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Iconography and Hand painted icons

Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them.

Synaxarion From the Menaion.
On July 10, Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Deposition of Whose Venerable Robe in the city of Moscow we commemorate (1625).
Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary, the Synaxis of whose Konevets Icon we celebrate.
On this day we commemorate the fortyfive holy Martyrs who witnessed in Nicopolis, Armenia (c. 319).
On this day we also commemorate the Myriad (ten-thousand) holy Fathers of the desert and caves of Nitria and Scete, whom Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria delivered to violent death by fire because of Isidore the Presbyter (c. 398).
On this day we also commemorate the holy Martyrs Bianor and Silvan of Pisidia (4th century).
On this day we also commemorate the holy Martyr Apollonius of Sardis.
Saint Amalberga of Maubeuge, a Merovingian nun (690)
Saint Athanasios the Pentaschoinitis, near Amathous, in Cyprus (7th century)
On this day was the Synaxis in honor of Saint John the Theologian in the district of Beatus.
Our righteous and God-bearing Father Anthony, Founder of the Kiev Caves Lavra.(1073)
Saints Parthenius(1905) and Eumenius(1920) of Koudouma Monastery on Crete.
New Hieromartyr Archpriest Joseph of Damascus, and companions (1860)
Our righteous Father Gregory, Bishop of Assos.
New Hieromartyrs Basil Pobedonostsev, Peter Zefirov and Stephen Lukanin, Priests (1918)
New Hieromartyrs George Begma and Nestor Gudzovsky, Deacons (1918)

Saint Nicholas of Zicha in Serbia: “The saints are a burnished mirror in which are reflected the beauty and strength and majesty of Christ. They are the fruit on that Tree of Life which is Christ . . . . As the sun among the stars and a king among his nobles, so is Christ among His saints. This works in both directions-from Christ to the saints and from them to Christ: the saints are given meaning by Christ, and Christ is revealed through the saints”.

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Hymn of Praise
The Mother of Elioz
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

Σιδωνία της Μτσχέτα_St Sidonia holding the Robe of Christ_Сидония Мшетинская_წმიდა სიდონია_58462118_827450710936200_6709587172392960000_n - CopyThe mother of Elioz counseled him:
Elioz, O sight of my eyes,
“Behold, you are entering the imperial army
Precisely in the land of my forefathers.
In that land, the King has appeared
From of old awaited, Christ the Lord.
By the prophets, the Savior prophesied.
To Georgia, news of Him came
Unseen miracles, He performs
And, unheard of words, He speaks
Among men, establishing the Kingdom of God,
Everywhere, news of Him is heard.
Men and angels rejoice
But this joy is darkened
By the evil malice of the Jewish elders,
Thought to kill the Savior
By the new curse, the people oppressed.
But, my son, the sight of my eyes,
In their evil, you do not enter,
Into the Blood of the Just One, do not enter.”
Time was passing, in its course,
One day the mother at prayer
The sound of the hammer on the Cross she heard,
The mother screamed as though in a live fire:
“O death, why did you not come to me sooner,
That I do not, that awful sound hear
That announces the death of the Sinless Savior
And of the Jewish nation, the curse.
O son, O Elioz,
To your mother, why did you not listen?
Into the Blood of the Just One, why did you enter?”
Having said this, the lamenting mother,
To the ground fell. To God her soul rendered.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
http://prologue.orthodox.cn/July10.htm

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Σιδωνία της Μτσχέτα_St Sidonia holding the Robe of Christ_Сидония Мшетинская_წმიდა სიდონია_87bca9ddafc47422f634351f409d3053 - Copy (2)17. Abba John the Sabbaite said, “When I stayed once in the further desert I received a brother who came from the monastery to visit me. I asked him how the fathers were. He said, ‘Through your prayers they are well.’ I asked him about a certain brother who had a bad reputation and name. ‘Believe me, father, he is not at all departing from that reputation.’ Hearing that I heard an ‘Ouph!’ And as I heard this ‘Ouph!’ I was transported as if out of myself as in sleep and I saw myself placed before the holy Golgotha and I saw the Lord crucified between the two thieves. I wanted to worship and come near him. As soon as He saw it there was a great voice saying to the angels who stood around, ‘Throw him out, because he is antichrist to me. Before I judged he condemned his brother.’ They drove me out and when we came to the door they grabbed my cloak and locked the door behind me.
“And immediately I woke up. I said to the brother who came to me, that this is an evil day for me. He said to me, ‘For what reason, father?’ Then I told him the vision and said, ‘Believe me, my cloak is the protection of God, which was on me, and I was deprived of it.’
“From that day I passed seven years sojourning in the wilderness never tasting sleep, never coming under a roof, never eating with people until I saw again the Lord permit (them) to give me back my cloak.” When we heard this from the venerable John, we said, “If the righteous are barely saved, the impious and the sinner – where will he appear?” So from this is shown the appropriate great evil.

