Saint Demetrios and Elder Philotheos Zervakos

As a young man, Fr. Philotheos Zervakos (+1980), the well-known abbot of Paros and spiritual son of St. Nektarios of Aegina, was imprisoned twice by the Turks during the final years of the Ottoman occupation of Thessaloniki. In his time of trial St. Demetrios, his patron, was a ready helper, as we read below in his own words:


St. Demetrios Protects Elder Philotheos From Harm The First Time

When I fulfilled my military service and was released, I decided to become a soldier for our Heavenly King in accordance with the counsel that Father Eusebios had given me. I disclosed all my intentions to the holy Nektarios, the Bishop of Pentapolis, who then was also the director of the Rizareion Seminary in Athens (now in blessed repose), and he told me, "Your goal is good, but I advise you to go to no other monastery than the one at Paros (Lagouvardos), where the brethren are virtuous and plentiful." However, I insisted, telling him that my desire was to go to the Holy Mountain. He then said, "If you stay in Greece, go to the Lagouvardos Monastery, but if you insist on going to the Holy Mountain, then go with my blessing...."

After attending a vigil on May 8, 1907...my friend Nickolas Mitropoulos and I boarded the steamship "Pinios", and we departed for the Holy Mountain from Piraeus....

Two days later, we arrived in Thessaloniki, which was then occupied by the Turks (I had great reverence for St. Demetrios, the patron saint of Thessaloniki since I was a child). I invited my friend Nickolas to join me to go venerate the tomb of the Great Martyr, St. Demetrios the Myrrh-gusher. We then got off the ship and went to venerate his tomb with compunction. On our way back to the ship, we checked in at the Greek hotel and rested all day and night. The next day, we prepared to depart for the Holy Mountain and went to the Customs Office; however, they did not permit us to depart: "You will not leave", they told us, "because you are spies!" We, of course, denied this and pointed out that since our passports had been cleared by the Turkish Consulate and the Embassy, they should allow us to leave. However, they would not pay any attention to our words.

They did not put us in jail but under close surveillance and soldiers stood guard outside our hotel, and they followed us whenever we went out. This went on for quite a few days and we began to worry because our money was running low. One day, I told Nickolas, "I am going to the 'konaki' (governor's house), to appear before the 'pasha' (governor): he will probably allow us to leave." I arose very early the next morning and went to venerate the tomb of St. Demetrios again before going to the konaki. With tears and compunction, I asked the Saint to intercede to the Lord that we be permitted to freely go to the Holy Mountain. After praying for quite a while and sitting down to rest, the martyrdom of St. Demetrios came to my mind: I thought about how he was pierced with a lance and died for the love of Christ and for our holy faith, and how he was glorified by God both on earth and in heaven, and will be glorified unto all ages.

As I considered all this, a longing came to me to give my life for the love of Christ and the Orthodox faith too, supposing there was a way. I then asked St. Demetrios to intercede to the Lord again, however, not for my freedom, but that I be rendered worthy to die a martyr's death. I then thought of a way to accomplish this goal. I told myself, "I will go to the konaki and courageously appear before the Turks. I will give them a reason to question me about my faith and then I will bear witness to their heresy. They will probably tell me to deny my faith, but I will stand firm and prefer death. Thus I will have a Martyr's end."

I went to the konaki immediately and entered inside. While I was going up a hallway, a Turkish officer noticed me and asked me what I wanted:

"I want to see the pasha."

"And why do you want to see him?"

"I have something to tell him."

"I am the pasha's representative. Tell me what you want openly."

"Since you are the pasha's representative, then tell me, why will you not allow us to go to the Holy Mountain?"

"I will not give you a reason."

"You are not good people", I told him courageously, "you are unjust. Why are you detaining and distressing us like this? We are not at fault, we are not bad people and our papers are in order. I do not understand. Now we have run out money. How shall we live in this foreign and unknown place? How would you like it if you went to Greece and we did to you what you are doing to us?"

These words irritated him and moved him to anger. He began ringing a bell loudly and 30-35 soldiers and officers gathered around us immediately. They grabbed me and dragged me off to the White Tower, for what purpose I did not know; I thought perhaps to imprison me ... As we walked to the White Tower, I asked St. Demetrios to intercede to the Lord to grant me a martyr's death, provided it is His will; and if it was not, to be delivered from the hands of these atheistic, bloodthirsty, wild and barbaric Saracens.

After we had gone a little ways, their superior appeared and spoke to them in Turkish. I did not understand what he had told them but I did perceive that he was angry. He then lifted up his rod and struck the officer responsible for my arrest on the shoulder and sent them all away. When they left, he approached me with a cheerful grin on his face, and kindly patted me on the shoulder. He then handed me over to the prudent soldier from Ioannina and ordered him to take me to the Greek steamship "Mikali", which was in the port of Thessaloniki, so that I could return to Greece.

I asked the soldier who the man was that had given the orders, not having the faintest idea. He told me that he was the pasha. I then asked him why the pasha had struck his own personal secretary, and what he had said to him. The soldier explained, "The pasha scolded his secretary because he had condemned you to death without asking permission." I then asked him where they had been taking me. "They were taking you to the White Tower to execute you there", he said, "all those who are condemned to death are taken there - as for the others, they put them in chains and abandon them to die from hunger, from thirst and from the stench." I then rejoiced that I had been delivered from the hands of those wild Saracens - for I was not sure whether it would have been for the question of my faith that they had killed me. However, I was sad because I missed the opportunity to give my life for the faith. Martyrdom, however, must take place according to the rules as the divine preacher, the Apostle Paul, tells us, "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules" (2 Tim. 2:5)....

The soldier and I then stopped by the hotel, where I bid my beloved friend Nickolas farewell....

Apparently, it was not the will of God for me to go to the Holy Mountain, and this is the reason I encountered all these obstacles. I feel a great debt of gratitude to my protector, the Great Martyr, St. Demetrios, through whose intercessions and prayers, I was delivered from death.

I had no idea why the pasha had shown so much interest in me, so I sought to find out. It was not until about two years later, when I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain, that I finally learned why from my friend Nickolas, who had gone and had remained on the Holy Mountain. He told me why the pasha had set me free and sent me back to Greece:

"Two or three days after you departed Thessalonika for Greece, the adjutant officer of the pasha came up and greeted me...He was an acquaintance of mine...He took me to his home where he offered me hospitality, and the following day we went to go see the pasha together...The Pasha said to him:

'Your friend there, he was accompanied by another young man. One morning, as I was sleeping peacefully, St. Demetrios entered my room wearing a generals uniform and bearing weapons. With an austere look he commanded me: "Immediately, stand up, get dressed, put your shoes on, and go to such and such a road in the city to free a young man who has been unjustly condemned to death by your own private secretary. After freeing him, send him to the steamship 'Mikali', which is in the port of Thessaloniki and preparing to sail off for Greece."

I hastened at once to save the young man from danger, and sent him off to Greece.'"

It was then that I realized that my helper and my deliverer from death had been the Great Martyr, St. Demetrios the Myrrh-gusher.

The prophecy of St. Nektarios had been fulfilled; no matter where I would go, I would end up at Logouvardos. I had learned a valuable lesson from this: I ought to always be completely obedient to my spiritual father, without being defiant, and I ought to not seek my will, but the will of my spiritual father - in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ, "Who came into the world not to do His own will but the will of His Father, Who sent Him."


