Why the Holy Church Proclaims "Anathema"

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

The terrible word anathema, by which the Holy Church punishes those who betray the right belief, means excommunication and exile from the society of believers, cutting off from the spiritual and mystical body of Christ, deprivation of all spiritual rights which the faithful children of the Church are used to. To be cut off from the Church means to lose everything that the Heavenly Father through the incarnation of His Only-begotten Son and that were granted to us through faith in Him, to lose the grace of baptism and adoption by God the Father, the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which we were signed in the Sacrament of Chrismation; to lose the most heavenly meal of the Body and Blood of the Son of God, without which there is not nor can there be eternal life for us; to lose the favor of the Father of Heaven, even the very right to pray to Him and to ask Him for anything; to lose hope itself for eternal life, to lose the hope of eternal salvation itself, beforehand to be confident in its everlasting destruction (Full Collection of the Sermons of Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese, vol. 4, page 250 ff.).

Such a terrible penalty for apostates from the right belief is based on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: "If he refuses even to hear the Church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector" (Mt. 18:15-17). The Apostles, following the sayings of the Lord, put away unworthy people from the society of the faithful (see 1 Cor. 5:13; 1 Tim. 1:20), using excommunication, as the last measure of severity for the explanation of the guilty, when all means for their correction were unsuccessful and when the advantage of an excommunication both for the excommunicated and for the Church was expected (1 Cor. 6:5). The Holy Church, having established to annually do the Rite of Orthodoxy in which the anathema to the heretics is proclaimed, has in view to show them the depth of the evil to which their sophism has thrown them. To be tolerated in the bosom of the Church, they could ease their conscience that their errors do not in themselves exclude the inevitable destruction for their souls, that the image of their ideas can be still combined with spirit of the Gospel, that they, at least, have not so far avoided the general way in order that they honor already those who have completely strayed. And here the Holy Church, using the shame of those who strayed, takes away from them the attraction of the special wisdom from the errors, by which they are deceived. Struck by the name of God, she takes away their hope for security. Opposing the established confession of the true faith through the sophism of individuals exposes the insignificance of the latter. In such a way the anathema proclaimed by the Holy Church is its last warning voice for those who have strayed.

Together with these the Holy Church by its proclamation of the anathema to the heretics has in view a warning to its faithful children from the fall. Its thousand-year experience witnesses that no wound is spread so quickly, is so opposed to all efforts of healing such as free thought, self-will and depravity. That no kind of afflictions, no kind of persecution have torn away so many souls from the faith in Christ and have ruined it for ages as heresies and schisms. Therefore even its motherly love motivates the Holy Church against such danger, to raise its voice of judgment and foreboding in order to warn all about threatening perdition. By such action of highest love the Church judgment now made, it is possible to see also from this, that before, rather than to start from the decision of its court, the Holy Church not one-sidedly and fervently prays that the Lord, according to His mercy without end, showed His love even to those who strayed from the true faith. In order that the love without end of God does not allow the devil and His fierce enemies to blind to the end and to destroy forever. In order that the grace of the All Holy Spirit abound where hardness and persistence abound, their reason became enlightened in the knowledge of truth, their heart burned with the warmth of love, their hardened hearts were broken by the fear of the judgment of God, and turned him from his error and he entered into the saving rampart of the Church of God. Already after this act of mercy the Holy Church with bitter sorrow proclaims not a curse like some people wrongly understand, but a cutting off of the unfortunate from the society of the faithful, who by their false belief and stubbornness, by their words cut themselves off from this sacred society. In such a way the Holy Church now does not show excessive strictness, but the necessary judgment of truth, made together with love and mercy for her enemies who caused her countless grief. She did not seek their destruction, but their conversion and salvation. Eternal damnation does not betray them, but excommunication offers them forgiveness and mercy if they will understand and repent.

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The Litany in Mykonos On the First Saturday of Great Lent

March 12, 2011
Romfea.gr

The entire island of Mykonos gathered for a three-hour walking litany with the icon of Panagia Tourliani from the Monastery in Ano Mera in Hora to enthrone it in the parish Church of Saint Kyriaki, where she will remain until the Saturday Lazarus. This is an old custom of the island.

The processional parade, nine kilometers long, was led by Metropolitan Dorotheos, the priests of the island, the Mayor of Mykonos, the Harbor Master, the Deputy Governor of 6 MSEP, students from the elementary school Ano Mera, the municipal band, flags and banners of patriotic associations and local clubs.

Metropolitan Dorotheos said the following at the Church of Saint Kyriaki:

"... Our Panagia, our Mother, made us worthy again today to accompany her on the annual holy pilgrimage from Ano Mera in Hora, of the blessed island of our nation in Mykonos, because she gave us a bright and sunny day after the snowstorm of the previous three days!

Who ordered you to walk for three-hours to bring you here with us? No one! The voice of internal intention and disposition served as our companion! And God sees this and rewards!

This is what our parents passed on to us, what we deliver to our children today, the hundreds of which spontaneously processed with us... And let us inform those who criticize Mykonos, because they do not really know that here lives a people who do not depart from faith and tradition, and who does not allow anyone to change the Orthodox Cycladic identity and steal from the tabernacle of its heart the precious jewel of the faith of the Church and its tradition ... "

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The Glories of Byzantium

Maligned for centuries, the empire that checked the Ottoman advance into Europe is today being celebrated.

Judith Herrin
March 12, 2011
The Wall Street Journal

One of the world's great empires is on the move, in our imaginations and in the place that it occupies in our understanding of the modern world. Byzantium used to call to mind a sterile, bureaucratic and yet violent society, corrupted by fatuous complexities. The worst failings in our own societies would be described as "Byzantine."

But over the past 20 years this image has begun to shift in important ways. Two great exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (in 1997 and 2004)— and more recent ones in Paris, London and Bonn—brought a large audience face to face with a thousand years of riveting artistic achievement. And a new generation of scholars has emerged, re-evaluating the very idea of Roman decline or Dark Ages and arguing that the barbarian forces that occupied the empire's western provinces adopted, adapted and thus perpetuated many of the Roman methods of administration. The term "Late Antiquity" embodies this long period of transition, which transformed the Roman world while integrating aspects of Latin culture with the Christian hierarchy of bishops and monks, who were themselves often recruited from the senatorial classes. At the same time, the recent emergence of an Islamic challenge to the West has urged our engagement with the Christian power that first withstood Muslim attacks and defended Europe's eastern frontier for centuries.

Byzantium is unusual among empires in having a precise beginning and end. Constantinople was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine I in 330 and fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. And across that long millennium it developed from being the eastern half of the vast Roman Empire into a brilliant medieval state that expanded into the Balkans, the Caucasus and southern Russia before being split into three separate units when Constantinople was occupied by the Latin crusaders between 1204 and 1261. It was restored to Byzantine rule, but the state gradually shrank to just the city and a few outposts in mainland Greece.

The excellence of Byzantine administration—hardly Byzantine at all by our usage—is nowhere clearer than in the power of the Byzantine standard gold coin, the solidus (known as the bezant in medieval Europe). First issued by Constantine I in the early fourth century, it retained its 24-carat value and was the coin of choice in international trade for more than 700 years. It took a self-conscious and creative government to manage this extraordinary achievement: one that puts to shame our present devalued currencies and monetary instability.

Even after Byzantium's conquest by the Ottomans in 1453, its culture and traditions continued to be felt far and wide. Czarist Russia claimed to have replaced Constantinople as the leading patriarchal see and styled Moscow as the "Third Rome." The court rituals of Louis XIV's Versailles mimicked the Byzantine imperial ceremonies, creating an elaborate pyramid of family relations with court officials in fixed proximity to the monarch and distinguished by specific costumes and weapons. Even the British coronation ceremonies can trace their origin back to Byzantium. And in many regions the Orthodox Church still sustains the Greek liturgy, so richly endowed by Byzantine contributions.

