Ξένες γλώσσες

It was also in the ’20s that the “correction” facilities were set up, the forced labour camps known as gulags. Within a few years they had spread throughout the vast country. It all began with a monastery, the Solovetstky, which was built in the 14th century on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea. It was a large monastic centre, a central monastery with lots of sketes throughout the islands. It was bitterly cold in the winter, which lasted 8-9 months. Since it was impossible to escape from, the Solovetsky monastery was an ideal location for a prison camp. The inmates worked16 hours a day, and if their productivity was not up to scratch they were executed as saboteurs. If they ...

In his work Outline, on the subject of the toleration of other religions, he poses the question of religious freedom from his own point of view, which is different from that of Voltaire. According to Voulgaris, freedom of thought can exist only in humanistic arts and sciences: ‘In the divine and mysterious dogmas of the faith, freedom of thought is insolence, because for anyone to seek reason in what is beyond reason is dementia’. When the soul tries ‘to see with another light’ what is taught by Holy Scripture and the Church, it is blinded and deceived. It is not permissible for people to seek freedom such as this for themselves or for others. And devout rulers should take steps ...

If you ever find yourself on the Holy Mountain or in other old churches, you will notice that many of them are painted red. If you ask the monks, they will tell you that the colour symbolizes the blood of Christ and His saints. It wants to remind us that, whereas the various religions or ideologies spread via propaganda, violence or oppression, the Church of Christ won people’s hearts through weakness, the blood of Christ and the saints, martyrdom and witness. There is not a single Orthodox Church that has not experienced its own martyrdom. And nor is there a saint that has not passed through his or her furnace of sorrows, temptations or martyrdom.  In the 20th century, the Russian ...

People who are stubborn, quarrelsome and cantankerous are vain and empty. They strive against other people until they’re exhausted, but, no matter how tired they are, they won’t give in. They take no thought for themselves and behave as if they’re possessed by insanity. What’s important to them isn’t truth, but the imposition of their will on others. This blocks out their reason and they try to win by shouting.

The Sunday which follows the Ascension, the sixth Sunday after Easter, is called the Sunday of the Holy Fathers. We commemorate then the bishops who met at the Synod of Nicaea, the earliest of the seven ecumenical Synods in terms of date. Regardless of each synod viewed separately, the synods as a whole and the very concept of a synod are of great importance for the Orthodox Church. The Synod of Nicaea, however, occupies a special position in the history of Christian doctrine, since it affirmed the divinity of Christ and thus laid the foundation for all subsequent definitions. Since the sixteenth century, the great temptation for ‘modern’ theology has been, if not exactly a return to Arianism then at least ...

Not knowledge you learn, but knowledge you suffer. That’s Orthodox spirituality

The novice who is studying the Jesus Prayer will advance greatly by observing a daily rule comprising a certain number of full prostrations and bows from the waist, depending upon the strength of each individual. These are all to be performed without any hurry, with a repentant feeling in the soul and with the Jesus Prayer on the lips during each prostration. An example of such prayer may be seen in the "Homily on Faith" by St. Symeon the New Theologian. Describing the daily evening prayers of the blessed youth George, St. Symeon says: "He imagined that he was standing before the Lord Himself and prostrating himself before His holy feet, and he tearfully implored the Lord to have mercy ...

The world’s in a state of inertia, it’s in a deep sleep of sin. Fast asleep. God wakes us up with wars, deadly epidemics, fires, catastrophic storms, earthquakes, floods and poor harvests.

(Corfu 11 August 1716- Saint Petersburg 10 June 1806) Evyenios Voulgaris, a learned clergymen and eminent educator of the Greek nation, is one of the most outstanding figures among modern Greeks and, with his conscious promotion of Orthodoxy, he contributed to a general awakening among them. He was born on Corfu in 11 August 1716 and was given the name Eleftherios. He was given the name Evyenios when he was ordained deacon in 1737 or 1738. He spent his childhood on Zakynthos, where his father came from, and on Corfu. The basic source for the Life of Evyenios until he went to Russia, is the brief biography by George Ainian (early 19th century). In general, the information he provides reflects ...

Today we’re facing another form of Iconoclasm: the pressure being exerted on the Church by a secularized society to adapt to its measures and ideals, so that the Church, too, will be secularized. Secularization presents a very great danger to the Church. Instead of the Church helping the world to become like the Church, the world is attempting to influence the Church and make it more like the world. So the Church will retain its outward forms, but will lose its faith. It will suffer what Papism has, concerning which Saint Nektarios wrote: ‘Through the dogma of Infallibility, the Western Church lost its spiritual freedom, lost its adornment, was shaken to its foundations, was deprived of the beauty of the grace of ...

Lots of people approach the Lord, but few decide to follow Him. There are many people who read the Gospel, who rejoice over its sublime concepts and enthuse over its holy teaching, but only a few decide to live according to the Gospel law.

A unique masterpiece, an icon of the Ascension of Christ by the great Russian iconographer Andrey Rublyov has arrived in Athens from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and will be displayed in the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens from June to September, 2016. The Ascension of Christ by Andrey Rublyov The icon of the Ascension of Christ is one of the five works by Rublyov which have survived. It was sent to Athens as a foretaste of the exhibitions which will be staged at the Byzantine and Christian Museum in collaboration with the Tretyakov Gallery and the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, within the context of ‘2016, Year of Russia and Greece’. It’s worth noting that only a few days ago, ...