Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and Enlightener to America was born as Vasily Ivanovich Belavin on January 19, 1865 into the family of Ioann Belavin, a rural priest of the Toropetz district of the Pskov diocese. His childhood and adolescence were spent in the village in direct contact with…

Holy Apostle James the son of Alphaeus one of the Twelve Apostles, was the brother of the holy Evangelist Matthew. He heard the Lord’s words and witnessed His miracles. After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle James Alphaeus and the Apostle Andrew the First-Called (November 30), made…

Saint Andronicus and his wife Athanasia of Egypt lived in Antioch in the fifth century. Saint Andronicus was a craftsman who divided his earnings into three portions. One part he gave to the Church, the second to the poor, and the third he used for his family. When the Lord took the son and…

The Righteous Forefather Abraham lived around 2000 B.C. His story is found in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 12-25. God told Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in his seed (Genesis 22:18), and ordered him to leave his home and his relatives and go to Canaan, the country…

The Righteous Forefather Abraham (“Father of a multitude”) and his nephew Lot (“veil”) lived around 2000 B.C. The Righteous Lot is regarded as the progenitor of the Moabites and the Ammonites.He lived in Sodom with his wife and two daughters, a righteous man living in the…

Martyrs Juventinus and Maximus at Antioch were bodyguards of the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Having arrived in Antioch, the emperor gave orders to sprinkle all the foodstuffs in the marketplace and the water in the wells with blood offered to idols. Saints Juventinus and Maximus opposed…

The holy Martyr Publia the Confessor, a deaconess of Antioch, became a widow at a young age and devoted all her strength to raising her son John in the Christian Faith. John became a presbyter, and Publia, for her prudent and ascetic life, was found worthy of becoming a deaconess. She undertook the…

Saint Peter lived in the IX century, during the reign of the iconoclast Emperor Theophilos (829), and was from the province of Galatia in Asia Minor. He was the son of Theophilos and Eudokia, and at first his name was Leo. Since he was handsome and possessed physical strength as well as good…

Saint Dionysius (or Denis) has, for many centuries, been regarded as the patron saint of France. It is believed that Saint Dionysius was sent to preach the Gospel at Lutetia Parisiorum (modern Paris) in Gaul around 250. He was beheaded in 258 with the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius at…

The Korsun Icon of the Mother of God is believed to be one of those painted by the holy Evangelist Luke, and it had been preserved in Ephesus. On October 9, 988, a copy of this icon was transferred from Korsun to Kiev by the holy Great Prince Vladimir (July 15), and it came to be called the Korsun…

Today we commemorate a copy of the “Assuage My Sorrows” Icon (January 25) which is treasured in the Saint Nicholas Odrino Monastery in the Orel Diocese, Karachev district. Until 1784, this icon belonged to Count Nicholas Borisovitch Samoilov, who regarded it as a holy icon. At first,…

Saint Stephen Brancovich was the son of the Despot George and Queen Irene, and lived in the fifteenth century. He and his sister Mara lived in the court of Sultan Murat II. Saint Stephen and his brother Gregory were blinded at Jedrene by the Turkish Sultan for some perceived offense. Since he was…