Praxis and Theoria, or Action and Vision

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

A result of the false distinction of neptic and social theology is that we usually make a distinction between praxis (action) and theoria (vision), as well as between practical and theoretical people. This distinction is made because the western distinction of action and contemplation has influenced us.

In the Medieval West, they spoke of theory and practice, the latter meaning mission, action, while the former is intellectual occupation with God and the truths of the Church. In the Orthodox Tradition, however, action is chiefly purification of the heart, and theoria is noetic prayer and the vision of the uncreated Light, the deification of man.

Likewise, in the Orthodox Church we say that praxis and theoria of God are not opposites, but one follows the other. Ilias the Presbyter says that the courageous man is like a woman who keeps two lamps burning, "mastering both praxis and theoria". St. Maximos the Confessor says that there is no safe praxis without theoria, nor true theoria without praxis. "For praxis needs to be learned and theoria put into practice". And he points out that in some the theoria is preceded by praxis and in others praxis is preceded by theoria, but finally both have to end in one thing".

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Nun Aikaterini: A Witness of the Holy Cloud of Mt. Tabor

By Nun Aikaterini

For every Despotic and Mother of God feast we have great joy no matter where we celebrate. But in the Holy Land everything is more real. There you feel like you are flying in the clouds. Sometimes you don't realize what is happening to yourself, whether you are in heaven or on earth. And this doesn't only happen to me, but to everyone who gathers for these feasts. Together with the touching of the Holy Light one of the greatest feasts is the Transfiguration of the Savior. On Mount Tabor on August 6/19 there appears the invisible wonder alongside this feast which cannot be seen in any church throughout the world unless God grants a personal revelation. There, on the night of August 18th towards August 19th during the Divine Liturgy in front of thousands of faithful and non-believers there descends on this sacred mountain a cloud. Non-believers - as I have heard from many of them - say that it is a meteorological phenomenon.

This cloud however is very different from other more familiar clouds which descend in the morning on our mountains. As the vigil begins one sees on the top of the mountain, towards Nazareth, something orange in the darkness of the night. This moves perpendicularly towards the church and stands there like an orange tongue until twelve o' clock or one o' clock at a great distance from Mount Tabor. When the Divine Liturgy begins, especially at the time of the Cherubic Hymn, the cloud comes towards the mountain and begins to take various shapes, and then oblong pieces cut from the cloud and take the shape of birds or angels and come upon the dome of the church. There it is, as well as the other buildings in the area, and the people go up and invoke the Holy Spirit. Words are poor to describe what you feel when these pieces, which are soft like cotton, come and you touch them with your hands, and you feel them on your face. You feel as if you want to climb onto this piece and go away and not care about anything.

Simultaneously with this miracle an exquisite scent like incense spreads in the air but it is not incense, like resin but it is not resin. It is a combination of oriental conifers and incense. Naturally there are those who doubt by saying that it is a trick of the Greeks, or that is a meteorological phenomenon. But this is a general event of joy, something which does not occur on other mountains under any meteorological condition.

Of course when descending from Mount Tabor, after the vigil, with the Greeks, Arabs, Bulgarians, Russians and Romanians chanting "You were transfigured on the Mount Christ God", you do not desire anything worldly but to live eternally like this.

In this instance, as with the Holy Light, these miracles, this consolation, God gives in the end for those who believe, because as the Bible says: "I came to give to those who have, and to take from those who do not have". So God takes from those who have little faith and start to question God, His presence and actions in this world. But for those who say: "I Believe Lord, help my unbelief", He reveals the greatest joy.

Indeed, there on Mount Tabor you understand why the Apostle Peter told Christ that he didn't want to leave that place. Truly you do not want to leave Tabor. All worldly events pale before what is taking place on Mount Tabor.

P.S. On Mount Tabor, of the three churches only one is Orthodox [Greek]. From the testimonies of eyewitnesses the bright cloud descends only on the Orthodox Church.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Related post: The Miraculous Holy Cloud of Mount Tabor

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Secrets of Orthodox Exorcists

Sasa Milosevic
August 17, 2011
The Huffington Post

A young woman sat in the chair near the altar. Father Sava began Liturgy reading the prayers from the Church service book in one hand while handling a lamp and censer in the other. As he approached the woman she started to cry, twitching her fingers and hitting her legs. Then, an abnormally deep voice came out of her mouth:

"Savo, don't do it. She is ours! Her aunt brought her to us. She is ours! She should not have finished college! She should not have gotten married! We want her to die! Death ...St. Matrona protects her!"

The monk didn't give up. He continued reading. Prayers, hymns, psalms. As he intensified praying, the invisible power attacked the girl stronger than before. She cried, shook and screamed for the whole Divine Liturgy. And then peace surprisingly came. The woman's body relaxed with visible relief. The demons left the suffering human being. She went out of the church as if nothing had happened.

The scene is not an excerpt from the one of Hollywood's blockbuster horrors. It is a reality that Sonja Brankovic, a 28-year-old Bosnian woman witnessed at Sunday morning Liturgy, in the Serbian Orthodox monastery Saint Ilija, Krupa, near Banja Luka, a few days before Pascha (Easter) 2011.

She could not believe what she saw, but over time she had to accept that the presence of evil was more than obvious. It finally became clear to her that Satan does not attack only Catholics, as Hollywood has been filming for almost 40 years, but also the Orthodox Christians of which she is one.

Unfortunately, the rich tradition of Orthodox exorcism stays in the shadow of "The Exorcist", launched in 1973 and primarily popularizing the Roman rite. Even the Baylor Religion Survey (2007) which finds that nearly four in five of respondents believe in demon possession, four decades after Hollywood's expansion of exorcism, does not present any statistical data within the Orthodox sample.

However, it is a significant fact from Russian Trinity - Sergius Lavra illustrating that three to five persons are possessed among the hundreds of those that regularly attend Liturgy.

That which people see in films is usually exaggerated drama. There is no levitating bed, spinning head or green-pea soups disgorged over the priest.

"An accurate depiction of an Orthodox exorcism appears in a Russian film "Ostrov" says Father Ioannis, a monk and confessor of Simonos Petras Monastery, Mt. Athos, accenting the compilation of prayers as the essence of the Orthodox exorcism.

A prayers-cocktail expels the demons

The standard exorcism procedure is found in The Great Book of Needs (Euchologion or Trebnik). This most comprehensive liturgical book of the Orthodox Church includes:

1. Opening blessing,

2. Trisagion prayers,

3. Psalms 142(143), 22(23), 26(27), 67(68), 50(51),

4. A hymn, Canon of Supplication to our Lord Jesus Christ (includes special litanies after odes 3,6,9);

5. Anointing with oil, with prayer of anointing that is the same prayer used in the service of healing unction.

6. Three prayers of exorcism by St. Basil and four prayers of St. John Chrysostom.

According the Typikon of St. Sava Monastery, Palestine, the blessed oil used in exorcism is removed from the temple and kept in the possession of the person receiving the exorcism for protective custody throughout life. At the time of the exorcised person's death, the residual oil will be buried with the remains in the coffin.

Father Juvenily Repass, an Instructor and Chaplain at St Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary warns that exorcism services would be "a grave sin and spiritually dangerous, "for a non-priest and layman. He says: "The service of exorcism is a very serious matter so even the priest should consult with the bishop before practicing it."

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church that elevated the Office of Exorcist, as a special exorcists unit, all Orthodox priests are trained and equipped to perform exorcism primarily as an obligatory part of Orthodox Baptism.

Four prayers appear in the early portion of the Baptism service known as "The Making of a Catechumen."

The Orthodox Greeks practice an unique exorcism against demonic influence known as "Evil Eye" or "Vaskania", a phenomenon deeply rooted in pre-Christian pagan tradition, but also widely present among other cultures. There is belief that some people through jealousy or envy can bring harm upon other people. It is considered that such people are demon-possessed, overlooking special and attractive people such as: beauties, those born on Saturday afternoon (time of Christ's birth), babies forty days after their births and young children. Affected persons suffer from discomfort, dizziness, whining, sleeplessness, peevishness, headache and pain.

Orthodox priests read a special Prayer for overlooking. The special small crosses from Mt. Athos made of unicorn's horn and oil from sacred lamp in church are also strong defense against the demon acting from person with evil eye.

The Greek Church permanently confront some groups of self-proclaimed exorcists (mainly old-women) that traditionally practice their own rite against " evil-eye" that includes religious procedure with olive oil, water and Cross, but opposite to recommendations of Church and The Great Book of Needs.

The monks from Russian Valaam monastery consider that everyone is possessed at some level, depending how much they are burdened by passions, so they recommend living according to God's commandments: fast, prayers, confession, repentance and Holy Communion."

