Miracle of St. Basil the Great Against the Arians

Commemoration of the Miracle Wrought by Saint Basil the Great at Nicaea, when by his prayer he opened the gates of the church of the Orthodox (Feast Day - January 19)

While the wicked Emperor Valens was in Nicaea, prominent Arians approached him requesting that he drive the Orthodox from the cathedral and give it to them. The ruler, himself a heretic, forcibly removed the faithful and allowed the dissenters to occupy the building, after which he left for the Imperial City. The entire community of the Orthodox, which was of considerable size, was griefstricken. While matters were in this state, the great helper and protector of all the churches, Saint Basil, arrived in Nicaea. Weeping and lamenting, the flock of true believers informed him of what the Emperor had done. The blessed one comforted them and hurried to Constantinople, where he presented himself to Valens and said, "It is written, 'The King's honour loveth judgment', and Wisdom tells us that 'the King's judgment is righteous'. Why, then, 0 Emperor, have you pronounced an unjust sentence, expelling the Orthodox from their holy church and giving it to misbelievers?"

The Emperor replied, "Have you come to insult me, Basil? It does not behoove you to speak thus."

"It would certainly behoove me to die for the truth," retorted Basil.

The chief cook of the palace, whose name was Demosthenes, was standing nearby, and wishing to abet the Arian cause, interjected and crudely reviled the saint. "Behold," laughed Basil, "a new Demosthenes, this one an illiterate!" The humiliated cook muttered something, to which the blessed one responded, "Your business is pots and pans, not the dogmas of the Church."

Furious with Basil, but knowing that he had acted wrongly, the Emperor commanded, "Return to Nicaea and judge between the factions, but do not show favoritism to your party."

"If I judge wrongly, send me to prison, expel my co-believers, and give the church to the Arians," said the man of God.

Basil went back to Nicaea with an imperial decree, assembled the Arians, and announced, "The Emperor has given me authority to decide whether you or the Orthodox should have the church you took by force."

The Arians replied, "Judge, then, but as the Emperor would."

"Come, Arians and Orthodox," exclaimed Basil; "we will lock the church! Both sides will affix their seals and set strong guards of men they trust. Then pray for three days and nights, you Arians, and return. If you can open the doors by your supplications, the church will be yours in perpetuity. If you cannot, we shall pray for a single night and go to the church, chanting a Litia. We shall have permanent control of the building if the doors open for us; otherwise, it will be yours again."

This proposal pleased the Arians, but the Orthodox were vexed with the saint, protesting that he gave the heretics an unfair advantage out of fear of the Emperor. Nevertheless, both sides agreed, locked the church, sealed it, and set guards. The Arians prayed for three days and nights, but their prayers achieved nothing; so they continued to entreat God's mercy until noon of the fourth day, crying, "Lord have mercy!" When the doors failed to open, they dispersed, hanging their heads in shame. Meanwhile, the great Basil assembled the Orthodox men, women, and children, and led them to the Church of the Holy Martyr Diomedes, outside the city. He celebrated an All-Night Vigil there, then proceeded with the crowd to the cathedral, chanting, "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us." Halting before the portals, he commanded the people, "Raise your hands to heaven and cry with heartfelt ardor, 'Lord have mercy!'" After they had prayed, the saint ordered that there be silence. He made the sign of the Cross over the doors thrice and shouted, "Blessed is the God of the Christians, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages." The people answered, "Amen." Suddenly the earth quaked, the locks broke apart, the bars fell to the floor, the seals split, and the doors flew open, slamming against the wall as though a mighty wind were blowing or a fierce tempest raging. Chanting, "Lift up your gates, 0 ye princes; and be lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of Glory shall enter", Basil hurried into the building with the whole congregation of the Orthodox. After celebrating the divine service, he joyfully dismissed the faithful. Many Arians (who had returned in great numbers to see how matters would end) renounced impiety and joined themselves to the true believers. When the Emperor learned of Basil's judicious handling of affairs and the glorious miracle, he marveled greatly and denounced vile Arianism; nevertheless, blinded by malice, he did not turn to Orthodoxy. Later, he perished miserably. Defeated and wounded in a battle in Thrace, he fled and cowered in a barn full of straw. His pursuers surrounded the building and set it on fire. The Emperor was burned alive, and his soul departed to everlasting flames. The tyrant's demise took place after the death of our holy father Basil, but in the same year.

The subject of the altarpiece is St. Basil Celebrating Liturgy in the presence of the Arian Emperor Valens. St. Basil is so involved in his devotion at Liturgy during the Feast of the Epiphany in 372 that he does not notice Emperor Valens enter with his retinue.

The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints by St. Dimitry Rostov. January 1st, pp. 36-38

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

A Miracle of Saint Nektarios in Jordan

Romfea.gr has reported news from Metropolitan Benedict of Philadelphia that a three month old boy was healed by St. Nektarios in Jordan.

The three month old boy was very sick with a collapsed lung and had entered into intensive care to be supported with oxygen. The parents were informed by doctors that there was no hope for their son.

When the Metropolitan heard of this, he sent a priest named Fr. Nektarios to visit the boy, as well as all the sick of the hospital, every Saturday. To every sick person he would give the Holy Gospel, the life of St. Nektarios and oil from the vigil lamp of the Saint.

The Metropolitan had asked that the boy with the collapsed lung be specifically anointed with the oil from St. Nektarios, and the miracle was almost immediate! He was completely healed that day and the next day returned home with his parents in perfect health.

The boys parents, in gratitude to St. Nektarios, decided to name their child after his healer - St. Nektarios the Wonderworker.

Later the Metropolitan himself visited the family and gave them his blessing. Metropolitan Benedict has made the name of St. Nektarios famous in Jordan with the church built dedicated to him. Another recorded seven miracles attributed to St. Nektarios have also been performed in Jordan.

St. Nektarios Church in Jordan

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Miraculous Story of the Jews of Zakynthos

LEORA GOLDBERG
The Jerusalem Post
Dec. 13, 2009

ZAKYNTHOS, Greece - I needed a break at the end of a long and exhausting semester. My family was off to the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula, to an unknown island in Greece . I decided to join them. We flew from Tel Aviv to Athens . From Athens , towards the famous sunrise of the eastern isles, we landed on the island of Zakynthos - "Fiore di Levante" (Flower of the East) - which is also known by its Italian name - Zante. During the ride, I read the travel guide, and learned a little about the history, the agriculture, the weather and finally about the poetic origins of the national anthem. I did not read one word about what I was really about to discover on the island. The drive from the airport to our villa lasted a few minutes. From the coastal plateau, we drove up through twisted village bends to our destination. An old lady, a typical Greek villager dressed all in black, welcomed us with a warm smile into her home. She asked to show us around her beloved mansion. It was obvious that this place was the source of her pride. The landlady gave us a short tour of the old-style bedrooms, bathrooms and salon. In the kitchen, we noticed the beautiful authentic Greek dishes that were hanging over her antique-looking stove. All these were for our use. We explained to her that for religious reasons, unfortunately, we would not be able to enjoy using her kitchenware and that we had brought our own. This is when it all began.

She seemed confused. She looked at my dad and suddenly her eyes lit up. She noticed his kippa (yarmulke). We were asked to follow her out to the garden. From the high point where we were standing, we saw a fantastic view of the ocean and the ships. But she pointed the other way completely. "Look over there!" she said. She wanted to know what we saw. "Trees, vegetation," we said. "Look again and focus!" she demanded. "Something unidentified that looks like teeth, white dots," my dad said. She stared at us for a long moment and said: "That is the Jewish cemetery." I was shocked. We were all astounded. Here were on an isolated island in Greece . Who ever heard of Jews here? I tried reminiscing about stories and experiences I had heard from friends who had visited here. Nothing came to mind.

From this moment on until I left Greece , the relaxing summer holiday drinking ouzo on the beach became a fascinating journey. By the end of it, I uncovered an unforgettable story.

The next morning, I got on my rented moped and drove to the cemetery. The shudder that went through me started when I first saw the Star of David on the little black gate. The trembling grew as I walked in. It was a huge cemetery containing hundreds of graves from the 16th century up until 1955. The grounds were well-kept and little stones were set on many graves, as if they had had visitors recently. 1955. I thought for a moment. Whoever knows the history of Greece and its islands even faintly knows that there was no place struck harder by the Nazis. Rhodes, Corfu, Salonika, Athens . The loss of Jewish life in Greece was devastating. From 1944, there were almost no Jews left even in the bigger communities. I did not, however, understand the meaning of the "1955" grave, and decided to investigate. In a small house that stood in the heart of the property, I found the cemetery keeper, a third generation of custodians of the Jewish graveyard in Zakynthos. My inability to speak the language prevented me from having a deep conversation with him. I sought to continue my search for the Jewish history of this town, and within five minutes I was at City Hall.

When I told the clerk at the front desk what I was after, he asked if I had already been to the synagogue. The question was posed casually, as though it's asked on a daily basis. "Excuse me?" I thought I hadn't heard right. "A synagogue on this island?" He gave me directions. The synagogue was located on a busy road in the center of the island. Off the main street, in a space between two buildings, was a black iron gate, just like the one I had seen not long ago at the cemetery. Above it was a stone arc with an open book. It read, in a loose translation from the original Hebrew, "At this holy place stood the Shalom Synagogue. Here, at the time of the earthquake in 1953, old Torah scrolls, bought before the community was established, were burned." Through the locked gate I saw two statues. Judging by their long beards, they looked to me like rabbis. The writing on the wall proved me wrong: "This plaque commemorates the gratitude of the Jews of Zakynthos to Mayor Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos." What was the acknowledgment about? Who were these people? Why the statues?

What happened here? I had lots of questions. I had to find a lead, if not an answer. I returned to City Hall, excited and trembling. I approached the clerk, who already recognized me, and started questioning him about what had happened here. He referred me to the mayor's deputy on the third floor. I found his room, knocked at his door and asked him if he would spare me a few minutes. He willingly accepted. Half an hour later I came out with this: On September 9 1943, the governor of the German occupation named Berenz had asked the mayor, Loukas Karrer, for a list of all Jews on the island. Rejecting the demand after consulting with Bishop Chrysostomos, they decided to go together to the governor's office the next day. When Berenz insisted once again for the list, the bishop explained that these Jews weren't Christians but had lived here in peace and quiet for hundreds of years. They had never bothered anyone, he said. They were Greeks just like all other Greeks, and it would offend all the residents of Zakynthos if they were to leave. But the governor persisted that they give him the names. The bishop then handed him a piece of paper containing only two names: Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Karrer. In addition, the bishop wrote a letter to Hitler himself, declaring that the Jews in Zakynthos were under his authority. The speechless governor took both documents and sent them to the Nazi military commander in Berlin . In the meantime, not knowing what would happen, the local Jews were sent by the leaders of the island to hide inside Christian homes in the hills. However, a Nazi order to round up the Jews was soon revoked - thanks to the devoted leaders who risked their lives to save them. In October 1944, the Germans withdrew from the island, leaving behind 275 Jews. The entire Jewish population had survived, while in many other regions Jewish communities were eliminated. This unique history is described in the book of Dionysios Stravolemos, An Act of Heroism - A Justification, and also in the short film of Tony Lykouressis, The Song of Life. According to tour guide Haim Ischakis (see box), in 1947, a large number of Zakynthinote Jews made aliya while others moved to Athens. In 1948, in recognition of the heroism of the Zakynthians during the Holocaust, the Jewish community donated stained glass for the windows of the Church of Saint Dionysios . In August 1953, the island was struck by a severe earthquake and the entire Jewish quarter, including its two synagogues, was destroyed. Not long afterwards, the remaining 38 Jews moved to Athens ... In 1978, Yad Vashem honored Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Karrer with the title of "Righteous among the Nations."

