The Monastery of Panagia Panahrantos in Andros

The Monastery of Panagia Panahrantos in Andros was established by Emperor Nikephoros Phokas in the tenth century.

It's origins go back to the discovery of the Sacred Icon of Panagia Panahrantos by two ascetics living in a nearby cave, who every night would see a bright light in the area where the Monastery stands today. The two ascetics found the icon in a cave by tracing the source of the strange light, and after venerating it brought it back to their monastic cell. At night, however, the icon would return to its original cave. This happened many times. Enlightened by the grace of the Theotokos, the two ascetics abandoned their monastic cells and settled near the cave where the icon established itself. The All Pure One (the literal translation of "Panahrantos") indicated to the monks to build the first church there to house the Sacred Icon, and the Monastery was eventually established around this church.

The Katholikon (central church) of the Monastery is cross-shaped with a dome and dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, celebrating its feast day on August 15th. Some believe the Sacred Icon of Panagia Panahrantos is the work of the Evangelist Luke. Since this church also houses the skull of Saint Panteleimon, it also celebrates on his feast day which is July 27th.

The Monastery is famous also for being the final resting place of Monk Christoforos, or "Papoulakos", in the 19th century, and a recent miracle from May of 2009 where the skulls of former monastics were discovered on the grounds of the Monastery together with many which have been exuding a fragrant myrrh.

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Chapel of Panagia Thalassini in Andros

The small chapel of Panagia Thalassini (lit. "of the sea") is located in the old harbor of Chora in Andros. According to local tradition, she is the protectress of sea travellers along with St. Nicholas.

According to the rules of proper iconographic style, the Virgin Mary always wears a red robe on the outside which is used to display her humanity, while underneath she wears a blue or dark green robe which testifies to her giving birth to the God-man Jesus Christ. In the icon of Panagia Thalassini, however, we have her wearing blue on the outside. This may be of its association with the color of the sea.

The Chapel celebrates on August 15th.

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Panagia Gourlomata of Leros

Located in Drimonas on the island of Leros is the fourteenth century Church of Panagia Gourlomata, which is famous for its icon with a wide-eyed expression of the Virgin Mary. Gourlomata literally means "bulging eyes". The church itself was built with material from more ancient structures and it is especially known for its old and beautiful frescoes. It specifically dates to 1327 A.D. The church celebrates its feast on August 15th.

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The Prayer of the Holy Seven Youths For One Who Is Ill And Cannot Sleep

In the Euchologion (Book of Needs) there is a prayer for those suffering from insomnia, especially in time of illness, titled "Prayer For One Who Is Ill and Cannot Sleep, Known As That of the Seven Holy Youths". This prayer is not very ancient, as it mentions St. Athanasius of Athos (c. 950). Read more on the Seven Youths, here.

Priest: Let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Priest:

O God, Great, Praised, Incomprehensible and Ineffable, Who didst fashion man with Thy hands, taking dust from the earth, and Who didst honor him with Thine Image, O Jesus Christ, Most-desired Name, together with Thy Father Who is without beginning, and Thy Most-Holy, Good, and Lifegiving Spirit: Do Thou manifest unto Thy servant, N., and visit him (her) in soul and body, being entreated by our most-glorious Sovereign Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary; by the holy Bodiless Powers of Heaven; by the honorable and glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John; by the holy, glorious and all-praised Apostles; by the holy, glorious and right-victorious Martyrs; by our Fathers among the Saints and ecumenical Teachers: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom; by Athanasius and Cyril, Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, Cyril and Methodius, Teachers of the Slavs, Spyridon the Wonderworker, and all the holy Hierarchs; by the holy Apostle, Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen; by the holy, glorious Greatmartyrs: George the Trophy-bearer, Demetrius the Myrrgusher, Theodore Stratelates, and all the holy Martyrs; by our Venerable and Godbearing Fathers: Anthony, Euthymius, Savvas the Sanctified, Theodosius (Founder of the Common Life), Onouphrius, Arsenius, Athanasius the Athonite, and all the Venerable Ones; by the holy Unmercenary Physicians: Cosmas and Damian, Cyrus and John, Panteleimon and Hermalaeus, Samson and Diomedes, Thalelaeus and Tryphon, and all the rest; by Saint(s), N. (of the Day); and by all Thy Saints; and grant unto him (her) a peaceful sleep, the sleep of bodily health and salvation, and life and strength of soul and body, as once Thou didst visit Abimelech, Thy favorite, in the house of Agrippa, and gavest him the consolation of sleep, that he not see the Fall of Jerusalem, and having nourished him with sleep, didst raise him up again in the twinkling of an eye, to the glory of Thy goodness; and as Thou didst make manifest Thy holy glorious Seven Youths, confessors and witnesses of Thine Appearance in the days of the Emperor Decius and the Apostate, having sustained them in the cave for 372 years[1], as infants kept warm in their own mother's womb, none having endured corruption, to the praise and glory of Thy love for mankind, and for a testimony and confession of our regeneration and the resurrection of all. Do Thou Thyself, therefore, O Lover of Mankind and King, be present now also with the infusion of Thy Holy Spirit, and visit Thy servant, N., and grant unto him (her) health, strength and power, by Thy grace, for with Thee every action is good, and every gift is perfect. For Thou art the Physician of our souls and bodies, and unto Thee do we send up glory, thanksgiving and worship, together with Thy Father Who is without beginning, and Thy Most-Holy, Good, and Lifegiving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

1. It was actually about 184 years.

From The Great Book of Needs (vol. III), St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002, pp. 4-5.

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On Magic, Spiritualism, and Demonic Possession

By Archimandrite Vasilios Bakoyiannis

Miracles

“If a prophet rises among you....”

The Lord said if a prophet (i.e., charlatan) performs signs and wonders, don’t get excited about it (like little children). Don’t get carried away like a leaf on the wind. Don’t believe in other gods. Stay true to the Lord.

The Lord is testing you to see if you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So it’s possible that mediums and so on can, as a concession by God and with the power of the Evil One, work “wonders.” Here are some of them:

“Communication” with the Dead

“There are some people who are so heartbroken by the loss of a loved one that they go to a medium (i.e., the devil), in order to hear the voice of the departed person, to talk to them, to find some kind of relief. Do they really hear the voice of the dead? Victor H. Ernest, the former medium, gave a blunt answer. The voice they heard isn’t that of their loved one but of a devil. And the poor unfortunate people are left with the illusion that they’re in contact with the soul of the person who passed away!

Telepathy

There are two kinds of telepathy.

A) Reading other people’s thoughts: According to Victor H. Ernest, this happens when a person’s intelligence is working hand in glove with an evil spirit, or when the whole person is actually under the control of an evil spirit. Doreen Irvine, a former prostitute and stripper who was actually crowned Queen of the Witches of Europe, had no difficulty, as a Satanist, in reading other people’s thoughts.

B) Seeing something that’s happening far away in a dream or in a trance: Two people at the séance attended by Victor H. Ernest were able to read the headlines of morning newspapers while they were still being run off at the printer’s, hours before they were delivered to the town. Some, who are even more “advanced”, can see into your house as if with a camera and can find hidden objects, etc.

“Miracles” with Fire

In Kalamata, some years ago, an occultist did the following in front of the audience: He drew lines on his hand with a lighted cigarette without feeling any pain at all.

