How the Russian Orthodox Church targets anti-war priests.

For more than 20 years, Father Aleksei Uminsky served as the rector of a church in a quiet corner of central Moscow.

His dismissal and defrocking took about 10 days.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20260531-how-the-russian-orthodox-church-targets-anti-war-priests?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#RussianOrthodoxChurch #WarInUkraine #Russia #RussianOrthodox #Religion

Jacque Tilly convicted in Russia for Satire.

German Tagesschau because it shows the float in question, which US media & UK media shy away from:
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/tilly-urteil-moskau-100.html

#CarnivalFloat #Tilly #Art #Satire #Russia #Law #Politics #Oppression #Censorship #Terror #DickSucker #RussianOrthodoxChurch #Putin

Saturday, March 21, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/saturday-march-21-2026/

St. George

St. George (Romanized: Georgios), a.k.a. George of Lydda, was a Christian martyr. He’s venerated as a saint. He was born in the late 3rd century (circa 270-281 AD) in Cappadocia in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), to Christian parents of noble Greek descent.

According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army. He became a soldier in the Roman army. He became a soldier after his dad passed away. He became a Tribunus (a high-ranking officer). He eventually became a member of the Diocletian at Nicomedia.

But he was later executed, as part of the Diocletianic Persecution. In 303 AD, Diocletian issued an edict allowing the persecution of Christians. George was ordered to renounce his faith & offer sacrifices to the Roman gods. He refused. He also tore up the emperor’s edict.

He was beheaded on April 23, 303 AD. His courage was so admired (in some traditions) that it led to Empress Alxandra of Rome to be martyred also.

He’s 1 of the most venerated saints, heroes, & megalomartyrs in Christianity. He has been especially venerated as a military saint since the Crusades. He’s also prominently venerated by the Druze (& by some Muslim groups) as a martyr of monotheistic faith.

In hagiography, he was immortalized in the legend(s) of St. George & the dragon & as 1 of the most prominent military saints. In a famous tale of George rescuing a princess from a dragon in Silene (Libya) 1st appeared in Georgian texts in the 11th century.

It was popularized in the West by the Lombardic “Golden Legend” in the 13th century. In religious iconography, the dragon represents the devil or Paganism, & the princess represents the Church.

In Roman Catholicism, he is also venerated as 1 of the 14 Holy Helpers. His feast day, St. George’s Day, is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The Church of St. George in Lydda (now Lod, Israel) has a sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain George’s relics.

According to tradition, a fierce dragon was causing panic in the city of Silene in Libya when our guy George arrived there. To keep the creature from ravaging the city, the inhabitants gave it 2 sheep each day. But when the sheep were no longer enough, they were forced to sacrifice people chosen by the townesfolk themselves.

Eventually, the king’s daughter was selected, & no one was willing to take her place. Georger saved her by slaying the dragon with a lance. The king was so grateful that he offered George treasures as a reward for saving his daughter’s life.

But George refused & urged him to give to the poor instead. The townspeople were so astonished by what they saw that they all became Christians & were baptised.

George (In Arabic, Jirjis or Girgus) is included in some Muslim texts as a prophetic figure. The Islamic sources state that he loved a group of believers who were in direct contact with the last apostles of Jesus. He was described as a rich merchant who opposed Dadan, the king of Mosul, in his reaction to Apollo’s stature.

After confronting the king, George was tortured many times to 0 effect, was imprisoned, & was aided, allegedly, by angels. Eventually, he was exposed to the fact that the idols were possessed by Satan. But was martyred when the city was destroyed by God in a rain of fire. (This is giving serious Sodom & Gomorrah vibes.)

According to Muslim legends, he was martyred under the rule of Diocletian & was killed 3x. But was resurrected every time. The legend is more developed in the Persian version of al-Tabari, wherein he resurrects the dead, makes trees sprout, & pillars bear flowers.

After 1 of his deaths, the world is covered by darkness, which is lifted only when he’s resurrected. He’s able to convert the queen, but she’s put to death. Then he prays to God to allow him to die, which is granted.

Al-Tah’labi says that George was from Palestine & lived in the times of some disciples of Jesus. He was killed many times by the king of Mosul, & resurrected each time. When the king tried to starve him, he touched a piece of dry wood brought by a woman & turned it green, with varieties of fruits & veggies growing from it. After his 4th death, the city was burnt along with him.

English soldiers under Richard the Lionheart invoked St. George at the Siege of Acre. They brought his “cult” back to Britain, where he replaced Edward the Confessor as the nation’s primary patron because he represented “active” chivalry rather than “passive” monasticism.

In 1348, King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter (the oldest and highest order of chivalry in England), putting it under the patronage of St. George. The current British monarch, King Charles III, is the head of the order today.

In the General Roman Calendar, George’s feast day is on April 23. In the Tridentine calendar of 1568, it was given the rank of “Semi double.” In Pope Pius XII’s calendar, the rand was reduced to “Simple.” In Pope Paul VI’s 1969 revision, it appears as an “optional memorial.”

In some countries, like England, the rank is higher. It’s a Solemnity (Roman Catholic) or Feast (Church of England): if it falls between Palm Sunday & the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it’s transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter.

