The Haunted Cell Of A Heretic

By St. John Moschos

Abba John the Cilician told us that while he was staying at the ninth mile-post from Alexandria, an Egyptian monk visited them. He said:

"A brother from foreign parts came to the Lavra of the Cells and wanted to stay there. He prostrated himself before the priest and requested that he might stay the night in the cell of Evagrius*. The priest told him that he could not stay there.

The brother said: 'If I may not stay there, I will go away.'

The priest said to him: 'My child, the fact of the matter is that a cruel demon inhabits that place. It lead Evagrius astray, alienating him from the true faith, and it filled his mind with abominable teachings.'

The brother persisted, saying: 'If I am to remain here, that is where I am going to stay.'

Then the priest said: 'May it be on your own head. Go and stay there.'

The brother went and stayed there for a week and, when the holy day of the Lord came around, he came to the church. The priest was relieved to see him.

The following Sunday he did not come to church, so the priest summoned two brothers to go and find out why he was not present in church. They went to the cell and found that the brother had put a rope around his neck and strangled himself."

* Evagrius Ponticus (345-399), though highly influential and a friend of many Church Fathers, fell under the condemnation of heresy post-mortem for his esoteric speculations regarding the pre-existence of human souls, the final state of believers, and certain teachings about the natures of God and Christ. With Origen and others, his non-Orthodox teachings were declared heretical at the Fifth Ecumenical Synod in 553 AD.

Source: The Spiritual Meadow (Cistercian Publications; Kalamazou, Michigan) pp. 146-147.

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Elder Porphyrios On Problematic Spiritual Fathers

1. Take care which spiritual fathers you go to

A brother told me: Once, when my job was in a rural area, my wife had gone to a very strict spiritual father. When she had confessed a weakness of hers that she would have repeated, he berated her, he intimidated her and ever since that experience, it took her a very long time to decide to go to confession again.

"Do you see", the elderly Father said to him, "what excessive austerity can do? That's why I tell you, take care which spiritual fathers you go to for confession - both you and your wife as well as your children - and above all, be honest in whatever you say, because that way, God will forgive everything and you will move up, spiritually."

[Hieromonk Elder Porphyrios, COLLECTED COUNSELS, Published by the Sacred Nunnery Retreat The Transfiguration of the Saviour, 2002, page 337].

2. Some spiritual fathers commit a crime

Look, my child! Our God, in His desire to educate His children who believe, trust, love Him and worship Him, resorts to various ways, methods and plans. Among the plans of our God is also the imposition of rules, which of course always aspire to the salvation of our souls. The same applies in your case. We cannot change or delete God's plans. What is more, we cannot impose any on Him. But we can however ask of Him and beseech Him, and He, being the philanthropist that He is, can hearken to our prayers and shorten Time - or even dispense with it. Either way, it is up to Him. We ask for something, and He is the one who will approve.

Even so, these rules do not have the character of revenge or punishment, but of education - and they have nothing to do with the rules imposed by certain spiritual fathers during Confession, who, either out of excessive zeal or out of ignorance, exhaust the limits of punishment without realizing that in that way, they are committing a crime instead of doing any good. I always scold them and counsel them: No severe punishments, just sound advice. Because severe punishments will only supply the "other one" (the devil) with a large clientele; that is exactly what he lies in wait for, and always waits with open arms to receive them! He in fact even promises them impossible things....

That is why the choice of spiritual father demands extreme attention. Just as you would seek the best possible doctor, you should do the same for a spiritual father. They are both doctors - one is for the body, the other for the soul!

[Hieromonk Elder Porphyrios, COLLECTED COUNSELS, Published by the Sacred Nunnery Retreat The Transfiguration of the Saviour, 2002, page 337].

3. Pay attention to what you say to spiritual fathers

"Be careful what you say to the spiritual fathers that you have chosen for Confession. Because they don't know everything. They must be very wise, discerning and experienced. They must have God's spirit within them, in order to be able to solve your various problems."

It should be clarified here, that he was not referring to the simple, everyday sins that we all commit, but to the more profound meanings, like the prayer of the heart, the offensives of the wicked one, etc...

[Hieromonk Elder Porphyrios, COLLECTED COUNSELS, Published by the Sacred Nunnery Retreat The Transfiguration of the Saviour, 2002, page 342].

4. Some spiritual fathers can confuse you

"When you are a long way from the city", he said to a brother, "and you can't come here regularly, you should seek out a very good spiritual father there, to confess your sins. But whatever else preoccupies you with regard to the prayer of the heart or your thoughts, do not mention it to them, because some of them do not know everything and they can confuse you. You should come here and discuss the other issues with me."

[Hieromonk Elder Porphyrios, COLLECTED COUNSELS, Published by the Sacred Nunnery Retreat The Transfiguration of the Saviour, 2002, page 341].

5. Spiritual guides who are animated by a Papist spirit

I was discussing a related subject with him: It was about a certain "strict" spiritual father, who had refused to approve the wish of his spiritual child to visit the Elder Porphyrios and talk to him about a serious personal problem of his. This incident had made a painful impression on me and I told him about it. The Elder shook his head sadly and whispered: "What can I say? You see, he is also a spiritual father". The Elder was always very careful and lenient in his judgments of others - especially when it pertained to priests who made mistakes. In lieu of a characterization, he preferred to speak to me parabolically:

"You know, when a Papist missionary receives instructions for a mission, he gets onto a plane in Rome and when he arrives at the airport of an African country, that's where he opens a sealed envelope and reads what his mission involves - which he is obliged to execute, even if he disagrees with it. With us Orthodox it is not like that."

I understood - more or less - what he was trying to tell me. Besides, it wasn't the first time I had observed that there also exist in the Orthodox sphere several spiritual guides (fortunately few), who are essentially driven by a Papist mentality; who demand that their instructions be obeyed, in total disregard of the inner resistances of their spiritual children. They tend to cultivate a totalitarian mentality; because they themselves fear freedom they impose discipline, ignoring the fact that Orthodox obedience is the fruit of freedom. It wasn't long before that bossy compulsion brought on the inevitable results: That same spiritual child of the "strict" spiritual father eventually declared to his friends (who had exhorted him to go to the Elder Porphyrios) that he no longer desired to visit him. In one of my visits to the Elder, I said to him: "I think that the reason he doesn't come to you is not so much because he doesn't want to, but because he is showing obedience to his spiritual father."

The Elder surprised me, when he replied: "He is showing obedience, because the advice of his spiritual father satisfied his ego." It was the first time that I had ever heard the Elder speak so openly about a spiritual faux-pas. I knew he wasn't doing it because he felt personally offended. The Elder himself never invited people to visit him. (I knew of one exception only, and even that was on account of the fervent pleas by the friends of a certain prejudiced person who was suffering. It was essentially a response to their direct request for a meeting). The Elder did not seek to acquire followers; he simply helped out whoever sought his help at his cell. It is possible he spoke thus openly to me, because he wanted to reveal yet another example of deceitfulness by the devil, among the Christians. And it made me think: "So, the motive behind that person's obedience was the gratification of his ego."

[Hieromonk Elder Porphyrios, COLLECTED COUNSELS, Published by the Sacred Nunnery Retreat The Transfiguration of the Saviour, 2002, pages 387-389].

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St. Dionyisus of Alexandria and His Love For Truth

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Whenever men exert great effort in seeking the truth, and prefer nothing else to the truth, God comes to meet them in His gentle way. This is shown to us in the life of St. Dionysius of Alexandria (Oct. 5).

Even as a young man and a pagan, Dionysius read all the Greek literature, seeking the truth. When he was not satisfied with this, he read everything that came into his hands. And, in accord with God's providence, he met a poor woman who offered to sell him several hand-copied epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. Dionysius gladly purchased and read them. They so overcame him that he sought out this woman and asked her if there were more such writings to be had. The woman directed him to a Christian priest who gave him all of Paul's epistles. Having read all carefully, Dionysius came to believe in Christ, and was baptized without any hesitation.

Here is another incident: In the town of Arsinoe, the Millenarian heresy had spread. This heresy taught that Christ would soon come, and He would establish an earthly kingdom on earth for a thousand years. At the head of this heresy was a certain Korakion. St. Dionysius went to Arsinoe to change the minds of the millenarians and to prevent the spread of this heresy. At a large gathering of millenarians and true Orthodox, Dionysius debated with Korakion and other leaders of the millenarians. This debate lasted for three whole days. (Such zeal did the ancient Christians show in the examination of the truth!) God blessed their labor and zeal, through the prayers of St. Dionysius. At the end of the debate, Korakion and all the other millenarians rejected their false teaching and accepted the Orthodox teaching of St. Dionysius.

