To understand the love of Ukrainians for the Madonna of Pokrov whenever the Byzantine Empire (recall that its capital city was Constantinople) was threatened by the Arabs or Slavs The Virgin Mary and these two saints appeared to St called Andrew the "Fool in Christ," in the Church of the Blacherns in Constantinople This church is an illustrious Marian shrine and a very beautiful church in the city the Blessed Mother went in tears to the altar placing her own veil that covered her head over the people to protect and save them "Pokrov" means "the veil" in the literal sense and borrows, from the Hebrew of the Old Testament, seter (veil), the figurative sense of "protection" or "security." The feast of the Pokrov icon therefore means, in other words, Our Lady of Protection. This feast, which commemorates her appearance, has been proclaimed the national holiday of Ukraine During the time of the Soviet and Nazi occupation this icon took on immense importance for the Ukrainian nation which reveres it as one of its favorite icons this festival was established in Russia in the 12th century during the reign of Vladimir Prince Andrew Bogolioubsky (1157-1174) The icon of Pokrov represents the Mother of God standing in orans (praying position) with her arms raised Two variations exist: either the Virgin herself spreads her veil widely or two angels spread the veil over the people Above the extended veil stands the bust of Christ Pokrov's prayer to the Virgin alludes to her veil shining over the saved crowd: Articles like these are sponsored free for every Catholic through the support of generous readers just like you Please make a tax-deductible donation today Help us continue to bring the Gospel to people everywhere through uplifting Catholic news Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Police officers Tuesday detain Alliance of Doctors union leader Dr Anastasia Vasilyeva outside a prison colony in Pokrov A group of doctors gathered at the prison colony where opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being held MOSCOW — Russian police said Tuesday they made a number of arrests outside the prison where opposition leader Alexei Navalny protesting the lack of medical care for pain in his back and a loss of sensation in both legs Doctors allied with Navalny trekked to the gates of the penal colony in Pokrov the head of the independent doctors union Alliance of Doctors The union later tweeted that Vasilyeva was released though three of her colleagues were still in police custody where he had been recovering from a poison attack with a rare nerve agent that he blames on Russian President Vladimir Putin Olga Mikhailova, one of Navalny's lawyers, told Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy on Tuesday that there are no doctors at the Pokrov penal colony. She said some 2,000 doctors had already signed an open letter demanding Navalny be examined by specialists he trusts including from the German clinic that treated him after his poisoning the number of registered protesters was just over 395,000 The Kremlin's relentless media campaign against Navalny has also borne fruit. A poll published by the independent Levada Center this week shows that 48% of Russians believe the court ruled fairly in Navalny's case as long as Navalny is in jail and in poor health he will remain on the international agenda In a videoconference with Putin last week French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought up Navalny's condition sending a message that Western leaders will not forget about him Become an NPR sponsor Looking to access paid articles across multiple policy topics Interested in policy insights for EU professional organisations the provincial town of Pokrov outside Moscow lined with Soviet-era residential blocks and teetering wooden homes had only one claim to fame: a monument to chocolate A prison where the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny was held shortly after returning to Russia in 2021 is set to shut down Navalny served more than 500 days at the IK-2 penal colony in the town of Pokrov between February 2021 and June 2022 before his transfer to other facilities Navalny described IK-2 as a “real concentration camp” with a strict focus on discipline sleep deprivation and restrictions on visitation rights The closure process for IK-2 has already begun and is expected to take a year, the Chesnok news website reported citing the Vladimir region’s branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service Prisoners currently housed at IK-2 will be transferred to other regional facilities though the future use of the site remains undecided who gained international recognition for his opposition to the Kremlin died at the age of 47 in February 2024 at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony under unclear circumstances His family and allies have accused the Kremlin of being ultimately responsible for his death The late activist was imprisoned in 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had recovered from poisoning with what Western officials identified as a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok His imprisonment and alleged poisoning prompted the United States and EU to impose sanctions on senior Russian officials The Kremlin has denied any involvement by President Vladimir Putin in Navalny’s death. Media reports citing U.S intelligence assessments said Putin “probably” did not order the opposition activist’s death Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed This year’s winner of the prestigious Russian National Bestseller Award