Edwin Augustus Grosvenor was born in 1845 in West Newbury, Massachusetts. After graduating from Amherst College in 1867, he served as a tutor at Robert College in Constantinople, which was then under the Ottoman Empire. After returning to the U.S., he obtained an M.A. from Amherst College and was ordained as a minister in Newburyport in 1872. That same year, Edwin Grosvenor returned to Robert College with his new wife and began teaching. Grosvenor then taught at Amherst College from 1892 to 1914, and was professor emeritus until his death in 1936. Today the house where he lived in Amherst is a sorority house of the college that bears his name.
Grosvenor was called "one of the most cosmopolitan of Americans" by author and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. His son, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was the first employee and longtime editor of National Geographic Magazine, as well as the son-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell.
For almost a thousand years Hagia Sophia in Constantinople served as a house of worship for Orthodox Christians, until 1453 when the City fell to the Ottomans and Hagia Sophia became a house of worship for Muslims. Despite the majority of the population of Turkey being Muslim, the first president of the newly-established Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turned Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1934.
There were at least three primary factors for Ataturk making Hagia Sophia a museum. First, it was very expensive to maintain. In 1934, Hagia Sophia was on the verge of falling into ruin, being a neglected dump. According to Ataturk, this was because he didn't have the funds to renovate it. If it became a museum, however, then the funds would allow for its renovation. Second, the Balkan Pact was a treaty signed by Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens, aimed at maintaining the geopolitical status quo in the region following World War I. To present a united front against Bulgarian designs on their territories, the signatories agreed to suspend all disputed territorial claims against each other and their immediate neighbors which followed in the aftermath of the war and a rise in various regional ethnic minority tensions. Ataturk thought that the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum would be seen as a favor to the Greeks and would help save the Balkan Pact. Third, the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum would be seen by Europeans and the West as a form of diplomacy and progressivism on the part of the Turkish Republic, which was surrounded by Orthodox Christian countries such as Greece, Bulgaria and Russia that viewed Hagia Sophia as part of its own inheritance. By inching closer towards the values held dear by the West, Turkey could also profit by becoming more European.
There is a tragic paucity of primary sources about our Holy Father Botolph of Iken, and many of the hagiographical accounts that do exist were written many centuries later and are often riddled with error and anachronism. The tragedy is made more acute when one considers that there are at least 78 historic or current churches dedicated to him in Britain, far more, it should be noted, than any other Pre-Conquest British Saint, and that his veneration extended not only throughout England but Scandinavia as well. In what follows we have tried to discern the basic outline of St Botolph’s life from the rare, fragmentary glimpses of him that we get in the couple of Anglo-Saxon sources as well as the later hagiographical narratives. For a fuller presentation of this timeline, complete with comprehensive academic referencing, please refer to a booklet on the Life of the saint which the College OLM is currently in the process of preparing for publication. We hope though that this simple time line will give an overview of this extraordinary Suffolk Saint and situate him a little within the spiritual milieu of the 7th Century. Please note all dates are approximate and indicative.
As a resident of Massachusetts, I have over the years discovered certain places that may be of interest to Orthodox Christians when visiting this great state. In the ten places listed below, I have avoided listing any Orthodox parishes or monasteries, of which Massachusetts is plentiful in. Some of these places listed below will be widely known, while others may be more obscure. Of particular note are a series of museums, in which you can be sure to find Orthodox treasures. This list is for those who want to explore Massachusetts while at the same time having an interest in seeing things associated with Orthodoxy in some way.
Full of terrible wounds from the blows,
Agrippina partook of many wreaths.
On the twenty-third Agrippina died from her wounds.
Saint Agrippina was born in the glorious city of Rome and flourished probably during the reign of Emperor Valerian (253-260). When she was a young girl, she dedicated her life to God and was adorned with virginity and purity. Out of love for her Bridegroom Christ, she presented herself before the court during a time of persecution against Christians, and bravely confessed that Christ was the true God. For this she was given over to many torments.
There are a few ways demons express their anger in physical form. One of the more characteristic ways, recorded many times throughout history till the present day, is by throwing stones. Demons throw stones at people in order to hurt those who anger them.
Anglo-Saxon demons seem to have had a particular penchant for throwing stones. Venerable Bede’s prose Life of Cuthbert records Saint Cuthbert (+ 735) mentioning the stone-throwing tendencies of demons: "How often have the demons tried to cast me headlong from yonder rock; how often they have hurled stones as if to kill me." In the tenth century Life of Saint Dunstan, the devil is blamed for hurling not one but two stones at the saint. The first incident occurs, rather interestingly, in a church, where the devil attempts to kill Dunstan and the bishop accompanying him with a large stone – ‘the stone was hurled down in a fit of madness by the malign enemy of every just work, drawing upon the armory of his wickedness’. In the second instance, the stone comes even closer, managing to ‘project the cap he wore a perch measure or so from his head’. Curiously, Dunstan elects to preserve this second stone in a church, in memory of the impotence of the devil’s schemes.1
Stone-throwing demons not only hurl stones at saints who frustrate their efforts to defeat them through temptations, but also at their followers who anger them for their disloyalty. An example of this can be read in The Alexiad of Anna Komnenos, daughter of Emperor Alexios Komnenos. Alexios had invited the leader of the Bogomils of Constantinople, Basil, to dinner in the imperial palace. During this dinner, Alexios cunningly and deceitfully extorted out of Basil a confession of the Bogomil faith, the contents of which were usually kept secret from the uninitiated yet was needed by the emperor for a conviction of Basil by the Holy Synod. Anna then records how after Basil's confession and the night before his imprisonment for heresy, he retired to a small house Alexios had built for him near the imperial palace. At midnight his appointed guard witnessed a hail storm rain upon the house of Basil and a sudden earthquake shook the ground and rattled the roof tiles; Basil merely shut the door and retired back into his house. This was interpreted as Satan tormenting Basil in anger for revealing his secrets to the emperor.2
A similar incident is recorded by an early New Hampshire colonist named Richard Chamberlain. For three months in 1682 rocks tossed by unseen hands battered the New Hampshire home on New Castle Island of George and Alice Walton, and crashed through their small leaded glass windows. A torturing hail of stones followed them into the fields, pelting their arms and legs, bruising the flesh. George Walton, an elderly tavern keeper and planter was struck full in the back. When he crossed from New Castle Island to the Portsmouth mainland by boat to report what was happening to him, a flying rock "broke his head".
The mysterious flying stones came and went all that summer. As many as 100 were reported in one session, always focused on Walton or anyone who happened to be near him. Walton reported being struck as many as 30 or 40 times. When he visited his son who lived up along Great Bay, the rocks flew at him in a field, but mostly they hammered at the Walton’s home. Some were hot, as if just taken from an oven, while some were cold as death. They ranged from tiny pebbles, to stones the size of a man’s fist, or as large as a human head. Chamberlain records many other frightening incidents of the devil's mischief both inside and outside the house.
Chamberlain was staying on the second floor of Walton's tavern and was a eye-witness of the events. 16 years later he published his journal recording this event titled "Lithobolia", a Greek word he apparently created that translates to "Stone-Throwing", in reference to the devil's mischief. The full title is nearly 100 words:
Lithobolia: or, the Stone-Throwing Devil. Being an Exact and True Account (by way of Journal) of the various Actions of Infernal Spirits, or (Devils Incarnate) Witches, or both; and the great Disturbance and Amazement they gave to George Waltons Family, at a place call’d Great Island in the Province of New-Hantshire in New-England, chiefly in Throwing about (by an Invisible hand) Stone, Bricks, and Brick-bats of all Sizes, with several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other Domestick Utensils, as came into their Hellish Minds, and this for the space of a Quarter of a Year.
There are a few explanations for this incident suffered by poor George Walton, who was marked with injuries till the day he died. One is that Walton, a Quaker, had himself been accused of wizardry after he accused his neighbor Hannah Jones of being a witch. This was the result of a property dispute. According to Chamberlain, Hannah Jones angrily told Walton that he "should never quietly injoy that piece of Ground". Her comment was taken for a bewitching curse and, therefore, evidence that Jones’ witchery had likely summoned the Stone-Throwing Devil. Cotton Mather, a powerful Puritan man who served as a judge less than a decade later at the deadly Salem Witch Trials, wrote about this incident and saw it as a precursor to the hysteria of Salem. Another explanation however sees this as an elaborate "prank" by Puritans to drive the Quaker Walton's out of New Hampshire. The Walton's were a scandalous family to the Puritans on many accounts, and if a natural explanation were to be given, this would fit best. Yet it hardly explains every incident, especially those recorded in the house, and certain supernatural elements in the story.
