| An Interview with Iconographer Julia Bridget Hayes Source: Orthodox Arts Journal November 13, 2015 Julia Bridget Hayes is a talented iconographer working in Greece. Her work is a truly wonderful example of creativity within tradition. We asked to interview her and to share these images of her work that she might become better known to our readers. A. Gould: Julia, you were born in South Africa, but now you work in Greece. Did you discover the Orthodox faith there? J.B. Hayes: Andrew, I was already Orthodox when I came to Greece. My family was Anglican but we left the Anglican Church back in 1985 and entered the Orthodox Church in 1987. So I’ve been Orthodox for most of my life. A. Gould: How did you come to live and study there and how did you decide to pursue iconography as a serious vocation. J.B. Hayes: The thought of coming to Greece and studying here, let alone becoming an iconographer had actually never crossed my mind, and how all those things came about was nothing short of a miracle. I had always drawn since I was a child. When I finished high school I studied photography which was my dream, but during my second year I had to stop my studies for economic reasons. In every spare moment I had I painted and about a year after leaving Photography school, I’d reached rock bottom and didn’t know what to do with my life. In my despair I asked God why I could paint, why it was the thing I do best and what I was meant to do with it. And that is where the adventure began! Just two days later a priest saw something I had drawn and said he’d send me to Greece for 6 months to learn iconography! It was a year before I eventually arrived in Greece, and during that time I did a lot of soul searching reading up about the Orthodox Faith. And a crazy thought came to me – that I’d like to study theology, but that was impossible. Where and how would a girl from South Africa study Orthodox Theology? I put the idea aside and forgot about it. But nearly a year after the priest had told me he would send me to Greece, he told me once again, but this time he said that I would be going for 5 years…to university… and I had one night to decide what I would study! There was only one thing that I had ever contemplated studying at university – theology! So I came to Greece in 1997 with a bursary and studied theology at the University of Athens. I returned to South Africa for two years where I worked as an iconographer and also presented talks on Orthodox Iconography and did catechetical work. In 2005 I returned to Greece again for post-graduate studies in Liturgics. |
| There is a great temptation sometimes to think of the Saints as “those others” – to place them on a different plane and to think that their achievements are unattainable to us in our time and place. Today reminds us that that’s not at all true. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be! Every year, on the 2nd Sunday after the Great Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate the memory of All Saints of America, whether known or unknown. Really, the day is set aside for a local people to recognize their Saints – so in Greece it’s All Saints of Greece, and in Russia, All Saints of Russia, etc. This is one of those times liturgically that very beautifully brings us into direct contact with holy people who very literally have been where we are. There is a great temptation sometimes to think of the Saints as “those others” – to place them on a different plane and to think that their achievements are unattainable to us in our time and place. Today reminds us that that’s not at all true. There are people recognized as Saints (not to mention those we don’t even know about) who have lived in modern times in this very land. We are all called to be Saints; “Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and “Be ye holy, even as I am holy” (multiple places in Leviticus). The word Saint means holy – Sviat, Agios. To be holy means not just that something is sacred, but it means “to be set apart.” As Christians we are called to be set apart in two ways – to be set apart from the world, and to be set apart for God. The Church sets the Saints before us as those who set themselves apart for God. They fulfill the Gospel commandments; they dedicate everything they are to Christ. And so in our hymns we hear about their lives and their exploits, and in our hagiography we read in more detail about their lives as they lived in Christ. But not only are we to learn about the Saints, to follow in their steps and to be inspired by their lives, but we’re also to be in relationship with the Saints. We as Orthodox don’t traditionally speak of the Church as visible and invisible – there is One Church, composed of those living in this world, and those alive in Christ in the world beyond. Just as we have a relationship with the Mother of God and with our patron Saints, we are encouraged to learn about, and then get to know, other Saints as well. We obviously can’t, in our earthly life, do this with all the Saints, but people typically find Saints with whom they resonate for one reason or another, and then they get to know those Saints. So with that in mind, instead of a detailed life of one of our American Saints, I basically want to give a list of our Saints with a sentence or two about each – an introduction to our American Saints, and perhaps something about one or more of them will inspire you to deeper study and to prayer and relationship. |