was announced in St The award went to writer and journalist Alexander Pelevin for his novel “Pokrov-17.” Fusing Russian reality circa 1993 with mysticism it tells the story of Moscow journalist Andrei Tikhonov who is sent on a mission to the military town of Pokrov-17 — only to discover a corpse in the trunk of his car The mysteries are revealed over the course of the novel will “Wake Up Famous” in the days after receiving his prize The National Bestseller Awards were established in 2001 by Valentin Tublin They came up with a unique process to nominate books and choose a winner chosen by the organizing committee and consisting of foreign and Russian writers each choose one book that has been published or seen in manuscript This long list is then considered by the Big Jury of literary critics where it is honed down to a short list of about six books Those books are read by the Small Jury of “enlightened readers” — not publishing or literary professionals — who vote for one winning book and author The author receives 600,000 rubles (about $8,200) of which 10% must be shared with the nominator and the other shortlisted authors each receive 60,000 rubles (about $820) This year proved a moment of triumph for newcomers Out of the short list’s six finalists three writers were nominated with their debut novels and two writers hadn’t yet published their works Ivan Shipnigov’s “Stream,” was picked up by the Livebook publishing house during the competition as seen through the National Bestseller lens and Russia’s trademark never-ending search of justice general director of Biocad pharmaceutical company and a member of the Small Jury told The Moscow Times that he thought the shortlisted novels had absorbed the zeitgeist of the covid pandemic “The shortlisted novels create a very fair picture of our life today,” he said “The characters and the authors’ approaches to the subjects are something I know well: confused self-identity and viruses running wild — but all without a sense of hopelessness there is some moderate optimism and they are written tongue-in-cheek.” The most notable debut author in the long list was Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu whose nominated book “About Yesterday” is a series of nostalgic stories from the last Soviet and first post-Soviet years “Shoigu’s book inspired a record number of reviews: out of the 20 members of the Big Jury a literary critic and executive secretary of the award But I’d like to stress that reviewers considered it as a work of literature not an opus by the minister of defense… We’d like to encourage him in his writing and so we asked him to preside over the Small Jury in 2022,” Tolstov said.  Another finalist that drew much attention was Mikhail Gigolashvili with his novel “Coca.” The main character “This novel is a rare case of the main character being essentially the subject of the book,” said Yelena Shubina who nominated “Coca.” “Scenes of hell complete with a drug overdose and crime bosses a prison in Dagestan — all these mingle with the images of paradise: childhood memories of hometown Tbilisi From prison jargon and Old Tbilisi slang to the rigid style of German in a medical examination and the witty disputes of homeless dreamers (or philosophers) living in the streets of Amsterdam — it is full of life and color.” the publisher that picked up “Stream,” told The Moscow Times that “It’s a delight for a publisher to see new names and unpublished works It brings a valuable sense of discovery to the award,” she said The nominated books didn’t include any novels based on historical events Writers seem to be inspired by today’s realities or try to look into the future “I think the authors are very much influenced by the tectonic changes around us and they feel they ought to at least describe them “These reflections are crucially important in difficult times,” he continued “when each new day brings hard choices and tremendous pressure and we strive to live up to the new challenges Editorial on the First Anniversary of Scott Nevins' Suicide This webpage uses Cookies and JavaScript in order to work properly We strongly recommend to enable those technologies in yur browser In case of wrongly displayed content you can request necessary information at e-mail address wwwadmin@mzv.cz the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Skopje At the festival there were screened 2 Czech movies: ‘’Červená’ directed by Olga Sommerová and film “My century” directed by Theodora Remundová The festival was financially supported by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Skopje Parents of Suicide Monk Might Sue Monastery and Archdiocese of America “To stand in the Pokrov Church and to decode its Old Yaroslavl-style iconography as the entire drama of the Gospels unfolds itself before your eyes is to witness the melding of the Greek and Russian traditions of old” When the envoys of Kievan Rus returned home from Constantinople Prince Vladimir: “We did not know where we were on heaven or on earth; and do not know how to tell about this All we know is that God lives there with people and their service is better than in any other country We cannot forget that beauty since each person will not take something bitter afterwards.” You want to return the compliment when you listen to Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil in the glorious surrounds of one of Brunswick’s most iconic landmarks the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos (Pokrov) Russian Orthodox Church propelling the listener ever towards the celestial resonating from the depths of doors of