Our Parish Family
He was the longest serving priest in the Transfiguration's history having served the parish for 37 consecutive years.
Who is Fr. John Sarantos?
The only miracle of Jesus mentioned in all four canonical Gospels, the feeding of the 5000 is miraculously accomplished with these numbers of loaves and fish.
What is 5 loaves and 2 fish?
The four Gospels containing the recorded life, teachings, words, and stories of Jesus Christ are written by these four Evangelists.
Who are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
Biblical scholars agree that Christ was most likely crucified at this age and therefore was crucified in this year? This explains the number of knots on a prayer rope bracelet.
What is 33 years old or 33 AD?
One of the greatest conversion stories of all time, this Christian-persecuting Jew named Saul had a vision of the Lord while on his way to Damascus that would forever change his heart leading him to become perhaps the most successful Christian missionary in history spreading Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and Asia Minor.
Who is St. Paul?
The Transfiguration recently celebrated it's centennial year having celebrated it's first official liturgy in this month and year.
What is April of 1924?
For over a millennium the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church was untied as one until this sad year when it split into East and West creating what we now know as the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics.
What is the Great Schism of 1054?
This Greek Physician became a devout follower of Jesus Christ and a member of Christ's larger group who were sent out two by two and he would eventually author one Gospel and the book of Acts.
Who is St. Luke the Evangelist?
The correct understanding of B.C. is Before Christ. Similarly the correct understanding of A.D. can be explained like this.
What is Anno Domini or "in the year of our Lord"?
This Saint, the leader of the Apostles, denied Christ 3 times during the events of the Crucifixion, but later forgiven by Christ 3 times in the Resurrection, achieved such a level of holiness that even his shadow healed people. He would go on to preach Christ all the way to Rome where he was crucified upside down by the command of emperor Nero.
Who is St. Peter?
This American iconographer is responsible for the breathtaking icons in our sanctuary.
Who is Bob Andrews?
The Transfiguration's parish council is comprised of 12 parishioners and the parish priest. However, only this many members may cast a vote.
What is eleven? (the priest and president do not vote)
This little town in Israel located near the base of Mt. Tabor is famous for Christ's raising from the dead the only son of a widowed woman, one of only three times in the Gospels that Christ brings someone back to life.
What is the town of Nain?
The 3rd Ecumenical Council held in Ephesus in 431AD, furthering the work of the 1st and 2nd Councils, continued to defend the Church against misunderstandings and heretical teachings about Jesus Christ by turning its attention to the Virgin Mary and assigning her this title to further safeguard and preserve the understanding of Who Jesus Christ is.
What is the Theotokos or Birthgiver of God?
This Saint is known as the "first called" by Christ to be a Disciple; he was a fisherman with his brother and his father Jonah, and was crucified on an X-shaped cross in the Greek city of Patras. Metropolitan Methodios receives this Saint's Apostolic Succession and we have his relics in our St. Sophia chapel.
Who is St. Andrew?
An icon at the Transfiguration, found on the iconostasis on the Royal Doors, depicts this famous Feast Day in the Church and is written half on one door and half on the other door.
What is the icon of the Annunciation?
The 12 Disciples followed Christ during His ministry on Earth and are known by most Christians. But there was a second group of this many followers mentioned in the Gospel of Luke that Christ sent out 2 by 2 to preach and thereby prepare new towns for His arrival.
What was 70? (Luke and Mark were of the 70 while Matthew and John were of the 12)
In the Gospel of Matthew in Christ's famous Sermon on the Mount, regarding dealing with our enemies and exacting equal revenge, Christ amends the Old Testament's "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" with this well-known Christian upgrade.
What is "Turn the Other Cheek?"
In 451 the 4th Ecumenical Council was held in Chalcedon addressing yet another Christological disagreement regarding these aspects of Christ.
What are Christ's two natures? Fully God and fully man.