In March 1982, the last remaining Jew in Zakynthos, Ermandos Mordos, died on the island and was buried in Athens ... Thus the circle of Jewish presence came to its close after five centuries.

In 1992, on the site where the Sephardic synagogue stood before the earthquake, the Board of Jewish Communities in Greece erected two marble memorial monuments as a tribute to the bishop and mayor.

A few days before I had planned to leave the island and return home, I went into a bank to convert some dollars into euros. But even in a simple place like a bank, I managed to add another piece to this Jewish puzzle. A clerk who had been on the phone and eating a sandwich, called on me when my turn came. When I gave her my dollars to be changed, she handed me the converted money in an envelope without asking for any identification. Later on, when I opened it, I was surprised to see so much money. The money that had been put into the envelope had not been counted properly, and instead of changing $1,000, she had given me the equivalent of $10,000! This was really no surprise to me, because the clerk hadn't paid me any attention. Ultimately, however, once the bank realized that the money was missing, it would have no way of reaching me since no contact information was requested. The following morning, I called the bank and asked to speak to the manager. I inquired to know if there was a problem with the previous night's accounts. "You must be the woman with the dollars," he said, immediately inviting me to his office. An hour later, I was at the bank. When I walked into the office, the man sitting across from the manager moved to another chair and gave me his seat. I shared my bank experience with him, saying how easy it would have been for me to disappear with the money. The manager himself was profusely apologetic about the unprofessional way I was treated and thanked me repeatedly for returning the money. To express his gratitude, he invited me and my family to dinner at an exclusive restaurant. I explained that eating out was too complicated for us due to the fact that we were observant Jews. He asked for my address so he could send us a crate of wine. "That is a problem too," I said.

I told him I had come from Israel a week ago for a holiday, but had gotten sidetracked. "A few days after I landed, I was surprised to discover the Jewish community that was here up to 25 years ago," I said. "You don't owe me anything. Indeed, you have given me and my people a lot. The least I can do as a Jew to show my appreciation for what you have done for the Jews of Zakynthos is to return this money that doesn't belong to me and say, 'Thank you!'" There was silence for what appeared to be a long minute. The man who had given me his seat when I walked in and hadn't said a word during the conversation, stood up with tears in his eyes, turned to me and said: "As the grandson of Mayor Karrer, I am extremely overwhelmed and want to thank you!"

For more, see here.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Russian Pilgrims Flock to Jordan River

A Century on, Russian Pilgrims Flock to Jordan River

19 January 2010
Reuters

QASR AL-YAHUD, West Bank — It took Andrei Borisovich a lifetime to follow in the footsteps of his forebears and make the pilgrimage from Russia to the Holy Land.

On Monday, the St. Petersburg pensioner reached his goal, amid throngs of Orthodox faithful on the muddy banks of the Jordan to mark Epiphany, the feast of Jesus' baptism and for eastern Christians the traditional high point of pilgrimages from Russia that are now enjoying a post-Communist revival.

"I wanted to come for so long," the 73-year-old said, beaming despite the unusually rain-laden skies over the desert dunes as he recounted how one of his forebears — he can't quite recall how many "greats" to put before "grandfather" — walked for seven months from Russia to this spot in the 19th century.

"He was an industrialist, in Perm in the Urals. His journey to the Holy Land changed his life. When he returned home he founded schools, an orphanage," said Andrei Borisovich, who only gave his first name and patronymic. "Of course, it all turned to dust with the Revolution."

Unlike the devout Russians of his ancestor's day, who risked death and disease to stream in their multitudes by land and sea to Jerusalem as the Ottoman imperial lock on the Middle East faltered, Andrei Borisovich and his fellow pilgrims made few sacrifices: They were on a weeklong package tour by air.

But for those seeking confirmation that the long hiatus in Russians' spiritual life after the Bolshevik triumph of 1917 is over, then the eve of Epiphany — Jan. 6 on the old church calendar — on the Jordan River is a place to see it.

"For every Christian, it is important to come here," said Abbess Nikodima, superior of a convent in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, who has brought groups of pilgrims annually for the Epiphany rite on the Jordan since 1994.

It is also a trend that Israel, whose army very visibly controls the West Bank of the river, is keen to encourage as it looks to capitalize on religion to bolster tourism numbers.

"We are fewer this year, because of the recession," Nikodima said, as her 30-member flock of Russians and Ukrainians jostled with visiting Greeks and Romanians, as well as local Palestinian Christians, for a better view of the rush-bounded pool where they believe that John the Baptist plunged Jesus under the waters.

"But," Nikodima added, "pilgrimage remains very important to us. It is here that we see the mystery of repentance."

Accounts from tsarist times speak of fervent peasants and devout Russian nobles flocking to Jerusalem, especially between Christmas and Easter. The nobles left their mark in the holy city with cupolas and icons that have been burnished of late as the Kremlin leadership has rediscovered the Russian Orthodox Church.

On Epiphany, aged peasants, some half dead from the rigors of the months-long journey, wrapped themselves in the shrouds that they hoped to be buried in before wading into the Jordan, seeking reassurance for the afterlife.

On Monday, dozens made it into the river from the Jordanian bank. But Israeli police made sure that the faithful on their side had to content themselves with immersing shrouds in basins marked "Jordan Water: Not Drinking."

As well as the translation into Russian of the "Danger, Mines!" signs that line the razor wire along the route through the dunes to the sluggish, 5-meter-wide stream that marks the frontier with Jordan, there are other indications that Israel, now home to a 15 percent, mainly Jewish, Russian-speaking minority, is putting out the welcome mat for Russian Christians.

The Moscow-born Israeli tourism minister is targeting a new surge in visitor numbers from the former Soviet Union, on top of a boom in the past few years that has made Russia second only to the United States as a source of tourists for Israel, which makes 6 percent of its national income from the sector.

On the far bank, Jordan is also developing its promotion of Christian tourism, as the cranes and construction sites rising out of the desert just north of the Dead Sea attest.

Easier Israeli visa rules for Russians have helped triplle visits from there in the past three years. The government aims to do the same for Ukrainians, despite critics who fear helping crime gangs that have flourished among former Soviet immigrants.

For the Christians on the Jordan on Monday, the important thing was just to be there. Many could not even see the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem release a dove of peace or plunge a cross into the sacred water in celebration of Epiphany.

"It is just good to be in the Holy Land," said one Moscow pensioner who did not want to give her name.

"Now, no one forbids us to pray," she said, gesturing as if firing a rifle to depict the fate that some Christians feared under communism.

"Now the pilgrim's way is open again."

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Russian Orthodox Icy Plunge

Monday, January 18, 2010
AP

A man emerges from cold water after plunging into an icy pond to mark the upcoming Epiphany in Kuzminki park in southeastern Moscow, Monday. Thousands of Russian Orthodox Church followers plunged Monday into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark the upcoming Epiphany, cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day. Water that is blessed by a cleric on Epiphany is considered holy and pure until next year's celebration, and is believed to have special powers of protection and healing. The Russian Orthodox Church follows the old Julian calendar, according to which Epiphany falls on Jan. 19. Moscow temperatures on Monday morning dropped to -20 C (-4 F).

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Self-Control, and Lack of Self-Control, Is Contagious

ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2010) — Before patting yourself on the back for resisting that cookie or kicking yourself for giving in to temptation, look around. A new University of Georgia study has revealed that self-control -- or the lack thereof -- is contagious.

In a just-published series of studies involving hundreds of volunteers, researchers have found that watching or even thinking about someone with good self-control makes others more likely exert self-control. The researchers found that the opposite holds, too, so that people with bad self-control influence others negatively. The effect is so powerful, in fact, that seeing the name of someone with good or bad self-control flashing on a screen for just 10 milliseconds changed the behavior of volunteers.

"The take home message of this study is that picking social influences that are positive can improve your self-control," said lead author Michelle vanDellen, a visiting assistant professor in the UGA department of psychology. "And by exhibiting self-control, you're helping others around you do the same."

People tend to mimic the behavior of those around them, and characteristics such as smoking, drug use and obesity tend to spread through social networks. But vanDellen's study is thought to be the first to show that self-control is contagious across behaviors. That means that thinking about someone who exercises self-control by regularly exercising, for example, can make your more likely to stick with your financial goals, career goals or anything else that takes self-control on your part.

VanDellen's findings, which are published in the early online edition of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, are the result of five separate studies conducted over two years with study co-author Rick Hoyle at Duke University.

In the first study, the researchers randomly assigned 36 volunteers to think about a friend with either good or bad self-control. Those that thought about a friend with good self-control persisted longer on a handgrip task commonly used to measure self-control, while the opposite held true for those who were asked to think about a friend with bad self-control.

In the second study, 71 volunteers watched others exert self-control by choosing a carrot from a plate in front of them instead of a cookie from a nearby plate, while others watched people eat the cookies instead of the carrots. The volunteers had no interaction with the tasters other than watching them, yet their performance was altered on a later test of self-control depending on who they were randomly assigned to watch.

In the third study, 42 volunteers were randomly assigned to list friends with both good and bad self-control. As they were completing a computerized test designed to measure self-control, the computer screen would flash the names for 10 milliseconds -- too fast to be read but enough to subliminally bring the names to mind. Those who were primed with the name of a friend with good self-control did better, while those primed with friends with bad self-control did worse.

In a fourth study, vanDellen randomly assigned 112 volunteers to write about a friend with good self-control, bad self-control or -- for a control group -- a friend who is moderately extroverted. On a later test of self-control, those who wrote about friends with good self-control did the best, while those who wrote about friends with bad self-control did the worst. The control group, those who wrote about a moderately extroverted friend, scored between the other two groups.

In the fifth study of 117 volunteers, the researchers found that those who were randomly assigned to write about friends with good self-control were faster than the other groups at identifying words related to self-control, such as achieve, discipline and effort. VanDellen said this finding suggests that self-control is contagious because being exposed to people with either good or bad self-control influences how accessible thoughts about self-control are.

VanDellen said the magnitude of the influence might be significant enough to be the difference between eating an extra cookie at a party or not, or deciding to go to the gym despite a long day at work. The effect isn't so strong that it absolves people of accountability for their actions, she explained, but it is a nudge toward or away from temptation.

