America of my heart - English Flowers of Orthodoxy 9





America of my heart

English Flowers of Orthodoxy 9


ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY – MULTILINGUAL ORTHODOXY – EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH – ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑ – ​SIMBAHANG ORTODOKSO NG SILANGAN – 东正教在中国 – ORTODOXIA – 日本正教会 – ORTODOSSIA – อีสเทิร์นออร์ทอดอกซ์ – ORTHODOXIE – 동방 정교회 – PRAWOSŁAWIE – ORTHODOXE KERK -​​ නැගෙනහිර ඕර්තඩොක්ස් සභාව​ – ​СРЦЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНО – BISERICA ORTODOXĂ –​ ​GEREJA ORTODOKS – ORTODOKSI – ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ – ORTODOKSE KIRKE – CHÍNH THỐNG GIÁO ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG​ – ​EAGLAIS CHEARTCHREIDMHEACH​ – ​ ՈՒՂՂԱՓԱՌ ԵԿԵՂԵՑԻՆ​​ / Abel-Tasos Gkiouzelis - https://gkiouzelisabeltasos.blogspot.com - Email: gkiouz.abel@gmail.com - Feel free to email me...!

♫•(¯`v´¯) ¸.•*¨*
◦.(¯`:☼:´¯)
..✿.(.^.)•.¸¸.•`•.¸¸✿
✩¸ ¸.•¨ ​





WARNING about the IDOLATROUS and SATANIC celebration of Halloween


(In the picture: "Wicker Man" – a scarecrow – made from human bodies sacrificed in ancient times during the pagan festival of Samhain, the precursor to today's Halloween.)

It is always celebrated on the night of October 31st, when young children usually dress up as something "scary" and visit houses collecting lots of sweets, an activity known as "trick or treat." This celebration is often confused with the Greek Carnival (another pagan festival, and it's no coincidence that on the Sunday of Carnival, our Church talks about the Second Coming and the fearful Judgment of our Lord), but it differs greatly from it since Halloween has a more mystical character.

In recent years, October can't pass without at least one party featuring witches. It is inconceivable for a high-class household not to decorate with a pumpkin lantern. The bigger the pumpkin, the louder it shouts: "Trick or Treat"? Naturally, the more hollow, the more noise it makes...

But how on earth did a pumpkin become the symbol of this American celebration? And what exactly does one celebrate on Halloween?

The word "Halloween" (or more precisely: "Hallowe’en") comes from the old English word "Hallow," which means "Saint." Originally it was "All Hallow's Even" and eventually shortened to Halloween. Quite simply, it was the eve of All Saints' Day.

The symbol of the celebration is undoubtedly the hollow pumpkin, which is carved to resemble a human face, with a lit candle placed inside. Does this have any connection to the Feast of All Saints? At first glance, no. The pumpkin is supposedly linked to a trickster, a charlatan: Jack.
Jack-o'-lantern – The Legend of Trickster Jack...

Jack was nothing more than a scoundrel who got stuck between two worlds. The hollow pumpkin lanterns were meant to light the way for his lost soul. How did this happen? According to an Irish legend, Jack managed to trick the Devil.

The story goes that Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. But Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn into a coin to pay for their drinks. The Devil turned into a coin, but instead of paying, Jack put him in his pocket next to a cross, which prevented the Devil from returning to his original form. After many pleas, Jack finally agreed to free the Devil, on condition that the Devil wouldn’t bother him for a year and wouldn’t claim his soul when he died.

A year passed, and the Devil reappeared when Jack was trying to pick fruit from a tree. Jack asked the Devil to climb the tree to fetch some fruit. While the Devil was in the tree, Jack quickly carved a cross into the trunk, trapping the Devil up there. The Devil pleaded with Jack to let him down, and in exchange, promised not to bother him for ten more years. Jack agreed and freed him.

Several years later, Jack died. He went to Heaven, but God did not accept him, as Jack had lived a miserly and wicked life. So he was sent to Hell. However, the Devil didn’t want him either and reminded Jack of the promise he had made earlier. The Devil told Jack to leave. Jack then asked, "How will I go? It’s dark outside." The Devil took a burning coal and gave it to him to light his way through the night. Jack took a turnip (which he always carried with him since it was one of his favorite foods), hollowed it out, and placed the coal inside. From then on, Jack has been wandering the world, unable to find a place to rest his soul.

So, every Halloween, the Irish would carve turnips, potatoes, and pumpkins, place a candle inside, and set them near windows to keep away evil spirits, especially the spirit of stingy and mischievous Jack. These are Jack’s Lanterns, known in English as: Jack-o'-lanterns. (A completely pagan legend with clear references to Greek mythology.) It’s worth noting how the Devil is portrayed as a harmless, perhaps even naive, playful creature who can be outwitted by a mere man like Jack. This reminds us a bit of what Baudelaire once said: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

Samhain – The deep roots of Halloween…

Is there more than just distorted legends? Many believe that Halloween originated in the 7th century AD, from the festival of May 13th, which was a night of remembrance for the departed saints. In an attempt by the Western Church to "Christianize" the pagan – and satanic – festivals of Beltane and Samhain, this festival was moved to November 1st.

However, it seems that the roots of the pumpkin go much deeper... Already by the 5th century BC, the Celts of Britain and Ireland celebrated the festival of Samhain in late October, a time during which they believed that demons and the spirits of the dead roamed the earth. "Samhain," after all, means "the end of summer." For the Celts, it was the time when the veil between the human and supernatural worlds was lifted, and spirits wandered freely on the earth. It was believed that the souls of the dead would return to their homes, and families would leave food and drinks outside to appease the ghosts.

In the 1st century AD, the Romans conquered the Celts and inherited their spiritualistic rituals. Julius Caesar, in his Gallic Wars, describes the Druidic festival of Samhain and the Druids, who – by the way – were not as innocent and kind-hearted as the amiable Panoramix, nor did they exclusively deal with magical potions. He describes the Druids as a theocracy with absolute power over the rural population, which they had subjugated through fear. Over time, Samhain became associated with mass human sacrifices of men, women, and children, who were burned alive in giant effigies known as the Wicker Man.

In the 7th century AD, Pope Boniface IV (commemorated on May 8th) established the annual celebration of All Saints' Day to honor the martyrs. By the 11th century AD, November 2nd was designated as All Souls' Day to honor the memory of the dead. During the Middle Ages, the ancient Celtic customs in honor of demons were closely intertwined with the rituals honoring the dead. By the 18th century AD, the term Halloween appeared in written form for the first time.

The very next century, the 19th, brings the tradition to America, along with waves of immigrants from Ireland, who combined their customs with those of immigrants from Britain, Germany, and even Africa. Halloween began to be celebrated in the U.S. in 1840, when Irish Catholics brought the custom to their new homeland. The Americans, of course, embraced it enthusiastically. Give them a celebration and a symbol, and they’ll take it to the extreme. After all, the pumpkin fits so well into American pop culture...

The rest is more or less known. In the 20th century, with the help of cinema and television, Halloween became a nationwide celebration in the U.S. In the century we’re living in, it’s not just a holiday but also a huge business. Costumes, accessories, and pumpkins of all kinds are sold by the millions. For example, a quarter of all candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased exclusively for Halloween. Those who observe the tradition today, dressing up as ghosts or witches and asking for treats (treat) to avoid pranks (trick), are simply continuing the rituals of the Samhain festival. Just like most little kids in the U.S.

Full moon - pumpkin - witch - black cat... All the symbols of paganism together!

Trick or Treat? – What a cute dilemma...

On the day of the celebration, children go from house to house, singing in costumes, and the homeowners kindly open their doors, offering them candies and sweets. Otherwise... they accept that their little visitors might play a trick on them. That's why the custom is called “Trick or Treat?” – meaning: “a trick or a treat?” Cute tradition, huh? Sweet. Sprinkled with powdered sugar...

It likely originates from the offering left outside the door for the spirits. Unless... it comes from another custom, even darker. One of the traditions the Druids followed for Samhain was to walk around with pumpkins filled with human fat. Where did they get it? Well...

The Druids brought cauldrons and lit them for their sacrificial ceremony. While the cauldrons heated, the Druids knocked on the doors of the local lords and shouted “Trick or Treat,” which can also mean “trick or cure.” The reason they went door to door was to see if the lord of the manor intended to offer some “cure.” The cure was nothing less than a sacrifice. A human sacrifice. It could have been one of the servants or even a family member who was unlucky enough to be chosen that night.

The reward for the “cure” would be a pumpkin filled with human fat, which they would light to ensure that everyone inside the house was protected from the demons summoned during Samhain.

The Druids terrorized the inhabitants, warning them that if they did not provide an offering – a cure – a treat (which is what the word treat means), then... they were doomed, literally. A circle with a six-pointed star made of blood would be drawn on the house’s door, supposedly attracting demons and all the curses invoked by the Druids during Samhain.

So: either treat – human sacrifice – pumpkin with human fat, or trick – six-pointed star in blood – demons. Simple.

Whether we accept this theory about the origin of the phrase or the other, which claims that “trick or treat” is based on the practice of leaving sweets and food outside to appease the spirits of the dead... the origin of the celebration, its symbol, and its slogan are steeped in idolatry and spiritualism. It has nothing to do with Christianity.

Nevertheless, Halloween is the second most commercial holiday in America! Seven out of ten Americans (Catholics, Protestants, atheists) enthusiastically participate in Halloween. Satanists, too, consider Halloween one of their greatest holidays (if not the greatest) and celebrate it with as many sacrifices as they can offer. It’s notable that many animal shelters in the U.S. issue announcements saying they won’t allow the adoption of black cats during the days around Halloween.

In the end, Halloween, the holiday of witches and wizards, proved to be their most successful magic trick, as they managed to get so many people to celebrate alongside them.

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HOW I WOUND UP IN THE ARIZONA DESERT WITH ELDER EPHRAIM

Olga Rozhneva
    
People of God

My journey began long before I walked down the ramp of the oldest airline company, “Royal Dutch Airlines,” founded in 1919, onto American soil.

Since November 2014 we have been working, with the blessing of Vladyka, then still an archimandrite, Tikhon (Shevukonv), on the small-format booklet series “People of God,” on modern saints and ascetics of piety. Vladyka thought of the project himself and of formatting this supply of fascinating material in the shape of a modern paterikon. Vladyka Tikhon himself edited the first two books in the series, on the great elders Paisios the Athonite and Archimandrite John (Krestiankin). Some of the ascetics, about whom it was proposed to publish, were already glorified as saints, while the canonization of others remained only a question of time and the determination of God. When we worked on the first paterikon on Paisios the Athonite the elder was not yet glorified, but when the book was released from the publishing house, Venerable Paisios was already canonized and as if blessed our subsequent work on the series “People of God.”

I think many are familiar with the spiritual experience of when reading or hearing stories of the saints or ascetics of piety, feeling their invisible presence, their prayerful help. Gathering material for the books, I felt the saints are near. Temptations, internal and external, were intensified: people were angry with me for no special reason; my own passions, which I thought had abated, raised their heads.

Books on the elders Gabriel (Urgebadze), Zosima (Sokur), Nikolai Guryanov, Paul (Gruzdev), and other elders and saints have been published—more than twenty books.

We also prepared a book on the great Elder Joseph the Hesychast for publication in this “People of God” series. Having great love for this elder, with fervent zeal I gathered material on a few of his spiritual children who themselves became elders: Hieroschemamonk Ephraim of Katounakia, Elder Arsenios the Hesychast and Cave-dweller and the still living and thriving Archimandrite Ephraim (Moraitis) of Philotheou.


Elder Ephraim was chosen as the abbot of Philotheou on Mt. Athos in 1973 and in short order revived the ascetic monastic life in the monastery, after which the Kinot of the Holy Mountain blessed him to expand and fill three other Athonite monasteries with those seeking the monastic life: Xeropotamou, Konstamonitou, and Karakallou. These monasteries are still under Archimandrite Ephraim’s spiritual guidance, as are also a number of men’s and women’s monasteries in Greece and North America.
In 1960 the Greek Orthodox priest and theologian Archpriest John Romanides wrote: “The Holy Mountain should immediately send their representatives to America and found there monastic habitations, otherwise Orthodoxy on the American continent awaits its inevitable destruction.”

A few years later these prophetic words were embodied in life by the efforts of just one person. Monasteries of Elder Ephraim appeared in many regions of America and Canada: New York, Texas, Florida, Washington, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Michigan, Montreal, and Toronto. Chief among them is the Monastery of St. Anthony the Great in Arizona, and therefore now the elder is often known as Ephraim of Arizona.

The saints are near

While working on the books about great Athonite elders the feeling of their nearness, their presence, and of spiritual connection with them, the feeling of heartfelt affection became so strong, so real, that I began to doubt: maybe it was womanly exaltation, my gender’s prelest? So many turn to the elders for prayerful help, so many spiritual children they have…

Is it possible that they knew even about me, sitting here at my old computer, in a small house on the outskirts of some provincial town? The autumn air smelled strongly of rotting leaves, early twilight was quickly creeping up, icy wet wind knocked on the door, but the artificial yellow light in the room couldn’t drive away the thick impenetrable fog outside the window. Thoughts of doubt and disbelief tempted, crowded, and crept into my soul.


And then the following thought visited my feebly-believing head: if such a spiritual connection truly exists, it can be verified in practice! I can mentally turn to Archimandrite Ephraim with any request. Never mind that the elder doesn’t know Russian or English and I don’t know Greek—as is known, there’s no obstacles to spiritual communion. If he answers me, it means this spiritual connection is real. I hastily swept aside all requests which could have been fulfilled by simple coincidence. I had to ask the elder about something I couldn’t do myself without his prayerful intercession. I thought of something! I said to the elder:
“Dear elder! I so want to see you and receive your blessing! I so want to see St. Anthony’s Monastery, where you are now laboring with your spiritual children! For me to travel to America would be like flying into space… But I believe, if you pray, I will wind up at your monastery. And it would mean the spiritual connection is real.

The next morning, in the daylight, yesterday’s thoughts, doubts, and requests already seemed stupid, childish, and fantastic.

You won’t believe it, but within a month I was standing at the gates of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona, mouth agape with surprise, looking around at the Sonora desert, right across from me the native inhabitants of these places—a twenty-three-foot-wide cactus. It was like a fairy tale. I probably looked quite ridiculous.

Flying across the ocean

My miraculous trip across the ocean happened in the following way. A day after my fervent requests, an American named Richard came to Optina Pustyn, being baptized there with the name Ambrose. We met at the monastery and became friends. I recorded a conversation with the newly-baptized, published on pravoslavie.ru, and now Richard-Ambrose, having come to visit me, behind a cup of tea laughed, saying:

“I’m a famous person in Russia now! I go to Moscow, visit Novodevichy Monastery, and they call me by name. I ask: “How do you know my name?!” They answer: “We read pravoslavie.ru, and saw your photo there!”

Ambrose is now my spiritual brother—we have the same Optina archimandrite for a spiritual father. My brother began to share with me his regrets, that he didn’t fulfill his spiritual father’s blessing—how to go to confession now? “Well, I’ll ask forgiveness and explain that I wasn’t able, that I’ll fulfill it next time…”

“Was it a difficult blessing?”

“Not very: they blessed me to visit St. Anthony’s Monastery, the one in Arizona in the Sonora desert. It’s not so far from my home state of South Carolina, but I wasn’t able to arrange it all, I had a lot of things to do, and didn’t go…”

I think you will understand why my heart began to pound at these words.

Ambrose didn’t come alone this time, but with a friend Michael. Michael is Russian and lives in America. Besides his legal degree from Russia he received a legal education from George Washington University in the US capital, is licensed and works successfully as a lawyer. He’s a very smart, faithful young man. He serves in the altar in an Orthodox church, regularly confessing and communing. We went to Shamordino together and swam in the holy springs. He read one of my books and liked it. He asked me:

“Olga, would you like to see Orthodox America?” “I want to want to, but what’s the use? For me, getting to America is like getting to the moon…”

My American friends laughed. And here, by the prayers of Elder Ephraim, with the help of Misha[1] and Ambrose I found out that the path to America is much closer and easier than to the moon.


    
Sonora Desert, Arizona

Ambrose and I landed in Arizona at the same time, him coming from South Carolina, a subtropic state of sabal palm trees and white-toothed smiles, and me from the capital Washington, one of the few pre-planned cities of America, where there is a great concentration of historical attractions, free museums, and gorgeous parks.

We met at the airport. Ambrose was holding a garment bag in one hand and with the other clutching a book to his chest he had taken with him on the plane. “Do you have this book? I really, really like it! I never read anything like it! Never! You have to read it if you haven’t!”

I know my spiritual brother does a lot of reading, has a PhD, and easily quotes various authors, beginning with the ancient Greek fathers of tragedy and drama. At Shamordino there is an elderly academic nun who, realizing Ambrose was an American, advised him to learn at least a little about Russia for his spiritual salvation. The tactful Richard-Ambrose just politely smiled in response, not telling the nun that one of his papers dealt with the role of Peter Arkadievich Stolypin in Russian history. So, Ambrose is quite bright, an intellectual. Therefore, for me, his enthusiastic review of the book is the best recommendation.

“Which book?”

He turned the book around and I saw depicted on the cover Archimandrite Nathaniel (Pospelov) of the Pskov Caves Monastery. He was reading “Everyday Saints.” I smiled at Ambrose.
    
My American brother rented a car and we drove through the desert with gigantic many-armed saguaro cacti reaching up to fifty feet high and 150 years of age. I think we could say this huge, fat cactus probably remembers the nineteenth century… Its roots spread 100 feet out from its body. Saguaro flowers, delicate and beautiful, blossoming at night, are a state symbol of Arizona. Besides the saguaro, another fifty types of cacti grow in the Sonora.

Posters at a roadside café tout their usefulness. Apparently cactus stems are wholly edible; they can be baked and fried, a paste is made from the pulp, wine from the juice, jams and compotes from the fruits, and its tough wood is used for fuel and building material.

The Sonora is the hottest of the four American deserts, but now, in December, at night it’s only 77° F. I read a book on animals in the Sonora. I didn’t know if I would see any of them, but they sound very interesting: antelope squirrels, antelope rabbits, and prong-horned antelope, grasshopper mice, deer mice, ground squirrels, and also bat-eared foxes, coyotes, desert badgers… The dangerous desert predator, the puma, has become very rare and is disappearing from hunting. The Sonora lizards are the only poisonous lizards in the world. There are seven types of rattlesnakes, black tarantulas, yellow scorpions, and black widows—a female with a bite lethal for humans.

“Olga, do you want to go for a walk in the desert, see some more, maybe take a picture with a cactus?” “Later… Next time…”

Many of the inhabitants of the Sonora are used to leading a nocturnal lifestyle—it’s always cooler at night. During the day they hide out in burrows. But there are those of the day: animals often crossed our path, but whether they were coyotes or bat-eared foxes I don’t know. I was just glad they weren’t pumas. Unknown birds of this foreign continent flew in the sky.
    
The Monastery of St. Anthony the Great

We arrived at the monastery at six at night, in time only to look around. It got dark pretty quickly and I couldn’t see anything clearly. I only met a Russian hierodeacon, Seraphim, who’s been living in America since 1995 and in the monastery since 2002 with the obedience of working in the bookstore and meeting guests.

Stone paths, framed by multi-colored bricks, lead to the monastic cells and pilgrims’ guest houses. Men are forbidden to enter the women’s guest house. In my room of six bunks there were only two people, one American, the other Greek. The Greek woman didn’t speak English very well, but the three of us understood one another beautifully, got quickly acquainted, and spoke a bit about ourselves.

Quiet time began at 7 PM for rest before the night service, during which you cannot make noise, take a shower, or talk. Each bed has a nightstand with a lamp, and you can read during quiet time if you don’t want to sleep. There are a few chairs, some cabinets for clothes, and a bathroom with a shower. The cells are very cozy, with icons above the beds, and blinds always drawn on the windows. There’s an air conditioner and a fan. In the kitchen there’s a supply of potable water, you can brew tea and coffee, and there’s large containers of apple and orange juice in the fridge.


    
Monastery services

At midnight my roommates and I went to the service together. We went early to get a blessing from Archimandrite Ephraim and Abbot Paisios—the elder’s spiritual child who followed him from Mt. Athos.

We went up to the elders in order. Elder Ephraim used to give his blessing first, but now he stands behind Abbot Paisios and blesses second. The elder, eighty-seven years old, is gradually moving towards a more private, reclusive life. He already doesn’t go to the common meals with the brothers. The elder looks much younger than his years: short, of ascetic composition, gray beard, very kind eyes. Extraordinary feelings envelop you in his presence, but I won’t enlarge upon this, keeping in mind the words of the holy fathers: “To praise an ascetic monk is the same as to trip him.”

There’s no electricity in the church except for two small lights for the chanters. After the All-Night Vigil, at Liturgy, two monks from opposite sides light the candles on the chandelier. Then one of them, with a special stick with a hook on the end, with considerable effort pulls the large chandelier with burning three-foot candles, as far as the chains allow. Then the chandelier swings back and the chandelier begins to move in a pendulum motion. Then the monk takes the smaller chandelier hanging in the center of the larger one and swings it in the opposite direction of the larger one. It’s a little hard to describe, but when it begins to spin in the darkness of the church in all its radiant splendor—it leaves a remarkable impression. And it rotates on its own for a surprisingly long time—until the end of the service!

    
Women stand strictly on the left side of the church, men on the right. No one tries to break this routine. During the singing of “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal…” in Liturgy, two monk-ecclesiarchs cense the church and believers according to Athonite tradition with hand censers—no chains, but a long handle with chiming bells. Choral singing is not used, except for the “Cherubic Hymn” and “It is Truly Meet.” One of the chanters on the kliros sings the melody in a particular voice while two others follow along with the root notes as an ison. It turns out quite beautifully. The Creed is not sung, but read by the abbot. Communicants don’t say their name as we do in the Russian Church, and having communed, wipe their own mouths with the cloth. They don’t kiss the chalice. There’s no zapivka,[2] just the handing out of antidoron. There are a few other differences, but they don’t strike the eye, and are noticeable only to the clergy and kliros.

I was standing in these amazing night services and thinking that women can’t go to Mt. Athos, so visiting the Monastery of St. Anthony the Great and the others founded by Elder Ephraim is a unique opportunity for women to feel the spirit of Athos. You’re touched by the prayers of the holy Athonite elder Joseph the Hesychast, through the prayers of his spiritual children who have themselves become great elders. This prayer and love can be felt anywhere on earth, even at a distance of a thousand miles. You pray in your mother tongue, and in some miraculous manner, by the grace of the Holy Spirit Who gave the apostles the gift of speaking in other tongues, the elder, having acquired this grace, understands you.


    
In a Greek church you can go up to the solea, which is not elevated, and venerate the icons. On the icons are several metal plates—on one, a hand, on another, a leg, an eye, a baby, another hand, a whole person. It’s a Greek tradition—having prayed for healing or the gift of children, and having received your request, you order these plates in gratitude.

Trapeza

After the service is trapeza. On weekdays the brethren have breakfast in their cells, the pilgrims in the trapeza, and they have lunch together. On feast days there’s a common breakfast. About forty-five brothers sit across from the abbot’s table, then the table for male pilgrims, and then further, the table for female pilgrims. Trapeza begins with the ringing of a bell. About ten minutes later there’s another bell, and you can pour yourself some cold water from a jug. The meal ends with the third ringing of the bell.

Today was a feast and we had festal dishes: mashed potatoes, fried fish, salad, olives from the monastery garden, and an apple on each plate, and bottles of apple cider vinegar and fresh olive oil. It was a festal trapeza. There was none of the typical Russian feast day fare: fish for the ascetics was already a big slackening from their daily menu. At the end of the meal they eat a piece of the Theotokion bread with a festal service, in order of seniority, pinching off a piece from the common loaf.

The next weekday at breakfast the brothers were gone. The pilgrims themselves pass by large plates and pots of food, serving themselves each what they want: nuts, halva, Turkish Delight, olives, salad, bread smeared with peanut butter, cups full of tea and caffeine-free coffee—you have to sleep after the night services!

    
Monastery and church surroundings

After sleeping a few hours after the service I quietly got up—my neighbors were still sleeping—and went to look around the monastery. Everything around was filled with the freshness and sunlight of the early morning. There are palms of several types, larches, pines, various cacti, multi-colored shrubbery—more than 2,000 types of plants providing shade and coolness, the sound of water in fountains decorated with stone lions and eagles. Flowers in flowerbeds, in stone vases, and usual ceramic pots gladden the eye. A bit farther, in the monastery garden are oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pistachio trees, and date palms. There’s a small vineyard and olive grove. A worker, gathering the citruses, gave me a couple of lemons.

I was struck by the beautiful churches, varying in size and style. The main church is named for St. Anthony the Great—the father of ancient monasticism—and St. Nektarios of Aegina—a highly venerated Greek saint having the grace to heal cancer. The icon of the Mother of God “of Arizona” was painted and sent from Greece for the cathedral. It is venerated as wonderworking. Its style is reminiscent of the well-known “Queen of All” icon.

Some distance from the monastery, on a hill is seen the snow white church of the Prophet Elijah, with blue cupolas. Fr. Seraphim gave me the key and a blessing to enter this remote church all alone. He suggested that I return to the guest house for a bottle of water. I didn’t want to return, which I ended up regretting, because we had to walk not far but in the heat, without any shade along the road, then up the steps to climb the mountain to the church.

    
I walked tentatively through the desert, timidly looking around, searching for rattlesnakes and scorpions. Having climbed the steps up the mountain, from which opened up a miraculous view of the surroundings, I calmed down and easily opened the massive door with the key. The church was cool, and a prayerful silence reigned. I prayed. I returned without any fear, admiring the unusual views of the vast desert. The only thing—I made a mistake and went the opposite direction of the monastery at the fork. How I managed to get lost in broad daylight I don’t know. Apparently I was affected by a few nights practically without sleep from the long flight and night service.

    
On Elders Ephraim, Paisios, and Paul (Gruzdev) and oranges

After my short trip on my own into the desert Hierodeacon Seraphim introduced me to one of the few Russian families living not far from the monastery. Michael and Olga invited Ambrose and I over, and we drove down the deserted highway in search of their home. There were no cars, it was a complete wilderness—only a cactus—the silent guards of the surrounding area. Turning onto a country road, coyotes passed by our car. Finally into the desert, leaving the pavement behind, a sign appeared: “Dead end.”

The houses of those who moved near the monastery and exchanged the noisy attractions and benefits of city life for the desert are located at a considerable distance from one another, with only the Sonora between them in all its glory.

The owners greeted us joyfully.

—Hello, allow us to thank you for the invitation!

Olga: You know, we Russian families, living here, all read the site pravoslavie.ru. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the creator and spiritual guide Vladyka Tikhon (Shevkunov). We know this site won’t let us down, that we won’t read anything confusing there, that would lead into temptation… You can feel the sobriety, spiritual discernment… And by the way, I know you by correspondence—I have your book Paths of Our Lives. You even signed it yourself for me!

—Me?!

Olga: Do you remember? After an excursion at Optina you signed my friend’s book and she asked you: “Sign another for my friends in Arizona, Olga and Michael.” We are those very same friends!

(“It’s truly a small world!” I thought.)

—How did you come to America?

Olga: I came as a programmer and wanted to get to know some advanced technology and to see how things were here in the West… I had no plans to stay here permanently. But the Lord was in control, and now I can work from home as a programmer—it’s a miracle, and not a small one.

Michael: And I’m a doctor. I worked here in a medical corporation which manufactures medical equipment. I met Olga in California almost as soon as I arrived. We got married here in America. We went to a Russian church in San Diego where we lived, and constantly prayed that the Lord would send us where we could be saved.

    
—How did you end up here, in the Sonora desert?

Olga: You might be surprised, but I think I should start with my grandmother’s spiritual father, Fr. Paul (Gruzdev). My grandmother’s name was Vera, and she was from one of the places where Fr. Paul served. She was his spiritual child. The women that helped him were all my grandmother’s friends. He called them “My grandmas”… My mom confessed to him, and probably it was his prayers that impacted our lives. Look, we have a portrait of him there—they’re all Greeks, various elders, and Fr. Paul with them, for company’s sake (smiling).

He was supposed to baptize me in childhood, but it didn’t work out. My grandmother died early, in Bright Week, and I grew up unbaptized. But I really feel Fr. Paul’s care for me in my life. Grandma’s prayers and care are also present.

(As I was listening to Olga I felt my heart stop: a spiritual connection with holy people—is this not what called me across the ocean?)

Olga: Before her death my grandmother was lying in the hospital and my mom was in the bed next to her, to take care of her. Not long before she died Fr. Paul sent two oranges to her as a gift. Grandma couldn’t eat by this point, and mom didn’t want them, so they sat on the shelf for a long time. Mama would reminisce about how strange it was to see these bright orange oranges in a white hospital room. For a village hospital at that time fruit was unusual, an overseas thing.

When we moved here and began to plant orange trees, I remembered those very oranges. I want to believe that it was Fr. Paul’s prediction about the future… You know: “Events are the language by which the Lord God speaks to us”…

    
—You plant orange trees?

Michael: Yes, we have a big garden here… We planted them, they grew… This year was the first harvest. There are so many oranges! Arizona is like the orange state. You know, the most delicious and sweetest citrus grows in the desert.

Olga: There was a second sign that Fr. Paul gave us, that we wouldn’t be here without his prayers. A few pilgrims from Russia came to the monastery. One of them came to our house, saw the portraits of the elders and asked: “How did a portrait of Fr. Paul wind up here in Arizona?” It turns out she had been to see him, and considers him her spiritual father who greatly helped her to find the right way in life. “I,” she said, “asked his blessing to continue studying after institute, but he answered: ‘No. It’s not necessary. You will have a house, with cows walking and mooing around you.’ And, you know, his prophecy came completely true! She lives in her own house with cows all around! Although, they’re not her cows…”

Michael: There’s a few details to add: these cows walk through Swiss meadows—her husband is very rich and they live in Switzerland. And when Fr. Paul said this to her, she thought: “What cows?!” Such, you know, an educated woman…

Olga: We asked Fr. Paul to direct us in life, and he guides us, tells us the news… We lived in California for twelve years. At one point we really wanted to return to Russia, to the city of Rybinsk, where my parents live now. We started looking for a house there and were about to buy one. We had just enough money for a house. At the same time we started coming here, to St. Anthony’s. We liked the monastery but also wanted our homeland. On the day we were supposed to pay for our house in Rybinsk either the crisis happened in Russia, or our stock crashed… I already forgot…

Michael: The developers there stopped building and didn’t even want to return the money we’d already sent…

Olga: It was clearly the intervention of God’s providence. But when we were planning to come here, by the monastery, everything with buying the house went smoothly.

—In such a deserted place, where almost no one lives?

Michael: People live here—they just have big tracts of land… We have ten acres, and our neighbor has a hundred acres. Land here is sold in such chunks—it’s cheap. It’s desert here.

—But why so much land?

Michael (smiling): All the Russians ask this. If you pour the water from the well, everything will grow here: citruses, dates, figs, apples.


    
—And you like living here?

Michael: Of course! You know, it’s like living near Optina. It’s not for nothing that you live by Optina, right? Apparently something pulled you there? Maybe you felt some special grace? We’re the same. We’re nurtured here by the abbot Fr. Paisios.

—Maybe you can say something about your spiritual father and some of his teachings?

Olga: Fr. Paisios guides us by example. In the lives of the saints there’s a story of one elder-abbot. They asked him: “Father, why do you stand the whole time in church? You never even sit in your abbot’s chair?” The elder answered: “If I sit, my monks will lie down.” That’s how Fr. Paisios is: he shows us everything by his example. He labors alongside not just the older brethren, but even with the novices, not shunning any work. He speaks little but does much. He is very humble and tries to remain in the shadow of Elder Ephraim. He also helps the elder hear the pilgrims’ confessions. Usually Fr. Paisios receives Americans and Russians.

Michael: He is an ascetic. He doesn’t give particular instructions, but prays for his children, and we feel his prayer.

—Could you say a little about Elder Ephraim?

Michael: We haven’t been able to speak with Elder Ephraim very much—Elder Paisios is our spiritual father.

Olga: We have a Greek teacher now, who is a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim.

Michael: You know, when you go to Optina, you feel the spirit of the Optina elders there, even though the elders were there a century ago… and the Optina new martyrs—you feel their protection. St. Anthony’s Monastery is young, founded in 1995, but the continuity of eldership is here. Elder Joseph the Hesychast protects this monastery. The spirit of Elder Joseph the Hesychast and the Greek ascetics is here. And the rule here totally coincides with that of the Athonite monasteries where spiritual children of Elder Joseph became the abbots. So this rule has been verified by the experience of Athonite monasteries.

    
Olga: A priest from Greece, Fr. Stephen Anagnostopulous, came to the monastery not too long ago. He’s been a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim for many years and has written many books, one of which, Revelations During the Divine Liturgy, I strongly recommend you to read, although it’s only been published in Greek and English. He’s a Spirit-bearing father. The elder blessed him to have a conversation with the laypeople, and during this conversation he told us a little about the elder: “Once, many years ago, when the Elder was visiting me in Greece, many people gathered to listen to him, take his blessing, and ask him some questions. My wife set the table, but it so happened that we only had one loaf of bread, and we worried that it wouldn’t be enough for all our guests. Then the elder took the bread in his hands and began to break pieces off and give them to the guests. He kept doing it, and the loaf never ran out, until he had given everyone a piece. It was clearly a miracle that my family and I witnessed.”

Fr. Stephen then told us: “There are among you those who very much would like to see the living Christ, even with one eye to see Him as He walked with His Most Pure Feet on earth. I tell such people: go and look at Elder Ephraim, because to see the elder is the same as to see Christ, because Elder Ephraim has Christ in his heart.”

On Sundays after the service I go to talks for women led by one woman, Alexandra, who is also the elder’s spiritual child, with his blessing. Once, when the end of the conversation turned to the current lamentable state of the world, she said: “The elders (having in mind our elder, and also St. Paisios the Athonite who she had gone to see a few times) say that in our modern times it’s easy for the educated to be saved. The explanation is that the Lord always send His grace into the world. There used to be many ascetics who labored much to acquire grace. Now the number of those being saved has become quite small, and the quantity of grace, if I can say so, has remained the same. People willingly refuse the gifts of God, but grace doesn’t return back to the Lord. It’s like a bee looking for a flower in the meadow, and this excess of grace seeks a soul which prays and asks the Lord for some spiritual gifts. So, the elders say, today’s Christians, laboring a bit, can receive so much grace, and such gifts, for the sake of which the ancient ascetics had to labor for years.”

    
—Thank you very much for the conversation!

Olga: In parting, I will tell you a parable of Elder Ephraim, which one Greek, Maria, his spiritual child, told us after the Saturday service. Elder Ephraim has a very vivid tongue. This is the story.

Elder Ephraim's story

Once there lived an ascetic monk (the elder did not say this story was about himself, but monks often speak about themselves in the third person). And once this ascetic, having many spiritual children, knocked for the Lord. The Lord opened to door for him, and the monk said:

“My Christ, I labor here with all my strength, I pray—can I ask of You one thing?”

“Ask,” answered the Lord.

“I have spiritual children, people with whom I’m connected. In the past, to enter the Heavenly Kingdom you had to score ten points. Ten out of ten. You had to labor quite hard. But times are so hard now that there’s no one around who can labor this way, to get ten out of ten… Can You make it so that those who get eight points would also be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom?”

“Very well, for your sake, for the sake of your love for Me, so be it.”


The ascetic continued to pray and again knocked at the Lord:
“My Christ, can I ask you another favor?”

“Ask,” the Lord answered again.

“You know, My Christ, even eight points is very hard to get. But people try. They try to obey, to pray. And what if only a few of them can score eight points? Make it, please, that those who get six points would also be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom. After all, it would be a shame if a man tried all his life… But they’re so weak now… There are so many temptations in this world now and spiritual life is so low… Those who score six points—take them to Yourself as well!”

“Very well,” the Lord answered. “For the sake of your podvigs and love for Me, so be it.”

After a while the ascetic knocked a third time:

“Lord, and if they only score a four? Please, My Christ, I will labor for them, will keep vigil and labor even to the point of blood! Please, allow them also to see the Heavenly Kingdom!

“So be it,” uttered the Lord.

The monk looked around at the people, looked at all his spiritual children, thought, and again meekly approached the door. But when he was about to knock again, the Lord Himself opened the door and said to the ascetic:

“You know, all the same, they themselves have to try and make some effort!


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"I tell you, one day, America will be Holy"

—Saint Paisios of Holy Mount Athos, Greece (+1994)

INS.

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Saint Elder Ephraim of Arizona (+2019):

«I went to Canada and there I spoke to the Greek community about the devil, about how he tricked us into sin. When I finished the speech and everyone was leaving, there was a big racket. Some ladies came to me and informed me that some woman had been possessed. She screamed and screamed by saying words about me:
"This man has revealed me, I cannot hide! What is he doing here in Canada? He came to get with him all my people that I kept well tied. I will harm him, I will take revenge."
They moved her to a room. And as soon as she calmed down, I went and met her. She had her eyes closed and trembled like a fish! As it is my duty I opened the holy book of Sacraments, I wore the epitrachelion and pronounced for her the blessings of St. Basil the Great. As soon as I finished, she opened her eyes, stopped trembling and said: 
"Father, I want to confess!"
I really confessed her. This woman had a demon for many years, but it had not manifested in her. She took communion, she was a regular church-goer, but she was not aware that she was possessed...
But on the occasion of the speech I had made, the demon had manifested itself. Many who were present on the scene with the possessed, benefited greatly and people who did not believe in demons and the devil, believed in the existence of the evil spirits».

INS.


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A MIRACLE BY THE HOLY ELDER EPHRAIM OF ARIZONA, USA (+2019)

“A couple of years ago, I had four seizures within eight hours which hospitalized me for five days. The diagnosis was epilepsy or seizure disorder. A little later when, just a few months before Geronda’s repose, I travelled to the monastery, I had another episode on the airplane. When I arrived at the monastery, I was standing in line to get a blessing from Geronda after Vespers. I was struggling with walking and was not feeling well. Geronda is usually non-talkative during these blessings, but when I approached, he all of a sudden said loudly, “Po, po, po. . .” (Which means ‘Oh my’) and then staring deeply into my eyes, he said, “Empathia, empathia, empathia,” referring to the passions. I stood there with tears running down my face, smiling at him, unable to say a word. When I leaned down to kiss his hand, he blessed me three times on my head and said, “Katharos!” meaning “clean” and my seizures have never returned! How blessed I have been to have received so many miracles through this precious Saint!”
This account has been confirmed by the Holy Monastery of Saint Anthony in Florence, Arizona, the monastery founded by the ever-memorable Holy Elder.


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Elder Ephraim of Arizona passed away 
(+ December 7, 2019)


Elder Ephraim of Arizona fell asleep in the Lord early this morning (December 7, 2019) at the age of 91 after a long illness.

Elder Ephraim, also known as Ioannis Moraitis, was born on June 24, 1928, in Volos, Greece. He spent his childhood in poverty helping his father with his work, but he always followed the example of his mother (who later became a nun and bore the name “Theophano”).

At the age of 14, he decided to follow a monastic path, but his spiritual father did not give him the blessing to go to Mount Athos until he was 19 years old. Upon his arrival at Mount Athos on September 26, 1947, he went straight to Elder Joseph the Hesychast in the Monastery of Timios Prodromos (Saint John the Forerunner), who accepted him into his brotherhood. Nine months later, in 1948, he received the name “Ephraim”.