Family sins open doors to demons

An Athonite monk Dositej Hilandarac warns that, "We inherit parents' spiritual debts, the same as we inherent land, money and material debts from them" He recalls:

"In summer 2010, monks from monastery Hilandar [Mt. Athos] exorcised a possessed boy. Despite prayers that lasted an entire week, the demons did not vacate the boy. Then I suggested to boy's father to repent and make confession. Because the father never confessed before this time, his son had become fertile ground for the demons. Indeed, the son had suffered for years just as the father and other family members had suffered by observing the child without recourse to resolve the problem on their own. This occasion was the only way to awaken the sinner. The father's repentance and confession were key to the success of our exorcism prayers."

Archimandrite Petar Dragojlovic, Hegumen of St. Nicholas monastery, Vranjina, recalls a young woman whom he exorcised in 2005. This woman had been possessed by seven demons after having practiced spiritualism with her grandmother prior to the elder's death.

"When grandmother died, she came to see her last time expressing desire to be beside her body that night. At the midnight, the demons began to sing and rejoice as they took the grandmother's soul because the old woman has served them through spiritualism. All seven demons entered into the girl. Until then she was an excellent student at Belgrade University with high grades. After possession she could not pass any exam. I have read the prayers to her in the Cetinje Monastery. Only after persistent reading of prayers by a year she received healing. But every time she went through the agony. She screamed with a high-pitched tone. Her body shook as her eyes gyrated. Her neck became twice as thick with distended veins. Two men were required to hold her in place for the prayers. Her strength was extraordinary. She now serves the God as a nun."

Possessed or Obsessed?

As the International Classification of Disease does not recognize demon possession as an official diagnosis the religion and medicine are in constant confrontation. While the psychiatrists consider it as a symptom of mental disorders, priests say it is possible to distinguish demon-possessed individuals from persons with mental illness. Hegumen Dragojlovic observes:

"When mentally-ill persons approach the holy relics their bodies do not show contractions and other distortions. Moreover, persons with mental illness do not blaspheme, and they do not scream. On the other hand, demon-possessed persons look normal outside of holy places such as an Orthodox temple. However, when they approach the temple and the holy relics, they react because demons start to torture them."

Hegumen's description parallels what Kurt E. Koch's described in his 1973 text, Demonology Past and Present differentiate demon possession from psychological disorders?

The monks from the Orthodox Monastery of Vasilije Ostroski in Montenegro also confirm Hegumen's words. One of most famous Orthodox sanctuary for demonized people keeps the rich archives of personal testimonies of people that have been brought there as "lunatics" but after exorcism in front of the relics of St. Vasilije they have been healed continuing to live a normal life.

Does it really work? The answer certainly depends on what you are closer to -- Hollywood or the Faith of more than 2000 years.





Exorcism: Orthodox & Roman Rituals

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Panagia Soumela - Pontus and the Pontians

By Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas, DD PhD

Prolegomena

The original icon of Panagia Soumela is kept in a monastery in Macedonia that bears its name, but it came from the famous Monastery of Soumela in Pontos of Asia Minor. The fact that there is an exact copy of it at the Church St. John the Baptist in Boston, where there is also a sizeable Greek Pontian community, provides the opportunity to remind all of certain basic facts regarding the icon of Panagia Soumela and of Pontos and the Greek Pontians. The Greek Pontians as a heroic group of Hellenism have achieved great things in history and continue with the rest of the Hellenes to preserve their heritage not only in Greece but also here in America and in every other corner of the earth where they have been dispersed and survive by divine providence.


Panagia Soumela

According to church tradition the icon of Panagia Soumela took its name from the Monastery of Soumela in Pontos of Asia Minor. The name “Soumela” comes from “Stou Mela”, i.e. “at the mount Melas” and consequently signifies a particular locality in Pontos. The icon of Panagia that bears the name of this historic Monastery had been kept there for centuries. Yet, according to ancient tradition, it was more ancient than the Monastery. It was painted by St Luke the Evangelist and was originally kept in Athens being called “Atheniotissa.” It was brought to Pontos for the sake of safe keeping by two monks who are also said to be the founders of the Monastery of Soumela, St. Barnabas and St. Sophronios and hence its new name.

There are two views concerning the time of this event. In the first view it occurred in the 4th century. In the second view it happened in the 10th or 9th century. Recently a compromise has been propounded. This icon of St. Luke was kept in the Monastery of Osios Lukas in Biotia. It was carried to Athens by Ananias, the student of Osios Lukas, after the death of his teacher. Then later, when the Saracenes destroyed the city of Athens in the 10th (or 9th) century the holy monks Barnabas and Sophronios brought the icon to the Monastery of Soumela in Pontos for safe keeping.

The Monastery of Soumela, which had been founded in the 4th century by a Pontian Monk Christopher of Trepizond, suffered destructions and renovations through the long and turbulent history of Pontos, but the icon of Panagia remained intact. The heyday of the Monastery was in the era of the Byzantine empire of Trepizond, when it became the spiritual center of Orthodox Hellenism (see the historical section below) acquiring special privileges from the Komnenoi emperors. These privileges were preserved during the Turkish occupation by means of firmans granted by the Sultans and thus at that time also it stood as a notable center of Hellenic paideia for the enslaved Christian nation.

During the First World War the Monastery was destroyed, but the holy icon of Panagia remained intact.When in 1922 the Greek Pontians were violently expelled from Pontos the monks hifd the icon with other valuable vessels in the rocks of mount Mela. Later on the Turks allowed, following conversations of the governments of Greece and Turkey (Benizelos and Inonou), the monk Ambrosios to visit the ruined monastery of Soumela and retrieve the holy icon and the rest of church valuables and bring them to Athens. In 1951, the holy icon of Panagia Soumela, that had been kept in the Byzantine Museum of Athens, was transferred to the new Monastery of Soumela that was constructed on one of the slops of mount Bermion of Macedonia where it is kept today.

As we noted above, one of the three equally historical exact copies of the original icon of Panagia Soumela is kept in our parish which bears the name of St. John the Baptist. This alone is an amazing fact, if one bears in mind that the original Monastery of Soumela in Pontos had been constructed in the 4th century with the assistance of an older neighboring Monastery that ore the name of John the Forerunner and Baptist.


Pontos and Pontians

The history of Pontos and the Pontians can be subdivided into five main periods as follows: a) the Greek-Persian, b) the Roman-Greek, c) the Greco-Roman or Byzantine, d) the Turkish occupation and e) the Pontian Diaspora.

A) The First Greek-Persian Period (6th-1st c. B.C.) begins around 600 B.C. when Greek immigrants settled in the coastal region of Cappadocia and founded important Greek cities, which became the starting point for the Hellenization of the Barbarian indigenous tribes of that region and their entry into civilization –such were the Chalyves, Mossynoikoi, Makrones, Tzanoi or Skythians, Kerkites, Taouchoi, Kurds, Kolchians, Abasgians, Tibarians, Paphlagonians, etc. These Hellenic Pontian cities included Sinope, Amisos, Kotyora, Kerasous, Trapezous (Trepizond), etc. All of them became strong centers that ruled the surrounding regions, liberating them from the feudal suzerainty of the Persians.

There was, of course, a prehistory of Hellenic presence in the Pontian region, which is connected with the known mythology about Frixos and Helle and the legend of Argonauts and the Golden Fleece. There was also the epic history of the Myriad of Greek soldiers with Xenophon who passed through the Greek cities of Pontos in 400 B.C. (the Gymnias, Trapezous, Kerasous, Kotyora, Sinope, Herakleia etc.) and is described in Xenophon’s Anabasis.

The first independent Pontian king- dom was founded by Mithridates I (337-302) who delivered the land from Persia and wedded the Persian with the Hellenic civilization that had been introduced into the region by the Greeks. The successors of this king extended his program of Hellenization and the borders of this kingdom by annexing other neighboring lands. Mithridates II (302-266 B.C.) annexed Cappadocia and Paphlagonia and transferred the capital of the Pontian kingdom from Amaseia to Sinope. Mithridates III (255-222 B.C.) married the daughter of Seleucid, Alexander’s General and ruler of Syria. The daughter of Mithridates IV (222-184 B.C.) became queen of Syria through marrying Antiochos, another General of Alexander and ruler of Syria. The Pontian kingdom enjoyed its greatest expansion and glory under Mithridates VI Eupator (160-63 B.C.), following two victorious wars against the Romans. Finally, however, the Romans subdued Mithridates and his kingdom in a third war.

B) The Second Roman-Greek Period (1st c. B.C. – 4th c. A.D.) begins in 64 B.C. when Pompey conquered the kingdom of Pontos. Pompey reorganized the kingdom by dividing it into two parts, the Western which included Galatia and was named Galatian Pontos, and the Eastern which included Bithynia and was named Polemoniakos Pontos (from king Polemon). Another successful action of Pompey was the creation of new cities in the interior, such as Nikopolis, Pompeioupolis, Diospolis, Magnopolis, etc. Further administrative arrangements were made by Pompey’s successors.

