Hagia Sophia | Martyria

Studia Theologica No. II (XVIII) / 2024 Saint John Chrysostom and Deaconess Olympias, the embodiment of true friendship Maria Anastasiu

This article examines the friendship between Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Olympias the Deaconess, exploring the hierarch’s exile in 404, their correspondence during this period, and the remarkable life of Olympias, who was also a friend of Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Gregory of Nyssa, to whom she dedicated her commentary on the Song of Songs. The letters sent from exile constitute at once a travel journal, a spiritual manual and a theology of longing, demonstrating that a pure friendship between a man and a woman is possible when both are saints.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (VIII) / 2019 In Constantine’s city Dan Ciachir

The author recalls two visits to Constantinople, in 1991 and 1992, describing the view of the city from the Galata Tower, the similarities between the Romanian Pontic region and the Anatolian region, and the Orthodox significance of the Phanar district with the Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where Constantin Iconomos drafted the Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs in 1848 in response to Pope Pius IX’s call for union.