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Why It's So Hard For Scientists To Believe In God

Recorded September 13, 2010

Francis Collins Interviewed by David Hirschman

Question: Why is it so difficult for scientists to believe in a higher power?

Francis Collins: Science is about trying to get rigorous answers to questions about how nature works. And it’s a very important process that’s actually quite reliable if carried out correctly with generation of hypotheses and testing of those by accumulation of data and then drawing conclusions that are continually revisited to be sure they are right. So if you want to answer questions about how nature works, how biology works, for instance, science is the way to get there. Scientists believe in that they are very troubled by a suggestion that other kinds of approaches can be taken to derive truth about nature. And some I think have seen faith as therefore a threat to the scientific method and therefore it to be resisted.

But faith in its perspective is really asking a different set of questions. And that’s why I don’t think there needs to be a conflict here. The kinds of questions that faith can help one address are more in the philosophical realm. Why are we all here? Why is there something instead of nothing? Is there a God? Isn’t it clear that those aren't scientific questions and that science doesn’t have much to say about them? But you either have to say, well those are inappropriate questions and we can’t discuss them or you have to say, we need something besides science to pursue some of the things that humans are curious about. For me, that makes perfect sense. But I think for many scientists, particularly for those who have seen the shrill pronouncements from extreme views that threaten what they’re doing scientifically and feel therefore they can’t really include those thoughts into their own worldview, faith can be seen as an enemy.

And similarly, on the other side, some of my scientific colleagues who are of an atheist persuasion are sometimes using science as a club over the head of believers basically suggesting that anything that can’t be reduced to a scientific question isn’t important and just represents superstition that should be gotten rid of.

Part of the problem is, I think the extremists have occupied the stage. Those voices are the ones we hear. I think most people are actually kind of comfortable with the idea that science is a reliable way to learn about nature, but it’s not the whole story and there’s a place also for religion, for faith, for theology, for philosophy. But that harmony perspective does not get as much attention, nobody’s as interested in harmony as they are in conflict, I’m afraid.

Question: How has your study of genetics influenced your faith?

Francis Collins: My study of genetics certainly tells me, incontrovertibly that Darwin was right about the nature of how living things have arrived on the scene, by descent from a common ancestor under the influence of natural selection over very long periods of time. Darwin was amazingly insightful given how limited the molecular information he had was; essentially it didn’t exist. And now with the digital code of the DNA, we have the best possible proof of Darwin’s theory that he could have imagined.

So that certainly tells me something about the nature of living things. But it actually adds to my sense that this is an answer to a "how?" question and it leaves the "why?" question still hanging in the air.

Other aspects of our universe I think also for me as for Einstein raised questions about the possibility of intelligence behind all of this. Why is it that, for instance, that the constance that determines the behavior of matter and energy, like the gravitational constant, for instance, have precisely the value that they have to in order for there to be any complexity at all in the Universe. That is fairly breathtaking in its lack of probability of ever having happened. And it does make you think that a mind might have been involved in setting the stage. At the same time that does not imply necessarily that that mind is controlling the specific manipulations of things that are going on in the natural world. In fact, I would very much resist that idea. I think the laws of nature potentially could be the product of a mind. I think that’s a defensible perspective. But once those laws are in place, then I think nature goes on and science has the chance to be able to perceive how that works and what its consequences are.

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The Origins of the Illuminati Myth and the Protocols (4 of 5)

Continued from Part Three

THE DIALOGUE AND THE PROTOCOLS

Maurice Joly, the author of Dialogue, had conceived the idea of the play during a time when it was forbidden to criticize the despotic regime of Napoleon III. In order to avoid press censorship, Joly had developed the idea of writing an imagined dialogue between the great champion of the French Enlightenment, Montesquieu, and the infamous Italian cynic, Machivelli. Montesquieu was to present the case for democracy, liberalism, and reform. Machivelli would defend the position of cynical despotism and Napoleon III. In this way he thought that he could criticize the Emperor. But the play, which was published in Brussels, was confiscated in Paris. Joly was arrested by the agents of Napoleon III and his writings were suppressed. In despair, Joly committed suicide in 1879.

But Joly’s play was indeed an admirable work - incisive, ruthless, and logically and beautifully constructed. The debate is opened by Montesquieu who argues that in the present age, the enlightenment ideas of liberalism had made despotism, which Montesquieu argued had always been immoral, impractical as well. But Machivelli replies with such eloquence and at such length that he dominates the rest of the play. Machivelli argues that the great mass of people are simply incapable of governing themselves; normally, they are inert and only too happy to be ruled by a strong man. Machivelli maintains that the concepts of politics have never had anything to do with morality and insofar as practicality is concerned, the inventions of the modern world were better suited to the imposition of despotism than democracy. Moreover, the people in actuality desired despotism. The forces that might oppose the despot’s rule could be dealt with easily enough: the press could be censored and political opponents could be watched by the police.

So long as the despot dazzled the people with his prestige, he could be sure of their support. Such is the book that inspired the forger of the Protocols. He plagiarized it shamelessly. In all, about one-half of the entire text of the Protocols is clearly based on passages from Joly. In nine of the chapters, the borrowings amount to more than half of the text; in some they amount to three-quarters; in one (Protocol VII) they amount to the entire text. Moreover, with less than a dozen exceptions, the order of the borrowed passages remains the same as it was in Joly’s play, as though the forger had worked through the Dialogue mechanically, page by page, copying straight into the Protocols as he proceeded. Even the arrangement in the chapters is much the same - the twenty-four chapters of the Protocols corresponding roughly to the twenty-five chapters of the Dialogue. Only towards the end, where the prophecy of the anti-Christian "Messianic Age" of Antichrist appears, does the forger allow himself any real independence of thought. [Please see Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide (New York: Harper and Row) for a lengthy comparison between the Protocols and the Dialogue.]

NILUS AND THE PROTOCOLS

Rachkovsky entrusted the finished forgery to Yulina Glinka, his agent in Switzerland. She then transferred it to Rachkovsky’s old friend, Sergey Nilus at Optina Pustyn. Nilus was enthralled and totally taken in by the ruse. Rachkovsky had reasoned that if anyone could be duped by the intrigue and find a way of publishing the Protocols, Nilus would be the man. Rachkovsky had not reasoned in vain.

Alexander du Chayla, a Frenchman who visited Nilus at Optina Pustyn during this time, has left an account of how truly fooled Nilus was by Rachkovsky’s forgery. Du Chayla writes:

"Nilus took (the Protocols) from the shelf and began to (read to me) ... the most remarkable passages of the text and of his own commentaries. At the same time he watched the expression on my face, for he assumed that I would be dumbfounded by the revelation. He was rather upset when I told him that this was nothing new to me ...

"Nilus was shaken and disappointed by this. He retorted that I took this view because my knowledge ... (of these things) was superficial and fragmentary. It was absolutely necessary that I should feel the full impact. And it would be easy for me to get to know the Protocols because the original was in French.

"Nilus did not keep the (actual) manuscript of the Protocols in his house for fear lest it be stolen by the Jews. I recall how amused I was by his perturbation when a Jewish chemist of Kozelsk, taking a walk with a friend in the monastery forest and trying to find the quickest route to the ferry, happened to stray into Nilus’s garden. Poor Nilus! He was convinced for a long time afterwards that the chemist had come to carry out a reconnaissance.

"Some time after our first conversation about the Protocols, one afternoon about four o’clock, one of the patients from Nilus’s home ... brought me a letter: Nilus was asking me to come and see him on an urgent matter. (He was at last prepared to show me the actual manuscript - the original - of the Protocols).

"I found Sergey in his study. He was alone ... Dusk was falling, but it was still light for the earth was covered with snow. I noticed on his writing-table something like a rather large envelope, made of black material and decorated with a big triple cross with the inscription: ‘In this sign you shall conquer’. A little picture of St. Michael, in paper, was also stuck in the envelope. Quite clearly all this was intended as an exorcism.

"Sergey crossed himself three times before the great icon of the Mother of God ... and opened the envelope, from which he took a leather-bound notebook ...

"‘Here it is’, said Nilus, ‘the charter of the Kingdom of Antichrist’.

