submit to the demons that assail him, or to their purposes, but conquers them, as did the holy martyrs and the holy fathers. The first were bodily martyrs, the latter spiritual martyrs. By forcing oneself slightly, one defeats the enemy; through slight negligence one is filled with darkness and destroyed.

From A Treasure of Divine Knowledge in The Philokalia (vol. 3).

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Hieromartyr Pankratios, Bishop of Taormina

St. Pankratios the Hieromartyr of Taormina (Feast Day - February 9)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agios Vlasios

Among the saints that the Church celebrates today, dear brethren, is the Holy Hieromartyr Pankratios, Bishop of Taormina. St. Pankratios lived during the years of Christ and the Holy Apostles. He came from Antioch, and when he went to Jerusalem with his parents, received Holy Baptism. Then, after the death of his parents, Saint Pankratios went to the area of the Black Sea, entered a cave and "lived alone in silence". There he met the Apostle Peter in his travels, who took him with him to parts of Cilicia, where he introduced Pankratios to the Apostle Paul, who made him bishop of Taormina, Sicily. There Saint Pankratios did many miracles, cured many diseases, and demolished the idols the people venerated. Many believed in Christ, even prince Boniface himself. But followers of the heretic Montanus killed him.

The hymns of the Church written to honor Saint Pankratios refer to this personality. One of these call him the "honorable stone" that was the foundation of the Church. Another hymn speaks of the fact that Saint Pankratios, by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, opened ditches in the hearts of people and there sowed the seed and inserted the farmer in heaven, Christ. Another hymn speaks of his establishing in the West, to which he was sent as a bishop to shepherd, the East, having brought with him the sunrise of divine knowledge of Him Who is beyond human thought, Christ, and there tied them with his athleticism and raised it to the everlasting light, where is seen the desired beauty of Christ the Judge.

In the life of Saint Pankratios we see the close relationship between faith, baptism, asceticism, the hierarchy and martyrdom. This means that the Christian life is united and does not divide the Mysteries (Sacraments) from faith, asceticism from the priesthood, and martyrdom.

The apolytikion (troparion) of the saint, which was established to be chanted for many hieromartyrs, reveals that all hieromartyrs share a new tradition and life, and mentions that Saint Pankratios was not merely a successor of the Apostles, but was a shareholder of the life of the Apostles. It also emphasizes that he was divinely inspired, because he lived the praxis, namely the purification of the heart from passions, upon which he established theoria, namely the existential experience of God. And because he lived this spiritual life, for this reason he was found worthy of martyrdom, since martyrdom is not a human act and energy, but the fruit and effect of the union of man with God through the Mysteries and asceticism.

We honor the saints and martyrs, but we should see what it was that made them confessors, martyrs and saints. The primary factor is the grace of God, which is received through the Mysteries and flourishes with asceticism. The sanctification of man is the result of synergy, that is, the energies of God and the human reaction to it. God plays a primary role in the salvation of man, but in response to the freedom on the part of man in receiving God's love. If we remove the freedom of man, we fall into Monophysitism; and if we do not see the energies of God, we fall into Nestorianism and Humanism.

Saint Pankratios can be a model for us all, clergy and laity, men and women. He shows what is asceticism in Christ, what is the priesthood, and what is martyrdom. May we have his intercessions.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Elder Isaac of Dionysiou: The Perfect Orthodox Monk

By Archimandrite Cherubim Karambelas

According to the Holy Fathers, all ascetic labors, whether bodily or spiritual, have one lofty and holy end: purity of heart. Fasting, all-night vigils, mourning, suffering, rules of prayer, the services, the reading of spiritual books, prayer, and other ascetic struggles help the monastic to rise high and live a pure and holy life. This end was attained in the life of the praiseworthy monk of Dionysiou - Isaac.

Climbing the ladder of the virtues, he perfected himself in meekness, innocence, and simplicity. This last virtue, according to St. John Climacus, "leads to the highest humility," and: "You will never see simplicity bereft of humility."

Deep humility opens the path to another summit of virtue: dispassion. Our good mountaineer and soldier of Christ conquered this peak also. Dispassion is a very lofty summit, and there are few who reach it. "This requires time and much longing for God.... When you see or hear that someone has in a few years acquired the most sublime dispassion, then conclude that he travelled by no other way than by this blessed shortcut - of humility" (St. John Climacus).

The fathers who knew him well, like Fr. Leontius who lived with him in several metochia, have told us of the high level of dispassion that adorned the life of the Elder.

"For Elder Isaac," Fr. Leontius said, "there was no difference or change of feelings when he conversed or associated with lay people."

"What do you mean by that, Father?" Fr. Lazarus asked him.

"I mean that Elder Isaac spoke with women just like he spoke with men."

When the need arose, therefore, he would associate and converse with everyone, but always on a higher level. This is called in Patristic language dispassion. Truly Elder Isaac, although living at the Monastery's Metochia in the midst of the world, was always a dispassionate monk, "an iron-clad warrior," "warring, but not warred against." He was dead to the world; only Christ lived within him. "He who is perfect in love and has reached the summit of passionlessness knows no difference between his own people and strangers, or between believer and infidel, between bond and free, or even between male and female...." (St. Maximus the Confessor).

As long as the mailman of Dionysiou,* this excellent courier of God, continued to follow this path, he would finish his course on the pinnacle of virtue, which is perfect love.

He reached the point where he sympathized with all manner of people, with the whole world, with all of creation, animate and inanimate, as his patron saint wrote somewhere on the nature of perfect love.** He loved and sympathized with all.

Across from the Monastery at the Kathisma of the Holy Apostles lived Elder Isaac together with Fr. Lazarus. The one, being older, looked after the garden with its lemon and orange trees, while the other took care of Elder Modestos who was suffering from hemiplegia. The latter had the cell next to the church, and the former two lived on the upper floor.

"After Compline," Fr. Lazarus remarked as we were parting, "no more that half an hour would pass before Fr. Isaac would be praying with tears and wailing. His face was awash with tears, tears falling from his soul and heart. After hearing him on several occasions, I decided to ask him why he wept every night. Going downstairs, therefore, I drew near and heard him saying: 'Have mercy on the poor people, O Lord. Have mercy on the unfortunate ones. Have mercy on the hungry. Give them Thy blessing, O Lord, have mercy....'

Not understanding for whom he was imploring, however, I asked him: 'Fr. Isaac, for whom are you crying and pleading to Christ for so long? Who are those poor and unfortunate ones?'

He replied: 'My child, don't you remember the tenant-farmers we had at the Metochia who worked all day long. Such hard work, yet they barely managed to live. How could they meet their families' expenses? How could they marry off their daughters? How could they teach their children to read? Where would they find clothes to wear? How can I not pity them when I think of them, especially when they loved and respected us so much? They were obedient to us like bought slaves. Why should I not weep and entreat Christ for them?'

Silently I left him to weep and supplicate Christ, marvelling at his great compassion."

