Basilica News Agency

11/08/2024

Reflections On the Sunday Gospel - 7th Sunday after Pentecost
📖 Matthew 9:27-35

11/08/2024

Honorary Metropolitan Nifon celebrates his patron saint today 🙏

11/08/2024

Orthodox Calendar, August 11

🌿 The Healing of Two Blind Men and a Mute; Holy Hierarch Niphon, patriarch of Constantinople; Martyr Archdeacon Euplus

👉 https://tinyurl.com/bdfxchst

11/08/2024

What are we reading in church today? 📖

✨Matthew 9:27-35✨

When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.”

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.”

But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country.

As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed.

And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!”

But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

10/08/2024

What are we reading in church tomorrow? 📖

✨Romans 15:1-7✨

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,

that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

10/08/2024

Many years to Metropolitan Laurentiu of Transylvania! 🙏 His Eminence celebrates his name day.

10/08/2024

Orthodox Calendar August 10

🌿 Martyr and Archdeacon Laurence; Hieromartyr Sixtus, bishop of Rome; Martyr Hippolytus

👉 https://tinyurl.com/6nr33yeu

09/08/2024

‘Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; In You I take shelter. ’
- Psalm 143:9

09/08/2024

🤍

09/08/2024

Orthodox Calendar, August 9

🌿 Apostle Matthias; Ten Holy Martyrs who suffered for the icon of Christ

👉 https://tinyurl.com/mrmty3uu

08/08/2024

"The monastery is the porch of Paradise, it is the house of God, it is the gate of Heavens and the place of fulfillment. This is how a monastery should be."
- Fr. Teofil Părăian

08/08/2024

Ο Άγιος Καλλίνικος ζούσε συνεχώς με τη μνήμη του θανάτου και πίστευε ότι το μόνο ρήμα που πρέπει να γνωρίζουμε και να κλίνουμε σε όλες τις μορφές του είναι το ρήμα "φεύγω".

08/08/2024

🙏🏻Священномучениче Александре, моли Бога о нас!

08/08/2024

2024 | The Solemn Year of the Pastoral Care of the Sick 🩺

08/08/2024

🔴 Thursday marks 40 years since the blessed repose of a contemporary saint: St. Callinicus, the Metropolitan of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia

The Ecumenical Patriarchate canonized him in 2020, and his feast day is August 8.

Saint Callinicus was born in 1919 in Sitaralona of Thermo, in central Greece, and spent the first part of his life in Thermo and Missolonghi. His parents were named George and Catherine.

According to the Athonite monk Theologos the Ivirite, cited by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, St. Callinicus of Edessa recounted during a visit to Mount Athos that his grandmother, who was a priest’s wife, would wake him at midnight to do prostrations, and their house hosted travelling monks. His grandfather, Athanasios, was “a priest adorned with holy dignity, who was ‘wounded’ by the life of the Holy Mountain.”

Read more 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/h3peexj2

08/08/2024

Saint Callinicus of Edessa 🗓️ August 8

08/08/2024

August 8: Holy Priest-Martyr Alexander of Bessarabia

Hieromartyr Alexander Baltaga was born in the blessed land of Bessarabia on April 14, 1861, in the village of Lozova, Lăpușna County. He was part of a devout family that provided many worthy servants to this land. His father, Priest Ștefan Baltaga, served at Saint Nicholas Church in Lozova, assisted by his wife Elena, a woman full of piety and fear of God, who instilled these virtues early on in her son.

As a child, Alexander attended the parish school in Lozova and then the Theological Seminary in Chișinău. After completing his studies, he was entrusted with being an educator at the Spiritual School for Boys in Chișinău.

He married Elena Bivol, a priest’s daughter, and they adopted and raised two children, Vsevolod and Margareta. Shortly after that, in 1886, he was ordained at the church of Saint Nicholas in Călărași-Sat, Lăpușna County, where he served as a priest until the end of his life.

Saint Alexander demonstrated a great work ethic, a penetrating mind, unwavering will, and exceptional pastoral tact. Due to his qualities, he was given several administrative responsibilities within the Archdiocese of Chișinău.

At the same time, he worked hard to cultivate in the hearts of young people a love for God and the Church. Between 1906 and 1917, he made great efforts to reopen the Diocesan Printing House alongside Archimandrite Gurie Grosu, the future Metropolitan of Bessarabia, and Priest Constantin Popovici to better preach the word of God in Romanian in a way that people could understand. Beginning in 1908, he published the magazine “Luminătorul” (The Enlightener) – the diocesan bulletin of the Archdiocese of Chișinău.

