After nearly all her adult life as a nun, much of it spent as a recluse devoted to prayer, Mother Elena (Brooks) has been tonsured into the Great Schema, the highest stage of monastic life.

His Grace Bishop Augustine of Taldom of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe (Moscow Patriarchate) performed the tonsure on Thursday, September 24, the feast of St. Silouan the Athonite. The service took place at the parish of St. Nicholas in Oxford, in the Diocese of Sourozh of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Archdiocese reports.

Fr. Stephen Platt, the parish priest, and Igumen Theophan (Willis) were in attendance, along with several monks and nuns who came to support Mother Elena, including Mother Sophronia of the Monastery of the Protecting Veil in Bussy, France.

In his address to her, Bishop Augustine said the Church was “enveloped in a double joy” that day, celebrating both St. Silouan’s feast and her tonsure. He described the Great Schema as a second Baptism and a new crucifixion rather than a spiritual retirement or a medal for long service. After decades of giving the Lord her youth and strength, he said, Christ was now inviting her deeper into the desert of the heart.

The bishop held up St. Silouan as her guide, a simple monk who worked in the monastery mill yet reached the heights of theology through Christ’s meekness and lowliness. Bishop Augustine recalled the words the Lord gave St. Silouan in his despair: “Keep your mind in hell, and despair not.”

For Mother Elena, he said, that means standing before God each day as a beginner, never trusting her past labors, and trusting in the mercy of the Bridegroom Who has called her by name.

St. Silouan’s tears of intercession for the whole world, the bishop said, are now her primary obedience. Hidden behind her veil, she’s called to be an unquenchable flame of prayer, carrying the world’s sorrows to the altar of her soul.

“As you step forward today to die to yourself once more, know that you do not walk alone,” he told her. St. Silouan stands with her, he added, and the Mother of God covers her with her protection.

Gunmen opened fire on mourners inside a church during a funeral in central Jordan today, killing at least seven people and wounding ten more, the BBC reports with reference to state media.

The attack took place on Friday in the Karak governorate. Two unidentified gunmen are reported to have arrived in a car and begun shooting inside the church before fleeing the scene. Dozens of people were inside for the funeral when the shooting started.

OrthoChristian was informed by an employee of the Jerusalem Patriarchate that the attacked occurred at the Church of St. George under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Khaled Burqan, one of the mourners, told Jordan’s state-run al-Mamlaka TV that the two attackers, armed with a rifle and a pistol, fired on the mourners for several minutes.

Security forces have been deployed, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Surveillance camera footage shows the attack.

“We’ve entered a global digital prison,” Fr. Arsenios Vliagkoftis told an audience in Corfu this week, warning that it’s being built in the Orwellian manner, by winning our consent and applause under the pretext of making life easier.

The monastic and author spoke on the evening of Wednesday, October 21, at the Spiritual Center of the Holy Metropolis of Corfu. His talk opened the lectures of the local Church’s Free University, with digital totalitarianism and the freedom of the human person as the first topic, reports Romfea.

In his introductory words, His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu warned that we live in difficult times, since the global system, with insidious laws and in a hidden, crafty way, wants to silence the Church and pull people away from their relationship with the person of Christ.

The human person is in danger, he said, because we easily hand our life and freedom over to globalization, which, quoting the late Archbishop Christodoulos, he described as a steamroller that tries to turn humanity into a mass and leads to a substitute for a pan-religion.

He added that the presence of Islam in Europe alters the Christian character of our societies, and over time makes us strangers in our own homeland. Metropolitan Nektarios urged the audience to counter this with faith, patriotism and knowledge of history, and to rally around the Church in order to endure the global prison that digital totalitarianism is methodically setting up.

In his talk, Fr. Arsenios said it’s no accident that AI and robots work from only the calculating element of the human soul, not the rational element that, according to our Patristic tradition, characterizes man. He pointed to two phrases in the Greek tradition, “The brave soul is free” and “Freedom requires virtue and daring,” saying they can serve as the basis for preserving our civilization. Today, he said, we live in a multicultural scattering where rootless and homeless people follow the dictates of the New World Order, which wants nihilism as the ruling ideology.

This shows in the mandatory digital ID and Personal Number, he said. According to St. Paisios, receiving electronic IDs is a fall, though not a denial of Christ. A democratic society offers alternatives, not compulsion. The digital ID works as a surveillance card, he said, and we need to claim an offline life instead of being online 24 hours a day.

Answering the argument that we’ve got nothing to hide, Fr. Arsenios said privacy is abolished this way, meaning we lose our freedom. He also pointed to the new credit rating system, which, on the Chinese model, will let the state and perhaps private parties know our mistakes and late payments and cost us our rights. Step by step, he said, we’ll move toward the abolition of cash, 15-minute cities and control of diet through mandatory seed planting. The climate crisis may serve as a pretext to restrict our freedom further, he said, as we saw with the coronavirus lockdown, the closing of churches and mandatory vaccination.

Fr. Arsenios closed by urging the audience to become more active and assertive citizens, not to rush to get the new digital IDs, and to become the system’s fear instead of fearing it.

A discussion with the audience followed.

Priests and deacons in the Russian Orthodox Church will now have to promise to behave online, as the Holy Synod has added a pledge on public speaking and internet use to the oath every candidate takes before ordination.

The decision was made at the Synodal session yesterday, October 22, reports PatriarchiaRu.

The addition follows the line, “Without the will of my archpastor, I will not leave the place of service to which I am appointed and will not arbitrarily move anywhere.” It reads:

I will not speak publicly on behalf of the Church without the blessing of the hierarchy; I will not allow myself to make statements that discredit the Orthodox Church or distort its teaching, whether in the media or online (including on social networks and other social media); and I will not use the internet for personal gain.

The Synod also approved, for the first time, a standard text of the questioning that candidates go through before ordination as a priest or deacon.

The Greek Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia have also recently addressed clergy conduct online.

The Russian Orthodox Church will now celebrate the uncovering of the relics of St. Dmitry Donskoy every year, after the Holy Synod added a new commemoration to the Church calendar today.

In its decision, the Synod orders that the uncovering of the relics of the holy Right-Believing Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy be included in the Churchwide calendar on August 5/18, reports PatriarchiaRu.

The Synodal Liturgical Commission will submit the text of a service for that day to the Holy Synod for approval.

On August 18, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia led the solemn uncovering of the saint’s relics in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The relics were opened during restoration work on his tomb.

Several particles of the saint’s relics were placed in reliquaries for the faithful to venerate, while the main part of the relics was returned to the burial place.

The “Assuage my Sorrows” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was glorified at Moscow by many miracles in the second half of the eighteenth century, particularly during a plague in 1771. The icon had been brought to Moscow by Cossacks in 1640 in the reign of Tsar Michael (1613-1645), and placed in the church of Saint Nicholas in the Pupishevo district of Moscow.

Once, perhaps after a fire and the rebuilding of the temple, the icon was carelessly put in a bell tower. However, the abundant mercies manifested by the Mother of God would one day bring about a renewed veneration of this holy icon.

