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26 October—Saint Demetrius's Day
✝️ Today we honor Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki, the Great Martyr whose devotion to Christ endured imprisonment and death during the Roman persecutions. According to the hagiographies, Demetrius was a young man of a senatorial family who became proconsul of the Thessalonica district. Tradition dates his martyrdom to AD 306.
His story holds a remarkable triumph of faith. The fearsome gladiator Lycaeus had killed many opponents, including Christians forced to face him. Before challenging him, the young Christian Nestor sought Demetrius’s blessing in prison.
Demetrius blessed him with the sign of the cross. Calling upon the God of Demetrius, Nestor defeated the seemingly invincible gladiator—a victory attributed to God’s help through the saint’s prayers. The enraged emperor ordered both Christians killed.
Demetrius became known as the Myrrh-Streamer: Orthodox tradition recounts that fragrant myrrh flowed from his relics, bringing healing to the sick.
May his courage inspire us to remain faithful to Christ, even when the odds seem overwhelming.
Happy name day to all celebrating! 🙏
#SaintDemetrius #Dimitrovden #OrthodoxChristianity #ChristianFaith #Saints #Thessaloniki
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
🔸 October 26 - Saint Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher 𓐬 🔸
Today, we commemorate the Great-Martyr and Myrrh-Gusher Saint Demetrios, the patron Saint of Thessaloniki. Along with Saint George, he is one of the most revered military saints of the Church. St Demetrios was born in 270 to devout parents who were Christians in secret, and his father was a military commander in Thessaloniki. When his father died, the pagan Emperor Galerius Maximian appointed Demetrios to take his place.
As commander, Demetrios was tasked with defending the city from barbarians, and eradicating Christianity. But instead of persecuting Christians as ordered, Demetrios used his position of authority to instruct the inhabitants of the city in the Christian Faith, and he converted many pagans by his eloquence and wisdom. After a military victory against the Sarmatians, Maximian stopped in Thessaloniki to celebrate with the locals and offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Envious pagans denounced Demetrios, and after he confessed his faith before the emperor, he was thrown into prison.
As part of the festivities, Maximian had arranged for gladiatorial combat to take place in the city’s amphitheater. The emperor’s most fierce fighter was a man of gigantic stature and strength named Lyaios, who was undefeated in combat. A young Christian named Nestor decided to confront the giant Lyaios, to prove that true strength is with those who believe in Christ. Before this David vs Goliath battle, Nestor went to the cell of Demetrios asking for his prayers. In the battle, the giant Lyaios charged Nestor, but the young boy slipped to the side, and fatally stabbed him in the heart.
The emperor was enraged at having been shown up by the young Christian, and ordered his beheading. Hearing St Nestor call upon the God of Demetrios before his martyrdom, Maximian ordered his soldiers go to the cell of St Demetrios and thrust their lances into his chest. Thus, St Demetrios delivered his soul in 306. At the church of St Demetrios in Thessaloniki, the site of his martyrdom, fragrant myrrh has been known to miraculously flow forth from his reliquary, and thus he is called “the Myrrh-Gusher.”
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
This is a lie. By definition in Arabic, jihad means "struggle," but it actually refers to the struggle of the Muslim in both a spiritual sense and in actual warfare (Holy War) against the infidels. Every Muslim is a jihadist, which means that they have to become better according to Islamic teachings, not according to the Western beliefs and our civilization, (they will never assimilate) but they must also obey and follow every jihad that is declared.
For example a jihad was declared publicly from Constantinople in 1914, almost 100 years ago, against the Allied Forces and infidels. The picture below shows the moment when the highest religious authority of the caliphate in Constantinople declares Jihad (Holy War) against the infidels of the West and the Allied Forces.
You know the rest. Millions of Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians were slaughtered in Anatolia simply because they would not convert to Islam. They were Christians.
A jihad was also declared in 2026 by the Islamic regime of Iran against the infidels, the USA and its allies.
Jihad is the struggle for all the muslims to conquer the whole world, convert the non-believers and enslave their women.
You saw what happened in Eastern Europe, Serbia, Middle-East and Africa.
This is the true face of Islam.
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
The Greek Orthodox Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, the oldest monastery in the world which has existed and operated continuously since the 5th century A.D, with one of the most important libraries in the world, has definitively signed today an agreement with the Egyptian authorities to retain the historical rights it has held for 1,500 years.
