The Catalog of Good Deeds

Christ is born! Glorify Him! Merry Christmas!

Our family has enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, spent with extended family and friends, celebrating the birth of Christ and enjoying each other’s warm company while the cold winds blew outside.

Those of us who are converts or who married converts, will have spent some of the time during the holidays with family members who are not Orthodox. These beloved people will have come into our homes and eyed our icons nervously, looking vaguely uncomfortable when we crossed ourselves and blessed the food.

Many of us come from Protestant traditions where icons and crossing oneself and talking about Mary are very much taboo. We were raised with a suspicion that holy images and gilded grandeur have distracted well-meaning Christians from Christ Himself, replacing faith in Him with empty idol worship.

This year, my mom (who remains Protestant), stayed with us for a wonderful week and we had a great time running around with the kids and relaxing in the living room and catching up on a million great stories. We also had a long conversation about icons, which in all these years of having an Orthodox daughter still trouble my mom.

Why do we kiss them? Why do we love them so much? Aren’t we afraid that somehow the icons and the Saints and (yes, of course) Mary herself will take up so much of our attention that we will forget Christ altogether?

When I first saw an Orthodox church, I admit that I too thought, “wow — look how interested they are in all of the Saints and all of these creepy faces on the wall. They are not lucky like me to sit in an empty white room where I can contemplate Christ and Christ alone.”

It should be pretty obvious that by now I’ve not only come around to accepting icons, but in fact I love them. My home has an icon in every room, and features a gorgeous prayer corner full of beloved icons. My mom still isn’t quite sure what to make of it all.

As we sat on my couch one night after Christmas talking, our foreign exchange student from Montenegro (an Orthodox girl from an Orthodox nation) asked us about Protestantism and what that’s like, trying to understand what her classmates in her Texas public school would be thinking and doing and believing, and in the conversation I noted that they didn’t have any icons. She literally had never heard of Christians who didn’t love icons.

She was utterly confused. Why no icons? I told her that they’re concerned that you might love the icons more than God — to which she gave an incredulous gasp, totally unable to imagine how anyone could even come to such a suggestion. Not having grown up around a multitude of Christian denominations, she was trying to work it out in her head but the idea was really totally inconceivable.

My mom and I were talking the next day, and she thought it was odd that this girl couldn’t even imagine such an argument. I tried to explain it about 100 different ways. Those of you who are converts have been there, and have probably also tried many ways to phrase the same thing, always looking for a door in.

We all probably have fantasies that our families will recognize the One True Church and be joyfully baptized or chrismated into the faith, but it’s not just about conversion. It’s hard when your family is Christian and they raised you to be Christian and they just don’t understand or approve of the way that you’re doing it. It is very painful to have found the pearl of great price, only to find that your family cannot see it at all. Many of us spend a lot of energy trying to express the holy ancient faith to our parents and siblings.

In the course of the conversation, I hit upon a metaphor that I really love and which I think can be useful, both for defending the faith against critics and for teaching our kids about icons.

Old Glory, the American Flag

(or any nation’s flag, surely)

My mom is an immigrant to this country, and like many people who braved hardships to obtain citizenship in this great nation, she is an avid patriot. You should see my mom on the Fourth of July. She waves the flag like nobody’s business, and she tears up at every sentimental patriotic tune, from God Bless America to The Star-Spangled Banner. My mom loves the USA.

So I asked her,

“Mom, whenever you see an American flag do you salute it? Do you cringe when it’s treated disrespectfully? Do you take offense when it’s burned in the square or desecrated? You adore it so much that you sing songs about that flag: Old Glory and The Star-Spangled Banner and Stars and Stripes Forever. You adorn yourself in the red white and blue. What would you say if I asked you, aren’t you afraid that you are so in love with that flag that you have forgotten America? Could that question ever make sense to you?

When you pledge your allegiance to the flag are you pledging your allegiance to cotton and grommets, or are you pledging your allegiance to a nation? Are you honoring the brave men and women who gave their life for your freedom, or have you forgotten them and come to love merely a pretty piece of fabric as it flies gracefully in the wind? Is it even possible to salute the flag without saluting the nation?”

