Talanton or Toaca, is a wooden board instrument to call worshipers to prayer in the Orthodox Church. It is used especially at monasteries. Here, you can see a monk with the talanton.
It’s sound is amazing, especially as it becomes faster and faster!!!!
30 day Orthodox Challenge
Day 6 — Your favourite Orthodox monastery
For another time, it’s so difficult to choose one of the countless Orthodox monasteries: every one has it’s own history, ancient or newer. Many great Saints have founded or lived in these monasteries. Many believers through the centuries have prayed there and have felt God’s presence and help, as well as Theotokos’ and Saints’.
I think I’ll choose Saint Anthony’s monastery in south Arizona desert, which is one of my favourite.
In the summer of 1995 six monks arrived in the southern Arizona desert to establish St. Anthony’s Monastery, carrying with them the sacred, millenial heritage of the Holy Mountain, Athos.
Elder Ephraim, a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, having restored and repopulated four Mt. Athos monasteries and having established several men’s and women’s monastic communities throughout Greece and North America, transferred six Athonite monks to the Sonoran Desert to start a new monastery.
The monastery is dedicated to St. Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism, the renowned 3rd century anchorite. There are chapels dedicated to Saints Seraphim of Sarov, Demetrios of Thessalonica, John the Baptist, George the Great Martyr, Nicholas the Wonderworker, and Panteleimon the Healer. The main church is dedicated to Saints Anthony and Nectarios the Wonderworker.
The monastery follows the coenobitic rule of monastic life: a brotherhood of monks and novices holding all things in common follow a daily schedule of prayer and work under obedience to the abbot, their spiritual father. The monks’ daily program begins at midnight with personal prayer time and spiritual reading, followed by the cycle of morning prayers and the Divine Liturgy. After a light breakfast and a rest period, the monks begin their work day, attending to prayer and their tasks till evening. Tasks include, among others, construction, groundskeeping, vinedressing, gardening, woodworking, publishing, food preparation, and offering hospitality. The day ends with evening Vespers followed by dinner and Compline.
I hope that one day, I’ll have the chance to visit it!
(Photos by Chad Husby)
The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, detail of fresco from Decani Orthodox Monastery
Our beloved humble elder Paisios of the Mount Athos
Fresco from the Holy Great Monastery of Vatopaidi
Monasticism-Orthodox Church
Icons from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai
St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery by Chad Husby
Mount Athos
The Icon shows the “New Testament” Trinity, that is, Jesus Christ holding the Cross seated opposite the Father as an old man, and between Them the Holy Spirit depicted as a dove. An Austro-Hungarian military map of 1788 labels a the site as “Trinity Rock”, suggesting the icon was already painted onto the cliff-side by that date. In 1822, the icon was restored by a local painted, Moise Buru Scriitorul; the Caransebes-Orsova railway came through the region towards the end of the 19th century. The original plans specified the railway run straight through the icon, but this was met with such local opposition that the engineer deviated the line a few metres west of the image. Grigore Dragomir, then mayor of the local village Armenis, said: “the icon and site are sacred for us and for all Romanian believers, and we never pass by the icon without uncovering our heads and crossing ourselves”.
…Whatever the origins, it was certainly believed the icon was sacred and worked miracles, as shown by the locals’ response to the railway in the 19th century. There are reports even today of people being healed of disease by praying before the icon. The reverence held for the Piatra Scrisa Holy Trinity icon is strong in the region, and may explain why the girl’s name Icoana or Iconia is common, despite being rare elsewhere.
Click HERE to read more
icon via
Monasticism is Christ’s army and Satan’s enemy. The monasteries are the outposts of the Church. Without outposts, the enemy will capture us. Prayer in monasteries reaches God like a bullet. As a foreign army fears the aircraft and hides, so also Satan fear the prayer of the monastics and goes away.
-Father Dimitrios Gagastathis
Some brothers visited Abba Anthony and asked him to tell them how they could find salvation. The old man said, “You are familiar with the Scriptures. That should teach you enough.”
“Yes, but we want a word from you also, Abba.”
Then the old man responded, “The Gospel instructs you to turn the other cheek.”
They said, “We can’t do that.”
“Then if you can’t offer the other cheek, at least permit one cheek to be struck.”
They replied, “We can’t do that either.”
“If these things are beyond you, then do not return evil for evil.”
“We can’t.”
Abba Antony turned to his disciple. “Prepare a little porridge for these people, because they are not capable of doing anything.” To his visitors he said, “If you can’t do this or that, there is nothing I can do for you.
“What you need is prayer.”
For only $4.99, you can now download The Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer on iTunes!
UPDATE: Because some of you ask, you can find here the full list with the prophecies to the original language (Greek). All I know is the fact that all these prophecies are written in the wall of Iera Moni Agiou Nikolaou of Filanthropinon. You can see the philosophers that hold a papyrus with these quotes. Here is a photo:
You can see the rest photos here. There are depicted many ancient Greek philosophers, and quotes from their writings that seem to point to Christ. (It is worth noting that they put a small fence around these icons, most likely that they might not be venerated like icons of the Saints.)
These are newly-painted icons, but they are by no means out of tradition. The “Hermenia” or Painter’s Manual by Monk Dionysios of Fourna mentions the names, descriptions and quotes of such philosophers. The Monasteries of Megiste Lavra and Vatopedi on Mount Athos (as examples) also have depictions of such philosophers.
Short preview of a “A Pilgrim’s Way”, a documentary about the Romanian Orthodox church.
