Saint Anthimos Kourouklis, the Blind Ascetic of Kefallonia and Enlightener of Greece

Saint Anthimos the Blind (Feast Day - September 4)

St. Anthimos, son of Ioannis and Antzouleta Kourouklis, was born on the island of Kefallonia in Lixouri in 1727, with the name Athanasios Kourouklis. At the age of seven he became blind as a result of smallpox, an epidemic in Palliki at the time. His devout mother prayed for his healing, and asked her priest at the Church of the Holy Apostles to serve forty liturgies ("sarantaleitourgo") for her son's healing. At the fortieth Divine Liturgy, as the priest said: "With the fear of God and with faith and love draw near," Athanasius cried out that he could see the priest's vestments and chalice. He had recovered sight in his right eye. He then received his education by Abbot Anthimos at the Monastery of St. Paraskevi in Lepeda.

For a time he followed his father's occupation as a seaman and travelled to Constantinople, but then took up the life of a monk when he was 2o at the Monastery of St. Paraskevi at Lepeda, receiving the name Anthimos in honor of the Abbot. At some point he went blind again, and soon thereafter had a vision: he was praying for the restoration of his sight before an icon of the Theotokos when two young men in radiant garments appeared and led him to the Mother of God herself, who told him, "Depart, for your continual prayer that I restore your sight is not profitable to you." But the two young men pleaded for him, and the Theotokos said, "Anthimos, because of your great piety and many prayers, I will restore your sight in part, but do not forget that, having gained temporal vision, you can lose that which is eternal." Thereafter, though Anthimos was almost completely blind, he could dimly discern the outlines of objects; but in compensation he was granted the gift of spiritual insight,and was able to predict the future and call by name those he had never met.

Saint Anthimos was about twenty when he entered monastic life, and lived on Mount Athos at the Monastery of Iveron for a while where he received the Great Schema in 1747. Despite his blindness, he took up a life of missionary work as a "blind pilgrim monk" that took him throughout the Greek mainland and especially the islands. He decided this after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where he stayed for a time. Traveling from place to place he preached the Gospel, healed the sick, and founded several monasteries. Once he even restored a blind woman's sight by his prayers, though he himself remained blind throughout his life. Throughout his amazing labors he maintained a life of the most severe asceticism by eating little and sleeping on a plank or on the floor. His work was so impressive that P.N. Politis, a professor at the University of Thessaloniki, declares him to be "a splendid human being and one of the most significant men of our Church in the 18th century".


Missionary Journey's

Originally he had returned from the Holy Land to Kefallonia in 1758. He visited Castellorizo and laid the foundations for the fortified Monastery of St. George of the Mountain (Ayios Yeorgios tou Vouniou) on the small, fertile plateau above the island's town. He remained on the island until its construction was complete and the monastery formally consecrated in 1759. It is of special interest that the builder Anthimos used for the monastery's construction was a Rhodian, Hatzikonstandis, who married and settled on Castellorizo. His descendants are the members of the Protomastoros family.*

He spent a year on the island of Chios staying at the Church of St. Matrona (sleeping on its floor). He also spent time on the islands of Siphnos, Paros, Antiparos and Ios. While traveling from Siphnos to Paros he calmed a threatening storm through his prayers. In 1759 he saved the island of Megisti from drought through his prayers.

A significant stopover in his blessed journeys is the island of Astypalaia where in 1760 he founded a magnificent convent dedicated to the Holy Theotokos Portaitissa, complete with sleeping quarters and protective walls, and the miraculous icon he requested be copied from the original on Mount Athos. St. Anthimos stayed here for many years and worked many miracles, including ridding the island of snakes through his prayers.

The devastating earthquake of 1767 in Lixouri, the defamatory campaign against the clergy at the time, combined with his nostalgia for Kefallonia, lead his footsteps back to Lepeda Monastery in 1769 which was by now in ruins. He salvaged and rebuilt it, turning it into a Convent populated by devout nuns.

Following the restoration of both buildings and souls in Kefallonia, he continued his journeys, this time founding the Holy Monasteries dedicated to St. Anthony the Great in Sfakia of Crete in 1770, and St. John the Forerunner in Libadi of Kythera in 1773. At the latter, he dedicated the second throne of the chapel to his spiritual guide and the patron of his homeland, St. Gerasimos. He moved on to Sikinos, founding the Monastery of Zoodohos Pege (Life-giving Spring) in 1775.

He had thus created six "castles" of faith, six safe harbors and lighthouses that emitted the light of the Lord during the especially dark days for the nation. The operation of his monasteries is confirmed by a Patriarchal Decree of Patriarch Ioannikios.

While living a peaceful and ascetic life back at his base at Lepeda, he received three letters from Mani, imploring him to go there and assist in bringing peace to local conflicts. He embarked on this journey aboard a small ship. Following a stopover in the Peloponesean village of Kelbasio, he arrived in Mani where his pious nature and prophetic charisma enabled him to intervene and bring the locals back on the road to salvation.

It is at this point of having achieved the highest state of spirituality, that the Lord informed him that he was to leave this world behind. With this information, he went back to Lepeda, his place of solitude and repentance.

His Repose and Canonization

In 1782, in the course of one of his many sea journeys, he told the sailors to change course for Kefallonia, saying: "God's will is not that I concern myself with it [the mission he had undertaken], but that I go back and die in my monastery." On returning he fell ill with jaundice and called his spiritual children to him, saying: "My children, the hour has come for me to go where the Lord ordains. Death is the common lot of us all and is nothing to be afraid of. It is important rather to do your best to keep your promises and your monastic vows. The one thing necessary in this life is to please God and save your souls." Having said this, he fell asleep in peace, at the age of 54 on September 4th, 1781.

Restitution of his Sacred Remains took place in 1800 by Abbot Ioannis Lepediotis.

In 1920, at the iniative of Amilkas Alevizatos, a Lixourian academic and Government Councilor to the Holy Synod, the Convent at Lepeda was properly recognized and incorporated as part of St. Gerasimos Convent - a status that is upheld to this day.

The devasting earthquakes in August of 1953 destroyed the Convent to the ground. Hermioni Alexandropoulou, the only remaining nun, rebuilt the chapel and part of the nun's quarters with the assistance of the Holy Metropolis and devout locals. She also helped repopulate the monastery.

On March 28th 1973, Prokopios Menoutis, then Metropolitan of Kefallonia, transfered in a litany procession the icon of St. Anthimos from the Church of Pantokratoras in Lixouri, amid celebrations for the Declaration of St. Anthimos into Sainthood, which was issued by Patriarchal and Synodal Decree οn July 30, 1974.


Απολυτίκιον. Ήχος α'. Της ερήμου πολίτης.