St. Demetrios Protects Elder Philotheos From Harm The Second Time

Two years later, the Balkan war took place and on the Feast of St. Demetrios (October 26, 1912), Thessaloniki was liberated through the mediation and aid of her Patron Saint.

When we sailed into the port of Thessaloniki, I decided that it would be a good idea to disembark and go venerate the tomb of St. Demetrios, my guardian, and my protector and savior after God. I do not know why, but when I disembarked, the Turks once again took me to be a spy, and put me under surveillance for quite a few days. When I decided to leave Thessaloniki, and began passing through customs, they arrested me, and took me through three rows of barbed wire and locked me in. I found a youth locked in there also, and asked him why they had locked us up. He answered, "In order to murder us." "But what evil have we done?" I asked. "Forget it," he answered "do not bother to ask why."

A moment later, a steamship from Romania sailed into the port of Thessaloniki carrying many passengers and a cargo of fuel oil. For some unknown reason, an oil container caught fire as the ship pulled in, and the flames spread rapidly through the entire ship. Loud blasts were heard a few minutes later, and flames were thrown sky high. Thessaloniki was all astir. Thousands of people came down to the shoreline - some to watch and others to rescue the endangered passengers with their boats. All the guards then left their posts to go see all the commotion. Seizing the opportunity, the young man pulled a small pair of clips from his pocket and cut through the barbed wire. Then he took me by the hand and lead me out. And paying a boatman, he told him to take us out to a Greek steamship which was anchored just outside the port. As we were climbing in the boat, the soldier who arrested me and locked me up came running over to seize me. However, the young man slapped him right across the face when he got to us, and he pulled back and walked away!

The boatman took us out to the Greek ship and we went aboard. I then went to put my things in order, and once I organized them, I went back to find the youth, my rescuer, to thank him and ask who he was and where he was from. However, I could not find him anywhere. I asked almost all the ship's passengers and crew but soon realized that nobody had seen him either boarding or disembarking the ship. Who was he and what happened to him God only knows. (The only thing that I know is that many years later - after Thessaloniki had been liberated - I was celebrating the Divine Liturgy and preaching the word of God at the Church of St. Demetrios when I saw the icon of the Saint. I noticed that the young man who had freed me and lead me to the steamship bore a striking resemblance to St. Demetrios.)

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Saint Demetrios and the Earthquake of 1978

Saint Demetrios has proven himself to be a protector of the city of Thessaloniki, working countless miracles and appearing to many people who were in need of his aid.

For example, in 1912, when Thessaloniki was liberated from the Turks, many people claimed to have seen St. Demetrios.

As recently as 1978, during the earthquake that caused considerable destruction, many Thessalonians reported seeing St. Demetrios in the sky on a red horse. As the earthquake subsided, a group of bystanders saw a young man in a long white robe standing atop St. Demetrios' Church. Thinking it was one of the priests or an acolyte and fearful that the roof would collapse, they called to him to come down, but he disappeared from their sight. They ran inside the church and up to the roof to investigate, but none of the clergy or church workers had been up there. A general belief spread throughout the city that it had been the Saint.

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The Miracle of Saint Demetrios Loumpardiaris

One of the many miracles of Saint Demetrios is the following. In 1823 AD Turks were stationed at the Acropolis of Athens preparing the ammunition to hit the Greeks with cannons who were in the 16th century Church of Saint Demetrios. The cannons were in the Propylaea of the Acropolis. Saint Demetrios saved the Christians however when the gunpowder exploded in the Turks' hands and destroyed part of the Parthenon. To remember this miracle, the church was called Saint Demetrios Loumpardiaris, from loumparda, which is the large cannon of the Turks that was destroyed.

This church is located off Saint Dionysios the Areopagite and Saint Paul Road. Many baptisms and weddings take place here.

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The Holy Great Martyr Demetrios of Thessaloniki

St. Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher (Feast Day - October 26)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

This glorious and wonderworking saint was born in Thessalonica of noble and devout parents. Implored of God by childless parents, Demetrius was their only son, and so was raised and educated with great care. Demetrius's father was a commander in Thessalonica.

When his father died, Emperor Maximian appointed Demetrius as commander in his place. As he appointed him, Maximian, an opponent of Christ, particularly recommended that he persecute and exterminate the Christians in Thessalonica. Demetrius not only disobeyed the emperor but openly confessed and preached the Lord Jesus Christ in the city of Thessalonica. When the emperor heard of this he became furious with Demetrius. Then, when he was returning from battle against the Sarmatians, Maximian stopped at Thessalonica to investigate the matter.

The emperor summoned Demetrius and questioned him about his faith. Demetrius openly acknowledged his Christian Faith to the emperor and also denounced the emperor's idolatry. Maximian cast Demetrius into prison. Knowing what was awaiting him, Demetrius gave all his goods to his faithful servant Lupus to distribute to the poor, and joyfully awaited his imminent suffering for Christ the Lord.

An angel of God appeared to him in prison, saying: "Peace be to you, O sufferer of Christ; be brave and be strong!" After several days, the emperor sent soldiers to the prison to kill Demetrius. The soldiers found the saint of God at prayer and ran him through with lances. Christians secretly took his body and honorably buried it. Healing myrrh flowed from the body of the martyr of Christ, curing many of the sick. Soon, a small church was built over his relics.

An Illyrian nobleman, Leontius, was afflicted with an incurable illness. He hastened, with prayer to the relics of St. Demetrius and was completely healed. In thanksgiving, Leontius erected a much larger church on the site of the old church. The saint appeared to him on two occasions.

When Emperor Justinian wanted to translate the relics of the saint from Thessalonica to Constantinople, flaming sparks sprang from the tomb and a voice was heard: "Stop, and do not touch!" And thus, the relics of St. Demetrius have remained for all time in Thessalonica.

As the protector of Thessalonica, St. Demetrius has appeared many times, and on many occasions has saved Thessalonica from great calamity. His miracles are without number. The Russians considered St. Demetrius to be the protector of Siberia, which was conquered and annexed to Russia on October 26, 1581.

Miracle One of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica

Demetrius was a commander of Thessalonica during his life and remained so after his repose. People have felt his presence in Thessalonica, especially in times of great calamities. He protects the city, wards off misfortunes, repels invaders, and helps all who invoke his name.

Here is a wonderful example of his unusual aid to people in need.

Once, the barbarians attacked Thessalonica and were unable to overtake it. Infuriated at this, they pillaged the countryside and bound and carried off two beautiful maidens whom they gave as a gift to their prince. These maidens knew how to embroider well. When the prince saw their handiwork, he said to them: "I hear that there is a great god in your land, Demetrius, and that he works great miracles. Embroider his face on this linen." The maidens told him that St. Demetrius was not a god but rather God's servant and the helper of Christians. At first, they refused to embroider the face of the saint, but when the prince threatened them with death, they carried out the command and completed the task by St. Demetrius's Day. On the eve of the feast, they looked at their embroidery and wept sorrowfully, as they had to spend the feast day in slavery and had to give that embroidered image of their beloved saint to an impious barbarian. Both maidens prayed to St. Demetrius to forgive them. Then St. Demetrius appeared to them and took them both away, as an angel had once taken the Prophet Habakkuk. He brought them to Thessalonica and set them in his church. A solemn all-night vigil was being celebrated, and many people were there. When they learned of the miraculous rescue of these Christian maidens, all glorified God and St. Demetrius, His great servant and commander.