In 1918, he was elected as a representative of the Bessarabian clergy in the Council of the Country, and on March 27, 1918, he voted for the Union of Bessarabia with Romania.

A period of peace and prosperity followed. Saint Alexander intensified the preaching of the Gospel of Christ among the faithful, organized pilgrimages and processions with the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, bringing the icon to the church in Călărași, where he served, for the protection and comfort of the faithful.

Thus, until 1940, Bessarabia was spared from the persecution of faith occurring in neighbouring Russia, where, starting with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, many hierarchs, priests, monks, and believers confessed Christ, receiving a martyr’s death.

However, in 1940, Bessarabia and Bukovina were occupied by the Soviet Union. Seeing the danger of the atheistic dictatorship, the Saint decided to save his wife and children by sending them across the Prut River into the heart of the motherland, Romania. At the same time, he remained in the parish, standing by his faithful and encouraging them to withstand the persecution beginning in Bessarabia.

In addition, Saint Alexander proved to be a pillar of faith, declaring that he would not let his flock be devoured by the “red wolves,” referring to the godless communists. In those times of trial, the Saint found the only refuge in God, especially in the Mother of God, for whom he had great devotion and continually prayed for intercession.

On August 31, 1940, the unbelievers came to arrest him during the Divine Liturgy. The Saint earnestly begged them to allow him to finish the Divine Liturgy, after which he would submit to their will.

He was arrested and taken to Chișinău, accused of being hostile to Soviet Russia and advocating for unification with the motherland, Romania. At that time, blessed Alexander, a man steadfast in faith, was not shaken by the actions of his adversaries but stood firm before them, testifying that everything he did was for the benefit of the faithful, who needed to be united with their brethren of the same nation and faith, to have the right to pray and learn in their native language, and to be protected from the threat of atheism.

Hearing this, the unbelievers tortured him and mockingly said, “Show us your God!” And the Saint, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gave a wise answer, saying, “When you show me your mind, then I will show you my God!” Saint Alexander was imprisoned until June 22, 1941, when the Romanian Army crossed the Prut River to liberate Bessarabia.

Since the elderly confessor had not yet been sentenced, he was urgently deported to the prison in Kazan, in what is now the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation.

On the way to exile, Christ’s martyr was subjected to many torments. He endured ridicule, was beaten, stripped of his clothes, pulled by the beard, and in conditions challenging to bear, but he endured everything, praying to God to strengthen him in his sufferings. Due to the tortures he was subjected to, he entrusted his soul into God’s hands at the age of 80 in the prison in Kazan on August 7, 1941, adorned with a glorious martyr’s crown.

08/08/2024

St Kallinikos lived continuously with the remembrance of death and he believed that the only verb that we need to know and conjugate in all its forms is the verb "to leave".

08/08/2024

Saint Alexander and his wife raised two adopted children, Vsevolod and Margareta.

08/08/2024

Holy Priest-Martyr Alexander of Bessarabia 🗓️ August 8

08/08/2024

Orthodox Calendar, August 8

🌿 St. Emilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzicus; St. Myron the Wonderworker and Bishop of Crete; Holy Priest-Martyr Alexander of Bessarabia

👉 https://tinyurl.com/rvx6kjrk

07/08/2024

August 7: Saint Theodosius the New, Healer of Peloponnesus

Saint Theodosius was born in Athens in 862 into a Christian family. He decided to become a monk 📿, distributed his wealth to the poor, and retreated to a small distance from the city.

🏃🏼 Because he was sought by many for spiritual guidance, he fled to Argos.Saint Theodosius built a church to honour Saint John the Baptist after the latter miraculously appeared to him. 🙏

Saint Theodosius was given the nickname “Healer” 🩺 because God had bestowed upon him the gift of healing ⚕️the sick.

07/08/2024

In the first week of the Dormition of the Mother of God Fast, our selection of snapshots from the Orthodox world captures original images of youth camp participants and moving moments involving clerics and the faithful.

In the first week of the Dormition of the Mother of God Fast, our selection of snapshots from the Orthodox world captures original images of youth camp

07/08/2024

August 7: Saint Dometius the Persian

St. Dometius was born in Persia and was a pagan, but he was baptised 🕊️ after meeting a young Christian. 🙏

He was a monk 📿 in a monastery in Nisibis (the current territory of Turkey 🇹🇷).