"He opened the notebook ... The text was written in French by various hands and, it seemed to me, with different inks.

"‘You see’, said Nilus, ‘during the sessions of the secret Jewish government, at different times, various people filled the office of secretary, hence the different handwritings’.

"After showing me the manuscript, Sergey placed it on the table ... and said: ‘Well, now read!’... While reading the manuscript, I was struck by certain peculiarities in the text. There were some spelling mistakes and above all, some expressions which were not French [Du Chayla was a native Frenchman, while the forger, Rachkovsky, was Russian and spoke French only as a second language - editor.] Clearly the manuscript was written by a foreigner ... It took me two and a half hours to read the document ... (Finally) Sergey wanted to know what impression my reading had produced on me. I told him straight out that I (still) stood by my previous judgment. I didn’t really believe in the ‘Elders of Zion’.

"Nilus’s face clouded. ‘You really are under the influence of the Devil’, he said. ‘Satan’s greatest ruse is to make people deny (these things) ... What will you say now if I show you how what is said in the Protocols is being fulfilled, how the mysterious sign of the coming of Antichrist appears on all sides, how the imminent advent of his kingdom can be felt everywhere’?" Then he proceeded to the ‘exhibits in the case’. He opened the chest. Inside there were, in an indescribable state of disorder, detachable collars, India rubbers, household utensils, insignia of various technical colleges, even the cipher of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Cross of the Legions d’honheur. On all these objects Nilus detected, in his hallucination, the seal of Antichrist, in the form of a triangle or of two superimposed triangles ... If an object bore a trademark even vaguely suggesting a triangle, that was enough to secure it entry to his museum ...

"With increasing excitement and anxiety, in the grip of a sort of mysterious terror, Nilus explained to me that the sign of ‘the Son of Perdition’ is now contaminating all things, that it shines even from the scrolls of the great icon behind the altar in the Church of the Hermitage ... I felt a sort of fear. It was now past midnight. The gaze, the voice, the reflex-like gestures - everything about Nilus - gave me the feeling that he was walking on the edge of a (mental) abyss and that at any moment his reason might disintegrate into madness." [A. du Chayla in La Tribune Juive, pgs 3-4.]

Clearly, then, Nilus really believed in the Protocols and in the myth of the "Jewish-World Conspiracy." Rachkovsky had done his work well in choosing as his agent the mentally deranged Sergey Nilus.

Nilus soon arranged to have the book passed by the Moscow Censorship Committee on September 28, 1905 and it appeared in print a short time later attached to a commentary by Nilus called The Root of Our Troubles - meaning, of course, the Illuminati, i.e., the Jews. Nilus’s star quickly rose at the Imperial Court as a result, and the Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Moscow ordered a sermon quoting Nilus’s version of the Protocols to be read in all 368 churches of Moscow. This was duly done on October 16, 1905 and the sermon was promptly reprinted throughout all of Russia.

Continued...Part Five

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Documentary: Ghost Ships of the Black Sea

Seven years ago, on his third trip to the Black Sea, Dr. Robert Ballard discovered a miraculously well-preserved Byzantine shipwreck, but his team could only take pictures. Now, Ballard returns with state-of-the-art technology and a revolutionary $1.5 million robot known as "Hercules" to excavate two shipwrecks for the first time ever, including one of the most pristine ancient vessels ever found. Ballard and his team have only two weeks, so they must work in perfect precision on their hunt for the Ghost Ships of the Black Sea.

Read more here.

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The Life and Miracles of Saint Paul the Simple

By St. Palladius (Lausiac History, Ch. 28)

The Servant of Christ, Hierax, as well as Cronius and several other brothers, told me the story I am going to tell you about Paul the Simple. He was a peasant farmer of transparently innocent and simple life, and he had taken a most beautiful woman for a wife who nevertheless was of very lax morals. Led by providence to an outcome which he was in fact half hoping for, he came back from the fields unexpectedly one day, went inside, and found her and a man together. When he saw her and the man she was having sex with he gave a forthright and heartfelt laugh.

"Fine, fine," he said. "This means that she is no longer any responsibility of mine. In Jesus' name I acknowledge her no longer. Go, take her with you, and her children, for I am leaving to become a monk."

Without saying anything to anybody else he took an eight day journey to holy Anthony and knocked on his door.

"What do you want?" asked Anthony when he came to the door.

"To become a monk," replied Paul.

"You must be at least sixty. You can't become a monk," said Anthony. "Live in the town, work for your living, trusting in the grace of God. You would not be able to cope with all the trials of solitude."

"Whatever you told me to do I would do it," the old man replied.

"I have told you," said Anthony. "You are old. You can't be a monk. Go away. Or if you do really want to be a monk go to a cenobium where there are many brothers to support you in your frailty. I am here all by myself, fasting for five days before eating." And with these words he tried to drive Paul away.

Refusing to admit him Anthony shut the door and for three days did not go outside, not even to answer the call of nature. But the old man stayed where he was.

On the fourth day he really had to go outside, but when he opened the door and went out he saw Paul still there and said, "Go away, old man. Why do you keep on bothering me? You can't stay here."

"I don't intend to stay anywhere else except here," said Paul.

Anthony looked at him and saw that he had nothing with him to sustain life, no bread, no water or anything else, and he had now been fasting for four days.

"He is so unused to fasting he might die," thought Anthony, "and I will be to blame." And so he took him in.

"If you can be obedient and do what I tell you," said Anthony, "you'll be all right."

"I will do whatever you say," Paul replied.

Anthony in those days followed just as rigorous a way of life as he did when young. In order to test the Paul's mettle he said to him, "Stay here and pray, while I go in and fetch something for you to work with." He then went into his inner room and watched Paul through the window. For the rest of the week he stayed there without moving, even though scorched by the heat. At the end of the week he brought some palm branches which he had soaked in water.

"Take these and weave a rope as you see me doing." he said. The old man wove until the ninth hour, completing fifteen arms-lengths with great difficulty. Anthony inspected what he had done and was not satisfied with it.

"You've done that very badly," he said. "Undo it and do it again." It was now the seventh day that this elderly man had been fasting, but Anthony was treating him severely like this to see whether he would give up and abandon the life of a monk. But he just took the branches and rewove them, and with great labour put right the unevenness with which he done them at first. Anthony saw that he had neither grumbled, nor been downcast, nor turned aside, nor become resentful to the slightest degree, and he began to feel sorry for him. And as the sun set he said, "Well, little father, shall we break some bread together?"

"If you think that's right, abba," replied Paul, thus leaving the decision to Anthony without jumping up eagerly at the mention of food. Anthony began to change his mind.

"Get the table ready then," he said. And he did so. Anthony put the bread on the table, four six-ounce rolls. He put one to soak for himself (for they were dry) and three for Paul. Anthony sang a psalm which he knew, and when he had repeated it twelve times he also said a prayer twelve times. This he did in order to test Paul further. But the old man prayed too, as promptly and eagerly as the great Anthony himself. (I really think that he would rather feed on scorpions than live falsely.)

"Sit down," the great Anthony said to Paul after the twelve prayers, "but we won't eat until vespers. Wait till the bread is eatable." The time for vespers came and Paul still had not eaten, when Antony said, "Get up. We'll pray and then sleep." They left the table and did so. Half way through the night Anthony woke Paul for prayers and went on with them right through to the ninth hour. But at last when vespers came and the table had been prepared and they had sung and prayed they sat down to eat.

Anthony ate one roll and did not pick up another one. The old man was eating more slowly and still had the roll which he had started. Anthony waited till he had finished and said, "Come, little father, eat another roll."

"If you have another one, I will," said Paul, "but not if you won't."

"I've had quite sufficient for one who is a monk," said Anthony.

"Since I want to be a monk," said Paul, "that's enough for me too, then." And he got up and said twelve prayers and sang twelve psalms. After the prayers they slept a little for the first part of the night, then rose and sang psalms again till dawn.

He then sent him out to wander in the desert.

"Come back after three days," he said.

This he did.

When some brothers came on a visit he paid close attention to Anthony and did whatever Anthony wanted.

"See to the visitors' needs and keep silence," he said, "and don't eat anything till they have started on their journey back."

At the end of the third week in which Paul had not eaten anything the brothers asked him why he kept silent, to which he replied nothing at all.

"Why keep silent?," said Anthony. "Speak to the brothers." So he spoke.