In this picture of his life at the Kathisma of the Holy Apostles, we can perceive the attitude of a true Athonite monk towards his fellow men. It is revealed in two ways: Love towards a bed-ridden invalid, manifested by sacrifice, patience, night watches, labor, and self-denial; and love towards the tenant-farmers, manifested by warm tears and disturbance of soul. We see this attitude revealed all over the Holy Mountain.

Our minds wonder at these images of Elder Isaac's life at the Kathisma of the Holy Apostles - whether we see him on the ground floor, praying fervently; or on the upper floor, nursing the invalid. In these two scenes we see realized the Master's words in that historic upper room in Jerusalem: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

Here is the genuine social work of monastic: prayer for their fellow men and for all the world; self-sacrificing care for the sick, unceasing hospitality, true teaching by example. A work which is not blazed abroad has for this reason its own measureless worth.

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The grace of God found firm abode in the soul of Elder Isaac. His prayers were compunctionate; he had received the God-given grace of tears, as we saw above in the example of his sympathy and love for those in want and sorrow.

"You cannot show," says St. Symeon the New Theologian, "that without tears and continual contrition anyone has been purified, or become holy, or received the Holy Spirit, or seen God, or completely received Him as a dweller in his heart."

Especially towards the end of his life, his eyes squinted from his perpetual tears. Many times the fathers noticed that his eyes were swollen and red from weeping; passing by his cell, they would hear him say the Jesus Prayer from the depths of his heart.

All day long, and especially at night, he communicated with Heaven. He tried to find as much time as possible to devote to prayer. During the silence of the nights, wakeful, beyond the world and everything earthly, he would pray for hours, pouring forth rivers of tears in his great compunction and divine love.

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Fr. Lazarus once asked him: "How many hours should I sleep, Fr. Isaac?"

"For one as young as you, five hours are sufficient - three at night and two in the daytime. For older monks, however, three to four hours in the whole day are enough."

Indeed, Fr. Isaac slept for one hour during the day and two hours at night. The rest of the time was spent with Him for Whom his soul insatiably thirsted.

"When we were at the Kathisma of the Holy Apostles," Fr. Lazarus related, "the two of us would do the service with our prayer ropes for two-and-a-half hours.*** Fr. Isaac would do the first and second prayer ropes in a quiet voice: 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us.' On the third, his heart would grow warmer; he could not restrain himself to speak softly, but would cry each word with flaming zeal ... I would hear him and marvel at his heart's love for Christ."

One night Fr. Lazarus arose in order to go from the Kathisma of the Holy Apostles to Karyes. (Fr. Modestos, who was sick, needed something.) It was July and very warm: the night was moonlit. When he had left the Kalyva and gone a little way, beside the road he saw a singular sight. Someone was kneeling, praying with uplifted hands amidst the infinite silence of the night and peaceful nature. It was Fr. Isaac.

Fr. Lazarus stopped and changed direction. He thought it a sacrilege to pass him and disrupt that awe-inspiring scene.

Who knows what divine joy, what heavenly grace shone that evening on the Elder's bright face? Who knows what those holy raised hands were seeking from heaven? Who knows how many tears watered the ground of the Kathisma of the Holy Apostles? What tears he shed "from the pouring forth of divine light and heaven opening upon him...."

* Elder Isaac's obedience at Dionysiou was the difficult job of being a mailman, which even in the harsh winters he fulfilled and nearly cost him his life. Read Two Wondrous Miracles of St. John the Forerunner in the Life of Elder Isaac of Dionysiou.

** St. Isaac the Syrian wrote: "And what is the merciful heart? It is the heart’s burning for all of creation, for men, for birds, for animals and even for demons. At the remembrance and at the sight of them, the merciful man’s eyes fill with tears which arise from the great compassion that urges his heart. It grows tender and cannot endure hearing or seeing any injury or slight sorrow to anything in creation. Because of this, such a man continually offers tearful prayer even for irrational animals and for the enemies of truth and for all who harm it, that they may be guarded and forgiven."

*** Monks, ascetics or hesychasts who are away from their monastery, or do not have service books, or are illiterate, or out of obedience to attain a deeper form of prayer, etc., substitute attending services with a corresponding number of Jesus Prayers. For example, a Midnight Service and Matins can be substituted for thirty-three hundred prayers.

From Contemporary Ascetics of Mount Athos (vol. 1) by Archimandrite Cherubim, pp. 344-347 and 359-361.

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What Activates True Love?

When grace is operative in the soul of someone who is praying, then he is flooded with the love of God, so that he can no longer bear what he experiences.

Afterwards, this love turns towards the world and man, whom he comes to love so much that he seeks to take upon himself the whole of human pain and misfortune so that everyone else might be freed from it. In general he suffers with every grief and misery, and even for animals, so that he weeps when he thinks they are suffering.

These are the properties of love, but it is prayer that activates them and calls them forth.

This is why those who are advanced in prayer do not cease to pray for the world. To them belongs even the continuation of life, however audacious and strange this may seem. And you should know that, if such people disappear, then the end of this world will come.

- Elder Joseph the Hesychast

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Discovery of the Relics of Zechariah the Prophet

By Sozomen the Historian

I shall first speak of the relics of the prophet. Caphar-Zechariah is a village of the territory of Eleutheropolis, a city of Palestine. The land of this district was cultivated by Calemerus, a serf; he was well disposed to the owner, but hard, discontented, and unjust towards his neighboring peasants. Although he possessed these defects of character, the prophet stood by him in a dream, and manifested himself; pointing out a particular garden, he said to him, “Go, dig in that garden at the distance of two cubits from the hedge of the garden by the road leading to the city of Bitheribis. You will there find two coffins, the inner one of wood, the other of lead. Beside the coffins you will see a glass vessel full of water, and two serpents of moderate size, but tame, and perfectly innoxious, so that they seem to be used to being handled.” Calemerus followed the directions of the prophet at the designated place and zealously applied himself to the task. When the sacred depository was disclosed by the afore-mentioned signs, the divine prophet appeared to him, clad in a white stole, which makes me think that he was a priest. At his feet outside of the coffin was lying a child which had been honored with a royal burial; for on its head was a golden crown, its feet were encased in golden sandals, and it was arrayed in a costly robe. The wise men and priests of the time were greatly perplexed about this child, who and whence he might be and for what reason he had been so clothed. It is said that Zechariah, the superior of a monastic community at Gerari, found an ancient document written in Hebrew, which had not been received among the canonical books. In this document it was stated that when Zechariah the prophet had been put to death by Joash, king of Judah, the family of the monarch was soon visited by a dire calamity; for on the seventh day after the death of the prophet, one of the sons of Joash, whom he tenderly loved, suddenly expired. Judging that this affliction was a special manifestation of Divine wrath, the king ordered his son to be interred at the feet of the prophet, as a kind of atonement for the crime against him. Such are the particulars which I have ascertained on the subject.

Although the prophet had lain under the earth for so many generations, he appeared sound; his hair was closely shorn, his nose was straight; his beard moderately grown, his head quite short, his eyes rather sunken, and concealed by the eyebrows.

From Ecclesiastical History, Book IX, Chapter 17.

