soldiers Archives - Saint Sophia

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Christmas Advent. The Christmas When Everybody Was There

12/08/2025

~By Father Stephen Freeman, December 19, 2022 The soldiers were scattered across Europe with the loneliness of war. The world was caught up in a total struggle. Women had gone to the factories; children were collecting scrap metal. The “war effort” was universal. In many places, food was rationed. The madhouse of consumption belonged only to the war; everything else could wait. And there was Christmas. Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley were part of the

The Great Martyr Theodore Statelates (The Commander)

02/08/2022

The Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates came from the city of Euchaita in Asia Minor. He was endowed with many talents, and was handsome in appearance. For his charity God enlightened him with the knowledge of Christian truth. For his bravery St Theodore was appointed military commander [stratelatos] in the city of Heraclea, where he combined his military service with preaching the Gospel among the pagans subject to him. His gift of persuasion, reinforced by his

Memorial Day, 2020

05/25/2020

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance forever. Exodus 12:14 Today’s verse from Exodus was told to Moses by God at the time of the Passover and exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. God told Moses that the Passover should be commemorated forever, so that every generation would remember this

Monday of the Third Week of Pascha. The Resurrection Didn’t Bring Joy to Everyone

05/01/2017

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell the people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep

The Feast of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos

10/28/2014

From time immemorial, the Church has celebrated the Most-holy Theotokos as the patroness and protectress of the Christian people, who, by her intercessory prayers, implores God’s mercy for us sinners. The help of the Most-holy Mother of God has been clearly shown numerous times, to individuals and to nations, in peace and in war, in monastic deserts and in densely populated cities. The event that the Church commemorates and celebrates today confirms the Theotokos’ consistent

St. Valentine, the Real Story

02/14/2014

By David Kithcart Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That’s what Valentine’s day is all about, right? Well, maybe not. The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn’t romantic at all — at least not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O’Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday — St. Valentine. “He was a Roman Priest at a time when

Archive

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Christmas Advent. The Christmas When Everybody Was There

The Great Martyr Theodore Statelates (The Commander)

Memorial Day, 2020

Monday of the Third Week of Pascha. The Resurrection Didn’t Bring Joy to Everyone

The Feast of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos

St. Valentine, the Real Story

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