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Foreword

 

        In 2009, I had the privilege of being a guest at the home of Ioannis and Katerina Kallianiotis. It is always a spiritually profitable experience when I am blessed to be in the home of pious, Orthodox Christian laity. The conversation was always edifying. Ioannis shared stories of his youth on a Greek island, far from the mainland. I recalled my time in Greece, where every Sunday after the Divine Liturgy the faithful gathered in parks or homes and where they had a tradition of ‶lay theologians″ who would speak on various topics. In Ioannis, I saw the sagacity of a lay theologian.

           
       Upon understanding his accomplishment of being published in every Mount Athos journal, I pleaded with him to write something for American Orthodox Christians. At that time the …

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prayer liturgical

Saint Waldetrudis of Mons (688)

Feast Day: April 9/22

 

Saint Waldetrudis (or Waltrude or Waudru) was born in the time of Dagobert I, who was king of the Franks from 629 to 638. Fidelity was her virtue as a bride and as a mother, then as a nun and as a hegumeness (abbess). She died on 9 April 688: she had then, between fifty and sixty years. Several decades later, her body was taken from the earth by Saint Hubert, bishop of Tongres, Maastricht and Liège. In 1250, on 12 August, her head was separated from the body in the presence of Nicholas, the bishop of Cambrai. In 1349, on 7 October, her relics were carried in procession in the streets of Mons, in order to obtain the cessation of the plague. Each year, the day after the feast of the Trinity, that is, on Second-day [Monday] after our …

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prayer liturgical

Statue of St Hilary of Arles

Saint Hilary of Arles (449)

Feast Day: March 30/April 12

 

Saint Hilary (or Hilarius) was born to a noble family in Lorraine, in northeastern Gaul (modern-day France). While still a youth, he sold his inherited estates to his brother, gave the profit away to the poor, and joined the abbey of Lerins on the island of Lerina, headed by his kinsman, St. Honoratus (an uninhabited island until Honoratus founded the monastery there, and since has been renamed to Saint-Honorat). After being elected bishop of Arles (in southern Gaul), Honoratus died, and Hilary was named his successor. He desired to stay isolated on the island, but accepted the episcopate as the will of God and went to serve the Church. He was esteemed for his great sanctity of life, and known for his ascetic deeds, strictness, almsgiving to the poor, and ransoming captives. Twice, he had difficult confrontations with Saint …

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prayer liturgical

Righteous Euboula, Mother of Saint Panteleimon (304)

Feast Day: March 30/April 12


Euboula signifies in Greek: “good counsellor”. It is the name which the mother of the holy Megalomartyr Panteleimon bore. She lived in the city of Nicomedia, in Bithynia (at the northwest of Asia Minor, on the border of the Euxine Sea), and she had espoused a pagan with the name of Eustorgios. When a son was born to them, the father named him Pantaleon, which means in Greek: “totally a lion”. But the mother, who was a Christian, raised her son in her own faith, teaching him to confess a single true God, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and planting in his heart the inclination for an upright life and for good works. The following is known: his encounter with Bishop Anthimos and the priest Hermalaos, who made him an unmercenary healer, freely caring for the sick. A heavenly …

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