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.



November 12, 2015

Holy New Martyr Savvas Samoladas of Nigdi (+ 1726)

St. Savvas the New Martyr from Nigdi (Feast Day - November 12)

Verses

You head was cut off Savvas the boast of Martyrs,
And you were joined with Christ the head of all.

Savvas Samoladas was from the village of Nigdi in Asia Minor. He was an Orthodox Christian who became wealthy as a merchant. His wealth, however, provoked the envy of some Muslims who wished to take it away from him and share it among themselves. They conspired, therefore, to apply pressure on Savvas to convert to Islam and abandon Orthodoxy, perhaps hoping that he would refuse and then his property could be legally confiscated.

Savvas, a faithful Orthodox Christian, did refuse when he was pressured to convert to the Muslim faith. This brought him a death sentence, and he was beheaded in Constantinople, at a place called Kutzuk Karamani, on the 12th of November in 1726, and was buried at Egri Kapi.

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