In 48 B.C. Pharnakes, the son of Mithridates VI tried to revive the Greco-Persian domination in the region but without results and was defeated by Caesar. In 39 B.C., however, the Roman Anthony entrusted the administration of the old Pontian kingdom to Darius, the grand-son of Mithridates VI. Since then a number of Pontian kings continued to administer the kingdom for the Romans, among whom we find Polemon I and Polemon II. This lasted until 64 A.D., when Eastern Pontos was united with the Western to form one Roman province that was named Mesogeiakos Pontos in 166 A.D. Later on the Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305 A.D.) granted Pontos independent status and subdivid- ed it into three eparchies, Diospontos, Polemoniakos and Lesser Armenia.

This period of the Roman domination enhanced even more the Pontian Hellenism, and it can rightly be called Roman-Greek. At the same time this is a period of Christianization of the Greek Pontiac population and the rise of great church Fathers, such as Gregory of Neocaesarea, who wedded the Christian faith with Hellenism and unified the peoples of Pontos on this basis, contributing to the creation of a new political and religious establishment, which is called Greco-Roman or Byzantine.

C) The Third Graeco-Roman or Byzantine Period (4th-15th c. A.D.) is the greatest and brightest in Pontian history. In the proto-Byzantine era, which begins with Constantine the Great, Pontos became a Perfecture with Caesarea of Cappadocia as its capital and took the name Helenopontos (from St. Helen). The city of Caesarea had become the center of a new Christian-ized Hellenism, which transmitted Christianity to Armenia and the wider region in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

In 325 several Pontian Bishops participated at the first Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea, such as Domnos of Trapezous and the Bishops of Amaseia, Komana, Zelon, Neocaesarea and Pityous. In 381 at the second Ecumenical Synod of Constantinople, it was St. Basil of Caesarea’s theology that triumphed, while St. Gregory the Theologian was the president and other Pontian Bishops participated such as St. Gregory of Nyssa. At the end of the 4th century (380-386) the great Monastery of Panagia Soumela was established on the mountain of Melas in the region of Trapezous. This great monastery was destroyed in the 6th century and was restored in 644. It became famous since the 9th century, when the two Athenian monks Sophronios and Barnabas brought to it the miraculous icon of the Panagia Atheniotissa – a work of St. Luke. This holy icon survived the destruction of the Monastery in the 20th c., and rests today in the new Panagia Soumela Monastery on a slope of mount Vermion near Kastania of Beroia in Northern Greece.

The 4th c. was one of the most glorious periods of Pontian history thanks to the great Fathers of the Church who appeared in the Church there, such as St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Gregory of Nyssa and a multitude of fathers and saints. These Fathers enlightened the entire Christian world and left a lasting legacy of orthodox faith. In the 5th c. the Pontian bishop Atarvios presided at the fourth Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon (451), and was escorted by many other Pontian bishops. The celebrated Canon 28 of this Synod placed the Pontian Perfecture under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, where it remained until recent times.

From the 5th to the 7th century the region of Pontos suffered from Persian invasions which were intercepted by the Byzantine armies of Justinian and Herakleios. Then in the 8th c. the Arab invaders appeared on the scene and that was the time when Pontos, like the other regions of Asia Minor, was organized on the basis of autonomous Roman Themes, e.g. Koloneia, Armeniacum, Chaldia, etc., which sustained their own armies and restrained the Arabs and later on (11th c. onwards) the Turks. In the later Byzantine era the Pontian region brought forth great leaders such as the Komnenian dynasty of emperors, the Gavras leaders and many others. When Constantinople was sacked by the papal Western Crusaders in 1204 Alexios III Komnenos established an autonomous Byzantine empire in Pontos with Trapezous (Trebizond) as its capital, in which 20 kings reigned during its life time (1204-1461). At that time the Archbishop of Trapezous received the title All-Holiness as the Patriarch of Constantinople. This empire was the last to fall to the Turks (1461) having outlived the fall of Constantinople (1453).

The glorious Byzantine period of the Pontian history raised great figures in the church and in the empire of Constantinople. In the middle Byzantine era, several Metropolitans from Pontos became prominent, especially those of Trapezous, who even presided over Ecumenical Synods. In the 9th/10th c. we see St. Nikon Metanoeitai and St. Athanasios the Athonite, founder of the Great Lavra; in the 11th c. the great Patriarch Ioannis Xiphilinos. In the later Byzantine era there are new eminent figures; in the 14th c. George Trapezountios and in the 15th c., the erudite Bessarion of Nicaea. The Monasteries, the churches, the icons, the saints of Byzantine Pontos constitute one of the greatest treasures of the Byzantium and the Orthodox Church.


D) The Fourth Period of the Turkish occupation (15th-20th c. AD) is a period of persecutions and gradual decline through different stages, but also witnessed times of glory. The first stage (15th-16th century) was marked by oppression. As the last one to submit to the Turkish invaders, the region of Pontos paid dearly by suffering great decimation. The land was mercilessly ruined. Violent persecutions forced many to become Islamized or to leave the country. In spite of this, the heroic people of Pontos survived the ordeal. Their vigor and hard work enabled them to regroup and enter into a reconstructive second stage (end of the 16th and 17th c.) which put them above their local Turkish land-lords to the point that they could no longer be easily controlled. This, unfortunately, gave rise to a third stage of new persecutions. It was the time when many of the Pontians withdrew to the mountains, having left the lowlands and costal lands, or immigrated beyond Pontos to Northern territories as many had done during the past stages. On the mountains of Pontos a new fourth stage of reconstruction began. Here the Pontians took over the old steel mines and became masters of steelworks that enabled them to rise once again above the Turks. Thus in the 18th century the Greek Pontian populace of the mountainous regions tripled! The crisis came when the steelworks came to an end, whereupon a fifth stage of new trials dawned. Many took the road to exile and departed northwards to Russia. The population diminished considerably, but the ethnic Pontian consciousness was retained. Even those who were forced to accept Islam remained secretly Christians (crypto-Christians), faithful to the religious convictions of their ancestors.

What should be stressed here is the attachment of the Pontians of this period to the Greek language and Christian education. The “Tutorial School” of Trapezous, which in 1683 the great Pontian teacher Sevastos Kyminites (from Kymina) founded, became most renowned. The same happened with the Hellenic Academy in Bucharest that he also founded by the above to support the same cause. This period saw many Pontian Greek teachers traveling all over the Turkish occupied territories and spreading Greek education and Christian paideia. In 1722 there were important Greek schools in Argyroupolis (Chaldia), Sinope, Theodosioupolis, Soumela and Kerasous. Among the most renowned leaders of the Greeks were the Pontian families of Hypselantes and Mourouzes who played important leadership roles in the survival and revival of the Greek Orthodox nation.

In the 19th century the Greek Pontians had ameliorated their situation. The Russo-Turkish war of 1828 was beneficial to them. Some 90.000 Pontians had relocated to Argyroupolis (Chaldia) which was under Russian control. Thus when the “Hatti Humayun” was signed (1856) the Pontians regained their religious freedom. Some 20.000 crypto-Christians returned at that time to the Orthodox Church with the help of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Countless schools churches and villages were rebuilt and there was generally an amazing revival of the Greek Christian population of Pontos. Trade to and from Russia increased and the new prospects that had been created led to a considerable prosperity among the Pontian communities. As a result of these changes the population increased. In 1865 the Greek speaking Pontians were estimated to be 330.000 (there were as many Turkish speaking), while in 1913 they reached 697.000. This sixth stage of renaissance was decisively and tragically interrupted at the dawn of the 20th c. through the 1st World War and the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922. The drafting of Pontians by the Turkish Army for the 1st WW between 1914 and 1918 displaced 235.000 Pontians, while some 80.000 escaped to Russia. The final blow came in 1922 when, without any warning, the Pontians were persecuted and expelled from their ancestral lands and escaped to Greece and the West as refugees.

E) The Fifth Period of Pontian Diaspora (1922-the Present) is the current period, when the Pontians have been seeking to establish new home-lands. In Greece and in the West, they have revealed once again their ability to survive and their indomitable character which is rooted in the Greek Orthodox faith and heritage. Here in America, where people of all backgrounds enjoy many freedoms and opportunities all Pontians are obliged, along with the entire Greek homogeneia, to continue the work that their heroic and indefatigable ancestors have assigned to them. They have a special obligation, again with all their fellow Greek and other ethic Orthodox Americans, to continue the work that Christ has entrusted to them when he included them among the first heralds of the Gospel of reconciliation and salvation of the world.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, with its Metropolises, under the aegis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople guarantees the continuous progress of all the Pontians of America along with the rest of the Greek Orthodox and other Orthodox brothers.

Source

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Lamentations of the Theotokos In Worship

Slowly it is becoming more of a standard to sing the Lamentations of the Theotokos and set up an Epitaphios with a copy of her body similar to that of the entombed Jesus on Great and Holy Saturday in parishes both within and outside of Greece for the feast of the Dormition on August 15th. Below are some historical notes regarding this tradition.