Read also:

Prophet Zechariah the Sickle-Seer

1,500-year-old Church Found In Israel

The Place of Saint Zacharias - Tell Zakariyah

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Saint Parthenios of Lampsakos: Life and Miracles

St. Parthenios the Wonderworker of Lampsakos (Feast Day - February 7)

Saint Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsakos, was a native of the city of Melitoupolis (in northwestern Asia Minor), where his father Christopher served as deacon. The youth did not receive adequate schooling, but he learned the Holy Scripture by attending church services. He had a good heart, and distributed to the poor the money he earned working as a fisherman.

Filled with the grace of God, St Parthenios from age eighteen healed the sick in the name of Christ, cast out demons and worked other miracles. Learning of the young man's virtuous life, Bishop Philetos of Melitoupolis educated him and ordained him presbyter.

In 325, during the reign of Constantine the Great, Archbishop Achilles of Cyzicus made him bishop of the city of Lampsakos (Asia Minor). In the city were many pagans, and the saint fervently began to spread the faith in Christ, confirming it through many miracles and by healing the sick.

The people began to turn from their pagan beliefs, and the saint went to the emperor Constantine the Great seeking permission to tear down the pagan temple and build a Christian church in its place. The emperor received the saint with honor, gave him a decree authorizing the destruction of the pagan temple, and provided him with the means to build a church. Returning to Lampsakos, St Parthenios had the pagan temple torn down, and built a beautiful church of God in the city.

In one of the razed temples, he found a large marble slab which he thought would be very suitable as an altar. The saint ordered work to begin on the stone, and to move it to the church. Through the malice of the devil, who became enraged at the removal of the stone from the pagan temple, the cart overturned and killed the driver Eutychian. St Parthenios restored him to life by his prayer and shamed the devil, who wanted to frustrate the work of God.

The saint was so kind that he refused healing to no one who came to him, or who chanced to meet him by the wayside, whether he suffered from bodily illnesses or was tormented by unclean spirits. People even stopped going to physicians, since St Parthenios healed all the sick for free. With the great power of the name of Christ, the saint banished a host of demons from people, from their homes, and from the waters of the sea.

Once, the saint prepared to cast out a devil from a certain man, who had been possessed by it since childhood. The demon began to implore the saint not to do so. St Parthenios promised to give the evil spirit another man in whom he could dwell. The demon asked, "Who is that man?" The saint replied, "You may dwell in me, if you wish."

The demon fled as if stung by fire, crying out, "If the mere sight of you is a torment to me, how can I dare to enter into you?"

An unclean spirit, cast out of the house where the imperial purple dye was prepared, said that a divine fire was pursuing him with the fire of Gehenna.

Having shown people the great power of faith in Christ, the saint converted a multitude of idol-worshippers to the true God.

St Parthenios died peacefully and was solemnly buried beside the cathedral church of Lampsakos, which he built.

Source

A Contemporary Miracle of the Patron Saint Against Cancer

Stratoula, a 26 year old woman from Halkida, was diagnosed with cancer in September 1996. Below is the story of her healing through St. Parthenios in her own words:

"In my 26th year, a test showed that I had contracted the virus that alters the cells outside the cervix. The doctors made an operation, cutting a piece of the cervix. After three months, the test showed that I had healed. After some time the virus again came knocking on my door. Then I decided to put my life in the hands of Saint Parthenios. I fasted 40 days, Confessed, Communed, and every day I read the Supplicatory Canon of the Saint. From the first day even, I saw him in my sleep appearing and disappearing three times in front of me as a huge icon of Saint Parthenios. It was as big as the size of the room and bright. Then waking up, I realized that the Saint had heard me and was beside me. I have also not ceased to be near him. When I redid the test, the response was negative for the virus and what remained was simply inflammation. With tears I thanked Saint Parthenios and decided to continue with more faith my prayers. The next test was negative for any malignancy, and there was no inflammation. All this without drugs, without doctors, without the painful and torturous treatments for cancer which doctors apply today.

Now I always have him as my protector over my bed and I weekly climb to the monastery to pray and thank him. In my effort I was helped by two elderly nuns of the monastery whose advice and understanding boosted my soul, so I can pray with more power and be armed with patience and perseverance. I thank them."

We are assured by the Abbess Mariam of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Makrymalli in Psachna, where the holy skull of the Saint is kept, that Stratoula is quite well. Now she is married and has never forgotten her vow. Once a week, as a sign of respect, love and gratitude to the Saint, she goes to the monastery, kneels before the holy relic, and thanks him for the great gift he bestowed on her.

Countless are the miracles of St. Parthenios, especially to victims of cancer. More can be read here and here.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
O God of our Fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by their entreaties guide our life in peace.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence; your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you. Hierarch Father Parthenius, entreat Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion in the Third Tone
Since thou hadst received God's grace to work ineffable marvels, godly-wise Parthenius, thou sacred worker of wonders, thou didst wholly cleanse the faithful of all their passions, casting wicked spirits out, O God-bearing Father; for this cause we sing thy praise as a great initiate of the divine grace of God.

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Video: 72 Year Old Greek Sexton Takes On Thief

February 7, 2011
Romfea.gr

Thieves will think again when they think to put their hands to the candle stand at the Church of Saint Demetrios in Tirnavos, especially after hearing that a 72 year old sexton is the watchdog of the church.

The incredible story took place on Friday (02/04/2011) when an aspiring robber invaded the church and destroyed the candle stand, grabbing all the money inside.

In a moments notice and without hesitation, when the sexton spotted him she grabbed the thief and began calling for help. In an inconclusive battle, the perpetrator bit the woman's hand in a desperate bid to escape. The pain from the bite and the shove was enough for the thief to break free of the grip of the sexton.

Immediately the thief ran to his escape vehicle - a neglected bicycle at the entrance of the church - and frantically pedalled away in an unknown direction.

The sexton was brought to the Tirnavos Health Center where her bite wound was treated.

See the video of the event below:


Νεοκόρος σταματα ληστή
Uploaded by fotnak. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

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Saint George the New Martyr of Alikianos, Crete (+ 1867)

St. George the New Martyr of Crete (Feast Day - February 7)

By Metropolitan Titus (Sylligardakis) of Rethymnon

Crete is well known as an island which gave birth to heroes and martyrs. The Cretan honor roll of saints lists both old and new martyrs whose blood dyed the land of our forefathers. The holocaust of the Arkadi Monastery is a sculptured icon of the Cretan Revolution of 1866. Brave men of Crete are her honored trophies. Victory slipped away from the pashas and aghas. The flag of freedom waved like a symbol of life and death for those about to die. Cretan honor was never defeated in the land which Turks occupied. Honor and victory are the emblems of every Cretan battle. Canons, knives, sticks and stones, fists and shouts, teeth and hatchets are the weapons that the rebels brought to hew down the Muslim hordes.

