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.



April 26, 2011

A Miraculous Healing By Saint Raphael of Lesvos


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


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

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

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

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

Magdalene Patrele
Ellwood, Australia
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