The Woman Who Felt Abandoned By God

One of the holy fathers said:

When I was in Alexandria, I went into a martyr's shrine to pray, and I saw a Christ-loving woman wearing (it seemed) widow's weeds. She had some [serving] boys and girls with her. This is how she spoke, firmly grasping the railing of the holy martyr's tomb: "You have abandoned me, Lord, have mercy upon me, Master, lover of humanity!" Such were her cries and tears that I broke off from my prayers and paid attention to her, mightily affected by her cries and tears. I supposed it likely that, being a widow, she was being oppressed by somebody.

Since I was acquainted with the deputy prefect, I waited until she had finished her prayer then, summoning one of her youths, I said: "Call your mistress for me." When she approached I told her what I supposed [to be her condition]. Again she dissolved into tears, saying: "Oh, Father, do you not know what my [trouble] is? God has abandoned me and not visited me. Today it is three years that I have not been ill, nor a child of mine nor a servant nor anybody else of my house, and I suppose that God has turned away from me because of my sin: that is why I am weeping, that God would visit me according to His mercy, and that quickly." I was amazed at her philosophical soul and, having prayed for her, I went my way, glorifying God.

From The Spiritual Meadow by St. John Moschos, Cictercian Publications, 1992, p. 201.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos: "Finis Grecia!"

- Elder, it has been increasingly argued, that because of the difficulty of the Greek language, students spend too much time and effort to learn it, while they could be learning English and other knowledge more important for survival in our time.

- If we forsake and remove the Greek language, we cut off every bridge to our past. We detach ourselves from our roots. In a few decades we will appear as nomadic people, which gained statehood and national identity in the salvific year of 1976! The history of three thousand years of Hellenism, Classical and Byzantine, and of Christianity, will be struck out with one stroke of the pen. Imagine our society after twenty or thirty years, when the children of today will be the leaders of society. They will not even be able to read Paparrigopoulos.

All writings until today written will be for pulping. Ah, what greater national calamity can happen than this? The Asia Minor Catastrophe? It is small compared to this. The Cypriot? It also is small. This is because after two or three generations we will appear completely cut off from our past. Our past will be like a sealed cabinet, and no one will be able to open it even if they approach it; writings of three thousand years will be inaccessible. This is inconceivably worse!

They took from us Asia Minor. A national tragedy! Hellenism however, glory to God, remained. I would say that it peaked in 1940-41. A part of Cyprus became occupied. We suffer deeply. Injustice drowns us. However Hellenism has not been lost. Hellenism leans towards disappearing with what we are doing now. In this crucible, called the E.U., in this medley of nations, after a while we will assimilate completely. After a while they will introduce phonetic spelling. And the next step will be the Latin alphabet. At which time, as they said in Zallogo, the saying will apply: "Instead of fountains, you have mountains, people of Rachoula." Finis Grecia!

From the book Χριστώ τω Θεώ παραθώμεθα, έκδ. Ι. Ησυχ. Κεχαριτωμένης Τροιζήνος, 2003, σ. 149-150.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

St. Theodosius the Coenobiarch: "Behold, the Grave Is Ready!"

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The Orthodox Church possesses an inexhaustible treasure in proofs of life after death. One of the numerous proofs is cited here: one example, which, at the same time, witnesses that the souls of men live after physical death and that voluntary obedience leads to blessed eternity.

When St. Theodosius the Great [the Coenobiarch] founded a monastery, he had only seven monks in the beginning. In order to confirm these monks in remembrance of death, he ordered them to dig out a grave. When the grave was finished, Theodosius stood above the grave surrounded by the seven monks, and said, "Behold my children the grave is ready! Are there any among you who is ready for death, in order to be buried in this grave?" One of them, Basil by name and a priest by rank, fell to his knees and sought a blessing from Theodosius to die. Theodosius ordered that a memorial service for the soul be held for Basil: the third, the ninth and the fortieth day as is the custom for the deceased. When the fortieth day memorial service was completed, Basil completely healthy, laid down and died. He was buried in the new grave. On the fortieth day after his burial, Basil appeared among the brethren in church one morning and chanted with them. In the beginning, only Theodosius saw him and he prayed to God that He open the eyes of the others. The entire brotherhood looked and saw Basil among them. One brother, Letius, out of joy spread his arms and wanted to embrace Basil, but he vanished and Letius heard Basil's voice saying; "Save yourselves, fathers and brothers, save yourselves."

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Religious Women More Successful In Love Than Big City Girls

Olga Gumanova
January 20, 2011
Pravda.ru

Religious women in strict clothes would be laughed at and used as a subject for countless jokes during the beginning of the 1990s. Their secular friends and colleagues did not even want to believe that young women wearing long skirts and handkerchiefs could arrange their private lives successfully. However, as experience shows, girls in handkerchiefs enjoy special demand.

The TV series and two motion pictures Sex and the City has earned global popularity for one simple reason. The lives of its main characters are very similar to the fates of millions of lonely woman all over the world. They are successful, attractive and stylish, but single. How can one explain the paradox?

It seems that those women, who do not use cosmetics, wear plain clothes, cover their heads with kerchiefs and follow religious rules, are no competition to fashionable and liberated women when it comes to love affairs. Real life proves the opposite, though. Religious women get married one after another and celebrate the joy of motherhood. The prototypes of Sex and the City women keep meeting each other in restaurants and cafes to sip cocktails and complain to each other of their failures in relationships with men.

If you ask a big city woman why she broke up with her boyfriend, the answer will in most cases be typical: he is not tidy, he scatters his socks all over the place and he is very inaccurate when he eats. As a rule, they expect too much from their men (the level of income, the social status, the intellectual development) or they want to have romantic relationships (exciting and memorable dates, poems written in their honor and other surprises that testify to high feelings).

Maybe, such oppositely directed demands mean that a successful city woman does not need a serious relationship with a man, that she does not need a marriage. A religious woman does not face such a choice: she chooses marriage and family. If she does not choose family, she chooses solitude and becomes a nun.

"Modern women do not want to get married, they do not want to have children, - Ivan, a 30-year-old man said. - I broke up with my first common law wife because she only liked to have fun, she was not interested in having a family. I met my wife in a group of volunteers, who helped orphans. There were people of different beliefs among the volunteers, but the group was organized by Orthodox believers. My wife turned out to be a religious person, she shares a patriarchal point of view about family and she dreams to have children," the man said.

Men become attracted to religious women because they create personality cult in their families. An emancipated woman perceives her husband just as a partner, whom she can compete with. A religious woman sees her husband as the head of her family. A man is a ruler in traditional families.

"She serves him dinner and she bows to him, she is completely crazy," other woman often say about religious females.

Religious families have so much to celebrate. There are so many religious holidays which families celebrate altogether. What do secular families celebrate? Just Christmas and New Year with their stupid salads and dull TV shows.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Consensus Science Can Be A Fickle Friend

Recently, historian of medicine Michael Flannery, author of World of Life, remarked on the lack of informational value when we hear that 99% of the scientific community believes something controversial, therefore it should be accepted by all:

Cotton Mather (1663-1728), the New England divine, actually proposed a germ theory of medicine when 99.9% of the medical community disagreed with him. Conversely, Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) proposed a “phlogiston” theory to explain combustion (burning) and rusting that nearly every scientist of the day (including Joseph Priestly [1733-1804]), hailed.

More recently, when Joseph Goldberger (1874-1929) suggested that pellagra was a nutritional deficiency disease he was dismissed because the Thompson-McFadden Commission had “proven” pellagra to be infectious. History is replete with such examples.

In fact, I would suggest that history indicates that consensus per se merely confirms periods of stability within the scientific community NOT necessarily validity of the concepts around which that consensus has formed.

