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Most visitors to Rome over the years have marveled at the famous fragments of the Colossus of Constantine. Largely destroyed and dismantled in antiquity, this massive work of marble, wood and bronze once stood in the Basilica of Maxentius. Significant chunks of the Colossus are now located in a courtyard at the Capitoline Museum in Rome where my wife and I visited them on our honeymoon a few decades back. In 2024, a magnificent replica of the Colossus was erected nearby in the garden behind the Capitoline Museum. While the sheer size of the work has drawn considerable attention, the...

Free viewing of the short documentary today. I just watched it. It brought me to tears. "...What touched them most was the the story of the 21 Egyptian Christians that were kidnapped by ISIS terrorists in 2015 and beheaded on a beach in Libya because they steadfastly refused to renounce their love for — and faith in — Jesus Christ as the crucified and resurrected Savior of the world. ...

Among the martyrs of Rome during the Great Persecution under Diocletian and Maximian (early 4th century AD), the name of Saint Agnes is certainly one of the most famous. A young girl of perhaps 12 or 13 at the time of her martyrdom, Agnes would later be commemorated in the Roman Canon of the Mass as well as numerous works of art both ancient and modern. Though no authentic account of her trial has survived antiquity, the passion of Saint Agnes is known from three near contemporary ancient sources. The first is an epitaph which was affixed to her tomb...

Three days after the feast of the Nativity of Jesus, the Catholic Church traditionally commemorates the massacre of the Holy Innocents – the children of Bethlehem slain by King Herod following the birth of Christ. This event is recorded in the Gospel of Saint Matthew in connection with the arrival of the Magi – the Wise Men from the East – who had followed a star to Jerusalem, and had sought out the newborn king of the Jews. According to Matthew’s account, King Herod requested that the Magi return to him after finding the child, ostensibly so that Herod could...

Why Did Rod Dreher Become Eastern Orthodox?Editor’s note: we appeal with love and respect to our separated brother, Mr. Rod Dreher, and all Catholics who have questioned or lost their faith in the ancient doctrine of the Apostolic See and taken refuge in one of the Greek schisms. This piece is authored by a Russian Orthodox Christian who reconciled with Rome after a thorough study of the Fathers and writes from Russia.The United States and Russia are not now on best terms. Yet, no compatriot of mine would deny you Yankees, your taste for a good bargain. So, as a...

Emperor of Rome (244-249), the son of an Arab sheik, born in Bosra. He rose to be an influential officer of the Roman army. In 243 the Emperor Gordianus III was at war with Persia; the administration of the army and the empire were directed with great success by his father-in-law Timesitheus. Timesitheus, however, died in 243 and the helpless Gordianus, a minor, appointed Marcus Julius Philippus as his successor. By causing a scarcity of provisions Philip increased the exasperation of the soldiers against the emperor and they proclaimed Philip emperor. Philip now had Gordianus secretly executed. However, as he...

Saint Augustine, one of the greatest intellects in human history and a Catholic apologist par excellence, lived and proselytized during the twilight of the Roman Empire. As his life drew to a close, however, his homeland of Roman Numidia was overrun by an army of marauding Vandals--a barbaric host which had carved a swath through the enervated provinces of Gaul, Spain and Mauritania. By the time the Vandal armies reached Augustine's province of Numidia in about AD 430, the great bishop lay on his deathbed. His city of Hippo Regius was besieged and the remaining Roman forces under Count Boniface...

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has learned that the commander of Brigade 20 of the Syrian National Army visited the local Christian community in Ras Al-Ein in northern Syria on 22 June and promised to support and protect the few remaining Christians in the town. Ras Al-Ein is close to the Syrian border with Turkey and is currently under the control of a coalition of Islamist militias. Abdulaziz Al-Sawadi, who is also known as Abou Barzan, controls an area 25 miles west of the town. Commander Al-Sawadi visited St Thomas Syriac Orthodox Church and the church's library. He expressed his commitment to...

I'm not going to get into the details of the disgusting mockery of the Last Supper perpetrated by those responsible for the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Let it suffice to say that the blasphemous display was perfectly in keeping with the evil times in which we live. So I congratulate the Paris Olympics Committee for providing an unmistakable public proof of just how vulgar and odious French culture has become, and broadcasting it to the wide world. That said, there is a social media trope out there that maintains that the tawdry performance was not...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. This is Bishop Mari Emmanuel addressing our beloved faithful. Whoever you are and wherever you are, we need to understand that we need to be always thankful to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. For whatever trials and tribulations we go through, we are carrying the cross. Let us not forget that at all. The Lord Jesus said to us, if you do not carry your cross every day and follow me, you are not worthy to be my disciple....

