MYSTAGOGY RESOURCE CENTER

Homily on Thomas Sunday (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

2026-04-20T17:39:00.006-04:00

Homily on Thomas Sunday

About Doubt in Faith

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29)

Christ is risen!

Beloved faithful,

On the first day of Holy Pascha, in the evening, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John tells us, Jesus Christ risen appeared to His disciples, hidden for fear of the Jews, in a locked room in Jerusalem, and He said to them: “Peace be to you!” After He calmed them, because they were troubled and seized with fear, and assured them of His Resurrection from the dead, showing them His hands and His side pierced by nails and spear on the Cross, He added: “As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you” (John 20:21). Through these words the Lord sent the Apostles to preaching, having the mission to proclaim the gospel of salvation to all the nations of the earth.

Sunday of Thomas: "Unbelief Gave Birth to Firm Faith"

2026-04-20T16:12:00.003-04:00

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The first Sunday after the Resurrection of the Lord, also called Antipascha, is dedicated to the disciple of Christ, Thomas, who now becomes the “means,” through his unbelief, in order that the fact of the victory over death may be made certain. “Unbelief gave birth to firm faith,” according to the Hymnographer. And this is because this unbelief “provokes” the Lord to reveal to him more clearly the signs of His presence and to lead him to the saving confession: “My Lord and my God.”

1. Thus the unbelief of Thomas becomes good unbelief. However paradoxical this may sound, the reality is this: there exists good unbelief, but also bad unbelief. Good unbelief is that which, in the first stage, traps a person in doubt and denial, setting as a priority for him faith in reason and the senses. “Unless I see, I will not believe.” It is the skepticism that we encounter many times in the Gospel narratives, as in the case, for example, of Nathanael, when he is called to know the Messiah by his friend Philip—“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”—or as in the case of the tragic father who indeed turns to Jesus in order to heal his child, but full of questions and doubt: “But if You can do anything, help us.” And the Lord does not reject this doubt and this skepticism. He takes them as the first impulses of faith, which will lead to firm and certain faith. For He sees that this unbelief springs from a heart that suffers and is in anguish. Thus the mark of good unbelief appears to be this: the suffering heart of a person, which struggles between faith and unbelief. “I believe, Lord”—to recall again that same father—“help my unbelief.” One also remembers here the similar event of unbelief that Elder Paisios experienced in his childhood (then Arsenios), when the unbelief of a student shook his certainties up to that time. And he describes to us the pain of that state: “My spiritual horizon became clouded. I was filled with doubts. Sorrow took hold of my soul.” It is the similar condition that every person goes through, until he becomes firmly established in his faith in Christ—a fact which means that this phase of unbelief is not regarded as something negative and strange, but as a natural step in the course of a person’s spiritual maturation.

April: Day 20: Teaching 2: Venerable John of the Old Lavra

2026-04-20T15:51:00.005-04:00

April: Day 20: Teaching 2:
Venerable John of the Old Lavra

(How Is Love for God Manifested)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Saint now being glorified, the holy Venerable John, is called "of the Old Lavra" because he was saved (labored in ascetic life) in the lavra of the holy Venerable Chariton, which was called old or ancient, as the most ancient among the Palestinian monasteries. This lavra was located not far from Bethlehem, in the direction of the Dead Sea. The holy John, out of love for God, in his youth left the world and settled in the lavra, where, in the rank of presbyter, he attained a high degree of holiness. He lived in the 8th century.

II. The Venerable John, who out of love for God left the world, naturally leads us to reflection on what manifests true love for God.

Is it necessary for its manifestation for everyone and in all cases to leave the world? Or is it not possible, even while living in the world, to show one’s sincere and free love for God? Without doubt, it is possible. Love for God, just like love for man, cannot remain hidden. It must necessarily have its visible actions, its external signs. What then are these signs or actions by which love for God is manifested? Let us examine. The signs by which love for God is manifested always and everywhere are many and various.

