Rev. Father Michael Boyle,
Priest
Rev. Deacon Philip Mayer
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Rev. Father Michael Boyle,
Priest |
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Solovoki's Prosphora"Once, three merchants came to Solovki to take part in the church services. Afterward, priests offered them blessed bread from the Liturgy and Zosima invited them to stay for dinner. When they did not come to the refectory, Mark (by now the cellarer of the monastery) told Zosima that the merchants had left early, not wanting to take time for a meal. Suddenly, the monks heard a monastery dog barking and growling near the shore. Mark left the table to investigate. He found the dog trying to hold back the merchants with his teeth, while the merchants pelted it with rocks, and, he said, a strange ring of fire burned on the ground where the dog growled. Inside the circle of flames, Mark explained, lay blessed bread from the liturgy, cast off by the merchants but guarded by the holy flames. The flames would not go out until the monk had retrieved the blessed bread from the ground. The merchants, though Christian, simply did not understand the sancitity of the prosphora… This was a harbinger: Solovki's prosphora were to become famous for their miraculous powers, and saved and cherished for generations." From "Solovki : The Story of Russia Told Through Its Most Remarkable Islands" Roy R. Robson (Yale University Press, 2004)
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