Science is not entirely cumulative. Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) told us this before Kuhn. “The philosophy of nature,” he wrote in 1959, “evolved by occasional leaps and bounds alternating with delusional pursuits, culs-de sac, regressions, periods of blindness, and amnesia. . . . The mad clockwork of epicycles was kept going for two thousand years; and Europe knew less geometry in the fifteenth century than in Archimedes’ time.” The invocation of consensus in matters of science can be a very fickle friend.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Convert From Protestantism Embraces the Theotokos

The following inspirational testimonial was written by a friend of mine who recently converted to Orthodoxy from Protestantism, and is featured here exclusively in the hopes of inspiring all to embrace the Theotokos, with or without hesitation.

I was raised Southern Baptist and even graduated from one of their seminaries. I had been taught to view Christianity, well specifically the elements that were not mentioned in the Bible, as examples of the paganization of Christianity. I viewed everything through the von Harnackian prism whereby Christianity becoming Hellenized was a contemptible thing. I read eloquent portrayals of Byzantine life, where they viewed the prayers of the Saints in heaven as a mirror of the Byzantine emperor's court. Because a person needed a person on the "inside" to make things happen with the emperor. Little did I understand that those who died in Christ are alive. These greatest in the kingdom are servants to all.

I was chrismated into the Orthodox Church a year and two months ago after a year long catechumenate. Devotion to the Theotokos and prayer to the saints were the two hurdles I struggled with the longest. But after two years of saying my daily prayers in front of my icon corner, each day invoking the prayers of the Theotokos and all the saints, I have never found myself worshiping anything or anyone other than the Holy Trinity.

I have noticed over the last month, devotion to the Theotokos has become part of my Orthodox experience. My parish priest gave me a Christmas card that had an icon of the Theotokos on it. I taped it on the wall by my front door, and often kiss it as I am leaving or coming, as I hang my keys by it. When I kiss the Theotokos' hand, I feel grateful for the Incarnate Word that destroyed death and corruption. With that kiss I feel connected to all the Saints, past, present and future who live because of Jesus Christ's victory over death.

Also, I have been agonizing about a certain decision in my life. After praying to the Theotokos I have seen some things developing. I have noticed when a certain prayer request is dear to my heart, I find myself turning to the Theotokos with it, knowing the love she has for people.

Sometimes I still feel my former Protestantism creeping up in my mind saying "you are no different than a pagan praying to Aphrodite". But ultimately, it is a great comfort that the Theotokos and the Saints intercede for sinful me.

- Anonymous

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saint Maximos the Greek of Vatopaidi

St. Maximos the Greek (Feast Day - January 21)

An Indomitable Herald of Patristic Tradition

by Archimandrite Ephraim,
Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi

During its historic past, the spiritual activity of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi [one of the twenty monasteries on the Holy Mountain of Athos—Trans.] has proved to be twofold. On the one hand, the monastery has lived in hesychia (silence, stillness) and freedom from cares, which are the preconditions for deification; and, on the other hand, it has sent forth its deified and sanctified children as missionaries, so that they might offer a good witness to the Orthodox Athonite Tradition for the strengthening of the people of God—something not extraneous to the life of the Church throughout the ages. We can say that the monastery became very distinguished in this field, such that it undertook missionary work not only within Greece, but also in other Orthodox nations.

St. Maximos of Vatopaidi—better known as St. Maximos the Greek—was one of the most learned monks of his time, distinguishing himself as a theologian, philosopher, author, and poet during the first half of the sixteenth century, and became known as the “enlightener and reformer of the Russian nation.”

He was born in the city of Arta [northwestern Greece] in 1470 to a wealthy, illustrious, and pious family, and was named Michael Triboles. His parents gave him his basic education at the schools of Arta and Kerkyra (Corfu). At twenty years of age, he went to Italy, where he pursued higher studies for some fifteen years at the universities of Venice, Padua, Ferrara, Florence, and Milan. One of the more distinguished biographers of St. Maximos, E. Golubinsky, maintains that, had the Saint ultimately remained in Italy, he would have become one of the most eminent university professors of his age.

St. Maximos, however, gave himself over to an intense search for an authentic way of Christian life, having seen for himself the nakedness of humankind bereft of God’s Grace while living in Italy, where Renaissance humanism was then flourishing. At the same time, moralism had turned the world to the senseless passions of hypocrisy, avarice, inhumanity, and dissoluteness. Thus, upon hearing about the monastic republic of the Holy Mountain and yearning to achieve the highest human calling—that of deification—and having discerned the vanity of every earthly glory and wisdom, he decided to dedicate his life to the Lord as a monk in this glorious cradle of Eastern Orthodox Tradition, eventually settling in the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi.

His departure for the Holy Mountain

At the Monastery of Vatopaidi, he lived in asceticism for approximately ten years. He exercised himself in the basic virtues of obedience and abstinence, thereby essentially avoiding all human passions, since he cut off his every will, desire, greed, and pride. His insatiable yearning for the acquisition of virtues and his enviable diligence in exercising himself therein rendered him a vessel of the loftiest virtues of humility, nonacquisitiveness, and love. By means, again, of these virtues, he constantly sacrificed himself for his fellow ascetics and fellow men. Simultaneously, he united his soul with God through unceasing prayer, becoming an abode of the Holy Spirit.

The monastery’s rich library also nourished the Saint spiritually; he found great delight in studying its books. From the library’s rare manuscripts, he garnered the wisdom of his predecessors in the Orthodox monastic tradition. At the same time, the example of the monastery’s other learned Fathers became a luminous guiding light in the Angelic, monastic life.

The monastery’s Fathers soon discerned the cultivation of his soul, so rich in virtues and spiritual gifts. They thus entrusted him with necessary work outside of the monastery, which the holy Father used as opportunities to strengthen our suffering Orthodox people, who were assailed by illiteracy, the bonds of the Turkish Yoke, and the heresies of the West.

In 1515, Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovich [of Russia] asked the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Protos of the Holy Mountain for an experienced, learned, and virtuous monk, who could translate Church texts into the Slavonic language and correct erroneous translations and copies of Holy Scriptures and Patristic texts.

Monk Sabbas of Vatopaidi was initially chosen, but he refused on account of his advanced age. The lot thus fell to the eminent Monk Maximos.

His mission in Russia

St. Maximos left the Holy Mountain in 1516. Representing the Russian people, Metropolitan Varlaam of Moscow and Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovich welcomed the Athonite monk and those with him.

Unfortunately, at that time the Russian nation was being scourged by new ideologies, which had slipped even into Orthodox ecclesiastical books, perhaps not fortuitously.

St. Maximos began his work of writing, translating, correcting, and exegesis. At the same time, his genuine Orthodox way of life soon came to attract the Grand Prince and the Metropolitan, as well as the Russian people and numerous eminent and distinguished people, who recognized in him a sagacious monk with the ability to resolve, by the power of God and his wise teachings and counsels, the multifarious problems pertaining to people of all social classes and walks of life. Thus, he began his advisory work chiefly before the Russian ruler and the Metropolitan, who directed matters relating to the State and the Church, respectively.

We should also note that St. Maximos was the first to initiate the Russian people into ancient Greek philosophy and literature, thanks to his many years of profound studies at Western universities. Moreover, he was the first to introduce the art of printing into Russia, owing to his close ties with the renowned Italian typographer and savant, Aldus Manutius.

Generally speaking, St. Maximos the Enlightener and Equal-to -the-Apostles acted resourcefully and wisely, taking care to educate a multitude of people, who subsequently continued his colossal work of enlightening Russia in Orthodox Christianity, for the salvation of the people and the glory and joy of the Church of Christ.

These cultural activities of the Saint underscore his manifold acts of beneficence, showing him forth not only as a missionary worker, but also as a civilizer of the Russian people, who at that time were in a state of illiteracy and ignorance.