In this way, an enormous pile of booty "transformed the crusading paupers into the richest citizens," as one Western monk put it. The famous horses of San Marco were robbed from Constantinople's Hippodrome and mounted on the façade of the cathedral of Venice—which is itself a tribute to the Byzantine architecture of the dome, perfected six centuries earlier in the cap ital's great cathedral, the Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom"). In the years after 1204, a vast number of Byzantium artifacts, silks, ivories, enamels and jewels found their way into western cathedral treasuries.

The very designation "Byzantium" is a further complication (specialists dispute the name to be given to this empire). During the life of the empire, the term was reserved for Constantine's city, originally a Greek colony called Byzantion, whose inhabitants liked to vaunt their identity as "Byzantines." All the others who lived within the vast imperial borders called themselves "Romans," and they knew that their empire was Roman. Yet the adjective "Byzantine," first adopted by 16th-century humanists to distinguish east from west, is more than just a convenience; it recalls the city's original pride and draws attention to the extraordinary vitality of an empire that perdured with such success after the western empire's collapse. Constantine I's decision to be buried in a Christian mausoleum in the city set in train the process that helped to make Byzantium a Christian Roman Empire. All his successors wanted to be interred beside him, eventually creating a shrine to the Christian rulers of the Roman Empire.

So why has this remarkable empire for so long been perceived as abhorrent and rebarbative, when not being dismissed? The neglect of Byzantium by historians may be traced to the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by members of the Fourth Crusade. The crusaders justified their plunder and desecration of churches and monasteries by projecting onto the city and its civilization all their own worst faults: The eastern Christians were condemned as schismatics or even heretics; their wealth was therefore ill-gained and undeserved.

From the beginning, Byzantium manifested highly creative and original impulses to re-fashion rich, pre-existing traditions. Its inner Greek fire came from a unique combination of traits. When Constantine created his new capital, he brought together Roman administrative skills, law and military traditions; the Hellenic wisdom long sustained by ancient Greek education; and the dynamic new Christian belief (which later became the state's driving force). As he fought his way from York to Rome and on to the east, Constantine came to know these strengths at first hand. Like most Romans, he appreciated the superiority of ancient Greek culture, which provided the essential education for all ambitious men—and some women, like Hypatia, the fourth-century philosopher and mathematician. By the fifth century, Constantinople had schools to rival those of Athens and Alexandria (and Beirut for law), with teachers paid directly from the imperial treasury. This re-fashioning genius can be physically experienced today in the Hippodrome of Istanbul—the Roman race track, almost in the shadow of the Hagia Sophia— where Greek and Latin inscriptions appear on the base of an obelisk that originally commemorated a pharaonic military victory of the second millennium B.C.

The city quickly generated a highly sophisticated work force. Its artisans produced the Mediterranean world's most elegant silks, carved ivories and gold enamels. Its engineers constructed the immense walls that kept all enemies out of Constantinople until 1204. The recent excavations of the harbor of Theodosius (today Yenikapi) have yielded more than 30 boats and their cargoes and shown how the capital attracted traders and craftsmen from across the Mediterranean. Venice, Genoa and Pisa established quarters within the city, while Syrian and Russian merchants stayed in particular residences when they came to trade. In the 1090s, as the western forces of the First Crusade arrived at Constantinople, they were overcome with awe at the wealth and sophistication of the eastern capital, the like of which they had not even imagined. The city was larger than any in Western Europe, with a population of about 500,000— a level not attained by Paris until the 17th century.

Byzantine innovations began attracting the interest of modern historians between the wars. Among the most notable was Robert Byron, whose discovery of the neglected empire produced the highly romantic and alluring views of "The Byzantine Achievement" (1929). In contrast, Jack Lindsay, in "Byzantium Into Europe" (1952), emphasized how Byzantium acted as a buffer between Islam and Europe. Steven Runciman's well-researched and elegantly phrased books established a sympathetic appreciation of Greek Orthodoxy, particularly notable in "The Fall of Constantinople, 1453" (1965) and "The Great Church in Captivity" (1968). (It also permeates his great three-volume "History of the Crusades," an eminently readable account now criticized precisely for its fluency.) Runciman's "Byzantine Civilization" (1933) remains a short, accessible account that still repays reading after 75 years. Such historians established, half a century ago, how difficult Byzantium's position was between aggressive states east and west.

Academic authors have been less skilled at presenting their research in accessible ways—though I hope that my "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire" (2007) is an exception. But the contemporary interest in east-west conflict and how empires collapse has brought new readers to major reassessments of Byzantium's historical significance and helped to extend the study of the "barbarian" forces that sought to bring down empires. Both Peter Heather's "Empires and Barbarians " (2009), although it only treats the first millennium A.D., and John Darwin's "After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000 " (2007) consider Byzantium in such a comparative perspective.

It was the rise of Islam that ultimately undermined the dominion of Christian Byzantium. The empire checked the first great wave of Muslim expansion in the 630s, and by 740 a more secure border with the caliphate in Damascus was established at the Taurus mountains in southeastern Turkey. The empire had lost the rich provinces of Egypt, Palestine and Syria but over the years restored imperial control in areas of Armenia and northern Syria. Challenged by the Bulgars in the west, Byzantium also fought many campaigns in the Balkans; it always had to balance the two very distant fronts with the immense lines of communication and logistical support extending from the Caucasus to the Adriatic.

The last phase of Byzantine power, from 1261 to 1453, was marked by military failure and shrinking control but also by a great cultural explosion. Architects and painters constructed and decorated churches and monasteries with brilliant mosaics and frescoes in all parts of the empire: the Chora monastery in Constantinople and those of Mount Athos, churches at Trebizond on the Black Sea and Mistras in the Morea (in southern Greece). Icon painters, silversmiths and manuscript illuminators produced exquisite liturgical objects (for example, the manuscripts commissioned by Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos in the 1350s).

In intellectual pursuits, Byzantine scholars learned Latin and translated works of Augustine and Aquinas, leading to greater knowledge of western theology; they also copied and added to the Byzantine repertoire of epigrams, scientific writings and collections of letters. Jonathan Harris's new study, "The End of Byzantium" (Yale University Press, 298 pages, $40), shows expert knowledge of the Greeks in the west and of cultural trends in humanistic thought and explains the attraction of Latin theology for many Byzantine intellectuals. Mr. Harris provides a sympathetic reading of the civil wars and conflicts engendered by the empire's fundamental problem in this era: how to balance Byzantine traditions with the need for military aid from the West in order to confront the Ottoman Turks.

Although emperors continued to look west for help, in 1453 the Byzantines faced vastly superior forces (armed with the latest in cannon technology) supported by only a few loyal Venetians resident in the city and a body of archers recruited by Isidore of Kiev and Bishop Leonard of Chios. It was a very unequal battle. In the end the Byzantines had to chose between east or west. While many aristocratic families fled to Venice, the peasants, who could not move, accepted Ottoman rule. It has been argued that their lives did not change much with the arrival of Mehmet the Conqueror.

We can celebrate today a great civilization that stretched from Novgorod to southern Egypt, and from Spain to the Euphrates. The millennium of Byzantine civilization profoundly influenced our modern world. Its achievements resonate and become clearer with every new excavation and major exhibition and historical analysis sympathetic to its surprising and lively character.

Ms. Herrin is professor of late antique and Byzantine studies at King's College London and the author of "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire" (Princeton).

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Oldest Christian Church in Thessaloniki Discovered

Apostolos Papapostolou
March 12, 2011
Greek Reporter

Among the highlights of the newly discovered church was the mosaic floor uncovered when structures of the later basilica were removed. This was showed a white field with a clematis theme, dominated by a phoenix with a halo and 13 rays in the centre. On either side are a number of birds, of which seven still survive, two of the right and five on the left.

Archaeologist surmise that there were originally 12 birds, six on either side of the phoenix, and that the picture allegorically represents Christ and the 12 apostles. The mosaic is unique in Thessaloniki and is dated sometime toward the end of the 4th and start of the 5th centuries A.D.

