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

The Legendary Athonite Monk Who Never Saw a Woman


This newspaper clipping comes from the Edinburg Daily Courier, and is dated October 29, 1938. It describes what seems to be a Serbian or Romanian monk on Mount Athos born around 1856, whom some have cited as being the only man to have ever lived a full life without ever seeing a woman. This is due to the fact that he lived at Mount Athos since infancy till his death without interruption, and because Mount Athos holds to the strict avaton rule, that does not allow women on the monastic republic, he never had an opportunity to see a woman, at least not in person.

Some clarifications: Upon birth he may have seen a woman, but he just had no memory of it. Also, many who have been blind from birth have never seen a woman, though even they have had some sort of contact with them. This monk did not even have contact or any communication whatsoever with a woman. Also, he is often described as being a Greek monk, but the name to me indicates he was probably Serbian or Romanian.


In 1949, the Nixon Furniture Company featured the story of Mihailo Tolotos (they tried to make his name more Greek sounding) in one of their ads (photo below from The Raleigh Register - Jan 7, 1949). They were worried that just as Tolotos had never seen a woman, perhaps the readers of the Raleigh Register hadn't seen all of Nixon's new furniture.


Also, a quick Google search shows how this monk has become legendary, but the memes made about the story are often more humorous than the story, as seen below:









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