Bright Week Celebrations In Greece

Bright Week, otherwise known as Renewal Week, begins on Pascha (i.e. Easter) Sunday and ends on the following Sunday of Thomas. The name probably originates from the fact that the newly baptized catechumens from Pascha are newly illumined and bright. For them it is a time of regeneration and renewal. These newly baptized in ancient times wore all white for a week, hence the week sometimes being called White Week.

The seven days of Bright Week are seen as one day, a continuous Paschal celebration. According to the 66th canon of the Council in Trullo: "From the holy day of the Resurrection of Christ our God until New Sunday (i.e. Thomas Sunday) for a whole week the faithful in the holy churches should continually be repeating psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing and celebrating Christ, and attending to the reading of the Divine Scriptures and delighting in the Holy Mysteries. For in this way shall we be exalted with Christ; raised up together with Him. For this reason on the aforesaid days that by no means there be any horse races or any other public spectacle." Furthermore, because of the continuous paschal celebration, there should be no fasting this week. And as the above canon states, this is a time of renewal for all Orthodox Christians and not just the newly baptized. It is a time for the faithful to bear spiritual fruit and generate new virtues for our own illumination as well.

In the Eastern Roman Empire, especially in Constantinople, this week had special joy and was celebrated with great pomp and splendor. The emperor would call the newly-baptized and the poor to a rich meal, while on Bright Thursday the Patriarch would have an honorary dinner for the clergy. Rich gifts were distributed by the emperor and official visitations were made. Prisoners with light offenses were released as well. These traditions are somewhat carried out today in Greece where state officials visit hospitals and military camps, and military sanctions are lifted.


Pascha Sunday

Today Pascha for the Greek people begins where it originated, on Holy Saturday afternoon at the empty tomb of Jesus known as the Holy Sepulchre in the city of Jerusalem. Every year at this time a great miracle of Orthodoxy takes place when the Patriarch of Jerusalem enters the tomb of Christ in complete darkness and emerges from the tomb moments laters with fire literally sent from heaven. This fire is popularly known as “Holy Fire”, though Orthodox Christians prefer to call it “Holy Light” for its supernatural origin. News of this miraculous event is widely covered in the Greek media, and is increasingly becoming popular news in the West as well. At the ceremony of the Holy Light there is always a delegation from Greece to receive this Holy Light and bring it to Greece with state honors through a special flight. Arriving in Athens it is then distributed on various aeroplanes to bring the Holy Light throughout Greece.

At 11pm on Saturday night pretty much the entire country is in church. The lights are turned off in the churches at midnight as everyone holds candles waiting to be lit. Soon the priest emerges from the darkened altar and announces that Christ has risen from the dead by calling all the faithful to receive the light of the Resurrection. In many places in Greece this light is in fact the Holy Light which was transferred from Jerusalem. Soon an amazing wonder takes place, when it seems the entire country is lit by this Holy Light as one person passes on the flame to another person as they greet one another with “Christ is risen!” and “Truly he has rise!” which will be the primary greeting for the next forty days. Leaving the churches the people carry this flame to their homes for a blessing where they will try to preserve this flame for the next forty days.

During this midnight service as well as on Pascha day many unique events take place in certain areas of Greece. One common theme is that fireworks are set off everywhere making the fourth of July look tame in comparison. Sometimes even dynamite and guns are used to symbolize the utter destruction of death and the powers of evil by Christ’s Resurrection. Probably the most well-known and dangerous firework display takes place in Chios, where two rival churches fire thousands of rockets at each other as part of an annual firework battle. This is a tradition in Chios dating back to 1889 when Turkish soldiers confiscated the cannons of the islanders, so instead they returned fire upon them with homemade rockets. In the town of Asine in Argolida they actually have a street battle with the men of the upper and lower parts of the village hurling insults and fireworks at each other. In southern Messenia people go to the main squares to watch the saetapolemos, which are rockets without sticks that the men hold while the force of the explosions makes them jump as if they are dancing. This practice supposedly goes back to the War of Independence when people of the area fashioned this home-made bombs to scare the horses of the Turks to force their riders to dismount and lose their advantage. In Corfu ceramic pots are thrown out of windows symbolizing the throwing out of evil. The people of Leonidio in Peloponnesos fill the sky with hot air balloons released by the faithful of each parish. In Thrace and Macedonia young women in traditional clothing called the Lazarins go around the villages singing traditional Paschal songs.

The Burning of Judas is a folk custom done in various places throughout Greece and other places. It is typically performed after the midnight service on Pascha Sunday, though sometimes done on Good Friday or Pascha Sunday afternoon after the Agape service. During this ceremony the people gather around a bonfire as an effigy of Judas is consumed to the accompaniment of roaring cheers, exploding firecrackers, and the occasional burst of gunfire. Some of the more popular Judas burnings take place in Chania and Loutro in Crete, as well as Kalymnos and Sifnos. It also takes place in Monemvasia, Rhodes, Hydra, Halkidiki, Koroni, and Leros. In Syros and Karpathos people bring their guns and shoot Judas as a scapegoat for society's ills.

The Paschal feast after the midnight service, which officially ends the 48-day fast of Great Lent and Holy Week, consists primarily of red eggs, richly scented breads and magiritsa. The red eggs, which were painted on Holy Thursday, are brought out and each person takes one and hits their end against someone else's until the last person who has an un-cracked egg is considered the lucky person for the year. Magiritsa is a variety of chopped and sautéed animal innards (mainly lamb), with herbs and spices and avgolemono (egg and lemon soup). During the day another larger feast takes place which features the famous paschal lamb roasted on a spit. In some villages the priest will go from house to house and bless the roasted lamb of the people. After the meal in certain areas people will attach swings to a tree and swing, while others may go out and pick flowers and form wreaths. There seem to be as many varied traditions on this day in Greece as there are towns and villages.


Bright Monday

In many parts of Greece the festivities of Pascha continue into Monday, with more feasts and dances. Some on this day will visit dead relatives and friends and leave red eggs on their graves praying for them a good resurrection. In Giannitsa of Pella and other areas the people will swing on this day. It is believed that riding a swing is good for one's health and an abundant harvest.

Often it happens that the feast of St. George the Great Martyr falls during Great Lent or Holy Week on April 23rd. Because no feasting is allowed on these days, the feast will be transferred to Bright Monday. St. George is very popular in Greece and churches everywhere are named after him, so many celebrations will take place on Bright Monday in his honor. In Mikropoli of Drama an event called "Celebration of God" (Γιορτή του Θεού) takes place at the Chapel of St. George with a dinner there.

On Bright Monday some monasteries on Mount Athos and Karyes hold litanies with their miraculous icons and holy relics. The others do this on Bright Tuesday. The most notable takes place with the icon of the Panagia of Axion Estin which departs Karyes and goes to all the surrounding monasteries, sketes and cells until it returns to Karyes on Bright Tuesday.

Bright Tuesday

Places like Pilios, Lesvos and Samos save riding on swings for this day. The dancing and festivities will continue today in many areas of Greece, as it will throughout the week. In Kalyvia Limenaria of Thassos Bright Tuesday is called "For Rain In April" (Για βρέξ΄ Απρίλη μ΄). It is an ancient custom to pray for spring rain. Residents of the community and visitors celebrate with folk dances and large pots of rice cooked with meat that is distributed to everyone. On the same day in Ierissos of Halkidiki there is the tradition called in Greek "Του μαύρου νιου τ΄ αλώνι" or "the black threshing floor". This is a dance that takes place in honor of Greeks killed by Turks in the area in 1821.