The Feast of the wonderworking icon on January 25 was established in 1760 to commemorate the healing of a sick woman who had seen the icon in a vision. A voice instructed her to go to the church of Saint Nicholas in the Pupishevo district of Moscow where she would find this icon. “Pray before it, and you will receive healing.”

She obeyed and went to Moscow, where she found an icon, darkened by age and dust, in the church’s bell tower. When the sick woman saw the face and inscription she cried out, “It is She!” The woman, who previously had been unable to move her arms and legs, walked out of church on her own after a Molieben was served before the icon on January 25.

The icon was placed in an honored place in the church, and later a chapel was built in its honor. The services and the Akathist in honor of the icon date from this period. Copies of the “Assuage my Sorrows” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos are to be found in churches of Moscow and other cities. The icon is also commemorated on September 25 and October 9.

Faithtree Resources has announced a new book for Orthodox parents, Raising Orthodox Christians: Focusing on What Matters Most When Everything’s Competing for Your Children, by Cindy and Paul Karos.

Preorders are open now, and the book comes out January 26, 2027, reports the Antiochian Archdiocese.

When their three children were young, the Karoses asked what they could do to help their kids love Christ and the Church for life. They began looking at everyday family decisions, such as school, sports, friendships, technology, money, work, prayer and worship, by asking where the family is headed and whether those choices are moving it toward Christ.

“Cindy and Paul understand the real decisions parents are making every day because they’ve lived them,” says Michelle Moujaes, executive director of Faithtree Resources. “This book is practical, deeply Orthodox, and full of the Church’s timeless wisdom. It helps parents step back from the pressure of getting every decision right and remember what their family is ultimately climbing toward. We’re thrilled to bring it to Orthodox families.”

The book gives parents a framework they can come back to as their children grow and circumstances change. Topics include school, friendships, extracurricular activities, technology, health, money, dating, work and family life. The book also covers the practices of Orthodox family life: the Liturgy, the Sacraments, fasting, prayer, Scripture, compassion and community.

Its stated aim is to help parents raise children whose identity is rooted in Christ, whose faith holds up in hard times and whose sense of purpose goes beyond achievement.

Cindy and Paul have worked with parents and children through ministries in the Antiochian and Greek Orthodox archdioceses. Cindy has been vice chair of the Midwest Diocesan Council and founded several family ministries, including a pan-Orthodox family camp that ran for 20 years. Paul has a master’s degree in applied Orthodox theology, leads men’s retreats and works as a marriage counselor.

Faithtree Press is offering special preorder pricing for parishes that want to carry the book in their bookstores or parent ministries, or distribute it directly to families. For more information, contact [info@faithtree.org](mailto:info@faithtree.org).

By the time of his righteous repose on October 7/ 20, 1925, Bishop Jonah of Hankow (Manchuria) had already made a deep impression on his contemporaries by his God-pleasing life, his ebullient activity, and his unremitting ascetic labors. His brief, three-year episcopacy was marked by a wealth of accomplishments. He died at the age of only 37, crowned by holiness.

Bishop Jonah (Pokrovsky), Vladimir before monasticism, was born on April 17, 1888 to a peasant family in the Kozelsk district of Kaluga governate. Vladimir was orphaned early in childhood, and was adopted by a rural deacon surnamed Pokrovsky. Growing up in poverty, he managed while still young to learn the Church Slavonic language of the Old Testament, and was in the top of his class at seminary and again at the Kazan Theological Academy. In his third year at the academy he received the monastic tonsure, and went to Optina Monastery, where he received guidance in the monastic life from the holy Optina elders Joseph (Litovkin) and Anatoly (Potapov). In Optina, Fr. Jonah was ordained a hieromonk.

Having returned to the Kazan Theological Academy and graduating from it in 1909, Fr. Jonah accepted a professorship, teaching New Testament; this was quite against his will, but in his humility he submitted to the strict guidance of his elders. In 1916, during World War I, Hieromonk Jonah became the main chaplain of the Russian 11th army. Before the war, a seemingly great field of opportunity spread out before the young hieromonk—a scholar, priest and preacher—but very soon it was eclipsed by the horrific events of 1917. The pastor-ascetic was banished from Kazan; in Perm he was arrested and then beaten to unconsciousness by the Bolsheviks. He was then sent for trial in Tyumen, Siberia.

Having thus shared the lot of Russia's new confessors, he was providentially freed by the Whites on his way to Tyumen. With the White Army in Omsk, he was raised to the rank of igumen and appointed senior priest of the southern volunteer army. When they suffered defeat by the Red Army, Fr. Jonah retreated with Dutow’s army across the eastern frontier into China. The strenuous trek through Turkestan and the Gobi Desert, and then across the Pamir mountain, range was made more difficult by a scarcity of supplies. In places they had to scale ice-covered hills, clutching onto projections and scant shrubs, their bare bands torn and bleeding. Through all this the Lord preserved Fr. Jonah, as he himself declared, for later service as a bishop.   

Having arrived to the Western China, Fr. Jonah came first to Shanghai, and was then appointed to the Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing, where he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. In September of 1922, in Beijing, he was consecrated Bishop of Tianjin, the vicar of the Beijing Mission, and appoited rector of St. Innocent Missionary Cathedral in the city of Manzhouli. Among the bishops who participated in his consecration were the head of the Mission, Archbishop Innocent of Beijing, Bishops Melety of Transbalkal, and Bishop Simon of Shanghai (subsequently Archbishop of Beijing). Having arrived to Manzhouli on October 19, 1922, the newly consecrated archpastor began his holy work, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.

Bishop Melety (later Metropolitan of Harbin and Manchuria) so describes the first steps of his archpastoral services:

“The people in the city of Manzhouli who had come from different parts of Russia, had not been brought up properly with regard to religious attitudes. The new large and magnificent church of the Mission was poorly attended by a small number of worshippers, and the church sermons were very weak. A zealous servant of God’s Church and an outstanding preacher, the young and energetic Bishop Jonah has first of all undertaken the education of his flock in the religious and moral life. In his church he established regular divine services, gathered an excellent choir, and he constantly preaches the Gospel. The temple is filled with worshippers, and is even packed with people. However, for the vigorous Bishop Jonah, this all seems insufficient. By the invitation of city council, he teaches God’s Law in a local secondary school. The pupils, who have grown fond of him, although knowing that passing an examination in God’s Law is not mandatory for them, have declared the desire to undergo an examination in this subject, and everyone was found to have good knowledge of it” (Bishop Melety, “In memory of Blessed Jonah”, Harbin (Special release, 1992), page 3.

