The Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon was born in the city of Nicomedia into the family of the illustrious pagan Eustorgius, and he was named Pantoleon. His mother Saint Euboula (March 30) was a Christian. She wanted to raise her son in the Christian Faith, but she died when the future martyr was just a young child. His father sent Pantoleon to a pagan school, after which the young man studied medicine at Nicomedia under
SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Simple But Profound Miracles of Our Faith “Today, increased knowledge and trust in logic has, unfortunately, shaken our faith to its foundations and filled our souls with question marks and doubts. This is why we don’t have miracles anymore, because a miracle cannot be explained logically, it can only be experienced. But faith in God will bring down divine power and overturn all
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 12, 2020 There was a wicked kingdom in which there lived a large number of slaves. The kingdom fought wars, built cities and was extremely successful in growing its economy. Its achievements were the envy of all the other kingdoms. The slaves did well, too. They were not given low jobs or manual labor. Instead, they were “helping” slaves. Their task was to help the people of the Kingdom get by.
By Abbot Tryphon, April 21, 2020 For everlasting Joy comes with Christ’s Resurrection We all have certain things in our lives that we feel passionate about. When I was a young man, long distance running was my passion, and nothing gave me more joy than the run. Every day was organized around running. I’d even plan vacations around my runs, often heading to Vancouver, B.C., so I could run around Stanley Park. I’d stay in
Saint Mary Magdalene is the most outstanding person in the circle of Christ’s women disciples, and, indeed, the most significant female figure in the Christian Church, after the Mother of God. Her importance for the Church is expressed in the lengthy references to her in the Lives of the Saints. We have very little information concerning her life. She was born in Magdala, a town to the west of the Lake of Gennesaret and south
The Sermon on the Mount is the very blueprint for Christian lifestyle, and most scholars see it as the best summary of Jesus’ teaching. But we can’t understand this wisdom with the rational, dualistic mind; in fact, we will largely misunderstand it while convinced that we got it on the first try. As we saw last week, Jesus taught an alternative wisdom—the Reign of God—which overturns the conventional and common trust in power, possessions, and
Elias of great fame was from Thisbe or Thisbe, a town of Galaad (Gilead), beyond the Jordan. He was of priestly lineage, a man of a solitary and ascetical character, clothed in a mantle of sheep skin, and girded about his loins with a leather belt. His name is interpreted as “Yah is my God.” His zeal for the glory of God was compared to fire, and his speech for teaching and rebuke was likened
Marina was born in Southern Anatolia, specifically from Pisidia in Antioch, at the end of the third century during the reign of Claudius II (268-270). She was the only daughter of noble pagan parents. When she was five years old her mother died (some sources say she died shortly after childbirth), and since her father, Aidesios, was too busy carrying out his duties as a pagan priest to care for her properly, he turned her
SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification TOPIC OF THE WEEK: St. Paisios of Holy Mount Athos (†7/12/94) is perhaps the greatest and most revered saint of the Orthodox Church of our time. Thousands of people around the world have eponymously witnessed and reported first-hand miracles performed by the saint during his lifetime. The officially recorded and verified miracles performed by the saint after his repose at his resting place at the Monastery
By David Bentley Hart, October 2003 It is worth asking ourselves what this tableau, viewed from the vantage of pagan antiquity, would have meant. A man of noble birth, representing the power of Rome, endowed with authority over life and death, confronted by a barbarous colonial of no name or estate, a slave of the empire, beaten, robed in purple, crowned with thorns, insanely invoking an otherworldly kingdom and some esoteric truth, unaware of either
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