In 1973, the brotherhood moved to the Holy Monastery of Philotheou where Elder Ephraim became abbot. Thanks to his good reputation, the monastic brotherhood grew rapidly.

In 1979, he went to Canada due to health issues. Along with his medical examinations, he was preaching the Greek population and hearing their confessions. Then, he wanted to establish a monastery in America, so that the Greek population would have their own spiritual place.

He established 19 monasteries in North America, 17 in the US and 2 in Canada, both for men and women, which are subject to the Greek Orthodox Archdioceses of America and Canada. Elder Ephraim lived in St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona, not too far away from Phoenix and the town of Florence.


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Saint Elder Ephraim of the Holy Mountain and Arizona (+2019)
   
On Saturday 7 December 2019 Elder Ephraim fell asleep in the Lord at the Holy Monastery of St Anthony in Arizona in the USA. His funeral service was held on 11 December 2019 at the same Monastery in the midst of many of his spiritual children, whom he brought to new birth spiritually: clergy, monks and laypeople of all ages and categories.

He was honoured by the Ecumenical Patriarch with a message that was read out during the funeral service by the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain, Archimandrite Nikodimos, who afterwards spoke on his own behalf, as well as by the presence of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, who described his personality and the work that he had accomplished.

I have been linked with the ever-blessed Hieromonk Ephraim in many and different ways over many years, and in this article I shall set out some of my thoughts about the Elder of blessed memory.

1. Hesychast and Teacher of Hesychia

In the decade of the 1960s this radiant star began to rise on the Holy Mountain. From his youth he was numbered among the spiritual company of the great Elder Joseph the Hesychast and Cave-Dweller. He was distinguished from that time by childlikeness and unquestioning obedience, which exalted him.

When I was a student, between 1964 and 1968, I heard about Elder Ephraim. His great Elder, Fr Joseph the Cave-Dweller, had died in 1959, and Elder Ephraim, together with a small community, was continuing the way of life of his Elder in the Kalyvi of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in New Skete.

Archimandrite Spyridon Xenos, who had been the Director of the Hostel in Agrinion where I lived during my years at school, became a monk in New Skete on the Holy Mountain. For that reason, I used to go often at that time to New Skete, and I met Elder Ephraim and those with him, but also some of those who had been with Elder Joseph the Hesychast, including Elder Joseph’s brother Fr Athanasios, the monk Joseph, later of Vatopedi, the monk Theophylaktos, and others. Elder Ephraim was faithfully following the hesychastic life of Elder Ephraim the Hesychast.

Once, as a layman and student in the 1960s, I went to his Kalyvi to meet him and to hear him speak about noetic prayer, about which I was longing to learn. Because I was unfamiliar with his timetable, I went in the morning, when he and his monks were resting after the vigil that they kept each night with the prayer-rope and the Divine Liturgy.

As they did not open the door when I knocked, I remained for a long time outside the door of his Kalyvi praying. After about two hours, they opened the door, and I met Elder Ephraim for the first time.

His face was peaceful, childlike, radiant, and his speech was gracious. I asked him about the Jesus Prayer. I do not remember what he told me, but he continually repeated the words adoleschō and adoleschia,  ‘converse’, ‘pondering’ or ‘meditation’, in the sense that we should continuously converse with God. By this he meant noetic prayer.

This word made an impression on me. It is found in the Psalms of David: “I meditated on Your ordinances” (Ps. 118[119]:48). God’s ordinances are His commandments, which we must put into practice. One of these commandments is vigilance and prayer.

I shall simply add here that I also found the book Adoleschia Philotheos [Devout Converse] by Eugenios Voulgaris, which is a commentary on the Pentateuch. Elder Ephraim, however, used the word in the sense of unceasing prayer, the continuous invocation of the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me.”

When, at the beginning of the 1970s I was ordained to the clergy and used to go often to the Holy Mountain, he and those with him moved to the Holy Monastery of Philotheou, and he became Abbot. It was natural that I should visit that Holy Monastery. There one saw young monks who, as well as the sacred services, were occupied in noetic prayer. It was a spiritual beehive, because everywhere one heard the Jesus Prayer being said in a whisper while the monks were working and moving about. But one was also intensely aware of it in the atmosphere of the church, with the services and the Divine Liturgy. Because the Divine Liturgy acquires a different spiritual feeling when it is celebrated by hesychast clergy and hesychast monks are present.

From the spiritual atmosphere of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou three other Monasteries were filled again with monks: the Monastery of Karakallou, the Monastery of Xeropotamou and the Monastery of Konstamonitou.

When I went to the Holy Monastery of Philotheou I used to talk to the Abbot, Fr Ephraim, about subjects that were of interest to me. At that time I really had a great desire to learn about how sacred hesychia could be closely linked with the Divine Liturgy and the pastoral ministry. From everything he said to me from time to time, I retain two points to this day.

Firstly, he talked to me about sacred hesychia, noetic prayer and its method. He actually analysed for me sacred hesychasm in practice, as his Elder, Joseph the Hesychast, lived it, and as he had received it and put it into practice, and afterwards passed it on to his spiritual children. It is a spiritual inheritance.

Secondly, he often spoke to me about the death of his Elder, Joseph the Hesychast. I remember the phrase that “I never saw a more valiant death than the Elder’s.” The way in which he related it was an initiation into a mystery. He has put these things in writing, but the way in which he narrated them, in his thin voice, his slow way of speaking and the contrite atmosphere of the Monastery, particularly after Compline, was unrepeatable.

2. Moving to America

Elder Ephraim’s move to America was an extremely bold action. Although he had due respect on the Holy Mountain from his spiritual children, from Abbots, Hieromonks and monks, he preferred to take a ‘reckless leap’ into the abyss of the New World of Canada and America. He had evidently received a revelation and inner conviction from God.

America had been dominated by a Christianity with scholastic content, as expressed by Roman Catholicism, and with moral-emotional content, as preached by Protestantism. America is mostly a hotchpotch of Protestantism, Enlightenment and Romanticism. These currents have also influenced the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate did not have a developed form of Orthodox monasticism.

The ever-memorable Elder Ephraim discerned this lack, and he took the decision to found Orthodox monasteries, and actually to transfer to America Orthodox Athonite monasticism, which is based on sacred hesychasm, as lived and taught by St Gregory Palamas.

    
It is right to emphasise that the ever-memorable Fr John Romanides was the first to perceive this lack and to express it in his writings. As he was born and grew up in America – in Manhattan, New York – and he studied at three theological schools (Holy Cross, Boston, Yale University, and St Vladimir’s, New York), he was very familiar with the spirit of the Christianity that dominated in America, and the influences of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism on the Orthodox Church and Orthodox theology. But he was also very well aware of the way out of this secularisation of the Church and theology.

For this reason, he devoted himself to Orthodox theology as it is expressed by the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers, culminating in his thesis The Ancestral Sin, which was submitted to, and approved by, the Theological School of the University of Athens in 1957.

It is significant to note that, before writing his doctoral thesis The Ancestral Sin, he wrote four separate papers as preparation for his doctoral thesis, and submitted then to the Theological Institute of St Sergius in Paris. Two of these contain some points that I wish to underline here.

In his first essay, which he wrote in English in 1954 under the title Original Sin according to St Paul, Fr John reached the following conclusion:

“The mission of Orthodox theology today is to bring an awakening in Western Christianity, but in order to do this, the Orthodox themselves must rediscover their own traditions and cease, once and for all, accepting the corroding infiltration of Western theological confusion into Orthodox theology. It is only by returning to the Biblical understanding of Satan and human destiny that the sacraments of the Church can once again become the source and strength of Orthodox theology. The enemy of life and love can be destroyed only when Christians can confidently say, ‘we are not ignorant of his thoughts’ (2 Cor. 2:11). Any theology which cannot define with exactitude the methods and deceptions of the devil is clearly heretical, because such a theology is already deceived by the devil. It is for this reason the Fathers could assert that heresy is the work of the devil.”

In another study, which he published in English in 1956 with the title The Ecclesiology of St Ignatius of Antioch, he refers among other things to the two aspects of the Church, namely, warfare against the devil, and union and communion with Christ. He writes:

“In other words, the Church has two aspects, one positive – love, unity, and communion of immortality with each other and with the saints in Christ, and one negative – the war against the Satan and his powers already defeated in the flesh of Christ by those living in Christ beyond death awaiting the general (or second)  resurrection – the final and complete victory of God over Satan.  Christology is the positive aspect of the Church, but is conditioned by biblical demonology, which is the key negative factor which determines both Christology and Ecclesiology, both of which are incomprehensible without an adequate understanding of the work and methods of Satan.”

It is clear from these two extracts that one of Fr John Romanides’ basic views is that Orthodox theology ought to free itself from the scholasticism of the Roman Catholics and the moralism of the Protestants and acquire its own criterion, which is the victory of Christ and of Christians with the power of Christ against the devil, sin and death.

As a consequence of this, he conceived the idea that an Orthodox monastery should be founded in America, where people would learn how to break free from their servitude to the devil, sin and death.

For this reason, in a letter that he sent to Fr Theoklitos of Dionysiou in 1958, after he had finished his doctoral thesis, he wrote that it was necessary for the Church in America that an Orthodox monastery should be founded, and that a community of monks from the Holy Mountain should be moved there. Among other things, he wrote to Fr Theoklitos of Dionysiou:

“It is precisely because the Church in the world has been cut off from the monastic tradition that the familiar decline in the spiritual life has been observed in our days. Satan has so distorted the theology of the heretics and the so-called Orthodox who are influenced by the West, that some think that salvation is not from the power and hands of the enemy, but from God. God became man in order to save us from Himself! This is why the ascetic life has disappeared in the West. They neither fast nor pray much. They simply pursue happiness…When there is mistaken theology, Christianity is reduced to activity. The monastic life of the non-Orthodox here consists of extremely active orders, who engage in anything except spiritual asceticism as the Orthodox tradition understands it…Unfortunately we do not have a single ascetic or monastery here and there is no living example of the Orthodox life…

I should like to know your opinion concerning the possibilities of transplanting a monastic community of 5 to 10 monks into American territory. Unless something like this is done, Orthodoxy will disappear here, or it will be transformed into something else, as has already happened to a great extent.

I have tried in my book to say the same as you say in yours, but nobody here understands. The Greeks here, you see, have adapted to the eudemonism of the West and in their eyes the pursuit of happiness is God’s will. So why would anyone want to go up on the rocks and do all-night vigils and the like?

I should be very pleased if we could correspond. I think that the devil will be sorry that we do not like the Christianity that he promotes, but what can we do? No one can please him when he wants to please God. St Symeon the New Theologian gives an excellent description of how Satan helps certain people in their prayer and good works…”

One wonders how Fr John Romanides, as early as the 1950s, understood so clearly this problem that exists in the Western world.

This seems to have been one of the fixed ideas of Fr John Romanides: that a monastic community should be transplanted to America from the Holy Mountain. We find it in the letters that he sent to the couple Panagos and Katingo Pateras, who later became monastics with the names Xenophon and Maria Myrtidiotissa. Fr George Metallinos published these letters in his book Protopresbyteros Ioannis Romanides ‘o profitis tis Romiosynis’ prosopografoumenos mesa apo agnosta I ligo gnosta keimena [Protopresbyter  John Romanides ‘the Prophet of Romanity’ portrayed through unknown or little-known texts] (pub. Armos).

In these letters many details are preserved that show Fr John Romanides’ concern that Orthodox monasteries should be founded in America and that they should follow the Orthodox ascetic tradition, which is the basis of Orthodox theology. I shall refer to some extracts.

In one of his letters (14-7-1958), he writes, among other things, that Orthodoxy in the West has become a sort of Protestant Uniatism. A very daring statement!

“Therefore, just as the Romans have Uniatism, now the Protestants too have a form of Uniatism. We follow the Protestants in everything, and Orthodoxy only in the liturgical rituals.”

In another of his letters (27-12-1958), he refers to Elder Joseph the Hesychast, who “is perhaps the best ascetic in noetic prayer.” He adds, “The monks in obedience to him are excellent, and if there is to be a monastery, one of them could lay the foundations.” And he notes: “A good and strict monastic life is the only thing that can show the way for us to escape from this wretched state of Orthodoxy in America. If it [the monastery] is started by monks from the Holy Mountain, we shall have the typikon of the Holy Mountain with vigils etc. and they will be a strong missionary centre, which will invade the centre of Satan’s kingdom and cleanse the atmosphere of demons with Orthodox incense and vigilance. You know that the ascetics left for the desert, not because they were seeking a quiet life, but because the desert was regarded as the pre-eminent kingdom of Satan. For this reason, Christ went first into the desert and conquered the devil in his most powerful fortress. Thus, here too, where for so many years Satan has ruled unhindered, he ought to be confronted.”

These are terrible words of his, that missionary monks from the Holy Mountain were needed in America, to enter “Satan’s kingdom” and to cleanse the atmosphere of demons “with Orthodox incense and vigilance”, with prayer and watchfulness!

In another letter (19-11-1959) he mentions the community of the ever-memorable Elder Joseph the Hesychast and refers to Elder Ephraim of blessed memory, who eventually went to America: “You had met Joseph’s Ephraim.” As though he were ‘prophesying’ his presence in America.

In another letter (10-12-1960), he dwells on the subject of founding a monastery in America: “The Orthodox here are in great need of a good monastery.” He expresses the desire of the Orthodox in America to acquire a monastery.

In a later letter (15-8-1962), he continues to insist that an Orthodox monastery be established: “Real monasticism must at all costs be strengthened and grow spiritually and from the point of view of teaching and leadership. Otherwise, we are running a great risk.”

He is extremely concerned, because knows that only the Orthodox Church, through hesychastic monasticism, which expresses the tradition of the Philokalia of the Neptic Saints on the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God, can be distinguished from the other Christian traditions.

He had become aware that nothing was said at any of the meetings between the Orthodox and other Christians about warfare against the devil, sin and death, which is the basis of Orthodox theology.

As he found no response, he wrote in one of his letters (2-11-1958): “May God take pity on us. Are we so sinful that we have to have heretics as our shepherds? Anyway, if such things happen, I don’t know what the outcome will be.”

He wrote the same things in a letter (11-5-1958) to Fr Georges Florovsky as well. He spoke about the possibility of transplanting a monastic community from the Holy Mountain “to serve as a core for the development of a spiritual life among our people in the traditional path.”

Such were the anxieties of Fr John Romanides, and he asked God to take pity on the Christians of America.

And God heeded his concern and the desire of his people, and sent Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, the disciple of Joseph the Hesychast, to America, to establish nineteen Orthodox monasteries in America and Canada. In them the Orthodox ascetic teaching of the Church and the Christians’ battle against the devil, sin and death is taught.

Elder Ephraim perceived this concern and people’s longing, and after receiving inner assurance from God, he left the calm of the Holy Mountain and set sail into the ocean full of all sorts of currents and waves, to preach “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2) in the desert of the big cities, with saintly, prophetic and apostolic strength and energy worthy of the martyrs.

From my many visits to America, and from my contact with Abbots of the Monasteries that he created, and with many laypeople who were his spiritual children, I have personal knowledge of the great work that he accomplished through the monastic communities that he founded and directed with his unsleeping pure nous.

I think that his spiritual children will write about this great work, which is taking place in America and provides genuine criteria to distinguish the Orthodox Tradition from other Christian and non-Christian traditions.

And all this work is accomplished with signs and miracles, which always accompany the apostolic word, in accordance with Christ’s saying: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18).

Elder Ephraim of blessed memory was a prophet, an equal to the apostles, a martyr and a saintly ascetic. As such, he entered “the centre of Satan’s kingdom” and taught a kind of monasticism and Christianity that “does not please the devil”, but pleases God.

3. The Art of Salvation

Since the time when Elder Ephraim went to America, we have not met. I did not have the blessing to visit him at the Holy Monastery in Arizona. However, I was, and still am, in contact with his spiritual children. Through them I would ask for his prayers, and he would send me various ‘prophetic words’ and his love.

I used to send him the books that I published, and he was pleased. In fact, he was particularly pleased with one of them, the first book that I wrote about St Paisios of the Holy Mountain, and from the Holy Monastery in Arizona they sent me a photograph of him holding that book in his hands, a sign that he greatly loved St Paisios.

Sometimes I spoke to him on the telephone. I expressed my love and asked for his prayers and his love for my ministry. Gerondissa Photini of blessed memory, the Abbess of the Birth of the Theotokos Monastery (Pelagia), corresponded with him, and the letters show the whole of Fr Ephraim’s personality, and how he guided monks. One day I shall publish this correspondence.

It made a particular impression on me that he asked me, through his spiritual children, to write a foreword to various books of his, which he published in English, such as the book My Elder Joseph, the Hesychast and Cave-Dweller. Because his way of thinking was completely ecclesiastical, he wanted the foreword to be written by a Bishop who loves monasticism.

I was even more impressed when he sent me the type-written book that he intended to publish entitled The Art of Salvation, which consists of homilies that he delivered at the Holy Monastery of Philotheou and in America. With his characteristic humility, he asked me to read it and to identify any points that ought to be corrected, to make sure it did not deviate from Orthodox theology. I read it in draft form with very great inspiration, and I sent him some points that he might be able to correct.

After that, he sent me a letter saying that everything that I suggested to him was acceptable, and he urged me to make any other changes, even without informing him, and to send they direct to the printers for publication. This shows the humility of a great and experienced Father. He also asked me to write a foreword to that book in Greek.

I cite below the foreword to that book, which was written in 2003, sixteen years ago, because it shows my view of Elder Ephraim many years ago. I wrote in the preface:

*

“I consider it to be a special and exceptional honour to write a preface for the first volume of the homilies of Elder Ephraim, formerly Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain, at his own request, and at the request of the fathers of the Holy Monastery of St Anthony in Arizona, America. This sense of honour stems from the fact that Elder Ephraim is an experienced teacher of the neptic life of our Orthodox Church.

I met Elder Ephraim on the Holy Mountain, when he was living as an ascetic in New Skete, and I retain vividly in the memory of my heart the image of the fervent ascetic who had unceasing remembrance of God and spiritual inspiration. He was an ascetic who lived the spiritual life in practice, and knew from experience what the passions are and how they are overcome; what communion with God is, and how it can be acquired. At the same time he is an experienced and discerning spiritual father, and, as an expression of the ecclesiastical way of thinking that characterises him and every real hesychast monk, he also respects the Bishop, whom he asks, in his extreme humility and his greatness that cannot be humbled, to write a foreword to these homilies of his.

Here we see the link between two charismata within the Church, between the life of the monk and the ministry of the Bishop. This reminds me vividly of the relationship, but also the humility on this same matter, between St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and Bishop Hierotheos of Euripos, as shown in the letters between the two that are published at the beginning of the Handbook of Spiritual Council: The Guarding of the Five Senses.

The texts included in this book are homilies to monks, and cenobitic monks in particular, mainly, as I understand it, homilies to the monks of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou of the Holy Mountain, who are his spiritual children whom he leads in the spiritual life.

The key feature of these homilies is that they bring together theology and the pastoral ministry. Of course, by theology I do not mean academic knowledge, which is useful in some circumstances in the historical life of the Church, but theology as charisma, as experience of God and knowledge of God’s mysteries, as knowledge of the uncreated words that are subsequently passed on as teaching through created words and concepts.

Elder Ephraim himself was obedient to a hallowed Elder, Elder Joseph the Hesychast. He lived noetic prayer, under the guidance of this Elder, who was a desert-dweller and hesychast. He experienced the “first grace” and subsequently the “second grace”, as Elder Joseph used to say so wisely, and afterwards he acquired the discernment of spirits, which is the true theological charisma.

This theology subsequently becomes pastoral expertise, which is offered for the pastoral guidance of spiritual children. Such a theologian, therefore, knows from his experience what the state of Adam was before his disobedience and the fall, because at that time he was in the state of illumination of the nous. He knows what the terrible consequences of the fall were, as the divine image was obscured, the nous was darkened and all the powers of the soul, which began to move contrary to their nature, were perverted, with the result that the passions, as we know them today, were created. Subsequently, such a theologian knows the ascetic-neptic-hesychastic method, in other words, obedience, spiritual vigilance, prayer, noetic hesychia, through which the human being is freed from the dominance of the devil, death and sin, and acquires communion with God “in the person of Jesus Christ”, and actually reaches the point of beholding the glory of God in the human flesh of the Word, which is Paradise.

There is obviously a close connection between theology and the pastoral ministry, between spiritual knowledge and serving people pastorally. Only those who have empirical knowledge of God’s mysteries are able to help people to be liberated from the dominance of the passions, the devil and death. This constitutes the true pastoral ministry of the Church. If someone does not meet these pre-conditions, when he speaks he will simply utter fine words instead of theology, and teach aesthetics instead of asceticism.

The homilies of Elder Ephraim belong within this framework. It is clear that the material that he uses comes from Holy Scripture, which is the words of the Prophets and Apostles, of the eye-witnesses of the unincarnate and incarnate Word; from the writings of the holy Fathers of the Church, the successors to the holy Apostles and the bearers of the revelational experience of Pentecost; from the Sayings of the Fathers and the Synaxaria of the Church, which show the life of the real and sanctified members of the Church, who are members at the same time, not of the mystical, but of the real Body of Christ; and from accounts of, and about, hallowed ascetics on the Holy Mountain. Above all, these texts are created within the personal experience of Elder Ephraim, and for that reason they are offered with authenticity, simplicity, serenity and meekness, which are the fruits of Orthodox hesychia.

I read the homilies that are published in this first volume attentively and prayerfully, most of them in the peace and quiet of the Holy Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos Ambelakiotissa in my Holy Metropolis. Reading these texts brought me spiritual benefit and created a state of prayer within me. Most of all, I saw that they described what the human being was like before the fall, what became of him after his fall, and how he can be delivered from the power of death.

These homilies are really full of life; they wake us up and create inspiration and repentance, which are the characteristics of true Orthodox teaching. These homilies, as is the case with the words of people who have the Holy Spirit and have acquired communion with Christ through sacred hesychia, convey the feeling that the nous of the one who is speaking goes beyond human things. They orientate the reader to another sense of things, beyond the energy of the passions and death, in the full spiritual meaning of this word and this state.

When I finished reading these homilies the passage from St Paul came into my mind: ‘Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God’ (Col. 2:18-19).

The Apostle Paul is speaking here about a situation at that time relating to the worship of angels. However, we can state that today, too, there are many religions of angels-demons, which rely on the puffing up of the fleshly mind, on imaginary speculations, demonic visions and sociological schemes, and not on the authentic teaching that flows from being united with Christ, the Head of the Church. Thus, the words of the Apostle Paul are also valid here: ‘Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations?’ (Col. 2:20).

Living in such a secularised society, which often influences even the ecclesiastical situation, we must struggle humbly, and with all the Orthodox ecclesiastical presuppositions described in the teachings of the saints, the real members of the Body of Christ, to be closely united with the Head of the Church, Who is Christ, and, as members of the Body of Christ, to be nourished by the Head, to be joined together by Him, and to grow spiritually. In other words, our whole being must ‘grow with the increase that is from God.’ The aim of our life should be to grow according to God, and to advance from our fallen state as far as Paradise, from our dependence on the devil as far as deification, which is the increase that is from God.

These homilies of Elder Ephraim also contribute to this spiritual increase. They reminded me not only of authentic monastic teaching, but also of the ‘spirit’ of the Holy Mountain, as I encountered it in the 60s and 70s, and as I encounter it even today in hallowed monks of the Holy Mountain who live the ascetic and hesychastic life.

I feel the need to thank the venerable Elder Ephraim for the labours he has undertaken to acquire the knowledge of God, of which these homilies are the succulent fruit. I ask him to pray for me and for all those involved in the pastoral service of people, that we may not lose the deeper and more essential aim of the pastoral ministry, which is to lead people, and first of all ourselves, from being in God’s image to being in His likeness, from darkness of the nous to illumination and deification. Because we must grasp firmly that Christianity does not simply aim to perform a social task, but, according to the apt statement of St Gregory of Nyssa, ‘Christianity is the imitation of the divine nature.’” (August 2003)

*

Elder Ephraim of the Holy Mountain and Arizona, and the universal teacher of hesychia, has proved to be, as a blessed monk said to me, and as is clear from everything I have written already, a saintly ascetic with a hesychastic tradition and life; an equal to Christ’s apostles, who illuminated America with hesychastic Athonite monasticism; a martyr, because he made war on satanic forces under many different names; but also a prophet, because he saw with his clear-sighted nous the problems that exist today between Christians, and he dealt with them “in the spirit and power” of Elijah the Prophet. God will uphold the works of his hands, the Monasteries that he laboured to create and direct.

I humbly ask for his blessings and prayers to the Lord for all Orthodox Christians, clergy and laity, and among them also for me, the least of men. The remembrance of him will remain eternally in those who loved him, but above all in the memory of the Church.






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Humility

The Cure for the Snares of the Enemy

As we struggle with our passions, the only way we can overcome our sin is through humility. The snares of the enemy are all around us, and if we think we can win the battle with the enemy without humility, we are wrong.

Love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon, 

All-Merciful Saviour Monastery, Vashon Island, WA, USA


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Quotes of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

* Everything will perish except that which the soul has gathered through love and prayer. Everything virtuous done by a man is written in the soul and will not be taken from him.

* Be careful. Watch out for your soul! Turn your thoughts away from what will soon pass away and turn them towards what is eternal. Here you will find the happiness that your soul seeks, that your heart thirsts for.

* Just as a basic concern is to be careful of anything that might be harmful to our physical health, so our spiritual concern should watch out for anything that might harm our spiritual life and the work of faith and salvation. Therefore, carefully and attentively assess your inner impulses: are they from God or from the spirit of evil?

* The demonic hosts tremble when they see the Cross, for by the Cross the kingdom of hell was destroyed.

* The Church is universal and one of her primary tasks is to spread Christ’s faith among those who do not yet know the Truth. ... The gates of hell shall not overcome the Church, in spite of all heresies and schisms, in spite of the unworthiness and apostasy of many ministers of the Church, even of those in high positions.

* Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God.





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Miraculous healing

This story was told to us by Sr. Anastasia:

“Saint John Maximovitch the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966) has a special place in my heart. Even though I don’t bear his name, I still consider him to be my heavenly intercessor and patron.

I always call him the way people addressed him during his lifetime - Vladyka. I often ask for his blessings and talk to him. Vladyka helped me countless times; however, there is one miracle that stands out.

It happened in winter about three years ago. I had a seasonal cold and had to take antibiotics. My body doesn’t tolerate them very well - they always give me gut complications. That evening I took my dose and started to feel strong stomach pain. It got to the point where I felt weak, dizzy and nauseous, I couldn’t move.

My husband and I were supposed to read an akathist to St. John that day. Someone we both knew had serious problems and needed prayerful support.

I couldn’t get up, so I was praying in my bed, while my husband was standing in front of our icons. Before we started reading the akathist, I asked my husband to hand me an icon of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco and put it on my stomach, asking the saint, “Vladyka, help me!”

After the first prayer, my stomach let out a rumbling sound and fell silent. I couldn’t believe it - the pain was gone! When my husband finished reading the akathist, I burst into tears and told him about the miraculous healing I’d experienced.”


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The ‘Vita Prima’ of St John the Wonderworker

By Hiermonk Seraphim (Rose)

(from Mettingham College Series No 1 2009)

Preface
The text below is [copied from] a reprint of the Vita Prima, of First Life, of St John (Maximovitch) the Wonderworker written shortly after his repose in 1966 by one of his most faithful followers in the path of ancient Christianity, Eugene (or as he would later become Hiermonk Seraphim) Rose. When Fr Seraphim (photo) wrote his life, St John had been laid to rest in a magnificent tomb beneath the Cathedral of the Joy of All Who Sorrow in San Francisco. For the next two decades the St Herman Brotherhood, that St John had blessed, kept an accurate record of the hundreds upon hundreds of people who testified to miracles that they had received through the prayers of the Holy Archbishop.

To the great joy of Orthodox Christians throughout the world, on the 14th December 1993 the tomb was opened to find St John’s body whole, intact and incorrupt, even though his vestments and sandals had long since turned to dust. On the 28th anniversary of his repose, 2nd July 1994 in a triumphant and paschal service, Archbishop John was declared a Saint of the Church, making official a veneration that had been going on for many years. His incorrupt body, redressed in beautiful vestments, was then laid in a new shrine on the South sisaint_john_reliquaryde of the Cathedral, where beneath his icon a lampada burns, and prayer requests from around the world are read.

This Vita Prima is printed with the kind permission of the St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood of Platina, California, and is the first publication in the Mettingham College Series.

HOLY HIERARCH JOHN PRAY TO GOD FOR US!

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Exodus: Saint John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966) leads his flock out of Shanghai

Saint John Maximovitch (1896–1966) is loved and venerated throughout the world. Born on the eve of the Communist Revolution, he was a leading figure in the Russian diaspora, serving the Church in Yugoslavia, China, the Philippines, France, and the United States. His sanctity, asceticism, and wonderworking are well known from several different published versions of his life.

In Exodus, readers discover more about St John’s role in sustaining his flock in Shanghai, arranging for their flight to Tubabao, and his successful efforts to lobby the U.S. government, which allowed thousands of refugees and orphans to emigrate to America. Drawing extensively on unpublished primary sources—letters, memoirs, interviews, newspaper articles from key figures and eyewitnesses—John B. Dunlop takes readers on an exciting journey, as they learn more about both St John and his émigré flock.

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Miracles thanks to St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, a passage from the book of Veronica Hughes

From The Pearl of Great Price, Part II, Chapter 1, Greg’s Epiphany

(Greg is Veronica’s husband.)

In the fall of 1994, Greg attended a conference at St. Paisius Monastery (then in Forestsville, CA) where clergy and lay people from the brotherhood gathered from all over the United States to study and pray together. Someone asked Greg if he could give a priest a ride to the airport on his way home, and Greg agreed. The priest in question, Fr. Simeon, asked if they could stop to visit Blessed John’s incorrupt body on the way. Greg reported that the grace-filled energy of the saint’s relics radiated throughout the Cathedral. The entire experience of the retreat, his talk with Fr. Simeon and the visit to the church had profoundly moved him, but that wasn’t the whole story.

Greg had been unsuccessfully nursing a large, ugly wart on one of his fingers for twenty years. I would frequently urge him to remove it, until Greg finally confessed to me. ”I have this secret prayer. I’ve been waiting for it to be healed. I’ve been hoping that when I find the right spiritual path for me, that it will disappear, as my sign that I’ve finally arrived where God wanted me to be.” The morning after his weekend conference and visit to Blessed John’s tomb, he woke to find the wart gone and his finger returned to normal. We were both astounded. It was a miracle! Greg felt so blessed to have his prayer finally answered.

During an extended vigil service at the St. Paisius Monastery several months later, Greg witnessed another miracle related to St. John. In the middle of the evening prayers, the priest anointed a young man in the community who had a severe cancer on his face. The oil the priest used was taken from a special container that rested at the feet of St. John’s relics. The young man later reported that he experienced a burning sensation on the anointed side of his face that persisted throughout the service. When he emerged from prayers, the cancer was gone! This second miracle was confirmation for Greg that he had truly found the right path.





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Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Help from St. John
Received August 11, 2012

I want to share my help from bishop John. My daughter Vanessa had high temperature.I had holy oil for 10 years and anointed the child, and fervently prayed to blessed John. Child was healthy. These are the wondrous miracles of Blessed John. It was in July 2012. Yesterday I received the oil. With great gratitude to the church.
Veselina, 
Ruse,Bulgaria








Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

House help
Received June 7, 2012

Last year my mother's house needed urgent sewer and bathroom repairs due to sewer gases escaping in the house. My mother is 75 years old and suffers from COPD and hypertension. The estimates for work to the house were anywhere from $7000 to $10000. A month prior to issues with the house we had read the book of Saint John Maximovich. Myself and my mother started to pray to the Saint for help. Within a week we found 2 contractors that completed the work for only $1200!!! It is a miracle! Thank you Saint John Maximovich and thank you Lord Jesus and thank you Holy Mary. Subsequently we received Holy Oil from Saint John's vigil lamp and gave oil to our Orthodox church congregation and in return many believers at our church, healed their headaches, eye afflictions, heart bypass surgeries, pancreatic cancer, arthritic joints,etc. Thank you Saint John Maximovich for not forgetting your flock,us the sinners,and as promised I am telling others about you as you have requested dear Saint and please do not forget us in your prayers and take care of my mother as in our prayers.
Cristian S 
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada





Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


St. John's intercession
Received May 30, 2012

Something was not right with my grown daughter for several years, she was difficult, unhappy, unpredictable.  I was a recent convert to Orthodoxy and I'm sure she thought I was a religious fanatic as I attended church services frequently.  I read testimonials to St. John and with tears, I began to pray for her in front of a large icon of St. John in my church, I asked that he intercede for her as I didn't know what was wrong.  Shortly thereafter, she requested that I take her to a detox center (she confided that she was addicted to heroin). She had no intention of remaining clean upon entry but through God's mercy a series of errors kept her long enough to truly feel and appreciate sobriety.  She began meeting with a kind and loving local priest and became baptized at Pascha the following year.  She still struggles with mental health, but she has remained clean and continues growing in her spiritual life. 
Linda








Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

St. John has become like a grandfather to me
Received April 23, 2012

I've visited St. John's relics in San Francisco twice in 2011.The healing of my soul and body started when I first stepped into church and still continues today. St. John is the greatest saint and he has become like a grandfather to me. I feel so close to him and I tell him all my problems like he is alive. St. John helped me find a job and saved me from getting fired from that job when my boss set me up with false accusations. He usually appears in my dreams and heals me, it has happened several times. St. John healed a possessed woman from my city after I brought oil and his icon to her. St. John healed  a woman by the name of Milinka from Pelvic cancer  and she is in remission now. She lives in Canada and received a sacrament service by his relics while  I was in San Francisco. He is also helping different people that I pray for. St. John is a very understanding, strict, but simple and very kind, teaching me prayers, since then I learned how to fight back against the devil and has improved my spiritual life.When I feel sick or sad I turn on the DVD about his life and I immediately receive the help or answer to my questions. Glory to God, His Mother, Virgin Mary and His Saint John! I love You very much Grandpa John and I Thank You for all your prayers! Keep praying for us sinners.
Eudokia





Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


Healing from burn
Received December 16, 2011

About a year ago, my eye was badly burned when a lid from a pot of boiling water popped up and hot steam shot out at my eye. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. My eye hurt terribly. I ran it under cold water for an hour and prayed. When I was done, I looked in the mirror and saw the damage. The skin around my eye had red and purple blotches. It truly was an ugly sight - I wondered if those scars would ever heal. I put holy oil from St. John's lamp on the skin all around my eye and eyelid and prayed very hard. The next morning we got up to to church and Glory to God my eye felt great and to my surprise there were only a few tiny purple dots on the skin around my eye. In a little over a week even that was gone. Glory to God!
Savina







Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Healing of infant
Received December 16, 2011

A miracle just took place this evening, Friday December 16, 2011. Our 4 week old son Savas John who has had many health problems since he was born, just developed an eye infection. I wiped his eye clean several times only to have more yellow discharge reappear in a matter of minutes. Finally, I annointed the area directly above, below, and to the sides of his eye and our family prayed to St. John and to the Theotokos for our son to be healed. Shortly after I annointed him, a small amount of clear discharge appeared in his eye. I didn't remove it, hoping that St. John would heal him - and he did! Little Savas John's eye now appears clear and healed. Glory to God! In addition to this, when Savas John was born he was in the NICU at the hospital, for several days due to a blood condition. We annointed him with St. John's oil every day, placed an icon of the Theotokos inside his crib, and through the intercessions of St. John, the Theotokos, Saint Savvas the Sanctified, St. Savvas of Kalymnos, and St. Savas the Prince of Serbia, glory to God, our son was healed. He still has some medical issues but we pray that he will soon recover completely.
Savina







Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Help in finding a job
Received November 1, 2011

Towards the end of 2008 my company was downsizing and I was laid off. I decided that I would start looking for a job after the Holidays, but decided to read the akathist to Saint Nicholas every Thursday or more often if possible. In the first two months of the new year I had some interviews, but didn't get a job. One night, I was browsing the internet, about a particular church. I don't remember how I formulated the internet search, but one of the first links that came up was about St. John, The Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco. It was very interesting to read about his life and miracles. The next thing I found out was that driving to the Holy Virgin Cathedral "Joy of all who sorrow" would take me about a couple of hours. So, I picked a day and went there one morning in early March of 2009. I felt unworthy to approach the relics of Saint John and stood by the candles next to the shrine. I asked Saint John to help me get some job, so I could help my family pay the bills. I was hoping that it would be something that I could do, because I didn't want to disappoint co-workers. For a minute I thought about my dream job. I thought I would be very happy to get that, but it would be too much to ask Saint John for it. I know, one should not make promises, but I made a promise to improve my Christian life in a certain way. I knew it would be a very hard thing to do, but I had to give it a try and why not start right away. When driving home I was 100% confident that I will have a job soon. The next day I came across a job ad that was matching my skills very well and I sent my resume. Another day later I got a call from the hiring manager and eventually got the job. It was a temporary job with a very long term that was eventually extended beyond what would be normally expected. The job duties were very close to the dream job I had imagined for a second. I still can not say I have fully delivered on my promise, but I am trying. Let's just say I feel happier when I give it my best effort.
Glory to God for all things!
Holy Father John, pray to God for us.
Evgenia
California








Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Help during delivery
Received September 23, 2011

My sister was induced to start labor on July 2nd, 2011. Her case was somewhat complicated since her OB/GYN did not notice how fluids left her body and she had no fluid around the baby for, at least, a day or so. Since it was the Feast of St. John I brought  holy oil from the lampada that burns by his relics to the hospital and annointed my sister with it. She was in labor only for a few hours and delivery took less than 45 minutes. Baby was born absolutely healthy via natural delivery. My sister felt good after labor and delivery, as well. I know that if it was not for St. John's help, the outcome could have been different.
St. John, Pray to God for us, sinners!
Vera M. in PA






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Grace from God's Mercy
Received on August 8, 2011

In April 2008, Holy Father John healed me by his prayers, through a dream, taking me to His sepulchre, and removing grief from my mind and heart.

Recently, I anointed my Mother, Eva, in hospital following a huge operation, for healing with Holy Oil sent from Fathers' lamp, and after 16 months of illness and prayer, the blessing finally came.
She began to regain strength and came out of mental illness for a few days, was "herself" talking and remembering, but following this, we were told we should prepare for the end. So, again with The Saint's Oil,and the prayer, I anointed her for separation of body and soul. The miracle is she had true peace, no fear, and was ready for departure when it came. She also was shining and said with wonder "God spoke to me, and said..." things which could only have been The Lord, giving her His peace and showing her Himself, and That Place where all His Saints repose.

She fell asleep after receiving peace from the torment and anguish she had suffered for 16 months.

I have since had a dream of her, walking away from me in a white dress with one word written on the top of one arm.

I was shouting to her and she kept on walking, then suddenly paused, just long enough to look over her shoulder, and pointing to the word, simply but directly told me "HOPE" - then walked on, disappearing!

This word is read during the epistle for funerals in The Holy Orthodox Faith.

Glory To God!

