"YOU WILL BE A CHRISTIAN." The life of the schemamonk Nicholas the Confessor of Optina Monastery, as told from his words by the Venerable Elder Barsanuphius of Optina.

From the editors: Nikolai the Turk (Schemamonk Nikolai (Abrulah) (†18/31 August 1893) In the worldly realm, Nikolai Abrulah, a Kazan townsman. From the testimony he presented to the Kherson Spiritual Consistory, it is clear that he was of the Mohammedan faith, his name was Yusuf-Abdul-Oglu; a former Turkish subject, originally from Asia Minor, served in the Turkish army as an officer. When he felt the desire to change his Mohammedan faith to the Orthodox Christian and even began to openly declare this to his Turkish relatives, they hated him so much that for two days he could not get food for himself anywhere, no one gave him anything as an infidel. Then the Turks tortured him terribly, cutting out whole pieces of his body. But Yusuf remained adamant in his desire to accept the Christian faith. With God's help, he managed to avoid further suffering at the hands of his tormentors and retreat to hospitable Russia. In the city of Odessa, in the quarantine church, he was baptized in October 1874 and given the name Nicholas. His godparents were the Odessa mayor and privy councilor Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin and the first-guild merchant Natalia Ivanovna Gladkova. Then, for some unknown reason, he arrived in Kazan and there joined the bourgeoisie. On July 18, 1891, when he turned 63, he entered the Optina Skete as a brother. After receiving Holy Baptism for his fierce suffering and firm confession of the truth of the Orthodox Christian faith, the Lord granted him spiritual consolations. Like Saint Andrew, the Fool for Christ, he was at one point, while still alive, caught up into paradise, where he enjoyed the contemplation of the indescribable beauty of heaven. In the skete, Nicholas He was distinguished by his meekness, humility, and brotherly love. He occupied a cell next to that of a monk, later Hierodeacon Martyrius. During the winter, the neighboring monks at the skete usually took turns stoking their shared stove and carrying firewood for the purpose. But Nikolai often performed this task alone. Father Martyrius once asked him why he did this. Nikolai only replied, "I love you." Nikolai the Turk did not live long at the skete, only two years. Shortly before his death, he was tonsured a monk in his cell and, having received all the Christian sacraments, died peacefully 120 years ago—August 18/31, 1893, at the age of 65.

In Thy Light Shall We See Light: A Defense of the Theology of Father John Romanides

https://phospublications.com/2024/10/02/in-thy-light-shall-we-see-light-a-defense-of-the-theology-of-father-john-romanides/

On the Last Judgement (St John of Shanghai and San Francisco)

The day of the Last Judgement! That day no one knows --only God the Father knows -- but its signs are given in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Last Judgement primarily in images and in a veiled manner, but the Holy Fathers have explained these images, and there is an authentic Church tradition that speaks clearly concerning the signs of the approach of the end, and concerning the Last Judgement.

Christmas in a Cloak and Dagger (Alexander Soldatov)

 

Christmas in a Cloak and Dagger

ByAlexander Soldatov

 Jan 11, 2026

Almost four years have passed since the beginning of the Special Military Operation, and it would seem that Patriarch Kirill  has presented  every possible argument in support of "holy warfare" and even "canonized" the Russian Armed Forces soldiers who died on the front as martyrs. However, in his Christmas interview,  published  on January 7, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church managed to find new arguments, one of which sounded particularly ominous. The Patriarch effectively called for the repression of "traitors to the Motherland," pointing to state security as the most important value of our nation.

Progress in the Death Mill (St Justin Popovich)

Some cosmic conspiracy exists against our planet, for nowhere in the universe do people die as they do on Earth. The island of death, the only island of death where people die—that is our sad star. And above it, around it, and beneath it, circle countless myriads of stars where there is no death, where people do not die. The abyss of death surrounds our planet on all sides. Where is the path that begins on Earth and does not lead to the precipice of death? Where is the being that can escape death on Earth? Everyone dies, everything dies on this terrible island of death. There is no fate sadder than earthly, no tragedy more despairing than human.