The small, one-room church was converted into a larger basilica in the 5th century, paved in marble, its naves separated by collonades and its walls decorated with marble panels and murals. In the 7th century the church suffered extensive damage and was poorly renovated, while it was finally abandoned in the 8th to 9th century.

According to archaeologist Melina Paisidou, who announced the find at the 24th Meeting for Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace, the church’s position and very early age, as well as its duration and renovations, place it among the most important Early Christian churches of the city and its foundation may well be linked with one of the city’s martyrs. She said that a site north of the school of theology was being considered in order to transfer the monument.

Other finds unearthed during construction of the metro include a richly carved Roman-era marble sarcophagus and the base of what was probably a storage area.

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Synaxarion For the First Saturday of Great Lent

By Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

FIRST SATURDAY of LENT

On this day, the Saturday of the First Week of the Fast, we celebrate the wondrous miracle wrought through Kollyva by the holy and glorious Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit.

Verses

The Recruit entertaineth the city with the nourishment of Kollyva,
Thereby rendering the polluted delicacies ineffective.


Synaxarion

When Julian the Apostate, who ruled over the Empire after Constantios, the son of Constantine the Great, had departed from Christ to idolatry, a mighty persecution was stirred up against Christians, both openly and secretly. Refraining from inflicting savage or inhuman punishments on them, the ungodly Emperor tempted the Christians in the following way: feeling shame, and at the same time suspecting that more might be added to their numbers if he persecuted them openly, the crafty and impious man plotted somehow to pollute them secretly.

Observing that our Christian race purifies itself and devotes itself to God more during the First Week of the Fast, he summoned the Eparch of the city and ordered him to remove the food that was usually for sale and to set out other comestibles in the marketplace, namely bread and beverages, having first mixed these with the blood from his sacrificial offerings, polluting them in the process, so that, when the Christians purchased them during the Fast, they might be defiled rather than cleansed. The Eparch carried out his order immediately and set out all over the marketplace the food and drink that had been polluted with blood from the sacrifices.

But the all-seeing eye of God, Who catches the wise of this world in their cleverness and ever provides for us, His servants, destroyed the loathsome devices directed against us by the Apostate. He dispatched His Great Trophy-bearer, Theodore the Recruit, to Evdoxios, the Archbishop of the city, who had obtained this office improperly.

Standing before Evdoxios, not in a dream, but while he was awake, St. Theodore spoke words such as these: “Arise with all speed and gather together the flock of Christ, and order them under no circumstances to buy any of the items set out in the marketplace; for they have been polluted by the most impious Emperor with blood from his sacrificial offerings.” Puzzled by this, the Archbishop asked: “And how can those who do not have abundant provisions in their homes easily avoid buying food from the marketplace?” “Provide them with Kollyva,” the Saint replied, “to relieve them in their time of need.” Puzzled again, and not knowing what Kollyva was, Evdoxios asked the Saint for an explanation. The great Theodore replied: “It is boiled wheat; for this is what we are accustomed to calling it in Evchaïta.” When the Archbishop inquired who precisely this provider for the Christian people might be, the Saint answered: “I am Theodore, the Martyr of Christ, Who has just now sent me to aid you.”

The Archbishop arose at once and announced what he had seen to the multitude. By acting thus, he preserved Christ’s flock unharmed by the machination of their enemy, the Apostate. When Julian saw that his trickery had been exposed, that he had accomplished nothing, and that he had been sufficiently put to shame, he ordered the usual comestibles to be put back in the marketplace.

At the end of the week, the Christian people gave thanks to their benefactor, the Martyr, and joyously celebrated his memorial on this Saturday with Kollyva. Ever since then, and up until now, we faithful revive this miracle, lest the Martyr’s great deed become forgotten with the passage of time, and celebrate the memory of the Great Theodore with Kollyva.

By his intercessions, O God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

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Friday and Saturday of the First Week

By Sergei Bulgakov

Friday Evening of the First Week

Friday begins the commemoration of St. Theodore the Recruit. At the Presanctified Liturgy, after the Prayer before the Ambo, the Molieben with the Canon to St. Theodore is sung before the "offered Koliva" and the Koliva is blessed. The Order of the Blessing of the Koliva is in the Typicon (Ustav), in the order for Friday of the First Week. The prayer for the blessing of the Koliva is found in the Priest's Service Book (Sluzhebnik), in the order of blessing of the Koliva on feasts. Concerning food on this day the Typicon (Ustav) reads: "Entering the refectory; we partake of wine and oil for the holy saint. For this is done in the Laura of our Father among the Saints Sabbas and in the Coenobium of the Ven. Euthymius the Great. But we do not do this now in honor of the day, and moreover we eat plum preserves without oil and food." They also voluntarily eat xerophagy as on Wednesday.

Saturday of the First Week

On this day the Holy Church commemorates St. Theodore the Recruit, "great among martyrs, spiritual athlete, illustrious and renowned, glorified for his miracles, from one end of the earth to the other". By this commemoration the Holy Church inspires the faithful that lent is pleasing to the God and that fasting is under the special protection of God.

On all Saturdays of Lent, except for Passion Saturday, there is a liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. On Sundays, except for Palm Sunday, the liturgy is that of St. Basil the Great.

In the refectory on Saturday of the First Week "we eat scalded beans, with white and black olives and preserves with oil. We drink a cup of wine in honor of the Saint. This practice agrees with that of the Laura of Our Venerable Father Sabbas and with our God-bearing Father Euthymius".

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Apolytikion in the Second Tone
Great are the achievements of faith! In the fountain of flame, as by the water of rest, the holy Martyr Theodore rejoiced; for having been made a whole-burnt offering in the fire, he was offered as sweet bread unto the Trinity. By his prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Having received the Faith of Christ in thy heart as a breastplate, thou didst trample upon the enemy hosts, O much-suffering champion; and thou hast been crowned eternally with a heavenly crown, since thou art invincible.

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St. Theodore of Tyron Day In Bulgaria

March 11, 2011
Quest Bulgaria

March brings a host of traditional celebrations, which make life in Bulgaria both culturally rich and tremendous fun. Todorov Den is celebrated during the first week of the Orthodox Church's Long Lent and is often known as ‘Horse Easter.'

St Todor

Theodore of Tyrone, was known as a martyr from Amassia in Asia Minor. He lived during the time of the emperor Maximian and was born into the Christian faith. As a Roman legionary, his troop was stationed at Euchaita. The legion's commander instructed his men to make a sacrifice to some of the pagan gods. This being against Theodore's religious beliefs he spoke out and said, ‘I adore only Christ. It is only to him that I'm willing to offer a sacrifice.' His love of Christ was so strong that he burnt a pagan temple to the ground one night and was caught by other soldiers who took him to the governor Publius. After questioning he was put into jail on the governors orders. He was not treated badly at first, he was offered bread and water to eat, but he refused it. Publius even offered him the post of high priest, but Theodore said that his love of Christ was such that he would withstand any torture given to him rather than betray God. Publius feared that other Christians may follow Theodore's example so he sentenced him to die at the stake.

In 361, fifty years after Theodore's death, Emperor Julian the Apostate a confirmed pagan was attempting to stamp out Christianity. He ordered that during the Christian Lenten 40-day fast all food sold in Constantinople should be sprinkled with the blood of those people sacrificed to the pagan gods, his reasoning was that this would mean that everyone in the city was actually participating in the worship of the pagan gods. The Church holds that at this time, God sent Theodore to see Eudoxius, Patriarch of Constantinople to urge him to tell all of the Christians not to buy any of this food, but to make their own kolyva, which was made from grain. The Orthodox Church has celebrated this event on the first Saturday of Lent ever since. Reverend Vassil Kotsev says, "The story of the holy Martyr Theodore of Tyrone is indeed amazing. A professional warrior, otherwise a staunch Christian, Theodore stood up against the inhuman attitude to the Christian faith in his time. Professing fearlessly his faith, Theodore was subjected to inhuman tortures and met with death at the stake. Ever since, he's been one of the holy martyrs of Christianity."

