Having entered the Christmas season, we ask those who find the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center beneficial to them to help us continue our work with a generous financial gift as you are able. As an incentive, we are offering the following booklet.

In 1909 the German philosopher Arthur Drews wrote a book called "The Myth of Christ", which New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has called "arguably the most influential mythicist book ever produced," arguing that Jesus Christ never existed and was simply a myth influenced by more ancient myths. The reason this book was so influential was because Vladimir Lenin read it and was convinced that Jesus never existed, thus justifying his actions in promoting atheism and suppressing the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the ideologues of the Third Reich would go on to implement the views of Drews to create a new "Aryan religion," viewing Jesus as an Aryan figure fighting against Jewish materialism. 

Due to the tremendous influence of this book in his time, George Florovsky viewed the arguments presented therein as very weak and easily refutable, which led him to write a refutation of this text which was published in Russian by the YMCA Press in Paris in 1929. This apologetic brochure titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ" was one of the first texts of his published to promote his Neopatristic Synthesis, bringing the patristic heritage to modern historical and cultural conditions. With the revival of these views among some in our time, this text is as relevant today as it was when it was written. 

Never before published in English, it is now available for anyone who donates at least $20 to the Mystagogy Resource Center upon request (please specify in your donation that you want the book). Thank you.



February 25, 2011

Saint Tarasios and Women Who Suffered With Hemorrhaging


After the repose of Saint Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, many visited his tomb and in his monastery resorting to his relics with faith for miraculous cures. A woman suffering from hemorrhaging imitated the woman who, as we read in the Gospel, was afflicted with a chronic issue of blood. Since the saint's monastery, from the time of the saint, had the rule of excluding female pilgrims, women with an issue of blood contrived other means to enter. Since they had grown weary of expending fortunes on physicians and ingesting all kinds of drugs to find relief, these women donned manly garb, disguised their faces, and set forth for the saint's tomb at the monastery. Many feigned that they were eunuchs that they might gain access. Then each would approach Saint Tarasios' tomb and fall prostrate in prayer before his relics. Each petitioner would draw oil from the lamp suspended over his relics and anoint herself. They all, without exception, speedily received a wondrous healing from the saint. They returned to their homes giving glory to God and thanking Saint Tarasios.

From The Great Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church, translated by Holy Apostles Convent, p. 944.

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