St. Maximos’ missionary activities lasted eight years. He bore a heavy cross, however, with his work on behalf of the Faith; or rather, the Devil, the enemy of the truth, attempted to destroy St. Maximos’ work, though the Evil One ultimately failed in this regard, since the “grain of wheat fell on good ground and sprang up, and bore fruit a hundredfold” (cf. St. Luke 8:8).

Conflict with the political and ecclesiastical leadership

More specifically, owing to irregularities on the part of certain political and ecclesiastical figures—due, in large part, to ignorance—the Athonite Father was compelled to expostulate with and censure certain individuals, on the basis of the principles of the Gospel and in accordance with the ecclesiastical capacity afforded him by the Russian Church and the country’s royalty.

Unfortunately, however, not only did things not improve, but St. Maximos was now additionally confronted with the enmity of those he had censured, among them the Grand Prince and the new Metropolitan of Russia, Daniel, who disregarded the Saint’s sincere concern for their salvation and for the right direction of the Russian Church.

Thenceforth the Saint was to bear a heavy cross of imprisonments and tribulations unto death. Precisely these tribulations perfected St. Maximos spiritually, however, such that today the equal-to-the-apostles, confessor, martyr, and ascetic is regarded as one of the foremost illustrious children of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi, and of our Orthodox Church in general. It is he who, by Divine calling, accumulated all of the charisms; and all of the aforementioned appellations befit him to such an extent that not one of them can be deemed an exaggeration.

St. Maximos censured representatives of the Church for living in a manner unbecoming to the clergy and monasticism, as well as for inappropriate behavior towards the people. At the same time, he also reprimanded political representatives for similar matters, just as St. John the Forerunner—who was put to death in prison for censuring the King for committing adultery—had done. Thus, St. Maximos became a confessor by upholding moral standards with strictness and by rebuking those who did not live morally, regardless of their office or rank.

He did not become conceited by the honors shown to him by the Grand Prince, nor by the fact that he was the foremost royal counsellor and ate with the Grand Prince at the same table for eight whole years, as if he were himself a prince. None of these things made him forget that he was a monk—and an Athonite monk at that—who had been called by Divine behest to correct the morals of the Russian people. Nor did he take into account that he would lose favor with the Grand Prince and representatives of the Church, along with the honors they showed him, by censuring them.

His imprisonment

He was condemned, as an alleged heretic, to life imprisonment in fetters and deprived of partaking of the Holy Mysteries. Placed in solitary confinement, he was forbidden to have any communication with the faithful. He suffered all of these things, as we said above, because he had censured his accusers for immoral behavior, using Christian morals as his basis. Likewise, he was prohibited from carrying on correspondence or reading books. The final prohibition was a martyrdom in itself for the learned monk-philosopher, since his spiritual nourishment and delight were derived from the study and writing of books.

Metropolitan Daniel, who was primarily responsible for St. Maximos’ ordeals, placed in his prison cell two cruel and inhuman guards, who tormented him without mercy for six continuous years. As St. Maximos later wrote to Metropolitan Makarios of Moscow: “Imprisoned, I was kept in bonds, dying from the cold, smoke, and hunger.”

His biographer, Kurbsky, writes that:

"He suffered much from the burdensome bonds and the long confinement in a frightful prison, ...being exceedingly beleaguered and mercilessly tortured, both physically and mentally, by intolerable ordeals for six years in iron fetters. ...As a result of these tortures, St. Maximos would often fall completely unconscious, almost to the point of death. At one point, wishing to alleviate his affliction, he wrote a Canon to the Holy Spirit on the prison wall with a piece of charcoal, since he was not permitted paper on which to write. Under these conditions, he never grumbled or condemned anyone! At the end of his earthly life, St. Maximos would write a letter in which he prayed with regard to Metropolitan Daniel, who was the primary cause of his myriads of tortures: ‘May God not lay this sin to his charge’!"

During his first imprisonment in the Monastery of Volokolamsk, and, following that, during his second transfer to the Monastery of Otroch, he was confined to a damp and dark, subterranean prison, deprived of light and heating, and of every human consolation to which even the vilest of malefactors is entitled.

Who is capable of describing his martyrdom, and especially his deprivation of the Divine Eucharist? Only one who has come to know the love of our sweetest Jesus could describe such a martyrdom.

Despite the Saint’s protests over this harsh and unjust epitimion (penance), and despite his pleas at least to be permitted to partake of the Divine Mysteries—saying, with deep pain: “I ask that you vouchsafe me to partake of the All-Immaculate and Live-giving Mysteries of Christ, which I have been denied for seventeen years now. ...Grant me, I beseech you, this favor..., save this lost soul....” “...I seek mercy and benevolence....” “...I ask for mercy; show me mercy, that you might also be vouchsafed the same Grace”—unfortunately, the clergy of iniquity did not pay him heed. They confined him without permitting him Holy Communion for eighteen full years.

Moreover, as we said above, his martyrdom was heightened by the tremendous pain caused by being enchained for six years at the prison of Volokolamsk, and then again during the first eight years of confinement in the prison of the Monastery of Otroch. In total, he spent fourteen years in iron bonds (1525-1539), and was imprisoned for a total of twenty-six years.

Dealing with his tribulations

Saint Maximos suffered all of his ordeals with patience and without resentment. Never did he reproach those who had caused him to undergo such great sufferings, nor did he ever depart from the bounds of spiritual nobility and meekness. This he achieved through humility. Emulating other holy Fathers, while protesting against his condemnation as a heretic and a blasphemer, he nevertheless accepted his trials as if they had been permitted by God on account of his sins.

Thus, he wrote to Metropolitan Daniel: “But I tell you in this regard that you have [unjustly] condemned me for heresy and prohibited me from partaking of the Divine Mysteries. As for my other many and innumerable sins, I am not able to open my mouth. I must not despair, however, but rather hope in God’s immeasurable mercy....” And elsewhere: “The Just Judge, Who desires that all men be saved, Who has permitted me to undergo these afflictions on account of my many great sins, and not for heresy or blasphemy...”

The Saint’s patience was also due to Divine strengthening, in accordance with the Psalm: “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given gladness to my soul.”

The consolations of the Holy Spirit were such that not only they equiponderated the Saint’s sorrows, his pains from the tortures, and his tears, but additionally they caused Divine love to overflow in his heart, becoming his “bread day and night.”

The venerable Father was also vouchsafed a vision of a Holy Angel, who descended into the prison and offered him the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus. Following this miracle and his Divine vision and succor, in Divine exaltation he composed and wrote with charcoal on the prison wall the aforementioned Ode to the Holy Spirit, which begins: “O, the manna by which Thou once didst feed Israel in the desert...,” followed by “with Thy Bodiless Ministers, I also chant to Thee...” which imply the vision of the Angel who transmitted to him the Body and Blood of our Lord.

As for the further Divine succor granted to him, who could know or tell of it? God guided him, through this hard path, towards perfection. We also see this from the exhortation by the Holy Angel, who appeared to him and said: “Maximos, be patient in these sufferings, that you might escape the sufferings of eternal chastisement.”

Thus, St. Maximos, by Divine revelation, became completely aware that he was fulfilling the Will of God when he was forlorn and reckoned an abomination by all, a stranger in a foreign land. In a state of extreme humility of spirit, he put into his heart that he was the lowest person on earth, humbled with Divine knowledge that the Lord had permitted his sufferings; for through the path of extreme humility He wished to guide him to spiritual perfection.

Living in seclusion and silence, he prayed unceasingly, with wordless groanings of the heart, noetically calling from the depths of his heart upon the Name of his sweetest Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

Thus, through his martyrdom and through bearing the Cross of the Lord with knowledge, the Saint became perfected in Christ, completely dispassionate, a pleasant psaltery and sonorous cittern of the Holy Spirit, and a dwelling-place of the Holy Trinity!

