Saint Sophrony of Essex Resource Page

St. Sophrony of Essex (Feast Day - July 11)

Verses

Sophronios greatly shined in his life,
Now he more than shines in the chorus of the Saints.
On the eleventh Sophronios was placed with the Spirit of God.

 

Synaxarion of our Venerable and God-Bearing Father Sophrony of Essex 

 

Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) of Essex (+ 1993) 

 

The Last Days of Elder Sophrony (+ 11 July 1993)

 

A Short Film of the Life of Saint Sophrony of Essex By and For Children

 

Saint Sophrony and the Children That Visited Him

 

The Legacy of Saint Sophrony the Hagiorite (An Interview With Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

The First Meeting of Saint Sophrony of Essex and Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
 

Athonite Neo-Hesychast Fathers (3 of 3)

 

Contemporary Testimonies of the Vision of God on the Holy Mountain  

Archimandrite Zacharias on the Theology of St. Silouan and Elder Sophrony

 

Two Introductory Books on Modern Orthodox Spirituality Recommended by Fr. John Romanides

 

Metr. Kallistos of Diokleia on Elder Sophrony   

 

An Interview With Elder Sophrony About Saint Silouan the Athonite (1 of 4) 

 

An Interview With Elder Sophrony About Saint Silouan the Athonite (2 of 4)  

 

An Interview With Elder Sophrony About Saint Silouan the Athonite (3 of 4)

 

An Interview With Elder Sophrony About Saint Silouan the Athonite (4 of 4)

 

The Unity of Saint Silouan and Saint Sophrony (1 of 5)

 

The Unity of Saint Silouan and Saint Sophrony (2 of 5)

 

The Unity of Saint Silouan and Saint Sophrony (3 of 5)

 

The Unity of Saint Silouan and Saint Sophrony (4 of 5)

 

The Unity of Saint Silouan and Saint Sophrony (5 of 5)

 

The Mystical Journey of the Christian, Through the Desert, Towards the Resurrection and Pentecost (1 of 5)

  

The Mystical Journey of the Christian, Through the Desert, Towards the Resurrection and Pentecost (2 of 5)

 

The Mystical Journey of the Christian, Through the Desert, Towards the Resurrection and Pentecost (3 of 5)

 

The Mystical Journey of the Christian, Through the Desert, Towards the Resurrection and Pentecost (4 of 5) 

 

The Mystical Journey of the Christian, Through the Desert, Towards the Resurrection and Pentecost (5 of 5 

A Morning Prayer by Elder Sophrony of Essex

 

A Christmas Card from Elder Sophrony Saharov

 

The Incarnation as the Foundation of our Spiritual Life (Elder Sophrony) 

 

Elder Sophrony: "Every Divine Liturgy is a Theophany"

 
Elder Sophrony: The Basics of the Divine Liturgy

 

Before the New Testament, Was the Divine Liturgy

The Divine Liturgy is the Greatest Mission of the Church

 

The Light of the Transfiguration Confirms the Knowledge of God

 

Elder Sophrony on the Lowest and Loftiest Spiritual States 

 

Elder Sophrony on the Calendar Issue

 

Elder Sophrony on the Toll Houses, Hell and Paradise 

 

Elder Sophrony: "The World Does Not Need a Political Church"

 

Academic Theology is Not Enough for Salvation

 

Elder Sophrony: The Salvation of the Heterodox

 

Elder Sophrony: On Eastern Religions  

Elder Sophrony and the Union of Churches

 

Why So Few Writings By Holy Women?  

Married Life and Praying Like Ascetics

 

Elder Sophrony: 'All Humanity in a State of Accidie'

 

Saint Sophrony of Essex on Saint Seraphim of Sarov

A Prayerful Encounter Between Saint Porphyrios and Elder Sophrony

 

The Gift of Tongues is Repeated in the Lives of the Saints Till This Day (Metr. Athanasios of Limassol)

 

When Saint Nicholas Appeared to Elder Andrew of Saint Paul's on Mount Athos in 1975

 

The Appearance of Saint Nicholas to Elder Andrew in 1975 

 

Ecumenical Patriarch Announces the Canonization of Elder Sophrony of Essex

 

Elder Sophrony of Essex and Elder Hieronymos of Simonopetra Officially Canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate 

 

Two Chapels Dedicated to the Newly-Canonized Saints Kallinikos of Edessa and Sophrony of Essex in Nafpaktos  

 

Saint Meriadoc, Bishop of Vannes (+ 688)

St. Meriadoc, Bishop of Vannes (Feast Day - June 7)

Saint Meriadoc (Meriadec, Meriasek), though venerated especially in Cornwall and Brittany, was probably a Welshman who lived in the 5th or 6th century. He came to Cornwall and founded several churches, one of which at Camborne was once dedicated to him. He became renowned in these parts and a miracle play in Cornish still survives, called Beunans Meriasek, recounting his legendary exploits.

