| Relics of Bucharest’s Patron Saint Placed for Veneration Outside Patriarchal Cathedral Source: Basilica.ro Marking the beginning of a three-day celebration in honour of Bucharest’s Patron Saint, four priests led by a bishop carried the relics of Saint Demetrios the New outside the patriarchal cathedral during a small procession on Sunday morning. The reliquary was placed in a baldachin next to the cathedral where pilgrims from Bucharest are expected to come and offer prayers to the Saint who delivered the city from plague several times. “It has been almost two and a half centuries since the relics of Saint Demetrios were brought to the metropolitan cathedral,” noted the assistant bishop Timotei of Prahova on Oct. 25. “If we look carefully at various important places in the Christian world, we notice that God’s saints have chosen certain places for the piety of rulers, great boyars, and the people. This was also the case during the time of the pious Metropolitan Gregory II, who, together with a lover of holy places and relics of saints, Hagi Dimitrie, made it possible for the relics of St. Demetrios to remain in Bucharest on their way to Kiev.” “On his feast day, but also on the other days, St. Demetrios urges us to keep the faith and the holy traditions of this Romanian land.” “He reminds the people of Bucharest and everyone else that he presented their prayers to the Most Merciful God in time of trial, so that St. Demetrios came in time to be considered the protector of the city of Bucharest, His Holiness told Radio Trinitas. Priests carrying the reliquary containing the holy relics of Saint Demetrios the New. Photo: Basilica.ro/Mircea Florescu. Bucharesters will also have the opportunity to venerate the relics of Saint Stylianos of Paphlagonia, who is considered the protector of children. The reliquaries are covered with a transparent glass and disinfected by volunteers after each worshiper. Photo: Basilica.ro/Mircea Florescu. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s celebrations of Saint Demetrios the New were reduced to three days. Only people from Bucharest are allowed to venerate the Saint’s holy relics respecting strict social-distancing measures. |
| What is Orthodoxy? Orthodoxy is not only the sum total of dogmas accepted as true in a purely formal manner. It is not only theory, but practice; it is not only right Faith, but a life which agrees in everything with this Faith. The true Orthodox Christian is not only he who thinks in an Orthodox manner, but who feels according to Orthodoxy and lives Orthodoxy, who strives to embody the true Orthodox teaching of Christ in his life. Source: ON THE FIRST SUNDAY of the Great Fast our Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, the victory of true Christian teaching over all perversions and distortions thereof—heresies and false teachings. On the second Sunday of the Great Fast it is as though this triumph of Orthodoxy is repeated and deepened in connection with the celebration of the memory of one of the greatest pillars of Orthodoxy, the hierarch Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, who by his grace-bearing eloquence and the example of his highly ascetic private life put to shame the teachers of falsehood who dared reject the very essence of.Orthodoxy, the podvig of prayer and fasting, which enlightens the human mind with the light of grace and makes it a communicant of the divine glory. Alas! How few people there are in our times, even among the educated, and at times even among contemporary “theologians” and those in the ranks of the clergy, who understand correctly what Orthodoxy is and wherein its essence lies. They approach this question in an utterly external, formal manner and resolve it too primitively, even naively, overlooking its depths completely and not at all seeing the fullness of its spiritual contents. The superficial opinion of the majority notwithstanding, Orthodoxy is not merely another of the many “Christian confessions” now in existence, or as it is expressed here in America “denominations.” Orthodoxy is the true, undistorted, unperverted by any human sophistry or invention, genuine teaching of Christ in all its purity and fullness—the teaching of faith and piety which is life according to the Faith. |
| Saint Romanos Melodos: The Lyric Poetry and Drama of Great Friday Lives of Saints Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 Saint Romanos Melodos: The Lyric Poetry and Drama of Great Friday By Reader Gregory Dobrov Oct 14, 2010, 09:59 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Source: Orthodox America For my first, and best, teachers of Greek -- Dr. Melvin Mansur and Fr. Ioannikios (Abernathy) The Orthodox Church exhorts us " to sing with understanding " (Ps. 46:8, I Cor. 14:15), that is, to be more than passive spectators or consumers of " sacred culture. " A wonderful education awaits us if we actively seek out and study its resources for the spiritual life - patristic writings, lives of saints, church history, iconography, and Divine services. The faithful are invited to own these treasures, including church music and hymnography, which are often wrongly regarded as belonging only to certain " experts. " In the attentive participant, the wealth of liturgical verse inspires many questions: When and by whom were the texts of the various service books composed? What are the genres of verse (troparion, irmos etc.) and how are they distributed