Have you ever worried that you loved the flag so much that you stopped loving America? That question doesn’t make any sense, because we are loving the nation through its flag. When we hear the patriotic songs and watch the Fourth of July fireworks, our love for the nation is rekindled; these patriotic icons are a part of reinforcing our love for country.

That’s how Orthodox icons are, and then some.

My mom’s not making an appointment for catechism classes, but I think she feels a little bit better about icons today.

Likewise, when we see the American flag burning in a protest across the globe, we understand immediately that this is an aggressively anti-American statement. Abusing our flag is a means of protest and of attack. Do we think that a person who burns the flag has burned our nation? Of course not, but we are injured and offended nonetheless. In the same way, we understand that the icon is not actually Jesus Christ or the Saint in the image — but those who attack icons are attacking the Church and Christ and His Saints. Though they haven’t harmed a hair on any person’s head, the aggression and the insult is registered. Saying that an icon is simply wood and paint is like saying that the flag is merely cotton and grommet — it is and it isn’t.

When I was in Holland a couple of years ago, I went to a church in Utrecht that was originally a Catholic Church until the Reformation, when Luther’s followers burst in and violently desecrated it. There were statues of Jesus and Mary and the Saints and Apostles and a beloved local bishop, and they came in and hacked the heads off the statues. They smashed them up with chains and with hatchets and hammers and anything they could find. There is a statue of Mary holding Jesus and both of their faces have been demolished and hacked, but the bodies remain, literally a defaced Jesus in the arms of his defaced mother. In most churches, I imagine that the damaged statues have been taken away, thrown into the dustbin of history, but in this church the statues remain as a testament to the glory of the Reformation. The people are proud of them and proud of the way that they slaughtered the statues. It’s really troubling. Of course, we don’t have statues in Orthodox Churches, but we know how to look at an image and understand that it is somehow tied to the person it represents. When I see an icon of Christ I see Christ, and if someone desecrates the icon I know that they’ve attacked Christ. When these people beheaded statues, it felt like they were attacking Christ and His Saints and His Mother. The place looked like a gory battlefield with dead Christians all over it, like the scene of a massacre (and indeed, many living Christians were hacked up on that day to be sure.) I suddenly understood: the Reformation was violent.

While it’s not the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the feast of our Lord’s Nativity, His Incarnation, is a good time to consider icons — for it is His incarnation that made Him visible in human form, made Him an appropriate subject for iconography. Indeed, His very presence as human flesh sanctifies human bodies and all of the material stuff of creation — which means for us that paint and wood can be sanctified, that the stuff of this world can be made holy.

On the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan website (goarch.org) you’ll find the following text from the Vespers for the Sunday of Orthodoxy:

“Inspired by your Spirit, Lord, the prophets foretold your birth as a child incarnate of the Virgin. Nothing can contain or hold you; before the morning star you shone forth eternally from the spiritual womb of the Father. Yet you were to become like us and be seen by those on earth. At the prayers of those your prophets in your mercy reckon us fit to see your light, “for we praise your resurrection, holy and beyond speech. Infinite, Lord, as divine, in the last times you willed to become incarnate and so finite; for when you took on flesh you made all its properties your own. So we depict the form of your outward appearance and pay it relative respect, and so are moved to love you; and through it we receive the grace of healing, following the divine traditions of the apostles.”

“The grace of truth has shone out, the things once foreshadowed now are revealed in perfection. See, the Church is decked with the embodied image of Christ, as with beauty not of this world, fulfilling the tent of witness, holding fast the Orthodox faith. For if we cling to the icon of him whom we worship, we shall not go astray. May those who do not so believe be covered with shame. For the image of him who became human is our glory: we venerate it, but do not worship it as God. Kissing it, we who believe cry out: O God, save your people, and bless your heritage.”

“We have moved forward from unbelief to true faith, and have been enlightened by the light of knowledge. Let us then clap our hands like the psalmist, and offer praise and thanksgiving to God. And let us honor and venerate the holy icons of Christ, of his most pure Mother, and of all the saints, depicted on walls, panels and sacred vessels, setting aside the unbelievers’ ungodly teaching. For the veneration given to the icon passes over, as Basil says, to its prototype. At the intercession of your spotless Mother, O Christ, and of all the saints, we pray you to grant us your great mercy. We venerate your icon, good Lord, asking forgiveness of our sins, O Christ our God. For you freely willed in the flesh to ascend the cross, to rescue from slavery to the enemy those whom you had formed. So we cry to you with thanksgiving: You have filled all things with joy, our Savior, by coming to save the world.”

