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They took Constantinople, they took her. “Keep silent, Mother of God, don’t cry and don’t shed a tear, again for years and times, Constantinople will be ours again”. The king wept, the people also wept and shouted: “Let us die for the faith of Christ and for our country!” They hugged and forgave. Then they went to Hagia Sophia. The world, stricken with fear, had filled it and the arches echoed with lamentation. The women were crying softly, the children were shouting and everyone was shaking like reeds. What heart wouldn’t break! “Whether you are a man of wood or of stone, do not be sad.” he deacons were saying the Peace in front of the Holy Door, but the noise did not allow their voices to be heard. When the chanters began, the Social “In the memorial for ever, hallelujah, you are righteous,” the king, dressed in his tattered clothes, tearful, withered, with beard and hair uncombed like a baripoinite, went to the altar, and fell on his knees before the images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with sighs, muttering: “They circled the life with confusion as bees around a candle, Virgin, and my heart was seized by …

May 19 marks the remembrance of the Pontian Greek Genocide (1916-1923), one of the darkest moments in Greece’s history. Records kept mainly by priests show a minimum 350,000 Pontian Greeks exterminated by Turkish troops and Kurdish para-militaries. Other sources including foreign missionaries mention 500,000 deaths, most through deportation and forced marches into the Anatolian desert. Greek cities (Pafra, Samsous, Kerasous, and Trapezous) endured massacres and deportations that destroyed their populations. Pontus (Pontos), an ancient Greek word for “sea”, refers to the Black Sea and the surrounding coastal areas. The Genocide saw the end of Pontos in its historic homeland, which held a huge Greek population and culture. Entire villages and cities were devastated, while thousands were forced to flee to neighbouring countries. The Ottoman government’s plan to annihilate the Christian populations living within Turkey, including Greeks, Syrians and Armenians, during World War I was set into force in 1914, with the decree that all Pontian men aged between 18 to 50 would have to report to the military. Those who refused to do so, were ordered to be shot immediately. The Ottoman regime feared the Pontiac population not only because of their rapidly growing numbers that had reached 700,000 by …

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, a particularly high number of visitors, and not only Greeks, was recorded by the monastery of Panagia Soumela in Pontus for 2020, which is closing again for new restoration work. About 140,000 visitors were found in 2020 at Panagia Soumela in Pontos, according to Turkish authorities, despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic is raging. Professor Konstantinos Fotiadis, one of the leading historians about Pontus, expressed his own assessments of the origin of this number: “From this number we estimate that there were fewer Greeks this year than any other year and some Russians who traditionally go there. But the majority are Turks. In fact, many of them are crypto-Christians or a population with a Greek conscience.” The teacher explains in detail his reasoning with the number of Greeks: “Even 100 years after the Pontian genocide, there are still many Turks who are still crypto-Christians. There are many who recognize their Greek origin, but while their grandparents changed their minds due to the circumstances, they transmitted the Greek conscience to them.” They are the descendants of the Greek-speaking Muslims, whom the Ecumenical Patriarchate had recognized in number to 180,000, who could not come to Greece because …

The question is often asked in circles of believers about how to “deal” with atheism. The experience of the Fathers, as well as modern experience, showed that atheism cannot be “dealt with” with a systematic and perfectly organized theological monologue or even a dialogue. The theological reason is no longer able to convince someone, especially when the reasons for his distance from God have to do with the hypocritical attitude. The double morality (one morality for us and another for others) and the scandals of the so-called Christians. This also explains the increased anger of the atheists against the Church. Atheism is also not “countered” with logical and other scientific arguments, nor with emotional pressures, but with holiness. The case of Saint Paisios of Agios is typical, who did not send the atheist youth who approached him to a great theologian, but to an illiterate but experienced ascetic. In the saint, the atheist meets all the arguments to seriously reflect, to become a believer, sometimes even a saint. The first thing he finds is that holiness is not something abstract, elusive and hypocritical, but absolutely real and immediately accessible. The saint is by himself the strongest proof that God exists! …

