| Translation of St. Mark’s relics (mosaic in St. Mark’s Basilica) Or perhaps they cheated not only the customs agents, but also the Egyptian Christians by simply stealing these relics? This is quite possible, since the Basilica of San Marco was later adorned with treasures taken by the Venetians from Byzantium. And it is perfectly certain that the merchants were motivated not only by piety, but also by political calculation. Venice was then an Italian backwater, but wanted to become a strong, independent state. For this to happen, it was necessary first of all to acquire a powerful heavenly patron. If the city of Rome could take pride in having the chair of the Apostle Peter, then now Venice would have the relics of another Apostle: Mark! From then on, the Venetians began to tell the legend that the Apostle had one been on these islands (the city did not yet exist) and that an angel appeared to him and said: “Peace be upon you, Mark! Here will rest your body.” That is why throughout Venice you can see a lion with an open book. This same lion appeared on the coat of arms, not of Italy, but of Montenegro, along with the Byzantine double-headed eagle, because part of today’s Montenegrin coast once belonged to Venice. This story was most likely invented by the Venetians themselves to justify their actions, but it demonstrates how closely entwined fact and faction, religious devotion and political calculation were in medieval Christianity. The time would come when another new state, which would be called Rus’, would also choose one of the twelve – Andrew – and begin relating how he had preached Christianity on the future site of Kiev, how he had predicted its glorious future, and even how he had steamed himself in the famous Russian bathhouses. Such stories may not correspond entirely to reality, but they do clearly demonstrate that the faithful have always sought kinship with the Apostles: not only to venerate their memory, but to incorporate them into their family circle, to trace their own kin to them. It is not so important which specific lands were visited by which Apostle twenty centuries ago: it is much more important whether the current inhabitants of these lands follow the path they indicated. |
| Manuscript of Great Historic Importance Found in Istanbul May 16, 2012 An important manuscript was discovered in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Topkapi was the residence of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years. The manuscript found is of significant meaning, because it consists of information regarding the years before the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, but it also describes the early years after Constantinople was turned into Istanbul and became capital of Turkey. The document belongs to Michael Critovoulos, a Greek politician, scholar and historian, who lived between 1410 and 1470. His birth-name was Kritopoulos, but he changed it to sound more ancient Greek-like. He experienced the Siege and Fall of Constantinople and wrote about Mehmed II the Conqueror. The discovery sheds light on issues, such as taxation during the Fall, relationships between Greeks and Ottomans, the contention between Venetians and Genoese. Critovoulos refers also to the construction of the Rumeli Hisari fortress, which was the knockout blow for the Byzantine Istanbul. The chronicle of destruction and looting of the city by the Ottomans, in order to make it their capital, is also mentioned. His book, according to the Turkish website Hubermonitor.com, was printed with the contribution of the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Foundation. This will be a bilingual issue, having the original manuscript and the Turkish translation by Aris Tsokonas on the one page and the colourful photocopy of the text on the other. The book will be presented at Pera Museum, located in Istanbul, on May 21. 21 мая 2012 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| What Ever Happened to the Holy Altar of Hagia Sophia After 1453? According to legend, after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, three Venetian ships fled the city filled with various relics to avoid their capture by the Turks, but the third which carried the Holy Altar of Hagia Sophia, sank into the waters of the Bosphorus in the Marmara region. Since then, in the exact area of the sinking, the sea is always calm and serene, no matter what weather conditions are prevailing in the area. This phenomenon is testified by modern Turkish scientists, who have attempted at various times to discover the cause of this strange phenomenon, but due to the muddy composition of the seabed, their efforts have been fruitless. In the book by Dorotheos of Monemvasia titled A Chronicle from the Creation of the World Up to 1629 (1781), we read: " The Venetians took the most wondrous and famous Holy Altar of Hagia Sophia, the much valued and most beautiful, out of the Temple and onto a ship, and as they set sail and headed for Venice, O the miracle! Near the island of Marmara the ship opened and out fell the Holy Altar into the sea, sinking where it remains today, and this is obvious and testified by many, for that entire area, when there is a storm, and the waves of the sea become fearsome, there is calmness in the place where the Holy Altar is and the sea remains undisturbed. And they go there with boats, to take water from that part of the sea where the Holy Altar is, and it smells of a wonderful fragrance, from holy myrrh and