St. Innocent Press

06/05/2026

05/30/2026

We were able to visit Fr. Seraphim Rose’s monastic cell. It has basically been left as it was when he died in 1982.

05/28/2026

Photos from our tour of St. Herman Monastery in Platina, California.

05/28/2026

Relics from the lower church at St. Herman Monastery, Platina, California.

05/27/2026

We were blessed to spend the weekend of the First Eccumenical Council at St. Herman Monastery in Platina, CA.

The last photo is their icon of St. Herman with the vestments of St. John of SF in the case below.

05/24/2026

Our movie of the month is all about St. Athanasius.

The lives of the Saints show us how they suffered for Christ, what they valued, whom they wanted to help, and how they were opposed in their attempts to do good.

We know of some of the more famous saints connected to the First Ecumenical Council, and how St. Nicholas slapped Arius, but do we understand why? The life of St. Athanasius, whom we recently celebrated, shows more the forces that fought against Truth. In the face of politics and a pervasive culture that sought to minimize Christ, St. Athanasius taught, prayed, and wrote, despite being exiled five times. He inspired and influenced more saints, and we can take courate and inspiration from his life.

The movie was not made by the Orthodox, but the content is good and in English.

29 likes, 4 comments. "May 2: Saint Athanasius: The Bishop Who Fought Against the A***n Heresy"

05/23/2026

The Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council were a brave lot who had suffered much for Christ.

"The Great Persecution of Diocletian had ended only 20 years earlier. Some of the men who walked into that council hall were still carrying its marks on their bodies. Empty eye sockets where eyes had been gouged out. Stumps where hands had been cut off. Burn scars. Broken limbs that had never healed properly. Bodies that bore twenty years of evidence of what Rome had done to them for refusing to deny their faith.

"These were the men the Roman emperor had invited to his palace. Ancient accounts describe Constantine moving through the gathering and stopping before each scarred bishop. He kissed their wounds. Their empty eye sockets. Their mutilated hands. The burn scars on their faces.

"The man who commanded every army in the Roman world knelt before the men Rome had tried to destroy.

"Twenty years earlier these bishops had been hiding in catacombs, being tortured in imperial prisons, watching their congregations fed to lions. Now they were being seated at the emperor's table.

"The same empire. Twenty years. And the whole world had turned upside down."
St. Eusebius
"Historia Ecclesiae"

05/23/2026

Next stop: St. Tikhon’s church. St. John’s home in San Francisco.

We each got to sit in the chair in his office and say some private prayers.