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 10, 2021

The Makeshift Coffin of the Holy Hieromartyr Patriarch Gregory V


In the Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos in Domato of Leivathos in Kefallonia is kept the makeshift coffin which was built inside the ship of the Kefallonian Nicholas Sklavos. In this coffin was placed the relic of Patriarch Gregory V, whose body was retrieved from the waters of the Bosporus on April 14, 1821. 
 
The Patriarch had just been hanged by the Turks at the entrance to the Patriarchate in Constantinople on April 10, 1821. After his body had been left hanging for three days, three impious Jewish men gave the Turks money and took the body, dragging it throughout the city screaming "This is the King of the Christians", and cast it into the Bosporus. 
 
The pious captain Nicholas Sklavos saw the body of a cleric floating on the water on Thursday April 14th, had it identified as that of the Patriarch, then secretly transported the relic of the Patriarch to Odessa in Russia where it was buried with honors. 
 
During this 25-day trip, to preserve the body, Nicholas had the coffin which contained the body filled with rum. After the burial he brought the makeshift coffin to Kefallonia and placed it in the family church of his village in Domato. 
 



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