NB! · Architecture · Faith · Moscow · Heritage

Restoration of the Great Cathedral of the Don Icon of the Mother of God, dating from the late seventeenth century, in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow is in full swing

Restoration of the Great Cathedral of the Don Icon of the Mother of God, dating from the late seventeenth century, in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow is in full swing. The entire interior of the cathedral is under scaffolding, including the unique seven-tier carved iconostasis of the time of

Faith · Moscow · Observations · Society

Thousands upon thousands of people come to venerate the right hand of Saint Spyridon of Trimythous in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Patience to all who are waiting! Congratulations to all who have stood out their turn in the queue! I cannot help rejoicing that Orthodox Rus' is awakening! They might have put on a train and carried the relic across the whole country, so that people in different cities could

Faith · Society · People

The Permanent Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, has unanimously revoked the award presented to Metropolitan Ambrosios, former head of the Metropolis of Kalavryta, just two weeks af

The open letter of Metropolitan Ambrosios was deemed insulting to the Permanent Synod and to the entire episcopate of the Church of Greece. In the letter, addressed to Archbishop Ieronymos and his fellow hierarchs, Metropolitan Ambrosios accuses the church leadership of silence while Greek society sinks into a moral and

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On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle

On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle. He had been taking treatment here for tuberculosis for many years. The newspaper

Faith · Art · Observations

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also

Matthew 6:21 A good Van Dyckian night to you! We are all on our own flight into Egypt, and like the Holy Family, we sometimes need a rest.

Archaeology · Faith · Observations · Science

Astrophysicist Henriksson finds how Old Uppsala fixed the date of its winter sacrifice

Swedish astrophysicist Göran Henriksson of Uppsala University has established that the pagan inhabitants of Old Uppsala used an exact lunisolar calendar to fix the date of the great winter sacrifice. In the pre-Christian era Old Uppsala was the principal religious and political centre of the Svear, one of the

Faith · Books · People

Joseph Brodsky's 1990 poem about a shepherds' camp, a star and an infant

No matter what was around them. And no matter what the blizzard was drawlingly howling about; That they were cramped in the shepherd's lodging, That there was no other place for them in the world. Firstly, they were together. The second thing, and the main one, was that

Coming Up · Faith · Art · Moscow · Museums

Among the many museum and gallery events of the past week, I want to single out one: the exhibition "Childhood. Adolescence. Sanctity"

Among the many museum and gallery events of the past week, I want to single out one: the exhibition "Childhood. Adolescence. Sanctity" at the Andrei Rublev Museum, which runs from 3 September to 15 November 2026. More than a hundred works from the late fifteenth to the early

Archive · Faith · Art · People

Kustodiev and Stelletsky's expeditions to old Russian towns and monasteries

These photographs of St Sophia's Cathedral in Novgorod were taken by Boris Kustodiev in the autumn of 1903, during his journey to the North with Dmitry Stelletsky. In 1900 Stelletsky and Kustodiev made an expedition through the Kostroma Governorate, and in 1903 through the Russian North and the

Archaeology · Faith · The East · Art · Books · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Science · Society · Nature

August digest covering archaeology, art, heritage, science and nature

Marcus Aurelius advised retreating into oneself, for nowhere does a man withdraw more quietly. In the digest, for my part, I try to gather what has been published over the month while the memories are still fresh. So, the main things on the channel for August. The section on archaeology

Archaeology · Faith · The East · Science

Ring from Herodium inscribed ΠΙΛΑΤΟ probably did not belong to Pontius Pilate

A cheap copper-alloy ring, dug up in the 1960s at Herodium, King Herod's fortress-palace in the Judaean Desert, bearing the image of a vessel and the Greek letters ΠΙΛΑΤΟ. Despite suggestions that the signet might have belonged to the most famous official in history, Pontius Pilate,

NB! · Archive · Faith · Ethnography