Today, February 13/26, is the feast day of the “Dolinskaya” or “Dolisskaya” Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God. This image is defined by the unusual position of the Infant Christ, Whom the Mother of God cradles in her left arm, as He turns away and faces to the side. I admit that I…
Our monastery's icon of the Synaxis of the Optina saints, a gift from our sister monastery in Bulgaria, which has severl very talented iconographers. St. Ambrose of the Optina monastery reposed on October 10/23. Our monastery has a chapel dedicated to him, but since on that day we celebrate the Synaxis of all the Optina…
St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycea, the 4th century bishop of a minor Cappodocian town, is the only saint that the modern world still venerates, under the guise of “Santa Claus”, the secular patron saint of the “holiday season”, or as the French call it, “les fêtes de fin d’année”- “the end-of-the-year holidays”, when secular…
Mar Saba, in the Judean desert east of Jerusalem is one of the titles or names given to Saint Sabbas the Sanctified in the liturgical texts written in his honor and chanted today, on December 5/18. St. Sabbas the Sanctified is one of, if not The, great monastic father of the Judean desert. The roots…
Today is the feast day of St. Barbara, an early Christian virgin martyr. An extremely popular and greatly beloved saint since ancient times, on icons she is often depicted witha chalice, because she is especially venerated as the saint one prays to so as not to die an unexpected or violent death, and not to…
Russian strannik (wanderer) by Miasoedov I’ve named my blog after the Russian Orthodox spiritual classic, The Way of a Pilgrim, the simple yet compelling and inspiring account of a spiritual seeker that wandered throughout Russia in the 19thcentury. In chapter 2 of the book the Pilgrim explains: “…I wandered about for a long time…having for…
Thanks for joining me! Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
A Pilgrim's Path 