Something similar happens every year in the village of Agia Eleni in Northern Greece on the day of the feast of Sts Constantine and Helen. A group of people holding icons of the saints dance in their bare feet on burning charcoal without getting burnt.

Victor H. Ernest comments that this is not an illusion. He says that fire-walkers really do walk on burning coals or sometimes on molten lava. Behind firewalking, he maintains, is the total surrender of the practitioner to the forces of darkness.

“Soap Bubbles”

A while ago, in the main street of the town of Patras, in Greece, a magician, with the aid of evil spirits, was doing tricks. Through a variety of invocations, chairs and tables were lifted into the air as if made of paper. A crowd of people rushed to see this devilish spectacle. But by God’s providence a certain priest of the city, Fr A. K., was passing by and he made the sign of the Cross over these flying chairs and tables. They fell to the ground and remained there no matter what the occultist tried to do to move them. The power of the Cross had deadened that of the evil spirits.

Conclusion

No matter how impressive are the “wonders” performed by the agents of Satan (mediums, magicians, etc.), they can’t stand up to the power of the presence of the Cross. They disperse. They burst just as if they were soap bubbles. As indeed they are.

The Devil: Demonic Possession

The best proof of the existence of the devil is a person who is possessed. To anyone who doesn’t believe in the existence of the devil, we would say, “Come and see. Come and see the devil alive within a possessed person.”

Distress

Possessed people (when the fit is upon them) become unrecognizable: the face becomes distorted, the head twists, the mouth gapes. The tongue is thrust out and the victim howls. It is truly a horrible sight.

In this state, a possessed person is capable of revealing all your “achievements” (i.e., sins). It is not just general and vague, either, but specific and in detail. Without knowing you, they can tell you for example, your name, where you were and what you were doing the previous evening, and who you were with. (It’s worth noting that if you’ve confessed to a priest, the possessed are unable to do this).

Questions:

- How do they manage to know your secrets?

- Why is it that sins confessed aren’t able to be seen?

Trembling

During their fit, however, they show other symptoms.

- At the Divine Liturgy they feel as if they’re burning (although when they see fire they don’t).

- Before the Precious Cross, they feel as if they’re being cut to ribbons (although when they see a butcher’s knife they don’t).

- When a priest makes the sign of the Cross over them with the “spear” used in the Divine Liturgy by the priest to cut the Communion Bread, they feel as if their flesh is being pierced. One priest did this and the possessed person howled: “Why are you sticking that spear into my flesh. Why are you pulling at the spear and tearing my flesh?” (Yet the same person was able to bear the touch of a sharp knife without howling).

- When they look upon holy relics, they feel as if they themselves are on fire.

Questions:

- Why should the possessed fear the Divine Liturgy yet not fear, for example, heart surgery?

- Why do they fear the Precious Cross, which, after all, is only two bits of wood, yet don’t fear a sharp butcher’s knife?

- Why is it that they feel they’re being cut open when the sign of the Cross is made over them?

- Why do they fear the relics of saints such as St Gerasimos, a poverty-stricken little monk who was full of love, yet don’t fear the remains of bloodthirsty Lenin, who slaughtered millions of his fellow-citizens?

“Something...”

All the above show us that there’s something about the possessed person that is very badly disturbed by the Precious Cross, the Divine Liturgy, and the relics of our saints. And this “something” is the same thing that can reveal your secret sins, unless you’ve confessed them.

For us Christians, this “something” is the devil. What about unbelievers? Do they just put it down to parapsychology and be done with it?

There are of course, those scientists who declare that all of this will one day be explained by the goddess of “science”. They’re sure of this. Yet this may not be the case, since it’s still in the future, so why are they so sure? What sort of logic is that? But never mind. If in the future science demonstrates that this something really is the devil, will they then believe it?

The Devil’s Bloodthirstiness

The possessed show just how bloodthirsty the devil is and how cruelly he tortures people. Here are a few instances:

The father whose son was possessed said to Christ: “Every time the devil bothers him, it throws him down, foam comes from his mouth and he gnashes his teeth and becomes catatonic" (Mark 9:18). Some know-it-alls explain this by saying the boy was epileptic. But so was Julius Caesar, who lived before Christ. People in the ancient world were familiar with the difference between epilepsy and possession. They weren’t as “backward” as we like to think.

Another possessed man never stayed at home, but went wandering around the deserts and graveyards. Summer and winter he walked around stark naked (Luke 8:27-39).

Another threw himself into the fire to be burnt and yet another into the water to drown (Matthew 17:16). The two possessed men of the Gaderenes were “exceedingly fierce”. They were so wild and aggressive that no one could approach them They were the bane of people’s lives (Matthew 8:28).

Unnatural Strength

If a criminal is arrested by the police and is handcuffed, then no matter how strong he is, he can’t
break his bonds. His hands are tied, as it were. This isn’t true of people possessed. If they’re handcuffed, for example, even if they’re paralyzed, they’re capable of breaking open handcuffs. St Luke tells us in the Gospel that the Gadarene man who was possessed “was kept bound in chains and fetters, and he broke the bonds.” He was completely immobolized, but despite that he broke the chains!

It wasn’t the man who broke the chains, but the devil who was in the man. This demonstrates quite clearly that the devil has superhuman strength. So, he can work signs and wonders. If he wanted, he could:

- Bring up a hurricane to destroy houses and uproot trees.

- Whip up a storm that would sink all the shipping in the area.

- Drown men and beasts.

- Make an earthquake that would level towns and cities.

But he refrains from this. Why?

Wouldn’t he like to turn everything upside down? Certainly he would, if he could. He’s prevented from doing so by God. If God didn’t keep the mania of the demons in check, we’d see them playing with the world like a ball.

How Does He Fight Us?

The misanthropic devil doesn’t fight us with weapons that can be seen and which make a noise (stones, clubs, etc.), but with silent, invisible ones. ONE of these is THOUGHTS. He puts (bad) thoughts into our minds in order for us to put them into practice. If the bad thoughts don’t take root, then he’ll fight us with supposedly good ones, in order to trap us. Given this, you should be concerned and should ask yourself:

- Is what you have in mind perhaps seed sown by the devil? Is it perhaps misleading you towards seemingly good thoughts?

- Is, perhaps, your philosophy of life and death (which you think is correct), really a set of thoughts from the devil?

- Are even your thoughts on spiritual matters, as an Orthodox Christian, perhaps really thoughts of the devil? Perhaps.

One thing you can be sure of: the devil hasn’t made an exception of YOU.

From the book Confronting the Devil, Magic & the Occult, Orthodox Book Centre, Athens 2003

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Jesus Baptism Site Sparks a Debate in Mideast

August 4, 2011
HeraldNet

Christian leaders in Jordan on Wednesday established "beyond doubt" that the country hosts the holy site where Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist on the east bank of River Jordan.

They denied an Israeli claim that Jesus Christ was baptized on the west bank of River Jordan at what had come to be called the Judith Church, which was recently renamed as "Baptism Church" by the Israelis.

"There is no doubt that Jesus Christ had been baptised on the east bank of River Jordan and that the site was honoured by Christians from the early days of Christianity and still so until nowadays," said a statement issued by leaders of churches in Jordan.

They pointed out that they decided this fact in accordance with biblical texts, Christian traditions, excavations as well as testimonies and writings by many pilgrims who visited the area since the second century.

Similar remarks were issued on Monday by the Orthodox churches of the East which met at the baptism site, about 25 miles west of Amman, in response to an invitation by Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem.