Let me remind you that no matter which conqueror passed through in the long history, even Muhammad, no one ever harmed this Greek Monastery, because of its history and spiritual significance.
It's an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built between 548 and 565 AD. Inside this Monastery, there is one of the oldest known surviving depiction of Jesus Christ as Pantocrator dating from when the Monastery was founded by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.
- Homer Pavlos
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
Muslims today believe in fiction created by the Abbasid Caliphate.
1. Mecca didn’t exist in the 7th century
A. No archaeological evidence.
B. No historical evidence.
C. No or very little water.
2. Mecca (only mentioned once in the Quran) wasn’t on any historical map until 900.
The Quran talks about a fertile place, which is not Mecca,
A. A stream
B. Fruits
C. Olive trees
D. Fields etc.
None of these were in Mecca in the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th centuries, and it was not until the late 20th century that Saudi Arabia started to build water desalination plants.
3. Medina was an insignificant little place.
4. The term ‘Mohammad’ (Praised One) was first found on a Christian coin in 661, referring to Jesus, which had Christian symbols.
5. The term Mohammad was used by Arab Christians for Jesus until the mid-8th century.
6. The Mohammad that Muslims believe in today was invented by the Abbasid Caliphate in the late 8th or early 9th century.
Mohammad is mentioned only four times in the Quran.
The Muslim/Abbasid Mohammad in the Quran is the last of the four (Surah 33:40), an Abbasid interpolation; the first three refer to Jesus.
7. The Dome of the Rock was not a Mosque; it was built by Abdul al-Malik as an anti-trinitarian Christian building.
Both Abdul al-Malik and his brother were anti-trinitarian Christians and used Christian symbols on their coins.
8. Abdul al-Malik sent a directive throughout his Kingdom saying that the term ‘Mohammad’ should refer to Jesus.
9. The only original parts of the Dome of the Rock are the inner ambulatories, and the Mohammad’s written on them refer to Jesus (in fact, the term Jesus is on one of them), and they are decorated with lots of grapes, a Christian symbol.
10. There were no Islamic Qurans in the 7th Century.
The proto-Quran was Christian lectionaries written in Aramaic and old Arabic.
This has led to many mistranslations in the much later Islamic/Abbasid Quran.
Conclusion: What Muslims believe today is a fraudulent story started by the Abbasid Caliphate when they came into power in 750.
The Abbasid Caliphate bastardized the Arab Anti-trinitarian Christian lectionaries (combined with the mistranslations) to form their Quran to suit their agenda.
Islam did not create an empire. The empire created Islam.
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
🚨 THIS TURKEY–LIBYA STORY IS MUCH BIGGER THAN IT IS BEING TREATED
Libya’s parliament has now ratified the controversial Turkey–Libya maritime agreement, drawing an asserted maritime corridor across the Eastern Mediterranean that Greece, Cyprus and the EU say violates the sovereign rights of other states.
But look at the bigger strategic picture.
Hormuz. Bab el-Mandeb. Now the Eastern Mediterranean.
Three of the waterways and maritime approaches most critical to the movement of energy, commerce and military power are increasingly becoming arenas of confrontation involving Islamist or Iranian-aligned powers.
And this time, one of the principal actors is Turkey — a NATO member.
The Turkey–Libya agreement does not itself give Ankara the legal right to stop ships crossing the Mediterranean. But it dramatically strengthens Turkey’s claim to maritime jurisdiction across an area connecting the Turkish and Libyan coasts — directly challenging Greece and Cyprus and potentially affecting energy exploration, pipelines, undersea infrastructure and future naval freedom of action.
For Israel, this should be a strategic warning.
To our south, access through the Red Sea already depends on an increasingly contested Bab el-Mandeb.
To our west, Turkey possesses one of the strongest navies and air forces in the region and is steadily expanding its military reach in Libya.
Israel, Greece and Cyprus therefore need to think about the Eastern Mediterranean not simply as an energy partnership — but increasingly as a shared maritime-security theater.
The question is no longer only who owns the gas.
It is who will guarantee freedom of movement in the Eastern Mediterranean when the regional balance of power is tested.
