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.



December 7, 2016

Saint Gerasimos of Euripos


Saint Gerasimos was a missionary in Greece during the years of the Frankish occupation (around the 1320's). He was born on the island of Euripos, which was a name for the island of Evia (Euboea) in the Middle Ages. His parents were from the Western French family of Regas Fatzou.

In the second half of the thirteenth century, Gerasimos went to the Monastery of Saint Katherine at Sinai. There he met the supremely virtuous Gregory the Sinaite, and became his disciple. In this way he attained great heights of praxis and theoria, so that he became an example and model of all good things and an image of virtue.

When Gregory the Sinaite left Sinai, Gerasimos followed him to the harbor of Crete, from which Gregory departed for Mount Athos, and Gerasimos set off for continental Greece, where he worked as a missionary. Eventually he returned to his homeland of Evia as Monk Gerasimos the Sinaite.


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