The infamous Goldfield Hotel is an abandoned hotel located in Goldfield, Nevada. It's paranormal activity has been so serious that the owner of the hotel has forbidden anyone to go inside it due to the likelihood of them getting hurt. Before the Ghost Adventures crew received a weekly television show on the Travel Channel, they filmed an award winning documentary titled Ghost Adventures: The Beginning where they filmed their paranormal investigation of the Goldfield Hotel, among others. During this investigation, one of the best paranormal footage in existence was recorded when a lone brick on the ground breaks every law of gravity by violently flying into the air all on its own and is hurled into an opposite wall with high velocity. Victor H.S. Kwong, professor in the Department of Physics for the University of Nevada Las Vegas, reviewed the brick footage and said that it would be impossible to pull a brick of that size and weight with such velocity without using a thick string that would surely have reflected the light from the investigators' cameras and therefore be very clearly visible. Video footage and the analysis can be seen in the video below (Warning: footage is unedited and contains foul language):5
We will end with two other malicious incidents of demonic stone-throwing recorded in the book Contemporary Ascetics of Mount Athos by Archimandrite Cherubim Karambelas. In the chapter on Elder Sabbas the Father Confessor, we are told about stone-throwing demons on Mount Athos in the early 20th century. Archimandrite Cherubim gives us a full account of these two stories:
The Book of Magic
Somewhere in Chalkis, the relationship between a man and his wife had become very strained. The husband did not lead a normal life, but lived in a strange, obscure manner. His face took on a repulsive expression. He had broken away from the Church; he wanted nothing to do with Church life, and especially not with the Sacraments. His unfortunate wife tried in every possible way to bring him back to God, but he was unyielding. Finally she understood that she must take a hard position.
"Listen to me. You have made my life unbearable. If you won't come to receive Communion on Pascha, I am going to have to leave you. It will be impossible for us to live together. I want Christ to rule in our family."
The persistence, pressure, threats, and heartfelt prayers of this good Christian woman were not in vain. The husband saw that by his behavior he was in danger of irreparably destroying his home, his future, and the future of his children. His soul was shaken, and he resolved to return to the light.
Great was the darkness hidden within him, for the unfortunate man had descended to collaborating with the demons; he had trained himself in magical arts. This is what had kept him so stubbornly away from the Church. He understood that he first of all needed a confessor. The Holy Mountain was not far away, and there he went, seeking the right person. He found Fr. Sabbas.
How different was his return journey! He was renewed inside. Instead of confusion, chaos, and darkness, he saw a new regenerated world. Relief and tears of joy shone on his face as he finished his confession. What peace he felt, what a lightening of his burden! But there was still something else to get rid of. He stretched out his hand, holding a certain book.
"Take this book also, my Father. This was the cause of my catastrophe."
It was a Solomoniki (a book of magic), the essential manual of all who study magic.
"Why are you giving it to me? It wants burning. Take it and burn it somewhere away from here."
On his way from the Kalyve to St. Anne's Skete, he saw a large hole in the rock. In this cavity the Solomoniki was soon reduced to ashes. The Evangelist Luke wrote about a similar incident: "Those who followed magic arts made their books into a heap and burned them" (Acts 19:19). Fires like these are a joy to the angels, a wounding of demons. Such books of darkness and stench should not circulate among us.
Still more relieved, the man continued on his way. He happened to meet Fr. Hilarion, a disciple of Fr. Sabbas.
"Convey my respects and boundless gratitude to the father confessor. And tell him that the book was burned in the cave above here."
Fr. Hilarion continued heedlessly towards the Kalyve. But when he reached the cave, showers of great boulders fell around him, thundering and rolling down the hillside. Terrified, he reached the Kalyve and told the Elder what had happened.
"It was the work of Satan, my child."
When he had recovered from his fear, he remembered to convey to the Elder the words of the man he had passed on the road. He remembered about the burning of the book. When Fr. Sabbas explained who the man was and what book he had burned in the cave, he understood what had happened.
Not only Fr. Hilarion experienced the stoning, however - it happened to everyone that passed by that place. In the end the road became impassable, for nobody dared to come near that place. Disturbed, the fathers sought the help of Fr. Sabbas. He fasted, prayed, sprinkled the cave with holy water, and the evil spirits retreated. He advised the fathers to place an icon of the Theotokos and a lampada within the cave. Thus the road became peaceful as before.
Today those who pass by there often stop and sing "Meet it is..." to the Theotokos, with no danger. Some fathers have told us, however, that occasionally there is still demonic activity in that place, mainly when a disciple who has broken obedience passes by it.
The Strange Shower of Stones
A young pastry-cook from Thessalonika, Athanasius, felt aversion for worldly life, and resolved to take the monastic schema and live in the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou. As a novice at Dionysiou he was sent to Monoxilitis, a Metochion within Mount Athos, to receive monastic training.
In the meantime, his parents in Thessalonika were embittered by the decision of their cherished only child. They moved heaven and earth to "save" him, to bring him back to the world. They did not even hesitate to seek the help of Satan, resorting to magic and sorcery.
Athanasius suddenly began to feel pressure, as though there were a heavy weight on him. He himself in his former life had dealt in magic, and so was not uninitiated in such matters; therefore he correctly guessed what his parents were doing. He felt an anguish that became more and more intense. Something very unpleasant was hanging over him. From inner need he prayed more frequently, painfully emphasizing the phrase in the Lord's Prayer, "Deliver us from the evil one."
The other brothers of Monoxilitis suspected nothing of this. One morning after the service as they were preparing for their work, stones suddenly began falling on them from the forest above. Luckily for them and for the property of the Metochion, they suffered no harm. They waited a while - some passers-by, apparently, had an appetite for jokes. But when they began their work again, stones started flying from behind them. Then they understood that something serious was happening, and they took refuge in the church. They did not dare to leave it, for as soon as they did so the stoning would start again. Stools, wooden forms for the monastic skoufias, and other objects were hurled through the air. Their dog was thrown three meters down from where he had been lying.
Soon some policemen who had been notified came from Karyes. They searched the area and shot volleys in the direction the stones came from. Finally they realized this was not the work of men, but of unseen enemies.
Then the novice Athanasius came forward and explained the cause of the mischief.
"To completely persuade you," he finished, "let me go by myself over there to the little church of St. Artemius, and you'll see that stones will follow me."
This is what happened. The stones fell all around him, but without hitting him.
After the demonstration they isolated him in the church. The steward of the Metochion, Fr. Porphyrius, sent a letter asking for a boat from the Monastery. From the moment Athanasius left the church until he disembarked at the harbor of the Monastery, terrible things happened. It is a wonder that the boatman did not faint from terror. "The stoning did not cease on the sea, even though they were a distance from the shore. The stones kept falling, but fortunately around the boat, without doing any damage" (Gabriel of Dionysiou, The New Evergetinos, p. 65).
Between the shore and the courtyard of the Monastery, all was quiet. This encouraged several people to call it an illusion. A sudden shower of stones from a nearby tower, however, silenced them.
The Council of Elders, which assembled immediately, made the decision "to send the novice to the God-bearing Elder, Fr. Sabbas ... so that he may deliver him." The general conviction of the fathers was that the prayers of Fr. Sabbas could flog the evil spirits.
The Kalyve of the Resurrection underwent a week of hard trials. There was an atmosphere of war - an open war between the powers of light and darkness. There was continuous, deafening noise. Enormous boulders came loose from the nearby cliffs, flying by and over the Kalyve, and hurtling with terrible crashes down the nearby precipice into the sea. Fierce voices uttering blasphemous words disturbed and sullied the area. And there were insults - unwonted insults against all monks, and especially against the confessor. All the stench of Hades revealed itself.
The man of God, disregarding his deep old age (he was then in his last years), gave himself up to great struggles. For a whole week he kept a complete fast, praying continually. "This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:20). His compassionate heart could not endure seeing God's creation undergoing such tyranny.