Many Saints who could not be celebrated properly over the past few weeks during Great Lent and Holy Week are celebrated throughout Bright Week and especially on Bright Tuesday. In 1680 on Pascha Sunday after the midnight service in Ntaou Penteli Monastery outside Athens, 179 monks were slaughtered by pirates and secretly were buried under the floor of the main church. It wasn’t until 1963 that the incorrupt relics of these holy martyrs were discovered in a miraculous way, and since then their feast is celebrated on Bright Tuesday. In 1904 the relics of St. Patapios of Thebes were revealed in his monastery in Thebes in a miraculous fashion, and since then the discovery of his relics are celebrated in Thebes on Bright Tuesday. On April 18, 1826 the Turks were devising a slaughter of the Christians in Herakleion, Crete on the feast of Pascha in the Church of Saint Menas. As the gospel was being read proclaiming the Resurrection Feast suddenly a gray haired man appeared and began running around the church holding a sword, and the faithful saw him chase away the Turks who were devising the slaughter. The people recognized this man to be St. Menas and every year since then this feast is celebrated on Bright Tuesday in Crete.

Probably the most famous feast on Bright Tuesday takes place in Mytilene at the Monastery of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene. For centuries the people of Lesvos would go on Bright Tuesday to the ruins of a monastery near Thermi, a village northwest of the capital, Mytilene. As time passed, however, no one could remember the reason for the annual pilgrimage. There was a vague recollection that once there had been a monastery on that spot, and that the monks had been killed by the Turks. It was not until 1959 that Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene started appearing in dreams and visions to the residents near Thermi revealing to them their identity as well as the location of their relics. Since then this monastery has become one of the most popular pilgrimage destination for Orthodox Christians in the world and they are celebrated especially on Bright Tuesday.


Bright Wednsday

On Bright Wednesday in the Municipal District of Eleutheron west of Kavala there is an emotional and reverent custom called "Mazidia" (Μαζίδια) that takes place dating back to Ottoman times. The faithful process with icons from the Byzantine Church of the Archangels, which is the oldest church in the region of Mazidia, to the picturesque Church of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene.

There is a blessing of artoklasia and holy water with prayers to the Risen Christ to bless the crops for a fruitful season. After venerating the icons, the procession returns to the Church of the Archangels.

Then the big feast begins in the village square. The dancing begins with the priest leading followed by the villagers. This is a tradition that goes prior to Ottoman times.

Bright Thursday

On Bright Thursday in Kalis Vrysis of Drama the icon of the Resurrection of Christ is processed around the farming areas to protect the village from all evil, especially from the extremely dangerous hail storms that could devastate the spring crop.

In Samothraki a festival is celebrated on Bright Thursday in honor of the miraculous discovery of the icon of Panagia Kamariotissa.


Bright Friday

Many churches throughout Greece are dedicated to the Virgin Mary of the Life-Giving Spring (Zoodochos Pege). Bright Friday is primarily set aside for this feast with the blessing of waters and processions that end in dances. In places like Larissa, Aigio, Argolida, Rhodes, Naxos, Kerkyra and Telendou special feasts take place in the churches dedicated to the Life-Giving Spring.

Bright Saturday

The Holy Doors in the iconostasis, which have remained open all of Bright Week are closed on this day before the beginning of the Ninth Hour. The Vespers (or All-Night Vigil, depending upon local usage) on Saturday night is chanted in the normal manner, rather than the Paschal manner. However, the Paschal troparion "Christ is risen..." is read (or chanted, if a Vigil) three times at the beginning. That Vespers is the beginning of Thomas Sunday.

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12 Historical Facts Most Critical Scholars Believe Supporting the Resurrection

In 2000 I attended a debate in Charlotte, North Carolina between Dr. Gary Habermas, a professor of mine at the time, and Dr. Anthony Flew, who was a famous atheist at the time but soon after this debate converted to theism. The twelve historical facts below were presented at this debate. Read here for more details about this.

1. Jesus died by crucifixion.

2. He was buried.

3. His death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope.

4. The tomb was empty (the most contested).

5. The disciples had experiences which they believed were literal appearances of the risen Jesus (the most important proof).

6. The disciples were transformed from doubters to bold proclaimers.

7. The resurrection was the central message.

8. They preached the message of Jesus’ resurrection in Jerusalem.

9. The Church was born and grew.

10. Orthodox Jews who believed in Christ made Sunday their primary day of worship.

11. James was converted to the faith when he saw the resurrected Jesus (James was a family skeptic).

12. Paul was converted to the faith (Paul was an outsider skeptic).

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A Case For Hell

Ross Douthat
April 24, 2011
The New York Times

Here’s a revealing snapshot of religion in America. On Easter Sunday, two of the top three books on Amazon.com’s Religion and Spirituality best-seller list mapped the geography of the afterlife. One was “Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back,” an account of a 4-year-old’s near-death experience as dictated to his pastor father. The other was “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived,” in which the evangelical preacher Rob Bell argues that hell might not exist.

The publishing industry knows its audience. Even in our supposedly disenchanted age, large majorities of Americans believe in God and heaven, miracles and prayer. But belief in hell lags well behind, and the fear of damnation seems to have evaporated. Near-death stories are reliable sellers: There’s another book about a child’s return from paradise, “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” just a little further down the Amazon rankings. But you’ll search the best-seller list in vain for “The Investment Banker Who Came Back From Hell.”

In part, hell’s weakening grip on the religious imagination is a consequence of growing pluralism. Bell’s book begins with a provocative question: Are Christians required to believe that Gandhi is in hell for being Hindu? The mahatma is a distinctive case, but swap in “my Hindu/Jewish/Buddhist neighbor” for Gandhi, and you can see why many religious Americans find the idea of eternal punishment for wrong belief increasingly unpalatable.

But the more important factor in hell’s eclipse, perhaps, is a peculiar paradox of modernity. As our lives have grown longer and more comfortable, our sense of outrage at human suffering — its scope, and its apparent randomness — has grown sharper as well. The argument that a good deity couldn’t have made a world so rife with cruelty is a staple of atheist polemic, and every natural disaster inspires a round of soul-searching over how to reconcile with God’s omnipotence with human anguish.

These debates ensure that earthly infernos get all the press. Hell means the Holocaust, the suffering in Haiti, and all the ordinary “hellmouths” (in the novelist Norman Rush’s resonant phrase) that can open up beneath our feet. And if it’s hard for the modern mind to understand why a good God would allow such misery on a temporal scale, imagining one who allows eternal suffering seems not only offensive but absurd.

Doing away with hell, then, is a natural way for pastors and theologians to make their God seem more humane. The problem is that this move also threatens to make human life less fully human.

Atheists have license to scoff at damnation, but to believe in God and not in hell is ultimately to disbelieve in the reality of human choices. If there’s no possibility of saying no to paradise then none of our no’s have any real meaning either. They’re like home runs or strikeouts in a children’s game where nobody’s keeping score.

