The feast of the Tenderness or Sweet-Kissing icon of the Mother of God at Valaam Monastery will be celebrated every year in Finland on January 11, one day after the feast of Saint Antipas of Calapodesti, who brought the icon to the monastery in 1865. The new feast day was established following the decision of…

Well-known shipowner and philanthropist Athanasios Martinos has been selected by the Mitsotakis government as the next civil governor of the semi-autonomous Orthodox monastic community of Mt. Athos. The choice of Martinos was, reportedly, viewed in a positive light by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, as well as the Orthodox Patriarchs…

Academics from Turkey visited museums, private collectors and universities in Trabzon, Istanbul, Greece, Ireland, Great Britain, and the US to collect information on objects that belonged to the Panagia Sumela Monastery. According to an article by Milliyet, the scholars recorded a number of metal objects, manuscripts, and garments from the Byzantine period that they believe…

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa Theodoros II visited President Nicos Anastasiades at the presidential palace on Monday morning where he briefed the president on his missionary works across Africa. “Today I had the opportunity to inform the president on our mission in 54 states across Africa with hundreds of schools and…

  The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church has said the modern pacifist movement misunderstands Jesus Christ’s sermon about turning the other cheek. “If we confine ourselves to these words [“if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also”], we could draw the wrong conclusions from a literal interpretation,” Patriarch Kirill said Sunday….

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will receive Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, on Tuesday afternoon at the Maximos Mansion government house in central Athens, according to media reports. The meeting comes in the wake of successive contacts that the Primate of the Church of Greece had last week with top ministers…

In 2006, there were 668 active, canonical Orthodox bishops in the world. Today, there are 947. That’s a net increase of 279 bishops, or 42% — and most of that growth is coming from the Moscow Patriarchate. Last week, I published an article estimating the number of Orthodox bishops in the world. (I’ve received updated…

  He earliest known Marian prayer, like the Gospels themselves, is written in Greek. That is why, in it, the Virgin Mary is called Θεοτοκος, “theotokos,” the “Birth-Giver of God,” “the Mother of God.” That in such early prayer the Virgin Mary is already referred to with this title is quite important, both from a…

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