Μοναζόντων το κλέος, μετανοίας διδάσκαλε, θαυματουργών επιδείξει, πάντας κατηύγασας. ανέτειλας ως ήλιος ημίν, διώκων των παθών τας προσβολάς. διά τούτο Άνθιμε Όσιε, την θήκην των σων λειψάνων ασπαζόμεθα. Δόξα τω σε δοξάσαντι Χριστώ, δόξα τω σε θαυμαστώσαντι, δόξα τω δωρησαμένω σε ημίν σκέπην και καύχημα.

Apolytikion in Tone Three
The offspring of Palle and Kefallonia's torch, divine builder of the Monastery of Lepedes, we cheerefully praise Anthimos who defeated the adversary with asceticism. Having received the gift of healing from the Lord, fervently intercede for our salvation.

Kontakion in Tone Three
Today, with a grateful spirit, the island of Kefallonia celebrates with the Monastery of Lepedes, and also invites the islands of the Cyclades. The islands rejoice because they received as great treasure your all-holy tomb, Anthimos, companion of the righteous.

Megalynarion
The renowned offspring of Lixouri, the pride of ascetics and the examle of monks, divine builder of the Monastery Lepedes, let us praise the thrice blissful Anthimos.

Note: It is sometimes said that celebrating Divine Liturgies for special intentions is 'not Orthodox.' The example of St Anthimos' mother shows that the practice is both traditional and efficacious.

* The monastery was extended and restored by a local builder, Mastrogeorgis, in 1779. At this time, it featured 15 monks' cells, a residence for the abbot, a dining room and a library. At its centre stood the church (katholikon) dedicated to St George, built in a style characteristic of the region, surrounded by a pebbled courtyard (votsala). Regrettably, the church and the external walling of the monastery are the only remnants of the entire elaborate structure, though plans are underway to restore the monastery to its former grandeur.

Underneath the church, and accessible only via a small trap door, is the so-called 'catacomb' of Saint Haralambos. St. Anthimos dedicated it to St. Haralambos because he is the patron Saint of Lixouri, the town where Anthimos was born. This small shrine was used as a refuge during the early years of the Greek Revolution and, again, during the bombardments from the Turkish coast in the First World War.

The cave of St. Anthimos at Lepeda together with its nuns today are pictured below.

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Dervishes Dance on the Face of Christ: More Evidence of Turkish Intolerance

The picture above comes from a Turkish television commercial from 2006 that depicts swirling dervishes dancing on an enlarged image of Christ as depicted in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It continues to be shown on television in many countries.

Do the Turks know no end to their blasphemy and intolerance! As I recall it was just this past May that more than 1,000 Muslims rallied in the city streets of Athens over claims that Greek police allegedly tore up and trampled on the Quran (which was never substantiated). They smashed 75 cars, injured 14 people, overturned trash bins and attacked banks. Left-wing Greeks were seen on Greek TV advocating on behalf of immigrants right to protest, saying: "What happened is a great insult to every Muslim, every immigrant and every Greek who respects democracy." What will these advocates say now that the Turks have added another entry to their long list of hypocrisies. On the one end we have Muslims protesting the Greek government for the trampling on the Quran, and now they go ahead on Turkish TV trampling on the face of Christ to promote their bigoted country.

I wonder how Turks would feel if their Greek neighbors started doing a tsamiko or kalamatiano dance on an image of Muhammed? Or how about a Christian entering the newly built mosque in Athens wearing shoes? Such an act is nothing less than a death sentence.

This is yet more evidence that Turkey is becoming more and more backward in a world that actually honors religious freedom and tolerance.

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Patriarch on Death List, Orthodox Fear Another Pogrom

For Good or Else? Chistian Houses in Turkey Marked

Gates of Vienna
02 September 2009

Our Austrian correspondent ESW has translated a report from Die Presse about ominous new developments in Istanbul that bode ill for Turkey’s few remaining Christians:

Strangers “Marking” Christian Buildings in Istanbul

Buildings inhabited by Christians have been marked with insignias in several districts of Istanbul. The labeling of the buildings are clearly done in concert with increasing harassment of the Christian inhabitants.

Some buildings in the traditionally Christian districts of Feriköy and Kurtulus have recently been labeled with green and red signs. Apparently they were affixed to point to buildings inhabited by Armenians and Greeks. The labels appear to be in conjunction with complaints from Christians about increasing harassment, according to Sehabat Tuncel, a member of parliament asked in a parliamentary questioning.

Besir Atalay, minister of interior, is now forced to answer these allegations. “Who affixed these markings?” is only one of the questions cited by the press. The ministry must also make clear whether the police received orders to take action and investigate.

Patriarch on a Death List

Residing in the Phanar in Istanbul, ecumenical patriarch Bartholomaios I has apparently been added to a death list kept by the nationalist-laicist secret society “Ergenekon”, which is accused of trying to push Turkey into chaos with its assassination attempts.

The EU Commission has repeatedly requested Turkey’s cooperation on effective measures to improve the precarious situation of the non-Muslim population.

Remembering the 1955 Pogrom on Christians

The marking on Christian buildings in Istanbul is a reminder of pogrom against Christian minorities in September 1955. Back then Christian buildings and shops had been marked by nationalist activists. The bloody riots with dozens of dead in Istanbul and Izmir were ostensibly triggered by the Cyprus conflict; however, the true reason was the search for scapegoats at a time of economic recession for Turkey.

A mob of fanatics burned down seventy-two Orthodox churches and more than thirty schools in Istanbul, defaced Christian cemeteries, and destroyed around 3,500 homes and more than 4,000 shops. The police watched the plundering and raping, not lifting a finger. Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who also writes about the Armenian genocide of 1915, describes the blind destruction in his memoirs.

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A Short History of the Illuminati

Sunday, 30 August, 2009
UnexplainedMysteries.com
William B Stoecker

The very word "illuminati" can produce strong reactions among true believers and debunkers alike, and the situation is not helped by the many inaccuracies in the film "Angels and Demons." One little known fact: the word has a very specific meaning. It refers to people who are either spiritually enlightened or who claim to be, and it is perhaps significant that many of today's elites refer to themselves as "wise men," and tend to be intellectually pretentious. Mystics have always believed that, by such means as meditation, people can achieve a higher state of consciousness and a oneness with God and with the entire universe. But they have also warned of the "left hand path" to a dangerous partial enlightenment sought (or settled for) by people seeking the supposed paranormal abilities attained in this state, abilities that can be used to obtain temporal wealth and power. Those who believe in the kundalini energy claim that it rises up the spine from the base chakra all the way to the crown chakra, which is when total enlightenment is achieved. It is perhaps significant that the highest level in freemasonry is supposedly the thirty third degree...and most people have 33 vertebrae. This hints that these Masons may be only partially enlightened.