"This isn't an excuse for blaming other people for our failures," vanDellen said. "Yes, I'm getting nudged, but it's not like my friend is taking the cookie and feeding it to me; the decision is ultimately mine."

The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Is Russia More Christian Than the United States?

Is Russia More Christian Than the United States? Medvedev Might Just Say Yes!

Friday, 15 January 2010
By Stephen K. Ryan
Ministry Values

Is Russian leadership more Christian than the United States? Is the Russian Government more Christian than George Bush ever hoped the United States to be? The answer is yes, and not only is it true, but thanks to born again Christians, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, Christian influence in matters of State is rapidly on the rise. Let's look at the facts.

A couple of weeks ago Barack Obama skipped Church on Christmas Day while the President of Russia, Dimitry Medvedev, on January 6, 2010, attended mid-night mass services celebrating the Russian Orthodox Christmas in grand splendor in the traditional Vigil liturgy in Saint Christ the Saviour Cathedral in the presence of 4,000 people, including Patriarch Kirill. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas following the old Julian calendar, which is 13 days "behind" the Gregorian calendar.

While Russian leaders were attending Church services, half way around the world in America, Chicago Tribune, writing about Obama's troubles finding a Church for his family, said "But as his (Obama) fellow Christians around the world attended Christmas services on Wednesday and Thursday, the president-elect and his family remained sequestered at their vacation compound on the windward coast of Oahu. His lack of attendance at formal religious services showcased a dilemma faced by Obama, who is between churches and often expresses concern about bringing the disruption of his security detail into the lives of others." According to the same report President Barack Obama has not attended a public church service since before being elected.

So what you say? Well, today Russia is investing $100 million to rebuild Christian churches throughout the country. Money to rebuild theses churches is coming from Russian tax payers. This would be impossible in the US of course. Imagine the US Media's reaction if President Obama decided to invest $100 million dollars of US tax payer dollars to rebuild Catholic Churches. In the US there would be outrage yet Russia citizens are supportive of the investment.

Russia's turn to Christianity is a virtually unknown phenomenon in the United States. Most Christian leaders are oblivious to what is happening in Russia. Pastor Robertson or Pastor Hagee still believe Russia is an atheist and communist country and these prominent End-Times Christian pastors are rasing money and rattling their sabers to go to war against the Godless state.

But the reality is Russia is indeed rebuilding Churches with tax payer funds. MinistryValues.com, in another piece, wrote "In addition to the formal exchange of wishes and thanks with the Patriarchate of Moscow, the Russian government gave the Christian Church a dramatic Christmas gift. Meeting with the patriarch at the Danilov Monastery, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the government would provide almost $100 million US dollars (RUB 2 billion) to restore holy sites, monasteries and churches destroyed during last century's atheist drive by the Soviet Union against religion. He also said that the Novodevichy Convent, one of most beautiful and important in the country, would be given back to the Patriarchate.

Putin Emphasizes "Love for Spiritual Values" Kisses religious Icons, Keeps Miracle Cross with him.

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedeve go to Church frequently, kiss precious icons of the Virgin Mary and seek political and moral counsel from the Russian Orthodox Clergy. Furthermore, to the surprise of many Americans, particularly Evangelical Christians, Vladimir Putin wears a Christian cross with him at all times.

From a Larry King Live interview Putin told Larry King: "I was surprised completely when one of the workers, just muddling through those ashes of the remnants, found that cross intact. And the house fell, that was a surprise, a revelation, and therefore I always now keep it with me. "

Vladimir Putin has frequently praised the Christian Russian Orthodox Church for "educating citizens in a spirit of patriotism and love of country, passing on love for spiritual values and history." For his part, Kirill said that he hoped that the Lord would help Putin "in performing the high task God gave him." The patriarch also praised the prime minister for the way he managed the economic crisis, which has had a greater impact in Russia than elsewhere in the world.

Christian influence penetrates the Russian Military

Interfax of Moscow reported Patriarch Kirill head of Moscow and All Russia Orthodox Church in a speech to Strategic Missile Forces Academy in Moscow said "that in last ten years many garrison churches and Sunday schools have opened in secret military towns of Russia"

Patriarch Kirill Patriarch at a special ceremony awarded the Special Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) a pennant with the image of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, the heavenly protector of the branch. The Patriarch conveyed the award to Lieutenant General Andrey Shvaichenko, RVSN Commander, at the Peter the Great Strategic Missile Forces Academy in Moscow on Tuesday when opening the conference dedicated the Academy’s jubilee.

Infax reported also that the Patriarch, speaking of Russia's nuclear asresanl "is convinced “such dangerous weapon can be given only to clean hands –hands of people with clear mind, ardent love to Motherland, responsibility for their work before God and people.”

He believes it is not by chance that systematic cooperation of the Russian Church with the Russian Armed Forces started with the Strategic Missile Forces in early 1990s.

Not a big tent in Russia - Restrictions on Evangelical Christians

Funding to restore Christian sites and the return of properties seized from the Church in Soviet times are but the latest gift of the Kremlin to the Patriarchate. This year, the Russia Justice Ministry will present plans to amend the laws on "Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations", which, if approved, would severely restrict the activities of certain religious communities, like Evangelical Christians. In addition, the authorities plan to add religious education in public schools as well as chaplains paid by the state to the armed forces. It also appears possible that the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow will be granted the right to vet parliamentary bills before they go to the
Duma.

Is the Russian Government building a more Christian society? Perhaps. But try telling that to your buddies at Church this Sunday.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

New Martyrs Museum in Donskoy Monastery

Museum of People Hurt by Bolsheviks For Their Faith to Open in Donskoy Monastery

Moscow, 14 January 2010, Interfax - The new governor of the Moscow Donskoy Monastery plans to open a new martyrs museum in the monastery and make it a place for pilgrimage of schoolchildren, students and intelligentsia.

"It's a national holy place. Firstly, it's a historical center of resistance to militant atheism and political anti-Christianity. The headquarters of holy Patriarch Tikhon was located here, and the patriarch fought for the future of the Church here," Bishop Kirill of Pavlovo-Posad said in an interview with Interfax-Religion.

The Donskoy Monastery is also a burial site for many Russian historical and public figures, including writers Ivan Shmelyov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, philosopher Ivan Ilyin, and Write Movement leaders Anton Denikin and Vladimir Kappel, Bishop Kirill said.

"It's a memorial of Russian national glory, culture, historical memory! For this reason, it is logical to create in the Donskoy Monastery a general church missionary and educational center for missionary excursions," Bishop Kirill said.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Parachute Failure Origin of Antarctica Church

After Surviving Parachute Failure, Test Pilot Builds Church in Antarctica

Moscow, 19 January 2010, Interfax – Test pilot Pyotr Zadirov thanked God for his successful flight without parachute by building the Holy Trinity Church in Antarctica.

Zadirov, a professional parachutist, made a jump from 800 meters, which became crucial for him. His parachute failed to open for technical reasons. However, Pyotr fell in a snowdrift and miraculously had only slight concussions and bruises. Doctors could not help wondering as he did not have any internal injuries, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported on Tuesday.

Since then Zadirov has erected three churches to thank God for his miraculous salvation including the one at the South Pole.

“Though there are organized tours to Antarctica, the church was mainly built for polar explorers. No requiem service was read for all who died at the Pole before, they were just buried in snow in a small local cemetery,” the parachutist said.

Patriarch Alexy II blessed the project of the church in the style of wooden architecture in 2000. The church has become a representation of the Holy Trinity - St. Sergius Laura and rectors serve there in shifts.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Arthur C. Clarke's ‘2010’ Still Beyond Reality

Only a handful of author's predicted breakthroughs have been reached.

By Charles Q. Choi
Jan. 8, 2010
MSNBC

The year 2010 has arrived, but humans have yet to travel out to the gas giants of our solar system as portrayed by Arthur C. Clarke in his book "2010: Odyssey Two" — much less unearth alien artifacts on the moon.

Clarke was more than just a science fiction legend — he was a physicist, and in 1945, the same year he sold his first story, he was the first to propose the concept of geostationary telecommunications satellite networks, more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight. He died in 2008 at age 90.

Clarke's book "2010" made its debut in 1982 as a sequel to his iconic work "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Now, 28 years later, the real 2010 leaves much to be desired. Let's see how far we have to go before reaching Clarke's vision of our present:

The power of the sun

In "2010," the lead characters venture out to Jupiter employing spacecraft equipped with "the Sakharov drive," which uses "a pulsed thermonuclear reaction to heat and expel virtually any propellant material."

In nuclear fusion, atomic nuclei are forced to fuse together, which can generate an extraordinary amount of power when a fraction of the mass of these atoms gets converted into energy, following Einstein's famous equation: E=mc2. The Sakharov drive, named after Russian nuclear physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, uses this energy to heat and expel liquid hydrogen and potentially methane, ammonia and even water.

Scientists have yet to master thermonuclear power. Still, the strategy the Sakharov drive employed — inertial confinement fusion, which uses lasers to heat and compress pellets of fuel — could see a major advance in 2010.

The largest and most energetic inertial confinement fusion system built to date, the National Ignition Facility in California, is set to begin experiments this year to reach the long-sought goal of "ignition," producing more energy than was put in to start the reaction.

Alien life in our backyard

While "2001" suggest that alien life might exist, "2010" portrayed aliens evolving right in our own solar system, both deep in the atmosphere of Jupiter and the underground oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa. Life on alien moons has long been a staple of science fiction, and the recent sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" is set on a jungle moon of a fictional planet orbiting the real Alpha Centauri A.

Although we have no way of peering into Jupiter to look for life, most planetary scientists do believe oceans exist beneath Europa's surface. These subterranean seas are kept warm by the incredible tidal forces churned up by Jupiter's gravitational pull.

Hibernation

To save on resources during the long voyage to the outer planets, crews relied on hibernation. Although suspended animation remains out of reach, scientists have actually made progress in the field.

Researcher Mark Roth of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and his colleagues are conducting research to put humans into a hibernation-like state by having people inhale hydrogen sulfide.

Paleontologist Peter Ward at the University of Washington at Seattle even suggested genetic engineering humans for the types of brain or nervous systems that help one to go into hibernation.

"My mind is going. I can feel it."

In the novel, scientists reboot HAL, the psychotic artificial intelligence that killed nearly all the astronauts in "2001." In just a few days, HAL not only regains speech, facial recognition, speech recognition and emotion recognition, but can also once more reason, understand and carry out conversations, and control a spaceship.

We also discover the reason for HAL's killing spree — the contradictory orders the computer was given led to "what would be called, in human terms, a psychosis — specifically, schizophrenia."

When Clarke wrote "2001" in the 1960s, a number of computer scientists were optimistic that machines with HAL's capabilities might soon exist, and Marvin Minsky, co-founder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, was an adviser on the film. In 2010, however, only a handful of these breakthroughs have been reached, such as speech and facial recognition. No one has a machine capable of common-sense reasoning, much less capable of then going crazy.