St. Maximos was among the few monastic Saints who conducted their spiritual struggles devoid of a guide and human solidarity— without a spiritual Father or Elder to comfort and strengthen him as he bore his cross, and even without the solidarity of like-minded brothers, according to the saying: “A brother helped by a brother is as a strong and fortified city.”

He was faced with “external battles,” “imprisoned, kept in bonds, dying from the cold, smoke, and hunger,” but also with “internal fears,” lest he repine against God over the multitude of his tribulations or transgress God’s commandments by becoming angry with those who had done him injustice, revile them, or bear them resentment.

At the same time, a whole mob of other passions raged against him. The battle was gigantic, and the conditions under which the Saint struggled were not only incomprehensible, but even inconceivable to us. He conquered, however, with the alliance of the Lord, Who loved him and Who had given Himself over unto death for the sake of all.

His sentence is mitigated

Saint Maximos saved the entire Russian Church from prejudices, superstitions, and heretical beliefs that held sway at that time in Russia.

While imprisoned in the Monastery of Otroch (1531-1551), he was given relative freedom of communication by Metropolitan Akaky of Tver (following a sign from God), so that this light might not remain “under a bushel” (cf. St. Matthew 5:15).

Thus, while bound in chains for years in a dark, damp, subterranean prison, he tirelessly continued to write, translating sacred texts into Slavonic and composing, among many other things, anti-heretical works, for the sake of protecting and enlightening the Russian people. In addition, with fatherly affection, he once again began preaching, comforting the Christians who hastened to his prison cell to hear his advice and seek his prayers.

Several years after the imprisonment of Metropolitan Daniel, Metropolitan Makary of All Russia released the Saint from his unjust punishment of excommunication, which had lasted eighteen years (1525-1543).

From time to time, he would fervently beseech to be liberated, so as to return to his beloved monastery on Mt. Athos, but never received a response. When Tsar Ivan the Terrible ascended the royal throne, the Greek monk repeated his appeal, but again without positive results. Likewise, Patriarch Dionysios of Constantinople (in 1545), Patriarch Germanos of Jerusalem, the Patriarch of Alexandria (on September 4, 1545), and the Monastery of Vatopaidi all sent requests to the Tsar to release St. Maximos.

In one of his own letters to the Tsar, St. Maximos wrote:

"Please deign, by the Name of the Lord, to show mercy to me, the wretch. Grant me to see the Holy Mountain, where prayer is sent up for the whole world. Restore me to the holy Fathers and to my brethren, who pray on your behalf. Yield in a Christian manner to their entreaties and tears. Do not wish to appear disobedient to the OEcumenical Patriarch, who is entreating you on my behalf."

And elsewhere:

"Judge for yourself, I beg you, if I am worthy of hatred for all that I rightly corrected, and if I was justly slandered by certain ones as a heretic and denied communion with the faithful and of the Divine Gifts for so many years.... If, then, I speak rightly and credibly, show me, the wretch, your goodness and mercy, as a pious and unbiased judge, and acquit me of the unjust slanders and these ordeals, which I have been suffering for many years now.... Grant me, I implore your reverence, to return to the Holy Mountain, where I toiled in many and various ways both spiritually and bodily in hope of salvation, that I might lay down my bones there in peace."

And elsewhere:

"Return me, most devout Tsar, to the venerable monastery of the Theotokos of Vatopaidi. Spiritually gladden its holy monks, your servants and fervent intercessors. Do not desire to grieve them."

It is worth noting that in each of his letters the Saint pleaded to be returned to the Holy Mountain, repeating the phrase: “that I might lay down my bones there in peace."

Yet his martyrdom continued. His return was deemed dangerous by the Tsar and Church leaders of the time, since the Saint knew all of the negative aspects of the political and ecclesiastical life of Russia, and they were afraid that he would hold them up to public opinion and reveal the ill will they had shown him.

His Sentence Is Lifted

In 1551, the new Tsar, examining the entire affair with his dignitaries, who insisted on the Saint’s vindication, ordered that he be moved to the renowned Lavra of St. Sergey, thereby ending his sentence of imprisonment, which had lasted twenty-six consecutive years, without, however, permitting him to return to his homeland and his monastery of repentance, for the aforementioned reasons.

St. Maximos, by now elderly and exhausted from the manifold hardships of his life imprisonment, gave over his soul to the hands of our Lord, to be relieved of his toils and pains, on January 21, 1556, the day on which the Church commemorates his Patron Saint, Maximos the Confessor. On this day as well, his brothers at the Monastery of Vatopaidi had the custom of celebrating the Feast of the Panagia Paramythia (“of Consolation”).

He was around eighty-six years old when he reposed in 1556, and had served the Russian Church and its pious faithful until his last breath for a total of thirty-eight years, twenty-six of which he had spent in prison.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople proclaimed the sanctity of Maximos the Greek in 1988. Following that, during the celebration that same year of the millennium of Orthodoxy [in Russia] in Moscow, he was glorified by the Russian Church. The Translation of his Relics took place on June 21, 1996 (Old Style), in the Church of the Holy Lavra of St. Sergey, where St. Maximos lived during the last five years of his life.

A portion of his Relics were handed over to the Monastery of Vatopaidi, the monastery of his repentance, on July 8, 1997 (Old Style), in the Church of the Panagia of Kazan by Patriarch Alexey of Moscow and All Russia. The celebration of the Translation of his Relics to the Monastery of Vatopaidi took place on July 14, 1997 (Old Style).

* * *

The example of St. Maximos should give us courage. The discipline of the Lord through ordeals did not destroy him; rather, with faith, prayer, and virtue, he drew upon Divine strength and remained patient throughout indescribable temptations. We recount the lives of the Saints in order to follow their examples, to gain strength, and to approach God with orthopraxia, by Church attendance, confession, and partaking of the Divine Mysteries. Every one of us will bear, according to his strength, the Cross of his Resurrection. Knowledge of the path towards our Divine Transfiguration is necessary, and in particular for the Greek nation, which led so many other nations to knowledge of God by means of its wise Saints, who are equals to the Apostles.

We pray that our All-Good Triune God, who “worketh hitherto,” might ever send forth worthy and holy workers, like the great and tireless Saint Maximos, to His vineyard, for the salvation of all. We also pray that God, through the intercessions of this our holy Father, grant His Grace for the preservation of unity of Faith and bonds of love in our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ.

Source: Pemptousia, No. 20 (April-July 2006), pp. 114-121.

A specimen of the handwriting of St. Maximos, from Codex 198, leaf 579, Holy Monastery of Docheiariou.


The Holy Lavra of St. Sergey, where St. Maximos lived during the last five years of his life. The arrow marks the Church of the Holy Spirit, where his reliquary is kept.


The Holy Icon of the Panagia, given by Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovich to the delegation of Vatopaidian monks who accompanied St. Maximos to Russia in 1517.


Relic of St. Maximos the Greek

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Site of Jesus' Baptism Literally Remains a Minefield

January 20, 2011
Associated Press

Just months before the official opening of one of Christianity's holiest sites to visitors, the area where John the Baptist is said to have baptized Jesus remains surrounded by thousands of land mines.

Israel says the sites visited by pilgrims and tourists in an area known as Qasr el-Yahud will be safe, but advocacy groups warn that crowds could be in danger.

On Tuesday, some 15,000 Christian pilgrims marched between two fenced-in minefields to reach the Epiphany ceremony led by the Greek Orthodox patriarch on the Jordan River, five miles east of the oasis town of Jericho at the edge of the West Bank.

Worshippers from around the world dipped themselves in the muddy waters, facing fellow believers on the other side of the small river. Orthodox clergymen dressed in dark frocks and robes chanted prayers as Patriarch Theofilos III blessed the waters, hurled branches and released white doves into the air.

This site is Christianity's third holiest — after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, on the spot where Christian belief says Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where tradition holds Jesus was born — and the baptism marks the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.