He then crossed over into Brittany, where his memory is still strong. In the 16th-century church at Plougasnou is a reliquary containing what may well be part of Meriadoc's skull. At Stival is preserved what is believed to be his bell. Placed on the heads of the deaf and those suffering migraine, it is said to heal them. Some documents state that Meriadoc even became bishop of Vannes at a time when it was one of the most important cities of Brittany.

Saint Aristobulus of Britain as a Model for our Lives

St. Aristobulus of Britain (Feast Day - March 15)

 By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Aristobulus was considered a brother of the Apostle Barnabas and a member of the chorus of the Seventy Apostles of Christ, as was his brother. Also, he was a travel companion of the Apostle Paul, who mentions him in his Epistle to the Romans, where he writes: "Greet those of the household of Aristobulus." Seeing his various gifts, and especially his missionary zeal and spiritual courage, the Apostle Paul ordained him Bishop of Britain, a country which, as we shall see later, had many peculiarities and difficulties.

Saint David, Bishop of Wales (+ 601)

St. David of Wales (Feast Day - March 1)

 

Saint David was the son of King Sant, a prince of Cardigan in far western Wales. All the information we have about him is based on the 11th century biography written by Rhygyfarch, the son of Bishop Sulien of St. David's. Rhygyfarch's main purpose was to uphold the claim of the Welsh bishopric to be independent of Canterbury, so little reliance can be placed on the document.

David, who may have been born at Henfynw in Cardigan, lived during the golden age of Celtic Christianity when saints were plentiful, many of them of noble rank--kings, princes, and chieftain--who lived the monastic life, built oratories and churches, and preached the gospel.

Saint Columba of Iona

By Rev. Alban Butler (1710-1773)

(Lives of the Saints)

St. Columba, commonly pronounced Colme, was one of the greatest patriarchs of the monastic Order in Ireland, and the apostle of the Picts. To distinguish him from other saints of the same name, he was surnamed Columkille, from the great number of monastic cells, called by the Irish Killes, of which he was the founder. He was of most noble extraction from Neil, and was born at Gartan, in the county of Tyrconnel, in 521. He learned from his childhood that there is nothing great, nothing worth our esteem or pursuit, which does not advance the divine love in our souls, to which he totally devoted himself with an entire disengagement of his heart from the world, and in perfect purity of mind and body. He learned the divine scriptures and the lessons of an ascetic life under the holy bishop St. Finian, in his great school of Cluain-iraird. Being advanced to the Order of priesthood in 546, he began to give admirable lessons of piety and sacred learning, and in a short time formed many disciples. He founded, about the year 550, the great monastery of Dair-Magh, now called Durrogh, which original name signifies Field of Oaks, and besides many smaller, those of Doire or Derry in Ulster, and of Sord or Swords, about six miles from Dublin. St. Columba composed a rule which, as Usher, Tanner, and Sir James Ware inform us, is still extant in the old Irish. This rule he settled in the hundred monasteries which he founded in Ireland and Scotland. It was chiefly borrowed from the ancient oriental monastic institutes, as the inquisitive Sir Roger Twisden observes, of all the old British and Irish monastic Orders.

Saint Cedd and the Yellow Plague

Saint Cedd was a missionary and Bishop of Essex who spread the Christian faith throughout England during the seventh century. He is commemorated on January 7.

In 658, Bishop Cedd was approached by King Aethelwald of Deira. Finding Cedd to be a good and wise man, he pressed upon him to accept a parcel of land at Lastingham in Yorkshire on which to build a monastery. Cedd eventually agreed, but would not lay the foundation stones until the place had first been cleansed through prayer and fasting. Cedd was the first Abbot of Lastingham and remained so while still administering to his flock in Essex.

Saint Erconwald, Bishop of London (+ 693)

St. Erconwald of London (Feast Day - April 30)

Believed to be an early convert of the mission led by Saint Mellitus, Erconwald founded two monasteries on either side of the Thames, on the pattern that was later adopted by Saint Benedict Biscop, when he built the twin monasteries of Saint Peter in Monk Wearmouth and Saint Paul in Jarrow. The monastery Erconwald built at Chertsey in Surrey he presided over as Abbot, but the other, at Barking in Essex, he gave to his sister Saint Ethelburga, recalling Saint Hildelid from France to train her in the monastic way of life and to guide her in the governance of this double monastery of monks and nuns. His sister remained very close to him and later, when he was Bishop of London, used to accompany him on his journeys. Later, he was incapacitated by gout and had to be helped into a wheeled litter, the forerunner of the Bath-chair, and the remains of this was preserved in Old Saint Paul's Cathedral and, according to Saint Bede, was the source of miracles by the faithful who touched it or cut chips from it.

