My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning

sebastianmorris:

fourteenth:

Sts Stephen and Christopher
1700s Unknown Greek painter
Egg tempera on oak, 21 x 16 cm
Ikonen-Museum, Recklinghausen

I love the occasional cynocephalus images of St. Christopher one runs across, terribly heterodox, but oh so awesome.

Wikipedia:

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, certain icons covertly identify Saint Christopher with the head of a dog. The background to the dog-headed Christopher is laid in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, when a man named Reprebus, Rebrebus or Reprobus (the “reprobate” or “scoundrel”) was captured in combat against tribes dwelling to the west of Egypt in Cyrenaica. To the unit of soldiers, according to the hagiographic narrative, was assigned the name numerus Marmaritarum or “Unit of the Marmaritae”, which suggests an otherwise-unidentified “Marmaritae” (perhaps the same as the Marmaricae Berber tribe of Cyrenaica). He was reported to be of enormous size, with the head of a dog instead of a man, apparently a characteristic of the Marmaritae. This Byzantine depiction of St. Christopher as dog-headed resulted from their misinterpretation of the Latin term Cananeus to read canineus, that is, “canine.”

The German bishop and poet Walter of Speyer portrayed St. Christopher as a giant of a cynocephalic species in the land of the Chananeans (the “canines” of Canaan in the New Testament) who ate human flesh and barked. Eventually, Christopher met the Christ child, regretted his former behavior, and received baptism. He, too, was rewarded with a human appearance, whereupon he devoted his life to Christian service and became an athlete of God, one of the soldier-saints

dmbliss:

beardsandcatholicism:

Saint Athanasius, author of the Anthanasian Creed, which stresses that the Holy Trinity is one God, but three distinct Persons. 

The Athanasian Creed:

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated; the Son uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father unlimited; the Son unlimited; and the Holy Ghost unlimited. The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated; nor three infinites, but one uncreated; and one infinite. So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties; but one Almighty. So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord; the Son Lord; and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords; but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity; to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; So are we forbidden by the catholic religion; to say, There are three Gods, or three Lords. The Father is made of none; neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created; but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten; but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid; the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation; that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the Essence of the Father; begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the Essence of his Mother, born in the world. Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood. Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood by God. One altogether; not by confusion of Essence; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation; descended into hell; rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the God the Father Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies; And shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire. This is the catholic faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.

A medieval account credited Athanasius of Alexandria, the famous defender of Nicene theology, as the author of the Creed. According to this account, Athanasius composed it during his exile in Rome, and presented it to Pope Julius I as a witness to his orthodoxy.[1] This traditional attribution of the Creed to Athanasius was first called into question in 1642 by Dutch Protestant theologian G.J. Voss,[3] and it has since been widely accepted by modern scholars that the creed was not authored by Athanasius.[4] Athanasius’ name seems to have become attached to the creed as a sign of its strong declaration of Trinitarian faith. The reasoning for rejecting Athanasius as the author usually relies on a combination of the following: The creed originally was most likely written in Latin, while Athanasius composed in Greek. Neither Athanasius nor his contemporaries ever mention the Creed. It is not mentioned in any records of the ecumenical councils. It appears to address theological concerns that developed after Athanasius died (including the filioque). It was most widely circulated among Western Christians.[3][5]

canonizedandotherwise:

Gerard Manley Hopkins

(28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889

The Windhover

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
    dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
    As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
    Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

   No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
    Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.



—Gerard Manley Hopkins
(source: Poetry Foundation)

Elijah and Enoch (ancestor of Noah) - an icon 17th cent. (Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_(ancestor_of_Noah)

simplyorthodox:

mariaolegovna:

Romanovs

The martyrdom of the Royal Passion Bearers

(via jamesfromta)

fyeaheasterneurope:

This extraordinary icon was discovered in 1959 in the tiny village of Pskov, which lies on the River Pinega, a tributary of the Severnaya Dvina which flows into the White Sea at Archangel, in north-western Russia. The panel was being used as the shutter of a barn window. Subsequent cleaning by conservators revealed that it had been overpainted several times. Below an eighteenth-century folk painting they uncovered a seventeenth-century layer and finally this outstanding fourteenth-century icon, which was immediately recognized as an early masterpiece of Russian painting…

The saint is painted in vigorous motion, reining in his leaping horse. The representation of St George on a black, rather than white horse is extremely rare, which accounts for the icon’s popular name, ‘the Black George’.

I can only assume that they meant this was found in a village in the Pskov region, because describing Pskov as a “tiny village” is…not accurate.

andreirublyov:

Theotokos Eleusa (1855)
Nikola Obrazopisov, Samokov History Museum 

brempire:

Boundless Christ | Resurrection Icon with Extra Scenes Russian Icon, 17th Century

In the tomb with the body, in hell with the soul as God, in paradise with the thief and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit, You fill all things, O boundless Christ.

The prayer above, said by the priest during the Divine Liturgy, attempts to describe in words the mystery of Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. Simply put, Christ, being truly God, remained “omnipresent” – everywhere – even whilst seemingly constrained by a human body.

At the centre of the scene is Christ “in the tomb”, though because it is a Resurrection icon it is instead showing Jesus’ physical rising from the tomb. Clothed in glorious golden robes, Jesus emerges from the stone coffin, with the discarded grave clothes still visible. To Christ’s left the soldiers appointed to guard His tomb are witnesses to the empty tomb, whilst to His right are the angels which rolled away the stone and would later declare the good news to Mary Magdalene.

Below Jesus’ feet is a globe, or sometimes a part of a globe, representing Christ’s victory over the world through His physical Resurrection.

When the composition of this icon becomes set after the 17th century, Christ is almost always also shown holding a banner (called in Russian a Khorugv) bearing a red cross as He rises from the tomb. This image of the Resurrection by itself is probably more familiar to western Christians (e.g. Dieric Bout’s Resurrection, c. 1455)

sacredimages:

Good Shepherd 01