447. The Holy Icons: Their History and Purpose – Part Two

Iconoclasm, the Seventh Council, and after that According to the story, it was during the Iconoclastic controversy that the monk Stephen saw soldiers trampling on an icon. When he objected they told him it was ok: it was only a picture. So Stephen took an image of the Emperor on a coin and trampled on […]

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443. “In the Heart of the Desert” by Dr John Chryssavgis

This Post contains small portions from the excellent book In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, published here with the generous permission of the author, the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I think it’s appropriate reading as we near our annual passage through Great […]

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441. Papa-Nicholas of Athens – Part Two

Last week we began to tell the story of this humble, quiet, unobtrusive, remarkable parish priest – this Saint of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. As I began, I feared there wouldn’t be enough to say about him to fill a Post – and to my surprise here we are in Part Two. […]

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440. Do you know this remarkable modern Saint? Papa-Nicholas of Athens – Part One

Old age mind fog has caught up with me. Here it is only mid-February, and I have prepared a Post for a saint whose feast day is not till March 2, Ah well, we’ll certainly be prepared for it. Saint Nicholas Planas Introduction I love that in our Orthodox churches we have icons in all […]

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439. Saint Photios the Great, twice Patriarch of Constantinople, and not the cause of what is falsely called the Photian Schism

Commemorated on February 6 That rather complicated title above is fitting for a man who led an extremely complicated life. Poor Saint Photios. What he wanted was a scholarly, contemplative, perhaps monastic life. What he actually got was a lot of trouble. Caught up against his will into the midst of great turmoil in the […]

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