At the end of the week, the Elder, with steadfast, unwavering faith in the Resurrected Lord, approached the sufferer. The evil spirit became agitated.
"I banish thee, ... O unclean spirit ... by God Who created all things by His word, and by our Lord Jesus Christ ... Fear, begone, flee, depart from the servant of God Athanasius ... Depart to the dry, deserted, uncultivated places...."
And thus it happened. It seemed as though something came out from Athanasius' mouth. The undesirable occupant disappeared, "like smoke vanishes". The words uttered by the Spirit-bearing mouth of Fr. Sabbas struck the demon like a flaming sword. Instantly the novice became calm and quiet, sighing with relief. Out of boundless joy and gratitude he fell at the feet of the confessor, kissing them and moistening them with tears.6
"O Saint of God, you have saved me, you have taken away the horrible weight. Oh, thank you! You rescued me from the dreadful serpent. Glory be to Thee, my God!"
Athanasius stayed with his physician for several more days. By his advice, he went to the Skete of Koutloumousiou, where he remained. Fr. Habbakuk - the name he received at his tonsure - is distinguished among the fathers by his austere ascetic life. He never forgot the unforgettable Elder who had saved him from the power of the devil.
Neither the desolation of the fens, nor the depth of thy humility could hide the light of thy virtues, whereby thou becamest a lamp unto the faithful, O Botolph our righteous Father. Wherefore, we entreat thee: do thou also enlighten us who venerate thy blessed memory.
Kontakion in the First Tone
The glory of the just, the protector of Boston, the man of mighty prayer, our belov'd Father Botolph, entreateth the Saviour that He show mercy to all of us. Let us honour him with thankful praise, O ye faithful; let us imitate his conversation and virtues, that God hear his prayers for us.
Megalynarion
Boston doth exult on this holy day, for thy deeds, O wise one, are gone up as most fragrant myrrh and sweet smelling incense before the throne of Christ God, O Botolph, our blest Father and teacher in all truth.
Vesperal Doxastikon in the First Tone
Neither the fowls of the air, nor the cares of life, nor the deceitfulness of riches, could harm the good seed sown in thy heart, O Father Botolph. Thou didst bring forth a hundredfold, and thou becamest a great and spreading tree for thy brethren. Wherefore, give us rest in the shade of thy branches, that we might not faint under the burden and heat of the day; shelter our hierarchs from every wind of false doctrine; protect those dwelling in the city named for thee; and intercede with Christ that our souls be saved.
Aposticha in the First Tone
The new Boston danceth with the old on the memory of him for whom they both have received their name and reason to rejoice, even holy Botolph, the beloved man of God, the height of prayer and depth of humility and light of all the Church, who partaketh of the life on high and entreateth Christ to grant us grace and peace.
Though thou ever wast a man of peace, be thou now a man of war, and wage invisible war against our spiteful enemy; shatter his devices, and console us in our wounds, and lead us in the fray till thou bringest us as victors unto Christ, Father Botolph, that we all may stand with great boldness with thee at the Lord's right hand.
Ode Three in Plagal of the Fourth Tone
All that dwell in the city that beareth thy blessed name, shelter in the shade of thy fiery prayers to the God of all, lest that the sun by day or that the moon by night burn us with the heat of sin, which doth wither the world away.
Ode Seven in Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Glory to Father, Son, and Spirit, three eternal Flames of boundless love and glory, giving being and life to all He hath created, and Who, through righteous Botolph's prayers, shineth mercy on us sinners.
To the Reverend Clergy and Faithful Stewards of the Metropolis of Boston
Brethren,
We are all shocked with today's terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. Once again, evil reared its ugly head and countless of our fellow citizens have been victimized. Our prayers and thoughts are with the victims and their families, as well as our governor, mayor, and police officials. We stand by our law enforcement agencies and all the heroic first responders as they begin the process of fully investigating this act of terrorism, and bring to justice those responsible.
Today is Patriot's Day during which we remember the heroes of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. Annually on this day, the historic Boston Marathon takes place as a long-standing tradition which brings together diverse people from across our community, the nation, and around the world, to celebrate the virtues of hard work and perseverance in one of the world's most well-known sporting events. Let us not be deterred by this cowardly act of hatred, but stand united in the exercise of freedom and justice, as we pray for peace and love to reign in our society.
I ask our parishes throughout the Metropolis to offer prayers for the repose of the souls of those who tragically lost their lives today, and to pray for the healing of all those who were injured. May the God of Peace and Mercy bring His peace upon our community. I pray that you and your loved ones are safe and secure. We will continue to stay in touch as further details on this evolving tragedy emerge.
With Archpastoral Love,
+ Metropolitan Methodios
[His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios has requested the immediate mobilization of the IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) Frontliners--the Emergency First Responders of the IOCC--to be dispatched to assist at the several Boston crisis counseling centers being set up over night. Four IOCC Frontliners (professionally trained counselors and clergy for emergency response) have been mobilized and will travel to Boston tomorrow to begin offering assistance to the local emergency care centers set up throughout the city of Boston. Metropolitan Methodios has been in direct contact with the Mayor's office and has offered the full support of the Greek Orthodox community of New England. His Eminence also has been in contact with Dean Triantafilou, Executive Director of the IOCC, to coordinate the emergency response.
The Metropolitan asks all clergy of the Metropolis to be available at their local parishes to allow all people access to our churches for prayer and pastoral counseling. His Eminence encourages the faithful to assist in the emergency response by donating blood at the local Red Cross donation centers throughout the region.
The full resources of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston are being made available to assist both local authorities and all those in need.
May our loving Lord extend his hand upon all those effected by today's tragedy. May He rest in eternal peace the 3 individuals who tragically lost their lives in this senseless act of hatred. May He extend His healing hand upon the over 150 people who were injured and find themselves in hospitals at this hour. May His love and peace embrace all humanity. May the Light of His glorious Resurrection that we anxiously await to receive anew in a few short weeks, enlighten the dark recesses of this world and illumine those who sit in darkness.
Our prayers are with the families of today's victims.]
“Boston is what I would have the whole United States to be.” - Charles Dickens
A nickname for Boston is The Athens of America, used mainly in literary circles during the first half of the 20th Century. The origin is believed to be in a letter written in 1764 by Samuel Adams, as quoted in History of the United States, by George Bancroft, Volume 5, page 195 (1857), in which Adams wrote "Boston might become a Christian Sparta."
Also, in 1819, William Tudor wrote a letter describing the town: "[Boston] is perhaps the most perfect and certainly the best-regulated democracy that ever existed. There is something so impossible in the immortal fame of Athens, that the very name makes everything modern shrink from comparison; but since the days of that glorious city I know of none that has approached so near in some points, distant as it may still be from that illustrious model."
On the western slope of Beacon Hill, at Louisburg Square, is a statue of Ancient Greek general and statesman Aristides the Just (530?-468 BC). Aristides led the army in a great victory over the Persians at the Battle of Plataea (479). In 478, he was a prominent leader in the formation of the confederacy of Greek city-states known as the Delian League. The Aristides statue on Beacon Hill was a significant symbol of the Athens of America alias, and also of 1850s Brahmin culture.
Louisburg Square is collectively owned by a group of wealthy Boston residents. Joseph Iasigi, of Greek descent and one of the owners of the square, received approval in 1852 and installed the statue of Aristides. The square also hosts a statue of Christopher Columbus, installed about the same time, located at the opposite end as Aristides. In the early 1900s, a club of engineering and technology students resided at a building in the square, and Aristides became known as Uncle Louisburg or just Uncle Louie by the younger generations.
Many of the quaint row houses and streets on Beacon Hill resemble parts of old London. This was of course, by design. According to the book Some Statues of Boston (1946), by State Street Trust Company, a former resident recalled that the Edison Company had at one time taken photographs of Louisburg Square, and thus avoided the need to travel to London to take photographs.
Edinburgh in Scotland was also known as a Modern Athens at about the same time Boston was espousing its similarity with the ancient Greek city.
Mother Earth, the largest of the Russian bells that hangs in Lowell House’s belltower, weighs about 13 tons. But despite its weight, Father Roman Ogrzykov, the head bellringer at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, manipulated the device with ease on Wednesday afternoon, quickly tolling the three quick strokes that ended that afternoon’s bellringing session.