Once when Anthony was given a jar of honey he told Paul to break the jar. He did so and the honey spilled.

"Now scrape up the honey with this shell," he ordered, "but don't get any dirt mixed up in it."

Once he ordered him to draw water all day. When his garment got a bit tattered, he told him to just get used to it.

In the end this man had grasped such firm hold on obedience by the divine grace given him, that he was able to command the demons. When the great Anthony saw that this man had promptly carried out everything he had asked him to do in the way he ordered his life, he said, "See if you can keep on doing this day by day, brother, and stay with me."

"I don't know what else you can show me," said Paul. "I do whatever I see you doing, quite easily and without any strain, the Lord being my helper."

On another day Anthony admitted 'in the name of Jesus' that he had indeed become a monk. The great and blessed Anthony had become convinced that the soul of this servant of Christ had become almost perfected in all things, even though he was somewhat simple. After a few months Antony was moved by the grace of God to build a cell for him three or four miles away from his own cell, and said to him, "See now, by the help of the grace of Christ you have become a monk. Now live by yourself, and even take on the demons."

So a year after Paul the Most Simple came to live with him he was highly experienced in a disciplined way of life and was found worthy to battle against the demons and against all kinds of diseases.

One day there was brought to Anthony a young man vexed beyond measure by one of the most powerful and savage demons who railed against heaven itself with curses and blasphemies.

Anthony had a look at the young man and said to those who had brought him, "This is not a task for me. I have not yet been given the grace to deal with this very powerful type of demon. Paul the Simple has the gift of dealing with this one." The great Anthony went to Paul, that most excellent man, taking them all with him.

"Abba Paul," he said, "Cast out this demon from this person so that he may return home cured and glorify God."

"Why not you?" asked Paul.

"It is not for me," said Anthony. "I have other concerns." And the great Anthony left the boy there and returned to his cell.

The unassuming old man stood up and poured out a strong prayer to challenge the demon and said, "Abba Anthony says, 'Depart from this man'"

"I will not, you disgusting, pompous old man," said the demon, with many curses and blasphemies. Paul put on his sheepskin and belaboured him in the back, crying, "'Go out,' Abba Anthony says."

The demon abused both Paul and Anthony with curses, saying, "You are disgusting old men, lazy and greedy, never content to mind your own business. What have you got in common with us? Why are you browbeating us?"

"Either go now," said Paul, "or I will call upon the power of Christ to bring destruction upon you."

But this unclean demon railed against Jesus also with curses and blasphemies
"I am not going," he shouted.

This made Paul get angry with the demon. He went outside. It was midday - when the Egyptian heat bears comparison with the furnace of Babylon. The holy old man stood up straight, like a statue, on top of a rock, and prayed, "O Jesus Christ, you were crucified under Pontius Pilate, take note that I will not come down from this rock, nor will I eat or drink even if I die, until you hear me and cast out this demon from this man and liberate him from the unclean spirit." And even as the simple and humble Paul was praying, before he had even finished, the demon cried out, "I'm going, I'm going, driven out by force, overcome by tyranny. I'm getting out of this man and won't come back any more. It is the simplicity and humility of Paul which has driven me out and I don't know where to go."

The moment he went he changed into an enormous dragon about seventy cubits long which crept off towards the Red Sea. Thus were fulfilled the words of Holy Scripture, 'The righteous man shows his faith by what he does' (Proverbs 12.17), and 'On whom shall I look, says the Lord, if not on him who is gentle and humble and trembles at my words?' (Isaiah 66.2). Although lesser (humiliores) demons can be cast out by the faith of men in authority (principales), it takes humble (humiles) men to be able to put to flight the demons of greatest power (principales).

Such were the miracles of the humble Paul the Simple, and there were many others he did, even greater than these. He was known as Simple by all the brothers.

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Saint Hierotheos, First Bishop of Athens

St. Hierotheos of Athens (Feast Day - October 4)

According to some, Hierotheos, like Saint Dionysius, was a member of the court of Mars Hill. He was a Platonic philosopher.

Having first been instructed in the Faith of Christ by the Apostle Paul, he became the first Bishop of Athens.

He, in turn, initiated the divine Dionysius more perfectly into the mysteries of Christ; the latter, on his part, elaborated more clearly and distinctly Hierotheos' concise and summary teachings concerning the Faith.

He too was brought miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit to be present at the Dormition of the Theotokos, when, together with the sacred Apostles, he became a leader of the divine hymnody. "He was wholly transported, wholly outside himself and was so deeply absorbed in communion with the sacred things he celebrated in hymnology, that to all who heard him and saw him and knew him, and yet knew him not, he seemed to be inspired of God, a divine hymnographer," as Dionysius says (On the Divine Names, 3:2).

Having lived in a manner pleasing to God and guiding his flock with zeal, he is said by some to have reposed in the Lord in deep old age, while others report he was martyred for the faith.

The skull of St. Hierotheos is located in the 11th century monastery dedicated to him (and also dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos Kyparissiotissis) in Megara of Attica founded by St. Meletios. Some say this church was where he lived his ascetical life and also where he was buried. Portions of his relics are located also at the Holy Monastery of Saint Paul on Mount Athos and the Chapel of Saint Andrew in Athens.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Since thou hadst been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and wast vigilant in all things, thou wast clothed with a good conscience as befitteth one holy. Thou didst draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries; and having kept the Faith, thou didst finish a like course, O Hieromartyr Hierotheos. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
As Athens' Hierarch, we acclaim thee, since through thee we have received instruction in things awesome and ineffable; for thou wast a God-inspired writer of divine hymns. O Hierotheos all-blessed, do thou pray to God, so that we may be redeemed from all calamities, that thus we may cry: Rejoice, O Father wise in things divine.

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Galileo's Trial: Not A Conflict Between Science and Religion

Sloppy Records Cast Galileo's Trial in New Light

Jeremy Hsu
September 30, 2010
LiveScience

When it comes to bad record-keepers, no one expects the Roman Inquisition — but that's exactly what one historian discovered while trying to resolve a centuries-old controversy over the trials of Galileo.

The Roman Catholic Church's second trial of the famed Italian astronomer has come to symbolize a pivotal culture clash between science and religion. But a broad examination of 50 years’ worth of records suggests the Roman Inquisition viewed the case more as an ordinary legal dispute than a world-changing philosophical conflict.

The study also showed that the Inquisition's records often carelessly left out crucial information.

That understanding helps reconcile an apparent contradiction in the records on Galileo's trial, said Thomas Mayer, a historian at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

"The notion that Galileo's trial was a conflict between science and religion should be dead," Mayer told LiveScience. "Anyone who works seriously on Galileo doesn't accept that interpretation anymore."

Galileo Galilei had argued in favor of the heliocentric model developed by Copernicus that shows the Earth going around the sun, rather than the geocentric view placing Earth at the center of everything. He ended up recanting the heliocentric view when summoned to Rome for the second trial in 1632-33.

Records riddled with holes

The Roman Inquisition began in 1542 — 22 years before Galileo's birth — as part of the Catholic Church's Counter-Reformation against the spread of Protestantism, but it represented a less harsh affair than the previously established Spanish Inquisition.

Galileo's first trial ended with the Inquisition issuing a formal order, called a precept, in 1616 demanding he stop teaching or defending the heliocentric model. His decision to ignore the precept ultimately led to the second trial 15 years later.

But some people have argued that Galileo never actually received the precept from the Inquisition. By their logic, the astronomer misunderstood the formal order as a mere rap on the knuckles.

A few scholars have even tried to suggest that the Inquisition forged the precept during the second trial of 1632 to better incriminate Galileo. They point to a record of an official Inquisition meeting on March 3, 1616, that merely mentions Galileo being warned rather than having received a precept.

Yet Galileo's dossier and other documents reveal that the Inquisition operated as a human organization prone to careless errors and bureaucratic sloppiness, rather than as a monolithic, omnipotent organization conspiring to bring down the astronomer. That provides perhaps the best evidence that conspiracy-seekers had it wrong, Mayer said. [Top 10 Conspiracy Theories]

Mayer found many Inquisition meeting records to be incredibly messy. Notes often ended up scribbled in the margins or crammed in at the end.

More than a warning

It is possible the notary recording the meeting did not bother to actually record the precept, describing it as a warning instead, Mayer said.

However, at least five other documents actually mention the precept. They include Pope Paul V's order concerning the precept; a dated record of the precept being issued; legal briefs and summaries from Galileo's 1632 trial; and the document that pronounces Galileo's sentence.