Through the prayers of our holy Father, Saint John The Wonderworker, and of All Thy Saints, O Lord, continue Thy mercy, and grant us the hope we must place in Thee! Amen.
Katerina Bennett






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


A daughter's headache
Received on October 20, 2011

About a month before Easter this spring, our priest came to our house to talk with Dayna and to give her communion. After talking to her for a while, we all sat together and talked about Dayna's headaches.He suggested that we go to visit Ostrog Monestary in Montenegro that has been spiritually beneficial to many. But before we went there, we should go to venerate  relics of St. John of Shanghai & San Francisco. His  remains lie in state at the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco.This is another place where miracles are said to happen. Of course, all three of us went! 

It was an experience that is very hard to explain.We planned our trip over Easter weekend.Being Orthodox, it is not unusual to spend the entire Easter weekend attending different services.We went to services on Great Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter.The service were in old Slavonic and Russian. But, somehow, it felt like home. We spent the weekend praying for our daughter. 

At the end of services on Saturday, we introduced ourselves to one of the priests.  Our priest told him we were coming there and why.  As soon as he heard Dayna's name, he turned to her and asked how she was feeling.She seemed to be his focus, too.I was very touched by this.In all, it was a very moving experience.That Sunday, we had some time to sightsee.Dayna's headache was "in the background" that day. 

By the time we got home the headaches were in full force again. 

I am writing about this because just before this trip, I read a story on the internet about Dr. Ducic and peripheral nerve decompression surgery. We were looking for a miracle to happen  in San Francisco. I really believe that because of our experience at the cathedral, we felt more at ease pursuing treatment with Dr. Ducic. 

We got our miracle!
Teena Less







Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


Child healed of viral infection
Received on July 24, 2011

We’d like to inform of a miraculous healing accomplished through the intercession of St. John. In the spring of 2008 our 1-year-old daughter Maria fell ill with a viral infection of the skin. There were many lesions on her skin, particularly on the face, and doctors said conservative treatment was very unlikely to be successful. There were also contraindication to surgery at the time, in addition we didn’t want surgery because of scars. Several months passed, we tried conservative therapy, but there were no improvements.

In August 2008 I went on business to San Francisco and took holy oil from the lampada in the sepulchre of Archbishop John. We anointed affected skin, lesions began to disappear and in two weeks Maria got well, no scars at all!
Alexander and Irina Yakovlevs
Moscow, Russia







Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Help received with a baby delivery bill
Received on June 29, 2011

Saint John helped me 8 years ago with my home baby delivery bill. I had asked the priest to serve a moleben for us, I was reading the akafist to St. John and the whole bill was written off by the grace of God. It was not even reported in my credit history.
the servant of God,
Xenia






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Mother with Terminal Cancer lives 5 additional years.
Received on June 5, 2011.

In December 2000, my mother Kathrin J. McFadden was told she had pneumonia because a large cell lung carcinoma had gone through her chest wall.  Researching her prognosis from a lung oncology text, I found out that 98% of patients with this symptom die within six months of the pneumonia, and the other 2% within 12 months.Her doctor at UCDMC prescribed pallative chemotherapy and radiation to be admnistered at David Grant Hospital. The first treatment was in Mid-May, and the prognosis for her life expectancy remained the same. 
Sunday, June 11, 2001, was Fr. Christopher Flesoras' first Sunday at St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church. He brought oil from the tomb of St. John Maximovitch.  Following the Divine Liturgy, he annointed the congregation individually, and gave each family a q-tip with oil to take to our home altars. Our family left immediately following Liturgy and drove to my mother's home where I annointed her, and asked for St. John's intercession unto her salvation, and I continued to ask his intercession when I prayed daily.  I also told St. John that I would tell everyone of how God has glorified him.
In the next five years, I accompanied my mother to many doctor visits during her treatment and subsequent follow up at David Grant Hospital.  In my presence during the next five years, her oncologist and the nursing staff repeatedly said, "Mrs. McFadden we do not know why you are still alive." 
In late 2005, she developed small cell lung cancer which subsequently spread in her body. Katherin McFadden fell asleep in the Lord on July 12, 2006, five and half years after the pneumonia revealed the large cell carincoma going through her chest wall.
I have no doubt that St. John's intercessions were responsible for my mother's survival beyond the prognosis for large cell lung cancer.
St. John Maximovitch intercede on our behalf!  God glorifies His saints! Glory to God!
Margaret McFadden Mueller






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Help received during pregnancy
Received on May 11, 2011.

We are a family from Iasi, Romania, married four years ago. For three years we expected, pray, cried to have a child. We went to every possible doctor to determine the cause of not having a child. Also I was pregnant in first and second year after we married and I lost both babies at 8 and 10 weeks. It was tragic for us. Last year I found out that I was pregnant and I was so happy but also very scared. I was lying in bed for 8 months taking drugs and wiped over my belly the oil from St. John. We pray to St. John to help us to have this child. I was sure I will see my baby for this time because of St. John. And it's true : we have the most beautiful girl in the world and sometimes I feel it is a dream and not the reality. I know for sure that every woman who has not yet had children and who truly believes in intercession of St. John to God can live the happiness that I and my husband live now.
Georgiana Zaharia






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Cancer sufferer in complete remission.

Received on April 5, 2011.

Dear In Christ Brothers and Sisters of Saint John Cathedral,

We thank you very much for the Holy Oil from the reliquary of Saint John Wonderworker.  My husband Alan (Andrew) was diagnosed with cancer stage IV, last year.  A parishioner of our church, Sts Constantine & Elena,  Indianapolis, MO, gave us holy oil from Saint John and I anointed my husband every day with fervent prayers to Saint John to intercede for us.

A miracle happened, my husband's cancer is in remission (complete remission).  We believe that Saint John prayed for us along with other saints.  We send the enclosed donation with our gratitude and thanks.

Michaela and Alan
Indianapolis, MO


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The power in the words "Christ is risen"

From the Life of Saint John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966)

The miracle-working power and clairvoyance of Saint John Maximovitch  were well known in Shanghai. Once, during Bright Week, Saint John came to the Jewish hospital to visit the Orthodox patients there. Passing through one ward, he stopped in front of a screen, concealing the bed upon which an elderly Jewish woman lay dying. Her family members were awaiting her death nearby. The Saint raised a cross above the screen and loudly proclaimed: “Christ is Risen!” upon which the dying woman regained consciousness and asked for water. The Saint approached the nurse and said, “The patient wants to drink.” The medical staff were stunned by the change which had taken place in one who only moments earlier was dying. Soon the woman recovered and was discharged from the hospital. Such incidents were numerous.


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Saint Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona (+December 7th, 2019)


On the morning of Sunday December 8th, 2019, around 7am Greek time, and 10pm the evening before Phoenix time, Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona reposed in the Lord, full of days, after a struggle with health problems his final years. The whole previous day, his end was clearly approaching, and he communed the Spotless Mysteries. The next day, the nurses found the Elder at about 9am in an almost standing position, and had given up his spirit.

Elder Ephraim was born on June 24th, 1928 in Volos, as Ioannis Moraitis. His childhood years were passed in poverty, as he helped his father at work, while he kept the pious example of his mother (whom he tonsured later in life as a nun, named Theophano).

At the age of 14, he began to have a desire for monasticism, but he did not receive a blessing from his  then spiritual father to go to Mount Athos until he was 19 years old.

With his arrival on Mount Athos on September 26, 1947, he went straightaway to Elder Joseph the Hesychast at the Cave of the Precious Forerunner, where he was received into his brotherhood. He was tonsured 9 months later, in 1948, with the name "Ephraim".

Out of obedience to his Elder, Monk Ephraim was later ordained a deacon and then a priest.

His life in the brotherhood of Elder Joseph was very austere and ascetically.

After the repose of Elder Joseph in 1959, many monks gathered around Elder Ephraim and had him as their spiritual father.
 
In 1973, his brotherhood moved to the Holy Monastery of Philotheou, where he became the Abbot. Due to the Elder's fame, his monastic brotherhood quickly grew quickly.

He was asked by the Holy Administration of Mount Athos to repopulate monasteries on the Holy Mountain that had gone into decline, such as Xeropotamou, Konstamonitou, and Karakallou. All of these monasteries were under the spiritual guidance of the Elder until today.

Furthermore, there are many other monasteries in Greece under the spiritual guidance of Elder Ephraim, such as the Holy Monastery of St. John the Forerunner in Serres, Panagia Odigitria in Portaria (Volos), and Archangel Michael (a former dependency of Philotheou) on the island of Thassos.
 
In 1979, he traveled to Canada due to health problems. As soon as he reached Cana and began testing by doctor, he began to confess people and give guidance and preach to the Greeks there. His pastoral activities later continued in the USA, and continued to multiply.

Slowly, he began to build monasteries in the USA and Canada, while not neglecting to remain the spiritual father of 8 women's monasteries throughout Greece, and also Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou, until he retired the position in 1990 and moved to the Holy Monastery of St. Anthony the Great, in Florence, Arizona.
 
Several books have been published with his teachings (such as here and here), while his biography of Elder Joseph contains many stories from his early life on Mount Athos.


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We must recognize infanticide and abortion for the evil that it is

Abbot Tryphon, Vashon Island, WA, USA


Washington, Oregon, New York, and California, allow for the killing of newborn infants. Calling it late term abortion, it is in reality, the murder of newly born children. That the United States has lowered the moral and spiritual level to allow the holocaust of our own children, is beyond belief.
I see absolutely no difference between the Nazi slaughter of innocent men, women, and children, and the taking of a child’s life through abortion. Aborting children in the early stages of development was heinous. The fact that millions were being aborted simply for the convenience of the mother was even worse. And now, we’re being told that it is not only acceptable, but a celebrated choice to end a child’s life at full term. This is pure, unadulterated evil.
  
As a young man growing up in a German Lutheran Church in Spokane, WA. I prayed God would have granted me the courage to speak up and denounce the slaughter of innocents at the hands of the Nazis had I been alive during World War II.  How can anyone who says he loves God, ignore the plight of millions of children who are murdered each year? Are we to remain silent, as did so many Germans under the Nazis, or are we to be bold in our refusal to remain silent concerning this new holocaust?
  
There is absolutely no difference between allowing a newly born child to die alone on a hospital table, and the holocaust done by the Nazis. Abortion and infanticide have no place in a nation that places so much emphasis on the importance of human rights, gay rights, women’s rights, and the rights of immigrants. We must wake up to the evil that has taken our country, and we must speak out against this evil.
  
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon


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Saint Jacob Netsvetov, Enlightener of Alaska, Native American of the Aleutian Islands who became a priest (+1864)


July 26


Saint Jacob Netsvetov, Enlightener of Alaska, was a native of the Aleutian Islands who became a priest of the Orthodox Church and continued the missionary work of St. Innocent among his and other Alaskan people. His feast day is celebrated on the day of his repose, July 26.

Early life

Netsvetov was born in 1802 on Atka Island, part of the Aleutian Island chain in Alaska. His father, Yegor Vasil'evich Netsvetov, was Russian from Tobolsk, Russia, and a manager for the Russian-American Company.[1] His mother, Maria Alekscevna, was an Aleut from Atka Island. Netsvetov was the eldest of four children who survived infancy. The others were Osip (Joseph), Elena, and Antony. Although not well off, Yegor and Maria did all they could to provide for their children and prepare them to live their lives. Osip and Antony were able to study at the St. Petersburg Naval Academy and then were able to become a naval officer and ship builder, respectively. Elena married a respected clerk with the Russian-American Company. Netsvetov chose a life with the Church and enrolled in the Irkutsk Theological Seminary.[2]

Missionary work

On October 1, 1825, Netsvetov was tonsured a sub-deacon. He married Anna Simeonovna, a Russian woman perhaps of a Creole background as was he, and then in 1826 he graduated from the seminary with certificates in history and theology. With graduation he was ordained a deacon on October 31, 1826 and assigned to the Holy Trinity-St. Peter Church in Irkutsk. Two years later, Archbishop Michael ordained Netsvetov to the holy priesthood on March 4, 1828. Netsvetov was the first native Alaskan to be ordained to the priesthood. Archbishop Michael had earlier ordained John Veniaminov (St. Innocent) to the priesthood. With his elevation to the priesthood, Netsvetov began to yearn to return to his native Alaska to preach the Word of God.

Upon departing, Archbishop Michael gave Netsvetov two antimensia, one for use in the new church that Netsvetov planned to build on Atka, and the other for use in Netsvetov's missionary travels. After a molieben, Netsvetov and his party set off for Alaska on May 1, 1828. The travelers included Netsvetov, Anna his wife, and his father Yegor who had been tonsured reader for the new Atka Church.[2] This journey, which was always hard, took over a year to complete, and was completed on June 15, 1829.

Netsvetov's new parish was a challenge. The Atka "parish" covered most of the islands and land surrounding the Bering Sea: Amchitka, Attu, Copper, Bering, and Kurile Islands.[3] But, he was to meet the challenge as clothed in his priestly garments, he actively pursued his sacred ministry. To his parishioners, his love for God and them was evident in everything he did as he made his appearances while enduring the harsh weather, illness, hunger, and exhaustion. Being bi-lingual and bi-cultural, Netsvetov was uniquely able to care for the souls of his community.

Since St. Nicholas Church was not yet available, Netsvetov used a large tent in which to hold his services, and after the church was completed he took the tent with him on his missionary travels. By the end of 1829, six months after arriving at Akta Netsvetov had recorded 16 baptisms, 442 chrismations, 53 marriages, and eight funerals.

With the completion of the church on Atka, Netsvetov turned to education of the children, teaching them to read and write both Russian and Unangan Aleut. Initially the Russian-American Company helped support the school, but in 1841 the school was re-organized as a parish school. Many of his students would prove to be distinguished Aleut leaders. While living in the north areas was difficult, Netsvetov was active in the intellectual life as well; in addition to his own subsistence needs, he was active in collecting and preparing fish and marine animal specimens for the museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He corresponded with St Innocent on linguistics and translation matters. He worked on an adequate Unangan-Aleut alphabet and translations of the Holy Scriptures[4] and other church publications. In addition to praises from St. Innocent he began to receive awards for his services. In time he was elevated to Archpriest and received the Order of St. Anna.

Netsvetov's life was not without its personal sufferings. 1836 and 1837 were to bring successively the death of his beloved wife Anna in March 1836, the destruction by fire of his home in July 1836, and the death of his father, Yegor, in 1837. After considering the message of these misfortunes, he petitioned his bishop to return to Irkutsk so that he could enter a monastic life. A year later his request was granted contingent on the arrival of his replacement. But none came. Soon Bishop Innocent arrived and invited Netsvetov to accompany him on a trip to Kamchatka. During the voyage Bishop Innocent seemed to have accomplished three things with Netsvetov: with the healing salve of the Holy Spirit provided words of comfort, dissuaded Netsvetov from entering a monastery, and revealed to the saintly priest the Savior's true plan for his life that was for him to preach Christ to those deep in the Alaskan interior.

On December 30, 1844, St. Innocent appointed him head of the new Kvikhpak Mission to bring the light of Christ to the people along the Yukon River.[4] With two young Creole assistants, Innokentii Shayashnikov and Konstantin Lukin, and his nephew Vasili Netsvetov, Netsvetov established his headquarters in the Yup'ik Eskimo village of Ikogmiute. From there, now known as Russian Mission, he traveled to the settlements for hundreds of miles along the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, visiting the inhabitants of settlements along the way. For the next twenty years he learned new languages, met new people and cultures, invented another alphabet, and built more churches and communities. At the invitation of the native leaders he traveled as far as the Innoko River baptizing hundreds from many, and often formerly hostile, tribes. He continued even as his health deteriorated.

An assistant lodged spurious and slanderous charges against him in 1863. To clear the air his Bishop Peter called him to Sitka where he was cleared of all the charges. As his health worsened he remained in Sitka serving at the Tlingit chapel until his death on July 26, 1864. He was 60 years old. Netsvetov was buried at the entrance to the chapel.

During his last missionary travels in the Kuskokwim/Yukon delta region he is remembered for baptizing 1,320 people and for distinguishing himself as the evangelizer of the Yup'k Eskimo and Athabascan peoples.


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Saint Elder Ephraim the Athonite of Arizona (+2019) and a young American man who became monk

A young American man had visited St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona with his friends. At some point, Saint Elder Ephraim (+2019) who was in his room hearing confessions came out of the room, approached the young man and asked him:  – Do you have a good cell phone, a modern one, the latest and greatest one my child? “Why are you asking Elder?” said the young man. “I want you to call a monastery on Mount Athos in Greece so that I can speak to the monks there,” the Elder replied.

The elder gave the young man the monastery’s phone number and told him: “My child, call this number in an hour, and when the line connects, give me the phone so I can talk with them.”

Indeed, the young American called the Monastery of Mount Athos, and in English, he said to the monk that picked up the phone that Elder Ephraim from Arizona would like to speak to him. While the young American was saying this, he was also walking towards the room of elder Ephraim, to find him and to give him the phone.

The monk at the Monastery of Mount Athos was surprised by the call, and said to the young American that Elder Ephraim was at their monastery and he too wanted to speak to him! The young American was shocked.

The young man suddenly heard from the other line the words of Elder Ephraim, who was saying: “Hello John (for that was the young man’s name), this is why I asked you to call; so that we could talk! I’m on Mount Athos and you are in Arizona! I wanted you to have a glimpse of our Orthodox Faith and what is possible by the Grace of the Holy Spirit! I will see you soon John!” That is what the Elder told him and he then hung up the phone.

The young man was shocked! After recovering from his shock, he went to the room of Elder Ephraim, opened the door and saw that Elder Ephraim wasn’t inside! Then he went to his friends and began to share his experience with them.

And when the story was over, Elder Ephraim all of a sudden came out of the door of the confession room and said to him:

“John, come here so I can see you for a second!”

“……”

This event became the reason why the young man gave up worldly things and became a monk in the Monastery of Saint Anthony in Arizona.


FJTO

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A Miracle of Holy Virgin Mary Mother of God (Theotokos) in New Mexico, USA 

Seraphim McCune

My youngest son, Taliesin, is seventeen years old. He is an Orthodox Christian and is digging deep to learn about the teachings of the Church, to live the life of the sacraments, and grow in the grace of God. He recently moved 2,000 kilometers to live with his half-brother and help prepare for the arrival of his half-brother’s child (due in late December or early January) by making repairs and improvements to the home.

Life in the American state of New Mexico can be harsh. It is a desert with an elevation of 1,900 meters. Summers are hot and days this time of year (late August/early September) often end with monsoon rains that last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The mountains to the west and north of the area create turbulent weather at times.

My son and I were talking about spiritual matters over a social media messenger. He was defending his faith for a friend who is reluctant to embrace the faith, but is open to hearing what he says. After a few minutes he informed me that the weather had become severe and the National Weather Service had issued a flood advisory and a tornado watch. While rare in most of the world, tornadoes are very common in the summer in the southern and eastern parts of the United States. New Mexico has only a few every decade, but there is no shelter from them as few homes have a basement in that region. The winds began to pick up strongly as the storm front reached his brother’s home and he told me about it and the advisories.

I typed in the chat, “Most Holy Theotokos, rescue us!” My son began to pray and ask the Theotokos’ intercessions. Two or three minutes later he chatted again that the storm had passed as suddenly as it had appeared and that a dusting of snow had taken its place—right there in the desert in the summer! I have taught him to trust in God and His saints from a young age, but it is only since we entered canonical Orthodoxy at Pentecost last year that he has taken this as a personal action and belief.

My son shared what had happened with his skeptical friend and she opened up to the idea that God’s saints are close to Him and He listens to them when they intercede for us. Never forget that your children are paying attention. Show them that you believe and they will be inclined to do the same. As it says in the Book of Proverbs, Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

In closing, I can only say this: God is gloriously to be praised and He is glorious in His saints, especially His most pure and holy Mother!

Seraphim McCune

9/20/2021

https://orthochristian.com/141863.html


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The Search for Orthodoxy

Fr. Seraphim Rose, Platina, CA, USA (+1982) 



Fr. Seraphim Rose, Platina, CA, USA: 


“In many different places and many different ways, people today are searching and finding the roots of Christianity in Orthodoxy. Things which we take for granted are astonishing discoveries for them: the splendor of our Divine services, coming down from ancient times and so suited to the need of the human soul to worship God in spirit and in truth; the depth of the spiritual teaching contained in the writings of the Holy Fathers; simply the continuity with the past of Christianity, since we trace our beginnings not to some more or less recent teacher, but to Christ Himself and His Apostles, and our bishops and priests received their ordinations in a direct line going back to the Apostles. If we ourselves, having these roots, are leading a conscious Christian life, we can be of tremendous help to those who are weary of personal interpretations of Christianity and want with all their heart the “true old Christianity”—Orthodoxy.”


“All of politics is heading in the direction of a one-world government which cannot be anything but universal slavery.”

“People today are searching for the truth, searching for Christ, searching for Orthodoxy; we who are already Orthodox are in a position to help give it to them.”

“Everything in this life passes away—only God remains, only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching. Let us take the way of St. Herman and put into our hearts the deep resolve: “From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us love God above all.”

fJTO




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Arizona, 2022: Frank (Anthony) Atwood is now Great Schemamonk Ephraim 

Today, June 7th, 2022, Anthony has been tonsured into the Great Schema with the name Ephraim.  The latest court rulings have denied him of any justice.  There is one more emergency petition being filed today, but if it does not get ruled in our favor, Father Ephraim will be executed tomorrow at 10am by the State of Arizona, for a crime he did not commit.  
In that case, the monastery will serve a Paraklesis starting at 10 AM for those who can come to pray for the repose of his soul.

Facebook: Catacomb Bros


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Arizona, 2022: Schemamonk Ephraim (Frank Atwood)


URGENT APPEAL AND PRAYER REQUEST

Christ is Risen, dear friends.

Please keep Anthony in your fervent prayers. For those who do not know the remarkable story of this man, please click the link in our bio. The gist is that Anthony, who has a troubled past, was wrongfully accused (there is a ton of information to prove this) of the kidnap and murder of an 8 year old girl.

Anthony and his wife are pious Orthodox Christians, baptised and led to Christ under the guidance of the late Blessed Elder Ephraim of Arizona, and now Elder Paisios, the current abbot of Saint Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona. 

Yesterday a hearing was held and Anthony was denied clemency. Another sad part is that the “Orthodox” Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, has not shown an ounce of mercy on his brother, despite all the countless efforts, especially from the monastery of Saint Anthony’s.

Anthony is to be sentenced to death on the 8th of June, 2022. There is no doubt that he will leave like an Angel, straight to Paradise for his wrongful execution and most important of all, his fervent repentance. May God have mercy on us all!



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"And I, a sinner, have been trying to love God"

Saint Herman of Alaska (+1836)


“And I, a sinner, have been trying to love God for more than forty years, and cannot say that I perfectly love Him. If we love someone we always remember him and try to please him; day and night our heart is occupied with that object.

Is that how you, gentlemen, love God? Do you often turn to Him, do you always remember Him, do you always pray to Him and fulfill His holy commandments? ‘For our good, for our happiness at least let us make a vow that from this day, from this hour, from this minute we shall strive to love God above all else and to fulfill His holy will.’”

—Saint Herman of Alaska (+1836)

https://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/2013/09/03/st-herman-of-alasaka-and-i-a-sinner-have-been-trying-to-love-god-for-more-than-forty-years/


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Saint Innocent of Alaska, Equal-to-Apostles, Missionary Bishop to Alaska, from Russia (+1879)

March 31

Saint Innocent of Alaska (August 26, 1797 – March 31, 1879, O.S.), also known as Saint Innocent Metropolitan of Moscow (Russian: Святитель Иннокентий Митрополит Московский) was a Russian Orthodox missionary priest, then the first Orthodox bishop and archbishop in the Americas, and finally the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia. Remembered for his missionary work, scholarship, and leadership in Alaska and the Russian Far East during the 19th century, he is known for his abilities as a scholar, linguist, and administrator, as well as his great zeal for his work.

As a missionary priest he took his wife and family with him. In these territories he learned several languages and dialects of the indigenous peoples. He wrote many of the earliest scholarly works about the native peoples of Alaska, including dictionaries and grammars for their languages for which he devised writing systems; also, he wrote religious works in, and translated parts of the Bible into, several of these languages. His books were published beginning in 1840.

Early life and education

Saint Innocent was born Ivan Evseyevich Popov (Иван Евсеевич Попов) on August 26, 1797, into the family of a church server in the village of Anginskoye, Verkholensk District, Irkutsk Province, in Russia. His father, Evsey Popov, died when Ivan was six, and Ivan lived with his uncle, the parish deacon, in Anga. In 1807 at age 10, Ivan entered the Irkutsk Theological Seminary, where the rector renamed him Veniaminov in honor of the recently deceased Bishop Veniamin of Irkutsk.

In 1817, he married a local priest's daughter named Catherine. On May 18 that year, Ivan Veniaminov was ordained a deacon of the Church of the Annunciation in Irkutsk.

After completing his studies in 1818, Veniaminov was appointed a teacher in a parish school. On May 18, 1821, he was ordained a priest to serve in the Church of the Annunciation in Irkutsk. In Russian he was known as Father Ioann, the religious version of Ivan.

Ministry in Alaska
At the beginning of 1823, Bishop Michael of Irkutsk received instructions to send a priest to the island of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Father Ioann Veniaminov volunteered to go and on May 7, 1823, he departed from Irkutsk, accompanied by his aging mother, his brother Stefan, his wife, and their son, Innocent, an infant. After a difficult yearlong journey by land and water, they arrived at Unalaska on July 29, 1824.

After Father Ioann and his family built and moved into an earthen hut, he set about studying the local languages and dialects. He trained some of his new parishioners in Russian building techniques. With them he undertook the construction of Holy Ascension Church, which was finished the following July.

Father Ioann's parish included the island of Unalaska and the neighboring groups of Fox and Pribilof islands, occupied by indigenous people who had been converted to Christianity before his arrival. They also retained many of their earlier religious beliefs and customs. Father Ioann often traveled between the islands in a canoe, battling the stormy ocean in the Gulf of Alaska.

By his travels through the islands, Father Ioann Veniaminov became familiar with the local dialects. In a short time he mastered six of the dialects. He devised an alphabet using Cyrillic letters for the most widely used dialect, the Unangan dialect of Aleut. In 1828, he translated portions of the Bible and other church material into that dialect. In 1829, he journeyed to the Bering Sea coast of the Alaskan mainland and preached to the people there.

In 1834, Father Ioann was transferred to Sitka Island, to the town of Novoarkhangelsk, later called Sitka. He devoted himself to the Tlingit people and studied their language and customs. From his studies there, he wrote the scholarly works Notes on the Kolushchan and Kodiak Tongues and Other Dialects of the Russo-American Territories, with a Russian-Kolushchan Glossary.

In 1836, Father Veniaminov made the journey south on a pastoral tour of the southernmost extent of Russian America, landing at Fort Ross in Northern California. While there he conducted a census and performed the sacraments of marriage and baptism for the Russian population and local natives.

Kamchatka ministry

In 1838, Father Ioann journeyed to St. Petersburg (where on Christmas Day 1839 he was promoted to archpriest), Moscow and Kiev to report on his activities and request an expansion of the Church's activities in Russian America. While he was there, he received notice that his wife had died during her visit to Irkutsk. He requested permission to return to his hometown. Instead, church officials suggested that he take vows as a monk. Father Ioann at first ignored these suggestions, but, on November 29, 1840, he was tonsured a monk with the name Innocent in honor of Saint Innocent, the first bishop of Irkutsk (†1731, commemorated on November 26). He was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.

On December 15, 1840, Archimandrite Innocent was consecrated Bishop of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands in Russia and the Aleutian Islands in Russian America. His see was located in Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka), to which he returned in September 1841. He spent the next nine years administering his diocese as well as taking several long missionary journeys to its remote areas.

On April 21, 1850, Bishop Innocent was elevated to Archbishop. In 1852 the Yakut area was admitted to the Kamchatka Diocese. In September 1853 Archbishop Innocent took up permanent residence in the town of Yakutsk. Innocent took frequent trips throughout his enlarged diocese. He devoted much energy to the translation of the scriptures and service books into the Yakut (Sakha) language.

In April 1865 Archbishop Innocent was appointed a member of the Holy Governing Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan of Moscow
On November 19, 1867, he was appointed the Metropolitan of Moscow, succeeding his friend and mentor, Saint Filaret, who had died. As metropolitan, he undertook revisions of many church texts that contained errors, raised funds to improve the living conditions of impoverished priests, and established a retirement home for clergy.

Death and legacy

The relics of Saint Innocent of Alaska (reliquary/coffin at the bottom and his icon on the opened lid at the top) in the Assumption Cathedral at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in Sergiyev Posad, Russia
Innocent died on March 31, 1879. He was buried on April 5, 1879, at Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, outside Moscow.

Sainthood

On October 6 [O.S. September 23] 1977 the Russian Orthodox Church, acting on the official request of the Orthodox Church in America, glorified (canonized) Innocent as a saint, giving him the title "Enlightener of the Aleuts, Apostle to America."

Innocent's feast day is celebrated by the Orthodox Church three times a year: March 31, the date of his repose according to the Julian Calendar (April 13 N.S.); October 6, the anniversary of his canonization (September 23 O.S.); and October 18, the Synaxis of the Moscow Hierarchs (October 5 O.S.).

Innocent is widely venerated with the epithet Equal-to-apostles as the Orthodox apostle of America.


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Before I was 80, I would visit Paradise frequently

Saint Elder Ephraim the Athonite of Arizona (+2019)

Before I was 80, I would visit Paradise frequently. And now as well but age has a role to play. One time the Lord took me by the hand and was telling me “...here you built a Church, here you Confessed and a soul was saved, here you comforted, here you corrected...” In other words, He was telling me everything and with that He was giving me great joy while talking to me. So much joy that I said: “My Christ, I can’t bear anymore. I can’t bear anymore. I’m going to explode, take me back. And I found myself back again in my room.

 —Saint Elder Ephraim the Athonite of Arizona (+2019)

https://www.facebook.com/OrthodoxBros1/


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Attempts of Jews and Heretics to Dishonor The Ever-Virginity of Mary

Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)


THE JEWISH slanderers soon became convinced that it was almost impossible to dishonor the Mother of Jesus, and on the basis of the information which they themselves possessed it was much easier to prove Her praiseworthy life. Therefore, they abandoned this slander of theirs, which had already been taken up by the pagans (Origen, Against Celsus, I),and strove to prove at least that Mary was not a virgin when She gave birth to Christ. They even said that the prophecies concerning the birth-giving of the Messiah by a virgin had never existed, and that therefore it was entirely in vain that Christians thought to exalt Jesus by the fact that a prophecy was supposedly being fulfilled in Him.


Jewish translators were found (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) who made new translations of the Old Testament into Greek and in these translated the well-known prophecy of Isaiah (Is. 7:14) thus: Behold, a young woman will conceive. They asserted that the Hebrew word Aalma signified “young woman” and not “virgin,” as stood in the sacred translation of the Seventy Translators [Septuagint], where this passage had been translated “Behold, a virgin shall conceive.”


By this new translation they wished to prove that Christians, on the basis of an incorrect translation of the word Aalma, thought to ascribe to Mary something completely impossible a birth-giving without a man, while in actuality the birth of Christ was not in the least different from other human births.


However, the evil intention of the new translators was clearly revealed because by a comparison of various passages in the Bible it became clear that the word Aalma signified precisely “virgin.” And indeed, not only the Jews, but even the pagans, on the basis of their own traditions and various prophecies, expected the Redeemer of the world to be born of a Virgin. The Gospels clearly stated that the Lord Jesus had been born of a Virgin.


How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? asked Mary, Who had given a vow of virginity, of the Archangel Gabriel, who had informed Her of the birth of Christ.


And the Angel replied: The Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow Thee; wherefore also that which is to be born shall be holy, and shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:34–35). Later the Angel appeared also to righteous Joseph, who had wished to put away Mary from his house, seeing that She had conceived without entering into conjugal cohabitation with him. To Joseph the Archangel Gabriel said: Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is begotten in Her is of the Holy Spirit, and he reminded him of the prophecy of Isaiah that a virgin would conceive (Matt. 1: 18–2 5).The rod of Aaron that budded, the rock torn away from the mountain without hands, seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream and interpreted by the Prophet Daniel, the closed gate seen by the Prophet Ezekiel, and much else in the Old Testament, prefigured the birth-giving of the Virgin. Just as Adam had been created by the Word of God from the unworked and virgin earth, so also the Word of God created flesh for Himself from a virgin womb when the Son of God became the new Adam so as to correct the fall into sin of the first Adam (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Book 111).


The seedless birth of Christ can and could be denied only by those who deny the Gospel, whereas the Church of Christ from of old confesses Christ “incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.” But the birth of God from the Ever-Virgin was a stumbling stone for those who wished to call themselves Christians but did not wish to humble themselves in mind and be zealous for purity of life. The pure life of Mary was a reproach for those who were impure also in their thoughts. So as to show themselves Christians, they did not dare to deny that Christ was born of a Virgin, but they began to affirm that Mary remained a virgin only until she brought forth her first-born son, Jesus (Matt. 1:25).


“After the birth of Jesus,” said the false teacher Helvidius in the 4th century, and likewise many others before and after him, “Mary entered into conjugal life with Joseph and had from him children, who are called in the Gospels the brothers and sisters of Christ.” But the word “until” does not signify that Mary remained a virgin only until a certain time. The word “until” and words similar to it often signify eternity. In the Sacred Scripture it is said of Christ: In His days shall shine forth righteousness and an abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away (Ps. 71:7), but this does not mean that when there shall no longer be a moon at the end of the world, God’s righteousness shall no longer be; precisely then, rather, will it triumph. And what does it mean when it says: For He must reign, until He hath put all enemies under His feet? (I Cor. 15:25). Is the Lord then to reign only for the time until His enemies shall be under His feet?! And David, in the fourth Psalm of the Ascents says: As the eyes of the handmaid look unto the bands of her mistress, so do our eyes look unto the Lord our God, until He take pity on us (Ps. 122:2). Thus, the Prophet will have his eyes toward the Lord until he obtains mercy, but having obtained it he will direct them to the earth? (Blessed Jerome, “On the Ever-Virginity of Blessed Mary.”) The Saviour in the Gospel says to the Apostles (Matt. 28:20): Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Thus, after the end of the world the Lord will step away from His disciples, and then, when they shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel upon twelve thrones, they will not have the promised communion with the Lord? (Blessed Jerome, op. cit.)


It is likewise incorrect to think that the brothers and sisters of Christ were the children of His Most Holy Mother. The names of “brother” and “sister” have several distinct meanings. Signifying a certain kinship between people or their spiritual closeness, these words are used sometimes in a broader, and sometimes in a narrower sense. In any case, people are called brothers or sisters if they have a common father and mother, or only a common father or mother; or even if they have different fathers and mothers, if their parents later (having become widowed) have entered into marriage (stepbrothers); or if their parents are bound by close degrees of kinship.


In the Gospel it can nowhere be seen that those who are called there the brothers of Jesus were or were considered the children of His Mother. On the contrary, it was known that James and others were the sons of Joseph, the Betrothed of Mary, who was a widower with children from his first wife. (St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, Panarion, 78.) Likewise, the sister of His Mother, Mary the wife of Cleopas, who stood with Her at the Cross of the Lord (John 19:25), also had children, who in view of such close kinship with full right could also be called brothers of the Lord. That the so-called brothers and sisters of the Lord were not the children of His Mother is clearly evident from the fact that the Lord entrusted His Mother before His death to His beloved disciple John. Why should He do this if She had other children besides Him? They themselves would have taken care of Her. The sons of Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus, did not consider themselves obliged to take care of one they regarded as their stepmother, or at least did not have for Her such love as blood children have for parents, and such as the adopted John had for Her.


 


Thus, a careful study of Sacred Scripture reveals with complete clarity the insubstantiality of the objections against the Ever-Virginity of Mary and puts to shame those who teach differently.

https://ortodoks.dk/ortodoks-tro-og-praksis/de-hellige/the-orthodox-veneration-of-mary-the-birthgiver-of-god

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The Nestorian Heresy and The Third Ecumenical Council

Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)


WHEN ALL THOSE who had dared to speak against the sanctity and purity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary had been reduced to silence, an attempt was made to destroy Her veneration as Mother of God. In the 5th century the Archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, began to preach that of Mary had been born only the man Jesus, in Whom the Divinity had taken abode and dwelt in Him as in a temple. At first he allowed his presbyter Anastasius and then he himself began to teach openly in church that one should not call Mary “Theotokos, since She had not given birth to the God-Man. He considered it demeaning for himself to worship a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.


Such sermons evoked a universal disturbance and unease over the purity of faith, at first in Constantinople and then everywhere else where rumors of the new teaching spread. St. Proclus, the disciple of St. John Chrysostom’ who was then Bishop of Cyzicus and later Archbishop of Constantinople, in the presence of Nestorius gave in church a sermon in which he confessed the Son of God born in the flesh of the Virgin, Who in truth is the Theotokos (Birthgiver of God), for already in the womb of the Most Pure One, at the time of Her conception, the Divinity was united with the Child conceived of the Holy Spirit; and this Child, even though He was born of the Virgin Mary only in His human nature, still was born already true God and true man.

Nestorius stubbornly refused to change his teaching, saying that one must distinguish between Jesus and the Son of God, that Mary should not be called Theotokos, but Christotokos (Birthgiver of Christ), since the Jesus Who was born of Mary was only the man Christ (which signifies Messiah, anointed one), like to God’s anointed ones of old, the prophets, only surpassing them in fullness of communion with God. The teaching of Nestorius thus constituted a denial of the whole economy of God, for if from Mary only a man was born, then it was not God Who suffered for us, but a man.


St. Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, finding out about the teaching of Nestorius and about the church disorders evoked by this teaching in Constantinople, wrote a letter to Nestorius, in which he tried to persuade him to hold the teaching which the Church had confessed from its foundation, and not to introduce anything novel into this teaching. In addition, St. Cyril wrote to the clergy and people of Constantinople that they should be firm in the Orthodox faith and not fear the persecutions by Nestorius against those who were not in agreement with him. St. Cyril also wrote informing of everything to Rome, to the holy Pope Celestine, who with all his flock was then firm in Orthodoxy.


St. Celestine for his part wrote to Nestorius and called upon him to preach the Orthodox faith, and not his own. But Nestorius remained deaf to all persuasion and replied that what he was preaching was the Orthodox faith, while his opponents were heretics. St. Cyril wrote Nestorius again and composed twelve anathemas, that is, set forth in twelve paragraphs the chief differences of the Orthodox teaching from the teaching preached by Nestorius, acknowledging as excommunicated from the Church everyone who should reject even a single one of the paragraphs he had composed.


Nestorius rejected the whole of the text composed by St. Cyril and wrote his own exposition of the teaching which he preached, likewise in twelve paragraphs, giving over to anathema (that is, excommunication from the Church) everyone who did not accept it. The danger to purity of faith was increasing all the time. St. Cyril wrote a letter to Theodosius the Younger, who was then reigning, to his wife Eudocia and to the Emperor’s sister Pulcheria, entreating them likewise to concern themselves with ecclesiastical matters and restrain the heresy.


