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.
The Invitation
Where the road begins: the willingness to be taught, and to let the dust of distraction settle so the heart can hear.
“Lord, make me willing to be taught; open the ears of my heart.”
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. Seventy-two stones at arrival, walked in season, and your place on the road is a position, never a percent.
“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. Two thousand one hundred ninety-one places, and counting.
“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. Six years of the liturgical calendar, computed exactly and carried offline.
- 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, read aloud, opened by the Fathers, and ended in silence. A human voice. Never a generated one.
A library, not a feed, no queue, no autoplay, nothing counting you. Every Life stays readable, 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, kept sealed on your device. 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.
All of it stays on your device and your own iCloud. Orthros has no servers to send it to.
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.”
Beneath every prayer, the Church is singing
A quiet chant bed rises with your prayers, Byzantine and Kievan tones, the Jesus Prayer sung low, the soft breath of the censer. It begins when you begin, and keeps singing when you set the phone down. On by default; silent the moment you wish.
Blessed Is the Man · Thy Resurrection · the Jesus Prayer, sung
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.
Written by the Church, not by AI
Every prayer, every verse, every word of teaching in Orthros comes from the received tradition, the Psalter, the Fathers, the service books, through public-domain translations, each with its source shown.
No generated prayers.
No AI voices, ever.
The King James Bible · the Septuagint · the Fathers in their classic editions · the Prologue of Ochrid, every text public domain, every one named. The app itself is the work of Orthodox Christians; the words are the Church’s.
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
- All 164 readings, 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 free set of recordings
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