These documents again reflect careless note-taking, given that they can't even agree on the exact wording of the precept, Mayer pointed out. But he added that they all have historical consistency in mentioning the precept's existence.

Another old scholarly theory has suggested the precept given to Galileo was a unique and unlawful order that specifically targeted Galileo to muzzle him.

But Mayer cautions against that theory as well. He found examples of more than 200 precepts given out in Inquisition decrees from the late 1590s to 1640.

"The idea that this was unique is not true," Mayer told LiveScience. "They were a very familiar device – many of which are incompletely recorded in the registers."

Galileo's mistakes

When Galileo appeared before the Inquisition at his second trial in 1632, the inquisitors focused largely on his crime of ignoring the earlier precept. They did not harp on how the heliocentric model went against biblical teaching.

"Whoever [raised the issue of the earlier precept] was doing it in very narrow legal terms," Mayer said. "The reason is they were trying to give Galileo an out."

Galileo could have negotiated a settlement – a common occurrence in the Inquisition records, and one that would have been relatively easy for him considering the narrow terms of the charges, Mayer said.

Instead, Galileo "didn't know the rules and deliberately kept himself ignorant of them," according to Mayer.

The astronomer clumsily tried to claim he had merely received a warning, before contradicting himself by stating, "I do not claim not to have in any way violated that precept." He dug himself into an even deeper hole by then quoting the strong form of the precept during his arguments.

"When push came to shove in the second part of trial, he made every imaginable mistake," Mayer said. "A lawyer could have told him not to do that."

Only human

The study of the precept comes as part of a much larger project aimed at understanding the Roman Inquisition as "human beings as opposed to cardboard cutouts," according to Mayer.

He hopes that his recent study, detailed in the September issue of The British Journal for the History of Science, can help cool down unnecessary heat between modern science and religion.

"The problem is just misconceived," Mayer said. "What I'm trying to do is get at the legal dimension of what happened."

That may be an uphill battle. Galileo represents an incredibly powerful symbol today as one of history's most revered thinkers, and everyone wants a piece of him.

In the eyes of secular Europeans, he ranks as "a myth bigger than George Washington," alongside Charles the Great, Mayer noted. The Roman Catholic Church has also attempted to "rehabilitate" Galileo's image by reclaiming him as a man of faith.

Even creationists have hailed Galileo as an example of a man ahead of his time – implying that their views on the creation of life are in a similar position.

"Poor Galileo is in the crosshairs," Mayer concluded.

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Patriarch Kirill Consecrates First Russian Church For Marriages

October 4, 2010
Interfax

On Sunday, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia conducted a minor consecration of a church dedicated to the heavenly protectors of Orthodox marriage Sts Peter and Fevronia in Kaliningrad.

This festival event took place after the patriarchal liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior situated nearby.

Speaking to the believers, Patriarch Kirill noted that this church is built especially for marriages "so that here people will receive blessings for setting up strong families, birth giving, bringing up children in the Orthodox faith and love for the Motherland."

Deputy head of the patriarchal press service deacon Alexander Volkov told journalists that Sts Peter and Fevronia Church is the only church in Russia built especially for conducting marriages. The church has two connected cupolas that symbolize two crowns and two loving hearts.

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The Origins of the Illuminati Myth and the Protocols (3 of 5)

Continued from Part Two

PYOTR IVANOVICH RACHKOVSKY

In the late nineteenth century, Russia was a hotbed of anti-Semitism. Russia was the last true autocracy or absolute monarchy in Europe. It was also the country with the largest Jewish population in the world - some five million, or about a third of all Jews everywhere. They were confined by decree to the "Pale of Settlement" - a group of provinces extending from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south - an area which embraces much of what is today modern Poland and the Ukraine - all of which was then part of the Russian Empire. They were subjected to severe economic, residential, and educational restrictions. Throughout the nineteenth century, they were persecuted by the peasantry and were on the whole miserably poor.

The nineteenth century was also a time when the Russian Autocracy was beginning to encounter active political opposition, notably from clandestine terrorist groups which were then operating throughout Europe much in the same fashion that Middle East terrorist groups are doing today. The authorities were determined at all costs to mask the fact that the main opposition to the regime was Russian in origin and that there were actually real Russians - and educated ones at that - who so hated the Autocracy that they were prepared to assassinate its representatives. Slowly at first - and quite haphazardly - they accordingly began to pretend that all opposition to the regime, and particularly all terrorism, was the work of a "Jewish conspiracy." The appearance of Biarritz in St. Petersburg in 1872, in Moscow in 1876, and in Odessa in 1880 was connected to this pretense. Still, there existed as yet no overall theme to the tales which surfaced, and there appeared to be no coordinated effort behind it all.

After the shocking assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, the Okhrana (i.e., the secret police) was founded by imperial decree for the "protection of public security and order." Previously, the chief organ of the Secret Police had been the "Third Section" of the Imperial Chancellery, which was founded after the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. The Okhrana had branches in all the principal towns in Russia, as well as a foreign service centered in Paris. The foreign service of the Okhrana was headed up by Pyotr Ivanovich Rachkovsky. A Russian compatriot described him as "... slightly too ingratiating in his manners and his suave way of speaking ... which made one think of a great cat carefully concealing his claws."

As chief of the foreign branch of the Okhrana, Rachkovsky organized over a period of some nineteen years (1884-1903) a network of agencies in France, Switzerland, London, and Berlin. As a result, he was easily able to keep a close check on the activities of the various exiled Russian revolutionary and terrorist groups. During this entire period, Rachkovsky resided in Paris and made it his headquarters.

Rachkovsky was a born intriguer who delighted in forging documents. One of his favorite methods of sewing discord in the ranks of the opposition was to forge a letter or pamphlet in which a supposed revolutionary attacked the revolution. For example, in 1887 there appeared in the French press a letter by a certain "P. Ivanov" who claimed - quite falsely - that the majority of the terrorists were Jews. In 1890 there appeared another pamphlet accusing the revolutionaries who had taken refuge in London of being British spies. In 1892 a letter appeared over the famous name of Plekhanov, accusing the leadership of Narodnaya Volya of having published the "confessions" of Plekhanov. A few weeks later came another letter in which Plekhanov in turn was attacked by other supposed revolutionaries. In reality, all these documents were forged by one man - Rachkovsky! Rachkovsky’s life was filled with such intrigues.

SERGEY ALEXANDROVICH NILUS

In 1902, Rachkovsky became involved in a court intrigue in St. Petersburg which also involved the future editor of the Protocols - Sergey Alexandrovich Nilus. Nilus, a man wholly dedicated to Orthodoxy and the concept of a "Holy Russia," was the perfect picture of the classic Russian - a huge man with a long, flowing gray beard and deep blue eyes. He had a veiled and somewhat troubled look. He wore boots and a simple peasant’s shirt with a belt which had a prayer embroidered on it. In character he was capricious, unruly, and despotic. He fancied himself a mystic and a heaven sent defender of "Holy Russia." He repudiated modern civilization and saw it as a conspiracy of the powers of darkness. He had become a systematic "anti-rationalist."

The intrigue was directed against a Frenchman named Phillippi who, like Rasputin after him, had established himself at the Russian Imperial Court as a "faith-healer;" he had become the idol and spiritual guide for the Czar and Czarina. Rachkovsky and Nilus both took part in the intrigue against Phillippi, and on the same side. Phillippi was cherished, flattered, and almost worshipped by the Imperial family, but he also had powerful enemies - the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. To break Phillippi, they had turned to Rachkovsky. Thanks to the relations which he had so carefully cultivated with the French police, Rachkovsky was able to develop an incriminating file on Phillippi.

The intrigue against Phillippi involved Nilus as the central player. Nilus, who had lost his entire fortune in riotous living while living in France as a young man, had returned to Russia and had adopted the life of a perpetual pilgrim, wandering from monastery to monastery. Around 1900 he wrote a book which described how he had been converted from atheistic intellectualism to a fervent believer in Orthodoxy. The book came to the attention of the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. Nilus was accordingly summoned to St. Petersburg at the end of 1901 and the court clique surrounding Rachkovsky and Feodorovna hit upon the following plan: Nilus was to be formally ordained as an Orthodox priest and married to one of the Czarina’s ladies-in-waiting, Yelena Alexandrovna Ozerova. A concerted effort was then to be made to impose Nilus on the Czar and Czarina as their confessor; if it had succeeded, Phillippi would have been removed.

