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.



January 26, 2018

Translation of the Relics of Saint Theodore the Studite in 844

Translation of the Relics of Saint Theodore the Studite (Feast Day - January 26)

Saint Theodore was exiled in 815 for refusing to acquiesce in a revival of Iconoclasm during the reign of Emperor Leo V (813-820). He was freed and recalled to Constantinople in 821 after Michael II (820-829) became emperor, but he was unable to reach an accommodation with the new ruler to call a synod against Iconoclasm. Instead, it seems he voluntarily went again into exile in 823, first to the Monastery of Saint Tryphon near Cape Akritas southeast of the city, and later to Prinkipo in the Princes' Islands. He died there November 11, 826.

It seems that when the last iconoclast Emperor Theophilos (829-842) died, and following the Triumph of Orthodoxy (843), Naukratios, the successor of Theodore, was able to return to Stoudios Monastery. Shortly thereafter, the relics of Theodore and his brother Joseph of Thessaloniki were translated from Prinkipo to Stoudios on January 26, 844, and laid to rest in the same tomb as his uncle and spiritual father, Saint Plato. This was done after Naukratios of Stoudios and Athanasios of Sakkudion received permission from the Ecumenical Patriarch Methodios and Empress Theodora. Upon the arrival of the relics of the Saints to Constantinople, a multitude of monks, clerics and laymen cheered for joy. And after they were carried to Stoudios Monastery, Patriarch Methodios and other dignitaries visited, though the empress was not able to come but did send gifts. The Patriarch himself interred the relics in their tomb. Saint Theodore's body was preserved whole and incorrupt to such a point, that even his skin was observed to not have changed in the eighteen years since his death.


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