By Elissa Bjeletich,

a mother and Sunday school director

in Austin, Texas

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/raisingsaints/old-glory-icons/

Question: Father Andrew, your blessing. I asked a priest to bless me to read the Psalter on behalf of my newly-reposed mum. He said, “I won’t give you my blessing!” I was taken aback. He added, “You can’t carry that burden. Remember your mum during morning prayer and send prayer notes to the altar to be prayed for at the Liturgy.” I’m positively shocked by his response. Please, Father, tell me why the priest didn’t want to bless me and what shall I do about it? Helena.

Answer by Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok: You were asking for the priest’s blessing, totally convinced that he will bless you and you will start reading the Psalter. He didn’t bless you, though. What should you do now? You can go to another priest and ask his blessing—or you can obey the priest who didn’t bless you. I’d choose the second option and pray for my mother during my morning and evening prayers. If the priest didn’t bless your reading the Psalter, you can read an akathist for the newly-reposed and add some prostrations.

It’s wrong when we ask for a blessing as if it’s a given: “Father bless me to go there…” “Bless me to do this or that…” Actually, the priest is free to reply, “No, I won’t bless you.” Is he crazy or something, huh? Why? How dare he not bless me if I’ve arranged everything already?! That’s our attitude to God’s blessing.

If you have doubts, don’t ask for a priestly blessing. People take the blessing and then don’t follow it or change the course of their action as they please. Will we be able to follow the blessing if it doesn’t correspond to our desires? Will we humble ourselves down? That’s the question of our faith.

Of course, you must pray for your mum. You can remember her at the Liturgy, take communion and pray for her, or you can ask someone else to read the Psalter for her in the church. You must work as hard as you can to help your mother’s soul.

December 17, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. (Exodus 1:22)

When the Three Wise Men brought their gifts to the Divine Baby, they were warned by God not to return to Herod but departed into their own country another way (Matthew 2:12). According to an unnamed interpreter of the distant past, it wasn’t appropriate for the wise men, who had seen the Heavenly King and worshipped him, to return to the earthly king and bow before him.

The Gospel narrative goes as follows, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. (Matthew 2:16). This passage is hard to read without feeling terrified and outraged. Herod was so scared of losing his power! He was so afraid of the newborn baby whom the three wise men had inquired about and became so insane as to commit this heinous crime. The death toll of the babies is unknown. Blessed Jerome believes there were thousands of the innocent babies slaughtered at the behest of the cruel king. Syriac sources speak of sixty-four thousand babies. Some Western sources count as many as 144 thousand massacred babies. Traditionally, the Orthodox Church commemorates fourteen thousand Bethlehem babies. Regardless of how many children were murdered on that day, this tragedy exceeds any description.

According to some versions of Apostle Nathaniel’s biography, that disciple of Christ almost died at the hands of Herod’s soldiers but his mother managed to hide him under a fig tree. In that case, the Savior’s words Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee (John 1:48) acquire a totally different angle. The future apostle immediately recognizes Jesus as the Son of God because he must have remembered his mother telling him how he was miraculously saved under the fig tree. However, Saint John the Evangelist writes that Apostle Nathaniel hailed from Cana of Galilee, a town next to the Sea of Galilee, that is, far from Bethlehem and nearby villages. The testimony of the Lord’s beloved disciple should be more trustworthy for us.

Many Holy Fathers and exegetes of the Holy Scripture have attempted to explain why God had allowed such an appalling act of terror to happen. Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop of Ravenna (†450) expressed the general opinion of the Fathers:

What did Jesus do? He who foresaw the future in advance and knew all secrets, He who judges intentions and supervises thoughts, why did he abandon those who, as He knew, would be searched because of him and then killed? The Newborn King, the King of Heaven, why did He neglect his soldiers for his own safety? Why did He neglect the army of his peers? Why did He abandon the guards, taken out of their beds, so that the enemy, sent to find only the King, had to attack the entire army? Brethren, Christ didn’t give up his soldiers; rather, He exalted them. He made it possible for them to triumph before they even started to live; He allowed them to gain victory without going into the battle; He granted them crowns before they got their bodies. He let them skip vices and acquire the heavenly before the earthly. Consequently, what Christ did was sending his troops in front of him and not giving them up; He accepted command over his army, not refused it. (Homilies 152.7)

