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 29, 2019

Saint Laurence the Recluse of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Turov (+ 1194)

St. Laurence of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Turov (Feast Day - January 29)

Saint Laurence at first lived as a monk at the Kiev Caves Lavra, but desiring to retire into solitude, he was forbidden to do so by the holy fathers. For this reason Laurence went to the Monastery of the Great Martyr Demetrios, built by Great Prince Izyaslav at Kiev near the Kiev Caves Lavra, where he lived as a recluse. Because of his austere life, the Lord granted him the gift of healing.


In the Kiev Caves Patericon we read of an incident in which a demon possessed man was brought to the Saint from Kiev in order to be healed, but the Saint was unable to cast out the demon. The possessed man showed tremendous strength, hardly allowing even ten men to handle him, but Laurence was able to take hold of him and bind him all by himself. The possessed man lived there with Laurence for a long time, until the Saint finally decided to have him brought to the Kiev Caves Lavra for healing. Though the possessed man raged all along the journey, he had revealed the names of thirty monks of the one hundred and eighty who could heal him there with a mere word, despite the fact that he had never before been to the monastery. Before he arrived at the monastery he had a vision of the thirty monks from the monastery and the Theotokos who came to him and healed him.


Laurence soon after returned to the Kiev Caves Lavra, and then was elevated to the See of Turov in 1182 (Turov is a city in the Minsk region), and was a successor of Saint Cyril of Turov (Apr. 28). He died in 1194, and was buried in the Near Caves.


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