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.



April 23, 2019

Holy Martyrs Donatos and Therinos

Sts. Donatos and Therinos (Feast Day - April 23)

Verses

Therinos was reaped by the sword with Donatos.
Both becoming a strange sheaf of God.

The Holy Martyrs Donatos and Therinos met their end by the sword.

In the synaxaria of the Church, two saints bearing the names of Donatos and Therinos, though they lived over a hundred years apart, are associated with the city of Bothrotos (Buthrotum, Butrint) in Epirus of Albania, and could be the two saints commemorated today. The main problem with this theory, however, is that neither of these saints died as martyrs. Nevertheless, below are brief biographies of both.

Saint Therinos lived during the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251). He was from a province of the land of Thesprotia, in the city of Bothrotos. One day, when the new governor Philip read the imperial decree initiating a persecution of those Christians who refused to sacrifice to the idols, a man named Therinos, possibly a soldier, confronted him and confessed his faith in Christ. For this Therinos suffered many tortures, but due to his being miraculously healed of his wounds, Philip accepted the faith of Christ. Therinos then lived another three and a half years and was buried in the city called Bosrena. Metropolitan Arsenios of Kerkyra wote an encomium to him in the 9th or 10th century. His mosaic in the Rotunda of Saint George in Thessaloniki depicts him as a soldier whose commemoration was in the month of July.


Saint Donatos, whose primary commemoration is celebrated on April 30th, was born in Bothrotos and lived during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius I (347-395). According to the fifth century Greek historian Sozomen, Saint Donatos was Bishop of Evorea, identifiable with Paramythia in Epirus, Greece. He is said to have accomplished several miracles, such as successfully fighting a dragon, purifying well waters, saving the emperors' daughter, and reviving the dead. Saint Donatos reposed in peace in 387 and his remains were transferred to Kassiopi in Kerkyra in 602 in order to be saved from barbarian invasions. However this led to a problem of jurisdiction and custody for the holy relics, which was resolved by Pope Gregory I.


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