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| St. Chryse (Zlata) of Meglen (Feast Day - October 13) |
Verses
In torments, O Chryse, you were as brilliant
As gold that has been purified by fire.
In torments, O Chryse, you were as brilliant
As gold that has been purified by fire.
October 13, 2025
Commemoration of the Miracle of the Holy Great Martyr Zlata (Chryse) in Skopje (1912)
The Holy
Great Martyr Zlata of Meglen, known also as Saint Chryse, was born and lived in the Bulgarian
village of Slatino in Meglen. At that time, Bulgaria was
under Turkish rule.
From her youth, Zlata was distinguished by her extraordinary strength of character, steadfast faith in Christ, chastity, and beauty. A local Turk repeatedly attempted to seduce the girl and force her to convert to Islam. But neither persuasion, nor threats, nor monstrous torture, which continued for many months, broke the spirit of this glorious confessor of Christ. Finally in 1795 she was hung from a tree and hacked to death.
Prologue in Sermons: October 13
What We Have Found We Must Return To Those Who Have Lost It
October 13*
(A Sermon From the Paterikon About the Monk Philagrios, Who Found a Thousand Pieces of Gold and Returned Them to the One Who Had Lost Them.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
October 13*
(A Sermon From the Paterikon About the Monk Philagrios, Who Found a Thousand Pieces of Gold and Returned Them to the One Who Had Lost Them.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
It happens, brethren, that some of you find things or money lost by your neighbors. How should you, the finders, deal with these things? When the loser is not present, then present the find to the authorities, according to the law. But when the loser is present and you are absolutely certain and convinced that none other than the one before you lost what you found, then we advise you to act as the Saints did. The following example will show you how they acted.
October 12, 2025
Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea
By Fr. George Dorbarakis
We should first recall that the Ecumenical Synods constitute the highest and most important means available to the Church of Christ, in order to express and formulate its faith and life, to condemn any attempt to alter this faith and life, that is, heresy, as well as to determine the practical framework of its course. The expression of faith, when of course the occasion is given by the appearance of a heresy, in which case the faith is at stake – something that reveals that the ecumenical synod, although institutionally guaranteed, constitutes an extraordinary and charismatic event – is done with terms or dogmas, while the determination of the practical framework of life is done with the canons. In simple words, an ecumenical synod constitutes the mouth of the Church, which is why its decisions are absolutely binding on every member of it, which means that with the obedience of the member, his communion with the Church is kept alive, and therefore further, communion with Christ Himself and His Holy Apostles is kept alive. For certainly the struggle of the Fathers who constitute the ecumenical synod is how to present what the Church lives: Christ and His Spirit. In fact, where the faithful people, clergy and laity, diagnose that the synod did not express what the Apostles preached, there they protest and refuse obedience, and in this sense the faithful people are ultimately considered the guardians of the Orthodox faith.
Synaxis of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Spanish and Portuguese Lands
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| Selected Spanish Saints. Icon by Priest Andrei Davydov (encaustic, 21st century). From left to right: Saint Isidore of Seville, Martyr Justa of Seville, Apostle James son of Zebedee, Martyr Eulalia of Barcelona, Saint Hosea of Cordova, Martyr Rufina of Seville, Saint Leander of Seville |
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church officially established the feast of the Synaxis of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Spanish and Portuguese Lands, adding 80 saints to its liturgical calendar, at its session in Moscow on December 28, 2018.
The Assembly of Orthodox Hierarchs in Spain and Portugal, including His Grace Bishop Nestor of Korsun of the Russian Church, took the initiative to add such a feast at their meeting in April 2018, approving the collection of the lives of the saints of the pre-schism Iberian Peninsula. The bishops involved also resolved to petition their Local Churches to establish a date for the pan-Orthodox veneration of the saints.
The glorification of more than 200 saints of Spain and Portugal was then celebrated in October in Zaragoza, Spain by hierarchs of the Romanian and Russian Churches.
The Assembly of Orthodox Hierarchs in Spain and Portugal, including His Grace Bishop Nestor of Korsun of the Russian Church, took the initiative to add such a feast at their meeting in April 2018, approving the collection of the lives of the saints of the pre-schism Iberian Peninsula. The bishops involved also resolved to petition their Local Churches to establish a date for the pan-Orthodox veneration of the saints.
The glorification of more than 200 saints of Spain and Portugal was then celebrated in October in Zaragoza, Spain by hierarchs of the Romanian and Russian Churches.
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