ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW: The Place Where Saint Philothei Was Martyred

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.

February 19, 2020

The Place Where Saint Philothei Was Martyred

On the night of October 2nd into October 3rd of 1588, during an all-night vigil in honor of the patron saint of Athens, Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, in the Metochion of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Patisia, five Turks on their horses entered the church, vandalizing the sacred place. The nuns in a panic ran away to hide. The Turks let them run away, they didn't care. All they wanted was Philothei Benizelou. Her crime: she offered asylum to Christian women fleeing their Turkish masters to preserve their faith and chastity. Philothei courageously stood up, and the Turks grabbed her with force and knocked her down to the floor. They kicked her, beat her with clubs and after binding her to a column they whipped her without mercy. Thinking that they killed her, they then fled. The nuns came to her aid. She was then taken to the Metochion of the Entrance of the Theotokos in Perissos, where a few months later, on 19 February 1589, she died from her injuries. Today the church where she was martyred still stands along with the column she was bound to and beaten.