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 5, 2019

The Birthplace of Saint Savvas the Sanctified


About ten kilometers southeast from Caesarea in Cappadocia was the village of Moutalaski, today known as Talas. This is the village where Saint Savvas the Sanctified was born and raised. It had a majority Orthodox Christian population until the population exchange of 1923.

Saint Savvas lived with his father in this village until he was five years old, at which time his father had to go to Alexandria because he served as an officer in the army. He was left with his uncle Hermias and his aunt, but his aunt treated him terribly so he went to live with his uncle Gregory. This produced a violent clash between the two brothers over the care of their nephew and his estate, so Saint Savvas, being a devout Christian, entered the nearby Flavian Monastery (the Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner in Zintzintere) approximately three miles away when he was around eight years old. When he was eighteen his uncles resolved their differences and wanted to have their nephew married, but Saint Savvas fled his homeland for good and went to Jerusalem.

Probably the most notable figure of recent times to be born and raised in Moutalaski was Socrates Onassis, the father of Aristotle Onassis. Aristotle Onassis himself was born in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna. Socrates went on to become a successful shipping entrepreneur, which Aristotle later became famous for. In Talas today one can visit a restaurant named Onassis.

Flavian Monastery, now occupied by the Turkish army




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