On Easter of the year 1935, during the abbotship of Archimandrite Seraphim in the holy Monastery of Saint Paul, all the fathers, who numbered 60 at the time, had gone out into the courtyard to perform the Resurrection service. Inside the atmosphere cheerful and enthusiastic. After Christ is Risen, the Abbot says to one of the most simple and faithful old men, old Thomas. Old Thomas, go down to the sacristy, where the bones of the fathers are, tell them Christ is Risen. May it be blessed Abbot – said old Thomas and without thinking about where he is going, with two or three jumps he is in front of the ossuary. The Abbot sent me to tell you Christ is Risen, fathers and brothers. Christ is Risen cried aloud. Then something shocking happened. The bones creaked, bounced, a skull rose a meter and answered the greeting of the old man – Thomas. Truly the Lord is Risen. And then there was deathly silence. The old man returned and told what he had seen and heard. The fathers that time celebrated a unique Easter. With double praise to the Risen Lord and leader of life. They chanted excitedly. Angels praise …

On the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha, Orthodox Christians celebrate the life-giving Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This feast of feasts is the most significant day in the life of the Church. It is a celebration of the defeat of death, as neither death itself nor the power of the grave could hold our Savior captive. In this victory that came through the Cross, Christ broke the bondage of sin, and through faith offers us restoration, transformation, and eternal life. Commemoration of The Great and Holy Feast of Pascha Holy Week comes to an end at sunset of Great and Holy Saturday, as the Church prepares to celebrate her most ancient and preeminent festival, Pascha, the feast of feasts. The time of preparation will give way to a time of fulfilment. The glorious and resplendent light emanating from the empty Tomb will dispel the darkness. Christ, risen from the dead, cracks the fortress of death and takes “captivity captive” (Psalm 67:19). All the limitations of our createdness are torn asunder. Death is swallowed up in victory and life is liberated. “For as by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection of the …

What one teaches about other religions is largely seen as a moral dilemma from which to see whether Christianity preaches love or is characterized by intolerance. The following text seems quite strict and absolute. Of course, no one could argue that the speaker’s positions are anti-evangelical or unorthodox, but there will certainly be many who will argue that even if all of this is true, at least they should be said with more “attention”, “discrimination” or “subtlety” , maybe some people think that they should be silenced completely. We will not examine in the end which of the aforementioned opinions is the correct one, but we will quote one of our considerations. The hieromartyr Fr. Daniil Sysoev – the one who gave the speech below – addressed these words and others like them many times, not to some group of “fanatics” or “narrow-minded” Orthodox, but to dense audiences of non-religious people. The result was twofold. To initially attract several non-believers and baptize them Orthodox (we underline, despite his “strict” but true language) and finally to claim to sign his genuine testimony in Christ with his blood, just like the oldest confessors of our Orthodox Faith.   Hieromartyr Daniel Sisoyev   …

With literally bated breath we attended the public lecture of Journalist Nick Chiladakis, that was held in the Municipality of Thermi and broadcast on the television station 4e of the Metropolis of Thessaloniki on Orthodoxy in Turkey today. The Journalist, with extensive research and absolute evidence, many of which were reported about in the Turkish press, even on broadcasts of Turkish television, revealed another entirely unknown and buried aspect of reality in today’s Turkey, in which dozens, even hundreds, are now openly baptized Orthodox Christians, and thousands are those who go to Orthodox shrines, churches and places of sanctification, while eminent Turks follow with awe the Divine Liturgy! “Best Seller”: The Gospels Nick Chiladakis mentioned numerous and specific cases of Muslims who asked to be baptized Christians, and presented the research data revealed in a Turkish newspaper, which records that only in the last three years in Turkey an outrageous number, eight million, of the published Holy Scriptures in Turkish have been sold! (Editors note: This indicates that there are really many millions of cryptochristians in Turkey. According to St. Kosmas Aitolos, a “third of Turks will become Christians”, and based on the current population, it seems this could be …