Since Israel took control of the area in the 1967 Mideast war, pilgrims have had to coordinate their visits with the Israeli military, because of security concerns and leftover land mines.

The ancient churches and monasteries on the Israeli side, some dating back to the fourth century, are surrounded by signs reading "Danger! Mines!"

"Since it was a border, the place is really littered by hundreds and hundreds of mines, and therefore the area is not open to the public and to the believers and pilgrims," said Avner Goren, an archaeologist who works with Israel's Tourism Ministry.

The ministry says about 60,000 people visit each year, but with the upcoming official opening that number is expected to rise to the millions. No date for the opening has been set.

The Israeli military says the baptism site and adjacent churches are located in a "completely mine-free zone," and insists "no danger is posed to tourists or worshippers."

"The (military) regularly clears away minefields in the Jordan River Valley, and in the last year alone approximately 8,000 mines have been removed from the area," the military said in a statement.

Dhyan Or, the Israel director of the global anti-mining advocacy group Roots of Peace, said there are half a million mines in the Jordan Valley — an area prone to floods. He warned that land mines could drift from the fenced areas, and that overzealous worshippers could stray from the marked paths.

"There is no political problem to remove the mines and no technical problem to do so," he said. "All that is missing is the political will."

In contrast, Jordan cleared the minefields on its side of the border after signing a peace deal with Israel in 1994. Jordan has developed a cultural heritage center on its side across the narrow river from the West Bank shrine, claiming it as the site of the baptism. The center has attracted millions of tourists. Pope John Paul II visited the Jordanian site in 2000, reinforcing the Jordanian claim.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Russian Orthodox Propose Measures To Prevent Abortions

Country Faces Dramatic Demographic Decline.

Paul De Maeyer
January 20, 2011
Zenit

Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has proposed to Russian President Dimitri Medvedev a series of family policies that would restrict access to abortion, reports the Agence France Presse.

The proposals, which mark the first time the Russian Orthodox Church has suggested specific policies to the Russian government, were sent Monday, ahead of a meeting of the Council of State on the theme of the family.

Among other things, the patriarchate requests that the expenses of abortion no longer be covered by the health system (except in the case of danger to the woman's life); it also proposes the obligation to inform women about all the negative consequences of the interruption of pregnancy and hopes, moreover, for the introduction of an informed consensus and a time of reflection. The document of the Orthodox Church also suggests the creation of a "crisis center" in all obstetric clinics that would be staffed by counselors and religious persons.

Aleksandr Verkhovski, of the Sova human rights center, told AFP that the partriarch offered "very moderate proposals, from a religious point of view," but affirmed that "the Orthodox Church, as Catholics, is categorically opposed to abortion, but in this address to the authorities, it counts on a compromise."

Population plummet

Already last June, the Russian Orthodox Church had launched an appeal in favor of more severe norms to reduce abortions in the country, in response to worries about the decreasing size of the population. On June 1, the archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin -- an influential figure close to Patriarch Kyrill -- was quoted by Reuters saying that "in Soviet times we were accustomed to abortion and to consider it an inevitable part of our legal reality with no way of turning back. But today we see that it is possible to turn back quite a bit."

According to the archpriest, even young people without ties to the Church, or with other religious institutions, wish to see a reduction in the number of abortions.

Abortion in Russia goes back a long time. In 1920, just three years after the revolution of 1917, Russia became the first country in the world to legalize the practice. Prohibited again in 1936 by Stalin (with the exception of some situations), abortion was reintroduced in 1955, about two years after his death. Less than 10 years after this date, in 1964, the highest level of abortions was recorded in the history of Russia or the then Soviet Union: 5.6 million.

The number of abortions began to drop in Russia over the span of the last decades. According to data of the Health Ministry, reported Sept. 16, 2003 by the BBC, in 1990 there were 3.92 million abortions, 2.57 million in 1995, 1.96 million in 2000, and 1.78 million in 2002. However, despite this decline, the level of abortions exceeded that of births in 2004: 1.6 million abortions as opposed to 1.5 million births (The Times, Sept. 24, 2005).

Along with other factors, such as the ruin of the health system after the collapse of the USSR and the excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks (especially vodka), the high number of abortions is at the origin of a dramatic demographic decline, begun in the mid 1990s, that is, almost immediately after the collapse of the USSR. In less than 20 years, the Russian population decreased from almost 149 million in 1991 to less than 142 million in 2010.

The effect of this demographic collapse is already visible in the educational system. According to data of the Ministry of Public Education, reported by The Times, since 1999, the number of school children fell every year by close to one million. In the 2004-2005 school year, there were 5,604 schools with only 10 pupils.

Without a drastic change of course, the tendency to decrease will continue and could lead, according to the projections of the United Nations, to 116 million inhabitants in Russia in 2050 (World Population Prospects: the 2008 Revision Population Database).

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Post-USSR Catholic-Orthodox Relations Studied By Catholics

January 20, 2011
Zenit

The relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches after the disintegration of the Soviet Union 20 years ago will be the topic of a March 19 congress in Wurzburg.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, will discuss this topic in a round table as part of the congress organized by Aid to the Church in Need.

Also taking part in the debate will be the aid agency's president in Germany, Antonia Willemsen, and the head of the Russian Section of Aid to the Church in Need International, Peter Humeniuk. The moderator will be the writer Stefan Baier of Die Tagespost, a Catholic newspaper of Wurzburg.

In preparation for the meeting, Willemsen and Humeniuk traveled to Rome to inform Cardinal Koch on the works of their agency in Russia.

The prelate applauded the initiative of the association to promote interreligious rapprochement between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

He said that he is very interested in the meeting with Metropolitan Alfeyev, whom he has known and esteemed for years. He expressed confidence that the dialogue will continue to prosper.

Willemsen affirmed that, at the request of John Paul II, the aid agency has always made an effort to collaborate with the "Russian Orthodox Sister Church" since the fall of Communism, without neglecting aid to the Russian Catholic Church.

Current debate

At present, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are debating the question of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.

As Cardinal Koch explained last November in a plenary assembly of the dicastery he heads, "An ecclesiology linked to the national culture and a Catholic ecclesiology oriented to the concept of universality have been up to now in disagreement."

Whereas for Pope Paul VI this question was the "major obstacle" for the restoration of full communion, he explained, "in the eyes of the present Pontiff it is also the main opportunity for union."

According to the thinking of Benedict XVI, the cardinal said, "without primacy, the Catholic Church would also have disintegrated a long time ago into national Churches sui iuris, which would have confused and complicated the ecumenical landscape."

He noted that for ecumenism now, it is necessary that "the Catholic Church reflect further on the idea that the primacy of the Bishop of Rome is not a simple external juridical appendix to Eucharistic ecclesiology, but an element that is founded precisely on it."

On the other hand, the prelate stated, "the Orthodox Church should address with determination the problem of autocephaly, because it is of fundamental importance for its future and for ecumenism, and thus seek adequate solutions in order to recover its own internal unity and its capacity to act in a concerted way."

Cardinal Koch pointed out the importance of the work of the International Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church over the last few years, noting that there have been advances in the discussions on ecclesiology in general and on the primacy of the Bishop of Rome in particular.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Metropolitan of Dimitriados Explains He Was Ambushed

In the Greek morning show "Skai Now" His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatios of Dimitriados explained the situation earlier in the week regarding his reading of the Old Testament passages during Great Vespers in the vernacular.

According to Romfea.gr, he said: "It is something I have done for the past two years now, and not a recent thing. Some chose this moment to create an issue."

"The protests were organized by some people who are not from our region. They wanted to create a problem to respond to our choice. It is my personal choice," responded the Metropolitan.

His Eminence further explained that the passages from the Old Testament have a didactic purpose for the people and are not prayers addressed to God in a higher language. Often they are read without being understood.

