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 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.
In Istanbul, coffee could get you executed – in Rome, it was blessed
In 1654, a patriarch gave the Ukrainian hetman an object that had already sparked half a century of controversy – costing people their lives in Turkey while eventually becoming an aid to prayer on Mount Athos.
"The Starry Night": A prayer from a hospital ward
The masterpiece from Saint-Rémy underscores the resilience of the human spirit. Amid a raging ocean, there is something that sustains our connection with the Creator.