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...
Monasticism in the Life of the Church
In this episode of Our Life in Christ and in America, Bill Hinkle interviews Fr. Peter Heers, an American priest serving as the rector of St. Elias the Prophet Orthodox Church in Thessaloniki, Greece. Fr. Heers shares his perspectives on his ministry there, as well as the importance of monasticism...
Macrina the Younger
Born in 327 AD, Macrina’s birth foreshadowed her life. As her brother Gregory related in his biography of his sister, “When the time came for the child to be born, at the end of her labour, Emmelia fell asleep, and dreamt she held in her hands the child still in...
