Abba Macarius and the thief
Once Abba Macarius found a thief in his cell loading the elder's belongings onto a donkey standing outside. Without revealing that he was the owner of those things, the saint quietly began helping the man tie the bundles onto the animal. When everything was ready, he let the thief go in peace and said to himself:
“We brought nothing into this world, and it is clear that we can take nothing out of it. Blessed be the Lord in all things!”
Read also
The cross on the spear of Roman triumph
The victory at the Milvian Bridge did not instantly turn the empire Christian. The struggle for the throne continued, relatives were bloodily executed, and pagan symbols remained at the highest levels of government.
Six bronze figures on the road to their Gethsemane
We are used to heroic monuments celebrating triumph. Auguste Rodin shows us a different kind of heroism – the courage of a person walking toward death to save others.
The immortal hospital on the Kyiv hills
For nearly a thousand years, Kyiv was home to the first free hospital of its kind in Rus’. Surviving documents show how monastic medicine combined prayer with the art of healing.
The battle for power under the banner of heaven
In the fall of 312, the Roman Empire was engulfed in a brutal civil war. Historical analysis challenges the familiar image of a righteous ruler confronting a tyrant for the earthly triumph of the faith.
A 16th-century Lviv detective
Lviv craftsmen pooled their money to ransom a printing press, went to war with their own bishop, and created the finest school in Eastern Europe.
The mystery of forgotten catacomb symbols
In the first centuries of Christianity, the cross was not perceived as an attribute of earthly power. It represented the paradoxical victory over death through voluntary humility and suffering.