About the author: Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker (1846-1920) has become one of the most well-known and much beloved Orthodox Christian saints of the contemporary age since his saintly glorification in 1961. Born in Selymbria in the Ottoman Empire, he was educated in Constantinople and in Athens. At the age of 30, he was tonsured a monk and given the name ''Nektarios'' on the island of Chios and then ordained as a deacon three years later. It was during his years as a deacon and student of theology in Athens that Saint Nektarios first honed his skills as a preacher, for which he would later be renowned. The ten homilies compiled in the present book were delivered towards the end of this period, during and around Saint Nektarios''s final Great Lent as a deacon. With topics ranging from the free will of man, repentance, confession, and the Holy Eucharist, these sermons bring to light the emerging brilliance of the saint as a young man. Not only do they demonstrate his deep knowledge for the Holy Scriptures and an understanding of the human person, which can only come from a grace-filled spiritual life and devotion to God, but his sharp intellect and familiarity with subjects outside of scripture and patristics, as he draws examples from history, literature, and the Greek and Latin philosophers with great ease, bringing everything together to craft practical pastoral exhortations. These sermons were, without a doubt, immeasurably beneficial to the souls who heard him in person, as they will be to anyone who reads these words today.
The long awaited English translation of the fifth volume of the Philokalia. Rich in teachings from the saints about many spiritual virtues and challenges.Translated from the original Greek. The full text!The Philokalia, which means "the love of the good and beautiful", was compiled by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth and first published in Greek in 1782 as an anthology of classic spiritual texts ranging from the 4th to the 15th century. Its rich assortment of edifying literature provides boundless wisdom and guidance regarding prayer, the soul''s ascent to God through grace by its natural "love for beauty", and its struggle to overcome its own passions and fragmentation. The fifth and final volume explores the central themes of the 14th century Orthodox theology of Hesychasm, relating to the life of stillness, the practice of the Jesus Prayer, and the contemplation and experience of God. It includes an Exact Rule and Method for Hesychasts, Angelikoudes'' Chapters, full of mystical devotions and meditations on God and man, as well as the profoundly philosophical work On Union with God and the Contemplative Life. Lastly, it concludes with exhortations for all Christians to pray unceasingly, in accordance with St. Paul''s injunction to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), and the Lord''s declaration, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 45:11).
Supplicatory Canon to St John the Theologian and Saint Mark.
Supplicatory canons to great female saints of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
Oración de intercesión al santísimo Theotokos. Supplicatory canon to the Mother of God, the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) in Spanish.
While Saint Nektarios is already renowned for being a wonderworker, a prolific writer, a gifted preacher, and, of course, a divinely inspired spiritual father, his artistic talents have largely remained unnoticed. Completed in 1907, while he was the Director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School, this collection of his own hand-drawn calligraphy, primarily in the form of the Precious and Life-giving Cross, demonstrates his devotion to Christ and his Holy Cross by means of the graphic arts. Here we are given a rare glimpse into something which gave repose and joy to the saint when he was not preoccupied with his many other duties. English translations accompany each hand-drawn piece so that, for the first time, an exceedingly broad audience can enjoy and be spiritually edified by the fruit of the saint's pen in a uniquely different way.
Our venerable mother Irene of Chrysovalantou was the abbess of the monastery of Chrysovalantou during the ninth century. Her feast day is on July 28. Originally slated to wed the Emperor Michael, she went to the monastery of Chrysovalantou, and immediately engaged herself in vigils and prayer. She then replaced the Abbess very early on, and increased her spiritual struggles, with great trust in God to guide the community properly. She developed the gifts of foresight and exorcism. Her prayer through the night continued in the courtyard of the monastery, and caused herself to levitate and the cypress trees to bend towards her. She was granted three apples from St. John the Theologian, visions of angels, and appeared in a vision to the Emperor to release an unjustly convicted man. After her death at 102 years, she continued to be a wonderworker.
Athanasius was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian Christian leader of the fourth century. Conflict with Arius and Arianism, as well as with successive Roman emperors, shaped Athanasius' career. In 325, at age 27, Athanasius began his leading role against the Arians as a deacon and assistant to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria during the First Council of Nicaea. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had convened the council in May-August 325 to address the Arian position that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, is of a distinct substance from the Father.