The Rev. Nabil Haddad, president of the Jordan Interfaith Coexistence Research Centre, said during the meeting that all Christian religious leaders considered Jordan's baptism site as "the actual place where Christ was baptized, which affirms its authenticity and refutes Israeli allegations that claim otherwise".

Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen Saket said the baptism site was recognized by several top Christian leaders and historians.

He pointed out that the site was inaugurated by the late Pope John Paul II in 2000 and was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2009.

"We were shocked in Jordan to see the Israelis inaugurating a new site on the west bank of River Jordan and naming it the Baptism Church despite well-known historical and religious facts," Saket said.

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Pendeli Monastery Investing in RES

Nikos Roussanoglou
August 3, 2011
Kathimerini

With the support of the Church of Greece, Pendeli Monastery is planning an investment that is seen reaching as much as 1 billion euros in energy production through a photovoltaic park.

According to sources, the two institutions recently issued an invitation for expressions of interest to private investors regarding the exploitation of a 3,000-hectare plot on Mount Pendeli, north of Athens, which is owned by the monastery.

A number of businesses responded to the invitation and an investment plan has been drawn up with the participation of three construction groups and one affiliated company. The groups are currently in the process of hammering out the details of the scheme, with the aim of developing a small part - 10-15 percent - of the entire area in order to build a photovoltaic park on a section of the plot that is not, according to the cadaster, deemed as forestland. In total, investors are hoping that the park will generate up to 300 megawatts annually, while given the magnitude of the investment, they are also hoping that it will be fast-tracked through the usual bureaucracy.

The aim of the Church authorities is to generate significant revenues by selling the right to develop the property, which can then be used to support charitable causes. Likewise, a part of the revenues generated by the private investors will be bound for use in reforestation projects.

According to sources at the interested companies, the Church has assured them that the plot fulfills all of the necessary criteria for the construction of a photovoltaic park, while they are also confident that they will not encounter any problems in terms of licenses.

According to Archimandrite Antonis Avramiotis, who was recently appointed to head the Central Ecclesiastical Financial Service (EKYO), the Church is also exploring the potential of collaboration with private investors for the development of its real estate assets through a tender process in order to increase its revenues directed at its charitable projects and other activities.

Meanwhile, during a recent meeting with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, Archbishop Ieronymos offered the Church’s assistance in the financial crisis through the development of a special fund that will, in the first phase, create a record of the Church’s assets and then draw up a blueprint for their development. Ieronymos also reiterated the Church’s petition for property belonging to the Church, but which has been under the control of the state for the past couple of centuries and is not being exploited, to be returned to the Church so that it may use it as a source of revenue in aid of its charitable causes.

It is worth noting that the estimated 800 properties in the Church’s possession are mostly plots of land and office buildings located mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki. The total assets of the Church are, of course, much greater, but as far as the real estate is concerned, this belongs to various monasteries, parishes and metropolitan churches and are under their control.

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The Castle of the Panagia in Leros

On the hill Apityki (or Pityki) and at a height of 200 m. above sea level, almost in the center of the island of Leros, stands the medieval Castle of the Panagia, which took its name from the church of the Theotokos, which treasures the "Holy Palladium of Lerians" - the icon of the Panagia Odigitria, or Panagia of Kastro, which miraculously arrived on the island of Leros during the era of iconoclasm. In a bull of Emperor Alexios Komnenos (1056 - 1118) the Castle was founded with the name Panteli Castle and built upon the foundations of an ancient Acropolis, and in its current form it was later altered by the Knights of Saint John (who occupied it from 1309 - 1522, followed by the Turks). Emperor Alexios gave this Castle to Saint Christodoulos together with the Castle of Patmos.

The church of the Panagia was built in the 11th century, and the golden iconostasis is from 1745 as well as the episcopal throne and the pulpit. In the area of ​​the Castle there is still the Church of the Holy Trinity with fragments of frescoes from the 9th century, the Church of Saint Nicholas, and an early Christian church which was dedicated to the Unknown Christian Martyr. This latter church was discovered recently by a shepherd searching for his lost sheep. Also in the Castle is an ecclesiastical museum with many treasures.


The miraculous icon of the Panagia, dressed in silver and bearing the date 728 AD, is believed by some to be the work of the Evangelist Luke. It arrived at the island in a miraculous manner on a small boat by itself with two lit lamps. This was in the 9th century during the days of iconclasm.

In the Castle the Lerian Monk Damascene operated a school from 1726, elevating the education of the island, and it ceased operation in the mid-19th century.

The Castle of Panteli is the most important medieval monument of Leros, which, according to tradition, during the time of the iconoclasts in the 9th century the sacred icon of the Theotokos came in a miraculous manner. It was for this reason that the Castle bears the name of the Mother of God till this day and celebrates annually on the feast of her Dormition on August 15th and the Apodosis on August 23rd. At one time this Castle was more famous than the shrine of the Panagia in Tinos, when Christians would come here from all over Greece and Asia Miinor for the feast.

Among the traditions of the people for the August 15th feast is for mother's who have dedicated their children to the Panagia of Kastro to dress their children all in black on August 14th, they make prosphoro for the Divine Liturgy, they walk up to the Castle by way of 499 stairs, and after the Great Vespers Service they remove the black clothing and offer them to the Theotokos.

The tomb of Eldress Gavrilia (1897 - 1992) is within the Castle also.



An Eye-Witness Account of a Miracle of the Theotokos

It was a spring night passed midnight. The full moon was shining with its rays, the valley was sleeping carefree, having as its guardian the tall mountain with the white mills and the Venitian castle. The Monastery of the Virgin Mary the Megalochari, the Lady of the island, was built in there, with icons full of gold and silver gifts that the islanders brought for her grace. Nothing could be heard in that dead silence except only the creepy voice of an owl or the screem of a shepherd dog from time to time.

Suddenly a door from a hut was openned and a woman came out holding a big bag. She stood for a moment, throwing searching glances around, and making three times the sign of Cross. She put the bag on her shoulder and took the road which leads to the wind mills.

As she was walking, she heard foot steps and in a little while she saw two shadows falling hastily downhill. She got scared and made her Cross. Before she had time to even to pull herself together, she saw in the light of the moon two men carring something on their shoulder, running and out of breath towards the valley.

In the morning, before the sun had gilded the mountain tops with its rays, the church bell of the Castle almost broke from being rung so much. When the only nun of the Monastery went early in the morning inside the church to incence the icons, she found them barren from their rich gold and silver offerings. She started to ring the bell in a nervous manner and the whole island started to suspect that something had happened.

Men, women and children gathered to the church to see what had happened. They would go inside the church, and when they saw the icons bare, they would go out to the church yard to find the others to talk about it and curse the thief. Sadness could be seen in everbody's faces. The priests who where also present during this calling, took the icon of the Virgin out to the yard and everybody kneeled down begging the Virgin to make her miracle.

Suddenly, an unusual sound was heard. The people who where up to that time concentrated in the litany, turned to see what had happened and they saw Nicholas, the dumb shepherd whom they called "crazy", come running and making some incomprehensible noise. Two or three men went to meet him, he however with signs as always, showed them that they should follow him.