Still, fantastic advances have been made in computing over the years. Last year IBM even claimed it has a computer system that can simulate the thinking power of a cat's brain with 1 billion neurons and 10 trillion individual learning synapses.

Who knows? Maybe humanity could have developed artificial intelligences, nuclear-powered spaceships and moon bases if we had alien monoliths guiding our evolution too.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

"Papoulakos": Righteous Christoforos Panagiotopoulos

PROLOGUE

If someone searches Modern Greek history for a revolutionary figure comparable to that of the world-renowned Che Guevara then they would find such a person in Greece in the Peloponnese and Cyclades. This person was an Orthodox monk who lived there in the nineteenth century.

Of significance is that history is written each time by a few. It is those who take leaps and bounds who are uncompromising, courageous and daring. It is those who prefer motion to immobility and action to passivity, even if this approach leads to traps, danger and persecution. Amongst these few revolutionary figures is the holy monk Christoforos Panagiotopoulos or as he is widely known as Papoulakos. He was from the village of Arbouna located near the town of Klitoria in the Kalavryta district of the Peloponnese. He was a great national and religious figure during the mid-nineteenth century in Greece, existing in a period that echoed a movement started by the ascetics who were known as Kollyvades from Mount Athos.

Papoulakos was active in this period of great historical interest. During this time it was in the process of completing the formation of the New Greek State. In other words, he appeared when the foundation stone of State and Orthodoxy were being set, a period which was very important politically and ecclesiastically. The Greek nation after the triumph of the Revolution of 1821 attempted to take a stand as an independent state.

Furthermore, during this time 500 out of the 600 existing monasteries which collectively made up the citadel of Orthodoxy in Byzantium (324 -1453) and during the Turkish occupation, were closed by Maurer under King Otto’s command.[1] This involved the driving out of the living and the burning of our cultural heritage; such an outrage had not even dared to be undertaken during the period of Turkish rule (1456-1821). The least that one could do was raise his voice in protest, whatever the cost. So this period was of particular interest not only for historical research but also for every thinking citizen who searches for answers on today’s social, political and ecclesiastical problems.

Within a decade Papoulakos managed to shake up the sociological make up of the newborn Greek state. His actions and preaching are a continuation of those carried out by two other brave men in our history, that of St. Cosmas Aitolos (Died, 24th August 1779) and the unknown St. Sofianou, (Died, 26th November 1711) Bishop of Argirokastro, who was active in Epirus 70 years before St. Cosma, thus becoming his antecedent.

Papoulakos was perhaps not as educated as St. Cosma and the Holy Sofianou however; he had the strength and daring to support the same things as them. For the same reasons, St Cosmas sacrificed himself and St Sofianos renounced the throne to guide those back to Christianity who had been converted to Muslims by force. In other words, these men devoted their preaching and work so as their land's Orthodox tradition stayed free from any kind of dangerous internal and external attacks.

As a start we will look at this great personality called ‘Papoulakos’, by referring to his biographical record.

1) Papoulakos’ Name

According to people, Christophoros’ secular name was Christos Panagiotopoulos; however, the people gave him the name Papoulako or Papoulaki. There are many differing opinions as to how he got this nickname. Some support the most convincing story that the people called him Papoulako because of his small stature. It is also said that the people called him Papoulako to his face as he started his preaching at an old age after having a vision he experienced in his abandoned house in Arbouna. Even up until today the elderly monks in Greece are called by the title of ‘Papouli’.

‘Papoulakos’ is the diminutive of ‘Papouli’. As the Spartans held him in high esteem and respected him even more so, they changed Papouli to Papoulakos. He himself signed off as ‘Christoforos the Monk’ or ‘Christoforos the Greek Preacher’. Documents in the public registry and in the circulars issued then by the Holy Synod of Greece, as well as official reports refer to him with the prevailing name given to him by the people, ‘Papoulakos’.

2) Place of Origin

He was born in 1770, in the mountain village of Arbouna. This village is situated northeast of the town with the twofold name of Klitoria / Mazeika and south-east of the historical city of Kalavrita in the Prefecture of Achaia. 900 meters above sea level, Arbouna spreads out amphitheatrically between two angular shaped masses. The houses are divided over these two slopes, the latter of which lie at the foothills of the large Aroanian mountain range. It is here that Greek mythology refers to the hero Achilles and his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, who attempted to make her son immortal by washing his hair in the river Styx.

So it was in Arbouna that Papoulakos quietly spent most of his life following the family profession of a butcher. He lived a tranquil life and as such his character was also calm, just and fair. For this reason he was much loved by the populace of this area.

No one could imagine that this man who was a supplier of meat would after a few years for thousands of people become a supplier of messages for the resistance against the dark powers who had conspired against Orthodoxy and the small newly formed Greek nation.

3) His Transition to a Monastic Life and the Beginning Of His Journey

At approximately 60 years of age, Papoulakos turned to a monastic life. According to some of his biographers this change in his way of life, was attributed to a vision, which he had in his house in Arbouna. It is said that during this event, he lost consciousness for three days, remaining as if he were dead. On seeing his state the parents awaited a miracle. Their prayers were answered after placing his body in the Church of St. Athanasios, found north of his house.

After regaining consciousness this experience for Papoulakos resulted in changing the meaning of his existence. He decided to share his property amongst his three brothers Athanasios, Andreas, Giorgios and one sister. He then vested them with the task of looking after the house in which he saw the holy vision.

After this vision he became a monk in the Monastery of St Athanasios at Filia in the town of Klitoria. He visited the nearby villages collecting different goods and money, which he would share with the poor and orphans. Simultaneously, he spread God’s word. Papoulakos’ charitable nature that was directed to those suffering and those who had been treated unjustly was what made him very well known and loved everywhere. The residents saw, with great surprise, that this previous butcher had renounced the world to wear a monk’s robes and to communicate with God. He asked that his offerings towards the poor remained strictly secret.

For a period he abandoned traveling and returned to his village staying at his house. At this time he built a sacred monastery and dedicated it to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, as his family possessed a miraculous icon of her. He built a monk’s cell (skete) on the lower floor of the family house, which used to be a place to keep the animals. It was here that Papoulakos started living a monastic life.

In 1847 he left his monk’s cell (skete) travelling again to the villages and preaching the word of God. The studying of ecclesiastical books of the time and his deep religiousness made him very dear to the people. Everyone wanted to meet him and receive a blessing from this respected white-bearded 70-year-old elder with his coarsely woven robes.

The people listened very carefully to his teachings of the Gospels on ethics and Christian principles, which he presented in a warm and truthful way. They readily embraced him because in him they saw the word of God and how they could apply it in their daily lives. From the villages of Achaia he moved to the Arcadian mountains where he taught with the same love the word of God. He spoke to the villagers in a simple manner about the Gospels, which taught not to steal, not to tell lies and not to perpetuate family hate but to show good to one another.

With these simple words he suggested to people to literate their children with the ecclesiastical books. The books, which came from the West, needed to be treated cautiously because they doubted ethics, morals and hid atheism. This cautious stance taken towards the West was not because he himself was illiterate, as some had accused him of being; but it was due to the prevalent educational problem of the time.

It is known that the Bavarians wanted to continue to break down Greek society leaving no opposition; their plan was enforced through education. Almost the whole educational program of our small fatherland of that period was in the hands of the Catholics and the Protestants; that is to say in foreign hands. Already from 1821, the West had infiltrated the social life of our country. On the one hand, the Catholics were especially interested in founding schools thereby exploiting in this sector the absence of Greek administration as the independent state had only just been founded. On the other hand, we have the Protestant missionaries who were on different holy missions spreading everywhere and considering themselves as “saviours” of the East. All of this was contradictory to Papoulakos’ teachings that were against both globalization and alienation.

In 1848 Papoulakos went to Athens to ask permission of the Holy Synod of the Greek Church to preach the word of God. The Synod however refused to give him permission. It is possible that the reason for this refusal was owed not so much to the holy monk Christoforos’ lack of formal qualifications as to his connection to the Holy Monastery of Megalo Spilio at Kalavrita. Here many monks belonged to the Society of the Friends of Orthodoxy who were a group of highly educated, philosophical and spiritual monks. Consequently, it was expected from the Church’s administration at that time not to respond in a favorable way to the movements of this spiritual society. In the end in 1851 the permission was granted to Papoulakos to preach in the Peloponnese but within the restricted areas of Arcadia, Lakonia and Messinia.


4) The Nature Of His Journey

Attention to detail was given to Papoulakos’ visits to the villages. His movement from one place to another followed a specific procedure. Before his setting out on a journey, wherever he went he sent out his group of followers to announce his arrival. Then the bells started ringing out merrily. The inhabitants of the village would then come out and welcome him. The welcoming party as such was made up of priests wearing their robes and teachers with their students officially assembled in lines. The women brought their babies and Papoulakos the elder would bless them. After this initial brief welcome they would all celebrate in the village. When Papoulakos had relaxed a little he would go out on the balcony of a house and speak to the people. If there was no balcony they would make a platform for him to stand on or he would even climb up a tree. In front of himself he would place an icon of the Virgin Mary. Upon his the ending of his sermon he would stayovernight at a monastery if there were one close by, or else with a poor and struggling family.

5) His Preaching

With his sincere and meaningful sermons, Papoulakos touched the people and raised their morale. Even if his voice was naturally soft and weak when he preached it acquired an intensity and youthful vigor. His sermon did not have a deep religious meaning but simple religious truths and deeds taken from the law of the Gospels. This resulted in everyone understanding him because he spoke the language of the villagers. Perhaps some words used were beneath those employed by educated people at the time, but one way or another those people had become disconnected resulting in forming a separate class. Nevertheless, those who were eager to understand Papoulakos’ sacred word would comprehend his teachings easily. The others had separated from the orthodox preaching of Christoforos as they were more absorbed by the western spiritual teachings, which they both accepted and supported.

Papoulakos’ words didn’t only have theological content but also a moral and social meaning that was something which very valuable for the period in which he lived. He was strictly against injustice directed towards the weak, and caused by thieves, sorcery and other sinful ways. Additionally, he was against the British, Turks and Jews who secretly were trying to direct the new government that was in the hands of the Great Powers and King Otto. For example, he openly condemned the bad actions of the English referring to the Ionian Islands, which were then ruled by them.

The effort of his labors quickly bore fruit. From wherever he passed the inhabitants from their mountain villages were not only listening to his preaching but inexplicably they responded to the ethical demands by behaving better. Eventually, it arrived at the point where thefts and robberies had almost disappeared. His preaching had so much impact that love grew among people and within families where there existed deep hatred and even murder.

Of significance is the information found about that period, 1845, from a French traveler about the Peloponnese. He was of Greek origin and known as Eugene Yemieniz who refers in his work “Voyage dans le Royaume de Grece”, to Christoforos Papoulakos’ contribution. There is a known vendetta that Papoulakos was able to solve temporarily which rules up until today as an unwritten law in the Mani area. The authorities of the Peloponnese wrote to the central government in Athens that the inhabitants of the Peloponnese became proper citizens due to Papoulakos.

