Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and Apostle to America was born as Vasily Ivanovich Belavin on January 19, 1865 into the family of Ioann Belavin, a rural priest of the Toropetz district of the Pskov diocese. His childhood and adolescence were spent in the village in direct contact with peasants…
Holy Apostle James the son of Alphaeus one of the Twelve Apostles, was the brother of the holy Evangelist Matthew. He heard the Lord’s words and witnessed His miracles. After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle James Alphaeus and the Apostle Andrew the First-Called (November 30), made…
Saint Andronicus and his wife Athanasia of Egypt lived in Antioch in the fifth century. Saint Andronicus was a craftsman who divided his earnings into three portions. One part he gave to the Church, the second to the poor, and the third he used for his family. When the Lord took the son and…
The Righteous Forefather Abraham lived around 2000 B.C. His story is found in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 12-25. God told Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in his seed (Genesis 22:18), and ordered him to leave his home and his relatives and go to Canaan, the country…
The Righteous Forefather Abraham (“Father of a multitude”) and his nephew Lot (“veil”) lived around 2000 B.C. The Righteous Lot is regarded as the progenitor of the Moabites and the Ammonites.He lived in Sodom with his wife and two daughters, a righteous man living in the…
Martyrs Juventinus and Maximus at Antioch were bodyguards of the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Having arrived in Antioch, the emperor gave orders to sprinkle all the foodstuffs in the marketplace and the water in the wells with blood offered to idols. Saints Juventinus and Maximus opposed…
The holy Martyr Publia the Confessor, a deaconess of Antioch, became a widow at a young age and devoted all her strength to raising her son John in the Christian Faith. John became a presbyter, and Publia, for her prudent and ascetic life, was found worthy of becoming a deaconess. She undertook the…
Saint Peter lived in the IX century, during the reign of the iconoclast Emperor Theophilos (829), and was from the province of Galatia in Asia Minor. He was the son of Theophilos and Eudokia, and at first his name was Leo. Since he was handsome and possessed physical strength as well as good…
Saint Dionysius (or Denis) has, for many centuries, been regarded as the patron saint of France. It is believed that Saint Dionysius was sent to preach the Gospel at Lutetia Parisiorum (modern Paris) in Gaul around 250. He was beheaded in 258 with the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius at…
The Korsun Icon of the Mother of God is believed to be one of those painted by the holy Evangelist Luke, and it had been preserved in Ephesus. On October 9, 988, a copy of this icon was transferred from Korsun to Kiev by the holy Great Prince Vladimir (July 15), and it came to be called the Korsun…
Today we commemorate a copy of the “Assuage My Sorrows” Icon (January 25) which is treasured in the Saint Nicholas Odrino Monastery in the Orel Diocese, Karachev district. Until 1784, this icon belonged to Count Nicholas Borisovitch Samoilov, who regarded it as a holy icon. At first,…
Saint Stephen Brancovich was the son of the Despot George and Queen Irene, and lived in the fifteenth century. He and his sister Mara lived in the court of Sultan Murat II. Saint Stephen and his brother Gregory were blinded at Jedrene by the Turkish Sultan for some perceived offense. Since he was…
1. The Holy Apostle James.
The son of Alphaeus and one of the twelve Great Apostles, he was the brother of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew. He was a witness of the true words and miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and a witness of His Passion, Resurrection and Ascension. After the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it fell to the lot of the Apostle James to preach Christ's Gospel in Eleutheropolis and the surrounding area, and then in Egypt, where he suffered for his Saviour. With great power both in word and act, James spread abroad the saving news of the incarnate Word of God, rooting out idol worship, driving demons out of men, healing all manner of sickness and disease in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His labours and his zeal were crowned with great success. Many pagans came to belief in Christ the Lord, churches were founded and set in order and priests and bishops were made. He suffered in Egypt in the town of Ostracina, being crucified by the pagans. Thus this great and wonderful apostle of Christ went to the heavenly Kingdom, to reign forever with the King of glory.
2. Our Holy Father Andronicus and his wife Athanasia.
A citizen of Antioch in the time of Theodosius the Great (379-95), Andronicus was a goldsmith by profession. Both he and his wife were very devout, striving without ceasing to walk in the ways of the Lord. They gave a third of what they earned to the poor, another third to the Church and kept the last for their own use. When they had had two children, they agreed to live in future as brother and sister. Then, by God's unfathomable providence, both their children died on the same day. They grieved deeply until the martyr Julian appeared to Athanasia by their grave and comforted her with the tidings that their children were in the Kingdom of God, and that they were better off there than with their parents on earth. After this, they left everything and went to Egypt, there receiving the monastic habit: Andronicus with the elder, Daniel, at Scetis and Athanasia in a women's monastery in Tabennisi. Being pleasing to God by many years of asceticism, they entered into the eternal Kingdom of Christ: first Athanasia and then, eight days later, Andronicus.
3. Holy and Righteous Abraham and Lot.
Read about them in the Book of Genesis.
4. St Dimitrios, Patriarch of Alexandria.
The eleventh Bishop of Alexandria after St Mark the Evangelist, he governed his flock long and wisely from 189 to 231. During his time, at the request of the Indians, he sent St Pantaenus, the director of a famous catechetical school in Alexandria, to preach the Gospel in India. Pantaenus found in India the Gospel that St Matthew wrote in Aramaic.
5. St Stephen, Despot of Serbia.
Son of the Despot George and Queen Irene, he lived for a time with his sister Mara at the court of Sultan Murat II and was blinded at Jedrene together with his brother Grgur. He began to reign over the Serbs in 1458, but was forced almost at once to flee to Albania, where he married Angelina, the daughter of Skenderbeg. Blind and unhappy, but utterly given to God, he died in Italy in 1468. His relics are preserved in the monastery of Krusedol, the foundation of his son Maxim.