April: Day 20: Teaching 1: Venerable Theodore the Trichinas

2026-04-20T12:58:00.001-04:00

April: Day 20: Teaching 1:
Venerable Theodore the Trichinas

(About Luxury in Clothing)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The now-blessed Venerable Theodore was the son of wealthy parents living in Constantinople, but he was not enticed by earthly goods, and, leaving the world, labored ascetically in the desert, in Thrace. He wore no other clothing except a coarse hair-shirt. The name “Trichinas” — that is, hair-shirt wearer — he received from the hair-shirt by which he wore down his body.

Glorifying the Venerable Theodore, the Holy Church sings:

“You showed yourself most wondrous in life, O wise father Theodore, having exchanged garments of hair for those beyond royal treasures which are on earth; for this reason you received heavenly clothing. Ever intercede for us, O Venerable one!” (Kontakion)

Synaxis of Panagia the Helper at the University General Hospital of Patras

2026-04-20T12:00:00.006-04:00

In 1988, the reconstruction of the University General Hospital of Patras was completed, which now constitutes a point of reference for the whole of southwestern Greece and beyond.

Immediately, the need arose for the construction of a Sacred Temple for the celebration of the liturgical services of our Church, as well as for participation in the Holy Mysteries by the staff and the patients.

The Sacred Temple is the center of the life of all Christians. It is like a loving Mother who embraces her children, cares for them, and strengthens them, offering richly her saving grace.

This great truth was perceived in time by a distinguished and pious lady of Patras, who took upon herself the entire burden of the expenses for the construction of a Sacred Temple — a true ornament of the Hospital of Rio.

Prologue in Sermons: April 20

2026-04-20T11:13:00.001-04:00

By Our Sins We Drive Away From Ourselves our Guardian Angel

April 20

(A Word from Saint Anastasios the Abbot of Sinai)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord is so merciful to us, brethren, that to each one of us, at Holy Baptism, He gives for our whole life an invisible defender, an instructor in all that is good and right, and a guide to the heavenly fatherland — the Guardian Angel.

“Those who are in the Christian faith, to every person there is given from God an Angel for preservation during his whole life,” says Saint Anastasios the abbot (Prologue, April 20). And again: “To every faithful one from God, to each one an Angel was given, and he writes down all his good deeds” (ibid., fol. 37).

But if each one of us has a Guardian Angel, why then does the Holy Church every day, in the church services, ask for him for us? “An angel of peace,” it cries, “a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies, we ask of the Lord.” And in the evening prayer the believer likewise entreats the Lord for a Guardian Angel: “Send Your Guardian Angel, covering and preserving me from every evil.” Why is this so? If once the Guardian Angel is given for our whole life, then why still ask for him?

Homily on Thomas Sunday (St. Justin Popovich)

2026-04-19T12:25:00.002-04:00

Homily on Thomas Sunday

(John 20:19–31)

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1965 in the Monastery of Ćelije)

...¹

Christ is risen!—and to all of us He gave meaning to life and showed what God is and what man is. The Lord Christ showed us that man without God remains in death, is entirely dead, entirely mortal. And He, the God-man, behold, rose from the dead, conquered death for our sake; by His Resurrection He secured immortality for man, to the human being He gave what no one has given. His Resurrection indeed is the most important event in the history of all worlds. The Resurrection of the Lord Christ is the most important event in the history of the human race. It is the most important event both for me and for you in the history of my life and in the history of your life.

What would the history of my life be if the Lord had not risen? A short path from cradle to grave, a path full of thorns, full of sufferings and horrors. But with Him, the Risen One, everything changes. Both I and you change; suddenly we become immortal people, immortal beings, beings that are stronger than death. Behold, man has become stronger than death! That is victory—the only true victory in this world. And the Lord is therefore the only True Victor in all worlds because He conquered death. If the Lord had not risen, everything would be in vain. What use are suns, what use heavens, when I and you end with death, when our last station is the grave! If the Lord Christ did not rise, says the Holy Apostle, “our preaching is in vain, in vain also our Gospel, in vain also our faith”².

