Crimea tale

Hi, everybody, i'm in Crimea now. It's hot, but great here - 30 degrees (Celsium).

The picture was taken today, i'm standing at the balcony of M. Voloshin's house. He lived here and loved this place. It's impossible to hate places like this, frankly speaking... If I were him I'd live there all the time because of the climate and sea... Moscow is cold and rainy this summer, winters are cold, but in this paradise it's hot and fantastically beautiful.

I was really surprised when i saw Crimea's mountains. They look like in Ireland! Is anybody from Ireland? Could you compare?

 

If i find something more interesting, i'll let you know. 

Thanks for being with me. Welcome to my blog!

9 August - Celebration of the feast day of St. Panteleon the Great Martyr

Pantaleon was born in Nicomedia of a Christian mother and a pagan father. His mother was called Eubula and his father Eustorgius. As a young man he studied the science of medicine. The priest, Hermolaus, invited Pantaleon to be with him and taught him the Faith of Christ and baptized him. Pantaleon miraculously cured a blind man whom the other doctors treated in vain; he cured him by the power of Christ and baptized him. Out of envy the doctors accused Pantaleon of being a Christian and he went before the Emperor Maximian to stand trial. "He stood before the earthly king in body but in thought he stood before the heavenly King." Before the emperor, he freely declared that he was a Christian and, before the eyes of the emperor, he healed a paralytic of a long-standing illness. This miracle drew many pagans to the Faith of Christ. The emperor subjected him to torture but the Lord appeared to him on several occasions and delivered him whole and unharmed. Saint Hermolaus with Hermippas and Thermocrates were then martyred. Sentenced to death, Saint Pantaleon knelt for prayer. At that moment the executioner struck him on the neck with a sword and the sword broke as though it were made of wax. The executioner was unable to execute him until the saint completed his prayer and until Pantaleon told him to behead him. His relics possessed the ability to heal. Pantaleon was executed under an olive tree which, after that, became all adorned with fruit. PANTA LEON means, "all merciful" "all compassionate." The All-merciful God received his righteous soul and glorified him among His great saints. This wonderful martyr suffered honorably for Christ in his youth, on July 27, 304 A.D. Saint Pantaleon is invoked in prayers at the time of the "Blessing of Waters" and in the blessing of the holy oils used in the "The Sacrament of Holy Unction," together with Saint Hermolaus and the other unmercenary saints and wonder-workers. A most beautiful church dedicated to this saint is located on Holy Mount Athos.
Source

8 August 2004 - Vina Fay Wray, a Canadian-American actress, died

Gripped in the giant hand of "King Kong" (1933) in a simulated New York City on the RKO backlot, Fay Wray emitted screams of terror that reverberated throughout a nation stunned by the Great Depression. By the time the Canadian native was cast in the role of Ann Darrow, human inamorata of the eighth Wonder of the World, Wray was already a successful Hollywood actress whose previous leading men included William Powell, Gary Cooper and Fredric March. Her reputation with the major studios undermined by her marriage to brilliant but unstable writer John Monk Saunders, Wray divorced, remarried and retired on her own terms in 1942. The death of her second husband, screenwriter Robert Riskin, drove the aging actress back to work in character parts, including a comical turn as an affluent hypochondriac in "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1957). An iconic figure in cult film circles, Wray eventually turned her back on performing to enjoy frequent public appearances as herself. Living well into her nineties, Wray turned down the offer to contribute a cameo appearance to director Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of "King Kong" shortly before her death from natural causes in late 2004. Though she appeared in all manner of movies, from dramas and comedies to horror films and the early Westerns in which she had performed her own stunts, Fay Wray was resigned to the fate of being remembered principally for just one role, as well as for the honor of being cinema's first bona fide scream queen.

