The Catalog of Good Deeds

The spiritual person is kind. He never practices cruelty in any of its forms, but is always gentle in his relations with others. Kindness, according to the Apostle Paul, is also a “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5.22).

According to the scriptures, God Himself is kind. For all of His anger and wrath over the sins of men, the Lord is “kind to the ungrateful and selfish” (Lk 6.35).

For great is His merciful kindness toward us; and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever (Ps 117.2; cf. Pss 31.21,119.76).

Christians are urged to follow God in His kindness and to do all things gently and with tenderness. Especially when rebuking and correcting others, the spiritual person must be kind.

. . . the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing; correcting one’s opponents with gentleness . . . (2 Tim 2.24; cf. Gal 6.1).

Parents especially are urged not to “provoke their children to anger” by unkindness and cruelty (Eph 6.4, Col 3.21).

Very often it happens that people can be kind to strangers and to those with whom they have but a passing and casual relationship, but with persons with whom the relationship is longer and deeper—family, relatives, co-workers, fellow members in the same church community—it is sometimes assumed that they may be unkind, and that they even have a certain right to act carelessly and with harshness. This is a great temptation. Familiarity and everyday contact do not give one the right to act unkindly or to behave crudely. To those closest and nearest, the need for continual gentleness, tenderness and kindness in every action and word is especially necessary. There can be no excuse for insensitivity and harshness, whatever the relationship. Spiritual persons must “do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6.10).

. . . for we are members one of another. Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil (cf. Ps 4).… Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear . . . Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you (Eph 4.26–32).

Kindness does not mean overlooking people’s sins; it means forgiving them. Kindness also does not mean “being nice” to everyone, whoever they are and whatever they do. It does not mean “going along” with others in every way. A kind person will correct others, if need be, and his very kindness will be shown by his care and concern for the well-being of his fellow creature “for whom Christ died” (Rom 14.15).

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother (Mt 18.15).

The correction by a kind person is never with contempt or cruelty. It never ridicules, demeans or condemns. It always encourages and edifies with gentleness and understanding.

Source: https://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/spirituality/the-virtues/kindness

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Cosmas and Damian were unmercenaries and miracle-workers. They were brothers both in the flesh and in the spirit, born somewhere in Asia Minor of a pagan father and a Christian mother. After their father’s death, their mother Theodota devoted all her time and effort to educating her sons and raising them as true Christians. God helped her, and her sons matured as sweet fruit and luminaries of the world. They were learned in the art of medicine and ministered to the sick without payment, not so much with medicine as by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were called “unmercenary physicians,” that is, unpaid physicians, for they healed freely and thus fulfilled the commandment of Christ: Freely ye have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8).

So careful were they in healing men free of charge that Cosmas became very angry with his brother Damian because he accepted three eggs from a woman, Palladia, and ordered that he not be buried alongside his brother Damian after his death. In fact, St. Damian did not accept these three eggs as a reward for healing the ailing Palladia, but rather because she adjured him in the name of the Most-holy Trinity to accept these three eggs. Nevertheless, after their death in the town of Fereman, they were buried together according to a revelation from God. The holy brothers were great miracle-workers both during their life and after their death. A snake crawled through the mouth and into the stomach of a certain farm laborer during his sleep, and the unfortunate man would have died in the greatest pain had he not, in the last moment, invoked the help of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Thus, the Lord glorified forever the miracle-working of those who glorified Him on earth by their faith, purity and mercy.

St. Nikolai Velimirovic, The Prologue of Ohrid – Volume Two

Source: http://www.gometropolis.org/orthodox-faith/feast-days/saints-cosmas-and-damian-the-holy-unmercenaries-and-their-mother-theodota

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Constantinople

The Patriarchate of Constantinople again, at least nominally, became independent after World War I and the rise of modern, secular Turkey, although greatly reduced in size. At present the Patriarch's jurisdiction includes Turkey, the island of Crete and other islands in the Aegean, the Greeks and certain other national groups in the Dispersion (the Diaspora) in Europe, America, Australia, etc. as well as the monastic republic of Mt. Athos and the autonomous Church of Finland. The present position of the Patriarchate in Turkey is precarious, persecution still exists there, and only a few thousand Greek Orthodox still remain in Turkey.