| The Masoretic text simply makes no sense, and obviously at some point a scribe skipped an entire line or two of the text. This is obvious because of the reference to the Urim and Thummim, which were two objects used by the priest of the Old Testament for discerning the will of God on matters such as that described in 1 Samuel 14. Another example is the text quoted in Hebrews 1:6 (And let all the angels of God worship him) which is nowhere to be found in the Masoretic text, but is found in both the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew text in Deuteronomy 32:43. It should be pointed out that the Hebrew text should not be ignored entirely. Particularly when the Septuagint and the Hebrew text are in agreement, we will better understand the Septuagint as a translation if we compare it with the Hebrew text that it is clearly a translation of. It is extremely helpful to understand the range of meaning of the original Hebrew text (when we clearly have it). For example, it is helpful to know that Hebrew does not have a past or future tense, but only a perfect and imperfect tense … and so just because an English translation is clearly in either the past, present, or future tense, it does not necessarily mean that this is what is implied by the Hebrew original. One often encounters the use of the “prophetic perfect,” where a prophecy of something that has not yet come to pass is in the perfect tense, and so is often translated with the English past tense, e.g. … with His stripes, we were healed (Isaiah 53:5), when from the perspective of the prophet, he was speaking of something in the future. There are at present only limited options available in terms of English translations of the Septuagint. There is the translation of Sir Lancelot Brenton, which is often awkward and wooden. There is also a very well done revision of the KJV by Michael Asser, which corrected the KJV based on the Septuagint, but while the complete text is available online, only the Psalter is actually in print. For the Psalms there is the Psalter According to the Seventy, published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery; A Psalter For Prayer, published by Holy Trinity Monastery; and the Psalter of the Prophet and King David, published by the Center for Traditionalists Orthodox Studies–this text is based on the edition by Michael Asser, but it differs in some respects. There are also various editions of the Old Testament readings that are used liturgically. |
| The third reading, from Proverbs 9 , about Wisdom building her house, may not, at first sight, appear to have any clear reference to the Mother of God. However, the Fathers frequently identify Wisdom with the Logos and so Wisdom " s house is the body of the Mother of God. Thus St Athanasius links this passage with Proverbs 8:22 and John 1:14 . He writes, " It is clear that Wisdom " s house is our body, which he assumed when he became man.» In the fifth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, Proverbs 9:1 is listed between Proverbs 8:22 and Isaiah 11:1 as a prophecy of the Incarnation. The feast of the Angels on 8 November has readings from Joshua, Judges and Daniel, which recount Old Testament «angelophanies». Four of the six feasts of St John the Baptist have readings. Those for his Nativity include the stories of the births of Isaac and Samson to previously barren women. Samson also would, like John, be a Nazirite. 57 The third reading is from Isaiah 40, which is taken in the Gospels as prophetic of John: »A voice of one crying out in the desert: «Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths«’ ( Mk 1:3 ). This reading is also used for his other feasts, but the first two are replaced by Malachi 3 – »See, I am sending out my messenger, and he will prepare a road before me» – and a text made up of selected verses from Wisdom 4 and 5, which is suitable for a martyr: " A just man who dies will condemn the ungodly who are alive... We reckoned his life folly and his end dishonour. How has he been numbered among the children of God and his lot with the Saints?» It is therefore also used on the feast of St George. None of these three readings is taken unaltered from scripture, but all include other verses suitable to the feast. The readings for the feasts of the Fathers of the seven councils of the undivided Church include Genesis 14 , because the number of Abraham " s servants, 318, corresponds to the traditional number of Fathers at the first council of Nicaea (AD 325), though not to the 630 at Chalcedon. The number is also symbolic, since in Greek it would be written TIH; that is, the Cross (T) and the first two letters of the name Jesus (IH). The liturgical celebration of the councils seems to be peculiar to Orthodoxy. |
| Two Orthodox Churches descecrated in Moscow Moscow, October 5, 2012 On the night of October 4 2012, unknown offenders damaged two Moscow churches: the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Pokrovskoe, and the Temple of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in Rubtsovo, reports bogoyavlenskoe.ru. The crime was committed at night, before the Divine Liturgy on the day of the leavetaking of the Exaltation of the Cross. A cross was sawed off near the altar apse of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pokrovskoe in Moscow. This cross was assembled in 1992; it was installed on the roof of the temple that was being restored at the time. In 1995 it was installed on the graveyard of the remains buried at the former cemetery near the church. These remains were collected during the reconstruction efforts. On the same night an offensive writing appeared on the altar part of the nearby Church of the Holy Virgin in the village of Rubtsovo (83 Bakuninskaya st.). The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Pokrovskoe is known since XVI century. The Temple of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the village Rubtsovo was built in the early XVII century in the memory of the expulsion of the Poles. On July 3 2009, by the decree of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia the Patriarchal Ancient Liturgical Tradition Center was established on the church premises. 