The Cretan Revolution of 1866-1869 was a continuum with the Revolution of Greece of 1821. The will for freedom of the Cretan populace was irrevocable and was loudly proclaimed by the words "Union or Death". The spirited and easily aroused people of Crete did not ask anything more than what their Holy Creed and Symbol of Faith allowed - the freedom and resurrection of their ancestry, their religion, their ethos and their traditions. Union with Greece - the motherland of motherlands - their own motherland, was their quest. Among the many cities and towns that rushed to attack the enemies of Crete was the village of Alikianos situated in the ecclesiastical district of the Diocese of Kydonia and Apokoronou. Alikianos means "strong" or "paved with gravel", named for its fortified position situated in the middle of a lowland full of orange groves irrigated by the river Kerites, Iordanos, or Platanias as it is known today. It is surrounded by the White Mountains which peak proudly to great heights. Alikianos defended its sacred land with fierce battles and heroic struggles during the years of the Turkish occupation, the Revolution of 1866, and again under German occupation in 1941.

This is where Saint George the New Martyr belongs - the Revolution of 1866 - a symbol of the Church of Crete's new generation of saints. For he fell in battle dying for Christ at the age of only twenty-one. The piety of his good parents nourished him well. His father Nicholas was a priest born on the island of Folegandros in the Cyclades. His mother Katherine Bouzianopoulos was Cretan, born in the historic and heroic village of Therisso of Kydonia, daughter of a noble and honorable family. The Saint's upbringing was uniquely Christian. His farm work did not deprive him of study despite his modest education, for he loved to read the biographical accounts or Synaxarion of the holy martyrs. In these texts he found his soul's burning desire quenched, and this gave peace to his life. "I cannot rest, neither can I sleep contentedly unless I satisfy my hunger for reading."

During the difficult year of 1865, he read the life of a great martyr, and prayed: "My Christ, make me worthy to shed my blood for love of You." Saint George had a brother who was blind, yet he was an "eyewitness" of this confession. The persecution of the Christians was drawing near as the year 1866 marked the beginning of the great Cretan Revolution which left so many sacrificial victims.

The time for his martyrdom soon arrived. For the New Martyr George was a mail carrier and courier who delivered letters and proclamations of the leaders of the revolution. On Sunday, February 5th 1867, George was in the village of Fournes in Kydonia, participating in the struggle as was his duty as courier. A great number of Turkish soldiers then surrounded the village and seized many Cretans, including blessed George. But because he carried revolutionary documents he attracted special attention, and his death by torture was imminent. George was urged to accept Islam and be saved. However, despite advice and concessions, martyrs of the Faith will stand firm. Neither Moustafas Pasha nor Bachris Aghas, nor the Christian officer Hatzimanuel Fouglanakis succeeded in convincing him to avoid martyrdom.

"I am a Christian and I die a Christian." He felt no remorse because he was young, nor did he feel sorrow for his own life, or his elderly parents, his sister or his blind brother. He was not shaken by the ailing and tears of his fellow Christians, their wives, children and relatives. Standing firm in his convictions he declared his martyrdom: "Cut me up into even smaller pieces than you have cut others. Because the more you torture me, so much more will my Christ glorify me."

This was his martyric stand. So the Turks did not kill him quickly, but in measures. First they cut off his ears, then his nose, tongue, hands and feet. They cut off his genital organs, then his eyes and finally his head. His remains were thrown in an unknown place among others killed along with the blessed George. Until today the place of his burial is unknown. But the manner and date of his death have been documented - February 7th 1867.

That is how the New Martyr George died for Christ in the peak of his youth, as told in the proud history of the revolutionary struggles that took place in the year of our Lord 1867. He died in the flowering of his youth as the son of Alikiano, the pride of Kydonia, the Saint of Crete and the athlete of Christ.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
You have been perceived, George, as most honored and equal to past spiritual fighters in these latter days. You suffered steadfastly while your body was cut up for love of the Lord. And with the streams of your blood you refresh the faithful who sing hymns to your divine struggle, O New Martyr.

Kontakion in the Third Tone
In the latter days you suffered martyrdom conspicuously, and you were crowned by Christ; and clothed with His divine grace you bravely bore the dismemberment of your body. We honor you for that, New Soldier of Christ, George.

Megalynarion
Rejoice, divine offspring of Kydonia and honorable adornment of Folegandros. Rejoice, you who were dismembered for the sake of Christ, Godly-minded and steadfast believer, George. Rejoice, divine son of Kydonia and honorable adornment of Folegandros.

From Cretan Saints, translated by Rev. Timothy Andrews, pp. 16-20.

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The Complicated Connection Between Religion and the Paranormal

David Briggs
February 6, 2011
The Huffington Post

Don't expect Hollywood to give up the ghosts.

The parade of paranormal entertainment filling American screens -- from the movie Paranormal Activity 2 to television shows such as Ghost Hunters, Psychic Investigators and Paranormal State -- is meeting an intense interest in otherworldly experiences, new research shows.

More than two-thirds of Americans have paranormal beliefs, sociologists Christopher Bader and F. Carson Mencken of Baylor University and Joseph Baker of East Tennessee State University report in their new book Paranormal America from New York University Press.

And the interest is only expected to increase, scholars say, with the growth of immigrant populations more open to paranormal beliefs.

Not everyone is interested. Those with no religious beliefs, Jewish people and the most committed Christians are among the least likely to believe in UFOs or psychics or Bigfoot.

But a generation of spiritual seekers are opening their minds and bank accounts to beliefs, practices and experiences that are not recognized by science and not associated with mainstream religion.

Whether it is a study showing nearly half of Americans believe extraterrestrials absolutely or probably exist, or ghost-hunting groups and documentary producers rushing to find the latest "haunted" house, interest in paranormal phenomena has entered the mainstream.

"What we can say with certainty is that we live in a paranormal America," write Bader, Mencken and Baker. "Put another way, the paranormal is normal."

Men hunt, women gather in New Age

In the 1980s, the actress Shirley MacLaine was ridiculed for discussing her interest in channeling, reincarnation and UFOs in her book Out on a Limb. But research indicates she may have been less a wacky outcast and more representative of the population than the image ingrained by late-night comics suggested.

The average American holds slightly more than two paranormal beliefs, report Bader, Mencken and Baker.

"Statistically, those who report a paranormal belief are not the oddballs," the researchers said.

But there are major differences in the types of people who gravitate toward different paranormal phenomena. Bigfoot conventions are almost all-male outings, while psychic affairs attract a largely female audience.

The 2005 Baylor Religion Survey found that women are twice as likely as men to believe in astrology, that people can communicate with the dead (a big reason Medium lasted for seven TV seasons) and that at least some psychics can foresee the future. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to believe in UFOs.

"Women tend to want to improve themselves, to become better people," said Bader, who is also a director of the Association for Religion Data Archives. "Men tend to want to go out and capture something, to prove it's real."

In reviewing the research, other findings reported by Bader, Mencken and Baker include:

• Belief in Bigfoot, ghosts, psychic abilities and other paranormal phenomena declines noticeably with increases in age and income.

• Unmarried and cohabiting individuals are far more likely to embrace the paranormal. Asked whether they have had any of five paranormal experiences from witnessing a UFO to contacting spirits, the typical unmarried respondent claimed close to two experience, while the average married respondent had no paranormal experiences.