The Bulgarian Celebration

Todorov Den is celebrated in many different ways across Bulgaria, but first and foremost anyone with a name deriving from Todor celebrates this as their name day. Traditional kolyva is taken to church and blessed by at a special service to honour the saint. Horses play a leading role because they are still a central part of working village life. Many towns and villages hold horse races and tests of the horse's strength in the main streets. These races are not dogged by issues of health and safety; riders often ride bare back without the need for helmets. The tests of strength require the horses to pull a felled tree and the distance is measured, this is the type of work that these horses do on a daily basis in parts of Bulgaria. The famous 19th century Bulgarian historian Dimitar Marinov once noted, "The fastest horse, all decked in wreathes, paced ahead, amidst drums and whistles. Everyone would gather at the hub of the village where lasses and lads start a grandiose horo dance encircling the horses and the riders. The horse-race winner would then reach his home and, there, a maid or his young bride would welcome him with a white pot of water or wine." Even today in towns like Chepelare in the Rhodope Mountains , the tradition has not changed.

In Western Bulgaria, newlywed winter brides rise early and bake kolyva, which they take straight to the church. All of the bread is arranged in a pattern and a special ceremony takes place; the girls wear long white scarves around their heads, they must bow three times in front of their mother-in-law. This act ends the traditional period of silence observed by new brides as a mark of respect to their in-laws. The group of brides and mothers then join hands and dance. In the eastern part of the country, young girls go out into the fields to invite the spring to come by singing and dancing. They do this over three days, one of which coincides with Todorv Den. In kindergartens small children learn the songs and dances relevant to the celebration and often put on a performance with wooden horses.

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The Place of Holy Relics In The Orthodox Church

By St. Justin Popovich

Without doubt, matter is represented in the human body in a manner which is most puzzling, most mysterious, and most complex. The brain: What wondrous mysteries pass between its physical and spiritual parts! How vast is the experience of the human race. In no manner can one ever fully comprehend or grasp these mysteries. Indeed, little of this is accessible to the human senses or intellectual investigation. So it is also with the heart of man, formed as it is entirely and solely from cosmic mysteries. So formed, too, are every cell, every molecule, every atom. Everyone and all are set on their mystical path toward God, toward the God-Man.

Inasmuch as it was created by God, the Logos, matter possesses this same theocentricity. Moreover, by His advent into our earthly world, by His all-embracing condescension as God and Man for the redemption of the world, the Lord Christ clearly demonstrated that not only the soul, but matter also was created by God and for God, and that He is God and Man; and for it, matter, He is all and everything in the same manner as for the soul. Being created by God, the Logos, matter is, in its innermost core, God-longing and Christ-longing.

The most obvious proof of this is the fact that God the Word has become Incarnate, has become man (St. John 1:14). By His Incarnation, matter has been magnified with Divine glory and has entered into the grace- and virtue-bestowing, ascetic aim of deification, or union with Christ. God has become flesh, has become human, so that the entire man, the entire body, might be filled with God and with His miracle-working forces and powers. In the God-Man, the Lord Christ, and His Body, all matter has been set on a path toward Christ —the path of deification, transfiguration, sanctification, resurrection, and ascent to an eternal glory surpassing that of the Cherubim. And all of this takes place and will continue to take place through the Divine and human Body of the Church, which is truly the God-Man Christ in the total fullness of His Divine and Human Person, the fullness “that fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Through its Divine and human existence in the Church, the human body, as matter, as substance, is sanctified by the Holy Spirit and in this way participates in the life of the Trinity. Matter thus attains its transcendent, divine meaning and goal, its eternal blessedness and its immortal joy in the God-Man.

The holiness of the Saints—both the holiness of their souls and of their bodies—derives from their zealous grace- and virtue-bestowing lives in the Body of the Church of Christ, of the God-Man. In this sense, holiness completely envelopes the human person—the entire soul and body and all that enters into the mystical composition of the human body. The holiness of the Saints does not hold forth only in their souls, but it necessarily extends to their bodies; so it is that both the body and the soul of a saint are sanctified. Thus we, in piously venerating the Saints, also venerate the entire person, in this manner not separating the holy soul from the holy body. Our pious veneration of the Saints’ relics is a natural part of our pious respect for and prayerful entreaty to the Saints. All of this constitutes one indivisible ascetic act, just as the soul and body constitute the single, indivisible person of the Saint. Clearly, during his life on the earth, the Saint, by a continuous and singular grace- and virtue-bestowing synergy of soul and body, attains to the sanctification of his person, filling both the soul and body with the grace of the Holy Spirit and so transforming them into vessels of the holy mysteries and holy virtues. It is completely natural, again, to show pious reverence both to the former and to the latter, both to soul and body, both of them holy vessels of God’s grace. When the charismatic power of Christ issues forth, it makes Grace-filled all the constituent parts of the human person and the person in his entirety. By unceasing enactment of the ascetic efforts set forth in the Gospels, Saints gradually fill themselves with the Holy Spirit, so that their sacred bodies, according to the word of the holy Apostle, become temples of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19; 3:17), Christ dwelling by faith in their hearts (Ephesians 3:17) and by fruitful love also fulfilling the commandments of God the Father. Establishing themselves in the Holy Spirit through grace-bestowing ascetic labors, the Saints participate in the life of the Trinity, becoming sons of the Holy Trinity, temples of the Living God (II Corinthians 6:16); their whole lives thus flow from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. By piously venerating the holy relics of the Saints, the Church reveres them as temples of the Holy Spirit, temples of the Living God, in which God dwells by Grace even after the earthly death of the Saints. And by His most wise and good Will, God creates miracles in and through these relics. Moreover, the miracles which derive from the holy relics witness also to the fact that their pious veneration by the people is pleasing to God.

The pious veneration of holy relics, based on their miraculous nature, originated from Divine Revelation. Even in the Old Testament God deigned to celebrate with miracles the holy relics of certain of those who were well-pleasing to Him. Thus, by the touch of the holy relics of the Prophet Elisea, a dead man was resurrected. The tomb and bones of this Prophet, who had prophesied to Jeroboam the destruction of idolatrous altars, were greatly revered in Judea. The Patriarch Joseph also left a testament to the sons of Israel to preserve his bones in Egypt and, during their exodus, to carry them to the promised land (Genesis 50:25).

The New Testament raised the human body to the sublime and divine heights, endowing it with a glory which the Cherubim and Seraphim do not possess. The Good News of the New Testament concerning the body—the significance and goal of the human body—is that, together with the soul, it achieves and inherits immortal life in Divine eternity. The Lord Christ has come to deify, to make Christ-like, the entire man, that is, the soul and body, and this by the resurrection, insuring thereby victory over death and eternal life. No one ever elevated the human body as did the Lord Christ by His bodily resurrection, the ascension of His body into heaven, and its eternal session at the right hand of God the Father. In this way, the Resurrected Christ extended the promise of resurrection to the nature of the human body—”having made for all flesh a path to eternal life.” Thus man now knows that the body is created for eternity through union with the God-Man and that his divine work on earth is to struggle, with the soul, for eternal life; to struggle, with all those means that convey grace and virtue, to make himself grace-filled, fulfilled by Divine grace, and created anew as the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of the Living God.

Bearing in mind that this New Testamental notion of the human body has been achieved and realized in the persons of the Saints, Christians show a pious veneration for the bodies of the Saints, towards holy relics, the temples of the Holy Spirit, Who by God’s grace abides within them. But Holy Revelation indicates that by God’s immeasurable love for man, the Holy Spirit abides through His grace not only in the bodies of the Saints, but also in their clothing. So it is that the handkerchiefs of the holy apostle Paul healed the ill and expelled unclean spirits (Acts 19:12). With his mantle the Prophet Elias struck the water, separating the waters of the Jordan, and along the dry bed of the river crossed the Jordan with his disciple Elisea (IV Kings 2:8). The prophet Elisea did the very same thing, himself, with the same mantle, after the taking-up of Elias into heaven (IV Kings 2:14). All this has its verification and source in the Divine power that rested in the garments of the Savior, which encompassed His most pure and Divine body. Moreover, by His inexpressible love for man, the Divine Lord allows the servants of His Divinity to work miracles not only through their bodies and clothing, but even with the shadow of their bodies, which is evident in an occurrence with the holy apostle Peter: his shadow healed an ill man and expelled unclean spirits (Acts 5:15-16).