in services of different types? How did the poetry and music of the Church develop and how do they differ from secular arts? No account of this subject would be complete without mention of Saint Romanos Melodos, whom many scholars consider to be not only the preeminent poet of the Byzantine period but the greatest poet of the early Middle Ages in any language. He was the recipient of a poetic tradition that looked back to Saints Ephraim of Syria, Proclus, and Melito of Sardis. His heirs, in turn, were the great hymnographers of the following centuries: Saints Andrew of Crete, John Damascene, Germanos and Cosmas among them. His prominence in this choir of Orthodox hymnographers is emphasized in many icons of the Protection of the Theotokos, such as the Novgorod example printed here. In what follows, I introduce Saint Romanos " art as a Christian appropriation of ancient " lyric " and " dramatic " concepts for which his Lament of the Theotokos supplies a vivid illustration. |
| Annual Episcopal Assembly opens with clergy-laity gathering in Dallas Source: OCA Natalya Mihailova 17 September 2014 DALLAS, TX. The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America commenced its fifth annual meeting on Monday, September 15, 2014 with a Pan-Orthodox clergy-laity gathering in Dallas, TX. Some 200 people attended, including more than 30 bishops representing the member jurisdictions of the Assembly. hoto credits: Dimitrios Panagos/GOA The evening began with a Doxology—a service of thanksgiving—presided over by the Chairman of the Assembly, His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios of America. He welcomed those in attendance, remarking that the Doxology was an opportunity to thank God for all His gifts and for bringing the Assembly together once again. He expressed his wish that the evening would make the faithful more aware of the sacred and great work that the Lord is doing through the Assembly. Following the Doxology, a panel of bishops answered questions submitted by those in attendance. Questions pertained to the work of the Assembly, including youth ministry, inter-church relations, evangelism and outreach, and challenges facing the Orthodox Church today, including questions of language, administrative reorganization, and the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Five bishops were on the panel: Archbishop Demetrios (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America); His Grace, Bishop Basil (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America); His Grace, Bishop John (Russian Orthodox Church in the USA), His Eminence, Archbishop Nicolae (Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese); and His Grace, Bishop Gregory (American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese). The panel was moderated by Archimandrite Nathanael Symeonides, a member of the Assembly’s Secretariat. The evening concluded with a meal and fellowship in the church hall. The Assembly is grateful to the parish of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, which hosted the event, and the numerous Orthodox parishes in the Dallas area that helped make the evening fruitful. |
| Patriarch Kirill Chairs a Meeting of the Church Post-Graduate School’s Supervisory Board admin 07 December 2012 December 5, 2012 – His Holiness Patriarch Kirill chaired a meeting of the supervisory board of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Post-Graduate and Doctoral School, at the patriarchal residence in St. Daniel’s Monastery, Moscow. Among the members of the board are Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations and rector of the Church Post-Graduate School, Archbishop Yevgeny if Vereya, chairman of the ROC Education Committee and rector of Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, Bishop Ambrose of Gatchina, rector of St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary, and Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyev, rector of the St. Tikhon Orthodox Humanitarian University. The meeting was also attended by governmental officials and representatives of public organizations and business community, among them S. Stepashin, president of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society; Minister of Justice A. Konovalov; A. Beglob, deputy head of the Presidential Administration; S. Chemezov, director of the Rostechnologia state corporation; V. Yakunin, co-founder of the St. Gregory the Theologian Charity; N. Alekperova, president of the Lukoil Charity; sponsors A. Ananyev and S. Plastilin; A. Sokolov, rector of Moscow State Conservatoire, and others. Greeting the meeting, Patriarch Kirill stressed the important role played by the Church Post-Graduate School in the higher theological education system of the Russian Orthodox Church. Addressing the history of the Church during the persecution for faith in the 20 th century, His Holiness underscored that it was marked with numerous losses. ‘For an external observer, these losses were associated with the loss of visible material signs of church life, such as churches and monasteries. But perhaps the severest blow was delivered against the Russian Orthodox Church’s education system. Not to mention even the parish schools, which had existed in the Russian Empire and which had actually provided preliminary education for our people, but to limit ourselves to theological institutions proper, we still have to state that almost everything was eliminated. A timid regeneration took place only after the Great Patriotic War’, he said. |