• Republicans are "significantly less interested" in the paranormal than Democrats or independents.

Overall, the researchers said, conventional lifestyles and stakes in conformity are strong predictors of paranormal beliefs, with highly unconventional people the most likely to turn to otherworldly possibilities beyond the realm of traditional religion.

Spiritual and paranormal

There are conflicting theories about the relationship between religion and the paranormal. Among them are the idea those outside mainstream religion would be more likely to embrace the paranormal as a substitute set of beliefs. Another theory holds that religious individuals, already open to transcendent ideas, would also be more likely to hold paranormal beliefs.

What Bader, Mencken and Baker find in their research is that both individuals with no religious beliefs and the most committed individuals -- those who attend services weekly -- are among the least likely to hold paranormal beliefs. Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God are also highly unlikely to hold paranormal beliefs.

It is in the middle, among people who have an interest in religion but who are not regular attenders, that there is greater belief in the paranormal. Belief in paranormal topics is at its highest level among people with more liberal views of the Bible, researchers said.

What does all this mean for the future?

The researchers say the aging of America's population and projected gains in income likely will reduce belief in some aspects of the paranormal, but the increase in immigration and the tailoring off of conservative religious growth is expected to lead to increased interest.

Going out on their own limb, the researchers predict that by 2050 nearly three-quarters of Americans will report at least one paranormal belief.

Be prepared, and forewarned: Paranormal Activity 3 is coming.

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St. Isidore of Pelusium On Passages From the Gospel of Matthew 24-26

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

St. Isidore of Pelusium interprets certain words of Holy Scripture in this manner:

"Two [women] will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left" (Matthew 24:4). This means that many are dedicating themselves to the spiritual life, but with different intentions; some sincerely and steadfastly and others negligently and vainly. The first will be taken into the kingdom of God and the others will be left behind.

What does the prayer of the Cup mean? And why did the Lord pray that this cup of Suffering pass from Him? "O My Father, if this Cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done!" (Matthew 26:42). This means that no one should seek out adversity but when adversity does come, a Christian should accept it and courageously endure it.

Concerning the Five Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25), St. Isidore says: "Indeed, all of them had retained their virginity, but they did not possess the other virtues, especially charity. Virginity alone is not sufficient to enter the kingdom of God. Virginity does not help at all, if the virgin is proud and selfish."

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Darwin-Doubter Vladimir Nabokov Vindicated

David Warren
February 7, 2011
Ottawa Citizen

Were it not for the enchantment of love, I should have to admit that I know nothing about butterflies. At best I have watched, with the help of field guides. I have no credentials in lepidoptery; though as a child in Pakistan I was once riveted by a butterfly with wings of an iridescent emerald (no idea what species). I was able to induce it to alight upon my finger!

By contrast, Vladimir Nabokov was a lepidopterist of real accomplishment. He was also a capable novelist, essayist, poet, and among those extraordinary writers who are able to transform themselves from a presence in one language (his native Russian) to a presence in another (American English). One turns naturally to such characters for an insight into what is called "evolution" -- the purposeful "translation" of a creature who is compelled to move from one environment, into another.

Nabokov died in 1977. His novels are still very much in print, and from what I can see, read widely. Unfortunately, one of them is read more widely than all the others, and continues to be taken as an essay in pornography, when it is a deeply moral work about the fallen nature of human love. Lolita is a true tragedy, about a man broken by a love that is perverse, but which nevertheless stands the test of self-sacrifice.

Nabokov himself was taken for a man of letters with an eccentric hobby -- butterfly collecting -- but that was not his view. He took himself for a student of butterflies with the eccentric hobby of writing novels. This was not entirely eccentric, however, for he needed the royalties from the novels, and the easy cash from college lecturing on "lit," to support his butterfly work.

My reader may be tempted to titter again, when learning that he spent a significant part of his life staring through microscopes at butterfly genitalia. In his own lifetime he earned grudging respect for distinguishing, from their private parts, species of butterflies which had seemed indistinguishable. He was long associated with "Nabokov's blues."

You make money however you can, and Nabokov also obtained a research fellowship at Harvard, proving so proficient that he was ultimately left in charge of the university's butterfly collections. There he found the materials to speculate on the evolutionary descent of the whole range of New World "blues," and to concoct the "imaginative" hypothesis that they were derived from Eurasian species, which had been "able to see Alaska from Russia," and began crossing the Bering Strait during a warm spell in the Earth's climate history, 11 million years ago.

In five major waves, corresponding to falling temperatures, successive butterflies crossed, then spread, finally advancing all the way to Chile. The proof that speciations within South America had not been the result (as previously assumed) of the separation of groups by the rise of the Andes, was a demonstration that butterflies on either side of that young mountain chain were more closely related to proposed ancestors in Southeast Asia, than to each other.

Enter the Harvard biology professor, Naomi Pierce, who has had the honour of telling the world this last fortnight, that Nabokov's fanciful hypothesis is true, down to the most provocative assertions. Using the most advanced current molecular technology, she has tracked the whole history through DNA, confirming Nabokov dead right through fine details on five out of five.

This does not surprise me. It would have surprised many drudges in the field, however, who ignored Nabokov's remarkable paper of 1945, I think for two reasons.

The first is that it was written with real literary style. Nabokov invites his reader to step into a Wellsian time machine, and imagine the sequence of these migratory waves from the inside. He is unrelentingly poetical in his descriptions. He is indifferent to the conventions of modern scientific papers in which the author must be aggressively boring and statistical, while posing as inhumanly modest, objective and collaborative. From what I can see, all Nabokov's writings on butterflies are an affront to the bureaucratic mindset that controls all academic scientific funding.

But perhaps he could have been forgiven for his towering literary genius, had it not been for his views on Darwinism.

These surface in his memoir entitled, Speak, Memory. But I gather a great deal of scattered, unpublished, perhaps unpublishable writing lies below his passing remark, that "natural selection" in the Darwinian sense, "could not explain the miraculous coincidence of imitative aspect and imitative behaviour, nor could one appeal to the theory of 'the struggle for life' when a protective device was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation."

As Nabokov continues, "I discovered in nature the nonutilitarian delights that I sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and deception."

This is the world that Darwinian drudges are incapable of appreciating. It is also the explanation of why significant scientific advances are made, invariably, by eccentric, artistic, and religious people, acting alone, and never by richly-funded committees.

Read also:

Vladimir Nabokov, Lepidopterist and Darwin-doubter, Has Expertise Vindicated

Vladimir Nabokov, "Furious" Darwin Doubter

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Shrinking Brains Prove Human Evolution?

February 6, 2011
Creation Safaris

Ever since Darwin, brain size has been the measure of human nature. Except for some anomalies with Neanderthal and Cro-magnon skull sizes, the iconic march of human evolution showed growing upright posture accompanied by increasing brain size (example on Daily Mail), and brain size was used to discriminate between races on the presumption it was a measure of intelligence. It is not clear, therefore, what to make of a question on PhysOrg, “Are brains shrinking to make us smarter?”