When Saint Cuthbert Fell Victim to an Epidemic and Miraculously Recovered

St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne (+ c. 634), and Anglo-Saxon England's most revered saint, where he was a very active missionary, is celebrated by the Church on March 20th. In the Life of Saint Cuthbert written by Venerable Bede in the early 8th century, we read how the Saint fell victim to an epidemic that befell Britain, though miraculously recovered, unlike his teacher in the spiritual life Boisil. Venerable Bede writes (ch. 8):

Meanwhile, as every thing in this world is frail and fluctuating, like the sea when a storm comes on, the above-named Abbot Eata, with Cuthbert and the other brethren, were expelled from their residence, and the monastery given to others. But our worthy champion of Christ did not by reason of his change of place relax his zeal in carrying on the spiritual conflict which he had undertaken; but he attended, as he had ever done, to the precepts and example of the blessed Boisil.

Saint Oswald of Worcester, Archbishop of York (+ 992)

St. Oswald of Worcester (Feast Day - February 29)

Oswald, of Danish parentage, was brought up by his uncle Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was also related to Oskytel, later Archbishop of York. He was also related to the cniht Osulf, who received land while Oswald was bishop of Worcester. Oswald was instructed by a Frankish scholar Frithegod. He held the office of dean of Winchester, but he was sent by his uncle to France and entered the monastery of Fleury about 950, where he was ordained in 959. While at Fleury he met Osgar of Abingdon and Germanus of Winchester. The influence of Fleury was to be evident later in Oswald's life, when it was one of the inspirations for the Regularis Concordia, the English code of monastic conduct agreed to in 970.

Saint Melangell the Hermitess of Wales (+ 641)

On this day [January 31 and May 27] we commemorate the Venerable Melangell, who hailed from Ireland, and lived in asceticism in Wales.

Verses

Melangell, of the coming eternal life,
Together with the angelic choirs, was made worthy.

Saint Melangell's (pronounced Mel-en-geth, whose name has been latinised as Monacella) story begins as a familiar one. She was a seventh century Irish princess who had dedicated her life to prayer. Her father, King Iowchel, had arranged for her to marry against her will. Wishing to preserve her life of virginity and prayer, in about the year 590 she fled Ireland and settled in the countryside of Montgomeryshire (present-day Powys), at the head of the Tanant Valley in Northern Wales. There she lived a life of solitude and prayer, sleeping on bare rock with a cave as her cell.

Saint Brihtwald, Bishop of Ramsbury (+ 1045)

Saint Brihtwald (Brithwold) was a monk at Glastonbury in Wiltshire who was chosen Bishop of Ramsbury in 995, and governed it for 50 years. His fame comes not from his long episcopate, but from his prophecy and vision concerning the successor to Saint Edward the Confessor.

Saint Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria (+ 765)

St. Ceolwulf of Northumbria (Feast Day - January 15)

Ceolwulf was born around 695 in Northumbria. His ancestry is thus given by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: "Ceolwulf was the son of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin, Cuthwin of Leoldwald, Leoldwald of Egwald, Egwald of Aldhelm, Aldhelm of Ocga, Ocga of Ida, Ida of Eoppa." Ceolwulf's brother, Coenred, seized the Northumbrian throne in AD 716. Coenred ruled for two years when Osric, the last of the House of Aethelric, claimed the throne and ruled for ten years. In 729, shortly before his death, Osric nominated Ceolwulf as his successor.

Saint Sigebert, King of East Anglia (+ 637)

St. Sigebert of East Anglia (Feast Day - September 27)

The principal source for the life of Saint Sigebert is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was completed in the 730's. There the following is written:

Book 1, Chapter 15: The Province of East Anglia Receives the Faith of Christ (627 A.D.)