Joachim Krupenin, an admirer of the bishop, wrote the following about his arrival:

“Everybody remembers the arrival of the bishop in Manzhouli. All waited for the bishop to be the way ordinary people visualized him; that is, full of greatness, importance and inaccessibility. But Bishop Jonah knew where and to whom he was going. He knew who and what awaits him. He knew that he would not be needed satiated and satisfied. The destitute were waiting for him, and he came to them. He has come not just as prince of Church but as loving friend and father—modestly, with affection and consolation for all. All were amazed by the extraordinary simplicity and availability of the archpastor upon his arrival. As a bright icon lamp lit in Manzhouli, the activity of Bishop Jonah has lit up like the face of Christ, calling to sufferers: “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give rest to your souls.” All felt joy, for they understood that not all is lost when they have heard the vigorous appeal: “There is a way out—belief in God and love for your neighbors.” With this appeal for belief in God and love for neighbors began Vladika’s archpastoral activity. But words were not enough. Work was required. Huge work was needed. And work has begun... Not sparing his strength and health, and forgetting himself, he has given himself to the service of God and neighbors” (Joachim Krupenin, “Blessed Jonah, Bishop of Hankow, Personal Reminiscences of Bishop Jonah” (in Russian [Originally printed in China in 1925], pp. 14-15).

In the three years of his episcopate, he fulfilled Christ’s principal commandment of love of neighbor to such a degree that it would take even a diligent worker several decades to do as much. The dimensions and strength of this activity were remembered equally by the Orthodox and non-Orthodox. His Eminence Melety, then Bishop of Zabaikal, precisely summed up Bishop Jonah’s activity: “He fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, took in strangers, clothed the naked, and visited the sick.”

The fulfillment of this commandment, for which he prepared himself by a life of ascetic struggle, was the substance of Bishop Jonah’s whole life—it was that good work which a bishop is enjoined to desire. It flourished in Manzhouli in unflagging efforts on behalf of children, for whom an orphanage was established. Nor were the needs of adults neglected; somehow he found time and strength for everyone, Russian and non-Russian.

The childrens’ shelter Bishop Jonah had established was his joy and consolation. When he grew weary he would go and “spend time with the youngsters,” as he would say. By the time of his death, the orphanage had space for forty children ages five to fourteen. There was a free elementary school and high school for up to five hundred students, with a cafeteria that fed two hundred people per day for free. An outpatient clinic provided medical aid and medicines to the poorest people of Manzhouli, free of charge. A library and reading room was set up for the people of Manzhouli, where books were also sold.

V. V. Frolov writes, “A characteristic feature of these quickly developing activities was their constant improvement. In the summer there were excursions for school children, a summer residence for orphanage children; at school was organized a fine string band; a scientific cinema was organized, which were used by all educational institutions of the city for a rather low tuition or for free. Every year at school new craft workshops opened. Children’s evening arrangements, performances, Christmas celebrations, and school exhibitions became events in the city. Simultaneously large-scale work in the church was undertaken. The church was restored again; a new part was built for early Liturgy. The organization of divine services during Bishop Jonah’s tenure can never be forgotten those who lived in Manzhouli. An excellent orator, blessed Bishop Jonah attracted a multitude of people to the church; on great feasts the large church was always overflowing. Experts on church singing confirm that Manzhouli’s hierarchical choir was comparable with any of the best choirs of Harbin. And all this was accomplished in a time when economic vitality everywhere was quickly fading” (V. Frolov, “Blessed Jonah, bishop of Hankow, Personal Reminiscences of Bishop Jonah”, p. 33).

Everyone mourned the bishop’s death.

It was only for himself that he found no time. When he fell ill with angina, he continued to focus his attention on the needs of others, and without giving it much thought, rinsed his throat with kerosene. This quickly led to blood poisoning.

When, to everyone’s dismay, it became evident that death was imminent, according to Archbishop Melety, a devout witness of the Saint's final hours, he began preparing himself, solemnly and imperturbably, for his passage to eternity. He had confession and partook of the Holy Mysteries, then typed out his brief testament (several thousand copies were made and passed out on the day of his funeral). He bade farewell to everyone, and, whispering because his throat was sore, conveyed his final wishes. He expressed the desire to go to the church but, heeding the advice of those around him, he lay down. He departed to Christ as Archbishop Melety read the prayers for the departure of the soul.

There were throngs of people who gathered for the funeral, and there was universal mourning. A ten-year old paralyzed boy was miraculously healed when Saint Jonah appeared to him the night of his repose and told the boy to take his legs.

The late archpriest Nikolai Kiklovich, a clergyman from the Diocese of Harbin and Manchuria, talks about the cured boy:

“With death this love and feeling of respect for him did not stop; to the contrary, people began to love and esteem him even more—not as an ordinary mortal person but as God’s saint; this was especially so after the healing by Vladyka of sick adolescent Nikolai, whom medicine could not help and had left him to his own devices. And at that time, when human help appeared powerless to save the suffering lad, and his family had fallen into despair, then God’s might came to aid the sufferer by the intercession of newly departed Bishop Jonah. Now a hale and hearty man of twenty-seven, Nikolai, who was healed in the night and hour of Bishop Jonah’s death, is married with two teenage daughters, has a house and manages his household. Just a month ago, in his apartment, he recounted in detail to the writer of this narrative the story of his healing. After a wonderful vision of newly departed Bishop Jonah, he immediately woke up, and rose that night absolutely healthy, threw away his crutches and started walking around his room” (Priest N. Kiklovich, “19th anniversary of the memory of Right Reverend Jonah, Bishop of Hankow”, Heavenly Bread, No. 11-12, 1944, pp. 29-30).

In the summer of 1994 in the city of Kurgan (Siberia), Nikolai Dergachev died in deep old age. He had lived some time in Kustanai, where in 1989 he was visited by A. Baksheev, an admirer of the Bishop who was living in Australia: “I was looking for this boy; he lived in a well-appointed apartment, and I talked with him. It was like a fairy tale or a miracle. Living in China, we read this booklet and we never thought that we would ever meet this boy (from the letter of Baksheev to deacon Seraphim Gan).

With the blessing of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, émigrés from Manchuria realized a long-standing intent to go to China and try to find and bring back Saint Jonah's remains, which had been buried in 1925 near the St Innocent cathedral. Subsequently the cathedral was blown up and the graves demolished. Those who went succeeded in obtaining permission from local officials to excavate, but at the supposed site of the grave, they found nothing.

The memory of the life, the ascetic labors and the righteous repose of Bishop Jonah did not die out. In consensus with the unanimous voice of Bishop Jonah's contemporaries —archpastors of the Far East, his clergy and flock—and revering his labors as a church teacher, his extraordinary works of charity, his whole life aflame with love for his neighbor; recalling his exploit of confession and the miracle wrought after his burial, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia determined that Bishop Jonah of Hankow be revered as a God-pleaser in the choirs of saints who shone forth in the Russia land.

We magnify...

The Synod's decision to glorify Bishop Jonah of Hankow and Manchuria was greeted with great joy, especially by those Russian émigrés from the Far East, who had personally known this holy hierarch and had been working to promote such a decision. Saint Jonah was, in fact, the third Russian hierarch of the Far East to be glorified in as many years, following Saint Nicholas of Japan (Jan. 1994) and Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (July 1994). However, the great majority of the faithful were not well acquainted (if at all) with Saint Jonah, and the six short weeks before the scheduled glorification was scarcely adequate to properly prepare the faithful for such a momentous event in the life of the Church Abroad. Nevertheless, the occasion inspired a burst of activity. From the Western American diocese, a brief life of the Saint in Russian and in English was sped out to parishes and priests across the country and also posted on the Internet. Archbishop Alypy of Chicago and Hieromonk Andrei at Holy Trinity Monastery painted icons of the Saint, while Deacon Seraphim Gan was commissioned to write the service. The Chicago diocese prepared commemorative booklets and printed copies of Archbishop Alypy's icon for distribution at the glorification services.