The eternal good news of Holy Revelation about sacred relics and their pious veneration is proved, and is continually being proved, by Holy Tradition from Apostolic times to the present day. Innumerable are the sacred relics of the holy Chosen Ones of God throughout the Orthodox world. Their miracles are innumerable. The pious veneration of these relics by Orthodox Christians is everywhere to be found. And without doubt this is because the holy relics, through their miracles, incite the Orthodox toward their pious veneration. From the very beginning, in Apostolic times, Christians piously preserved the honored relics of the Holy Forerunner and the holy Apostles, so that these could be preserved even for us. As well, during the times of persecution the sacred remains of the bodies of the holy Martyrs were taken away by Christians and hidden in their homes. From that time until now, the sacred relics of the holy Chosen Ones of God have, by their miracles, poured forth the immortal joy of our faith into the hearts of Orthodox Christians. The proofs concerning this are countless. We shall cite only several.

The way that the holy relics of the Saints were translated and greeted is in a touching manner described by St. Chrysostomos in a eulogy on St. Ignatios: “You, inhabitants of Antioch, have sent forth a bishop and received a martyr; you sent him forth with prayers, and received him back with crowns; and not only you, but all the cities which lay between. For how do you think that they behaved when they saw his remains being brought back? What pleasure was produced! How they rejoiced! With what laudations on all sides did they beset the crowned one! For as with a noble athlete, who has wrestled down all his antagonists, and who comes forth with radiant glory from the arena, the spectators receive him, and do not suffer him to tread the earth, bringing him home on their shoulders and according him countless praises. So also every city in turn received this Saint from Rome, and bearing him upon their shoulders as far as this city, escorted the crowned one with praises, hymning the champion…. At this time the holy Martyr bestows grace to the very same cities, establishing them in piety, and from that time to this day he enriches this city.”

Speaking of the miraculous power of holy relics, Saint Ephraim the Syrian relates the following concerning the holy Martyrs: “Even after death they act as if alive, healing the sick, expelling demons, and by the power of the Lord rejecting every evil influence of the demons. This is because the miraculous grace of the Holy Spirit is always present in the holy relics.”

During the finding of the relics of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, St. Ambrose, in speaking to his listeners, relates this with pious enthusiasm: “You know—indeed, you have yourselves seen—that many are cleansed from evil spirits, that very many also, having touched with their hands the robe of the Saints, are freed from those ailments which oppressed them. You see that the miracles of old times are renewed, when through the coming of the Lord Jesus grace was more abundantly shed forth upon the earth, and that many bodies are healed as it were by the shadow of the holy bodies. How many napkins are passed about! How many garments, laid upon the holy relics and endowed with the power of healing, are claimed! All are glad to touch even the outside thread, and whosoever touches it will be made whole.”

Speaking of the miracles produced by holy relics, the blessed Augustine says: “To what do these miracles witness, but to this faith which preaches Christ risen in the flesh and ascended with the same flesh into heaven? For the martyrs themselves were martyrs, that is to say, were witnesses of this faith…. For this faith they gave their lives, and can now ask these benefits from the Lord in whose name they were slain. For this faith their extraordinary constancy was exercised, so that in these miracles great power was manifested as the result. For if the resurrection of the flesh to eternal life had not taken place in Christ, and were not to be accomplished in His people, as predicted by Christ…, why do the martyrs who were slain for this faith which proclaims the resurrection possess such power? …These miracles attest this faith which preaches the resurrection of the flesh unto eternal life.”

Saint Damascene, summarizing the life-giving teaching of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition concerning the pious veneration of holy relics, preaches in a Cherubic manner from the altar of his God-bearing and Christ-like soul: “The Saints have become according to grace that which the Lord Christ is according to nature. That is, they have become gods according to grace: pure and living habitations of God. For God says: ‘I will dwell in them, walk in them, and I will be their God’ (II Corinthians 6:16; Leviticus 16:12). The Holy Scriptures likewise say: ‘the souls of the righteous are in God’s hand, and death cannot lay hold of them’ (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1). For death is rather the sleep of Saints than their death. Further: ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints’ (Psalm 119:6). What, then, is more precious than to be in the hand of God? For God is life and light, and those who are in God’s hand are in life and light. Further, that God dwells even in their bodies in a spiritual manner the all-divine Apostle attests: ‘Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you?’ (I Corinthians 3:16). And, ‘the Lord is Spirit’ (II Corinthians 3:17). Thus, the evangelical truth: ‘If anyone destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy—for the temple of God is holy, and ye are that temple’ (I Corinthians 3:17). Surely, then, we must ascribe honor to the living temples of God, the living dwelling-places of God. These, while they lived, stood with boldness before God. The Lord Christ granted us the relics of the Saints to be fountains of salvation unto us, pouring forth manifold blessings and abounding in sweetly fragrant oil. Let no one disbelieve this! For if water burst in the desert from the steep and solid rock according to God’s will (Exodus 17:6), and from the jawbone of an ass to quench Samson’s thirst (Judges 15:14-19), is it then unbelievable that fragrant oil should spring forth from relics of the holy Martyrs? By no means, at least to those who know the omnipotence of God and the honor which He accords to His Saints. According to the Old Testament law, everyone who touched a dead body was considered impure (Numbers 19:11). However, the Saints are not dead. For from the time when He Who is Himself Life and the Author of life was counted among the dead, we do not call those dead who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and with faith in Him. For how could a dead body work miracles? And how, through the holy relics, are demons driven off, diseases dispelled, the sick made well, the blind restored to sight, lepers cleansed, temptations and tribulations overcome; and how does every good gift come down from the Father of lights (St. James 1:17) to those who pray with sure faith?”

The universal faith of the Church concerning the pious veneration of holy relics was confirmed by the God-bearing Fathers of the Seventh Œcumenical Synod in its decrees: “Our Lord Jesus Christ granted to us the relics of Saints as a salvation-bearing source which pours forth varied benefits on the infirm. Consequently, those who presume to abandon the relics of the Martyrs: if they be hierarchs, let them be deposed; if however monastics or laymen, let them merely be excommunicated.”

….That a pious veneration of the holy relics is a constituent part of the salvation rendered by the God-Man is also evidenced by the following facts: from the depths of sacred antiquity, churches were built on the graves and relics of Saints, and the holy Liturgy is performed only on antimensia, in which are placed parts of the holy relics. Moreover, the divine service books, especially the Menaion, are replete with prayers and hymns which refer to the pious veneration of holy relics….

All in all, the mystery of holy relics is at the heart of the universal mystery of the New Testament: the incarnation of God. The full mystery of the human body is explained by the incarnation, the embodiment of God in the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason, then, the Gospel message concerning the body: “The body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (I Corinthians 6:13). And through a human body also the entire creation, all of matter, received its divine significance, the universal meaning of the God-Man. By man, who is sanctified in the Church by the holy mysteries and the holy virtues, the creation and even matter are sanctified, united to Christ. There accrues to this also a joy—the myrrh-streaming property of many relics. This wonder of myrrh has been given to the holy relics in order to indicate that Christians are truly “a sweet-savour of Christ unto God” (II Corinthians 2:15), sweet-smelling to God and to heaven. The truth of the Gospel is that the sin of man is a foul odor before God and every sin pleases the devil. Through the holy mysteries and holy virtues, Christians become “a sweet-savour of Christ unto God.” For this reason, then, the holy relics of the Saints pour forth myrrh.

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. VII, No. 1, p. 9.