Edwin was so zealous for the worship of truth, that he likewise persuaded Eorpwald, king of the East Saxons, and son of Redwald, to abandon his idolatrous superstitions, and with his whole province to receive the faith and sacraments of Christ. And indeed his father Redwald had long before been admitted to the sacrament of the Christian faith in Kent, but in vain; for on his return home, he was seduced by his wife and certain perverse teachers, and turned back from the sincerity of the faith; and thus his latter state was worse than the former; so that, like the ancient Samaritans, he seemed at the same time to serve Christ and the gods whom he had served before; and in the same temple he had an altar to sacrifice to Christ, and another small one to offer victims to devils; which temple, Aldwulf, king of that same province, who lived in our time testifies had stood until his time, and that he had seen it when he was a boy. The aforesaid King Redwald was noble by birth, though ignoble in his actions, being the son of Tytilus, whose father was Uuffa, from whom the kings of the East Angles are called Uuffings.

Saint Oswin, King of Deira (+ 651)

St. Oswin of Deira (Feast Day - August 20)

Saint Oswin succeeded King Oswald of Northumbria, probably around the year 644, after Oswald's death at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswin was the son of Osric. His succession, perhaps the choice of the people of Deira, split the Kingdom of Northumbria. Oswy was the successor of Bernicia to the north.

After nine years of peaceful rule, Oswy declared war on Oswin. Oswin refused to engage in battle, instead retreating to Gilling and the home of his friend, Earl Humwald. Humwald betrayed Oswin, delivering him to Oswy's soldiers by whom Oswin was put to death on August 20, 651.

Saint Bathild, Queen of France and Nun of Chelles (+ 680)

St. Bathild of Chelles (Feast Day - January 30)

Saint Bathild was an Anglo-Saxon slave-girl who was sold by Danish raiders into the household of the chief officer of the Frankish imperial palace, Erchinoald, in the first half of the seventh century. Being physically beautiful and humble and obedient in soul, she quickly won the favor of the prince, and was nearly always in his presence, even bringing him drinks in his bedroom. She also served the older women in the household, washing their feet, dressing them and helping them in every way.

Saint Tudwal, Bishop of Treguier (+ 564)

St. Tudwal (Feast Day - November 30)

Saint Tudwal, or Tugdual, is known as one of the Seven Patron Saints of Brittany. The Welsh monk Tudwal was one of the sons of King Hoel I Mawr (the Great). He traveled to Ireland from his father's home in Britain to learn the scriptures before becoming a hermit on Ynys Tudwal (St. Tudwal's Isle East) off the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. He later immigrated to Leon in Brittany and settled at Lan Pabu with some seventy-two followers. Here he established a large monastery under the patronage of his cousin, King Deroch of Domnonee.

Saint Edmund, King of East Anglia (+ 869)

St. Edmund the King of East Anglia (Feast Day - November 20)

Saint Edmund was born in 841. Early accounts and stories provide a cloud over who is his father. The sources considered the most reliable represent Edmund as descended from the preceding kings of East Anglia. When King Ethelweard died in 854, it was Edmund, while only fourteen years old, who succeeded to the throne.

Saint Willibrord, Archbishop of Utrecht and Apostle of Frisia (+ 739)

Saint Willibrord (or Wilbrord) was born in Northumbria, and he went to Ireland to study under Saint Egbert. From there he went to Friesland (c. 690) accompanied by eleven other monks from England. Six years later he was consecrated first Bishop of Utrecht with the name of Clement and he founded his Cathedral in Utrecht. His work with the Frisians bore much fruit, as also in Heligoland and Denmark, for which reason he is known as the "Apostle to the Frisians". He founded the monastery of Echternach in Luxembourg in 698, reposed in 739, and was buried in Echternach, where his relics remain and have been a source of many miracles.

Saint James the Deacon

St. James the Deacon (Feast Day - October 18)

Saint James lived in the seventh century, and assisted Saint Paulinus of York (Oct. 10) in evangelizing the north of England, known as Northumbria.

Following the death of Saint Edwin (Oct. 12) in 633, the northern kingdom experienced many trials, including military defeats, famine, and plague. The year 633-634 was so fraught with misfortune that it became known as “The Hateful Year.” Saint Paulinus accompanied Saint Ethelburga (Apr. 5) back to her native Kent after the death of her husband King Edwin, leaving Saint James behind to care for the new converts in northern England.

Synaxis of the Saints of Barking

The Monastery at Barking was founded in 666 AD and dedicated to the Mother of God. From the late tenth century the abbey followed the Rule of Saint Benedict. The abbey had a large endowment and sizeable income but suffered severely after 1377, when the River Thames flooded around 720 acres (290 ha) of the abbey's land, which was unable to be reclaimed. Despite this, at the time of the dissolution it was still the third wealthiest nunnery in England. In 870 Barking was sacked by the Danes. Possibly the Holy Monastery was then deserted. In 970 it was re-founded as the Monastery of the Mother of God and Saint Ethelburga.