It was decided to convene an Ecumenical Council, at which hierarchs, gathered from the ends of the world, should decide whether the faith preached by Nestorius was Orthodox. As the place for the council, which was to be the Third Ecumenical Council, they chose the city of Ephesus, in which the Most Holy Virgin Mary had once dwelt together with the Apostle John the Theologian. St. Cyril gathered his fellow bishops in Egypt and together with them travelled by sea to Ephesus. From Antioch overland came John, Archbishop of Antioch, with the Eastern bishops. The Bishop of Rome, St. Celestine, could not go himself and asked St. Cyril to defend the Orthodox faith, and in addition he sent from himself two bishops and the presbyter of the Roman Church Philip, to whom he also gave instructions as to what to say. To Ephesus there came likewise Nestorius and the bishops of the Constantinople region, and the bishops of Palestine, Asia Minor, and Cyprus.


On the 10th of the calends of July according to the Roman reckoning, that is, June 22, 43 1, in the Ephesian Church of the Virgin Mary, the bishops assembled, headed by the Bishop of Alexandria, Cyril, and the Bishop of Ephesus, Memnon, and took their places. In their midst was placed a Gospel as a sign of the invisible headship of the Ecumenical Council by Christ Himself. At first the Symbol of Faith which had been composed by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils was read; then there was read to the Council the Imperial Proclamation which was brought by the representatives of the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, Emperors of the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire.


The Imperial Proclamation having been heard, the reading of documents began, and there were read the Epistles of Cyril and Celestine to Nestorius, as well as the replies of Nestorius. The Council, by the lips of its members, acknowledged the teaching of Nestorius to be impious and condemned it, acknowledging Nestorius as deprived of his See and of the priesthood. A decree was composed concerning this which was signed by about 160 participants of the Council; and since some of them represented also other bishops who did not have the opportunity to be personally at the Council, the decree of the Council was actually the decision of more than 200 bishops, who had their Sees in the various regions of the Church at that time, and they testified that they confessed the Faith which from all antiquity had been kept in their localities.


Thus the decree of the Council was the voice of the Ecumenical Church, which clearly expressed its faith that Christ, born of the Virgin, is the true God Who became man; and inasmuch as Mary gave birth to the perfect Man Who was at the same time perfect God, She rightly should be revered as THEOTOKOS.


At the end of the session its decree was immediately communicated to the waiting people. The whole of Ephesus rejoiced when it found out that the veneration of the Holy Virgin had been defended, for She was especially revered in this city, of which She had been a resident during Her earthly life and a Patroness after Her departure into eternal life. The people greeted the Fathers ecstatically when in the evening they returned home after the session. They accompanied them to their homes with lighted torches and burned incense in the streets. Everywhere were to be heard joyful greetings, the glorification of the Ever-Virgin, and the praises of the Fathers who had defended Her name against the heretics. The decree of the Council was displayed in the streets of Ephesus.


The Council had five more sessions, on June 10 and 11, July 16, 17, and and August 3 1. At these sessions there were set forth, in six canons, measures for action against those who would dare to spread the teaching of Nestorius and change the decree of the Council of Ephesus.


At the complaint of the bishops of Cyprus against the pretensions of the Bishop of Antioch, the Council decreed that the Church of Cyprus should preserve its independence in Church government, which it had possessed from the Apostles, and that in general none of the bishops should subject to themselves regions which had been previously independent from them, “lest under the pretext of priesthood the pride of earthly power should steal in, and lest we lose, ruining it little by little, the freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer of all men, has given us by His Blood.”


The Council likewise confirmed the condemnation of the Pelagian heresy, which taught that man can be saved by his own powers without the necessity of having the grace of God. It also decided certain matters of church government, and addressed epistles to the bishops who had not attended the Council, announcing its decrees and calling upon all to stand on guard for the Orthodox Faith and the peace of the Church. At the same time the Council acknowledged that the teaching of the Orthodox Ecumenical Church had been fully and clearly enough set forth in the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith, which is why it itself did not compose a new Symbol of Faith and forbade in future “to compose another Faith,” that is, to compose other Symbols of Faith or make changes in the Symbol which had been confirmed at the Second Ecumenical Council.


This latter decree was violated several centuries later by Western Christians when, at first in separate places, and then throughout the whole Roman Church, there was made to the Symbol the addition that the Holy Spirit proceeds “and from the Son,” which addition has been approved by the Roman Popes from the I I th century, even though up until that time their predecessors, beginning with St. Celestine, firmly kept to the decision of the Council of Ephesus, which was the Third Ecumenical Council, and fulfilled it.


Thus the peace which had been destroyed by Nestorius settled once more in the Church. The true Faith had been defended and false teaching accused.


The Council of Ephesus is rightly venerated as Ecumenical, on the same level as the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople which preceded it. At it there were present representatives of the whole Church. Its decisions were accepted by the whole Church “from one end of the universe to the other.” At it there was confessed the teaching which had been held from Apostolic times. The Council did not create a new teaching, but it loudly testified of the truth which some had tried to replace by an invention. It precisely set forth the confession of the Divinity of Christ Who was born of the Virgin. The belief of the Church and its judgment on this question were now so clearly expressed that no one could any longer ascribe to the Church his own false reasonings. In the future there could arise other questions demanding the decision of the whole Church, but not the question


Subsequent Councils based themselves in their decisions on the decrees of the Councils which had preceded them. They did not compose a new Symbol of Faith, but only gave an explanation of it. At the Third Ecumenical Council there was firmly and clearly confessed Previously the Holy Fathers had accused those who had slandered the immaculate life of the Virgin Mary; and now concerning those who had tried to lessen Her honor it was proclaimed to all: “He who does not confess Immanuel to be true God and therefore the Holy Virgin to be Theotokos, because She gave birth in the flesh to the Word Who is from God the Father and Who became flesh, let him be anathema (separated from the Church)” (First Anathema of St. Cyril of Alexandria).

https://ortodoks.dk/ortodoks-tro-og-praksis/de-hellige/the-orthodox-veneration-of-mary-the-birthgiver-of-god

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Attempts of Iconoclasts to Lessen The Glory of the Queen of Heaven;

They are put to shame.

Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)


AFTER THE THIRD Ecumenical Council, Christians began yet more fervently, both in Constantinople and in other places, to hasten to the intercession of the Mother of God and their hopes in Her intercession were not vain. She manifested Her help to innumerable sick people, helpless people, and those in misfortune. Many times She appeared as defender of Constantinople against outward enemies, once even showing in visible fashion to St. Andrew the Fool for Christ Her wondrous Protection over the people who were praying at night in the Temple of Blachernae.


The Queen of Heaven gave victory in battles to the Byzantine Emperors, which is why they had the custom to take with them in their campaigns Her Icon of Hodigitria (Guide). She strengthened ascetics and zealots of Christian life in their battle against human passions and weaknesses. She enlightened and instructed the Fathers and Teachers of the Church ’ including St. Cyril of Alexandria himself when he was hesitating to acknowledge the innocence and sanctity of St. John Chrysostom. The Most Pure Virgin placed hymns in the mouths of the composers of church hymns, sometimes making renowned singers out of the untalented who had no gift of song, but who were pious laborers, such as St. Romanus the Sweet-Singer (the Melodist). Is it therefore surprising that Christians strove to magnify the name of their constant Intercessor? In Her honor feasts were established, to Her were dedicated wondrous songs, and Her Images were revered.


The malice of the prince of this world armed the sons of apostasy once more to raise battle against Immanuel and His Mother in this same Constantinople, which revered now, as Ephesus had previously, the Mother of God as its Intercessor. Not daring at first to speak openly against the Champion General, they wished to lessen Her glorification by forbidding the veneration of the Icons of Christ and His saints, calling this idol-worship. The Mother of God now also strengthened zealots of piety in the battle for the veneration of Images, manifesting many signs from Her Icons and healing the severed hand of St. John of Damascus who had written in defence of the Icons.


The persecution against the venerators of Icons and Saints ended again in the victory and triumph of Orthodoxy, for the veneration given to the Icons ascends to those who are depicted in them; and the holy ones of God are venerated as friends of God for the sake of the Divine grace which dwelt in them, in accordance with the words of the Psalm: “Most precious to me are Thy friends.” The Most Pure Mother of God was glorified with special honor in heaven and on earth, and She, even in the days of the mocking of the holy Icons, manifested through them so many wondrous miracles that even today we remember them with contrition. The hymn “In Thee All Creation Rejoices, 0 Thou Who Art Full of Grace,” and the Icon of the Three Hands remind us of the healing of St. John Damascene before this Icon; the depiction of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God reminds us of the miraculous deliverance from enemies by this Icon, which had been thrown in the sea by a widow who was unable to save it.


No persecutions against those who venerated the Mother of God and all that is bound up with the memory of Her could lessen the love of Christians for their Intercessor. The rule was established that every series of hymns in the Divine services should end with a hymn or verse in honor of the Mother of God (the so-called “Theotokia”). Many times in the year Christians in all corners of the world gather together in church, as before they gathered together, to praise Her, to thank Her for the benefactions She has shown, and to beg mercy.


But could the adversary of Christians, the devil, who goeth about roaring like a lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8), remain an indifferent spectator to the glory of the Immaculate One? Could he acknowledge himself as defeated, and cease to wage warfare against the truth through men who do his will? And so, when all the universe resounded with the good news of the Faith of Christ, when everywhere the name of the Most Holy One was invoked, when the earth was filled with churches, when the houses of Christians were adorned with Icons depicting Her-then there appeared and began to spread a new false teaching about the Mother of God. This false teaching is dangerous in that many cannot immediately understand to what degree it undermines the true veneration of the Mother of God.

https://ortodoks.dk/ortodoks-tro-og-praksis/de-hellige/the-orthodox-veneration-of-mary-the-birthgiver-of-god

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Zeal Not According to Knowledge (Romans 10:2)

The corruption by the Latins, in the newly invented dogma of the “Immaculate Conception, ” of the true veneration of the Most Holy Mother of God and Ever- Virgin Mary.

Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)



WHEN THOSE WHO censured the immaculate life of the Most Holy Virgin had been rebuked, as well as those who denied Her Evervirginity, those who denied Her dignity as the Mother of God, and those who disdained Her icons-then, when the glory of the Mother of God had illuminated the whole universe, there appeared a teaching which seemingly exalted highly the Virgin Mary, but in reality denied all Her virtues.


This teaching is called that of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and it was accepted by the followers of the Papal throne of Rome. The teaching is this- that “the All-blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of Her Conception, by the special grace of Almighty God and by a special privilege, for the sake of the future merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin” (Bull of Pope Pius IX concerning the new dogma). In other words, the Mother of God at Her very conception was preserved from original sin and, by the grace of God, was placed in a state where it was impossible for Her to have personal sins.


Christians had not heard of this before the ninth century, when for the first time the Abbot of Corvey, Paschasius Radbertus, expressed the opinion that the Holy Virgin was conceived without original sin. Beginning, from the 12th century, this idea begins to spread among the clergy and flock of the Western church, which had already fallen away from the Universal Church and thereby lost the grace of the Holy Spirit.


However, by no means all of the members of the Roman church agreed with the new teaching. There was a difference of among the most renowned theologians of the West, the pillars, so to speak, of the Latin church. Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux decisively censured it, while Duns Scotus defended it. From the teachers this division carried over to their disciples: the Latin Dominican monks, after their teacher Thomas Aquinas, preached against the teaching of the Immaculate Conception, while the followers of Duns Scotus, the Franciscans, strove to implant it everywhere. The battle between these two currents continued for the course of several centuries. Both on the one and on the other side there were those who were considered among the Catholics as the greatest authorities.


There was no help in deciding the question in the fact that several people declared that they had had a revelation from above concerning it. The nun Bridget [of Sweden], renowned in the 14th century among the Catholics, spoke in her writings about the appearances to her of the Mother of God, Who Herself told her that She had been conceived immaculately, without original sin. But her contemporary, the yet more renowned ascetic Catherine of Sienna, affirmed that in Her Conception the Holy Virgin participated in original sin, concerning which she had received a revelation from Christ Himself (See the book of Archpriest A. Lebedev, Differences in the Teaching on the Most Holy Mother of God in the Churches of East and West)


Thus, neither on the foundation of theological writings, nor on the foundation of miraculous manifestations which contradicted each other, could the Latin flock distinguish for a long time where the truth was. Roman Popes until Sixtus IV (end of the 15th century) remained apart from these disputes, and only this Pope in 1475 approved a service in which the teaching of the Immaculate Conception was clearly expressed; and several years later he forbade a condemnation of those who believed in the Immaculate Conception. However, even Sixtus IV did not yet decide to affirm that such was the unwavering teaching of the church; and therefore, having forbidden the condemnation of those who believed in the Immaculate Conception, he also did not condemn those who believed otherwise.


Meanwhile, the teaching of the Immaculate Conception obtained more and more partisans among the members of the Roman church. The reason for this was the fact that it seemed more pious and pleasing to the Mother of God to give Her as much glory as possible. The striving of the people to glorify the Heavenly Intercessor, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the deviation of Western theologians into abstract speculations which led only to a seeming truth (Scholasticism), and finally, the patronage of the Roman Popes after Sixtus IV-all this led to the fact that the opinion concerning the Immaculate Conception which had been expressed by Paschasius Radbertus in the 9th century was already the general belief of the Latin church in the 19th century. There remained only to proclaim this definitely as the church’s teaching, which was done by the Roman Pope Pius IX during a solemn service on December 8, 1854, when he declared that the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Virgin was a dogma of the Roman church. Thus the Roman church added yet another deviation from the teaching which it had confessed while it was a member of the Catholic, Apostolic Church, which faith has been held up to now unaltered and unchanged by the Orthodox Church. The proclamation of the new dogma satisfied the broad masses of people who belonged to the Roman church, who in simplicity of heart thought that the proclamation of the new teaching in the church would serve for the greater glory of the Mother of God, to Whom by this they were making a gift, as it were. There was also satisfied the vainglory of the Western theologians who defended and worked it out. But most of all the proclamation of the new dogma was profitable for the Roman throne itself, since, having proclaimed the new dogma by his own authority, even though he did listen to the opinions of the bishops of the Catholic church, the Roman Pope by this very fact openly appropriated to himself the right to change the teaching of the Roman church and placed his own voice above the testimony of Sacred Scripture and Tradition. A direct deduction from this was the fact that the Roman Popes were infallible in matters of faith, which indeed this very same Pope Pius IX likewise proclaimed as a dogma of the Catholic church in 1870.


Thus was the teaching of the Western church changed after it had fallen away from communion with the True Church. It has introduced into itself newer and newer teachings, thinking by this to glorify the Truth yet more, but in reality distorting it. While the Orthodox Church humbly confesses what it has received from Christ and the Apostles, the Roman church dares to add to it, sometimes from zeal not according to knowledge (cf. Rom. 10:2), and sometimes by deviating into superstitions and into the contradictions of knowledge falsely so called (I Tim. 6:20). It could not be otherwise. That the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church (Matt. 16:18) is promised only to the True, Universal Church; but upon those who have fallen away from it are fulfilled the words: As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me (John 15:4).


It is true that in the very definition of the new dogma it is said that a new teaching is not being established, but that there is only being proclaimed as the church’s that which always existed in the church and which has been held by many Holy Fathers, excerpts from whose writings are cited. However, all the cited references speak only of the exalted sanctity of the Virgin Mary and of Her immaculateness, and give Her various names which define Her purity and spiritual might; but nowhere is there any word of the immaculateness of Her conception. Meanwhile, these same Holy Fathers in other places say that only Jesus Christ is completely pure of every sin, while all men, being born of Adam, have borne a flesh subject to the law of sin.


None of the ancient Holy Fathers say that God in miraculous fashion purified the Virgin Mary while yet in the womb; and many directly indicate that the Virgin Mary, just as all men, endured a battle with sinfulness, but was victorious over temptations and was saved by Her Divine Son.


Commentators of the Latin confession likewise say that the Virgin Mary was saved by Christ. But they understand this in the sense that Mary was preserved from the taint of original sin in view of the future merits of Christ (Bull on the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception). The Virgin Mary, according to their teaching, received in advance, as it were, the gift which Christ brought to men by His sufferings and death on the Cross. Moreover, speaking of the torments of the Mother of God which She endured standing at the Cross of Her Beloved Son, and in general of the sorrows with which the life of the Mother of God was filled, they consider them an addition to the sufferings of Christ and consider Mary to be our CoRedemptress.


According to the commentary of the Latin theologians, “Mary is an associate with our Redeemer as Co-Redemptress” (see Lebedev, op. cit. p. 273). “In the act of Redemption, She, in a certain way, helped Christ” (Catechism of Dr. Weimar). “The Mother of God,” writes Dr. Lentz, “bore the burden of Her martyrdom not merely courageously, but also joyfully, even though with a broken heart” (Mariology of Dr. Lentz). For this reason, She is “a complement of the Holy Trinity,” and “just as Her Son is the only Intermediary chosen by God between His offended majesty and sinful men, so also, precisely, ‑the chief Mediatress placed by Him between His Son and us is the Blessed Virgin.” “In three respects-as Daughter, as Mother, and as Spouse of God-the Holy Virgin is exalted to a certain equality with the Father, to a certain superiority over the Son, to a certain nearness to the Holy Spirit” (“The Immaculate Conception,” Malou, Bishop of Brouges).


Thus, according to the teaching of the representatives of Latin theology, the Virgin Mary in the work of Redemption is placed side by side with Christ Himself and is exalted to an equality with God. One cannot go farther than this. If all this has not been definitively formulated as a dogma of the Roman church as yet, still the Roman Pope Pius IX, having made the first step in this direction, has shown the direction for the further development of the generally recognized teaching of his church, and has indirectly confirmed the above-cited teaching about the Virgin Mary.


Thus the Roman church, in its strivings to exalt the Most Holy Virgin, is going on the path of complete deification of Her. And if even now its authorities call Mary a complement of the Holy Trinity, one may soon expect that the Virgin will be revered like God. who are building a new theological system having as its foundation the philosophical teaching of Sophia, Wisdom, as a special power binding the Divinity and the creation. Likewise developing the teaching of the dignity of the Mother of God, they wish to see in Her an Essence which is some kind of mid-point between God and man. In some questions they are more moderate than the Latin theologians, but in others, if you please, they have already left them behind. While denying the teaching of the Immaculate Conception and the freedom from original sin, they still teach Her full freedom from any personal sins, seeing in Her an Intermediary between men and God, like Christ: in the person of Christ there has appeared on earth the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Pre-eternal Word, the Son of God; while the Holy Spirit is manifest through the Virgin Mary.


In the words of one of the representatives of this tendency, when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the Virgin Mary, she acquired “a dyadic life, human and divine; that is, She was completely deified, because in Her hypostatic being was manifest the living, creative revelation of the Holy Spirit” (Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov, The Unburnt Bush, 1927, p. 154). “She is a perfect manifestation of the Third Hypostasis” (Ibid., p. 175), CC a creature, but also no longer a creature” (P. 19 1). This striving towards the deification of the Mother of God is to be observed primarily in the West, where at the same time, on the other hand, various sects of a Protestant character are having great success, together with the chief branches of Protestantism, Lutheranism and Calvinism, which in general deny the veneration of the Mother of God and the calling upon Her in prayer.


But we can say with the words of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus: “There is an equal harm in both these heresies, both when men demean the Virgin and when, on the contrary, they glorify Her beyond what is proper” (Panarion, “Against the Collyridians”). This Holy Father accuses those who give Her an almost divine worship: “Let Mary be in honor, but let worship be given to the Lord” (same source). “Although Mary is a chosen vessel, still she was a woman by nature, not to be distinguished at all from others. Although the history of Mary and Tradition relate that it was said to Her father Joachim in the desert, ‘Thy wife hath conceived,’ still this was done not without marital union and not without the seed of man” (same source). “One should not revere the saints above what is proper, but should revere their Master. Mary is not God, and did not receive a body from heaven, but from the joining of man and woman; and according to the promise, like Isaac, She was prepared to take part in the Divine Economy. But, on the other hand, let none dare foolishly to offend the Holy Virgin” (St. Epiphanius, “Against the Antidikomarionites”).


The Orthodox Church, highly exalting the Mother of God in its hymns of praise, does not dare to ascribe to Her that which has not been communicated about Her by Sacred Scripture or Tradition. “Truth is foreign to all overstatements as well as to all understatements. It gives to everything a fitting measure and fitting place” (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov). Glorifying the immaculateness of the Virgin Mary and the manful bearing of sorrows in Her earthly life, the Fathers of the Church, on the other hand, reject the idea that She was an intermediary between God and men in the sense of the joint Redemption by Them of the human race. Speaking of Her preparedness to die together with Her Son and to suffer together with Him for the sake of the salvation of all, the renowned Father of the Western Church, Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, adds: “But the sufferings of Christ did not need any help, as the Lord Himself prophesied concerning this long before: I looked about, and there was none to help; I sought and there was none to give aid. therefore My arm delivered them (Is. 63:5).” (St. Ambrose, “Concerning the Upbringing of the Virgin and the Ever-Virginity of Holy Mary,” ch. 7).


This same Holy Father teaches concerning the universality of original sin, from which Christ alone is an exception. “Of all those born of women, there is not a single one who is perfectly holy, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, Who in a special new way of immaculate birthgiving, did not experience earthly taint” (St. Ambrose, Commentary on Luke, ch. 2). “God alone is without sin. All born in the usual manner of woman and man, that is, of fleshly union, become guilty of sin. Consequently, He Who does not have sin was not conceived in this manner” (St. Ambrose, Ap. Aug. “Concerning Marriage and Concupiscence”). “One Man alone, the Intermediary between God and man, is free from the bonds of sinful birth, because He was born of a Virgin, and because in being born He did not experience the touch of sin” (St. Ambrose, ibid., Book 2: “Against Julianus”).


Another renowned teacher of the Church, especially revered in the West, Blessed Augustine, writes: “As for other men, excluding Him Who is the cornerstone, I do not see for them any other means to become temples of God and to be dwellings for God apart from spiritual rebirth, which must absolutely be preceded by fleshly birth. Thus, no matter how much we might think about children who are in the womb of the mother, and even though the word of the holy Evangelist who says of John the Baptist that he leaped for joy in the womb of his mother (which occurred not otherwise than by the action of the Holy Spirit), or the word of the Lord Himself spoken to Jeremiah: I have sanctified thee before thou didst leave the womb of thy mother (Jer. 1:5)- no matter how much these might or might not give us basis for thinking that children in this condition are capable of a certain sanctification, still in any case it cannot be doubted that the sanctification by which all of us together and each of us separately become the temple of God is possible only for those who are reborn, and rebirth always presupposes birth. Only those who have already been born can be united with Christ and be in union with this Divine Body which makes His Church the living temple of the majesty of God” (Blessed Augustine, Letter 187).


The above-cited words of the ancient teachers of the Church testify that in the West itself the teaching which is now spread there was earlier rejected there. Even after the falling away of the Western church, Bernard, who is acknowledged there as a great authority, wrote, ” I am frightened now, seeing that certain of you have desired to change the condition of important matters, introducing a new festival unknown to the Church, unapproved by reason, unjustified by ancient tradition. Are we really more learned and more pious than our fathers? You will say, ‘One must glorify the Mother of God as much as Possible.’ This is true; but the glorification given to the Queen of Heaven demands discernment. This Royal Virgin does not have need of false glorifications, possessing as She does true crowns of glory and signs of dignity. Glorify the purity of Her flesh and the sanctity of Her life. Marvel at the abundance of the gifts of this Virgin; venerate Her Divine Son; exalt Her Who conceived without knowing concupiscence and gave birth without knowing pain. But what does one yet need to add to these dignities? People say that one must revere the conception which preceded the glorious birth-giving; for if the conception had not preceded, the birth-giving also would not have been glorious. But what would one say if anyone for the same reason should demand the same kind of veneration of the father and mother of Holy Mary? One might equally demand the same for Her grandparents and great-grandparents, to infinity. Moreover, how can there not be sin in the place where there was concupiscence? All the more, let one not say that the Holy Virgin was conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of man. I say decisively that the Holy Spirit descended upon Her, but not that He came with Her.”


“I say that the Virgin Mary could not be sanctified before Her conception, inasmuch as She did not exist. if, all the more, She could not be sanctified in the moment of Her conception by reason of the sin which is inseparable from conception, then it remains to believe that She was sanctified after She was conceived in the womb of Her mother. This sanctification, if it annihilates sin, makes holy Her birth, but not Her conception. No one is given the right to be conceived in sanctity; only the Lord Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and He alone is holy from His very conception. Excluding Him, it is to all the descendants of Adam that must be referred that which one of them says of himself, both out of a feeling of humility and in acknowledgement of the truth: Behold I was conceived in iniquities (Ps. 50:7). How can one demand that this conception be holy, when it was not the work of the Holy Spirit, not to mention that it came from concupiscence? The Holy Virgin, of course, rejects that glory which, evidently, glorifies sin. She cannot in any way justify a novelty invented in spite of the teaching of the Church, a novelty which is the mother of imprudence, the sister of unbelief, and the daughter of lightmindedness” (Bernard, Epistle 174; cited, as were the references from Blessed Augustine, from Lebedev). The above-cited words clearly reveal both the novelty and the absurdity of the new dogma of the Roman church.


The teaching of the complete sinlessness of the Mother of God (1) does not correspond to Sacred Scripture, where there is repeatedly mentioned the sinlessness of the One Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ (I Tim. 2:5); and in Him is no sin U John 3:5); Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth (I Peter 2:22); One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15); Him Who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf (II Cor. 5:2 1). But concerning the rest of men it is said, Who is pure of defilement? No one who has lived a single day of his life on earth (Job 14:4). God commendeth His own love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life (Rom. 5:8–10).


 


(2) This teaching contradicts also Sacred Tradition, which is contained in numerous Patristic writings, where there is mentioned the exalted sanctity of the Virgin Mary from Her very birth, as well as Her cleansing by the Holy Spirit at Her conception of Christ, but not at Her own conception by Anna. “There is none without stain before Thee, even though his life be but a day, save Thee alone, Jesus Christ our God, Who didst appear on earth without sin, and through Whom we all trust to obtain mercy and the remission of sins” (St. Basil the Great, Third Prayer of Vespers of Pentecost). “But when Christ came through a pure, virginal, unwedded, God-fearing, undefiled Mother without wedlock and without father, and inasmuch as it befitted Him to be born, He purified the female nature, rejected the bitter Eve and overthrew the laws of the flesh” (St. Gregory the Theologian, “In Praise of Virginity”). However, even then, as Sts. Basil the Great and John Chrysostom speak of this, She was not placed in the state of being unable to sin, but continued to take care for Her salvation and overcame all temptations (St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on John, Homily 85; St. Basil the Great, Epistle 160).


(3) The teaching that the Mother of God was purified before Her birth, so that from Her might be born the Pure Christ, is meaningless; because if the Pure Christ could be born only if the Virgin might be born pure, it would be necessary that Her parents also should be pure of original sin, and they again would have to be born of purified parents, and going further in this way, one would have to come to the conclusion that Christ could not have become incarnate unless all His ancestors in the flesh, right up to Adam inclusive, had been purified beforehand of original sin. But then there would not have been any need for the very Incarnation of Christ, since Christ came down to earth in order to annihilate sin.


(4) The teaching that the Mother of God was preserved from original sin, as likewise the teaching that She was preserved by God’s grace from personal sins, makes God unmerciful and unjust; because if God could preserve Mary from sin and purify Her before Her birth, then why does He not purify other men before their birth, but rather leaves them in sin? It follows likewise that God saves men apart from their will, predetermining certain ones before their birth to salvation.


(5) This teaching, which seemingly has the aim of exalting the Mother of God, in reality completely denies all Her virtues. After all, if Mary, even in the womb of Her mother, when She could not even desire anything either good or evil, was preserved by God’s grace from every impurity, and then by that grace was preserved from sin even after Her birth, then in what does Her merit consist? If She could have been placed in the state of being unable to sin, and did not sin, then for what did God glorify Her? if She, without any effort, and without having any kind of impulses to sin, remained pure, then why is She crowned more than everyone else? There is no victory without an adversary.


The righteousness and sanctity of the Virgin Mary were manifested in the fact that She, being “human with passions like us,” so loved God and gave Herself over to Him, that by Her purity She was exalted high above the rest of the human race. For this, having been foreknown and forechosen, She was vouchsafed to be purified by the Holy Spirit Who came upon Her, and to conceive of Him the very Saviour of the world. The teaching of the grace-given sinlessness of the Virgin Mary denies Her victory over temptations; from a victor who is worthy to be crowned with crowns of glory, this makes Her a blind instrument of God’s Providence.


It is not an exaltation and greater glory, but a belittlement of Her, this “gift” which was given Her by Pope Pius IX and all the rest who think they can glorify the Mother of God by seeking out new truths. The Most Holy Mary has been so much glorified by God Himself, so exalted is Her life on earth and Her glory in heaven, that human inventions cannot add anything to Her honor and glory. That which people themselves invent only obscures Her Face from their eyes. Brethren, take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, wrote the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit (Col. 2:8).


Such a “vain deceit” is the teaching of the Immaculate Conception by Anna of the Virgin Mary, which at first sight exalts, but in actual fact belittles Her. Like every lie, it is a seed of the “father of lies” (John 8:44), the devil, who has succeeded by it in


blaspheme the Virgin Mary. Together with it there should also be rejected all the other teachings which have come from it or are akin to it. The striving to exalt the Most Holy Virgin to an equality with Christ ascribing to Her maternal tortures at the Cross an equal significance with the sufferings of Christ, so that the Redeemer and “Co-Redemptress” suffered equally, according to the teaching of the Papists, or that “the human nature of the Mother of God in heaven together with the God-Man Jesus jointly reveal the full image of man” (Archpriest S. Bulgakov, The Unburnt Bush, p. 141)-is likewise a vain deceit and a seduction of philosophy. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28), and Christ has redeemed the whole human race; therefore at His Resurrection equally did “Adam dance for joy and Eve rejoice” (Sunday Kontakia of the First and Third Tones), and by His Ascension did the Lord raise up the whole of human nature.


Likewise, that the Mother of God is a “complement of the Holy Trinity” or a “fourth Hypostasis”; that “the Son and the Mother are a revelation of the Father through the Second and Third Hypostases”; that the Virgin Mary is “a creature, but also no longer a creature”-all this is the fruit of vain, false wisdom which is not satisfied with what the Church has held from the time of the Apostles, but strives to glorify the Holy Virgin more than God has glorified Her.


Thus are the words of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus fulfilled: “Certain senseless ones in their opinion about the Holy EverVirgin have striven and are striving to put Her in place of God” (St. Epiphanius, “Against the Antidikomarionites”). But that which is offered to the Virgin in senselessness, instead of praise of Her, turns out to be blasphemy; and the All-Immaculate One rejects the lie, being the Mother of Truth (John 14:6).

https://ortodoks.dk/ortodoks-tro-og-praksis/de-hellige/the-orthodox-veneration-of-mary-the-birthgiver-of-god

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Personal Testimony of Fr. Seraphim Holland, USA

by Fr. Seraphim Holland

I am a convert to Orthodoxy, and the next Holy Saturday (in 1996) will be the 16th anniversary of my baptism. I am an Orthodox priest, having been ordained just before Great Lent, this year (1995) after having been a deacon for 5 years. I am married, and have four children, Genevieve:14, Christina:11, Tim:8 and Natalie:5. My Matushka is Marina. I serve in the Mission parish of St. Nicholas, a community under the omophorion of Bishop Hilarion of Washington, in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Our community is almost entirely convert in makeup, and all of our services are in English.

I was raised Roman Catholic, with an unbelieving father (who subscribed to the “Man Upstairs” kind of “God” so many Americans believe in, and just thinks you need to be “good” to go to heaven). I saw many inconsistencies and lukewarmness among the Roman Catholics, and when I was a certain age (13?), my mother did not require me to go to church.

I was not a believer, but I was searching. I went to college, studying pre-med, and later switched to chemistry. I had a great desire to “make a difference”, but had reached a crisis, because I saw how temporal life was. I was fortunate to get a summer scholarship to do chemistry research, and lived at Purdue that summer, rooming with a “Navigator”.

The Navigators are a Protestant “Para Church” organization, with “Protestant Evangelical” Theology. He was a wonderful guy, and may God have mercy on him. He was used to plant a seed. We talked a lot, I read the bible a lot. As an almost last ditch effort, the Evil One so flummoxed me that at one point I wondered if God even existed. This was just for a moment, because the thought of atheism is ludicrous, given the evidence of God, which He put within us, and everywhere.

I prayed, thought, did research, and played a lot of basketball. When I came home, I had a “Protestant” conversion experience, akin to the way Campus Crusade for Christ incorrectly presents a *small part* of the story in their “4 Spiritual Laws“. I was all by myself, in my room, late at night.

I changed, or rather, the Holy Spirit helped me to change. I cannot say what I “was” at that point. According to Evangelical thought, I was “saved”. I know now that this was the beginning of the path to Holy Orthodoxy, which I had never heard of.

I went back to school for my junior year, and went to the campus’ Roman Catholic Church. They were wonderful folks. I went on retreats, and got to know two of the priests, and other folks really well. I was unhappy though, because they did not think the same as I did. All that I was learning and feeling – it did not connect with my experiences with them. When I attended a mass in which “liturgical dance” was used to express “worship”, I knew I had to go.

I attended two campus fellowships, in an order I don’t remember. One was charismatic/Pentecostal, and was called “The Upper Room”. I loved the folks there, but never bought into the Pentecostal doctrines about tongues. They seemed willing to let their *experiences* rule in this area, even though they were insistent on using the bible as the only source of doctrine in all others.

For a long time, I puzzled over this inconsistency, and am sure that this was part of my “road to Orthodoxy”, as it helped me to formulate THE QUESTION, which I will describe soon.

I also attended and participated in another Evangelical fellowship. The most I remember about this place is that they once had a service with a rock band, and played the kinda-sorta Christian songs from the Doobie Brothers.

Contemporaneous with all this was my involvement with Campus Crusade for Christ. I owe them a great debt, although they don’t see it that way. First off, I met my wife to be there. She introduced me to the Orthodox Church, as she was nominal Orthodox, but really a “nondenominational Protestant” in her outlook. She was excited to find out that I wanted to go to church in Indianapolis with her.

I can still remember the first day that I was at an Orthodox liturgy. I was starting to feel the coldness of the Protestant belief, and was looking for the total truth that I was feeling that Protestantism was lacking. This was actually an unformed expression of THE QUESTION.

The service was different, the prayer more sober – it expressed what I was really feeling in my soul.

They understood that God should be addressed with reverence, and that we should often ask Him for mercy! I was on an *intellectual* mission, but was smitten when I heard and experienced Orthodox worship. It was so *balanced*. I was associated with a lot of very evangelical folks, and really wanted to win souls for Christ (and still do). I was upset however, that it seemed that “winning souls” was all that was important to my peer group. I was further upset that their whole intent was to get intellectual assent from people, then turn them loose.

They did not work much on themselves. They did not think very much about the passions, except in a superficial way. They all believed in “eternal security”, which seemed to me to be a foolish belief, as they expressed it. Since they were “saved”, they did not ask God for *mercy*. I was feeling at that time how merciful God really is, and how much we need his mercy.

All I heard in Protestant circles was off-the-cuff praise, hymns, and prayers used in an evangelistic context. I still needed to WORK on myself. Everyone was telling me I was SAVED, but I didn’t believe it. I felt I was BEING saved, because of God’s great mercy. I was not quite ready to ignore my own passions and fulfill the “Great Commission”. These Orthodox people seemed to have different priorities – and they matched my still forming Christian consciousness much better.

When I heard how many times the Orthodox sing “Lord have mercy”, and the other beautiful prayers, I was overwhelmed. I had come home. It took another 9 months before I was Orthodox, because I still quite foolishly tried to prove or disprove Orthodoxy by intellectual research, even though something deep within me had been touched by the Holy Spirit in a way I knew I could never explain, or understand. I embarked on a period of study (too much) and prayer (too little) to prove whether Orthodox was the one true church. This leads me to THE QUESTION.

THE QUESTION: Our Lord and Savior promised His Apostles, and by context, and through them, all Christians that He would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Who would lead them (and us) into ALL TRUTH. (St. John). This promise indicates that there is a source of truth, and that the Apostles were entrusted with it. If this is the case, then one should be able to locate the descendants of those very apostles, and be assured that one is believing the TRUTH. Christendom has been shattered into so many sects and beliefs, including not a few ugly heresies.

Where is the truth? How does one find it? Some look only to the bible, and the amount of varying doctrines using that very same bible are as great as the sands of the sea. Where is the order? God is simple, and orderly. Would He not have a church that reflects this order and simplicity? If there is one true visible and invisible (of course) church, then a lot of people are wrong. It seems that the only way to find the truth is to find this church.

Where is it? Can it be found? It must be there, because Christ promised us that the Holy Spirit would lead us to ALL TRUTH. Certainly the Baptists and the Methodists, and the Pentecostals, and the nondenominational (arguably, an oxymoron), etc., all cannot have it. At least everyone save one is wrong. Where is the *one*?

I pursued the answer to this question vigorously. By the end of the second term (when I had met Marina, and THE QUESTION was formulated), I had not resolved it, and was still sufficiently entrenched in Campus Crusade to have signed up for a three month Evangelistic tour in Wildwood, NJ. I lived in a big rooming house with lots of other folks, worked all day at a campground to earn my bread, and either evangelized on the beach or boardwalk at night, or attended worship services, bible studies, and discipleship sessions. I averaged about three to four hours sleep a night.

During this time, I was plagued by THE QUESTION, and prayed much about it. I also studied, from books I had checked out of the library back home (there were big fines when I returned!). The books were mostly from Protestant authors who were giving their slant to history, or modernist Orthodox authors who did not sound any different on a fundamental level than the Protestants. I did not know enough to have access to really good quality Orthodox Literature, with one exception. I had a prayer book. This book had morning prayers and the like, and I forced myself to use them.

Although I had Roman Catholic roots, I had become rather iconoclastic and although I agreed in principle with “prayers to the saints”, I did not *really* want to do it. This was not doubt because of the misapplication of the (true) “I am the Way the Truth and the Life” doctrine. People found out about my prayers, and I became the official nut case in the house. My discipler, a wonderful man called Jim Dunn, thought I was apostatizing. We had long conversations, which seemed to me to be harangues, and I grew farther apart from my peers. I can hear his complaints even now: “But if Jesus is Your Savior, why do you need to prayer to the Saints? They can’t save you”. “Why do you want to talk about Mary so much. This is idolatry”. “Didn’t you invite Christ into your heart? What is all this talk about not being saved yet?”.

I had been to the mountain (of Protestant Evangelical doctrine and experience), and my soul KNEW there was something higher. My last month in the house was miserable, because I was no longer a believer according to my peers.

Upon returning to school, there was one last temptation to overcome. This one has a funny twist to it. Marina and I were at the “looking at china” stage, but I was adamant that I would not marry her unless I became Orthodox, and I was adamant that I would not become Orthodox to marry her! This was really a bit of sophistry on the part of the Evil One. After all, I loved her, and I loved the Orthodox church. I think I just did not want to *appear* that I converted just to marry her. Fortunately, at some point, Glory be to God, I just believed. Completely.

On Holy Saturday, 1980, I was baptized and chrismated. I had insisted upon baptism, although I was given the “option”. Shortly thereafter, we were married, the day after the end of the Spring Session.

Upon further reflection, I believe that the *beauty* of Orthodoxy is what attracted me. The discordance of competing Protestant beliefs are ugly to me, and the reliance on doctrine and de-emphasis of worship, liturgical expression, and ascetical endeavor always left me feeling a little hollow. God IS beautiful, and His church reflects Him.