There really was a historical Illuminati, an actual organization, founded by a Bavarian professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt, a man named Adam Weishaupt. Although of Jewish ancestry, his family had become Catholic, and he had been educated by the Jesuits, a somewhat mysterious order in their own right. He joined the Freemasons, and then created the Illuminati as an organization within an organization, infiltrating numerous Masonic lodges and taking control of them, as well as the universities. He created the order on May 1st 1776, and Mayday is a holiday sacred to ancient pagans, and, interestingly enough, to modern communists, and 1776 was the year of the American Declaration of Independence...and many of its instigators were Masons. He chose "Spartacus" as his code name for himself, after the gladiator who rebelled against Rome, and German communists after WWI referred to themselves as "spartacists." Weishaupt preached revolution against all existing social and political order and the destruction of religion, Judeo-Christian morality, and the nuclear family and the institution of marriage. He advocated a global socialist state. He advised his followers to recruit women by telling them that they were oppressed by men. Note that all of these ideas are preached by modern leftists.

In 1782 Masons and other radicals held a conference at Wilhelmsbad in Germany, where Weishaupt recruited German princes and such French Masons as Count Mirabeau, who spread the order to France, recruiting other Masons such as the Duke of Orleans, Danton, and Marat and taking over the Grand Orient Lodge in Paris, as well as the Jacobin clubs. Note the preponderance of well to do individuals and even members of the aristocracy in this movement...rather like today's billionaire radicals and limousine liberals.

These people fomented the French Revolution in 1789, in a nation whose King, though somewhat weak and inept, was anything but tyrannical, and whose economy, despite past wars and the Little Ice Age, was quite prosperous. The Duke of Orleans bought vast amounts of food, creating a shortage, and hired goons (reminiscent of today's "rent a mobs") to foment the bloody French Revolution, which, like most such revolutions since then, was never a true revolution of the people from the bottom up, but a staged revolution by factions within the elite from the top down. The rebels instigated the Reign of Terror, killing hundreds of thousands, mostly peasants, poor workers, and priests and nuns. Like today's leftists, they were obsessed with reducing the human population, although France was hardly overpopulated, having only a fraction of today's population, and Robespierre advocated the butchery of 15 million. Like today's leftists (and the Illuminati), the French revolutionaries hated Christianity and traditional marriage and morality. Acts of torture, vampirism, and cannibalism became commonplace. They sought the destruction of all existing order and the complete remaking of society. Sound familiar?

Meanwhile the Elector of Bavaria had outlawed the Illuminati in 1785, supposedly destroying the order, but, as we shall see, they were merely driven underground.

The French Revolution really established a fascist state, a very special kind of dictatorship, and the first example of one in the modern world, although ancient Sparta resembled a fascist tyranny, and Plato, perhaps inspired by Sparta, described such a state in his "Republic." It is worth noting that every communist government, although preaching an end to private property and disparities of wealth and the withering away of the state, has, in reality, been fascist, with a small elite living in wealth and luxury and controlling or owning all of the property, while the people are impoverished and enslaved, and mass murder, or democide, is a standard practice. Note that Hitler and Mussolini, often considered "right wing," were in fact socialists; both created socialist economies, and Nazi is the acronym for "National Socialist."

So the Illuminati were a historical reality; George Washington even warned the American people against them. We have, then, two questions: do the Illuminati still exist in some form today, and did Weishaupt really found a new order, or merely make public the resurfacing of an ancient evil?

After the Illuminati were supposedly abolished, there emerged in Germany and elsewhere secret societies advocating the same ideas. In 1788 Baron von Knigge, a surviving follower of Weishaupt's, founded the "German Union," controlling book publishing. After 1815 there appeared a mysterious order called the "League of the Just," who recruited Karl Marx to write the Communist Manifesto. By the 1830s there existed in Germany a club for the wealthy elite called "The Order of Death," whose symbol, appropriately enough, was a skull and crossbones...also an old Masonic symbol. They recruited wealthy American sudents in German universities, who brought the order to the United States, where it became known as Chapter 322 of the order, or "Skull and Bones." Many of America's elite belonged to this charming group of light hearted fraternity brothers, including many in the intelligence agencies, and both the Bushes who occupied the White House. Also, the Illuminati had established "Democratic Societies" in the US during the late eighteenth century. Back in Europe, a radical Italian group called the Carbonari emerged among the Masons, led by such men as Mazzini.

And, of course, the Masons themselves, who first surfaced in Scotland and England in the late seventeenth century, have always been a secret society with a pyramidal, hierarchical structure, secret rituals, and a fondness for occult magical symbols. More secret groups emerged in the US and elsehwere, usually connected with the Masons, including George Bickley's Knights of the Golden Circle, who advocated Southern secession and helped bring about the American Civil War. Supposedly many members of the Confederate Secret Service were members, and, according to author G. Edward Griffin, Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth. After the Civil War, this organization became the Ku Klux Klan.

Various occult societies emerged in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, like the Theosophists. In Germany and Austria, the Order of the New Templars surfaced (I will have more to say about the Templars and their connection with freemasonry later on). The ONT became the German Order, which became the Thule Society, which created the Nazi Party and recruited Adolf Hitler as its leader. Alice Bailey, an English Theosophist, hated Jews and admired Hitler, Mussolini, and Napoleon. She preached that God was a tyrant, and worshipped (her own words) a fallen angel called Lucifer. Moving to the US, she founded the Lucis Trust (Lucifer=Lucis), advocating one world government. This cult and its offshoots include as members such people as Henry Kissinger, and designed and maintain the bizarre meditation room at UN headquarters, with its huge monolith of magnetic ore...resembling similar magnetized monoliths I have personally seen atop an ancient pyramid at Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. Albert Pike, a prominent nineteenth century American Mason, also worshipped Lucifer. Another mysterious cult is San Francisco's Bohemian Club. Sveral people have claimed that at their Bohemian Grove in Sonoma County, its members conduct strange rituals around a stone owl; I have myself seen on the door of their building in San Francisco, a picture of the owl, a crescent moon, and the words "weaving spiders, come not here." Many prominent Americans, including those Bonesmen, the Bushes, are members. And then there are the powerful political organizations, also secret societies, like the Council on Foreign Relations, which does, indeed, control the US, and the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderbergers.

But are these groups (all of which advocate many of the same things advocated by Weishaupt) really branches of the Illuminati? Nineteenth Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli claimed that, above the political parties, there was a secret group who ran everything. American President Woodrow Wilson stated that there was such a group, and said that it was dangerous even to criticize them. And Winston Churchill, in the 1920's, stated that the Illuminati still existed and that they were behind Marxism.