Miracle Two of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica

That the saints of God live, clothed in great glory and might in the heavens, Orthodox Christians know, not by their own reasoning, but by the true help and visitations of the saints. At times the saints appear so that men may see and hear them; at times, only to be either seen or heard; at times, though unseen and unheard, they influence our thoughts, our dispositions and our actions.

Among the many miracles of St. Demetrius in Thessalonica the following is recorded:

A young man named Onesiphorus was appointed to the service of sacristan in the Church of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. His primary task was to keep an account of the candles and lampadas. This young man began to steal candles, take them home, and then resell them. St. Demetrius appeared to him and said: "Brother Onesiphorus, your action is not pleasing to me, for you are stealing candles. By this, you bring harm to others and especially to yourself. Cease doing this and repent!" Onesiphorus was frightened and ashamed and, for a time, stopped stealing candles. But he eventually forgot himself, and again began to steal candles. One morning, a distinguished man brought some large candles to the tomb of the saint, lit them, prayed and left. Onesiphorus approached the candles and stretched forth his hand with the intention of taking them, but at that moment a voice like thunder roared: "Are you doing that again?!" As though struck by lightning, Onesiphorus fell to the ground, unconscious. When someone came into the church he found him and lifted him up off the floor; he gradually came to himself and related all that had happened. Everyone was astonished, and glorified God.

HYMN OF PRAISE: The Holy Great-Martyr Demetrius

Thessalonica glorifies its wonderful saint-
St. Demetrius, servant of the Most-high God.
Demetrius, the commander,
Servant of the Creator and Lord.

St. Paul bedewed Thessalonica with tears,
Demetrius watered it with his blood.
Demetrius, the commander,
Servant of the Creator and Lord.

The tears of the apostle and the blood of the martyr
Are the glory, salvation and pride of Thessalonica.
Demetrius, the commander,
Servant of the Creator and Lord.

Let us also glorify Christ's soldier,
The myrrh-gushing saint and courageous martyr.
Demetrius, the commander,
Servant of the Creator and Lord.

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Scenes From the Life of St. Nicholas Planas

Iconography by Spyros Kardamakis found in the Archdiocese of Megaro.

Source

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The Face of Saint Euphemia Still Incorrupt!

By John File

Recently, I received an e-mail from one of the bishops who was in Constantinople last month discussing the diaspora:

"When I was recently at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George in the Phanar (on Tuesday, September 21st) I was tremendously blessed to have the silver reliquary casket of St Euphemia opened so that she could be venerated. An archimandrite brought a small silver key and unlocked the small lock which secures the silver chain which encircles the reliquary. He softly chanted her Apolytikion as he did so. St Euphemia's body from neck down is covered in a red velvet shroud embroidered with gold thread, while covering her face is another red velvet cloth (about the size of an aer) also embroidered with gold thread. I believed just that to be an exceptional blessing (to be present when her reliquary was opened since it generally is only opened twice each year - on her two feast days). BUT then the priest removed the aer from St Euphemia's face! There she was - the skin of her face darkened by the centuries, but still there and intact! Upon her head was a silver crown/cap studded with several large gems. It was the crown we kissed when we were invited to venerate the sweet smelling relics of this virgin bride of Christ."

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The Modernization of the Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel in Iraq

Crossroads of Antiquity Can’t Decide on New Path

Steven Lee Myers
October 19, 2010
The New York Times

This small town, shaded by date palms on a bend of the Euphrates River, has been revered as a holy place for centuries — by Jews, by Muslims and, for periods of peace, at least, by both. “The old democracy,” as the local police chief put it.

Kifl, in what was once Babylonia, has survived millenniums of war and natural disasters, exile and expulsion, the fall of empires and the ravages of a troubled modernity. It embodies Iraq’s rich, layered past and might yet represent its future — if the country’s leaders could stop quarreling over it and its religious provenance.

In the center of town — and in the middle of a dispute — is the tomb of Ezekiel, the biblical prophet who preached to the Jews in captivity under Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C. Somewhere near here is where, according to tradition and faith, he saw his visions of God.

Leaders of the town and the province now have a more earthly vision, too: tourism. Iraq remains a country at war, and the town, dusty and strewn with litter — and, the other day, the burned wreck of a car — lacks a single hotel.

Nonetheless, they dream of travelers of all faiths streaming through Kifl — Muslims, Christians and even the Jews, who lived and worshiped here until the last families left by 1951, “because of the problem of Palestine,” said one of them, Zvi Yehuda.

That has thrust the tomb, with its distinctive (and Islamic) conical dome, which dates from the 14th century, into a debate that mirrors Iraq as a whole as it emerges from dictatorship and war.

It is a debate between the competing aims of historic preservation and modern development, between a multifaith history and the increasing sway of Islam, particularly the Shiite branch, whose clerics have their own designs for the site.

“We can prove to the world that this place is one of the cultural places that promote civilization and peaceful coexistence between peoples,” said Qais Hussein Rashid, the director of the State Board of Antiquities, which oversees Iraq’s myriad ancient sites.

He did not say it would be easy.

Late last year the antiquities board began a project to restore the ancient center of Kifl, with the aim of earning a coveted designation as a World Heritage site by Unesco, joining three other places in Iraq: Hatra, Samarra and Ashur.

The historic core includes not only Ezekiel’s tomb and the synagogue around it, but also a precariously leaning 14th-century minaret of a mosque long since destroyed, and a vaulted T-shaped bazaar built in the 1800s under Ottoman rule, when Jews and Muslims lived in relative tolerance, if not exactly harmony.

All are at the center of Kifl’s redevelopment plan, still under consideration and very much contested. A copy of the plan, hanging on the wall of the mayor’s office, depicts modern hotels, restaurants, shops, parks, parking lots and even a boat launch on the Euphrates shore: Kifl in 2030.

“We hope everyone who visits Iraq comes to Kifl,” said the mayor, Khalid Obeid Hamza.

His ambitions are as grand as the Malaysian city he improbably cited, when asked, as the inspiration for the plans.

“Kuala Lumpur,” he said. “It’s a very nice place.”

The plan, like the restoration work, has been greeted with deep suspicion by Kifl’s residents, including the tailors, shop owners and restaurateurs who work in the covered bazaar. Last month Kifl’s residents staged a protest, fearing the redevelopment would force them out.



“If it’s good for my work, but hurts others, I won’t accept it,” said a baker, Malik Ali, expressing fears that hotels and restaurants for tourists would ruin the town’s historic, albeit worn, charm.

He then echoed a familiar Iraqi lament: “I wish the restoration work would start with electricity and water and sewage.”

In fact, the restoration of the tomb and its environs had barely started before it came under attack. News reports early this year that the project aimed to turn Ezekiel’s tomb into a mosque, removing architectural details like carvings in Hebrew, provoked a fury in Israel and beyond.

The reports were false — the carvings remain in place, as do the wooden balustrades that separated the men’s and women’s sections and a carved cabinet that once held the Torah — but the fears were not without some foundation.

Modern plaster, including some with painted Hebrew words and designs, was removed, ostensibly to expose the original stone walls, which have their own designs.

The Shiite council that administers mosques and shrines across Iraq has strongly objected to the restoration, for different reasons.

Its leaders argued both that the initial work was shoddy and that the authorities should be more concerned with excavations to find an undiscovered — and possibly nonextant — mosque where Imam Ali, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, tarried in the seventh century before his murder in Kufa and burial in Najaf, just south of here.