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Monk Methodios of Byzantium and His Long Beard

Methodios came to the Skete of Kapsokalyva on Mount Athos at the end of the eighteenth century to become a monk, yet he had no beard. Because of this, in order to not be expelled by the fathers of the Skete according to their practice, he prayed before the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, praying to the Mother of God that she help him so as to not be expelled. Paradoxically the hairs on his chin began to grow and eventually he had a fully formed beard. In the morning the fathers could not believe their eyes when they found Methodios inside the church with a full beard. They presented him therefore before the Synaxis of the fathers and immediately tonsured him a monastic, at which time he received the name Methodios. At the same time an all-night vigil took place to thank the Panagia for her graciousness. Yet the beard of Methodios did not stop growing that day. In fact, it continued to grow until it eventually reached beyond the height of his body. In order for him to lay out his full beard, Methodios would have to stand on a stool (this stool is still kept by the fathers as a memorial of this miracle).

One day the Turkish Governor of Mount Athos in Karyes, after seeing the frescoes of Sts. Peter the Athonite and Onouphrios, asked: "Hey, this is why you are deceived! How is it possible for people to have such a long beard?"


The Protos of Mount Athos called for Methodios, who layed out his full beard before the Turk to show that the Christians were not deceived. The Governor wrote to the Sultan about this magnificent spectacle, who asked in return that he be sent to Constantinople to see it for himself. The Governor advised Methodios that when the Sultan would offer him many gifts, he should only ask from the Sultan that his life be spared.

And so it happened. The Sultan was amazed when he saw the spectacle and Methodios asked that his life be spared. Methodios then returned to Mount Athos unharmed.

At the Skete of Saint John the Theologian there are stichoi (hymns) written in the Turkish dialect by Methodios preserved till this day. In the Monastery of Proussou there are 112 stichoi by Monk Methodios, in which he is described as the one "whose beard drags upon the earth". One of them reads:

Listen to this soul-profiting and divine advice,
and let all the faithful sing hymns to the Panagia,
from the mountains of Greece to Aitolia,
she alone is all-holy, wonderful, and perfect.

Ψυχωφελή διήγησιν ακούσατε και θείαν
και οι πιστοί υμνήσατε, πάντες την Παναγίαν
εις της Ελλάδος τα βουνά κατά την Αιτωλίαν
είναι Μονή πανίερος, θαυμάσιος, τελεία

In the Chapel of St. Methodios the icon of the Dormition in front of which Methodios prayed for his beard can still be venerated.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Are ALL Creeds Wrong Because They Think They Are Right And Others Wrong?

By G.K. Chesterton

Don’t say, “There is no true creed; for each creed believes itself right and the others wrong.” Probably one of the creeds is right and the others are wrong. Diversity does show that most of the views must be wrong. It does not by the faintest logic show that they all must be wrong. I suppose there is no subject on which opinions differ with more desperate sincerity than about which horse will win the Derby. These are certainly solemn convictions; men risk ruin for them. The man who puts his shirt on Potosi must believe in that animal, and each of the other men putting their last garments upon other quadrupeds must believe in them quite as sincerely. They are all serious, and most of them are wrong. But one of them is right. One of the faiths is justified; one of the horses does win; not always even the dark horse which might stand for Agnosticism, but often the obvious and popular horse of Orthodoxy. Democracy has its occasional victories; and even the Favorite has been known to come in first. But the point here is that something comes in first. That there were many beliefs does not destroy the fact that there was one well-founded belief. I believe (merely upon authority) that the world is round. That there may be tribes who believe it to be triangular or oblong does not alter the fact that it is certainly some shape, and therefore not any other shape. Therefore I repeat, with the wail of imprecation, don’t say that the variety of creeds prevents you from accepting any creed. It is an unintelligent remark.

...

Now it is very right to rebuke our own race or religion for falling short of our own standards and ideals. But it is absurd to pretend that they fell lower than the other races and religions that professed the very opposite standards and ideals. There is a very real sense in which the Christian is worse than the heathen, the Spaniard worse than the Red Indian, or even the Roman potentially worse than the Carthaginian. But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better.

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The First Salutations To The Theotokos

An Angel of supreme rank was sent down from heaven to say to the Theotokos, Rejoice. (Thrice) And perceiving You take bodily form at the sound of his bodiless voice, O Lord, he was astounded and he stood shouting to her such salutations:

Rejoice, through whom is the joy to shine forth.
Rejoice, through whom is the curse to vanish.

Rejoice, restoration of Adam the fallen one.
Rejoice, liberation of Eve from tears.

Rejoice, height to which the thoughts of men are hardly able to ascend.
Rejoice, depth which for the Angels’ eyes is very hard to apprehend.

Rejoice, for you are a throne for the King.
Rejoice, for you hold the One who holds everything.

Rejoice, the star causing the Sun’s manifestation.
Rejoice, the womb of the divine incarnation.

Rejoice, through whom is creation re-created.
Rejoice, by whom is the Creator procreated.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Beholding herself wholly kept in chastity, boldly says to Gabriel she who is holy: The exceptional tidings of your voice seem difficult for my soul to accept. For what do you mean, pregnancy by unseeded conception, crying, Alleluia.


Curious to know knowledge that is knowable to no one, the Virgin cried to the serving Angel: How is it possible for a son to be born of inviolate loins? Tell me please. And he with fear replied to her, albeit shouting thusly:

Rejoice, initiate of secret counsel.
Rejoice, assurance of what calls for silence.

Rejoice, introduction to the miracles of Christ.
Rejoice, consummation of His articles of faith.

Rejoice, heavenly ladder by which did God himself descend.
Rejoice, bridge that conveys unto heaven earthborn men.

Rejoice, the wonder most renowned among Angels.
Rejoice, the wound greatly bemourned by the demons.

Rejoice, who bear the Light inexplicably.
Rejoice, who declare the manner to nobody.

Rejoice, transcending the knowledge of scholars.
Rejoice, illumining minds of believers.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Divine power of the Most High, to effect her conception, overshadowed the unwedded Damsel; and it made her luxuriant womb to appear as a luscious field for everyone who desires to reap salvation while chanting, Alleluia.


Eagerly did the Virgin, hosting God in her body, then hasten to visit Elizabeth, whose own infant recognized the voice of her greeting at once and rejoiced in the womb; and with leaps and bounds for songful sounds, he shouted to the Theotokos:

Rejoice, the branch with its shoot unwithered.
Rejoice, the ranch with its fruit unblemished.

Rejoice, for the man-loving Husbandman you cultivate.
Rejoice, for the Gardener of our life you germinate.

Rejoice, arable land yielding tender mercies hundredfold.
Rejoice, banquet table whereupon has forgiveness overflowed.

Rejoice, for the meadow of delight you make flourish.
Rejoice, for a haven of our souls do you furnish.

Rejoice, accepted incense of intercession.
Rejoice, the universe’s expiation.

Rejoice, the good pleasure of God unto mortals.
Rejoice, the confidence of mortals before God.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Fraught within with confusion brought about by doubtful thoughts, the temperate Joseph was troubled as he looked upon you the unwed and suspected adultery, O blameless one. But when he learned that your concep­tion was by the Holy Spirit, he uttered, Alleluia.



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Saint Theodora, Empress of Arta

St. Theodora of Arta (Feast Day - March 11)

The holy and right-believing Empress Theodora of Arta was the wife of Michael II Komnenos Doukas who was the ruler (Emperor) of Epiros in the thirteenth century, during the time of Latin rule of Constantinople. She endured suffering from abuse by her husband, being forced into exile without complaint, and maintained a life of humility, asceticism, and charity. She is commemorated by the Church on March 11.

Theodora was the daughter of John and Helena Petraliphas. John Petraliphas was a sebastokrator and ruler of Macedonia and Thessaly. Theodora is thought to have been born about 1225 as Theodora Dukaina Petraliphaina. She married Michael II Komnenos Doukas Notho Angelos shortly after he became ruler of Epiros about 1231 (about the age of 6, uncanonical for marriage). Through this marriage they had six children, including Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Anna (Agnes) Komnenodukaina, Lady of Kalamata and Clermont, who married Prince Guillaume II de Villehardouin of Achaea and then Nicholas II of Saint-Omer, Lord of Achaia.