1) The Lamentations of the Theotokos, like those for Christ on Great and Holy Saturday, are chanted after the 7th Ode before the Exaposteilaria the evening before the feast of the Dormition. This is the proper rule regarding the implementation of these hymns according to Metropolitan Dionysios of Old Patras who wrote these hymns in 1541 when he was at Girokomeio Monastery in Patras. He says further that they are not to be chanted by just anyone or any church, as is often the case today.

2) The Lamentations are not part of the liturgical rule for the feast of the Dormition. They were probably chanted originally at the tomb of the Panagia in Jerusalem. When these hymns began to spread outside of Jerusalem, they were only implemented by shrines which had a special veneration for the Virgin Mary. It seems from Jerusalem the Lamentations spread to the Dodecanese, especially Patmos, and only in the past 25 years or so did they become popular in Greece, and more recently in Greek parishes in the diaspora. One should take seriously the fact, however, that the Lamentations are not chanted neither on Mount Athos nor at the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

3. It was never part of tradition to have a "body" of the Virgin Mary processed in an Epitaphios as it is done with Christ. Dionysios specifically writes in 1541 that the "depiction on the analogion should be the holy icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos." The "body" it seems then is an innovation of recent times together with the procession of the Epitaphios, and should thus not be regarded as part of the tradition.

4. Unfortunately no detailed study exists how the Lamentations were conducted in Jerusalem originally. It is of great interest however that the Lamentations of Christ for Great and Holy Saturday date to the 15th century while those of the Theotokos date to the 16th century. With Patras being under the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the time, as well as all of Greece, it still never adopted the practice of chanting the Lamentations of the Theotokos. In fact, there is no record of the Lamentations being chanted at Girokomeio Monastery in Patras until 1997 when implemented at the all-night vigil for the feast of the Dormition by Metropolitan Nikodemos of Patras.

There is much yet to be researched on this subject.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Greek Priests Make Effort To Protect Churches From Thieves

August 15, 2011
Kathimerini

Hundreds of churches have been burgled this year and faced with a rapid rise in the number of break-ins over the past few years, Greek Orthodox priests across the country are taking extra measures to protect church property.

Sunday’s Kathimerini has learned that an increasing number of Orthodox places of worship are being safeguarded with anti-theft systems such as metal fences, locks and alarm systems, in an attempt to protect their contents from burglars.

Church raiders, sources said, often do not stop at stealing money from collection boxes, but are targeting sacred items such as portable icons, holy vessels and even relics.

Sources told Kathimerini that priests are complaining that some burglars go as far as stealing church bells and candle holders, which are then sold to scrap metal dealers for small amounts of cash. Sunday’s Kathimerini was told that even lamps left on graves in cemeteries have not escaped the thieves’ attention.

Police say that more than 500 churches have been targeted by thieves in the last year, but hundreds more break-ins, especially in small churches in and outside of Greece’s villages, are thought to have gone unreported.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Methuselah - The Oldest Tree In the World

Methuselah is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. Its measured age of 4,842 years makes it the world's oldest known non-clonal organism.

The ancient tree is named after Methuselah, a Biblical figure having the oldest mentioned age in the bible of 969 years. It is growing at 2,900–3,000 m (9,500–9,800 ft) above sea level in the "Methuselah Grove" in the "Forest of Ancients" in the Inyo National Forest. Methuselah's exact location is undisclosed as a protection against vandalism.

"Methuselah" was 4,789 years old when sampled in 1957 by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan, with an estimated germination date of 2832 BC. Methuselah is the oldest known living tree and non-clonal organism in the world—4,842 years old as of 2011.

Source

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Neptic and Social Theology

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

We divide theology into neptic and social, and we regard some Fathers as belonging to the first and others as belonging to the second category. But in the teaching of the holy Fathers this division is not seen. To be sure, outwaradly, from the way in which each one has worked, a division can be seen between the neptics and socials, because some Fathers had a particular flock and did their work there, and others were in the desert, praying constantly. Even from this aspect, however, there cannot be a perfect division, because even the Fathers who worked pastorally lived neptically, and the hermits worked in a missionary way, in the sense that they were magnets for many men who approached them to learn ""words" of salvation. Thus the hermits indirectly did pastoral work.

Beyond this, the teaching of the saints is not divided into social and neptic. When the Fathers speak of social topics, they look at them within the true theology of the Church, which is ascetic. And when they speak of neptic topics, they do it in order for people to be able to be purified and then to attain real communion with God and men. Besides, we know very well that in the Church the theologians do shepherding and the pastors do their work theologically.

We are accustomed to seeing the Three Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Chrysostom as social Fathers. But this does not correspond with reality, because the Three Hierarchs in their writings also explain the whole neptic teaching of the Church.

The fact that there is a close link between nepsis and communion, between neptic and social Fathers, and that the holy Fathers shepherd their flocks theologically is seen from the homilies written by St. Gregory Palamas to his flock in Thessaloniki. Anyone who reads these homilies will discover that shepherding is theology and theology is truly a fruit of the knowledge of God, but also a path for man to reach deification.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Well of Saint Gerasimos the New of Kefallonia

One day St. Gerasimos set about digging a well near his monastery in Kefallonia. Standing at the bottom of the well he scooped up the damp earth, and the nuns hauled it to the surface. As they worked, a local villager passed by and said, "Look at this immoral monk with all his nuns." The Saint, who could not have possibly heard the distant man's words, climbed out of the well, and called for the villager to come to him. He wrote a short message on a piece of paper, folded it up and told him to take it to the judge. The note said, "Arrest him because he has falsely accused me." The judge interrogated the man, who confessed his slanderous words and begged for mercy, not knowing that St. Gerasimos had also written, "...but set him free after you question him."

The well still exists, and local Christians say that on the feastday of the Saint, when the priests process with the holy relics around the monastery grounds, the water level in the well rises as the relics approach it and recedes as the procession moves away.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Second Historic Divine Liturgy At Soumela Monastary

Nearly 2,500 pilgrims gathered today, 15 August 2011, at the historic Panagia Soumela Monastery to mark the second consecutive year in which the Turkish government allowed the Orthodox Christian faithful to celebrate the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos since its closure in 1922. Led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 500 pilgrims from around the world were allowed within the Monastery for the Divine Liturgy while the remaining participants followed the Service on large screens outside the Monastery.

In the sermon, Patriarch Bartholomew especially focused on encouraging cooperation between Muslims and Christians in Turkey. He began the homily by thanking “our Muslim brothers,” the Turkish government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for allowing a second service at Soumela. He further stated that Mary has a special place for both Muslims and Christians, recalling a Koran verse which says: “And (remember) when the angels said: ‘O Maryam (Mary)! Verily, Allah has chosen you, purified you (from polytheism and disbelief), and chosen you above the women of the ‘Alamin' (mankind and jinns) (of her lifetime).” The Patriarch called for peace and brotherhood in Turkey and in the world during his speech.

“The peace that we long for is vital, in particular during these days. We cannot rid ourselves of the burden of the tragic events in Norway yet. There is ongoing bloodshed in neighboring countries. Mothers are crying in our country.... Let's make a call from the high Soumela Mountain, from the presence of the feet of the Virgin Mary -- who is above all women -- to all Christians and Muslims for us, for humanity and for our future. This call can be a single word: peace, peace, peace. Mutual respect and love should be our only prayer,” the Patriarch said.

Bartholomew also wished Muslims a happy Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. “May God accept your fasts,” he added.

“Having such a monastery in the Black Sea is a blessing, this is a place of God,” Bartholomew said, speaking to journalists after the Liturgy. “We are very glad to come here this year as well. We hope that we can do it again next year.”

More info and photos here: Προσκύνημα με ποικίλα μηνύματα στην Παναγία Σουμελά

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

My Experience of the Feast of the Dormition in 1991

On August 14th of 1991 I was in Patras, Greece staying in my grandmothers home preparing for an all-night adventure to experience as much as possible the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos for the first time in Greece. Growing up in America, the feast of the Dormition was only fairly important to me mainly for two reasons: first, my home parish was one of only two parishes in the Boston area that celebrated the feast with a decorated Epitaphios and the singing of the Lamentations, and second, because it was the nameday of both my parents - Panagiotis and Panagiota - and we usually had a celebration in my home on that day with family and friends. But in Greece the feast offered a new experience for me and brought it to life for the first time in a very special way. It also helped that this was the first time I ever kept the fast for the whole fifteen days, and it was the first time I went to Confession.

Throughout the first fifteen days of August I was traveling to many shrines throughout mainland Greece and the islands, and it seemed everywhere I went there was some place with a story associated with the feast and the Virgin Mary that was highly honored by the local people. Even the most remote villages, I was learning, had their own particular story that played a major role in the life of that village. And there were so many places that had special celebrations on August 15th itself, that I felt hard-pressed deciding which place I wanted to celebrate on that particular day. Seeing that I was only 15-years old at the time and by myself in Greece with family living in Patras, my choice was limited to attend the famous all-night vigil at Girokomeio Monastery with my grandmother. My Uncle Niko also offered to take me to a remote village about two hours away in the mountains of Kalavryta following the vigil to attend a morning Divine Liturgy high up a mountain in a chapel that only had a Divine Liturgy once a year. It would be a long night, but I took him up on the offer trying to take in as much as I could that summer.