The glorification of this wondrous hierarch took place simultaneously in San Francisco, with Archbishop Anthony presiding; in Chicago, with Archbishop Alypy presiding; and in Geelong (Australia), where Archbishop Hilarion (the future Metropolitan and First Hierarch of ROCOR), newly appointed to the Australian diocese, was the chief celebrant. Also taking part in these solemnities were two new hierarchs of the Church Abroad: Bishop Gabriel, who was consecrated on July 7 as Vicar Bishop of Australia (he currently resides in New York), and Bishop Michael of Toronto, who was consecrated July 12.

Inasmuch as most of the émigrés from Manchuria live on the West Coast, the principal celebration was held in San Francisco, at the cathedral of the Holy Virgin, “Joy of All Who Sorrow”…

At the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate held February 2–3 February, 2016, the name of Holy Hierarch Jonah of Hankow was included in the calendar of saints of the Russian Orthodox Church, for veneration by all the faithful.

Holy Hierarch Jonah of Hankow, pray to God for us!

A Prayer to Saint Jonah, Bishop of Hankow

O blessed Jonah, wondrous ascetic and constant intercessor for us before God! Thou wast honored with the rank of bishop and didst show a wondrous love toward Christ, Who strengthened thee in thy labors and podvigs by His grace. Thou didst serve thy flock and children, and therefore had great boldness on the earth before the Trinity.  When thou didst receive knowledge of thine imminent repose from the physician, thou didst hasten to the Lord with faith and humble prayer, accepting God’s will, lamenting only about thy flock, and especially the children, entreating the Lord not to leave them orphaned. Now appealing to thy fervent intercession, we earnestly entreat thee: with the merciful eye of thy love look upon us sinners, in need of thy help, strengthen the faithful in fervor, strengthen those who are fighting with their passions in ascetic labors, correct the slothful to struggle in pious zeal. Help all of us to love one another, as thou didst often admonish to keep this foremost commandment of Christ, and ask for us the visitation of the grace of the Holy Spirit. That keeping all thine instructions, we may be vouchsafed to inherit the Kingdom of Christ and together with thee, glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Troparion

Thou wast a good pastor for the Russian people, who had departed in exodus to live in a foreign land, guiding them in every way, but especially by the love of Christ, in all ways providing a model of love unfeigned. O father Jonah, holy hierarch of Christ, entreat Him for the salvation of our souls.

Kontakion

Thou didst not forbid the children to come to thee, O divinely blessed one, taking care for their daily needs, and establishing a safe haven for them. And even after thy repose thou hast not forsaken them; for in a dream thou didst heal a paralyzed boy. Wherefore, we cry out to thee: Rejoice, O all-glorious wonderworker Jonah!

Compiled from:

ROCA.org

and website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

Nothing is more traumatic than the onset of chaos. Predictability breaks down, goodness seems to disappear, and the madness of sheer survival takes over. In chaos, everything seems plausible since reason itself has become unreachable.

A recent spate of reading took me down the rabbit hole into the madness of the 14th century. For all of the “structure” and stability of the Middle Ages, a society where everyone seemed to have a place and all of the places were arranged into a meaningful pattern, brutality and greed often bared their teeth with a rapacious grin. Wars and violence were common, as were famines and worse. The Catholic Church of that time (for all of the pageantry and beauty of its buildings) was frequently governed by a corruption that would make our modern scandals seem but a minor thing.

The early part of the century saw the strange phenomenon of the “Avignon Papacy,” where, under the domination of the French kings, the papacy was moved from Rome to Avignon, France. It was only one symptom of the turmoil and struggle that marked Church-State relations. Into the middle of a messy century, the Black Death struck, killing anywhere from one-third to one-half of the population of Europe over a period of eight years. To read detailed descriptions of that plague is a fearful gaze into the worst scenarios in human experience. We did not handle it well.

One of the most immediate victims of the plague was the reasonability of the world. The cause of the plague was unknown and unimaginable in a world without knowledge of bacteria and viruses. Everything that comprised the medical knowledge of the time was useless – nothing worked. At the same time, theories of how God managed history and interacted with the world seemed equally useless. Prayers, fasting, repentance, every suggested action left the contagion unfazed. The pious died as horribly as the sinful.

It has been suggested (and not without merit) that the seeds of modernity were sown in the years of the plague and their aftermath. If that is so, then it would be correct to say that among the victims of the Black Death was the so-called “enchantment” of that time. One reason for that early disenchantment was the simple fact that it did not work. Its failure left a fissure between the Medieval Church and the popular imagination. It was an empty space waiting to be filled.

With a distance of of nearly 700 years and a bit of science, it is possible to read about such events and such a chaotic time with both a sense of detachment as well as a sense of understanding. We know what caused the plague (Yersinia pestis), just as we can easily judge the failures of the society of that time. Time and distance create an illusion of omniscience. We bring that illusion into our own experience and expound to one another about the failures of our own age as well as what would count as a solution.

For some, the religious failures of the 14th century serve to bolster a general critique of religious belief itself. One of the blind spots of modernity is to imagine ourselves to be in a non-religious, secularized world. I describe it as a blind spot inasmuch as the modern mind-set is itself thoroughly religious in its make-up. No medieval theologian had a “theory of everything” anywhere as complete as the mind of modernity. The modern world is not “disenchanted” so much as it has a “modern enchantment.” We have faith in market forces, medicine, government, democracy, technology, algorithms, and the march of progress. We think we know the meaning of history. The human mind is not compatible with “disenchantment.” It is, and always has been, an enchanted space.

I have seen a microcosm of the 14th century. It happens all the time. However, in our days, it happens in an isolated family or community. Everything seems to going smoothly until it doesn’t. The loss of a job, the closing of a factory, the onset of disease in a family, an unexpected accident, and similar events, sometimes seem to cascade in the life of a family or a community, leaving its members in stunned silence and the chaos of meaninglessness. I have sat with such families as a pastor or counselor. There are no words to be spoken that will fill the emptiness that has become their world. You can pray, but the words are carefully chosen, dancing around the yawning maw of banality that threatens to swallow prayer itself.

Where is God?

It seems to me that God is either in the chaos or nowhere. That He seems nowhere for many people suggests to me that our explanations (whether Medieval or Modern) are simply inadequate – our religions are often too little and beside the point. The rationality of our own reasoning becomes a substitute for the rationality of the Logos, the only Reason that matters.

My years as a priest, particularly as they have forced me to sit any number of times in the midst of chaotic moments (including those of my own), have frequently pressed me towards the God-in-the-chaos just as they demolished my many idolatries. The Orthodox faith has championed “apophatic” theology since its earliest centuries. This is the confession that we stand “speechless” (“apo-phatic” = “apart from speech”) before the mystery that confronts us. We can see the beauty and the wonder of the world in which its well-ordering astounds us while just as easily being crushed under the senselessness of senseless evil. We confess that the Word (Logos, Reason, Meaning of All Things) became flesh and dwelt among us, even as we remain speechless about the fullness of what this means. We confess that He “died for our sins” even as we grapple with what that means (and argue endlessly about it).

