How the Saints Write
Protopresbyter Vasileios Kalliakmanis a) These days, there are many theologians, clergymen and lay people who compose and publish texts. Some, however, who aren’t aware of the gravity of what they’re writing, follow the secular practice of competitive journalism. With smugness and pride, they count the number of hits their...
Who Knows Everything?
Our Lord Knew the Future Have you ever wished you could know the future? Who you’d meet, where you’d live, where you’d work? Or maybe you just wondered who would win a ballgame. Wouldn’t it be great? And if you knew the future, would you do anything differently today? We...
Hymns from the Service of Saint Nikiforos the Leper
Advice from the Holy Mountain is that in these difficult times we should pray to Saint Nikiforos the Leper, a saint who was canonized as recently as 2012. His Life is available on the web, at sites such as, for example https://orthodoxwiki.org/Nicephorus_the_Leper or https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/01/04/205506-saint-nikephoros-the-leper. We at Pemptousia have therefore decided to provide a...
Visions of Geronda Joseph (Miracles of Saint Joseph the Hesychast)
Gero-Arsenios was always agreeable and gave out blessings very easily. One time, however, he strangely became so strict and unyielding that he upset one of the fathers. Afterwards, when he was asked why he had been so harsh with him, he answered: “Yesterday Geronda came and told me: Be careful,...
Ladder of Divine Ascent
http://radio.myocn.net/podcast/HOT/HOT_2013/HOT_130412.mp3 On Harmony of Thunder, for the Sunday of St. John Climacus, we hear a reflection from Fr. David Smith on the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Why would you work to assure your salvation? The Ladder of Divine Ascent Kindle Edition
Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki
George Mantzarides, Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The progression from the first Sunday in Lent, which is dedicated to Orthodoxy, to the second Sunday, which is dedicated to Saint Gregory Palamas is of double significance: on the one hand it extends the...
Three New Saints in the Orthodox Church
Official Communique from the First Day of the Proceedings of the Holy and Sacred Synod (9 March 2020) On Monday, 9 March 2020, the Holy and Sacred Synod convened under the chairmanship of His All-Holiness to carry out the tasks of its three-day sitting. After the reading of the minutes...
An Orthodox English Saint
W. J. Lillie Pall Mall Gazette. 24 July 1885. p. 6. Great interest has, it is said, been caused at Folkestone and the neighborhood by the discovery in the parish church of what are believed to be the remains of St. Eanswith, patron saint of the church and the...
Saints Cosmas and Damian
In times of great fear, need and uncertainty throughout history we have found ourselves going to visit our priests and doctors. It makes sense to look at the history of the church to learn about how people dealt with these issues and those who stood out as paragons of virtue. ...
St. Philothei of Athens 1522-1589
St. Philothei lived in the Turkish-occupied, sixteenth-century Athens. Her spiritual and social work was groundbreaking, especially for a woman of that era. It was accomplished within the Church and dedicated to the service of the Greek people as a continuation and consequence of Orthodoxy and Romanity. On 19 February 1589,...