In this sense, a doctrine of universal salvation turns out to be as deterministic as the more strident forms of scientific materialism. Instead of making us prisoners of our glands and genes, it makes us prisoners of God himself. We can check out any time we want, but we can never really leave.

The doctrine of hell, by contrast, assumes that our choices are real, and, indeed, that we are the choices that we make. The miser can become his greed, the murderer can lose himself inside his violence, and their freedom to turn and be forgiven is inseparable from their freedom not to do so.

As Anthony Esolen writes, in the introduction to his translation of Dante’s “Inferno,” the idea of hell is crucial to Western humanism. It’s a way of asserting that “things have meaning” — that earthly life is more than just a series of unimportant events, and that “the use of one man’s free will, at one moment, can mean life or death ... salvation or damnation.”

If there’s a modern-day analogue to the “Inferno,” a work of art that illustrates the humanist case for hell, it’s David Chase’s “The Sopranos.” The HBO hit is a portrait of damnation freely chosen: Chase made audiences love Tony Soprano, and then made us watch as the mob boss traveled so deep into iniquity — refusing every opportunity to turn back — that it was hard to imagine him ever coming out. “The Sopranos” never suggested that Tony was beyond forgiveness. But, by the end, it suggested that he was beyond ever genuinely asking for it.

Is Gandhi in hell? It’s a question that should puncture religious chauvinism and unsettle fundamentalists of every stripe. But there’s a question that should be asked in turn: Is Tony Soprano really in heaven? 

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Synaxis of All Saints of Mount Sinai

On Bright Wednesday we commemorate the holy monastic Fathers who have shone forth on the God-trodden Mount Sinai. This commemoration was established by the Church of Russia on April 17, 1997.

The Sinai desert, rich in important shrines, has proved to be fruitful in its anchorites. Unceasing noetic prayer strengthens the anchorites’ spiritual struggle, while participation in common prayer and worship transforms the desert into a spiritual meadow.

In addition to Saint Catherine, whose relics were translated to Sinai, there have flourished numerous elders, martyrs, teachers. These include the righteous martyrs Galakteon and Episteme, and the ascetics Nilus, John Climacus, Hesychius, Philotheus, and the two saints named Anastasius. Saint Symeon Pentaglossos helped establish the veneration of Saint Catherine in the West, while Saint Gregory of Sinai transplanted the traditions of noetic prayer to the Slavic peoples.

The list of Sinai saints includes figures from both the Old and New Testaments, martyrs, and righteous ascetics, who have been revealed as emblems of sanctity. A total of 181 saints are recognized, and their memories celebrated, in the cycle of daily services. The Wednesday after Pascha has been established as the feast day of All Saints of Sinai, in which mention is made of these by name. This also forms the occasion for the celebration of all those whose names are known only to God.

Read also:

St. Anastasios of Sinai: Concerning the Holy Fathers in Sinai

Official Website For Sinai Monastery

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The Kasperov Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos

Tradition says that this holy icon had been brought to Cherson from Transylvania by a Serb at the end of the sixteenth century. Passing down from parent and child, the icon had come to a certain Mrs. Kasperova of Cherson in 1809.

One night in February of 1840 she was praying, seeking consolation in her many sorrows. Looking at the icon of the Virgin, she noticed that the features of the icon, darkened by age, had suddenly become bright. Soon the icon was glorified by many miracles, and people regarded it as wonder-working.

During the Crimean War (1853-1856), the icon was carried in procession through the city of Odessa, which was besieged by enemy forces. On Great and Holy Friday, the city was spared. Since that time, an Akathist has been served before the icon in the Dormition Cathedral of Odessa every Friday.

The icon is painted with oils on a canvas mounted on wood. The Mother of God holds Her Son on her left arm. The Child is holding a scroll. St John the Baptist (Janurary 7) is depicted on one side of the icon, and St Tatiana (January 12) on the other. These were probably the patron saints of the original owners of the icon.

The Kasperov Icon is commemorated on October 1, June 29, and Bright Wednesday.

Source

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Saint Symeon the Martyr, Bishop of Jerusalem

St. Symeon the Brother of our Lord (Feast Day - April 27)

According to Eusebius (Church History, Book III, ch. 11), Saint Symeon is said to have been the son of Cleopas, otherwise called Alpheus, who was father also of Saint James the Lesser, of Saint Jude the Apostle, and of another son named Joseph. Alpheus, according to tradition, was Saint Joseph’s brother; thus Saint Symeon was the nephew of Saint Joseph and the cousin of our Savior.

However, Symeon is sometimes identified with Symeon, the "brother of the Lord", who is mentioned in passing in the Bible (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3) (although Aramaic had no term for "cousin") and pointing to Hegesippus referring to him as the "second cousin" as bishop of Jerusalem. James the Brother of our Lord was the first bishop of Jerusalem. Other exegetes consider the brothers to be actual brothers and Hegesippus' wording as subsuming both James and Symeon under a more general term.

We cannot doubt but that he was an early follower of Christ; tradition assigns the family’s residence to Nazareth. He certainly received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, with the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles. When the Jews massacred Saint James the Brother of our Lord, his brother Symeon reproached them for their atrocious cruelty. After this first bishop of Jerusalem had been put to death in the year 62, that is, twenty-nine years after Our Savior’s Resurrection, the Apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint a successor, and unanimously chose Saint Symeon, who had probably already assisted his brother in the government of that Church.

In the year 66 or 67, during which Saints Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, civil war broke out in Judea as a result of the hostility of the Jews against the Romans and their seditions. The Christians of Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending destruction of that city. With Saint Symeon at their head, they therefore left it in that year and retired beyond the Jordan to a small city called Pella, before Vespasian, Nero’s General, later Roman Emperor, entered Judea. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem they returned there once more, still under the leadership of Saint Symeon, and settled amid its ruins.

The Jerusalem church flourished again for a few years until razed by Adrian, and multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of prodigies and miracles wrought in its midst. The emperors Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of the race of David; but Saint Symeon escaped their searches. When Trajan renewed the same decree, however, certain heretics and Jews accused the Saint before the Roman governor in Palestine, as being both of the race of David and a Christian.

The holy bishop was condemned to be crucified. He died in the year 107, after having undergone during several days the usual tortures, though he was one hundred and twenty years old. He suffered these torments with so much patience that he won universal admiration. He had governed the Church of Jerusalem for about forty-three years.

HYMN OF PRAISE: THE HOLY APOSTLE SYMEON

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Symeon, glistening with youth and strength,
When he, the good Teacher approached
Saw not a relative, known to him according to the flesh
But, the unknown God in bodily form;
And the entire world became dark to him from this great light,
When he came to himself, with the world He parted
And as a powerful eagle in lofty flight
Toward heaven and the heavenly world, he raises his spirit.
He, through Christ, recognized the goodness of God,
And immortal life and immortal beauty
Yet through Christ, True Man he recognized,
That is why he scorns glory and the honor of this age;
As a honey bee, he devoted himself to labor,
Not grieving over youth, not grieving over the body,
But, to the end to fulfill the law of Christ
And to become worthy of Paradise divine.
And crucified on the Cross, the elder centenarian,
Did not feel the deadly sting,
For with the spirit, long ago he resurrected,
Now waits with the body to resurrect gloriously.

