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 4, 2018

Commemoration of the Miracle of Saint Spyridon in 1673


On the first Sunday in November the island of Kerkyra commemorates with a procession of his relics the miraculous intervention of Saint Spyridon in saving Kerkyra from a deadly plague, which twice visited the island in the seventeenth century. The history of the procession goes back to 1673. The pestilence was first identified in one of the suburbs and soon spread all over the town; the entire population was gripped by the terror of death. For three nights a light was seen by the local inhabitants on the bell-tower of the Church of Saint Spyridon and the figure of Saint Spyridon, carrying a cross in one hand, appeared driving the pestilence away. The Venetian Governor, at the request of the people of Kerkyra, sanctioned by decree on the 29th of October 1673 that the procession be held every year on the first Sunday in November.


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