| Abbot of Viskoi Decani Serbian Orthodox Monastery on Kosovo " s Bid to Join UNESCO Abbot Sava Janjic Source: Save World Heritage November 1, 2015 Fr. Sava Janjic, the Abbot of Visoki Decani Serbian Orthodox Monastery, the first UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in Kosovo has released a video concerning Kosovo's bid to join UNESCO and the danger this poses to the Serbian spiritual and cultural treasures in the area. The video and text can be viewed here: I am taking this opportunity to convey most serious concerns Kosovo’s UNESCO bid has created in my Church and our community. As Kosovo has been a spiritual center of Serbian Orthodox Church since XIII century with tombs and relics of our Archbishops in our most holy shrines, our primary concern has always been to protect these holy sites. It is exactly due to danger our holy sites have been facing in the last 16 years that our UNESCO World Heritage Sites, all four of which are Serbian Orthodox churches, are also inscribed the List of the World Heritage in Danger. Regular attacks, verbal provocations amid the general atmosphere of intolerance have made it necessary our most important sites in Kosovo still remain under a special security regime by police and International peacekeepers. Regrettably, AFTER the war in Kosovo, unlike other civil-wars in Former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia, in which vandalism of holy sites stopped after the end of hostilities, 150 Serbian Orthodox Churches and nearly 400 Serbian Orthodox Christian cemeteries in Kosovo have been destroyed or seriously damaged since the beginning of the UN peace mission in Kosovo in June 1999. Only in two days in March 2004, 34 of our holy sites were torched by thousands of Kosovo Albanian rioters. We had no help from that time and currently the same Kosovo leaders and Kosovo provisional institutions, except international troops NATO led troops of KFOR, which protected our most important shrines. My monastery, a XIV century site alone has been attacked by grenades four times since the end of Kosovo war in 1999, and that is the reason we still remain under a tight NATO protection. |
| ‘An Extraordinary Experience of Holiness’: Pilgrimage Through Orthodox Ireland Successfully Concludes Source: Orthodox Europe The castle and church atop the ancient Rock of Cashel. Photo: orthodox-europe.org The first pilgrimage through Ireland organised within the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe concluded successfully on Sunday, bringing to a close a full week of prayerful visits to sites associated with the numerous Orthodox Saints who have shone forth on the island of Ireland. Organised by the Mission Parish of St John the Wonderworker in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the pilgrimage was well-subscribed despite the instability of international travels, with over twenty participants from various parts of the world, including Europe, the UK, the United States of America and the Russian Federation. The pilgrimage was pleased to welcome participants not only from the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe, but also the German Diocese and American Dioceses of the Russian Church Abroad, as well as various dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate in Europe, and the Orthodox Church in America. After commencing with Confession and the Divine Liturgy in the parish of St Colman in Stradbally last Sunday, on the summer feastday of St Seraphim of Sarov, the pilgrimage group set out by coach for the first of its visits – to Glandalough and various holy sites associated with St Kevin, the great ascetic and monastic founder, including the ‘monastic city’ of Glandalough and the near and far lakes where the saint practiced his asceticism. His Grace Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe joined the pilgrims, together with clergymen who were themselves pilgrims – Archpriest Michael Carney and Priest Patrick Burns – and spoke to the participants about the saints they were encountering and the sites on which they would set foot, as well as leading the group in various Divine Services and prayers at each. Following Glandalough, the southern-most holy well of St Patrick, the Apostle to Ireland, was visited and the Blessing of Waters performed there – participated in both by pilgrimage participants as well as local residents who came out to take part. The pilgrims then travelled to Ardmore, where the great St Declan founded his monastery, praying for the repose of their departed loved ones in its remains and before the site of the saint’s original grave – as well as visiting his far hermitage and holy well. At the remote lake hermitage of St Finbarr, the pilgrims again blessed the waters of a holy well and served a moleben upon the ruins of the saint’s cell – a prayerful pattern then repeated in the monastery of St Finian on Inishfallen Island, to which the pilgrims voyaged by way of a short boat journey. |
