Commemorated March 31 Saint Innocent (secular name: John Evseyevich Popov-Veniaminov) was born into the family of a church server on August 26, 1797 in the village of Anginskoye, Verkholensk District, Irkutsk province. In his fifth year he was already receiving instruction in reading and writing from his ailing father, who died in August […]
Category: Life of Saint
St. Jacob of Alaska
Commemorated July 26 Father Jacob (Netsvetov) of Alaska was born of pious parents in 1802 on Atka Island, Alaska. His father, Yegor Vasil’evich Netsvetov was a Russian from Tobolsk. His mother, Maria Alekseevna, was an Aleut from Atka island. Yegor and Maria had four children who survived infancy; Jacob was the first born, […]
St. Herman of Alaska
Commemorated August 9/December 13 Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America. A spiritual mission was organized in 1793, made up of monks of the Valaam Monastery. They were sent to preach the Word of God to the native inhabitants of northwestern America, who only ten years before had come under the sovereignty of Russia. […]
St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
Commemorated July 2 Our Father among the Saints John (Maximovitch), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco (1896-1966), was a diocesan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) who served widely from China to France to the United States. Saint John departed this life on June 19 (O.S.) / July 2 (N.S.), […]
St. Alexis (Toth) – Defender of Orthodoxy in America
Commemorated May 7 Our holy Father Alexis, the defender of the Orthodox Faith and zealous worker in the Lord’s vineyard, was born in Austro-Hungary on March 18, 1854 into a poor Carpatho-Russian family. Like many others in the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Toths were Eastern Rite Catholics. Alexis’ father and brother were priests and […]
New Martyr Vasily Martysz
Commemorated May 4 The holy New Martyr Archpriest Vasily Martysz was born on February 20, 1874 in Tertyn, in the Hrubieszow region of southeastern Poland. His father Alexander was a judge in Molczyce near Pinsk. After his retirement, he was ordained a priest and became rector of a local parish. EDUCATION In 1884, […]
Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of Optina
Although the beginning of monastic life in Optina monastery dates to at least as early as the sixteenth century, it is most known for its tradition of spiritual eldership in the tradition of St. Paisius (Velichkovsky) of Moldavia, which flourished there in the nineteenth century—particularly in the monastery’s Skete of St. John the Forerunner. This […]
St. Olga the Princess of Russia
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 […]
St. Eskil of Tuna
Today, June 11, the Church celebrates the memory of St. Eskil of Tuna, the Apostle of Södermanland. Eskil was one of the many missionaries who came to Sweden and Scandinavia from England in the mid 1000’s. He was a monk and was ordained a bishop in order to establish churches with full hierarchical authority – […]
“Let Us At Least Die Like Christians!”
In the book “Everyday Saints” there is a section about a monastery in Russia which had fallen into moral decay. This was not long ago, by the way. It all happened only a century ago. These monks, not unlike the Prodigal son, had taken the divine inheritance from their heavenly Father, and spent it on […]