For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (St Theophan the Recluse)

 

The Kingdom of God is not acquired by eating one thing and not eating another, or by drinking one thing and not drinking another. Or—this is not what constitutes the Kingdom of God, not what adorns it, not what constitutes its distinctive character. Or—this is not what makes those who have entered the Kingdom of God glorious, and this is not the sign of whether someone is in the Kingdom of God or not. "Do not think that this is very great progress, and that the Kingdom of Heaven is acquired by this" (Blessed Theodoret). "Do you really think that this will be counted to your credit? And in another place he says the same thing: even if there are pits, we abound; and even if there are no pits, we are deprived" (cf. 1 Cor. 8:8). There is nothing to prove here; it is enough to say. The meaning of the Apostle's words is this: "If you eat, will this enter you into the Kingdom?" (St. Chrysostom).

A Russian Bishop's Word on Putin's Satanism (Archbishop Victor Pivovarov)

SERMON ON THE SUNDAY OF THE VENERATION OF THE CROSS (2014)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters. I want to detain you for a moment—you'll spend less time in front of the television. Listen to our voice, the voice of the real Church, about the events that are currently troubling the entire world. This is not the voice of the church created in 1927 by the Bolsheviks to cover up the atrocities of the satanic regime, but the voice of the real Church, which has always been faithful to God, which cares for the people. The mouthpiece of that Chekist church is television and its lying press. What is television? It is a satanic voice, the voice of Satan and Putin, where there can be no truth, only lies, one upon another. You heard on television that Banderites and nationalists have seized Ukraine. What nonsense! First of all, there are no nationalists or Banderites in power there, and if there are Banderites among the people, then ask yourself: who was Bandera? He stood up for his people, for his nation. Hitler imprisoned him for this, and he suffered, he truly suffered for the people. He wasn't a doctor of theology and, of course, he was mistaken. But who wasn't mistaken in those years when the prevalence of lies in the world was at its height? And who are the nationalists? They are patriots who care about their people. However, when nationalists don't recognize God, they turn into Nazis, the same as the Bolsheviks.

Archpriest Nikita Ignatiev

About priest Nikita Ignatiev

…Father Nikita Ignatiev awaited this moment every day for 40 years—and it never came for him. But he never lived to see freedom, and he was forced to die and be buried as secretly as he had lived… He told his spiritual children: “If our Church can gain freedom, if I can leave my home openly—don’t tell me right away, without preparation—I won’t be able to bear it…” He feared his heart wouldn’t be able to bear this joy. Those 40 years were truly a bloodless martyrdom, when every day he laid down his life for his flock—and his spiritual children prepared to suffer for him every day…
Nowadays, it’s fashionable to call Metropolitan Sergius and the patriarchs who followed him, along with their like-minded followers, “bloodless martyrs.”
But the story of this man's life testifies: martyrdom—even if bloodless—is something quite different...

Life of St Stephen the Protomartyr

The holy apostle Stephen was a relative of Saul, later apostle Paul. No information about his life, his conversion to Christ, or the circumstances of his conversion has survived. We have only a brief account in the Book of Acts of the Apostles of Stephen's apostolic labors, his suffering, and his martyrdom when he was already about thirty years old. At this time, murmurings arose among the Christians of the Jerusalem Church. These murmurs arose among the so-called "Hellenists"—Jews of the Diaspora, so named because, born and raised in pagan lands, they spoke Greek or Hellenic, the language then common throughout the Roman Empire. The Hellenists complained that their elderly widows, cared for by Christians in Jerusalem, were poorly maintained and suffered from want of everything. Then the apostles, having gathered the faithful, declared that it was not fitting for them, the apostles, to abandon their ministry to the word of God to tend the widows' table, and that for this purpose they should choose from among the believers seven men filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. This proposal of the holy apostles pleased everyone and was accepted by the assembly of the faithful, and consequently, seven proven, virtuous men were chosen to care for the Christian widows cared for by the Church, headed by St. Stephen, one of the seventy apostles. The holy apostles ordained these chosen ones as deacons, and St. Stephen, filled with great faith and spiritual strength, was the first of them, for which reason he was called archdeacon.

On Marxism, communism and other utopian movements (St Valeriu Gafencu)

 

Q: Valeriu, what is Marxism?

 A: A false Christianity, a counterfeit Christianity, the materialization of the spirit, the anthropomorphism of God, the overturning of all values, the incarnation of the world, both philosophically and politically. Marxism is prison. In the Marxist spirit, all values, all reason ing, all things, all actions become a prison for Man. Marx refused any transcendence.

 Q: And socialism? 

 A: Socialism is a bizarre mixture of Communism and bourgeois materialism. 

 Q: And nationalsocialism?

A: A confused and vague response to Marxism.