| Venerable David of the Gareji Monastery, Georgia Commemorated on May 7 Our Holy Father John of Zedazeni and his twelve disciples, Abibus of Nekresi, Anthony of Martqopi, David of Gareji, Zenon of Iqalto, Thaddeus of Stepantsminda, Jesse of Tsilkani, Joseph of Alaverdi, Isidore of Samtavisi, Michael of Ulumbo, Pyrrhus of Breti, Stephen of Khirsa, and Shio of Mgvime, were Syrian ascetics and the founding fathers of Georgian monastic life. Saint John received his spiritual education in Antioch. Early in his youth he was tonsured a monk and withdrew to the wilderness. The Lord, recognizing his humility, diligence in fasting, and devout watchfulness, blessed His faithful servant with the gift of healing the sick and casting out demons. Saint John was celebrated for his holy deeds and miracles. Curious crowds would swarm around him, and after some time he found it necessary to withdraw into even deeper seclusion. Taking with him several of his disciples, he chose a remote area, fashioned for himself a cell, and began to labor as a hermit. Once the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to Saint John and told him, “Take twelve monks and go with them to Georgia, the nation enlightened by the Equal-to-the-Apostles Nino, and strengthen the Christian soul of its people.” Saint John related the vision to his disciples, and after much fasting and prayer he chose twelve of them: Abibus, Anthony, David, Zenon, Thaddeus, Isidore, Joseph, Jesse, Michael, Pyrrhus, Stephen, and Shio. He left his remaining disciples in the wilderness in the care of the abbot, the blessed elder Euthymius, and set off for Georgia with the twelve he had chosen. By divine revelation the Georgian king Parsman and Catholicos Evlavios received the good news that the venerable fathers were in Mesopotamia, on their way to Georgia, and they hurried to greet them with the proper honors. King Parsman and Catholicos Evlavios met the holy fathers as they were approaching Mtskheta. The holy fathers venerated the myrrh-streaming wood of the Living Pillar and the Robe of Christ at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. From there Saint John and his disciples traveled throughout Georgia, visiting its many holy sites. |
| The Assembly of Bishops specifically demands the inviolability of the religious rights and freedoms of the Serbian people and of other peoples in Kosovo and Metohija. We, the bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the ancient and glorious Patriarchate of Pech, gathered by the grace of the Holy Spirit, for the regular convocation of the Holy Assembly of Bishops in the historic See of Serbian archbishops and patriarchs, the Monastery of the Patriarchate of Pech, and in the republic capital Belgrade. During this preparatory year for the Commemoration of the 800 th Anniversary of Autocephaly of our Church of Saint Sava (1219-2019), concerned with the survival and wellbeing of the Serbian people and their holy sites in Kosovo and Metohija, headed by His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch, direct this message to all faithful sons and daughters of our holy Church, as well as local and international media. The question of Kosovo and Metohija represents a Serbian church, national and state question of the first order. Our Church, the spiritual mother of our people, as a whole, and of Serbia, the country in which the largest number of Serbian people reside, to which the territory of Kosovo and Metohija belongs, bears the greatest burden of responsibility for the preservation of that historic province within the borders of Serbia and for the future of the Serbian people in it. Kosovo and Metohija, with its one thousand and five hundred Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches, foundations and monuments of Serbian culture, represents the inalienable central part of Serbia. This is convincingly witnessed by the traditional spiritual conscienceness of our Church, in which the Kosovo Testament signifies the expression of the central message of the New Testament. Concretely, experienced in the historical experience of the Serbian people, as well as the conscienceness of the Serbian people with regard to their indentity, spiritual and ethical values and historical path. Kosovo and Metohija, from our standpoint, is neither a question of national ideology or mythology nor, even less, of mere terminology, but represents the very core of our being and existence as a church and people, without which we will be lost in the overall process of globalization and secularization. The prosperity of Serbia cannot be built on the disintegration of that which represents the cornerstone of its identity, history and statehood. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion: God is willing to give everyone a wonderful gift of faith, but people must be willing to accept it On 16 th August 2020, 10 th Sunday after Pentecost, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Icon of the Mother of God in Bolshaya Ordynka Street, Moscow. Concelebrating with Vladyka Hilarion were clerics of the church. During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, prayerful petitions were read out in view of the threat of the spreading coronavirus infection. After that Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up the prayer which is read at a time of harmful pestilence. After the divine service the archpastor addressed the worshippers with a homily: “Dear Fathers, brothers and sisters, I greet all of you on this Sunday which coincides with the commemoration day of the Holy Venerable Anthony the Roman, Wonderworker of Novgorod. “Last week the Lord vouchsafed me to visit the sites associated with the life and ministry of this saint in the land of Novgorod, as well as the Convent of St. Barlaam of Khutyn, where the heavenly patron of our holy church, St. Barlaam, had performed his ascetic deeds. “Of course, you know that the church, initially built on this site, was dedicated to St. Barlaam of Khutyn. It stood in the place of today’s right side-chapel consecrated in the name of the Venerable Barlaam. “As time went by, the church was gradually rebuilt and enlarged, and the construction of the main chancel in honour of the Transfiguration of the Lord and of the side-chapel in honour of the ‘Joy of All Who Sorrow’ Icon was completed. Yet, St. Barlaam has always been venerated in our church thanks to the revered icon in the right side-chapel. One of the rectors of this church, the Holy Hieromartyr Constantine Lyubomudrov, held the Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn in ardent reverence, and died as a martyr at the Butovo Shooting Range on the commemoration day of this saint. |
