St Nectarios and the Village in Romania In a village of Romania, the people constantly pleaded with their Patriarch to send them a priest. Unfortunately, the Patriarch had no priest to send, and since no priest was in the village, no Sacraments or Liturgies could be performed: no marriages, baptisms or funerals. One day a car pulled up outside the village church and out came a priest. The villagers were surprised but pleased. They warmly welcomed him and asked how the Patriarch was able to send him when he told them he had no extra priests. He answered: “Didn’t you [...]

The Archbishop and Mr Liu St John Maximovitch (1896-1966) is a recently canonized Saint of our Church, who served as Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church variously in Shanghai, Paris and San Francisco. A remarkable incident which occurred during St John's time in San Francisco testifies to several aspects of his holiness: his spiritual boldness based on absolute faith, his ability to overcome the bounds of space and time by spiritual sight, and the power of his prayer which beyond all doubt worked miracles. A certain Mr Liu was involved in a car accident in San Francisco in 1963 and [...]

Abbot Iscu the Martyr The following is an edited excerpt from the book, Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran pastor, about his experience in a Romanian prison: When I was in jail I fell very, very ill… I was near to death. At my right hand was a priest by the name of Iscu. He was abbot of a monastery. This man, perhaps in his forties, had been so tortured he was near to death. But his face was serene... He radiated joy. On my left side was the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest almost to [...]

Elder Paisios and the Paralysed Man A paralysed man named Constantine visited Mount Athos in 1981. He had been suffering from a chronic neurological syndrome for 30 years which confined him to a wheelchair. At the Monastery of Grigoriou, he met a rich businessman who offered to pay for him to be operated on in America. Constantine became very excited at the idea of being healed but he went to ask Elder Paisios for his opinion. He met the Elder at Karyes and spoke to him about this situation. The Elder crossed his head with the relics of St Arsenios [...]

Living Next Door to a Saint How many of us can say with certainty that we live next door to a Saint? Elder Porphyrios of Kavsokalivia, who passed away in the Lord in 1991, was recently canonized a Saint of the Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on November 27th 2013. He was a truly great Saint of our times who lived amongst us! A man who lived for many years very near to the home of the Saint, and whose wife had become paralyzed, went to see him one day. When he entered the place in which [...]