Fr. Milutin Tesla (1819-1879), Nikola Tesla's Father

Milutin Tesla was born in Raduc, county Medak, Lika, on February 19 (OS), 1819. The Serbs came to Raduc from around Knin in the 1690s, having arrived there from western Serbia, via Hercegovina. The name Tesla denotes either a trade, as tesla is Serbian for adze - a small axe with a blade at right angles to the handle - or a physical characteristic, such as protruding teeth, prevalent in the Tesla family. The name Tesla is also found in Ukraine.

Georgina-Djuka Tesla (1822-1892), Nikola Tesla's Mother

"The mother's loss grips one's head more powerfully than any other sad experience in life." - Nikola Tesla, 1924

In my library, amongst the myriad books and papers about Nikola Tesla, beginning with those written nearly a century ago, and including the web entries created in our own day, there is a veritable sea of information, and quite a bit of disinformation, about the man who "invented the 20th century." Tesla had been declared, variously, an Austrian, a Hungarian, an East European, American, Yugoslav, Croat, occasionally even a Serb - which he was, by birth, heritage and his human consciousness. Nikola Tesla's father, Milutin, is always listed as a priest, sometimes an Orthodox priest, or a Greek Orthodox priest, only rarely as a Serbian Orthodox priest, which he was, and a most excellent, learned and devout man at that.

If the Earth Stopped Spinning

Is the Whole Earth a Living Icon of the Face of God?

By John Sanidopoulos

There is a quote attributed to St. John of Damascus circulating around the internet that says:

"The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God."

One website says that it comes from his "Treatise", but other than that I have no idea where it came from. I assume this means his treatise on icons, otherwise known as his Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Icons. However, the above quote I have not been able to locate in either this work or any other that has been translated into English, and I doubt it comes from one of his untranslated texts. In fact, I know it doesn't, because the quote is nonsensical and overly sentimental, and I can't imagine any Church Father making such an absurd statement.