| Repose of St Alexander Nevsky Commemorated on November 23 The Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky was born on May 30, 1220 in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessk. His father Yaroslav II, Theodore in Baptism (+1246), “a gentle, kindly and genial prince”, was the younger son of Vsevolod III Large Nest (+ 1212), brother of the Holy Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich (February 4). Saint Alexander’s mother, Theodosia Igorevna, a Ryazan princess, was Yaroslav’s third wife. Their older son was the Holy Prince Theodore (June 5), who departed to the Lord at age fifteen. Saint Alexander was their second son. His childhood was spent at Pereslavl-Zalessk, where his father was prince. The princely tonsure of the lad Alexander (a ceremony of initiation to be soldier) was done in the Savior Transfiguration Cathedral of Pereslavl by Saint Simon, Bishop of Suzdal (May 10), one of the compilers of the Kiev Caves Paterikon (Lives of the Fathers). From this Elder-hierarch, Saint Alexander received his first blessing for military service in the name of God, to defend the Russian Church and the Russian Land. In 1227 Prince Yaroslav, at the request of the people of Novgorod, was sent by his brother Yuri, the Great Prince of Vladimir, to rule as prince in Novgorod the Great. He took with him his sons, Saints Theodore and Alexander. Dissatisfied with the Vladimir princes, the people of Novgorod soon invited Saint Michael of Chernigov (September 20), and in February 1229 Yaroslav with his sons departed to Pereslavl. The matter ended peacefully: in 1230 Yaroslav with his sons returned to Novgorod, and Saint Michael’s daughter Theodosia was betrothed to Saint Theodore, the elder brother of Saint Alexander. After the death of the bridegroom in 1233 the young princess went to a monastery and became famous in monastic exploits as the nun Saint Euphrosyne of Suzdal (September 25). From his early years Saint Alexander went along on his father’s campaigns. In 1235 he participated in a battle at the River Emajogi (in present-day Estonia), where the forces of Yaroslav totally routed the Germans. In the following year Yaroslav went to Kiev, “settling” his son, Saint Alexander, to rule independently as prince at Novgorod. In 1239 Saint Alexander entered into marriage, taking as wife the daughter of the Polotsian prince Briacheslav. Some histories relate that the day the princess was baptized was the Name Day of her saintly spouse, and she was named Alexandra. His father, Yaroslav, blessed them at betrothal with the holy wonderworking icon of the Theodore Mother of God (the father was named Theodore in Baptism). Afterwards, Saint Alexander constantly prayed before this icon. Later, it was taken from the Gorodetsk Monastery, where he died, by his brother Basil of Kostroma (+1276), and transferred to Kostroma. |
| St. Alexander Nevsky, Russia’s Knight in Shining Armor Commemorated November 23/December 6 and August 30/September 12 St. Alexander Nevsky was Russia’s “ knight in shining armor.” His reputation as a man of exceptional valor and surpassing virtue inspired a visit by a German commander who told his people when he returned: “I went through many countries and saw many people, but I have never met such a king among kings, nor such a prince among princes.” The Russians called him their “prince without sin.” He was born just four years before the fierce Tatars, under the leadership of Ghengis Khan, came galloping across the steppes of Kievan Rus. The once flourishing city state—whose social, cultural and spiritual achievements boasted few rivals in Western Europe—had been weakened by quarrelling princes and attacks of warring tribes, and it was an easy prey for the massacring and pillaging Asiatic aggressors. Fortunately, the Mongol Horde’s primary interest in conquest was financial gain, and although it imposed a heavy tax on its subjects, they were left to govern themselves and retained their traditions and religion intact, Nevertheless, the yoke of foreign sovereignty was burdensome; individual princes were reduced to acting as feudal landlords for their Mongol lords, and inclinations toward s national unity—the dream of Grand Prince Vladimir —were stifled. A strong leader was needed if the land of Rus’ was to have any hope of healing internal strife, of throwing off the Tatar yoke, and establishing its identity as a nation state. The baneful effect of internal dissension was a lesson which came early to Prince Alexander, as he witnessed his father, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, struggle with the proudly independent spirited boyars of Novgorod, It was there that the boy grew up. Like most noble youth s of his time, he had barely learned to walk before he was lifted into the saddle. Training in the martial arts was combined with an education based upon the Scriptures. Under the influence of his mother, who was popularly called “the holy queen” on account of her piety and charitable deeds, the young prince developed a profound spiritual life. He engrossed himself for hours in reading the Old and New Testaments. |