| Metropolitan Tikhon welcomes Serbian Patriarch Irinej Source: OCA Natalya Mihailova 14 September 2015 On Friday evening, September 11, 2015, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America and President of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary here, welcomed His Holiness, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia to the seminary campus, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate during an academic convocation and delivered a well-received lecture. On Friday evening, September 11, 2015, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America and President of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary here, welcomed His Holiness, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia to the seminary campus, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate during an academic convocation and delivered a well-received lecture. Patriarch Irinej’s visit came just days after he presided at the canonization of Saints Sebastian [Dabovich] of San Francisco and Jackson , the first American-born Orthodox priest, and Mardarije [Uskokovic] of Libertyville, the first bishop of the Serbian Diocese in America, which took place in Alhambra, CA on Saturday, September 5. Accompanying Patriarch Irinej were His Grace, Bishop Maxim of the Western American Diocese; His Grace, Bishop Mitrophan of the Eastern American Diocese; and His Grace, Bishop Justin of Zica. Metropolitan Tikhon and the seminary clergy, faculty, staff, students, trustees and guests welcomed Patriarch Irinej in the seminary’s Three Hierarch’s Chapel, where he venerated the relics of Saint Vladimir and the Holy Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. After the singing of the troparia of the newly glorified Saints Sebastian and Mardarije, Metropolitan Tikhon offered official greetings on behalf of the OCA Holy Synod of Bishops and presented the Patriarch with a panagia. Mr. Alex Machaskee, SVOTS Board Chair, led the hierarchs and attendees into the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium, where Metropolitan Tikhon opened the academic convocation, at which Archpriest Dr. John Behr, Dean, presided. Father John offered a biographical sketch of Patriarch Irinej, after which the text of the Doctorate Honoris Causa was read. After the Patriarch was invested with the academic hood and doctoral cross, he delivered his lecture, titled “Theology as a Hope for the Future of the Church.” [The full text of Patriarch Irinej’s lecture appears below.] |
| Serbian Patriarch Irinej receives Doctorate Honoris Causa at St. Vladimir’s/Православие.Ru Serbian Patriarch Irinej receives Doctorate Honoris Causa at St. Vladimir’s September 14, 2015 Patriarch Irinej’s visit came just days after he presided at the canonization of Saints Sebastian [Dabovich] of San Francisco and Jackson, the first American-born Orthodox priest, and Mardarije [Uskokovic] of Libertyville, the first bishop of the Serbian Diocese in America, which took place in Alhambra, CA on Saturday, September 5. Accompanying Patriarch Irinej were His Grace, Bishop Maxim of the Western American Diocese; His Grace, Bishop Mitrophan of the Eastern American Diocese; and His Grace, Bishop Justin of Zica; dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade protopresbyter-stavrophor Dr. Predrag Puzovic; Professor Dr. Bogoljub Sijakovic etc. Metropolitan Tikhon and the seminary clergy, faculty, staff, students, trustees and guests welcomed Patriarch Irinej in the seminary’s Three Hierarch’s Chapel, where he venerated the relics of Saint Vladimir and the Holy Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. After the singing of the troparia of the newly glorified Saints Sebastian and Mardarije, Metropolitan Tikhon offered official greetings on behalf of the OCA Holy Synod of Bishops and presented the Patriarch with a panagia. Mr. Alex Machaskee, SVOTS Board Chair, led the hierarchs and attendees into the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium, where Metropolitan Tikhon opened the academic convocation, at which Archpriest Dr. John Behr, Dean, presided. Father John offered a biographical sketch of Patriarch Irinej, after which the text of the Doctorate Honoris Causa was read. After the Patriarch was invested with the academic hood and doctoral cross, he delivered his lecture, titled “Theology as a Hope for the Future of the Church.” [The full text of Patriarch Irinej’s lecture appears below.] Patriarch Irinej, the 45th Patriarch of Serbia, was enthroned in his present position in January 2010. He was ordained as a hieromonk in 1959. After his consecration to the episcopacy, he served as Bishop of Moravica and Nis prior to his election as Patriarch. He also was both a professor and rector of Prizren Seminary. |
