Synaxis of the Old Russian (Staro Rus) Icon of the Mother of God

Staro Rus Icon of the Mother of God (Feast Days - September 17 and May 4)

The Old Russian (Staro Rus) Icon of the Mother of God, the largest portable icon in the world, was so named because for a long time it was in Staro Rus, where it had been brought by the Greeks from Olviopolis (now in the Kherson region) in the 15th century due to Turkish and Tatar threats. The icon was in Staro Rus until the sixteenth century in the main church of the Transfiguration Monastery, the oldest temple in the city. Another version of the story says that the icon appeared in 1570 in the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George in the village of Vydropuska Novgorod (later the Tver province). From there she was briefly transferred to Staro Rus.

Appearance of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God in 1383

By Archpriest John Matusiak

According to ancient tradition, the wonderworking icon of Tikhvin is one of several painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist. The icon was taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the fifth century, where it was enshrined in the Church of Blachernae, which was built especially for this purpose.

In 1383, seventy years before the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Turks, fishermen on Lake Ladoga in the principality of Novgorod the Great witnessed the icon miraculously hovering over the lake’s waters amidst a radiant light. According to an early sixteenth century Russian manuscript, “The Tale of Miracles of the Icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God,” the Theotokos herself decided that her image should leave Constantinople, perhaps in anticipation of the impending fall of the Byzantine Empire.

Saints and Feasts of June 26

On the twenty-sixth, David passed through the gates of life.

Venerable David of Thessaloniki

Saint David the Dendrite Resource Page

Venerable John, Bishop of Gothia

Saint John, Bishop of Gothia (+ 791)

Venerable Anthion

 

 Venerable Anthion

 

 

Holy Martyr and Unmercenary Medicus of Otricoli

 

Holy Martyr and Unmercenary Medicus of Otricoli (+ 172)

 

 

Saint Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal

Saint Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal (+ 1385)

Holy New Venerable Martyr David the Agiannanitis

Holy New Martyr David the New the Agiannanitis (+ 1813)

Synaxis of the Wonderworking Icon of the 

Mother of God of Lydda or "the Roman"

 

Synaxis of the Lydda Icon of the Mother of God, also known as the Roman

   

Saint Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Wonderworking Icon of Lydda

 

 

Appearance of the Tikhvin Icon of the 

Most Holy Theotokos (1383)

 

Appearance of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God in 1383

 

June: Day 26: Celebration of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God 

 

The Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (animation)

 

Saint Martyrius of Zelenets (+ 1603)

St. Martyrius of Zelenets (Feast Day - November 11 and March 1)

Venerable Martyrius was born in Veliki Luki (Great Meadows), a Russian town in Pskov Oblast, and at baptism was given the name Menas. When he was eight years old he began his education, but learning was difficult for him. By the age of ten, when he had learned the Psalter, he was orphaned of his parents. Often he would visit the Church of the Annunciation to pray, and was loved by the priest there named Boris.

A few years later the priest was widowed and he was tonsured a monk in the Monastery of Saint Kosmas and Damian with the name Bogolep, where Menas would often visit him. Later Bogolep would be placed to oversee the nearby Monastery of Saint Sergius, which had become desolate. Menas would also visit him there, and eventually he also decided to become a monk and settle in the same monastery, where he was tonsured with the name Martyrius, and he shared a cell with Elder Bogolep. These holy ascetics ate only once a day. After the services in church, they would fulfill the rule of prayer in their cell, then they would work during the night milling corn.

Panagia Dakrirooussa of the Prophet Elias Skete at Mount Athos

Panagia Dakrirooussa, otherwise known as the the Weeping Tikhvin Icon, is to be found at the Prophet Elias Skete at Mount Athos. On February 17, 1877 (Thursday of the Second Week of Lent) seven monks remained in the church after the Hours had been read. They were astonished to see tears flowing from the right eye of the icon, and collecting on the frame. Then a single large tear came from the left eye.

The monks wiped the tears from the icon's face, then left the church and locked the doors behind them. Three hours later, they returned for Vespers and saw traces of tears on the icon, and a single tear in the left eye. Again they wiped the tears from the icon, but they did not reappear.

Regarding this manifestation of tears as a sign of mercy from the Mother of God, the monks established an annual commemoration of the icon on February 17.

Saint Manetha of Gomel (+ 1984)

St. Manetha of Gomel (Feast Day - August 11)

Matushka Manetha, whose name in the world was Maria Vladimirovna Skopicheva, was born on April 1st, 1918, in the village of Sevryuki, Belarus. The baby was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and the doctors forewarned the parents that she would never be able to walk. 

Despite her serious condition, Maria grew up to be a cheerful, active and earnest girl. Her parents or one of the neighbours would often take her on their shoulders to the local church.

