The “Water of Life”
In the Gospel reading for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (4, 5-42), Saint John the Evangelist transports us to a well in Samaria, one hot noontide. Christ had sent His disciples to the nearby town of Sychar to fetch supplies and a local woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus asked her to give Him some water, and then began one of the most revealing dialogues in Scripture.
Saint Hypomoni (Patience) the Mother of the Last Roman Emperor Constantine IA Palaiologos
It is typical that, when Konstantinos Palaiologos sent his brothers, Thomas and Dimitrios to Mistra as governors, although there was a coolness between them, Ypomoni was not content with the customary leave-taking. She summoned the emperor and her other two sons to the monastery, together with senators and a mutual friend, Frantzis. She gave them her advice and then bound them with oaths to keep to the agreements and contracts: “So that no-one shall transgress onto the places or bounds of the other and seize them, but they shall work together in peace”.