6 октября 2012 г. ... Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| 379 See especially the Fourth Gospel (6:27 – 51) and Ignatius (Eph. 20:2; Magn. 6:2 etc.). On Ignatius see J. Romanides, The Ecclesiology of St Ignatius of Antioch, (1956). 381 I Cor. 14 shows that already in the first apostolic communities the eucharisric gatherings were the context of charismatic manifestations. The liturgical evidence of the early Church, since Hippolytus, shows that ordination into the ministry ought to be placed in the same context. 382 The term kerygma is used here in the broad sense which includes both the act of proclamation of important news to the public (original sense; cf. Luke 12:3; Acts 10:42; Col. 1:23; I Tim. 3:16; Apoc. 5:2) and the content of the kerygma, the didache, together with its interpretation through doctrine, dogma, etc., as it came to be understood especially from the second century onwards with Irenaeus’ Epideixis. 391 The problems which the use of the term logos as “word” for Christ created in the early Church show how dangerous the application to Christology of the notion of the “word” as spoken or written can be. As a reaction against Sabellianism and Arianism, the Fathers were forced to deny entirely any association of these two senses of logos and thus replace definitely the connotation of spoken or written word with that of person exclusively. See e.g. Eusebius, Dem. evang. 5:5 and especially Athanasius Contra Ar. 2:35 and Cyril of Alexandria, De recta fide ad Theod. 6. The symbol of Sirmium (351) even anathematizes those who call the logos of God νδιθετος or προορικς. 392 It is interesting to note how the Christological controversies of the early Church related to the eucharist. See e.g. H. Chadwick, “Eucharist and Christology in the Nestorian Controversy,” Journal of Theological Studies 2 (1951), pp. 145 – 164. 393 In the Orthodox Liturgy this is indicated by the fact that the readings from the Bible are placed in the doxological context of the Trisagion which is sung before them. This is clearly meant to indicate that the word of God comes to the Church not simply from the past as a book and a fixed canon, but mainly from the eschatological reality of the Kingdom, from the throne of God which is at that moment of the Liturgy occupied by the bishop. This is why the reading is traditionally sung and not just read didactically. (Some Orthodox priests today, apparently not realizing this, do not sing the Gospel readings but read them like prose in order to make them more understandable and thus edifying!) |
| 364 Cf. the notion of κοινωνα in the Greek Fathers as discussed by A. Houssiau, “Incarnation et communion selon les Pères grecs,” Irénikon 43 (1972), pp. 457 – 468. 365 The power to “bind and loose” which is given to St Peter (Matt. 16:18 – 19) is incomprehensible without eschatology, since the nature of this power is eschatological: it concerns eternal finality. If this eschatological nature of the power given to Peter in Matt. 16:18 is taken into consideration, granting of this power to all the Apostles in John 20:23 or even to the entire community in Matt. 18:18 does not lead to irreconcilable alternatives. The fact that the primitive Church could accept all of these three possibilities at once (two of them appear even in the same Gospel!) points to the fact that primitive eschatology implied inevitably the image of the convoked Church and of the apostolic college (cf. above n. 334). If this perspective is recovered, any application of this authority would require the context of the convoked Church. In fact there is good historical reason to believe that the early Church applied this power to “bind and loose” from the beginning precisely in and through her convocation in the eucharistic gatherings. (The evidence on this point is considerable. Cf. my article “The Development of Conciliar Structures to the Time of the First Ecumenical Council” in Councils and the Ecumenical Movement [=World Council Studies 5, 1968] pp. 34 – 51, esp. pp. 34 – 39). Cf. below on the implications of this approach for the Petrine role in the Church, and esp. n. 438. 368 That every ordination – especially that of a bishop – requires the Pentecostal event as its context is indicated in Orthodox liturgical tradition by the fact that in every episcopal ordination the feast of Pentecost is celebrated. 377 Didache 9:4, 10:5. Cf. the description of the eucharist as a σναξις π τ ατ by Paul and Ignatius (cf. n. 334 above). It is also noteworthy that the celebration of the eucharist сате to be associated very early with Sunday (Apoc. 1:10; on the evidence of the early sources see W. Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church (1968] pp. 177ff. and 238ff.). The significance of the celebration of the eucharist on Sunday lies in the fact that Sunday is the eschatological day par excellence. If the eucharist was to be understood primarily as an anamnesis in historical terms, the natural day of its celebration would be the day of its institution before the crucifixion, and not the day of the resurrection. |
