Spirituality

Romanian Bishop of Canada says Great Lent is an invitation to light and joy

The beginning of Great Lent resounds in the Church’s hymnography as an unexpected invitation to light, Bishop Ioan Casian of Canada said in a message issued for the occasion. “Great Lent is a season which, although it calls for bodily and spiritual effort on our part, remains a time of light and of the joy…

Feb 20, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

80 years since Romania’s ‘Burning Bush’ hesychast movement began

The Library of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has marked 80 years since the official launch of the “Burning Bush” spiritual movement at Antim Monastery in Bucharest, commemorating the anniversary in a social media post. In a petition addressed to Patriarch Nicodim and dated 12 February 1946, several Christian lay intellectuals requested…

Feb 19, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Metropolitan Nicolae urges balance between fasting and daily responsibilities ahead of Great Lent

His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of the Americas has called on the faithful, as Great Lent approaches, to maintain “a balance between the effort of fasting and the fulfilment of daily responsibilities.” In his pastoral message marking the beginning of Great Lent, the Metropolitan stressed that this fasting season is not…

Feb 19, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Orthodox Christians begin Cheesefare Week ahead of Great Lent

Orthodox Christians enter Cheesefare Week on Monday, the final stage of preparation for Great Lent, a period during which the faithful abstain from meat but may consume dairy products, eggs and fish. The discipline of this week has a pedagogical purpose, helping believers ease into the ascetic effort of fasting through dietary restraint, intensified prayer…

Feb 16, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Romanian nun urges simplicity and prayer, recalls life of her sister who became Saint Elizabeth of Pasărea

“Let us seek simplicity and strive to acquire prayer, so that in times of trial we may be able to fight,” says Nun Nectaria Lazăr of Pasărea Monastery in Ilfov County, the biological sister of Saint Elizabeth of Pasărea, in a feature report for the newspaper of the Romanian Patriarchate. The nun recalled her childhood…

Feb 16, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of February (II)

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of February (II) continues our monthly series dedicated to the lives of women saints commemorated throughout the Church year, highlighting a remarkable group of holy women remembered in the second half of February. This instalment presents the spiritual portraits of Saint Scholastica, Saint Theodora the Empress, Saint Priscilla, Saint Mariamne, Saint…

Feb 12, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of February (I)

This February instalment of Digital Matericon: Women Saints of February is published in the context of the decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church to proclaim 2026 as the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women in the life and calendar of the Church. The series seeks to bring before contemporary readers the…

Feb 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Romanian Archbishop in UK calls Triodion season a “school of repentance and humility”

In a pastoral message issued at the beginning of the Triodion period, Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland said that this liturgical season is “a true school of repentance and humility, a school of prayer, and also a school of spiritual asceticism, which reopens for us the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven.”…

Feb 3, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Orthodox Christians to begin Great Lent on Feb. 23 as Pascha falls on April 12

In about a month, on February 23, Orthodox Christians will enter Great Lent, also known as the Great Fast. The Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord (Holy Pascha) will be celebrated on April 12 this year. On February 1, the liturgical season of the Triodion begins, including three preparatory weeks for Great Lent, followed…

Jan 22, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

Digital Matericon: Women Saints of January (II)

This second January instalment of Digital Matericon continues our monthly series dedicated to the women saints commemorated in the Orthodox calendar. Because January contains an especially rich number of holy women—martyrs, monastics, ascetics, mothers, confessors, and “fools for Christ”—the month is presented in two parts, allowing each figure to be remembered with due attention. In…

Jan 21, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu

St Vladimir’s Seminary in New York launches fundraiser to publish Stăniloae’s Palamas volume in English

St Vladimir’s Seminary in New York has launched a fundraising campaign to publish, for the first time in English, the volume The Life and Teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas, written by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae. Those who wish to support the publication financially can donate through a fundraising platform hosted on the institute’s website. Funds raised…

Jan 20, 2026Aurelian Iftimiu