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 19, 2016

Saints Eugenios and Makarios the Confessors

Sts. Eugenios and Makarios the Confessors ( Feast Day - February 19)

Verses

As noble saplings you inhabited blessed ones,
The earth Eugenios and Makarios.

+++

Before you died at the same time you suffered,
Countless torments Eugenios and Makarios.

Eugenios and Makarios were pious Christians who were arrested during the persecution of Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) for refusing to sacrifice to the idols. Brought before the tyrant, they steadfastly confessed Christ and rebuked the Emperor for having abandoned the Christian faith in order to worship lifeless idols. For this reason they were ordered to be tortured.

After binding the Saints with thin broad belts, the executioners had Eugenios and Makarios hung upside down over a burning fire of dung. After many hours they were taken down and made to lie down naked on a burning hot gridiron. The Holy Martyrs endured these torments with their eyes fixed on Heaven, strengthened by divine grace, and at the same time they continued to rebuke the Apostate Emperor for his wickedness and impiety.

After such inhuman punishments, Julian was weary that he failed to bend the resolve of the Saints, so he had them bound and exiled to Mauritania in Africa, just opposite Algeria. The Holy Confessors rejoiced that they were made worthy to be exiled for Christ, and along the way chanted joyfully: "Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, and walk in the law of the Lord" (Ps. 118:1). When they arrived they proclaimed their faith to the pagans of that area to illumine them with the knowledge of the truth, then went off to a high mountain to live alone in a cave in prayer and fasting and asceticism.

While on the mountain looking for a cave to make their dwelling, the inhabitants warned the Saints that in a nearby cave there was a ferocious dragon that terrified the whole region. After they asked for the location of the cave, they approached it and prayed on their knees. Suddenly a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and scorched the dragon as he attempted to flee. All that was left were ashes mixed with dust, and a foul stench permeated the air. This miraculous intervention of the Saints caused the pagans to place their confidence in the two Confessors, so they came to believe in the power of Christ.

The Saints therefore made their habitation in the cave of the dragon, where they prayed continuously for thirty days, neither eating or drinking anything. Upon completing this labor, they heard a heavenly voice say: "Servants of the true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, go to the rock that is next to you." Turning they saw a light coming from a rock, and in a wondrous manner the rock split in two and from within there gushed forth a spring of water, which they drank from and were refreshed. Thus they recovered their physical strength and had their hunger and thirst satisfied. On the thirty-eighth day they supplicated God to release them from this present life and move on to the next life. The Lord hearkened to their entreaty, and received the souls of both of them, as they glorified and blessed Him.


Labels: ,

BECOME A PATREON OR PAYPAL SUBSCRIBER


Patreon!