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.



August 2, 2021

A Chapel Built With the Blessing of the Panagia Paramythia

Chapel of the Panagia Paramythia in Dromolaxia, Cyprus

The following testimony was written on November 10, 2011 by Protopresbyter Petros Petrou, pastor of the Church of the Honorable Forerunner in Dromolaxia, Cyprus.

It was Sunday and I had liturgized at the large church of the village, at the Honorable Forerunner.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, having distributed the antidron, a young man approached me and asked me if we were building a church in honor of the Panagia Paramythia. I said to him:

"Yes, my child."

Then he told me:

"I came here to make some sort of a donation," he said as he was holding money in his hands.

Wonderworking Icon of Panagia Paramythia at Vatopaidi Monastery

I asked who sent him and how he found out about it, and immediately his eyes became filled with tears and he told me:

"Father, I was at the Holy Mountain, at Vatopaidi Monastery, and while I was following the Divine Liturgy I heard a sweet woman's voice coming from the Chapel of the Panagia Paramythia, saying to me: 

'When you return to Cyprus, go to Dromolaxia and make a donation for my chapel that is being built.'"

Therefore, through this miraculous intervention of the Theotokos by the young man, we understood that it was the will of the Panagia for this chapel to be built.

Source: Θαύματα Παναγίας Παραμυθίας και Παναγίας Παντανάσσης, της Ιεράς Μεγίστης Μονής Βατοπαιδίου, Αγίου Όρους. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.


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