Although Bethlehem babies were crowned with glorious crowns of the first martyrs for Christ and are now jubilant together with all saints in the heavenly abode, the parents and families of those innocent martyrs had to endure immense suffering. Holy Evangelist Matthew sees it as the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18)

Shocked by the crime of King Herod, we can’t help recalling a similar story, which had happened long before but pointed at Christ like everything else in the Old Testament. When Pharaoh saw that Jewish population had multiplied too much in his land, he ordered his subjects to throw newborn Jewish boys into the Nile and leave only girls alive. There was a Jewish mother who managed to keep her male baby alive by putting him into a basket and leaving him on the riverbank. The Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby and decided to adopt him. Like Moses, Baby Jesus was rescued from deep water, i.e., the threat of a new Pharaoh who was afraid to lose his power. Thousands of innocent children suffered both at the times of Moses and the times of Christ. The Satan used the Pharaoh in an attempt to kill the future leader of the Israeli people and Herod in an attempt to kill Baby Jesus.

The dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (Rev. 12:4-6)

As soon as Jesus was born, the chthonic and ruthless ancient evil was agitated. Massacre of thousands of innocent babies—that was how the world that lies in darkness responded to the light that shone from the Heaven. Darkness had prevailed in the world for centuries but thirty years from that moment, people saw heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John 1:51), the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Is. 9:2). Jesus Christ appears and wields a mighty blow to the dark forces when He descends into the water of the Jordan and, as the Orthodox Church sings, “The Lord, the King of the ages, restoreth corrupted Adam with the streams of the Jordan and crusheth the heads of the serpents who make their nest therein, for He hath been glorified.” (Troparion of Ode 1 of the Theophany Matins Canon by St. Cosmas of Maiuma). Now, the Light wins.

By John Nichiporuk,

a Bachelor of Theology,

specialized in Biblical Studies.

The Catalog of Good Deeds, 2019

See full Nativity infographics here.

1. Personal Stories: They Are Finely Attuned to God and People

Our Publishing House published a book titled The Yonder Land in 2011. Its main characters are the residents of the Boarding Home No.3 for the mentally challenged, as well as the sisters and brothers of the Sisterhood of Saint Elisabeth, nuns of St. Elisabeth Convent, and doctors. There is a chapel in honour of St. Xenia of Petersburg in the Boarding Home. Today, just a couple of days after the patron saint's day of this chapel, we would like to share some excerpts from this wonderful book with you…learn more

2. Joy and Growth Under the Snow at the Women's Farmstead

In the pre-dawn darkness of mid-February, our car from Saint Elisabeth Convent slid over the snow through the gate of the Women’s Farmstead, and pulled up to the house in which Fr. Andrew would celebrate Divine Liturgy. It was my second week staying at the convent, and I, along with another guest and one of the nuns who had herself never yet seen the Women’s Farmstead, were being given the opportunity to visit this unique place…learn more

3. Children, Parents and Teachers of the “Iсhvis” School Gave a Concert Devoted to Victory Day

“I want that there won't be another…” was the slogan of the concert that took place on the eve of the Victory Day (i.e. the victory in World War II) in the “Iсhvis” school. The artistic performance that was on the stage that day, fully expressed the pain that our land had to face during the World War II…learn more

4. Fr. Andrew Sommer and the Members of the Prince Vladimir Youth Association Visited St. Elisabeth Convent

On May 21, members of the Prince Vladimir Youth Association from the United States, under the direction of the Father Andrew Sommer, were able to tour the various workshops and the two farmsteads of St. Elisabeth Convent. Nun Anfisa provided a detailed guided tour of the ceramic and sewing workshops along with many other workshops for the guests…learn more

5. Over 200 Adults with Special Needs Participate in a Feast Day Organized by the Brothers and Sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent

The holiday celebration in the residence for adults with special needs began with a service. At the Liturgy, which was served in the assembly hall, more than 200 residents prayed which accounted for over half of all the residents. After the Divine Liturgy, everyone participated in procession around the main building. The holiday concluded with lunch in the open air and friendly interactions…learn more

