#Saint Nicholas the Hierarch

The film Ciudo/The Miracle (2009), directed by Aleksandr Proșkin from a screenplay by Yuri Arabov, recreates the miracle known as ‘Zoya’s Stiffening’, which took place in 1956 in Kuibyshev, at the height of Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign. This historical epic traces the reactions of various social groups — a journalist, a party propagandist, a priest, Khrushchev himself — to a miracle that defies state-sanctioned scientific atheism, offering a reflection on faith, lies and collective repentance.

The article retraces a journey through Malta, Asia Minor and Constantinople, following the sites where the first Christian communities were established and where ecumenical councils were held: Ephesus, site of the Third Ecumenical Council; Myra in Lycia, home of Saint Nicholas; and Tarsus, home of Saint Paul. The geographical landscape and historical remains provide an opportunity for reflections on the connection between space and the understanding of faith, in the spirit of Nicolae Iorga’s method.

Bishop Sofronie Vulpescu of Râmnic (†1923) is portrayed in the context of his pastoral and cultural work carried out before and during the First World War: the construction of new premises for the Theological Seminary in Râmnicu-Vâlcea, the reorganisation of the diocesan printing press, the publication of the Orthodox Church Calendar for 21 years, and the publication of works such as Man’s Free Will as a Principle of Moral Action and General Observations on the Life and Works of Immanuel Kant, alongside his contribution to the Synod and the hardships he endured under German occupation.