It seems evolutionists want to have it both ways. Larger brains are evidence of evolution; smaller brains are evidence of evolution. Does the new claim muddy the waters of brain size as the measure of increasing human intelligence? The article tries to draw links between brain size as a function of body mass, or of population size, but it’s not clear any trend is detectable. In fact, the article later admits that brain size is not well linked to intelligence. Brian Hare (Duke U) said, “But the downsizing does not mean modern humans are dumber than their ancestors – rather, they simply developed different, more sophisticated forms of intelligence.”

The article ended by Hare hoping that humans will express their inner bonobo. Chimps are more aggressive and violent. “Humans are both chimps and bobos [sic] in their nature and the question is how can we release more bonobo and less chimp,” he said. “I hope bonobos win... it will be better for everyone.”

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Video: A Fish Recipe From Mount Athos

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Trailer: "Strigoi"

For those interested in Romanian folklore and horror movies with a comedic twist, I recommend the movie Strigoi.

Description:

"Director Faye Jackson goes directly to the heart of the Romanian vampire myth in this darkly comedic horror fest set and shot in a post-Communist Romania, where old ways die hard -- especially when it comes to dealing with the undead, or strigoi. When young Vlad's (Catalin Paraschiv) Western European education fails to land him the easy life, he returns to his Romanian village, only to find murder afoot ... and a plague of vampires the likely culprit."

Official Site

Background on Strigoi folklore:

Wikipedia: Strigoi

Real Stories of Vampires from Transylvania

Trailer:

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Saints Barsanuphios the Great and John the Prophet

Sts. Barsanuphios and John (Feast Day - February 6)

By Hieromonk Makarios of Simonopetra

Saint Barsanuphios was an Egyptian and embraced the ascetic life in his youth. One day he was passing by the hippodrome during a race which was provoking high excitement in the spectators. "See how keenly the children of the devil vie with one another!" he said to himself. "All the more reason why we children of the Kingdom should hasten to carry off the victory!" He made his way to Palestine, where he put himself under the direction of an Elder named Marcellus; then, climbing the ladder of perfection step by step, he withdrew far from mankind in order to devote himself to contemplative prayer. When Saint Barsanuphios had attained purity of heart and complete impassibility (apatheia) he went to the Monastery of Abba Seridus near Gaza (Aug. 13). He settled a short distance from the monastery in a cell to which no one had access except Abba Seridus, who once a week brought him the Holy Mysteries and his ration of three loaves and some water. The Holy Elder was often so inebriated by sweet tears and so rapt in blessed contemplations that it was a whole week before he thought of eating and drinking. In the manner of Saint Paul, he said of himself: "I know a man, the Son of God is my witness, here in this monastery, who is able to subsist without food, drink or raiment until the coming of the Lord. He lacks none of these things, for his food, his drink and his raiment is the Holy Spirit." The teachings of Barsanuphios, dictated to Seridus during his weekly visits, were addressed to his spiritual children, both monastic and lay, in answer to their letters, in which they sought his counsel on topics as various as the spiritual life, what to do in their social relations, obscure points in Scripture, the holy doctrines, or even incidents in daily life. When Barsanuphios first began dictating these letters, Seridus had no writing materials with him and was worried by the thought that he would be unable to remember such a stream of words; but, perceiving what was on his mind the Elder said to him: "Go back to your cell and write without fear, for the Spirit of God will not allow you to write a single word more or less but, under His guidance you will write everything in order."

He was established on the rock of humility and, through never-ending remembrance of God, he possessed perfect serenity of heart, whence divine love, like unto God the Father's, brimmed over and covered all those who sought his help. He encouraged, comforted and reproved them, shared their joys and sorrows, covered their faults and took them upon himself with the loving-kindness of God Himself, for it was from no lack of regard for mankind that he had gone into retirement. "I look upon the gains and the profit of all men and of every soul as my own," he wrote. "Willingly and gladly I offer myself in sacrifice for your souls" (Letter 111). Through his prayer and his teaching Saint Barsanuphios gave true life to his sons as God the Father gives life to His Son, and he promised them that on the Last Day he would present them with full confidence before the judgment seat of God and would announce in a resounding voice to the amazement of the Angels: "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me" (Is. 8:18 and Letter 117). This godlike man showed the same assurance in forgiving in God's name the sins of those who confessed to him, even though he was not a priest. He also prophesied what would befall, and healed the illness of his disciples. Many of them recovered their health or were freed from the assaults of passions by covering themselves with his monastic cloak or by touching things he had sent as presents. But the greatest of all the charismata that he received from the Holy Spirit was discernment and spiritual instruction, whereby, through the centuries and even until now, he remains active for all those who read with piety his collected Letters of spiritual guidance.

Saint Barsanuphios conveys to his disciples the spirit of the "law of liberty" (James 1:25) which is acquired by detachment from all worldly cares, by dying to oneself and to all mankind, in order to devote oneself entirely to the remembrance of God with joy and trust. Moreover he taught them to avoid all self-assessment (apsiphiston) but to resort at all times to thanksgiving, pleading thereby with God on behalf of our weakness.

He was not ashamed to tell his disciples of the wars he had to wage before entering into complete rest but he was always very reticent as to the graces granted to him by God. Sometimes however, he would let fall a word about his visions or his ecstasies, saying for instance that he knew a man who had attained the seventh heaven, or, when he wrote: "I know a servant of God in this blessed place who can raise the dead, drive out demons, heal the incurable, stop wars, and shut and open the heavens like Elias" (Letter 90).

In 542 and 543, when the Roman Empire was ravaged by a terrible plague, the Great Elder was entreated to intercede for the endangered world. He indicated at that time in a veiled way that he was one of three men "perfect in the sight of God who have surpassed human nature and have received the power to bind and to loose. They stand in the gap to prevent the entire world from being annihilated at one blow, and thanks to their prayer God will chastise with mercy" (Letter 569).

Notwithstanding so many disclosures of the grace of God, there were some lax monks who suspected that the recluse was a figment of Abba Seridus' imagination, invented to back up his authority. That was the one and only occasion on which Barsanuphios threw open the door of his cell. He received all the brethren with affability, and after washing their feet he withdrew again.

When some years had passed, Barsanuphios left his cell to the "other Elder", his faithful and perfect disciple John, of whom he said: "Concerning the life of my blessed, humble and obedient child, who is entirely one with me and who has utterly renounced his own will in everything, what is to be said? The Lord has said, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9) and He has said of the disciple that 'he can know his master' (Luke 6:40)." And indeed, Saint John took the way of life of Barsanuphios as his model in everything. Reaching forth for God with his whole being, he was granted the gift of insight and of prophecy in full measure, so that he communicated with his spiritual father and shared all his thoughts without needing to see or write to him. For this reason he is known as "John the Prophet". Like Barsanuphios, he communicated with his disciples by letters which were passed on, at first by Abba Seridus and later by Saint Dortheos of Gaza (Aug. 13). John, like the Great Elder, preserved an unalterable peace founded on blessed humility and continuous tears. He taught under the overshadowing of the Great Elder with the sole purpose of adding practical details to the latter's answers and instructions, or in order to encourage faint-hearted disciples saying: "It is good for you that two are praying for you, for two have more strength than one" (Letter 783).