Ogryzkov, a tall, bearded man dressed in traditional Russian Orthodox garments, was one of two Russian monks who visited Harvard this past week. Along with Father Pavel Radin, who was clad in a checkered vest, linen shirt, and paisley ascot, Ogryzkov taught a series of master classes for the Lowell House Society of Russian Bell Ringers, a small student group that rings the bells every Sunday.
“This is a time for us to hone our skills with the traditional peals,” co-president Ivan D. Bochkov ’12 said.
According to co-president Inna Ryzhik ’12, the two monks taught three different peals. In addition, Radin, a monk from St. Petersburg, gifted the group a book of notated peals that he had compiled.
Though this was Radin’s first visit to Harvard, Ogryzkov has maintained a relationship with the University since 2003, when a delegation of Russian governmental and Orthodox Church officials came to Harvard to discuss the return of the historic bells, which had rested in Lowell House since 1930. The set, one of the few that survived the atheist regime of Joseph Stalin, was played by Ogryzkov during that trip.
“To a great extent, he enabled people to hear what those bells sound like when rung in the proper way,” Lowell House Co-Master Diana L. Eck said.
Though it was decided that the bells were to be returned and that Lowell House would receive a set of newly cast bells, Ogryzkov remained a friend of the University. According to Eck, when a delegation of Harvard officials went to Russia to find a bell foundry, Ogrzykov accompanied them. When the new bells were placed in Lowell in 2008, he taught a master class to several students and gave a bells concert.
“Since then, we’ve tried to maintain contact so we have some kind of program where our bellringers can travel to Russia every other year to learn more about the culture an practice of bellringing, and Father Roman comes here on the off years to teach master classes,” Eck said.
The monk has left a literal imprint on the Lowell Bells—during the Wednesday master class, he pointed out that his signature can be seen on the inside of Mother Earth.
“I participated in installing it,” he explained proudly. According to Ryzhik, the lessons, in conjunction with the trips, have also left a lasting impact.
“We improvised things, but we didn’t have a set canon of traditional peals,” she said.
Eck agreed that these elements have improved the sound of the bells. “Just in this week, the difference of hearing the complexity of the bells is really powerful,” she said.
Ryzhik encouraged all Harvard students to explore the bells, noting their uniqueness.
“Harvard is the only university with a set of Russian bells,” Ryzhik said. “We are trying to incorporate more traditional peals, but there’s always room for fun and improvisation.”
Vasilis Bakos, born in a suburb of Boston by Winthrop by a pious family, was a diligent student at the Theological School of the Holy Cross in the 1980's, of a courteous nature and devoted to the Orthodox Faith. He followed and assisted the then Bishop Anthimos Drakonaki of Boston, who is now assistant Bishop with the title of Olympus.
When Vasilis finished the School in 1985 he fell off the radar for some time, until it became known that he had gone to Mount Athos and had become a monk at the Monastery of Simonopetra.
Today he is a monk, has been renamed Iakovos, is the dentist of the Monastery of Simonopetra and the rest of Mount Athos, and these days, after 26 years, is found in Boston invited by Metropolitan Methodios with the permission of the abbot, Fr. Elisha. He is exploring the possibilities of establishing a Monastery in New England.
To the questions of the "National Herald" as to when, how and why from the beautiful and scholarly Boston he became a monk on Mount Athos, he said that "immediately after graduating from the Theological School in June 1985 I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, then I spent three months in Greece and went to the Monastery of Simonopetra to the vigil for the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. I stayed five days and I decided to become a monk there."
When asked if he decided this suddenly, he replied: "No, I always desired to become a monk especially after I read the life of St. Anthony the Great, when I was at the Theological School." He added, "and I was in a search where I can find this monastic life, this relationship with God where I wanted to give more of myself."
Regarding Dentistry, Fr. Iakovos said that "this was a necessity that existed in the Monastery and because I had some practical knowledge from my childhood. When I became a Novice in the Monastery I went to a dentist with whom we started talking, so eventually I said 'it's a shame because the fathers need to leave the Mountain for simple procedures, for a cleaning, a filling.' And so we started in 1993, and there was professor at the University who came to the Monastery. I was an assistant for two years after which he sat in his chair and left me to do work on his own teeth, so slowly slowly I started, actually I was self-taught since I was now a monk, and it would not be appropriate to go to University."
For being here today, Father Iakovos said, "His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios of Boston for a long time wanted to establish a monastery in the Metropolis of Boston to equate with Simonopetra. In the summer he visited the Monastery, he asked the Elder for me to come here to investigate what can be done."
On whether it will be a male or female monastery, Fr. Iakovos replied: "At the moment it is male, but if there is demand from females we will be able to think for a female as well."
Regarding whether it is a Metochion (dependency) of the Monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, he said, "It is too early to discuss this, for now we live according to the desire of His Eminence and respond positively to help him in this way; it is still too early."
When asked where the Monastery would be established, he said: "As you know, we have a large area of land of 200 hectares at the Camp and it can be done in a more remote place to avoid hindering the life of the Monastery by the Camp, nor the Monastery to prevent the life of the Camp."
About a Roman Catholic Monastery sold near Worcester, he said that "I went and saw it and I think that it is feasible to do there."
Father Iakovos sees as the most likely place the land in Camp Contoocook of New Hampshire because, he said, "there is space," while to the question of how to populate the staffing of the Monastery he said that "this is God's work" and added "because God needs to speak in the hearts of men."
To the question of how they will maintain the Monastery financially from the Metropolis, by literally the people, Father Iakovos said: "Everything is a synergy by which the people will certainly give, and yet God will put his hand and there will be a blessing of the Lord."
A little while ago the body of a young woman was found in the parking lot of St. George's Greek Orthodox Church on South Common Street in Lynn, Massachusetts.
A few hours ago an abduction occurred in the neighboring town of Revere. Massachusetts State Police report that it is unclear at this time whether the two cases are related nor is it clear how the young woman died.
UPDATE:
Employee Allegedly Killed By Client at Revere Mental Health Facility
Travis Andersen and Patricia Wen January 20, 2011 Boston Globe
A fast-moving murder investigation on the North Shore earlier today ended tonight in Boston with the arrest of a 27-year-old mentally troubled man who fled after allegedly killing a young female employee of the small group home where he lived.
Wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap, Deshawn James Chappell was apprehended shortly before 8 p.m. inside his grandmother’s apartment building at 30 Rockland St. in Roxbury, and loaded into a waiting Boston police wagon.
He will be charged in the murder of Stephanie Moulton, 25, of Peabody, who had worked as a residential counselor at a group home in Revere run by the North Suffolk Mental Health Association, under contract with the state Department of Mental Health. She was allegedly taken by Chappell away from the facility sometime yesterday, after first being attacked. Her body was later found in a parking lot behind St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Lynn.
On September 18, 2010 a 35-year-old man named Mitchell Heisman from Somerville, Massachusetts shot himself at Harvard Yard in Cambridge. His suicide note was 1,905 pages long and was published at suicidenote.info, a website he created arguing history, politics, religion and death.
A quick look through the contents of the note show that Mitchell was a Nihilist who logically followed through with his philosophy. Since Nihilism reduces everything to absurdity and is by nature self-refuting, it destroys any value in meaning, purpose and even existence itself. When meaning and purpose are destroyed, an honest Nihilist will then have no choice but to destroy himself. Everything ends in nothingness for the Nihilist. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "That there is no truth; that there is no absolute state of affairs - no 'thing-in-itself.' This alone is Nihilism, and of the most extreme kind".
The Rev. Maximos D. McIntyre may be a Russian Orthodox priest and dress in traditional garb, including a cassock and “funny hat,” as he calls it. But this 32-year-old married Millbury resident who was born in Worcester also has a secular job as a technical writer in Westboro, lives in a regular house, and has just written a screenplay that’s made it to the voting stage of an American Idol-style screenplay and film competition.
Before penning “Lords of Glory,” and shopping it around Hollywood, Rev. McIntyre of St. John the Russian in Ipswich had worked as a freelance newspaper reporter and had done some writing work for the church. But he felt this story — about the Russian Revolution from 1910 to the present — would be better expressed on film.
The screenplay deals with the estimated 60 million to 70 million people who were slaughtered during this period, including people in Romania and China. “I feel like the market is overrun with novels,” he said. “I thought the story I wanted to tell was very visual and that this medium would work well.”