...talking about what it meant for them to choose the Catholic priesthood in the year 2024. The next morning, they would make lifelong promises of celibacy and obedience, and they were elated by the prospect. ... There was a time where the church “maybe apologized for being Catholic,” he said later in the conversation. He and the other new priests agreed they were called to something different: advancing the Catholic faith, even the parts that could seem out of place in an increasingly hostile world. “The church is Catholic, and so we should announce that joyfully,” he said. In an...

June 20 is the Feast of Pope Saint Silverius, a 6th century martyr who was deposed and starved to death for the sake of political expediency by order of the Christian Roman empress, Theodora. Pope Saint Silverius is truly a saint for our times. Faced with persecution by the Christian Roman imperial government which insisted that he embrace heresy, he nonetheless held courageously to the truth of the Catholic faith, despite lies, corruption, intimidation and threats to his office and his life. Almost no one today knows him, but Silverius is a saint that Catholics should invoke when faced with...

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen! Христос Воскресе! Воистину Воскресе! Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any...

The writings Sulayman al-Ghazzi (or Solomon of Gaza) are one of the great hidden gems of Arab Orthodoxy, though not a word of them is yet available in a western language. I'm doing a little work on them for a different venue, but would like share something about him on this blog. I'll do another post soon about his life in more detail, but he was an Orthodox bishop in Palestine in the 11th century, during the persecution of Christians under the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amrillah. He is the first Arabic-language poet whose poetry was entirely dedicated to Christian religious...

The boy accused of stabbing a bishop as he delivered a sermon had been mentally 'poisoned' in the lead-up to the alleged attack, Muslims who prayed with him have claimed. The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly lunged at Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, 53, and stabbed him in the head at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, in Sydney's west, at about 7pm on Monday. Father Isaac Royel, who serves in the Assyrian ministry at St Shimun Bar Sabbae and St Mary Cathedral, was among many parishioners who attempted to intervene - and as a result...

An Assyrian Orthodox Church bishop who was stabbed during a livestreamed church service in Sydney had spoken critically about Islam in a video recorded four months ago. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was preaching at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley in Sydney's west just after 7pm on Monday when a 16-year-old boy walked up to the altar and allegedly stabbed him multiple times. On a separate video of the aftermath of the alleged terror attack, the boy said in Arabic 'If they didn't insult my prophet, I wouldn't have come here. If he didn't involve himself in my religion,...

Sydney has been shaken by another stabbing attack with a priest and worshippers assailed by a knife-wielding man Monday in a suburban church. Bishop Mari Emmanuel was preaching a live-streamed sermon at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the city’s west when a man dressed in black approached the altar and allegedly stabbed the Christian Orthodox priest multiple times. Horrifying footage of the incident, which was being broadcast live on the church’s YouTube page, shows Bishop Emmanuel look up in astonishment as the attacker suddenly rains down blows on his face and head, news.com.au reports. The local Sydney-based outlet goes...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Two men accused of fatally stabbing three Egyptian monks belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church this week appeared in a South African court Thursday and will remain in custody until their next court appearance. Saeed Basanda, dressed in a blue T-shirt and with a white bandage wrapped around his left hand, has been identified as a 37 -year-old Egyptian national. His co-accused, Samuel Avamarkos, is identified in the charge sheet as a 47 year-old South African citizen. They both registered their addresses as the same plot in the town of Cullinan, east of the capital, Pretoria, where...

Statement of the Holy Synod of Antioch Balamand, 14 March 2024 The Holy Antiochian Synod, presided by His Beatitude Patriarch JOHN X (Yazigi), held its eighteenth extraordinary session in Balamand from March 13 to March 14, 2024, in the presence of Their Eminences: Elias (Archdiocese of Beirut and dependencies); Elias (Archdiocese of Tyre, Sidon and dependencies); Saba (Archdiocese of New York and All North America); Silouan (Archdiocese of Byblos, Botrys and dependencies); Basilios (Archdiocese of Akkar and dependencies); Ephrem (Archdiocese of Tripoli, Koura and dependencies); Ignatius (Archdiocese of France, Western and Southern Europe); Isaac (Archdiocese of Germany and Central Europe);...