Mount Athos

Located on a small peninsula jutting out into the Aegean Sea from the Greek mainland near Thessalonica, Mt. Athos is a monastic republic consisting of twenty ruling monasteries, the oldest (Great Lavra) dating to the beginning of the 11th Century, as well as numerous other settlements sketes, kellia, hermitages, etc. Of the twenty ruling monasteries, seventeen are Greek, one Russian, one Serbian, and one Bulgarian. (One, Iveron, was originally founded as a Georgian monastery, but now is Greek.) Perhaps 1,500 Monks are presently on the Mountain, a dramatic decline from the turn of the Century when, in 1903, for example, there were over 7,000 Monks there. This is due, in great part, to the halt of vocations from the Communist countries, as well as to a general decline in monastic vocations worldwide. However, there appears to be a revival of monastic life there, particularly at the monasteries of Simonopetra, Dionysiou, Grigoriou, Stavronikita, and Philotheou, and two Monks have shone as spiritual lights there in this Century - the Elder Silouan ( 1938) of St. Panteleimon's Russian Monastery and the Elder Joseph ( 1959) of the New Skete.

Finland

The Orthodox Church of Finland, an autonomous Church (self-governing, except that the primate is confirmed by the Patriarch of the Mother Church, in this case Constantinople) was originally the fruit of the Monks of Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga, who spread Orthodoxy among the Finnish Karelian tribes in the 14th Century. Until 1917, the Finnish Church was part of the Russian Orthodox Church, but with the independence of Finland in 1917 and the unsettled situation in Russia after the Revolution, since 1923 it has been under the spiritual care of Constantinople. There are, today, approximately 66,000 Orthodox faithful in the Finnish Orthodox Church.

Alexandria

One of the original ancient Patriarchates, since the Monophysite Schism after the Council of Chalcedon (451), the numbers of the faithful of the Patriarchate of Alexandria have remained small approximately 300,000 faithful in Africa, most of whom are non-Greek Christians in Central Africa (primarily Kenya and Uganda). The rapid expansion of Orthodoxy in Central Africa in this Century has been most remarkable since it sprang up without benefit of Orthodox missionaries, and the Orthodox Church of this region promises to become an important force in the life of the Alexandrian Patriarchate.

Antioch

Like Alexandria, the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch was severely decimated by the Monophysite Schism and Turkish depredations, and now numbers some 500,000 faithful in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, as well as an emigrant population in America. Its Patriarch, who lives in Damascus, is an Arab, as are most of the clergy, and the bulk of its faithful are Arabic and Arabic-speaking, its liturgical services being celebrated in that language.

Jerusalem

This ancient Church, whose jurisdiction includes Palestine and Jordan, never was large in numbers, but always held a special place in Orthodoxy due to her custody of the Holy Places of Palestine. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is a Greek, but the majority of the clergy and faithful are Arabic, numbering about 60,000 souls.

Russia

Since the Russian Revolution, the Church of Russia has been severely persecuted by the atheist state and the numbers of her faithful, clergy and institutions have been drastically reduced. In 1914, there were officially 54,457 churches, 57,105 Priests, 1,498 monasteries and convents, 4 theological academies, 57 theological seminaries, and 40,150 religious schools, with perhaps 100,000,000 faithful. By 1947, the figures read: 22-25,000 churches, 33,000 Priests, 80 monasteries and convents, 2 theological academies, 8 theological seminaries, and no other religious schools. (This was after a certain liberalization following World War II!) At the present time there are perhaps 30,000,000 active Orthodox Christians. By 1966, after renewed persecution, only 3 seminaries were still functioning and by the 1970's, only 12 monasteries and convents were open, as well as about 7,000 churches. Nonetheless, Orthodoxy is still alive in Russia, and, despite reduced membership figures, this Church remains the largest in the Orthodox world.

Georgia

Founded in the 4th Century by St. Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles ( 355 commemorated January 14), this Church had become autocephalous (self headed) in the 8th Century, but was incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church, with the subjugation of the Caucasus, in 1811, receiving her independence again in 1917. The ranks of her faithful and clergy have been severely diminished since the Communist takeover, and now there are about forty functioning churches (2,455 in 1917), served by less than 100 Priests, out of a population of over 2,000,000. The head of this Church is styled the Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia.