other fragrances. " The father of Greek folklore, Nicholas Politis (1852-1921), writes about the incident: " The day the City was taken, the Holy Altar was placed on a ship, to take it to France in order to not fall into the hands of the Turks. But there in the Sea of Marmara, the ship opened and the Holy Altar sank to the bottom. In that spot the sea is like oil, no matter how much of a sea storm is taking place around it. And this spot is always known by the calmness which is always there and the fragrance coming from it. Many have even been made worthy to see it in the depths of the sea. " It could be just another myth that has managed to survive for centuries in the hearts of the Greeks. But according to the local Turks of Istanbul today, this spot in the sea remains a real unexplained phenomenon. Mystagogy 17 июля 2015 г. Смотри также Комментарии Sally Iloff 11 января 2016, 06:00 What is made to serve God always remains to serve God in original form. God bless this holy place in the sea! Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| The Soviet film, Alexander Nevsky, to be shown at the Venice Film Festival Moscow, July 22, 2015 The great Soviet film, Alexander Nevsky, by the Soviet directors Sergei Eisenstein and Dmitry Vasiliev, recently restored by the Mosfilm cinema company, will be shown as part of the “Venetian Classics” retrospective competition program of the International Venice Film Festival, reports RIA-Novosti . The annual Venice Festival will be held September 2-12, 2015. Last year at the “Venetian Classics” program Russia was represented by the restored film by Georgy Daneliya, “Walking the Streets of Moscow”. “Embarking on the ‘Alexander Nevsky’ restoration, we thought that either the picture would take a very long time or there would be irremovable defects. The automatic cleaning yielded almost no results – there was much ‘noise’, a lot of movement throughout the film. All our restorers worked on this movie, and they cleaned practically every frame by hand,” the cinema company’s website cites the words of Mosfilm deputy director general Igor Bagdasarov. According to him, despite all difficulties, the Mosfilm specialists managed to remove all imperfections “and the picture has been renewed at the highest quality.” The first International Venice Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale d " Arte Cinematografica) was held in 1932 as part of the Venetian biannual festival. Since 1934, the film festival has been held annually (its history was interrupted only twice: in 1943-45 and in the 1970s) in August-September on the island of Lido. It is one of the most authoritative festivals in the field of cinematographic art. St. Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (c. 1220-1263) is venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church as “a holy right-believing prince”. In 2008 “Alexander Nevsky” became the winner of “The Name of Russia” Russian national television contest. 3 августа 2015 г. Смотри также Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Andrei Vinogradov: “He lived in his hometown of Patara as a layman and distributed money to the poor. Then by command of God he went to the city of Myra, where at that very moment he was chosen as bishop. He was the first person to enter the church. One of the bishops had had a vision that the first to enter the church was to become bishop.” Narrator: The high forehead, eagle nose, round gray beard, and height of five and a half feet – the appearance of St. Nicholas on icons is close to his actual appearance established by anthropologists. The older the icon the more reliable it is. The anthropologists who studied the saint’s relics found confirmation of facts from his life: the person whose remains are preserved in Italy ate only vegetarian food and lived for many years in the cold and damp – Nicholas the God-pleaser spent eight years in prison. The relics preserved in Bari were studied in the 1950s. In 1987 anthropologists opened the tomb in Venice and discovered that precisely the relics lacking in Apulia are preserved there. Andrei Vinogradov: “The people from Bari stole the relics at night. They were not able to take the smallest bones. It was these that the Venetians later took. In this way, more than four-fifths of the body has been preserved and are located in Bari and Venice.” Narrator: Another fifth of the authentic relics are scattered throughout the world. There are too many outside of Italy for all of them to be authentic. In the future DNA analysis may help stop the spread of false relics around the world. But the next goal of scholars of St. Nicholas is to discover exactly where the saint was buried in Myra in Lycia. Andrei Vinogradov: “There are three major versions. The Russian Church erected a monument where it considered it necessary. There are alternative versions: some people base themselves on the remnants of coffins located in the church; this is the most venerated place in the church. It may be that archeological excavations will clarify this issue.” |