His opponents were forced to acknowledge this who in hundreds of reports would curse and swear at him in the worst language. Of course the people whose criteria was right and fair had formed an opinion about Papoulakos’ character. His life and work was quickly judged as saintly and of pure spirit. From day to day despite the efforts of a few poisoned minds his reputation increased as a saintly man. It reached the point where they were cutting pieces from his hard and coarsely woven robes to have as an amulet to ward away every evil from both body and soul.

The women who made up the largest and most devout group of his followers kept these pieces as icons in their houses treasuring them as something very holy. Others hung them round their children’s necks, as amulets, whilst others still would add pieces in the dough whilst preparing bread. Christoforos’ robe was valued so highly that the fishermen in the Cyclades had pieces woven into their nets. This would ensure them of big catches just as Christ’s blessing had performed miracles for the apostles on the Sea of Galilee. Additionally, from the view point of ecological awareness Papoulakos would encourage the people’s faith in the healing power of plants and herbs of which there was abundance in the areas where he preached.

6) His First Grand Entrance into the City of Kalamata

In September 1851 he was found in the villages around Olympia. Then a little later he was in the Trifillea district and from there Arcadia and Laconia. Everywhere hundreds of inhabitants left their work to follow him. On 10th October 1851 his entrance into Kalamata had many followers and it was triumphant. Almost all the inhabitants of the city came out to welcome him. The then Prefect had written that thousands of people welcomed him wanting to see, hear and to be healed by him.

As soon as the civil authorities were informed about Papoulakos’ triumphant welcome they over-reacted. The local authorities sent a detailed report of his movements to the central administration in Athens but they did not stop there. The Prefect asked him to leave from his district but Papoulakos didn’t obey because he had Christ as his leader, so he went to Kiparissia the capitol of the district of Trifillia. The local Major tried to prevent him from preaching but he didn’t succeed. All the impediments placed by the authorities weren’t able to stop Papoulakos’ word because the word of the Gospel is a strong weapon, which cannot be restricted.

Furthermore, as this era was noted for its lack of spirituality, the people were even thirstier for God’s word. And for this reason the authorities tried to distance him from the cities, which he travelled to. However, when the seeds of his words started to grow in the thirsty hearts of the people and his reputation was expanding even more, especially amongst the simple people, panic broke out in the government and they decided to take effective measures

7) The Measures Taken By the Government and the People’s Reaction

The government asked the Greek Orthodox Church to take action. So they called Papoulakos to Athens to defend himself. Papoulakos didn’t pay any attention to them but continued more intensively with his journeys. From Corinth he went to Kranidhion in Argolis and from here to Spetsai. In Spetsai he found many
followers. The people’s faith in his sainthood reached its zenith. Even the stones on which he walked were considered blessed and the believers took them for amulets to their houses. There was such devotion from the people towards Papoulakos that in some areas such as Kranidhion, the priests during the church services didn’t refer to the King’s name but instead used that of Papoulakos. At night everyone, both young and old, went out on the streets with candles, censers and holding something belonging to him or an icon of Papoulakos’ image to which they prayed for his health and protection.

In April 1852 he passed from Argolis to Laconia. His preaching provoked a genuine spiritual awakening in all Orthodox people. Because the pressure from the authorities continued to increase against the elder the people foresaw the danger of his murder. So they took in their own hands the protection of their spiritual father. His followers carried guns and accompanied him everywhere. Masses had left their houses following him day and night on his holy journeys. With the people there were many priests as well as the Bishop Assinis Makarios who accepted him officially into the Bishop’s residence in Sparta. The government seeing the religious love from the people and unable to control the masses pressurized the church administration even more to take urgent action. The final decision for Papoulakos pursuit happened in the Monastery of Prophet Elias on Santorini.

In areas where the saint had gone they sent preachers to influence the people against him. To Laconia the Archimandrite Kallinikos Kastorhis was sent (later to become Bishop Fthiotidos). Then to Ermioni and Spetsai Archimandrite Neofitos Konstantinides was sent. These dispatches were unsuccessful. And when the latter spoke against Papoulakos they threw stones at him and he quickly left. In May 1852 the Synod sent a letter to the clergy and people of Laconia saying that he had changed God’s Word. But not even this action brought results. On the contrary the people’s love for Papoulakos increased even more.

The Government on seeing that the church couldn’t stop this spiritual revolution decided to take action by itself. It sent to Laconia 2,000 soldiers under the brave Kolokotronis with orders to enlist others from the area including mobilizing warships. On the other side Papoulakos continued to both travel and speak throughout Sparta. However, the people saw the Government’s activities and started becoming anxious. There was an agitated atmosphere in areas from which he had passed where anti-government demonstrations were still taking place.

A typical example, which was characteristic of these demonstrations, is the episode referred to by Major’s Secretary in Spetsai in the report to the Prefect on 22nd May 1852. Amongst other things there was a reference to the local authorities that had forbidden prayers at the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in Spetsai because apparently they were seen as demonstrations in favour of Papoulakos. However, there was a strong reaction from the people and that same evening 3,000 people met encircling the Town Hall. The authorities immediately backed down and gave permission to carry out services as usual in the church.

On the 26th May 1852 the Holy Synod sent out a circular in which they assured the people that the Orthodox faith wasn’t running into any danger and that the King and the Government were protecting the Orthodox Church.

Whilst this was going on Papoulakos was becoming strongly accepted by everyone in the Sparta area. Several times there were attempts to arrest him, but without any result. As soon as the people understood the movements of the gendarmerie and the army they would gather together and ring the bells alerting a defense while his followers took up fighting positions.

On 23rd May he decided to visit Kalamata for a second time notifying the people to follow him. Two thousand people and 500 more armed people responded immediately to his call. The Prefect of Messinia sent out a circular trying to frighten the inhabitants of Kalamata saying that it was actually the people from Mani who were coming to steal from them. He also urged in the circular to hide their money, take up arms and to march out in order to protect their property. This circular finished with threats saying whoever went to Papoulakos’ sermons would be judged guilty of a major crime and would be dealt with by the army. Naturally, under such conditions Papoulakos couldn’t enter Kalamata for the people to suffer and so he decided that it was better to return to Mani.

During this period the King’s army had arrived in Laconia. The reactions to the army were indifference and maybe, perhaps even opposition. They even refused to give them food so they were forced to bring food from other areas. Teams of soldiers had spread over Sparta to capture Christoforos, the monk of small stature.

8) His Arrest

His arrest was impossible in Mani because the inhabitants didn’t want to come into any conflict with the soldiers, so instead they offered him protection. Even the local gentry kept him in hiding providing him with the necessary food and house to stay in. The order, however, was clear to arrest him without fail. Unfortunately, the solution to the problem of arresting him had a tragic ending in betrayal. They asked for a traitor and unfortunately one was found. He was one of Papoulakos’ most trusted followers, Vasilios the priest from Langadia in the municipality of Lefktrou. The exchange for the traitor was calculated at 6.000 drachmas.

During this period Papoulakos was hiding in the Voivonitsis Monastery close to Kardamala. When his ‘trusted’ priest was asked to prepare a guard for his safe departure to Crete until things had calmed down, the traitor was eager to do this. However, instead of taking a guard from his followers he took 6 gendarmerie disguised as his Spartan followers. The disguised police had fake letters from Bishop Assinis, which falsely invited the elder to his area to speak. Papoulakos did whatever he heard from Makarios and departed on 23rd June 1852. The following day in the morning they hid in the Tsingos Monastery close to Areopolis because during the day there was the supposed danger that they would be discovered and arrested.

In the meantime someone from the gendarmerie alerted the other soldiers that Papoulakos was in the monastery. Immediately the army arrived and caught the elder easily as he himself had nothing to fear. A true spiritual person is ready to be expelled and sacrificed. The noblemen of this world didn’t frighten him. The continuation of the story was done in great secrecy, he embarked on the boat “Matilda” at Pithio after which they transferred him to another boat “Othon” whose destination was Piraeus.

On hearing the news that they had caught Christoforos, the people were both very sad and frustrated. The Prefect of Laconia wrote that his area was in national mourning. However, the big armed forces in Sparta were sent to restrain these reactions.

It is worth mentioning that the traitor had a bad ending. The people’s hate towards him was great. The Spartans couldn’t believe that a follower was found who could also be bribed and betray their just elder, Papoulakos. So continuously they asked for the traitor to be punished. The traitor saw that Sparta didn’t want him so he went to Athens to ask to become a priest in the army. However, the hate against him didn’t come only from the inhabitants of Sparta but everywhere. And in fact in Spetsai when the boat arrived with the priest Vasilios on board they tried to lynch him. He was saved after much effort by the armed forces.

Finally, after a year passed a youth was found at the right moment that killed him. Moreover, the traitor’s father was not only not sorry for his son’s murder, because he had also raped his sister, but on the contrary he was so happy that he gave a reward to the person who had brought the news about the murder.

9) Papoulakos’ Incarceration in the Patras Prison

The news of Papoulakos’ arrival in Pireaus shook up Athens. Thousands of people went down each day to see him. However, none could get close because he was heavily guarded by hundreds of soldiers and gendarmerie. The adverse conditions in which he was held made him ill. The doctors who examined him said that he must be removed from the boat because he had been adversely affected from the conditions that he was kept in. After a few days he was taken to the damp prison in the fortress at Rio, in Patras. There they locked him up forbidding even the guards to go near him. Regardless of the fact that he was tied up he managed to get out in “a miraculous way” to speak and help the people from his place of birth, in Achaia.

After a year in solitary confinement he was sent for trial on 26th July 1853 to the Criminal Court of Athens where he was accused of being a leader of an organization against the state. Masses of people had gathered in and outside the court. He showed both courage and daring in his trial refusing to appoint a defense saying that he had Christ as his defense. The absence of witnesses resulted in the trial being postponed till 16th September.

The postponement of the trial coincided with events from abroad that had created tension and uneasiness because the Crimea war had already started. In the end his trial never happened. On August 1853 there was a royal decree declaring innocence for Papoulakos and his followers both from within and outside the church.

10) His Imprisonment in Andros and His Sanctified Death

The Government could leave him free but the churchs' administration, pressurized by the government, decided to imprison him in the Panachrantos Monastery in Andros. Many followers visited him there from the length and breadth of the country and from the islands, even Crete and Jerusalem. They heard him speak through the barred windows of his cell. He was truly a free ‘prisoner’. However, this didn’t bother him because even if his body was earthbound his spirit was calmly in Heaven.

His stay in the Panachrantos Monastery didn’t differ very much from his damp cell at the fortress prison at Rio. It had a small window from which a little light entered. It was guarded day and night by the gendarmerie. They had forbidden him to speak with his visitors who had come from afar and in fact they forbade him any communication with the outside world. As such he was found in strict isolation. Certainly, when the Bishop of Andros became Mitrofanis Economides, originally from Kalavrita, the restrictions towards Papoulakos increased. Years later and due to him appearing in a vision to strangers, the cell in which he had been incarcerated was located. In this cell there was found his icon of the Virgin Mary Vrefokratousa. Shortly after this the cell was transformed into a church.