Girokomeio Monastery is one of the oldest functioning monasteries in Greece, dating back to around the tenth century. It is called "Girokomeio" because the Monastery used to run an old age home in Byzantine times. The Monastery itself was built over an ancient pagan temple dedicated to Artemis, which is one reason why the Katholikon of the Monastery is dedicated to St. Artemios. The other reason is that St. Artemios, who was the general of St. Constantine the Great, is said to have come to Patras by order of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century in order to transfer the relics of the Apostle Andrew, who was martyred in Patras near this Monastery, and bring them to Constantinople.

My uncle dropped off my grandmother and I at Girokomeio Monastery in the high hills of Patras in the evening around 6:00pm and the vigil was scheduled to end around 3:00am. This was to be my first all-night vigil and I didn't know what to expect as far as my stamina was concerned, but I was determined to pull through. I had attended this vigil once before when I was 7-years old, but it was only to drop off my grandmother and venerate the miraculous icon of Panagia Girokomeitissa, but then I left with the rest of my family except my grandmother. This was the first year my grandmother would attend the whole vigil with someone else.

The Monastery was full, literally thousands of people. My grandmother settled with a spread blanket somewhere in the courtyard, where people could listen to the Service through a sound system connected throughout the Monastery grounds. Most of the time I spent walking around the Monastery people-watching and observing what was going on, but I did spend about four hours within the packed church for prayer. I could only sit for so long with my grandmother before I just wanted to walk around and take in all the excitement, such as when a Jehovah's Witness came around and began yelling at the top of his lungs for all the Orthodox who were waiting in line to light a candle and venerate the icon to repent of this "abomination".

My Uncle and I had planned to meet at 3:00am at the entrance of the Monastery so we could drive to our next destination. After dropping off my grandmother at her home we set off for about a two-hour drive in the early morning hours through the mountainous roads with many twists and turns in order to attend the once a year Divine Liturgy at 7:00am.

It should be noted that my Uncle Niko is notorious for two things - his loud snoring and his habit of falling asleep while driving. After dropping off my grandmother he told me he was wide awake, but brought along a gallon of water just in case he did get tired. And the water was not for him to drink, but for me to pour on him every time he felt the need to fall sleep while driving along the mountainous roads with many twists and turns - and no guard rails! I was pretty tired after the vigil and hoped to grab a nap in the car, but everyone warned me that it was out of the question and that I was to keep my Uncle awake at all costs.

Not a half hour passed before my Uncle started to doze off. I began to wonder if this whole thing was a good idea. I tried talking to him, but that only brought us so far. It came to the point where I had to start pouring water over his head to keep him awake, and he would yell at me to "Keep pouring!" I didn't realize his problem was so serious and that our lives depended on me staying awake in order to keep him awake. Up in the mountains we had to even stop at a fresh water spring to fill up the gallon of water, because we had run out.

I forget the name of the village we were going to, but we arrived safely around 6:00am, and I was tired. This village was about two villages away from where my Uncle had a second home, so he had heard about this church from the locals. The history of this church goes back to World War 2 when German soldiers marched through the area. For some reason they went on a rampage and burnt one of the remote villages mid-way up this mountain. In this village was a church which they destroyed, and there was in particular an icon of the Virgin Mary which they took with them a little higher up the mountain to a cliff. When they came to the cliff they decided to fool around and profane the icon, cutting out the eyes with their knives, and it is believed their intention was to throw the icon off the cliff of the mountain as a final desecration. The villagers meanwhile noticed that a long time had passed and had seen no German soldiers return from the mountain. No one had seen them walk back the only path that leads there. They went up to the cliff where they were last seen and they saw the eyeless icon of the Panagia on the ground, but no soldiers. When they looked over the cliff, they saw the soldiers dead at the bottom of the mountain. It seems that their plans had reversed on them. A chapel was eventually built there by the locals to house this icon and commemorate this miracle and it celebrates every year on August 15th.

When we arrived that morning we could only drive about half way up the mountain and the rest we had to walk up along a dirt road. On the way up we came across the village destroyed by the Germans, and to my surprise it was still destroyed with no effort made at its restoration. Even the church was still in a state of destruction. When I walked inside it was bare of its icons, except one which I found on the ground and placed near the altar area. We continued along and finally reached the church, which was a lot higher than I thought and literally built on a cliff. We venerated the holy icon with no eyes and stayed for the Divine Liturgy. We then left for my Uncles village home and after a long adventurous night took a long nap the rest of the day.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

August 15th Customs and Traditions In Greece

Anastasia Chaini
August 14, 2011
Greek Reporter

One of the biggest celebrations of Orthodoxy is August 15, the day of the Dormition. The Virgin Mary has been given many names in Orthodoxy, depending on the way she was iconographed, the theological status, the age of the icon, the way the icon was found, and the place of origin of the icon. There are also names given to her depending upon the time her celebration fell on. The icons of the Virgin were claimed to have been found in many cases in miraculous ways, which motivated Christians to establish churches in her name. Thousands of believers flock each year to venerate the image of the Virgin Mary and plead for help. Churches and monasteries dedicated to the Virgin Mary welcome visitors to brilliant festivities on August 15th, the day of her Dormition.

This day, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is not a day of mourning for her loss, but a celebration of joy for the union of the mother with her beloved Son, the blossoming of nature, the flood of emotions, and the return of people to their native land. In every region of Greece, there is a ritual associated with that day. Customs and old traditions revive on August 15th. Here are some of the most popular celebrations from all across Greece:

Imathia (Kastania) – Panagia Soumela
Thousands of believers from all over Greece and abroad flock each year to attend the events that take place in Panagia Soumela, the historic church located on the slopes of Vermion, near the village Kastania. The church was built in 1951 by refugees from Pontos, in memory of the historical monastery, the ruins of which are located on Mount Mela, near Trebizond in the Black Sea. Here exists the miraculous image of the Panagia, crafted by the Evangelist Luke. On Dormition Day, the procession of the holy icon of the Virgin Mary is followed by many believers. On top of this great festival of Christendom, Pontian bands from Macedonia offer unique moments with traditional tunes and a long lasting celebration.

Kozani (Siatista) - Panagia of Mikrokastro
The custom of pilgrim riders comes from the Ottoman Empire, when it was an opportunity for slaves to show their bravery and desire for freedom. On August 14 and 15, Siatista vibrates to the rhythm of unstoppable fun. On the eve of the feast, the squares of Hora, Gerania and the neighborhood of Bunia collect groups of horsemen, who lure local people and guests to the feast. On the day of the Dormition, the riders start out in the morning to venerate the image of the Virgin Mary at the Monastery located in Mikrokastro. At noon, the groups of riders come with their impressive horses into Siatista to the square of Hora. The celebration continues in the squares of Hora and Gerania, in the Town Hall Square, and the neighborhoods of Siatista until late evening.

Evros (Ferres) - Panagia Kosmosotira
In the afternoon of August 15, a festive mass takes place in the Panagia Kosmosotira Church. From the temple begins one of the most moving processions of sacred images. The religious celebration ends with an enjoyable experience for the local people.

Ioannina (Zagoria)
Famous throughout Greece is the feast of the Dormition of Virgin Mary in Zagoria. In villages such as Vitsa and Tsepelovo, the commemoration of the Dormition lasts three days and offers the opportunity for endless feasting with traditional continental dances. While the first two days of the festival are open to everyone, on the third and last day of joy, the locals enjoy themselves with local Epirot dances.

Kavala (Thassos) - Panagia of Thassos
Potatoes, rice, and beef stew are some of the foods to be found on the lunch table given by the believers who flock to the Church of the Dormition, the Panagia of Thassos. After the procession of the icon, accompanied by a band, everyone gathers in the courtyard of the church in order to begin the festivities with dances from Greece, along with appetizers and wine.

Magnesia (Skiathos) - Epitaphios of the Panagia
On the island of Skiathos, thousands of pilgrims flock from around the island and the neighboring places on the eve of the feast, where the Epitaphios (Tomb) of the Virgin Mary takes place in a unique atmosphere of piety, under the melody of praises for the Virgin Mary sung together by the islanders.

Lesvos (Agiassos) – Panagia Agiasotissa
Most of the pilgrims, starting from the city of Mytilene, walk 25 km to reach the churchyard, where they stay overnight. On the feast day of the Panagia, after the procession of the icon around the church, festivities begin with lots of music and dance events in the village square. Local festivals, street vendors, dance groups and folk bands are all part of the traditions in Agiassos, on Dormition Day.