9 Supplicatory canons in one book! Archangel Michael Saint John Maximovitch Saint Ephraim of Katounakia Saint Paisios the New of Athos Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia Saint Joseph the Hesychast Saint Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia Saint John the Baptist Holy Hieromartyr Jacob of Hamatoura
The holy and glorious Virgin-Martyr Saint Paraskevi (also Paraskeva) was arrested during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (r. A.D. 138-161) under the penalty of refusing to worship idols and adhering to the state pagan religion. After enduring many tortures, she was eventually released by the emperor, continuing to profess Christ. She was eventually tortured and beheaded by the Roman governor Tarasius in the year 180. The Church commemorates her on July 26.
Raised in piety and honesty, early in his youth he met some traveling monks in Serbia from the Hilandar monastery, and went with them to Mount Athos, where he studied and labored patiently with perseverance. After the death of the then-Abbot of Hilandar, the monks voted precocious Nikodim in his place. Nikodim was a friend of many famous people of that time, such as Prince Lazar of Serbia, Isaija the Monk, the Anonymous Athonite (biographer of the "Life of Isaiah", that is Isaija the Monk), Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo, Danilo II, Serbian Archbishop, and many others. There are sources that claim that he was related to Prince Lazar. Prince Lazar wanted to appoint him to a high spiritual function, but he rejected it and settled in the eastern parts of the country, near the city of Kladovo on the Danube. After hearing about his virtuous life, a group of monks gathered around him, and in that place-Manastirica-they established a monastery and a church named "Holy Trinity". This monastery is known as the Monastery of the "Holy Trinity" or Manastir Manastirica. In the newly established monastery, he introduced the hesychasm lifestyle that he learned on the Holy Mountain. The venerable Nikodim crossed the Danube River and settled in the northern Oltenia, where he erected the Vodice Monastery and dedicated it to Anthony the Great, the founder of Christian monasticism. When Prince Lazar sent a delegation to Constantinople to have a dialogue with Patriarch Philotheus I of Constantinople, he made sure that Nikodim went with Isaija the Monk who led the diplomatic mission. Upon returning from Constantinople, Nikodim erected the Tismana Monastery in Romania, dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin. In the course of time, Tismana Monastery benefited from the help of ruling princes Stefan Lazarevic, Radu I of Wallachia, Dan I of Wallachia, Mircea I of Wallachia and Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, to whom the pious Nicodemus was father confessor when he was king of Hungary (1385-1437). During his lifetime, Nikodim reconstructed Visina Monastery as well as Prislop Monastery. Between 1399 and 1405 he retreated to Prislop Monastery in Transylvania and in 1406 he returned to Wallachia. Soon afterward, Saint Nicodemus met ruler prince Mircea the Old at Tismana, who called him "my prayerful father Nicodemus", and in November he participated at Severin in the meeting with King Sigismund of Hungary (1385-1437), whom he impressed with his gift of working miracles. Saint Nicodemus corresponded with Euthymius, Patriarch of Tarnovo (1375-1393), for defending the true faith against the Bogomil heresy. Saint Nikodim died on 26 December 1406 and was buried in the narthex of the church of Tismana Monastery. His relics were kept there for a while, but later they were hidden in an unknown place because of the hostilities of the time. Only the forefinger of his right hand and his lead pectoral cross remained at Tismana.
John Chrysostom was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, his Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and his ascetic sensibilities.
Saint George was born in 1730, and became a monk on Mount Athos when he was a young man. He was a disciple of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky (November 15) who was then the igumen of Vatopedi Monastery.Since the skete at Cernica had been deserted for almost thirty years, Metropolitan Gregory II of Wallachia asked Elder George to revive monastic life there according to the Athonite Typikon.Saint George's efforts at Cernica were so successful that Metropolitan Philaret II also entrusted him with leading the Caldarushani Monastery, which he guided until his death. Life at both monasteries followed the Athonite-Paisian hesychastic tradition.Saint George was glorified by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 2005. His holy relics are in the Cernica Monastery, where they are venerated by the faithful.
Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian.She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly believed in the Holy Trinity. About this time Dioscorus began building a bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen to build a third window in addition to the two her Father had commanded. She also inscribed the sign of the Cross with her finger upon the marble of the bath-house, leaving the saving sign cut as deeply into the marble as if it had been done with an iron tool. (When the Synaxarion of Saint Barbara was written, the marble of the bath-house and the cross inscribed by Saint Barbara were still preserved, and many healings were worked there.) When Dioscorus returned, he asked why the third window had been added; Barbara began to declare to him the mystery of the Trinity. Because she refused to renounce her faith, Dioscorus tortured Barbara inhumanely, and after subjecting her to many sufferings he beheaded her with his own hands, in the year 290.