After the feats of such living conditions his spirit was released on the night ofthe 18th going towards the 19th January 1861 on the same day as St Athanasios’ name day. This day is celebrated in the Church of St Athanasios in his village of Arbouna. He was buried in the cemetery at the Panachrantos Monastery. The holy one was mourned by the fathers of the monastery and from the inhabitants of the island and he was honoured as a Saint. His grave up until today is a spiritual source and pride of the Panachrantos Monastery.

11) Papoulakos’ Honoured Memory in our Time

Immediately after Christoforos’ burial in Andros at the cemetery of the Monastery Panochranton there were efforts to officially register him in the Orthodox Church’s catalogue of saints; to exhume his corpse and to recount his life’s story. The latter two things happened, but canonization in Greece has not as yet come about. His revolutionary actions created a widespread problem for official recognition.

Slowly but surely his memory began to be restored not only in the minds of the people who one way or the other always believed in his saintliness, but also in the clergy’s consciousness. There are masses of official accounts from clergymen
supporting not only his work but also his saintliness. The exhumation of his holy bones was done in secret and were to remain in charnel house at the Panachrantos Monastery. After much insistence by the inhabitants of Papoulakos’ village, the Bishop of Kalavrita Georgios on 12th September 1973 arranged for the transfer of Papoulakos’ Skull to the holy cell (skete) in the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, which he had built himself in Arbouna, Klitoria.

After this move, masses of people came to the mountain village to pay homage and kiss his Holy Head, which gives out a fragrance and is also miraculous. The Head is officially encased in a reliquary which was bequeathed by Archbishop Nectarios Moulatsiotis, and it is decorated with valuable jewellery. Wherever else the relics of this holy man are kept they are done so in accordance to Greek Orthodox tradition.

There have been Divine Liturgies dedicated in his honor. Monks during their ordination and people in the Holy Baptism sometimes even accept his modest name for their own. The black and white portrait of Papoulakos, which has been circulating since his time, is placed in many churches and homes up until today. Also, all over Greece contemporary icons have been decorated with the Holy Christoforos, many of which contain pieces of his robes.

Churches have been built in his memory in different areas throughout Greece, especially those places in which he lived and performed miracles. Masses of contemporary evidence have remained. This is either word of mouth or through writings reporting his words and prophecies and miracles as long as he lived, as well as those after his death.

Christoforos the elder had prophesized many of the trials and tribulations that are going on today. In Morea in the Peloponnese it is known and usual to hear “we live in the days of Papoulakos’. It is awaited for Christoforos to be officially canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, an event which the GreekOrthodox Church is praying/awaiting for.

It is important to note that he is referred to in the circular Protocol No. 332,which was published during the presence of the local Bishop of Kalavrita, Agelias k. Ambrosios. It goes under the title of “Collected Facts about the Holy Papoulakos”. Additionally, according to the newspaper: “The Voice of Kalavrita” (August 2004) it writes that the late Archbishop of Athens and All of Greece Christodoulos visited the area and promised that when he would go to Klitoria, “and after he reads the appropriate blessing to rid the curse, he would proclaim Papoulakos’ sainthood.’

What is worthy of attention is some further information from the Archimandrite and Superior of the Monastery Panachranton in Andros, k. Evdokimou Frangoulaki. It refers to when they transferred the skull of St. Panteleimon to Russia. In a dialogue between the Patriarch of Moscow Alexios and the monastery it was said that in his monastery there had lived a saintly monk who was loved in Russia. The Patriarch and his bishops had assured him that the elder, Christoforos Papoulakos, had been acknowledged by the Patriarch of Russia who had already canonized him and that he is often commemorated in the Divine Liturgies.

This information gives us hope even if it comes from far away because it finally justifies this important figure of Greek history whose reputation has spread beyond the narrow boundaries of the Balkans.

EPILOGUE

In the end the West’s dispute with the Greek powers managed to succeed in less than two decades in Papoulakos’ time, that which it had been fighting over for centuries to do, regarding the spiritual enslavement of the East, by placing internal forces.

The resistance that a Papoulakos People’s Orthodox Movement projected could not stop the plans of the Bavarians. However, it curtailed them for a while and lit up a ray of light like a spiritual fighting consignment for the next generations. This ray of light is a great inheritance for younger Greeks.

Today, the young ‘Bavarians’ in whatever form have infiltrated Greek society and are trying to cut us off from the Greek Orthodox tradition. We are obliged to keep this ray of light shining, which was handed down to us by the first martyrs of the Greek state, so we can withstand the next invasion.

Yet again there are dark international anti-Greek forces not wanting Greek power that do everything to alienate our national Greek identity, and break down our national, social and religious cohesion. These arduous times require a healthy power of Hellenism and for the Orthodox to oppose with strength.

12) The Christoforos Papoulakos Foundation

Papoulakos’ house still exists today in Arbouna but it is in ruins. It originally belonged to his descendants who live in Australia.

However, Archimandrite Nectarios N. Pettas, PhD Candidate for Archaeology from Patras, has recently bought the house. The plan is to reconstruct and restore it urgently before it is totally destroyed thus losing a vital part of early Greek history.

The aim of Archimandrate Nectarios N. Petta is to create a foundation from the Papoulakos’ house. It will show the work of Christoforos and other important Greek and Orthodox figures. Simultaneously, it will operate as a centre for studies on Greek Cultural Heritage. Recently, it was legally passed at the court of the first instance. Accordingly, it is registered under the General No: 14560 / 2008 as a sacred, apostolic-philanthropic, non-profitable centre, which is denominated as The Christoforos Papoulakos Foundation.

Acknowledgements

My gratitude and sincere thanks is expressed to Elizabeth Tenny-Babouri for her translation, thus, bringing Papoulakos to the English-speaking world.

Copyright © 2008 by Archimandrite Nectarios N. Pettas

Source can be found @ http://www.papoulakos.org/

The holy skull of Papoulakos

Papoulakis prison in Rio

Papoulakis' house in Arbouna

Papoulakis' cell at Panachrantos Monastery

Inside of cell

Papoulakos' grave at Panachrantos Monastery

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Pat Robertson Voodoo Doll Offered On Ebay

Ekklesia
January 18, 2009

The soul of American Televangelist Pat Robertson is being offered for sale at online auction site ebay in the form of a Voodoo doll.

It comes after Robertson brought condemnation from church leaders and even the White House, for saying that Haiti's earthquake was caused by Haitians' pact with the devil.

A White House spokesman Robert Gibbs fiercely criticised the evangelist broadcaster saying: "It never ceases to amaze, that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid."

The day after the earthquake, Robertson said Haitians pledged to serve the devil if he would help them win their independence, and the devil said, "It's a deal."

Robertson said, "ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

His spokesman said Robertson's comments were based on Voodoo rituals carried out before a slave rebellion against French colonists in 1791.

Now, a Pat Robertson Voodoo doll is being offered for sale on ebay, with proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

"After an exclusive deal with devil, we are finally able to bring black magic into your very own home!" the item's description states.

"The lucky winner of this auction will attain the soul of Televangelist Pat Robertson in a handheld figurine comprised of the finest straw, cloth, and other organic natural materials!

"Ever wanted to cause Pat Robertson a massive headache? Give him back pain? Jab him in the crotch?" the entry states. "Of course you have! Well then BID NOW to own your very own physical representation of the dark, dark soul of Pat Robertson.

Accessories included with the doll are "Pat's very own Holy Bible, and Bag of money taken from real Americans!"

You can see the item on ebay here

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Can One Be Spiritual Without Going to Church?

A question was recently presented that I thought I should make public my answer to because it seems that even such a basic question is not understood by Orthodox Christians.

The question basically said:

"Can a person be spiritual without going to church regularly?"

One example that was brought up was the ascetics who, like St Mary of Egypt, for years lived spiritual lives in seclusion without going to church. But the questioner mainly intended this answer for laypeople.

Here is my short and basic reply:

If the person believes they can be spiritual despite the Church, they may be spiritual, but only in the demonic sense.

Since ascetics were brought up, I should also say that Orthodox spirituality relies on the divine energies of the Holy Spirit which only come through the Mysteries/Sacraments. The reason we continuously need the Mysteries is because we continuously sin and it is only through the Church that we can be renewed again. The ascetics who fled human contact were ascetics who lived a life of sinlessness and who were renewed beforehand by the Mysteries of the Church and ascended from glory to glory to a union with God without the aid of having to be continually renewed. This is why St Mary of Egypt, before she fled into the desert, received the eucharist and "sinned no more", and also why she confessed her sins to the priest Zossima before receiving the eucharist again before her death, believing she was still a sinner though she could walk on water and levitate in prayer. Still other ascetics were fed the eucharist by the hands of angels when unable to attend Divine Liturgy. One cannot be spiritual unless one becomes purified through continuous renewal and illumined by the Holy Spirit.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Pietism as an Ecclesiological Heresy

by Christos Yannaras

The Historical Coordinates

We give the name "pietism" to a phenomenon in church life which certainly has a particular historical and "confessional" starting point, but also has much wider ramifications in the spiritual life of all the Christian Churches.

Pietism made its appearance as a distinct historical movement within Protestantism, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, around 1690-1730.[1] Its aim was to stress "practical piety," as distinct from the polemical dogmatic theology to which the Reformation had initially given a certain priority.2 Against the intellectualist and abstract understanding of God and of dogmatic truth, pietism set a practical, active piety (praxis pietatis): good works, daily self-examination for progress in virtues according to objective criteria, daily study of the Bible and practical application of its moral teaching, intense emotionalism in prayer, a clear break with the "world" and worldly practices (dancing, the theatre, non-religious reading); and tendencies towards separatism, with the movement holding private meetings and distinguishing itself from the "official" Church.3

For pietism, knowledge of God presupposes the "rebirth" of man [i.e., a "born again" experience -- web ed.], and this rebirth is understood as living up to the moral law of the Gospel and as an emotional experience of authoritative truths.4 Pietism presents itself as a mystical piety, and ultimately as a form of opposition to knowledge; as "adogmatism," in the sense that it ignores or belittles theological truth, or even as pure agnosticism cloaked in morality.5

Under different forms and in various "movements," it has ,not ceased to influence Protestantism, and indeed also the spiritual life of other churches, to this day. In combination with humanism, the Enlightenment and the "practical" spirit of the modern era-- the spirit of "productivity" and "efficiency"-- pietism has cultivated throughout Europe a largely "social" understanding of the Church, involving practical activities of public benefit, and it has presented the message of salvation primarily as a necessity for individual and collective morality.

