SIMPLICITY

: THE LIFE AND WISDOM OF ARCHIMANDRITE

Roman Braga

DANIEL B. HINSHAW, M.D.

This book is an account of the life and wisdom of Archimandrite Roman Braga, placed within the context of the tumultuous times in which he lived. Chronologically, his life was evenly split between the first half in Romania, where he came of age during the interwar years, the upheavals of ultranationalist movements, and the later terrors of the communist regime; and the second half in the West, with four years in Brazil and the rest in the United States, where he translated Romanian Orthodox church music to English, served as a parish priest and then spiritual father to the sisterhood of Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Monastery in Ellwood City, PA, and finally spent the last years of his life at Holy Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery in Rives Junction, MI.

From his childhood in a pious family in Bessarabia (modern Moldova), Fr Roman developed an abiding respect and love for the “simple” monks, which was always in tension with his intellectual brilliance and inquisitiveness as a student and theological scholar. Eventually, the simple monks won out, thus the book’s title: Journey to Simplicity. He came to embody the very epitome of simplicity, in the best sense of the word— the simplicity of a fully integrated, whole person who was a living example of how one should pursue “the one thing needful.”

Fr Roman corresponded frequently with fellow clergy and spiritual children. He did not shy away from sharing his views on difficult topics, such as the call for unity within the American Orthodox churches, but always did so with a nuanced and gentle approach. He refused to judge those within the church hierarchy who operated under duress during the communist regime in Romania. He felt great compassion for them and was grateful that many churches could remain open, paving the way for a strong rebirth of Orthodox Christian life after the revolution of 1989.

Arrested and imprisoned multiple times during his life in communist Romania, Fr Roman’s was a life informed by suffering on a scale we can barely comprehend. And yet, his response to that suffering and the many tortures and injustices he experienced was to love, especially to love his tormentors, even remembering them years later when saying the prayers of the Proskomedia.

Early in our Orthodox journey, my wife and I began to visit Holy Dormition Monastery regularly and were captivated by Fr Roman’s homilies, especially when he would offer a “word” after the Divine Liturgy. We were blessed for a time to have him as our confessor and were drawn closer to him as his health declined. I was also blessed to help with his palliative care during his final illness, and I was with him when he died.

Having spent my career working with dying patients, I can say that those who lived through extreme trauma, such as combat or torture, often go through a difficult death. Fr Roman’s dying process was one of the most beautiful deaths I’ve ever witnessed, a very quiet, peaceful death. It was just extraordinary. He is my model of what healing and dying as a Christian could be.

SVS PRESS JOINED THE WORLD OF AUDIOBOOKS!

Through a generous grant from the Orthodox Vision Foundation, SVS Press launched a new audiobook program in 2022.

If you are interested in sponsoring an audiobook of your favorite SVS Press title, please contact media@svots.edu!

Audiobooks Available Now

Our Father

ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

DN ALEXANDER HATCHER, NARRATOR

Great Lent

ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

PETER BOUTENEFF, NARRATOR

This revised edition of Fr Alexander Schmemann’s lenten classic examines the meaning of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the Prayer of St Ephraim the Syrian, the Canon of St Andrew of Crete, and other neglected or misunderstood treasures of lenten worship. Schmemann draws on the Church’s sacramental and liturgical tradition to suggest the meaning of “Lent in our life.”

Audiobook • 5h 27m

How to Be a Sinner

PETER BOUTENEFF, AUTHOR & NARRATOR

We call ourselves “sinners” in much of our church life. Yet the sinner identity—when done right—brings peace of mind, a clear conscience, and love for others. Written by an internationally recognized professor of Orthodox theology, this book will speak to you wherever you find yourself.

Audiobook • 4h 44m

This commentary on the Lord’s Prayer has been compiled from a series of broadcasts made by Fr Alexander Schmemann on Radio Liberty to listeners in the Soviet Union. Because this single short prayer of Christ has everything that needs to be said about God, his kingdom, this life— about all of us—it is not an exaggeration to suggest that in this commentary Fr Schmemann provides us with a map for seeing anew the purpose and measure of our whole life. He awakens in us a fresh understanding of these familiar petitions. Audiobook • 1h 17m

Father Arseny Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father (new edition)

VERA BOUTENEFF, NARRATOR

PETER BOUTENEFF, NARRATOR

This narrative, compiled from accounts of Fr Arseny’s spiritual children and others whom he brought to God, gives stirring glimpses of his life in the brutal “special sector” of Soviet prison camp and after his release.