Serbia

With the gradual crumbling of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century, the Serbian Church received her independence again in 1879. This Church has fared better than some in the Communist bloc, but many of the problems common to the Churches there (diminished ranks of clergy, closing of churches, etc.) are found here also. There are large numbers of Orthodox Serbians in the Dispersion, many of whom are to be found in America, Australia and Canada. The primate of the Serbian Church is the Patriarch, who lives in Belgrade.

Romania

As in the other Balkan countries, with the independence movement of the 19th Century, the Church of Romania received her independence. The nation became a Principality in 1856, and its Church was organized in 1864. Romania became an independent Kingdom in 1881, and the autocephaly of her Church was finally recognized in 1885 by Patriarch Joachim IV of Constantinople. In 1925, the Church of Romania became a Patriarchate, whose Patriarch lives in Bucharest. In numbers of Orthodox faithful, this Church is the second largest in world Orthodoxy, and the persecution by the atheists has not been as severe as in other Communist countries.

Bulgaria

With the conquest of the Balkans by the Turks, the ancient Bulgarian Patriarchal See of Trnovo was suppressed and the Bulgarian Church was placed under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople. On April 3, 1860, however, Bishop Hilarion openly declared independence from Constantinople by omitting the Patriarch's name at the Divine Liturgy, and on March 11, 1870, the Turkish Government recognized a Bulgarian Exarchate in Constantinople. In 1872, the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated the Bulgarian Church, but the de-facto autocephaly of this Church was finally recognized in 1945. As in Romania, the persecution of the Church has not been as severe as, for example, in Russia, but monasticism is in decline and there are few young Monks. Generally, Church life is more active, however, than in Yugoslavia with its more liberal policies.

Cyprus

This ancient Church has been independent since the Council of Ephesus (431) and, although suffering under the Turkish yoke, is still strong with over 700 Priests and over 400,000 faithful. For a time, the Turkish system, whereby the primate of the Church was also the political leader of the Greek population, was continued after the liberation of the country in 1878, which explains the role played by the late Archbishop Makarios, who ruled Cyprus as President, as well as being the primate of her Church.

Greece

The first national Church to emerge from the independence struggles of the 19th Century was the Church of Greece. On the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1821, Germanos, the Archbishop of Patras, raised the banner of revolt against the Turks (which cost the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory, his life). This war of independence was successful and, as the Hierarchs of the Greek Church did not wish to remain subject to a captive Patriarch in Constantinople, in 1833 a synod of Greek Bishops declared their Church autocephalous, although this was not officially recognized by Constantinople until 1850. In 1864, the Diocese of the Ionian Islands was added to the Church of Greece, and in 1881 the Dioceses of Thessaly and a part of Epirus were likewise joined to her. This Church is the third largest in the Orthodox world and is ruled by a Holy Synod, presided over by the Archbishop of Athens.

Albania

Christianized by both Greek and Latin missionaries, Albania, part of ancient Illyricum, had both Latin and Greek rite Christians, with close ties both to Rome and Constantinople, until the Turkish conquest of 1478-9, when half the population became Moslem and a small minority remained Christian Latin in the North and Orthodox in the South. On November 28, 1912, Albania declared its independence from Turkey, and on October 26, 1922, a Church Council at Berat declared the Church of Albania independent of Constantinople, which was finally recognized by that Hierarch on April 12,1937. After World War II, with the seizure of power by the Communists, the Church has suffered terribly, her clergy forbidden to conduct services, as the regime has officially declared religion to be dead in Albania. Since the death of the last Primate, Damian, the primal See of Tirane remains vacant.

Poland

The Church of Poland has been autocephalous since 1924, although this independence has not been recognized by Constantinople. Consisting primarily of Orthodox Christians from Western Byelorussia, which was added to Poland's territory after World War II, this Church is headed by a Metropolitan who lives in Warsaw.

Czechoslovakia

The Church of Czechoslovakia has been autocephalous since 1951, although, A as in the case of Poland, this has not been recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Czechoslovak Church is composed, primarily, of former Uniates, who were forcibly joined to the Orthodox Church by the Communists in 1950 (many returned to Roman Catholicism in 1968). The Church is headed by a Metropolitan who lives in Prague.

