(Editor’s note: We are excited to announce that Nicholas Kotar, who has written a few great pieces for OAJ, has recently published his first novel. Here is a version of his press release.) Orthodox Writer writes a fantasy novel inspired by Russian fairy tales and the Lives of the Saints. Discouraged by the lack […]
This is post 2 of 2 in the series “The Dog Headed Icon of St-Christopher” In my last article on the dog-headed icon of St-Christopher, I promised to take the reader on an encounter with the Saint. In order to do this, we must travel quite far from our main subject of iconography, but this […]
This is post 1 of 2 in the series “The Dog Headed Icon of St-Christopher” This post is the first of a series. Part two The icon of St-Christopher is one of the most astounding images found in the Orthodox Tradition. Showing a dog-headed warrior saint, it conjures fantastical stories of werewolves or of […]
One of the most surprising images one is faced with considering Orthodox liturgical symbolism is the bishop’s staff sporting two snakes flanking a small cross atop it. Especially in a Protestant North American context, this image seems to hark back to ancient chthonian cults, more a wizard’s magic staff than anything Christian. As I have […]