Mother Maria (Skobtsova) of Paris (1891-1945) Born in Latvia in 1891 to faithful Christian parents, Elizaveta Pilenko was led to atheism at the tender age of fourteen, after the unjust and devastating death of her father. Shortly after, her widowed mother moved the family to St Petersburg where ‘Liza’ was attracted to the political scene, saying “My spirit longed … to combat the injustice of the world.” Slowly her earlier attraction to Christ revived as she contemplated His sacrifice and love on the Cross, saying “He also died. He sweated blood. They struck His face.” Eventually, it dawned on her [...]

Elder Markellos of Karakallou (1939 - 2006) Very little is known of Elder Markellos’ early years. He was born in 1939 in Pteleos in Thessaly, south of Volos. He was a teacher, but left this to chase monasticism. He became a disciple of Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, who later went to Arizona. It was these monks from Philotheou who repopulated Karakallou in 1981 after the brotherhood was down to four monks (there are now over fifty). In all stages of his earthly life, both as a layman and as a monk, he possessed purity, simplicity, modesty, wisdom and sincere love [...]

Hieromonk Isaac (1937 - 1998)   Hieromonk Isaac was born Fares Atallah in Lebanon in 1937. His brother Anthony later wrote that as a child “he was already finding all his happiness in nearness to God and His Church”. At the age of twenty-five, after a previous unsuccessful attempt, he joined the Monastery of the Dormition in Bkeftin. When he arrived, he exclaimed, “I give thanks to the Lord for having now granted me my desire.” He then went on to study at the theological college attached to the Balamand Patriarchal Monastery, where he was ordained deacon and received the [...]

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 [...]

St Luke of Simferopol, the Doctor (1877-1961)   There are often many striking similarities between saints separated by decades or even centuries. St Luke the Evangelist, for instance, was mirrored by St Luke of Simferopol, who similarly was an artist, doctor and evangelist. Born Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky on 14 April 1877, he received an excellent secular education at the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts in drawing and subsequently at the University of Kiev in Medicine. He was married and had four children, but his wife, Anna, died at a young age. The event which defined his life was the Bolshevik [...]