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
🔸 “Thy will be done.” For instance, when you wish and by every means endeavour to be well and healthy, and yet remain ill, then say: “Thy will be done.” When you undertake something and your undertaking does not succeed, say: “Thy will be done.” When you do good to others, and they repay you by evil, say: “Thy will be done.” Or when you would like to sleep and are overtaken by sleeplessness, say: “Thy will be done.” In general, do not become irritated when anything is not done in accordance with your will, but learn to submit in everything to the Will of the Heavenly Father. 🔸
— Saint John of Kronstadt
This icon by Mariela Constantinidis bearing the words “Thy Will Be Done” depicts Christ praying to the Father on the Mount of Olives before His Passion.
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
"Wash your sins, not only your face."
It was inscribed on a holy water font outside the entrance of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
It's not a simple phrase. It is a perfect Greek palindrome (καρκινική φράση) that reads exactly the same forwards and backwards.
Written in capitals as ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ, it becomes a mirror ambigram: a linguistic and visual masterpiece of the Greek mind.
Attributed to Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, the great Cappadocian Father and Theologian of the 4th century, it was first inscribed on a holy water font outside the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
The message is pure Greek wisdom; outer purity is worthless without inner purity. It proves that the Greek Philosophy passed the flame of wisdom to Greek Orthodoxy. This phrase reminds us the maxim of Pittacus of Mytilene, one of the Seven Sages:
"Μὴ τὴν ὄψιν καλλωπίζου, ἀλλ’ ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν ἴσθι καλός", which means:
"Do not adorn your face, but be noble in your deeds and character."
This is the essence of Greek paideia and of Orthodox Christianity as it took shape in the Eastern Roman Empire. The soul before appearance, virtue before vanity, substance before surface.
The inscription survives today in Greek monasteries and churches, from Malevi in Arcadia and Preveli in Crete to the Panagia Ekatontapiliani on Paros, Vlatadon in Thessaloniki, St Martin's Church and other fonts of several churches in Paris, Britain and beyond.
It's a living proof of the unbroken continuity of the Hellenic spirit from antiquity, through Byzantium, to the present day.
Barbarians conquered the body of Hagia Sophia, but they never conquered the mind that produced such phrases.
If you want to support me in the effort I’m making, please consider becoming a subscriber to my X account for only $2. I write about the ancient, medieval, and modern history of Greece and what Christians went through because of Islam. Always with primary sources and historical facts. Thanks for reading me and for all the support.
- Homer Pavlos
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
Among the many pilgrims and visitors from around the world at Visoki Dečani today, we were delighted to welcome Orthodox Christians from Elbasan (Albania) with their priests, led by our long-standing friend Fr Spiro Peci.
#VisokiDecaniMonastery #OrthodoxChristianity #Kosovo
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
Turkey has become a graveyard of dying languages. Its Greek, Armenian, Aramaic/Assyrian/Syriac, Laz, Ladino, and other languages risk extinction.
The fate of these communities mirrors the fate of their languages. Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and other non-Turkish citizens of Turkey did not simply choose to stop speaking their native languages. Instead, most were massacred, deported, or forced to leave their ancestral homelands. And those who remained in the country were subjected to immense pressure to cease speaking their languages.
The quiet extinguishing of Anatolia’s indigenous tongues is no natural evolution — it is state-driven erasure.
In Anatolia, native voices are not merely fading into the past; they are systematically silenced.
My latest:
How Turkey Is Ending Linguistic Diversity
pjmedia.com/uzay-bulut/2026/…
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
Ilhan Omar’s naturalized citizenship is probably invalid for three reasons.
1) Her father allegedly lied on his asylum application. Nur Omar Mohamed wasn’t fleeing the violent genocidal Siad Barre regime in Somalia. He was part of it. He was a Colonel in the regime’s Army, likely specializing in propaganda. If he failed to disclose this on his asylum paperwork, that’s fraud. He, and his daughter Ilhan, would have entered the United States fraudulently.
2) Ilhan Omar claims she derived naturalized citizenship from her father. That’s a technical term. In order to qualify for “derived” naturalization, you must be a minor. 17 years old or younger. Ilhan Omar was naturalized in 2000, at age 17. Or was she? Public records during her time in the Minnesota state legislature show her birthdate as Oct 4, 1981, which would make her 18 at the time of naturalization, which would mean she was ineligible for it. When someone pointed this out after she was elected to Congress, Ilhan Omar had her congressional staff revise her birth date in public records, shifting it from 1981 to 1982. If she knowingly lied about her birth year, her naturalization is fraudulent.