Some men finally understood what was asked of them and allowed him to lead them. They followed him down the slope and at the turning-point of the road, the dumb man stood in front of a hidden cave and made them understand that they should go inside it. With hesitation, but also with couriosity, the men entered they cave, and what did they see? Two men were laid down on the ground, tied, and without being able to move themselves, and in between them there were two big bags with the treasures of the Megalochari. The Virgin Mary had made her miracle. As the dumb shepherd was walking about by the old wind mills in the light of moon as if he was some kind of fairy, he passed outside of the cave, and he saw the men and brought the news to the Monastery.

Source

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The Chapel of Panagia Kavouradaina in Leros

Panagia Kavouradaina is a picturesque chapel of Leros in Xirokampos, considered one of the island’s most beautiful. It is a whitewashed, domed chapel, somewhat difficult to reach, although there are stairs leading there, built inside a rock’s crack next to the coast. Further down, we find the location where, according to tradition, a fisherman was looking for crabs (“kavouri”) and found inside a crack (or inside a crab’s shell, according to a different version) a tiny, miraculous icon of the Theotokos. This accounts for the chapel’s name.

We have drawn information on how it was built from tradition.

1. One version is the following:

While a fisherman was collecting sea shells among the rocks, he was bitten by a crab. At that precise moment he saw the icon of the Virgin Mary on the rocks. He immediately prayed and soon the wound healed. Witnessing this miracle he picked up the icon and devoutly took it to the village church, telling his compatriots about the event. That same night he had a dream of a woman in black who said to him: “You must put me back in exactly the same spot where you found me”. The next morning after searching, the icon was once again found on the same part of the rocks as it had been the previous day. After this it was decided that a small church be built on the same spot as where the icon had been found.


2. A second version of how the church was built is the following:

Many years ago two fishermen from Kalymnos set out one day to go fishing. The bad weather however did not allow them to fish for long. When the wind started blowing and the weather got worse they decided to moor at Diapori. So that they would not waste a night’s fishing they decided to fish near the beach with a harpoon to catch an octopus or anything they found by the light of their fishing lamp. As they looked down to the seabed they discerned a big group of crabs. When they filled their fishing baskets with crabs, and they had prepared to leave, a miracle happened: A piece of wood rose to the surface at the exact spot where they were fishing, although the currents were pushing it behind their boat. They stopped, full of curiosity, and took it out of the water. When they cleaned it, they saw that it was the icon of the Panagia. They kissed the icon and crossed themselves.

In the morning, when they arrived in Kalymnos, they both went home. One taking the basket with the crabs and the other the icon of the Panagia. He hung it in a corner of his house and left a small olive oil lamp alight next to it. On the third night while the fisherman was sleeping, he saw the Panagia in his sleep and she said to him: “Take me to Leros and build me a little church, where you found me. Don’t forget to do it!” When he woke up, the fisherman told his friend and they set off for Leros.

They arrived at the rocks of Diapori. They tied up their boat and they went to find Lerian builders to build a church. When it was built they placed the icon of the Panagia on the wooden iconostasis. A few days later, they returned to Kalymnos satisfied that they had realized the Panagia’s wish. However, three days later the fisherman saw the Panagia in his sleep, whose eyes were full of pain and with an angry look on her face, saying to him: “My child, you set me up well in my corner. Go back again and build me the church where you found me. I’m waiting for you”. The Kalymnian was at a loss when he arrived in Leros and saw the church demolished. He tried to find the icon of the Panagia, unsuccessfully. Disappointed he took the road to Xirokampos. To his great surprise he saw the icon against the rocks a little further away from the demolished church. The fisherman thought that as the Panagia wanted that spot to be where her church was, there it must be built. This is how it happened and is still located there, up until today.

A feast for the icon is celebrated every year on the 8th of September and 15th of August.

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The Oldest Hymn To the Theotokos

The oldest prayer we know of dedicated to the Virgin Mary is known as "Beneath thy compassion" (Greek: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν; Latin: Sub tuum praesidium). The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Coptic Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250 A.D. It is used in the Coptic liturgy to this day, as well as in the Orthodox, Ambrosian, and Latin liturgies.

For Orthodox, the hymn is sung as the last dismissal hymn of daily Vespers during Great Lent.

The entire hymn in Greek reads:

Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν,
καταφεύγομεν, Θεοτόκε.
Τὰς ἡμῶν ἱκεσίας,
μὴ παρίδῃς ἐν περιστάσει,
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ κινδύνων λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς,
μόνη Ἁγνή, μόνη εὐλογημένη.

In English:

Beneath thy compassion,
We take refuge, O Mother of God:
do not despise our petitions in time of trouble,
but rescue us from dangers,
only pure one, only blessed one.

Read more about this hymn here.

At the three minute mark of the video below, the hymn is chanted in the context of a Vespers Service for Great Lent.

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On Astrology, Fortune-Tellers and Mediums

By Archimandrite Vasilios Bakoyiannis

ASTROLOGY

This can be divided into two categories: a) The Zodiac: this has to do with the month in which we are born and b) Horoscopes: these are our everyday almanacs that depend on the position of the stars.

The Zodiac

Description: There are twelve signs (one for each month). They are called Libra, Scorpio, Aries and so on. People who concern themselves with these believe that: depending on the month in which you were born, you will belong to a certain zodiac sign. And depending on the sign you belong to, you’ll have the particular character that goes with it. In other words, what you are doesn’t depend on you but on your zodiac sign. The influence of each sign begins on the 21st of each month and runs through to the 20th of the following month. Scorpio, for example, belongs to November. Its “reign” begins on October 21st and ends on November 20th. So if you were born during that period (even at one minute past twelve on the morning of October 21st), then you’ll have the character associated with Scorpio, the main feature of which is treachery! Naturally, it’s hardly your fault that you’re like this. You’re the victim! Your sign is to blame, the moment of your birth. If only your mother had gone into labour a bit earlier and you would have been born at one minute before 12 on October 20th, and you would have been a Libra. Then you would have been different as a person and had a different character. You would have been straightforward and kind, all because of your good zodiac sign.

If a friend of yours has the same sign, then he or she will have the same character as you. If there are any differences, they will be due to the fact that you were born on different days and different times (horoscope comes from the Greek and means “to look at the hour”).

Questions: What about twins, who have the same zodiac sign and the same horoscope but are nonetheless different? One might be patient, the other rash; one might be devious, the other straightforward, and so on. What does that make of the claims of the zodiac and the horoscope?

On the other hand, some people have quite different zodiac signs, yet display very similar characteristics. How can that be explained in terms of the zodiac?

Let’s say there are identical twins with the same zodiac sign and the same horoscope and the same characters. The one is just as grasping and impious as the other. Then one of them “sees the light” and becomes a generous, believing Christian, even a monk or nun. Yet the other one remains just as he or she always was. How can that be explained?

If, for example, you’re a Scorpio and you want to rid yourself of the supposed treachery associated with this sign, do people really believe that the zodiac sign itself could prevent you from doing so?

In brief: Our personality is not formed by outside agencies, but internal factors such as our way of thinking and our will power. Woe betide us if we were controlled robots dependent on inanimate objects (zodiac signs and horoscopes)!

Horoscopes

Those who deal in astrology believe that your horoscope determines the everyday events in your life, and even your future! In other words, that whatever might happen to you in the course of your life is written in your horoscope. So there’s no point in worrying about or striving for a better future. Astrologers who delve into your horoscope can tell you your fortune. There was one in Greece who used to advertise: “Through your horoscope, I can foretell the course of your life.” Hogwash!