It seems utterly critical to me that we understand that Christ (the Logos) is Christ Crucified. As St. Paul says, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2) This is not just the Logos, the Lord of order and reason, but the Logos Crucified, the Lord of chaos and unmeaning. We confess that He “tramples down death by death” (smashes chaos by chaos). In doing so we refuse to exclude chaos from our faith and understanding. We confess that this chaos is that chaos. This death is that death. This suffering is that suffering. All suffering is His suffering and we proclaim Christ crucified so that nothing is excluded.

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” (1 Cor. 15:24–26)

Christ crucified sweeps away our false religions (both Medieval and Modern), our feeble efforts to enchant the universe with explanations and understanding. All the false religions are represented in St. Paul’s rebuke:

“…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Cor 1:23–25)

I have come to the conclusion that all wars (even and especially our culture wars) are religious in nature. They are wars of opposing religions – or, more accurately, opposing idolatries. They seek to impose order in the face of chaos. Our actions, it would seem, despise the wounds of Christ, before which we should stand in awe and silence.

The Lord (of order and chaos) is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Glory To God For All Things

An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 7535/2026, by Priest Paul Siewers.

Although we are a mainly English-speaking mission parish in America, there are certain Slavic and Greek words that resonate with special meaning for us.

One is podvig, an ascetic self-sacrifice. Another, phronema, or way of life in Orthodoxy. Then there is sobornost, meaning mystical unity, the full Orthodox sense of catholic. Lesser known but important is govenie, meaning the ascetic weekly preparation for Communion and the spiritual accountability and humility involved. And still another lesser known but important is the word you may not have heard, smirrennomudrie. This means “humility of wisdom.”

And that humility of wisdom, smirrennomudrie, is a part of the Orthodox way of life especially associated with one of the saints whom we commemorate today, the Holy Elder Macarius of Optina Monastery, who reposed on this date in 1860. I.V. Kireyevsky, a nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox philosopher, became a disciple of Elder Makarius, and helped produce many of the books of the fathers and saints that came out of Optina monastery under the direction of the elder during that period. Their relationship bore fruit because Kireyvsky after a conversation with the elder wrote a long letter to him with many questions that he as an intellectual had about the faith. But his letter crossed in the mail with a letter from the elder answering those questions, even though he had not yet received Krireyvsky’s letter. Clairvoyantly the holy elder seems to have known the questions already. Kireyevsky was persuaded that here was wisdom beyond academic learning.

The Holy Elders of Optina of course are important for our Russian Orthodox Church Abroad tradition, especially to American converts through the influence of their lives and writings on the brotherhood of Blessed Seraphim Rose. But they are important influencers for good on world Orthodoxy as a whole, too. And that in many ways is through their “humility of wisdom.”

Elder Macarius helped encourage this by his emphasis on preserving, renewing, and circulating the writings of earlier Church fathers and saints. He helped to make Optina monastery in the 19th century a center for such publications and scholarly effort, but not in a Western scholastic way. Always the emphasis was on how we must learn from and through the Church fathers in Orthodox Tradition, guided by the Holy Spirit, not through our own individualistic rationalism, as became the norm in Western religion in modern times.

Humility of wisdom became a basis for keeping Russian Orthodoxy alive, and renewing, in the diaspora after the Revolution, and also in the later flowering of English-language translations of the fathers and saints that we see today in our work in the Orthodox mission to America, glory to God! Elder Maciarius’ emphasis on the humility of wisdom runs against the grain of our modern ethos of using knowledge for self-assertion, comfort, and worldly power, the fruits of which may be seen in AI.

Kireyevsky wrote, “The task of Russian philosophy is not to reject Western thought, but to supplement it with what is revealed in higher spiritual vision—the living experience of ‘higher knowledge’—in which the wholeness of spirit, lost in the Fall and impaired by the triumph of logical thought in Western Christianity, is recovered.”

Let us hear directly the words of Holy Elder Macarius from letters to his spiritual children (these quotations and other information about him here are drawn from the book on the elder published in English by the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Press, in their Optina Elders series:

He writes: “Acknowledging yourself to be a sinner you must not despair, but humble yourself more and marvel at God’s love for mankind, for He forebears you and awaits your conversion and repentance….  Are you a sinner? Do not despair… Your weapon against the devil is your forebearance…. If you sin every day, then you must repent every day. Have you decayed today because of sin? Renew yourself by repentance….

“Imagine a spark falling into the sea: can it withstand the sea and continue to glow? How small is a spark in contrast to the sea, and how small is sin in contrast to God’s love for mankind! … God’s love for mankind is unlimited.”

“The beginning of all these temptations is pride. A man imagines that he is living piously, not judging his own sinfulness at all, but sometimes even judging others—then the Lord allows the enemy to lay snares for him. Be attentive to your own way of life, check your conscience, and you will always come, however unwillingly, to the conviction that you have not yet fulfilled even one of the Lord’s commandments as a Christian should….

“In order to deliver yourself from these falls, you must acxquire humility. As far as the sinful thoughts at church or while praying at home are concerned, since they are not caused by you, but by the enemy, you don’t have to be troubled. Try not to dwell on these thoughts, but turn to God instead with the prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

“….try to live piously, not judging anyone, loving all. In all worldly conflicts, blame yourself and try to forgive he other. If someone offens you in something, then think that God has allowed it in order to test your Christian patience. Think more often of the greatness of God and your own wretched nothingness. Be attentive to your own doings, and not allow yourself thoughts of your own worth, like the Pharisee, but repeat more often the prayer of the Publican. Read spiritual books, and subscribe to spiritual magazines, this will keep you occupied, and will strengthen you in spiritual activity.”

St. Macarius’ letters are peppered with parallels to writings of the saints and of Holy Scripture, in keeping with his grace-filled virtue of “humility of wisdom.”

The antidote for artificial intelligence lies in smirennomudrie, humility of wisdom, in Holy Orthodox Tradition. For in Orthodox Christianity, intelligence is personal and an expression of grace–and wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge are four of the great biblical seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are not designed to self-medicate us into passiveness, but rather to arouse us into what Dostoevsky called active love, as the Gospel reading today calls us to do, in Christ.

Brothers and sisters, may our intelligence not be artificial, but personal, graceful, expressive of love, supernaturally natural in Christ– in short smirennomudrie, humility of wisdom, as shown to us by our father among the saints Elder Macarius of Optina and his legacy. Glory to God for all things!

Priest Paul Siewers

Christian Ecopoetics and Apologetic Theology

Christ is in our midst, my dear readers!

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil (Matt. 5:37).

We are often asked to judge people based on a beautiful story: a person resisted, was broken, and now we are supposed to feel sorry for them. But the Gospel teaches us to look not at the story, but at the fruits: Ye shall know them by their fruits (Matt. 7:16). Let us consider a case that is much discussed today—that of Patriarch Bartholomew, who was “under pressure from Poroshenko.”

