Crumbs from the Table

At this time of year, we are remembering and reflecting on Christ's resurrection from the dead, and we think of the Apostles who were witnesses of that resurrection.  Not all those who saw the risen Christ were Apostles. For example, Mary Magdalene who was the first to encounter the Lord after his resurrection, or the 500 brothers mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15.  An "Apostle of Jesus Christ" was someone personally chosen by Christ to be an Apostle (Acts 1), and who had seen the risen Christ first-hand (1 Corinthians 9:1-3).  There are at least four categories of people who can be described as "Apostles of Jesus Christ".   1)  First there were Simon Peter and the rest of the Twelves minus Judas, who was replaced by Matthias  (see Acts 1) 2)  Then there were the brothers of the Lord , which definitely included James and most likely also Jude (1 Corinthians 15:7; 9:5) 3) Besides these, there were also "other Apostles" who were not one of the Twel...

The Russian language is a language in the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family.  The Proto-Slavic language was spoken by the Proto-Slavic people living in the area around the modern-day town of Pripyat (famous for its association with the Chernobyl nuclear power station) between modern-day Belarus and Ukraine. From the 500s, the Slavs spread out westwards and southwards (and some in a north-westerly direction).  From 862, missionaries from Constantinople, Cyril and Methodius, introduced an alphabet and liturgy (text of a church service) for the Slavonic-speaking people of Great Moravia (modern-day Czechia), based on the Slavonic language spoken near their native city of Thessalonica. The Slavonic liturgy, originally created by Cyril and Methodius for the people of Great Moravia, is common to all Slavic peoples who profess Eastern Orthodox Christianity, however it has increasingly differed from the everyday speech of the various Slavic peoples. Already by the time...

The homeland of the Slavic peoples was originally in the area near to the present town of Pripyat , between Belarus and Ukraine. It was from here that, from the 500s, the Slavic peoples spread westwards and southwards (and also in a north-easterly direction). For example, according to Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos of Constantinople, the ancestors of the Croats and Serbs settled in the area now known as Bavaria, later relocating to their present homeland in the Balkans. What became the Moravian people settled in what is now Czechia, and in the early 800s formed the first Slavic state (Great Moravia) with its capital in Velihrad. Other Slavic tribes migrated as far south as what is now Greece in the Empire of Constantinople.  Particularly in the early 800s (but also for some time before that), the Empire of Constantinople reclaimed territories settled by Slavs, re-establishing government control and re-introducing Greek language and the Orthodox Christian faith. This is known as t...