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.



October 1, 2020

Synaxis of the Icon of the Mother of God of Barsky

Synaxis of the Icon of the Mother of God of Barsky (Feast Day - October 1)
 
The Barsky icon is located at the Convent of the Protection of the Mother of God, located in the city of Bar of the Podolsk diocese (present-day Vinnitsa region of Ukraine). This city experienced all the misfortunes of the rule of Catholic Poland in western Russia. Its final accession to Russia took place in 1793.

For a long time, there was a monastery in Bar, which belonged for some time to the Uniate Basilian monks. In 1837, the Barsky monastery was returned from the Uniates to the fold of the Orthodox Church. The monastery was also called the Pokrov Monastery in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God located there, which at that time had a very wide veneration and celebration on October 1 which was established in 1887, when half a century had passed since the return of the Barsky monastery to the Orthodox.
 
 
In the late 17th - early 18th centuries a copy of the Podolsk Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was made from the Barsky icon. The importance of this icon of the Mother of God to the fate of Orthodoxy in the Podolsk territory was great.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Barsky icon was located in the altar of the monastery church; now it is in the Odessa region (Ukraine). A plot of land has been allocated for the construction of the chapel for the miraculous icon.
 
 

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