| On June 18, 2017, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the delegation of the monks of the Coptic Church at the Red Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Photo: http://mospat.ru The delegation will make a pilgrimage to the Orthodox monasteries of Russia in compliance with the decision of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and His Holiness Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Holy See of St. Mark. This is a return visit: a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church made a pilgrimage to the Christian holy sites in Egypt in November 2016. The programme of the pilgrimage of the representatives of the Coptic Church includes visits to the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius, the Danilov, Novospassky, Sretensky, Donskoy stavropegic and some other monasteries. On June 18 the delegation attended the Divine service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The delegation consists of Bishop Daniel, Abbot of St. Paul monastery; Bishop Epiphanious , Abbot of St. Macarius monastery; Bishop Selwanis, Abbot of St. Pachomius monastery; Bishop Kyrillos, Abbot of St. Menas monastery; Bishop Youstos, Abbot of St. Antony monastery; Bishop Daniel of Maadi, auxiliary bishop of Patriarch Tawadros II; hieromonk Ashia Elbaramosy of St. Mary Baramos monastery; hieromonk Efraim Anba Bishoy of St. Bishoy monastery; hieromonk Sedrak El Syrian of St. Mary el Syrian monastery; hieromonk Sharobiem El Bakhomy of St. Pachomius monastery; and Dr. Anton Milad. Attending the meeting with Patriarch Kirill were Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, chairman of the Synodal department for monasteries and monasticism; Bishop Paramon of Bronnitsy, administrator of the North and Northwestern vicariates of Moscow; and hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill greeted members of the delegation, saying that their visit was a great joy. |
| Pilgrimages to sacred and holy places were not invented by Christians. In fact, we most likely inherited this practice from the traditional Greco-Roman culture, in which sacred trips to oracles and special places were not something strange or unknown. At the same time, the debate about the necessity and profit of such pilgrimages – understood early on mainly in terms of visiting the sites associated with the Earthly life of the Savior – was present in the Church from the very early centuries. We can find citations in the writing of respectable Fathers of the Church in favour of such earthly-tied spiritual journeys; there were, on the other hand, some Holy Fathers who were critical of journeys to the places of the “glory revealed,” and almost condemned them as something unessential and irrelevant. However, from the historical perspective, we can say that the overwhelming attitude of Christians toward pilgrimages was positive. A number of classic Christian writings of Late Antiquity that deal with relationship of pious, ascetic and hagiographical material link very closely to the “journeys of faith”, and in one form or another are associated with the “memory of the eyes”. In the later, Medieval period, pilgrimages became a prominent and noble thing both in the East and in the West; the practice brought together the whole spectrum of society, as peasant simpletons to royal monarchs participated in pilgrimages. There is a debate about pilgrimage in the modern world as well. As always, we can find zealous supporters and adamant opponents of such ventures, but in this article, I’d like to reflect on our religious environment in application to the given theme and some other subjects that in my mind can be closely linked to a modern day pilgrimage and that under the circumstances can make them even more necessary and beneficial. In the new reality of the post-Christian world, where the Christian population finds itself increasingly in the minority and overall church attendance is dramatically decreasing across all of the traditional Christian denominations, people who truly care about the well-being and the very existence of the Church are compelled to take some kind of measures in an attempt to change the situation. |
| Saints, Myths and Mineshafts The ancient Christian tradition of long processions has been revived in Russia in recent years, and the night-long marches from Yekaterinburg to Ganina Yama and from Alapayevsk to the scene of Elizabeth’s murder are by no means the longest. Some take several days. The procession is often associated with repentance. 