And did the Illuminati exist before Weishaupt supposedly founded them? Could they have been around in ancient, even in prehistoric, Atlantean times? Ancient priesthoods and Greek and Roman Mystery Religions were secret societies, with hierarchical structures and initiation rites. In the early 12th century among Crusaders in the Holy Land, there emerged a secret cult called the Hospitallers, who exist today as the Knights of Malta within the Catholic Church. Shortly after them, also among the Crusaders, nine French knights founded the Templars, using many of the same magical symbols as the Hospitallers. They gained control of the fiat money banking racket, amassing great wealth and power, and were supposedly destroyed by the French King Philippe the Fair, but their fleet escaped capture and most of their treasure was never found. Many joined the Knights of Malta, and those in Spain and Portugal merely changed their name to "Knights of Christ." Robert the Bruce of Scotland owed his victory over the English to a mysterious body of knights who suddenly appeared on the scene...and later, in Scotland, the Masons emerged. To this day, they themselves claim direct descent from the Templars.

So we lack absolute proof of either the antiquity or the continued existence of the Illuminati, but the evidence, while admittedly circumstantial, is compelling.

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Lost Fragment of Codex Sinaiticus Discovered

Fragment From World's Oldest Bible Found Hidden in Egyptian Monastery

Academic stumbles upon previously unseen section of Codex Sinaiticus dating back to 4th century.

By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent
The Independent
September 2, 2009

A British-based academic has uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest Bible hiding underneath the binding of an 18th-century book.

Nikolas Sarris spotted a previously unseen section of the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates from about AD 350, as he was trawling through photographs of manuscripts in the library of St Catherine's Monastery in Egypt.

The Codex, handwritten in Greek on animal skin, is the earliest known version of the Bible. Leaves from the priceless tome are divided between four institutions, including St Catherine's Monastery and the British Library, which has held the largest section of the ancient Bible since the Soviet Union sold its collection to Britain in 1933.

Academics from Britain, America, Egypt and Russia collaborated to put the entire Codex online this year but new fragments of the book are occasionally rediscovered.

Mr Sarris, 30, chanced upon the fragment as he inspected photographs of a series of book bindings that had been compiled by two monks at the monastery during the 18th century.

Over the centuries, antique parchment was often re-used by St Catherine's monks in book bindings because of its strength and the relative difficulty of finding fresh parchment in such a remote corner of the world.

A Greek student conservator who is studying for his PhD in Britain, Mr Sarris had been involved in the British Library's project to digitise the Codex and quickly recognised the distinct Greek lettering when he saw it poking through a section of the book binding. Speaking from the Greek island of Patmos yesterday, Mr Sarris said: "It was a really exciting moment. Although it is not my area of expertise, I had helped with the online project so the Codex had been heavily imprinted in my memory. I began checking the height of the letters and the columns and quickly realised we were looking at an unseen part of the Codex."

Mr Sarris later emailed Father Justin, the monastery's librarian, to suggest he take a closer look at the book binding. "Even if there is a one-in-a-million possibility that it could be a Sinaiticus fragment that has escaped our attention, I thought it would be best to say it rather than dismiss it."

Only a quarter of the fragment is visible through the book binding but after closer inspection, Father Justin was able to confirm that a previously unseen section of the Codex had indeed been found. The fragment is believed to be the beginning of Joshua, Chapter 1, Verse 10, in which Joshua admonishes the children of Israel as they enter the promised land.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Father Justin said the monastery would use scanners to look more closely at how much of the fragment existed under the newer book binding. "Modern technology should allow us to examine the binding in a non-invasive manner," he said.

Mr Sarris said his find was particularly significant because there were at least 18 other book bindings in the monastery's library that were compiled by the same two monks that had re-used the Codex. "We don't know whether we will find more of the Codex in those books but it would definitely be worth looking," he said.

The library in St Catherine's does not have the laboratory conditions needed to carefully peel away the binding without damaging the parchment underneath but the library is undergoing renovations that might lead to the construction of a lab with the correct equipment to do so.

The Bible: A brief history

Although earlier fragments of the Bible have survived the passage of time, the Codex Sinaiticus is so significant because it is by far the most complete. The full text that has been discovered so far contains virtually all of the New Testament and about half of the Old Testament.

But whenever an ancient version of the holy book is found, it often raises questions about the evolution of the Bible and how close what we read today is to the original words of Christ and his early followers.

The Old Testament was written largely in Hebrew (with the odd Aramaic exception) but it is by no means a homogenous entity. Protestant and more recent Catholic versions of the Bible tend to use the Masoretic Text, a variation of the Hebrew Old Testament that was copied, edited and distributed by Jewish Masorete scholars between the 7th and 11th centuries. Earlier Catholic translations and the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches use the Septuagint, an ancient Greek version of the Hebrew text that was translated between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC.

In studying the early history of the New Testament, historians have about 5,650 handwritten copies in Greek on which they can draw, many of which are distinctly different. As Christianity consolidated its power through the first millennia, the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came to form the key elements of the New Testament.

But other apocryphal writings were discarded along the way. The Shepherd of Hermas, for instance, is a Christian literary work of the 2nd century which appears in the Codex Sinaiticus and was considered part of the Bible by some early Christians but was later expunged. The most well-known apocryphal gospel is that of Thomas, a collection of 114 numbered sayings attributed to Jesus that was discovered in 1945. As it never refers to Jesus as "Christ", "Lord" or the "Son of Man" (and lacks any mention of the miracles attributed to Jesus in the other gospels) it is perhaps not surprising that it never made it into later versions of the Bible.

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The First Orthodox Monastery of New Zealand

We are pleased to present the location, the first buildings and future plans for the completion of the first Orthodox Christian Monastery in New Zealand.

One can ask, what is the reason for the existence of a monastery?

We Orthodox Christians can very easily answer that such a monastery is necessary, for one is the Holy and Catholic Church which supports, provides spiritual shelter and is the center for every feeble soul. In this idyllic environment Levin, an estate of 104 acres, will serve God first, as THE FIRST holy male monastery of the Holy Metropolis of New Zealand, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and in the name of the Synaxis of the Archangels (9x5) and the adjacent church of St. Basil (6x2.5) will cost about 60,000 euros, or $130,000 N.Z.

We kindly ask you if you can donate whatever you can in this account:

Bank Westpac: Branch, 2 Devon St. East, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Name: Amfilochios Tsoukos
Full account number: 03-1566-0068447-00
Swift code: WPACNZ2W

Thank you for your support. May the Archangels be of help to you and your families and may you have the blessings of Saint Basil, the organizer of Orthodox Monasticism.

Source

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Mount of St. Stephen of Perm

Mountain is Probable to Bear Name of Orthodox Saint First Time in Russia

Arkhangelsk, Russia
September 2, 2009
Interfax

The State Council of Komi conveyed to the Russian government its findings on the question of naming a Subpolar Ural peak “Mount of St. Stephen of Perm.”

The peak is located at a crossroads of touristic routes. If federal authorities back up this initiative, it will be the first Russian mountain named after an Orthodox saint, the Pravoslaviye na Severnoy Zemle website has reported on Wednesday.