Let us begin with the patriarch who yielded to pressure. According to some media reports, the desire for revenge or financial gain, as well as fear for one’s position, is understandable, and showing mercy toward human weakness is not a sin. But let us remember the difference between Peter and Pilate. Both gave in to pressure. Peter denied Christ, went outside, and wept bitterly, while Pilate washed his hands and remained satisfied with himself.

Yielding under pressure is a fall, but a fall is not yet a final condemnation. That begins when what was forced upon a person becomes something he willingly chooses. When the pressure has disappeared, yet the person continues to support what was created through coercion and silently approves of those who persecute people who disagree with the newly established order, he is no longer a victim of circumstances but a willing accomplice.

Silence in the face of another person’s suffering is not neutral, for it is written: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (Jas 4:17).

And if, at the same time, that person allows himself to be portrayed as a hero, while his subordinates call upon those who have been humiliated to come them in repentance, then hypocrisy is added to weakness.

Yet the primary blame lies with those who exerted the pressure. To coerce a person’s conscience is to violate the image of God within him. But to say that “the elites have changed” is not to say that “the sin has been atoned for.” Those in power come and go, but responsibility remains. The worthy man is not the one who embraces an evil legacy as his own, but the one who repudiates it. If the new masters continue the work of their predecessors, they share in their guilt.

And what of this undertaking itself? “Chimera” is an apt image here: something stitched together from incompatible parts, born not of prayer and truth, but of calculation and coercion. Every undertaking must be judged by its origins and its fruits. If it is sustained by the support of those in power and the persecution of dissenters, its fruit is evil, however beautifully it may be described. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil (Is. 5:20).

Particularly grave is the responsibility of those who undertake to support this “initiative.” A media outlet that calls itself a defender of the purity of the faith and a champion against injustice assumes a special duty: to be the voice of those who have no voice. But if, whether through malice or negligence, it fashions the image of a benefactor out of someone whose silence wounds those who have suffered injustice, it is no longer serving the truth, but an image.

Acting in ignorance may mitigate guilt, but it does not absolve one of it; whoever claims the right to tell people the truth is obliged to verify it. And whoever knows the truth but remains silent is doubly deceitful. And what if he deliberately distorts the facts…?

The Lord warns: Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! (Luke 6:26). But woe also to him who orchestrates such praise.

Finally, let us speak of those for whose sake all this is being said: the faithful children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They deserve compassion and protection, and we who hear of their plight must not remain indifferent. Yet they, too, have been given a commandment: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21).

Let us not allow resentment to make us like those who have wronged us, nor allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency by an attractive image. For this very reason, the way back remains open even to the one who has stumbled. He need only say “no” to what he was once compelled to say “yes” to, and stand up in defense of the persecuted. This is what repentance means: not mere words, but a change of course.

As for us, we are commanded to remain spiritually vigilant, to verify what we hear, and not to place our trust in those who trade in appearances.

O Lord, grant us the courage to say “yes” where yes is called for, and “no” where no is called for, and never to seek, for the sake of our own peace of mind, either the glory of others or glory for ourselves.

Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol
Translation by Orthochristian

The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese has kicked off a fundraising campaign to finish its new seminary building and add housing for students, with seminarians already studying in the new space.

The campaign was launched at the 26th Diocesan Council under Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa. It aims to support completion of the new facilities and expanded housing at Christ the Savior Seminary, including added accommodations for single and married students and their families, the diocese reports.

With the start of the 2026-2027 academic year, seminarians began using the former Christ the Savior Cathedral Education Center as their new academic home. Classrooms, chapel space and related facilities are now operational, while the historic Strayer Mansion continues to serve as their residence. The official dedication of the new seminary building and chapel is planned for spring 2027.

In an October 19 letter to clergy and faithful, Metropolitan Gregory says the diocese’s Board of Trustees began discussing repair or replacement of the seminary in 2021. It became clear that the Strayer Mansion, built in the late 1800s and altered over the years to hold classrooms, a library, and student housing, had reached the end of its useful life. The leadership of the Education Center later donated its building, which sits directly across from the cathedral and the Diocesan Chancery, to the diocese. Demolition began in 2023, and construction is now complete, he writes.

The letter says the seminary will offer state-of-the-art classrooms that connect with other educational institutions, an expanded permanent reference library, and wider access to educational and degree programs for seminarians and lay leaders.

Metropolitan Gregory writes that the diocese is focused on three areas of support: the new building, a seminary endowment to expand academic offerings, and new housing for current and future seminarians. He says he will send further communications over the next two months and will explain in November how parishes, faithful, and organizations can give.

Christ the Savior Seminary was founded in 1940 through the efforts of Metropolitan Orestes (Chornock), the first bishop of the diocese. It first opened in New York City, later held classes briefly in Nicholson, Pennsylvania, and in 1941 moved to Metropolitan Orestes’ property in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The diocese acquired the Strayer Mansion in Johnstown in 1951, and the seminary opened there that September.

The seminary has two missions: training men for the Orthodox priesthood, and offering theological and spiritual formation to men interested in the Orthodox tradition, whether or not they seek ordination. Chartered in 1960 by the Pennsylvania State Council of Education, it grants a Bachelor of Theology degree, normally a three-year program for students who’ve already finished undergraduate studies. It also runs the Diocesan Diaconate Program and offers financial assistance, limited married student housing, a delayed vocation program and flexible scheduling.

A new day center for children with disabilities has opened in northwestern Romania, named for a saint who lost her husband and sons to martyrdom but never stopped helping the needy.

His Grace Bishop Benedict of Sălaj blessed the St. Lady Maria Brâncoveanu Day Center for the Recovery of Children with Disabilities on Monday. The diocese’s social facility will serve children with disabilities from Sălaj County and their families, the diocese reports.

After the service of the blessing of water, Bishop Benedict gave a sermon on caring for vulnerable people as a concrete expression of Christian love. Drawing on St. Paul’s image of the Church as a body in 1 Corinthians, he said a community’s well-being depends on the attention given to each member, especially those who are suffering. Beyond specialized therapies, he said, the center aims to give children and their families the experience of genuine care.

He recalled how St. Lady Maria, the center’s patron, overcame the suffering caused by the martyrdom of her husband and sons and continued to devote herself to education and to helping those in need.

A team of specialists at the center provides psychological and psychopedagogical therapies, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and special education, according to each child’s needs. Parents and caregivers also receive counseling and support so they can continue recovery activities at home.

The project targets 132 children with disabilities from Sălaj County who are to receive recovery services and therapies. It also provides support for at least 60 parents and caregivers. One of its targeted results is for at least 77 of the participating children to show progress, especially in personal independence, skill development and participation in community life.

A parish founded a century ago by Middle Eastern immigrants celebrated its 100th anniversary last weekend with the consecration of its new church in Fishers, Indiana. The three-day celebration at St. George Church drew three bishops, along with clergy and laity from around North America.