Sinai

The ancient Church of Sinai, which is actually an autonomous Church consisting of a single monastery, St. Catherine's, at the foot of Mt. Sinai the Mountain of Moses. The Abbot of this Monastery is always an Archbishop, elected by the Monks of the Monastery , although he is consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria and lives in Cairo. The Monastery, at the present, consists of only a few Monks, most of whom are very old.

Japan

The Church of Japan was founded by St. Nicholas (Kassatkin), later Archbishop of Japan ( 1912 commemorated on February 16), a Russian missionary, who knew St. Innocent of Alaska. At the present there are about 40 parishes and about 36,000 faithful. The autonomy of this Church was proclaimed by the Patriarch of Moscow in 1970, and it is headed by a Metropolitan, who lives in Tokyo, and one other Bishop, who, although chosen by the Church of Japan, must be confirmed by the Church of Russia.

Source: http://myocn.net/eucharist-meaning-place-salvation/

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The earliest title of the main Sunday service of the Christian Church is “the Eucharist”, from the Greek word eucharisteo, meaning, “to give thanks.” As early as about the middle of the second century, Justin the Philosopher (later known as “Justin Martyr”) wrote that the bread and wine which the Christians received sacramentally was “called among us ‘the Eucharist’, of which no one is allowed to partake but the ones who believe that the things which we teach are true” (Apology, chapter 66). The ritual service would also later be called “the Divine Liturgy,” and “the Mass.”

The Lord Jesus commanded His disciples to perform this ritual on the night on which He was betrayed. Before noon the next day, He would be crucified and hanging on a Roman cross, offering Himself as a voluntary sacrifice to take away the sins of the world, and by supper-time, He would be dead. He therefore instituted this ritual as the way of insuring that His sacrifice would be powerfully present and effective among His disciples. By doing so, He transformed what was a simple judicial execution into an enduring sacrifice. The recurring ritual of the Eucharist was the means whereby His disciples could benefit from that sacrifice.

The Lord instituted the Eucharist during His final meal with them. It seems clear enough that the meal was a Passover meal: Luke reports that prior to this, Christ said to His disciples, “When you have entered the city [of Jerusalem], a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’ And he will show you a large, furnished, upper room; prepare it there” (Luke 22:10-12). The disciples obeyed the Lord, and found the pre-arranged upper room. As Luke further reports, there “they prepared the Passover” (Luke 22:13). At that meal, Christ said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).

Some have suggested that this chronology is difficult to square with the information in John’s Gospel, but Luke’s account seems clear enough.

At the beginning of this meal, the Lord took bread and broke it. This was not unusual; every meal began with the breaking of bread. But what happened next was unusual—as He gave them the bread, He said, “Take it; this is My Body.” The apostles’ reaction is not recorded, but one can imagine their alarm. The meal then continued as usual, with everyone eating bitter herbs and the Passover Lamb and talking as people do at table. At the conclusion of the meal, a final cup of wine was blessed and drunk. Again, this was not unusual; every meal would be accompanied by wine, and every Passover meal concluded with this third cup. But as Christ gave them the wine, He said, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed on behalf of many.” As St. Paul recounted it to the Corinthians (in a letter which predated the writing of the Gospels), Christ added that they should do this “for My memorial” (sometimes translated “in remembrance of Me”; the Greek is eis ten emenanamnesin). It is doubtful that the apostles understood what our Lord was talking about, for they had refused to believe that He was about to die. But His words sounded ominous enough. It was only later that they would understand.

The surprising thing, given that the Passover meal consisted of wine and the Passover Lamb, is that Jesus chose bread to represent His body, and not the Passover lamb. After all, He had spoken once of His flesh and blood being food and drink (John 6:54), so what could be more natural than the flesh of the Passover lamb representing His own Flesh? Why choose bread for the ritual rather than the lamb?

The Lord chose to use bread and wine for this ritual rather than lamb and wine because He did not model the recurring sacramental meal on the Passover meal (which was held only once a year), but on all the meals which He had taken with His disciples. Lamb was not eaten at every supper, but bread was, as was wine, and the Eucharist was not to be held only once a year, but as often as the disciples would gather together. Thus the Lord chose bread and wine, which they would eat at every meal.