The Holy Hierarch Calinic from Cernica Monastery was one of the great spiritual fathers of the 19th century in Romania. His importance remains about his own life like a monk dedicated to the ascetic life, as a bishop, dedicated to the life as shepherd of his flock and as political man, who could stand in front of the secularization politics in his times. His life was described in detail by Archimandrite Athanasius Baldovin, one of his disciples, monk in the Monastery of Cernica, only a few kilometers far from Bucharest.
Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, was a bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor. He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed the heresies of the early Christian church, fighting against both Arianism and the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea.
Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint.
A tribute to some of the greatest hesycastic Romanian saints. Akathists and the lives of the following saints: Saint Daniel the HermitSaint Theodora of SihlaSaint Paisius of NeamtSaint Neagoe BasarabSaint Irodion of LainiciSaint George the PilgrimSaint George of CernicaSaint Basil of Poiana MaruluiSaint Nicodemus of Tismana
In the 16th century, Wallachia was independent, but was required to pay an exorbitant tribute to the greater force of the Ottoman Empire. Neagoe encouraged the development of crafts and trade, while maintaining a good relation with Wallachia's other powerful neighbour, Hungary. His diplomacy attempted to establish connections with the Republic of Venice and the Papacy, even offering to mediate the dispute between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, with the purpose of uniting Christendom against the Ottoman threat. He adopted the Byzantine tradition of Church patronage, making generous donations to the Orthodox monasteries, not only in Wallachia but throughout the Balkans. During his reign the Curtea de Argeș Monastery was built (in 1517) - legend names Meșterul Manole as the chief craftsman; the account also fuses Neagoe with yet another legendary figure, Prince Radu (who would've caused Manole's death by ordering for the scaffolding to be removed while the builders were on the roof, ensuring that nobody would use Manole's craft, and thus preserving the uniqueness of the structure). Neagoe ordered the earliest works on the old Metropolitan church in Târgovişte (the city where the edition of the Gospels was published in 1512) and St. Nicholas Church in Şcheii Braşovului. Neagoe Basarab wrote in Church Slavonic one of the earliest literary works of Wallachia, called "The teachings of Neagoe Basarab to his son Theodosie" (translated in Romanian as Învăţăturile lui Neagoe Basarab către fiul său Teodosie), where he touches various subjects such as philosophy, diplomacy, morals and ethics.
Saint Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Ninevah, lived during the sixth century. He and his brother entered the monastery of Mar Matthew near Ninevah and received the monastic tonsure. His learning, virtue, and ascetic manner of life attracted the notice of the brethren, and they proposed that he head the monastery. Saint Issac did not want this burden, preferring a life of silence, so he left the monastery to live alone in the desert. His brother urged him more than once to return to the monastery, but he would not agree. However, when the fame of Saint Isaac's holy life had spread, he was made Bishop of Ninevah. Seeing the crude manners and disobedience of the inhabitants of the city, the saint felt that it was beyond his ability to guide them, and moreover, he yearned for solitude. Once, two Christians came to him, asking him to settle a dispute. One man acknowledged that he owed money to the other, but asked for a short extension. The lender threatened to bring his debtor to court to force him to pay. Saint Isaac, citing the Gospel, asked him to be merciful and give the debtor more time to pay. The man said, "Leave your Gospel out of this!" Saint Isaac replied, "If you will not submit to Lord's commandments in the Gospel, then what remains for me to do here?" After only five months as bishop, Saint Isaac resigned his office and went into the mountains to live with the hermits. Later, he went to the monastery of Rabban Shabur, where he lived until his death, attaining a high degree of spiritual perfection. From the early eighth century until the beginning of the eighteenth century, nothing was known about Saint Isaac of Syria in Europe except for his name and works. Only in 1719 was a biography of the saint published at Rome, compiled by an anonymous Arab author. In 1896, more information on Saint Isaac came to light. The learned French soteriologist Abbot Chabot published some eighth century works on Syrian history by Iezudena, bishop of Barsa, where the account of Saint Isaac the Syrian was found.
Born during the reign of Vasile Lupu, the daughter of the chief armourer of Neamț Citadel, the boyar Ștefan Joldea. In her youth, she was married off against her will. Being childless, both she and her husband decide to embrace monasticism, he withdrawing to Poiana Mărului monastery under the name Elfterie, and she to Vărzărești.Foreign invasions prompt her to retreat into the Buzău Mountains (she is said to have also passed through the woodland hermitage Fundătura), where she lives for nearly a decade (her name is mentioned in an inscription on the altar stone of the woodland hermitage at New Agaton). From here she goes firstly to Neamț monastery, where she is guided towards Sihăstria hermitage, in the Neamț mountain. With the guidance of Sihăstria's abbot, and with the blessing of the hermitage's egumen, she ascended the mountains to become an anchorite in the Sihla wilderness. The word "sihlă" means thick forest of young trees; thicket.
