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 7, 2016

Holy Martyrs Auktos, Taurios and Thessaloniki of Amphipolis

Sts. Auktos, Taurios and Thessaloniki (Feast Day - November 7)

Verses

To Auktos and Taurios
Auktos and Taurios found their desired end,
Beheaded by the sword, like bulls of the Lord.

To Thessaloniki
Condemned to exile from your ancestral land,
Thessaloniki settled in the ground of the first green shoots.

These Saints hailed from Amphipolis of Macedonia, which is near Kavala. Thessaloniki was the daughter of a pagan priest, whose name was Kleonos, who was a rich man and notable in his life. But neither the wealth nor the notoriety of her father were able to weaken the Saint and separate her from her faith in Christ. For her father begged her much to deny her faith in Christ, but she refused. For this reason the blessed one was stripped of her clothing and beaten with whips by four men. Thus wounding her sides she was stripped of her wealth and exiled. And while in exile she did not cease confessing Christ, and delivered her soul into His hands.


Meanwhile Auktos and Taurios censured her savage and barbaric father, and they were betrayed as Christians to the consular Thorybios. Therefore their garments were removed and they were stoned, then placed in a very heated furnace. Having been preserved unharmed from these, they were struck by many arrows. Unwounded by these, they were then cast into a nearby pond. However, once again they emerged on dry ground unharmed by divine grace. This astonished the tyrant, and not knowing what to do, he ordered that their holy heads be cut off. In this way the Holy Martyrs received the crown of martyrdom.


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