Hades to the Gates of Paradise echoing throughout the ecumene as it girds itself around the heavens and pulls them down to make them accessible to all who cast their eyes upward To stand in the Pokrov Church and to decode its Old Yaroslavl-style iconography as the entire drama of the Gospels unfolds itself before your eyes is to witness the melding of the Greek and Russian traditions of old while the Prophet Ilia is drawn into the heavens on a fiery chariot of such vibrant hues of crimson A Greek icon of Panagia Portaitissa guards the north door Yet the pilgrim’s eye is drawn ever up the impossibly lofty Russian iconostasis to Christ enthroned in the heavens and above him taken to Constantinople and borne before the victorious armies of Byzantium With the triangle formed by that face of Utmost Serenity the entire history of Orthodox Christianity is implied A common aesthetic vocabulary is immediately identified READ MORE: Stairway to heaven through Russian Orthodox traditions It is for this reason that the recent performance of Sergei Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil within the Church is so fitting To listen to choir sing Orthodoxy’s most triumphant hymn: Τη Υπερμάχω Στρατηγώ (Thee Victorious Leader) with such exuberant brio such a contrast to the contained and confident triumphal Byzantine rendition is to marvel at the complexity of context within the historical tradition After all we celebrate the Theotokos’ delivering Constantinople from the hands of the Avars and the Slavs with enthusiasm and profoundly moving joy celebrate our delivery from their ancestors According to the Primary Chronicle of Saint Nestor the inhabitants of Constantinople called upon the intercession of the Theotokos to protect them from an attack by a large pagan Rus army the feast celebrates the destruction of this fleet sometime in the ninth century and the Pokrov Church was built in honour of Panayia’s timely delivery of the Greeks Rachmaninov wrote his All Night Vigil in 1915 A revolution in the composition of Russian Orthodox sacred music it made its first appearance just prior to the 1917 Revolution that would shatter the myth of Holy Mother Russia forever The last great sacred music work of the old imperial regime it is a swan-song to the complacency of eternity interwoven throughout with stoic acceptance of the trials that are to come where the old is shattered and the new is worshipped in its place It is a divine drama that is still in the process of unfolding in the present day its permutations both predictable for those steeped within the iconography of sound and yet unfathomable In his selection of troparia and psalms from the Vespers Rachmaninov not only signals the coming of the new by offering completely new arrangements but also expertly interposes these with conscious counterfeits He deliberately imitates three primary Orthodox styles: the Znamenny melismatic liturgical chant which melds the Slavonic and Byzantine traditions and was in use until the Russian church moved towards western polyphony in the seventeenth century with its shorter and rhythmically simpler melodies and more pronounced distinctions between recitative and melismatic passages most apparent in Rachmaninov’s “My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord” which retain as a base the version of the chant still sung in Greek Orthodox churches to the present day This then is work that proclaims a tradition that is common to all and that is comprised of the sum of its parts it is powerfully oecumenical and post-nationalist This melismatic approach to the tradition held in common by the Greeks and the Russians is also exemplified in the manner of composition Each voice is divided into as many as three parts signifying the constituents of the tradition The hymn “Glory to the God in the Highest” includes an incredible eleven part harmony that creates intensely dense evocative textures unseen in other sacred works Though employing a classical western vocabulary Rachmaninov avoids the more Occidental choral traditions of contrapuntal and fugal writing following the chant in mostly step-wise motion within modal harmonies is the music blueprint for fixing a place of ancient ethnic traditions within a broader his basso profundo regularly descends to the lowest C and on one occasion They are as rare as asparagus at Christmas.” The answer of course it was perhaps fitting that the Melbourne Chamber Choir’s recent performance in the Pokrov Church featured remarkable Greek-Australian contralto a breathtakingly talented performer who began her career at the age of sixteen and has held scholarships with Melbourne’s most distinguished choirs the Choir of Trinity College and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus possessed of the lowest vocal range for a female singer burnished sound arrests the upward propensity of the chant and grounds it only to send it soaring into the sky once more Her artful command of vocal colour and range underlies Rachmaninov’s convictions as to eternity placing her at the epicentre of the composer’s complex use of harmony READ MORE: Timeless melodies for a better world In an increasingly intolerant and totalitarian world a performance of Rachmaninov’s articulation of Orthodoxy’s eternal truths is as timely in Melbourne as ever before and its sixth movement appropriated most recently by Russian feminist protest punk rock group Pussy Riot as the basis for its protest song “Mother of God Chase Putin Away,” the All Night Vigil is an irrepressible voice of protest against all forms of insular dogmaticism and a most