Dr. Kyriakos Markides on Monasticism
As a member of the university community in the United States, Dr. Kyriakos Markides felt he had become secularized by his training. In this interview with Fr. Chris, he shares his yearning for something meaningful and how this lead him back to his Orthodox faith. Dr. Markides also recounts how...
The Monastery and the Parish
How is a monastery like a parish? How is it different? In this intriguing interview, His Eminence Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh talks with Fr. Chris about how monasticism differs from parish life. Metropolitan Savas recounts his early discovery of this vocation and the lack of monasteries in this country at the...
120,000 People Visit Grave of Elder Paisios
Source: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/72262.htm 20 years ago (on July 12, 1994) the Athonite elder Paisios (Eznipidis) reposed. On July 12-13, 2014, a very large number of people came to commemorate the great ascetic of our times and to pray at his grave, reports AgionOros.ru. Thousands of pilgrims queued for hours in huge...
Saint Macrina the Elder: Bridge of Theology
She’s called “Confessor of the Faith”. Her family contains so many saints she’s known as the mother and grandmother of saints. She should be given another title – Bridge of Theology – for her invisible contributions to the understanding of our faith, and its expression in the world. Born about...
WATCH: Mount Athos “60 Minutes” Documentary
“60 Minutes” is a popular, long-form news show on American television. In 2011, the show’s producers were given a very rare opportunity to bring a film crew onto Mount Athos, one of the most secluded and famous sites of monastic life and spiritual retreat in the world. If you haven’t...
The Dark Ages: Who Turned Out the Lights?
Among the literature of those who make it their main business to vilify the Christians, perhaps no concept has served a more useful purpose than the idea of “the Dark Ages.” The Dark Ages, according to this reading of history, were those centuries in which the Church was culturally ascendant,...
WATCH: Spiritual Journey to Valaam Monastery in Russia’s Far North
Valaam Monastery is one of the most famous monastic settlements in Russia. It’s a place of beauty and spiritual retreat. In this documentary from RT, a British reporter takes a trip to the island, interviewing monks and pilgrims alike about why they live in or visit this remote monastic settlement....
Saint John of Damascus: Transfiguration and Prayer
On Turning to the Fathers, noted scholar Fr. John McGuckin discusses St. John of Damascus, a powerful apologist for Icons in the face of the Iconoclast heresy. Many of St. John’s teachings focused on the Transfiguration of Christ, and he refers to that in the text on prayer that Fr....
Abba Anthony on the Three Wars
Abba Anthony, also known as Saint Anthony the Great, said, “Whoever sits in solitude and is quiet has escaped from three wars: the war of hearing, the war of speaking, the war of seeing. Then there is only one war left to fight. That is the battle for your own...
Comparing Married Life and Monastic Life
In Orthodox Christianity, both marriage and monasticism are understood to be vocations. Each of these two great callings can be a pathway to God, and both are holy and sacred. Listen now as Fr. Nicholas Apostola draws on his memories of Romanian monastics in exile during the Communist period to...