| Icon of the Mother of God of St Theodore Commemorated on March 14 The Theodore—Kostroma Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Evangelist Luke and resembles the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. This icon received its name from Great Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (+ 1246), the father of Saint Alexander Nevsky, and who in holy Baptism was named Theodore in honor of Saint Theodore Stratelates (February 8). According to Tradition, the icon was found by his elder brother, Saint George (February 4), in an old wooden chapel near the city of Gorodets. Later, the Gorodetsk Theodorov monastery was built on this spot. Prince Yaroslav-Theodore became the Great Prince of Vladimir after his brother Saint George perished in battle with the Mongols at the Sita River. In the year 1239, he solemnly transferred the relics of his brother from Rostov to the Vladimir Dormition cathedral. He gave the icon which he inherited from his brother to his own son, Saint Alexander Nevsky. Yaroslav-Theodore is renowned in Russian history. He continued with the glorious traditions of his uncle Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky (July 4), and of his father Vsevolod III Big-Nest, and he was connected to almost all of the significant events in the history of Rus in the first half of the thirteenth century. Russia was burned and torn apart by the Mongols in 1237-1238. He raised it up from the ashes, rebuilt and embellished the cities, the holy monasteries and the churches. He restored cities along the Volga devastated by the enemy: Kashin, Uglich, Yaroslavl’, Kostroma, Gorodets. He founded he church of Theodore Stratelates at Kostroma and the Theodorov monastery near Gorodets in honor of his patron saint. For eight years he ruled as Great Prince, but he had to guide the land through a singularly difficult path, maintaining a military-political balance with the Golden Horde to the East, while mounting an active opposition to Catholic Europe in the West. His closest companion was his son, Saint Alexander Nevsky, who also continued his policies. |
| St. Theodore the Prince of Smolensk and Yaroslav Commemorated on September 19 The holy right-believing Prince Theodore of Smolensk and Yaroslavl, nicknamed the “Black” [i.e. “dark” or “swarthy”], was born at a terrible time for Rus: the Mongol invasion of 1237-1239. At Baptism he was named for the holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates (February 8), who was particularly esteemed by the Russian warrior-princes. Prince Theodore was famed for his military exploits. The child Theodore was not in the city when, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the holy Martyr Mercurius (November 24) delivered Smolensk from being captured by Batu In the year 1239. They had taken him away and hidden him in a safe place during the warfare. In 1240 his father, Prince Rostislav died. He was a great-grandson of the holy Prince Rostislav of Smolensk and Kiev (March 14). His elder brothers as heirs divided their father’s lands among themselves, allotting to the child Theodore the small holding of Mozhaisk. Here he spent his childhood, and here he studied Holy Scripture, the church services and military science. In the year 1260, Prince Theodore was married to Maria Vasilievna, daughter of holy Prince Basil of Yaroslavl (July 3), and Theodore became Prince of Yaroslavl. They had a son named Michael, but Saint Theodore was soon widowed. He spent much of his time on military campaigns, and his son was raised by his mother-in-law, Princess Xenia. In 1277, the allied forces of the Russian princes, in union with the Tatar forces, took part in a campaign in the Osetian land and in the taking of “its famed city Tetyakov.” In this war the allied forces won a complete victory. From the time of Saint Alexander Nevsky (November 23), the khans of the Golden Horde, seeing the uncrushable spiritual and the military strength of Orthodox Russia, were compelled to change their attitude. They began to draw the Russian princes into alliances, and the khans turned to them for military assistance. The Russian Church made use of these providentially improved relations for the Christian enlightenment of the foreigners. Already in 1261, through the efforts of Saint Alexander Nevsky and Metropolitan Cyril III at Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was established. In the year 1276, a Constantinople Council presided over by Patriarch John Bekkos (1275-1282) replied to questions of the Russian Bishop Theognostus of Sarai concerning the order for baptizing Tatars, and also for receiving Monophysite and Nestorian Christians among them into Orthodoxy. |
| Howell, NJ: Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan leads Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church Source: Eastern American Diocese www.eadiocese.org On Wednesday, July 9, the feast day of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell, NJ, leading the parish’s patronal feast day. His Grace was co-served by parish rector Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov, Archpriest Alexander Belya (dean of New York City), Archpriest George Kallaur (rector of “Unexpected Joy” Church in Staten Island, NY), Archpriest Liubo Milosevich (rector of Holy Trinity Church in Vineland, NJ), Archpriest Mark Burachek (rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ), Archpriest Petro Kunitsky (cleric of Holy New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn, NY), Archpriest Boris Slootsky (cleric of neighboring St. George’s Church in Howell), Priest Seraphim Chemodakov (parish cleric), Priest Serge Ledkovsky (deputy rector of neighboring St. Vladimir Memorial Church in Jackson), and Protodeacon Michael Soloviev (cleric of Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Albany, NY). Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell became the first church in the Eastern American Diocese in which the newly consecrated Bishop Nicholas celebrated the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy. Greeting His Grace, Fr. Valery wished him God’s aid in his service to the Holy Church, and that in his Archpastoral service he might never forget his glorious forebearers the hierarchs of the Russian Church Abroad. Many of the church’s parishioners, as well as faithful from Brooklyn and across New York City, came to mark the parish feast day of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church and to honor the wonderworking Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. This icon, preserved in Howell, is renowned as the “Royal Icon:” in 1972, it was donated to what was then St. Alexander Nevsky Church by Lakewood resident Olga V. Astori-Astafiev, whose mother received the icon as a gift from the Holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in 1913. |