Homily Five for the Sunday of Saint Thomas (St. John of Kronstadt)

2026-04-19T11:38:00.000-04:00

Homily Five for the Sunday of Saint Thomas

By St. John of Kronstadt

Today, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, I wish to offer you a word on today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Its content is as follows:

"By the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people (that is, those who were in Jerusalem); and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Portico. None of the outsiders dared join them, but the people magnified them. And more and more believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of men and women, so that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, so that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. Also many gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy; and they laid hands on the apostles and put them in the public prison. But an Angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said: Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life" (Acts 5:12–20).

Here the reading from the Apostle ends.

Sunday of Thomas, or Antipascha (Prof. John Fountoulis)

2026-04-19T11:20:00.002-04:00

Sunday of Thomas

By Professor John Fountoulis

The celebration of Pascha continues throughout the entire week that follows it, the Renewal Week, the new week. All of this is regarded as one paschal day, during which “we celebrate this life-giving Resurrection of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ,” according to the Synaxarion. And the week is concluded with the eighth day, the New Sunday, otherwise called the Sunday of Thomas or Antipascha.

This is the type of the eighth day of the age to come, “for it is appointed as an image of that endless day, of the one in the age to come, which will be both first and one, not interrupted by night,” according to the Synaxarion.

However, the Sunday of Thomas is not an image of the age to come simply and only because it is the eighth day from Pascha. It is also because it is the day of Christ’s presence in the midst of the circle of the eleven disciples, of the confirmation of the fact of the Resurrection, of the removal of every doubt, of personal communion and the touching of the Risen One. And precisely this presence and this touching are a type of the eternal presence of Christ in the age to come in the midst of His Church. Then nothing will hinder the longed-for vision of God, of Christ, and personal communion with Him. Then the barriers of unbelief will fall, and together with Thomas the people of God will confess the saving confession: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

Prologue in Sermons: April 19

2026-04-19T10:55:00.000-04:00

Our Firmness in the Faith Causes Even our Enemies to Respect Us

April 19

(A word from the Paterikon about the widow whom the prince had mercy on because of the humility of her son.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Why is it, brethren, that it often happens that even many good Christians avoid us, do not fulfill our requests, and despise us? It often happens because good Christians see in us bad Christians who do not keep the commandments of God; they see us limping on both knees. But if we were to live differently, if we showed before all our firm faith and a life according to faith, then things would be different.

The Kollyvades Fathers: Reformers Through Tradition (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

2026-04-18T20:11:00.003-04:00

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The venerable Kollyvades Fathers were not “arteriosclerotic monks,”* as some who were ignorant in spiritual matters called them, but Spirit-bearing teachers and instructors of souls, traditional monks who created a truly reformative climate within the Orthodox Church. Their support was the biblical and patristic teaching and sacred Tradition.

Mainly in the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, this spiritual movement of the Kollyvades Fathers, beginning from Mount Athos and then in other monastic centers on the islands, throughout the whole Aegean Sea, developed and strengthened Orthodox Christian culture. It was indeed a difficult period for all Hellenism, since the French Revolution and the Enlightenment of the West had created a negative influence of alienation from the Orthodox Christian ethos in the Greek lands. Nevertheless, the Kollyvades Fathers struggled, taught, wrote, admonished the people, and preserved the Orthodox faith. Thus there were revealed great figures such as Neophytos Kavsokalyvites (†1784), Makarios Notaras (†1808), Nikodemos the Hagiorite (†1809), Athanasios Parios (†1813), Hierotheos of Hydra (†1814), and others.

Continuation and End of the Festal Homily for the Friday of Renewal Week and the Zoodochos Pege (Elder Philotheos Zervakos)

2026-04-18T19:41:00.006-04:00

CONTINUATION AND END OF THE FESTAL HOMILY FOR THE FRIDAY OF RENEWAL WEEK

(Part 2 of 2: continued from part one)

And the remaining portion of the Reading.