And they did gather together regularly for a meal, for following Christ was not like holding to a philosophy, but joining a family; they gathered regularly to eat because that is what families do. And these meals culminated in the Eucharist.

Christ met with His disciples on Sundays after His Resurrection, and by this He was telling them that the first day of the week was the day when they should gather together. Accordingly, though the apostles would continue as good Jews to worship with their fellow Jews in the synagogues on the Sabbath, they would also meet with their fellow Christians on the next day. This day they soon began to call “the Lord’s day,” because it was on this first day of the week that the risen Lord manifested Himself to them when they gathered together. They would meet every Sunday evening for a meal—a full meal, a supper (Greek deipnon), during which there would be prayers, Scripture readings, hymns, and of course stories about Jesus. The culmination of the meal would be the Eucharist, when the one presiding over the meal would take bread and wine, pray over them, break the bread, and all would eat and drink.

Some suggest that instead of having the sacramental Bread at the beginning of the meal and the sacramental Wine at the end that the Bread and Wine were taken together, probably at the meal’s end. It is difficult to be certain about those early Eucharistic meals. What is certain is that by the end of the first century or the beginning of the second, the taking of the sacramental Bread and Wine had become separated from the meal itself. The Christians would meet together before dawn on Sunday morning (which, of course, before Constantine’s time was just another work day) and have the Eucharist. They would then gather again later on that day for the meal itself, which they called an “agape,” or “love-feast.” We know this from a letter that Pliny wrote to his emperor, Trajan, in about 112 A.D. He reported that the Christians’ “custom had been to gather before dawn on a fixed day and to sing a hymn to Christ as if to a god…With this complete, it had been their custom to separate, and to meet again to take food—but quite ordinary, harmless food.”

What was this bit in Pliny’s letter about “ordinary, harmless food”? Here we arrive at the heart of our faith and the central mystery of the Eucharist. Pagans at that time believed that we Christians met together to practice cannibalism, that we killed and ate a baby at our services. Believers called Christ the pais theou, “servant of God” or “child of God” (see Acts 4:27, “[God’s] holy Servant Jesus; rendered “[God’s] holy Child Jesus” in the King James Version). It was easy enough to confuse paisas “servant” with pais as “child.” And, of course, Christians whispered about “receiving the Body and the Blood.” What else could it mean except ritual child-killing and cannibalism? That was why Pliny made a point of reporting that at our meals the food was “ordinary and harmless”—no cannibalism, so far as he could tell.

But if not cannibalism, what does this talk about eating flesh mean? It is a stunning image, and one that goes back to Christ Himself: “He who eats My Flesh (Greek sarx) and drinks My Blood has eternal life…he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:54, 57). The Lord’s words on the night of His last supper should be understood as a sacramental application of this earlier teaching—when the disciples ate the bread at the Eucharist in the church, they also ate His Body, His Flesh. When they drank the wine, they also drank His Blood. St. Paul taught precisely this: “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing [Greek koinonia, participation] in the Blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing [Greek koinonia] in the Body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16). In some sense, then, the Eucharistic bread was His body, and the wine in the cup was His blood. It was not a simple metaphor (like Christ saying, “I am the vine” in John 15:1). Paul said that what was shared and eaten actually was His body and His blood. And he said that some of those who ate it improperly had sickened and died as a result (1 Cor. 11:30). No one dies from a mere metaphor.

How then could Christ’s Body and Blood be present for us? Because in the Eucharist the Church obeys Christ in making a memorial [Greek anamnesis, Hebrew zikkaron] of His Passion. Most people today do not understand memory or memorial as the ancient Hebrews did. For us, memory is something in our heads, a merely mental activity, like day-dreaming. But in the Biblical understanding, a memorial is something done so that God will remember and take action. Take for example the blowing of the silver trumpets which Moses was commanded to make in Numbers 10:1f. The Hebrews were to blow the trumpets over their sacrifices “that you may be remembered before the Lord your God and be saved” (Numbers 10:9). The memorial was the act of blowing the trumpets; God remembered and took action. Or take the example of Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10:31. The angel told him that his “alms have been remembered before God.” That is, his alms functioned as a memorial, and God remembered and took action—in this case, the action of sending Peter to him with the Gospel.