Apolytikion in the First Tone
We sacredly acclaim thee as Jesus Christ's kinsman, and as His steadfast Martyr, O all-lauded Hierarch. For bravely hast thou destroyed all deception and kept the faith. Hence, O Symeon, we keep thy holy remembrance on this festive day; and by thy prayers, we are granted the pardon of grievous sins.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
Since the church hath Symeon, the God-proclaimer, as a great and shining star, she is now guided by his light as she doth cry out in joy today: Rejoice, O ven'rable summit of martyred Saints.

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Video: Pascha At Optina Monastery 2011

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The Truth and Power of the Resurrection

By St. Theophan the Recluse

The mind can prove the truth of the Resurrection through reason based on the scriptures, and a non-believer cannot but admit the power of its arguments, as long as a sense of truth is not yet dead in him. A believer does not need proof, because the Church of God is filled with the light of the Resurrection. Both of these indicators of truth are faithful and convincing. But counter-reasoning can spring up and contradict mind’s reason, and faith can be trampled and shaken by perplexities and doubts, coming from without and arising within.

Is there no invincible wall around the truth of the Resurrection? There is. It will occur when the power of the Resurrection, received already at baptism, begins to actively be revealed as it purges the corruption of soul and body, and establishes within them the beginnings of a new life. He who experiences this will walk in the light of the Resurrection, and anyone talking against the truth of the Resurrection will seem to him insane, like a person saying in the daytime that it is night.

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Fourth Century Christian Graffiti In Egyptian Temple

The graffiti in question are from the fourth century AD. Here is the abstract (read more here) of the scholarly paper:

Recovering Christian Abydos: Coptic Graffiti from the Temple of Seti I

Jennifer Westerfeld (University of Louisville)

Abstract:

The temple of Seti I at Abydos was the site of intense epigraphic activity from the Late Period into early Islamic times. A significant corpus of late antique graffiti from the temple appears to have been produced by a community of Coptic nuns who periodically visited the site. Although such a collection of epigraphic evidence for female monastic activity is virtually unparalleled in Egypt, this material has never been fully edited or studied. This paper will discuss a newly-proposed research mission to document the Coptic graffiti at the temple of Seti I, considering in particular the circumstances under which the graffiti were produced and the ways in which the Seti temple functioned within the Christianized landscape of late antique Abydos.

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Some Orthodox Object To National Identity Cards

Sophia Kishkovsky
April 26, 2011
ENI News

The Russian and Greek Orthodox churches are objecting to plans in both countries to introduce electronic national identity cards intended to streamline bureaucracy and, in the case of Greece, facilitate integration into the European Union.

Church officials are demanding close study of the cards and asking that authorities make them optional. They say that the personal and financial information that would be consolidated on the microchips in the cards could be manipulated to discriminate against believers.

In an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta, an official government newspaper, earlier this month, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations, said: "Credit cards, which a person uses to take money from a bank machine or for payment in a store, are one thing, but a personal card in which all the information about a person's life and activities will be entered, about his bank accounts, health and travels is a different matter. These are different grades of state control over people."

Conservative and nationalist wings within the churches have held demonstrations in Athens and Moscow and claim that the cards will compromise national and religious identity. Many have gone so far as to say that identity numbers such as 666 are the "mark of the beast" from the Book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament.

At a demonstration in Moscow on 16 April, Orthodox nationalists joined forces with members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The Communists also oppose the Universal Electronic Card (UEC), which is scheduled to be introduced in Russia next year.

Segodnia.ru, an Internet publication that often covers religious and nationalist issues, commenting on the demonstration, said, "the introduction of the UEC makes it possible to build an unheard of, super-totalitarian electronic dictatorship, in which each individual person becomes a remote-controllable bio-object, for all practical purposes a robot with a bar code on his body or a microchip implanted under his skin."

Patriarch Kirill II of the Russian Orthodox Church told a meeting of the Bishop's Council of the Russian Orthodox in February that "the church understands the position of people who do not wish to be subject to control that makes it possible to gather all-encompassing information about their private life, and could in the long-term be used to discriminate against citizens based on their world view."

On 27 March, thousands of Greek Orthodox priests, monks, nuns and lay people marched through Athens to the Greek parliament building in protest.

In April, the Synod of Bishops of the Church of Greece expressed its concern about the cards and said it would hold meetings with top government officials. Metropolitan Prokopios of Philippi, Neapolis and Thasos, who chairs the synod's committee on dogmatic and canonical questions, reported that as a result of preliminary talks with the Greek government, the church had received assurances that, among other things, the numerals 666 would not appear in the cards in any form.

Archimandrite Iannuarii Ivliev, a professor of biblical studies at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy told the May edition of Neskuchny Sad, a Russian Orthodox magazine, that the obsession with symbols such as 666 are the result of a primitive interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

"Many years of atheism and the ban on all Christian education has had a poisonous effect," he said. "Several generations of people have grown up whose religious consciousness, through no fault of their own, is on the most primitive level. They are baptized, but unfortunately not enlightened by the light of Christ's Gospel ... They think that they are under siege from all sides by 'demonic forces.'"

He said the Bishop's Council of the Russian Orthodox Church asked the government to make electronic forms of identification optional.

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Easter Celebrations In Prizren

April 26, 2011
Radio Srbije

In the restored Serbian Orthodox Church in Prizren, in Kosovo and Metohija, tens of Serbs attended the Easter liturgy on Sunday night, the first one after 1999. Snežana Milošević has more.

At Easter this year, the first holy bishop liturgy has been served in the seat of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren after twelve years. The event instilled hope in the few Serbs that have remained in Prizren, having withstood all the pressure that has been exerted on them all these years. Many Serbs that were expelled in the summer of 1999 arrived as well to attend the liturgy. The seat of the Eparchy had been provisionally moved to Gracanica before it was returned to Prizren recently. The liturgy was served by the bishop of Raska and Prizren, Teodosije, in the Church of St George, which, together with the whole complex, rose from the ashes after being burnt down in the violent attacks that Kosovo Albanians exerted against Serbs in March 2004.

It is the will of God that everything reduced to rubble in 2004 has been restored in its full splendour. My heart is filled with Easter joy due to all these people that have arrived here. This place is full of prayer and it has been proved that humans cannot shed darkness on what is divinely meant to be light. As we cannot darken the sun, we cannot darken our sanctities either, especially here, in Kosovo and Metohija, said Bishop Teodosije.

Ljubica Kamparelić, a local Serb who has returned to her house with her husband and son, remembers Easter as it was celebrated in the past. The family now lives in their house, which has been ruined and plundered meanwhile, and are waiting for their neighbours to return.

I cannot say there is no pressure any more, but what I find the most difficult is the fact that I am not with my people here, says Ljubica.

Until 1999, almost ten thousand Serbs lived in the old town of Prizren, one of the greatest cultural and trade centres of medieval Serbia, which, among other things, housed a throne of Serbian Emperor Dusan. Today, only 18 Serbs have remained here.

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Newly Discovered Video of Smyrna Refugees In 1922

George Magarian and the YMCA - Smyrna, Athens, Pireaus - the Refugees of 1922

George Magarin was born in 1895 and graduated from the American College in Konya, Turkey. Later he worked for the YMCA in Konya. With a 35 mm camera he captured this footage which for over 85 years was unknown but to his wife living in New York. Finally in 2008 his grandson found it and had it restored so that we are able to view it today.