Now be careful. Would you, a logical, reasonable person, entrust your future to an inanimate thing like a horoscope, and NOT to God’s Providence? If the horoscope brings you something bad, you wouldn't quibble and you wouldn’t reject it. But if God brings you something “bad”, you grumble and complain. You might even reject God! But not your horoscope…

How about that for a shining example of faith! How about that for an admirable example of rationality! It’s people who are neither faith-filled nor rational like that who believe in horoscopes.

Is It Possible?: Stars are inanimate. And that’s not all. They’re millions of light years away. If they had eyes, they would see the enormous earth as a tiny speck, if at all. Imagine how they would see you, who live on this tiny speck. They would see you as minute: Are we really being asked to believe that INANIMATE, dead stars could be bothered with the future of something so minute?

Furthermore, here’s practical proof:

At the end of 1987, astrologers told the “fortunes” of some prominent people for 1988.

- For the then all-powered Mikhail Gorbachov they said: “In 1998, he will divorce his wife, Raisa.” Well, it didn’t happen. They were still a devoted couple when Mrs Gorbachov passed away in 1999.

- For Christina Onassis they foretold: “In 1988, she’ll remarry.” In 1988, Christina Onassis died!

- Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576) was an eminent mathematician, physician and please note, an astrologer. He cast horoscopes for many famous people and then for himself. Having predicted that he would live 75 years, and being still in robust health when the time came, he saved his reputation by the simple expedient of committing suicide!

Although it was common in Cardano’s time for scientists to believe in astrology, it is not so today. One hundred ninety-two leading scientists from all over the world, including nineteen who have been awarded Nobel Prizes have come out against astrology, describing it as “mythology.” Yet some poor souls still think it’s “wisdom.”

FORTUNE-TELLERS & SEERS

The “Seers”

Mediums and people who tell the future from cards, tea-leaves or coffee-grounds all declare that they have the “gift” of tracing a certain person, or that a particular family has been cursed and they can find out who cursed them. In truth, though, aren’t they really just making fools of ordinary people?

The late Archimandrite Haralambos Vasilopoulos was confessor to a great many such tricksters who had repented, and he asked them:

“Why did you get involved in the devil’s work?”

“For the money”, they replied.

“When your clients asked you something, what did you tell them?”

“We just made monkeys out of them.”

They confessed, in all sincerity, that they had deceived people. “Behind mediums (and so on) you will find deceit and greed,” as the late priest notes from his experience as a confessor.

These dabblers in the occult also proclaim that they can find a certain person or object for you. Really?! Since they are so clever at finding people, why don’t they use their powers to help the police locate people who are a menace to society? There are plenty of rewards for finding people who are on the run. This could be a very lucrative business for them!

No doubt they would like to, but they can’t. All they can do is make people look like fools.

In 1969 there was a man in Athens who was smitten in love for a married woman. He was absolutely set on marrying her, but she wouldn’t hear of it. One day he tricked her into getting into his car. He took her up onto Mount Parnassos. No doubt, he tried everything he could think of to get her to change her mind, but it appears she remained adamant. The upshot was that at some point he wrenched the steering-wheel over and drove off a cliff, sending them to their deaths on the rocks in a ravine 700 metres below.

At home, the family awaited the woman’s return. One day went by, then another. There was no sign of her.

Her mother had recourse to a medium. She paid handsomely. All she wanted was to find out where her daughter was. The answer was: “Your daughter’s alive and well. At this very moment she’s walking along a street near Piraeus.” When you visit these “seers”, it costs you. They make a fool out of you and, on top of that, you pay them. You give them a lot of money and it doesn’t seem unreasonable. You think nothing of it. But if a priest comes and reads a service for you, you give him “something” tiny and then never stop complaining about having to pay him.

“Fortune-Tellers”

People who read tea leaves, coffee-grounds or cards and so on, say that they can tell your future. As if it were possible that your secrets and your future could be contained in a cup or a pack of cards (a pack of lies, more like it)!

They can’t even find out what’s happened in the past, so how on earth are they supposed to tell the future?

Remember: if you visit them you pay. So they want money. What for? Why don’t they use their powers to “foretell” the winning number in a lottery, or to bet on the surprise outcome of a football game or horse race? If they did that, they wouldn’t need to ask for money from their clients.

They’d love to, of course, but they can’t. All they can do is to be on the watch for simpletons.

St John Chrysostom says to those who believe in such nonsense: "Bring me one of these fortune-tellers and have him tell me what’s going to happen tomorrow."

What Happened to One Medium:

As Fr Haralambos said above, “Behind mediums (and so on) you’ll find first deceit and greed”. That’s the first point. But there are other points as well.

Victor H. Ernest, a well known former medium, at a spiritual séance asked a wicked spirit whether it believed that Christ was the Son of God; that He was the Savior of the World; that He had died on the Cross; and that He shed His blood for our sins. All at once, one of the other mediums, who was in a deep trance, sprang up from his chair. But that wasn’t all. He then collapsed in a heap on the floor groaning loudly as though he were suffering unbearable pain. Ernest goes on to reveal that he was given first aid and managed to come round.

Why was this medium (the devil in him) so upset? Why did he have a panic attack? Why did he faint? Why did he suffer so much?

It was because the others were talking about his enemy, namely Jesus Christ and the Cross.

After this, Ernest had nothing more to do with “spiritualist séances”. What’s more, he repented and returned to Christ.

Conclusion: Behind mediums and the like, first and foremost there’s Satan. In other words, all these fortune-tellers and seers are at work for the devil. They blindly do his bidding.

From the book Confronting the Devil, Magic & the Occult, Orthodox Book Centre, Athens 2003

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Documentary on Vatopaidi Monastery (Greek)

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Why Didn't God Make A Perfect World?

Though Orthodox patristic sources aren't cited here, this question, which is often brought up these days by skeptics, is adaquetly analyzed here both theologically and philosophically and offers a humbling answer to critics concerning the purpose behind God's design.

By VJ Torley

It’s a common enough complaint. Why don’t we live in a perfect world? After all, wouldn’t we expect God to make one, supposing He existed?

Does the demand for perfection limit God’s creative freedom?

One response to this question is that God is not obliged to make a perfect world, simply because He is perfect. After all, God is a free agent, and if He wants to make a world that is less than perfect, who are we to argue? After all, it’s still (for the most part) a good world, and whatever existence we have we owe entirely to Him, so we should be grateful for what we’ve been given.

That’s a good answer, so far as it goes, but it still fails to address the question: if God is capable of making a perfect world, then why didn’t He? Surely that would be the default expectation we’d have for an Infinite Being. In the ordinary course of events, the more perfect an agent is, the better his/her products are. Certainly a master potter can make pots of average quality, but we’d normally expect him/her to make pots of the finest quality. So why shouldn’t we expect the Creator of the universe to make a perfect universe?

One response to this question is that the demand for perfection would be an unreasonable constraint on God’s creative freedom: it only gives God one option, which is very limiting for a free agent. But that’s an unsatisfactory reply. There are many possible ways – perhaps countless ways – of making a perfect world. Even if God could only make a perfect world, God would still have lots of options.

Is it logically impossible for God to make a perfect world?

Another response is that it’s logically impossible for God to make a perfect world, so we shouldn’t blame Him for not making one. Only God is an Infinite Being. Every finite being is necessarily imperfect, as it necessarily lacks some perfection that an Infinite Being possesses. Thus no creature can be altogether free from defects. What’s more, for any world God makes, we can always imagine a better one, that contains something extra. So there can be no such thing as a perfect world.