There is so much *beauty* in Orthodoxy that I do not see in Protestantism, and Orthodox are also quite far away from the neo-platonist tendencies of some Protestants.

Some emphasize reason so much that they seem to forget that man has a body and a soul, and that God, who is totally free and beautiful, having made man in His image, has given man an inherent love for beauty. The Orthodox, worship God *naturally*, and not just with cold blooded reason, but also with their God given feelings and intuition.

In Orthodoxy, a man is not “saved” in an event. He is transformed, and is like a sapling that grows towards the light, and he loves God more and more, because “He first loved us”. Because of his love for God, and his ascetical struggles (to win the kingdom of Heaven by violence), God helps to change him, and his will slowly, imperceptibly conforms to the perfect will of God. He becomes like God; he shares in the energy of God. We call this process “theosis”, and this is salvation. It is not just intellectual assent, and it is not just ascetical endeavor, which some call “works”. It is a synergy of the two. The first follows the other, and the other empowers a man to do the first.

Fr. Seraphim Holland


FJTO

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2004: A miracle of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA (+1966) in Mulino, Oregon, USA

In 2004 in the city of Mulino, Oregon, USA, an amazing miracle of Saint John Maximovich of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966) happened. It concerns a woman of Russian origin spiritual child of father Sergios Sveshnikov. In his parish there are kept the treasures of Saint John Maximovich.

The woman was in the last week of pregnancy, (just before the expected day of childbirth), she went for the last general examination. During the examination the doctor diagnosed that the baby was dead in the woman's womb. He immediately told her that she would have to have artificial labor pains and give birth to the dead baby. She turned pale and fainted.

When she regained consciousness, the doctors  were preparing to give her substances that would cause her to  give birth. She demanded that they stop immediately and asked them to call her priest, Father Sergio. When the priest found out what was happening, he told her to do nothing and wait for him to come.

A little later he arrived with the sleeves of Saint John Maximovitch. Holding the sleeves he made the sign of the cross on her belly and oh the miracle, the child's heart started beating again, as the ultrasound screen showed. The child was born a little later alive and well, and was named John in honor of Saint John Maximovich. Honour and glory to Saint John Maximovich!

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Saint Herman of Alaska, Equal-to-Apostles, Russian Μonk and Μissionary to Alaska (+1835)

July 27, November 15 & December 13

Saint Herman of Alaska (Russian: Преподобный Ге́рман Аляскинский, tr. Prepodobny German Alaskinsky; c. 1750s – November 15, 1836) was a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska, which was then part of Russian America. His gentle approach and ascetic life earned him the love and respect of both the native Alaskans and the Russian colonists. He is considered by many Orthodox Christians as the patron saint of North America.

Early life

Biographers disagree about Herman's early life. His official biography, which Valaam Monastery published in 1867, said that his pre-monastic name was unknown, but that Herman was born into a merchant's family in Serpukhov, a city in Moscow Governorate. He was said to later become a novice at the Trinity-St. Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg before going to Valaam to complete his training and receive full tonsure as a monk. But, modern biographer Sergei Korsun found this account to be based on erroneous information provided by Semyon Yanovsky, an administrator from 1818 through part of 1820 of the Russian-American Company (RAC) in Alaska. He confused Herman's biographical information with that of another monk, Joseph (Telepnev).

Another former RAC Chief Manager, Ferdinand von Wrangel, stated Herman was originally from a prosperous peasant family in the Voronezh Governorate and served in the military. He then entered monastic life as a novice at Sarov Monastery. This concurred with testimony of Archimandrite Theophan (Sokolov), and a letter written by Herman himself. These agree that Herman began his monastic life as a novice at Sarov, and later received the full tonsure at Valaam. A young military clerk named Egor Ivanovich Popov, from the Voronezh Governorate, was tonsured with the name 'Herman' at Valaam in 1782.

All biographers agree that at Valaam, Herman studied under Abbot Nazarius, previously of Sarov Monastery. The abbot had been influenced by the hesychastic tradition of Paisius Velichkovsky. Herman undertook various obediences and was well-liked by the brethren, but wanted a more solitary life. He became a hermit with Abbot Nazarius' blessing. His hermitage, which later became known as "Herman's field" or Germanovo, was two kilometers from the monastery. Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg offered to ordain Herman to the priesthood and twice offered to send him to lead the Russian Orthodox Mission in China, but he refused, preferring the solitary life and remaining a simple monk. Years after he left for North America, Herman continued to keep in touch with his spiritual home. In a letter to Abbot Nazarius, he wrote, "in my mind I imagine my beloved Valaam, and constantly behold it across the great ocean."

Mission in Alaska

The Russian colonization of the Americas began when Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov discovered Alaska on behalf of the Russian Empire in 1741. The expedition harvested 1,500 sea otter pelts, which Chinese merchants bought for 1,000 rubles each at their trading post near Lake Baikal. This spurred a "fur rush" from 1741 to 1798 in which frontiersmen known as promyshlenniki explored Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. They alternately fought with and intermarried the native peoples.

Grigory Shelikhov, a fur-trader, subjugated the native population of Kodiak Island. With Ivan Golikov, he founded a fur-trading company that eventually received a monopoly from the Imperial government; it became known as the Russian-American Company. Shelikhov founded a school for the natives, and many were converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity.

The Shelikhov-Golikov Company appealed to the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to provide a priest for the natives. Catherine the Great decided instead to send an entire mission to America. She entrusted the task of recruiting missionaries to Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg, who sent ten monks from Valaam, including Herman. The missionaries arrived on Kodiak on September 24, 1794.

Herman and the other missionaries encountered a harsh reality at Kodiak that did not correspond to Shelikhov's rosy descriptions. The native Kodiak population, called "Americans" by the Russian settlers, were subject to harsh treatment by the Russian-American Company, which was being overseen by Shelikhov's manager Alexander Baranov. He later became the first governor of the colony.

The men were forced to hunt for sea otter even during harsh weather, and women and children were abused. The monks were also shocked at the widespread alcoholism in the Russian population, and the fact that most of the settlers had taken native mistresses. The monks themselves were not given the supplies that Shelikhov promised them, and had to till the ground with wooden implements.

Despite these difficulties, the monks baptized more thsn 7,000 natives in the Kodiak region, and set about building a church and monastery. Herman was assigned in the bakery and acted as the mission's steward (ekonom).

The monks became the defenders of the native Kodiak population. Herman was especially noted for his zeal in protecting them from the excessive demands of the RAC, and Baranov disparaged him in a letter as a "hack writer and chatterer." A contemporary historian compares him to Bartolomé de las Casas, the Roman Catholic friar who defended the rights of native South Americans against the Spanish colonists.

After over a decade spent in Alaska, Herman became the head of the mission in 1807, although he was not ordained to the priesthood. The local population loved and respected him, and he had established good relations with Baranov. Herman ran the mission school, where he taught church subjects such as singing and catechism, alongside reading and writing. He also taught agriculture on Spruce Island. But, because he still longed for the life of a hermit, he retired from active duty in the mission and moved to Spruce Island.

Life on Spruce Island

Herman moved to Spruce Island around 1811 to 1817. The island is separated from Kodiak by a mile-wide strait, making it ideal for eremitic life. Herman named his hermitage "New Valaam." He wore simple clothes and slept on a bench covered with a deerskin. When asked how he could bear to be alone in the forest, he replied, "I am not alone. God is here, as God is everywhere."

Despite his solitary life, he soon gained a following. He received many visitors—especially native Aleuts —on Sundays and church feasts. Soon a chapel and guesthouse were built next to his hermitage, and then a school for orphans. Herman had a few disciples, including the Creole orphan Gerasim Ivanovich Zyrianov, a young Aleut woman named Sofia Vlasova, and others.

Entire families moved to the island in order to be closer to the Elder, who helped to sort out their disputes. Herman had a deep love for the native Aleuts: he stood up for them against the excesses of the Russian-American Company, and once during an epidemic, he was the only Russian to visit them, working tirelessly to care for the sick and console the dying. Herman spent the rest of his life on Spruce Island, where he died on November 15, 1836.

Sainthood

On March 11, 1969, the bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) formally declared their intention to canonize Herman, "as a sublime example of the Holy Life, for our spiritual benefit, inspiration, comfort, and the confirmation of our Faith." On August 9, 1970, Metropolitan Ireney (Bekish) of the OCA along with Archbishop Paul (Olmari) of Finland and other hierarchs and clergy presided over the canonization service, which was held at Holy Resurrection Cathedral on Kodiak Island. His relics were transferred from his grave underneath the Sts. Sergius and Herman of Valaam Chapel (i.e., the Saints Sergius and Herman of Valaam Chapel), on Spruce Island, to the Holy Resurrection Cathedral.

On the same date, the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) also canonized Herman at the Holy Virgin Cathedral ("Joy of All Who Sorrow") in San Francisco. At the all-night vigil, the canon to Herman was read for the first time by Gleb Podmoshensky, one of the founding brothers of the St. Herman of Alaska Serbian Orthodox Brotherhood in 1963. He, Eugene (Seraphim) Rose, and Lawrence Campbell gathered material for the Synod of Bishops in order to support the glorification of Herman, and also helped compose the liturgical service in his honor.

There are several feast days throughout the year on which Saint Herman of Alaska is commemorated. Since there are two different calendars currently in use among various Orthodox churches, two dates are listed: the first date is the date on the traditional Julian Calendar, the second date, after the slash, is the same day on the modern Gregorian Calendar:

July 27/August 9—Glorification: This is the anniversary of the joint-glorification (canonization) of Herman of Alaska as a saint in 1970.

November 15/28—Repose: This is the anniversary of the actual death of Herman.

December 13/26—Repose: Due to an error in record keeping, this was originally thought to be the day of Herman's death, and because of the long-established tradition of celebrating his memory on this day, it has remained a feast day. It is more likely that this is the day he was buried. For those Orthodox Christians who follow the Julian Calendar, this day falls on December 25 of the Gregorian Calendar.

Second Sunday after Pentecost:, as one of the saints commemorated on the Synaxis of the Saints of North America—this is a moveable feast of the ecclesiastical year, and the date of its observance will change from year to year.

The major portion of his relics are preserved at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak, Alaska, His burial site at the Sts. Sergius and Herman Chapel, Spruce Island, Alaska is an important pilgrimage site. The devout will often take soil from his grave and water from the spring named in his honour.

A portion of his relics are enshrined at the St. Ignatius Chapel at the Antiochan Village in Pennsylvania, a conference and retreat center of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He is regarded as one of their patron saints.

In 1963, with the blessing of John Maximovitch, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, a community of Orthodox booksellers and publishers called the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood was formed to publish Orthodox missionary information in English.

One of the founders was Father Seraphim Rose. The Brotherhood did much to advance the cause of Herman's glorification as a saint. Saint Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska is named in his honor, as are numerous parish churches throughout the world.

On Tuesday, August 4, 1970, the 91st Congress of the United States acknowledged the glorification of Herman of Alaska with a speech in the Senate, and his biography was formally entered into the Congressional Record.

In 1993, Patriarch Alexis II visited Kodiak to venerate the relics of Saint Herman. He left as a gift an ornate lampada (oil lamp) which burns constantly over the reliquary. Pilgrims from all over the world are anointed with holy oil from this lampada.




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Orthodox Alaska

A Theology of Mission

Michael Oleksa


In 1794, the first Orthodox missionary monks arrived at Kodiak to find what they believed would be an indigenous Orthodox Church in the New World. They recognized as integral to their mission the defense of Native people who were being abused, exploited and enslaved by an unjust regime. The mission understood its function in cosmic terms: to sanctify, here and now, this land, these people, and bring them to the unity-in-love which is the goal of authentic Christian mission.

The history of the Alaskan Church confirms the eternal and indestructible character of the Church's vision, integrating into her worship the cosmic, scriptural and eschatological dimension of faith. Among the Native Americans in Alaska, Orthodoxy has become an integral part of an authentically American culture. Consequently it is appropriate that an Orthodox theology of mission should originate from the Alaskan context. If an American Orthodox missiology is to emerge, its formulation should serve not only the Church in America but contribute to the clarification of Orthodox theology for the universal Church as well.

https://svspress.com/orthodox-alaska/


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Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA, Missionary, leader of ex-Uniates into Orthodoxy (+1909)

May 7

Saint Alexis Georgievich Toth (or Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre; March 18, 1853 – May 7, 1909) was a Russian Orthodox church leader in the Midwestern United States who, having resigned his position as a Byzantine Catholic priest in the Ruthenian Catholic Church, became responsible for the conversions of approximately 20,000 Eastern Rite Catholics to the Russian Orthodox Church, which contributed to the growth of Eastern Orthodoxy in the United States and the eventual establishment of the Orthodox Church in America. He was canonized by the Orthodox Church in 1994.

Early life

Alexis Georgievich Toth was born to George and Cecilia Toth (or Tovt) on March 14, 1853, in Kobylnice, near Prešov in the Szepes county of Slovakia (then a part of the Austrian Empire) during the reign of Franz Joseph. Having completed his primary schooling, he attended a Roman Catholic seminary for one year, followed by three years in a Greek Catholic seminary and additional time at the University of Prague, where he graduated with a degree in theology.

Toth married Rosalie Mihalics on April 18, 1878, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1878 by Bishop Nicholas Toth, the Greek Catholic Bishop of Prešov. Following the death of his wife and child a few years later, he served in local parishes, as diocesan chancellor, and as professor and director at the Greek Catholic seminary of Prešov. In 1889, Fr. Alexis' bishop received a petition from the Ruthenian Catholic Church in the United States, asking that Toth be sent to them as a priest. He arrived on November 15, 1889, and by the 27th of that month was holding services at St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Finding the church barely furnished and deeply in debt, he set about rectifying the situation, ultimately bringing the parish to a place of fiscal stability whilst never drawing a salary.

Conflict with Bishop John Ireland

As an Eastern Rite Catholic, Toth honored the custom of paying a visit to the local Latin Church Catholic bishop in his area, since there was no Eastern Rite Catholic bishop serving in the United States at that time. The ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was John Ireland, who had been attempting to "Americanize" German and other Catholic immigrants, and was hostile to ethnic parishes such as the one in which Toth served.

When speaking of their meeting, Toth later claimed that Ireland became angry and threw Toth's priestly credentials onto his table while ardently protesting his presence in the city. Toth reported that Ireland said he did not consider Toth or his bishop to be truly Catholic, in clear contradiction of the Union of Uzhhorod and papal decrees to the contrary. Toth reported that the conversation became more heated as it progressed, with both men losing their tempers. Ireland refused to give Toth permission to serve as a priest in Minneapolis, and furthermore ordered his parishes and priests not to have anything to do with the Ruthenian Catholic priest or his parishioners. Although Toth sent letters to his bishop in Hungary, detailing his experience and requesting specific instructions, he reportedly never received a reply.

Toth came to believe that he and other Eastern Rite Catholic priests in North America were to be recalled to Europe, and their parishioners folded into existing Roman Catholic congregations in their respective cities.

From Rome to Russian Orthodoxy

Having heard nothing from his own bishop, he and other Eastern Rite Catholic priests who had shared similar experiences began to cast about for a solution to their dilemma. In December 1890, they contacted the Russian consul in San Francisco, California, asking to be put in touch with a Russian Orthodox bishop. Correspondence and personal meetings with Bishop Vladimir Sokolovsky of San Francisco followed, culminating in Toth's decision to formally enter the Russian Orthodox Church in March 1892. Toth was accompanied by 361 fellow Eastern Rite Catholics; thousands more would follow in the years to come, largely due to his own efforts to evangelize them toward this move.

Following his conversion to Orthodoxy, Toth tirelessly preached his new faith to other Eastern Rite Catholics in North America. This, combined with further demands by U.S. Latin bishops against Eastern Rite parishes facilitated the conversion of over 20,000 Eastern-rite Catholics to Russian Orthodoxy by the time Toth died in 1909. The Orthodox Church in America has claimed that by 1916 the Latin Catholic Church had lost 163 Eastern Rite parishes, with over 100,000 faithful, to the Russian missionary diocese.

Death and glorification

Toth was elevated to the rank of protopresbyter later in life, continuing his efforts to convert the Eastern Catholics of North America to Eastern Orthodoxy. He died on May 7, 1909, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and was honored with a special shrine at St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. On May 29, 1994, Toth was glorified (canonized) as Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre by the Orthodox Church in America, whose establishment and membership numbers are largely traceable to his efforts.


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Surprised By Christ - Fr. James Bernstein, USA - Priest’s Conversion from Judaism to Christianity Documented in New Memoir

Conciliar Press Ministries is pleased to announce the release of a new spiritual memoir of a man’s conversion from Judaism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Raised in Queens, New York by formerly Orthodox Jewish parents whose faith had been undermined by the Holocaust, Arnold Bernstein went on a quest for the God he instinctively felt was there. He was ready to accept God in whatever form He chose to reveal Himself—and that form turned out to be Christ.

But Bernstein soon perceived discrepancies in the various forms of Protestant belief that surrounded him, and so his quest continued—this time for the true Church. With his Jewish heritage as a foundation, he came to the conclusion that the faith of his forefathers was fully honored and brought to completion only in the Orthodox Christian Church.

Surprised by Christ combines an engrossing memoir of one man’s life in historic situations—from the Six-Day War to the Jesus Movement in Berkeley—with a deeply felt examination of the distinctives of Orthodox theology that make the Orthodox Church the true home not only for Christian Jews, but for all who seek to know God as fully as He may be known.

The Rev. A. James Bernstein was a teenage chess champion whose dramatic conversion experience at the age of 16 led him to Christianity. His spiritual journey has included a number of twists and turn: he was chapter president of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Queens College, helped found the Jews for Jesus ministry in San Francisco, was a staff member of the Christian World Liberation Front in Berkeley, served as a pastor of an Evangelical Orthodox Church near Silicon Valley, and later became an Eastern Orthodox convert and then priest. He lives with his wife Bonnie outside of Seattle, Washington, where he serves as pastor of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church. Father James is the author of the booklets Orthodoxy: Jewish and Christian (Conciliar Press, 1990); Which Came First: The Church or the New Testament (CP, 1994); and Communion: A Family Affair (CP, 1999). He was also a contributor to the Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms (Thomas Nelson, 1993).


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Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


St. John's Intercession

The testimonials below are accounts from people who have chosen to write to us about the miraculous help they received through the prayers of St. John.

Share Your Story

If you have an account of assistance received from St. John and would like to share it with others, please submit the details here:



Help by the Prayers of St. John


Found Birth Family
Received November 11, 2014

I am almost 48 yrs old.  I was adopted at birth and never knew my birth family.  I have searched for so many years to find the records in order to know from where I come.  After venerating St. John's incorupt relics at Holy Virgin Mary Joy of All Who Sorrow, and placing the names "birth mother" and "Birth father" on the prayer sheets, I received a call from an agency I had contacted with my information.  They had all the details and even pictures.  I have connected with my birth family on my mother's side. Glory to God for His servant, John!
Xenia Lanergan






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


Mystery revealed
Received October 27, 2014

For as long as I can remember, God and his son have been a part of my life though I did not pay them their dues. Recently I had the privilage of attending services at Holy Virgin and having my first ever encounter with the relics of a saint. I saw what I can only describe as a miracle and it has changed my life. I had questioned my faith for so long and recieved much needed confirmation from blessed St John that day. He answered two very importent questions for me that will impact my life and that of my family forever.
Wayne M.






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Knee healed fast
Received September 28, 2014

I had knee surgery to re-attach my patellar tendon.  I applied St John's holy oil and felt tingling in the knee after I said my prayers.  On the second application, I was applying the oil to my vertical scare, fumbled with the bottle, and the oil spilled in a perfect line to make a cross on my knee. My Physical Therapist can not believe that after only 6 weeks, I can walk without a brace and even played golf yesterday.  Have faith and the Lord will heal you.  Blessed be St John the Wonderworker!
Dan Mamula






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Help with conceiving a baby
Received July 7, 2014

My husband and I spent around 6 years trying to have a baby. It was not happening due to my health issues, and doctors said they were not sure if it would happen at all, and recommended to do IVF or adopt.

In December 2012 both my mother and my mother-in-law came visiting from Russia.The most important thing for them was to take a pilgrimage to St John The Wonderworker. We all prayed before his relics and asked St John to send my husband and me healthy children.

In three weeks I found out I was pregnant! It was a clearly a miracle after so many years of trying!

My son Daniel is now 10 months, he is a healthy and happy baby, and we constantly thank St. John for helping to bring him in this world.
Vera

Gratitude to St. John
Received June 24, 2014












Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Son's ankle healed immediately
Received June 8, 2014

My son had pain in his ankle for a couple of weeks and I was unable to help him... We rubbed the oil from St John on his ankle and asked for St John's help and the pain went away immediately. 
Evangelos,
Vancouver, BC






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Finding a place to live
Received February 26, 2014

A few years ago we lived in San Francisco and that's where I first heard about St. John. When we moved back to Moscow, Russia we rented a small apartment near our kids' school. After living there for a few years the landlord said he didn't want to rent it out anymore and we needed to find another place and fast.

Rent is pretty expensive in Moscow besides I didn't want to move too far away from our kids' school as I was expecting another child and knew it would be impossible for me to take the metro with the infant to get the older children to school if we move to another part of the city.We also wanted to sign a rent lease for at least 2-3 years ( usually in Russia the lease is signed for a year) to avoid this hassle again and to fix the price)but hardly anyone wanted such a long term lease.

At the same time my grandmother who is also my God mother was getting worse in health and we realized she probably wouldn't be with us for long. She was living with my father not too far from our current apartment and that was another reason I didn't want to move too far away from this area of the city so I could still visit her frequently.

We started looking for a place,but couldn't find anything that would be suitable. Every apartment I saw was either too expensive, or the owners didn't want to rent out to a family with small kids and a dog on top of that, or it was too far away. My husband and I were getting discouraged by the search but deep in my heart I knew we would find a place that we needed. I started praying to St. John for help. The next day I got a call from our real estate agent and she said that there is a great newly renovated apartment in our price range. When I asked her about the address it turned out to be in the very same building where my father and grandmother lived and where I lived as a child only on a different floor. When I looked at the apartment it was everything we wanted: a lease for as many years as we needed with no price changes, newly renovated, a wonderful landlord who was very happy to let a family in and loved dogs, and the best part that all I needed to do to visit my dying grandmother was go up in the elevator. And it was close to kids' school as well. My grandmother passed away 2 months later, I was with her and I am so grateful that I could spend these last weeks with her.
Elena Lewis







Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Cranial abnormalities disappear overnight!
Received August 14, 2013

Testimonial
Douglas Wirnowski






Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Resuscitation of our son at birth
Received June 19, 2013

We've chosen to have home births for several reasons, and the first two experiences were wonderful so we found another midwife in 2011 during seminary for our third child.  We had a good friend of ours whose spiritual father cares for the relics of St. John at the cathedral. She gave us a vile of St. John's holy oil and told us to anoint the baby if anything went wrong (we had heard of other stories of St. John's healing during emergencies at birth).  So when the labor stopped progressing, our midwife told my wife to get out of the pool and lay down so she could try pulling our son out.  She was able to pull his head out but couldn't pull any further because the cord was wrapped tightly around his neck, twice.  She was able to get scissors in to cut the cord, and though he came right out, he was purple and limp.  She tried all the usual medical procedures and pumped him with oxygen, but nothing was working even after several minutes.  My wife reminded me of the oil of St. John and I pulled it off the shelf and anointed our son three times on the forehead, asking St. John to help us.  Within a few seconds of anointing our son, he coughed slightly, then again, then began crying.  It was one of the most intense experiences of our lives so far, but yet another story of St. John's continued wonderworking even to this day.  

Thank you Lord for our son, and thank you St. John for your intercession.  Please continue to pray to God for us!
Dn. Joel







Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Graduate School acceptance
Received January 17, 2013

I was applying to graduate schools and I had a top choice that was completely out of my league due to my GMAT score. And although I studied and studied, I couldn't get my score to improve. I decided to apply to the school anyway. I had prayed about it to St. John and I even made the sign of the cross with the Holy Oil of St. John on my paperwork I mailed to the school. A couple days ago, my prayer became answered and I feel so blessed. I am so thankful to Saint John for hearing my prayers and knowing my hearts desire of being able to get into this school.

Prayer works in wondrous ways!
Amanda














Modern miracles of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)


Pain went away.
Received September 30, 2012

I want to share a miracle that happened with my mom. She had suffered for a couple of days a lot of pain in her lower mandible that irradiated to the left side of the neck. The pain was growing in force until she could no longer suffer it and needed to get me up to give her a pain pill and take her to the doctor. But being in the middle of the night, she was hesitant. While tossing and turning she spotted a bottle of holy oil from the relics of St. John of San Francisco on her night stand. With prayer she had anointed the painful area. The pain started to subside immediately and she finally fell sleep. The next morning she still felt tenderness in the jaw but she anointed the place again and the pain went away completely. I am writing this miracle that happened through the intercession of Saint John Maximovich to glorify God that works through His saint and also to give thanks to Saint John for not forgetting us the sinners and helping us. Saint John of San Francisco, thank you. Vladyka, please, pray for is sinners. Glory be to God through His saints!
Valentina Bowden








Some Recent Miracles of St. John Maximovich of San Francisco (+1966)


Archbishop John's abundant miracles both before and after his death testify to his love for the people. People in America, Europe, and the other places of his pastoral labors have long known of the power of his heavenly intercessions. And now, with the publication of Blessed John the Wonderworker and other books and articles about him in the Russian language, the people of Russia are beginning to know, too, and have already experienced healings through his prayers, as the following accounts testify.

1) Valentina A. is a member of our parish which is dedicated to the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God. Having read the book on the healings and life of St. John of San Francisco (Blessed John the Wonderworker), she came to me after church services and asked for oil from the lampada in the sepulchre of Archbishop John, as her daughter was seriously sick. Valentina A. recounted that her daughter, an architect by profession, had a swelling in her breast. It grew and the daughter turned to a doctor for help. The diagnosis was a frightful one, cancer of the breast. I had Unction served over the daughter and later gave her cotton saturated with oil from Archbishop John’s lampada. She anointed the ailing spot several times by making the Sign of the Cross. The doctors insisted on surgery, but when she came to the hospital for observation, the doctors and the sick woman herself were amazed: the swelling had disappeared and there remained only a scar. (1994)

2) Our altar boy, Oleg S., asked me after church services to anoint his hand. There was a swelling on it the size of a chicken egg. I anointed him with the oil of Archbishop John in a cross-like form in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the acolyte left for home. After a week, I asked Oleg about his hand. He said he himself did not even notice when that swelling had disappeared. (1995)

3) Some time later, after Divine Liturgy, a Moleben was served with a Blessing of the Water. At the end of the Moleben, I anointed all communicants with the oil of St. John Maximovitch. I also anointed Olga. After a week, she was again at services and stood weeping. I asked her why she was weeping and all she could say was that everything was fine. Her husband, a military man, later came to me and told me that her leg had developed some infected growths. These growths had rapidly become ulcerous and had begun to multiply. The sight was awful. She turned to doctors but they simply shrugged their shoulders and could say nothing concrete. They gave her various creams but these did not help her.

Alter Holy Communion, Alga had been anointed with the oil of St. John. At home she sprinkled her legs with holy water and went to bed. In the morning, she saw no ulcers at all on her legs. Therefore, at the next church service, Olga wept from gratitude and was too emotional to tell us by herself. June, 1995)

4) Another parishioner of mine, Nadezhda, told me that her son Michael caught a severe cold and had a convulsive cough which only grew worse. She began to treat him with various medications. In the evening he would begin to fall asleep but the cough continued to torment him. Each minute he would be racked by this cough. His mother, a professional medical worker, was very frightened because at one time he had been rushed to the hospital by ambulance with these same symptoms. At this time, Nadezhda was reading the book on St. John Maximovitch and his miraculous healings. The mother began to pray, asking help from St. John, that he would heal her son. Having prayed, she came over to her sleeping son, crossed him and turned him on the other side. Some time later, the cough stopped and the boy quietly slept until morning. She no longer gave him any medication, only some holy water. For several days, her son would occasionally cough, but the convulsive fits did not return, and he became quite well. The mother was very thankful to Archbishop John for the healing of her son and continues to pray to him with gratitude. (April, 1995)

Hieromonk Cyril Osipov

Astrakhan, Russia


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The Clerical Cuffs of St. John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

In 2004, in the city of Mulino in Oregon, an astonishing and wondrous event took place. It concerns a God-fearing woman of Russian descent, a member of the Church of the New Russian Martyrs, where Fr. Sergios Svesnikov served as a priest. In this parish are preserved as a treasure the epimanikia (clerical cuffs) of St. John.

This woman, who was in her last week of pregnancy (actually a short time before her due date), went for her last general appointment. During the appointment, they were shocked when the doctor diagnosed that the child was dead in the mother's womb. Immediately they told her that she would experience contractions and that she would give birth to a dead baby. She fainted and was mourning. When she came to her senses, they prepared to give her medicine to speed up contractions and induce labor. She told them to stop immediately, and asked them to call her priest, Fr. Sergius. When he learned what occurred, he told them to not do anything, but to wait.

A short time later he arrived at the hospital, bringing the epimanikia of St. John. Holding the epimanikia he signed her with the sign of the Cross on her womb, and to the great astonishment of all, the baby's heart began to beat again, as the portable ultrasound showed!

The child was born a short time later, alive and healthy, and was named John in honor of the Saint.


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The Domestic Church

The Family Gathered Around the Hearth

Abbot Tryphon, Vashon Island, WA, USA


The recent severe winter storms hitting the United States have resulted in outages that have left millions of homes without power, with thousands still waiting for their power to be restored. In an age when most depend on electricity for warmth, light, and cooking, these outages are particularly devastating.
Knowing the history of lengthy power outages on Vashon Island, our monastic brotherhood planned ahead for such events. We have a propane fireplace in our library, as well as smaller propane stoves in the cells to provide heat. We have kerosene lanterns and candle light, and a propane stove top for cooking our meals.
Less than a hundred years ago, this would have been the norm for everyone across the country. Prior to electricity and central heating, most families gathered in parlors, spending evenings reading, sewing, and family conversations. The notion that everyone would retreat to bedrooms, kitchens, or dens, separating themselves from other family members was unthinkable.
The communal nature of the family was natural. I can remember, as a child (this really dates me), sitting together with my brother and my parents, listening to radio dramas. Before the coming of television families would gather for evenings in the living room, where children would play with Lincoln Logs, or board games with their parents. That a time would come where everyone would run off to separate rooms for the evening, was unthinkable.
Evenings spent together as family is important, for these moments not only build a bond between parents and their children, but serve as important times in which to share family values. The old saying, "a family that prayers together, stays together" is a truism that is often forgotten. I remember a Catholic family living next to us that had a small family chapel, complete with altar, statues, and candles, where they would gather every evening to pray the rosary. That chapel left a permanent imprint on my mind, even though I was only six years old, and a Lutheran.
Family meals are also important for building strong moral and spiritual foundations in children. Sitting around the dinner table is a great time for parents to develop strong bonds of trust with their children. Dinner is a perfect time for talking to your children about their friends, or school activities. Family members that disperse throughout the house for the evening are likely to function as autonomous entities, where family bonds are unlikely to be developed.
The domestic church, which has been such an important part of Orthodox Church tradition, can not be developed in a family where meals, prayer, and social life are all in separate parts of the home.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon


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Vita Prima of St John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Fr. Seraphim Rose, USA

Introduction
Barely six months ago there reposed in the Lord a hierarch of the Church of Christ whose life so extraordinarily radiated the Christian virtues and the grace of the Holy Spirit as to make him a pillar of true Orthodoxy and an example of Christian life that is of universal significance. In Archbishop John there are united three kinds of highest Christian activity that are rarely found together: that of a bold and esteemed Prince of the Church; an ascetic in the tradition of the pillar saints, taking upon himself the severest self mortification; and a fool for Christ’s sake, instructing men by a ‘foolishness’ that was beyond the wisdom of this world.

The following account cannot begin to be called a complete life of Archbishop John; it is only a selection of the material that is already available, presented in the form of a preliminary sketch of the life of this holy man. It was compiled by the St Herman Brotherhood, which was organized with the blessing of Archbishop John (who wished to see Father Herman canonized after Father John of Krohnstadt) for the mission of the printed word. Now, in fulfillment of this mission, it is our duty to speak the truth about this man, who was, in our dark times when genuine Christianity has almost vanished, an embodiment of the life of Christ.

The account is based primarily upon personal acquaintance and upon the testimony of witnesses known to the compilers. Archbishop John throughout is referred to by the term Russians use to speak of and address bishops: Vladika. In English this is rendered ‘Master’, but the Russian word, when used by itself, implies a familiarity and endearment that are wanting in the nearest English equivalent. For those who knew him, Archbishop John will always be simply Vladika.

I
Youth
Archbishop John was born on the 4th June 1896 in the village of Adamovka in the province of Kharkov in southern Russia. He was a member of the Little Russian noble family of Maximovitch , to which St John of Tobolsk had also belonged. His father, Boris, was a marshal of nobility in one part of Kharkov province; and his uncle was rector of the Kiev University. He received at baptism the name of Michael, his heavenly protector being the Archangel Michael. He was a sickly child and ate little.

He received his secondary education in the Poltava Military School, which he attended from 1907 to 1914. He loved this school and remembered it fondly in later years. Upon completing military school he entered Kharkov Imperial University in the faculty of law, from which he graduated in 1918, before it was seized by the Soviets. He was then assigned to the Kharkov District Courts, where he served at the time Hetman Skoropadsky was ruling the Ukraine and while the Volunteer Army was there.

Kharkov, where Vladika spent his formative years, was a true town of Holy Russia, and the young Michael, impressionable to revelations of holiness, acquired there the pattern of his future life. There were two miraculous icons of the Mother of God, the Oseryanskaya and Eletskaya, which were carried in a religious procession twice a year from the monasteries where they were treasured to the Dormition Cathedral.  In the Protection Monastery, in a frescoed grotto underneath the altar, lay the remains of holy Archbishop Melety Leontovitch, who after his death in 1841 rendered miraculous help to those who served a panikhida [prayer service for the departed] for him at his coffin. Even during his lifetime the Archbishop was venerated for his severe asceticism, especially for the ascetic feat of abstaining from sleep. He was known to spend nights on end standing motionless, with lifted arms, deep in prayer. He foreknew the day and the hour of his own death, The young Maximovitch was known to have a veneration for this holy hierarch.

Today Archbishop John nay be seen to resemble the holy man of Kharkov in at least three respects: he was not known to have slept in a bed for forty years; he knew beforehand of his death; and he now rests under a cathedral in a special grave chapel where panikhidas are sung almost daily and the psalter is read over his coffin by those who ask for his help. This is a unique case of the transplanting, as it were, of a part of Holy Russia to contemporary America.

While at Kharkov university, Vladika spent more time reading the lives of the saints than attending classes; nonetheless he was an excellent student. Evidently his emulation of the saints was apparent even at that age, since Archbishop Anthony of Kharkov, one of the great Church figures of that time (later Metropolitan, first candidate to the Patriarchal See of Moscow, and first Chief Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad) took special pains to become acquainted with him, and then kept the youth close to him and guided his spiritual formation.

In 1921, during the Russian Civil War, Vladika, together with his parents, his brothers, and his sister was evacuated to Belgrade, where he and his brothers entered the University of Belgrade. One brother graduated in the technical faculty and became an engineer, the other graduated in law and served in the Yugoslav police. Vladika himself graduated in 1925 in the faculty of theology. While he was a student he worked for his living by selling newspapers.

In 1924 Vladika was ordained reader in the Russian church in Belgrade by Metropolitan Anthony, who continued to exert great influence over him; and Vladika in his turn  showed the utmost respect and devotion to his superior. In 1926 Metropolitan Anthony tonsured him a monk and ordained him hierodeacon in the Milkov Monastery, giving him the name John, after Vladika’s own distant relative, Saint John Maximovitch of Tobolsk.  On the 21st of November of the same year, Vladika was ordained hiermonk by Bishop Gabriel of Chelyabinsk. From 1925 to 1927, Vladika was an instructor of religion at the Serbian State High School, and from 10929 to 1934 he was a teacher and tutor at the Serbian Seminary of St John the Theologian at Bitol. There he served Divine Liturgy in Greek for the local Greek and Macedonian communities, who had great esteem for him.

The city of Bitol was in the diocese of Okhrida, and at that time the ruling bishop of this diocese was Nicholas Velimirovitch, a Serbian Chrysostom, a noted preacher poet, writer, and organizer and inspirer of the popular religious movement. He, as much as Metropolitan Anthony, valued and loved the young Hiermonk John, and himself exerted an beneficial influence upon him. More than once he was heard to say, ‘If you wish to see a living saint, go to Bitol to Father John.’

For, indeed, it began to become evident, that this was an entirely extraordinary man. It was his own students, who first discovered what was perhaps Vladika’s greatest feat of asceticism. They noticed at first that he stayed up  long after everyone else had gone to bed; he would go through the dormitories at night and pick up blankets that had fallen down and cover the unsuspecting sleepers, making the Sign of the Cross over them. Finally it was discovered that he scarcely slept at all, and never in a bed, allowing himself only an hour or two each night of uncomfortable rest in a sitting position, or bent over on the floor, praying before icons. Years afterward he himself admitted, that since taking the monastic vows he had not slept lying in a bed. Such an ascetic practice is a very rare one; and yet it is not unknown to Orthodox tradition. The fourth century founder of  coenobitic monasticism, St Pachomius the Great, when receiving the Rule of monastic communal life from an angel, heard the following concerning sleep: ‘And they (the monks) shall not take their sleep lying down, but thou shalt make them seats so that when they are sitting down they shall be able to support their heads’ (Rule four).

Archbishop Averky of the Jordanville Holy Trinity Monastery, then a young hiermonk in Carpatho-Russia, was a witness of the deep impression Hiermonk John made upon the seminary students. When they returned home on vacations they would speak of their extraordinary instructor who prayed constantly, served Divine Liturgy or at least received Holy Communion every day, fasted strictly, never slept lying down and with true fatherly love inspired them with high ideals of Christianity and of Holy Russia.

In 1934 it was decided to raise Hiermonk John to the rank of bishop. As for Vladika himself, nothing was farther from his mind. A lady who knew him relates how she met him at this time on a streetcar in Belgrade. He told her that he was in town by mistake, having been sent for in place of some other Hiermonk John who was to be consecrated bishop! When she saw him the next day he informed her that the situation was worse  than he had thought: it was him they wished to make bishop! When he had protested that this was out of the question since he had a speech defect and could not enunciate clearly, he had only been told that the prophet Moses had the same difficulty.

The consecration occurred on the 28th May 1934, Vladika was the last bishop of the very many to be consecrated by Metropolitan Anthony, and the extraordiarily high esteem in which that venerable hierarch held the new bishop is indicated in a letter which he sent to Archbishop Dimitry in the Far East. Himself declining an invitation to retire to China, he wrote:

But in place of myself, as my soul, as my heart, I am sending you Vladika Bishop John. This little frail man, looking almost like a child, is actually a miracle of ascetic firmness and strictness in our time of total spiritual enfeeblement.

Vladika was assigned to the diocese of Shanghai.