Audiobook • 12h 50m

PPS 44B

On the Incarnation (English

only)

ST ATHANASIUS THE GREAT JOHN BEHR, TRANS. JONAH MARTIN, NARRATOR

This classic work from the fourth century expounds with simplicity the theological vision defended at the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, and it has become one of the few “must read” books about the Christian faith.

Audiobook • 4h 19m

PPS 62

On the Orthodox Faith (Greek & English)

ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS NORMAN RUSSELL, TRANS. FR IGNATIUS GREEN, NARRATOR

Considered by many to be the final and crowning work of the patristic age, On the Orthodox Faith addresses all the major areas of Christian belief: Trinitarian theology; Christology; soteriology; the sacraments; the veneration of icons, saints, and relics; and much more. This new translation is presented as a diglot edition, reproducing the Greek text on the facing page, and it includes a helpful introduction discussing the origin and reception of the text.

Audiobook • 8h 52m

For the Life of the World Classics Series Edition, Vol. 1

Audiobooks

Money & Salvation: An Invitation to the Good Way

ALEXANDER

SCHMEMANN ZACHARIAH MANDELL, NARRATOR

This audiobook (narrated by Alexander Schmemann’s great-grandson, Zachary Mandell) on an approach to the world and life within it stems from the liturgical experience of the Orthodox Church. The author understands issues such as secularism and Christian culture from the perspective of the unbroken experience of the Church, as revealed and communicated in her worship, in her liturgy—the sacrament of the world, the sacrament of the kingdom.

Audiobook • 6h 38m

The Orthodox Way Classics Series Edition, Vol. 2

KALLISTOS WARE JONAH MARTIN, NARRATOR

The most ancient name for Christianity, Metropolitan Kallistos reminds us, is “the Way” (cf. Acts 19.23; 24.22), and it is precisely as the journey that this word implies that he presents the tradition of Orthodox Christianity, its teachings, and its practices. The result is not an abstract presentation of “Orthodoxy,” an outside look at, or description of, its dogmatics, rituals, and ascetic disciplines, compared to and contrasted with others, but an invitation to enter into the way, to begin the journey— and to do so always, into eternity—into the mystery of God through the living experience of the Orthodox Church.

Audiobook • 6h 27m

Coming Soon

A Silent Patriarch

DANIEL FANOUS JONAH MARTIN, NARRATOR

This is the first scholarly biography of the desert hermit who became a most unlikely patriarch. It traces Kyrillos VI’s life from childhood, drawing upon hundreds of letters and sources never before seen, detailing Kyrillos’ unusual method of ecclesial reform, which speaks enduringly to the uncertainties of the present age.

Audiobook

A Voice for Our Time

Radio Liberty Talks, Vol. 2

ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

ALEXIS VINOGRADOV & NATHAN WILLIAMS, TRANS.

ZACHARIAH MANDELL, NARRATOR

“...Always clear, powerful, profound, faithful to the truth of the gospel, his voice broke through the iron curtain and changed people’s perspectives on human and divine realities.... He spoke from heart to heart, and thousands were touched by this unique, very personal and unrepeatable voice.”

—Met. Hilarion Alfeyev

ANDREW GELERIS, AUTHOR & NARRATOR

“... I recommend to all parish clergy and lay leaders that they prayerfully read Money & Salvation and work to teach and exhort our faithful to give generously as commanded by our Lord—not only for the building up of our churches but for their own salvation. With gratitude to Dr Geleris for this well-written and well-researched work, and prayers that it will be for the good of the holy Church and the salvation of her faithful children.”

—Met. JOSEPH Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of all North America, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America Audiobook

PPS 54

On the Apostolic Tradition

HIPPOLYTUS

ALISTAIR STEWART, TRANS.

DN ALEXANDER HATCHER, NARRATOR

Audiobook

This work is attributed to Hippolytus, a Christian leader from third-century Rome. The text provides liturgical information of great antiquity, and has been massively influential in liturgical study and reform. The second edition of this crucial liturgical document continues Fr Stewart’s influential work of re-evaluating the evolution of hierarchy in the early church. In addition, this new edition is the first to incorporate a recently discovered Ethiopian manuscript, which in many cases has helped to clarify ambiguities in the text.

