From September 15 until the Leavetaking, we sing “O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ. O son of God crucified in the flesh, save us who sing to Thee: Alleluia” at weekday Liturgies following the Little Entrance.

Saint Eumenius from the time of his youth was noted for his virtuous life. He strove to serve the One God and therefore he shunned worldly temptations. Concerned for the salvation of his soul, he distributed all his substance to the poor. By the blessing of God Saint Eumenius was chosen as Bishop…

The Holy Martyr Ariádnē was a slave of Tertullus, a prominent official of the city of Promissia, Phrygia in the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117–161). Although she was only a slave, Saint Ariádnē was wiser than many noble ladies, who were enslaved by worldly vanities and “every defilement of…

Saint Sophia endured martyrdom with Saints Castor and Irene in Alexandria.

In the 17th century the Persian aggressors razed churches, monasteries, and fortresses and drove out thousands of Georgian families to resettle them in remote provinces of Persia. The deserted territories were settled by Turkic tribes from Central Asia. In the chronicle The Life of Kartli it is…

The Staro Rus Icon of the Mother of God was so named because for a long time it was in Staro Rus, where it had been brought by the Greeks from Olviopolis during the very first period of Christianity in Russia. The icon was in Staro Rus until the seventeenth century. In 1655 during a plague it was…

The original icon known as “Tselitel’nitsa,” or “The Healer” was from the Tsilkan church in Kartali, Georgia. It was painted at the time of Saint Nino (January 14). There is another icon with the same name in the Alexeev women’s monastery in Moscow, and many…

Saint Euphrosynē of Suzdal was born in 1212. Although she was a princess, she entered a women’s monastery in Suzdal, where she was tonsured with the name Euphrosynē, in honor of Saint Euphrosynē of Alexandria (September 25). After her death on September 25, 1250, many miracles took place…

On the night of Pascha, April 8-9, 1805, Saint Hilarion (Ponamarov) was born in Kluch, the third son of Nikḗtas and Euphemia Ponamarov, who named him Rodion in honor of Saint Herodion of the Seventy. He always considered April 8, the day of his patron saint’s commemoration, as his birthday.…