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A Miraculous Healing By Saint Raphael of Lesvos

The following miracle is recounted in the book The Miracles of Saint Raphael by Evgenia, abbess of the Convent of Saint Raphael in Mytilene, Greece.

My son Constantine, a pupil in high school, had a terrible accident. Together with two other boys, he was burned when a cauldron of boiling fat exploded. There was no part of his body which was not burned, from head to foot. We rushed him to the hospital, but the doctors said he could not live, or if by any chance he did so, he could remain paralyzed.

As soon as I heard this I uttered from the depths of my heart: "St. Raphael, have pity on me and save my child. Let him live with no trace of the accident, or else let God take him tonight, so that he should suffer no more."

That evening as I dozed, I dreamed that I was at the harbor of Mytilene, and St. Raphael came up to me dressed in a white rason, and said, "Magdalene, our Costas will get well. Soon he will be home without any mark." That same night my son saw St. Raphael come and peel off a black skin from him, from the crown of his head to his toes. The Saint said, "You are completely well."

From that moment, he recovered rapidly, and in fifteen days he was home without any mark on him. The doctors confessed that it was a great miracle. This happened in 1969.

Magdalene Patrele
Ellwood, Australia

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The Appearance of the Iveron Portaitissa Icon

Photo taken in 1927 or 1928 by Ali Sami Bei

This icon was the property of a pious widow who lived in the area of Nicea in Asia Minor during the time of the iconoclastic emperor Theophilus (829-842). When the emperor's men arrived there to find and destroy every holy icon, this faithful widow threw the wonderworking icon of the Theotokos into the sea. Then she beheld a strange wonder. The icon stood upright on the water and traveled westward across the waves in this position.

After a time the icon arrived in front of the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos. A certain holy hermit named Gabriel received it in his arms from the water, and he gave it to the monks. They built a little church for the icon near the gate of the monastery, and they placed the icon there. From that time it was called the Portaitissa.

Since then the Most Holy Theotokos has worked many miracles through her holy icon. She has cured those who were possessed by demons, healed those who were lame, and given sight to the blind. At the same time, she has protected the monastery from every danger and saved it from invasions of foreigners. Among those who received benefit from the Portaitissa was a Russian princess, the daughter of Tsar Alexei Michailovitch (1651).

The icon arrived at the Holy Mountain on Bright Tuesday 1004. Therefore, the Iveron Monastery celebrates this bright festival even to the present day. The Divine Liturgy takes place in the church by the sea, where holy water gushed up when the monk Gabriel took the icon from the sea.

The Iveron Portaitissa Icon is also commemorated on March 31.

Source

Photos by Milovan Cvetic during the litany of 2006

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Holy New Martyrs Anastasia and Christodoulos of Patras (+ 1821)

At the beginning of the revolution of 1821, Patras was in a degraded condition. A mother with two daughters and her son, a wealthy family, tried to flee to the French Embassy ​​to be saved. They did not succeeded. Arrested by the Turks they went in front of Yusuf Pasha. They pleaded, they begged and they kneeled before him to be released, but Pasha was adamant: the only way to avoid death is to convert to Islam. They cried and mourned at the threat, but shaken at the prospect of death they eventually denied Christ and were included in the harem of the Pasha.

Their servant, Anastasia, a humble girl, was also urged towards denial, however she resisted, and to the proposal of the Pasha she replied:

"My God is the God of your false prophet. Can you threaten Him, Whose echoes of thunder are louder than the cries of rage in your guards. Look at the sky, wretched unbeliever, for there resides the Virgin. She spreads out her hands to me. I see her. How sweet is her smile. She invites me, 'Come, my dove'. Rejoice, Queen of Angels! Rejoice, star of the morning! Accept your humble servant, Anastasia. Be baptized, Vizier, and deny your error. I feel it, my Savior calls me to him."

Having said that she delivered her soul, before the murderers were able to infect and to kill her. This was April 3, 1821 on Palm Sunday.

"You escaped me!" shouted Yusuf Pasha, and approaching a young boy of fourteen, the son of a priest, Christodoulos, he said:

"My Prophet struck her already, as you yourself observed, that miserable one who was not afraid to curse his name. Tremble lest you have the same luck. Say what I say 'God is my God, and Muhammad is his prophet.'"

Instead of repeating those words, the child martyr cried out:

"Christ is Risen!"

"Muhammad is better," responded Pasha.

"Only Christ is Risen!"

"I will slaughter you like a goat!"

"Christ is Risen!"

Then the attending soldiers rushed with fury against him. Pasha ordered to spare him, ordering him but a penalty of five hundred beatings, which would be distributed during a period of fourteen days. Immediately he accepted the first beating, and was encouraged to deny Christ, but he glorified Jesus. The ordeal was repeated for the next fourteen days. The Saint responded after he was encouraged to apostasize:

"My body belongs to you, but my soul to God, Who would never abandon me nor would the Virgin Mary."

When his time and penalty was completed, Yusuf dismissed him with contempt by telling his soldiers:

"Muhammad does not want this dog Christian. The resistance is enough proof. Let's let him go."

The witness of Christ left and surrendered shortly thereafter his spirit into the hands of the Lord, to receive the crown of victory.

His bloody and ripped up clothes became a treasure for the Christians, and were taken for miraculous protection.

Their memory is celebrated in Patras on Bright Tuesday.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The 1826 Miracle of St. Menas in Herakleion, Crete

This miracle of Saint Menas took place in 1826 in Herakleion, Crete. Five years prior was the beginning of the Greek Revolution and the Turks had slaughtered a great number of Greeks in Crete, most noteworthy being the Metropolitan of Crete together with many of his bishops of various districts on June 24, 1821 in the Cathedral of Saint Menas, together with the officiating priest who was slaughtered on the very altar during the Divine Liturgy.

Five years later the Turks were devising another slaughter of the Christians on April 18, 1826, which was the Feast of Pascha when all Christians of the city would gather to celebrate the Feast of Feasts. To distract them they set fires on Pascha in various areas of the city and many gathered towards the church to celebrate the feast and sing "Christ is risen!"

As the gospel was being read proclaiming the Resurrection Feast, suddenly a gray haired man appeared and began running around the church holding a sword, and the faithful saw him chase away the Turks who were devising the slaughter.

The Turks thought the man was a fellow Muslim who was sent by the governor of the city to call off the slaughter. However the governor assured them he had sent no one and in fact had not left his home that night. It was then that the Turks realized that this was a miracle of Saint Menas to save the Greeks. It is for this reason that Muslims began honoring Saint Menas and bringing gifts to the church.

This event is celebrated annually at the Cathedral of Saint Menas by the people of Herakleion on Bright Tuesday, and during Great Vespers his relics are venerated by the faithful.

#1 is the new Cathedral of St. Menas completed in 1895. #2 is the old Cathedral of St. Menas where the miracle took place.

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New Documentary On Elder Paisios the Athonite

During Holy Week on Greek television a new documentary on Elder Paisios aired over a three day period. The video above is the complete program.