The Russian Orthodox Church also celebrates 2 additional feasts in honor of St. George. One is on November 3, commemorating the consecration of a cathedral dedicated to him in Lydda during the reign of Constantine the Great (305-337). When the church was consecrated, George’s relics were transferred there. The other feast day is on November 26 for a church dedicated to him in Kyiv (or Kiev, Ukraine), circa 1054.

In Bulgaria, St. George’s Day is celebrated on May 6. It’s customary to slaughter & roast a lamb. George’s Day is also a public holiday.

In Serbia & Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates St. George on May 6. It’s a common slava (patron saint day) among ethnic Serbs.

In Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria calls St. George the “Prince of Martyrs.” They celebrate his martyrdom on the 23rd of Paremhat of the Coptic Calendar (equal to May 1). The Copts also celebrate the consecration of the 1st church dedicated to him on the 7th of the month of Hatour of the Coptic calendar (equal to November 17).

George is the patron saint of England. His cross forms the national flag of England. By the 14th century, he was declared both the patron saint & protector of the British royal family. He’s also the patron saint of Georgia (the country), Ethiopia, Iberia, Russia, & Bulgaria.

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In Search Of Holy Mother Russia by Ludo Van Eck

The chief purpose of this book is to give the uninformed Western reader a clear idea of everyday life in the USSR and of the Russian Orthodox Church, yet it also touches on a number of other related subjects, such as the history of the Church in Russia and the things in which it differs from other Christian creeds, the church architecture, the celibacy of priests, the veneration of saints, icons, church art, the clergy, divine services, the dogmas of the Church, fasts and feasts, the Sacraments, the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards the issue of peace on Earth, and towards other religions.

You can get the book here and here.

Twitter: @MirTitles
Mastodon: @[email protected]
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Bluesky: mirtitles.bsky.social
Fork us at: https://gitlab.com/mirtitles

Foreword 5
A Meeting in Zagorsk 9
An Excursion into the History of the Russian Orthodox Church 25
At the Moscow Patriarchate 29
Zagorsk Revisited 41
Suzdal and Vladimir 60
Leningrad 84
Petrozavodsk and Kizhi 117
Pskov and Pechory 129
An Appeal for Peace 155
West German Clergymen in the USSR 172
One Last Meeting 180
Conclusions 185

#religionInUssr #russianHistory #russianOrthodoxChurch #sovietHistory #sovietLiterature #travel

Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/us/orthodox-christianity.html

From Zero to #HolyWar: The #InternationalCommunity's Failure to Confront the #RussianOrthodoxChurch's Escalating Support for #War Against #Ukraine

15(3) Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy (2025) 1
85 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2025
Robert C. Blitt
University of Tennessee, Knoxville - Winston College of Law

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5436699

From 2017...

"The rhetoric of a looming civilizational war has proved persistent. Recent years have seen religious leaders from both the American Christian community and the Russian Orthodox community coming together to bemoan the decline of traditional values. One example is the 2015 Moscow meeting between #PatriarchKirill, the head of the #RussianOrthodoxChurch, and #FranklinGraham, son of the evangelist #BillyGraham. The Patriarch lamented to Graham how, after decades of inspiring underground believers in the Soviet Union with its defense of religious freedom, the West has abandoned the shared 'common Christian moral values' that are the bedrock of a universal 'Christian civilization.'

"But even as Bannon and various religious leaders seek to pit the values of Christianity against those of Islam, there is also an internal competition to decide who gets to define Christian #traditionalism. Two of the main players in this competition, American Christian traditionalists — including conservative Catholics like Bannon as well as evangelicals like Franklin Graham — and Russian Orthodox, are united in their desire to save Christendom from the perceived threat of radical Islam. But buried underneath that superficial agreement is a complex disagreement as to what Christendom even means.

"In Bannon’s telling, the greatest mistake the baby boomers made was to reject the traditional 'Judeo-Christian' values of their parents. He considers this a historical crime, because in his telling it was Judeo-Christian values that enabled Western Europe and the United States to defeat European fascism, and, subsequently, to create an '#EnlightenedCapitalism' that made America great for decades after World War II. The enormous amount of media attention he has received and his various interviews, talks, and documentaries strongly suggest that he believes the world is on the verge of disaster—and that without Judeo-Christianity, the American culture war cannot be won, enlightened capitalism cannot function, and 'Islamic fascism' cannot be defeated.

"This is where Bannon invokes the 'Russian traditionalism' of Vladimir #Putin, and it’s important to recognize why he does so. In his 2014 Vatican talk, Bannon made it clear that Putin is 'playing very strongly to U.S. social conservatives about his message about more traditional values.' As a recent Atlantic essay convincingly argues, upon his return to office in 2012, Putin realized that 'large patches of the West despised #feminism and the #GayRights movement.' Seizing the opportunity, he transformed himself into the 'New World Leader of #Conservatism' whose traditionalism would offer an alternative to the libertine West that had long shunned him."

Read more:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/steve-bannon-american-evangelicals-russian-orthodox/519900/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/BndXk

#NewWorldOrder? #MAGA #MAGADeathCult #ChristoFacists #ChristoFascism #ProFamily #TraditionalFamily #TradWives #AntiGay #AntiAbortion #ROC #Evangelicals #CorporateColonialism #Oligarchs #AntiWoke #TrumpIsARussianAsset