Bless, Father.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

By Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos

Since there are some who, although they believe in the miracles spoken of concerning the Zoodochos Pege, nevertheless do not accept or are not persuaded that there are also other holy waters honored in the name of the Mother of God and of other saints, nor that signs occur elsewhere except only at the Zoodochos Pege outside Constantinople — the one discovered by Emperor Leo I, as we have said — thus ignorantly and impiously limiting to one place the indescribable grace and power of her who was counted worthy to become the Mother of the Incomprehensible God. Let such people investigate, and they will find within this same Constantinople another miracle-working and sign-bearing holy spring of the all-immaculate Theotokos, namely that at Blachernae, where even to this day innumerable miracles take place, not only for the faithful but even for unbelievers; and many other illnesses and afflictions are healed there. Especially those suffering from fever, if they go there with faith and drink from the holy water, are quickly delivered from the disease.

Homily for the Resurrection of the Lord (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

2026-04-18T18:04:00.003-04:00

Homily for the Resurrection of the Lord

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

"Christ has risen from the dead, being the firstfruits (of the resurrection) of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20)

"Christ is risen!"

Beloved faithful,

Today we celebrate the feast of feasts and the festival of festivals. Today there is spiritual joy everywhere in the Christian world. Today our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ has illumined all things by His Resurrection. Heaven and earth rightly rejoice, for the light of the Lord’s Resurrection has filled heaven and earth and Hades with light, and those who were held in the bonds of death He has brought, through the descent of the Savior into Hades, to eternal joy with the hope of the resurrection. Today Christ, our life, has laid a new foundation for the human race by His Resurrection and has crowned all the glorious miracles He performed on earth.

Today is the day of the Resurrection of the Lord, the victory of reconciliation, the overthrow of war, the destruction of death, and the defeat of the devil. Today it is fitting for us to repeat the words of the Orophet Isaiah: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (Hosea 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:55). Today the Lord Jesus Christ has shattered the bronze gates and has even changed the very name of death, for it is no longer called death, but "sleep." Before the coming of Christ and the dispensation of the Cross, even the very name of death was greatly feared. For the first man, after he was created by God, was threatened with death: "From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat; for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17).

Sunday of Holy Pascha (13-15 of 15)

2026-04-18T17:24:00.007-04:00

...continued.

13. Bright Pascha on Mount Athos

There is no feast for Christians more solemn and more joyful than Pascha. And Athos, removed from the world, celebrates on this day an especially solemn feast. Wearied from the labors and ascetic struggles of the Holy Forty Days, the Athonite monk, after partaking of the modest portion offered on Great Saturday at sunset — bread and figs with a small cup of grape wine — cheerfully and joyfully hastens to the katholikon church to listen to the reading of the Acts of the Apostles, in expectation of the sacred midnight and of the infinitely joyful, fully understandable only to the Christian, triumphant exclamation.

Meanwhile, until midnight, amid dead silence and half-light, the voice of the reader of the Book of Acts sounds peacefully and quietly. On Athos, according to Greek custom, at this time the Holy Epitaphios does not stand in the middle of the church (it has already, since the morning of Great Saturday, after the procession at Matins around the church, been placed upon the holy altar). Half an hour before midnight the Canon of Great Saturday begins to be sung, after which the clergy gathered and waiting in the altar, in bright vestments, all holding candles, and the superior with the Holy Gospel, come out with the singing of “Your Resurrection…” and the rest into the church narthex (the procession around the church, as with us, does not take place at this time), and here, before the closed doors of the church, perform the usual beginning of the Paschal service.

April: Day 18: Teaching 1: Venerable John, Disciple of Saint Gregory of Decapolis

2026-04-18T10:28:00.005-04:00

April: Day 18: Teaching 1:
Venerable John, Disciple of Saint Gregory of Decapolis

(On How We Can Participate in Spreading Truth and Goodness)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable John, commemorated today by the Church, was a disciple of Saint Gregory of Decapolis (whose memory is kept on November 20). From his youth he loved the ascetic life, came to Gregory, and struggled under his guidance. Venerable John and Gregory lived in the 9th century, during the iconoclastic heresy. Both of them left their place of safety and came to Constantinople, where the heresy was especially strong, in order to strengthen the faithful in Orthodoxy. There Saint Gregory soon reposed; but John continued his ascetic labors until his own death, which occurred in the year 820.

