"I Expect the Resurrection of the Dead" Were the Last Words of Saint Parthenios of Chios

The time came when Saint Parthenios of Chios (+ 1883) received the heavenly message of his departure... since he longed for heaven all his life. A day of joy was the day he realized that the time had come for the heavenly journey. He lived for this hour. "When will I face the unspeakable beauty face to face? When shall I come and behold the face of God?' he wondered.

45 years of rigorous asceticism had passed. He had been an ascetic since he was 23 years old and was now 68 years old.

One night, as he slept peacefully in his wet and wild cave, a dream filled him with joy. He saw our Lady the Theotokos!

"Parthenios," she said to him, "in three days your resting place will be ready. The saints are waiting for you!"

Vasiliki Rallis, the First Visionary of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, Has Reposed at the Age of 100

The blessed nun Irene, more famously known by her secular name Vasiliki Rallis, has reposed at the age of 100, as of this past Monday on the 5th of December 2022, at around 8:00 am. This took place at the Sacred Monastery of Panagia Eleousa in Patras. Her funeral took place on December 6th.

Vasiliki was born in Thermi on the island of Lesvos, a few months after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Her family was from Moschonisi (Cunda Island) of Asia Minor. Her father, Nicholas Maragos, was imprisoned, while her pregnant mother went to Lesvos as a refugee, escaping as if by a miracle from the massacre, in that tragic September of 1922. They crossed to the hospitable coast of Lesvos and settled in the area of Thermi, where she was born on January 28, 1923. In Mytilene she received her general education, in the  Girls' High School and the French School of the time. Over time, she married Angelo Rallis and had two daughters and one grandchild named Panagiotis.

Homily on Saint Nicholas of Myra (St. Luke of Simferopol)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on December 6/19, 1953)

Listen to the words with which Holy Scripture begins: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness night."

People who think they are educated scoff at the biblical story of the creation of the world, and especially scoff at the fact that the light was created on the first day, and the sun, moon and stars only on the fifth day. They mock our belief that light could exist when there were no heavenly bodies.

Saint George Karslides and the Oil Lamp of Saint Nicholas

"My father," said a woman from Sipsa, "who loved very much and ministered to the Elder and reverently reposed, at first he did not believe, he was an unbeliever. It went from bad to worse. His first children didn't live, they died.

It was during this time that the holy Elder who was also my godfather first came here to the village. He was almost paralyzed and lived in a house of Mr. Spyridopoulos. The whole village went to him, to get his blessing.

My father also went, holding a lamp and some oil, to light it where he lived. But when he went back, he saw the extinguished extinguished and asked the Elder why he did not light it. Then he told him the dream he had seen:

The Veneration of Saint Savvas the Sanctified in Georgia

The popularity of Saint Savvas the Sanctified in Georgia is reflected in the numerous depictions of him in works of art and the churches dedicated to him.

It is further reflected in the fact that his Life written by Cyril of Scythopolis was translated into Georgian as early as the late 6th or early 7th century, although the earliest Georgian manuscript dates to 864 (Sinai georg. MS 32, 33, 57). Sinai georg. MS 65 includes "Old Georgian Hymns" dedicated to Saint Savvas.

These seem to have been translated and composed and then brought to Georgia by Georgian authors who lived and labored at the Lavra of Savvas in Palestine since the 6th and 7th century, such as Martviri (6th-7th cent.) and Seity (late 8th cent.).