If, as sometimes happened, shameless people put the discernment of the Elders to the test by addressing the same question to them both, John would remain silent or would recommend them to follow whatever Barsanuphios advised, while the latter would answer, "Do as brother John has told you; the God of Barsanuphios and John is one and the same" (Letter 224).

In the eighteenth year of John's eremitic life, Abba Seridus died, leaving the direction of the community to the brethren in succession in order of seniority. Saint Barsanuphios then withdrew into absolute silence and John made known that he would complete his earthly sojourn within a week. Competing with one another in humility, none of the monks from the oldest to the most junior would accept the abbacy. In the end, a monk named Elian, who had just left the world, was appointed with universal approval on the instructions of John, confirming a prediction of Barsanuphios. Overwhelmed by the responsibility laid upon him, he begged John to remain for two weeks at least in order to teach him all the details of monastic governance. The Prophet acquiesced and remained two weeks longer in this life (Letters 576-598). At the end of the fortnight, he called all the brethren to him, embraced each one and, having sent them away in peace, he gave back his soul to God in solitude.

It is unknown when and how Saint Barsanuphios ended his earthly sojourn. He was thought to be still alive fifty years later, but when the Patriarch of Jerusalem ordered his cell to be opened, fire darted out that bid fair to consume all who had gathered there.

From The Synaxarion (vol. 3), translated by Christopher Hookway, 2001, pp. 430-434.

Read also:

Counsels of Sts. Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet

Apolytikion in the First Tone
Divine and tuneful harps of the Holy Spirit's myst'ries, sounding forth sweet hymns of discernment which soothe all those in sorrows: ye moved men to cast off passion's yoke and trample upon Satan's loathsome head. Wherefore, Godlike Barsanuphius and wise John, deliver us who now cry out: Glory to Him that hath given you grace. Glory to Him that hath blessed you. Glory to Him that hath saved many through your sacred words of counsel.

Kontakion in the Third Tone
O Great Barsanuphius and John, thou marvellous Prophet, all the hidden secrets of men and God's dispensation brightly shone in the clear mirrors of your most pure hearts; and with beams of grace divine, ye cast out sin's shadows from the souls of men; O Fathers, lights of discernment, entreat the Lord for us all.

The relics of St. Barsanuphios were brought in the ninth century to Oria, near Siponto in Italy.

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Saint Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople

St. Photios (Photius) the Great (Feast Day - February 6)

By Hieromonk Makarios of Simonopetra

Our Holy Father Photios the Great was born into one of the great families of Constantinople in 810. His father, the spatharios Sergios, was the brother of the Holy Patriarch Tarasios (Feb. 25) and his mother Irene's brother had married the sister of the Empress Theodora. His parents loved the monks and were martyred during the iconoclast persecution, bequeathing their son a more precious legacy than wealth and high rank, namely, love of the true Faith unto death. He received the best possible education in every branch of learning, both sacred and secular. He spent whole nights in study and, possessing exceptional intellectual ability, there was no field of contemporary knowledge in which he did not become proficient. In breadth and depth of learning, he was the greatest scholar of his time and a central figure in the intellectual renaissance of Byzantium after the turmoil of iconoclasm. He occupied a professorial chair at the Imperial School established in the Megnaura Palace, where he taught the philosophy of Aristotle and theology. In the course of an embassy to the Caliph at Baghdad, he composed from memory, for the benefit of his brother, a critical summary of around 280 books of all kinds - his Myriobiblos (Library), a proof of the extent of his knowledge. On his return from Baghdad with his mission accomplished, he was appointed chief secretary to the imperial chancellery (protasecretis), but he still had time for his academic duties and for his beloved studies.

In 857 Bardas, the uncle of Emperor Michael III, assumed power with the title of Caesar. He forced the resignation of the Holy Patriarch Ignatios (Oct. 23), who had denounced his immoral behavior, and prevailed on the clergy to elect the wise and pious Photios as his successor. Photios held out against his election as strongly as he could, since he regarded death itself as preferable to that perilous office in those troubled times; but, in the face of injunctions and threats he at last gave way, and agreed to give up the peace of his study and philosophical discussions with like-minded friends. He was consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople on 25 December 858, having been raised through all the degrees of the priesthood in the previous six days. In a letter to Caesar Bardas, he wrote: "Our promotion has not been willed by us and we are enthroned as a prisoner...." The more extreme supporters of Ignatios then used every means to oppose and discredit the new hierarch, alleging the irregularity of his sudden elevation from layman to Patriarch. Photios sought to avoid confrontation and did all in his power to re-establish unity and peace in the Church by strengthening Her in love, the "bond of perfection". He took firm action against the remaining Manichean and Iconoclast heretics, and took in hand the restoration of the many churches, monasteries and charitable foundations damaged by the Iconoclasts, and took a special interest in missions to spread the Gospel among the barbarians. But his attempts to appease the supporters of Ignatios failed; and, while expressing disapproval of the violent measures taken against them by the government, he was obliged to summon a Council in 859, which confirmed the deposition of Ignatios and exiled him to Mytilene and then to Terebinthus. Agitation against Photios continued however and, in 861, another Council, known as the "First-Second", assembled in the Church of the Holy Apostles with the official purpose of approving the restoration of Orthodoxy and of pronouncing the definitive condemnation of iconoclasm. In addition, the Council recognized the validity of the nomination of Photios, with the full agreement of the papal legates there present, who, although acting contrary to the Pope's instructions, thought that they had thus achieved the triumph of papal authority.

The arrogant and ambitious Pope Nicholas I (858-68), who supported Ignatios, took the opportunity of the controversy to assert openly for the first time the pretension of the Popes of Rome to jurisdiction "over the whole earth and over the universal Church". To the primacy of honor of the Roman Church and her authority as arbiter in matters of dogma, which had always been acknowledged by the other Churches - especially when the Arian, Monothelite and Iconoclast heresies were being promoted by Emperors in Constantinople - the Papacy now ascribed to itself the hegemonic claims which the Frankish Empire, after the death of Charlemagne and the Treaty of Verdun (843), could no longer sustain. On the initiative of authoritarian Popes, the Papacy sought to exercise a supremacy over the whole Church that was supposed to have been granted by Christ Himself and to have given the Popes the right to intervene in the domestic affairs of other Churches, and to impose on them all the usages of the Roman Church, such as clerical celibacy, Saturday fasting and unleavened bread for the Eucharist.