We see, brethren, that during the persecution of the holy icons by the iconoclast emperor (Leo the Armenian), Venerable John left his safe solitude and went to the capital of the Greek Empire in order to strengthen the faint-hearted and those wavering in the truth of the Orthodox teaching concerning the veneration of holy icons. Thus clearly he understood his moral duty to teach others the truth and a virtuous life.

The example of Venerable John reminds us also, brethren, of our duty to take part in spreading truth and goodness among our neighbors and among all who have departed from truth and piety.

Prologue in Sermons: April 18

2026-04-18T10:07:00.005-04:00

Prayer Can Be Made Not Only in Churches, But Everywhere

April 18

(A saying from the Paterikon on humility, which conquers all the power of the devil.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Many Christians say: “I would gladly pray, but I have no time to go to the church of God — sometimes work does not allow it, sometimes family members prevent me.” What should be said to such people? Of course, all these things do happen. Sometimes work really does prevent it. For example, if there are sick people at home — how can you leave them if there is no one else to care for them? At other times, family members hold you back. What then? In such cases, it is often necessary to remain at home so as not to cause conflict and discord in the family. There are, of course, many other obstacles as well. But if these obstacles are truly so great that one cannot go to church, then is it really impossible, at least in such cases, to pray to God at home or wherever one may be? One can pray everywhere. You may say: “There is no time.” But that is not true. If your hands are occupied — your lips can speak; if your lips are occupied — pray with your mind and heart. God will hear that prayer, and He will count prayer at home in place of prayer in church.

Festal Homily for the Friday of Renewal Week and the Zoodochos Pege (Elder Philotheos Zervakos)

2026-04-17T19:05:00.010-04:00

Festal Homily for the Friday of Renewal Week

And an Account of Certain Miracles of our Most Glorious Lady Theotokos, of the Zoodochos Pege (Life-Receiving Spring)

(Part 1 of 2)

By Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos

Again a feast, and again a festival. And, to speak better, within the feast there has appeared to us yet another joyful feast, increasing the joy of the faithful and filling their hearts with unspeakable gladness. For while we are still celebrating the radiant and world-saving Resurrection of Christ our God and Savior, behold, there has also shone upon us another festival of His Pure and Immaculate Mother, our Lady and Sovereign, the Zoodochos Pege, which with just cause urges all the faithful to celebrate again today, and all together to rejoice with spiritual joy and exultation, glorifying with hymns and doxologies Christ our God risen from the dead, and His All-Holy Mother, the Mistress of all creation, the benefactress and mediatrix of us Christians, that we may receive from her grace and a spiritual reward.

For just as those who go to a bath and wash return cleansed from bodily defilements, in the same way every faithful person who runs to the holy house of our Lady, and with reverence and faith drinks and is sprinkled from her precious holy water, is wondrously illumined and purified with a marvelous cleansing, being freed from spiritual pollutions and delivered from every sickness of soul and body. Therefore, O my brethren, let us all hasten today with faith and reverence to the grace-filled temple of the Virgin Mother; let us rejoice and celebrate together, young and old, and let us be spiritually glad on this new Friday.

Verses to the Zoodochos Pege from 1812

2026-04-17T17:29:00.005-04:00

The following verses were published in 1812 and composed by Paisios II, who was the former Bishop of Stagi that year and residing in Constantinople. There he undertook the task of translating into a more modern Greek for that time the 63 Miracles attributed to the Zoodochos Pege which was originally written by Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos. Accompanying his translation were the following verses the former Bishop Paisios II of Stagi composed as a tribute.

Verses to the Zoodochos Pege

Water is excellent, and the wise man says it so;
Therefore, from all the elements of nature, he chooses it.

Who does not know the advantages of water?
For everyone judges it to be life-producing.

Water, the purest thing in all creation,
Accomplishes many wonders and shows a fountain of wisdom.

Through it the Most High Power also grants
Heavenly gifts — let no one doubt this.

Water becomes a bath for the stains of the soul,
And a sanctification of the body against defilements.

