Tartu County, Estonia, February 14, 2025 St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn. Photo: visitestonia.com The Estonian Orthodox Church has changed its name twice in the last several months in response to pressure from the government, which is trying to force it to separate itself from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Estonian Church is an autonomous…
Cherkasy, Cherkasy Province, Ukraine, February 14, 2025 Photo: cherkasy.church.ua A well-known hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church made a strong show of support this week for the persecuted canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, sending a precious relic for the consolation of the faithful. On February 12, the feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs, the shoe…
Monasticism is blessedness a man can ever afford on earth,you can’t have anything more blessed than this…Ultimate bliss is in heaven,but its lower stage is on earth. St. Barsonophius of Optina A well-known ascetic Schema-Abbess Sophia (born Sophia Evgenievna Grineva) was the founder of the convent dedicated to the “Joy and Consolation” Icon of the…
Mtskheta, Georgia, February 14, 2025 Photo: agenda.ge One of the crown jewels of the Georgian Orthodox Church was vandalized this week. The incident occurred at the 6th-century Jvari Monastery, located near the ancient capital of Mtskheta. Its Church of the Holy Cross is a rare case of an early medieval Georgian church that has…
Hieromartyr Nikolai was born on September 8, 1863, in the village of Krasnaya Slobodka, Trubchevsky County, Orel Province, into the family of a psalmist, Dmitry Mezentsev. Nikolai lost his parents at an early age—his mother died when he was five years old, and his father when he was twelve. As a total orphan born into…