He added that the text is officially approved by the Church through the Bible Society.

"Believe me, that whenever I read the passages from the Old Testament in the demotic, it is as if the faithful are listening to a second sermon," the Metropolitan emphasized.

Related post: Video: Metropolitan Ignatios of Dimitriados Faces Opposition For Using Vernacular Language

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saint Eugenios of Trebizond: His Life and Veneration

St. Eugenios or Eugene the Martyr of Trebizond (Feast Day - January 21)

The Holy Martyrs Eugenios, Candidus, Valerian and Aquila suffered for their faith in Christ during the reign of Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311), under the regimental commander Lycius. Valerian, Candidus and Aquila had hidden themselves in the hills near Trebizond, preferring life among the wild beasts to living with the pagans. They were soon found, however, and brought to Trebizond. For their bold and steadfast confession of faith in Christ the holy martyrs were whipped with ox thongs, scraped with iron claws, then were burned with fire.

Several days later St Eugenios was also arrested, and subjected to the same tortures. He boldly destroyed the statue of Mithras through his prayers, which had long been the subject of adoration to the peole of Trebizond, on Mount Mithrios, now Bouz-tepe, that overlooks the city with its wall of rock. Later, they poured vinegar laced with salt into his wounds. After these torments, they threw the four martyrs into a red-hot oven. When they emerged from it unharmed, they were beheaded, receiving their incorruptible crowns from God.

They were martyred under Roman Governor Pontitus Catinius Coresinus in 304 AD.

The Veneration of St. Eugenios in Trebizond

The remains of St. Eugenios were buried in the Potters Cemetery in an unmarked grave, yet remembered by Christians who treasured his memory for his sacrifice. In the year 326, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, a shrine was built over the unmarked grave of Eugenios and cared for by Christians in Trebizond. Under Justinian in the 6th century Procopius informs us that an aqueduct was built in Trebizond named after St. Eugenios. In the year 812, a church was built in Trebizond and named after the martyr St. Eugenios. The martyrdom of St. Eugenios took place at an isolated point between two ravines that separate the upper citadel and the great eastern suburb. His remains were moved here from the shrine in Potters Cemetery to the Church of St. Eugenios built over the place of his martyrdom.

In 1057 A.D., Isaac I was proclaimed Emperor of Trebizond. Having learned of the martyrdom of Eugenios, the Emperor renamed his palace guards the “Palace Guards of St. Eugenios.” The oldest life of the saint dates to eleventh century Constantinople.

In the year 1450, Alexius III rebuilt the Church of St. Eugenios into a glorious Basilica, attaching to it a monastery that would also bear the name of St. Eugenios. The remains of St. Eugenios were given a place of honor in this new church.

St. Eugenios was chosen by the emperor and people of Trebizond to act as their advocate in heaven and their protector on earth. His name and veneration served to separate the citizens of the empire of Trebizond from the citizens of the empire of Byzantium. The buildings dedicated to St. Eugenios were more than once destroyed amidst the revolutions of Trebizond; but a Christian church, now converted into a mosque by the Osmanlis, and called Yeni Djuma djami still exists.

The effigy of St. Eugenios was also impressed on all the silver coins of Trebizond.* The festivals of St. Eugenios became the boad of social communication between the emperor and his subjects: the biography of the saint was the textbook of Trapezuntine literature; his praise the subject of every oratorical display; his name the appelation of one member in every family, the object of universal veneration, and the centre of patriotic enthusiasm. The religion, the literature, and the politics of the inhabitants of Trebizond, during the whole existence of the empire (1204-1461), identified themselves with the veneration of St. Eugenios.

The memory of St. Eugenios is kept alive at Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos from 1375, since the monastery was founded by Emperor Alexios III of Trebizond (1338-1390). He is celebrated both on January 21, the day of his martyrdom, and June 24, the day of his birth.

* No coins of Alexios I and Andronikos I have been identified, but all the known silver coins of Trebizond bear the effigy of St. Eugenios on their reverse. The earlier coins represent the saint on foot as the spiritual guide and shepherd of his flock. The later coins display him on horseback with a cross in his hand, as a man-at-arms, ready to protect the city.

Read also: Local Worshipers, Imperial Patrons: Pilgrimage to St. Eugenios of Trebizond


Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Your holy martyr Eugenios, O Lord, through his sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. Through his intercessions, save our souls!

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Infertile Muslim Woman Gives Birth After Prayer To St. Nicholas

January 21, 2011
Interfax

A Muslim woman in the Russian Republic of Bashkiria, who was unsuccessfully treated for infertility for 14 years, gave birth to a son after praying before the icon of St. Nicholas in an Orthodox church.

"I'm a Muslim, but for some reason I believed that it (the icon - IF) would help me," the happy mother is quoted as saying by Ufa edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

Her friends advised her to go to the church: her marriage had almost failed and the diagnosis sounded as a death verdict to family happiness - it is impossible to give birth with such stress.

It was the first time the woman came to the church, she was a little bit scared and did not know how to pray. Parishioners told her "sincerely, from the heart" to ask St. Nicholas.

Then she invented a simple prayer: "Nicholas the Wonderworker help me, give us a son, please..." Finally, the woman took off her favorite golden chain and left it near the icon - there is a belief that such gifts make a prayer more effective.

She received news that she was pregnant a month later. Her son Tamerlan makes his parents happy: he is so cheerful and clever.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Three-fold Distinction of Good and Evil

By St. John Chrysostom

Things have a three-fold distinction: the first are good and cannot be evil, for example: wisdom, charity and the like; the second are evil and can never be good, for example: perversion, inhumanity and cruelty. The third, at times becomes this or at times becomes that, whenever, according to the disposition of those who make use of it.

How riches and poverty, and freedom and slavery, and power and disease and even death itself fall into the neutral distinction which, are neither good nor evil by themselves, but become either this or that according to the disposition of men and according to the use which men make of them. For example, if riches were good and poverty evil, then all rich men would be good and all the poor would be evil.

However, we are daily convinced that as there are good and evil rich men, so also are there good and evil poor men. The same can be applied to the healthy and the sick, to the free and the enslaved, to the satiated and the hungry, to those who are in authority and to those under subjugation. Even death is not evil, for the martyrs, through death, became more fortunate than all.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

All Christians Should Pray In the Name of Jesus Christ

That All Christians - Clergy, Monastics and Laity - Should Pray in the Name of Jesus Christ

By St. Symeon, Archbishop of Thessaloniki

This Name of Jesus as a prayer should be said always by all the faithful with the mind and with the tongue. When standing or walking or sitting or reclining, always say it; forcing yourself to it. He will find great calm and joy in it, as has been the experience of all who occupy themselves with the prayer. Since this work is above all others in our life, the monks who find themselves in the midst of noise must concern themselves at least some time with this highest work.

And generally, we all should have as a pattern of prayer this prayer which is active and works with power in all - whether they be clergy or monastics or laity.

And particularly monastics, who have undertaken this work of prayer, have especially need of this prayer even if they happen to find themselves in noisy ministries. Therefore let us always hurry to this active prayer and pray to the Lord without ceasing. Never mind that there be wandering thoughts and confusion in the mind; and let us not be careless because the enemy attacks and for a moment overcomes us. Let us return immediately to the prayer, and indeed return with joy!

Let the ordained be diligent in this apostolic work and consider it equal to divine preaching or other divine assistance and perform it with love and fear in the sight of God.

Those found in the world should have the Prayer of Christ as a seal and as a sign of faith, as a protection and sanctification. And by the power which they receive from this prayer let them overcome every temptation.

Let all of us, ordained and monastics and laity, unite ourselves with Christ in our hearts as soon as we wake from sleep, let us remember Christ! And that will be the start of every good idea and suitable sacrifice through our Christ. For certainly we must always think of Christ Who saved us and loved us. Through this we are Christians and are named as such. We have put Him on in divine Baptism and been sealed with the Holy Myron and received His Holy Flesh and Blood. And further we are members of Him. His Temple! We have put Him on and He has dwelt in us!

For this it behooves us to continually love Him, and remember Him.

Let each of us have a time according to his ability and let him dedicate to the Prayer as is due.

We have spoken enough on this theme and whoever desires more will certainly find it.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Body of Young Woman Found In Greek Church Parking Lot

A little while ago the body of a young woman was found in the parking lot of St. George's Greek Orthodox Church on South Common Street in Lynn, Massachusetts.

A few hours ago an abduction occurred in the neighboring town of Revere. Massachusetts State Police report that it is unclear at this time whether the two cases are related nor is it clear how the young woman died.

UPDATE:

Employee Allegedly Killed By Client at Revere Mental Health Facility

Travis Andersen and Patricia Wen
January 20, 2011
Boston Globe

A fast-moving murder investigation on the North Shore earlier today ended tonight in Boston with the arrest of a 27-year-old mentally troubled man who fled after allegedly killing a young female employee of the small group home where he lived.

Wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap, Deshawn James Chappell was apprehended shortly before 8 p.m. inside his grandmother’s apartment building at 30 Rockland St. in Roxbury, and loaded into a waiting Boston police wagon.

He will be charged in the murder of Stephanie Moulton, 25, of Peabody, who had worked as a residential counselor at a group home in Revere run by the North Suffolk Mental Health Association, under contract with the state Department of Mental Health. She was allegedly taken by Chappell away from the facility sometime yesterday, after first being attacked. Her body was later found in a parking lot behind St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Lynn.

Read the rest here.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saint Euthymius the Great

St. Euthymios the Great (Feast Day - January 20)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Of noble and distinguished parents, Euthymius was born in the Armenian town of Melitene near the Euphrates river about the year 377 A.D. He was the only child, a son, born in answer to the prayer of his mother Dionisiya, who had a heavenly vision regarding the birth of Euthymius. From his youth, he lived a life of asceticism, at first in the proximity of his town [Melitene] but then, after he visited Jerusalem at age twenty-nine, in the desert between Jerusalem and Jericho called Pharan.

He filled his days and nights with prayer, internal thoughts about God, contemplation and physical exertion. Around him many disciples gathered some of whom are glorious saints, such as Kyriakos the Hermit, St. Savvas the Sanctified, Theotictus and others.

By God's gift, Euthymius was a great miracle worker; he expelled demons, healed the gravely ill, brought water to the desert, multiplied bread and prophesied. He taught monks the love of labor saying, "If you eat bread, not of your own labor, know that you are eating of someone else's labor." When some of the younger monks wanted to fast more than others, he forbade them to do so and commanded them to come to the communal table so that they would not become prideful as a result of their excessive fasting. He also said that it was not good for a monk to move from place to place, for he said, "A tree frequently transplanted does not bear fruit. Whoever desires to do good, can do it from the place where he is."

About love, he said, "What salt is to bread, love is to other virtues." During the first week of the Honorable Fast [Lenten Season], he retreated to the desert and remained there in solitary silence and godly-thoughts until just before the Feast of the Resurrection.

During his life time, a large monastery [Lavra] was established in the proximity of his cave which later, throughout the centuries, was completely filled with monks as a beehive is filled with bees. His final command was that the monastery always adhere to hospitality and that the gates of the monastery never be closed. He died at the age of ninety-seven.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem was in attendance at his funeral. The patriarch waited all day long until the great masses of people reverenced the body of the saint and only in the evening were they able to complete the Office for Burial for the Dead. On the seventh day following his death, Euthymius appeared radiant and rejoicing to Domentian, his disciple. The Venerable Euthymius, in truth, was a true "son of Light". He died in the year 473 A.D.

Reflection From His Life

As much as the saints were so compassionate and lenient toward human weakness, so were they terribly unyielding and unbending in regard to the confession of the true dogmas of the Faith. Thus, St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia struck Arius with his fist at the First Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 325 A.D.]. St. Anthony left his desert to come to Alexandria to publicly unmask Arius.

St. Euthymius, being greatly pressured by the Empress Eudocia and the pseudo-Patriarch Theodosius and being unable to debate rationally with them, left the monastery and hid in the desert. All other distinguished monks followed his example. Euthymius remained in the desert until the pseudo-patriarch was ousted and Orthodoxy strengthened. When, in Jerusalem, the greatest agitation surfaced in the name of the emperor against the Fourth Ecumenical Council [Chalcedon, 451 A.D.] and when the entire population was frightened by the heretics, then St. Theodosius the Great already burdened with old age, as a fearless soldier of Christ, came to Jerusalem, entered the Great Church, ascended the stairs, waved his hands and said to the people, "If anyone does not respect the Fourth Ecumenical Council as he does the four evangelists, let him be anathema." (Until this time, only four Ecumenical Councils had been convened). All of those listeners were frightened by those words and none of the heretics dared to say anything contrary to those words.

Read also:

The Teachings of St. Euthymius the Great

5th Century Byzantine Monastic Church On Masada

HYMN OF PRAISE: SAINT EUTHYMIUS

The eye which sees all, the ear which hears all,
With all travels and everywhere they travel;
Without changing place, they are in every place.
Where virtue is being kneaded, God is the yeast in the dough,
Where light is sought, He gives of Himself;
Where help is cried for, He does not absent Himself;
Quietly and silently, but always on time,
He has the time to reap and to sow the seeds,
He has the time to reproach, He has the time to reward,
To make the young old and to make the old young,
To weed, to trim and to caress fruits -
He reaches wherever He wants and He reaches when He wants.
Whenever a person alone thinks, behold, He listens,
Where two people speak, as a third party, He hears,
Where the weaver weaves the cloth, her threads He counts,
The universal fabric, in His mind He weaves,
O, who will His footsteps and paces know?
Who could enumerate His paths and places?
Eternal and Immortal, Triune and One,
In the roadless net of the universal fabric
Unseen and seen, regardless from where He is viewed
He cuts out the paths and reveals the direction.
In the roadless net, He looks at all the paths,
And does not allow not even an ant to stay.
Thoughts about Him, Saint Euthymius
For eighty years on earth, dedicated to Him.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Be glad, O barren one, that hast not given birth; be of good cheer, thou that hast not travailed; for a man of desires hath multiplied thy children of the Spirit, having planted them in piety and reared them in continence to the perfection of the virtues. By his prayers, O Christ our God, make our life peaceful.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Creation found delight and joy in thine august nativity and the good cheer of thy numberless miracles on thy divine memorial. Now bestow thereof richly on our souls and wash clean the stains of our every sin, Euthymius most righteous, that we may chant: Alleluia!

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

5th Century Byzantine Monastic Church On Masada

"There is a mountain by the Dead Sea called Mardes and it is very high. There are anchorites living in that mountain. They have a garden about six miles away from where they live, near the edge of the Sea, almost on its banks. One of the anchorites is stationed there to tend the garden. At whatever hour the anchorites wish to send to the garden for vegetables, they put a pack-saddle on the ass and say to it: 'Go to the one who tends the garden and bring us some vegetables'. It goes off alone to find the gardner; when it stands before the door, it knocks with its head. The gardner loads it up with vegetables and sends it away. You can see the ass returning alone each time, but it only serves those elders; it supplies the needs of nobody else."

- St. John Moschos, Leimonarion 158

Southeast of the synagogue in Masada are a large complex of buildings and a church built by early Christian monks probably in the fifth century. The church is entered through a porch or vestibule. The apse, at the east end, has a cavity in the floor which may have housed relics. On the north side of the nave was a (partly preserved) mosaic pavement with representations of plants and fruits.