 

II
Shanghai
Vladika arrived in Shanghai in late November, on the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, and found a large cathedral uncompleted and a jurisdictional conflict to resolve. The first thing he did was to restore Church unity. He established contact with Serbs, Greeks, Ukrainians. He paid special attention to religious education and made it a rule to be present at the oral examinations of the Catechism classes in all the Orthodox schools in Shanghai. He at once became a protector of various charitable and philanthropic societies and actively participated in their work, especially after seeing the needy circumstances in which the majority of his flock, refugees from the Soviet Union, were placed. He never went visiting for tea to the rich, but he was to be seen wherever there was need, regardless of times and weather. He organised a home for orphans and the children of needy parents, entrusting it to the heavenly protection of a Saint he highly venerated, St Tikhon of Zadonsk, who loved children. Vladika himself gathered sick and starving children off the streets and dark alleys of Shanghai’s slums. Beginning with eight children, the orphanage later housed up to a hundred children at one time, and some 3 500 in all. When the Communists came,  Vladika evacuated the whole orphanage, first to an island in the Philippines, and then to America.

It soon became apparent to his new flock that Vladika was a great ascetic. The core of his asceticism was prayer and fasting. He ate once a day at 11pm. During the first and last weeks of Great Lent he did not eat at all, and for the rest of this and the Christmas Lent he ate only bread from the altar. His nights he spent usually in prayer, and when he finally became exhausted he would put his head on the floor and steal a few hours of sleep near dawn. When the time would come to serve Matins, someone would knock on the door, to no avail; they would open the doort and find Vladika huddled on the floor in the icon corner overcome by sleep. At a tap on the shoulder he wouuld jump up and in a few minutes he would be in church for services – cold water streaming down his beard, but quite awake.

Vladika officiated in the cathedral every morning and evening, even when sick. He celebrated Divine Liturgy daily, as he was to do for the rest of his life, and if for some reason he could not serve, he would still receive Holy Communion, No matter where he was, he would not miss a service. Once, according to a witness,

Vladika’s leg was terribly swollen and the council of doctors, fearing gangrene, prescribed hospitalization, which Vladika categorically refused. Then the Russian doctors informed the Parish Council that they released themselves of  any responsibility for the health and even the life of the patient. The members of the Parish Council, after long pleas for mercy and threats of taking him by force, compelled Vladika to agree, and he was sent to the Russian Hospital in the morning on the day before the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. By six o’clock, however, Vladika came limping into the cathedral on foot and served. In a day all the swelling was gone.

Vladika’s constant attention to self-mortification had its root in the fear of God, which he possessed in the tradition of the ancient Church and of Holy Russia. The following incident, told by O. Skopichenko and confirmed by many from Shanghai, well illustrates his daring, unshakable faith in Christ.

A Mrs Menshikova was bitten by a mad dog. The injections against rabies she either refused to take or took carelessly…. And then she came down with this terrible disease. Bishop John found out about it and came to the dying woman. He gave her Holy Communion, but just then she began having one of the fits of this disease; she began to foam at the mouth and at the same time she spat out the Holy Gifts which she had just received. The Holy Sacrament cannot be thrown out. And Vladika picked up and put in his mouth the Holy Gifts vomited by the sick woman. Those who were with him exclaimed: ‘Vladika, what are you doing! Rabies is terribly contageous!’ But Vladika peacefully answered: ‘Nothing will happen; these are the Holy Gifts.’ And indeed nothing did happen.

Vladika wore clothing of the cheapest Chinese fabric, and soft slippers or sandals, always without socks, no matter what the weather. He often went barefoot, sometimes after having given his sandals away to some poor man. He even served barefoot, for which he was severely criticized.

By now it had become known that Vladika not only was a righteous man and an ascetic, but was also so close to God that he was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance and there were healings by his prayers. A striking account told by an eyewitness, Lidia Liu, testifies to Vladika’s spiritual height.

Vladika came to Hong Kong twice. It’s strange, but I, not knowing Vladika then, wrote him a letter asking him to help a widow with children, and I also asked him about some personal spiritual matter, but I never received an answer. A year passed. Vladika came to Hong Kong and I was in a crowd that was to meet him in church. Vladika turned to me and said, ‘It is you  who wrote me the letter!’ I was astonished since Vladika had never seen me before. A moleben [prayer service for the living] was sung, after which Vladika, standing before a lectern, was delivering a sermon. I was standing next to my mother, and we both saw a light surrounding Vladika down to the lectern – a radiance around him a foot wide. This lasted a rather long time. When the sermon was over, I, struck by such an unusual phenomenon, told what we had seen to R.V.S., who told us: ‘Yes, many faithful saw it.’ My husband, who was standing a little way off, also saw this light.

Vladika loved to visit the sick and did so every single day, hearing confessions and giving Holy Communion. If the condition of a patient should become critical, Vladika would go to him at any hour of the day or night to pray at his bedside. Here is one undoubted miracle among the many worked by Vladika’s prayers; it was recorded and placed in the archives of teh County Hospital in Shanghai (source N. Makovaya).

L. D. Sadkovskaya was very much taken by the sport of horse racing. Once she was thrown off her horse; she hit her head on a rock and lost consciousness. She was brought to the hospital unconscious. A council of doctors agreed that her condition was hopeless and it was not likely that she would live until morning. The pulse was almost gone; the skull was fractured in places so that small pieces of the skull were pressing on the brain. In such condition she would die on the operating table. Even if her heart would tolerate surgery and the result were successful, she would still remain deaf, dumb, and blind. Her sister, after hearing this, rushed to Bishop John in despair and begged him to save her sister. Vladika agreed: he came to the hospital and asked everyone to leave the room and prayed there for about two hours. Then he called the chief doctor and asked him to examine her again. How surprised the doctor was to discover that her pulse was normal! He agreed to perform the operation immediately, but only in the presence of Bishop John. The operation was successful, and the doctors were amazed when, after the operation, the patient regained consciousness and asked to drink. She can see and hear perfectly. She is still living and can talk, see and hear. I have known her for thirty years.

Vladika visited the prison also, and celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the convicts on a primitive little table. But the most difficult task for a pastor is to visit the mentally ill and the possessed – and Vladika sharply distinguished between the two. Outside Shanghai there was a mental hospital, and Vladika alone had the spiritual power to visit these terribly sick people. He gave them Holy Communion, and they, surprisingly, received it peacefully and listened to him. They always looked forward to his visits and met him with joy.

Vladika possessed great courage. During the Japanese occupation the Japanese authorities tried in every way possible to bend the Russian colony to their will. Pressure was directed through the heads of the Russian Emigrant Committee, Two presidents of this Committee strove to maintain its independence, and as a result both were killed. Confusion and terror seized the Russian colony, and at that moment Vladika John, in spite of warnings from the Russians who were collaborating with the Japanese, declared himself the temporary head of the Russian colony.

During the Japanese occupation it was extremely dangerous to walk on the streets at night and most people took care to be home by dark. Vladika, however, paying no heed to the danger, continued to visit the sick and needy at any hour of the night, and he was never touched.

At the end of the war persuasion and pressure were brought to bear on the Russian clergy everywhere to submit to the newly elected ‘Patriarch’ of the Soviet Church. Of the six hierarchs of the Far East, five submitted; only Bishop John, resisting all persuasions and threats, remained loyal to the Russian Church Abroad. In 1946 he was raised to the rank of Archbishop over all the Russian faithful in China.

With the coming of the Communists, the Russians in China were forced, once again to flee, most of them through the Philippine Islands. In 1949 approximately 5000 Refugees from the Chinese mainland were living in an International refugee Organization camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines. This island is located in the path of the seasonal typhoons which sweep through that part of the Pacific. During the 27 months period of the camp’s occupancy, the island was threatened only once by a typhoon, and it changed its course and bypassed the island.

When the fear of typhoons was mentioned by one Russian to the Filipinos, they replied that there was no reason to worry, because ‘your holy man blesses the camp from four directions every night’.They referred to Vladika John; for no typhoon struck the island while he was there. After the camp had been almost totally evacuated and the people re-settled elsewhere (mainly in the U.S.A. and Australia), and only about 200 persons were left on the island, it was struck by a terrible typhoon, that totally destroyed the camp.

Vladika himself went to Washington, DC, to get his people to America. Legislation was changed and almost the whole camp came to the New World – thanks again to Vladika.

 

III
Europe
The exodus of his flock from China accomplished, Archbishop John was given in 1951 a new field for his pastoral endeavour. He was sent by the Synod of Bishops of the Archdiocese of Western Europe, with his see first in Paris and later in Brussels. He was now one of the leading hierarchs of the Russian Church, and his attendance was frequently required at the sessions of the Synod in New York City.

In Western Europe Vladika took a deep interest not only in the Russians in Diaspora, for whom he exerted himself tirelessly in labours similar to those for which he had been known in Shanghai, but also in the local inhabitants. He received under his jurisdiction local Dutch and French Orthodox Churches, protecting them and encouraging their Orthodox development. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Dutch and French, as before he had served in Greek and Chinese, and as later he was to serve in English.

Vladika’s interest in and devotion to the Church’s Saints, of whom his knowledge was already seemingly limitless, was extended now to the Western European Saints dating from before the schism of the Latin Church, many of whom , venerated only locally, were included in no Orthodox calendar of Saints. He collected their Lives and images of them, and later submitted a long list of them to the Synod.

In Western Europe as in China people learned to expect the unexpected of Vladika; for here he continued to base his life upon the law of God, thinking nothing of the inconvenience or surprise this might sometimes occasion in those who are governed chiefly by the standards of men. Once Vladika chanced to be in Marseilles, and he decided to serve a pankhida on the site of the cruel assassination of King Alexander of Serbia. None of his clergy, out of false shame, wished to serve with Vladika. Indeed, what a thing to do – to serve in the middle of the street! So Vladika went alone. The citizens of Marseilles were amazed to see a clergyman in unusual dress, with long hair and beard, walking with a suitcase and a broom in the middle of the street. News photographers caught sight of him and photographed him. Finally he stopped, swept with the broom a small portion of the pavement, opened his suitcase and began taking out its contents. On the swept spot he put a pontifical eagle rug, lit the censer, and began to serve a pankhida.

Vladika’s reputation for holiness, too, spread among the non-Orthodox as well as the Orthodox population. In one of the Catholic Churches of Paris, a priest strove to inspire his young people with these words: ‘You demand proofs, you say that now there are neither miracles nor saints: Why should I give you the theoretical proofs, when today there walks in the streets of Paris a Saint – Saint Jean Nus Pieds (St John the Barefoot)’.

Many people testify to the miracles worked by the prayers of Archbishop John in Western Europe.

 

IV
San Francisco
In San Francisco, whose cathedral parish is the largest in the Russian Church Abroad, a lifelong friend of Vladika, Archbishop Tikhon, retired because of ill health, and in his absence the construction of a great new cathedral came to a halt as a bitter dispute paralyzed the Russian community. In response to the urgent request of thousands of Russians in San Francisco who had known him in Shanghai, Archbishop John was sent by the Synod in 1962 as the only hierarch likely to restore peace in the divided community. He arrived at his last assignment as bishop twenty eight years to the day after his first arrival in Shanghai on the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, 21st November (4th December), 1962.

Under Vladika’s guidance a measure of peace was restored, the paralysis of the community was ended, and the cathedral finished. Yet even in the role of peacemaker Vladika was attacked, and accusations and slanders were heaped upon his head. He was forced to appear in public court – in flagrant violation of church canons – to answer to preposterous charges of concealing financial dishonesty by the Parish Council. All involved were completely exonerated; but this Vladika’s last years were filled with the bitterness of slander and persecution, to which he unfailingly replied without complaint, without judging anyone, with undisturbed peacefulness.

Vladika remained true to the end of his path of faithful service to the Church. To those who knew him in his last years, perhaps two aspects of his character stood out. First was his strictness in what regarded the Church and the law of God. He insisted on the proper conduct of Church servers, allowing no levity, or even talking, in the altar. Himself an expert in Divine services, he would correct errors and omissions in the order of service immediately. With the congregation, too, he was strict, allowing no women to kiss the cross or icons while wearing lipstick, and requiring that the antidoron [blessed bread] distributed at the end of the Liturgy be received fasting. He spoke against the desecration of the eves of Sundays and feast days by the organization of balls and other entertainments on them. He staunchly defended the CHurch (Julian) Calendar against new calendar innovators. He forebade his clergy to participate in ‘Pan Orthodox’ services because of the dubious canonicity of some participants; and the activities of Orthodox ‘ecumenists’ caused him to shake his head in disbelief. He was strictest of all with regard to the holy doctrine of Orthodoxy; while he was still a young bishop in Shanghai his critical essay on ‘Sophiology’ of Archpriest S.N. Bulgakov was instrumental in the Synod’s condemnation of the latter’s heresy in 1936. No one who has seen will soon forget Vladika’s fierce look while lowering the pontificial candlesticks at the proclamation of the Anathemas against heretics of the Sunday of Orthodoxy – here he was one with the church in excluding from her bosom all who reject the full and saving Orthodox faith. All this was not from any narrow-minded literalness or ‘fanaticism’, but from the same fear of God which Vladika preserved his whole life long, and which prohibits one from trespassing against God’s law at the peril of one’s salvation.

A recent example of Vladika’s righteous severity invites comparison with an incident from the life of Vladika’s beloved St Tikhon of Zadonsk, who rode into the midst of a pagan celebration held during the Apostles’ Fast and delivered a heated accusing sermon against the participants. On the evening before, 19th October (1st November), 1964, the Russian Church Abroad celebrated the solemn canonization of Father John of Krohnstadt, whom Vladika greatly venerated, taking an active part in the compiling of the service to him. The Latins celebrate on this day the feast of All Saints, and there is a tradition that during the preceding night the dark spirits celebrated their own festival of disorder. In America this ‘Halloween’ has become an occasion on which children make mischief dressed in costumes of witches, devils, ghosts, as if calling on the dark powers – a diabolic mockery of Christianity.

A group of Russians organized on this night (which was also the eve of Sunday) a Halloween Ball. In the San Francisco Cathedral at the time of the first All night Vigil celebrated to St John of Krohnstadt, a number of people were absent , to the great sorrow of Vladika. After the service Vladika went to the place where the ball was still in progress. He climbed the steps and entered the hall, to the absolute astonishment of the participants. The music stopped and Vladika, in complete silence, glared at the dumbfounded people, slowly and deliberately making the round of the entire hall, staff in hand. He spoke not a word and none was necessary; the mere sight of Vladika stung the conscience of all, as was evident from the great consternation. Vladika left in silence and the next day in church he thundered his holy indignation and his flaming zeal calling all to the devout Christian life.

Yet Vladika is not best remembered by his flock for his sternness but rather for his gentleness, his joyfulness, even for what is known as ‘foolishness for Christ’s sake’. The most popular photograph of him captures something of this aspect of his character. It was especially noticeable in his conduct with children. After services he would smile and joke with the boys who served with him, playfully knocking them on the head with his staff. Occasional the Cathedral clergy would be disconcerted to see Vladika, in the middle of a service (though never in the altar) , bend over to play with a small child! And on feast days when blessing with holy water was called for, he would sprinkle the faithful, not on top of the head as is usual, but right in the face(which once led a small girl to exclaim, ‘he squirts you’), with a noticeable glint in his eye and total unconcern at the discomfiture of some of the more dignified. Children were absolutely devoted to him despite his usual strictness with them.

Vladika was sometimes criticized for upsetting the usual order of things. He was often late for services (never on his own account, but because he had been visiting the sick or dying), and he would not allow them to begin without him; and when he celebrated the services would be quite long, as he followed few of the standard abbreviations. He would appear at various places unannounced and at unexpected times; often he would visit hospitals late at night – and always be admitted. At times his judgements would seem to clash with common sense, and his actions would seem strange; and often he would not explain them.

No man is perfect; Vladika was sometimes wrong (and he did not hesitate to admit it when he found out). But usually he was right, and the seeming strangeness of some of his actions and judgments could later be seen to fit into a different pattern of things. Vladika’s life was governed by the standards of the spiritual life, and if this upset the routine order of things it was in order to jolt people out of their spiritual inertia and remind them that there is a higher judgement than the world’s.

A remarkable incident from Vladika’s years in San Francisco (1963) illustrates several aspects of his holiness: his spiritual boldness based on absolute faith; his ability to see the future and to overcome by his spiritual sight the bounds of space; and the power of his prayer, which beyond all doubt worked miracles. The incident is related by the woman who witnessed it, Mrs L. Liu; the exact words of Vladika were confirmed by the Mr T. who is mentioned.

In San Francisco my husband was involved in an automobile accident and was seriously injured; he lost control of balance and suffered terribly. At this time Vladika had many troubles. Knowing the power of Vladika’s prayers, I thought: if I ask Vladika to come to my husband, my husband would recover; but I was afraid to do this, because Vladika was so busy then. Two days passed, and suddenly Vladika came to us, accompanied by Mr B. T., who had driven him. Vladika stayed with us about five minutes, but believed that my husband would recover. The state of his health was  at its most serious point then, and after Vladika’s visit there was a sharp crisis and then he began to recover and lived four more years after this. He was quite aged. Afterwards I met Mr T at a Church meeting and he told me that he had been driving Vladika to the airport. Suddenly Vladika had said to him: ‘Let’s go to the Lius’. He had objected that they would be late for the plane and that he could not turn around at that moment. Then Vladika had said: ‘Can you take the life of a man upon yourself?’ He could do nothing but drive Vladika to us. Vladika, as it turned out, was not late for the plane, because they had held it up for him.

With the announcement by Metropolitan Anastassy in 1964 of his retirement, Archbishop John became a leading candidate to succeed him as Metropolitan and Chief Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad. On the second ballot he was one of the two candidates, with the difference of a single vote between them. To resolve thee equal division of the bishops, that night Vladika asked the youngest of the hierarchs, Bishop Philaret, to his quarters, and there he persuaded this unexpected candidate to accept the awesome responsibility of this office. The next day he withdrew his own candidacy and recommended the election of Bishop Philaret, whom the bishops elected unanimously, seeing in this sudden turn of events the grace of the Holy Spirit.

To such eminence among the hierarchs of the Russian Church was Vladika raised before the end of his earthly life. It was an eminence based not on any external qualities, for Vladika was frail, bent, without ambition or guile, unable even to speak clearly. It was an eminence based solely on those inner, spiritual qualities which made him unquestionably one of the great Orthodox hierarchs of this century, and a holy man. In him righteousness shone.

 

V
Repose
Among those who knew and loved Vladika, the first response to the news of his sudden death was: it cannot be! And this was more than a reaction to the suddenness of the event; for among those who were close to him there had unaccountably developed the notion that this pillar of the Church, this holy man who was always accessible to his flock, would never cease to be! There would never be a time when one would not be able to turn to him for advice and consolation! In one sense, in a spiritual sense, this has since turned out to be true. But it is also one of the realities of this world that every man who lives must die.

Vladika was prepared for this reality. While others expected of him many more years of fruitful service to the Church of Christ – for he was a relatively young hierarch – he was readying himself for an end which he had foreseen at least for some months, and the very day of which he apparently knew in advance.

To the manager of the orphanage where he lived, who had spoken in the spring of 1966 of a diocesan meeting to be held three years later, he indicated, ‘I will not be here then’. In May 1966, a woman who had known Vladika for twelve years – and whose testimony according to Metropolitan Philaret, is ‘worthy of complete confidence’ – was amazed to hear him say, ‘I will die soon, at the end of June… not in San Francisco, but in Seattle…’ Metropolitan Philaret himself testifies of Vladika’s extraordinary final farewell to him when returning to San Francisco from the last session of the Synod which he attended in New York. After the Metropolitan had served the customary moleben before travelling, Vladika, instead of sprinkling his own head with holy water, as is always done by hierarchs, bent low and asked the Metropolitan to sprinkle him; and after this, instead of the usual mutual kissing of hands, Vladika firmly took the Metropolitan’s hand and kissed it, withdrawing his own.

Again, on the evening before his departure for Seattle, four days before his death, Vladika astonished a man for whom he had just served a moleben with the words, ‘you will not kiss my hand again’. And on the day of his death, at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy which he celebrated, he spent three hours in the altar praying, emerging not long before his death, which occurred at 3:50 pm. on 2nd July 1066. He died in his room in the parish building  next to the church, without preparatory signs of illness or affliction. He was heard to fall and having been placed in a chair by those who ran to help him, breathed his last peacefully and with little evident pain, in the presence of the miracle working Kursk Ikon of the Mother of God. Thus was Vladika found worthy to imitate the blessed death of his patron, St John of Tobolsk.

Today [1966] Archbishop John reposes in a chapel in the basement of the San Francisco cathedral; and there a new chapter has begun in the story of this holy man. Just as St Seraphim of Sarov told his spiritual children to regard him as living after his death, and to come to his grave and tell him what was in their hearts, , so our Vladika also has proved to be hearing those who revere his memory. Soon after his death, a one-time student of his, Fr Amvrossy P., saw one night a dream (or a vision, he could not tell which): Vladika, clad in Easter vestments, full of of light and shining, was censing the cathedral and joyfully uttered to him just one word while blessing him: ‘happy’.

Later, before the end of the forty-day period, Fr Constantine Z., long Vladika’s deacon and now a priest, who had lately been angry at Vladika and had begun to doubt his righteousness, saw Vladika in a dream all light, with rays of light shining around his head so brightly, that it was impossible to look at them. Thus were Fr Constantine’s doubts of Vladika’s holiness dispelled.

Many others have seen Archbishop John in unusual dreams that have a particular significance or message. Some affirm that supernatural help has been granted them. The modest grave chapel [1966], soon to be adorned with icons by Pimen Sofronov in remembrance of Vladika, is the witness already of how many tears, confessions, heartfelt requests…

The manager of the St Tikhon Zadonsky Home and long devoted servant of Vladika, M.A. Shakmatova, saw a remarkable dream. A crowd of people carried Vladika in a coffin into St Tikhon’s Church; Vladika came to life and stood in the royal doors anointing the people and saying to her, ‘Tell the people: although I have died, I am alive!’

It is yet too early to be able even to grasp the fact that we, cold and sinful, living in this evil age, have been witness of such a glorious phenomenon – the life and death of a saint! It is as if the times of Holy Russia have returned to earth, as if to prove the fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Amen.

Eugene Rose 1966


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Exodus: Saint John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966) leads his flock out of Shanghai

Saint John Maximovitch (1896–1966) is loved and venerated throughout the world. Born on the eve of the Communist Revolution, he was a leading figure in the Russian diaspora, serving the Church in Yugoslavia, China, the Philippines, France, and the United States. His sanctity, asceticism, and wonderworking are well known from several different published versions of his life.

In Exodus, readers discover more about St John’s role in sustaining his flock in Shanghai, arranging for their flight to Tubabao, and his successful efforts to lobby the U.S. government, which allowed thousands of refugees and orphans to emigrate to America. Drawing extensively on unpublished primary sources—letters, memoirs, interviews, newspaper articles from key figures and eyewitnesses—John B. Dunlop takes readers on an exciting journey, as they learn more about both St John and his émigré flock.


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The explosive growth of Orthodoxy in Guatemala


Whenever someone speaks of “American Orthodoxy,” there is usually an unspoken understanding that the term refers to North American Orthodoxy: the United States, Canada, and sometimes Mexico. This way of speaking is indeed convenient, considering that the majority of Orthodox parishes in the Western Hemisphere are still located in North America. However, in the past few years a great change has occurred in Latin America that makes it increasingly inaccurate to focus on North America as the western outpost of Orthodoxy. Just two years ago, in 2010, the Orthodox Church received a large group of Guatemalan converts numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Now Guatemala, and possibly all of Latin America, holds tremendous promise of becoming fertile ground for the Orthodox Christian Church.


The seed of Orthodoxy in Guatemala was planted by the nuns of the Hogar Rafael Ayau, an Orthodox orphanage in Guatemala City. Many people are familiar with the incredible work of Mother Inés, Mother Ivonne, and Mother María. In fact, just this year a group of seminarians from St. Vladimir's Seminary traveled with the seminary Chancellor/CEO Archpriest Chad Hatfield to see the work of the nuns and to assist at the orphanage. It is through these nuns that the Guatemalan soil was first prepared for the Orthodox Church.

Now, with the recent chrismation of a new group of Guatemalan converts that numbers between 100,000 and 200,000, the Orthodox Church is ready to blossom in Guatemala. The magnitude of the event cannot be overstated. Almost overnight, Guatemala has become the most Orthodox country in the Western Hemisphere (by percentage of national population). Furthermore, the Orthodox communities in Guatemala continue to grow rapidly and attract attention throughout Guatemala. There is still, however, little information available to the broader Orthodox world on the history and character of these new communities. For this reason, I traveled to Guatemala this summer, spending two months visiting many of the Orthodox parishes, meeting the leaders of the communities, and accompanying the bishop of the Guatemalan Church—His Eminence, Metropolitan Athenagoras—as he made his historic first visit to the new parishes in Guatemala. I returned to the United States with the desire to share what I saw and the conviction that the Holy Spirit is at work with power in Latin America...


FJTO

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Arizona, 2022: Schemamonk Ephraim (Frank Atwood)

People keep bringing up Schemamonk Ephraim (Frank Atwood's) previous crimes and alleged evidence against him, but I have yet to see anyone actually look into the counter-arguments, which are many and much more persuasive. If you're interested, don't rely on media information which is extremely biased, as they tend to be. You have to go to the court documents and see how things were presented in court.
Here is a good summary to introduce you to that research, which I doubt anyone will do anyway, which is fine.
In September 1984, Frank Atwood and a fellow-traveler were passing through Tucson when an eight-year-old girl, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, disappeared while riding her bicycle.
Hours later, long after Mr. Atwood supposedly committed this crime, multiple witnesses spotted the girl at the Tucson Mall. But a tip put Mr. Atwood in the same neighborhood that afternoon. As soon as police learned of his California convictions for child sex-related offenses, they dropped all other investigations, and he was soon arrested. He answered officers’ questions and consented to a search of his car. No evidence of the victim was found.
Seven months later, some of the girl’s bones were found off the side of Ina Road, an arterial avenue. Long after Mr. Atwood’s trial, it emerged that these remains had been buried before they appeared on the desert floor.
The prosecution’s evidence showed there was nowhere near enough time for Mr. Atwood to have abducted, killed, and buried the victim.
Evidence later emerged that the State manufactured its only physical evidence connecting Mr. Atwood to the child – supposed contact between his car and her bicycle — but the courts have yet to get to the truth of that matter. That evidence has never been subjected to modern scientific testing.
Frank always saw himself guilty of his prior crimes, but died with full confidence in his innocence for the crime that connected him to the death of Vicki Hoskinson. His lawyers, his wife of 30 Years, his spiritual advisors, and many others who followed this case for years and even decades strongly believe in his innocence.
If you have a different opinion, you have every right to it.
None of this matters anymore. May his memory be eternal, and may God grant great consolation to the family of little Vicky. And may justice be restored to all people!


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Arizona, 2022: Frank (Anthony) Atwood is now Great Schemamonk Ephraim 

Today, June 7th, 2022, Anthony has been tonsured into the Great Schema with the name Ephraim by his spiritual father, Elder Paisios, abbot of Saint Anthony’s monastery. The latest court rulings have denied him of any justice.  There is one more emergency petition being filed today, but if it does not get ruled in our favor, Father Ephraim will be executed tomorrow at 10am by the State of Arizona, for a crime he did not commit. Several FBI secret service agents have admitted the allegations are false.
In that case, the Saint Anthony’s Monastery in AZ will serve a Paraklesis starting at 10 AM for those who can come to pray for the repose of his soul. Everyone should join in prayer wherever they are!
The great schema is the highest rank of Orthodox monasticism and is considered to be a second baptism where all sins are forgiven. It is a pious monastic tradition to grant a person (laypeople included), the tonsure before they are about to die, which is of great help for the salvation of the soul. Father Ephraim is now accompanied by another Guardian Angel he received at his tonsure. Kalo Paradiso and Axios!!!

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Orthodoxy in Ixcan, Guatemala: A Story of Resilient Faith

by Fr. John Chakos

Up until the late fifties, the sparsely populated jungle area of Ixcan in western Guatemala was thought to be worthless by the government. In an effort to populate the region for the benefit of the indigenous tribes, a program of land reform was initiated. Taking advantage of this opportunity, a Maryknoll priest- Father William Woods- purchased 100 square miles of inaccessible jungle land and began to form cooperatives to assist the Mayan people. With three airplanes, he and other pilots flew thousands of flights to take the produce of these cooperatives to market. Then in 1970, oil was discovered in that region.

As a result, the now settled local people were forced to plant grass on their land and leave, thus ceding their land to the rich and powerful for exploitation. As the Mayans only advocate, Woods tried to prevent this land grab by bringing their plight to the attention of the world. He was warned by the military to leave or else. Shortly thereafter his plane crashed in the jungle, and within an hour key telltale components of the plane were removed from the site by the military. Later an army officer confirmed the suspicion of foul play.

The years after the priest’s martyric death were painful for the Ixcan colonizers. A number of times Guatemala soldiers entered the Ixcan cooperatives to burn, to torture, and massacre the indigenous population. Many had to flee to Mexico or hide in the jungle in order to escape the genocide perpetrated by the Guatemala army. When those who fled were finally repatriated in 1995 they returned to the Ixcan territory to often find that their original plots of land were given to others by the army. Through subsequent Church efforts most people have recovered their lands. Their gratitude and love for Father Bill Woods has never wavered. His photo hangs in many churches. The late Fr. Andres Giron, the founder of the Orthodox Church in Guatemala and onetime leader of the campesino movement for land reform, named one of the coastal villages he founded after William Woods.

Today, the Orthodox Christians of Ixcan, who were part of this turbulent history and the violent civil war, have vivid memories of this time of trouble. With the peace accords of 1996 and the restoration of their lands, they tried to create a new life for themselves. During the years that followed, however, a period of alienation and estrangement ensued between many of the humble peasants and the area Catholic parishes to which they belonged.

They complained of indifference, neglect and even abusive treatment on the part of their clergy. After numerous efforts at reconciliation proved futile, a number of families made the decision on December 31st, 2015, to separate themselves from their mother church. It should be pointed out that in Guatemala and all of Latin America there have been massive defections from the Catholic Church since the 1970s as per a November 2014 Pew report. And so it was that in January of 2010, these disaffected Mayan communities in Ixcan petitioned to become members of the Orthodox Church under the leadership of Fr. Andres Giron. Expelled from the Catholic Church himself for his political activities, the Mayan people of Ixcan found in him a compassionate spiritual leader and defender of their rights.

I visited the faithful of Ixcan with Father Andres nearly four years ago for the first time. What I found was a faithful remnant living in the most humble of circumstances and praying in weathered shanty-like structures consisting of wooden slats, dirt floors covered with fragrant pine needles, and rusty tin roofs, from which colorful streamers hung. I call these the cathedrals of the poor, magnificent in their unassuming simplicity. Since we were visiting these remote outposts of the Church for the first time, the faithful wanted to offer us something special from their meager substance.

Some of the village men at early dawn went to the nearby river, hoping to catch a big fish in honor of Fr. Andres’ first visit. They prayed before casting their nets. Then to their surprise and delight, they caught a 30 pound fish, which they proudly presented to us upon our arrival. They saw this large piscine prize as a confirmation of their decision to throw in their lot with Fr. Andres. After this four year hiatus, I was able to visit two of the communities again this past February of 2016, at which time they showed us two newly purchased parcels of land. Fr. Evangelos, the parish priest, who visits them every two months or so, told me that he would like to make the Holy Trinity parish in Mayaland a regional center for Orthodoxy. The potential for growth is great, and the people seem very mission minded.

They feel that a proper Orthodox Church structure will give them the visibility they need to reach out and spread the faith to neighbors and friends. Presently, as before, the communities that I visited continue praying and worshiping in their temporary wooden structures. What is lacking in material beauty, however, is more than compensated for by a profound faith and spiritual vitality that shakes the very rafters of their humble churches. When homes and land were lost to them before, they found their consolation in Christ, who now has led them into the Orthodox fold. Their long journey through many trials is a great testament to their resilient faith.

May we be worthy of their trust in us.


FJTO


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Saint Alexander Hotovitzky, Missionary of America, hieromartyr in Russia, from Ukraine (+1937)

August 19 & December 4

Saint Alexander Hotovitzky (or Hotovitsky), hieromartyr of the Bolshevik yoke, Missionary of America, was a Ukrainian who came to the United States in the 1890s as a lay missionary and was ordained to the priesthood while there. He was active as a missionary among the emigrated Uniates in the northeastern United States before being ordered back to Europe 1914. He was to become vicar of the congregation of the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Because of the outbreak of the First World War he was instead nominated as vicar of the Orthodox congregation in Helsinki, Finland, then a part of imperial Russia. In 1917 he was assigned to Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. After the Bolshevik coup he was subjected to many cruelties by the revolutionaries as he defended the Orthodox faith, his people, and church property. Subjected to many arrests and exile Father Alexander served his Church as best he could through these tumultuous times until after a final arrest he was executed during the Great Purge on August 19, 1937. His glorification is celebrated on 21st November in the Church Calendar, December 4 in the Civil Calendar.

Missionary in the United States

Alexander Hotovitzky was born on February 11, 1872, in the city of Kremenets in Volhynia (now Ukraine). His father, Alexander, was a priest who was the rector of the Volhynia Theological Seminary. Fr. Alexander was educated at the Volhynia Seminary before entering the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Upon graduation from the academy in 1895 with a master's degree he was sent to the Diocese of the Aleutians and North America as a lay missionary and as reader at the St. Nicholas Church in New York City. He was ordained a deacon after his marriage to Maria Scherbuhina, who was a graduate of the Pavlosk Institute of St. Petersburg. Bishop Nicholas Ziorov ordained Fr. Alexander to the priesthood on February 25, 1896, at the diocesan cathedral in San Francisco.

A week later he returned to New York to become the pastor of St. Nicholas Church (New York, NY), where he had been a reader. During the ensuing years, Fr. Alexander was successful in his missionary activities among the emigrees from Galicia and Carpatho-Russia as well as representing the Orthodox Church before American religious institutions and meetings. He was instrumental in the establishment of many new Orthodox parishes, including those in Yonkers, Passaic, Philadelphia, and Watervliet.

He edited the journal of Orthodox activity, the American Orthodox Messenger. He actively participated in establishing an Orthodox mutual aid society (ROCMAS), including serving in various management positions. Through his initiative and active participation, a new architecturally majestic St. Nicholas Cathedral was built to replace the small parish church in New York City. He traveled throughout the United States, and even to Russia, soliciting funds for its construction. Tzar Nicholas contributed 5,000 rubles. In 1903, the new edifice became the diocesan cathedral.

The treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War was negotiated through the initiative of President Theodore Roosevelt. The negotiations and signing took place in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Father Alexander was among the Orthodox clergy who traveled to Portsmouth for the occasion, where a service of Thanksgiving was held in Christ Church. Archpriest Fr. Alexander sang a solemn "Te Deum"; also participating were choristers from St. Nicholas Cathedral.

For eighteen years he served in America under Bishop Nicholas; the future Patriarch of Moscow, St. Tikhon; and Archbishop Platon; the now Archpriest Alexander was recalled to Russia on February 26, 1914.

Russia and Martyrdom
After his arrival in the Russian Empire Fr. Alexander was appointed rector of the Orthodox congregation in Helsinki; then a part of the Russian Empire, now Finland. Here, as assistant to the archbishop of Finland, Sergius (Stragorodsky), later Patriarch Sergius I of Moscow, he defended the Orthodox minority against the proselytizing activities of the Finnish Lutherans. The crypt chapel of the Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki is today named after him. Then in August 1917 he was transferred to Christ the Savior Church in Moscow as an assistant priest to once again serve under his old archpastor from America, the future St. Tikhon.

He arrived as two historic events were to unfold, the All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918 and the Bolshevik coup of October 1917. He was an active participant in the Church Council and assisted St. Tikhon in the administration of the Moscow diocese. With the loss of state funding, the Church and the Cathedral had to look to other sources of funds.

Fr. Alexander's activities defending the Church naturally brought upon him the enmity of the Bolsheviks and led to his arrest for brief periods in May 1920 and November 1921 for violating government decrees concerning religion. Fr. Alexander, with Fr. Nicholas Arseniev, the rector of Christ the Savior Cathedral, aided the establishment of a brotherhood that appealed to the Orthodox flock to defend and preserve the Cathedral, and to aid the starving. In 1922, the next stage of Bolshevik antagonism began as Church property, including icons and sacred vessels, were confiscated on the pretext of helping the poor and starving. Although St. Tikhon encouraged the Church's donation of funds for this purpose, this was not enough for the Bolsheviks. So, St. Tikhon issued a decree based on canon law that the clergy in Russia were not to surrender sacred vessels for non-ecclesiastical use. This brought St. Tikhon's arrest and numerous court trials in which the servants of the Church were accused of counter-revolutionary activity. These trials intensified the Bolshevik attacks and the increased shedding of blood of the clergy and faithful who defended the Church.

Fr. Alexander was in the forefront of those who implemented the Patriarch's instructions. He took part in meetings to draft a resolution for a general parish meeting of Christ the Savior parish about the state decrees. This resolution, drafted by Fr. Alexander, was presented at a general meeting of the parish by Archpriest Nicholas Arseniev on March 23, 1922. Fr. Alexander had already been placed under arrest. The final resolution contained demands of guarantees from the state that all donations from the Church would be used for saving the lives of the starving. However, the drafting of this resolution was considered a further example of counter-revolutionary activity. This led to further trials and executions of hieromartyrs and martyrs. Then a new high-visibility trial was convened in Moscow on November 27, 1922, during which 105 clergy and laity were accused of "attempting to retain in their hands possession of church valuables and, through the resulting starvation, to topple the Soviet Regime."

In this trial the state prosecution portrayed Fr. Alexander as a central figure in the activities surrounding the preparation of the resolution. Under questioning, Fr. Alexander did not admit to wrongdoing and tried to protect the other defendants. In his final words as a defendant, Fr. Alexander defended the meeting as an ordinary meeting without any counter-revolutionary intent. On December 13, 1922, the verdicts were announced. As a surprise the penalties were milder than earlier bloody verdicts. Fr. Alexander and two others were given ten-year sentences in prison, loss of their personal property, and loss of civil rights for five years. The others were given lesser sentences, but appeals for pardons were turned down by the Supreme Central Executive Committee on February 16, 1923.

Then, surprisingly, in October 1923, Fr. Alexander and others were granted amnesty. However, despite his freedom he was not assigned to a parish but served by invitation in Moscow churches. Then on September 4, 1924, the State Political Directorate recommended administrative exile of thirteen clergy and church leaders including Fr. Alexander. After further interrogation, Fr. Alexander was exiled to the northern Turukhan region of Siberia for three years. After his return from exile, he was elevated to the rank of protopresbyter and was assigned as an assistant to the Deputy Locum-Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius. In the 1930s, he went on to serve as rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskoy Street.

Then in the summer of 1937, Fr. Alexander was again arrested. He was sentenced to death and shot on August 19, 1937. Fr. Alexander is buried in Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow.



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Why One Jamaican Became an Orthodox Christian

by Moses Myers

“Not all men are alike…I am not like all men…”

The blessing of the Lord!

moses myers jamaicanMy name is Marlon Marlondo Myers. I was born in August 1977, the second child and only son of my parents Raphael and Audrey Myers, and beloved brother to three sisters, Sherna (the eldest), Anna-Kim, and Kathy-Ann.

My long journey to the Mother Church has began. However, as I think back over on how I got to this point, I become filled with deep emotion. For by the grace of God, I, a sinner, a stray sheep, have found the lovely bosom of the Orthodox Church – the One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Therefore, it is my conviction that my humble retrospection should in no wise come to naught to those who are outside of the original Church founded by Jesus Christ.

