On the anniversary of the arrival of the Russian missionaries in Alaska (1794), we remember the New Martyrs Saint Peter the Aleut, Protomartyr of America, and Saint Juvenal.

Saint Peter the Aleut is mentioned in the Life of Saint Herman of Alaska (December 13). Simeon Yanovsky (who ended his life as the schemamonk Sergius in the Saint Tikhon of Kaluga Monastery), has left the following account: “On another occasion I was relating to him how the Spanish in…

Saint Juvenal, the Protomartyr of America, was born in 1761 in Nerchinsk, Siberia. His secular name was John Feodorovich Hovorukhin, and he was trained as a mining engineer. In a letter to Abbot Nazarius of Valaam (December 13, 1819), Saint Herman says that Saint Juvenal “had been an…

The Holy Protomartyr and Equal of the Apostles Thekla was born in the city of Iconium. She was the daughter of rich and illustrious parents, and she was distinguished by extraordinary beauty. At eighteen years of age they betrothed her to an eminent youth. But after she heard the preaching of the…

Saint Nicander of Pskov (in Baptism Nikon) was born on 24 July 1507 into the peasant family of Philip and Anastasia in the village of Videlebo in the Pskov lands. From childhood he dreamed of continuing the ascetic exploits of his fellow villager, Saint Euphrosynus of Spasoeleazar, the original…

Monkmartyr Galacteon of Vologda: Fearing the wrath of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, kinsmen of the disgraced prince Ivan Ivanovich Belsky secretly brought his seven-year-old son Gabriel to the city of Staritsa. In the years of his growing up, and seeing the malice of the Tsar towards his family, the…

Saint Copres was found as a newborn infant by monks of the monastery of Saint Theodosius in Palestine. He lay upon a dung-hill (in Greek “kopria”), where his mother left him during an invasion of the Hagarenes (Moslems). The monks took the infant, named him Copres, fed him goat’s…

Saint Abramius (Abraham) of Mirozh was the builder and first igumen of the Pskov Savior-Transfiguration monastery on the banks of the River Velika, where it meets the River Mirozha. The Mirozh monastery was founded in about the year 1156, in the time of Svyatopolk Mstislavich, by both Saint…

Holy King Vladislav of Serbia was the son of holy King Stephen, and he reigned for seven years. He was noted for his virtue and charity towards the poor, the vagrant and the misfortunate, and he built a monastery at Milesheva, where he died in 1239 and was buried.

Saint Dorothy of Kashin was born in 1549 of a noble family. No information has come down to us about her name before she became a nun, or the place of her birth. From the age of twelve, she lived in a climate of civil unrest, and the area was subject to rebellion, invasion, and plague. Later, she…

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The Mirozh Icon appeared at the Mirozh monastery in the year 1198. But later, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, at a time when a plague raged at Pskov, an ancient report tells how tears flowed from both eyes of the icon. Many benefits and healings for man occured from the icon of the Mother of…

The Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Of the Myrtle Tree” (Myrtidiotissa) is in the monastery church of Myrtides on the Greek island of Kythera. It derives its name from the fact that it was found in a myrtle bush in the fourteenth century. At that time, a shepherd was tending his sheep…

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Saint David, a nephew of holy King Stephen, in the world had the name Demetrius. He built a monastery at Brodarova, at the River Lima, and there he received monastic tonsure with the name David and lived an ascetical life to the end of his days.

Holy King Stephen of Serbia was the first ruler of Serbia to be crowned as king. His father was Saint Stephen Nemanya (February 13). King Stephen died in 1224, accepting monastic tonsure with the name Simeon before his death. He was buried in the Studenitsa monastery.