Faith · Mores · Society

Henry Ford Dismissed 800 Workers for Missing Work on Orthodox Christmas in 1914

In 1914 Henry Ford dismissed some 800 workers who failed to report for work on 7 January, when the Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of Christ. At that time this amounted to roughly 8% of all his workforce. Ford issued an order stating that if these men had chosen America

NB! · Faith · Art

An Angel Looks In at the Window

An angel looks in at the window. The Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel, Giotto di Bondone, 1305

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Crozier head with the Archangel Michael and the dragon, 1220s–1230s, Limoges

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“The Adoration of the Magi”, by the sixteenth-century Flemish painter Jan Mostaert, who worked at the court of Margaret of Austria in the Southern Netherlands

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Merry Christmas to all! ❤️

Illustration from the Magnificent Hours of Notre-Dame, 1378/80.

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The Ecstasy of Saint Francis, Giovanni Baglione, 1601

NB! · Faith · Art · London · Museums

A colossal diorite scarab beetle from the British Museum, a metre and a half long, symbolising the morning aspect of the solar deity

Faith · Books · Science · Society · People

In his treatise "On the Preservation and Increase of the Russian People", Lomonosov reflects on the importance of a proper attitude to fasting, recalling the number of deaths from overeating on the eve of the fast and immediately after its end, while at t

According to Lomonosov, "pure repentance is a good life, which inclines God to mercy, to bounty and to love of us. Keep the commandments given by Christ, on which hang all the law and the prophets: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (that is, not with

Faith · Books · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg

Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Night Before Christmas”, censorship and Gogol’s tale

Originally, Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "Christmas Eve" was held up by the censors, because among the dramatis personae there was a tsaritsa (in Gogol's tale, Catherine II), and at that time members of the House of Romanov were forbidden to appear on the operatic stage.

Faith · Books · Observations

Metropolitan Platon of Moscow on the New Year in his 1766 sermon

The continuation of time is the continuation of God's goodness to us. This divine benefaction we must glorify at this hour. For now we enter the doors of the new year. The new year is, for everyone, a propitious occasion for new endeavours and new merits, a blessed

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In the New Year of 1766 the admirable orator and thinker Platon, Metropolitan of Moscow, delivered in the court church a Sermon before Catherine II and the heir Pavel Petrovich on the essence and nature of time

In the New Year of 1766 the admirable orator and thinker Platon, Metropolitan of Moscow, delivered in the court church a Sermon before Catherine II and the heir Pavel Petrovich on the essence and nature of time. The address is rich and beautiful; I shall quote a few passages, and

Faith · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Vasnetsov's triptych “Apocalypse” for Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv

"He was clothed in a robe dipped in blood. His name is called "The Word of God". And the armies of heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, with which to strike the