ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW: Portions of the True Cross That Exist in the Monasteries of Mount Athos Today

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.

September 16, 2014

Portions of the True Cross That Exist in the Monasteries of Mount Athos Today

"To date the most surviving portions of the True Cross belongs to Mount Athos, where they add up to 870.760 cubic millimeters, while in Rome there are 537.587, in Brussels there are 516.090, in Venice there are 445.582, in Ghent (Flemish region of Belgium in East Flanders) 436.456 and in Paris 237.731 cubic millimeters. The least amount is in England and those are in the hands of the members of the Roman Church."

(From the book: The Holy Mountain by Hieromonk Gerasimos Smyrnakis of Esphigmenou, Athens, 1903 [in Greek].)

The remarkable blog The Reliquary has identified several pieces of the True Cross on Mount Athos while primarily researching in foreign literature, but there are no photos of them except short descriptions of the reliquaries in which they are held. But during an amateur investigation they have managed to find photos for some of them along with short descriptions. Certainly research into these reliquaries will continue, God willing, although access to them and photographing them sometimes proves very difficult to impossible. As an overview of what has been presented on this website so far, we present below some photos of portions of the True Cross from Mount Athos.

Great Lavra Monastery

Vatopaidi Monastery

Hilandari Monastery

Koutloumousiou Monastery

Pantocratora Monastery

Xeropotamou Monastery

Simonopetra Monastery

Docheiariou Monastery

Saint Paul Monastery

Saint Anna Skete

Protaton Church

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.