From early childhood, Mary saw her mother Glykeria praying daily in front of the holy icons, and the sensitive soul of the child grasped the meaning of our existence on earth: everything rests on prayer, love and goodness. As a child, in a night vision, Maria saw two roads and was faced with a choice of which to go. There was a voice: "If you will walk on the left, you will live your life calmly; on the right, you will grieve." Without hesitation, Maria chose the right - the sorrowful path.

Russian Cartoon About the Tikhvin Mother of God Icon

This is a beautiful Russian cartoon about the Tikhvin Mother of God Icon. I don't know Russian, though I know many of my readers do, so the only reason I post this is so someone can translate it, but it is worth watching.

The Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (animation)

The cartoon above is in Russian with Greek subtitles.

The History of the Church of Russia: The Theory of the Third Rome

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlassiou

Prompted by the Ukrainian issue which has concerned us in recent years, I wanted to read some academic texts, in order to learn something more about the history of the Church of Russia and the renowned theory of the ‘Third Rome”.

In the course of my search, I found a postgraduate dissertation by Anastasius John Lallos in Greek entitled ‘History of the Church of Russia: the Theory of the Third Rome’ (Thessaloniki 2016), which was submitted to the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, to the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, in the wider context of ‘Studies in the languages and culture of the countries of South-Eastern Europe’.

This dissertation is the result of research and investigation of the sources and the existing literature, from which it draws important material and presents information about the history of Russia, as well as about the ‘Third Rome’ theory, which began in the fifteenth century and developed mainly from the sixteenth century onwards, up until our own day.

Professor Constantine Nichoritis supervised this postgraduate study, and it was evaluated by Associate Professor Stavros Kamaroudis and Assistant Professor Cyprian Soutsiou.

I shall briefly present this study, because I do not know if it has been published yet. This will enable readers to form a picture of this issue, precisely because it is very relevant in view of past and present events relating to the autocephaly granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Ukraine, against which the Church of Moscow is reacting.

Saint Hilarion of Optina (+ 1873)

St. Hilarion of Optina (Feast Day - September 18)

Saint Hilarion (Ponamarov) was born in Kluch on the night of Pascha, April 8-9, 1805. Nikita and Euphemia Ponamarov named their third son Rodion in honor of Saint Herodion of the Seventy. He always considered April 8, the day of his patron saint’s commemoration, as his birthday. After Rodion, a son and a daughter were born to the Ponamarovs. The daughter, however, died as a baby.

Nikita Ponamarov worked in town as a tailor, and sometimes his business took him to the homes of the local landowners. Consequently, Rodion seldom saw his father until he was fifteen years old.

Rodion was a quiet, uncoordinated child who did not play much with other children, since they made fun of his clumsiness. Even members of his own family behaved in a rude manner toward him, and seldom showed him any affection. The way he was treated made him thoughtful and introspective.

Venerable Maria of Olonets (+ 1860)

In the region of Novgorod, in the county of Staraya Rus, along the Lovat River, was a little village, Peredino. This was the native village of the Elder Isaiah (in schema, Ignatius),* who later became known even in Petersburg, who was the second founder of the St. Nicephorus Monastery on Vazhe Lake in Olonets, where the relics of Sts. Gennadius and Nicephorus repose, the disciples of St. Alexander of Svir.

The blessed Elder Isaiah, together with his brother Theodore (who was later the founder of the Hermitage of Anzersk), renounced the world in his youth and began his monastic labors on Mt. Athos. The third brother, Basil Sophronov, led a pious, labor-loving life in his peasant environment, under the instruction of the Elders and especially of his own brother Isaiah. The teaching of the Elders had a good effect not only on the God-fearing Basil, but also on the other relatives of the desert dweller. In the rest times from their labors of sweat in the fields that nourished them, the villagers of Peredino often conducted conversations among themselves on feast days, and not only on how to gain money and things, a subject which usually occupies the conversation of people who are crude and dark in their understanding of God but often they would comment on what they could remember from the instructions of their nearby desert dwellers, whom they visited from time to time. Basil Sophronov married a peasant girl from the village of Golovenka, about two miles from his village of Peredino, and was received into the family of her parents. In the first years of his marriage he had no children, over which he sorrowed, and concerning which he hastened to the prayers of the desert elders, so that they might entreat the Lord to bless him with a child. Finally a child was born, a daughter, who was called Maria, by the common consent of the family.

Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich: Serbian Orthodox Apostle to America

By Hieromonk Damascene (Christensen)

1. An Apostle of Universal Significance

Born during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich has the distinction of being the first person born in the United States of America to be ordained as an Orthodox priest,[1] and also the first native-born American to be tonsured as an Orthodox monk. His greatest distinction, however, lies in the tremendous apostolic, pastoral, and literary work that he accomplished during the forty-eight years of his priestly ministry. Known as the "Father of Serbian Orthodoxy in America,"[2] he was responsible for the founding of the first Serbian churches in the New World. This, however, was only one part of his life's work, for he tirelessly and zealously sought to spread the Orthodox Faith to all peoples, wherever he was called. He was an Orthodox apostle of universal significance.