“They focus on historical matters,” the Shiite caretaker of the tomb, Sheik Aqil al-Ghraawi, said of the board’s officials and experts. “We focus on both the historical and the Islamic.”

As it is throughout the region, history in Iraq is a battleground in which faiths seek precedence for modern-day claims.

The earliest known references to the Jewish tomb date to the 10th century. Before the establishment of the modern state of Israel, Jews from across the region made pilgrimages to the site, staying in guest rooms that are now ruins.

Muslims, too, revere the site as the tomb of Dhul Kifl, a prophet mentioned twice in the Koran who gave the town its name and who has long been assumed to be the same man as Ezekiel. Millions of Shiite pilgrims travel each year to the major holy sites of Islam here, including Najaf and Karbala. Associating Kifl with Imam Ali would put the town on the tourist map, as it were.

The region’s governor, Salman al-Zargany, who has already clashed with the antiquities board over profiting from tourism at the ancient ruins of Babylon in Hilla, threw his support to the clerics.

“Archaeology is a very nice cake,” said Mr. Rashid, the antiquities board director, “and everyone is taking a piece.”

In June, Mr. Zargany ordered the local police to occupy the site in order to halt the restoration work. Despite repeated negotiations since then, the project remains suspended, though scaffolding now braces the leaning minaret, believed to be part of a mosque that once stood beside Ezekiel’s tomb.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Rashid canceled the rest of the project’s budget for the year, a little more than $500,000, shifting the money to other projects. Mr. Zargany has taken a leave of absence amid a dispute with the region’s provincial council.

Sheik Aqil, the caretaker, despite his fervent belief in the site’s Islamic origins, said that he had no intention of undermining its Jewish heritage.

“It’s a Muslim’s duty to protect it,” he said during a tour of the tomb, interrupted by midday prayers. On the walls are old photographs of the Jews who once prayed here. “We take care of the Islamic and the Jewish,” he went on. “It is the history of all Iraq.”

Mr. Yehuda, a Jewish historian who was born in Kifl in 1936, recalled the town through the nostalgic prism of childhood, capturing the reverence it seems to have always inspired.

“It was a very small place, and filled with date palms,” he said in an interview at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, Israel, where he is the research director. “The Euphrates, the colors of the waters. As a child, near our house, we have a horse, and we had a cow and we had milk. We had everything.”

He welcomed the idea of Jews returning someday. “Not only Iraqi Jews, every Jew who wants to come, as it was in older times, when Jews came from everywhere to visit Ezekiel,” he said. “If the Iraqis want to do it, I think they will succeed.”

Read also: Prophet Ezekiel's Tomb To Be Turned Into Mosque

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The Parthenon and the Theotokos

Few people realize that the Parthenon existed as a Christian Church for most of its existence, between approximately the 5th - 15th century AD. It was dedicated at first to Hagia Sophia, or the Holy Wisdom of God, but soon after was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and bore the name Panagia Atheniotissa. It was also one of the most popular Christian pilgrimage sites during this time. The Christians found no need to destroy it, as many unbelievers would assume and have falsely read into Christian history, but they transformed it to the glory of God. And not only was the Parthenon a Christian Church, but the Propylaea housed the bishop of Athens.

Following the Fourth Crusade in 1204 the Franks took the Parthenon over and built a bell tower next to it, dedicating it to Notre Dame. In 1458 the Parthenon was turned into a mosque for a few hundred years before it was destroyed and came to ruins.

Read more on this history of the Acropolis here and here.

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2 Hour Documentary: Saint Nikolai the Serb

Saint Nikolai the Serb is a wonderfully produced documentary depicting various aspects of the life and works of a truly monumental 20th-century saint! Nearly 2 hours concerning the life of this prolific writer and Saint!

See the video in either English or Serbian here.

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German Catholic Church Returns Looted Cross to Serbia

October 19, 2010
EarthTimes

The Catholic Church in Germany returned a looted gold cross to Serbia on Tuesday, 65 years after it was stolen from an Orthodox monastery by an unidentified German soldier.

Hans-Josef Becker, archbishop of Paderborn, handed over the cross at the Serbian embassy in Berlin, an embassy spokeswoman said.

The treasure is a gilded cross with a base so it can stand upright on a table and a hollow space for a religious relic.

It had been on display in the bishop's diocesan museum in Paderborn since after the Second World War. It had been looted from the 800-year-old monastery at Zica, south of Belgrade, at the end of the Second World War and taken to Germany by the soldier.

Germany has been stepping up efforts to recover its own lost art which was seized by the Soviet Union in reparation after the war, and has also been working to identify looted art on German soil so it can be sent home to other nations.

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If a Chimp Did This, Darwinists Would Claim They Figured Out How Boating Evolved

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On the Stench of Demons and Sin

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Among other mysterious perceptions from the world of spirits, the saints also had perceptions of sweet fragrances from good spirits and foul stenches from impure spirits.

During every appearance of luminous, pure spirits, a life-giving and sweet fragrance wafted about; and during every appearance of dark and impure spirits, a suffocating, unbearable stench filled the air.

The saints were able to discern which passion possessed a man by the kind of stench he emanated. Thus it was that St. Euthymius the Great recognized the stench of the passion of adultery in the monk Emilian of the Lavra of St. Theoctistus. Going to Matins one morning, Euthymius passed by Emilian's cell and smelled the stench of the demon of adultery. Emilian had not committed any physical sin, but had adulterous thoughts that were being forced into his heart by the demon, and the saint already sensed it by its smell.

The power of this perception once revealed itself even more wondrously in St. Hilarion the Great. A certain avaricious miser had sent some of his vegetables to Hilarion. When they were brought to Hilarion for a meal, the saint said: "Take these away from here. I cannot stand the stench that comes from these vegetables! Do you not smell how they reek of avarice?" When the brethren were amazed by these words, Hilarion told them to take the vegetables to the oxen, and they would see that not even the oxen would eat them. Indeed, the oxen merely sniffed at them, and turned their heads away in disgust.

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The Spirits of Diveyevo Nuns Photographed?

Sarov Resident Believes He Took Pictures Of Nuns' Souls

June 5, 2008
Interfax

A resident of Sarov was very surprised when he looked at the photos he had made during his pilgrimage to St. Seraphim Monastery in Diveyevo as besides his relatives he saw strange figures that were not present when he took the pictures.

The photos conveyed to Interfax-Religion on Thursday show silhouettes dressed in monastic robes and hoods going to the canal of the Mother of God. The canal near the Trinity Cathedral was dug by the first nuns of the monastery on the instruction of St. Seraphim of Sarov as, according to him, he saw the Mother of God passing that way.

The photo's author was impressed and came back to Diveyevo for studying the pictured place behind the altar of the Trinity Cathedral. According to him and other numerous witnesses and nuns there is only an untouched green lawn and no path there.

Many miracles and mysterious signs are connected with St. Seraphim Monastery and its founder St. Seraphim. According to the pilgrims, miracles often take place today.

Many of the miracles have happened in the canal of the Mother of God. St. Seraphim believed in the holiness of this place and instructed nuns to go along the canal every day saying the "Rejoce, Mother of God..." 150 times. He stressed: "Whoever goes along the canal and says a hundred and fifty prayers to Our Lady, will have everything here: Athos, Jerusalem, Kiev!"