64. A brother questioned Abba Poemen saying, ‘If I see my brother committing a sin, is it right to conceal it?’ The old man said to him, At the very moment when we hide our brother’s fault, God hides our own and at the moment when we reveal our brother’s fault, God reveals ours too.

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St. Sophia the Ascetic of Kleisoura

“Cover things, so that God will cover you”, she would say.

Saint Abba Isaac the Syrian

Νινα_St Nina_b64691e834b2e35a13f65cee4f6c5 - Copy (2)“Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly.
Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them.
And if you cannot take upon yourself his sins and receive his chastisement in his stead, then at least patiently suffer his shame and do not disgrace him”. St Isaac,Homily 51,

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness.

Lord, fill my heart with eternal life.

But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.
If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right, why did God the Word clothe himself in the body, using gentleness and humility in order to bring the world back to his Father?
O wonder! The Creator clothed in a human being enters the house of tax collectors and prostitutes. Thus the entire universe, through the beauty of the sight of him, was drawn by his love to the single confession of God, the Lord of all.
When we find love, we partake of heavenly bread and are made strong without labor and toil. The heavenly bread is Christ, who came down from heaven and gave life to the world. This is the nourishment of angels. The person who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and every hour and is thereby made immortal. …When we hear Jesus say, “Ye shall eat and drink at the table of my kingdom,” what do we suppose we shall eat, if not love? Love, rather than food and drink, is sufficient to nourish a person. This is the wine “which maketh glad the heart.” Blessed is the one who partakes of this wine! Licentious people have drunk this wine and become chaste; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have drunk this wine and become fasters; the rich have drunk it and desired poverty, the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it and become wise.
Repentance is given us as grace after grace, for repentance is a second regeneration by God. That of which we have received an earnest by baptism, we receive as a gift by means of repentance. Repentance is the door of mercy, opened to those who seek it. By this door we enter into the mercy of God, and apart from this entrance we shall not find mercy.

Apolytikion of Robe of Christ in Moscow
Fourth Tone

On this day let us the faithful run to the divine and healing robe of our Saviour and God, Who was pleased to wear our flesh and pour out His holy Blood on the Cross, whereby He hath redeemed us from slavery to the enemy. Wherefore, we thankfully cry to Him: By Thy precious robe save and defend Orthodox Christians, and bishops, and cities, and all men everywhere, and save our souls, for Thou art the Friend of man.

Troparion of the 45 Martyrs of Nicopolis
— Tone 4

You were chosen from on high as an army of sacred ranks,/ O Forty Five Martyrs of Christ./ You contested for the glory of Christ/ and by your struggle defeated polytheism./ We glorify Him Who has glorified you.

Troparion of St Anthony of the Kiev Caves Lavra
— Tone 4

Thou didst leave the tumult of the world to follow Christ according to the Gospel;/ thou didst lead a life equal to the Angels and reach the haven of Mount Athos./ From thence with thy fathers’ blessing thou didst illumine thy fatherland at Kiev,/ where thou didst lead a multitude of monks along the path to Christ and His kingdom./ Pray to Him, O Saint Anthony, that He may save our souls.

Troparion of St Anthony of the Kiev Caves Lavra, in Tone IV:

Leaving behind the tumult of the world, in accordance with the Gospel thou didst follow after Christ, rejecting the world; and living an angelic life, thou didst attain unto the calm haven of Holy Mount Athos, from whence, with the blessing of the fathers, thou didst go to Mount Kiev; and living there an industrious life, thou didst enlighten thy homeland; and showing a multitude of monastics the path which leadeth to the kingdom of heaven, thou didst lead them unto Christ. Him do thou beseech, O venerable Anthony, that He save our souls.

Troparion of St. Nina,
Tone 4

O handmaid of the Word of God, who in preaching equaled the first-called Apostle Andrew, and emulated the other Apostles, enlightener of Iberia and reed-pipe of the Holy Spirit, holy Nina, pray to Christ our God to save our souls.

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