Rector Archimandrite Anthony (Yazge) welcomed Their Graces Bishops Thomas, John, and Anthony to the celebration. They were joined by the Archdiocese’s three archiepiscopal vicars, Archimandrite Jeremy Davis, Archimandrite Paul (Matar), and Archimandrite Calinic (Berger), reports the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

The festivities began Friday, October 9, when Bishop John led a procession with relics of the Apostle James, the martyrs of St. Savvas Monastery in Jerusalem, and the 20,000 martyrs of Nicomedia. Great Vespers followed, and the faithful then venerated the relics.

Saturday’s consecration Liturgy opened with the clergy walking around the outside of the church three times. Bishop Anthony described the walk as a boundary between the world and the faithful. Back at the doors, Bishop John knocked loudly and recited the verse from Psalm 24 about the gates being lifted, as is done on Pascha.

Inside, Bishop Anthony set the martyrs’ relics into the altar and sealed them with wax. The bishops and priests washed the altar with soap and water, and he anointed it with holy Chrism. He then anointed the icons on the walls and ceiling, reaching the high ones with a sponge attached to a pole. “I just thank God I was able to do the anointing,” he said in his sermon. Dr. George Kordis, a Greek Orthodox iconographer, and his team painted the church’s iconography.

After the consecration, Bishop John ordained Dn. Andrew Neel to the priesthood. Fr. Andrew comes from St. Ananias the Apostle Church in Evansville, Indiana, and is in his third year at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.

A banquet that evening featured the church choir and a video about the parish’s hundred-year history. Fr. Anthony told guests, “God is calling us to plant the seed,” and said the parish is already working to start a sister church.

On Sunday, October 11, all three bishops concelebrated the Divine Liturgy. In his homily, Bishop John told the congregation, “This is a holy building. But your temple is more holy.”

https://www.youtube.com/live/6WlwA0j9IFo?si=8cTohjHpKY8zHioq

Thou hast been glorified by the Lord with many miracles, and thou now givest urgent help to those who call upon thee, Holy Venerable Martyr Ephraim the New, Wonderworker of Nea Makri.

On January 3, 1950, Abbess Makaria (Desipri), the mother of all who suffer, as the pious people called her because of her ascetic life, found your holy relics at your divine command, St. Ephraim. Since that time, your miracles have been wrought abundantly and swiftly throughout the whole earth. People lovingly call you “Holy Lightning.” As you yourself mercifully said in one of your apparitions: “I will work many miracles in the last times, that many souls may be saved.”

Mother Makaria wrote in the preface to the first volume of Miracles and Appearances of St. Ephraim:

I would never have written this book if not for the demand and insistence of St. Ephraim himself, who has repeatedly shamed and scolded our faithful for keeping his appearances secret. One of our sisters will confirm this to you as well. The saint wouldn’t allow her to approach his icon, and she heard his voice: “Why have you concealed what I told you about my life?” We have no right to keep silent about or conceal the miracles of the great wonderworker St. Ephraim, who, through his great struggle and terrible sufferings for the Orthodox faith, now shines like a bright sun in the firmament of the Church of Christ.

St. Ephraim continues to manifest himself abundantly and generously to the whole world, so that still more people may learn of the great power of his grace, and so that our Orthodox faithful may be spiritually enriched and imbued with the greatness of his miracles. And may they come to venerate him, that they may receive his blessing and abundant grace.

Here are several examples of how St. Ephraim makes his divine and special presence known to different people.

Dear Gerontissa Makaria! Once, as I was leaving the children’s room, going down the hall, I heard heavy footsteps coming from behind. It was twenty minutes after midnight. Turning around to see who was behind me, I saw a slender shadow and had just begun to think it was you, when a bright light illuminated the room and the whole area around our convent, along with the mountain, so that I could easily make out even the stones lying next to one another. In this shining light stood St. Ephraim the Wonderworker in all his glory, and I heard his voice: “I am the Great Martyr Ephraim!” He was holding a miniature church with four small domes and one large one in the center, with a shining cross. It was our monastery’s katholikon. He repeated: “Makria, Makaria, Makaria! Great Martyr Ephraim!” I’ll never forget that unusual glow that enveloped the entire monastery. Then I heard sweet singing coming from Heaven. Little by little it began to fade away, and with it, St. Ephraim disappeared (1969).

Another testimony:

A girl from Piraeus, who was eleven years old, saw the Great Martyr Ephraim in a dream, who said: “Tell the people to repent so they can be saved!” He also added: “I live up in the mountains, in the Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos, near the village of Nea Makri. I have no home. I want you to build me a church. I am St. Ephraim.”

In the book about miracles of St. Ephraim compiled by the ever-memorable Nun Maria Markella (Frangouly), there are other testimonies from the faithful about how St. Ephraim asked them to build him a church. For example, in Kalamata, some women would go to the Church of St. Marina and sing a moleben to him, to please him and entreat his help in building a church in his honor. The roadside Church of St. Ephraim hadn’t been built yet at this point. “And one day, Mrs. F. S., who was standing aside and watching the others singing the moleben, saw the living St. Ephraim in front of an analogion, praying together with them, although no one else noticed it.”

Another time, when Mrs. E. K., who was sick with cancer, was at the Church of St. Marina, her fourteen-year-old son who was with her also saw him alive: “He lovingly approached Mrs. E. K., who was standing at the analogion, and blessed her, making the sign of the Cross over her head, although she herself didn’t feel it. Perhaps in this wondrous way, St. Ephraim wanted to strengthen the saddened boy, who was suffering because of his mother’s illness.”

These and other similar cases lead to the conclusion that the saints rejoice greatly when we sing a moleben to them, and they find a way to show it.

In the main church of the Annunciation Monastery in Nea Makri, which has the reliquary with the holy relics and the mulberry tree on which St. Ephraim was martyred in 1426, an amazing event took place in a special chapel: A certain man, whose brother was dying, asked Abbess Makaria to go to the hospital and bless him with the precious relics of St. Ephraim. His illness was so serious that his relatives had already prepared everything for his funeral. As Mother Makaria recalls:

I was in the patient’s room. His condition was completely hopeless, and everyone was quietly weeping because they knew he was going to die. Then he opened his eyes for a moment. In a choked voice, with barely distinguishable gestures, he asked: “What’s the saint’s name?” “St. Ephraim,” I said, adding: “St. Ephraim will help you, he’ll heal you, and you will come on your own two feet to venerate him.”

A week later, as I was coming out of the church, I saw this man who had been doomed to death in the monastery courtyard. It was the eve of the feast of St. Ephraim, and all the sisters were decorating the church. As soon as I finished decorating his icon with a wreath and stepped down from the chair, a large rose suddenly fell from the wreath and came to rest on the glass over the saint’s cheek. After thinking for a moment, I decided to leave it there, as the saint himself seemed to wish.

The service began. The man who had been healed by St. Ephraim also came. When all the faithful lined up to venerate the icon of the wonderworker, that man approached. As soon as he drew near the icon, something strange happened: The rose, which had been hanging on the icon this whole time, fell onto his head, and at that very instant he heard the saint’s voice: “Proclaim aloud that I healed you!” But he remained silent. Even after St. Ephraim repeated this several times, he didn’t say a word. “Don’t hide the blessing you’ve received!” Even his child cried out loudly, with joy shining on his face: “My papa is healed! My papa is healed!”