| Jordanville, NY: Washington Parish’s 20th Annual Pilgrimage to Jose Muñoz-Cortes’ Grave Source: Eastern American Diocese, ROCOR In 2018, the children of the Church mark the 36th anniversary of the appearance of the myrrh-streaming Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (November 24, 1982), the 21st anniversary of the martyric death of its guardian, Brother Jose Muñoz-Cortes (October 31, 1997), and the 11th anniversary of the appearance of the myrrh-streaming Hawaiian-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (October 6, 2007). Preparations for the Washington Cathedral of St. John the Baptist’s 20th annual pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY began long before that event. Registration opened after the parish’s patronal feast of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner & Baptist of the Lord, and in a matter of days, all of the seats on the tour bus had been reserved. In preparation for the two-day visit to the “Diasporan Lavra,” provisions had to be purchased and food prepared for the many pilgrims and for the monastic brotherhood. From the very first of the pilgrimages, this had been the parish’s practice, so as not to excessively distract the monks from their vocation of prayer; it was a practice requested by the ever-memorable abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery and First Hierarch of ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus (Skurla; +2008). One week before the Washington pilgrimage, on October 27/28, Archpriest Serge Lukianov brought a group of parishioners from the Diocesan Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Howell, NJ to the “Diasporan Lavra” to honor the memory of Jose Muñoz-Cortes. On Friday, November 2, the eve of the pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery, pilgrims who lived far from Washington arrived in the nation’s capital to spend the night in the parish house, to go to Confession, and to join in preparations. The local group of pilgrims was joined by Orthodox Christians from the West Coast of the United States, other states, and Canada. The wonderworking, myrrh-streaming “Hawaiian” Iveron Icon of the Mother of God was brought from far-off Honolulu, and arrived at the cathedral at 8:00 PM on November 2. It was brought by Priest Athanasius Kone, the newly appointed rector of the Honolulu parish of the Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. The church was filled to capacity for a moleben and akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos. After the service, four priests of the cathedral heard pilgrims’ confessions. |
| Patriarch Kirill Meets with a Delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland Source: DECR On September 5, 2018, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with Archbishop Tapio Luoma of Turku and All Finland and a delegation of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland at the St. Petersburg diocesan administration in the St. Alexander Nevsky Laura of the Holy Trinity. Welcoming the guests, Patriarch Kirill congratulated Archbishop Tapio Luoma on his election as head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. ‘We consider your Church and the people who belong to your Church to be our friends’, His Holiness said, ‘Today we mark the 40 th anniversary of the demise of His Eminence Nikodim, remembering, among other things, his contribution and that of Archbishop Martti Simojoki to the establishment of special relations between our Churches. ‘I personally participated in the very first steps undertaken by our Church for mutual rapprochement. I have already recalled on several occasions how Easter was celebrated at the St. Nicholas’s Cathedral in 1966 according to the statute precisely because Metropolitan Nikodim invited Archbishop Martti Simojoki to take part in the procession with the cross. Each year the authorities tried to frustrate the procession by provoking violent clashes; many Orthodox people simply suffered, and now, we managed for the first time to celebrate Pascha peacefully because walking around St. Nicholas’s together with Metropolitan Nikodim was Martti Simojoki. Of course, we remember those remarkable pages in our bilateral relations with gratitude. ‘Today it is not so easy in our relations, not through the fault of the Russian Orthodox Church and, perhaps, not through the fault of the Finnish Lutheran Church. But what is happening in Western Protestantism creates new obstacles for our relations. Nevertheless, we continue to regard you as our privileged partners among all the Protestant churches in the world. I do not know whether it will keep you from steps that make our dialogue difficult, but I wanted to say that. |
| Patriarch Kirill Speaks on the Importance of Unanimity Photo: Sergei Vlasov/patriarchia.ru On November 29, 2020, the 25th Sunday after Pentecost, the commemoration day of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia officiated the Divine Liturgy at St. Alexander Nevsky Church near Peredelkino, reports the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered the following sermon: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! In the passage from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, which was read today during the Divine Liturgy, we heard the following words: “I beseech you, brothers, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (see Eph. 4: 1-3). These are amazing words. The Apostle does not ask, but begs people to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that is, he speaks of the reality that alone is capable of truly uniting people. There is a