'What a good sign that some Westerners are turning to Orthodoxy. The fact that some are also venerating the saints that lived in the West before the Catholic Schism shows how the Holy Spirit is enlightening them to go back to where they left. The West was with the Orthodox Church until all Seven Oecumenical Councils had taken place. Both Orthodox and Catholics are guilty for the Schism, because both lacked love for each other, but at least the Orthodox kept the Faith. The Schism was the work of Satan, because if we had not been separated, the Christian witness to the world would have been titanic, and the devil would not have turned us to all the things of today'.

Words spoken on 24 July/6 August 2003 by Fr Dionyius (Ignat) of Colciu Skete on the Holy Mountain. Aged 94, Fr Dionysius has been an Athonite monk since 1926.

hat tip to Orthodox England, Fr. Andrew Phillips.