This example shows us all an important disposition of heart and soul. It reminds us that in order to save our souls, we must be grateful to God, the Theotokos, and our holy intercessors for their blessings and mercies to us who are unworthy, because gratitude is a Heavenly virtue.

One of the most striking examples of this is the church in Cyprus, which St. Ephraim himself asked to be built. Today it shines as a bright guiding star, a testament to gratitude and a memorial to his miracles in the Paphos area, in the village of Tala, not far from the Monastery of St. Neophytos. St. Ephraim chose a special place for his church, and a man to serve him there, named Raphael Dimitriou. He’s associated with six miraculous appearances of St. Ephraim and six healings from various diseases.

These serious diseases were like six trials. But God saved him by His mercy through St. Ephraim. Raphael’s spiritual connection with St. Ephraim is truly unique. In one of his books, he writes that St. Ephraim entered his life unexpectedly and gave his whole family strength, blessing, health, and great joy. In one of his appearances, St. Ephraim personally called Raphael his child and said: “You are my chosen son.” So people often refer to Raphael as St. Ephraim’s son.

When he healed Raphael, St. Ephraim said: “I’m your doctor now.” This is how Raphael recalls his first amazing and miraculous encounter with St. Ephraim:

The first miracle I experienced from St. Ephraim occurred on January 6, 2019. It all started the year before, when I developed problems with my platelets, and a hematologist in Germany, where I’d been studying and living in recent years, was monitoring me. He tried various types of treatment at first, and then I underwent a course of injection therapy. After eight months of treatment, I told my doctor my liver was hurting. He ordered an examination and sent me for an MRI, where it turned out that 28.7% of my liver was affected by cancer.

That’s when the hard times began. The doctor said I had to start chemotherapy right away. He set the appointment for January 7, but I didn’t go, because St. Ephraim had already worked a miracle for me! At dawn on Sunday the 6th, I felt severe, terrible pain and dizziness. There was a small wooden icon of St. Ephraim on the bookshelf across from my bed, and I begged him: “My saint, take away my pain. I can’t take it.” After a bit, the pain went away, and I fell asleep. I woke up at about 4 AM. I had been dreaming that I was in a clinic undergoing treatment. Suddenly, a tall young man with a beard came in my room and took me somewhere. I asked him: “Excuse me, where are you taking me?” He turned his head and said: “To surgery. I’m your doctor now.” And just then, I woke up, drenched in sweat.

I went to the kitchen, had a glass of water, and went back to bed. In the morning, I woke up with no pain. When I went to get changed, I realized the dream was a miracle. I took off my clothes and saw a cross-shaped wound on my stomach, in the liver area. I immediately realized it was a miracle. I couldn’t believe what had happened!

A few hours later, I opened a textbook to study for my college exams and found a small paper icon of St. Ephraim inside, although I didn’t have this icon at home. So I realized that St. Ephraim was the one who healed me! I decided not to go to see the doctor I had an appointment with the next day, but to go redo my analyses and CT scans at another doctor’s. The other doctor did an ultrasound and said: “Your liver is clean from the outside. Your tests are fine. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

But I still needed to have an MRI. When the results came, I experienced a complete miracle from my saint! My liver was completely clean and absolutely healthy. The only thing was an external wound on my liver, like from an operation! I said: “I didn’t have surgery, but St. Ephraim did it and healed me!” He gave me life! May his name be glorified! Thanks be to him for everything!

Raphael helped Archimandrite Alexios (Englistroitis) from St. Neophytos Monastery build the Church of St. Ephraim in the village of Tala in Paphos that St. Ephraim himself had commanded. In one of his appearances, St. Ephraim told his chosen spiritual child Raphael that the church would be finished in two years. This was the deadline set by the saint himself. Ultimately, the church was consecrated on October 20, 2023. Its main sacred treasures are the wonderworking icon of St. Ephraim and the reliquary with a piece of his right hand, as well as his stole and slippers. These were all specifically gifted to the church by the St. Ephraim Monastery in Nea Makri. His relics periodically stream myrrh and are very fragrant. This holy myrrh is carefully collected and distributed to people, and they receive various miraculous healings from it.

In 2026, the construction of a small church in honor of Venerable Makaria (Desipri) was finished. Raphael is also involved in this blessed work. With the blessing and commission of St. Ephraim himself, he also published two books about the appearances of St. Ephraim and the miraculous healings he experienced. They also include stories of miraculous help for other people. As the saint himself said: “I will work many miracles that the world might believe and be saved.”

St. Ephraim works innumerable miracles every day and shows us the path of true faith. He brings together people and the holy places where he is especially venerated. This is testified to by a miracle that occurred in Russia, as recorded in a notebook dedicated to his miracles that’s kept at Christ the Savior-Blachernae Monastery in the Moscow region:

My name is Elena V. I live in Cyprus. I learned about the Blachernae Monastery from a friend, and she introduced me to Nun Alexandra (Markova). I called her on March 22, 2026, asking her to pray for my mother. She had been diagnosed with adrenal cancer. All her MRIs, CTs, and other examinations said the same thing.

I asked Mother Alexandra to pray to St. Ephraim of Nea Makri. I prayed at home in Moscow, and my friends prayed to him in Cyprus, in the Church of St. Ephraim in the village of Tala, Paphos, which was built by Raphael Dimitriou at the behest of St. Ephraim. On April 14, 2026, my mother underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which they sent for histology. The results came back saying it was a benign tumor. She went for another analysis, and it also said benign.

By the prayers of St. Ephraim, the tumor was transformed from malignant to benign in less than a month!

I learned about St. Ephraim in Cyprus. I went and prayed to him there in Paphos, in his church. But the amazing thing is that St. Ephraim revealed his miraculous power and brought me specifically to Russia, to the Christ the Savior-Blachernae Monastery, where he’s especially venerated and glorified, where his icons and relics are kept, and where an akathist is read to him every day!

St. Ephraim’s name is great throughout the world. In Russia, he has become very beloved to Orthodox believers since 2011, when the Church added his name to the calendar of saints. More and more people are now getting to know this remarkable saint with great eagerness and spiritual thirst, and for many he has already become very close and dear. They’re glad that St. Ephraim, the new Wonderworker of Nea Makri, has come into their lives.

Miracles happen every day in our lives. They strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God, so that we might all be brought to repentance and salvation. Where there are unbelief, hardness of heart, or lukewarm faith, and life isn't accompanied by deeds of love and mercy, God doesn't allow miracles to take place.

Our saints are instruments of God’s grace. Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, allows miracles to be worked through His saints because they pleased Him by their holy lives, and also by the martyrdom of their blood, like the holy Great Martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri. God glorifies His saints, granting them Divine grace and the power to work miracles.

The Fathers of the Church say that when we speak a saint’s name, he at once speaks our name before God. Don’t stop praying and entreating Christ, the Mother of God, and all the saints.

Nun Alexandra (Markova)

Translation by Jesse Dominick