| Patriarch John X of Antioch’s enthronement celebrations in Beirut admin 18 February 2013 February 17, 2013 – the Russian Orthodox Church’s delegation led by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, took part in the celebrations on the occasion of the enthronement of His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of the Great Antioch of All the East. The celebrations began with the Divine Liturgy celebrated in St. Nicholas’s Cathedral in Beirut by Patriarch John X, Archbishop Chrysostomos of New Justiniana and All Cyprus and Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. Participating in the liturgy were hierarchs and clergy of the Local Orthodox Churches who came to Beirut for the celebrations. Among the worshippers were Lebanon’s President M. Suleiman, Labanon’s Prime Minister N. Mikati, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon A. Zasypkin, Ukrainian ambassador V. Koval, and other diplomats accredited in Beirut. There were also Cardinal K. Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Cardinal Al-Rahi, Greek-Catholic Melkite Patriarch Gregory III, Syro-Malabar Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III, Syriac Jacobite Patriarch Mar Ignatius Zakka I Ivas of Antioch, Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia, as well as representatives of other non-Orthodox confessions and public figures in Lebanon and Syria. Prayers were said in Arabic, Greek, Latin, Church Slavonic, Georgian, Serbian, Romanian, Czech, French, English and German. During the grand reception after the liturgy, Metropolitan Hilarion brought the following message to Patriarch John X from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia: ‘Your Beatitude, Beloved Brother in Christ and Concelebrant at God’s Altar: By God’s Providence and by the will of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Antioch guided by the Holy Spirit, you have been called to the patriarchal ministry and installed at the glorious throne of the Holy Chief Apostles Peter and Paul in the land chosen by God. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion meets with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople Source: DECR Natalya Mihailova 07 July 2015 On July 5-6, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), was on a visit to Istanbul, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. On July 6, the DECR chairman met with His Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, at the Fanar residence of Patriarchs of Constantinople. In attendance were Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Archimandrite Bartholomew (Samaras), chief secretary of the Church of Constantinople Holy Synod, Deacon Joachim (Billis), assistant to the Holy Synod secretary, and Deacon Theodore (Shulga), DECR secretariat for inter-Orthodox relations. Metropolitan Hilarion conveyed to the Primate of the Church of Constantinople a message of greetings and best wishes from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Patriarch Bartholomew, in his turn, conveyed to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church the wishes of good health and success in his highly demanding work. During their long talk, the sides discussed a wide range of issues concerning inter-church cooperation in the preparations for a Pan-Orthodox Council planned to take place in 2016, as well as other topics on the agenda of bilateral relations between the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow. Metropolitan Hilarion shared his vision of the situation in the Middle East and a number of other regions of the world. Among the topics was also the preparation for celebrations to mark the millennium of the Russian presence on Holy Mount Athos. Before the meeting, Metropolitan Hilarion, accompanied by Archimandrite Vissarion (Komzias), venerated the relics of Ss Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George. After the meeting, Metropolitan Hilarion departed for Moscow. At the Istanbul airport, he was seen off by Mr. A. Yerkhov, Russian Federation general consul in Istanbul. |
| This Greek Teacher and His Two Students Commemorate Three Hierarchs Day on Tiny Greek Island Source: The Pappas Post On this tiny Greek island with no full time priest— and a school with only two students, the teacher, Mr. Tasos Ziaskas, saw it as his duty to celebrate the important Orthodox Christian Feast Day of the Three Hierarchs on January 31st. “On the island (of Arki), there may be no priest, but we couldn’t not celebrate the Protectors of Education and Letters,” the schoolteacher wrote on his Facebook page, adding that We thank the few residents of the island who came to follow our school’s celebration of the Three Hierarchs.” Photo: http://www.pappaspost.com/ A photo of Mr. Ziaskas and his class of two students went viral last October when they participated in the island’s celebration of Oxi Day on October 28th. In fact, they were the entire parade. The island is close to Patmos and boasts a population of 54 permanent residents, year round. The residents are largely fisherman, goat herders or work at one of the island’s four tavernas. The fact that his elementary school only has 2 students doesn’t get Mr. Ziaskas down, always remembering the holidays and feast days of the Church and organizing celebrations around them— even for his only two students. Photo: http://www.pappaspost.com/ The Three Hierarchs (Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom) were influential bishops who became saints of the Orthodox Church who were instrumental in shaping Christian theology and preserving the Greek language in the spreading of Christianity. Although each have their own feast day in the Orthodox Church, January 31st has been designated as Three Hierarchs Day and schools and churches throughout the world celebrate the saints, as well as the notion of Paideia, or Greek letters (education). Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. |
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