This is a very tempting response to make, but I believe it’s wrong, as it overlooks the distinction between “finite” and “defective.” A limitation is not a flaw, and “perfect” does not mean “unsurpassable.”

A finite thing may not possess a certain perfection, but that does not mean that it lacks it. We say that a thing lacks something if it does not possess something which it should possess. Since a thing is only defective (or imperfect) if it lacks something, then the fact that a thing is finite does not imply that it is imperfect or defective. We do not call a pig defective because it has no wings. A bird without wings, on the other hand, would be defective.

What is perfection?

The perfection of a thing can be defined in terms of what God, its Maker, intends it to do. I would, however, add that if the thing in question is a living thing, our finite human minds can generally discern what it is meant to do, simply by investigating the conditions under which it thrives. Living things, unlike pots, have built-in ends, which require no intimate knowledge of their Maker’s plans in order for us to identify them.

If a thing does exactly what it’s meant to do, given the kind of thing it is, then it’s a perfect individual of that kind, even if it’s finite. For instance, a pig may be a perfect specimen of its kind if it can do whatever a pig is meant to do – i.e. if it fulfils its telos or built-in end. And if one individual of a certain kind can be perfect, then there is no reason in principle why all individuals of that kind cannot be. And if all individuals belonging to each and every natural kind are perfect, then we have a perfect world. A perfect world is not an unsurpassable one; it’s just a world free from flaws, that’s all.

The argument in the foregoing paragraph assumes that natural kinds are real categories – and in a perfect world, they would have to be. This requirement would not preclude these categories from changing very slowly over millions of years, however, in response to environmental changes. A perfect world need not be a static one.

A perfect world need not be an ageless one, either. A thing’s perfection does not entail that it has to last forever. If an organism such as a tree is designed by God to only last for a finite time, and if does what it’s meant to do during that time, then its programmed death is not an imperfection but a design feature.

Finally, even the extinction of a species could conceivably be a design feature. For each and every creature can be said to manifest its perfection in three different ways: first, in its achievement of its own proper end; second, in the assistance which it provides to other creatures; and third, in the way in which it contributes to the perfection of the universe as a whole. Even if a species of creature flourishes for a relatively short period, it is still capable of attaining its own biological ends during that time; hence it is perfect in the first sense. As regards the second and third senses, even if some kinds of creatures created by God die out, they can still serve a useful ecological role in their environment, by assisting species which go on to survive. If these surviving species later develop into new species, then we can say that the extinct species were at least indirectly useful to these new species, by assisting their ancestors to survive. Hence, even extinct creatures can indirectly contribute to the perfection of the universe as a whole and to the development of new life forms.

A Platonist objection relating to archetypes

A Platonist would probably object to the telos-centered definition of perfection proposed above, and argue that a thing is not perfect unless it is identical to its archetype. I would disagree, for three reasons. First, an archetype is always incompletely specified. For instance, how tall is a perfect horse? I don’t know, although I’d be willing to say 50 centimeters is too short and 2.5 meters is too tall. Second, even if the archetype were completely specified in all its traits, there would still remain one thing about it that was not specified: its location in space and time. Where does a perfect horse live? Is it any better if it lives in Paris rather than in New York? Finally, I would point out that an archetype is just a universal form, whereas individual horses are composed of matter as well as form. Hence there can be many of them, and all of them could (in principle) be perfect.

Members of a species are distributed across space and time, which raises another issue in relation to perfection. A system which might appear sub-optimal (and hence imperfect) now may have been ideal for past conditions or may turn out to be optimal in future circumstances, and therefore may represent an “overall best” design over time and space. On this view, living things can be regarded as closed loop control systems, which are designed in order to respond flexibly to changing environmental inputs.

Are poorly designed biological structures evidence against God’s perfection?

The medieval theologian St. Thomas Aquinas freely acknowledged that “an imperfect effect proves imperfection in the agent” (Summa Theologica I, q. 66, art. 1). Although this argument is put forward in an objection (“On the contrary…”) which Aquinas subsequently answers, he does not question the principle itself in his response. Therefore when anti-religious evolutionists like Dr. Richard Dawkins criticize the design of the vertebrate eye, they are at least making a relevant criticism – for if they were right, it would constitute powerful evidence against the belief that Nature was made by an perfect and infinite God, although it would in no way weaken the scientific conclusion (argued for by ID proponents) that Nature was designed by an Intelligence of some sort.

Skeptics have often faulted God for His poor design of various biological structures, including the vertebrate eye, the laryngeal nerve of the giraffe and the male prostrate gland, among others. There are detailed answers for these objections – see here, here and here for instance. I could say a lot more about the litany of “imperfect” designs and allegedly “vestigial” organs which Darwinian evolutionists constantly drag up, but the key point I wish to make is an epistemological one: without a complete understanding of how a creature’s genes code for its embryonic development and produce its bodily organs, we are in no position to criticize God’s designs. In particular, before we can confidently declare a bodily organ in a creature to be totally useless (as some vestigial organs are alleged to be), we first need to identify the gene that codes for it, and ascertain whether it also codes for any other useful organs or vital biological functions. If it does, then we will then have to find a way of mutating that gene to make the “vestigial” organ disappear, while keeping the creature’s other organs and biological functions intact. Only then can we truly declare an organ to be totally useless. The “vestigial” eyes of moles, which are hidden under their skin, serve no function; but if the genes that code for them cannot be modified to make the eyes disappear without rendering moles less biologically fit, then we cannot say that the eyes of moles are completely useless.

Thus I would say that it is certainly possible for God to make a perfect world, and the allegedly poor designs we see in Nature only serve to demonstrate our ignorance rather than God’s ineptitude. God cannot however make a world which is infinite in all respects, like He is.

Why didn’t God create intelligent beings in a perfect world – i.e. Heaven?

Interestingly, most religious believers would accept that God has already made a perfect world. It’s called Heaven. So the atheist’s complaint boils down to this: why didn’t God put us all in Heaven from the get-go? Why are we stuck in this world?

Of course, young-earth creationists maintain that this world was originally created perfect. Since I believe in an old earth, I cannot adopt this solution. More importantly, I would like to point out that absence of flaws does not suffice to make a world perfect. A truly perfect world is one that is guaranteed to remain free from flaws. On this definition, the Paradise of Genesis 2 was not perfect; at best, it was a way-station to a perfect world. Only Heaven can truly be called a perfect world.

Another (seldom invoked) response to the question of why we were placed in an imperfect world is that our very identity as individuals is necessarily tied to the world in which we were originally created. If we’d been created in some other world, we wouldn’t be who we are. To wish that you’d been created in Heaven is to wish yourself out of existence. But an atheist might attempt to rephrase his/her argument as follows: “If God were to create a race of intelligent beings, then He should put them in a perfect world. And if this requirement entails my non-existence, then so be it.” So the question now becomes: why didn’t God create intelligent beings in a perfect world?

