*UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2021*

In the 21^st century, technology plays a crucial role in the lives of most Christians. Even many American monasteries have Facebook pages and some of their monastics have smartphones, so I decided to review a number of apps to let people know what’s out there. Due to the multitude of available apps and my limited time, this is not meant to be an all-encompassing guide, but just a review of the apps I have used.

I have found a number of beneficial Orthodox apps that include scripture, prayers, writings of the fathers, and the daily saints. There are also numerous Orthodox Calendar apps that have the saints of the day listed. I didn’t include these apps because I don’t find them particularly useful. Lists can be found in a number of the apps below without having to install a separate app.

BENEFICIAL APPS

Lives of the Saints & Daily Readings

Orthodox Calendar – A good and simple app that defaults to the Julian (Old) Calendar. It contains the lives of the saints, fasting regulations, daily tropars and kondaks, and the daily scriptures. For the lives of the saints, it usually shares several saints per day with lengthy biographies. The calendar is adjustable to select any day of the year (if you’re on the New Calendar, just go forward thirteen days). It utilizes liturgical language (Thee/Thou) for the daily troparia.  Google Play Store and iTunes.

Daily Readings – Released by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, this defaults to the New Calendar. It is good for reading lives of the saints, fasting regulations, daily tropars and kondaks, and daily scripture. It has a nice, clean interface and it works quickly. The paid version contains a useful glossary full of liturgical words that are good to know. One useful feature is that it pulls up the applicable prayers for the current time (i.e. at noon it will pull up excerpts from the Sixth Hour Prayers and Meal Time prayers). Pre and post-communion prayers are also available. Any section of the built-in prayer book can be accessed at any time.  It utilizes modern (You/Your) language for prayers, troparia, etc. Available on iPhone and Android.

Nowadays, I usually skip the apps and go straight to the Orthodox Church in America’s website. It often has lengthy and informative entries for the Lives of the Saints every day.  It also has the scripture readings for the day. There’s also a section where you can view and print the “variable” texts for Matins, Vespers, and the Divine Liturgy here. What that means is you won’t have the entire service in the print-out, but you’ll have the parts that aren’t included in the service books so that you can sing along. While it is not as mobile friendly and approachable as the above apps, I find it to be more in-depth and useful.

Prayer Books

The best and least distracting prayer book will always be a printed one, which is why I don’t use these apps very often. I highly recommend St. Tikhon’s newly revised, beautiful prayer book (available soon!).

If you’re on the road or prefer an app, then I have a few suggestions. Aside from the Daily Readings App from the Greek Archdiocese listed above, there are a few other useful ones including:

Pray Always! – This is my top pick for prayer book apps. It is well-designed and includes the necessary daily and weekly prayers for an Orthodox Christian (morning, evening, communion, intercession, and numerous others). It allows some flexibility in the font (sans serif and serif), font size, and it allows the choice between traditional (King James) English and contemporary/modern. Available on both iTunes and Google Play.

English Orthodox Prayers (free) – This app is an abbreviated version of the Jordanville Prayer Book. It has all the necessary prayers (morning, evening, pre-communion, etc).  Android only.

Orthodox Daily Prayers – This book contains the old St. Tikhon’s Monastery prayer book with a few changes. It’s a good prayer book. App layout is basic but quite functional.  Android only.

 

Bibles…Oh the Choices!

Catena Bible & Commentaries – This is one of the best apps available. It provides an easy-to-navigate KJV2000* translation with tens of thousands of patristic commentaries by 250+ authors (Apocrypha is included as well). It lets you select your tradition: Byzantine Theology (Orthodox), Western Theology (Roman Catholic), Early Fathers, or all of the above. By default, it leaves out commentaries by Origen, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and others who have been deemed heretics but who have intriguing commentary that was read by the Fathers. These can easily be reenabled in the settings.

Tapping a random verse (Matthew 4:4), I had commentary from Saints Gregory the Great, Hilary of Poitiers, Jerome, John Chrysostom, Leo of Rome, Rabanus Maurus, and Theophylact (that was in Byzantine Mode). Genesis 1:1 pulled up twenty-six commentaries (Everyone Mode). After the commentaries, it provides Related Verses from the Old and New Testaments. It’s a beautiful and monumental work that is surprisingly free. It appears it has been designed by a professional team of Christian volunteers who work as engineers for big tech companies (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Playstation, etc.). Thankfully it’s available on iTunes, Google Play, and PC.

