IV The Spread of Christianity in the New World - the Americas In the previous articles, we discussed how Christianity spread in the Middle East, Africa and the whole of Europe. In this article we will look more closely at the missionaries of the ‘New World’, particularly those in North America. We will discover four of these Saints who have particularly made an impact on Orthodox Christianity in the Americas. St Innocent of Alaska, Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of North America St Innocent was a Russian Orthodox priest, missionary to Alaska, bishop, archbishop, and then Metropolitan of Moscow [...]

Orthodox Saints of the World III The Spread of Christianity throughout Europe In the previous articles of this series we discussed how Christianity spread in the Apostolic period. We will now focus on the later centuries when Christianity made its way through Europe, from the Eastern-most parts of the Roman Empire to the West, including Britain. While Christianity was not recognised by authorities and was subject to intense persecution during the first centuries AD, it nevertheless continued to steadfastly make its way through Europe through the blood of the martyrs. Their lives and deaths have been recorded in the Synaxarion [...]

Orthodox Saints of the World Part II - Spreading the Way The followers of the Way, as described in the first chapters of the Acts, were Jews centered around Jerusalem. While the Faith entered Roman society under the veil of Judaism, quite soon it became separated. In the time of the Apostles’ preaching, the Way spread from Jerusalem to Antioch, where St Peter preached and baptised and where the followers of the Way were first called Christians (Acts 11:19-26). It spread to many other cities and areas of the Middle East and surrounding areas including: Greece (where the greatest of [...]

Saint Paul described faith as ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen’ (Heb. 11:1). His life, work and martyrdom are a testament to his Orthodox faith. He had the unshakeable conviction that, as a believer in Christ’s Word, he would enjoy future blessings in those things hoped for that did not exist in the present; the freedom from the tyranny of sin, the resurrection of the dead, the second coming of Jesus Christ, the future judgement and the inheritance of eternal life. Whatever he suffered in the present life was of no consequence in comparison to [...]

St Euphemia and the Council of Chalcedon When heresies arise in the Orthodox Church, the Truth is always defended by the Saints of God. In the case of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, the Truth was revealed by a miracle of St Euphemia. Two sides were arguing in this Council over one question: what was Jesus Christ: Man, or God? The Monophysites, the heretics, argued that Christ was only Divine, not really human at all. The Orthodox, on the other hand, believed that He was both, at once, equally. These two groups spoke for months on this issue, but neither [...]