3) To “derive” naturalization from her father, it is also required that Ilhan Omar’s father was in fact a naturalized citizen. But DHS has no record of Ilhan Omar’s father’s naturalization paperwork. Once someone dies, their naturalization paperwork becomes public record and anyone can FOIA request it. When FOIA’d, USCIS (the sub agency at DHS responsible for all naturalization paperwork), said they had no paperwork for Ilhan Omar’s father. If he was not naturalized, Ilhan Omar could not legally derive naturalized citizenship from him.
Ignore the MSM hacks who are claiming “Trump’s raid on Ilhan Omar violates all norms!” No. What violates norms is breaking the law and fraudulently entering our country. If we don’t enforce laws when they are broken, we have no country.
We are facing the very real possibility that a Somali foreign national who hates America defrauded her way into the U.S. Congress.
Denaturalize her. Deport her.
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🔸️October 14 - Saint Paraskeva (Petka) of Epivato🔸️
Saint Paraskeva (Petka) was born to a pious family, and lived in the 11th century in the village of Epivato near Constantinople (today Selimpaşa, Turkey). Her older brother Euthymios was a monk and later became the Bishop of Matidia.
One day, while the 10-year-old Paraskeva attended the divine service with her mother, the words of the Lord pierced her heart, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself” (Matthew 16:24). From that time she began to distribute her clothing to the needy.
After her parents’ death, Paraskeva went to Constantinople where she was instructed in the spiritual life. She settled at the church of the Theotokos in Heracleia Pontica where she spent 5 years in asceticism before making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Yearning to withdraw further from the world, she crossed the River Jordan into the wilderness, and lived here as an ascetic until age 25.
Instructed by an Angel of the Lord to return to her homeland, St Paraskeva returned to Epivato where she lived for 2 years in ceaseless fasting and prayer.
St Paraskeva departed to the Lord at age 27, and was buried near the sea in an unmarked grave. Years after her repose, the body of a dead sailor washed ashore. A stylite ascetic found the decaying body and asked the villagers to bury it. They unknowingly dug the grave right over the relics of St Paraskeva.
That night, one of the grave diggers and a pious woman both had a dream in which the Saint appeared to them. She told them who she was, and instructed them to dig up her relics. Taking candles to the cemetery, villagers discovered St Paraskeva’s fragrant and incorrupt relics. They placed them in the church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Epivato where they worked many miracles.
During the Ottoman conquests, her relics were moved to Bulgaria, Serbia, Constantinople, and finally to Romania where they can be seen today at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Iași. She often holds a ship in icons as a reference to the fact that her holy relics were moved many times and blessed many nations. It is also for this reason that she is considered the patron Saint of the Balkans.
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This inscription is a dedication by Alexander the Great himself to the Greek goddess Athena. It was discovered in the Temple of Athena Polias in Priene. Priene is a Greek city, one of the hundreds in Asia Minor.
The inscription, written in Greek, reads:
"ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕ ΤΟΝ ΝΑΟΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΗΙ ΠΟΛΙΑΔΙ"
"King Alexander dedicated the temple to Athena Polias."
2,300 years later, we Greeks can read this inscription without any difficulty, because every single word is still used in exactly the same form today.
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WOAH 🚨 Dearborn, Michigan mayor Abdullah Hammoud is at a mosque making a speech calling for Muslims to organize to make sure the entire city leadership is Muslim
“That only happens if we go out and we vote. If the Muslim community votes, if the Arab community votes, we will determine every single position in the whole city”
We were warned Muslims would use mosques as voter mobilization centers to take over our government. There is no clearer example of this happening than this video
I would like to just point out that you are politicians aren’t allowed to give campaign speeches like this inside places or worship
It’s called the Johnson Amendment. It prohibits tax-exempt 501c3 organizations including churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship from “participating in, or intervening in any political campaign on behalf any candidate for public office
- Organizations cannot endorse or oppose candidates
- They cannot host or facilitate campaign speeches, rallies, or events where a candidate asks for votes
This is EXACTLY what’s happening in this video
Violations for this leads to loss of tax-exempt status. This mosque should lose their tax exempt status
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
Pocos conocen esta coincidencia: un 12 de octubre de 1504, #IsabellaCatólica firmaba su testamento en Medina del Campo.
