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 31, 2018

Holy Martyr Gaudentius


Verses

Altogether inexperienced in the battles of the contest,
Even though by this Gaudentius breathed his last.

The Colosseum of Rome, built on the site of Nero's "Golden House" by the Flavian Emperors, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, opened for use in the year 80 A.D. At its dedication, there were battles and combats of gladiators, and five thousand animals were slain within its circuit. The show was crowned with the flooding of the arena and a sea-fight. Nothing is known with certainty as to the architect of the Colosseum, though tradition ascribes the building to Gaudentius, a Christian who, afterwards, suffered on the spot and became its first of many martyrs.

It is said that Gaudentius was buried in the Catacomb of Saint Agnes, on the Nomentan way. The tomb was covered by a marble slab bearing the crown and palm, and near it was a phial of his blood. A rough Latin inscription declared the praises of Gaudentius, the architect of the Colosseum. It reads: "Caesar had promised three great rewards; but false and ungrateful was the pagan; He who is the great architect of the heavens, and whose promises fail not, has prepared for thee in reward of thy virtue a place in the everlasting theater of the celestial city."

Upon discovery, these were eventually transferred to a chapel dedicated to the Saint in the Church of Saint Luca and Martina of the Forum. However, in the seventeenth century, it was determined that the inscription supposedly found at the tomb of the Martyr was a forgery, since its strange style bore no resemblance to other ancient inscriptions, though on the other side of it is an authentic Christian inscription which says AVGVRINA IN PACE. Though we have no details about the Martyr Gaudentius for his commemoration on December 31st in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, it can be assumed that this was perhaps who it refers to.


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