The play illustrates the idea that so many were slaughtered for their faith under the guise of communism, Rev. McIntyre said. “Atheism was not just a political stance but an eradication of God.”
The screenplay took about a year-and-a-half to write. “I was taking different testimonials and trying to weave a story” told through the eyes of a priest. “The clergy were always the first to go,” he said.
Rev. McIntyre traveled to California this summer to shop the screenplay, fully aware that its spiritual issues may not be marketable in the film industry. “I was realistic,” he said laughing, but knew he had to try. On his flight to Los Angeles he was coincidentally seated next to a man whose parents had fled from Armenia during the genocide there and built new lives in the U.S. “I was a little freaked out by that,” he said.
Because of its historical context, the film would be expensive to produce. “I just assumed that nobody was going to talk to me, and shut me down,” he said of his trip to L.A. Several producers met with him and “squashed it right off the bat … there is the business end of it again.” Some thought his clerical clothing was a marketing tool for the screenplay, but two or three studio representatives requested the script, and Rev. McIntyre said he met with representatives from Moviehatch, which runs an online voting contest for movie scripts.
Rev. McIntyre said he and about 50 other screenwriters have been included in the latest contest. “This means the work has been determined to be marketable,” he said, adding that a survey was taken showing that people would pay to see the film.
Rev. McIntyre said the top-voted scripts will go to Hollywood producers. He said 25 of the top producers are participating this year. “All the legwork’s been done for them.”
He said films such as Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” may have helped pave the way for screenplays with a religious message. But if he doesn’t get enough votes to make the final cut, he said he isn’t worried. “I have a few agents interested.” A self-published novel is also a possibility.
To vote for “Lords of Glory” in the online contest, log on to http://www.moviehatch.com/. To ensure voters only vote once, you will be instructed to enter your name and e-mail after rating the screenplay.
"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." - John 4:13-14
A few points of reflection entered my mind this morning as I contemplated the theme for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. These are in light of the following two news stories:
First, last night I received a phone call from the City of Boston to not drink the tap water because there was a pipe break. 30 towns in the Boston area were told to avoid tap water, or have it boiled if it must be consumed. When I went out to get some bottled water, the place I went to was all sold out. The latest news is that the leak has been identified and repairs are underway.
Second, I read this morning that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is getting bigger and bigger and may be coming up the East Coast - which could possibly mean more water issues here in Boston.
In light of today's theme and Gospel reading for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, and the whole period of the Pentecostarion in general, these news stories really bring home the Gospel passage above in a very practical way - much like it was for St. Photini when she heard this message from the Lord as she was drawing up water at the well.
Beyond this association, it also helps me reflect a bit on how the situation is around the world where drinking water problems are very common. I've been without water for about 16 hours or so, but I at least have other beverages to drink as I await the repairs - namely some iced tea I just bought at Dunkin Donuts (for which, as I think about it, hopefully they did not use tap water). My point is that we have it pretty well here in America where drinking water usually is not an issue for us.
My last point is that despite my iced tea, I'm actually craving some regular drinking water. The only thing I have to say about this is that I only wish I could crave the living water the Lord Jesus offers as much.
"The creation of Metropolis' has brought much fragmentation to the Church of America," remarked the professor of Patristic Theology at Holy Cross Theological School, Dr. George Bebis, in an interview with the National Herald, adding that "it is impermissible to not hear the commemoration of the name of Archbishop Demetrios."
Almost ten years after his official retirement, the professor of Patristic Theology of the Theological School in Boston, Dr. George Bebis, not only teaches two courses a year, but he insists on teaching in the Greek language.
He is the only professor who teaches courses in Patristics in Greek, and furthermore receives a minimum nominal tip for one course and the other he teaches totally free. For the past six months he was teaching a class on the Lives and Sayings of the Fathers. Speaking with the National Herald, he said, "Of course I taught it in the Greek language, and occasionally I say and write certain things on the board in English."
Dr. Bebis graduated from the Holy Cross Theological School as well as from Harvard University, and in Athens he received his doctoral degree. With particular satisfaction he mentioned how "this year I didn't see many older aged students, but young students, and that is a good sign. I would like young students to continue coming from Greece. In fact, I have one student in my class from Greece named Konstantinos Vasilakis."
He went on to say, that "it is also good for Greece that students come from there to our School, and it is good for our School and our Church if they stay here and get ordained or take a path towards Theology." Professor George Bebis came to the Theological School in 1950 as a poor orphaned boy from Crete and he succeeded and distinguished himself on his own. To the question on how different and how similar the Theological School is from back then to today, he answered how "it was very much different; we spoke only Greek." He went on to say: "I remember I had a Greek typewriter and I wrote all my academic work in Greek."
When the National Herald pointed out how in half a century we found ourselves where we are today, Professor Bebis agreed, saying, "Yes, unfortunately." He further said: "Last year the Chief Secretary of the Patriarchate, Fr. Elpidophoros Lambrianidis, addressed this problem of opposition to the Greek language, because young students from the Antiochian Archdiocese and many of our own protested that his speech was too Greek. And Fr. Elpidophoros, to his honor, said 'What is this here, is it not a Greek Orthodox Theological School?'"
Speaking of the chanting in the chapel, Dr. Bebis said: "I haven't seen Mr. Ketzetsis (chanter and professor of Ecclesiastical Music) at the School since September. They invite him elsewhere and he goes and chants, and even during Holy Week he is absent even though he should be present to give an example at the chapel." He said: "Of course there is always room for improvement to make things better, but the Greekness is missing; I would like more Greekness. I emphasize that the chapel is the only place where they will learn to chant in Greek, but we gather the converts, the married, etc. instead and they begin to chant in English."
He also made the point how "since the Gospels were written in Greek, and the Fathers were written in Greek, the School is the only center where the future priests will learn Greek. If they don't learn it at the School, where will they learn it?" Furthermore he said: "And I do not emphasize this out of fanaticism or carelessness, but I believe it is the only place where the Greek language should be taught, the tradition of course." He insisted: "The School must remain Greek."
Speaking about Hellenic College, Dr. Bebis revealed: "When Archbishop Demetrios came to the first meeting some professors of the School stood up and asked for the elimination of Hellenic College, and it was the first time I saw Demetrios get angry and say, 'Hellenic College will remain.'" Mr. Bebis believes that "it must remain; we must support Hellenic College and make it a Center of Hellenic Studies." When asked if it was a failure of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who recently visited America, to not visit the Theological School, to do a Memorial at the tomb of Iakovos, he said, "I sent him a gift and a letter in which I asked "are you not going to come to beautiful Boston?'"
To the question if in the end it was wrong for the Archdiocese to be split into Metropolis', Professor Bebis believes that "it is impermissible to not hear the commemoration of the name of Archbishop Demetrios."
He elaborated saying: "The creation of Metropolis' has brought much fragmentation to the Church of America." He explained how "the way the system is today, it is not right because there is only one Archbishop. Furthermore, the Metropolitans are in communion through the Archbishop with the Patriarch, and this is another proof that the chief shepherd is the Archbishop of America." When asked if today's hierarchs are something like helper bishops or Titular Metropolitans, he said: "Obviously, but they don't want this and there was a mess, and Bartholomew said 'ok, ok, I don't want a mess.'" Today the greatest fear of Mr. Bebis is "a split".
[For another interesting read, I recommend you read this piece about how Dr. Bebis and Fr. George Dragas, the two Holy Cross Patristic's professors, were excluded from being a part of the Pappas Patristic Institute and a Jesuit was chosen as it's chairman instead, though it should be an Orthodox Institute. - J.S.]
Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum looks over a replica of the body of Edgar Allan Poe, in Baltimore, Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. The Poe House will host a viewing of a replica of the body of Poe on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009, followed by the funeral he never had on Sunday. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)
[It seems like in his bicentenniel, Poe is getting some of the respect he deserves. He is one of my favorite English speaking authors and last year this month I had the opportunity to visit his grave in Baltimore, so this is a thrill for me. See my previous posts here and here.- J.S.]
BALTIMORE – For Edgar Allan Poe, 2009 has been a better year than 1849. After dozens of events in several cities to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, he's about to get the grand funeral that a writer of his stature should have received when he died.
