Monastic

Feast Day/Commemorated: February 19 Early Monastic Calling and Journeys to the Holy Land Saint Savvas, born Vasilios in 1862 in Herakleitsa, Eastern Thrace, was the only child of devout but impoverished parents. From a very young age, he felt a strong...

Feast Day/Commemorated: August 28 In 4th-century Egypt, a powerful Ethiopian man known as Moses lived a life of violent crime as the leader of a notorious band of robbers. His physical strength and ruthless reputation made him a figure of terror until,...

Feast Day/Commemorated: July 12 Prophetic Birth and Childhood Piety Venerable Father Paisios of the Holy Mountain was born Anastasius Enzepíde in Pharasa, Cappadocia, on July 25, 1924, to devout parents. His baptism by Saint Arsenios of...

Feast Day/Commemorated: August 14 The Call to Mission and Early Life of Saint Kosmas Aitolos Saint Kosmas Aitolos, the holy, glorious, and right-victorious New Hieromartyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles, was born in 1714 in Mega Dendron, Aitolia, Greece...

Feast Day/Commemorated: December 4 Early Life and Defense Against Iconoclasm Saint John of Damascus was born around 680 AD in Damascus, Syria, into a prominent Christian family. His father, Sergius Mansur, served as a treasurer at the Caliph's court...

Feast Day/Commemorated: August 16 The Early Life and Calling of Saint Joseph the Hesychast  Francis Kottis, born in Paros on February 12, 1897, was the fourth of seven children to a poor but devout couple. Due to his family's extreme poverty,...

Feast Day/Commemorated: July 25. From Imperial Court to Monastic Solitude Saint John Koukouzelis, orphaned in childhood and a native of Dirrachia (Bulgaria), possessed an extraordinarily beautiful singing voice that led him to the imperial court school...

Feast Day/Commemorated: July 2 Saint John (Maximovitch), born Michael Maximovitch in 1896, was a revered diocesan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), whose ministry spanned across China, France, and the United States. Despite...

Feast Day/Commemorated: March 31 The Apostolic Zeal of Saint Innocent Saint Innocent (Veniaminov), Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensk, born in 1797 in Anginsk, was a tireless Apostle to America and Siberia, glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in...

Feast Day/Commemorated: Mar 9 The Call to America and Early Monastic Life In 1793, a spiritual mission comprising monks from the Valaam Monastery was dispatched to preach the Gospel to the indigenous peoples of northwestern America, recently brought...

Feast Day/Commemorated: January 20 The Prophesied Birth and Early Devotion of Saint Euthymius Saint Euthymius the Great was born in 377 A.D., in Melitine, Armenia, to his pious parents, Paul and Dionysia. His birth was miraculous, as his mother had been...

Feast Day/Commemorated: January 17 Saint Anthony the Great, born in Egypt in 251, is revered as the Father of monasticism. At twenty, orphaned and responsible for his sister, he heard the Gospel call to sell possessions and give to the poor, which he...