The Rossiya Pravoslavnaya public movement and Bishop Pitirim of Syktyvkar and Vorkuta initiated naming the peak after Stephen of Perm.

Earlier in his address to the State Council, Bishop Pitirim stressed that perpetuation of St. Stephen’s name would strengthen historic traditions that were being revived in Komi.

Patriarch Alexy II blessed works on naming the peak in 2007.

Orthodox believers organized an expedition three years ago and climbed the nameless peak to commemorate St. Stephen’s 610th anniversary. Bishop Pitirim blessed to set up a commemorative table with the saint’s name on the top.

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Our father among the saints Stephen of Perm was a fourteenth-century Russian missionary who is known as the Enlightener of Perm and Apostle to the Zyrians for bringing Orthodox Christianity to the Zyriane (Komi) people. To facilitate his missionary activities, he developed an alphabet for the Komi (Permic) language. St. Stephen’s feast day is April 26.

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UOAC Official Request

Saint Andrew's Cathedral of the UAOC

Statement of the Hierarchs of the UAOC Requesting Admission Under the Jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

His All Holiness
Bartholomew
Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome
Ecumenical Patriarch

Your All Holiness!

With filial love and honor, we, bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, turn to your All Holiness with synodal request to extend your labors with healing the church schism in Ukraine.

Realizing the value for the Great Church of Constantinople and the whole of Orthodoxy in general of the preparation of the Great and Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church, we raise our own prayers that this Synod would be convened as soon as possible, and its actions helped to update and consolidate the Orthodox Church. However, we ask your All Holiness, as the good shepherd, do not miss the pastoral care and problems of the multimillion Ukrainian people, who today suffer from a split in their church.

The tragic division of the Ukrainian Church in church consciousness was due to the crisis that broke from the ideal of Christian universality. Heading towards the Ecumenical Orthodox, our Church has condemned ethnic phyletism's [as a] unified ideology and declared the abandonment of ethnic phyletism as a means of church building (Statement of the Bishops' UAOC on August 15, 2006). However, as witnesses and members of religious processes, with sadness we note that without the active participation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate the new universal dimension of Ukrainian Orthodoxy is not completely solved.

Unification of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine can not be formally or mechanically. Achieving unity should be the result of the process of the recovery of consciousness and church life, releasing them from external secular motivations. We strive to gain a complete ecclesiology, aspire to a united Christian Church being the discovery of freedom and universality. With this in mind, we can not accept as the basis of association/(re)union the proposed idea of restoring us to the Russian Orthodox civilization or other secular values.

Your All Holiness! Today, when our church is suffering from separation, we call on you to not only pray for healing the split in Ukraine, but also to provide us with medicines that can heal wounds on the body of the Ukrainian Church.

We call on the Ecumenical Patriarchate to develop and implement a coherent theological church program, which aims to instill in Ukraine a catholic church consciousness. In particular, in our opinion, to improve the consciousness of the church would be extremely important:

a. assigning the leading theologians of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to resolving the Ukrainian church problem;

b. the theologians of the Ecumenical Patriarchate collaborating with leading humanitarian and theological schools in Ukraine;

c. implementation of a publishing program, which would be intended to acquaint the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians with the achievements of theological thought of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in particular in the field of ecclesiology, canon law and the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate;

d. participation of representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in scientific activities in Ukraine closer and active than today, involving senior representative orthodox scholars of Ukraine in scientific and other events held on the initiative or with the assistance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate;

e. opening in Kiev of a Metochion or Information and Cultural Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

On the other hand, the episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church once again turns to the countenance of the Mother Church, to escape from the artificial canonical isolation, and recovery fellow participation with the World Wide [or Ecumenical/Universal] Orthodox, our church is ready and wants to join the Ecumenical Patriarchate, with the rights of autonomy. While gaining autocephaly was and remains the strategic goal of Ukrainian autocephalous movement, to overcome the division we are ready to go for significant concessions, sacrificing their own interests for the greater good of the Church.

Given this, the episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church appeals to your All Holiness to request to intensify dialogue and to consider possible compromise solutions to the Ukrainian church matters.

With filial love we also ask your All Holiness to pray for our Church, its hierarchy and the God beloved Ukraine, with its pious people

In filial love and obedience,

+ Methodius
Metropolitan of Kiev and Ukraine
Of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

+ ANDREI
Metropolitan of Galicia
Locum tenens, Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese

+ ROMAN
Metropolitan Vinnitsa and Bratslava

+ JOHN
Archbishop of Uman

+ PETER
Archbishop on Krefalda and Bona

+ Makarov
Archbishop of Lviv
Locum tenens Rivne, Volyn and Taurian Diocese

+ Theodosius
Archbishop of Drogobych and Sambir

+ Hilarion
Bishop of Cherkassy Kirovograd

+ Michael
Fastovsky Bishop, Diocesan Vicar of Kyiv,

+ VLADIMIR
Bishop of Zhytomyr and Polessky

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Assyrian Orthodox Community Trying to Preserve Its Identity

Ancient Faith of Their Middle Eastern Fathers

Guardian Weekly
Catherine Ann Lombard
Tuesday September 1st 2009

The morning is hot and sticky, but I have promised Dayrayto Shmuni to help in the monastery kitchen and put on my long-sleeved T-shirt. How the nun manages during the summer months in her long black habit and cowl is a miracle. After a short bike ride through the wooded fields, I walk into the kitchen that is bustling with women and the sounds of Aramaic.

I am on the far eastern border of the Netherlands, but I might as well be in southeastern Turkey. The madrashto, or summer school, is in session at Mor Ephrem, the Syrian Orthodox Monastery, and 45 hungry boys will be lining up after the midday prayer for lunch. My husband works as a teacher for the church and so I volunteered to help.

With only a few words in Aramaic, the ancient language that Jesus spoke, I spend these mornings chopping vegetables and washing pots and pans. It is Wednesday, which is a fasting day, so the menu is simple. Baked potatoes, lentil soup, sesame-covered rolls, fish cakes, pickled vegetables, and melon. No meat, eggs, milk products or sweets.

The boys are all Dutch, learning to read and chant in kthobonoyo, the litur­gical language that only about 300 people in the world speak today. Their parents are immigrants, having fled the Turkish government and Kurds in the 1970s and 80s, leaving their homes and farmlands in Tur Abdin. Others escaped from Iran and Syria, and, recently, from Iraq. They are a complex diaspora community of 300,000 worldwide, only united by their Aramaic dialect and Christian faith. As man in his 30s told me, “We have no land. We have no ­nation. We only have the church. Without it, we are left with no identity.”

One of the women is now humming a chant; the window is open and I can hear some of the boys chanting as they sit outside. I am slicing melon and its juicy sweetness makes my mouth ­water. We women will eat only after all the teachers, priests, monks, boys and archbishop have finished their meal, which is eaten in silence. I steal a piece of melon and hurry to finish my task before the chapel bell rings, calling us to prayer.

Afterwards, I have to remind myself that I am in the Netherlands. What will happen to all this as the newer generations become more European? How will this refuge of ancient Christian life survive in our secular world?

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650 Pilgrims Prevented From Celebrating the Feast of St. Mamas in Morphou

Morphou is located in the northwest side of Cyprus, 30 miles from Nicosia. In 1974 Morphou was invaded by the Turkish troops, who forced its residents away, and since then keep the town under their occupation, forbidding the Greek Cypriots from visiting their houses, their orchards, their churches, and the soil that buries their ancestors.

The Church of St. Mamas is one of the most important Franco-Byzantine churches in Cyprus, and dates to the beginning of the 16th century. It was built on the ruins of two old Christian basilicas, and one Byzantine church. Two festivals were celebrated for St. Mamas, one on September 2, and the other during Palm Sunday. For years Orthodox faithful have been trying to hold services in the Church of St. Mamas in Morphou, yet without success. In 2004 they were finally allowed to hold services. Morphou is expected to be returned to Greek control in a future settlement between Greeks and Turks – indeed, even the 2004 Annan plan envisaged its return.

Today at the Kato Pyrgos-Limnitis checkpoint the Turkish occupation regime refused to allow 650 Cypriot Orthodox pilgrims from the Tylliria and Paphos districts to cross into occupied Morphou and attend services at the Monastery of St Mamas, whose feast day it is today.

The Cypriot government thought it had an agreement with the Turkish side that if it allowed Turks living in occupied Cyprus to cross without checks to the Turkish Cypriot enclave of Kokkina to commemorate the battle that took place there in 1964 (in which Turkish aircraft strafed and dropped napalm on Greek villages to prevent Cypriot forces from overrunning the terrorist TMT stronghold of Kokkina), then Greek Cypriot pilgrims would be allowed, on the same terms, to enter occupied Morphou and attend the St Mamas celebrations.

The Turks made their trip to Kokkina, on 14 August, unimpeded and, up until yesterday, and despite rumours to the contrary, the Christofias government was insisting that the occupation authorities would allow the Morphou crossing to take place without the pilgrims being forced to go through rigourous ID checks.

However, today, as soon as the pilgrims crossed into the occupied areas, the buses in which they were travelling were halted by 'police' from the occupation regime, who proceeded to board the buses and carry out stringent Kafkaesque ID checks, taking several people off the vehicles and declaring they would not be allowed to cross. After three hours of harassment and calculated humiliation – during which time the services at St Mamas had finished – the Greek Cypriot pilgrims felt obliged to abandon the pilgrimage and return to the free areas.

The history of Greek-Turkish relations since 1922 tells us that any agreement the Turks enter into is not worth the paper its written on. For the Turks, an agreement is merely a means to an end, which will be discarded the moment it no longer serves Turkey's purpose. Thus, it was entirely predictable that the 'agreement' reached over Kokkina and St Mamas would not be adhered to and that the 'assurances' given to the Cypriot government were meaningless.

This raises Papadopoulos' question during the debate over the Annan plan: how can the Greek side be sure that Turkey will abide by any commitments it enters into? In fact, it was this question that President Christofias claimed was the deal-breaker for him over Annan, i.e. he was not convinced that the plan provided the mechanisms to ensure Turkey would do what it agreed to do and not even last-minute phone calls from US secretary of state Colin Powell to Christofias assuring him that the USA would insist Turkey honour its commitments managed to persuade Christofias to change his mind.

The Papadopoulos question, therefore, remains of paramount importance. If the Turks cannot be trusted to keep to an agreement on the simple matter of a religious pilgrimage, then how can we expect the Turks to fulfill any obligations it enters into on matters of much greater significance, such as the withdrawal of Turkish troops and settlers from Cyprus, the return of territory and so on?

Source


Life of Saint Mamas (or Mamantos)

Saint Mamas, although he was not a Cypriot local saint, was venerated greatly in Cyprus, especially in the Morphou area. He was from Gaggra of Paflagonia in Cappadocia and was born in prison during 260 A.D. where his Christian parents were held and who ultimately became martyrs during the Roman persecutions. He was given to a good woman, by the name of Ammia, in order to bring him up and it is said that the saint used to call her "mama" (mommy) and thats why he was named Mamas. He died in 275 A.D. at the age of 15 after going through much torture for the faith.

Saint Mamas was the patron saint of the acritic army unit of the Mardaites Τhieves (Apelatai) during Byzantine times. A sub-unit of the Mardaites who came to Cyprus and settled in the area of Morphou introduced the veneration of their patron to Cyprus. Originally a church was built baring his name and later it was replaced by the monastery of the same name in the occupied town of Morphou. It is one of the most important churches of Cyprus, of Franco-Byzantine style, and dates from the early 16th century. The sarcophagus of Saint Mamas is found in a niche situated on the north wall of the church, and has relief decoration. According to a tradition, the remains of the Saint arrived in Cyprus in a sarcophagus, which survives today in the church, from the shores of Asia Minor. The iconostasis was made in the 16th century and during 1945 new buildings were constructed west of the church in which the Bishop of Kyrenia used to reside. Major changes, additions and improvements were made in 1963 and these included a lecture hall, library, etc. In 1973 Morphou acquired its own Bishopric for the first time in its history having as its first Bishop Mr Chrysanthos Sarrigiannis (1973-1996). Today the Bishop of Morphou is Mr Neophytos and the Cathedral church of the Bishopric is that of Saint Mamas. After the Turkish invasion, the Church of Saint Mamas in Morphou was converted into a museum. That's why today it is in good condition. Before the Turkish invasion two festivals used to take place at the monastery, one on September 2 (feast day of Saint Mamas) and one on Palm Sunday.

Source

---------------------------------

At 10:00 AM the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of St. Mamas took place amidst hundred of faithful who were able to enter through other barricades. The Metropolitan of Morphou Neophytos was the celebrant. In his sermon it was his wish that next year all Orthodox Cypriots would be able to celebrate the feast unhindered.

Pictures of the service are below.

Source.

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An Icon of Saint Ephraim Preserved in the Fires of Nea Makri

On August 24, 2009 at 5:00 AM the Sacred Monastery of Saint Ephraim in Nea Makri was evacuated due to the fires ravaging throughout the area. However the monastery escaped destruction at the last minute as the flames reached the walls within a few meters of the monastery. The winds had changed direction and the flames as well. News of a miracle began to spread when a Cypriot volunteer discovered among the ashes outside the monastery an icon of St. Ephraim that was fully preserved with a very small amount of corrosion and practically unaffected by the flames. On Tuesday the faithful continued to make pilgrimage to the monastery to venerate the sacred relics of St. Ephraim.

(Source: http://www.sigmalive.com)

Below are photos from the Monastery of Saint Ephraim in Nea Makria:

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Schismatic Ukrainian Church Requests to Come Under the Ecumenical Patriarchate

[Interesting news to be posted on the feast of St. John the Faster, the first Archbishop of Constantinople to call himself "Ecumenical" Patriarch. Metropolitan Metheodios of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, who leads one of two schismatic Ukrainian churches and has some 1500 parishes under his omophorion, has requested to come under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. However this request, signed by ten schismatic bishops, has come with much skepticism by some as far as intentions are concerned, with some saying that this is merely a reaction to the recent visit of the Patriarch of Moscow Kyrill to Ukraine. The bishops of the schismatic church pleaded to the Patriarch " not only to pray for the healing of the schism in Ukraine, but to give us the medicine by which to heal the blow in the body of the Ukrainian Church." The Ecumenical Patriarchate wisely decided to discuss this matter at its next synodal meeting. Accepting this one fragment of the Ukrainian Church could further divide the Ukrainians, while it is the Ecumenical Patriarchs wish to form a united autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. - J.S.]


Constantinople to Review UAOC’s Request to Come Under the Jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

01.09.2009
UAOC

CONSTANTINOPLE — The letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) will be reviewed at the session of the Holy Synod in Constantinople on September 28, 2009. UNIAN-Religion reported that General Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Archimandrite Elpidophoros Lambriniadis informed the publication “Kommersant-Ukraina” of this.

After the session of the Holy Synod, a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will come to Ukraine for further review. “No decision will be made fast or spontaneously. We are planning the visit of the Patriarchate’s delegation to Ukraine for the beginning of October. During the visit there will be a meeting between representatives of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan Mefodiy (head of the UAOC), where the given question will be discussed, after which we will make a definitive decision,” said the archimandrite.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) skeptically regards the perspective of the UAOC coming under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. “The UAOC has practically no chances – during Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to Kyiv he clearly made it understood that he will only converse with a canonical Church, thus with us,” the press secretary of the head of t he UOC-MP proto-hierarch Heorhij Kovalenko is quoted by “Kommersant.”

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) responds the same way to the letter of Metropolitan Mefodiy. "We really doubt that Patriarch Bartholomew will accept the UAOC under his omophorion, the more so since it is a small Orthodox jurisdiction,” said the head of the informational-publication department of the UOC-KP Bishop Yevstratiy (Zorya). He believes that the UAOC’s appeal to Constantinople was influenced by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s visit to Ukraine. “After Kirill’s visit to Ukraine, the UAOC understood that Moscow will not support the creation of a national church in Ukraine, so they again focused their attention on Constantinople,” feels Bishop Yevstratij.

As RISU reported, on August 26, 2009, the Hierarchal Synod of the UAOC sent an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to accept the UAOC into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with rights of autonomy.

• http://religions.unian.net/rus/detail/1592

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Christianity Beyond A Religion

I thought the article linked here written by an Evangelical in Christianity Today was a good description of the offense christians should feel when their Faith is lumped together with other religions.

Here is a quote from the article:

"But this sort of thing, religion, does not stand at the heart of the New Testament message. The gospel isn't primarily about helping individuals to live the life they've always wanted; it tells people to die to their yearning for self-fulfillment. It is not about helping people feel good about themselves, but telling them that they are dying. It's not about improving people, but killing the old self and creating them anew. It's not about helping people make space for spirituality in their busy lives, but about a God who would obliterate all our private space. The gospel is not about getting people to cooperate with God in making the world a better place—to give it a fresh coat of paint, to remodel it; instead it announces God's plan to raze the present world order and build something utterly new."

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Monk to Teach Morality Through Online Game

[I don't know the details of what the exact message of this game is, but from the description below it seems that it is meant to teach moralism rather than Orthodoxy. The ideology that doing good rewards and doing bad brings suffering does not correspond to reality or Orthodoxy. In fact, doing good more often brings suffering than doing bad, and suffering for the good is one thing we are called to do as Christians. What could be further misleading is that morality saves. The prophetic, apostolic and patristic message is not that humanity is divided between the moral and the immoral, or that humanity is divided between the good and the bad, or that humanity is divided between the virtuous and the wicked. The message of the of the Lord is that: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is no division; we are all immoral, bad and wicked. It's only a question of degree, or kind, or manifestation and the response we have to our condition. Whatever somebody's external degree of morality might be, we still all are condemned sinners headed to hell apart from Christ and His Church. It is the imitation of Christ and the Saints and the sanctification of the body and soul in Christ which saves. Therefore, if the game description below is accurate then it is my hope that it does not pass to be an Orthodox Christian game. But I will give it the benefit of the doubt till I find out more. - J.S.]

Monk-missionary Invents Online Game to Attract Youth to Churches

Moscow, Russia
September 1, 2009
Interfax

Chancery of the Moscow Patriarchate received a proposal to create a computer program for studying Orthodoxy in form of a simulator game, the Infox.ru website has reported.

The project’s author Father Maxim is convinced the new online project is necessary, as it will help youth to learn more about the Church in exciting form of a computer game. According to the project, a user creates his personage, chooses his s ex, age and appearance. Then the personage develops from level to level as his secular life is based on commandments and he is rewarded if he behaves well and suffers hardships for his unrighteous actions.

A player can also choose to develop in a church sphere: women can become sisters of mercy, nuns or mothers superiors in nunneries, while men can be seminarians, priests and bishops.

“Anyway, young people spend their time in virtual world, and it’ll be better if they spiritually develop instead of “shooting and killing,” Fr. Maxim believes.

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A Lesson For Wives... (2)

[It seems like this is going to become a series (see part 1). - J.S.]

Bank Robber Wanted Time Away From Wife:
Judge sends 39-year-old away to prison for 3 to 6 years

Sep 01, 2009
By CINDY STAUFFER, Staff Writer
LancasterOnline.com

A bank robber offered an unusual explanation Monday for why he held up an Ephrata bank in 2007.

He did it to get away from his abusive wife, he told a judge during his sentencing in Lancaster County Court.

In fact, Anthony Miller, 39, wanted so badly to escape his wife — even if it meant going to jail — that he repeatedly asked tellers during the robbery, "Did you call the police yet?"

"She was very abusive to me," Miller told Judge Louis Farina. "I was scared. She threatened to commit suicide if I ever left her."

Miller's defense attorney, Robert Beyer, said that when the woman, now Miller's ex-wife, came to pick up his car after he was taken into custody, she met with the arresting officer.

After 20 minutes with her, the officer said, "I was ready for jail, too," Beyer dryly noted.

Farina sentenced Miller to 3 to 6 years in prison, a little longer than Miller had wanted. Beyer asked the judge to give Miller, who has already spent 31 months in prison, a sentence of time served.

The judge, however, said Miller committed a serious crime and used a BB gun that looked like a real gun during the robbery, even though it wasn't loaded and he never threatened anyone with it.

Farina said, "I accept he may not have wanted to hurt anyone. He made a very bad decision under a period of stress."

Turning to Miller, the judge said, "We have to make sure you don't do that again."

Miller pleaded guilty in June to the robbery of the Ephrata National Bank on Martin Avenue in February 2007.

The day of the bank robbery, Miller purchased a BB gun at Wal-Mart, took it out of the box and went to the bank, Beyer said.

Miller stayed at the bank for four minutes, as tellers collected money. A witness said, "He wanted someone to call the police."

An employee did trigger an alarm and police, who were nearby, arrested Miller as he left the bank.

When he walked out of the door, Miller hesitated for a moment, Beyer said, thinking that he might want police to kill him and "have this be over with," but then changed his mind.

Miller, who has no criminal record, decided to rob the bank after a series of problems — marital, financial and emotional, Beyer said.

Miller met his wife through a Christian dating Web site. She moved to the county from Washington state and the couple was married in 2004.

The pair soon had problems and Miller wanted to end the marriage, but his wife threatened to overdose on pills, he said.

During this time, Miller also struggled with depression. A welder, he had a job that did not offer health insurance and he said could not afford the medications he needed for his condition.

Feeling desperate, he saw the bank robbery as a way to get away from his wife.

Farina listened and then noted a very curious thing: When Miller was arrested, he asked police if he could call his wife.

Beyer said, "He didn't say what he was going to say."

"Goodbye? It's your fault?" Farina asked, his eyebrows raised. "So it's her fault?"

Beyer responded that Miller doesn't blame anyone but himself.

"His wife's actions drove him to it?" Farina asked. "He saw this as his way out?"

"Absolutely," Beyer said.

Miller weighed in, saying, "I certainly wasn't thinking straight. That's not the way I normally act. I believe I had a nervous breakdown that day."

Farina told Miller that he traumatized people in the bank with the gun.

The judge said he wanted to give Miller more than just the time he had already served in prison so he could get evaluated and counseled.

"You need enough time and supervision so we can identify what are your problems," he said.

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Worshipping Among Stylites!

Anyone who truly knows me knows that I have a special admiration for stylite saints, especially St. Symeon the Stylite. I spent many a moment in my younger days contemplating the life of St. Symeon and his astonishing feat of living atop a high pillar decade after decade exposed to all the elements of the air and temptations of the demons. I can't say I ever wanted to emulate him though. Regrettably it is a lifestyle beyond my strength.

I always wondered what reaction people in contemporary Europe or the United States would have if stylites lived among us. I think the closest example of a reaction to something like this was when magician David Blaine did his Vertigo stunt in May 2002 when he stood atop a 100-foot pillar for 35 hours to imitate, as he said, the life of St. Symeon. As with all of his stunts it drew national media attention and large crowds gathered to witness the astonishing event in New York City. But if a man lived atop a pillar for 37 years like St. Symeon they would probably either think he was crazy or was just performing an extreme religious stunt. But if miracles followed, as in the case of St. Symeon, then we may have a different story.

For me, one sign of a healthy church is if it produces stylite-type ascetics. A church that doesn't inspire and produce such asceticism is far from maturity and it would be our biggest folly to think otherwise. Not to sound like an idealist, but how inspiring would it be to walk out of your local parish to see a stylite, or to be able to get into your car and make a pilgrimage to hear the wise counsel of a man or woman suspended between heaven and earth for the glory of God? What an inner conviction this would inspire! What a model of virtue to emulate! What an example to live up to!

These days I am much more of a realist by necessity for sanity's sake. It is a rare feat for anyone to even keep all of the prescribed fasts of the Church in our contemporary ecclesiastical atmosphere, and this in a day and age when it should be much more easier than ever with all that we have available to us. Keeping this in mind, how dare I even entertain the hope of America producing a stylite-type ascetic. In America we are fortunate if we can even get a glimpse of an icon depicting a stylite saint in one of our parishes proudly displayed so as to inspire possible emulation. I'm pretty sure it exists somewhere, but I've never seen one.

Someone may wonder where my thoughts about these things come from. Though it goes back many years to when I first read the life of St. Symeon and was fascinated by it, these specific thoughts stem from a pilgrimage I made to Kalambaka, Greece in the summer of 2001. At the foot of the Meteora monasteries is a medium sized church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. This church dates to about the 11th century, though it was built atop a previous church structure dating back to approximately the 5th or 6th century. The iconography dates back to the 12th century many of which were done by Neophytos the Iconographer, the son of the Cretan Theophanis Bathas-Strelitzas who did much of the brilliant iconography in the monasteries of Meteora. The focal point of the church is the very rare solid marble pulpit (I've been told it is the only one in Greece) that stands right in the middle of the church as it was done in earlier centuries. Another focal point (not open for viewing to the public) is a crypt behind the altar which was used as a hiding place during Ottoman times. Though everything about this church was overwhelmingly fascinating to me, what especially struck me was the pillars that held up the entire structure of the church. These pillars were fashioned in the style of the stylite pillars depicted in icons of the stylite saints, and on each of the four sides of each pillar throughout the church was an icon depicting a stylite saint; so that on one side of the pillar you may have St. Symeon the Elder while on the opposite side you have St. Symeon the Younger and next to them on each side would be St. Alypios and St. Daniel the Stylites. The image made me literally drop my jaw with awe and all I could think of was celebrating a Divine Liturgy in this church which gives you the impression that you are worshipping in the midst of a few dozen or so stylite saints. It was an overwhelming experience that I would love to see in a parish near where I live in Boston and it has always been my dream to transplant that experience I had in a church dedicated to the stylite saints in America.

The image of the stylites on the pillars of the Church of the Dormition in Kalambaka helped me to recall a passage I once read in the book The Year of Grace of the Lord by a Monk of the Eastern Church, in a passage where he describes why the Church has appointed the feast of St. Symeon the Stylite to appear on the first day of the liturgical year. He writes:

"The Church seems to throw down a challenge to the world deliberately in inviting us, on the first day of the year, to contemplate a case so extreme that it constitutes a paradox. For the life of a stylite appears to be a negation of all the values honoured by 'reasonable', 'civilized', 'modern' man. The history of Christian sainthood is full of such cases, which are in some way a scandal.... But it is good that, from time to time, a voice cries in the desert and sends out a strong call to renunciation and penitence.... In honouring Symeon the Stylite on the first day of the year, Eastern Christianity takes a clear stand; it shows that it neither disowns nor abandons heroic forms of sainthood. The world does not understand; it either jeers or is indignant. (p. 6)

Thus, just as the pillars in the Church of the Dormition in Kalambaka, the Church year also is held up and made sturdy by the endurance and faith of the stylites who literally became like bodiless angels in their quest for healing and salvation.

Below are some photos I took in the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Kalambaka, Greece.

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