Exactamente 12 años después del descubrimiento de América.
Un dato poco conocido y sumamente específico sobre el testamento de la reina es la estricta prohibición legal de usar abreviaturas en su redacción.
A diferencia de la mayoría de los documentos notariales de la época, que estaban repletos de contracciones para ahorrar pergamino, el escribano real Gaspar de Gricio tuvo que redactar las páginas del testamento de forma íntegra, palabra por palabra.
La legislación de Castilla prohibía tajantemente las abreviaturas en documentos de tal relevancia para evitar cualquier tipo de malinterpretación, sospecha de falsificación o ambigüedad legal, permitiendo únicamente excepciones contadas como el término "mrs" (maravedís).
Además, existen otras particularidades en sus disposiciones:
• La cláusula de Gibraltar: preocupada por la seguridad del reino frente al norte de África, Isabel incluyó un mandato explícito (en el capítulo 17) ordenando a sus sucesores que nunca enajenaran ni vendieran la ciudad de Gibraltar, exigiendo que permaneciera para siempre bajo el control directo de la Corona de Castilla.
• Previsión de traición extranjera: al sospechar de la inestabilidad de su hija Juana y desconfiar profundamente de su yerno borgoñón, Felipe el Hermoso, estipuló que estaba terminantemente prohibido otorgar cargos públicos, obispados o tierras en América a extranjeros, una orden que Felipe ignoró nada más morir la reina.
El testamento original de la reina se completó con un codicilo (un apéndice de última hora) dictado el 23 de noviembre de 1504, solo tres días antes de morir.
Al cruzar ambos textos legales, surgen detalles ocultos, obsesiones personales y llamativas disposiciones económicas que la mayoría de la gente desconoce, como el millonario fondo de rescate para mujeres pobres.
Isabel destinó sumas astronómicas de su fortuna personal a una causa estrictamente social.
En sus mandas dejó estipulado el pago de dos millones de maravedís repartidos con precisión quirúrgica:
Un millón de maravedís para dotar y casar a "doncellas menesterosas" (mujeres jóvenes sin recursos que no podían casarse por falta de dote) y otro millón de maravedís destinado exclusivamente a financiar el ingreso de mujeres pobres en conventos, evitándoles la exclusión social si optaban por la vida religiosa.
Pese a ser la mujer más poderosa, Isabel detestaba la ostentación en el lecho de muerte.
Ordenó explícitamente que sus exequias fuesen lo más modestas posible.
Pidió ser enterrada con el hábito de San Francisco y prohibió que se gastara dinero en grandes ceremonias de luto o lujos fúnebres.
Dispuso que todo el dinero que se ahorrara al evitar un fastuoso funeral de Estado se utilizara inmediatamente para comprar ropa para los pobres.
La reina sentía una profunda preocupación por el destino de su alma y el tiempo que pasaría en el Purgatorio. Por ello, dejó ordenado que se celebraran 20.000 misas por ella en un plazo de tiempo muy estricto tras su fallecimiento.
Lo curioso es que el testamento obligaba a que una parte de esas misas se dijeran en iglesias muy humildes y conventos de órdenes mendicantes, pues confiaba más en las oraciones de los monjes pobres que en las de los grandes obispos.
En el Codicilo añadió un anexo donde pide expresamente a sus sucesores que no consientan que los indígenas de las Indias sufran ningún agravio en sus personas ni bienes, ordenando que sean tratados con justicia y respetados como vasallos.
Isabel quería descansar en el Monasterio de San Francisco de la Alhambra, en Granada. Sin embargo, introdujo una romántica y sumisa salvedad: si su esposo Fernando decidía ser enterrado en cualquier otro lugar, los albaceas debían exhumar su cuerpo y trasladarlo de inmediato para que reposaran juntos: "para que la unión de nuestros cuerpos signifique la unión de nuestras almas en el cielo". – at Granada, Spain
Friends of Orthodox Monasteries retweeted
Saints and Feasts of October 12
johnsanidopoulos.com/2017/10…
