Every home is to be a little church and one of the primary tasks of every Orthodox family should be to create an environment within the home that will foster ‘church’ growth. An Orthodox home should be an environment in which prayer, spiritual education, and outreach are present. Although I cannot guarantee that [...]

As will quickly become evident even if I had chosen not to add this disclaimer: this blog is geared towards moms (and dads, too!). I have 3 little ones wreaking havoc in my home and at random intervals away from crowd control, I have been trying this past year to gather ideas to help teach [...]

Sometimes, there comes along a person who makes you sit back and just go “wow”. In the Orthodox Faith, Saint Thekla is pretty much the patron saint of “wow” - her story is nothing less than amazing.
Thekla came from the Iconium city in Turkey around A.D. 16, making her a contemporary of [...]

Many women who are highly revered by the Orthodox church have done some incredibly and surprising things. Today I’m introducing Saint Marina, the patron saint of one of our Generation Orthodox Podcast contributors. Marina, our colleague on the show, shared her personal story of how Saint Marina found her and why she chose her as her patron and namesake. I’d like to go into her story a little bit more to show our readers that sometimes, female saints in the Orthodox church get a little radical.

This blog is extremely personal and emotional for me to write, but that’s where we find God is most present – our personal lives. I’m focusing today on Saint Martha, a beautiful saint whose chief saintly act was that of Love.
Saint Martha first enters into the life of Christ when she welcomes Jesus into [...]

When I was chrismated on Pentecost 2007, I took on the name of my patron saint. I chose Photina, the Latin version of the name Photini (Russian: Sveltana), the Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4:5-42. I really wish I could describe what happened to my heart when I read her story, and what [...]

During the second podcast of Generation Orthodox, the discussion turned towards woman sainthood in the Orthodox church. I made the incorrect statement that I felt “limited” in chosing a patron saint for my Chrismation, and after a very lively discussion I was approached about writing a weekly blog about the female saints in Orthodoxy. Not [...]