God-fighting – fighting in love

Jacob became a God-fighter, which translates to ‘Israel’. But ‘God–fighter’ is a negative concept, a God-fighting one… How is it that the church is called a bogoboritsa? Truly so! Her struggle, like Gethsemane, is a struggle in love: when the Most High, diminishing, wants us to get the better of Him, just as Jacob got the better of ‘Someone...

The Elder Gregory – the Hyperborean Christ

The only authentic portrait of the elder Grigory, painted from life in 1913 by the artist Nikolai Kornilievich Bodarevsky, has been preserved. This portrait was kept for a long time in Germany and today it can be found on the Internet. In the portrait, Grigory Yefimovich appears as a gracious elder. The face shines with kindness. There was...