| " Crete became a refuge for icon painters in this time, and the paintings produced there combined the grand traditions of Byzantium with subtle influences creeping in from Western Europe. People familiar with the paintings of Cretan-born artist El Greco will see exactly what motivated his art when they see these images. " Ruled by somewhat tolerant Venetians, Crete was a fertile land for icon painting. " Although they were Catholic, they were slightly more tolerant than the Ottoman Empire. It was not necessarily easy to practice Orthodoxy at all times in Crete, but it was definitely easier than anywhere else, " Morrison explains. Crete was also a very wealthy community, with its developed trade enabling the islanders to move freely. After Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, most of the renowned artists and icon painters fled to Candia - nowadays Iraklion - to set up art schools. Icons were created by priests and monks, but more importantly, there were family workshops. Crete of the 15th and 16th century was the most important area in the Greek-speaking land where the icons were being produced. In those family workshops traditional techniques were passed on from father to son, from father to nephew. Work was commissioned in Crete for Mount Athos, the centre of the Orthodox Christianity. " It has always been regarded as a holy activity and it " s very different from western art where the name of the artist is almost more important than the art work itself. Many icons are actually anonymous, as traditionally artists were not expected to sign their works. " Around 1800, influences from Western Europe brought the ancient icon painting tradition close to an end. The tradition has been somewhat revived in Greece and Russia since. In Morrison " s eyes, icons are powerful form of visual prayer - that " s why he finds it of utter importance for visitors with no connection to Orthodox Christianity to realise that these are not just pretty pictures there to decorate the inside of the church or to tell people stories about saints from the past. |
| ‘Already in the 8 century, Arab raids began, in which Orthodox churches were looted and Orthodox shrines destroyed. They were followed by Turkish raids. The relics of the saint were under a continued threat’, the metropolitan continued, ‘Knowing it, people in the two western cities, Venice and Bari, decided to take away the relics from Myra in Lycia. Upon their arrival in the city, they proposed that monks should sell the shrine for 300 gold coins. After the monks refused with indignation, they were tied, guards were placed at the church, and the relics of St. Nicholas were extracted from the tomb, loaded on a ship and brought to Bari. Some part of the relics (about one third of them) remained in Myra in Lycia and was a little later stolen by Venetian mercenaries who came to the city. This part of the relics was brought to Venice and placed on Lido Island, where they are kept to this day’. ‘This story was nothing but a theft; nevertheless, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates it as the translation of relics and a great church feast’, His Eminence noted, stressing that, first of all, it is associated with the veneration of St. Nicholas who has been venerated in Rus’ from time of old. It is assumed that this feast day was established in Rus already in the late 11 century, that is, just a few years after the relics were translated from Myra in Lycia to Bari. ‘The reason was that if the relics had remained in Myra in Lycia, nobody knowed whether they would have survived at all’, His Eminence explained, ‘It is quite possible that they would be stolen or destroyed just as many shrine were in Asia Minor. Therefore, during the liturgy on the Day of the Translation of the Relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra in Lycia we say that it was God’ providence that worked in that event for the honorable relics to be preserved and become a shrine for Christians in East and West’. Metropolitan Hilarion said. He also pointed out that the bringing of the honorable relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Russia is a special event for the Russian Orthodox Church in which St. Nicholas is venerated so deeply. Suffice it to see how many churches are dedicated to him in various cities and villages in Russia and other countries in which the Moscow Patriarchate is present. ‘The bringing of the relics of St, Nicholas to Moscow is a great event for many believers who will come to venerate the great saint’, he stated. |
| Luke is also a master of artistic detail. He describes how Jesus healed ten lepers, who went to the Temple in order to live henceforth among other healthy and happy people. Only one returns to thank the Healer: and he was a Samaritan (Luke 17:16). A despised alien, an outsider! Perhaps the remaining nine tolerated him only so long as they were all leprous outcasts, but now they are going to the Temple, which the Samaritan cannot enter, and he has no choice but to part from them? Or perhaps he thought of simple human gratitude precisely because he was not able to perform the rite? Thus it happened that the person who was most distant, the Samarian, suddenly became the one who was closest – just as in the other parable about mercy. There is something worth pondering here. Luke accompanied Paul on one of his missionary journeys, which he describes thoroughly in Acts, constantly using the pronoun “we” while never saying anything about himself personally. This, too, is a vivid personality trait! The level of detail in the depiction of Paul, his unfailing teacher and companion from the moment they left to preach, is matched only by the inconspicuousness of the author himself. After the death of the Apostle Paul, Luke continued his missionary work in Italy, Gaul, Dalmatia, Greece, and Africa. He preached the Gospel in these countries, established Christian communities, and healed the sick – not only as a physician, but as an Apostle. He was martyred in old age in the Greek city of Thebes, where he was crucified on an olive tree for lack of a prepared cross. His body was buried there; later, in the fourth century, it was taken to Constantinople. His relics remained there until the Turkish conquest, after which they, like many other sacred objects, fell into the hands of the Venetians. Today they are preserved in the Italian city of Padua; a portion of these relics was returned to Thebes in the 1990s. The Apostle’s memory is celebrated on April 22 and October 18 (Old Calendar). |