Originally from the Transylvanian village of Sugag, Grandfather Gheorghe Lazar was born in 1846, in a family of working people. His parents married him at the age of 24, God giving him a family with five children. His occupation was raising cattle. In the family, he led a chosen Christian life, in work, fasting and almsgiving. He read the Psalter daily, and prayed in the garden at night. His face was always serene, despite the many worries and material needs that family life entails. Grandfather Gheorghe Lazar remained in the hearts of those who knew him, laymen and monks, as a saint of our days, a model of the true Romanian pilgrim. Honored as a saint not only in Romania, but also on Mount Athos, Grandfather Gheorghe Lazar was a man of prayer and spiritual needs. This charismatic layman, who received from God the gift of unceasing prayer and that of spiritual discernment, had many monks as disciples, including Father Ioanichie Moroi (became abbot of the Sihastria Monastery) and Protosinghel Damaschin Trofin (abbot of the Râşca Monastery). His grave is in the crypt under the altar of the Văratec Monastery Church, Agapia commune, Văratec village, Neamţ county.
Our venerable and God-bearing Father Daniel the Hermit of Voroneț, Sf. Daniil Sihastru de la Voroneţ in Romanian, was a 15th century monk and the spiritual father of Stephen the Great, the Voievod of Moldova. Under his guidance, Stephen the Great defended Moldova from Ottoman invasion and dedicated himself and his rule to God.Daniel lived alone for 14 years in a cell carved from a boulder in a forested valley close to Putna Monastery, which is now used as a chapel according to the rules of Mount Athos. His relics are housed at Voroneț Monastery, and he was officially glorified by the Synod of the Church of Romania in 1992. He fell asleep in 1496, and his feast day is December 18.
Saint Catherine, who was from Alexandria, was the daughter of Constas (or Cestus). She was an exceedingly beautiful maiden, most chaste, and illustrious in wealth, lineage, and learning. By her steadfast understanding, she utterly vanquished the passionate and unbridled soul of Maximinus, the tyrant of Alexandria; and by her eloquence, she stopped the mouths of the so-called philosophers who had been gathered to dispute with her. She was crowned with the crown of martyrdom in the year 305. Her holy relics were taken by Angels to the holy mountain of Sinai, where they were discovered many years later.
Saint Basil, the Elder of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky (November 15), was born toward the end of the seventeenth century. He received monastic tonsure at Dalhautsi-Focshani Skete in 1705 or 1706, laboring in asceticism with great fervor.Saint Basil was ordained to the holy priesthood, and became igumen of Dalhautsi in 1715. He remained in that position for twenty years, and was a wise instructor of monks, teaching them obedience, humility, and the art of the Jesus Prayer.The fame of this great spiritual Father began to spread, so that even Prince Constantine Mavrocordat heard of him. Saint Basil's community became known as a spiritual school of hesychasm, based on the wisdom of the Holy Fathers. When the number of his disciples increased until there was no longer room for all of them at Dalhautsi, they settled in other Sketes in the area. In this way, his influence and teaching spread to other places, inspiring a spiritual renewal of Romanian monastic life in the eighteenth century.Saint Basil renovated the Poiana Marului (Apple Orchard) Skete near the city of Romni-Sarat between 1730-1733, then moved there with twelve disciples. In addition to his duties as Igumen of Poiana Marului, Saint Basil was the spiritual guide of all the Sketes in the Buzau Mountains. One of his most famous disciples was Saint Paisius Velichkovsky, whom he tonsured on Mount Athos in 1750.The holy Elder Basil also wrote introductions to the writings of Saints Gregory of Sinai, Nilus of Sora, and others who wrote about the spiritual life, guarding the mind, and on the Jesus Prayer. He taught that the Holy Scriptures are a "saving medicine" for the soul, and recommended reading the Holy Fathers in order to obtain a correct understanding of Scripture, and to avoid being led astray through misunderstanding. Saint Basil also warned against any inclination to excuse ourselves and our sins, for this hinders true repentance.Saint Basil fell asleep in the Lord on April 25, 1767, leaving behind many disciples. His influence has been felt in other Orthodox countries beyond the borders of Romania.
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