"Nothing is more pitiful, nothing more disastrous than to be one's own spiritual director" (Saint Dorotheos of Gaza--+580 A.D.)

Saint Thecla came from the city of Iconium in Asia Minor and was the daughter of a rich pagan called Theocleus. She was betrothed at the age of eighteen to a young man called Thamyris, who loved her dearly. It was the time that Saint Paul, coming down from Antioch, stayed in Iconium at the house of Onesiphorus, a neighbor of Thecla, and taught the word of God there night and day.

On this day the mercy, miracles and wisdom of God are celebrated: His mercy toward the devout and righteous parents of Saint John, the aged Zacharias and Elizabeth, who all their lives had wished for and begged a child from God; His miracles, that of John's conception in the aged womb of Elizabeth; His wisdom, in the dispensation of man's salvation.

Our contemporary venerates venerable elder and Saint Paisios once said the following during one of his talks to nuns:

Our holy God-bearing father Peter the Athonite, the first hesychast of the Holy Mountain, lived in a cave situated in the southern part of the peninsula. There he led a truly angelic and heavenly life. Without clothes, barefoot, suffering both many and various temptations caused by demons, he, for fifty-three years was fed with heavenly bread.