ORTHROS
A prayer companion, made by Orthodox Christians, for everyone. Free, and quiet.
Public beta available now
Available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and CarPlay
Two taps to prayer
Open the app, touch this morning’s rule, and pray.
Two taps. Nothing in the way.
“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”
PSALM 5:3
The prayer book
Morning and evening prayers, preparation for Holy Communion, prayers for every need, the received texts, each with its source shown.
- Morning & Evening Prayers
- Preparation for Holy Communion
- The Psalter, in twenty kathismata
- Prayers for every need
- Those I Pray For, the diptychs, living & departed
- Akathists, Canons & the Hours
The rule is received, not designed
Orthros begins with a question no prayer app asks: do you have a rule from your priest? If you do, the app writes it down and keeps it, marked GIVEN WITH A BLESSING, and never suggests you outgrow it. If you don’t yet, a modest starter rule stands in, with a printable page to bring to your priest when you’re ready.
A rule fits best when it is given, not chosen.
HOW ORTHROS KEEPS YOU AT PRAYER ›The Way
One stone a day, a short teaching to read slowly, then the next stone waits. Catechesis is never finished: the faith is learned again and again, and loved again and again. The Way is that road, made walkable.
Where This Begins
The Foundations begin here. Read the stone, open its Library connections, and choose whether to reflect before continuing.
Your course place is separate from Today in the Church Year.
From there the road climbs, the Creed and the Councils, the Mysteries, the lives of the saints, and the practices that carry the faith into each ordinary day. Receive one stone at a time, with seasonal paths and a place you can return to without a score.
“Stone must follow stone by course.”
Scripture, with the Fathers beside it
The whole Bible in quiet type, the King James, the Septuagint, or plain modern English, and where a Father speaks to a verse, his word stands one touch away. Open the source beside each available commentary.
“See how He heals the soul before the body: the palsy was but the fruit, the sins were the root.”
Threads through Scripture
The whole Bible, read as the Church reads it, every promise and shadow of the Old opening into Christ. The ladder Jacob saw, the bush that burned unconsumed, the ark: each a thread drawn to the One they foretold.
“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
The liturgical year
Feasts and fasts for every day, Old Calendar and New, the Twelve Great Feasts, your own name day, each season shaded in its own light. The app carries its calendar offline, with the selected parish calendar clearly shown.
- Fast day
- Feast
- Today
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
The komboskini
Thirty-three knots, or a hundred, or three hundred, the Jesus Prayer in Greek, Slavonic, Romanian, Arabic, or English. One soft pulse per knot, and the screen keeps still. Set a prayer intention if you wish; when the time has passed, the rope only says: stay as long as you like.
The Listen room
The Lives of the saints and the parables of the Lord, with their reading texts and sources. Human recordings are in preparation; Audio also holds ambience and your own recordings.
Open an item to check its source and playback availability. The reading text remains free.
Kept quietly, between you and God
Your vigil lamp is lit when you pray. Miss a day? You simply relight it, the lamp keeps no grudges, and nothing piles up while you are away.
- The journalOne line after prayer, “What stayed with you?”, locked behind Face ID if you wish.
- For confessionA private page that prepares. It does not absolve. Bring it to your priest; afterward, let what was spoken go.
- Father’s counselWhat your priest asked of you, held in your private writing. Live it gently, and bring it back next time.
- And your quiet marks on the calendar“I was at church” · “I went to confession”, a memory, never a count.
NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED, EVER.
Your private writing stays on your device. If you enable private iCloud sync, supported data can follow you across your own devices. Personal recording files stay local.
Prayer is never silent
TOUCH TO HEAR THE CENSER
“Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”
Sacred sound, when you choose it
Open Audio to choose from the recordings and ambience available in your build. Your Lamp holds sound and volume preferences. The censer above plays the website’s recorded bell sample.
Playback begins with your choice. Silence is always available.
THE LISTEN ROOM ›No streaks to shame you.
No AI voices.
Icons treated as holy, never as decoration.
And it ends at your parish. The app points you to Vespers, not to more screen time.
Received prayer, with sources to explore
Pray the received prayers and read Scripture, the Psalter, and the Fathers in identified editions. Orthros also provides its own explanations, labeled separately from the source texts.
No generated prayers.
No AI voices, ever.
The King James Bible · the Septuagint · the Fathers in their classic editions · the lives of the saints. Open each item’s source and license details to distinguish its edition from Orthros editorial teaching.
Everything written is free to read. Always.
Orthros+ is the recorded voice, and the threads between everything.
Free forever
- Every prayer, the daily rule, the Hours, the Jesus Prayer and komboskini
- The calendar, fasts, feasts and tones, both calendars
- The whole Bible in three editions
- The reading library, the Lives, the parables opened by the Fathers, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer opened, read end to end, never truncated
- The Fathers linked to every Gospel passage
- One complete thread through Scripture
- The seven Ecumenical Councils
- The desert sayings
- A planned free recording collection
Orthros+ · coming
- The recorded library, every reading in a human voice
- The Fathers linked across the whole Bible
- Thirty-three threads, the covenants, the concept index
- The study rooms
- Chant, downloads and offline
The whole library is written and free to read today. The recorded voice and the study apparatus are being built; nothing you can read now will ever move behind them.
WHAT IS FREE, AND WHAT ORTHROS+ ADDS ›
THE DAWN SERVICE