Elder Aimilianos   Elder Aimilianos was born in Athens in 1934 to refugees from Asia Minor. As a young man, he was active in the church both as a youth leader and in catechism duties. Leaving high school, he entered theological college graduating in 1959. Considering ordination as a priest prior to pursuing the role of a foreign missionary, he was directed to Bishop Dionysios of Trikala, who was reviving monastic life in Meteora. Becoming his spiritual child, elder Aimilianos was tonsured a monk and enrolled in the monastery of St Bessarion. There, he was granted a profound mystical experience [...]

The Psalms   The book of Psalms (Psalter) in the Old Testament consists of 150 psalms. It contains divinely-inspired hymns and poems traditionally ascribed to the Holy Prophet and King David, although many were authored by others such as Moses and temple musicians. The Psalms are the prayer-book of the Church and are used in services more than any other book of Holy Scripture. They form the core of each of the services of the Daily Cycle and the Divine Liturgy. So prevalent are they in Orthodox worship that St John Chrysostom observed that wherever one looks in the Church, [...]

Orthodox Saints of the World   Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20) This Commandment of our Lord also applies to all Christians from every age in history; every person and every nation who has ever existed. It is reflected in the Creed that Orthodox Christians pray every day when we boldly proclaim: ‘I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’. What does Apostolic mean? Apostolic has three distinct, [...]

The Garden of the Holy Spirit: Saint Iakovos of Evia by Professor Stylianos Papadopoulos Published by Orthodox Witness 2018   The Garden of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual biography describing the life of a contemporary Greek Orthodox Elder, Iakovos Tsalikis, abbot of the Monastery of Saint David in Evia, Greece. The Elder’s biography begins with his family’s flight as refugees from Asia Minor to the island of Evia. It follows with a description of the Elder’s early life, especially his upbringing in the faith by his pious mother, his asceticism, and his love for prayer and the sacred Church [...]

The Flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15)   This scene starts with the Magi departing Bethlehem and the angel warning Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt lest Herod kill Christ. It is symbolic that the Magi did not return to Jerusalem but went on to Persia instead. Babylon is often represented in the Bible, especially in Psalms and Revelation, as a place of sin. It was to this place that the Magi were commissioned as teachers to redeem the sinful land. A similar redemption occurs in Egypt which, together with Babylon, was described by St John Chrysostom as the [...]