Publications Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex

14/08/2026

The Holy Virgin had infinite love for God and unparalleled humility. Moreover, she was fully surrendered to the divine will, although it entailed a crucified life, constant self-emptying and inner martyrdom. Throughout her life, she selflessly served the Lord Jesus, her Son and her God, without being seen. We must strive with great self-denial in order to keep a little measure of grace. How much more so did the Mother of God have to be perfectly dead to the world and to her own self, in order to bear the fulness of grace, to bear God incarnate in the innermost parts of her being, to serve His will for the salvation of the whole world.

Bearing this in mind, the shadow begins to be lifted from the paradoxical verse: ‘Death is betrothed to life.”

— Excerpt From Mariam • The Mystery of the Most Holy Mother of God (p. 18) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

14/08/2026

“The Mother of God ‘died daily’. She suffered the life-giving deadening of her every desire in order to make the will of God the sole law of her existence. Her heart and her ears cleaved to the Lord. She treasured His ‘words of eternal life’ in her heart. She forsook all kinship of this life and renounced all human consolation. Even at the Cross of her Son, when her maternal bowels were rent apart, the Mother of God remained a perfect ‘likeness of Christ’ and did not cease to intercede for the salvation of all, including those who, in their madness, crucified Christ.”

— Excerpt From Mariam • The Mystery of the Most Holy Mother of God (p. 18) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

08/08/2026

Giddiness perplexes our human mind at the ‘incomprehensible miracle’ that took place in her and we confess with awe: ‘In thee, O Virgin without spot, the bounds of nature are overcome: for childbirth remains virgin and death is betrothed to life.’

— Excerpt From Mariam • The Mystery of the Most Holy Mother of God (p. 12) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

31/07/2026

“The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.’ ‘The hidden man of the heart’ of the Mother of God had true beauty ‘in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price’. Her inner world was woven with the grace of God. Her heart overflowed with light ‘and in it was no darkness at all’. The beauty of the Holy Virgin was radiant with the virtue of humility and adorned by her spiritual virginity. Her heart was given to God wholly and without division; her mind never departed from the memory of His Name; her love for Him was never shared with any other love of this world; her will never wavered from His counsels.”

— Excerpt From Mariam • The Mystery of the Most Holy Mother of God (p. 16) •Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

11/07/2026

He used to say, ‘To be a Christian, one must be like an artist.’ Just as artists are captivated by the subjects they paint and by the desire to portray them as perfectly as possible, so too the Christian is captivated by Christ and by a desire to attain to His endless perfection. ‘I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own’ [Phil. 3:12].

— Excerpt from: Christ, Our Way And Our Life • Introduction (p. 17) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)

Publications Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist

Find our publications at: essexmonastery.com

Designed by Orthodox Outcast

12/05/2026

The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
A talk by Father Sergius - the Abbot of Saint Tikhon's St Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery

An Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery and publishing house of Christian books, est. 1959 by Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

05/05/2026

The saints lived and prayed at heights most of us can barely imagine, yet their gifts weren’t meant for them alone. Within the Church, God invites every one of us into the company of these holy Fathers, to be shaped by their words and carried by their prayers.

This book follows that stream of grace. Drawing on the writings of Saint Sophrony, Archimandrite Zacharias guides us into one of the most intimate mysteries of the Christian life: how we, as human beings, stand before God in prayer.

🎧 Available as audiobook, ebook, paperback or in a beautiful hardback clothbound format.

22/04/2026

A simple exterior, holding something quietly beautiful within.
The Orthodox Liturgy and the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete, lovingly wrapped — with care and beauty in every detail.

19/04/2026

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. (John 20:28)⁣
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I do not know a Greek Christ, a Russian Christ, an English Christ... Christ for me is everything, the supra-cosmic Being.

— Excerpt, Drawings & Icon Painting from: The Face of Light (St. Sophony’s Icons of Christ) by Sister Gabriela