| The New Youtube Channel, “Coffee with Sr. Vassa“ A brief, 10-minute weekly program is now accessible on Youtube, hosted by Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin, a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and liturgiologist of the University of Vienna in Austria. The program offers an engaging reflection on the Orthodox Church calendar of the current week, including the lives of the saints, scriptural passages, the Orthodox liturgical tradition, and a light dose of humor. Captions with a translation into either Russian or Spanish can be activated by clicking a white box (with two lines in it) at the bottom of the video. The first episode for the first week in September can be accessed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAPa6LUU01w . Source: The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia 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. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Also by this author Today " s Articles Most viewed articles Functionality is temporarily unavailable. Most popular authors Functionality is temporarily unavailable. © 2008-2024 Pravmir.com |
| Therefore they are rightly judged to be blessed both by God and by men, because, by the grace of the great gift of God, 1205C they have become manifest images of the radiant, ineffable and evident glory. Therefore they rejoice are made one by the acknowledged logoi of the virtues, or rather by God, for whose sake they die daily and persevere to the end. In him the logoi of all good things, as in an ever-bubbling spring, pre-exist in accordance with the one, simple and unique embracing of all things, and they draw to him all those who use well and naturally the powers given them for this purpose. DIFFICULTY 41 INTRODUCTION The forty-first of the early Difficulties unites two of Maximus’ favourite themes. It is inspired by a famous and influential passage from one of St Gregory of Nazianzus’ sermons for the feast we now call the Holy Theophany (or, in the West, Epiphany) of Our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘and natures are instituted afresh, and God becomes man’. It is a passage Maximus often quotes, when he is considering the Incarnation of Christ. Its influence can be seen in the way it has been taken up in the liturgical tradition, both in the East and in the West. These words are incorporated in the first sticheron of the Aposticha sung at Vespers at the end of Christmas Day: ‘Today there is brought about an astounding mystery: natures are instituted afresh, and God becomes man! What he was, he remains, what he was not, he assumes, without suffering mixture or division.’ This sticheron, translated in Latin, became in the Roman Office (and still remains) the antiphon of the Benedictus for the Feast of the Circumcision (now the Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God, Mary): Mirabile mysterium declaratur hodie; Innovantur naturae; Deus homo factus est... The other great Maximian theme developed in this Difficulty is that of the division of being (already discussed above, in chapter 5 of the Introduction): for the overcoming of the division of being (that is, not its destruction, but the overcoming of its divisive and destructive potentialities) is what has been accomplished by the reinstitution of natures. The theme of the division of being is drawn by Maximus from St Gregory of Nyssa. As he develops the theme in this Difficulty, he draws on another theme of Gregory’s, that of the double creation of the human person. For the final division of being is, for Maximus, human sexual differentiation, and as he expounds this he draws on Gregory’s exposition of the theme of double creation, especially in his treatise, On human creation. |
| The two manuscripts were sent to Sinai by the Serbian metropolitan of Serres Jacob in 1360, so they must have been translated and copied before this date. 187 However, in 1355 or 1359 the Constantinopolitan Patriarch Kallistos I recommended that the monks of Megiste Lavra expel from their monastery several persons, whose theological orientation was considered erroneous and rather harmful. One of them was Gennadios the Bulgarian. The motives for Gennadios’s expulsion were unrelated to his nationality, since one Albanian and a monk of ‘Isaurian’ origin (whatever this might mean!) had to be expelled together with him. 188 St Kosmas the Zographite St Kosmas is the only Bulgarian saint of the Byzantine period who is known to have been a monk in the monastery of Zographou. His activity in the Bulgarian Athonite foundation is traditionally dated to the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century. According to his Life, the date of his death was 22 September 1422. The Greek and Slavic texts of his Life were published by I. Dujev in 1971. 189 He used an earlier Venetian edition of St Kosmas’s Greek Life published in 1803 by St Nikodimos the Athonite, 190 the text referring to St Kosmas included in the Megas Synaxaristes of Κ. Doukakis, 191 and Codex Suppl. Gr. 1182 in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (sixteenth century, ff. 5–15v). 192 For the Slavic text of the saint’s Life Dujev also resorted to a little-known Bulgarian variant of St Kosmas’s Life published by the monastery of Zographou for liturgical purposes in 1911. 193 According to Dujev, the Zographite monks had compiled their Bulgarian version of St Kosmas’s Life by translating and enriching his Greek Life as it was published by St Nikodimos the Athonite in 1803. 194 From a literary point of view the content of St Kosmas’s Life is rather trivial. 195 Its Greek version contains no references at all to miracles performed by the saint. Undoubtedly, the most important section of the Life is that which discusses how the saint had received from God the gift to foresee the future. |
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