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Bright Week Customs and Beliefs In Old Russia

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

The feast of Pascha represents the most cheerful and solemn festival in all Rus. Not in vain did our ancestors surround this feast with special beliefs and customs living up to then in the popular way of life. Spring and the awakening of nature, incorporated with the great religious paschal celebration, gives the feast special attraction and charm: nature at this time, according to popular belief, empathizes with the resurrection of the Savior and expresses this joy in its appearance. So, our ancestors were quite sure that on the Bright Resurrection the flash of the morning dawn in the eastern sky is redder, rosier than on other days, that the sun in its rising is flashing, playing.

According to popular belief, the brightest paradise is opened on the first day of Pascha, and its gate remains opened during all of Bright Week. Therefore any one who dies during Bright Week becomes a saint, his soul entering directly into paradise. This idea was easily born in the popular mind partly under the influence of the sacred hymns proclaiming forgiveness in general, partly under the influence of the tradition to keep the Royal Doors open in the temples during all Paschal Week, itself signifying "an opening of the heavens". The Book of Needs explains why very little of the usual Burial Service for the Laymen is kept for their burial during the days of Pascha, saying that "the dead person has died in repentance (during these days); but even if he has not yet made satisfaction for his sins, these are remitted to him through the prayers of the Church and he will be freed from its bond".


Closely connected with the idea of the opened paradise is the superstitious idea, against which Maxim the Greek in the 16th century spoke, that if the sun does not set during all Paschal week, and the whole week is as though one long day, also is often the pagan conviction that during this fertile time the gods of light descend from heaven to earth and bestow fertility on it.

According to popular stories, the Savior and the Apostles wander over the earth in beggarly sackcloth from the first day of Pascha and until the Ascension of the Lord, testing human mercy, and rewarding good and punishing evil. The belief that Christ the Savior wanders about the earth departs from the Gospel narratives frequently mentioning the appearances of the Incarnate God after His resurrection from the dead. These popular views on the feast of the Resurrection of Christ were expressed as if they were of antiquity, and are now also the most advanced.

In the ancient Christian Church the feast of the Resurrection of Christ was preferentially devoted to deeds of philanthropy. During Pascha in Rus our sovereigns visited hospitals, alms-houses, imprisoned strangers, and convicts, and with the paschal salutation brought them clothes, money and food. In general, our tsars and tsarinas spent all Bright Week as pilgrims, traveling to near and far monasteries, with generous charity to the needy and the lame. And now during the whole week food is taken from the table and is hospitably offered to each traveler and
beggar.

But of all the paschal customs the most widespread and oldest included in Russian popular life is the use of colored eggs on Pascha. Besides the use of eggs during the Paschal kissing, simple people used them as symbols of all that is vital and flowers in nature.


The paschal egg, especially the first received after the Paschal kissing in the opinion of the people, has some superstitious meaning. It carefully protects as a talisman, they find treasures with its help, are released from misfortunes, fire, robbery, illnesses. With it they go to the cemeteries to give the Paschal kiss to the departed, in full confidence that the departed will hear their greetings when this egg is there with them. They go into the fields to sow grain with Paschal eggs in the firm hope for a good crop. In some places during harvesting of hemp they snack with paschal eggs and scatter the eggshells in the fields, saying: "O God, they whipped crops of hemp like eggs".

On Ascension Day they go to the fields and toss up the red eggs so that the rye will rise as high as the tossed egg. In choral dancing games and songs for the days of St. Nicholas and Pentecost, Paschal eggs play a role as a symbol of fertility and the rebirth of nature. With the end of spring the symbolical use of eggs by the people diminishes.

Also from of old the Russian people have an egg, especially on the feast of Pascha, to serve as some kind of toy: it is used for rolling, hitting and other entertainment. However, such reference to the paschal egg even from antiquity was not considered decent and proper and is why in the monastic decrees of the 17th century, signed by rectors and bishops, it is forbidden for peasants along with a number of other superstitions to beat themselves with eggs as an activity opposed to the faith and degrading the importance of the feast.

And at the present time it is required for the shepherds of the Church to care about uprooting customs connected with the paschal eggs through edification and exhortation, inasmuch as their use is connected to the superstitions opposed to the spirit of Christian teaching, but certainly is exactly the same as all other sorts of superstitious views and customs, and with every other, attached to the feast of Holy Pascha (Rukovodstvo dlia Selskikh Pastyrei [Manual for Village Pastors] 1894, 15).

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Greek Epithets of Saint George the Great Martyr

In the Orthodox Church, we give many and various epithets to the names of our Saints, either out of reverence or for some miracle or for any other reason. More than any of our Saints, the Theotokos has the most epithets applied to her name by far by the faithful. Below are some epithets applied to one of Orthodoxy's most popular and miracle working saints - Saint George the Great Martyr.

In Ofis of Pontus they called Saint George by the name Saint Aeris (Saint Aerial). Also in Pontus the Turks called him Aerts (Saint George) and knew him as O Zanton (Of the Wheel) because he was tortured on the wheel and in turn he was believed to torture their minds and drive them crazy as a punishment.

In Thrace they knew him as Arapi (the Black) or Arakleiano (of Herakleia) because a miraculous image of his was in Herakleia in the Propontis that was carved of hard black wood that gave him a black face.

In Thissio they called Saint George Akamati (the Lazy), because the Turks allowed the church dedicated to him to only celebrate the Divine Liturgy on his feast day on April 23.

In the olden days, many Greek people would often call Saint George Afenti (Master or Boss) out of respect for his position in the heavenly army and over their lives as a protector.

In Kastoria and other places they would call him Gorgos (Speedy) because he was a speedy helper, a speedy visitor and a speedy protector.

In Crete Saint George is widely known as Diasoritis which is believed to derive from his association with Zeus, who is known in Greek as Dia, or the association of the name "God" with Dia, thus meaning "Priest of Zeus". However, this epithet is probably of toponymic character and derives from the antique name of Ortaköy (the traditional birth place of St. George in Cappadocia), or, according to another version, from the name of the monastery on Amorgos Island within the Cyclades. The expression Diasoritis is usually linked to the composition modelled on the image from the monastery, where the saint is presented frontally, from the waist up, with a lance in his right hand and a round shield in his left (read more here).

Another epithet for Saint George is Disouritis (of Dysuria), because he is known to heal people with dysuria. In the Monastery of Xenophontos on Mount Athos there is a fresco of Saint George known as Disouritis.

In Imvros they call Saint George Zouros, because he heals zoura, tuberculosis and withering for those who leave their rags in the chapel.

St. George is often called Wonderworker, Trophy-bearer, or the Great. He is called the first from his numerous miracles which he works for those who call upon him in faith. The second because he won many trophies, in other words victories and triumphs in the Roman Empire as an officer. But chiefly in the Church of Christ he triumphs against every evil and conqueres the devil. And he is called “the Great” because he is perceived as the greatest and chief of the champions and martyrs.

In Kaso he is named St. Kallaris, and elsewhere St. Kavalaris (the Horseman), because he is a Saint that rides a horse.

Others call St. George the Cappadocian, because Cappadocia was the home of his father and his place of origin. He is also called the Palestinian, after his mother's homeland of Palestine and the place of his tomb.

In Chios and Limne there is a church of St. George with the name Katadoti (the Snitch). In this church the Christians gathered to plan for the revolution against the Genoans. Someone, however, betrayed them and they were all slaughtered.