It was an ingenious plan, but Phillippi’s supporters were able to counter it. They drew attention to Nilus’s immoral past - Nilus had been (and still was) a notorious womanizer; as a result, Nilus fell into disgrace and was forced to leave the court. Nilus, who was then aged forty-seven, made his way to the great Monastery of Optina Pustyn. There he and his dependents - which included his usual retinue of women (of which his new bride was now a part) - found permanent lodging in four rooms of a large villa located on the grounds of the famous monastery. The rest of the villa was employed as a home for cripples and the mentally ill who lived there in the hope of a miraculous cure.

If the intrigue had failed in its original intent, it did accomplish one thing: it had brought together Rachkovsky and Nilus and established a relationship between the two which was to have a profound effect on the future course of the world.

THE GENESIS OF THE PROTOCOLS

Between 1894 and 1899, France was rocked by the arrest and imprisonment of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew who had been falsely accused of selling French military secrets to the Germans. During this same period, Russia was moving inexorably in the direction of revolution. It was during this period that Rachkovsky hit upon a plan to take des Mousseaux’s anti-Semitic material, weave it into an obscure play entitled Dialogue by Maurice Joly, and create thereby the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion - and by doing so to lay the blame for all the unrest in Russia on the Jews. The French military authorities had been doing just that insofar as the Dreyfus affair was concerned, and by 1895 it looked as if they had been successful in transferring the blame for France’s sorrowful military condition from themselves to Dreyfus and the Jews. Rachkovsky reasoned that if it had worked so well for the French, why then not for the Russians? And this is precisely what Rachkovsky was attempting to do in forging the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

Continued...Part Four

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Unsolved Mysteries (That Are Actually Solved)

People never seem to be able to accept the truth for what it is. So what do we do? Come up with crazy explanations of what really happened.

#1. Amelia Earhart's 'Disappearance'

In case you don't know who Amelia Earhart is, she was a famous airplane pilot who decided to put herself in the record books by flying around the world, which would be a 29,000-mile journey. During her second attempt in 1937, she disappeared after giving her last radio transmission. She was on the last 7,000-mile leg of her journey.

More has been speculated about her disappearance than has probably been written about her life. Some say that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, went down over part of the Japanese Empire, got captured and then executed. Some say she was a spy for President Roosevelt and secretly lived the end of her days in New Jersey. Then there are the people who say she flew her plane into the Pacific Ocean for no reason.

Well, did you know in 1940, 70 years ago and only four years after she vanished, they found a partial skeleton of a white woman with Earhart's measurements, alongside a pocket knife, broken cosmetics jar, a piece of glass from an airplane windshield and the same exact type of navigational system Earhart was using in her plane on an island. Did I mention this island is just southeast of where she was going?

#2. The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste

In 1872, a ship was spotted off the Azres in the Atlantic. It was completely intact and undisturbed, aside from the missing crew. No one was aboard, yet everyone's personal belongings were still sitting undisturbed where they had been left. Little valuables, piano music—everything right where it should be. All of the ship’s papers were missing, but the logbook was safe and sound. There was no sign of struggle, and the main hatch was sealed.

If you watch the History Channel, it was ghosts, aliens, sea monsters, or a dimensional vortex. If you either don't watch the History Channel (or you just don't believe in the other wonderful options), here's something else. 1,701 barrels of alcohol were on board and nine were empty. Easy, right? Everyone got drunk, took the lifeboat for a joyride, crashed into a whale and mystery solved. WRONG. The truth is actually more awesome.

It turns out Dr. Andrea Sella, a professor of chemistry at University College London, cracked this case back in 2006. He simulated a leak of the ship’s nine barrels of alcohol and found that once the vapor was ignited, by a pipe or spark, it created a type of explosion that created a spectacular wave of flame with cool air behind it. No soot is left behind and there would be no burning or scorching. So everyone was actually okay ( just freaked out); they all piled into the ship's lifeboats without useful things like food or water, eventually sinking or dying of thirst and exposure all because they were too terrified to go back on the boat.

#3. The Fate of Atlantis

Many people know of this city from the Disney classic The Little Mermaid. Of course, they only got the idea from Greek philosophers. Atlantis was supposed to be the most advanced civilization on Earth, but they couldn't stop some big catastrophe from sinking their island into the Atlantic. People have spent centuries trying to find this lost city hoping that it will be filled with mermaids. Unfortunately no one has ever found any clues to the existence of Atlantis or where it might be (the same goes for proof of mermaids’ existence). Plato, the Greek philosopher who wrote about Atlantis, is dead and we can't really ask him what happened. So where is Atlantis?

It doesn't exist. Our knowledge of plate tectonics tells us that the possibility of sunken mystery continents wouldn't work. Also, Plato just so happened to mention in his writing that Atlantis is a completely hypothetical city. This is probably why it wasn't taken seriously until modern times. Most people actually took Plato's dialogues as the experiments that they actually were. If people had actually read the Timeaus, the book that mentions Atlantis, they would've figured this out a lot sooner. Of course, it doesn't help that the History Channel loves exploiting things like this to get people to watch.

#4. The Tunguska Explosion

Many people have seen the pictures of over 80 million trees in an area almost the size of Rhode Island completely flattened. This idea has also been used in many apocalyptic scenes where trees are all flattened, or seen when crazy powers are released destroying everything in a large area. It just so happens that on June 30, 1908, this actually happened, and that picture I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph just so happens to be real.

So, did anyone get hurt? Nope. It happened out in the middle of nowhere in Siberia. But people as far off as Great Britain have reported that the skies lit up like the Fourth of July right over the area where those 80 million trees got brutally murdered. Theories range from meteorites, natural gas, natural H-bomb explosions, antimatter, black holes, aliens, and Nikola Tesla.

Well, it took over 100 years, but in 2009 some researchers at Cornell University discovered the bright skies over Britain were just noctilucent clouds—clouds only produced by comets and spaceships. In fact they realized this completely by accident after watching a space shuttle launch to create the same effect. So, as much as Hollywood would like it to be an honest-to-goodness comet collision, the truth is always more mundane.

#5. Stonehenge, The Pyramids, and Ancient People Moving Huge Stones

All right, how do primitive people with not so much as a single bulldozer or any fancy-schmancy machinery move stones that weigh tons each? It's impossible, right? Unless aliens helped them. One theory for the pyramids is that a massive slave was forced to painstakingly throw one block at a time. Except that would have taken forever and the project would probably still be ongoing today. This is all of course based on the idea that people were unable to move stones in the Stone Age.

Not too long ago a guy decided to build his own Stonehenge just for the heck of it. His name is Wally Wallington and he did it all by himself using observational physics, wood, stones, and his own strength. What does this mean? Obviously moving stones isn't as hard as people make it out to be. Also, there were some pretty good techniques for moving enormous objects from one place to another back in the day.

It just so turns out that the Egyptians used contractors to build their pyramids, and guess what else? Pyramids, believe it or not, are pyramid shaped. Meaning they're ideal for having ramps put up the side which just so happens to make for the easiest possible way to move stones up a building.

Now about Stonehenge, built out in the middle of nowhere? Aliens did that one, right? No. Actually a long time ago, it was a short distance outside the largest Stone Age settlement in Britain. Also, as Wally Wallington proved, it might've just been one incredibly bored person building it.

#6. Anastasia

Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of all time is Anastasia, especially because so many little girls have seen the cartoon adaptation. So, did Anastasia—the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II and heir to the Russian monarchy—survive the brutal massacre of the Romanov family during the Russian Revolution?

Many people, especially women, have claimed that yes, indeed she did, and they are her! This really started in the early 1920’s, when a woman named Anna Anderson claimed just that and stuck by it until her death in 1984. Eventually it was determined she wasn't even Russian. Other than her, at least ten other women and a few men have come forward trying to be the real Romanov princess. Unfortunately, no one ever thought it was strange that most of these people were suffering from mental illnesses.

Well there happened to be the "Cold War," and this stopped people from getting access to the Romanov gravesite, but in 1991, when they finally got to dig up the bodies, there still were a few missing bodies, including that of the princess…until about two decades later, when they found the rest 200-feet away. In 2008, our DNA technology confirmed that these were, once and for all the remains of Anastasia, and unsurprisingly, she's dead.