Sunday of Holy Pascha (10-12 of 15)

2026-04-17T17:03:00.005-04:00

...continued.

10. Bright Pascha in Jerusalem

The Russian Abbot Daniel, who traveled to the Holy Land in the twelfth century, describes the celebration of the Bright Feast before the Holy Sepulchre as follows:

“On Great and Holy Saturday, at the sixth hour of the day, an innumerable multitude of people gathers at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. Natives come, and pilgrims from other lands — from Babylon, Egypt, and Antioch. All gather there on that day in countless numbers and fill the place around the church of the Lord’s Tomb. There is great crowding in the church then: many even struggle to breathe because of the crush.

All these worshipers stand with unlit candles and wait for the doors of the church to be opened. Then they are opened, and everyone enters the church, forcing their way in and pressing against one another, filling the whole church and the porches. Everywhere there are crowds — inside the church, outside the church, around Golgotha and the Place of the Skull — even as far as the place where the Lord’s Cross was found.

And all the people pray with only one prayer: ‘Lord, have mercy.’ So loud are these cries that the earth seems to groan and tremble throughout that whole area from the shouting of the people. Those who truly believe weep then from compunction, and even the one whose heart is hardened feels shame, remembers his sins, and says within himself: ‘Will the Holy Light truly not descend today because of my sins?’

Renewal Friday - The Zoodochos Pege in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church (Fr. George Dorbarakis)

2026-04-17T15:35:00.001-04:00

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Hymnographer of the Service for the Zoodochos Pege (Life-Receiving Spring) of the Theotokos, in regards to the church of the Panagia with its renowned holy spring at Balıklı Monastery in Constantinople, is Saint Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos.[1] The Saint cannot find words in order even slightly to define what has taken place at this holy spring for centuries: the flood of healings, the benefactions, the countless miracles. Therefore he summons images from the natural world and from Holy Scripture in order to give the proper analogies: the church there of the Theotokos is a noetic ocean, something surpassing even the river Nile in the offering of the grace of God; it is a second Pool of Siloam, a second rock gushing forth healing water, a continuation of the Jordan River, another manna covering the needs of the one seeking salvation. It is divine water, ambrosia and nectar[2] (Vespers Aposticha).

And of course these are not only miracles related to the healing of the bodily illnesses of men. The healing water of the Theotokos cures also the illnesses of the soul, the passions of men, so that through it man may find God and become healthy in both respects, spiritually and bodily. Besides, the gift of the grace of God through the water there aims at this: the true restoration of human beings, that is, their spiritual health. For what meaning has bodily health alone, if it is not accompanied by its spiritual dimension as well? Bodily health by itself often proves destructive for man, because it pushes him toward the increase of his sins. Thus the Zoodochos Pege healed man in a twofold manner, “flowing abundantly to all who have need of health of soul and health of body, with the water of grace” (Vespers Sticheron).[3] “How great are your wonders, O Spring, which you offer to all! For not only have you driven away grievous diseases from those who come to you with longing, but you also wash away the passions of souls” (Glory at Vespers).[4] Therefore, because “the water of the Virgin heals souls, let us run to the Maiden, we who are afflicted by the stains of the passions, and let us wash them away” (Praises).[5]

Prologue in Sermons: April 17

2026-04-17T14:06:00.000-04:00

Our Humility Is Especially Unbearable to Demons

April 17

(A saying from the Paterikon on humility, which conquers all the power of the devil.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Our humility is especially unbearable to demons and hateful to them. We will prove this to you by the following two examples.

Two blood-brother monks lived together, and they lived in perfect love. The devil envied this and wanted to separate them. And so, when the younger brother lit a candle and placed it on the candlestick, the devil extinguished the lamp and knocked it down. The elder brother, thinking that his younger brother had done this, beat him, and with great anger.

The younger bowed to the ground before him and asked forgiveness. “Brother,” he said, “wait a little, and I will light the candle for you at once.”

But the invisible power of God terribly tormented the demon until morning. When he was freed from the torment, he told everything to Satan. All this was heard by a pagan priest who happened to be there. Soon after this he became a monk and became humble, saying to everyone:

“Humility destroys all the power of the enemy, for I myself heard the words of the demons.”