More

7 August 1921 - Alexander Blok, a Russian poet, playwright, and essayist, died

Aleksandr Blok was born in St. Petersburg into an aristocratic family of Russian and German descent. His father, A.L. Blok, was a scholar and professor of law at Warsaw University. Aleksandra Beketova, Blok's mother, was a translator and the daughter of the rector of the University of St. Petersburg. The parents divorced when Blok was a small child and he spent his childhood with his grandfather, Andrei Beketov, whose country estate of Shakhmatovo he inherited in 1902. At the University of St. Petersburg, Blok studied law, without success, but then in 1906, he received his degree in philology.

Blok began to write poetry seriously at the age of seventeen. In the early period of his literary career Blok came under the influence of the nineteenth-century philosopher Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) and his concept of the Eternal Feminine, Divine Wisdom. In Blok's verse she appeared as the force of good, 'The Beautiful Lady,' an abstract ideal of the feminine spirit. "O, Holy Lady, how the candles are gentle, / How Your features comfort me! / I hear neither sighing nor speaking, / But I believe: the Beloved is Thee" (from 'I Enter Darkened Temples', 1902). Soloviev also influenced the Symbolist poet and theorist Andrey Bely (1880-1934), who had an affair with Blok's wife.

6 August 2001 - Jorge Amado, a Brazilian writer of the modernist school, died

The Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado (born 1912) was best known in the 1930s for his novels of social protest. By the 1950s he had evolved into a compelling storyteller more apt to poke fun at the establishment than to denounce it. His lyricism, imagination, and humor have given him a worldwide reputation and following.

Jorge Amado was born on his father's cacao plantation along the eastern seaboard of Brazil, an area just then emerging from a period of violent struggles for land among the intrepid frontiersmen who opened it up. His novels are almost all set either in this region or in the city of Salvador (Bahia), where he was sent to secondary school. As a 16-year-old contributor to short-lived reviews, he began rebelling against the stuffiness of literary canons, an urge to which he gave further expression in his first halting novel, O pals do carnaval (1931; Carnival Country).

In law school in Rio de Janeiro, Amado became increasingly radicalized. Cacau (1933; Cocoa) was a proletarian novel set in the region of his childhood, and Suor (1934; Sweat) indicated both its aim and its earthy style by its title. In 1935 Amado was jailed; two years later he was exiled and many of his works were banned. He alienated the authorities still further by publishing in 1942 a biography of Luis Carlos Prestes, the charismatic leader of the Brazilian Communist party. After World War II, under a new political regime, Amado served as a Communist member of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies until the party was outlawed in 1948. He won the Stalin International Peace Prize in 1951.

5 August - Commemoration of Icon of the Mother of God of Pochaev

5 August is a glorious day in the Pochaev Lavra’s life, and only a life of cloister but in the life of the whole orthodox world. On this day Pochaev miracle-working icon of the Theotokos is solemnly honoured every year. The commemoration of this date is due to miraculous deliverance of Pochaev cloister from the Turkish invasion by the miraculous apparition of the Mother of God from Heaven whose Omophorion spread over the Holy Trinity Church, accompanied by angels and the Venerable Job. Thousands of pilgrims arrive here to worship Our Mistress the Theotokos together with cenobites and bow unto Her wonder–working shrine, that is famous for the life-giving and healing power.

  The first healing eventuated in 1597, when Philip, a brother of landlady Goyska, who was born completely blind, received cure after fervent prayer next to this icon. This shrine is gift of Greek metropolitan Neophit for hospitality and hearty welcome of devout noble woman. Eminence had a business trip not far from her estate; he was received cordially by this lady of the manor.

After miraculous healing of her brother, Goyska decided to present this holy thing to the Pochaev cloister. Numberless cures were received by worshipers who bowed unto miracle-working icon with sincere faith.

Festivities began as far back as on the 2^nd of August (feast-day of Saint Prophet Elijah), when great sacred procession with wonder-working icon round Lavra took place after liturgy. Such significant event happens only once a year. Several thousand people took part in it. This sacred procession was ended with lite and funeral repast in commemoration of the dead brethren and laymen, who had suffered from Tatars and Turks; of the builders, benefactors of this holy spot and of all orthodox Christians.

More

4 August (first Sunday of August) - Friendship Day in the USA

Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935. Gradually the festival gained popularity and today Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries including India. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them.