Saint George, Archbishop of Mogilev (+ 1795)

St. George of Mogilev (Feast Day - February 12)

Saint George, in the world known as Gregory Iosifovich Konissky, was born into a prominent family on November 20, 1717 in the town of Nizhyn in Ukraine.

He studied at the Kiev Theological Academy from 1728 to 1743, where he perfectly mastered the Latin, Polish, Greek, Hebrew and German languages.

On August 11, 1744 he became a monk at the Kiev Caves Lavra.

In 1745, he became a teacher of poetry (theory of versification) at the Kiev Theological Academy.

Holy New Martyr Ignatius Bazyluk of Poland (+ 1942)

St. Ignatius Bazyluk (Feast Day - August 9)

The Holy New Martyr Ignatius (Bazyluk) was born in Poland sometime in 1860s, and received the name Jacob at his Baptism. Very little is known of his early life or where he was born, but in the period between the First and the Second World Wars he was a monk at Saint Onuphrios Monastery in Jabłeczna. At his tonsure he received the monastic name Ignatius.

Father Ignatius was one of the oldest monks in the monastery, and he fulfilled the obedience of ringing the bells for church services. When he first entered the monastery, it consisted of about a dozen monks, whose task was to offset the propaganda of the Roman Catholics and Uniates among the Orthodox population. However, the monks were unprepared for such a task and uneducated. Ignatius witnessed therefore the rise of the monastery when priests and monks came who helped restore the monastery and established a school for children, so that in 1915 there were about eighty monks and four hundred pupils in the school.

Lesna Icon of the Mother of God

Lesna Icon of the Mother of God (Feast Days - September 8 and 14)

The Lesna Icon of the Mother of God was discovered on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord in 1683 by a shepherd on the branches of a pear tree in a bright halo of light. Seized with terror, he fell on his knees and began to pray, then ran away and told his friend about what he had seen. The two of them hastened to tell the people of their village and the parish priest about the miraculous appearance. The icon was first brought to a peasant's house and then translated to the manor house of the local landowner. It became an object of veneration for numerous pilgrims. Then it was taken to a nearby Orthodox church of the village of Bukowiec, not far from the town of Lesna in Poland.

Interview with a Former Catholic from Poland who Converted to Orthodoxy through Baptism

In this interview with Marina Madej, a former Catholic from Poland who converted to Orthodoxy through Holy Baptism, we find one of many unfortunate examples of not allowing a convert who desires Holy Baptism to be baptized, forcing upon them oikonomia unnecessarily to the point that it drives them to a distant land seeking Baptism as their conscience urges. Since the schism in the eleventh century, the Church has traditionally accepted converts from Catholicism either by Baptism or Chrismation, the latter being allowed by oikonomia, but both traditions equally valid. To be received by Confession alone is an unnecessarily extreme form of oikonomia to receive a Catholic, as they do in Poland, which is why Marina fled to Greece to be properly received into the Orthodox Church.

More Than 50,000 Christians Ascend the "Holy Mountain" of Poland

Emilios Polygeni

August 22, 2013

Romfea.gr

The feast of the Transfiguration was celebrated with great pomp, according to the Old Calendar (Aug. 6/19), on Mount Grabarka which is known as the Holy Mountain of Poland.

Thousands of pilgrims from different parts of the world arrived at Mount Grabarka, in order to honor this years celebration, which is centered around the homonymous Sacred Monastery which has about thirty nuns.

The Festal Divine Liturgy was officiated by Metropolitan Savvas of Warsaw and All Poland, surrounded by Hierarchs of the Polish Church.

It should be noted that the feast of the Sacred Monastery of Grabarka is a Pan-Polish shrine, which brings thousands of people each year, who go to the site with every available means of transportation.

Indeed, hundreds of faithful come as pedestrians, walking for many days and covering up to 150 km on foot and sleeping at night out in the open.

Also, an old custom is to carry and install a wooden cross, so that one can see a forest of crosses of all sizes.

Read also: The Holy Mount of Grabarka in Poland

Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Polish Prisoners Transformed By Iconography

February 12, 2013

Agence France Presse

Behind the bars of a prison on Poland's eastern fringe, a dozen women serving time are lost in concentration as they learn the intricate art of icon-writing in the Orthodox Christian tradition.

The centuries' old craft, which typically displays the Virgin with the baby Jesus, saints and Christ in rich strokes of dark red, green and gold is being used for the first time as part of a social reintegration program at a major correctional facility in Bialystok.

"It's my first icon of the Virgin," Malgorzata Zablocka-Jaronczyk, 47, says proudly as she paints a golden halo around the head of an unfinished Madonna to whom she says she prays.