I am a Jamaican and a Probation Aftercare Officer by profession. My father is a Bishop and Pastor within the Protestant denomination, namely the Church of God of Prophecy, Roadside (Ewarton, St. Catherine), and my mother is a very devout Minister of same. Consequently, I was brought up in an unusually religious atmosphere.

My parents hoped that I would one day become a Pastor, and perhaps be my father’s successor at the local church I attended from childhood. But although I was actively involved in ministry, I had no interest or certainly no desire to become a pastor. My dad is certainly worth emulating, for he is a wise, humble, and a very good example to follow in one’s strides to pastoral care. However, outside of that, I was very displeased with the example being set by other ministers and pastors at that time, as they were much too superficial and did not impress me as being Christian at all. As for personal ministry, I tailored my skills into mentoring and counselling instead. I also continued growing in my professional career as I love helping people; seeing a life changed in a positive way is my greatest reward.

After a period of sincere prayer, fasting and meditation, I decided to dedicate myself totally to the One Who called me. Yeah! My mother had always said, that while I was still in her womb, she promised the Lord that if she was granted a son, she would give him back to God, like little Samuel. No wonder I have always had such a strong desire for the things of God; connecting with Him was an overwhelming passion and burning desire. There’re countless stories and glorious experiences that I could share about my own personal walk with the Triune God, and learning more about Him has birthed in me a continuous desire to want more of Him; I so yearned for a deeper connection with Him. However, nothing seemed more satisfying than wanting to know Him, for I seemed so far away from Him, no matter how close I thought I was to him.

I entered the Jamaica Theological Seminary with deep conviction and fervent faith, and I was guided by the Seminary’s motto:

“That I may know Him, that I may make Him known”.

My tenure at the Seminary further ignited in me the commitment to devote myself totally to God and I began having thoughts of becoming a priest. But, how could I, for that would mean turning my eyes to Roman Catholicism. Hmmm…

My research on Church History made me realize that what we are being exposed to here in the Western Hemisphere was a mere fraction of what the truth of Church History and the One True Church really is. Further studies revealed that the ministry of the Protestant Church lacked Apostolic Succession and was therefore null and void, and that the Roman Catholic Church (who broke away from the One True Church) had fallen into a drunken and corruptible state.

In order to resolve the problems I had about the Roman doctrine, I began studying the writings of the Church Fathers. My conclusion from all these studies was that the Roman Catholic Church, too, had gone astray as had the Protestant.

In April of 2014, while watching an old YouTube video featuring the Papal Inauguration of Pope Francis, I saw a distinct figure of a person identified as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The seemingly old and wise bearded man got my attention, and I was curious to know more about him and the Church he represented. This, for the first time, led me to read extensively into Eastern Orthodox theology. I began watching YouTube videos about the Ancient Church that exposed me to its form of worship through the Divine Liturgy. I can recall watching a video of the Divine Liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, and oh I cried so much, praying “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” From then on, I was determined to become an Orthodox Christian.

Up until this time, I had no contact with Orthodox Christians or with any Orthodox Church. However, thanks be to God, He led me by His Holy Spirit to the primitive, conservative, and most pure and virgin faith of Christianity. For I discovered that in the Orthodox Church, Christianity with all its richness and essence was to be found. In the bosom of the Orthodox Church, my despaired soul found a resting place, a heavenly harbor. With great joy and hope, I decided to become an Orthodox Christian about a year ago.

At first, I hesitated to make a hasty decision for fear of disgracing myself by a change of church. But gradually I became convinced of the validity of Orthodoxy. By the Grace of God, I was convinced that I must serve Him through the priesthood of the Orthodox Church. And so, I began following the way of the Cross, willing to sacrifice anything.

Through the kindness of His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop Athenagoras of Mexico (Archbishop of Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and the islands of the Caribbean), and also through the coaching of the Very Rev. Christopher Grist (a Protopresbyter of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Mexico – Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), where he currently serves as Archepiscopal Vicar of Jamaica, I will someday become a priest in reality. With their help, I am now being given the opportunity to study Orthodox theology at the St. Gregory Nazianzen Orthodox Institute in preparation for the priesthood. My desire is to bring Orthodoxy to Jamaica and serve as a priest missionary after my ordination into the Orthodox Church.

The journey has just begun. Yesterday I was called “Marlon” but today I am called “Moses” after my Patron Saint Moses the Black/Ethiopian. I’m no Saint. I’m a sinner. My Christian walk over the years was never perfect and I’m not ashamed for saying that. In fact, looking back and seeing where I’m coming from humbles me. For I know deep down the best is yet to come. In short, I have found what I was looking for. Yeah! And I’m honouring my mother’s promise to God. I’m feeling at home, where I belong.

Please join us in praying for the Orthodox mission in Jamaica!


FJTO


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Maria Tsalla, Greece: A Personal miracle of St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966)

In 2007, when I was fifteen years old and had lost my father, my prayers each night hid a certain complaint, because God had taken my father so early, and even though I asked to see him at least in a dream, this desire of mine was not fulfilled.

God’s answer to my complaint was not long in coming; it came by way of a dream. In my dream, I was in a strange Church and was waitting in a line with other pilgrims. In front of me were children of various nationalities. As I waited at the end of this line, some people from the upper gallery motioned for me to go forward, and at these instructions the children obediently made way for me.

I found myself in front of an Icon depicting a Saint that I had never seen before. He was elderly and had a grey beard. As I gazed upon the Icon, the Saint stepped out of it like an apparition and told me to go to the right. Heading in the direction he had indicated to me, I saw a reliquary, out of which arose the same elderly man I had seen in the Icon. This time, however, he was not an apparition, painted in the colours used by Iconographers, but was flesh and blood.

I approached him, and we both sat down on the reliquary. He did not frighten me; I felt as if I were sitting with a friend on a bench and not with a Saint on a reliquary. He looked in my eyes with love and tenderness. His eyes emitted love and effection, and beautified his aged and bent body. Embracing me paternally, he spoke to me in a different language – not Greek or other languages that people speak. It was as if our souls were communicating. He told me that thenceforth he would be my father. His embrace filled my soul with calm and his fragrance made the dream real.

I woke up thinking about him, and with many questions as to who the elderly man was. Alongside the questions, however, I also had an answer to my question: “Do I have a father?”. Of course I did; I just did not know his name. I asked for help from my mother, who is a catechist and knows a great deal about Saints and their lives. None of those she mentioned, however, corresponded to the description I gave her. I only knew that he had a gray beard, was elderly, short, and bent, and, in any event, a foreigner, since the Church did not look Greek Orthodox, nor were the other pilgrims Greek, and he had not spoken to me in Greek.

My mother advised me to pray to him to reveal to my who he was. The answer to my prayer did not come through a dream this time, but rather through a birthday gift given to me by my spiritual Father (to whom I had never told the dream). I opened the gift and saw that it was a book. When I opened it, I saw the “strange” Church (“strange” to me, that is, because it was Russian) that I had seen in my dream, the Icon of the Saint, his reliquary, and the man himself! That is how I learned his name: St. John Maximovitch, the protector of orphans. Thus it was that I learned the name of my father – the father of all orphans, the afflicted, the weak, the poor, and the wronged. The Saint never leaves me, but is always near me and often appears in my dreams to give me support, consolation, and advice in difficult moments.

God took my [biological] father, but He also took care to send me an incorrupt one (the incorrupt Relics of the Saint are located in San Francisco), who is also on earth and who reminds us that whoever follows Christ has no reason to fear death.

I feel myself fortunate; but, at the same time, since God permitted such a thing to happen to me, the most sinful one, I have a responsibility to help as many people as possible learn about St. John Maximovitch, so that, just as I have been changed, he might also bring about a change for many other people who are reading these words now and who are searching for a place of refuge and a paternal embrace. The only thing I could do as a fifteen year old was to make a Facebook page called SAINT JOHN MAXIMOVITCH https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlessedJohnMaximovitch, which today numbers more than 3,000 members. In the embrace he offered me,we all fit!

Maria Tsalla, Greece





A gift from Saint John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966)

Sister of mercy Svetlana experienced this miracle a few years ago:

“My obedience in the Convent was simple - I conducted excursions, during which people were able to learn about the history of the creation of St. Elisabeth Convent, the architecture of our churches, the social service of our sisters of mercy, etc.

At that time, a brand new icon of St John was brought to one of our churches. Every time I walked past it, I noticed the saint’s attentive gaze and a slight smile on his lips. I felt drawn to his image and started spending more time near it. It always made me feel calm.

I thought that I had to tell other people about St John so that they can also receive the help they need.

One day in August, a famous Russian actress was a guest at our Convent. She looked very tired and unwell, I hardly recognized in her the beautiful woman I remembered from her movies.

It seemed like our Convent did not make a great impression on her, she looked noticeably bored. I wanted to please her and make her feel better. So I told her about Saint John’s life, his love and compassion for people; about his special attitude towards children, to whom he always gave candy.

Suddenly, passing the icon of the saint, I noticed something on top of the icon case. I couldn’t believe my eyes - it was candy! I said, “Look, father John prepared a gift for you too!” I gave it to the woman and we both stood there in shock for a moment.

The actress then spent some time praying to Saint John and I witnessed an incredible transformation in her - she looked more alive and beautiful, her eyes were shining, she had a smile on her face.

After the excursion she left me a thank you note. I believe that father John is helping her up to this day.”


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Modern Day Miracles: A Story about Saint John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966) and Mr Liu



A remarkable incident which occurred during St John’s time in San Francisco testifies to several aspects of his holiness: his spiritual boldness based on absolute faith, his ability to overcome the bounds of space and time by spiritual sight, and the power of his prayer which beyond all doubt worked miracles.

A certain Mr Liu was involved in a car accident in San Francisco in 1963 and was in a critical condition. His wife knew of the power of St John’s prayer, but was afraid to phone him because she knew he was very busy at the time. However after two days, when the state of Mr Liu’s health was at its most serious point, St John arrived at the hospital unexpectedly! He spent five minutes with Mr Liu and then left with the man who had driven him there. Following this visit, Mr Liu made a miraculous recovery to the amazement of the doctors!

Several weeks later, Mrs Liu met the man who had driven St John to the hospital at a church gathering. She asked him how they happened to visit them at that moment. He told Mrs Liu that he had been driving the Archbishop to the airport when suddenly he said to him: “Let’s go now to the Liu’s”. The driver objected that they would be late for the plane, since the Liu’s lived in the opposite direction. Then St John replied: “Can you take the life of a man upon yourself?” Hearing this, the driver trusted him and turned back as the Archbishop had instructed. As it turned out, St John also managed to catch his plane on time!

By Bishop Alexander (Mileant)


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Miracle of miracles: Feeding the orphans

From the Life of Saint John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966)


“Once during the war,” continued Maria Alexandrovna, “the poverty of the shelter reached such limits that there was literally nothing to feed the children, and there were at least ninety people in the shelter. Our staff was indignant because Archbishop John continued to bring in new children, some of whom had parents, and therefore we had to feed someone else's children as well.

One evening, when he came to us - exhausted, weak, frozen and silent, I could not restrain myself and expressed to him everything that was in my soul. I said that we women can no longer put up with it, see these little hungry mouths, being unable to give them anything to eat. I lost control of myself and raised my voice in indignation. Not only did I complain, I was full of anger for making us put up with this. He looked sadly at me and asked: “What do you most need?” I answered immediately: “Everything, at worst - in porridge. I have nothing to feed my children in the morning.”

Archbishop John looked at her sadly and went upstairs to his side. Then she heard him pray and bow, so diligently and loudly that even the neighbors began to complain. She was tormented by conscience that night, and she could not fall asleep. Dozed off only in the morning, and her doorbell woke up. Opening it, she saw an unfamiliar gentleman - seemingly an Englishman, who said that he was representing some kind of grain company and that they had excess stocks of oatmeal, so he would like to know if it could be used, because here, as he heard, have kids. And bags of oatmeal began to be brought into the shelter.

As long as this continued, the doors slammed restlessly, Vladyka John began to slowly descend the stairs. Maria Alexandrovna could hardly utter a word when she caught his eye. He did not utter a word, but only with his eyes, with one meek glance, expressed her reproach for her unbelief. She wanted to fall and kiss his feet, but he had already gone upstairs to continue the prayer, but now thanksgiving.

[Extract from the book - “The Price of Holiness”. Memories of St. John of Shanghai]

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Saving orphans: Journey in the slums of Shanghai

From the Life of Saint John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966)

“In the slums of Shanghai, there were cases in which dogs would devour baby girls who had been thrown into garbage cans. When the newspapers announced this, Archbishop John told Mrs. Shakhmatova to go and buy two bottles of Chinese vodka-at which she cringed in horror. But her horror increased when he demanded that she accompany him into these very slums, where it was common knowledge that grown-up people would be murdered. Fearless as ever, the young Bishop insisted on going there, walking through dark alleys in the worst neighborhood. She recalled what horror seized her heart when they, in the darkness of night, walked and encountered only drunkards, shady characters, and growling dogs and cats. She held the bottles in her hands, following him with trepidation, when suddenly a growl was heard from a drunken man sitting in a dark doorway and the faint moan of a baby was heard from a nearby garbage can. When the Bishop hastened towards the cry, the drunkard growled in warning. Then the Bishop turned to Mrs. Shakhmatova and said, "Hand me a bottle." Raising the bottle in one hand and pointing to the garbage can with the other, Blessed John, without words, conveyed the message of the proposed sale. The bottle ended up in the hands of the drunkard, and Mrs. Shakhmatova saved the child. They say that that night he returned to the orphanage with two babies under his arms. This fearlessness, however, had not been acquired without a deep inner struggle.”

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20 children baptized in Guatemalan village


Hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans have been embracing the Orthodox faith over the past decade. 500,000 were received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate in January 2010, and more individuals and entire communities have been entering the holy Orthodox Church since then.

Most recently, as Jesse Brandow, a missionary to Guatemala and Mexico, reports, 20 children were baptized into the holy Orthodox Church in the village of Tajumulco, 150 miles northwest of Guatemala City, not far from the Mexico border.

The church in Tajumulco played an important role in connecting a number of communities to Fr. Andrés Girón, whose evangelical ministry initially brought thousands of converts to the Orthodox Church, Brandow writes.

Among the celebrating priests were local rector Fr. Alexios Sosa and Fr. Thomas Hernandez of St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church in Riverside, California. Fr. Sosa is an iconographer and spent a year studying theology in Greece. The church has been expanding quickly under his guidance.

As Brandow writes, four Orthodox Christians from the United States, including Fr. Thomas Hernandez, were teaching a 6-day program “to inspire and train the faithful in this region of Guatemala.” This first such program in Tajumulco included talks and educational activities for the choir, youth, and parents and Godparents of recently baptized children in the community.

For more information on all the great things happening in the Guatemalan mission and how you can help, see missionary Jesse Brandow’s latest update (https://mailchi.mp/0dbeafd68a13/news-from-jesse-2018-06).


FJTO

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5,000 Indians-Native Americans Baptized Orthodox in Mexico

The conversation published below took place in early December 2009, during the visit of Metropolitan Jonah (OCA) to Russia to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Moscow representation of the Orthodox Church in America, and is devoted to the activities of the Church in Latin America.

– Your Beatitude, in which Latin American countries is the Orthodox Church in America represented?

– The jurisdiction of our Church extends to Mexico. Previously, we also had some parishes in Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. But some of them left for the Russian Church Abroad, the others were closed.

Several communities in Latin America want to join the Orthodox Church in America. We would be happy to take these believers, but there is no one to care for them, because we have very few priests who speak Spanish or Portuguese.

A priest – I hope he will soon become a bishop – began a mission in Ecuador in Guayaquil, where there settled a major Palestinian colony. Unfortunately, in recent years, his good initiative was dampened. I heard that in Central American countries, particularly in El Salvador, there are many Palestinians. Curiously, they do not go to the parishes of the Antiochian Church, and have been asking to be accepted under our omophorion.

The Ecumenical and Antiochian Patriarchates prefer to care for the Greek and Arab diaspora. We do not understand this. The Church must give pastoral care, first of all to local spiritual children. This is the principled position of the Orthodox Church in America.

– When was the Mexican Exarchate established?

– The Mexican Exarchate exists since the early 1970’s. At that time, the bishop of the Mexican National Old Catholic Jose Church, Jose (Cortes and Olmos), got in touch with our Church, and together with his community came to Orthodoxy. Because of his work, hundreds of Mexicans penetrated the Orthodox faith.

Recently, 5,000 Indians from 23 localities in the State of Veracruz were baptized Orthodox. However, such a huge mass of parishioners have only one priest. In the Mexican Exarchate there are in general very few clerics. All of them Mexicans, including the ruling bishop – Bishop Alejo (Pacheco-Vera).

– Have you ever been in Latin America?

– I just visited Mexico. I’m now planning to go to Guatemala. My friend, Abbess Ines (Aiai), lives there; she is Abbess of Holy Trinity Monastery which is in the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Antioch.

In Guatemala, my attention is drawn to a group of thousands of people wishing to convert to Orthodoxy. Most of them are Mayan people. If we accept these, my Guatemalans, as well as representatives of indigenous peoples of other countries in Latin America, the Indians, could become the main ethnic group in the American Orthodox Church. Personally, I would be glad.

– It is clear that you are sympathetic to the original inhabitants of the Americas …

– I feel very warm feelings for the Indians. At university I studied anthropology, was fond of the Mayan and Aztec cultures. They are great and wonderful civilizations.

I like Latin America as a whole – its art, music, literature, cuisine. Latinos love life, they are open and hospitable people. I grew up in California – one of the most Hispanicized states in the US. From my Mexican friends I learned a little Spanish (although I speak it badly). The priest, having united me to the Orthodox Church, was a Mexican. His name was Father Ramon Merlos.

– What are the similarities and differences in the missionary work with the Indians of the United States and Latin America?

– Frankly, I do not know … Our church has a missionary experience in Alaska, where a wonderful priest, Archpriest Michael Oleksa, serves; he’s an anthropologist by profession. He is Carpatho-Russian, and his wife comes from an indigenous Yupik community. Father Michael wants to hold in Alaska a conference of Orthodox American Indians. It will be an extremely interesting event.

While serving as rector of the seminary, Father Michael invited the community from Guatemala, which is hungering for Orthodoxy, to send two of its members to obtain theological education. The idea is certainly good, but people accustomed to a tropical climate, are unlikely to bear Alaskan cold.

– Are there Hispanics among your parishioners in the U.S.?

– Of course. In California, 35% of the population is Hispanic; in Texas it’s even greater. Latins are present in both the flock and clergy of our Church. St. Tikhon Seminary has a Mexican student with Indian roots; he’s named Abraham. He is a subdeacon. One subdeacon in San Francisco is of Colombian origin. At the end of November of this year, I consecrated a new convent in honor of the Nativity of Our Lord in Dallas — where the abbess is Brazilian.

– What, in your opinion, attracts Hispanics to Orthodoxy?

– Latins love our liturgy and icons; they are captivated by a deep reverence for the Mother of God, inherent in the Orthodox Church.

I must say that the Catholic Church is rapidly losing influence in Latin America, because of her close ties with the upper classes of society. Many of the poor who are the majority of the population of the region are disappointed in the Catholic pastors and joined the Protestants, Mormons and other sectarians.

Metropolitan Andres (Giron), the head of the Order of white clergy of St. Basil the Great in Guatemala, was formerly a Catholic priest. He saw that his leaders were focused on the rich, and in the early 1990’s left the Catholic Church, because he wanted to work for the people. Recently, Metropolitan Andres told me: “I’m already old and sick. Please, take my people to your church for their salvation.” His community can hardly be called Orthodox, but gradually it will learn the faith and will be united to the traditions of the Orthodox Church. In addition to Guatemala, Bishop Andres opened parishes in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities in the United States where his countrymen settled.

– You are not afraid of a conflict with the Catholic Church? Despite everything, Latin America is still considered the “principal diocese of the Vatican.”

– There will be no conflict. The Catholic Church is loyal to Orthodoxy. Moreover, I see great potential for co-work with the Catholic Church, particularly in opposing sectarianism.


FJTO

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The Department of Missions and Evangelism in USA and Canada


The Department of Missions and Evangelism was established in 1988 to “Make America Orthodox,” in the words of His Eminence Metropolitan Philip of Blessed Memory. To fulfill that dream, the department endeavors to: 1) build new missions in North American cities of over 100,000 population which have no Orthodox Church of any jurisdiction; 2) respond to invitations of lay groups of Orthodox Christians who desire an English-speaking parish; 3) cultivate relationships with independent (generally Protestant) communities which desire to become Orthodox; 4) work with non-Orthodox pastors who desire to become Orthodox; 5) cooperate with College Ministry to develop mission parishes adjacent to major college campuses with no English-speaking Orthodox Church nearby; and 6) train and encourage Antiochian Orthodox priests and lay leaders to promote Orthodox Christian evangelism in their communities and begin new missions in nearby localities.

Since Metropolitan Philip founded this department 108 missions (excluding Western Rite parishes) have been established by the Antiochian Archdiocese. Of these, fifty-five have grown to full parishes. At present the department is developing missions in seven cities across the United States and Canada, and is exploring possibilities in several more.

Becoming Truly Human: the Spirit of Orthodox Christian Evangelism

by Sdn. Adam Lowell Roberts

Many of you may be familiar with the new Antiochian Archdiocese program Becoming Truly Human. Becoming Truly Human is a new evangelism program available to every parish in the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, and the ministry has been blessed to be shared with other jurisdictions.

While some may be weary of programs, this program has proven to be different. More than several priests and lay people have admitted they were wrong about their initial concerns. Others recognized right away that this program captures and shares the spirit of Orthodox evangelism. They applauded the Archdiocese for having a program which is effective, loving, Orthodox in spirit and nature, and above all helping our North American churches reconnect with our history of evangelism. We even have some overseas churches wanting to run the program.

Reflections on the Becoming Truly Human Program

“Becoming Truly Human” is an eight week outreach course offered by the Antiochian Archdiocese that uses the vehicle of small group discussions and hosted meals to share the love of Christ. The following two articles by a layman and priest, tell the story of how this program is changing lives.

~~For many years as a Protestant, I witnessed to others because I thought it was my duty. After all, we had been scripturally mandated by the Great Commission to do so, hadn’t we? Unfortunately, try though I might, I can’t remember many of the names or personal circumstances of those with whom I shared the Gospel. I mostly thought that my work was finished and the rest was up to God. (Read James Blackstock’s reflection.)

~~For many years I have felt that in my parish, and in Orthodox Christian parishes in general, there is a need for an evangelism program that is more than simply posting the time of our services and asking parishioners to invite friends to the liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is definitely very powerful and full of the Grace of God. However, I think that most of our parishioners hesitate to invite others to come to an Orthodox Liturgy without laying some ground work that they often do not feel equipped to do. (Read a reflection by Fr. Michael Byars.)

“Love for our Brethren”:

AFR Interview Introduces New Program

“Becoming Truly Human” is an eight week course offered by the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America to increase effective and relational evangelism, especially towards those who have no religion or church affiliation. The program uses the vehicle of small group discussions and shared meals to help guests to feel loved, listened to, and welcomed.

In a June 24, 2015 podcast, Ancient Faith Ministries President John Maddex interviewed Charles Ajalat, one of the program’s founding committee members, about the new outreach. Charles is an attorney, the former chancellor of the Antiochian Archdiocese, and a member of the Order of St. Ignatius. As one of the founders of the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve (FOCUS) North America, Charles is a veteran of start-up efforts, and in the interview he expressed his hopes that this new venture will help people “discuss questions…and then want to go forward into a catechism class with a priest.”

Department of Missions and Evangelism News Archive

http://www.antiochian.org/missions

FJTO


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Orthodox Christian parishes in USA, Canada and Mexico

https://www.oca.org/parishes/

Find a Parish

The parish is a local community of the Church having at its head a duly appointed priest and consisting of Orthodox Christians who live in accordance with the teachings of the Orthodox Church, comply with the discipline and rules of the Church, and regularly support their parish. Being subordinate to the Diocesan Authority, it is a component part of the Diocese.

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List of American Orthodox Saints


Glorified - American Orthodox Saints

Alexander Hotovitzky
Alexis of Wilkes-Barre, leader of ex-Uniates into Orthodoxy
Basil Martysz, hieromartyr in Poland
Brendan the Navigator, leader of short-lived 6th c. Irish monastic community in Canada
Herman of Alaska, first missionary to Alaska
Innocent of Alaska, missionary bishop to Alaska
Jacob Netsvetov
John Kochurov
John (Maximovitch) the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco
Juvenaly of Alaska
Mardarije (Uskokovic), Serbian Bishop of America and Canada
Nicholas (Velimirović), bishop of Žiča, rector of St. Tikhon's Seminary
Peter the Aleut, protomartyr of America
Raphael (Hawaweeny), vicar bishop of Brooklyn under Moscow Patriarchate
Sebastian (Dabovich), archimandrite, "Serbian Apostle to America", first orthodox priest who born in USA
Seraphim (Samoylovich) of Uglich, missionary in Alaska and hieromartyr under the Soviets
Tikhon of Moscow
Barnabas (Nastić), the New Confessor, born in Gary, Indiana
Anatole (Kamensky) of Irkutsk, New Hieromartyr and Archbishop of Irkutsk

Unglorified - Persons under consideration (whether formal or informal) for glorification:

Abp. Arseny (Chagovtsov) of Winnipeg
Averky (Taushev) of Syracuse and Holy Trinity Monastery
Constantine (Essensky) of Richmond
Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas
Elder Ephraim (Moraitis) of Philotheou and St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona.
Bp. Gerasimos (Papadopoulos) of Abydos
Ivan Smirennikov the Aleut elder
Abp. Joasaph (Skorodumoff), Enlightener of Canada
Bp. Ioasaph (Bolotov), Enlightener of Alaska
Br. José Muñoz-Cortes
Matushka Olga Michael of Alaska
Met. Philaret (Voznesensky) of New York
Archimandrite Roman (Braga) of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)
Schemamonk Sergius (Yanovsky), disciple of St. Herman of Alaska


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The Vikings in Newfoundland Canada's first Orthodox parish?

"Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." - Matthew 18:20

The tiny community of L'Anse aux Meadows at the far northern tip of Newfoundland is distinguished among Canadian heritage sites as the oldest European settlement in Canada. Scarcely a dozen buildings remain of this Viking settlement, constructed over one thousand years ago by a group of Scandinavian settlers who appeared ready to make a new home in the frigid northlands of what would later become Canada.

It is almost certain that the tiny group was led by a Viking named Karlsefni, an associate of Leif Erikson (called Leif the Lucky, for his many extraordinary successes), one of the first Norsemen to accept baptism within a largely pagan culture. By the time these settlers arrived in Canada, Christianity and paganism were living side by side in northern Europe, and had not yet had the opportunity to discover the differences which would inevitably lead to conflict. The Norse were a pragmatic lot, whose religious zeal was usually focused on doing whatever it took to survive and to win. And the Christian God was the ultimate Victor.

A delightful story is told of the curious Viking habit of seeking repeat baptisms; it seems the Norsemen were drawn to baptism, every year, at the hands of Saint Ansgar and others, enjoying the fresh white shirt and ten silver talents they customarily received at the hands of the priest, if only they would allow themselves to be submerged beneath the sacred waters (Joseph Lynch, Christianizing Kinship, p. 73). For the average pragmatic Viking, multiple baptisms simply made sense: it conferred spiritual as well as material benefits desperately needed in a seagoing culture, where life was hard, brutish, and short.

It is understandable that Orthodox clergy in the Norse lands immediately curtailed the Viking zeal for multiple baptisms, just as soon as it came to their attention. (The throngs of Norsemen must have been a bit of a blur to the average missionary priest. One can only imagine the encounters and conversations between the eager Vikings and the bewildered clerics). But just as with mission work today, only God can plumb the depths of the heart of a Christian man, and perhaps the Vikings did have their fair share of zealous converts, offering silver crosses as illustrations to the Odin worshipers of the God Who destroyed Death Itself. For a Norseman, just as for us today, one cannot do better than that.

We know that the Norse seafaring parties who traveled to North America contained mixed crews of Thor-worshipers and Christians (Erikson himself started out as the former, and ended up, rather early in life, as the latter). We also know that one of the parties of settlers his adventures produced the first Canadian-born child of European extraction, a boy named Snorri, whose grandchildren included three bishops right around the time of the Great Schism (news of which traveled very slowly to Viking lands, in any case).

Perhaps here we have a glimpse of the first Christian community in Canada: a tiny one, to be sure, and not organized as far as the Church is concerned. Their firstborn child was almost certainly baptized, although probably back in the old country, once his parents joined their companions and fled from the North American natives who never seemed to take a liking to the Norse tendency to attack on sight. Outnumbered, far from home, and cold (yes, even Vikings get cold), it was perhaps inevitable that the first Orthodox settlement in Canada was not to last. It would seem the unfortunate trend of Orthodox Canadians looking back to the old country and not putting down roots in the west was established early on.

It is almost certain that no Orthodox priest was present at the first settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. Yet archaeological digs further northwest on Baffin Island present an interesting possibility. A thirteenth-century Thule native site produced an intriguing relic: a tiny carved figure dressed in European clothing, with evidence of a cape over the shoulders, and a long cloth draped around the neck, hanging down to the feet - and marked with a cross. Robert McGhee, who specializes in Arctic archaeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, suggests this figure shows a crusader who served as a retainer for a viking captain. This is based on the theory that Christian clergy in northern Europe did not wear pectoral crosses until a much later period.

Yet we know both Saints Cuthbert and Adamnan, saints of the Orthodox west, both wore such crosses, as we can see today on display at the cathedral in Durham, in the north of England. It seems more difficult to believe that a crusader would have traveled thousands of miles with pagan Vikings, rather than a Christian priestmonk, seeking out mission territory, or more likely, seeking a remote monastic home, as we know the Celts did in Greenland centuries before. Whether this figure represented an Orthodox priest or a cleric of the western Latins after the Schism, we'll likely never know.

But for Orthodox Christians in Canada, the rubble at L'Anse aux Meadows and the carving from Baffin Island remind us that a minute Orthodox presence likely existed in Canada long before two world wars, and long before the Reformation. These facts confirm that the first Christians to set foot on our soil were from what is sometimes erroneously called the "undivided Church" - the Orthodox Church before the breaking away of Rome. And our brother Leif the Lucky, along with his kinsmen at L'Anse aux Meadows - and perhaps even a lone priestmonk on Baffin island, were what one might think of as founding members of the first Orthodox community in Canada - whether they knew it, or not.

Father Geoffrey Korz, (Pascha, 2007)


FJTO


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Saint John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966), Rescuer and patron of Orphans

“Once during the war,” she (Mrs. Shakhmatova, Saint John’s secretary) continued, “the poverty of the orphanage reached such immense proportions that there was literally nothing with which to feed the children, and there must have been at least ninety of them at that time. Our staff was indignant because Archbishop John kept bringing in new children, some of whom had parents, and we were having to feed someone else’s children. Such were his ways. One evening when he came to us – worn out, tired, cold and silent – I could not resist telling him off. I said that we women could not tolerate this any longer, that we could not bear to see hungry little mouths and not be able to put anything into them. I could not control myself and raised my voice in indignation. I not only complained, I was full of wrath at him for putting us through this. He looked sadly at me and said, ‘What do you really need?’ I said, right off the bat, ‘Everything, but at least some oatmeal. I have nothing to feed the children with in the morning.”

Archbishop John looked at her sadly and went upstairs. Then she heard him making prostrations, so vigorously and loudly that even the neighbors complained. Pangs of conscience bothered her, and that night she couldn’t sleep. She dozed off in the morning, only to be awakened by the doorbell. When she opened the door, there stood a gentleman of English extraction who said that he represented some cereal company, and that he had a surplus of oatmeal; and he wanted to know whether they could use it since he heard that there were children here. They began to bring in bags and bags of oatmeal. While this was going on, with the commotion of banging doors, Blessed John began to descend the staircase. Hardly could Mrs. Shakhmatova utter a word to him when she saw his glance. He did not say anything, but with his eyes, with one single glance, he reproached her for her unbelief. She said she could have fallen on her knees and kissed his feet, but he was already gone to continue his prayer to God, now of thanksgiving.


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From the life of Saint John Maximovitch Bishop of Shanghai, Brussels and San Francisco (+1966): One time the people were so weirded out by Saint John Maximovitch’ refusal to wear shoes that they called his bishop, and asked that he tell the Saint to wear some shoes. The bishop did so, and so what St John did to obey it was tie the shoes around his arms and wore them that way.


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There are no private sins

From the Life of Saint John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966)

There are no private sins, all sins affect our brothers and sisters in Christ. All of our sins, however secret, have an effect on the community. If I feel in my heart anger towards someone else, even if I do not show it by word or action, that evil disposition in my heart has a destructive effect on others around. Every sin is a sin against the community, every sin however secret is a stumbling block for others and makes it harder for them to serve Christ.  Once before the Divine Liturgy St John Maximovitch was hearing the confession of a man, and the man said: "Yes I know that what I have done is a sin, I ask God's forgiveness, but my heart is like a stone, I do not feel any sorrow for my sin, it is all just in my brain." So St. John said to him: "Go out into the center of the church in front of the people and make a prostration before them and then come back to me." As the man did this and knelt to ask forgiveness from the people before him, something broke inside his heart and it came alive again. Suddenly he felt real compunction for what he had done. He said "now it is different," and the Archbishop gave him forgiveness. Thus by confessing before a priest we are not only asking forgiveness from God, but also the community.


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When he lived in Shanghai, St. John Maximovitch stood up to the Chinese communists. When they would close his cathedral so that he couldn’t serve liturgy inside, he would serve liturgy outside the front door of his cathedral.


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The Holy Tradition about the Good Thief

Saint John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966)

[The Good Thief’s] whole life had been one of theft and crime. But evidently his conscience had not died, and in the depths of his hearth something good remained. Tradition even hold that he was that very thief who, during Christ’s flight into Egypt, took pity on the beautiful Baby and forbade his accomplices to kill Him when they attacked the holy family. Did he perhaps recall the face of that Child when he looked upon the face of the One hanging next to him on the Cross?

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What happens the first 40 days after death? 

St John Maximovitch of Shangai and San Francisco (+1966)


... According to various revelations there are twenty such obstacles, the so-called "toll-houses," at each of which one or another form of sin is tested; after passing through one the soul comes upon the next one, and only after successfully passing through all of them can the soul continue its path without being immediately cast into gehenna. How terrible these demons and their toll-houses are may be seen in the fact that Mother of God Herself, when informed by the Archangel Gabriel of Her approaching death, answering her prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself appeared from heaven to receive the soul of His Most Pure Mother and conduct it to heaven. Terrible indeed is the third day for the soul of the departed, and for this reason it especially needs prayers then for itself... 

—St. John Maximovitch of San Francisco

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The Orthodox Theology of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)

Fr. Seraphim Rose, USA (+1982)


NOT TOO MANY years ago the Abbess of a convent of the Russian Orthodox Church, a woman of righteous life, was delivering a sermon in the convent church on the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. With tears she entreated her nuns and the pilgrims who had come for the feast to accept entirely and wholeheartedly what the Church hands down to us, taking such pains to preserve this tradition sacredly all these centuries-and not to choose for oneself what is “important” and what is “dispensable”; for by thinking oneself wiser than the tradition, one may end by losing the tradition. Thus, when the Church tells us in her hymns and icons that the Apostles were miraculously gathered from the ends of the earth in order to be present at the repose and burial of the Mother of God, we as Orthodox Christians are not free to deny this or reinterpret it, but must believe as the Church hands it down to us, with simplicity of heart.

A young Western convert who had learned Russian was present when this sermon was delivered. He himself had thought about this very subject, having seen icons in the traditional iconographic style depicting the Apostles being transported on clouds to behold the Dormition of the Theotokos;* and he had asked himself the question: are we actually to understand this “literally,” as a miraculous event, or is it only a “poetic” way of expressing the coming together of the Apostles for this event … or perhaps even an imaginative or “ideal” depiction of an event that never occurred in fact? (Such, indeed, are some of the questions with which “Orthodox theologians” occupy themselves in our days.) The words of the righteous Abbess therefore struck him to the heart, and he understood that there was something deeper to the reception and understanding of Orthodoxy than what our own mind and feelings tell us. In that instant the tradition was being handed down to him, not from books but from a living vessel which contained it; and it had to be received, not with mind or feelings only, but above all with the heart, which in this way began to receive its deeper training in Orthodoxy.

Later this young convert encountered, in person or through reading, many people who were learned in Orthodox theology. They were the “theologians” of our day, those who had been to Orthodox schools and become theological “experts.” They were usually quite eager to speak on what was Orthodox and what non-Orthodox, what was important and what secondary in Orthodoxy itself; and a number of them prided themselves on being “conservatives” or “traditionalists” in faith. But in none of them did he sense the authority of the simple Abbess who had spoken to his heart, unlearned as she was in such “theology.”

And the heart of this convert, still taking his baby steps in Orthodoxy, longed to know how to believe, which means also whom to believe. He was too much a person of his times and his own upbringing to be able simply to deny his own reasoning power and believe blindly everything he was told; and it is very evident that Orthodoxy does not at all demand this of one-the very writings of the Holy Fathers are a living memorial of the working of human reason enlightened by the grace of God. But it was also obvious that there was something very much lacking in the “theologians” of our day, who for all their logic and their knowledge of Patristic texts, did not convey the feeling or savor of Orthodoxy as well as a simple, theologically-uneducated Abbess.

Our convert found the end of his search-the search for contact with the true and living tradition of Orthodoxy-in Archbishop John Maximovitch. For here he found someone who was a learned theologian in the “old” school and at the same time was very much aware of all the criticisms of that theology which have been made by the theological critics of our century, and was able to use his keen intelligence to find the truth where it might be disputed. But he also possessed something which none of the wise “theologians” of our time seem to possess: the same simplicity and authority which the pious Abbess had conveyed to the heart of the young God-seeker. His heart and mind were won: not because Archbishop John became for him an “infallible expert” – for the Church of Christ does not know any such thing – but because he saw in this holy archpastor a model of Orthodoxy, a true theologian whose theology proceeded from a holy life and from total rootedness in Orthodox tradition. When he spoke, his words could be trusted-although he carefully distinguished between the Church’s teaching, which is certain, and his own personal opinions, which might be mistaken, and he bound no one to the latter. And our young convert discovered that, for all of Archbishop John’s intellectual keenness and critical ability, his words much more often agreed with those of the simple Abbess than with those of the learned theologians of our time.

THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS of Archbishop John belong to no distinctive “school,” and they do not reveal the extraordinary “influence” of any theologians of the recent past. It is true that Archbishop John was inspired to theologize, as well as to become a monk and enter the Church’s service, by his great teacher, Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky; and it is also true that the student made his own the teacher’s emphasis on a “return to the Fathers” and to a theology closely bound to spiritual and moral life rather than academic. But Metropolitan Anthony’s own theological writings are quite different in tone, intention, and content: he was very much involved with the theological academic world and with the intelligentsia of his time, and much of his writing is devoted to arguments and apologies which will be understandable to these elements of the society he knew. The writings of Archbishop John, on the other hand, are quite devoid of this apologetic and disputatious aspect. He did not argue, he simply presented the Orthodox teaching; and when it was necessary to refute false doctrines, as especially in his two long articles on the Sophiology of Bulgakov, his words were convincing not by virtue of logical argumentation, but rather by the power of his presentation of the Patristic teaching in its original texts. He did not speak to the academic or learned world, but to the uncorrupted Orthodox conscience; and he did not speak of a “return to the Fathers,” because what he himself wrote was simply a handing down of the Patristic tradition, with no attempt to apologize for it.