6. Make the World a Better Place: A New Workshop for People with Disabilities

One of the newest projects in St. Elisabeth Convent is a unique workshop called “Dobrodel” (one that does good deeds) especially designed for people with disabilities. The workshop gives a chance to people with special needs to overcome social isolation and find themselves in society through work…learn more

7. Pilgrimages for People with Special Needs

The volunteers of the Fund in honour of St. John the Russian have organised two pilgrimages for children and adults who live in boarding homes for people with special needs. They visited St. Elisha Laŭryšava Monastery on July 22 and Holy Annunciation Monastery in Malyja Liady on July 28…learn more

8. The Brothers’ Lives: Diaries of the Rehabilitation Centre of St. Elisabeth Convent

The Rehabilitation Centre of St Elisabeth Convent is a place where labour and prayer help people to build their new life — different from the life in a prison cell or a hospital ward. Many of those who come to the rehab have a dark past. Their new life calls for a different attitude to themselves, to their neighbours, and to God. The old self has to die to give way to the new self in the eternal life…learn more

9. A Visit to the Not Indifferent Ones: a Personal Story about the First Meeting with Special Children

Sometimes they only need physical contact. They are excited every time you touch or hug them. The feeling of having someone around makes them sure that they are protected and at peace. I’m talking about the children who stay in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs, where I went to take part in an Orthodox worship service together with the sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent…learn more

10. How Women with Troubled Fates Receive Shelter in St. Elisabeth Convent

Women’s Rehabilitation Center of St. Elisabeth Convent was established in 2011 on the territory of a former military base near v. Nialidavičy (Minsk Raion). The Convent bought several buildings and received some other buildings later for free. There had been a church here, too, but it burned down several days prior to land registration. The circumstances suggest that it was arson: some local resident must have set the church on fire because they didn’t want women who had been on the wrong side of the law to live near their villages. They thought that if they burned down the church, there would be no rehab, either. Time has proven them wrong. Today, a new church is being built here…learn more

11. The Equine Therapy: New Friends, New Treatment

In 2010 on the territory of one of the rehabilitation centres of St Elisabeth Convent there appeared a stable with a couple of horses. This rehabilitation centre is situated about 30 km from Minsk in a village called Lysaya Hara (Bald Mountain). As of today more than 10 equines live in the spacious stalls of the stable. Two of them - Purga (‘Blizzard’) and Begonia, mares of average height and quiet tempre - are used for therapeutic horseback riding…learn more

12. A Cycle of Goodness: How the Workshops of St. Elisabeth Convent Appeared and What They Give to Other People

The House of Love of Labour of St Elisabeth Convent was founded with the blessing of the Very Rev Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of our Convent. It preserves the main principle of the original facility, that is, serving one’s neighbour. It is fitting that a nun named after Saint Chionia, an Italian martyr who was orphaned when she was very young, is in charge of the House of Love of Labour…learn more

13. The Dog’s Chance: How Nuns Save the Lost at the Men's Rehabilitation Center

More than two hundred homeless or alcohol-addicted men gather on a farm 19 miles from Minsk during the winter, where they are supervised by just a couple of sisters from St. Elisabeth Convent…learn more

Saint Kentigern has been venerated for many centuries as one of the apostles of Scotland and patron-saint of Glasgow. He is best known in Scotland as Mungo, which means "darling", or "beloved one". Unfortunately, very little genuine information on this 6th-century saint has survived. His later life was composed by a Cistercian monk, Jocelyn of Furness, late in the 12th century, but earlier traditions about the saint are more authentic.

The future saint was born in about 518 or 528 in Culross in Scotland. His mother was the holy princess Theneva, who is also venerated as patron-saint of Glasgow, and a Russian Orthodox parish in Edinburgh is dedicated to her. From his childhood St. Kentigern became a disciple of St. Serf, a great missionary among the Picts, who gave him the second name "Mungo". Young Kentigern began to live a very austere ascetic life and decided to become a missionary as well. He first began to preach the Gospel in the Cathures region on the River Clyde, where the city of Glasgow now stands. The ascetic, following the Irish monastic tradition, fervently prayed day and night, kept a very strict fast and lived in extreme poverty in a tiny cell, where he slept on a rock. He often retreated to the River Clyde to pray there for several hours. With time, he was consecrated the first bishop of the Britons who lived in the small kingdom of Strathclyde (now the Strathclyde region on the River Clyde). The bishop worked very energetically, developing his large diocese, building many churches and monasteries. Specifically, he founded a church in Glasgow, which was later to become very famous. St. Kentigern served in Strathclyde for 13 years, converting local people to Christ by his preaching as well as by example of his holy life.