The elder's covenant has been fulfilled in the monastery up to day.

Read also: The Holy Canal of the Theotokos at Diveyevo Monastery

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The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano

In the city of Lanciano, Italy, around A.D. 700, a Basilian monk and priest were assigned to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the small Church of St. Legontian. Celebrating in Greek and using leavened bread,* that monk had doubts about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

During the Divine Liturgy, when he said the Words of Consecration ("This is my body"; "This is my blood".), with doubt in his soul, the priest saw the bread change into living flesh and the wine change into live blood, which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size (this number corresponds to the number of wounds Christ suffered on the cross: one in each hand and foot from the nails, and the wound from the centurion's spear).

Since 1574, various ecclesiastical investigations of varying degrees of detail have been conducted upon the miracle. The first appears to consist of a weighing, in which each different globule though varying in size, all each weigh the same and always produced the same weight no matter what the amount of these globules was. Thus all of them put together was the equivalent to any one of them or any three or any four all equaled the same weight no matter what combination. Also an examination in 1971 conducted by Professor Doctor Odoardo Linoli which were confirmed by Dr. Bertelli. The flesh was found to be human striated muscular tissue of the myocardium (the heart wall), type AB, and to be absolutely free of any agents used for preserving flesh. The blood at Lanciano has divided into five irregularly shaped pellets. At scientific examinations conducted in 1971 these pellets were found to be human blood, type AB ("the universal receiver"), with proteins normally fractionated and present in the same percentage ratio as those in normal fresh blood.

- February 17, 1574 by Bishop Rodriguez
- 1636 by Father Serafino from Scanno
- October 23, 1777 by Bishop Gervasone
- October 26, 1886 by Bishop Petrarca
- 1971, by Professor Odoardo Linoli

This most recent examination was performed by Professor Odoardo Linoli, Professor in Anatomy and Pathological Histology and in Chemistry and Clinical Microscopy, and Professor Ruggero Bertelli of the University of Siena. The report was published in Quaderni Sclavo di Diagnostica Clinica e di Laboratori in 1971.

The following conclusions were drawn by Odoardo Linoli:

- The flesh is real flesh and the blood is real blood.

- The flesh and the blood belong to the human species.

- The flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.

- In the flesh we see present in section: the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and also the left ventricle of the heart for the large thickness of the myocardium. The flesh is a heart complete in its essential structure.

- The flesh and the blood have the same blood type, AB.

- In the blood there were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of fresh normal blood.

- In the blood there were also found these minerals: chlorides, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium.

The flesh and blood of the alleged miracle can still be seen today. The flesh, is fibrous and light brown in colour, and becomes rose-coloured when lighted from the back. The blood consists of five coagulated globules and has an earthly colour resembling the yellow of ochre.

* The piece today is deceptively stretched out to appear as if it was unleavened according to later Catholic practice.

Source with photos

Read also:

Eucharistic Miracle

The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, Italy

Lanciano, 700's A.D.: The Heart of Christ

Physician Tells of Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano

Important note from the Russian Sluzhebnik (Priest's Service Book):

"If after the consecration of the bread & wine a miracle is revealed, ie, if the bread manifests the appearance of a child or the wine the appearance of blood, and if in a short time this appearance does not change, ie, if they do not appear again under the form of bread & wine, but if they remain thus without change, then let the priest not take communion because it is not the Body & Blood of Christ, but a miracle from God manifest only because of the lack of faith or some other reason."

The instruction goes on to say that if the Body assumes another appearance then the priest must make another Lamb as he did at Proskomedia. He then resumes the Liturgy with the prayer "With these blessed hosts..." which is the prayer said at the Anaphora while the choir sings, "Holy, holy, holy..." If the Blood changes appearance, then he must pour new wine into the chalice. The purpose of this is so the faithful may still receive the Body & Blood of Christ at the Liturgy.

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Video: Plum Island, Lyme Disease and Monsters

Plum Island: Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura, Season 2 Episode 1

In the opening episode of Season 2 of Conspiracy Theory, former Governor Jesse Ventura investigates the mysteries of Plum Island. The top secret disease research that goes on there is said to be linked to the ‘Montauk monster,’ which raised public interest after it washed up on the shore of Montauk without explanation. Later, it is linked to another mystery – a deformed human body found on the shore of Plum Island with ‘elongated fingers’ and drilled holes in the skull.

Is Plum Island’s ‘godfather’ – the Nazi Scientist Dr. Erich Traub – the common link behind these odd occurences, as well as the launch of Lyme Disease and other aspects of bio-research and warfare? Jesse Ventura and his team investigate.

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Saint John the New Martyr of Monemvasia

St. John of Monemvasia (Feast Day - October 21)

Saint John was born in 1758 near the city of Monemvasia. His father was a priest, and from a young age he tried to emulate his father's life by working in the church. He was known for his exemplary behavior, and referred by other children as the "priest's son".

In the year 1770 the army of the Albanian Hatzi Osman defeated the Greek resistance, and arriving in Monemvasia they killed John's father and enslaved both him and his mother. They were taken to Larissa, where they were sold-off two or three times separately.

After two years they were bought by the same man, a Turkish landowner. This Turk did not have any children, and seeing John's talents (who was exceptionally smart for his age, obedient and a hard worker) he thought, along with his wife, to make John their God-child. Therefore, every day they tried to convince him to leave the faith of the Christians and become a Turk. Initially they tried to convince him with flattery and promises, but later they used terrible tortures to try to overcome the steadfastness of John (who was only 15 years old), who kept his Christian faith unwavering.

One day his master, tired of trying to convince him to convert, in anger lead him to the courtyard of the mosque. Many Muslims were gathered there, and with blows and terrible threats they urged him to convert and become a Turk. John's answer, however, was clear: "I am not a Turk, I am Christian and I want to die as a Christian."

Besides this, the Turk and his wife tried every day with magic and evil seductions to get the Saint to lose his mind and give in to carnal desires and then to become a Turk. But John, having God inside of him, remained pure from everything. Divine Grace protected him from all diabolical devices of the Turk's wife.

Soon came the fifteen days of fasting before the Dormition of the Theotokos. The Turk realized that John did not want to spoil the fast, so he locked him up in a barn. He kept him there for the entire fifteen days and hung him up, lit fire to the straw to cause smoke, and hit him with a sword, all while trying to make him eat and to spoil the fast. But Saint John did not even taste the food, but prayed to the Virgin Mary to help him not to break the fast, preferring to be killed than to spoil his fasting.

The master, seeing that he remained unconvinced, left him without food for two and three days. His mother, on seeing him deadened by the tortures and the fasting, tried to convince him to give in, saying: "Eat from these dishes my son so you won't die, and God and the Panagia will forgive you, because they're not your wishes, for you are doing them out of necessity. Console me, your poor and upset mother, and don't seek death and leave me alone in this slavery and exile."

To his mother's pleas, John replied: "Why are you doing this mother, and why are you crying? Why don't you emulate the Patriarch Abraham, who for the love of God wanted to sacrifice his only son, but you only cry and weep. I am a priest's son and I should be keeping the laws and customs of our Church more than the sons of lay-people, for when we don't keep the small things [of the faith], how can we keep the large things?"