The opposition of Pope Nicholas I and his interference in the internal affairs of the Byzantine Church, when he had only been requested to pronounce decisively on Iconoclasm, drove Saint Photios to condemn the novel usages of the Roman Church. "Abolition of small things which have been received through tradition". he wrote, "will lead to complete contempt for the dogmas." Incensed by this response, the Pope wrote to all the bishops of the East accusing Photios of adultery as being in illicit possession of another's See, and he decreed on his own initiative the deposition of the Patriarch of Constantinople - a thing never before heard of. Moreover, asserting the right of Popes to judge Councils, he declared that the decisions of the "First-Second" were invalid. Nor did he stop there, but summoned to Rome a Council of Western bishops, which declared Photios deposed and excommunicated all the clergy ordained by him. When Emperor Michael III objected to these proceedings, the Pope informed him (in 865) that he derived his supremacy over the Universal Church from Christ Himself. Then, in successive letters, he subjected Photios to a litany of insults, to which that true disciple of the Savior made no reply.

The Holy Patriarch did not allow these conflicts and cares to hamper his apostolic activity. With the support of the Emperor, he promoted the evangelization of the Slav peoples, engaging his learned friend and colleague Constantine (whom we venerate as Saint Cyril) and his brother Methodios, an ascetic from Mount Olympus, to undertake a preliminary mission to the Khazars of Southern Russia in 860. Three years later, at the request of the Prince of Moravia, he sent the two brothers on that great missionary endeavor which marked the beginning of the conversion of the Slav peoples of the Balkans.

At about the same time, Boris (Michael) the Khan of Bulgaria, who had recently been baptized by Photios with the Emperor Michael as his godfather, bringing his whole nation into the Christian fold, turned away from Constantinople, which had refused to grant him a patriarch, and looked to Rome for support (866). Seizing his opportunity, the Pope immediately sent Latin missionaries to Bulgaria with instructions to spread their innovations in this young Church which the Byzantines had evangelized, especially the addition of the Filioque to the Creed. Seeing the peril of an innovation which touched on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Saint Photios estimated that it was time "for the meek to become a warrior" (Joel 4:9 LXX) and that he would have to break his silence and issue a rejoinder. He addressed an Encyclical Letter to all the bishops of the East in which he vigorously condemned the errors of the Latins, especially the Filoque. He summoned a great Council to Constantinople, which in 867 proclaimed the victory of Orthodox doctrine over all the heresies, and anathematized Pope Nicholas and his missionaries in Bulgaria. The two Churches were thus separated by a formal schism, which was a precursor of the final break in 1054.

Michael III was assassinated at the end of 867 and Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian Dynasty, became Emperor. He immediately deposed Saint Photios, whom he imprisoned in the Monastery of the Protection, and recalled Saint Ignatios. In spite of the irenic efforts of Ignatios, the enemies of Photios then began a regular persecution of all the clergy ordained by him. In view of the continuing disturbance, the Emperor decided to refer the case of the two claimants to the Patriarchal throne to Rome for judgement, which was a godsend for the Papacy. Hadrian II, Nicholas' successor, assembled a Council in 869, which once again condemned Photios, declared the Council of 867 invalid, publicly burnt its Acts and ordered that a new Council should meet in Constantinople. The bishops, few in number, who attended this false Council - called the "Eighth Ecumenical Council" (870) by the Latins - were overawed by the Emperor and, in their cowardice, condemned the Beacon of the Church and exiled his supporters to the boundaries of the Empire. More than 200 bishops were then deposed and many priests were deprived of their orders. Haled like a criminal before the synod and summoned to answer the accusations made against him, Saint Photios, after a long silence, replied: "God hears the voice of him who keeps silent. For Jesus Himself by keeping silent did not escape condemnation." As they insisted that he answer, he replied: "My justification is not of this world." As a worthy imitator of the Passion of the meek and long-suffering Jesus, Saint Photios, in spite of illness, bore for three years the pain of harsh imprisonment, deprivation of books and company without a word of complaint. Imputing no responsibility to the blameless Ignatios for these cruelties, he encouraged his suffering friends by letter and prayed for the Emperor and his persecutors.

Meanwhile, the bishops took cognizance of the fact that their cowardly opportunism had led them to submit their Church to the dictates of Rome; and they persuaded the Emperor to declare invalid the decrees of the Council of 870 and to release Photios. The Saint was then received at court with great honor, and Basil appointed him as his children's tutor. Photios lost no time in making his peace with Ignatios. The two Saints, victims of the rivalry of contrary parties which had made use of their names, embraced warmly, and Photios gave his entire support to the aged and infirm Patriarch, whom he visited daily. On the death of Saint Ignatios on 23 October 877, the Church unanimously placed Photios once again on the Patriarchal throne. Veneration of the memory of Saint Ignatios was introduced not long after by Photios himself, and the Church thus befittingly eulogizes them together in the Synodikon read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy: "Eternal memory to the very blessed, very Orthodox and very illustrious Patriarchs Ignatios and Photios!" A Council was convoked at Constantinople in 879-880 attended by 383 Fathers under the presidency of Photios and in the presence of legates from the Pope. The Council confirmed the rehabilitation of Photios, annulled the Council of 870 and restored communion between the two Churches, anathematizing all innovation and especially the heretical innovation of the Filoque to the Symbol of Faith. With the restoration of peace and unity in the Church, the greatest desire of the hierarch was fulfilled. He immediately set about the task of peacemaking, seeking reconciliation with his enemies and showing a fatherly care devoid of bitterness for the former partisans of Ignatios.

When Leo VI (886-912) succeeded his father Basil I, he summarily deposed the Holy Patriarch, holding him indirectly responsible for making known to his father a plot which Leo had hatched against him. Saint Photios was imprisoned as an evildoer in the Monastery of the Armenians and was confined there for five years, lacking all human consolation but shining like gold tried in the furnace of manifold temptations (1 Pet. 6-7). This was the period which, without books of his own, he wrote the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit - a systematic refutation of the Filioque heresy, in which he shows that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Person of the Father, the "Source of the Divinity", and is sent to us by the Son in order to make us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). Leaving this treatise as his testament to the Holy Church in view of conflicts to come, he departed to join the choir of Holy Fathers and Doctors on 6 February 893. The miracles which soon took place in plenty at his tomb helped to convert even his inveterate enemies.

Humble, serene and long-suffering in tribulations, this true Confessor of the Faith, unjustly called a fanatic by his enemies, remains one of the great luminaries of Orthodoxy and a wholly trustworthy witness to the spirit of the Gospel.*

* The calumnies spread about St. Photios by the extreme partisans of St. Ignatios, accepted for centuries by historians and Western apologists alike without serious examination, made him responsible for all the discord and division which paved the way for the Great Schism of 1054. Fortunately, the researchers of modern Roman Catholic historians (notably F. Dvornik, The Photian Schism, Cambridge 1970) have reestablished the facts of the matter, which in all respects corroborate the tradition of the Orthodox Faith.

From The Synaxarion (vol. 3), translated by Christopher Hookway, 2001, pp. 422-429.

Read also:

Critique of Francis Dvornik's "The Photian Schism"

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
As a teacher to the world, being one with the Apostles, intercede with the Lord of all, O Photius, that He may grant the world peace, and to our souls His great mercy.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Far-reaching beacon of the Church and God, inspired Guide of the Orthodox, you are now crowned with the flowers of song. You are the divine words of the Spirit's harp, the strong adversary of heresy and to whom we cry, "Hail all-honorable Photius."

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