The Miraculous Discovery of the Relics of Saint Leonides and His Companions in 1917

2026-04-16T19:51:00.003-04:00

The commemoration of the Holy Martyr Leonides and his seven female disciples, who were also glorified as saints because of their martyrdom, is celebrated on April 16.

In 1917 their relics were discovered in the region of Nea Epidavros (Nea Epidaurus), and they have been placed in a silver reliquary and constitute a place of pilgrimage in the Church of Saint Leonides there.

The beginning of the revelation of the Church of Saint Leonides took place on April 12, 1898, after a vision seen at dawn on that day by seventeen-year-old Ioannis Georgiou Bimpis. In the vision, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared — clothed in black yet radiant — with the Divine Infant in her arms, at the very spot where the church stands today, and she instructed him to dig in that place and he would find an invaluable treasure.

After recounting the vision to his family and praying, the young man took a hoe and, at sunrise, went to the place indicated by the Panagia.

Five Miracles of Saint Amphilochios of Patmos

2026-04-16T19:14:00.009-04:00

1. An event that shows how he received mysterious calls for the salvation of others, and which recalls the great Apostle of the Nations, Paul the Apostle, who heard the voice of the Macedonian: “Come over and help us.”

The ever-memorable Elder, while he was in his cell at the monastery in Patmos, heard a certain Helen from Ikaria calling him to hasten and save her. He did not lose time; he went down to the harbor of the island and, as if by a miracle, found a sailing vessel departing for Ikaria.

Battered by the sea, he arrived at his destination and immediately asked whether there was a certain widow named Helen, and was informed that a few days earlier she had lost her husband. At once he asked to learn the road that led to the house of the widow. He did not seek to rest his weary body, but hastened without delay — the voice of Helen troubled him. As he was walking, he saw a frantic woman running in despair; he called her by name and said to her: “Helen, where are you going? I have come for you.” And the grieving woman came to herself, saw the spiritual father, thought about what she was about to do, and confessed that at that very moment she was going to drown herself in the sea. The woman was saved; the miracle took place, as she herself told me.

His constant journeys and his labors in hearing the confessions of his spiritual children are not easy to record. He ran with all missionary zeal to find and save the lost. His concern for sinners in general shows him to be a good shepherd, an imitator of Christ the Chief Shepherd.

The Professor and Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

2026-04-16T18:46:00.008-04:00

By Georgios Papazachos (1935–2001),
Professor of Medicine, University of Athens

I would meet him on Patmos, where he lived as a monk, and also in Athens — indeed, once when he had come to the capital, I even had the special “blessing” of hosting him in my home. He was serene, gentle; you rejoiced even just to look at him!

The first time I met him, as soon as he saw me from afar, without even knowing me, he opened his arms wide and cried out warmly: “Blessed is he who comes!”

He embraced me and then kissed me. This is the love of the elders: they embrace you and truly warm your soul!

The Ineffable Event of the Resurrection of Christ (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

2026-04-16T18:27:00.004-04:00

The Ineffable Event of the Resurrection of Christ

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

It is a fact that we now live in the age of globalization, where on the one hand there exists the threat of hateful insecurity, and on the other a hedonistic, materialistic understanding of life. At the center stands the human being. And this postmodern human being seems to prefer the path of autonomy, self-sufficiency, and his own reason alone. The cogito, ergo sum of René Descartes stands not only at the beginning of modern times, but also determines the entire course up to the present day. Neo-rationalism becomes the small or great god and the criterion — like another “infallibility” — and the “man is the measure of all things” becomes dominant in all the structures of our society.

However, the problems of man are not diminished, and the fundamental ontological category of existence remains unredeemed. The man of the 21st century continues to feel the unsatisfied void within himself and remains troubled.

And yet, before modern man comes the unprecedented and astonishing event of the Resurrection of Christ. The words are heard: “We celebrate the death of death,” and the proclamation resounds: “Christ is Risen.”