However, the most satisfactory answer I can give to the atheist’s question (drawing from the Judeo-Christian tradition) is that a perfect world is only suitable for perfect moral agents. When I say “perfect moral agents”, I don’t just mean agents who haven’t done anything wrong. I mean agents who can be guaranteed not to do anything wrong in the future. The first human beings were not perfect in this sense, as they had libertarian freedom and were capable of sinning. (The Biblical account of Adam and Eve before the Fall highlights this very point.) Hence it was not fitting that the first human beings should be placed in a world that was guaranteed to remain free from all imperfections (i.e. Heaven). Instead, it was more appropriate that they should be placed in a world in which decay and death were real possibilities. And being placed in such a flawed world is even more appropriate for us today: not only are we capable of sinning, but we often do sin. So the answer I’d give the atheist is: prove to me that you can do no wrong, and I’ll acknowledge the merit of your complaint against God. Prove to me that God could have created a race of intelligent beings lacking libertarian freedom, and I’ll acknowledge that the imperfection of our world constitutes a real theological problem.

A theological problem: bugs that were intentionally designed to cause human and animal suffering

But we are not done yet. So far we have assumed that the only morally significant individuals are intelligent beings. But surely sentient animals are morally significant beings too: they can experience some level of joy and distress, even if (lacking intelligence) they fail to qualify as moral agents, who are capable of doing good or evil. In a perfect world, we would surely expect that distress would be absent. Animal death, if it occurred, would be unaccompanied by distress. The theological problem confronting believers is that the world was imperfect long before people entered it. What’s more, it seems to have been intentionally designed to cause distress to animals and human beings. As Intelligent Design proponent Professor Michael Behe puts it in The Edge of Evolution (2008, Free Press):

"Here’s something to ponder long and hard: Malaria was intentionally designed. The molecular machinery with which the parasite invades red blood cells is an exquisitely purposeful arrangement of parts…

What sort of designer is that? What sort of “fine-tuning” leads to untold human misery? To countless mothers mourning countless children? Did a hateful, malign being make intelligent life in order to torture it? Or who relishes cries of pain?" (p. 237)

Behe goes on to argue that regardless of whether one believes the designer of life was “a dope, a demon, or a deity”, there can be no getting around the fact that life was designed. And that includes the malaria parasite and other nasty bugs.

What we continually need to remind ourselves is that we don’t know all the facts about the original condition of these seemingly malevolent organisms, as well as their subsequent development. Until we do, we are in no position to sit in judgment on God.

For instance, according to a recent press release by the National Science Foundation, modern malaria parasites began to spread to various mammals, birds and reptiles about 16 million years ago. Malaria parasites may jump to new, unrelated hosts at any time, decoupling their evolution from that of their hosts. The ancestors of humans acquired the parasite 2.5 million years ago. However, according to Dr. Robert Ricklefs, one of the biologists who conducted the recent research into the origin of the malaria parasite, “Malaria parasites undoubtedly were relatively benign for most of that history, becoming a major disease only after the origins of agriculture and dense human populations.”

Another theological conundrum: aberrant behavior patterns in animals

In addition to the intentionally designed suffering we find in the human and animal world, we also find abundant evidence of animals with built-in (i.e. designed) tendencies to engage in disorderly behaviors such as cannibalism, infanticide, rape, unnatural sex and killing for sport. To rationalize these behaviors as serving some useful biological purpose is morally obscene; it should be self-evident that an omni-benevolent Being would not design a world like that.

Aquinas: death, injury and birth defects are part and parcel of an animal’s contingent perfection

Not all theologians regard the occurrence of animal suffering as a difficulty for theism. In the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas ascribed natural evils to God’s free decision to create a universe containing multiple grades of perfection. Certain grades of perfection are 100% reliable, while other grades of perfection are contingent, and liable to fail from time to time. According to Aquinas, that doesn’t make the contingent grades imperfect; rather, part of their perfection is to occasionally fail.

Animals belong in the category of contingent grades of perfection. According to Aquinas, animals are inherently prone to death, injury and birth defects, for three reasons. First, animals naturally generate themselves, and the flip-side of generation is corruption. The only way for God to make a world without death would be to make a world without plants and animals. Secondly, the very perfections which characterize animals are produced by causes whose modus operandi is probabilistic and thus inherently prone to failure. This means that the perfections we observe in living creatures are liable to be not realized on some occasions, leading to birth defects in some individuals. Finally, the diversity and complexity of the parts which make up animals’ bodies guarantees that sooner or later, they will interfere with each other’s operation, leading to bodily degeneration. Hence all animals are doomed to die.

Aquinas even taught that there was just the right amount of natural evil in the biological world. As Richard Regan and Brian Davies put it in their introduction to The De Malo of St. Thomas Aquinas:

"Critics of belief in God have sometimes argued that there is too much evil suffered in God’s world (the implication being that God is either bad or nonexistent). According to Aquinas, however, in the case of evil suffered, there can never be more evil than there need be. He thinks that any evil suffered that is more than there need be would be lacking a natural cause. It would be scientifically inexplicable. He therefore suggests that the evil suffered is neither more nor less than what we can expect in a material world in which scientific explanations can be given for what happens." (2001, Oxford University Press, p. 22.)

One major difference between Aquinas and modern writers is that Aquinas’ questions about natural evil are framed from a third-person perspective. They do not address the experience of suffering as such. Because St. Thomas considered natural evil in the animal kingdom from a third-person perspective, he is not troubled by the modern question, “How could a just God permit animals to suffer as much as they do? Indeed, why are they allowed to suffer at all?”

Another major difference between Aquinas and many modern theologians concerns the issue of whether the Creator has any duties towards His sentient creatures, simply by virtue of having created them. There seems to be a great divide between the medieval and the modern mind-set on this issue, which is why some modern Christian apologists such as C. S. Lewis have even proposed that animals may be granted some kind of immortality, though not, of course, the Beatific Vision. Aquinas would have dismissed such speculation as nonsense. He argued that although animals can have sensory knowledge particular objects, they are unable to form universal concepts, because they cannot grasp the underlying rule that defines them as belonging to the same natural kind. As a result, abstract thinking is beyond them. Hence they are incapable of enjoying immortality, as they have no natural desire for it. Their desires are limited to the here and now, which is all that their bodily senses enable them to apprehend (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book II, chapter 82, paragraphs 2, 4 and 12).

I have previously written about Aquinas’ theodicy here and offered my own critique of Aquinas’ treatment of animal suffering here, before putting forward a very tentative proposal as to how some sort of animal immortality might be possible.

A very different approach to the problem of animal suffering: C. S. Lewis

The Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, who was a former atheist himself, was acutely aware of the theological challenge posed by the occurrence of animal suffering. His approach was strikingly different in content and in tone from that of Aquinas. The solution he proposed in chapter 9 of his book, The Problem of Pain, was that some malevolent intelligence had interfered with God’s original plan for Nature:

"It seems to me, therefore, a reasonable supposition, that some mighty created power had already been at work for ill on the material universe, or the solar system, or, at least, the planet Earth, before ever man came on the scene: and that when man fell, someone had, indeed, tempted him. This hypothesis is not introduced as a general ‘explanation of evil’: it only gives a wider application to the principle that evil comes from the abuse of free will. If there is such a power, as I myself believe, it may well have corrupted the animal creation before man appeared."

Thus the extensive evidence of mal-design in the natural world (e.g. parasitism), combined with the high incidence of pain, distress, and disorderly behaviors (cannibalism, infanticide, rape, unnatural sex and killing for sport) in the animal kingdom should lead us to conclude that God’s original handiwork has been tampered with by malevolent agents.

Professor William Dembski: Animal suffering is due to the retroactive Fall of man

Lewis was well aware that earlier generations of Christians had linked animal suffering to the Fall of man. Lewis set aside this view, on the grounds that animals existed long before the first people appeared. However, in his recent book, The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World (B & H Academic, Nashville, Tennessee, 2009), Professor William Dembski makes a powerful attempt to justify the traditional Christian view.