One hundred sixty years ago, the beleaguered, impoverished Poe was found, delirious and in distress outside a Baltimore tavern. He was never coherent enough to explain what had befallen him since leaving Richmond, Va., a week earlier. He spent four days in a hospital before he died at age 40.
Poe's cousin, Neilson Poe, never announced his death publicly. Fewer than 10 people attended the hasty funeral for one of the 19th century's greatest writers. And the injustices piled on. Poe's tombstone was destroyed before it could be installed, when a train derailed and crashed into a stonecutter's yard. Rufus Griswold, a Poe enemy, published a libelous obituary that damaged Poe's reputation for decades.
But on Sunday, Poe's funeral will get an elaborate do-over, with two services expected to draw about 350 people each — the most a former church next to his grave can hold. Actors portraying Poe's contemporaries and other long-dead writers and artists will pay their respects, reading eulogies adapted from their writings about Poe.
"We are following the proper etiquette for funerals. We want to make it as realistic as possible," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum.
Advance tickets are sold out, although Jerome will make some seats available at the door to ensure packed houses. Fans are traveling from as far away as Vietnam.
The funeral is arguably the splashiest of a year's worth of events honoring the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. Along with Baltimore — where he spent some of his leanest years in the mid-1830s — Poe lived in or has strong connections to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Richmond.
With the funeral angle covered, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond staged a re-enactment last weekend of his death. Those with a more academic interest in Poe can attend the Poe Studies Association's annual conference from Thursday through Sunday in Philadelphia.
Visitors in Baltimore for the funeral can enjoy a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, "Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon," which includes chilling illustrations to "The Raven" by Edouard Manet.
Baltimore has a decided advantage over the other cities that lay claim to Poe, notes BMA director Doreen Bolger. "We have the body," she said.
This week, that's true in more ways than one. Jerome said he's gotten calls from people who thought he was going to exhume Poe's remains and rebury them.
"When they dug up Poe's body in 1875 to move it, it was mostly skeletal remains," Jerome said. "I've seen remains of people who've been in the ground since that time period, and there's hardly anything left."
Instead, Jerome commissioned local special-effects artist Eric Supensky to create an eerily lifelike — or deathlike — mock-up of Poe's corpse.
"I got chills," Jerome said Monday upon seeing the body for the first time. "This is going to freak people out."
The body will lie in state for 12 hours Wednesday at the Poe House, a tiny rowhome in a gritty section of west Baltimore. Visitors are invited to pay their respects.
Following the viewing will be an all-night vigil at Poe's grave at Westminster Burying Ground. Anyone who attends will have the opportunity to deliver a tribute.
On Sunday morning, a horse-drawn carriage will transport the replica of Poe's body from his former home to the graveyard for the funeral.
Actor John Astin, best known as Gomez Addams on TV's "The Addams Family," will serve as master of ceremonies.
"It's sort of a way of saying, 'Well, Eddie, your first funeral wasn't a very good one, but we're going to try to make it up to you, because we have so much respect for you,'" said Astin, who toured as Poe for years in a one-man show.
The service won't be a total lovefest, however. The first eulogy will come from none other than Griswold.
"People are asking me, 'Jeff, why are you inviting him? He hated Poe!'" Jerome said. "The reason is, most of these people defended Poe in response to what he said about Poe's life, so we can't have this service without having old Rufus sitting in the front row, spewing forth his hatred."
Eulogies will follow from actors portraying, among others, Sarah Helen Whitman, a minor poet whom Poe courted after his wife's death, and Walt Whitman, who attended the dedication of Poe's new gravestone in 1875 but didn't feel well enough to speak. Writers and artists influenced by Poe, including Arthur Conan Doyle and Alfred Hitchcock, will also be represented.
Jerome expects to cry — one reason he won't be speaking. Even his rivals are impressed with the scale of the tribute.
"Annoyed as I am with Baltimore sometimes, I have to give them credit," said Philadelphia-based Poe scholar Edward Pettit, who argues his city was of greater importance to Poe's life and literary career. "Baltimore has done an awful lot to maintain the legacy of Poe over the last 100-some years."
Our cities too now have beheld some images of Orthodox witness, at times concealed from the crudeness of worldliness, but strong enough to act as the Gospel leaven.
There lived in Boston in the second decade of the twentieth century a young man by the name of Nikolai Panteleimonov. He was an emigrant from Imperial Russia and possessed the treasure, as he regarded it, of all five volumes of the Philokalia, and many other spiritual books. And he occupied himself in living what these books taught, leading a life of great asceticism as directed by the Orthodox Church. But one day he fell into some grave sin, and upon hearing his confession, the priest put upon him a very severe penance of several hundred, if not thousand, prostrations a day for at least a year. Before this period was over the priest died - and the conscientious young man accepted the uncomplete penance for life.
He worked nights in a factory, and his days he spent locked in his dark attic room in extensive spiritual exercises and long fervent prayer with tears. He would go out for a breath of fresh air only after dusk, roaming the foggy streets. His whole life long he ate nothing but unpeeled boiled potatoes, and salted herring, and he drank nothing but weak tea. Even though his later years were somewhat lax, his whole life was a podvig. In his later years he was made a deacon, but for some reason, despite his absolute devotion to the Church and its every service, he was not in favor. He died a poor man in a city hospital, having himself made all the arrangement for his burial years before.
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
In his earlier years, as he later confessed, when he daily made thousands of prostrations, weeping in repentance and experiencing the power of unseen spirits, he was granted visions of St. Seraphim of Sarov. The first time he saw St. Seraphim was at Harvard Square in Cambridge, when he was coming up from the subway, not knowing which way to go find Russian people. He had taken it upon himself to help the poor monks on Mt. Athos by selling their icons to Orthodox Bostonians. In despair he hesitated, not knowing which street to take, when all of a sudden at some distance from him he saw an old man in full monastic habit, in whom he immediately recognized the dearly-beloved image of St. Seraphim. The Saint was looking at him in a friendly manner and was indicating with his hand the direction to take, even going a little way himself. He followed the Saint along Massachusetts Avenue towards Boston. But soon the figure of the Saint, who several times turned back to see if Fr. Nikolai was following, disappeared. In this miraculous way Fr. Nikolai came to very good and pious people who bought the icons he was carrying to sell. The second time the Saint appeared to him was under circumstances unknown to us. The Saint appeared in an area of crowded Tremont Street downtown, motioning for Fr. Nikolai to follow him. The Saint looked very tall and moved swiftly, walking so fast on the other side of the street that Fr. Nikolai could hardly keep up with him; finally, absolutely exhausted, he lost sight of him.
All his life Fr. Nikolai was preparing himself for a monastic life, but never actually entered a monastery, in obedience to the misleading advice of his lay-priest "staretz" who told him the monastic life was too lax.
(Excerpted from: “A Pilgrimage to the Orthodox Holy Places of America: The Fifth Pilgrimage” Orthodox Word, Apr-June, 1967, p. 31-32.)
Exit of Harvard Square subway today
Tremont Street, Boston, 1910-1920
[Any further information on Nikolai Panteleimonov would be appreciated. Unfortunately he seems to be lost to history as I contacted Saint Herman Monastery in Platina, California who publishes Orthodox Word and no one knew anything about him, including Abbot Herman. The article went on to speak of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, Massachusetts, so I contacted them as well and they had never heard of him before either. As the article was written 42 years ago, this does not surprise me. - J.S.]
Saint Botolph (Feast Day - June 17th) By John Sanidopoulos
Having been born and raised in Boston, there was once a time when I was about twenty years old that I lost my appreciation for this great city. In hindsight I look at that feeling as just an inner need to escape the environment I was living in and take in a new experience, both physically and mentally. I was in college at the time and had no chance of physical escape, so I realized I had to make an intellectual transformation of how I perceived Boston. My solution in accomplishing this was to devour what Boston had to offer that entire summer like an educated tourist and take in its amazing history through things like books, tours and excursions. That experience and intellectual broadening has transformed my thinking and to this day I sincerely appreciate and adore the city of Boston and after all my travels truly think it is the among the best cities of the United States.
