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.



December 6, 2021

The Veneration of Saint Nicholas in Russia Today


In Russia, the veneration of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker is very widespread, and the number of churches dedicated to him and painted icons is the largest after the Mother of God. Until the beginning of the 20th century, his name was one of the most popular in Russia when naming babies. Saint Nicholas is the most revered saint in modern Russia as well. As of 2021, there are about 5,400 churches and chapels in Russia, not counting the monasteries, consecrated in honor of Saint Nicholas, which is about 12% of their total number (in second place are churches and chapels in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos - about 1800).

From May 21 to July 28, 2017, during the temporary transfer of a particle of the relics of Saint Nicholas from the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Bari to Russia, about 2.5 million people venerated them (about 2 million in Moscow in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior from May 22 to July 12 and about 500 thousand in St. Petersburg in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra). An agreement to bring the relics to the Russian Orthodox Church was reached during a meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis on February 12, 2016 in Havana. This event took place for the first time in 930 years, during which the relics in Bari never left the city. 


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