However, in the year 565 a strong pagan reaction began in that part of Scotland and St. Kentigern was exiled from the country for a while. According to the tradition, during the period of exile St. Kentigern first worked for several years in Cumbria, in present-day north-western England, with the city of Carlisle as its centre. St. Kentigern is remembered in a number of places in Cumbria to this day, in particular there is a Greek Orthodox missionary parish in the town of Keswick, dedicated to local saints: Sts. Bega, Mungo (Kentigern), and Herbert. Tradition says that after Cumbria, Kentigern travelled to Wales where he worked for some time with its patron—St. David, and then founded a great monastery in Llanelwy in north Wales, in the present-day county of Denbighshire. The first Abbot of Llanelwy after St. Kentigern was Saint Asaph, so, with time, the town where the monastery was situated became known as St. Asaph (as it is called to this day). It was recorded that 1,000 monks lived in this great monastery founded by St. Kentigern at the same time.

St. Kentigern's Cathedral in Glasgow

Finally, under the new king of Strathclyde, who supported Christianity, St. Kentigern was allowed to return to Scotland. On his return, the saint worked for some time in the place called Hoddom in the Galloway region in the south-west of the country (now the county of Dumfries and Galloway); he founded a monastery there, as well as at Ecclefechan in Dumfries. Then he made Glasgow his main missionary centre and episcopal see. A large community of monks and disciples grew around the bishop. Wherever the preacher travelled, he always erected crosses and built churches. The town (later city) of Glasgow began to rise around the church, or the monastery, established by St. Kentigern, and it can be said that the present famous city owes its existence to this saint in many ways. In the 12th century a magnificent Cathedral of St. Mungo appeared on the site of his original church in Glasgow.

St. Kentigern was much loved and venerated by the people for his gift of working miracles. Once he brought back to life a tame robin of St. Serf, which had been killed by jealous monks. Another time he miraculously lit a fire in St. Serf's monastery, which had earlier gone out. The saint also miraculously helped the Queen of Strathclyde find her wedding ring that she had accidentally lost. The King of Strathclyde accused her of unfaithfulness because of the loss of the ring and was going to execute her. But when the ring was found, through the prayers of St. Kentigern, in the stomach of a salmon caught in the river Clyde, her innocence was proved. St. Kentigern considered the venerable Columba of Iona as his close spiritual friend. The first meeting of these two great saints took place in the Scottish village of Kilmacolm (the present-day Inverclyde council area), where a church of St. Columba still stands in memory of the event. The last meeting of Sts. Kentigern and Columba was in 597, shortly before St. Columba's death, and then both saints exchanged their pastor's staffs. According to tradition, St. Kentigern, like many other Celtic saints, had his own bell; a replica of his original bell, made in the 17th century, is kept in Glasgow Cathedral to this day. Over the many years of his long life St. Kentigern devoted himself to the establishment of Christianity, monasticism and Church life in Scotland. The saint reposed in 612 (according to another, though less probable version, 603), aged about 85.

Tomb of St. Mungo in Glasgow Cathedral

His veneration as a great missionary, wonderworker, builder of monasteries and enlightener of Strathclyde began immediately after his death. Pilgrims from all over the country flocked to his relics, which were enshrined in Glasgow Cathedral till the Reformation. Now this ancient Cathedral is Presbyterian, but it is still dedicated to St. Kentigern. The relics of St. Kentigern most likely lie in the tomb of the lower crypt of the Cathedral and are again being visited by numerous Orthodox and Catholic pilgrims; and at the back of the crypt there is an ancient holy well, connected with the saint. There is also a Russian Orthodox parish of St. Kentigern in Glasgow. All the parish churches (among them are several ancient ones) in Scotland, which bear the name of St. Kentigern, are officially dedicated to "St. Mungo". Many of them are situated in the places where the saint preached or built chapels and churches.

