Saint Paul the Confessor, Archbishop of Constantinople: Patron of Chanters and Healer of Throat Ailments

By Archimandrite Demetrios Kavvadias 

On the 6th of November, our Holy Church commemorates Saint Paul the Confessor, Archbishop of Constantinople, who, in the relevant hymnographic texts, is compared with the righteous Abel and Zechariah, the father of the Honorable Forerunner. This is because he too, being a righteous man, met a martyr's death following an ambush and was deemed worthy of the crown of incorruption, just like those blessed men of the Old Testament.

Saint Paul was born at the beginning of the fourth century AD in the holy city of Thessaloniki, which has given birth to and nurtured many saints. His parents were pious, and he grew up hearing of the wondrous life and martyrdom of Saint Demetrios the Myrrhgusher. He was educated and pious, and was distinguished by the purity of his life, his gentleness, and his steadfast adherence to the unadulterated Orthodox faith.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: November 6

The Month of November  

Day 6

68. The Saints of God Deliver Those Who Love and Venerate Them Not Only from Calamities, but Even from Death

(From the Life of Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn)

It is well known that in our Orthodox Russia hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians, out of love for the saints of God and faith in their effective intercession before God, set out to pray at their monasteries, especially those in which their holy relics repose. There they ask the saints of God to help them in one need or another, to deliver them from every visible or invisible evil, and to heal their spiritual or bodily illnesses. What do you think, brethren? Is there any benefit for those who love the saints of God in praying to them and visiting their monasteries, or is there not? Know that there is indeed a benefit, and a great one; for the saints of God not only help those who come to them in their needs, not only often deliver them from one evil or another, and not only heal one illness or another, but, do not forget, sometimes even deliver them from death. You may say: Can even this really happen? Yes, brethren, it can, and we shall now convince you of this.

Saints Galaktion and Episteme: Models of Love, Faith and Sacrifice

By Lambros K. Skontzos

 

Among the saints of our Church are many blessed couples who attained holiness within marriage, living a truly Christian life.

Among them is the holy couple Saints Galaktion and Episteme, a holy pair who lived during the third century AD and whose lives revealed the beauty of the Christian faith, purity of heart, and absolute devotion to Christ.

Their lives include several interesting details that further illuminate their spiritual greatness.

November: Day 5: Teaching 3: Holy Apostle Hermas

November: Day 5: Teaching 3:
Holy Apostle Hermas
 
(An exposition of the commandments by which one can save one's soul.)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the day of Saint Hermas, the apostolic man, whom the Holy Apostle Paul highly praises (Rom. 16:14), and who is known for his book titled The Shepherd, which in the early centuries was read even in churches alongside the Apostolic Epistles, we think it will be beneficial to become acquainted with those soul-saving commandments set forth in this book, which by fulfilling one can save one's soul. We think that the words of an apostolic man will be more persuasive to you than our own feeble discourse. He begins his exposition of them as follows:

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: November 5 and 6

The Month of November

Day 5

67. How One Should Act During Public Calamities

(From the Life of Jonah, Archbishop of Novgorod - November 5, Menaion. The Commemoration of the Fiery Ash That Fell from the Air Because of Human Sin, during the Reign of Leo the Great - November 6, Menaion.)

Here on earth, we are often afflicted not only by personal calamities but also by public calamities, which are especially terrible for us. In a personal calamity, either one person or one family suffers; perhaps even several may suffer. But in such sorrow, however great it may be, good people can always help and alleviate it. But what can one do in a public calamity? For example, a lack of rain, unfavorable weather, famine, or plague—who can prevent these things? Who can escape them? Who can put an end to the evil they cause? Certainly no one; there is no point in even discussing this. How, then, should we act during such calamities? By what means can we be delivered from them? Whose help should we hope for? To whom should we turn?

Greek Orthodox Theology in the 20th and 21st Century

Metropolitan Theodoritos of Laodicea (Polyzogopoulos), Director of the Office of Representation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Athens, spoke to To Vima recently about the role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the contemporary world. In this interview he also spoke about his recent book Theological Portraits of the Twentieth Century: Studies and Essays on the Renewal of Orthodox Theology (Armos, 2026), where he gave a brief summary of the development of Greek Orthodox theology in the 20th century and its role in the 21st century.

Saint George Karslides: One of the Most Important Holy Figures of the 20th Century

 

 

 

By Lambros Skontzos

Saint George Karslides (1901–1959) is one of the most distinctive and important holy figures of the twentieth century! His life seems to recapitulate the lives of many other saints whom we read about in the Synaxarion.

After all, he is not simply a Venerable of the Church, but also a confessor and martyr who lived through particularly harsh days of trial and martyrdom during the period of Communist rule in Georgia. The culmination of these trials, of course, was his confrontation with the firing squad.

The monk Symeon, the name given to the Saint when he was tonsured, having previously been called Athanasios, received several bullets from the firing squad, but chiefly in his legs! Thus, the wounds were not fatal. For this reason, his life was subsequently spared, since a law provided that anyone who survived a firing squad was entitled to a pardon!

Narration on the Lamentation of the Prophet Jeremiah Over Jerusalem, Its Fall, and on the Ecstasy of Abimelech

The illustration depicts Abimelech asleep beneath the fig tree, with his basket of figs and Jerusalem in the distance. It is an artistic reconstruction in a Byzantine-inspired style, not a reproduction of a historical icon.

 

Introduction

On November 4, the Greek Orthodox Synaxarion preserves an unusual narrative concerning the Prophet Jeremiah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the miraculous seventy-year sleep of Abimelech. According to the account, as the Babylonian armies prepared to capture Jerusalem, Jeremiah was instructed by God to conceal the sacred vessels of the Temple in a rock. Abimelech, an Ethiopian who had previously rescued the Prophet from a cistern, was sent to the vineyard of Agrippa to gather figs for the sick. There, beneath a tree, he fell asleep and remained asleep for seventy years, awakening only after the Babylonian captivity had run its course. Unaware of the passage of time, he returned to Jerusalem carrying the same figs, which had miraculously remained fresh. His bewilderment upon discovering that the city and its inhabitants had changed, and his eventual conversation with an elderly man who explained what had happened, form the central episode of the narrative.

Venerable George Karslides in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“George, the cultivator of virtue and dweller with wisdom, the useful vessel of the all-powerful Spirit, the Comforter, and the inexhaustible fountain of healings, having in recent times followed the footsteps of the illustrious venerable Fathers of old, became a pillar and an image for those who wish to live piously.”

With these brief words in the Synaxarion of his service, the good and well-known hymnographer of our Orthodox Church, more precisely, officially titled the “Great Hymnographer of the Church of the Alexandrians,” Dr. Haralambos Bousias, who also composed the service of our Venerable and God-bearing Father George Karslides the Confessor, summarizes the principal elements of the Venerable Father's life in Christ: the Venerable Father was a man of virtue and wisdom; he was a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, with the result that he himself, as surely as his grace-gushing relics, became a fountain of healings for every illness of the faithful people who had recourse to him and continue to do so. The cause of these supernatural states was the fact that throughout his life he strove to follow in the footsteps of the great venerable Fathers of the Church of old. For this reason, he too, together with the great venerable Fathers, became a support and an example for all faithful Christians.