07/23/2010 The Scenes of the Royal Murders Have Become Places of Pilgrimage, but the Church still Does not Recognize the Recovered Remains of the Romanovs, and Archaeologists are Fearful for the Future of the Historic Site Alapayevsk, Sverdlovsk Region – It’s 4.20 a.m. last Sunday, the Divine Liturgy in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of this old industrial town has just finished, and several hundred people, most of them women, but quite a few men and children as well, are stepping into the pre-dawn twilight to begin a 12-kilometer procession. “O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, sinners,” sing the believers in time with their rather fast pace. The Alapayevsk procession is one of the annual events which mark what are known here as the “Royal Days.” In the early hours of July 17, 1918, the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children and four servants were shot in the mining engineer Ipatyev’s house in Yekaterinburg. The following night, in Alapayevsk, 150 kilometers north-east of Yektaterinburg, the empress’ sister and founder of the famous Convent of Martha and Mary in Moscow, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, her closest aide, Sister Varvara, and five dukes imprisoned with them, were thrown alive down an abandoned mineshaft. Today these dates are remembered with a host of church services and processions, and a “festival of Orthodox culture” including exhibitions, concerts and conferences. The fifth International Festival of Orthodox Christian Documentaries is also on the agenda. According to local police estimates, about 20,000 people walked in the early hours of Saturday morning from the imposing Church-on-the-Blood, which is built on the site of Ipatyev’s house, to the monastery at Ganina Yama 20 kilometers away. It was here that the Bolsheviks and Chekists attempted to destroy the bodies of the royal family in an abandoned mine. And although their remains have since been discovered about two kilometers away from Ganina Yama, in a place known as “Porosyonkov Log,” the vast majority of believers do not recognize this discovery, while Ganina Yama has over the past decade become one of the main holy sites in the region. |
| Father John Musther, an Orthodox Englishman, serves in the Orthodox missionary parish of Sts. Bega, Mungo and Herbert in Keswick, Cumbria, North West England. His community, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is part of the ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church. The congregation is a living witness of the truth of Holy Orthodoxy to the people living nearby. In the first millennium, before the Norman Conquest, Church in Britain and in Ireland was in full communion with the universal Orthodox Church, both East and West. Then the differences between Eastern and Western Church were relatively minor, most of them limited to local traditions. Yet striving for holiness was the same. During that time the peoples of Britain and Ireland gave the world thousands of saints, men and women, kings and queens, martyrs, bishops and abbots, hermits and missionaries. The whole land of Britain retains the memory of the ancient saints of these islands. A great number of early shrines and holy sites are scattered all over Britain and Ireland. Cumbria, where Fr. John lives, is one of the largest and least densely populated counties in England. The Lake District, part of Cumbria, is one of the most picturesque regions in England, with breath-taking views from the hills. The Lake District is justly famous for many beautiful lakes, hills and forests, and for centuries was inspiring poets and writers, musicians and painters. In the first millennium Cumbria developed rather separately from the rest of England, and had more links with Wales than with the seven historic Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Christian life of its inhabitants had been influenced by many traditions - Roman, Celtic (Welsh , Irish and Scottish), Saxon and even Norse. Material traces of all of these can be found today. The Church tradition holds that St. Patrick , Apostle of the Irish, was born here. This region draws people by its magic beauty and tranquillity—and by its very rich early Christian heritage. Thanks be to God, that the revival of Orthodox Faith and rediscovering of nearly forgotten local saints and shrines is becoming a reality because of people like Fr . John Musther. |
| More than 20,000 people were executed at the site in a little more than a year — an average of about 50 people per day. On May 10, the Russian Orthodox Church will hold its annual special service in the Church of New Martyrs and Confessors in Butovo, a little-known site that is home to Russia " s largest collection of holy relics. In the forest near old Butovo, about 5 kilometers south of the Moscow Ring Road, lies the largest burial place for victims of Stalin’s purges in the whole Moscow region, a site of mass executions. At the small plot of land known as the Butovsky Shooting Range or “Butovsky Poligon,” about 20,760 people were executed between August 1937 and October 1938. Among this were men and women, the old and the young, people from 70 different nationalities and many faiths and social classes. Seventy-seven years ago, in August 1937, the head of the NKVD ordered a high fence be erected around a remote five-hectare patch of oak forest glade. The construction was largely ignored by locals, who were told the site would be a shooting range, a rumor that frequent gunfire seemed to verify. More than 20,000 people were executed at the site in a little more than a year — an average of about 50 people per day. The diversity of those executed was stunning, including South African communists, Polish nationalists, Germans, Hindus, Chinese, Tatars and Jews. However, the site “specialized” in executions of Orthodox Christian clergy, targeted by the Soviet Union as supposedly counter-revolutionary elements in their atheist state. About 1,000 of the victims were clergy from the Russian Orthodox Church, and about 300 people from that number have since been beatified as saints. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church began commemorating the site, establishing a small wooden church on the site in 1996 and a larger church that has been active since 2007. Since the year 2000, the patriarch has led an annual service in the church of the martyrs to commemorate those killed in Butovo. |
|
|
