Byzantine Archives - Saint Sophia

The Holy Hieromartyr Dionysios the Areopagite

10/09/2025

~Georgios D. Papadimitrakopoulos The holy hieromartyr Dionysios was a member of the Court of Areios Pagos, and was more prominent than anyone else because of his wealth, fame, prudence and wisdom. He embraced faith in Christ when he heard Saint Paul preach on the rock of the Areios Pagos and received holy baptism. He was consecrated bishop of Athens, succeeding the holy and wise Ierotheos on the Episcopal throne. From his predecessor, Dionysios learned divine

The Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas: Unmediated Grace

03/16/2025

~By Stephen Freeman, March 30, 2013 This Sunday the Orthodox Calendar commemorates St. Gregory Palamas – perhaps the most significant theologian and teacher of the late Byzantine period. He particularly is important when considering the nature of the Christian experience of God. Orthodoxy believes that it is truly possible to know God though He remains unknowable. The mystery of this true knowledge constitutes the heart of St. Gregory’s work. I first encountered St. Gregory’s writings

Equal-to-the-Apostles Blessed Great Princess Olga (in Holy Baptism Helen)

07/11/2024

Commemorated on July 11 Saint Olga, Equal of the Apostles, was the wife of the Kievan Great Prince Igor. The struggle of Christianity with paganism under Igor and Olga, who reigned after Oleg (+ 912), entered into a new phase. The Church of Christ in the years following the reign of Igor (+ 945) became a remarkable spiritual and political force in the Russian realm. The preserved text of a treaty of Igor with the Greeks

Honor, Subversion and the Kingdom of God

01/16/2023

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 5, 2017 Many who read the New Testament see it as advocating for and supporting the oppressive structures of its time. They argue that it is patriarchal and pro-slavery. St. Paul’s instructions for slaves to obey their masters is thus seen as an endorsement of slavery as an institution. His admonition, though, belongs to a category of teachings known as the haustafeln (household rules). An example is found in Colossians: Wives, submit

Celtic Monasticism, Part 1

06/21/2022

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, November 19, 2014 By Hieromonk Ambrose Prayer of St. Columban of Iona “Kindle in our hearts, O God, The flame of that love which never ceases, That it may burn in us, giving light to others. May we shine forever in Thy holy temple, Set on fire with Thy eternal light, Even Thy son, Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Redeemer.” With the imagery of fire and light contained in this wonderful

The Second Friday of Great Lent: Unmediated Grace

03/26/2021

By Stephen Freeman, March 30, 2013 This Sunday the Orthodox Calendar commemorates St. Gregory Palamas – perhaps the most significant theologian and teacher of the late Byzantine period. He particularly is important when considering the nature of the Christian experience of God. Orthodoxy believes that it is truly possible to know God though He remains unknowable. The mystery of this true knowledge constitutes the heart of St. Gregory’s work. I first encountered St. Gregory’s writings

Fourth Monday of Pascha. The Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the Apostles, Illuminators of the Slavs

05/11/2020

Cyril and Methodius must have often wondered, as we do today, how God could bring spiritual meaning out of worldly concerns. Every mission they went on, every struggle they fought was a result of political battles, not spiritual, and yet the political battles are forgotten and their work lives on in the Slavic peoples and their literature. Tradition tells us that the brothers Methodius and Constantine (he did not take the name Cyril until just

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 6

10/17/2019

By Fr. Maximos (Constas) The Orthodox Church is a bottomless spring of spiritual wisdom, granting the eternal life of Christ to all who ardently seek it. Through the millennia this wisdom has been captured for us in part in the writings of the Fathers, the lives of the saints, and the various collections of sayings of the monastic fathers. Among the most prized literary possessions of the Church is the spiritual classic The Philokalia, which

The Holy and Great Tuesday

04/23/2019

At Bridegroom Orthros on Great and Holy Tuesday the Church sings the following hymn by St. Kassiane: O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, fulfilled the part of a myrrh-bearer; and with lamentations she brought sweet-smelling oil of myrrh to Thee before Thy burial. ‘Woe is me,’ she said, ‘for night surrounds me, dark and moonless, and stings my lustful passion with the love of sin. Accept the fountain

The Twenty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

04/05/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 11, 2016 The Fourth Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church, is dedicated to St. John Climacus, the author of the ancient work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. It is a classic work describing “steps” within the life of the struggling ascetic. There is an icon associated with this work, picturing monastics climbing the rungs of a ladder to heaven, battling demons who are trying to pull them off. However,

Archive

The Holy Hieromartyr Dionysios the Areopagite

The Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas: Unmediated Grace

Equal-to-the-Apostles Blessed Great Princess Olga (in Holy Baptism Helen)

Honor, Subversion and the Kingdom of God

Celtic Monasticism, Part 1

The Second Friday of Great Lent: Unmediated Grace

Fourth Monday of Pascha. The Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the Apostles, Illuminators of the Slavs

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 6

The Holy and Great Tuesday

The Twenty-Sixth Day of Great Lent. The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

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