Dembski makes the bold proposal that the animals who suffered millions of years before the Fall of the first human beings, suffered because of a sin that God knew they were going to commit. Because God is outside time, He was able to ensure that the full consequences of the first human beings’ sin would be visited upon His creation, both before and after the Fall of man. While the suffering of animals before the Fall of man was actually inflicted by malevolent intelligences (demonic agents), God permitted these malevolent agents to wreak havoc on Nature only because He foreknew that the first human beings (who were entrusted with the stewardship of God’s earthly creation) would reject His offer of eternal life. If these human beings had not fallen, malevolent intelligences would never have been permitted by God to inflict suffering on creatures in the natural world, before humans appeared on Earth. Thus in a very real way, the sin of the first human beings is the (retroactive) cause of all the suffering found in Nature – past, present and future.

I find Professor Dembski’s proposal an intriguing one, which has considerable merit. I have previously written about his theodicy here and offered my own comments on his proposal here (for what they’re worth). One thing that needs to be kept in mind throughout this discussion is that Dembski’s theodicy is independent of his views on Intelligent Design. Professor Dembski makes this abundantly clear in the Introduction to his book, where he writes:

"Much of my past work has been on intelligent design and the controversy over evolution. Nothing in his book, however, takes sides in that debate. In arguing that the Fall marks the entry of all evil into the world (both personal and natural evil), I make no assumptions about the age of the Earth, the extent of evolution, or the prevalence of design" (Dembski, 2009, pages 9-10).

Thus one can consistently accept Dembski’s theodicy while rejecting his views on Intelligent Design – and vice versa.

So in response to the question, “Why didn’t God make a perfect world?” I would answer that a perfect world is for perfect moral agents, and God knew we would instead turn out to be a race of fallen beings. God gave us libertarian freedom. Human and animal deaths from parasites are not an original design feature, but a symptom of creation run amok, due to the fact that we live in a fallen world. Finally, we should remember that there are other intelligent beings that live in this world, and it would be naïve to regard them all as benevolent. We should therefore be prepared to entertain the very real possibility that God’s original design has been tampered with, in both humans and other animals. The fact that some creatures show evidence of malevolent interference should not weaken our philosophical conclusion that their Ultimate and Original Designer is an infinitely wise and benevolent Being.

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Klaus Kenneth Interviewed By Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaias

The Incredible Tale of Klaus Kenneth

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My Niece Singing Her Favorite Hymn

My seven year old niece Christiana has a new favorite hymn she wanted to share with me today that she learned during her first summer at the Metropolis of Boston Orthodox Camp. It's called "Lord of the Powers".

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Saint Fotou the Cypriot

Saint Foutou of Cyprus (Feast Day - August 2)

In the village of Agios Andronikos of Yialousa in the Karpas peninsula, there is the cave where Saint Photini the Cypriot, who in Cyprus is known as Saint Fotou, lived an ascetic life and who is one of the most beloved saints of the region. When the residents of the village discovered the cave, they declared Saint Fotou as patron saint of the village and built a church in her honor under Archbishop Chrysanthos (1767-1810), during the 18th century.

Every year on the eve of the feast of Saint Fotou, which is on August 2nd, thousands of faithful from across the Karpas but also from other parts of Cyprus filled the village of Agios Andronikos were they made temporary huts and began one of the biggest festivals of the island, with plenty of songs, dances, food and drink. The village of Saint Andronikos was until 1964 a mixed village and thus the Turkish Cypriot residents also participated and celebrated at the festival together with the Greek Cypriots.

Despite the love that people from the Karpas have for Saint Fotou, there is no information about her life, her origin, and the time she lived. What is known about her is based on tradition and the historian Leontios Machairas.

Local tradition from the Karpas says that Saint Fotou came from the village of Rizokarpaso and was of humble parents. From a young age she rejected secular life and marriage, and left to live an ascetic life in a cave which she carved out herself. There, Saint Fotou lived a holy life, with prayer, fasting, abstinence, virginity, and a life fully devoted to God.

Tradition says also that Saint Fotou performed miracles even when she was alive. When she died, she was buried by faithful and devout Christians. In her tomb which was discovered by divine revelation, the following words were written: "Photini, Virgin Bride of Christ.

This divine revelation took place during the 15th century as the historian Leontios Macheras states. He writes in his "Chronikon" the following:

"By the Karpas peninsula at the village of Saint Andronikos, there was found a little while ago by God's revelation, the tomb of Saint Fotini, and her cave is below the earth. It has a Holy Altar and a place of worship and has Holy Water which runs very deep in depth, and with each new moon the top of the water turns into ice and afterwards people lift it off and it starts melting into small particles as thin as dust. The blind take these small particles and rub them on their eyes and the blind get well and can see."

Saint Fotou in particular is believed to cure diseases of the eyes. Her tomb is underground and is carved with 23 steps and the holy water is deep in the cave. After becoming refugees, the residents of Agios Andronikos carried the bones of Saint Fotou to the free areas of Cyprus and placed them in the newly built church of the Apostle Andrew at the Kolossi refugee settlement in Limassol. The well with the holy water is said to have dried up since the Turkish settlement of Northern Cyprus in 1974.

From 1974 until 2003, the Church of Saint Fotou at the village of Saint Andronikos which you can see in the pictures, was used by the Turks as a stable for sheep after first being desecrated and pillaged.

Source

Ἀπολυτίκιον Ἦχος α’.
Καρηασέων τὸ κλέος καὶ Κυπρίων ἀγλάισμα καὶ τῶν ἀσθενούντων ἡ ρώσις, τῶν πεπηρωμένων ἀνάβλεψις, τῶν πρὸς σὲ πιστῶς προστρεχόντων ἐν τῷ θείῳ ναῶ σου, πανένδοξε, τᾶς ἰάσεις παράσχου τοὶς δούλοις σου πάντοτε, ἶνα εὐχαρίστως κράζωμεν, Φωτεινὴ Ὁσία νύμφη Χριστοῦ καλλιπάρθενε. Δόξα τῷ σὲ δοξάσαντι, δόξα τῷ σὲ στεφανώσαντι, δόξα τῷ ἐνεργούντι διὰ σοῦ πασιν Ἰάματα.

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The Litany of Panagia of Tripolitsa in Tripoli

Every year in the evening of August 1st, to honor the first Paraklesis (Supplication) Service of the Dormition Fast, the people of Tripoli process the Sacred and Miraculous Icon of Panagia of Tripolitsa which is safe-guarded at the Metropolitan Church of Saint Basil.

The icon itself was painted during the difficult years of the Greek Revolution in 1823. It began to be painted by Mihailos Komnenidos of Poros, but before he finished he died of some sickness. It was completed in 1826 by the iconographer George Athanasiades from Cydonia, Crete. He gave the icon to Anastasios Gyzani of Poros who made the original order for it. For many years the icon remained within this family, and it was eventually given to the Church of Saint Basil in Tripoli.

Over the years, this icon of Panagia of Tripolitsa became much-beloved by the locals. Twice it was saved from fire in a miraculous way, first when it was in possession of the Gyzani family and the second time when the Church of Saint Basil caught fire.

Today the icon is enthroned in a marble proskynitarion, which was donated by faithful parishioners. The procession with the icon is a major event for the city every year on August 1st.

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