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.



June 16, 2018

Saint Tikhon of Lukh in Kostroma (+ 1503)

St. Tikhon of Lukh (Feast Day - June 16)

Saint Tikhon of Lukh in Kostroma was born in the middle of the fifteenth century in Lithuania and baptized with the name Timothy. His pious and wealthy parents gave him a good education and raised him to revere his Orthodox faith. When he came of age he served in the military in Vilnius.


Because of the increased persecution of Orthodox Christians by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV, and not wanting to accept Uniatism, Timothy, along with the Orthodox Prince Theodore Belsky, the great-grandson of Prince Olgerd, left for Moscow in 1483. The Saint gave away everything that he had, accepted monastic tonsure in a monastery in Moscow with the name Tikhon, and settled in the Kostroma diocese in the Lukh region. The city of Lukh was at that time given to Prince Theodore Belsky, with whom Saint Tikhon had come from Lithuania. On the banks of the boundary of the Kopitovka, Saint Tikhon built his cell. When two monks, Photius and Gerasimus, came to him in the wilderness, Tikhon moved three versts from the Koptovka to a more satisfactory location.


The monks earned their living by the work of their hands. Saint Tikhon copied books with skill, and was a fine lathe turner. Out of humility he did not become a priest. "Poverty and work are the direct path to salvation" he would say. Saint Tikhon died on the feast of his patron saint on June 16, 1503 in such poverty that his disciples did not know how they would bury him. But to their comfort the Archbishop of Suzdal sent a monastic burial shroud, in which to bury him. Soon after his death, at the place of his labors, a monastery was built in honor of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.


In 1569 there were healings of the sick at the grave of Saint Tikhon, and his relics were found to be incorrupt. But the abbot Constantine, who uncovered the relics, was struck blind. After repenting and then recovering his eyesight, he placed the relics of Saint Tikhon back into the ground. Saint Tikhov was canonized in 1570. His Life and an account of 70 posthumous miracles was compiled in the year 1649.


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