In conclusion, the next time you have an unsolved mystery that was probably caused by aliens, and the History Channel backs you up, wait a few years and with our technology the real answer should show up. Or you know, stop thinking up crazy ideas and go for something much more bland and obvious and it'll probably be the truth.

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"Be Angry and Sin Not"

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Be angry and sin not" (Psalm 4:4).

Be angry with yourself, brethren, and sin no more.

Be angry at your sins of thought and deed, and sin no more.

Be angry with Satan the father of lies (John 8:44), and no longer do his will.

Be angry at sin in the world and the trampling of God's holy Church by godless men, but beware that you do not cure sin by sin.

Be angry with your friends when they sin; but be angry with the intention to correct them, and not to embitter them even more. The anger of a friend toward a friend, and the anger of parents toward their children - and of God toward men - is not a storm that uproots the tree but a wind that strengthens the tree, and rids it of rotten fruit so that the healthy fruit will increase in number and beauty.

But let your anger have measure, so that it may be healing and not poisonous. In order to have this kind of control, keep God before you in your anger. There is no stronger containment for anger than God. All anger that is not in the name of God and God's righteousness is a sin.

Do not become angry for the sake of idleness, but become angry for that at which God is angered. If your will is firmly set in God's law, you will always know when it is necessary to be angry, and how much is needed. This cannot be expressed entirely in words, nor can it even be explained to the uneducated. Anger, in its place, acts as mercy does in its place.

O my brethren, do you see how various powers are placed in our souls, and man, by his free will, can utilize them for life or death?

Anger toward oneself can never be recommended enough. Here is a wonderful example: the more a man learns to be angry with himself, the less he is angry with others. Carried away with anger at his own weaknesses, he either does not see the weaknesses of others, or when he does see them, he judges them kindly.

O Lord God, Thou only righteous One, implant in us the remembrance of the Day of Thy righteous anger, so that we may protect ourselves from spiritual sin. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.

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The Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite, Bishop of Athens

St. Dionyios the Areopagite (Feast Day - October 3)

St Dionysius lived originally in the city of Athens. He was raised there and received a classical Greek education. He then went to Egypt, where he studied astronomy at the city of Heliopolis. It was in Heliopolis, along with his friend Apollophonos where he witnessed the solar eclipse that occurred at the moment of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ by Crucifixion. "Either the Creator of all the world now suffers, or this visible world is coming to an end," Dionysius said. Upon his return to Athens from Egypt, he was chosen to be a member of the Areopagus Council (Athenian high court).

When the holy Apostle Paul preached at the place on the Hill of Ares (Acts 17:16-34), Dionysius accepted his salvific proclamation and became a Christian. For three years St Dionysius remained a companion of the holy Apostle Paul in preaching the word of God. Later on, the Apostle Paul selected him as bishop of the city of Athens. And in the year 57 St Dionysius was present at the repose of the Most Holy Theotokos.

During the lifetime of the Mother of God, St Dionysius had journeyed from Athens to Jerusalem to meet Her. He wrote to his teacher the Apostle Paul: "I witness by God, that besides the very God Himself, there is nothing else filled with such divine power and grace. No one can fully comprehend what I saw. I confess before God: when I was with John, who shone among the Apostles like the sun in the sky, when I was brought before the countenance of the Most Holy Virgin, I experienced an inexpressible sensation. Before me gleamed a sort of divine radiance which transfixed my spirit. I perceived the fragrance of indescribable aromas and was filled with such delight that my very body became faint, and my spirit could hardly endure these signs and marks of eternal majesty and heavenly power. The grace from her overwhelmed my heart and shook my very spirit. If I did not have in mind your instruction, I should have mistaken Her for the very God. It is impossible to stand before greater blessedness than this which I beheld."

After the death of the Apostle Paul, St Dionysius wanted to continue with his work, and therefore went off preaching in the West, accompanied by the Presbyter Rusticus and Deacon Eleutherius. They converted many to Christ at Rome, and then in Germany, and then in Spain. In Gaul, during a persecution against Christians by the pagan authorities, all three confessors were arrested and thrown into prison. By night St Dionysius celebrated the Divine Liturgy with angels of the Lord. In the morning the martyrs were beheaded. According to an old tradition, St Dionysius took up his head, proceeded with it to the church and fell down dead there. A pious woman named Catulla buried the relics of the saint.

The writings of St Dionysius the Areopagite hold great significance for the Orthodox Church. Four books of his have survived to the present day:

- On the Celestial Hierarchy
- On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
- On the Names of God
- On Mystical Theology
- In additional, there are ten letters to various people.

The book On the Celestial Hierarchies was written actually in one of the countries of Western Europe, where St Dionysius was preaching. In it he speaks of the Christian teaching about the angelic world. The angelic (or Celestial-Heavenly) hierarchy comprises the nine angelic Ranks:

Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones
Dominions
Powers
Authorities
Principalities
Archangels
Angels

The purpose of the divinely-established Angelic Hierarchy is the ascent towards godliness through purification, enlightenment and perfection. The highest ranks are bearers of divine light and divine life for the lower ranks. And not only are the sentient, bodiless angelic hosts included in the spiritual light-bearing hierarchy, but also the human race, created anew and sanctified in the Church of Christ.

The book of St Dionysius On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchies is a continuation of his book On the Celestial Hierarchies. The Church of Christ, like the Angelic ranks, in its universal service is set upon the foundation of priestly principles established by God.

In the earthly world, for the children of the Church, divine grace comes down indescribably in the holy Mysteries of the Church, which are spiritual in nature, though perceptible to the senses in form. Few, even among the holy ascetics, were able to behold with their earthly eyes the fiery vision of the Holy Mysteries of God. But outside of the Church's sacraments, outside of Baptism and the Eucharist, the light-bearing saving grace of God is not found, neither is divine knowledge nor theosis (deification).

The book On the Names of God expounds upon the way of divine knowledge through a progression of the Divine Names.

St Dionysius' book On Mystical Theology also sets forth the teaching about divine knowledge. The theology of the Orthodox Church is totally based upon experience of divine knowledge. In order to know God it is necessary to be in proximity to Him, to have come near to Him in some measure, so as to attain dommunion with God and deification (theosis). This condition is accomplished through prayer. This is not because prayer in itself brings us close to the incomprehensible God, but rather that the purity of heart in true prayer brings us closer to God.

The written works of St Dionysius the Areopagite are of extraordinary significance in the theology of the Orthodox Church, and also for late Medieval Western theology. For almost four centuries, until the beginning of the sixth century, the works of this holy Father of the Church were preserved in an obscure manuscript tradition, primarily by theologians of the Alexandrian Church. The concepts in these works were known and utilized by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Dionysius the Great, pre-eminent figures of the catechetical school in Alexandria, and also by St Gregory the Theologian. St Dionysius of Alexandria wrote to St Gregory the Theologian a Commentary on the "Areopagitum". The works of St Dionysius the Areopagite received general Church recognition during the sixth-seventh centuries.

Particularly relevant are the Commentaries written by St Maximus the Confessor (January 21).

In the Russian Orthodox Church the teachings of St Dionysius the Areopagite about the spiritual principles and deification were at first known through the writings of St John of Damascus (December 4). The first Slavonic translation of the "Areopagitum" was done on Mt. Athos in about the year 1371 by a monk named Isaiah. Copies of it were widely distributed in Russia. Many of them have been preserved to the present day in historic manuscript collections, among which is a parchment manuscript "Works of St Dionysius the Areopagite" belonging to St Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus (September 16) in his own handwriting.

According to one tradition, he was killed at Lutetia (ancient name of Paris, France) in the year 96 during the persecution under the Roman emperor Dometian (81-96). Today most scholars and theologians believe that St Dionysius the Areopagite did not die in Gaul, and that St Dionysius (or Denys) of Paris is a different saint with the same name.

St Demetrius of Rostov says that the Hieromartyr Dionysius was beheaded in Athens, and that many miracles were worked at his grave.

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Read also:

The Authenticity of Dionysius the Areopagite's Writings

The Dionysian Authorship of the "Corpus Areopagiticum" According to Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae

HYMN OF PRAISE: The Holy Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Glorious Saint Dionysius,
Wondrous theologian and lucid scribe!
His mind, gathered in his heart, he directed to God;
He witnessed heavenly mysteries and revealed them to us.
He perceived the glory of the heavenly orders
And described the hierarchy of heaven:
Principalities, Dominions, Virtues, Powers,
Wondrous Thrones, Seraphim,
Cherubim and Archangels,
Golden-winged Angels of God,
And the Mother of God.
He beheld all with fear,
And also that which shines above the dust of the earth:
Heavenly powers of infinite strength,
Immortal suns and stars most brilliant!
All that he witnessed, Dionysius made clear
And told to the Church.
Thus he adorned and enriched the Church,
And his accomplishments were made golden
By his bloody death for his Christ.
Now he shines in heaven;
And the angelic hosts, blazing with the glory of God,
Call Dionysius "Brother".