This monastic settlement was known as a lavra and founded in 425. On the summit of Masada was also the Monastery of Castellium which is also mentioned by John Moschos. This monastery was the second of seven monasteries founded by St. Savvas the Sanctified, and it is said here he fought many demons. This mountain then was known as Mount Mardes (Mardan) or Mount Castellium. According to Derwas Chitty, St. Euthymius the Great, the spiritual father of St. Savvas, probably built the church which still stands till this day, as noted in his biography. He settled here for the water and built a church from the ruins already there, though his stay was short.

The Byzantine settlement consisted only of a small group of monks who lived on Masada, just as monks established themselves in other places in the Judean wilderness in the 5th century and later, seeking remote retreats far from the city, but preferably those which had buildings which they could use. The monks on Masada dwelt in small cells scattered over the summit. Some also lived in the caves, as is suggested by the crosses we found painted on the walls. It is assumed that they were forced to leave this location with the Persian or Muslim conquest of the country at the beginning of the 7th century. Since then Masada has remained unoccupied. They were the last inhabitants of Masada.

Masada was rediscovered in 1838 by the American scholar Edward Robinson, who identified it from Ein-Gedi with a telescope.

To read about Yigael Yadin's description of the discovery of the mosaic floor in the Byzantine chapel of Masada, see here.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Russian President Medvedev Baptized In the Jordan

January 19, 2011
RIA Novosti

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took an Epiphany dip in the holy waters of the Jordan River on Wednesday.

Epiphany, also know as Theophany, is one of the Great Christian Feasts. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 19 in line with the Julian calendar.

The Russian leader visited a Russian Orthodox center for pilgrims, currently being built near the area where Jesus Christ is believed to have been baptized by John the Baptist.

"Visiting the Jordan River on Epiphany Day is a great joy for any Orthodox believer. I'm convinced that the hotel will soon take in its first pilgrims. Happy holiday," Medvedev wrote in the guest book.

Read also: Medvedev's Middle East Tour: Baptism in Jordan

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Christianization, De-Christianization, Re-Christianization

Andrew Sorokowski
January 20, 2011
RISU

"Secularization" is one of the most popular topics in today's religious and political discourse. But what does it mean? In the strictest sense, it means turning something sacred into something profane: for example, turning a cathedral into a "temple of reason," as happened with Notre-Dame de Paris during the French Revolution, or using a church as a cinema, as happened throughout the USSR. In a broader sense, however, secularization is the process by which functions and institutions of the Church are taken over by the State – as happened, for example, with orphanages, poor-houses, schools, and hospitals throughout Europe in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. And in a still wider but vaguer sense, secularization describes the process by which the influence of religion in society decreases – as is evident in the advanced industrial and post-industrial West of our time.

According to the "secularization thesis," this latter process is inevitable, and represents the victory of Science and Reason over irrational belief. Having triumphed in the most advanced countries, secularization will eventually engulf the world, as humanity marches from an age of belief to an age of reason.

Recently, this thesis has been challenged. While students of politics, culture, and economic development point out that the experience of Western Europe should not be taken as a blueprint for the globe, sociologists of religion demonstrate that in much of the world, religion is on the upswing. In what is widely regarded as the world's most developed country, the United States, certain forms of religion (notably Evangelical Baptism and fundamentalism) continue to thrive and gain increased influence in political and cultural life. In Latin America and Asia, charismatic forms of religion are flourishing. Even Communist China is witnessing mass religious ferment. And in the Middle East, various forms of radical Islam attract ever more adherents.

This critique of the secularization thesis has evoked various responses. Adherents of traditional Christianity point out that neither Catholicism nor mainline Protestantism are showing much vitality or influence. They have lost ground in their traditional European and American homelands, but have failed to compete successfully with the new charismatic cults in the Third World.

Others, however, take a different tack. Some historians and sociologists point out that the degree of secularization has been exaggerated because the frame of comparison has been an idyllic, monolithic Christendom that never existed. Since Europe was never fully Christianized, they argue, secularization is something of a myth. They point, for example, to medieval peasants' incomplete and inaccurate understanding of the basics of Christian teaching, to their confusion of pagan and Christian beliefs and practices, to the persistence of witchcraft, and so on. One should not, they warn, confuse the political successes of Christianity and the Church with the inculcation of Christian belief among the people. The distinguished French historian of Christianization Jean Delumeau has concluded that "the deep Christianization of the masses occurred much more slowly than the establishment of politico-religious power in past Christian eras and was ultimately never completed." In his view, as well as that of Georges Duby, the actual Christianization of Europeans occurred during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.(Jean Delumeau, "The Journey of a Historian," The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 96, no. 3, July 2010, pp. 443, 444).

Yet even if one accepts the thesis that Europe was Christianized late and incompletely, it would be difficult to ignore the obvious indicators of secularization. Even measured against conditions within living memory, the extent of sheer ignorance of Christianity, as well as neglect and outright defiance of its fundamental precepts, cannot be denied. There are, of course, all kinds of statistics, such as opinion polls and sociological questionnaires, to support such a view. We give a lot of credence to such empirical indicators: what percentage of the population believes in God? What percentage attends religious services? How often? But while statistics appear to be hard, incontrovertible facts, they can be misleading. Sometimes one can learn more from the striking detail, the telling sign. Historians frequently rely on such "anecdotal" evidence to support their conclusions – together, of course, with other objective data.

According to statistics, western Ukraine is the most "religious" part of the country. The statistics of religious practice compare favorably with those of even the few remaining "Catholic countries" of central and western Europe. But more striking than these numbers are some simple, observable facts. If in L'viv you see a statue of the Virgin Mary on the corner of a dilapidated residential building, or in a niche on its worn façade, you will typically see a fresh bouquet of flowers at its feet. In much of western Europe, you may see a very similar building of the same vintage, in pristine condition, with the same statue, so typical of Latin Catholic culture. But will there be flowers?

In a sense, secularization is like global warming. Few will deny that it exists. But there is great disagreement on its causes. And given this disagreement, there is further disagreement on how to address the problem, or whether it can be addressed at all. Should we reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the real cause of global warming may be sunspots, which we cannot stop? Should we try to re-evangelize Europe, when the real reason for secularization may be some blind historical force that we cannot control?

What, then, is the solution? Can there be a solution?

Perhaps we should start at the beginning and ask ourselves, what is Christianization? We think of it as a one-time event: the conversion of Clovis or Mieszko or Olaf, or the Baptism of Rus' through immersion in the Dnipro. Historians have taught us that it really lasted centuries, and may never have been total. But perhaps there is another way to look at it. In our time, we have seen that an apparently Christian society can become secular in a matter of generations: witness Britain. So perhaps it is the generation that is the relevant unit of measurement. And indeed, it is within a generation that Christianity can be inculcated in children – or not. Whether parents pass on the faith to their children, and the results of their decision, are all decided within twenty or twenty-five years. We have seen this process in Soviet Ukraine, where for millions of people the beliefs of Orthodox Chrsitianity were wiped out in three generations. Thus, both Christianization and secularization (or to use a better term – dechristianization) are generational processes.

Obviously, these processes are not entirely the result of parental decision. The family is part of society, where a whole interplay of factors takes place on different levels. There is the civil power, and its attitude towards religion and the Church: positive, negative, or neutral. There are political factors. In Spain, for example, the Franco dictatorship may have helped maintain a façade of Catholicism concealing a weakening of religion underneath. In Poland, the same thing may have happened in the opposite way: the Communist regime provoked a Catholic solidarity among the opposition that papered over underlying ideological conflicts. There are economic, social, and cultural factors, all of which impact the family and the mechanism by which parents are able and willing, or unable or unwilling, to pass on their religion on to their children.

Thus, it may be worthwhile looking at the prospects of re-Christianization of Europe on the generational level. The encouraging news is that a generation is the span of time within which we are accustomed to work.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr