The Leavetaking of the Feast of Theophany takes place on January 14. The entire office of the Feast is repeated except for the Entrance, festal readings, Litya, Blessing of Loaves at Vespers, and the Polyeleos and festal Gospel at Matins. The festal Antiphons are not sung at Liturgy, and the…

Saint Savva, First Archbishop of Serbia, in the world Rostislav (Rastko), was a son of the Serbian king Stephen Nemanya and Anna, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Romanus. From his early years he fervently attended church services and had a special love for icons. At seventeen years of age,…

There were two occasions when the monks and hermits at Sinai and Raithu were murdered by the barbarians. The first took place in the fourth century when forty Fathers were killed at Mount Sinai, and thirty-nine were slain at Raithu on the same day. Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments had been…

The virgin Nino of Cappadocia was a relative of Great-martyr George and the only daughter of a widely respected and honorable couple. Her father was a Roman army chief by the name of Zabulon, and her mother, Sosana, was the sister of Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem. When Nino reached the age of…

Saint Joseph Analytinus of Raithu was a strict ascetic. He attained such a high degree of perfection in the spiritual life that a light shone upon him while he prayed. He foretold the time of his death to his disciple Gelasius, and died in peace, before the slaughter of the Sinai Fathers.

Saint Theodulus was the son of Saint Nilus the Faster (November 12), and he recorded the slaughter of the holy Fathers at Raithu in the fifth century. While still a child, Saint Theodulus left the world and went to Mount Sinai with his father. During a barbarian assault on the desert dwellers, the…

Saint Stephen lived during the eighth century, and was born into a family in Cappadocia, who raised him in great piety. As he reached maturity, he was greatly impressed by reading the lives of the holy ascetics, and so he visited many monasteries in Palestine in order to observe their way of life.…

Saint Kentigern was from Lothian (in Scotland), and may have been of royal blood. He left home at an early age and was brought up by a hermit named Servan (July 1) on the Firth of Forth. It was Saint Servan who gave him the name Mungo (or dear friend). Saint Kentigern Mungo labored in Strathclyde,…

Bishop Meletios, one of the last preachers of the Holy Gospel to the people of Siberia with all the self-denial of a true missionary, reposed on January 14, 1900. He spent nearly thirty-five years of ascetic labors in eastern Siberia, spreading the light of Christ among the native Buryats, Tungus,…

The holy Hieromartyr Platon (Πλάτων) was born on July 13, 1869, at Pootsi in Pätnu county, Estonia. At Holy Baptism, he received the name Paul. After attending various theological schools, Paul Kulbusch was ordained as a priest. Father Paul travelled about, preaching the Word of God in the…