*KJV2000 mentioned above is basically the KJV with updated language, similar to the New King James Version.

Tecarta KJV with Strong’s Concordance – This is a great word study Bible.  If you want to know what the underlying Greek or Hebrew word is, what it means, how it’s pronounced, and the ways it can be translated, this app is wonderful. Just pull up the chapter you’re wanting to study and tap on almost any word. It’ll pull up an informative entry on that word. It’s been my most used Bible app (though the Catena one listed above may now rival it). I downloaded the RSV within this app so I can use that as well. Available on both iTunes and Google Play.

The Orthodox Study Bible (NKJV) – I have a hard copy and the Kindle edition. In general, it is a good starting place. The commentary seems to focus largely on the differences between Protestant beliefs and Orthodox theology. Those who frequently read patristic commentaries (e.g. Saints Chrysostom, Theophylact, Augustine, etc.) will probably find the breadth of commentary in the OSB to be lacking. However, for most people, especially new converts, it is a great starting point. I greatly appreciate the modern Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. Unfortunately, it is only on iTunes though the Play Store has it as an ebook. Alternatively, the Kindle edition can be used on multiple platforms.

Eastern Orthodox Bible (EOB) – For those who like this translation, it can be purchased for $1.99.  It is a New Testament that was translated by an Orthodox Christian in order to remove Protestant prejudices. Because it was primarily translated by one person (unlike most classical translations that were completed by a team), it has some weaknesses.  iTunes store only.

 

Other Useful Apps

Ancient Faith Radio (AFR) – One of the more popular apps.  With it, you can stream music and podcasts. Some of my favorites include Fr. Thomas Hopko’s many podcasts and the Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy podcast by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick. Also, my seminary launched The Voice of St. Tikhon’s in the fall of 2019. Google Play, and the iTunes.

AGES Digital Chant Stand – This amazing app will appeal to clergy, choir leaders, and those who like to follow the services closely. It pulls together the services for everyday of the year, providing audio for the tones in case you need a refresher, sheet music, and the parts for deacons and priests. While it may not contain all the stichera from the Menaion and Octoechos, it has a wealth of information. It is for the Byzantine tradition, so I unfortunately have not been able to make much use of it. iTunes, Google Play, or PC.

Orthodox Prayers (and Services) – A vast collection of Orthodox services, akathists, prayers, and writings. It’s quite impressive in its scope and breadth. My one suggestion to them would be to create a category for “Daily Prayers” that has the morning and evening prayer rules.  Now on both iTunes and Google Play.

Orthodox Info – By the same developer above. Think of it as an Orthodox library at your fingertips. App loading time is much better than it used to be with some updates that they made. iTunes and Google Play.

Orthodox Sayings – This pleasant little app has quotes from the saints that are updated regularly. You can save your favorites which will keep them all in one easily accessible folder. iTunes and Google Play.

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A WORD OF WARNING

Not all app makers have your best interests in mind. There are some apps that are built by data-mining companies that track your location, your phone calls, your contacts, and your activity with other apps on your device. Religious people are one of the biggest targets of these con artists who build Christian apps. Some of the most popular religious apps on the Play Store are nothing more than spyware: the app gives you some sort of free product (such as a KJV Bible, calendar, or prayer book) so that the app can spy on you.

If any app (even any of the ones listed above) require permissions that don’t make sense (location, phone calls, contacts, etc.), immediately delete the app. It was built by con artists who are trying to take advantage of Christians who naively think that Christian app developers must be Christians with good intentions.  Please see this article for more information and specific apps that are spying on you. Also, there’s this more recent (2022) article by the Mozilla Foundation on one of the most popular Bible apps that has privacy policies that are less than ideal.

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My list above certainly does not include every Eastern Orthodox app available in English for the iPhone or Android systems. Feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email fr.jeremy{@}orthodoxroad.com if you have any favorites that I left out (obviously remove the { } from the email address). Additionally, if you can read Russian or Greek, you will have a vast selection of beautifully designed apps available on both platforms.

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What apps do you use, and which ones would you recommend? This list is in no way exhaustive, so let us know if you use an app not listed here and tell us what you like about it. Also, app developers, contact me if you’ve got something new you want me to review, this page gets quite a bit of traffic.