This Saint died in 1994 and is buried at the female monastery that he founded called St. John the Theologian located in Souroti, Greece located outside of Thessaloniki. He was a radio operator in the Greek Civil War following WWII, refusing to carry a weapon. He lived most his life on Mt. Athos receiving countless pilgrims, effecting many miracles through his prayers to the Lord.
Who is St. Paisios?
The event of the Transfiguration takes place on this mountain in Israel with Jesus and these three disciples.
What is Mt. Tabor with Peter, James, and John?
This number appears again and again in the Bible and often symbolizes either a period of testing or trial before a spiritual breakthrough or, as it relates to corporal punishment, it was the number of completion, above which any punishment would be considered excessive and unlawful.
What is the number 40?
In John chapter 13, after washing His disciple's feet, Jesus issues a new commandment to them by which all men will know that we are His disciples.
What is to "love one another?" "As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples."
From 726-843 in Constantinople a group of Emperors and military leaders decided that the use of icons was idolatrous and that all icons should be removed and destroyed from churches and homes, a practice that became known as this.
What is Iconoclasm?
This Saint was at the foot of the cross when Christ was crucified and was the one to whom Christ committed Mary's care from that point forward. He is the author of several New Testament books including Revelations. He is the only Apostle not to be martyred but died in exile on the island of Patmos where there is a monastery in his name to this day.
Who is St. John the Theologian?
In the 1920's, politics in Greece were poisoned by a national schism that ultimately ended up dividing the Greeks in Lowell leading to the creation of two churches, Holy Trinity, who supported the Monarchists, and the Transfiguration, who supported a Republic, led by this prime minister.
Who is Eleftherios Venizelos?
Including the 27 books of the New Testament, the Orthodox recognized several more books in the Old Testament than do the Protestants bringing the total number of books to this number.
What is 76? (Protestants reject the books called deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament and therefore only have 66 total books in their Bibles)
The words "Eloi Eloi, lama sabachthani?" or "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" are understood by the Orthodox as, rather than words of despair by Christ from the cross, the recitation of this powerful messianic psalm in the Old Testament which begins with these very words and ends up with God's glorious victory. (two correct answers)
What is Psalm 21 (22)? (Psalm 21 in the Septuagint and Psalm 22 in a modern English Bible).
In 313 AD, after centuries of persecution, Christianity finally became legal in the Roman Empire under the still pagan emperor Constantine (later St. Constantine) with this piece of legislation.
What is the Edict of Milan?
This early 2nd Century Saint wrote many letters that are still in existence, was the Bishop of Antioch, and is said to have been the child that sat on Christ's lap in the Gospel of Matthew 18:2-4.
Who is St. Ignatius of Antioch?
The Parish Council room wall is lined with the photos of all the past Presidents of the Parish Council in black and white. The first color photo on the wall is of this current parishioner.
Who is Andrew Govatsos?
After having fished all night and caught nothing, the Disciples caught this number of fish when the Resurrected Christ, from the shore, commanded them to let down their nets on the right side of the boat.
What was 153 large fish?
Throughout the Gospel narratives, Christ repeatedly rebukes the self-righteousness of the Jewish leaders by offering parables in which He purposely flips the script to have the Jewish leaders be the antagonist (villain) in the story while using sinners, Romans, and this traditional enemy of the Jews as the protagonists (heroes).
Who are the Samaritans?
This one word in Latin (three words in English) added to the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed in 589 by the West, but not officially incorporated into the liturgy until 1014, became, along with the infallibility of the Pope, the other major theological reason for the Great Schism between east and west.
What is the Filioque? (means: "and the Son")
This 4th Century Saint, a humble shepherd who later became Bishop of Trimythous, was present at the 1st Ecumenical Council where he fiercely defended the doctrine of the Trinity against the Arians. His incorrupt relics rest on the island of Corfu, Greece, where he is revered as the patron saint and protector of the island. He is called the "walking saint" because the silk slippers on his relics wear out each year and are replaced, attributed to his miraculous wanderings to help the faithful. The Transfiguration has a pair of his slippers.
Who is St. Spyridon of Trimythous? (or Corfu)