"I never learned to paint. It never really interested me much. And here, I've started to make progress. I can see it for myself. I'm pleased with what I'm doing," says Malgorzata, who has eight years left on a 24-year sentence for financial crimes, reduced by a third for good behavior.

"You can use two colors to create the halo. It creates a very good effect. It was a technique used in the 17-18th centuries in Russia to write icons," iconographer Jan Grigoruk, teaching the art at the Bialystok prison, tells his students.

"It's appropriate to say 'write,' because in the formal terminology we say icons are written, not painted," explains Grigoruk, who teaches the technique as well as the language, history and symbolism of the icons.

The inmates are learning from the best, as Grigoruk works at the Museum of Icons in an Orthodox monastery in the nearby Suprasl, a stone's throw from the Belarussian border.

Opened in the 1960s with a collection of nearly 1,200 icons dating from the 18th through the 20th centuries, the museum is a treasure trove for samples of this Eastern Orthodox art form with origins almost as old as Christianity itself.

A Change of Heart

"At first, the women were coming to the studio to kill time. Some came as a reward for good behavior as prison wardens had to choose from among 70 inmates," Grigoruk told Agence France Presse.

"Everyone who writes an icon undergoes a real spiritual transformation," he said. "Icon-writing is already a form of prayer. It can't be merely a job to earn your living."

For Orthodox Christian believers, when writing an icon, the artist's hand is guided by God.

While painting lessons are common in prisons, in icon-writing art mingles with the spiritual. Inmates also say the lessons bring them inner peace.

Justyna Gierasimiuk, 31, serving a one-year sentence, looks forward to them.

"Oh yes, they do calm me down and God knows I need that! Being aggressive is pretty common inside a prison cell," she told AFP.

A dozen men in this mixed-gender prison holding more than 700 inmates also took their first lessons last year, including several serving life sentences, says Jaroslaw Andrzejuk, a prison educator.

Their icons were blessed by Jakub, the Orthodox archbishop of Bialystok, who called the program "a brilliant idea."

The most beautiful works will go on display in a small prison chapel.

With a population of 38.2 million and the homeland of the late Pope John Paul II, Poland is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, but counts some half a million Orthodox faithful, located mostly in the eastern Bialystok region.

Last August, a visit to Poland by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill made history as the first-ever of its kind. Kirill and the head of Poland's Catholic Church, Archbishop Jozef Michalik, made an unprecedented appeal for Polish-Russian reconciliation intended to put centuries of bloody history behind them.

Grigoruk, who dreamt up the icon-writing program along with the prison's Orthodox priest, is planning more lessons.

"We would like to sell the icons to raise money for charity. There's considerable demand for them," he said.

For the moment, the inmates have to write their icons on 12-millimeter-thick (half-inch) plywood as linden wood, the traditional material, is too expensive.

Financing for the program comes from a special aid fund for the prisoners, says prison spokesman Wojciech Januszewski.

"We can't put people behind bars and leave them like that. We're hoping that the demanding art of icon-writing will change them, that they will become better people," he said.

Documentary: "Archimandrite"

Archimandrite Gabriel -- an Orthodox monk from the Podlasie province in Poland -- is the founder and sole inhabitant of the Kudak grove hermitage by river Narew. During his first few years there, he lived and prayed in a wagon house, without electricity, running water, or contact with the outside world. After five years, thanks to the help of people of Orthodox faith from local villages, the grove saw the rise of a wooden church, a dormitory for monks, and outbuildings.

Pilgrims are drawn to the place by archimandrite Gabriel's personality: he can find common ground with anyone, he grants spiritual advice, heals with herbs, and keeps bees. When necessary, he rolls up his sleeves and works on building the hermitage right alongside everyone else.

The archimandrite's biggest concern is finding a successor. Prospective monks don't last long in the hermitage, however. They can't stand the lack of access to civilization, common comforts, and contact with their peers.

Biełsat TV 2012

Saint Onouphrios Monastery of Jableczna, Poland

The Monastery of St. Onouphrios (Onuphrius, Onufry) is in the village of Jableczna, between Terespol and Koden, near Bug river. St. Onouphrios Monastery in Jabłeczna was built in the 15th century and is dedicated to the Egyptian hermit living in the 4th century. It has been the only Orthodox monastery in the area of the diocese. It played a significant role during the time of the Union of Brest, being an important centre of the Orthodox faith. In the first half of the 17th century the Bishop of Chełm was residing here. This monastery, as one of very few, has always been Orthodox. The beginning of the 20th century was the greatest in the monastery’s history, where there were 80 monks, 5 schools, a patient’s clinic as well as a farm was operating there. The major feast is on June 12/25 - in honor of St. Onouphrios. Today there are 10 monks in the monastery and is under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland.


Read more here and here.