Cyclades (Tinos) – Panagia of Tinos
The pilgrimage to Panagia of Tinos is probably the largest religious pilgrimage of Hellenism. The island is completely associated with the Virgin Mary, and thousands of believers flock to the island every year to venerate the miraculous image of Mary in the Church of the Megalohari (Great In Grace) and to say their vows. The image of believers kneeling or climbing the stairs up to the icon is the most characteristic. The procession of the Epitaphios of the Virgin Mary is similar to the procession of the Epitaphios of Christ on Good Friday, with thousands of believers to follow with lighted candles. The festival lasts until August 23 and, along with celebrations for the Virgin Mary, the island celebrates the anniversary of the sinking of the battleship Elli by Italians which took place shortly before the war with Italy, in mid-August 1940.

Cyclades (Paros) – Panagia Ekatontapyliani
One of the most impressive churches in the Aegean is the early Christian church Ekanontapyliani, located in Parikia the capital of Paros, and it is one of the oldest and best preserved Christian churches. Believers from all over Greece gather here in mid-August to venerate the image of Panagia Ekatontapyliani (created in the 17th century) and take part in the festivities. After the procession of the epitaphios begins the great festival of the people, partying until the early hours, with traditional music, Parian wine and local delicacies. At the same time, in the port of Naoussa, dozens of boats approach the pier with lit torches. The view becomes more impressive with the arrival of ‘pirates’ who start the festival with island dances, especially the ”Balo” dance.

Cyclades (Koufonissia) – With the boats to the Virgin
On Dormition day, the Virgin Mary is celebrated in the chapel in Lower Koufonisi. After the services, food is offered by the inhabitants who are then transported by boats to Ano Koufonisi. Upon returning, locals and foreigners party until dawn on the island, with music, wine, ouzo and seafood provided by the fishermen of the area.

Dodecanese (Karpathos) – Panagia of Olympos
For good travelers who can defy the distance and difficulties of access, the feast of the Dormition in Olympos, Karpathos, is one of the most devout. Food and slow dancing in a solemn mood last for hours and the atmosphere is the best that can be experienced by followers in celebrations of the Aegean.

Dodecanese (Nisiros) – Panagia Spiliani
This custom is dedicated to the women. Women dressed in black take a leading role in the religious activity. They stay at the Monastery of Panagia Spiliani inside the castle of Knights, and worship and clean the area and the sacred vessels. Two parallel religious rituals take place – one by the priests and the other by the women in the role of myrrhbearers known as Enniameritisses (because they stay at the monastery for nine days) that follow strict fasting, doing 300 prostrations every day and singing. On the day of the Dormition, the Liturgy is followed by a procession around with the icon of Virgin Mary to the village to bless the feast. The Enniameritisses hold trays with boiled wheat and pave the way to the sacred icon. The feast starts when the icon arrives at the village, with the traditional dance of “koupa”, singing and drinking plenty of wine, while Enniameritisses withdraw.

Dodecanese (Patmos) – Epitaphios of the Panagia
On the island of Patmos, the island of Orthodoxy, where everything revolves around the historic Monastery of the Apocalypse, the monks follow the custom of the Epitaphioa of the Panagia, a custom of Byzantine origins. The gold epitaph of Mary wanders the streets of the island in a grand procession, while the bells of the monastery and other churches ring incessantly.

Dodecanese (Kassos)
Hundreds of Kassiots and foreigners from all over the world flock to the island to venerate the Virgin Mary, have fun with the honored traditions and try Kasian local delicacies.

Dodecanese (Leipsoi) – The Panagia of Death
At the Monastery of the Panagia in Leipsoi, the Virgin Mary is not holding the Holy Child, but the Crucified Christ in a unique image of the Christian tradition. The Panagia of Death is celebrated on August 23. According to the custom, held since 1943, spring lilies are placed around the icon, and then die and bloom again in August.

Kefallonia – Panagia Fidousa
Numerous believers gather each year in the courtyard of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Fidousa in Markopoulo, Kefallonia to see the “Panagia of the Snakes.” Every August 15, small snakes appear in the belfry and the church committee collects them in the yard of the Holy Temple. According to the tradition, snakes bring good luck to the island. If they do not appear, it is a bad omen, as happened, for example, in the year of major earthquakes in Kefallonia, some decades ago.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Video: Lamentations and Hymns of the Dormition of the Theotokos

For an English translation of these hymns, see The Lamentations of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Video: Contemporary Miracles of Panagia Malevi (Greek)

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Lecture: Monk Moses On Panagia Athonitissa (Greek)

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Photos: Today's Last Paraklesis Service In Tinos

Source

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Mother Thekla, Spiritual Muse of Composer Sir John Tavener

Mother Thekla, who died on August 7 aged 93, was the last surviving nun to have occupied the enclosed Orthodox Monastery of the Assumption in North Yorkshire, but became better known to the wider world as the spiritual muse of the composer Sir John Tavener.

August 12, 2011
The Telegraph

A beautiful, Russian-born Cambridge graduate who co-founded the monastery near Whitby and latterly lived there in seclusion as the abbess, she furnished the words for some of Tavener’s most important religious works, and was the spiritual driving force behind one of his most popular pieces, The Protecting Veil (1987).

In 1993 she supplied the words for Tavener’s Song For Athene, originally written to commemorate Athene Hariades, a young half-Greek actress he knew who had died in a cycling accident. Tavener attended Athene’s funeral, and came away with the music fully-formed in his mind. “I rang Mother Thekla that same day,” he remembered, “and I said: 'I want words’.”

The next day’s post brought, from Thekla, the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”, together with verses from the Orthodox funeral service .

Although it was retitled for the occasion, Song For Athene went on to become the music played when the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, was borne out of Westminster Abbey, in August 1997.

Mother Thekla was also Tavener’s librettist on his opera Mary Of Egypt (1992) and choral works including The Apocalypse (1993) and Fall And Resurrection (1999), which was dedicated to his friend the Prince of Wales.

She exerted a remarkable influence on Tavener, a Presbyterian who had flirted with Roman Catholicism before converting to the Orthodox Church in 1977.

He contacted Sister Thekla, as she then was, in 1984 after reading a religious book she had written. She subsequently became one of the composer’s principal spiritual guides: he called her his spiritual mother.

Thekla was brought up in England and worked as an actress and schoolmistress before taking her vows. Her relationship with Tavener was almost telepathic: she would send him odd words — “crucify” or “apple”, for example — which he would instinctively understand and interpret. He once described her as “the most remarkable woman I have ever met in my life”.

Yet in many ways the pair were complete opposites. It was Thekla, ever practical, who drilled the unworldly Tavener in the dynamics of a creative partnership. She never lost her volatile , thespian streak, and insisted on calling him “darling”. For all her devoutness, Tavener considered her “a pretty wild character, pretty formidable; she has a ferocious temper”.

He could not imagine working with another librettist: “It’s one of those very special relationships in life, which will not ever happen again.” When Tavener ventured to suggest some kind of professional collaboration, Thekla replied, typically: “Yes, darling, but behind the scenes.”

With another nun, Mother Maria, Mother Thekla founded the first Orthodox order in England, moving from a monastery they had founded in 1966 at Filgrave, Buckinghamshire, to a dilapidated farmhouse at Higher Normanby, outside Whitby, in 1971. It was the bleakest spot they could find, on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors.

The nuns would meet only at lunchtimes, for a frugal meal of home-grown vegetables and rice. At the hesychasterion (the hermitage or prayer-house) Thekla followed the simple routine of the 7th-century saint Hilda, rising at 4am, swathing herself in a loose black “shroud” that served as a habit and praying every three hours six times a day.

The farmhouse was divided into simply furnished “cells” in which the nuns slept and meditated; a former cowshed became their chapel . As well as the fixed routines of their daily offices and obligations, they translated religious liturgies, painted icons to decorate the chapel walls and cultivated the land around the farmhouse.

Tourists were not encouraged. A sign at the entrance warned: “Monastery enclosure, do not enter.” Originally there were five nuns at Higher Normanby, but Mothers Maria, Catherine and two others eventually died. Thekla remained there alone until 1994, hoping that a younger, American-born, sister nun, Mother Hilda, would take over. Ultimately, this was not a success. Some years ago Hilda unceremoniously delivered Mother Thekla to the infirmary at the Anglican Abbey of St Hilda in Whitby. Hilda did take over the monastery, but sold it, and died in Whitby in 2010.

The daughter of a barrister, Mother Thekla was born Marina Sharf on July 18 1918 at Kilslovodsk in the Caucasus amid the clamour of the Russian Revolution. She described being baptised in a flower vase because her parents were prevented from getting to the church by crossfire in the streets. Shortly afterwards they moved to England and she grew up at Richmond, Surrey, before moving to Chelsea.

Educated at City of London Girls’ School, she went up to Girton College, Cambridge, to read English, graduating in 1940. The following year she joined the WAAF and spent the war working for British Intelligence, partly in India, being mentioned in despatches in 1943, although she would never be drawn on this episode in her life.

After the war she worked for a few years as a civil servant in the Ministry of Education, and later worked as a teacher, becoming head of English at Bedford Girls’ School.

Her decision to become a nun was abrupt. “I went on a retreat and met Mother Maria and that was it. I was called to it. It’s a bit like a thunderbolt. You can’t deny it when it hits you. I used to love things like visiting second-hand book shops, but you can’t compare life now with life before. It’s like walking through a mirror backwards.”