No fewer than nine Anglican and Catholic churches in the north of England, particularly in Cumbria, are dedicated to St. Kentigern. Thus, there are a very early church of St. Mungo and a holy well in the village of Bromfield in Cumbria (near Hadrian's Wall, the church is even probably of Roman origin); there are also an ancient church and a holy well of St. Mungo in the village of Caldbeck in the same county (the well may date back to the 6th century); another ancient church of St. Kentigern stands in the Cumbrian village of Crosthwaite, just outside Keswick (the original name was Crosfeld; the saint most certainly preached here)—nine ancient crosses were found near this church and one more ancient cross inside it. Together with his mother St. Theneva, St. Kentigern is venerated as the patron-saint of Glasgow. He is also considered the apostle of northwestern England and southwestern Scotland. Together with Sts Columba of Iona and Ninian of Whithorn he is also considered to be one of the greatest saints and enlighteners of the Scottish land.

Holy Hierarch Kentigern, pray to God for us!

By Dmitry Lapa

Source: http://pravoslavie.ru/67850.html

Today we celebrate a double Church feast, the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, and memory of St. Basil the Great. In addition, if we lived according to the Old Calendar in our secular life, today we would have the New Year’s Day.

Circumcision of Child Jesus was performed according to the Law of Moses. That law followed by the Jews, by the Church of the Old Testament, provided that each baby boy had to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This was the sign of the covenant between God and His chosen people. Thus, Jesus was no exception. He had to undergo that procedure. He had to receive that sign of the covenant. But many today’s Christians tend to wonder why we celebrate that event as a feast. Certainly, there are reasons for that. One of the main reasons is that our Savior had to follow all the laws given by God to His people in order to be a true Man and then to be able to redeem us. But there are a number of other thoughts about that.

Let us, for instance, refer to the interpretation given by holy Father Andrew of Crete. He wrote that the eighth day is the completion of the week, and the beginning of the new. He noted that a child completes the week of his life, and is perfected on the eighth day, being granted a name. Jesus was given His name meaning “God who saves” and also being numbered with the perfect. The eighth day is the beginning of infancy, while through the period of the week Jesus was a baby, now the child begins to learn. The eighth day leads on to the things of infancy: to crawl and to stand, and to speak, and to think. The week comes to completion, and the eighth day signifies perfection. Circumcision again signifies the name-giving, which the child undergoes on the eighth day.

St. Andrew of Crete further reasons that Circumcision is not without reason. For Abraham of old, whom God commanded to have the first circumcision, dwelt among the idols of his father, being part of his creation, until the true Creator gave him a sign of a people set aside until His coming. So this was a sign of a future renewal that may be granted to men. Circumcision removes a covering of flesh, and grants an eighth-day sign to the members. Circumcision declared that the presence of Christ was coming, and that He would grant rebirth through the Spirit. By the seal of circumcision, the people were granted divine correction from idolatry, and the ceasing of destruction through the worship to the idols. The former things were a symbol of the new. The rules of the Old Testament were images of the New Testament precepts.

St. Andrew also notes that Jesus Christ was the eighth Law-giver from Adam. Because Adam first received a law, and secondly Noah, and Abraham third, and Moses fourth, and David, regarding the Kingdom and the Tent of Glory, was the fifth law-giver. And Ezra, following the captivity of Babylon, for a second time gave the law to the nations that had transgressed it, and was the sixth. John the Baptist, who preached a baptism of repentance to the people, and purification through the water, was the seventh law-giver. Jesus Christ was the eighth.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us adhere to the precepts of the New Testament Church which cherished the reverence towards this feast of the Lord’s Circumcision. There are reasons for the Church to do so. Today we touched only some of them.

Dear brothers and sisters! Let us also follow the laws of our Church, the Church of the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Let us adhere to her holy traditions and not miss them in our lives. Let us imitate our Holy Father Basil in his zeal and righteousness, so we may be blessed by the Child Jesus who was born for us and who had to undergo Circumcision on the eighth day to fulfill the law for us, to redeem and save us!

By Archpriest Igor Tarasov

Source: http://stgeorge.ruschurchusa.org/archives/1548

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