After a while, he withdrew to a quiet life with an abbot who is said to have eaten nothing cooked for 60 years.

He ordained him a deacon, but Saint Dometius withdrew to a cave in an isolated mountain 🏔️ when he wanted to make him a priest.

He reached such perfection that he healed ❤️‍🩹 the sick through fasting, prayer and vigils.

Saint Dometius was martyred ✝️ in 363, along with two disciples, after Emperor Julian the Apostate sent his soldiers who imprisoned the three ascetics in a cave alive.

07/08/2024

🔴 In the last month of the ecclesiastical year, saints who quickly intercede for the healing of diseases are remembered. Among them are four Romanian saints, for whom many believers from our country, but also from abroad, testify.

🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wn972hz

07/08/2024

🔴 On Sunday, Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina emphasised the importance of forming special bonds with those in need to appreciate God’s blessings

He delivered this message at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Iași while discussing the Gospel reading about the healing of the paralytic, who was brought to Jesus by his friends because he was unable to move.

💬 “We should pray to God to grant us, first and foremost, the ability to recognise the state of paralysis that defines us so that we may strive and fight to remove from ourselves the inability to love, the inability to rejoice, and the inability to forgive. This is fulfilled, and we receive the strength to remove this state of weakness from within us by participating in the Holy and Divine Liturgy and by thinking of God as often as possible throughout the day.”

Read more 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mry2dw6s

07/08/2024

August 7: Saint Theodora of Sihla

Did you know? 🤔

Saint Theodora is revered among the holy healers. 🩺

In her cave, numerous healings have taken place: from pneumonia, brain tumours, kidney diseases, ear ailments, and infertility.

Nearby the cave, there is a hollow in a rock, from which the saint used to draw water. 🚰 It is said it possesses healing properties.

Here are three recent testimonies:

1️⃣ How Elder Justin Pârvu was healed from pneumonia 🫁

A nun from Paltin Monastery in Neamţ shared how she received a fragment of a saint's vestment during a pilgrimage to the Pechersk Lavra in Ukraine. She brought it home and gave it to Elder Justin. Recognizing the vestment as belonging to Saint Theodora, he placed it on his chest and was healed of pneumonia.

2️⃣ The tumor 🧠 that began to shrink

A devout person from Suceava testified that after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, she sought the help of the Saint. Shortly thereafter, the doctors noticed the tumour began to shrink miraculously.

3️⃣ Saint Theodora and baby Teodora 👶

A couple struggling with infertility for some time visited Sihla during the feast day. Following the advice of a monk there, who recommended fasting and prayer, the couple was soon blessed with a daughter, whom they named Teodora.

*Source: marturieathonita.ro / Modern-day Miracles of Saint Theodora of Sihla

07/08/2024

🔴 The renowned French Orthodox theologian Jean-Claude Larchet discussed the importance of the spiritual father in the healing process of addictions in an interview published in the 17th issue of the “Words to Young People” magazine by Putna Monastery.

💬 “The spiritual father, especially if engaged in traditional ascetic life, has experience in liberating someone from an addiction and even with a multitude of addictions. For we all, as members of fallen humanity, depend on many passions deeply rooted in us and hard to give up.”

Read more 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/srs5yr9d

07/08/2024

🔴 “The Transfiguration of the Lord is an exhortation for each of us to cleanse and transform our lives because He promises those pure in heart that they will see God,” said His Grace Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop Varlaam of Ploiești on Tuesday.

💬 “The Hesychast Fathers, the great ascetics of Egypt, considered that the purpose of Christian life is the purification of the heart and the vision of divine grace, the light unseen by natural eyes, by ordinary eyes.”

Read more 🔗https://tinyurl.com/bd84ruua

07/08/2024

🔴 The Metropolis of Bessarabia published impressions gathered from young participants at its Orthodox Youth Meeting ITO Bessarabia 2024

The event was organized by the Romanian Orthodox Parish “Saint Basil of Poiana Mărului” in Orhei, Republic of Moldova, with support from the Romanian government’s Department for Romanians Abroad.

In the event feedback questionnaire, one young attendee wrote, “I am glad that the Romanian Orthodox Church considers us, the youth. After all, we are also part of the Church. I am already looking forward to the next edition of ITO Bessarabia.”

Read more 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3k52daas