Her new life was totally at odds with her privileged upbringing. As Mother Thekla, she baked loaves of bread, while her eggs were supplied by a local farm. Although the monastery was equipped with a microwave, a washing machine and a computer, such fripperies as television, radio, telephone and newspapers were banned.

“It is the monotony of our lives which frees the spirit; all the imminent things drop away,” Mother Thekla told a visiting journalist in 2002. “It’s quite painful being faced with your real self without the trimmings. There’s time here to pray for the world. That’s our work: it’s not something we do on our Sunday off.”

It was Thekla’s short book The Life Of St Mary Of Egypt (1974), about the famous prostitute-saint, that caught the attention of John Tavener and became the basis of his second opera, Mary Of Egypt (1992). In the meantime she had counselled Tavener following the death of his mother in 1985, after which he feared he would never write music again.

Having found his muse once more, Tavener was advised by Thekla to “return to the marketplace” — to write more commercially — and he did so with The Protecting Veil for cello and strings, which, for all its mystical content became a huge popular hit, thanks in no small part to Classic FM, which played it repeatedly. “It became ridiculous,” Tavener recalled. “I couldn’t even go to an airport without being accosted by people saying: 'I want to tell you now much your music means to us’.” The piece was so successful that it allowed Tavener to become self-sufficient as a composer.

When conventional critics dismissed his work, Thekla would encourage him with the mantra: “Be dead to it all, darling. Just be dead.”

She wrote the texts for Tavener’s visionary We Shall See Him As He Is (1993), drawing on the First Epistle of John, and for Let Us Begin Again (1995), which is mimed as well as sung. For Total Eclipse (2000), in which Tavener pitted an orchestra of baroque instruments against the soaring soprano saxophone of John Harle, Thekla compiled words from the gospels for soloists and choir which described St Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.

In 2003 reports of a “frightful bust-up” suggested that Mother Thekla and Tavener had fallen out, apparently over the composer’s growing interest in Eastern religions. Mother Hilda declared that if asked to explain what had happened, Thekla “would probably say, and pardon my French: 'Go to Hell’”. A reconciliation followed.

Mother Thekla was the dedicatee of John Tavener’s memoir The Music Of Silence: A Composer’s Testament (1999). Not only had she helped him spiritually, Tavener said, she had also “helped me put my music and my life together”.

Much to her distress, Mother Thekla left no surviving colleague. At her funeral at the Abbey of St Hilda a choir will sing a newly-written piece by Tavener, They are all Gone into the World of Light, as well as Song for Athene.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

The Salvation of the Soul According to the Jerusalem Synod of 1672

The Definition of the Local Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 (Article XVIII) says the following:

We believe that the souls of those that have fallen asleep are in repose or in torment, depending on their actions; because as soon as they are separated from their bodies, they immediately enter into a condition of either joy or sorrow and sighs, although they are admittedly not in perfect bliss or condemnation. After the general resurrection, however, when the soul will be reunited with the body, depending on whether it behaved with a good or evil disposition, every soul will obviously receive the completion of bliss or condemnation. Those who corrupted themselves with mortal sins and did not leave this life in a condition of desperation, but repented while they were still in the life of the body, without however producing any fruit of repentance (i.e. shedding tears, bowing the knee in prayer, grieving with full consciousness and showing their love toward God and neighbor in deeds), they will go with their souls to Hades and will receive the punishment that befits the sins they committed. These souls, however, will have the sense of their deliverance from this condition. They will be delivered by the infinite goodness of God, through the prayers of the priests, which are requested by the relatives of those who have departed from this life. Especially potent is the bloodless Sacrifice, which is offered by each of us for his relatives and daily by the Catholic and Apostolic Church. Naturally, we know that the time of the acquittal of each one that has fallen asleep is unknown to us. We only know, then, and believe and have no doubt at all that these souls will be delivered from the torments before the resurrection and the final judgment.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saints Anastasios and Demetrios the Basketweavers (+ 1816)

Sts. Anastasios and Demetrios the Basketweavers (Feast Day - August 11)

Both Anastasios Paneras, age twenty, and Demetrios Begiazis, age eighteen, were from the island of Mitylene. The former was born in the village of Asomatos while the latter hailed from the village of Hagiasos. They were probably related.

Anastasios was engaged in basket-weaving, which was a family craft. He used to sell baskets from door to door to earn enough to make a living. Later when he got older, he left the island for Asia Minor to better himself, something many Greek Orthodox Christians did from all over the Aegean Islands for many years.

Demetrios also was from a very poor family and was orphaned, together with his brother Vranas, at an early age. Later their mother remarried but matters did not get any better because their stepfather was very hard on them; he often deprived them of food and clothing. Consequently they often did not go home to sleep.

A Muslim saw what was happening and felt sorry for Demetrios whom he took under his wing. He had informally adopted the boy and supported him until he came of age when he hoped to marry him to his daughter once, of course, he became a Muslim. But Demetrios refused to change his faith and so to avoid the continuous pressure applied to him in this matter, he too left for Asia Minor, where he met Anastasios in the village of Kasampa and joined him in the basket-weaving work.

They usually worked outdoors where they were observed by many Muslims who admired their skill and industry. The Muslims thought it would be a good idea if they were to convert them to the Islamic faith and told the two Orthodox Christians as much. They also told them of the advantages of being Muslims, among which was the right to have many wives. To this the two Orthodox Christians answered that they were Orthodox Christians and that the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ did not permit such practices as did the Koran. Some of the Muslims got angry at this reply and accused them before the court of blaspheming against the religion of Muhammad.

In court Anastasios and Demetrios were initially flattered and were promised riches and honors, but when they would have none of that, they were threatened with torture, which was liberally applied to them. Finally the kadi gave up trying to convert them and sentenced them to death. They were both hanged from a plane tree. Their bodies were recovered by Christians from the village of Kasampa, where they were buried with great honor.

Thus Anastasios and Demetrios, the humble basketweavers from Mitylene, died for the love of Jesus Christ in the village of Kasampa, Asia Minor, on August 11, in the year 1816.

Their relics were sources of healing for those who came with faith to venerate them. In 1907 the residence of Hagiasos in Mitylene sought to bring the relics of St. Demetrios back home, but various events as well as the Asia Minor Catastrophe prevented this. In Asomatos and Hagiasos magnificent churches were erected in their honor.

From Witnesses For Christ: Orthodox Christian Neomartyrs of the Ottoman Period 1437-1860 by Nomikos Michael Vaporis, pp. 306-307.

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

Saint Nephon II, Patriarch of Constantinople (+ 1508)

St. Nephon, Patriarch of Constantinople (Feast Day - August 11)

Saint Nephon, Patriarch of Constantinople, was born in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece of mixed parentage, his mother being a noble Greek lady and his father a rich and learned Albanian lord. He was tonsured a monk at Epidauros by his elder Anthony, and from Nicholas his name was changed to Nephon. After the death of Elder Anthony, he met up with the wise Elder Zachariah where they visited many places and strengthened the Christians. They settled in Ochrid at a monastery dedicated to the Theotokos. When Zachariah was chosen to be Metropolitan of Ochrid, Nephon departed for Mount Athos.

He went to Mount Athos, where he occupied himself by the copying of books. It is said that "he could not read an ecclesiastical book without shedding tears". He visited Vatopaidi, Pantocratoros, Great Lavra and Dionysiou Monasteries. During this time he was ordained deacon and priest. He impressed all the Athonites with his simple wisdom and deep humility.

The saint was later chosen Metropolitan of Thessaloniki in 1482, which he accepted against his wishes, and four years later occupied the vacant Patriarchal throne in Constantinople until 1488. In 1498 he was enthroned Ecumenical Patriarch again, but he was banished by the Sultan to Jedrene where he lived in exile. The Wallachian [Romanian] Prince Radul (1496-1508) besought him from the Sultan and named Nephon as archbishop of the Wallachians, where "they accepted him as an apostle of the Lord". He especially helped the Romanians escape the traps of papal propaganda. For his wisdom they named him the "New Chrysostom".

According to St. Nikolai Velimirovich: "The Wallachian Prince Radul was a just man and performed many good deeds. He brought St. Nephon out of bondage in Jedrene and made him the Archbishop of Bucharest. But suddenly, Radul committed a dreadful transgression: he gave his sister to be the wife of the corrupt Prince Bogdan of Moldavia while Bogdan's wife was still living. Radul did not heed the protests of Nephon. Nephon prophesied an evil end for Radul, publicly excommunicating him from the Church and departed from Wallachia. Shortly thereafter, there was a drought and a great famine in Wallachia and Radul fell into an incurable illness and his entire body was covered with sores. And because of the stench, no one was able to approach him. When Radul was buried, his grave shook for three days, as once did the grave of Empress Eudoxia, the persecutor of St. John Chrysostom."

