Faith · Art · Books
Christ is Risen, brothers and sisters! Truly He is Risen! Rejoice and sing, my soul, Heiress of the heavens: Christ is risen, Your Saviour is truly risen! Literal translation Yes! Hell has grown faint before the Mighty One: From the fetters of the tomb, From the night of death, God
Faith · Moscow · Observations · Society
Have you also noticed how little Easter symbolism there is in the city, and how little Easter programming on television, this year? And the few modest Easter decorations in the capital of the country with the largest Orthodox population in the world look particularly odd, considering that the New Year
Faith · Moscow · Observations · Education · Society
For the previous thirty years, a fifteen-minute procession of the cross got in the way of no traffic whatever. Nor do I recall any such restrictions being imposed on rallies and concerts, or on the mass festive and prayer gatherings of other faiths, running to many thousands of people
Faith · Heritage · Science
In 1898 the photographer Secondo Pia photographed the Shroud of Turin and discovered that the image behaves like a photographic negative. The positive appeared only on the negative plate. This observation became the first scientific fact about the relic that received no simple explanation. In 1969–1973 the Vatican formed
Faith · Art · London
John Everett Millais, 1850. The young Jesus Christ has hurt his palm on a nail sticking out of a door and shows the wound, at the place of the future stigmata, to the Virgin Mary. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved
Faith · Art · Humour
A reminder to one and all that the Mother of God will come and restore order
Archaeology · Faith · The East · Monarchies · Rome
In AD 217 the Praetorians murdered the Emperor Caracalla at Edessa. The Praetorian Guard were the emperors' personal bodyguard, elite troops stationed in Rome itself. Over two centuries they had dispatched more than one ruler and had grown used to deciding who would come next. Power passed to the
Faith · Books · Observations
And joy suddenly stirred in his soul, and he even stopped for a minute to catch his breath. The past, he thought, is linked with the present by an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of another. And it seemed to him that he had just seen both ends
Faith · Art · Ethnography
This year the Annunciation coincides with Holy Week and falls on one of the most demanding days of the Lenten liturgical year. Such a coincidence is rare, but not unheard of. What is truly exceptional is another matter: when the Annunciation falls exactly on Easter Day, it is called Kyriopascha,
Faith · Books
“Hosanna! Hosanna! Come forth In the name of the Lord!” And with a furious rattle in his chest, With the fire of the netherworld In his glittering, festering eyes, Swelling every vein in his neck, Howling ever more menacingly, The cripple flings himself into the dust On his knees, Having
Faith · Observations
I wish every one of you to arrive at your own Jerusalem and to find the path of salvation in Christ! Strive for the things above, and the Lord will gather you into His abode
Faith · Art
The author, incidentally, is the contemporary Russian artist Igor Sushenok