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Since thou hadst been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and wast vigilant in all things, thou wast clothed with a good conscience as befitteth one holy. Thou didst draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries; and having kept the Faith, thou didst finish a like course, O Hieromartyr Dionysios. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
In spirit, thou dist pass through Heaven's gates, instructed by the great Apostle who attained to the third Heaven's heights, and wast made rich in all knowledge of things beyond speech; and then thou, O Dionysius, didst illuminate them that slumbered in the darkness of their ignorance. Hence we all cry out: Rejoice, O universal Father.

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On Putting Off Our Repentance For Another Day

The evil spirits are always wanting to interfere with whatever we are doing for our salvation. Alas, we - who are lukewarm - usually say to ourselves, 'Wait, I have not yet done this, I have not yet tried that ... I will repent later. After I have done all these things, I will repent, God; and I will walk the straight path --- wandering neither to the right nor to the left.' This is exactly what the spirits of evil want us to do. They want us to put off our salvation until tomorrow, or the day after, and so on and so forth, until the end of our life. But the Holy Fathers say, 'Go with the Lord, go today, follow Him!'

- Elder Thaddeus of Serbia (+2002)

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New Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej Enthroned

October 03, 2010
RFERL

Thousands of faithful Serbs gathered in the Kosovo town of Pec to attend the enthroning ceremony of the head of Serbia's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej.

The 80-year-old Patriarch Irinej succeeded Pavle after his death in November 2009. The first part of the two-stage enthronement ceremony took place in Belgrade in January.

The ceremony, attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic and other high-ranking officials, is the first of its kind in the ethnic-Albanian-dominated town of Pec since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.

Security was tight as around 900 Kosovo police were deployed around the church's picturesque mountain location, said Amra Zejneli, an RFE/RL correspondent in Kosovo.

NATO-led peacekeepers and the European Union's police mission were alongside local police forces to ensure security.

"According to the police, around 2,500 pilgrims came from Serbia to witness the ceremony," Zejneli said. "Also, Serbians from central Kosovo arrived in several buses. Some people also came from Montenegro."

"Outside the church, there is a big plasma screen, where people can see what's going on inside the church. You can see various people here, some very very old, some middle-aged, and some very young," Zejneli said.

Increased Tensions

Irinej arrived in Pec on October 2. He urged both ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians to find a solution to Kosovo's contested status.

These are "very, very difficult times" for Serbia, the patriarch said.

The two sides are expected to start an EU-sponsored dialogue, but the exact date for the talks has not yet been set.

Tensions between Pristina and Belgrade were increased recently, after Kosovo cut off Serbian mobile phone services in its territory.

Serbia rejects Kosovo's declaration of independence, and Serbia's Orthodox Church backs Belgrade's official position on Kosovo.

Kosovo has been recognized by 70 countries, including the United States and most EU nations.

The majority of Serbia's population of 7.5 million people identify themselves as Christian Orthodox. There are some 100,000 Orthodox Serbs living in Kosovo, where the predominant religion is Islam.

See more photos here.

Read also: Enthronement Homily of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch, Kyr Irinej - The Patriarchate of Pech, 3 October 2010

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New Martyr Monk-Soldier Roman (1971-1994)

At the age of seventeen Father Roman left the world and joined the first mission to reopen Valaam Russian Orthodox Monastery, located in Valaam, Russia, after it had been desecrated and secularized for fifty years. In his youthful zeal he heeded the call to martyrdom four years later. He was an idealist and a romantic poet, known for his frequent departure from this world into prayer, even to the sometimes humorous obliviousness of his monastic obediences. He was zealous in his labor for God and his salvation, striving to help his superiors as much as he could. His spirit was joyful and light, but his deep and sober soul heard a call when the Bosnian Muslims and the Catholic Croatians were cruelly and lawlessly killing the Orthodox Serbians. He entered the front lines in Bosnia and was martyred in 1994, on October 2nd, thereby joining the saints of Valaam in heaven. There were quite of few monk saints who, when need arose, would exchange their monastic garb for that of a warrior to save Holy Russia from the onslaught of apostates or pagans. These Christ-loving warriors considered it their duty to follow in the steps of the disciples of St. Sergius of Radonezh, who went to the Kulikovo battlefield and saved Russia.

Source: Excerpts from Valaam Patericon -Book of Days- Valaam Society of America, New Valaam Monastery, Alaska 1999. p. 103.

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Documentary: The Secrets of Scientology

This is a very disturbing video documentary for the BBC programme Panorama, by reporter John Sweeney, that was broadcast on 28 September 2010.

BBC reporter John Sweeney's last investigation into the Church of Scientology resulted in an explosive confrontation with church officials. This time, in a Panorama Special, one of those officials has turned whistleblower to help him reveal the dark secrets of the church, which boasts Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its devotees.












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Litany In Patras With the Skull of the Apostle Andrew (Video)

September 26, 2010 Litany in honor of the Translation of the Precious Skull of the First-Called Apostle Andrew. This took place in Patras, Greece at the Church of Saint Andrew.

For the history of this relic, read here.

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A Miraculous Confirmation of the Lives of Sts. Cyprian and Justina

It was summer, July of 1995, and I was in Athens. I went to the Holy Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina, in Fili of Attika. I received various blessings from the Monastery as well as a booklet issued by Metropolitan Cyprian with the life, martyrdom, prayers against magic and Supplication Service of their Holy Protectors, whose holy icon of the Saints is on the cover.

When I went to our home, I left behind all of these blessings and departed for other shrines in Evrytania and Mount Athos.

My wife, who was left behind at the house, took the booklet at night of Saint Cyprian and Justina and began to read it. Yet she had a terrible struggle in her thoughts, though she continued to read it until she completed the whole thing.

The thoughts which came to her were that the things written in the book, with all the details from the 3rd and 4th century, are not possible to be accurate and true. Who was around at that time? How did they know all these things and handed them down exactly with what we read today?

These thoughts were continuous, allowing her to doubt the truthfulness of the lives of Saints Cyprian and Justina and all the contents of this book.

Despite all the thoughts of doubt as to the validity of the lives of the Saints, she completed it and placed it next to her on the bedside table as she lay down to sleep.

She does not remember how much time elapsed or whether she was awake or sleeping when she saw in front of her, at the edge of her bed, the divinely eloquent Saint Cyprian and the good martyr of the Lord Justina, who was at the right of the Saint and a little behind, appearing as they do exactly in their holy icon. With the vestments of a bishop was Saint Cyprian, and Saint Justina was in white garments, bright, golden and wondrous, and they were both giving off light.

Saint Cyprian looked at her without speaking, he nodded his holy head downwards, and my wife then says that he immediately asked why she was having such thoughts.

He then said to her:

"This is how it was, exactly as you read it."

And immediately the Saints vanished, as if they headed for the door in the kitchen. Saint Justina did not say anything.

Immediately my wife Katherine got up (she was probably not sleeping) and as she turned, towards her right, where her icon-corner was, she did her cross and prayed.

Feeling in awe she then had an unprecedented feeling; a wind filled the entire room. In the beginning she was afraid, but then she felt a great peace.

When she thinks of this vision today she feels awed and does not believe she was sleeping, but that she saw them with her eyes, and that the Saints confirmed the truths contained within their lives and all else that is written therein.

Every time she refers to this miraculous vision she feels the same awe as she did then, through the Saints.

The next day following the appearance of the Saints, she told those who were close to her, and also to me when I returned from the shrines I was visiting.

From that time she tells everyone who she knows and always feels our Saints Cyprian and Justina near as if alive and the memory of the vision very close.

Saints Cyprian and Justina, intercede on our behalf!

* This was written by John (Ioannis) N. Kallianiotis, Associate Professor of Finance in the School of Management at the University of Scranton, with the permission of his wife Katherine, on 28 December 1996, in Scranton of Pennsylvania.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Read also: The Lives of Saints Cyprian and Justina

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