The Theological Coordinates

Pietism undermines the ontological truth of Church unity and personal communion, if it does not deny it completely; it approaches man's salvation in Christ as an individual event, an individual possibility of life. It is individual piety and the subjective process of "appropriating salvation" made absolute and autonomous, and it transfers the possibility of man's salvation to the realm of individual moral endeavor.6

For pietism, salvation is not primarily the fact of the Church, the theanthropic "new creation" of the body of Christ, the mode of existence of its trinitarian prototype and the unity of the communion of persons. It is not man's dynamic, personal participation in the body of the Church's communion which saves him despite his individual unworthiness, restoring him safe and whole to the existential possibility of personal universality, and transforming even his sin, through repentance, into the possibility of receiving God's grace and love. Rather it is primarily man's individual attainments, the way he as an individual lives up to religious duties and moral commandments and imitates the "virtues" of Christ, that ensure him a justification which can be objectively veri. fied. For pietism, the Church is a phenomenon dependent upon individual justification; it is the assembly of morally "reborn" [i.e., "born again" --web ed.] individuals, a gathering of the "pure," a complement and an aid to individual religious feeling.7

By this route pietism reached a result opposite to its original intent. Seeking to reject the one extreme of intellectual religion, it ended up at the other extreme, separating practical piety from the truth and revelation of the Church. Thus piety loses its ontological content and ceases to be an existential event-- the realization and manifestation of man's existential truth, of the "image" of God in man. It turns into an individual achievement which certainly improves character and behavior and perhaps social mores as well, but which cannot possibly transfigure our mode of existence and change corruption into incorruption, and death into life and resurrection.

Piety loses its ontological content; and, in addition, the truth and faith of the Church is divorced from life and action, and left as a set of "principles" and "axioms" which one accepts like any other ideology. The distinction between contemplation and action, between truth and life or between dogma and morality, turns into a schizophrenic severence. The life of the Church is confined to moral obedience, religious duties and the serving of social ends. One might venture to express the situation with the paradox that, in the case of pietism, ethics corrupts the Church: it turns the criteria of the Church into worldly and conventional criteria, distorting the "great mystery of godliness" into a rationalistic social necessity. Pietistic ethics distort the liturgical and eucharistic reality of the Church, the unity in life and communion of the penitent and the perfect, sinners and saints, the first and the last; they turn the Church into an inevitably conventional, institutional corporation of people who are individually religious.

A host of people today, perhaps the majority in western societies, evaluate the Church's work by the yardstick of its social usefulness as compared with the social work of education, penitentiary systems or even the police. The natural result is that the Church is preserved as an institution essential for morals and organized like a worldly establishment in an increasingly bureaucratic fashion. The most obvious form of secularization in the Church is the pietistic falsification of her mind and experience, the adulteration of her own criteria with moralistic considerations. Once the Church denies her ontological identity-- what she really, essentially is as an existential event whereby individual survival is changed into a personal life of love and communion-- then from that very moment she is reduced to a conventional form under which individuals are grouped together into an institution; she becomes an expression of man's fall, albeit a religious one. She begins to serve the "religious needs" of the people, the individualistic emotional and psychological needs of fallen man.

The utilitarian institutional mentality, a typical product of pietism, has led many churches and Christian confessions to a fever of anxiety lest they should be proved out-dated and useless in the modern technocratic, rationalistically organized society, and should appear to lag behind in keeping up to date with the world. Frequently they try to offer contemporary man a message as convenient and well-fitted as possible to his utilitarian demands for prosperity. "Humanistic" ethics-- the principle of keeping up appearances-- takes precedence over truth, over the salvation of existence from the anonymity of death. The miracle of repentance, the transfiguration of sin into loving desire for personal communion with God, the way mortality is swallowed up by life-these are truths incomprehensible to the pietistic spirit of our age. The Gospel message is "made void," emptied of its ontological content; the Church's faith in the resurrection of man is made to appear vacuous.

The Moral Alienation Of Salvation

When the piety of the Church is transferred to the plane of individual ethics and separated from her truth, this inevitably results in a blurring of the difference between the truth of salvation and -the illusion of salvation, between the Church and heresy. The idea of heresy or schism loses all real content, and is confined to abstract, theoretical differences understood only by "experts" who discuss them at meetings and conferences, exchanging the thrust and parry of confessional articles and formulations which fail to correspond in any way to the life of human beings.

Increasingly pietism equates the spirituality and piety of the various churches and confessions, taking them on the level of individual, or socially useful and efficacious, ethics, while disregarding even fundamental dogmatic differences. The piety of a Roman Catholic, a Protestant and frequently even an "enlightened" Orthodox, do not present substantial differences; practical piety no longer reveals whether the truth one lives is real or distorted. Dogma does not appear as a "definition," laying down the limits within which the Church's experience is to be expressed and safeguarded. Christian piety appears unrelated to the way we experience the truth of God in Trinity, the incarnation of the Word, and the energies of the Holy Spirit which give substance to the life of the members of the Church.

The model of Christian piety in the different churches and confessions is increasingly equated with that of a more "perfect" utilitarian ethic, with an individual morality which takes precedence over the fact of the Church. The only distinctions in piety are variations in religious customs and religious "duties." Even the liturgical act is incidental to individual piety, a complement, aid or fruit; it is thought of as an opportunity for "edification" or a religious duty. The eucharist, the original embodiment of the fact of salvation, is distorted by the pietistic spirit; it is construed as a narrowly "religious" obligation, a duty to pray together and perhaps to listen to a sermon which usually confines itself to prescribing how the individual should behave. The eucharist is not the event which constitutes and manifests the Church, the changing of our mode of existence and the realization of the ethos of the "new man."

Ultimately, even participation in the sacraments takes on a conventional, ethical character. Confession turns into a psychological means of setting individual guilt-feelings at rest, and participation in holy communion becomes a moral reward for good behavior-when it is not a scarcely conscious individual or family custom bordering on magic. Baptism becomes a self-evident social obligation, and marriage a legitimization of sexual relations without regard to any ascetic transfiguration of the conjugal union into an ecclesial event of personal intercourse or communion.

The Moral Assimilation Of Heresies

A typical and entirely consistent extension of all this blurring and alienation of the ontological character of the Church's truth is the modern movement towards the so-called "union" of the churches, and the much-vaunted priority of the "love" which unites the churches over the "dogma" which divides them. One could say that this movement was historically justified, since it often looks as if union has been accomplished on the level of, a common, non-dogmatic piety-- on the level of pietism. What, used to divide the Church from heresy was not abstract differences in academic formulations; it was the radical break and the distance between the universality of life and illusions of life, between realizing the true life of our trinitarian prototype and subjugating this truth to fallen man's fragmentary mode of existence. Dogma "defined," or showed the limits, while the Church's asceticism secured participation in that truth of life which defeats corruption and death and realizes the image of God in the human being.

When piety ceases to be an ecclesial event and turns into an individual moral attainment, then a heretic or even a non-Christian can be just as virtuous as a "Christian." Piety loses its connection with truth and its ontological content; it ceases to be related to man's full, bodily participation in the life of God-- to the resurrection of the body, the change of matter into "word," and the transfiguration of time and space into the immediacy of communion. Piety is transformed into an entirely uniform manner of being religious which inevitably makes differences of "confession" or tradition relative, or even assimilates the different traditions, since they all end in the same result-- the moral "improvement" of human life.

Thus the differences which separate heresy from truth remain empty verbal formulations irrelevant to the reality of life and death, irrelevant even to piety. They are preserved simply as variations in religious customs and traditional beliefs, with a purely historical interest. It is therefore natural for the distinct Christian confessions to seek formal union-- respecting, of course, the pluralism in religious customs and theoretical formulations-- since they are already substantially assimilated in the sphere of "practical life." This is the obvious basis for the unity movement in our times-- when, of course, it is not guided by much more stark socio-political considerations.

Socio-political considerations, however, have influenced church.life in every age; they are the sins of our human nature which has been taken into the Church. And they are not a real danger so long as we are aware that they are sins; they do not succeed in distorting the truth and the f act of the Church. The danger of real distortion lies in heresy: when we take fortruth and salvation some "improved" version of the fragmented mode of existence of fallen man. And the great heresy of our age is pietism. Pietism is a heresy in the realm of ecclesiology: it undermines or actually denies the very truth of the Church, transferring the event of salvation from the ecclesial to the individual ethos, to piety divorced from the trinitarian mode of existence, from Christ's way of obedience. Pietism denies the ontological fact of salvationthe Church, life as personal coinherence and communion in love, and the transfiguration of mortal individuality into a hypostasis of eternal life.

Pietism undermines the ontological truth of the Church or totally rejects it, but without questioning the formulations of that truth. It simply disregards them, taking them as intellectual forms unrelated to man's salvation, and abandons them to the jurisdiction of an autonomous academic theology. Pietism preserves a formal faithfulness to the letter of dogmatic formulation, but this is a dead letter, irrelevant to life and existential experience.

In that particular, this real denial of the truth of salvation differs from previous heresies. It does not reject the "definitions," the limits of the Church's truth; it simply disconnects this truth from the life and salvation of man. And this disconnection covers a vast range of distinctions and nuances, so that it is exceptionally difficult to "excommunicate" pietism, to place it beyond the bounds within which the Church's truth and unity are experienced. But this is precisely why it is perhaps the most dangerous assault on this truth and unity.

The Individualistic "Culture" Of Pietism

Pietism is definitely not an autonomous phenomenon, independent of the historical and cultural conditions which have shaped western civilization over the last three centuries. The spirit of individualism, rationalism and utilitarianism, the priority given to rationalization, the myth of "objectivity" and the "values" it imposes, the connection of truth with usefulness and of knowledge with turning things to "practical" account-- all these are factors which have influenced and shaped the phenomenon of pietism, and have equally been influenced and shaped by it. Corresponding currents and tendencies, like the Enlightenment, humanism, romanticism or positivism, are part of the web of interdependence formed by these same factors which ultimately make up the mentality and the standards of our modern culture, setting an imperceptible yet decisive seal on people's character and temperament.

This assertion poses an exceptionally difficult problem for Christian theology. If the way of life in western civilization, the only civilization which can really claim to be called worldwide, presupposes and imposes the cult of the individual, what place remains for the experience and realization of ecclesial truth and life? If the technocratic consumer society throughout the world presupposes and develops the primacy of intellectual ability in the subject, the autonomy of his will, the rationalistic regulation of individual rights and duties, "objective" backing for individual choices and for the economic safeguards assured for the individual by trade unions, and a rationalistic linkage of the individual with the group then the individualistic religion of pietism is the inevitable consequence. Indeed, it is the only possibility for religious expression in western culture-- the necessary and sufficient condition for religious life. There seems little or no scope for experience and historical realization of the Church's truth, the trinitarian mode of existence: no room to live our salvation through a practical subjection of the individual to the experience of communion which belongs to the Church as a body, and to realize the ethos or morality of the Gospel through self-transcendence on the part of the individual and through the freedom and distinctiveness of persons within the communion of saints.8

It is no accident that the first pioneers of pietist ideals consciously envisaged an ecumenical movement which was to restore "genuine Christianity" throughout the world.9 Pietism spread with exceptional speed over a remarkably wide area. From Germany it passed at once to England, where the ground had been prepared by Puritanism, and to the Netherlands and Scandinavia; it spread eastwards as far as Russia, and took hold in America with the first generations of settlers, as also in the missionary churches of Africa and Asia. But the factual details of how pietism spread so rapidly and the ecumenical ambitions of its founders are only a part of its far more general and organic identification with the tendency towards expansionism and universality innate in western civilization.