profound tone poem for the rapturous bliss of unity and the splendid elation of common humanity that is what the Protection of the Theotokos the Theotokos appeared at the Blachernae Church in Constantinople in the tenth century St Andrew the Blessed Fool for Christ witnessed the dome of the church opening and the Theotokos entering glowing and surrounded by angels and saints She knelt and prayed with tears for all faithful Christians in the world The Theotokos asked Her Son to accept the prayers of all the people entreating Him and looking for Her protection She walked to the altar and continued to pray She spread Her veil over all the people in the church as a protection and vanished looking up at the point Rachmaninov’s musical mantle had inevitably led me to: a fresco of the Resurrected Christ hauling Adam and Eve from their graves veiled in a headscarf sitting next to me with a thick Slavic accent observed: “They just don’t get it do they?” “That this is not a performance of an obscure piece of music The head of the Penza executive committee of the All-Russian People's Front (ARPF) the head of the charity foundation in support of family motherhood and childhood “Pokrov” Anna Kuznetsova called her appointment to the post of the Children's Rights Commissioner for the President unexpected © PenzaNewsBuy the photo [...] It's a lot of trust for the community members which we have set,” she told the correspondent of PenzaNews the new position is a great responsibility “The first steps [...] will be ending my previous activities — pass on the “Pokrov,” the Association [of organizations for the protection of the family] I will have to understand the specifics of the new activities and the new position is the one of an official it is important to understand the specifics nuances and make plans both specific and global,” the agency interlocutor added what principles Anna Kuznetsova will follow in the new position it is because of them [principles] that I received such an opportunity child support — it is clear that all that we have lived through with our “Pokrov.” [...] Thanks to everyone who supported [...] I hope that now we will be able to do even more,” she said Talking about the new head of “Pokrov,” Anna Kuznetsova said that this issue will be resolved within a week Both people lived with “Pokrov” for many years I think it will soon be clear as to “Pokrov” and the Association [of organizations for the protection of the family],” the agency interlocutor explained the question of who heads the executive committee of the Penza ARPF will also be resolved in the near future in the Central Headquarters of the ARPF Fully or partially reproduced material must be used with Internet hyperlink to http://penzanews.ru/en/. Terms of use PenzaNews agency is registered with the Rossvyazokhrankultura Address: 119a, Kalinina street, Penza, Russia, 440034. Phones: +7 (8412) 999-103, 999-102, 241-241. E-mail: info@penzanews.ru In this video grab provided by the RU-RTR Russian television via APTN Russian Emergency Situation employees work at the scene of a derailment at a railway crossing near in the town of Pokrov about 85 kilometers (53 miles) east of Moscow Moscow: Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry says that 19 citizens of the ex-Soviet nation were killed when a train slammed into a bus carrying them near Moscow Russia's state Investigative Committee said that another five passengers of the bus were injured in Friday's collision about 85 kilometres (53 miles) east of Moscow The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said that 56 people on the bus were Uzbek citizens and two others The local administration said that the bus was carrying migrant workers from Uzbekistan heading to their native country the bus got stuck in a railway crossing because of a technical malfunction The wreckage of a passenger bus is seen after it was hit by a train at a crossing near the town of Pokrov Russian Interior Ministry/Handout via REUTERS The wreckage of a train is seen after it hit a passenger bus at a crossing near the town of Pokrov Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS TV Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS TV A view shows the scene of an accident involving a passenger bus and a train at a crossing near the town of Pokrov Russia.  (RU-RTR Russian Television/ APTN via AP) These are my reflections on the canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero in our sister Latin Church on this Old Calendar Feast of the Protecting Mantle of the Most Holy Theotokos in our church The second was the music of the Argentinian muse Mercedes Sosa particularly the song ‘Sólo le pido a Dios,’ a cry to God that we do not forget the pain of the suffering but always feel it as our own as a motivator to work for justice I realize now that my spiritual father had a personal connection to the Salvadoran New-Martyrs He had been posted there for a ministry stint in the 1980s too The teacher had been educated at the Jesuit theological school in Berkeley and he said that he had known one of the guys portrayed in the film the one who meets an ugly death when they electrocute him by the testicles It was a real shock when I learned that that’s what happened to him The arc of the film as I remember it – it has been over fifteen years since I’ve seen it – is that Archbishop Romero transforms from bookish to a man of the people I recall the Romero character saying in his first public address as portrayed in the film and it soon cut to a scene of him in his study Each progression opens the world out a little more for Romero the more he understands that it is the political order of El Salvador that is unjust that the establishment to which he had been comfortably allied was basically a killing machine that was picking off his friends He gets closer and closer to the common people and as more and more of them become his friends At one poignant point toward the end of the film he stands in the way of the military by saying mass for the people shot with the chalice upraised so that his blood is co-mingled with the Blood of Christ I hear that the assassination of Archbishop Romero actually took place in the middle of a homily This fact does not dampen Romero’s deep identification with Christ in the circumstances of his martyrdom The sermon that he was interrupted in preaching concerns a woman who was killed for her dedication to the cause of social justice The killing occurs at the high point of the oration when Romero argues that she is deeply identified with what the Eucharist is about He may not have been consecrating the chalice at the time of his death There is something poetic about Archbishop Romero being murdered while delivering an exegesis of the Eucharist The movie has to dramatize his death so that he dies as he is holding the chalice aloft because it would be far less dramatic if only his words were about the Blood of Christ he delivered addresses about those who were being murdered and called on the regime to end the repression except that it was not longer written texts that he was explicating His parting words exegeted Christ himself in the Eucharist as it ran through the veins of a woman whose blood was spilled for the sake of justice his body the open book that demonstrates his own identification with the crucifixion of the Messiah God courage was not the first word that folks used to describe him Only with the death of his friend Rutilio Grande was a fire lit from under him at least in the way that my spiritual father tells it a way in which the story of the Salvadoran martyrs including Archbishop Romero but not only him can be told as a narrative of conversion to the scholarship of everyday life Trained in a conservative church to eschew critique of institutional systems and in textual analyses that do not readily lend themselves to the exegesis of the world and the Jesuit martyrs show that the first step in intellectual conversion is the opening of their eyes to what is in front of them the accusation that Romero was somehow manipulated by left-leaning Jesuits is false His conversion to the church of the poor occurred not by the infusion of ideology into his thinking but by the shattering of his hall of mirrors but he realized that he was also a man among men a human being alive with the glory of God among the icons of the bodies of the poor This turn to everyday life is not the abandonment of scholarship It is the realization that what a scholar should be studying is not simply books but that what is in the book is an attempt to convey life as it happens The writing of books is a challenge to the book knowledge and there can always be more books written because there is always more life to live It is what got Romero and those under his omophor aligning the institutions of the church and the university with the poor instead of the establishment we who make our living in the academy might answer the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos but the Holy Bishop of Rome Paul VI is being canonized Paul VI might be said to have given words to what Romero and his companions were doing with the words civilization of love they were already building an alternative order as pastors and scholars to educate and to maintain the autonomy of the intellect in order to keep the establishment honest and political agency where it belongs — with the people But what it means to be a scholar is to be so invested in the reflection of everyday life that what emerges is a conscious building of a social ordering of life based on charity especially as intellectuals tend to have no armies When violence comes at us — as it did for Romero as it did for his companions and those under his omophor and indeed as it also came for Paul VI himself when his friend Aldo Moro was killed — we must have a protector the scholars of the everyday lives in the fragile project of building a civilization of love are most identified with the poor It was not an intellectual or a politician or a bishop or a powerful person in the Church of Blachernae on the outskirts of Constantinople that saw the Mother of God descend from the dome in the middle of Vespers while the city was besieged by the pirates of Rus’ and spread it over the people in protection It was a Holy Fool-for-Christ — his name was Andrew — and the stichera and tropars of our celebration of Pokrov joining the voices of theologians to the vision of someone who was regarded as the idiot of his society the descendants of those who had been besieging the Holy City who celebrate the Pokrova more than the Greeks the image that is presented to us on this Feast of Pokrov Beneath Oscar Romero’s omophor is the poor and he is killed for aligning his pastoral and scholarly orientations with them But he stands beneath the omophor of another who is canonized today whose civilization of love is revealed to be a city always under threat even in his own everyday life from the threats of organized crime in Italy Is the kingdom of God a possibility in our midst Can we build this city in which we profess faith and all who dare to align themselves with the poor in the scholarship of everyday life are under her omophor