In Pringkipos he is called Koudounas (the Bell), because on his icon people hang bells, symbols of insanity, which all believe he will heal them of. And there if one wants to say that someone is not well, he says: “he is for the Bell”.

On his feast on November 3rd [the dedication of the church of the Saint in Lydda] he is named tou Krasa (of the Wine), or tou Methysti (of the Drunk), because on that day they open the new bottles of wine.

In Cyprus he is called St. George tou Sporou, or elsewhere tou Sporari, because from his feast day begins the sowing of seeds by the farmers.

In Psomathia of Constantinople there is a church of the Saint, and in the outer courtyard there is a great cypress which burned in 1782. From this they called the Saint Kyparissa (the Cypress). In 1882 because of this story, Patriarch Constantios planted a new cypress.

In many areas the Saint is perceived as the protector of fishermen and they continually call on him to help them in fishing. And if it doesn't go well, they call him Paximadoklefti [Dry Bread Stealer].

In an area of Messenia called Giannitsa, near the Saint's church it appears that there are traces of horse footprints which people believe are from his horse, and because of this they call him Petaloti (the Horseshoe).

In various places he is called St. Stratego (St. Soldier) for the position which it appears he had.

In Crete, when at one point they built a church to him, some went to fish to pay the workers. They caught so many fish that they named his church St. George tou Psaropiasti (the Fish-Catcher).

On Mount Athos there is a monastic cell named St. George tou Phaneromenou (the Revealed One). It is a cell far from Karyes. 200 years ago, one night, pirates went to rob the two old monks who were staying there. A young man opened to them in kindness and was brought to the leader, and he said that he would call the Elder. The robbers waited for a while, and because they didn't see anyone they began to steal. However, then they felt that they were invisibly bound. They shouted, and they awoke the fathers who saw them bound. When they learned what had occurred, they brought the icon of St. George from the church and the thieves recognized the young man. Immediately they fell down and venerated the Saint in repentance. One of them went and lived in asceticism in Karoulia, where he built a chapel dedicated to St. George. After this miracle the cell took the name: St. George Phaneromenos.

Many times they give the Saint the name of the founders of the church, e.g. St. George O Machairas, or St. George O Trachys, and both of these churches are in Naxos. The one was opened by the Machairadon family, the other by a family named Trachy. In Constantinople there is a church of St. George O Agridianos, while in Chios they call him Pezostrato or Ketoktono.

These are just a sampling of the many epithets of Saint George, which the Greek people have called him over the years.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
As the liberator of captives, and the defender of the poor, physician of the sick and champion of kings, O Trophy-bearer, Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ God to save our souls.

Source: Translated and edited by John Sanidopoulos

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Video: Report On the Church of St. George In Cairo

The Church of Saint George in Cairo, Egypt is known for its rotunda and for being the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. In this report the history of the church is explained and the current structural problems are discussed. Read more here.

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Video: Report On St. George Church In Lydda

This is a report on the Church of St. George in Lydda, Israel done in 2008. This church contains the tomb of St. George and is a major shrine where both Christians and Muslims venerate the Great Martyr.

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48.1% In Greece Do Not Believe in the Resurrection

According to a poll done by Κάπα Research published in the Sunday Vema, essential Orthodox teachings like the resurrection of Christ are being abandoned.

When asked "Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead?" there appears to be a drop of 10 points since the 2008 poll. 51.3% stated 'yes' and 'probably yes' then, while 41.8% answered to the same thing this year, with 26.5% indicating "yes and 15.3% "probably yes". Contrast this with 48.1% who said 'no' and 'probably not', while 10.1% replied "do not know" or "no answer".

A similar trend is seen to the question '"Do you think that in recent year Greeks believe in the divine?", where only 28.8% said "the same as before" and 18.9% "more" and 46.1% "less".

Regarding Easter, people were asked to complete the sentence "For you personally, Easter is ..." 36% said "a period of religious devotion" and 11.1% "a chance to go to church". In contrast, 42.5% said "a chance to return to their manners and customs" and 39.9% said "a chance for vacation and relaxation", while 15.1% said "a chance to be with my relatives" and 11.9% said "a chance to visit my place of origin".

In the same vein the answers to the question "On the evening of the Resurrection do you follow the entire Divine Liturgy, starting from the very beginning and leaving after the 'Christ is Risen', or simply prefer to go to hear the 'Christ is Risen'?" 48.4% said "Just go to hear the 'Christ is Risen', "28.8% said "I go from the beginning of the Divine Liturgy and then I leave after the 'Christ is Risen', "and 8.5% said "I do not go to church". Only 13.6% said they stay for the entire Divine Liturgy.

Regarding whether or not they believe in God, 56.3% said "Yes" and 20% said "Probably yes". However, 13% said "No" and 7.7% said "Probably no". 3.1% said "I don't know" or gave "No answer".

When asked about their knowledge of the Holy Week religious texts, 9.1% said "a lot", 36.6% said "fair amount", 37.9% said "a little", and 16.2% said "none".

And to the question "What emotions were generated within you during Holy Week?", 43.9% said "humble devotion", 25.1% said "reverence", 18.4% said "tranquility", 14.8% said "love", 12.9% said "peace", 10.5% said "joy", and 11.1% said "philanthropic feelings".

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Video: Report On the Holy Light of Jerusalem

This was a news report done by the Greek TV station Mega in 2001 with interviews by witnesses.

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Holy Saturday Morning In Kerkyra (Corfu)

In Corfu ceramic pots are thrown out of windows symbolizing the throwing out of evil from homes and making noise to proclaim the harrowing of Hades by Christ's victory over death. This is done following the First Resurrection service on Holy Saturday.

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Bulgarians Flock to See Wondrous Bachkovo Icon

April 25, 2011
Novinite

Monday Bulgarians are celebrating the second day of Easter, and the first day of the Bright Week, or Week of Renewal, following Jesus Christ's resurrection.

Thousands gathered at the great Bachkovo Monastery in the Rhodope Mountains south of Plovdiv in a traditional Easter meeting centered around the wonder-working icon of Virgin Mary.

The story goes that the icon was discovered some time in the 14th c. by two little shepherds high in the mountains, where they witnessed wondrous flames going out from the ground.

It is said to have healed and otherwise helped many a person ever since.

Monday Christians gathered in a solemn religious procession behind the image of the Mother of Christ.

Bachkovo Monastery is one of the largest and oldest Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Europe. Located along the reaches of the Assenitsa River (29 km south of Plovdiv and 189km of Sofia), the Bachkovo monastery ranks second after the Rila Monastery both with regard to size, and to architectural, artistic and literary significance. It was founded by the Georgian Grigorii Bakuriani in 1083. Almost immediately after its foundation, the monastery turned into a wealthy landowner, its properties stretching as far as Salonika.

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Flash Mob In Beirut Mall Sing "Christ Is Risen!"

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The Trickery of Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba, the famous Hindu Guru and demi-god, died at the age of 84 yesterday (read here). He is said to have performed many miracles in his lifetime, yet they were clearly magic tricks by which he deceived many people. Much can be read at Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed. One of his predictions for example was that he would die at the age of 90, so with six years short of his prophecy his "early" death throws a major death blow to his credibility.