word that seems to cover the call of the Apostle Paul to establish a special relationship with each other. This word is “unanimity.” Sometimes it is replaced by the word “like-mindedness”, but like-mindedness is only part of what the word “unanimity” encompasses. Like-mindedness presupposes the presence of common thoughts and common beliefs. Like-mindedness is absolutely essential in life when people are united by common goals. For example, if those who are working on a difficult problem do not reach consensus, there will be no result. Like-mindedness is needed in scientific work, production activities, in many other areas of human life, where different people participate in a certain common process, because without like-mindedness this process is impossible. But unanimity is something else entirely. Unanimity is unity in the spirit. And what is spirit? It is known that God is the Spirit, and all other explanations of the concept of “spirit” are imperfect. They are imperfect as much as human imagination and human knowledge are limited. We do not know what spirit is, because we do not know who God is in all His fullness; we know about God only what He Himself tells us about Himself. Unanimity, in all likelihood, is impossible without God. There can be like-mindedness. We know, as I have already said above, that much cannot be accomplished in human life without like-mindedness. But a single soul, and unity that people find in spiritual life, are a great gift from God. |
| Persecution, Church Seizures, and Vandalism Ramp up in Pat. Bartholomew’s Post-Tomos Ukraine Source: OrthoChristian Ukraine, January 15, 2019 – Whereas the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church was experiencing intimidation before, the state authorities have now moved into repressions against the Church, says His Eminence Archbishop Theodosy of Boyarka . Since the creation of a new nationalist structure at the “unification council” on December 15 and the granting of a tomos of autocephaly by Patriarch Bartholomew to “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko on January 6, the canonical Ukrainian Church has experienced increased persecution from the state and nationalist-schismatics. The community of the St. Alexander Nevsky Church in Vinnitsa, located on the territory of a higher professional school, was suddenly forced to evacuate the premises after 13 years and take all their belongings, including the dome on the roof. Several Ukrainian outlets subsequently reported that the priest had destroyed and even set fire to the church in protest of some parishioners supporting the new nationalist church, though the Vinnitsa Diocese refuted this lie. The priest and community of a 340-year-old church in the village of Vorsovka have been locked out of their church, after the warden and candle stand worker at the church collected signatures from throughout the village, whether parishioners or not, to move the parish to the nationalist church. The schismatics had previously tried to demand that the rector, Fr. Basil, stop commemorating His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in the services. Fr. Basil was also hospitalized with a hypertensive crisis. Despite a meeting being called by supporters of the schismatic church to try to force the local church to transfer to the schismatic structure, the residents of the village of Dunaets in the Sumy Province voted almost unanimously to keep their St. George Church in the canonical Church. In the Uman Diocese , the Church of She Who is Quick to Hear was vandalized with graffiti reading “ROC FSB? [Russian Orthodox Church-Federal Security Service of Russia].” |
| Ukrainian military are pressuring Donbas Orthodox Christians – Metropolitan Onufry Source: Interfax-religion The men insulted the priest, asked how much money he was sending to Moscow, and accused him of assisting bandits. The men also searched the priest " s residence and demanded that he leave the territory of Ukraine within two days and give them the documents for the church along with a contract for the entire church property, the report says. Natalya Mihailova 05 August 2014 Moscow, August 4, Interfax - Metropolitan Onufry of Chernovtsy and Bukovina, the locum tenens of the Kiev Metropolia, has accused the Ukrainian military of pressuring Orthodox Christians in Donbass. “I have to state violations of the rights and freedoms of believers and interference in the work of parishes of the Donetsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the militant contingent in eastern Ukraine,” the metropolitan said in his address to Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko released by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church press service. Metropolitan Onufry asked the president to “personally intervene in this situation and do everything possible to prevent such actions by the military from occurring again.” He said that Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol had reported to him violations of believers’ rights and freedoms and interference in the work of the parishes of the Donetsk Diocese. Specifically, he mentioned an incident that occurred in the village of Krasnoarmeyskoye, Donetsk Region, on July 30, when a car carrying armed men arrived at the residence of Igor Sergienko, the father superior of the Church of Alexander Nevsky. The men insulted the priest, asked how much money he was sending to Moscow, and accused him of assisting bandits. The men also searched the priest’s residence and demanded that he leave the territory of Ukraine within two days and give them the documents for the church along with a contract for the entire church property, the report says. Metropolitan Onufry said a similar thing happened to Archpriest Yevgeny Podgorny, dean of the Amvrosiyevka District, on July 30. |
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