It is in this Biblical sense that Christ made the eating and drinking His memorial. By eating and drinking at the Eucharist, the Church makes His memorial, and by the power of the Holy Spirit God remembers Christ’s Passion and saves us. In this way, Christ’s Passion is present among us. His death is not merely a past historical event, but a present Sacrifice, effective and powerful in our midst. The Sacrifice is present on the Holy Table, and by partaking of the Bread and Cup, we partake of His Body and Blood, His Sacrifice.

The Eucharist is therefore our participation in the saving self-offering of Christ. When we eat His Body and drink His Blood, we receive His divine life and abide in His salvation, receiving forgiveness, healing, transformation, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist is thus the fiery center of our Christian life. It is also what binds us together one with another as the Church. Indeed, the Eucharist makes us into the Church, renewing us and reconstituting us week by week as the Body of Christ. As St. Paul said, “We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). The Eucharist is thus the source of our common unity in Christ; it is the ecclesial sacrament par excellence. It is not surprising if the Eucharist was the liturgical context for all the other sacraments of the Church. Even now in Orthodoxy, all ordinations are performed at the Eucharist.

Given the Eucharist’s central place in our salvation, we should prepare ourselves carefully to receive it. We do this by fasting from midnight the night before, so that we come to the Chalice with hungry stomachs and hungry hearts. We do this by praying beforehand that we may receive worthily, forgiving all who have sinned against us and hurt us, and repenting of our own sins. We do this by living all our days in fervent faith, receiving the sacrament of Confession regularly, being faithful in daily prayer and in Scripture-reading, always striving to please the Lord in all things. In other words, we come to the Chalice as Christians, as those who live for the Lord. Thus every Sunday and every feast-day finds us at the Chalice, partaking of salvation. We come every week because we need to. We come every week because we are unworthy and sick, and need to be healed. We come every week because He told us to. We come in the fear of God and with faith and love because without this feast, we have no life.

Source: http://myocn.net/eucharist-meaning-place-salvation/

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Not far from Kharkov, in the Transfiguration Monastery of Kuryazhanka, there is a miraculous image of the Mother of God called “Ozeryanskaya”. According to the story, the icon appeared in the end of the 16^th century near Ozeryany village. This is how the sacred image got its name. Later there was organized a monastery, which was named as “Ozeryansky” as well.

People say, there was a peasant who was cutting grass. Accidentally, he cut the image of the Mother of God in two, which was laying in the grass. He understood that what he did was dangerous for him and other people, although his fault was not deliberate at all. He took the halves of the icon, placed them in the icon corner at his home and lit up a candle in front of it. The next morning the man found the icon unharmed. Only a thin scar on the image was left as a reminder that the icon was cut into two.

In 1794 the icon was moved to the monastery of Kuryazhanka. When the monastery was closed, it was kept in the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God in Kharkov for 8 years . In the beginning of the 19^th century, after the reconstruction of the monastery in Kuryazhanka, the miraculous image was brought back by request of the brethren.

The faithful people from the whole city of Kharkov and its neighboring settlements came there to venerate the miraculous icon. Many of the afflicted people were cured after they had prayed wholeheartedly in front of the icon. Each year on September 30 (since 1843) the procession carried the miraculous icon of the Mother of God to Kharkov. The icon was kept there during the whole winter, and on April 22 the procession would take it back to the monastery in the same manner.

The Mother of God “Ozeryanskaya” is decorated with red and gold and was painted on canvas using an ancient Russian painting technique.

Unfortunately, during the years of religious opression in the 20th century the “Ozeryanskaya” icon, which is considered as the patron icon of Kharkov and the whole Sloboda region of Ukraine, was lost. Today only a copy of the miraculous image remains. What is more, the clergy claims that the copy has the same miraculous power as the original icon had.

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Christian Virtues: Kindness

Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries: Saints Cosmas and Damian and their mother Theodota

Orthodoxy around the world

The Eucharist: Its Meaning and Place in Our Salvation

The Icon of the Mother of God “Ozeryanskaya”

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Christian Virtues: Kindness

Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries: Saints Cosmas and Damian and their mother Theodota

Orthodoxy around the world

The Eucharist: Its Meaning and Place in Our Salvation

The Icon of the Mother of God “Ozeryanskaya”

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