Soon after this response the furious Turk, on October 19th 1773, gave him a fatal stab in the heart. After two days Saint John died and received the crown of martyrdom. His memory is honored by our Church on the 21st of October.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone
Divine offspring of Monemvasia, who grew and bore the fruit of faith by grace, O John; who kept the commandments of the fathers, and put to shame those of Hagar by your struggle. O glorious Martyr, entreat Christ God to grant to us the great mercy.

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The Term 'Kingdom of God' Is Not In the New Testament

By Fr. John Romanides

Both fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist biblical scholars, who have been victims of Augustinian and Carolingian presuppositions, become prone to misunderstandings of what they read in the Bible, especially when terms and symbols denoting glorifications which produce prophets are alluded to.

A classical example is 1 Cor. 12:26. Here St. Paul does not write, "If one is honored," but "If one is glorified," i.e. has become a prophet. To be glorified means that one has seen the Lord of Glory either before His incarnation or after, like Paul did on his way to Damascus to persecute the Incarnate Lord of Glory's followers.

Another example is the phrase "kingdom of God" which makes it a creation of God instead of the uncreated ruling power of God. What is amazing is that the term "kingdom of God" appears not once in the original Greek of the New Testament. Not knowing that the "rule" or "reign of God" is the correct translation of the Greek "Basileia tou Theou," Vaticanians, Protestants and even many Orthodox today, do not see that the promise of Christ to his apostles in Mt.16:28, Lk. 9:27 and Mk. 9:1, i.e. that they will see God's ruling power, was fulfilled during the Transfiguration which immediately follows in the above three gospels.

Here Peter, James and John see Christ as the Lord of Glory i.e. as the source of God's uncreated "glory" and "basileia" i.e. uncreated ruling power, denoted by the uncreated cloud or glory which appeared and covered the three of them during the Lord of Glory's Transfiguration. It was by means of His power of Glory that Christ, as the pre-incarnate Lord (Yahweh) of Glory, had delivered Israel from its Egyptian slavery and lead it to freedom and the land of promise.

The Greek text does not speak about the "Basileion (kingdom) of God," but about the "Basileia (rule or reign) of God," by means of His uncreated glory and power.* At His Transfiguration Christ clearly revealed Himself to be the source of the uncreated Glory seen by Moses and Elijah during Old Testament times and who both are now present at the Transfiguration in order to testify to the three apostles that Christ is indeed the same Yahweh of Glory, now incarnate, Whom the two had seen in the historical past and had acted on behalf of Him.

* For a typical Augustinian misunderstanding of Mk 9:1ff see "Promise and Fulfillment, The Eschatological Message of Jesus," by W. G. Kummel, p 25-28, 44, 60 f., 66f., 88, 133, 142, 149. This so-called kingdom promised by Christ does not yet exist when He pronounces this promise, but will come into existence sometime in the future.

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Saint Artemius of Verkola the Righteous Youth

St. Artemius of Verkola (Feast Day - October 20 and June 23)

Artemius was born in 1532 to the pious Kosma and Apollinaria, in the village of Verkola (on the banks of the Pinega River, Dvinsk District). He was brought up in God-fearing Christian piety. By the time he was five years of age, he had begun to distance himself from childish habits: he did not enjoy playing games, was quiet, meek, God-fearing, and was obedient to his parents, assiduously helping his father at the farm as much as he could at his age.

One day, at the age of 12, Artemius accompanied his father into the fields. Without warning, there was a clap of thunder and a lightning bolt struck the boy, and he fell dead. This took place on June 23, 1545. Superstition about the bad omen of such an untimely death kept Artemius from being granted a proper funeral and burial. His body was placed in a small clearing in the woods, without being buried in the ground. A wooden shell was constructed over it, and a fence was built around it. In time the boy would no doubt have been forgotten, but it pleased God to reveal him to the world as a wonderworker equal in honor to some of the great ascetics.

Thirty-two years after Artemius' tragic death in 1577, one of the local deacons, by the name of Agafonik, was gathering wild berries when he saw a light emanating from the place where the youth's body had been laid. The deacon came closer and saw to his astonishment that the body of the boy showed no signs of decay; it looked, in fact, as if the boy were simply sleeping. Above the boy was a radiant light. The deacon hurried to the nearest village and told the priest and the local peasants what he had discovered. They all went to see for themselves and found it just as the deacon had described. The peasants brought St. Artemius’ body to the courtyard before the Church of St. Nicholas.

It had been a terrible year for the whole region. A bad flu epidemic was going around; some people had already died. The son of one of the peasants in Verkola, Kallinik, was sick with it. Seeking relief for his son, Kallinik prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Most Holy Virgin, to Saint Nicholas, and to the young Artemius. He venerated the youth's relics and took a piece of the birch-bark covering the coffin. Coming home, he put this piece of birch-bark on his son's chest, and the boy immediately recovered. The father related the miracle to the other villagers, who similarly took pieces of birch-bark and placed them on the sick in their households. These, too, were healed, and soon there was no trace of the epidemic.

Through the prayers of the Saint, many sick people received healing, especially those who suffered from ocular disorders. A certain Hilarion, a resident of Kholmogor, had lost his sight and become despondent. On the Feast Day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Righteous Artemius, holding a staff in his left hand and a Cross in his right, appeared to the suffering man. Making the sign of the Cross over him with the Cross, he said, “Arise, Christ heals you by the hand of His servant Artemius. Go to Verkola, bow down before his coffin, and relate everything to the priest and to the peasants.” The sick man was immediately healed.

In 1584, thankful people who revered the venerable youth transferred his relics from the church courtyard to a side-chapel which had been especially prepared for them. In thanks for the healing of his son, Afanassy М. Pashkov, military commander of Monzensk, erected a church to Holy Great Martyr Artemius, heavenly patron of the righteous youth. On December 6, 1619 St. Artemius' holy relics were uncovered, and transferred to that church. Thirty years later, after that church burned down, the relics were again found. In 1649, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovitch, a monastery was erected on the site, and the Saint’s relics were transferred to it.

God glorified the righteous one’s relics through miracles, and in 1639, Metropolitan Cyprian of Novgorod the Great issued a directive that “the local and area abbots, priests and deacons document [those miracles].” An account of the healings was prepared and presented to the Metropolitan. The following year, the Metropolitan issued a “full festal service to celebrate the Righteous Artemius: sticherae, magnification, a litya, aposticha, troparion, kontakion, and ikos, hymn of light, and praises, and banner chant sheet music.”

In 1918, the impious Soviets chopped the holy relics into pieces and threw them into a well, earning his title of Martyr.

Philip Zimmerman, an iconographer living in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was granted a vision of St. Artemius. Phil was told to paint his icon "for all children." With the blessing of Fr. John Namie, the Director of the Antiochian Village at the time, a site was selected on which to build a rock shrine to house the finished icon. The shrine stands to the right of the entrance to the St. Ignatius Church.

According to tradition, St. Artemius had a sister — the Righteous Paraskeva of Pirimin (Oct. 28) — who also gained renown as a worker of miracles.

Read also: ῞Αγιος ᾿Αρτέμιος τοῦ Βέρκολα

Troparion to St. Artemius
By the command of the Most High, the sky was darkened with rain clouds, lightning flashed, threat'ning thunder clashed, and you gave up your soul into the hands of the Lord, O Artemius most wise. Now as you stand before the Throne of the Lord of All, you grant healing unfailingly to those who come to you with faith and love, and you pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

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The Cave of St. Gerasimos of Kefallonia on Mt. Athos

The Cave of Saint Gerasimos is found at the Skete of Saint Anna on Mount Athos.