She was noted as a person who was not carried away with her new position as empress nor with her luxurious life. Early in their marriage, Michael II became enamored by a noblewoman, causing Michael to reject Theodora. She was banished under a decree that she was not to be supported. She existed in exile by living "off the land" in the open for five years, nobly enduring her life without complaint. During her exile she maintained her virtue, although reduced to picking wild greens for food and while caring for her son whom she bore in exile. A priest from the village of Preniste found her while she was collecting wild greens, and after getting her to identify herself, he took her, with her son, under his care and concealed her until court officials drove the wicked noblewoman out and returned Michael to his senses.

Michael then took Theodora back into his house. Until Michael died, the couple lived virtuously in peace and love, raising their family of children. Michael established two monasteries, Pantanassa and Panagia, while Theodora founded a women's monastery dedicated to the great martyr George, that later was named for St. Theodora.

After the death of her husband, about 1267 or 1268, Theodora entered monasticism and lived a pious life of praying, attending vigils, serving orphans and widows, and the other nuns. She is closely associated with Ss. Athanasia of Aegina and Theodora of Thessalonike, as well as Ss. Matrona of Chios, Thomais of Lesbos, and Mary the Younger who like her suffered abuse at the hands of their husbands.

Theodora foresaw the time of her death; her tomb attracted popular veneration soon after her death and continues to do so to this day.

Source

Read also here.

Read the complete life of St. Theodora here.

Apolytikion in First Tone
You abandoned royal honors, living in chastity and pains and asceticism, and were truly filled with divine gifts, O Righteous Theodora. Because of this Arta harmonically praises you crying out: Glory to Christ Who glorified you, Glory to Him Who crowned you, Glory to Him Who works for us through you healings for all.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
You forsook royal honor and glory, and spent your life in asceticism, O Theodora most-blessed, honor and adornment of Arta, therefore bowing before your sacred relics, we partake of blessings from them, praising Christ Who glorified you.

Megalynarion
Hail the pride of rulers, hail holy boast of the people of Arta, hail treasury of heavenly gifts, O Righteous Theodora, worthy of honor.

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Bringing Forward Tradition - An Interview with Thomas C. Oden

From Religion & Liberty - Volume 21, Number 1, Winter 2011

R&L: You have said your path to orthodox theology really began through patristics. Why are the words and witness the Fathers provide so important today?

Oden: They're important because they're true. They're based upon a consensus of Christian believers, not only from the early Christian period, but from the Apostolic Witness. In other words, what was happening in the patristic period was all exegesis, or all interpretation, of the received Apostolic tradition, which later became canonized. So these writings have gone through a social process and a truth testing. And for Christians, we believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit in that testing process, in the consensus formation process that delivers to the Word of the self disclosure of God in Jesus Christ.

Why do you think many evangelicals, in their searching, are drawn to patristic thought and commentary? What can churches do to encourage those that are searching?

They're drawn to patristic thought because it is wise. They are hungry for wisdom. They are looking for reliable Christian teaching and, in many cases, evangelicals have not been exposed to these documents because they have been focused on Christian doctrine since the Reformation. I, myself, am an example. I grew up in the Methodist tradition and I had some vague idea of what happened before Luther and Calvin and Wesley, but I hadn't really been deeply informed. And even when I went to my doctoral studies at Yale, I did not spend a great deal of time in patristic writers, so I had to find these on my own.

So what can churches do to encourage people that are searching? First of all, they can make accessible the writings that have been long buried, especially within the later Protestant tradition. They were commended by Luther and Calvin and Cranmer and Wesley, but not sufficiently taught and transmitted. The texts themselves have largely been buried. Now, fortunately today a lot of these are digitalized. There's a lot more available. So there's almost no excuse for an evangelical who wishes to know classic Christianity, to ignore these teachings.

Read the rest of the interview here.

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Controversy Over Rising Influence of Church in Romania

Romanian civic organisations are protesting against a law which they say will increase the influence of the church in the country.

Marian Chiriac
March 11, 2011
Balkan Insight

The parliament in Bucharest has just approved a law that will allow the state to reimburse officially recognised churches in Romania up to 80 per cent for their spending on social welfare projects.

As a result, the churches will have to attract from donations or their own sources only 20 per cent of any cost related to the construction of orphanages, homes for the elderly and schools for children, and other such programmes.

There are eighteen officially recognised religious denominations in Romania, with the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, respectively, the largest. More than 85 per cent of Romania's population of 21.5 million belong to the Orthodox Church.

"Such a law will enable the church to perform their traditional role of helping the poor and people in need. The state will only support such projects in the beginning,” MP Raluca Turcan, who backed the law, said.

Meanwhile, many civic rights advocates oppose the law, saying it allows religious groups, primarily the dominant Orthodox Church, to be excessively involved in public life.

"The law is discriminatory as many organisations with expertise in social services are excluded from getting money from the state. Furthermore, many disavantaged groups, such as drug addicts or LGBT, will be excluded from being helped, as their problems are never adressed by the church,” says Sabina Nicolae from the SAMU social organisation.

"In my opinion, the law was mainly designed by politicians interested in courting the church as a way of attracting sympathy from the electorate,” she added.

Civic organisations are now asking President Traian Basescu not to sign the bill into law.

Recently, the Orthodox Church draw criticism for its plan to build a 107-metre-high cathedral, the tallest in south-east Europe, and seeking help from the cash-strapped state for the project. By law, the state is allowed to provide support for church construction and restoration.

The Orthodox Church – which has enjoyed a revival since Communism fell in 1989 - remains the most trusted public institutions in Romania, according to polls.

But it has often been marred by allegations of corruption and nepotism. Furthermore, it has been criticised for having taken an ambivalent stance towards the former Communist regime, with many bishops accused of lauding former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, supporting his policies and applauding his ideas about peace.

After the fall of Communism, the Church never admitted that it cooperated with the regime, though some individual bishops have admitted to collaborating.

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Lent in Narnia

Would C.S. Lewis have renounced Turkish Delight from Ash Wednesday to Easter?

Devin Brown
March 10, 2011
Christianity Today

In his short essay "Some Thoughts," C. S. Lewis examines the paradoxical fact that the Christian calendar is as full of feasts as it is fasts, as full of fasts as it is feasts.

How did the Christian faith come to have this unique "two-edged" character, a stance which is both world-affirming and world-denying? Lewis explains that on one hand "because God created the Natural — invented it out of His love and artistry — it demands our reverence." But at the same time, "because Nature, and especially human nature is fallen it must be corrected and the evil within it must be mortified."

But make no mistake, Lewis writes, its essence is good, and correction is "something quite different" from repudiation or Stoic superiority. And hence, Lewis argues, all true Christian asceticism will have "respect for the thing rejected" at its center. "Feasts are good," Lewis concludes, "though today we fast."

Lewis makes a similar point in his essay "A Slip of the Tongue," where he argues that in the life of a perfect believer, feasts "would be as Christian" as fasts.

Though today we fast, feasts are good. Feasts are, or should be, as Christian as fasts. These statements might serve as helpful signposts as we enter the seasons of Lent and Easter.

This two-edged, world-denying and world-affirming, stance is seen clearly in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the Turkish Delight which Edmund is tempted with and in the delightful meal served up by the Beavers.

Early in the story, the White Witch creates a box filled with "several pounds" of Turkish Delight which Edmund greedily devours. Donald Glover has called Lewis's specific choice of Turkish Delight a master stroke, one made with clear intention. What would have been lost if the Witch had tempted Edmund with, for example, oatmeal and raisin cookies? Glover argues that Turkish Delight is "a highly overrated sweet," and Narnia fans who have gone in search of the candy may agree, wondering how Edmund could have fallen prey to the overly sugared confection. Surely the name promises more than the candy delivers, and this, perhaps, is Lewis's point. Furthermore, it is not just Delight but Turkish Delight, a title containing, as Glover has observed, "Oriental and romantic overtones," further promises left unfulfilled by the sticky goo.