Audiobook

Recent Releases

Moved by Compassion • Exploring the Core of Orthodox Christian Spiritual Life

JOHN JONES

Though compassion lies at the heart of the Gospel, it has been little studied in its own right. This book, written by an accomplished scholar yet accessible to the lay reader, fills that void by drawing on the broad and ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church.

Paperback • 6×9 • 308 pp. $27 • 978-0-88141-711-1

PPS 64 •

On Death and Eternal Life (Greek & English)

ST GREGORY OF NYSSA BRIAN DALEY, TRANS.

The seven works in this volume (some translated for the first time) explore the great human mystery of death and the promise of eternal life. They present— along with On the Soul and the Resurrection (PPS 12)—a vision that is consistent, philosophically profound, and characteristic of Gregory’s wider theology. The first three works (On the Dead, On Infants Taken Away before Their Time, and On the “Final Subjection” of Christ) might be termed thematic essays; the fourth is a sermon celebrating Christ’s resurrection

(On the Holy Pascha); and the remaining three are funeral homilies given for prominent people in Constantinople (Meletius, Pulcheria, and Flaccilla). This volume includes the critical Greek text..

Paperback • 5×7.25 • 328 pp. $28 • 978-0-88141-709-8

PPS 63 •

Headings on Spiritual Knowledge

The Second Part, Chapters 1–3 ST ISAAC OF NINEVEH SEBASTIAN BROCK, TRANS.

For the first time in English, the world-renowned scholar Sebastian Brock has given us a translation of the first three chapters of the “second part” of St Isaac of Nineveh’s corpus. In them, Isaac recounts the various experiences and stages of the spiritual life.

Paperback • 5×7.25 • 252 pp. $21 • 978-0-88141-702-9

Money & Salvation • An Invitation to the Good Way

ANDREW GELERIS

“... I recommend to all parish clergy and lay leaders that they prayerfully read Money & Salvation and work to teach and exhort our faithful to give generously as commanded by our Lord—not only for the building up of our churches but for their own salvation. With gratitude to Dr Geleris for this well-written and well-researched work, and prayers that it will be for the good of the holy Church and the salvation of her faithful children.”

—Met. JOSEPH Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of all North America, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America

Paperback • 5×7 • 428 pp. $22 • 978-0-88141-690-9

PPS 9 •

On Wealth and Poverty (new edition)

ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM CATHARINE P. ROTH, TRANS.

The sermons of St John Chrysostom are among the richest classical commentaries on the Christian life. As St John delivers this series of sermons on Lazarus and the rich man, he addresses the questions of wealth and poverty in the lives of the people of his day. And yet, as the modern reader is confronted with his words, it becomes apparent that he, too, is being addressed.

Paperback • 5×7.25 • 130 pp. $21 • 978-0-88141-673-2

PPS 62 ••

On the Orthodox Faith (Greek & English)

ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS NORMAN RUSSELL, TRANS.

Considered by many to be the final and crowning work of the patristic age, On the Orthodox Faith addresses all the major areas of Christian belief: Trinitarian theology; Christology; soteriology; the sacraments; the veneration of icons, saints, and relics; and much more. This new translation is presented as a diglot edition, reproducing the Greek text on the facing page, and it includes a helpful introduction discussing the origin and reception of the text.

Paperback • 5×7.25 • 567 pp. $32 • 978-0-88141-694-7

Saint Eleazar Fills His Cups

MELINDA JOHNSON KRISTINA TARTARA, ILLUSTRATOR

In this book, young readers encounter a Russian hermit who has to solve a problem: he has run out of food. In the end, and with a little help from some friendly fishermen, he manages to fill his cups.

Boardbook • 5.5×7 • 22 pp. $12 • 978-0-88141-704-3

A Voice for Our Time • Radio Liberty Talks, Vol. 1

ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

ALEXIS VINOGRADOV & NATHAN WILLIAMS, TRANS.

In his broadcasts on Radio Liberty, Fr Alexander Schmemann spoke to men and women behind the iron curtain who had endured the deprivation, persecution, and state-enforced propaganda of the Stalin years. But his words do not belong to that era alone. They are addressed just as urgently to our own time. He exposes the roots of the lies and misperceptions that abound in our age and brings all to a proper perspective in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hardcover • 6×9 • 354 pp. $32 • 978-0-88141-679-4

A Voice for Our Time •

Radio Liberty Talks, Vol. 2

ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

ALEXIS VINOGRADOV & NATHAN WILLIAMS, TRANS.

“Father Alexander’s talks on Radio Liberty were a breath of fresh air for all of us who were living in a country where every effort was made to erase God from people’s memory. Always clear, powerful, profound, faithful to the truth of the gospel, his voice broke through the iron curtain and changed people’s perspectives on human and divine realities. He touched upon a very wide range of topics from Gospel passages and liturgical worship to poetry by Pasternak and Akhmatova, or prose by Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn. He spoke from heart to heart, and thousands were touched by this unique, very personal and unrepeatable voice.”

—Met. Hilarion Alfeyev

Hardcover • 6.25×9.25 • 387 pp. $32 • 978-0-88141-700-5

A Voice for Our Time Radio Liberty Talks, Set

ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

ALEXIS VINOGRADOV & NATHAN WILLIAMS, TRANS.

Hardcover • 6.25×9.25 • 2 books $51.20 (20% off) • TC-AVFRLT-SET

Building an Orthodox Marriage A Workbook Companion

GREGORY J. ABDALAH

This Workbook Companion serves as a helpful supplement to Building an Orthodox Marriage. It can be used by couples who are preparing for marriage, and by pastors and other church leaders who provide premarital counseling. The Workbook enables pastors and couples to get more out of Building an Orthodox Marriage, and helps them see more clearly how to apply the theological principles and teachings of the Church in the particular circumstances of their own lives.

Spiral Binding • 5.5×8.5 • 52 pp. $14 • 978-0-88141-687-9

Building an Orthodox Marriage, Set

Building an Orthodox Marriage: A Practical Commentary on the Eastern Orthodox Marriage Rite & Building an Orthodox Marriage: A Workbook Companion

5.5×8.5 • 2 books $21.50 (20% off) • PB-BUORAB-SET

The Euchologion Unveiled • An Explanation of Byzantine Liturgical Practice II

ARCHBISHOP JOB GETCHA

The Euchologion Unveiled describes and explains the sacramental services of the Orthodox Church. The Euchologion is the liturgical book that priests use to serve all the mysteries, or sacraments, of the Church. Archbishop Job “unveils” the history, meaning, and structure of these services, and the Orthodox understanding of the sacraments, through which believers receive grace and become partakers of the divine life.

Paperback • 6×9 • 269 pp. $32 • 978-0-88141-635-0

The Evangelical Theology of the Orthodox Church • Radio Liberty Talks, Vol. 1 BRADLEY NASSIF

The leading scholar on the relationship between the Orthodox Church and Evangelical Protestantism writes about the centrality of the gospel in the Orthodox Church and the commonalities and differences that exist between Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism.

Paperback • 6×9 • 284 pp. $30 • 978-0-88141-692-3

Faith Seeking Understanding • The Theological Witness of Fr Matthew Baker

Matthew Baker

Faith Seeking Understanding offers a collection of the essays, letters, interviews, and correspondence of Fr Matthew Baker, exploring the works of Fr Georges Florovsky and the writings of the Church Fathers. Paperback • 6×9 • 368 pp. $30 • 978-0-88141-688-6

Moscata Visits a Monastery CHELSEA YOUELL

Join Moscata, a friendly and informative dog, who leads readers through an Orthodox women’s monastery. Enjoy the beautiful illustrations as you meet the nuns and explore the church, the candle factory, the cemetery, and the grounds. Find out how the nuns work and pray, what they wear, how they serve Christ, and why they have chosen the monastic life.

Hardcover • 8×10 • 32 pp. $22 • 978-0-88141-696-1

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Latest Svtq S

COMING SOON

St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly Vol. 66 (2022), Nos. 3–4

IONUŢ-ALEXANDRU TUDORIE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The Winter 2022 issue of the Quarterly opens with an exegetical study of the refence to “the sign of Jonah” in the Gospel of Matthew (L. Gore-Jones). There follow two articles on Gregory of Nyssa—one on his reading of the burning bush in Life of Moses (T. Buijkx), the second on the relationship between humanity’s creation “according to the Image” and St Gregory’s use of the imagery of food and hunger (A. Fogleman / Th. Breedlove). A study of Byzantine prayers to the Theotokos ascribed to St Ephrem (M. Constas) and an analysis of Origen’s Pneumatology (M. Therrien) complete the Patristic segment of this issue. A large article follows, comparing the insights of Sergius Bulgakov (and a number of other Orthodox theologians) and Yves Congar on the role of the Holy Spirit in the relationship between the Father and the Son (A. Vivier-Mureșan). The last article deals with the ambiguous Orthodox reception of the section on Baptism in the 1982 “Lima Declaration” on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (H. Majkrzak).The “Theological Essay” section of this issue contains a short, moving, and refreshing “Orthodox Creed” composed in the late 1980s by the Romanian literate, dissident, and later monastic Nicolae Steinhardt; and a consideration of the 19th-century Transylvanian Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna’s understanding of synodality as a form of a constitutionalism, in which clergy and laity cooperate (D. Heith-Stade). Reviews of the following books round of this volume of SVTQ: Θεία Λειτουργία κατά την τάξιν εν Άθω Μονής του Βατοπαιδίου – Ιερατικόν Συλλειτουργόν (The Divine Liturgy according to the order of the Vatopedi Monastery on Athos – Hieratikon for Concelebrations) 2020 (P. Pruteanu); S.N. Bunta, The Lord God of Gods: Divinity and Deification in Early Judaism 2021 (M. Awabdi); S. Brock, trans., Isaac of Nineveh. Headings on Spiritual Knowledge (The Second Part, Chapters 1–3) 2022 (J. Scully); D. Costache, Humankind and the Cosmos: Early Christian Representations 2021 (Ch. Knight); V. Coman, Dumitru Stăniloae’s Trinitarian Ecclesiology: Orthodoxy and the Filioque 2019 (P. Maican).

Paperback • 6×9 • TBD $60 • PB-SVTQ66 3-4

St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly Vol. 66 (2022), Nos. 1–2

IONUŢ-ALEXANDRU TUDORIE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The latest issue of the St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly (66.1–2/2022) is published at a moment when the largest portion of the worldwide Orthodox Church finds itself in a deeply scandalous and sinful state of internal war which constitutes the gravest intra-Orthodox crisis in many centuries. It is only natural, therefore, that the editorial and several essays—one of them penned by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America—are reflecting on the ecclesio- logical, moral, and pastoral aspects of this crisis. Scholarly articles discuss Origen’s theory of epinoiai (M. Miller), the overlooked contribution of St Maximus’ Ep. 15 to Neo-Chalcedonian Christology (Rev. Dr C. Berger), the eucharistic doctrine of Father Dumitru Stăniloae (M. Portaru), and the Orthodox reception of Odo Casel’s Mysterienlehre (J. van Rossum). We are also publishing the text of the Schmemann Lecture, delivered by the Rev. Dr Khaled Anatolios at St Vladimir’s Seminary in January 2022. The volume ends with reviews of the following books: D. Caner, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late A); T. Vivian, M. Mikhail, A. Athanassakis, R. Kitchen, R. Greer, The Life of Bishoi: The Greek, Arabic, Syriac, and Ethiopic Lives (The American University in Cairo Press, 2022); T. Obolevich, Semion Frank, Lev Karsavin i evraziitsy [Semyon Frank, Lev Karsavin, and Eurasians] (Modest Kolerov, 2020); Z. A. Brzozowska, M. J. Leszka, and T. Wolińska, Muhammad and the Origin of Islam in the Byzantine-Slavic Literary Context: A Bibliographical History (Łódź University Press, 2020); Wadid El Macari, La balance du cœur: un substrat égyptien aux homélies macariennes (LIT Verlag, 2022); Arabic Christianity between the Ottoman Levant and Eastern Europe (ed. I. Feodorov, B. Heyberger, and S. Noble; Brill, 2021).

Paperback • 6×9 • 252 pp. $60 • PB-SVTQ66-1

St Vladimir’s Theological

Quarterly: Vol. 66 (2022), Nos. 1–4, Set IONUŢ-ALEXANDRU TUDORIE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Paperback

• 6×9 • 2 books $120 • SVTQ-66-US