Read also:

St. Gerasimos of Kefallonia and the Demon Possessed

5 Miracles of Saint Gerasimos of Kefallonia

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1894 'New York Times' Report on St. John of Kronstadt

Double-Click on images to enlarge them.

The New York Times
Published: December 9, 1894
Source

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A Miracle of Elder Joel Yiannakopoulos

By Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopoleos

Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos was a wise and holy personality (+1966).

Three years after his repose, on 19 October 1969 (the feast of the Prophet Joel), in the chapel of the Orthodox Christian Association "Three Hierarchs" in Athens, a vigil took place in memory of the blessed Fr. Joel. The Archimandrites Fr. Agathangelos Mihailidis (+1991), Fr. Epiphanios Theodoropoulos (+1989) and Fr. Meletios Kalamaras (current Metropolitan of Nikopoleos) were co-celebrants.

Towards the end of the Divine Liturgy, during the time for communion, many faithful, spiritual children of Fr. Joel, saw a strange vision.

In the middle of the church there appeared, at the place of the chandelier, on a throne full of light, like a bright cloud, Fr. Joel seated. The throne was hanging above the heads of the crowd, who were following with awe and devotion the Divine Liturgy. He then disappeared and Fr. Joel could be seen, dressed in his priestly vestments, among his three clerical friends.

This event was interpreted by the congregation as a sign of the holiness of Father Joel, as well as an affirmation of the faith of our Church that the departed pious priests descend to our churches at the time of the Divine Liturgy and co-celebrate with their beloved living priests.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The Conspiracy Theory Of The Gospels

Charles E. Hill
October 18, 2010
The Huffington Post

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These are the Bible's familiar four Gospels, received as Holy Scripture by all major branches of Christianity. From ancient times to the present, these four books have been the gateway to Jesus and his teaching. Friends and foes alike have formed their ideas about Jesus mainly from these books. But why these? Weren't there once other Gospels which for some reason were excluded? How is it that just these four made it into the Bible, and who was it that chose them? If members of the general public have been paying attention, they may know the story by heart, for it has been told in recent best-selling books, novels, and in theaters. Recently, I heard it from a man on a plane and my son heard it in a university classroom. Here is the basic story line.

Gospels about Jesus once flourished. As one scholar has recently put it, they were "breeding like rabbits." Each of the varied Christian sects pushed its own version(s) and competition was lively. This "free market" for Jesus literature meant that, for many years and in many places, some now-forgotten Gospels were at least as popular as the ones that now headline the Christian New Testament. Gradually, however, one of the competing sects was able to gain the upper hand over its rivals. And when it finally declared victory in the fourth century, fully 300 years after Jesus walked the earth, it decreed that its four Gospels were, and had always been, the standard for the church Jesus founded. The "winners," supported by the powerful emperor Constantine the Great, then got to write the histories -- and make the Bibles.

As familiar as the narrative has become, however, it has serious flaws. I wrote Who Chose the Gospels? (Oxford, 2010) for any in the general public who might be interested in a readable account of the scholarship behind this popular story line and in a critique of that scholarship. If the story line has many of the qualities of a gripping conspiracy theory, it is because it basically is a conspiracy theory. And like most conspiracy theories, it tends to be long on drama and somewhat short on reality.

There once were, of course, other Gospels. The public got to see one up close in the spring of 2006 when the recently recovered gnostic Gospel of Judas was unveiled in front of rolling cameras. A cadre of scholars was on hand to deliver the now less-than-startling news that "Christianity was once diverse." For a good many years, some academics have been stumping for another text that somehow slipped through the church fathers' fingers: the Gospel of Thomas. Some would like to make it the long lost conversation partner of the author of the Gospel of John. Not to be forgotten is the venerable "Q" (short for the German Quelle, meaning "source"), the hypothetical inventory of Jesus' sayings which many believe was used by both Matthew and Luke when they wrote their Gospels. Standing up for certain new-old Gospels has taken on an ideological importance, much like the cause of civil rights. Why should fighting discrimination end with people and not with books?

Yet before there were the many Gospels, there were only the four. Not that the four were necessarily the very first writings about Jesus ever scribed, but they are the earliest which we now have. And they are the earliest whose existence we are actually sure of. Yes, the Gospel writers may have used sources, like Q. They may have written earlier editions ("Proto-Matthew," "Proto-Luke," and the like, as they are named). Possibly there were even other Gospels from the first century which we don't know about. But if such things ever existed, we have no good evidence that they ever circulated, or were intended to circulate, among groups of churches as authoritative accounts of the life of Jesus.

That scholars spend good portions of their careers writing about these alternative Gospels and reconstructing Gospel sources that no one has ever reported seeing, though, is a good thing. Such efforts help us imagine how the Gospels were composed, and they give us valuable insights into all early forms of Christianity, both "winners" and "losers".

There is something attractive about the idea of a primordial, Edenic age of natural diversity, from which the church fell into the original sin of greater ecclesiastical unity. But then why do the remains of history seem to indicate that, even amid considerable second-century diversity, there was a mainstream of Christian thought which held a stable, core set of theological beliefs (e.g., that God really did make the world and that Jesus really was both divine and human), as well as a core set of ethical norms? And why does it appear that this Christian mainstream had more in common with the apostle Paul (they preserved his letters) and with the original disciples of Jesus than these other sects did? Here is where the conspiracy theory comes in. This imbalance in the surviving data is explained by the winners' successful campaign to destroy as much of the counter evidence as they could. (Never mind that time and the elements would have destroyed most of them anyway, as they have destroyed most of what the winners tried to preserve.)

Here I will mention one claimed proof for this conspiracy theory, and one stubborn problem it faces.

Proof is said to reside in the ancient papyrus documents which archaeologists have dug from the sands of Egypt over the past century and a quarter. The Christian books yielded up by the unbiased, ancient trash heaps are, we are told, mostly books which were excluded from the New Testament. This would seem to show that the four Gospels were once minority reports and that some popular alternatives have been suppressed by the "winners." All I will say here is that the papyri have both less and more to tell us than this argument lets on.

The problem for the conspiracy theory is a man named Irenaeus. Irenaeus was crystal clear in his claim that the church, from the time of the apostles, had received just four authoritative Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- and that all the others were bogus. This is just what we would expect from a fourth-century re-writer of history. The problem is that Irenaeus wrote in the second century, long before the conspiratorial rewriting of history is supposed to have taken place.

Does, then, the conspiracy approach to early Christian history, in either its popular or its academic forms, have it right? Should it bother anyone that those who stress so loudly that the winners wrote the histories are the ones now writing the histories? Let the reader judge ... but also be aware of conspiracies.

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Bulgaria Govt Urged to Crack Down on Miracle Healers

Fortune-teller and miracle healer Totka Totevska from the northern town of Pleven was sentenced last week to three and a half years in jail following complaints by clients. Totevska used to compare herself to world famous prophet Vanga who died in 1996.

October 17, 2010
Novinite

Bulgaria's alternative medicine practitioners have threatened to approach the European Commission if the government delays plans to distinguish charlatanism from therapy and translate them into a law.

"Alternative medical therapy should be practiced only by people who have been educated in this field," representatives of the association told Darik radio.

"What we are fighting for is a legal framework, which will legalize the status of those healers, who have the necessary skills and training, and wipe out those who are just pretending to be healers, bringing nothing but problems to the people," says the association chair Zofia Shcherbak.

"When it comes to health care, the authorities' control is a must," she stresses and adds that Bulgaria's government is obliged to make sure that unconventional healing methods are in line with the European Union requirements.

But experts fear that the legislation wouldn't do much to put an end to the booming business of clairvoyants and miracle healers because too many Bulgarians believe in their services.

Numerous psychic programs of clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers and astrologers with special powers have turned into a social phenomenon in Bulgaria.

The business of miracle healers is booming in Bulgaria as never before on the back of the economic crisis, Bulgarians' despair and their predilection for mysticism and superstitions.

These pushy women can be seen standing in front of hospitals, their ads feature in newspapers and on the internet. It is hard to avoid meeting them even in downtown Sofia.

More often than not, following these sessions, the patients end up with double-digit bills, rather than a solution to their problems.

The promise to solve virtually any problem whether it's regarding love, career, finance, stress or illness however have made the miracle healers so popular in Bulgaria that they successfully compete with the medics from the health care sector, left in tatters after the collapse of the communist regime.

According to social analysts the fear of the unknown, the feeling for being helpless when faced with corruption, the insecurity and instability that marked the period of big changes in the country, makes people seek refuge in superstitions.

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Holy Martyr Varus and the Devout Cleopatra

St. Varus, the Devout Clepatra, and those with them (Feast Day - October 19)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Varus was a Roman officer in Egypt and also secretly a Christian. When seven Christian teachers were cast into prison, Varus visited them, supplying them with necessities and ministering to them zealously. He was amazed at these martyrs and grieved that because of his fear he could not become a martyr for Christ. The men of God encouraged him, and Varus decided that he would go with them to be tortured.

One of these men of God died in prison, so that when the wicked eparch had the martyrs brought before him, there were only six remaining. He inquired as to the seventh. Varus said to him: "I am the seventh". The enraged governor tortured Varus first. He commanded that he be flogged with dry rods naked, and after that had him tied to a tree and sliced apart piece by piece until the saint gave his holy soul to God.

His body was thrown on a dung heap. A Palestinian woman named Cleopatra, the widow of an officer, was there with her son John. She secretly took Varus's holy relics from the dung heap and buried them in her house. Then she begged permission from the eparch to take the body of her deceased husband from Egypt to Palestine. As she was the wife of an officer, the eparch immediately gave his permission. However, the blessed Christian Cleopatra did not take the body of her husband but the relics of the Holy Martyr Varus instead. Thus, she brought the martyr's relics to Edras (the village of her birth) near Mount Tabor, and buried them with honor there. Afterward, she built a church to St. Varus and he often appeared to her from the other world, resplendent as an angel of God.

An Appearance of the Holy Martyr Varus

When the devout widow Cleopatra built a church to him, she summoned the bishop and priests to consecrate it. A large number of Christians gathered for this celebration, for the entire countryside venerated St. Varus as a great healer and miracle-worker.

Following the divine services, this pious benefactress went before the relics of St. Varus and prayed: "I beseech you, you who endured much suffering for Christ, implore God for that which is pleasing to Him; and for me and my only son, ask that which is beneficial."

Cleopatra's son John was ready for the army. Just as she left the church, John became ill. He was seized with a burning fever that grew steadily worse until, around midnight, John died. The grief-stricken, furious mother came before the tomb of St. Varus and spoke sharply: "O saint of God! Is this the way you help me?" and she said much more in her bitter lamentation until, utterly exhausted, she fell into a light sleep.

St. Varus appeared to her with her son John. Both were radiant as the sun in garments whiter than snow, bound with golden girdles, and had magnificent wreaths on their heads. God's saint said to her: "Did you not pray to me to implore God for whatever was pleasing to Him, and beneficial to you and your son? I prayed to God and He, in His unspeakable goodness, took your son into His heavenly army. If you so desire, here he is: take him and place him in the army of the earthly king." Hearing this, the young John embraced St. Varus and said: "No, my Lord, do not listen to my mother and do not send me back into the world, full of unrighteousness and iniquity, from which you have delivered me."

Awakening from the dream, Cleopatra felt great joy in her heart and left the church. She lived near the church for seven years, and St. Varus often appeared to her with John.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Thy Martyr Varus, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.

Kontakion in the Third Tone
Since thou hadst put on thyself thy Master's Cross as a breastplate, thou didst blunt and bring to nought the tyrants' wicked devices. Thou didst bear most savage tortures upon thy body; valiantly didst thou then finish thy godly contest. Hence from God, O noble Varus, thou wast adorned in a crown august and divine.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Following Christ, O Martyr Varus, you drank of His chalice; you received the crown of martyrdom and now rejoice with the angels. Pray for our souls unceasingly.

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How Embarrassing: Astronomers Lose Life-Friendly Planet

New Scientist is reporting: "Last month, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of the first alien world that could host life on its surface. Now a second team can find no evidence of the planet, casting doubt on its existence."



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How About A New Slogan?

"Orthodox" Extremists have a slogan which reads "Orthodoxy or Death", and frankly, it has become a bit tiresome. Despite a well-meaning application by some, it still has its origins in an arrogant polemical stance of so-called "Orthodox Zealots" against other Orthodox Christians whom they think are less Orthodox than they are. Specifically it was aimed at the Ecumenical Patriarchate, whom they practically consider an agent of the Antichrist, yet it also applies to other clergy and laity of the Orthodox Church who disagree with their idealistic notions of Orthodoxy which only exist to serve their own egos. In other words, they want everyone to know that if "Saul has killed his thousands", that is, if the majority of Orthodox only have a portion of the truth, then they want everyone to know that "David has killed his tens of thousands", which is to say that their few have preserved Orthodoxy supposedly with exactitude and purity. A slogan like "Orthodoxy or Death" thus becomes a means to drive other Orthodox to jealousy over their supposed authenticity. In reality they have developed a persecution complex by declaring that they would rather die than become like other "lukewarm" Orthodox who have lost the fire of their zeal.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess' And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner'." (Luke 18:11-13)

Of course, such stands are nothing new to the Church. So-called Zealots have always existed within the Church, and the Lord has His way of dealing with them by exposing their schismatic ways when He finds it appropriate. He did it with the Judaizers, He did with the Donatists, He did it with the Novationists, He did it with the Bogomils, He did it with the Old Believers, and He is doing it with the schismatic Old Calendarists - all well-known groups who caused confusion within the Church by proclaiming a purer Orthodoxy over and against the Church at large, whom they charge with heretical teachings where no heresy in fact exists except in their extremist imaginations which are infected with the venomous snake of "zeal without knowledge", which can only be healed with the antidote of wisdom, love and humility. We ought to heed our Lord's words and be "wise as serpents", that is, not biting at a false enemy and being over-territorial out of irrational fear, and we ought to couple this with being "harmless as doves".

So how about a new slogan? Or should we call it an anti-venom? How about...

"Orthodoxy Is Death"

After all, ought not Orthodoxy be the death of one's ego.

But then again, whatever happened to "Jesus Christ Conquers"? It takes the focus off US and puts it back on HIM.

Since slogans are a part of our human fabric, it would probably be best to have a slogan which we ought always have on our lips...

"Glory to God for all things!"

It's no wonder that St. John Chrysostom died with these words on his lips, since they sum up the purpose of our existence, which is to glorify God instead of our ego's.

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