Among my many discoveries at that time, and one of the most interesting, happened at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline when I came across an icon of Saint Botolph for sale that was painted by the monks of the same monastery. I had never heard of Saint Botolph before so it struck my curiosity as to who this was, and noticed they also distributed small icon prints with the image of Saint Botolph in front and on the back was his life story. This is what it said:
"Saint Botolph was born in England around 610. In his youth he became a monk in Gaul. By 654 he had returned to England and founded the Monastery of Ikanhoe in East Anglia. Thereafter, the place came to be called 'Botolphston' (from either 'Botolph's stone' or 'Botolph's town'), which was later contracted to 'Boston'. Having led many in the way of salvation, and renowned for his sanctity and miracles, Saint Botolph reposed around the year 680. He was greatly revered by his Christian countrymen in antiquity, and is commemorated to this day in the name of two cities, both the original Boston in the Lincolnshire fens (about 100 miles north of London), and likewise its namesake in the New World, in Massachusetts. The feast of St. Botolph is celebrated June 17."
I was just about drop-jawed when I found out that the city I was born and raised in was named after an Orthodox Saint, and even more pleased the monks had written hymns for Saint Botolph as well (see below). This was information they certainly did not teach me in school, and it was a discovery that literally transformed how I viewed Boston and prompted me to do further research.
One day soon after this discovery, while driving through Boston along Massachusetts Avenue, I noticed that the street running parallel to Huntington Avenue was named St. Botolph Street. Though there is no church dedicated to Saint Botolph on this street, I did discover later on, besides the fact there is an apartment complex named after Saint Botolph, that on Huntington Avenue itself there is a YMCA with an Anglican chapel inside dedicated to Saint Botolph. Besides this there are few other mentions of Saint Botolph in the city of Boston (there is a club named after him, and the house of the president of the Jesuit-founded Boston College is also named after the Saint). Noteworthy is the fact that pieces of the Gothic window tracery of Lincolnshire’s Church of St. Botolph are incorporated into the structure of Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square.
One thing I was pleased to discover however was that the Orthodox are slowly laying claim to their Saint in the hopes of sanctifying their city in the New World, as is traditionally done in the more Orthodox countries of the East. Besides the awareness Holy Transfiguration Monastery is promoting through their icon of Saint Botolph, there is also a Russian Orthodox Church Abroad parish in Roslindale named after Holy Epiphany that depicts an icon of Saint Botolph (painted by parishioner Zoya Shcheglov) on its south wall facing towards the city in full stature and giving blessing to the city that bears his name. Unfortunately there is no Orthodox church or chapel dedicated to Saint Botolph in Boston as of yet, but there is an Antiochian Orthodox Church dedicated to Saint Botolph in London.
The meeting between Winthrop and Blackstone and the naming of Boston
In my research regarding the figure of Saint Boltoph and the relationship between the two Bostons, this is what I discovered.
The Rev. William Blackstone was the first settler of the area that would come to be known as Boston. He was an Anglican priest who fled England due to his disagreements with the Church of England and joined the Gorges expedition to the New World in 1623. After most from the expedition returned home, Blackstone decided to live as a recluse in the heavily forested area of what we know today as Boston Common and Beacon Hill in 1625. He is said to have had the largest library in the colonies at that time and just wanted to live alone with his books, his cattle, and his gardens.
In 1629 Puritans arrived in Salem but then traveled to nearby Charlestown from a place in England called Boston in Lincolnshire. The area that Blackstone lived in was originally called Shawmut by the local Indians and Trimountaine by the colonists due to the fact that the area consisted of three hills (this is how Tremont Street got its name). In 1630 Blackstone invited the Puritans to make their settlement across the Charles River on the Shawmut Peninsula with him since they had problems with clean water in Charlestown. On September 17, 1630 their new settlement was renamed Boston with the proclamation of John Winthrop, "that Trimountaine shall be called Boston", after their hometown in England, and it was designated the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
John Winthrop
These Puritans were an intolerant group in their zeal to have a pure Church in the New World. When they settled in Boston they granted Blackstone 50 acres of his own land. However they looked upon him with suspicion since he was an ordained minister of the Church of England and the Puritans feared he would try to establish the Church of England in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritan court thus ordered his house be burned. This display of intolerance forced Blackstone to move 35 miles south and settle in Cumberland, Rhode Island. They also had Anne Hutchinson exiled to Rhode Island in 1638 as well for similar intolerance.
John Winthrop was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and he is famous for delivering his famous sermon titled "A Model of Christian Charity" in 1630 while still aboard the ship Arbella. This sermon contained the famous phrase "city upon a hill" when Winthrop warned the settlers that they were being watched by the world and needed to be an example of pure Christian conduct. It was his hope to build a model Christian community in the Massachusettss Bay Colony free from the corruption of the Church of England and thus be an example to the Protestants in Europe and reform the Church of England which had corrupted itself with Catholic practices.
Soon after the Puritan settlement in Boston, it became the largest and most influential city in the New World till the mid-18th century. America's first public school, Boston Latin, was founded in 1635 and its first college, Harvard, was established a year later. Boston Latin was modeled after Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire.
Rev. John Cotton eventually came to Boston with his family in 1633 to serve as the "Teacher" in what is now the old First Church in Boston’s Back Bay. During the remaining 19 years of his life, Cotton was the “senior statesman” of the Church as it quickly spread with the Massachusetts colony along the shores of northern New England. He served as an arbiter of theological controversy and largely defined the characteristics of what became New England Congregationalism. He was also the grandfather of Cotton Mather who would play an important role in the Salem Witch Trials. John Cotton is an under-recognized figure in history. It was he who lit the flame that motivated the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and more than any other single individual defined the society that became New England.
Rev. John Cotton
Back in England John Cotton had served in Boston as the vicar of Saint Botolph's Church from which many of the Puritan settlers had also come and knew of this charismatic minister. He had served at Saint Botolph's from 1612 and was widely regarded as the preeminent Puritan theologian in all of England. Cotton would draw large crowds to Saint Botolph's from throughout all of England to hear him deliver one of his legendary three-hour sermons. In fact, the pulpit raised in the church for John Cotton in 1612 is still in use today. When Archbishop Laud chastised Cotton for serving the sacrament to people standing instead of kneeling, Cotton replied there was no room for people to kneel. He was so popular that people from throughout England moved to Saint Botolph's town just to hear him preach. Soon the influence of the Puritans and Separatists reached the ear of the King and an effort was made to silence them.
It was during this time that the Puritans decided to move to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to practice their faith freely. With the financial backing of the Earl of Lincoln and the wealthy families of Saint Botolph's parish, in the spring of 1630 a flotilla of seven ships was ready to take the first wave of 1,000 emigrants to a new colony in the New World. Members of Saint Botolph’s Church were prominent among those who set sail for Massachusetts Bay in April 1630, under their chosen leader John Winthrop on the Arbella, named for the daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, who was aboard with her husband. Their pastor, John Cotton, preached a farewell sermon just a few days before the small convoy sailed from Yarmouth. It is said that about 10% of the first settlers in Boston, Massachusetts came from Boston, England.
Saint Botolph's Church in Lincolnshire along with the Boston Stump
Over the years, the old and new Bostons have kept in touch. St. Botolph’s Church was restored in the mid-1800's and again between 1929-33, both times with significant help from the people of Boston, Massachusetts. As it happens, the town offers unique hospitality for Americans as a result. In 1999 the Partnership of the Historic Bostons was formed to re-establish the relationship between Boston, Massachusetts, and its mother town in England, with committees on both sides of the Atlantic working to keep the connections alive. Every year in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Charter Day celebrates the anniversary of Boston’s naming and creation as a political entity on September 7, 1630. Events are coordinated by the Partnership (www.historicbostons.com).
Saint Botolph's Church began its construction in 1309 and completed in 1390. The church tower, famously known as Boston's Stump or The Stump, was erected in 1425 and took another 90 years to complete. It is the highest tower of any parish church in England at 272 feet built to navigate ships six miles away. It is of this tower with its beacon and its bells that we hear in Jean Ingelow's touching poem, "High Tide On the Coast of Lincolnshire." Its construction was based on the calendar: 365 steps up the tower for days of the year, 12 stained glass windows for months of the year, 4 large main doors for the seasons, and 7 columns on the chancel roof for days of the week. Today, Boston in Lincolnshire is a bustling market town of 36,000 and throughout the year of 2009 it is celebrating the 700th anniversary of Saint Botolph's Church with many festivities throughout the year.
The people of Lincolnshire modeled many things in new Boston based on old Boston. On March 4, 1634 the Court of Assistants in new Boston, remembering the Stump of Saint Botolph's Church, passed the following resolution: "It is ordered that there shall be forth with a beacon set on the Centry hill at Boston to give notice to the Country of any danger, and that there shall be a ward of one person kept there from the first of April to the last of September; and that upon the discovery of any danger the beacon shall be fired, an alarm given, as also messengers presently sent by that town where the danger is discovered to all other towns within this jurisdiction." This also helps us to understand the significance of the light at Boston's Old North Church in today's North End that sparked the Revolutionary War and signaled the famous ride of Paul Revere.
Nathaniel Hawthorne traveled to old Boston in Lincolnshire. He hints that the winding streets of new Boston can be attributed to old St. Botolph's town: "Its crooked streets and narrow lanes reminded me much of Hanover Street, Ann Street, and other portions of our American Boston. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the local habits and recollections of the first settlers may have had some influence on the physical character of the streets and houses in the New England metropolis; at any rate here is a similar intricacy of bewildering lanes and a number of old peaked and projecting storied dwellings, such as I used to see there in my boyish days. It is singular what a home feeling and sense of kindred I derived from this hereditary connection and fancied physiognomical resemblance between the old town and its well-grown daughter."
The relationship between old Boston and new Boston is beautifully expressed by New England poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Boston”:
St. Botolph’s Town! Hither across the plains
And fens of Lincolnshire, in garb austere,
There came a Saxon monk, and founded here
A Priory, pillaged by marauding Danes,
So that thereof no vestige now remains;
Only a name, that, spoken loud and clear,
And echoed in another hemisphere,
Survives the sculptured walls and painted panes.
St. Botolph’s Town! Far over leagues of land
And leagues of sea looks forth its noble tower,
And far around the chiming bells are heard;
So may that sacred name forever stand
A landmark, and a symbol of the power,
That lies concentred in a single word.
The Puritans who named their “city on a hill” Boston likely had no intention of naming the city after a canonized saint, merely naming it after where many of them came from. And while June 17th is a holiday in new Boston, it is not for Saint Botolph but for the battle fought on Bunker Hill on that day in 1775. Coincidentally, the feast day of Saint Patrick, Boston’s other patron saint due to its many Irish immigrants, is also a public holiday but that is due to Evacuation Day and not the Saint's day.
St. Botolph at Holy Epiphany Church in Roslindale, MA
Besides the information about Saint Botolph provided by Holy Transfiguration Monastery above, little is known about Saint Botolph. Here are some other facts that we do know:
- He was born into a Christian Saxon family in the early seventh century. Botolph and his brother Adolph were educated by Saint Fursey in Cnobersburg Monastery, located at Burgh Castle near Great Yarmouth.
- When Mercian forces invaded the region, Botolph and Adolph went to Europe and became Benedictine monks in Belgian Gaul. Botolph returned to England in 647 to found a monastery in East Anglia based on the Benedictine Rule. He is credited for first bringing Benedictine monasticim to England. His brother Adolph, also commemorated on June 17th, remained in Germany or Holland and became a bishop.
- On his return, Botolph approached the little known King of the southern Angles, Ethelmund, whose sisters he had known in Germany that were also monastics. The King offered Botolph part of the royal estate upon which to build a monastery. Botolph however had specifically asked for land not already in anyone’s possession so that his gain would not be another person’s loss. Instead he settled for a desolate, barren island, reported to be haunted by demons. We are told that he received threats and horrible apparitions by these marsh-demons and overcame them through prayer, fasting and erecting a large Cross. Thus, land haunted by demons became holy ground.
- With the support of Saint Syre, Saint Aubierge, and their brother, King Anna of East Anglia (who may be the same King Ethelmund), Botolph founded the Monastery of Ikanhoe (Ox-island), which according to the Saxon Chronicle, was established in 654 AD as a Benedictine abbey.
- The site was surrounded by water and endless work was needed to make this austere place viable. But Botolph attracted enough brother monks and hermits and soon, through their hard work and faith, the monastery grew. The monks built several structures, turned large areas of marsh and scrub into productive grazing and farm land, and dispelled the local people's fear of demons.
- No one knows for sure today where Ikanhoe was - the two modern contenders are Iken in Suffolk and Boston in Lincolnshire. For many years local historians believed that the developing area around the monastery came to be called Botolph's Town, then Botolphston, with the name finally contracted to Boston. However, more recent research suggests that the actual spot may be the village of Iken, near Snape in east Suffolk which, centuries ago, was almost encircled by the River Alde. The church there is also dedicated to St. Botolph.
Iken, which may be the true site of Ikenhoe
The village of Iken
- During his time at the monastary, Botolph also worked as a travelling missionary through the rough, bandit-plagued areas of East Anglia, Kent and Sussex. He was known for many wonders and healings and displayed a gift of prophecy. His biographer, the English monk and musician, Folcard, writing in the 11th century, describes him as "distinguished for his sweetness of disposition and affability." Even the prominent Anglo-Saxon monastic, St. Ceolfrid, who later brought to Rome the Codex Amiatinus, a manuscript of the oldest Vulgate text of the Bible, came to Ikenhoe to spend time with this man.
- It is believed he died after a long painful illness while being carried to chapel for a compline service on 17 June 680 – the date his feast is commemorated. He was buried there at Ikanhoe. He was known to be "a man of remarkable life and learning, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit." His relics were later found incorrupt, and giving off a sweet fragrance.
- Botolph is supposed to have been buried at his foundation of Ikanhoe. In 970 King Edgar gave permission for his relics to be transferred to Burgh, near Woodbridge where they remained for some 50 years before being transferred, on the instructions of Cnut, to their own tomb at the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. His relics were later translated (with those of his brother Adolph) to Thorney Abbey, although his head was transferred to Ely and other portions to Westminster Abbey and other houses. December 1 is the Feast of the Translation of his relics.
- Burgh is an ancient site, a hill top iron age settlement with signs of later Roman occupation. We know that in 970 the relics of Saint Botolph were housed in a chapel here and that he had a reputation for casting out demons. Burgh was known at that time as also being haunted by marsh-demons. There seems to be evidence that the hill in Beowulf, which was written in Suffolk in the 7th century, where Grendl was supposed to have lived, was this one. Was the story based on an older folk memory? The neighboring village is called Grundisburgh, consonant with the demon Grendl.
Burgh Church from the air looking northeast. The church overlooks the haunted marshes. It is thought that Saint Botolph's relics were brought here so the locals could overcome their fear of the demons inhabited in the marshes.
- Many churches between Yorkshire and Sussex are dedicated to Saint Botolph, with a heavy concentration in East Anglia. It is said there are 71 churches in total. They bear witness to his untiring missionary work which strengthened the Benedictine movement for many centuries after his lifetime.
- Because he is considered the patron saint of travelers, four City of London churches, near gates in the City walls, were dedicated to him - St Botolph Billingsgate (destroyed in the Great Fire and never rebuilt), St Botolph Aldersgate, St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate (where the poet Keats was baptized) and St Botolph's Aldgate. This is attributed to providing places for incoming travelers to give thanks to him for safe arrival and for outgoing travelers to pray to him for a safe journey, and/or to relics of him coming through these four gates when King Edgar moved them from Iken to Westminster Abbey.
- Since old Boston in Lincolnshire had originally been haunted by demons which were exorcised by Saint Botolph, this also became the model for Puritans in new Boston as well that unfortunately went too far in purifying the Massachusetts Bay Colony with their heresy and witch trials that resulted in many executions.
For hymns in English to Saint Botolph written by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, see here and here.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the First Tone
Neither the desolation of the fens, nor the depth of thy humility could hide the light of thy virtues, whereby thou becamest a lamp unto the faithful, O Botolph our venerable Father. Wherefore, we entreat thee: do thou also enlighten us who venerate thy blessed memory.
Kontakion in the First Tone
The glory of the just, the protector of Boston, the man of mighty prayer, our belov'd Father Botolph, entreateth the Saviour that He show mercy to all of us. Let us honour him with thankful praise, O ye faithful; let us imitate his conversation and virtues, that God hear his prayers for us.
Megalynarion
Boston doth exult on this holy day, for thy deeds, O wise one, are gone up as most fragrant myrrh and sweet smelling incense before the throne of Christ God, O Botolph, our blest Father and teacher in all truth.
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