The First Meeting of Saint Sophrony of Essex and Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Our meeting took place in a small street outside the precincts of the Sacred Monastery and, according to his custom – because he had to walk a bit, since he was eighty years old – he invited me to discuss while walking, so that we could become, as he usually said, “peripatetic philosophers”. He was a philosopher in the patristic sense of the term, since he had the real philosophy, which is empirical theology.

Starting the conversation, I told him that I felt that within my heart I saw the existence of various passions and I wanted to be freed from them in order to have real communion with God. He then told me: “The beginning of spiritual life is the sense of sinfulness. Man feels that he is worse than animals and unworthy of God’s love. This is a 'normal' state, and it is inspired by the Grace of God. It is the experience of hell that constitutes the negative vision of the uncreated Light. Through the Light of God, we see our state as though projected from the image of a transparency when light exists behind it. We should be concerned when we do not feel the passions that exist within us.”

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture - Introduction to the Holy Bible (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture 

Introduction to the Holy Scriptures 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Sunday, July 6, 2025)

In this year's Summer Sunday sermons, the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, will be briefly analyzed; essentially a small approach or a small acquaintance with them will be made, so as to give the opportunity and create zeal in some to read the Holy Scriptures even more.

In today's short sermon, a small introduction to the Holy Scriptures will be made.

When we talk about the Holy Scriptures, we mean the Old and New Testaments. This covers the agreement or covenant that God made in the Old era, that is, before Christ, with the Jewish people, and the agreement or covenant that Christ made with the New people, the one made up of Jews and Gentiles, the so-called Christian people.

Celebrating the Holy New Venerable Martyr Nikodemos in Berat, Albania

By Fr. Elias Makos

With Vespers on the eve, as well as a vigil in the Church of Saint Michael, as well as a Divine Liturgy on the feast day in the chapel in his honor in the Cathedral of Saint Demetrios, the memory of the local Venerable Martyr Nikodemos was honored in Berat, Albania.

The faithful had the opportunity to venerate the skull of Saint Nikodemos and receive cotton from his sacred lips as a blessing.

When the Saint was beheaded on July 11th 1722, Christians gave money to the Turks and received his relics, which they placed in the Church of the Panagia.

In 1815, the silversmiths of Berat made a silver case for the Saint's head.

July: Day 11: Holy Right-Believing Princess Olga

 

July: Day 11:
Holy Right-Believing Princess Olga
 
(In the Christian Faith There Is a Great and Invaluable Blessing)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Right-Believing Grand Princess Olga, whose memory is celebrated today, according to tradition, was a native of the Pskov region. By chance she became the wife of the Grand Prince of Kiev, Igor, and after his death in 946 she became the ruler of the state, due to her son Svyatoslav being a minor. At the beginning of her rule, she first of all tried to take revenge on a neighboring tribe - the Drevlians, who were hostile to the Russians and especially aroused Olga's anger by the fact that they had treacherously killed her husband Igor. Olga carried out this revenge with such cunning and cruelty, which in those days were common among pagans, whose hearts were not softened by the love of Christ. The chronicler tells of Olga's revenge and tricks: when the Drevlian prince Malk sent to ask for her hand, Olga deceived the ambassadors, lured them to her and ordered them to be buried alive in a pit; she also burned the ambassadors sent by the Drevlians from among the famous citizens in a bathhouse, and killed the others at her husband's grave, having lured them by cunning for his commemoration. She took the Drevlian city of Korosten itself by another trick: having imposed three pigeons and three sparrows from each household as a tribute on the inhabitants, she ordered that burning tinder with sulfur be tied to these birds and released into the wild: they returned with the fire to their nests and started a fire. Having thus taken possession of the city, Olga condemned the oldest citizens to death and imposed a heavy tribute on the rest. 

Holy New Martyr Jonah the Protopsaltis (+ 1821)

The Holy New Martyr Jonah was the Protopsaltis of the Cathedral Temple of the Panagia in Ayia Napa, Limassol of Cyprus.

He was decapitated on July 10, 1821, the day after the sacrifice of the Holy Ethnomartyr Archbishop Kyprianos of Cyprus and the three Metropolitans with him: Chrysanthos of Paphos, Meletios of Kition, Laurentios of Kyrenia.