| The solidity and thorough consideration with which he approached every problem that he happened to encounter is truly amazing not only for those times, but unparalleled for all times. It is precisely thanks to this that the educational system created by St. Cosmas of Aetolia did not fall apart even after his death, but to the contrary, continued to function and develop. The first source of funds for building schools was a portion of the community and church lands and their income. The next source was donations and gifts brought to the saint, which he very quickly directed towards the building of new schools. People donated to the saint for schools and for personal needs; the benefactors included the Orthodox, and wealthy Turks as well. He never left anything for himself, but directed all the funds towards the construction of new educational institutions. If donations were insufficient, he organized a collection amongst the people. Thus, the observer for the Venetian authorities, Dimitri Mamonas, speaking of a three-day collection of funds organized at the preacher " s initiative, testifies that he gathered a colossal sum. Providing the schools with everything necessary, St. Cosmas called the local people themselves to take initiative and an active civil position. From then on, they were supposed to participate in the upkeep of the schools and finance them from both community funds and personal donations. " Seeing here in your villages that you have no school where your children might read and freely gain literacy, I asked the Christians, and they aided in the founding of a school according to their ability and desire. But all of you should also help your school, from your own means or on community money … in order to receive a reward from God and honor from people. " " And you, parents … take care that your children learn to read. Make it so that there would be a school in your village, find a teacher and pay him, so that he would teach your children; after all, you commit a great sin by leaving them illiterate … It would be better if they be poor and literate, then rich and illiterate. " St. Cosmas places the child in the center of the educational process, marks for him a separate, significant role in the social structure of society. " A child is a future adult; and for Cosmas and his epoch, he is the future liberator of an enslaved homeland. This child should have a proper formation, learn to read, take the fate of his Fatherland in his own hands. The saint struggled for its sake, opened schools, sent epistles, counseled, and created conditions for its enlightenment. " |
| P. Antonio Arganda 27 апреля 2017, 03:30 Met. Hilarion is of the school of thought that Roman sacraments are " valid " . The differences between the Orthodox and the R.C.s are reduced to differences of opinion. He believes that Roman sacraments are completely valid. The ecclesial theology of St. Hilarion Troitsky is completely ignored as are the thoughts of many Orthodox canonists. It should be remembered that the Frankish heresy did not adopt baptism by infusion until 1311. Anthony 5 октября 2016, 16:38 @ Jesse Dominick - apologies, my comment was wrongly framed - I meant to say the article compares St Seraphim and pseudo Saint Francis, and shows just how disparate their spirituality is, in other words encouraging people to read it to see and understand the differences. Jesse Dominick 5 октября 2016, 11:55 Anthony, to be clear, the article comparing St. Seraphim and Francis of Assisi is in no way favorable to Francis. Anthony 4 октября 2016, 20:22 As a Greek Cypriot whose own home Church is spiralling into freefall heretical ecumenism and communion with the heretics, and as one who is now under Moscow, I find this extremely disappointing. Comparisons have been made in articles such as the one that appears above these comments, between St Seraphim of Sarov, and the prelest riddled, hapless pseudo- " " saint " " francis of assisi. And now someone from the ROC is giving a part of these holy relics to heretics. For what? Has 75 years of enslavement to godlessness not taught these people anything. Look at the spiritual state of Russia prior to the revolution. It " s this exact dabbling with heresy that brings the wrath of God. What a disgrace. Fr. Peter Olsen 4 октября 2016, 17:12 On the Russian Orthodox calendar we celebrate the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas to Bari, Italy in 1087. Note that this was after the schism, and the relics were actually stolen by Venetians. The relics were put in the church of St. Stephen, I " m sure a church that still commemorated the Pope. The circumstances surrounding this were certainly different than gifting relics to the pope, but I always found it odd that it was God " s will that relics of an Orthodox saint should be transferred to heretics, and that it would even be celebrated on our church calendar. |
|
|
