Saint Iakovos (Tsalikis): A Miracle to Help a Physicist Unbeliever
(As told by His Eminence Athanasios, Metropolitan of Limassol) A few days before we went there, some people came from a village and asked him to take some relics of Saint David and to perform a paracletic canon for them. As he was leaving there was a woman from Canada....
”He was nourished by prayer and did not feel the pangs of hunger”: New Martyr Theocharis from Neapolis, Asia Minor
In 1740, the Ottoman Empire was at war and Sultan Ahmet ordered that all the male children of Christians be taken off to army camps. Theocharis, who was an orphan, was picked up with other children and begged the Lord day and night prevent him from being tortured. One day,...
Ss. Constantine and Helen
James W. Lillie At Eastertide, at some undetermined place and year, the Emperor Constantine I made his Oration to the Assembly of the Saints, either in Latin (Oratio ad sanctorum coetum) or Greek (Λόγος τῷ τῶν ἁγίων συλλόγῳ). It is a lengthy and not terribly interesting text, but given...
The New Martyr Athanasios from Limnos
He was born on the island of Limnos, and, as a young man, went to the Holy Mountain, where he was placed under obedience to an Elder of the Great Lavra. During the Greek revolution, he was taken prisoner, carried off to Egypt and enslaved to a Muslim potentate, who...
The Byzantine Dimitria: When Thessaloniki Celebrated with the Entire Western World
Stelios Koukos The Dimitria, the festival of Saint Dimitrios, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, was an exceptional feast for the whole of the Western world. The work ‘Timarion’, which was written in the 12th century, declares that the city attracted ‘not only locals or those of one race, but...
December 6th Onward: Karavaki – Christmas Boats
As St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and the Greek navy – as well as students, merchants, pawnbrokers, and children – an old custom which originated from the Greek islands is the Karavaki, little boats. From 6th December (the saint’s feastday) onwards, families decorate small model boats/ships with...