It is certain that pietism holds a central place in the web of mutual influence between the factors which have shaped the peculiar character of western culture. However much this might seem both a generalization and a paradox, it could be maintained that pietism has played one of the most significant roles in the historical development of "western type" societies. This assertion becomes more comprehensible if we accept the view of scholars who attribute to pietism the birth and development of the system of the autonomous economy, or capitalism10-- a system which today is decisive in determining the economic, political and social lives of people all over the world.

The initial historical link between pietism and capitalism is well known. The linchpin of the capitalist ideology may be identified with the pietistic demand for direct, quantifiable and judicially recompensed results from individual piety and morality-- in this case, from hard work, honesty, thrift, rationalistic exploitation of "talents," etc. Work acquires an autonomy: it is divorced from actual needs and becomes a religious obligation, finding its visible justification and "just deserts" in the accumulation of wealth. The management of wealth similarly becomes autonomous: it is divorced from social need and becomes part of the individual's relationship with God, a relationship of quantitative deserts and rewards.11

Confirmation of the conclusions thus formulated could be based not only on the inevitably relative agreement among students of the phenomenon of capitalism, but also on reference to direct historical examples. Perhaps the most representative example is that of the birth and development of the United States of America. This superpower of our times, which is also the most powerful and important factor in the operation of the world capitalist system, has its roots in the principles and the spirit of pietism. The successive waves of Anglo-Saxon Puritans and pietists who first emigrated to America with the millenarian vision12 of a Puritan "promised land"13 identified trust in God with the power of money,14 and religious feeling with the economic efficiency of work (work ethics) I and ultimately hallowed as ethics whatever ensured individual security and social prosperity.15 By the very fact of their existence, the two hundred and fifty or so different Christian confessions in that country make the truth of the Church body take second place; in defining the quality of a Christian, priority is given to the peculiarly American idea of individual ethics (civil religion).

Going by the example of America and the pietistic basis of the "gospel of wealth" which took shape there,16 one might venture to make a further assertion. The whole of mankind lives today in the trap of a lethal threat created by the polarization of two provenly immoral moralistic systems, and the constant expectation of a confrontation between them in war, perhaps nuclear war. On the one side is the pietistic individualism of the capitalist camp, and on the other the moralistic collectivism of the marxist dreams of "universal happiness." At least the latter refuses to cloak its aims under the forged title of Christian, while the name of Christianity continues to be blackened in the sloganizing of even the foulest dictatorships which support the workings of the capitalist system, upholding the pietistic ideal of individual merit."

If the witness of an ecumenical council of the Church were to have any meaning in our day, its chief purpose would be to denounce this torture of man, this imprisonment in an adulterated and falsified idea of Christian piety: the corrosion and destruction of the truth of salvation and the reality of the Church by generalized pietism.

Footnotes

[1] There is a rich bibliography on pietism, chiefly in the form of monographs dealing with the numerous local pietistic movements and the personalities of their leaders. Although not very systematic, the fullest study of the phenomenon as a whole is still A. Ritschl's three-volume work Geschichle des Pietismus (Bonn, 1880-1886). A recent work, exceptionally informative and well-documented, is Martin Schmidt's Pietismus (1972). The Roman Catholic approach, with a concise, objective and reasonably full description of the phenomenon and history of pietism, may be found in Louis Bouyer, Orthodox Spirituality and Protestant and Anglican Spirituality (History of Christian Spirituality 111, London, 1969), p. 169ff. As for the rest of the bibliography, we note here some basic aids: W. Mahrholz, Der deutsche Pietismus (Berlin, 1921); H. Bornkamm, Mystik, Spiritualismus und die Anfange des Pietismus im Luthertum (Giessen, 1926); M. Beyer-Frohlich, Pietismus und Rationalismus (Leipzig, 1933); K. Reinhardt, Mystik und Pietismus (Berlin, 1925); 0. S6hngen, ed., Die bleibende Bedeutung des Pietismus (Berlin, 1960) ; E. Sachsse, Ursprung und Wesen des Pietismus (1884) ; F. E. Stoeffler, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Studies in the History of Religions IX, 1965), pp. 180-246.

2 "The picture one gets from the relevant bibliography would justify the view that the historical roots of pietism are spread throughout the religious and theological tradition of western Christianity, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. There is, nevertheless, a particularly direct historical link between this phenomenon and certain Dutch offshoots of Protestantism, English Puritanism and above all Roman Catholic mysticism. Jansenism in seventeenth century France, the Port-Royal movement, Quietism, Thomas i Kempis' Imitation of Christ, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis of Sales and F6n6lon are considered by most scholars to be immediate forerunners of Protestant pietism. It is typical that Lutheran "orthodoxy" always condemned pietism as pro-Catholic. See M. Schmidt, Pietismus, p. 26; L. Bouyer, Orthodox Spirituality..., pp. 169-170 and 193.

3 See Karl Heussi and Eric Peter, Precis d'Histoire de l'Eglise (Neuchatel, 1967), § 106; M. Schmidt, Pietismus, p. 140. The first of the founders of the pietist movement, Philip-Jacob Spener (1635-1705), a Lutheran pastor from Alsace, created the blueprint for this moralistic campaign by organizing the zealous faithful into Bible study circles (Bibelkreise) independent of the Church's gatherings for worship. Study of Scripture was meant to lead to practical moral conclusions affecting the individual lives of the members of the movement. Any of the faithful could be in charge of such a "circle." Spener and the other pioneers of the pietist movement (A. H. Francke, 16631727, G. Arnold, 1666-1714, N. L. Graf von Zinzendorf, 1700-1760, J. A. Bengel, 1697-1752, F. C. Oetinger, 1702-1782) laid particular emphasis on the universal priesthood of the laity, and were sharply critical of the clergy of their time and the "institutional Church, compromised with the world." See L. Bouyer, Orthodox Spirituality..., pp. 170-17 1; M. Schmidt, Pietismus, pp. 12-42; Nouvelle Hisloire de l'Eglise vol. 4 (Paris, 1966), pp. 35-36.

4 See L. Bouyer, Orthodox Spirituality p. 174: "...the dissolution of all defined dogmatic faith and its substitution by unverifiable sentiment..."

5 "'[Pietism] considers the practice of piety as the essential element of religion... but is accompanied more often by a growing indifference with regard to dogma": Nouvelle Histoire de I'Eglise, p. 35. "Whenever the Church started dogmatizing, so he held, it fell into decadence, and the only way out lay in the fact that each generation produced simple-minded men whose instinctive reaction (bullied by authority) constituted a prophetic reaffirmation of the one pure Christianity, primitive and free from all ratiocination": L. Bouyer, Orthodox Spirituality, p. 175.

6 "At the center stands the individual person: the early Christian image of 'building up' is transformed in an individualistic direction (building up of the inner person)": M. Schmidt, "Pietismus," in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 5, Col. 370. Idem, Pietismus, pp. 90 and 123.

7 "'The new type of community... is the formation of groups of reborn individuals, not the community of those called by word and sacrament. The initiative lies with the subject... Individualism and subjectivism undermine the sacramental perpective": M. Schmidt, "Pietismus," Col. 371. "In the confusion between faith and sense experience and the tendency to replace the objective data of faith and the sacraments by an emotional subjective event, he discerns at least latent indifference regarding all established doctrine, and, in a more general way, loss of sight of the Church and its ministry as institutions": L. Bouyer, Ortbodox Spirituality, p. 174.

8 'Precisely because the Church is not a religious ideology but the continuous assumption of the flesh of the world and the transformation of it into the theanthropic flesh of Christ, it is impossible for the ontological truth of the Church's unity and communion to "coexist" passively with a culture centered on the individual, a culture of objectification. The Church lives and functions only so long as she is continuously and dynamically assuming individualistic, objectified existences in order to transfigure them into unity of life, into personal relationship and communion. But this means that on the historical and social level, the life and unity of the Church operates as a radical and direct rejection or subversion of the cultural "system" of individualism and objectification. Otherwise, the rck would be subject to the way of life imposed by the "system," so that she herself would be alienated both as a reality of truth and salvation, and as an institutional expression of this reality.

9 "Pietism originally was an ecumenical, world-wide phenomenon... Above all it understood itself to be of ecumenical scope, the representation of true Christendom over all the earth": M. Schmidt, Pietismus, p. 11.

10 See R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (Penguin Books, 197511)- Max Weber, Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, in Die protesiantische Ethik, I (Hamburg, 19733) ; E. Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen, 1965); H. Hauser, Les debuts du Capitalisme (Paris, 1927); A. Fanfani, Catholicism, Protestantism and Capitalism (London, 1935); H. M. Robertson, Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism (Cambridge, 1933).

11 "Convinced that character is all and circumstances nothing [the morally self-sufficient] see in the poverty of those who fall by the way, not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches not an object of suspicion-though like other gifts they may be abused-but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will": Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, pp. 229-230.

12 "Millenarist tendencies and expectation of the Messiah are characteristic of pietism, "... a sort of renewed 'chiliasm,' that is to say the immediate expectation of a kingdom of God on earth which it would be within our power to produce": L. Bouyer, Orthodox Spirituality, p. 174. See also M. Schmidt, Pietismus, pp. 130-132 and 160; and Charles L. Sanford, The Quest of Paradise: Europe and the American Moral Imagination (Urbana, Ill., 1961).

13 See Robert Bellah, The Broken Covenant-- American Civil Religion in Time of Trial (New York, 1975), especially pp. 7-8 and the chapter "America as a Chosen People" (P. 36ff.); Conrad Cherry, God's New Israel: Religious Interpretations of American Destiny (Prentice-Hall, 1971); H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York, 1937).

14 "In God we trust" is the inscription on every coin and dollar note. See also Moses Rischin, ed., The American Gospel of Success (Quadrangle Books, 1965); Howard Mumford Jones, The Pursuit of Happiness (Ithaca, N.Y., 1966).

15 See Robert Handy, A Christian America (New York and Oxford, 197" especially the chapter: "Components of the New Christian Civilization: Religion, Morality, Education," especially pp. 33-40; William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition (Boston, 1967); Irvin G. Wyllie, The Self-made Man in America (Free Press, 1966).

16 See Andrew Carnegie's famous essay "The Gospel of Wealth," reprinted from The American Review 148 (1889), pp. 653-664, in Gail Kennedy, ed., Democracy and the Gospel of Wealth (Boston, 1949).

From "The Freedom of Morality," Chapter Eight (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY: 1984), pp. 119-136.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr