Saints, Seasons, Society, Sins, plus Travels mostly to Greece and who knows what next? by Father Bill Olnhausen
Depictions of Christ’s crucifixion are not ancient, by Orthodox standards. So far as I can find (correct me if I’m wrong), Crosses with the figure of Jesus on them were not sanctioned till the end of the seventh century at the Trullan Council in A.D. 692. After that, East and West gradually took different directions. […]
Read More »Let’s take a break from traveling. If I tell you all my stories at once we’ll run out before long, and after all the title of this Blog promises not only Travels but also “a lot more”. During Holy Week we will hear again the greatest of all stories, the Story that fulfills the ancient myths, […]
Read More »The Life of Saint Nektarios (before and after he died) After Bishop Nektarios died, his sweater was inadvertently laid on the bed of the man in the infirmary next to him. The man who had been crippled for years immediately stood up and began to walk, and a sweet fragrance filled the room. This was […]
Read More »Daily (but it’s mostly nightly) Life on Mount Athos Why was I so impressed by how beautiful things were at night? Because on Athos one spends a lot of the night awake. My most distressing memory is of the Finnish guestmaster knocking on my door every morning at 3 a.m. saying, “Pater, Pater, the services […]
Read More »At Last: To the Holy Mountain! If you’d like to prepare a bit more before we leave for Mount Athos in the morning, here is the second part of the CBS program on the Holy Mountain. On Wednesday morning, after a restless night’s sleep fearing I wouldn’t wake up at 4 a.m., it was off […]
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