Nephon II served as Patriarch of Constantinople on three different occasions. His first term was from 1486 to 1488. He was then restored to the Ecumenical throne from 1497 to 1498, and was restored again in 1502, the last time serving only one year.

Banished under accusation, the saint went to Mount Athos, at first to the Vatopaidi Monastery, and then to the Monastery of St John the Forerunner (or Dionysiou). He concealed his rank and held the lowest position. By God's providence, his rank was revealed to the brethren of the monastery. The Athonite Gerontikon says the following details about this:

St. Nephon, the Patriarch of Constantinople, before he ascended the episcopal throne had been a monk at St. Dionysios' holy monastery (on Mt. Athos). After he had directed the Church of Christ for many years, he resigned from the throne and returned to the monastery where he toiled for his repentance, without revealing his identity.

He said that his name was Nicholas and that he desired to be a monk. The abbot warned him first that it was customary in the monastery for every beginner to be assigned the task of caring for the monastery's animals. The saint accepted with joy and stayed outside where the stable was and took care of the mules, feeding, watering, and keeping them clean. He thus demonstrated insurmountable patience and humility.

Every night the monks saw a pillar of light rising from the stable to the sky. They told the abbot about it, and the abbot in turn prayed to God to reveal to him the meaning of this supernatural happening. And indeed it was revealed immediately to the abbot that this person whom he had assigned the task of animal care, who also had to carry firewood from the forest, was the Nephon the Ecumenical Patriarch who long ago had been one of the brotherhood of the monastery.

On the same night of this revelation to the abbot, who was overwhelmed by the Saint's total humility, he called all the priests and deacons and asked them to vest and to stand in line with the other monks carrying the liturgical fans, candles and incense, waiting to receive the Saint when he returned from the forest leading the animals and carrying firewood. When he arrived wearing his old raso and with dust on his uncombed hair, they all fell on their knees asking for his blessing and saying, "Our Patriarch, your humility is enough! Take your shepherd's staff and lead us all to the pasture of salvation!"

But even after this, the saint shared various tasks with the brethren. He died in peace on August 11, 1508 at 90 years of age.

The relics of St Nephon are displayed in a special crypt in the katholikon of Dionysiou Monastery. His skull and right arm are in a Romanian monastery. His relics are responsible for many miracles.

St. Nephon's biography was written in 1517 by his disciple Gabriel, the Protos of Mount Athos. John Komnenos wrote a Divine Service in his honor, which was supplemented by St. Nikodemos, especially with the Lamentation hymns. In 1782 a chapel at Dionysiou was dedicated to St. Nephon.

In 2008 the 500 year anniversary since the Falling Asleep of Saint Nephon was celebrated on Mount Athos, which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew attended between 21-24 August 2008. Below are photos from this event with the Patriarch venerating the tomb of the Saint and visiting his cave at Dionysiou Monastery.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Nephon, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

St. Nephon also composed the "Prayer of Absolution" read at the Burial Service by the Bishop:

"O Lord Jesus Christ, by Thy divine grace, as also by the gift and power vouchsafed unto Thy holy Disciples and Apostles, that they should bind and loose the sins of men - for He said to them: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted, and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained. And whatsoever you shall bind or loose upon earth shall be bound or loosed also in Heaven." By the same power, also, transmitted to us from them, this my spiritual child, [Name], is absolved through me, unworthy though I be, from all things wherein, as mortal [He-She] have sinned against God, whether in word or deed or thought and with all [His-Her] senses, whether voluntary or involuntary; whether with knowledge or through ignorance. If [He-She] be under the ban or excommunication of a bishop or if a priest; or has sinned by any oath; or has been bound, as a man, by any sins whatsoever, but has repented thereof with contrition of heart: [He-She] is now absolved from all those faults and bonds. May all those things which have proceeded from the weakness of [His-her] mortal nature be consigned to oblivion and be remitted to [Him-Her]. Through Thy loving-kindness; through the prayers of our Most-holy and Blessed and Glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary; of all the holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostles and all of the Saints. Amen."

He also wrote the "Prayer For One About to Die":

"O Lord, the God of Powers, great and awesome, abundant in might and transcendent in goodness, full of mercy and compassion, incline and hear me who am vile and sinful. O my Christ, Who saved Jonah out of the belly of the whale and Daniel from the mouths of lions, deliver me at the time of death from the dreadful darkness of the prince of evil. Do not let the devil come over the deathbed of Thy servant. May my soul, O Lord, never see the darkness of the demons, neither in this life, nor in the future one, neither in the agony of death, nor at my ascent to heaven. May not the accursed dragon deride my miserable soul when it abandons this depraved body. Do not let the filthy spirit of fetor and stench snatch it, O my Lord, my Christ, my Jesus, my God, my Light, and carry it away to perdition. O my Master, God of Heaven and earth, may my eyes never see his hideous and darksome face. But at the time of my end, O my holy, thrice holy and glorified King, send me Thy mercy and truth. O my God, at that time send Michael, the commander-in-chief, over Thy servant. Send me Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, the great and bright generals, with all their immaculate and thrice-blessed army, to crush the insatiable dragon of Hades who gnashes his teeth and wants to snatch and devour anyone living piously. O my God, at the time of my departure, sink him and all his filthy army into the abyss, in Tartarus, into outer darkness and the 'gnashing of teeth.' At that time, O my Lord Jesus Christ, my delight, my Resurrection, send the merciful and philanthropic Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, to receive my own spirit in His incomparable sweetness and immortal holiness. Send him to strengthen me with a flaming sword preceding me and crushing the evil rulers of darkness. For, if these abominations of iniquity plunge into the fire, into darkness, into the abyss, into Hades, I will be able without pain to cross the ethereal spheres to come close to Thee, the Triune Sun, to fall before Thy compassion, to kiss Thy immaculate feet, to be filled with the Deity, with Thy Holy Spirit, and confess the countless wonders Thou didst for my sake: How Thou broughtest me to repentance, gave me life, "and out of the depths of the earth again Thou broughtest me up"! I will enumerate them all before the holy angels, that I may be overcome by the effulgence of the sweetest and most delightful divine pleasure. And transported by Thy ineffable fragrance, grace, and divine beauty, I shall chant to Thee then the great Song of Songs! Hear me, O my God, even though I may transgress Thy law before Thee every day. Hear me, my King, My Redeemer, and make me worthy to enter Thy glory, just as I beseech Thee night and day, and pray to Thee, and supplicate Thy immortal and life-giving majesty. O my Lord Jesus Christ, I ardently beg Thee again and always: at the time of my departure, send me the resplendent Virgin, the most pure temple, the sacred treasury of Thy wealth, O my Christ, to strengthen me. Send me at that time the holy Forerunner and Baptist John, the luminous stars - the Apostles - the prophets and the martyrs, the preachers and evangelists, confessors, ascetics, and righteous, that Thy creature may be glorified. Yes, immortal Lord, hear me, the sinner, and enable me to attain Thy inexpressible, never aging and thrice blessed glory. But, my Lord, give rest also to every servant of Thine in the throes of death, wherever this prayer will be heard, that the foul demons be disgraced. Crush them, O Master, with Thy mighty hand. Disperse them, O Mighty One, with Thy flaming sword. Burn them with the lightning of Thy fire-breathing power, O Thou Who art the plenitude of greatness, loftiness and awe. My God, may this prayer be for refreshment and comfort, repose and tranquillity, sweet fragrance and joy, support and refuge, courage and help to all those who are on their deathbeds. Yea, Lord, God of my holy Fathers, who pleased Thee from the beginning of time to the present, do not scorn my petition, O Holy One. Do not turn away from my supplication, O Compassionate One. But implant within my prayer a double-edged sword, divine, heavenly, deadly to the demons and vengeful against the spirits of wickedness; yet filled with sympathy, forgiveness, compassion and goodness. If by chance the one dying has many sins and this prayer is read over him, may Thou lighten his burden at that time, O Lord, have mercy on his soul, O Holy One, and sanctify his ascent toward Thee. Crown him with Thyr compassions, inscribe him in the book of Thy mercy, grant him the bliss of Paradise. Overlook his iniquities with the immensity of the wealth of Thy loving-kindness. Forgive him, have mercy on his miserable soul and save it. Have pity on him, help him, have mercy on him, shield and protect him according to Thy great mercy. Show him Thy love for man. Send him angels of peace. Send him Thy immaculate love. Open to him Thy glorious embrace, flood him with all the immaterial fragrances, that the loathsome and deceitful demons may flee from him in shame. O Lord, turn them into ashes in the fire of Gehenna, for they dare to disturb and frighten the poor soul. O Lord, let this take place wherever my poor supplication is heard. Yea, O Master, Jesus Christ, Light of light, hear me, O Good One, and impart grace and mercy to my prayer. Be a helper and protector for salvation to everyone who invokes the name of vile Nephon. Hear me, O Lord; Hear me, O Lover of mankind, Holy One, and grant my request beseeching Thy mighty Name. Amen!"

Tweet

Share on Tumblr