Joe Schwarcz
April 16, 2011
The Gazette

He vanished the Taj Mahal. He made a train full of people disappear. He can turn a baby elephant into a horse. He performs to full houses more than 400 times a year, travels with a crew of 75, carries 48 tons of equipment, an elaborate laser lighting system and costumes galore. He has performed in front of royalty, presidents and prime ministers. No, he's not David Copperfield. He is P.C. Sorcar Jr., billed as the living legend of Indian magic. Even though he has garnered fame and fortune, Sorcar is not the best known magician in India. That distinction goes to Swami Sai Baba. But the Swami is not regarded as a magician. Far from it. He is revered as a miracle worker, a healer, an embodiment of divinity who has come down to Earth. To his followers, he is a "godman."

Baba has millions of followers in more than 100 countries who regularly gather at Sai Baba centres to pray, sing, meditate and work toward improving the human condition. And let's give credit where credit is due. Numerous schools, hospitals and safe drinking water systems have been built under the Swami's guidance to benefit the poor.

But don't count P.C. Sorcar among the guru's fans. He calls Baba a charlatan whose miracles amount to no more than common conjuring tricks, readily duplicated by any amateur magician. He's right. The production of "holy ash" from an apparently empty hand, the sudden appearance of a watch or necklace and the coughing up of a golden egg are all standard conjuring tricks, readily learned by any youngster attracted to magic as a hobby.

There is no doubt the miracles the Swami performs are magic tricks. Back in the 1940s, when he burst upon the scene, there were no video recorders, so all he had to do was fool a live audience. But now, his public appearances are videoed by amateurs and professionals, and you can't fool the camera. Stop action shots clearly show the guru palming compressed ash pellets before sprinkling holy ash on his admirers and "stealing" the necklaces and watches from various hiding places before they make their miraculous appearance. The rich, capable of giving donations, get the jewelry, the poor get the ashes.

Magicians get really irritated when their art is misused. Sorcar is no exception and has repeatedly challenged Sai Baba to produce his miracles under controlled conditions. Not only has that challenge not been met, the guru has even refused to meet with the magician. Sorcar finally resorted to attending one of the Swami's "performances" incognito and when Baba produced a sweet known as a sandesh, he stood up and oneupped him by materializing a rasgulla, an Indian cheese ball. At this point the Swami began to shout and had the magician forcefully removed.

Why should anyone object to the Swami's use of magic tricks in support of his roleplaying as a god? After all, he and his devotees have done a lot of good.

But what about the unfortunate people who have been disappointed when the godman was unable to heal them? Even worse, how many young men have been victimized because the guru's magic tricks convinced them that he is a god, and that therefore they should unquestioningly do his bidding?

Allegations of homosexual abuse are way too numerous to dispute, with many accounts of the holy man performing unholy feats such as rubbing followers' genitalia with oil under the guise of a "spiritual experience." Former worshippers have also come forth to describe the decidedly ungodly acts they were asked to perform during "private interviews" with the deity.

While Sai Baba is the most famous godman, there is no shortage of self-proclaimed divine beings prowling the Indian countryside, performing miracles in return for donations. Godliness is a growing, lucrative business. Aspiring gods can head to the southern Indian state of Kerala where they can enrol in schools that specialize in teaching the tricks of the trade. Here they learn how to produce holy ash, how to materialize sweets from thin air (apparently an absolute requirement for gods), how to make jewelry magically appear and how to perform the "Indian water trick," a particular favourite.

A "lota bowl" is a traditional Asian container used to dispense water in ritual purification ceremonies. But a guru who has graduated from god school can turn the bowl upside down, empty it, and within seconds show it to be full of water again. Once more it is emptied, only to be magically filled again. Surely anyone who can produce such holy water out of nowhere can also heal the sick, and is well-deserving of donations! Needless to say, the only miracle here is in the form of some clever engineering that allows the jug to be refilled with water from a hidden compartment.

An even more impressive effect is to have a coconut erupt in flames after pouring "holy" water on it. The message is that an ailing person's illness has been transferred to the coconut for destruction.

Actually, hidden in the coconut fibres is a small piece of potassium that reacts with water to form hydrogen gas, along with enough heat to ignite the hydrogen and the coconut. Impressive!

Chemically astute gurus can even start fires by telepathy! All they need do is pour some ghee (clarified butter) on sawdust and glare at it from a distance until it bursts into flames. A neat demo to be sure, one I do in the lecture room without any need for divine intervention. But I do need some potassium permanganate hidden in the sawdust to react with the glycerol masquerading as ghee.

I doubt, however, that the minions who worship at the feet of Sai Baba (now in very poor health, apparently unable to heal himself) will ever believe that their godman is but a simple conjuror. And not a very good one at that. His best trick actually is to make rational thinking vanish.

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Video: Pascha On Mount Athos

Watch live streaming video from hellasorthodoxy at livestream.com

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Mount Athos on "60 Minutes" - All Episodes

"60 Minutes",
April 24, 2011

Mount Athos: A Visit to the Holy Mountain



Transcript

Source

Behind-the-Scenes Travelogue to Holy Mt. Athos



"60 Minutes" producer Michael Karzis is the perfect tour guide to take you behind the scenes on the show's Mt. Athos story. Karzis is the son of Greek immigrants and speaks Greek. Those things surely helped as he and fellow producer Harry Radliffe tried to get permission to film a "60 Minutes" story on the otherworldly Mt. Athos, a self-governed peninsula in Greece that's home to 20 monasteries and some 2,000 monks.

But getting permission was no easy task. "The parliament that exists there, the holy community, is the only parliament on the face of the Earth that has been continually in session since the 10th century," says Karzis. "And these are the guys we were looking to get permission from to shoot on Mount Athos."

The Holy Community turned down requests from "60 Minutes." "They said, 'Thank you very much but, get in line,' Karzis recalls. "I mean, the BBC's been knocking on the door for 40 years, the French, the Germans, they've all wanted to come."

They then appealed to the powerful abbots who run individual monasteries on Mt. Athos and finally had a breakthrough.

Watch part one and part two of Bob Simon's report.

"We just built trust," says Karzis. "And they understood that we would do our best to distill the essence of monastic life, the beauty of the place, and what makes Mt. Athos unique in this world."

Once Karzis and Radliffe got their invitation, many more challenges were to come, as you'll learn in this "60 Minutes Overtime" travelogue. It's located in Europe, but Mt. Athos is remarkably difficult to access. The peninsula is only reachable by boat and the surrounding seas can be rough. It's believed that the Virgin Mary herself was shipwrecked there, which is just one of the many things that makes Mt. Athos so sacred to the monks and the thousands of pilgrims who visit each year.

The "60 Minutes" team was also stranded on Mt. Athos when heavy seas hit after the two-week shoot ended. Now back in New York, Karzis and Radliffe still seem moved by their time on the stunning mountain. If you're interested in visiting Mt. Athos as a pilgrim, these "60 Minutes" videos are arguably the best visual record ever created and the best place to start your research.

If you're a woman, these videos may be the only way you'll ever see Mt. Athos. No women allowed.

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Extra: Mt. Athos' Autonomy



Extra: Bastions of the Orthodox Faith



Extra: Don't Call It Art!



Extra: Life on Mt. Athos

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