Gilbert Meilaender, in a chapter appropriately titled "The Sweet Poison of the False Infinite," provides an analysis of the spell that the Witch's candy casts upon Edmund. As Meilaender explains, the phrase "the sweet poison of the false infinite" comes from Lewis's novel Perelandra and refers to any love of secondary things which has become inordinate. In Miracles, Lewis maintains that we are to offer the created things and pleasures of this world "neither worship nor contempt." Meilaender points out that the theme of inordinate loves is one to which Lewis often returns.

The Witch's magic candy is a sickly imitation of the wholesome food the children are served at the Beavers' house. There they eat boiled potatoes with "a great big lump of deep yellow butter" from which everyone can take "as much as he wanted." The main course is "good freshwater fish" followed by "a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll" fresh from the oven and steaming hot. Afterwards, they each have a big cup of tea, push back their stools, and let out "a long sigh of contentment."

Lewis's point with the Turkish Delight is not that enjoying sweets is bad; in fact, his position is quite the contrary. Enjoyment of life's pleasures in all their variety and plenitude will be an essential quality of proper Narnian life. This was seen earlier in the tea that Mr. Tumnus provided for Lucy which included "a nice brown egg, lightly boiled, for each of them, and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast, and then toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake." Meilaender points out that in both his fiction and non-fiction, Lewis suggests over and over that "to be fully human involves a certain stance toward the things of creation," one of deep enjoyment but not slavish adoration.

Lewis's devil Screwtape explains the situation to his young nephew this way: "Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground. … He made the pleasures. … All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasure which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden."

In his essay "First and Second Things," Lewis elaborates on this point, writing:

By valuing too highly a real but subordinate good, we … come near to losing that good itself. The woman who makes a dog the center of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping. … Every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good. … You can't get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.

These real but subordinate goods come in endless variety besides the sorts of activities which are typically given up for Lent, things like eating sweets, smoking, or drinking Coke. Human curiosity, for example, is one of these real goods which must have its ordinate place. We see its proper role in the lives of the four Pevensies when they decide to explore the Professor's house. As the narrator tells us, "That was how the adventures began." The Professor's house is described as having a whole series of rooms lined with books, an indicator of the goodness of curiosity in its proper place in the Professor's life and vocation.

It was not always like this. In The Magician's Nephew, Digory's healthy sense of curiosity became inordinate as he forcibly made Polly stay in Charn while he struck the mysterious bell to find out what would happen. As Jonathan Rogers has noted, here Digory shows "an excessive desire for knowledge." It is fitting that at this point Polly tells Digory he looks just like his Uncle Andrew.

But lest we react too strongly and reject curiosity or any other created thing altogether, Lewis also includes in The Magician's Nephew one of the most awe-inspiring creation scenes in all of literature, as Aslan sings Narnia into existence—each star, stag, bird, and blade of grass. You may choose to despise the things of this world, Lewis seems be saying, but know that they came from the Creator's loving hand with a very different relationship in mind.

"A properly Christian view of things requires more than a right relationship to the things of heaven," Jonathan Rogers writes. "It requires a right relationship to the things of earth too." Rogers concludes that "by allowing the reader to watch the creation of another world, C. S. Lewis evokes an appropriate awe and delight in the things of this world."

As we enter into the season of Lent, it might be helpful to see these 40 days not so much a time of renunciation (unless, of course, we have things to renounce) but a time of reordering, a time to slow down, step back, and carefully examine the things we have actively made or passively allowed to become the first things and second things in our lives.

Devin Brown is a Lilly Scholar and a Professor of English at Asbury University. He is the author of Inside Narnia (2005), Inside Prince Caspian (2008), and Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).

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Bulgaria Honors Saint Sophronius of Vratsa (Sofrony Vrachanski)

March 11, 2011
Novinite

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church honors Friday St. Sofrony, Bishop of Vrachnaski, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian National Revival.

A solemn mass will be served in front of the Bishop's monument in the northern city of Vratsa in the presence of officials, citizens and students from the elementary school named after the Saint.

The day to honor Sofrony Vrachanski, March 11, has been chosen by the Vratsa Eparchy, where the Saint has served.

Sofrony Vrachanski, or Priest Stoyko Vladsilavov, was canonized by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1964.

In the beginning of the 19th century, the priest had been considered by the Russian and the Romanian governments the most important representative of the Bulgarian community.

Vrachanski left Bulgaria for Bucharest in 1803 where he served as a high-ranking clergy. He was released from his Bishop duties on his own will, but retained the name Sofrony Vrachanski. Between 1806 and 1812, he served as one of the top diplomats and representatives of Bulgarian people in the relations with the Russian commandment during the Russian-Turkish War. He spent his last years in a monastery near Bucharest where he wrote some of his best works.

The exact date of death of the Saint remains unknown.

Read more about St. Sofrony here.

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'Oldest Cyrillic Writings in the Balkans' Vandalised

Nick Iliev
January 26 2011
The Sophia Echo

A medieval rock monastery near the village of Krepcha has been vandalised systematically over the past four years, since it opened to tourists, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on January 26 2011.

The site was made famous because it holds the oldest Cyrillic inscription in the Balkans, dating back to 921 CE since the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great, according to Professor Kazimir Popkonstantinov. The monastery is at risk of being destroyed if adequate measures for its protection are not implemented immediately, Popkonstantinov said.

The rock monastery consists of monastic cells, a church and a tomb, and is only two km from the village of Krepcha in northeastern Bulgaria. Vandals have been climbing into the monastery, setting fires, scribbling graffiti on the walls and destroying medieval drawings, the report said.

The individual compartments of the monastery are easily accessible, and the climb up the hill and to the monastery itself is facilitated by a metal staircase.

"There are people who would scribble their own names on the wall of the monastery, and they have no idea what they are destroying" Popkonstantinov told the BNT.

"For many years I have been opposed to this free public access," he added.

The inscriptions in Cyrillic were discovered for the first time in 1972 by Popkonstantinov, who claims that they are the oldest Cyrillic writings on the Balkan Peninsula. The professor has said that they were written by Father Anthony, a predecessor of the most famous medieval hermit, St. Yvan Rilski.

"This monastery is a good indicator that there were monks here as early as the late ninth century and early 10th century, which is a good illustration of the literacy among the population at the time," he said.

The monastery is under the jurisdiction and care of the Krepcha municipality, but they have no funds to protect the monument, the BNT reported.

In August 2010, Popkonstantinov was in the headlines in Bulgaria, for claiming that relics belonging to Saint John the Baptist had ben unearthed at the St Ivan island off the Bulgarian coast. The discoveries were announced on August 1 2010 following the excavation on the island near the seaside town of Sozopol.

Supposedly, the discovered artifacts and exquisite marble reliquary incorporated into the church’s altar contained an urn that had small bones from the arm and leg of the saint, archaeologists told Bulgarian media.

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Patriarch Kirill: Church Must Not Be A Political Power

March 10, 2011
Interfax-Ukraine

It is wrong for a Christian Church to be a political power, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has argued.

"The church must have no political means of exercising an influence on those in authority," Patriarch Kirill said in answering letters from televiewers in the "Pastor's Word" program on Russia's First Channel television.

The church "loses public confidence" if it becomes a political player.

"The church only has one way to influence the powerful and the powerless, the rich and the poor, the educated and the simple-minded - to preach God's word," Kirill said.

He said there are many believers in government in Russia.

"They are part of our laity, our flock. A sincerely religious person must follow what the church teaches and, whenever possible of course, put into practice the sublime values of Christian ethics in their professional and other activities," the patriarch said.

He expressed the desire that the Church should never "be tempted to replace its spiritual influence upon its people, including the powerful and the powerless, by the use of secular, political power for achieving its goals."

"The church has been able to evade such temptations throughout its history. We hope it will be able to today as well," he said.

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