The sources of Archbishop John’s theology are, quite simply: Holy Scripture, the Holy Fathers (especially the great Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries), and-most distinctively-the Divine services of the Orthodox Church. The latter source, rarely used to such an extent by the theologians of recent centuries, gives us a clue to the practical, un-academic approach of Archbishop John to theology. It is obvious that he was thoroughly immersed in the Church’s Divine services and that his theological inspiration came chiefly from this primary Patristic source which he imbibed, not in leisure hours set apart for theologizing, but in his daily practice of being present at every Divine service. He drank in theology as an integral part of daily life, and it was doubtless this more than his formal theological studies that actually made him a theologian.

It is understandable, therefore, that one will not find in Archbishop John any theological “system.” To be sure, he did not protest against the great works of “systematic theology” which the 19th century produced in Russia, and he made free use in his missionary work of the systematic catechisms of this period (as, in general, the great hierarchs of the 19th and 20th centuries have done, both in Greece and Russia, seeing in these catechisms an excellent aid to the work of Orthodox enlightenment among the people); in this respect he was above the fashions and parties of theologians and students, both past and present, who are a little too attached to the particular way in which Orthodox theology is presented. He showed equal respect for Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky with his “anti-Western” emphasis, and for Metropolitan Peter Mogila with his supposedly excessive “Western influence.” When the defects of one or the other of these great hierarchs and defenders of Orthodoxy would be presented to him, he would make a deprecating gesture with his hand and say, “unimportant”-because he always had in view first of all the great Patristic tradition which these theologians were successfully handing down in spite of their faults. In this respect he has much to teach the younger theologians of our own day, who approach Orthodox theology in a spirit that is often both too theoretical and too polemical and partisan.

For Archbishop John the theological “categories” of even the wisest of theological scholars were also “unimportant” – or rather, they were important only to the extent that they communicated a real meaning and did not become merely a matter of rote learning. One incident from his Shanghai years vividly reveals the freedom of his theological spirit: Once when he was attending the oral examinations of the senior catechism class of his cathedral school, he interrupted the perfectly correct recitation by one pupil of the list of Minor Prophets of the Old Testament with the abrupt and categorical assertion: “There are no minor prophets!” The priest-teacher of this class was understandably offended at this seeming disparagement of his teaching authority, but probably to this day the students remember this strange disruption of the normal catechism “categories,” and possibly a few of them understood the message which Archbishop John tried to convey: with God all prophets are great, are “major,” and this fact is more important than all the categories of our knowledge of them, however valid these are in themselves. In his theological writings and sermons also, Archbishop John often gives a surprising turn to his discourse which uncovers for us some unexpected aspect or deeper meaning of the subject he is discussing. It is obvious that for him theology is no mere human, earthly discipline whose riches are exhausted by our rational interpretations, or at which we can become self-satisfied “experts, “-but rather something that points heavenward and should draw our minds to God and heavenly realities, which are not grasped by logical systems of thought.

One noted Russian Church historian, N. Talberg, has suggested (in the Chronicle of Bishop Savva, ch. 23) that Archbishop John is to be understood first of all as “a fool for Christ’s sake who remained such even in episcopal rank,” and in this respect he compares him to St. Gregory the Theologian, who also did not conform, in ways similar to Archbishop John, to the standard “image” of a bishop. It is this “foolishness” (by the world’s standards) that gives a characteristic tone to the theo logical writings both of St. Gregory and of Archbishop John: a certain detachment from public opinion, what “everyone thinks” and thus the belonging to no ((party” or “school”; the approach to theological questions from an exalted, non-academic point of view and thus the healthy avoidance of petty disputes and the quarrelsome spirit; the fresh, unexpected turns of thought which make their theological writings first of all a source of inspiration and of a truly deeper understanding of God’s revelation.

Perhaps most of all one is impressed by the utter simplicity of Archbishop John’s writings. It is obvious that he accepts the Orthodox tradition straightforwardly and entirely, with no “double” thoughts as to how one can believe the tradition and still be a “sophisticated” modern man. He was aware of modern “criticism,” and if asked could give his sound reasons for not accepting it on most points. He studied thoroughly the question of “Western influence” in Orthodoxy in recent centuries and had a well-balanced view of it, carefully distinguishing between what is to be rejected outright as foreign to Orthodoxy, what is to be discouraged but without “making an issue)) over it, and what is to be accepted as conducive to true Orthodox life and piety (a point that is especially revealing of Archbishop John’s lack of “preconceived opinions,” and his testing of everything by sound Orthodoxy). But despite all his knowledge and exercise of critical judgment, he continued to believe the Orthodox tradition simply, just as the Church has handed it down to us. Most Orthodox theologians of our time, even if they may have escaped the worst effects of the Protestant-reformer mentality, still view Orthodox tradition through the spectacles of the academic environment in which they are at home; but Archbishop John was “at home” first and foremost in the church services at which he spent many hours every day, and thus the tinge of rationalism (not necessarily in a bad sense) of even the best of academic theologians was totally absent in his thought. In his writings there are no “problems”; his usually numerous footnotes are solely for the sake of informing where the teaching of the Church is to be found. In this respect he is absolutely at one with the “mind of the Fathers,” and he appears in our midst as one of them, and not as a mere commentator on the theology of the past.

The theological writings of Archbishop John, printed in various church periodicals over four decades, have not yet been collected in one place. Those presently available to the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood would fill a volume of something more than 200 pages. His longer writings belong for the most part to his earlier years as a hieromonk in Yugoslavia, where he was already noted as outstanding among Orthodox theologians. Especially valuable are his two articles on the Sophiology of Bulgakov, one of them revealing convincingly, in a very objective manner, Bulgakov’s total incompetence as a Patristic scholar, and the other being of even greater value as a classic exposition of the true Patristic doctrine of the Divine Wisdom. Among his later writings one should mention his article on Orthodox iconography (where, incidentally, he shows himself much more aware than his teacher, Metr. Anthony, of the question of “Western influence” in iconographic style); the series of sermons entitled “Three Evangelical Feasts,” where he uncovers the deeper meaning of some of the “lesser” church feasts; and the article “The Church: the Body of Christ.” His short articles and sermons also are deeply theological. One sermon begins with a “Hymn to God” of St. Gregory the Theologian and continues, in the same exalted, Patristic tone, as an inspired accusation against contemporary godlessness; another, spoken on Passion Friday, 1936, is a moving address to Christ lying in the tomb, in a tone worthy of the same Holy Father.

We begin this series of translations with Archbishop John’s classic exposition of the Orthodox veneration of the Mother of God and of the chief errors which have attacked it. Its longest chapter is a clear and striking refutation of the Latin dogma of the “Immaculate Conception.”


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The Veneration of the Mother of God During Her Earthly Life

Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)


FROM APOSTOLIC TIMES and to our days all who truly love Christ give veneration to Her Who gave birth to Him, raised Him and protected Him in the days of His youth. If God the Father chose Her, God the Holy Spirit descended upon Her, and God the Son dwelt in Her, submitted to Her in the days of His youth, was concerned for Her when hanging on the Crossthen should not everyone who confesses the Holy Trinity venerate Her?


Still in the days of Her earthly life the friends of Christ, the Apostles, manifested a great concern and devotion for the Mother of the Lord, especially the Evangelist John the Theologian, who, fulfilling the will of Her Divine Son, took Her to himself and took care for Her as for a mother from the time when the Lord uttered to him from the Cross the words: Behold thy mother.”


The Evangelist Luke painted a number of images of Her, some together with the Pre-eternal Child, others without Him. When he brought them and showed them to the Most Holy Virgin, She approved them and said: “The grace of My Son shall be with them, ” and repeated the hymn She had once sung in the house of Elizabeth: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and My spirit hath rejoiced in God My Saviour.”


However, the Virgin Mary during Her earthly life avoided the glory which belonged to Her as the Mother of the Lord. She preferred to live in quiet and prepare Herself for the departure into eternal life. To the last day of Her earthly life She took care to prove worthy of the Kingdom of Her Son, and before death She prayed that He might deliver Her soul from the malicious spirits that meet human souls on the way to heaven and strive to seize them so as to take them away with them to hades. The Lord fulfilled the prayer of His Mother and in the hour of Her death Himself came from heaven with a multitude of angels to receive Her soul.


Since the Mother of God had also prayed that She might bid farewell to the Apostles, the Lord gathered for Her death all the Apostles, except Thomas, and they were brought by an invisible power on that day to Jerusalem from all the ends of the inhabited world, where they were preaching, and they were present at Her blessed translation into eternal life. The Apostles gave Her most pure body over to burial with sacred hymns, and on the third day they opened the tomb so as once more to venerate the remains of the Mother of God together with the Apostle Thomas, who had arrived then in Jerusalem. But they did not find the body in the tomb and in perplexity they returned to their own place; and then, during their meal, the Mother of God Herself appeared to them in the air, shining with heavenly light, and informed them that Her Son had glorified Her body also, and She, resurrected, stood before His Throne. At the same time, She promised to be with them always.


The Apostles greeted the Mother of God with great joy and began to venerate Her not only as the Mother of their beloved Teacher and Lord, but also as their heavenly helper, as a protector of Christians and intercessor for the whole human race before the Righteous Judge. And everywhere the Gospel of Christ was preached, His Most Pure Mother also began to be glorified.

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The First Enemies of the Veneration of The Mother of God

Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco, CA, USA (+1966)


THE MORE the faith of Christ spread and the Name of the Saviour of the world was glorified on earth, and together with Him also She Who was vouchsafed to be the Mother of the God-Man,-the more did the hatred of the enemies of Christ increase towards Her. Mary was the Mother of Jesus. She manifested a hitherto unheard-of example of purity and righteousness, and furthermore, now departed from this life, She was a mighty support for Christians, even. though invisible to bodily eyes. Therefore all who hated Jesus Christ and did not believe in Him, who did not understand His teaching, or to be more precise, did not wish to understand as the Church understood, who wished to replace the preaching of Christ with their own human reasonings-all of these transferred their hatred for Christ, for the Gospel and the Church, to the Most Pure Virgin Mary. They wished to belittle the Mother, so as thereby to destroy faith also in Her Son, to create a false picture of Her among men in order to have the opportunity to rebuild the whole Christian teaching on a different foundation. In the womb of Mary, God and man were joined. She was the One Who served as it were as the ladder for the Son of God, Who descended from heaven. To strike a blow at Her veneration means to strike Christianity at the root, to destroy it in its very foundation.


And the very beginning, of Her heavenly glory was marked on earth by an outburst of malice and hatred toward Her by unbelievers. When, after Her holy repose, the Apostles were carrying Her body for burial in Gethsemane, to the place chosen by her, John the Theologian went ahead carrying the branch from paradise which the Archangel Gabriel had brought to the Holy Virgin three days before this when he came from heaven to announce to Her Her approaching departure to the heavenly mansions.


“When Israel went out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from among a barbarous people,” chanted St. Peter from Psalm 113; “Alleluia,” sang the whole assembly of the Apostles together with their disciples, as for example, Dionysius the Areopagite, who likewise had been miraculously transported at that time to Jerusalem. And while this sacred hymn was being sung, which was called by the J ews the ” G reat Alleluia, ” that is, the great “Praise ye the Lord,” one Jewish priest, Athonius, leaped up to the bier and wished to overturn it and throw to the ground the body of the Mother of God.


The brazenness of Athonius was immediately punished: the Archangel Michael with an invisible sword cut off his hand, which remained hanging on the bier. The thunderstruck Athonius, experiencing a tormenting pain, in awareness of his sin, turned in prayer to the Jesus Whom he had hated up to then and he was immediately healed. He did not delay in accepting Christianity and confessing it before his former co-religionists, for which he received from them a martyr’s death. Thus, the attempt to offend the honor of the Mother of God served for Her greater glorification.


The enemies of Christ resolved not to manifest their lack of veneration for the body of the Most Pure One further at that time by crude violence, but their malice did not cease. Seeing that Christianity was spreading everywhere, they began to spread various vile slanders about Christians. They did not spare the name of the Mother of Christ either, and they invented the story that Jesus of Nazareth had come from a base and immoral environment, and that His Mother had associated with a certain Roman soldier.


But here the lie was too evident for this fiction to attract serious attention. The whole family of Joseph the Betrothed and Mary Herself were known well by the inhabitants of Nazareth and the surrounding ‑countryside in their time. Whence bath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren: James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? (Matt. 13:54–55; Mark 6:3; Luke 4:22.) So said His fellowcountrymen in Nazareth when Christ revealed before them in the synagogue His other-worldly wisdom. In small towns the family matters of everyone are well known; very strict watch was kept then over the purity of married life.


Would people really have behaved with respect towards Jesus, called Him to preach in the synagogue, if He had been born of illegitimate cohabitation? To Mary the law of Moses would have been applied, which commanded that such persons be stoned to death; and the Pharisees would have taken the opportunity many times to reproach Christ for the conduct of His Mother. But just the contrary was the case. Mary enjoyed great respect; at Cana She was an honored guest at the wedding, and even when Her Son was condemned, no one allowed himself to ridicule or censure His Mother.

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Orthodox Alaska


The melding of Orthodoxy and Alaska Native culture


By Yereth Rosen



Deep in the old-growth forest of Alaska’s Spruce Island, 8-year-old Julian Griggs made the Sign of the Cross before dipping his plastic bottle into the cold spring water. “Umm,” he said after a sip. “That tastes sweet.”

Up the trail, Julian’s parents joined other adults for a three-hour liturgy near the Orthodox church that enshrines the tomb of St. Herman of Alaska. But here in the forest, beside a small wooden shelter of candles and icons, the children were partaking in another Orthodox tradition.

The spring water that Julian was drinking is considered holy. According to local tradition, the spring was discovered by the monk Herman, a starets (or spiritual father in Russian), who came to Alaska from Russia in 1794. Until his discovery of the spring, the island was thought to be without fresh water. Pilgrims credit the spring water with healing a number of medical and spiritual ills.

“It’s really good, even if it’s a little brown,” said Xenia Hoffman, 12. The spring, and all that surrounds it, drew her family to Alaska. They moved here from California last year “because of St. Herman,” she said. “We wanted to be closer to him.”

Each summer, the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of Alaska organizes a pilgrimage to Spruce Island, an hour’s boat ride from the fishing town of Kodiak. Most come from the Alaska Native villages in the Kodiak region, but some come from as far away as Eastern Europe.

St. Herman was not the first Russian to come to Alaska. Legend holds that Russian settlers first established a colony in 1648. And in the early 18th century, Russian explorers and merchants sailed to Alaska by way of a strait (later named for one such explorer, Vitus Bering, who was in fact a Dane in the employ of Peter the Great) separating Asia from North America. They returned with sea otter pelts, which proved very valuable.

Officially, Gregory Shelikhov founded the first Russian-American colony in 1784. Riches, not religion, were in mind; Russian America was a collection of hunting and trading posts.

While there were isolated attempts to Christianize the Alaska Natives, it was not until 1794 that the Russian Orthodox Church, upon Shelikhov’s request, established its first mission. Traveling from their island monastery of Valaam, near Russia’s border with Sweden, Father Herman and other monks reached Kodiak Island on 24 September.

By then, many Alaska Natives were living as slaves, forced to hunt for furs. The Russian traders had broken up families and resettled communities. When Alaska Natives resisted, Russians retaliated by killing many and destroying the hunting gear vital for their survival. Violence and disease claimed 80 percent of the native population of Alaska during the first 40 years of Russian contact.

Into this climate arrived Father Herman and his companions, who did their best to protect the Alaska Natives from mistreatment at the hands of Russian traders. “They are exploiting in every possible way. One must testify about their barbarous treatment of the [Alaska Natives],” Archimandrite Joseph Bolotov, the head of the Kodiak mission, wrote Shelikhov a year after the group’s arrival in Alaska.

Harsh conditions whittled away the original mission band to Father Herman, who eventually set up a hermitage on Spruce Island. There, safe from the harassment of Russian traders, he lived a life of prayer and service to the native community. Father Herman died on 13 December 1837, his tomb and memory revered by the Alaska Natives of the area.

Over the years, greater efforts were made to strengthen the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. Though Alaska’s first bishop, Joseph Bolotov, drowned in a shipwreck in 1799, missionaries continued to pastor the native community. Father John Veniaminov arrived with his wife and family in 1824, settling on the Aleutian island of Unalaska. His travels throughout Alaska, usually by boat, furthered his familiarity with native dialects. Using Cyrillic letters, he constructed an alphabet for the most common dialect, Unagan, and eventually translated biblical and liturgical texts.

While in Russia reporting on the Alaskan missions, Father John learned of his wife’s death. He took monastic vows, taking the name Innocent, and was later consecrated bishop, returning to Alaska and his people. In addition to his studies of Alaska’s native peoples, Bishop Innocent and his colleagues lobbied for the extension of Russian citizenship to Alaska Natives, a few of whom rose high in the ranks of the Russian Navy and other branches of public service. In 1867, Bishop Innocent was elected Metropolitan of Moscow, historically the most important see in the Russian Orthodox Church. He died 12 years later and was canonized in 1977.

This golden age of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska ended with Russia’s sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. Protestant missionaries, not Orthodox priests, received government support in the new territory. But even today — as the annual pilgrimage to Spruce Island attests — there remains a significant Orthodox influence, particularly among Alaska Natives. About 90 percent of the Alaskan diocese’s 30,000 to 60,000 members come from indigenous groups: the Aleuts, Alutiiqs, Athabascans, Tlingits and Yupiks.

On Spruce Island, prayers and blessings are recited in English, Church Slavonic and Yup’ik, the language of Western Alaska’s Yupiks. Some, for example, are specific to Alaska: “The Bering Sea is warmed today. The Arctic night is illuminated. Rivers, islands, tundra and forest lands, mountains, volcanoes and glaciers resound with the hymns of Alaska’s native peoples and of all Orthodox Christians throughout the world.”

The Orthodox Church has always placed a special emphasis on maintaining a harmony between church doctrine and native culture. This is evident in Eklutna, a Tanaina Athabascan Indian village on the outskirts of Anchorage. In the village cemetery, neat rows of traditional “spirit houses” rise above the gravesites. It is said the spirits of the departed reside in these tiny houses, starting 40 days after death. The houses are painted in family colors, and family members occasionally bring offerings of tea and snacks.

But traditional Russian Orthodox three-bar crosses also can be found atop the spirit houses — native and Orthodox conceptions of the afterlife are considered complimentary.

Though there is no active parish at Eklutna, a new church is used for special occasions, such as weddings, funerals and holiday services. The church is painted in red and blue, tribal colors. “If you go to Russia, you won’t find the colors that are here,” said Father Christopher Stanton, an Orthodox priest posted in nearby Wasilla, who helps the diocese manage the Eklutna facilities.

After the purchase of Alaska by the United States, the Alaska Natives’ situation did not improve, said Father Michael Oleksa, an Anchorage-based Orthodox priest and historian. U.S. officials, nearly all Protestant, were bent on “civilizing” and “Christianizing” a heathen land. Never mind the fact that to a large degree they were already literate and Christian.

Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson and his colleague, S. Hall Young, were tasked with this “civilizing” mission. They were suspicious of native culture and Russian Orthodoxy, which in their view and typical of the 19th century, was a muddle of idolatry, strange rituals and linguistic gibberish. They divided the territory into regions where either the Catholic Church or various Protestant denominations would hold sway.

Bringing English to Alaska was another priority, Young wrote in his autobiography. “We should let the old tongues with their superstition and sin die — the sooner the better — and replace the languages with that of Christian civilization, and compel the natives in all our schools to talk English and English only. Thus we would soon have an intelligent people who would be qualified to be Christian citizens.”

The consequence of this approach was the loss of a rich culture. Ceremonial works of art, such as totem poles and intricately woven blankets, were burned.

Among the traditions lost was the potlatch, the ceremonial feast given to honor individuals and give gifts to the community. In 1924, Father Andrew Kashevaroff lamented its passing. “It was a social function and as such far more important than any that the white man has,” he told a local newspaper.

It was no coincidence, Father Michael said, that the largest Russian Orthodox mass baptism in Alaska occurred just after the American takeover. “Given the choice between a form of Christianity and education that denied their culture and one that affirmed it, they chose the one that affirmed it,” he said of the 1894 event in Juneau in which hundreds of Tlingits were baptized into the Orthodox faith.

In recent decades, the Orthodox Diocese of Alaska, like many churches, has been struggling to staff its parishes. In 2001, there were only 16 active priests and 10 deacons serving more than 90 churches and chapels.

With only two students in attendance, the St. Herman Theological Seminary in Kodiak, established in 1972, was on the brink of closing; the seminary had lost its accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools. There was even talk of entrusting the Alaska diocese to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, a separate jurisdiction founded by refugees of the Bolshevik Revolution then in schism with much of the Orthodox world.

Since the 2002 appointment of Bishop Nikolai Soraich as Bishop of Sitka, Anchorage and Alaska, the Orthodox Church of Alaska has undergone a resurgence. Bishop Nikolai, who served 22 years in Las Vegas and now resides in Anchorage, quickly settled church legal disputes and put the diocese’s finances in order. He also replenished the ranks of the clergy, recruiting men from other jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church in America. There are now 39 active priests, and there are 15 students at the seminary.

“We have more priests and deacons in the diocese than ever in the history of Alaska,” Bishop Nikolai said.

Not all diocesan priests are Alaska Natives. Many are people like Father Michael, from Allentown, Pennsylvania. “When I was four, I wanted to be an Indian chief,” Father Michael said of his early enthusiasm for Native American culture.

As a priest, Father Michael was first posted in small villages in the Alaskan hinterland. He learned the native languages and, prior to his ordination, he married a woman from the village of Kwethluk. He is now a grandfather and part of an extended Yupik family. He has also served on government commissions, where he has been a strong advocate of native Alaskan causes, particularly those involving hunting and fishing rights. “Without traditional means of subsistence, Alaskan natives will die spiritually, emotionally and eventually physically,” Father Michael said.

After his many years in rural Alaska, Father Michael now pastors St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre Orthodox Church, a storefront church in a south Anchorage strip mall. The church is known for its coziness — in contrast to the much more regal atmosphere of Anchorage’s St. Innocent Cathedral, the seat of the diocesan bishop — and also for its linguistic richness. Father Michael and the congregation use native languages as much as possible, and on holidays it is possible to hear a word of Arabic, Finnish, French, Greek and Spanish.

“Father Michael is always saying we have a liturgy like nowhere else in the world because we have such a combination of languages,” said Anastasia Dushkin, a parishioner from the Aleut village of Atka.

Bishop Nikolai has put a special emphasis on seeking out Alaska Native priests. A new recruit is Father Andrew Kashevarof, an Aleut from St. George, who was ordained last year. Before joining the seminary, he had a successful career. But his life was a mess, recalled the priest, the father of six. “There was a lot missing in my life, [even] after I walked away from drugs and alcohol. The church filled the void.”

Alcohol abuse, family disintegration and loss of culture remain troubling issues in Alaska, Bishop Nikolai said. “Many of the issues that St. Innocent wrote about 150 years ago are the same issues I’m dealing with today,” he concluded.

Back on Spruce Island, Mary Haakanson and her daughter, Phyllis, were enjoying a picnic on the beach overlooking Monk’s Lagoon. They live in the nearby Alutiiq village of Old Harbor and have been visiting the island for years. “It’s such a lovely, peaceful place, and the service didn’t seem that long,“ Phyllis said.

Holly Finnan, a visitor from Seattle, said it has been her dream to come to Spruce Island. Brought up as a Seventh-day Adventist, Ms. Finnan embraced Orthodoxy in 1990. “There’s a spirituality here that I think people on the mainland would like to emulate,” she said. “They want it, but it’s here.”

Yereth Rosen has written about Alaska for The Christian Science Monitor and Reuters.

https://cnewa.org/magazine/orthodox-alaska-33247/


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Oscar Mauricio Lopez Casillas, Mexico: "I took Dostoyevsky so seriously that I converted to Orthodoxy" 


Besides being one of the most famous and popular authors in the world, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky is an Orthodox philosopher whose ideas still influence his readers and familiarize them with profound Christian concepts. To commemorate his 200th birthday celebrated in November 2021, we are publishing an interview with Oscar Mauricio Lopez Casillas, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of Universidad Vasco de Quiroga in Mexico. After discovering Dostoyevsky, Oscar became a researcher of his work and converted to Orthodoxy.

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—Oscar, do people know and read Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky in your country?

—First, I’d like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk about Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, as he is my favorite author! It is especially important for me considering that las month celebrated his 200th birthday.

It goes without saying that people in Mexico know and read Dostoyevsky’s novels. He’s so popular that the words of one of the characters from The Pianist1 come to mind: “Nowadays everybody only wants to read Dostoyevsky.” However, even though Dostoyevsky is very popular in my country and almost all of his books can be found in bookshops or libraries, few people understand him, at least when it comes to the true motives and meanings of his work. People usually focus on his nihilism, although Dostoyevsky wrote about it only to show how its principles can be overcome by the strong faith of his positive protagonists. Unfortunately, Dostoyevsky’s A Writer’s Diary is not as well-known, so even finding a copy is no easy task. It’s too bad, for this book is crucial for understanding Dostoyevsky. It contains the author’s personal account of his work and life. Dostoyevsky’s books have also been popularized by the American literary scholar Joseph Frank2 whose works on Dostoevsky are well known in my country.

—How did you discover Dostoyevsky? Was it because you studied in the Department of Philosophy?

—Yes, I graduated from the Department of Philosophy of Universidad Vasco de Quiroga,3 but unfortunately the curriculum didn’t include Dostoyevsky or any other Russian philosophers like Kireyevsky, Solovyov or Berdyaev. Studying their works would have been very useful. The curricula of our universities does include similar authors, such as Kierkegaard, Miguel de Unamuno and Gabriel Marcel. I believe that our students would benefit from studying Dostoyevsky’s works, considering their philosophical, psychological and religious subject matter.

The Brothers Karamazov got to me more than any other book I’ve ever read.

If memory serves me right, I first heard of Dostoyevsky when I was a first-year student at the university. I was reading The Tragic Sense of Life by Miguel de Unamuno and came across a passage where he called The Brothers Karamazov the greatest Christian drama. When I went to the International Book Fair in Guadalajara the same year, I remembered these words and bought the book. After reading it, I had to agree with Miguel de Unamuno – this book got to me more than any other book I’ve ever read. It made me want to learn more about Dostoyevsky’s life, reconsider my approach to Christianity and study Christian concepts in earnest, referring to the original sources.

—What impressed you the most when you read Dostoyevsky’s dramatic biography?

—Obviously, the most impressive episode is the pardon he received from Tsar Alexander II just a few moments before his execution was supposed to take place. This was the moment of Dostoyevsky’s rebirth, both as a person and as a Christian. This process was completed in the labor camp, where experiencing hardships and reading of the Gospel made him, in the words of Apostle Paul, “put on the new man”. This period of his life, from the cancellation of the death sentence to release from prison, is the most shocking part of this biography, and I’m probably not the only one who thinks so. This experience more than anything else explains that profundity, preciseness and wisdom so characteristic of Dostoyevsky’s work.

—Which of Dostoyevsky’s works is the most meaningful for you, who is your favorite character, and what is the most important quote?

The devil wants our demise while God wants our salvation, and we and our freedom are between them.

—My favorite quote is from The Brothers Karamazov. It was the first book by Dostoyevsky that I read, and later it became my favorite book. It goes like this: “Here, God and the devil are fighting and the battlefield is the heart of man.” If I’m not mistaken, it is Dmitry Karamazov who said it. This phrase contains a profound wisdom based on the works of the Holy Church Fathers. They remind us that we must continually fight our internal temptations so that we can overcome them and allow divine grace to descend upon us and guide us. The devil wants our demise while God wants our salvation, and we and our freedom are between them. The works of the Holy Fathers and Dostoyevsky’s books can give us the means to be victorious in this spiritual battle.

My favorite character is Alyosha Karamazov. Although, there are other characters that I like too, like elder Zosima, count Myshkin, Sonya Marmeladova and even such a clearly negative character as Nikolai Stavrogin. But it is Dostoyevsky’s Alyosha Karamazov who has the most important features that epitomize the values praised by the Gospel, such as amazing humility and modesty as well as the ability to love and not to judge even the lowliest of people. In my opinion, this character has all the qualities that with God’s help could overcome evil.

In terms of understanding the spiritual content of Dostoyevsky’s works, I am partial to the interpretations by Mikhail Dunayev.4

—Dostoyevsky is one of the main philosopher writers of the world. Which of the philosophical issues he wrote about do you find the most important?

There is no doubt that Dostoyevsky’s works are philosophical. Although he didn’t write philosophical treatises, his characters communicated important philosophical ideas. Dostoyevsky’s books may be classified as a special literary genre of “philosophical literature”. He put his ideas in literary form without sacrificing the philosophical profundity. I should say that the succinct dialogues of Dostoyevsky’s characters are more meaningful than the lengthy writings of some philosophers.

Dostoyevsky’s works covered many philosophical problems, including the existence of God, the existence of evil, relationship between an individual and a society as well as other issues. But I would like to emphasize the most important one—freedom. Recently, I read in George Florovsky’s Theology and Literature that Dostoyevsky had been considering the problem of freedom and its paradoxes all his life. Throughout the history of philosophical thought, the problem of freedom had been considered from various points of view. Following the Christian concept, Dostoyevsky posits that every individual is free because each individual was created in the image and likeness of God. This resolves the paradoxes described by his contemporary materialists and socialists who stated that social evil may be explained by disorder in the society, that a criminal is a victim of this disorder and that a crime is a justified and natural protest against an unjust society. Dostoyevsky had a different, Christian opinion of freedom and harshly criticized such a justification of evil in the world.

—Is the Christian component of Dostoyevsky’s works relevant today? How did it influence you personally?

—It is a complicated issue that requires a lengthy answer, but I’ll try to be brief.

Naturally, faith always comes from God. But in my case, I can say that God used Dostoyevsky to get to me, a stubborn and rebellious youth as I was at the time. All the obstacles that seemed to separate me from faith were torn down by the original true Christianity described by this Russian author. It was Dostoyevsky who helped my quick transition from uncertainty to firm belief that the truth is in Christianity, and from that moment on my life became different and meaningful. Since Dostoyevsky was Orthodox, and I never really related to my Roman Catholic background and never considered turning to Protestantism, I decided to give Orthodoxy a chance and started reading up on it. Divine grace guided me to the true Orthodox Church, and Dostoyevsky and his books were my bridge to Orthodox Christianity. I frequently tell my friends that I took Dostoyevsky’s works so seriously that I became an Orthodox Christian. Although I converted with God’s help, I must admit that Dostoyevsky played an important role in my conversion.

I want to tell all people who are interested in Dostoyevsky’s personality and books that they must make an effort and learn about Orthodoxy, because without this knowledge they won’t be able to understand the profundity of his literary legacy. Recently, at the presentation of his new book, Dostoyevsky’s Gospel, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) said that the ideas of Orthodoxy were clearly reflected in Dostoyevsky’s books and that his global popularity is facilitating the expansion of Orthodoxy. I personally believe that such missionary work is crucial, so I’m trying to do something like this for Latin America where people know Dostoyevsky well but know very little about Orthodox Christianity.

Elena Maler

spoke with Oscar Mauricio Lopez Casillas

Translation from the Russian version by Talyb Samedov

Pravoslavie.ru

12/6/2021

Notes:

1 The Pianist (2002)—a film by Polish director Roman Polanski.

2 Joseph Frank—American literary scholar, Russian scholar, and Western biographer of Feodor M. Dostoevsky; author of five monographs, which were translated into Spanish and Portuguese.

3 Universidad Vasco de Quiroga—a Catholic institution of higher education, one of the top five universities in Mexico, located in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.

4 Mikhail Mikhailovich Dunayev, literary scholar, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, author of six volumes of Orthodoxy and Russian Literature.

https://orthochristian.com/143259.html

FJTO


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Saint John Kochurov of Chicago, Illinois, USA, hieromartyr in Russia (+1917)


October 31 / November 13


Saint John Alexandrovich Kochurov, hieromartyr of the Soviet revolution, was one of a number of young educated priests who came to the United States in the late 1890s as missionaries among the émigrés from Carpathian Ruthenia and Galicia. He was active in establishing parishes and aiding communities, mainly in the Midwest. After returning to Russia he was assigned to Estonia where he put into action the teaching skills he learned in America before he was assigned in 1916 to Tsarskoe Selo. Here he was killed during the early days of the Bolshevik revolution. His feast day is celebrated on October 31. He is also commemorated on the Synaxis of the first martyrs of the American lands on December 12 and on the feast of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, celebrated on the Sunday nearest to January 25, which was the date of the martyrdom of Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, the first of the new martyrs.

Early years

John Kochurov was born on June 13, 1871. His father was a priest. His education included attendance at the Ryazan Theological Seminary before continuing at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. He excelled at his studies at both the seminary and academy.

After graduating in 1895, Fr. John married and then entered his life's work when he was ordained deacon. On August 27, 1895, he was ordained a priest at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg by Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) of the Diocese of the Aleutians and Alaska.

America

Having expressed the desire to be a missionary priest in the United States, Fr. John was soon transferred and became the first permanent priest at St. Vladimir's Church in Chicago. This parish was later to become the Holy Trinity Cathedral. As St. Vladimir's parish did not yet have their own building, his first major project was construction of the church building. Under the guidance of Bishop Tikhon, later Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and saint, Fr. John enlisted the services of the noted architect Louis Sullivan to design the church. To finance the project, Fr. John sought and obtained donations from Tsar Nicholas II as well as from a few Americans, notably Harold Fowler McCormick and Charles R. Crane who was the American ambassador to China. Construction of the church began in April 1902 and was completed the next year for the consecration by Bishop Tikhon.

Fr. John devoted much effort to aiding the establishment of other parishes in the Chicago area. He performed the first service for the future Archangel Michael Orthodox Church in southwest Chicago. In the Chicago area he was active in the formation of the parishes in Madison, Streator, and Joliet (all in Illinois), as well as aiding the parishes in Buffalo, NY, and Hartshorne, OK.

His presence at the consecration of an Episcopalian (aka Anglican) bishop long predates the anathema against ecumenism of 1982 and does not fall under it.

On the social side of parish life, he, with Fr. Alexis Toth, future Saint Alexis of Wilkes-Barre, was influential in the establishment of a major Orthodox mutual aid society that provided support for the many newly arrived immigrants. He also translated religious texts into English, looking to the time when the church in America would consist of English-speaking members. Before his return to Russia, Fr. John helped to organize the first All-American Council that was held in Mayfield, Pennsylvania, in 1907.

Russia and martyrdom

Fr, John returned to Russia in 1907 where he was assigned to Narva (now Estonia). Here he put to use the skills he had learned in the United States teaching catechism in the schools.

Then in 1916, he was transferred to St. Catherine's Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo, just outside St. Petersburg. At St. Catherine's, he established himself as a popular priest who was skilled in presenting moving sermons. Then in October 1917 the Bolshevik uprising in St. Petersburg spilled over quickly into Tsarskoye Selo as the town was attacked by Bolshevik elements. The people thronged to the churches where the clergy held prayer services and led processions throughout the town praying for peace.

On October 31, 1917 (Old Style), the Bolsheviks entered Tsarskoe Selo in force and arrested Fr. John. He was taken by the Bolsheviks out of town where he was summarily shot. By this act, Fr. John became the proto-hieromartyr of the Bolshevik revolution and the Soviet yoke. Fr. John was buried several days later in the crypt of St. Catherine's Cathedral.

On December 1994, Fr. John was glorified by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, in session at St. Daniel's Monastery, Moscow, Russia, as the first of the new martyrs of the 20th century. In the United States he is also honored as a missionary and inspired preacher.

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Life and Miracles of Saint John Maximovich of Shanghai and San Francisco (+1966) - One of the Greatest Saints of the 20th Century


"Sanctity is not just a virtue. It is an attainment of such spiritual heights, that the abundance of God's grace which fills the saint overflows on all who associate with him. Great is the saint's state of bliss in which they dwell contemplating the Glory of God. Being filled with love for God and man, they are responsive to man's needs, interceding before God and helping those who turn to them."

Thus describing the ancient Saints, Vladyka John simultaneously summarized his own spiritual attitude which made him one of the greatest Saints of our time.

Childhood

Michael Maximovitch, the future Archbishop John, was born on June 4, 1896, in the village of Adamovka in the province of Kharkov in southern Russia. He was a member of the Little Russian noble family of Maximovitch, to which St. John of Tobolsk also had belonged. He received at baptism the name of Michael, his heavenly protector being the Archangel Michael. He was a sickly child and ate little.

He received his secondary education in the Poltava Military School, which he attended from 1907 to 1914. Upon completing military school he entered Kharkov Imperial University in the faculty of law, from which he graduated in 1918, before it was seized by the Soviets.

Kharkov, where Vladyka spent his formative years, was a true town of Holy Russia, and the young Michael, impressionable to revelations of holiness, acquired there the pattern of his future life. There were two miraculous Icons of the Mother of God, the Oseryanskaya and Eletskaya, which were carried in a religious procession twice a year from the monasteries where they were treasured to the Dormition Cathedral. In the Protection Monastery, in a frescoed grotto underneath the altar, lay the remains of the holy Archbishop Melety Leontovitch, who after his death in 1841 rendered miraculous help to those who served a panikhida for him at his coffin. Even during his lifetime the Archbishop was venerated for his severe asceticism, especially for the ascetic feat of abstaining from sleep. He was known to spend nights on end standing motionless, with lifted arms, deep in prayer. He foreknew the day and the hour of his own death. The young Maximovitch was known to have a veneration for this holy hierarch.

Today Archbishop John may be seen to resemble the holy man of Kharkov in at least three respects: he was known not to have slept in a bed for forty years; he knew beforehand of his death; and before his glorification in 1994 his relics rested under a cathedral in a special grave-chapel where panikhidas were sung almost daily and the Psalter read over his coffin by those asking for his help. This is a unique case of the transplanting, as it were, of a part of Holy Russia to contemporary America.

While at Kharkov University, Misha Maximovitch spent more time reading the lives of the saints than attending classes; nonetheless he was an excellent student. Evidently his emulation of saints was apparent even at that age, since Archbishop Anthony of Kharkov, one of the great Church figures of that time (later Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, the first Chief Hierarch and founder of the Russian Church Abroad) took special pains to become acquainted with him, and then kept the youth close to him and guided his spiritual formation.

Belgrade

In 1921, during the Civil War in Russia, the future archbishop, together with his parents, his brothers, and his sister, was evacuated to Belgrade, where he and his brothers entered the University of Belgrade. One brother graduated in the technical faculty and became an engineer, the other graduated in law and served in the Yugoslav police. Michael himself graduated in 1925 in the faculty of theology. While he was a student he worked for his living by selling newspapers.

In 1924, Michael was ordained reader in the Russian church in Belgrade by Metropolitan Anthony, who continued to exert great influence over him; and Michael in his turn showed the utmost respect and devotion to his superior. In 1926 Metropolitan Anthony tonsured him a monk and ordained him hierodeacon in the Milkov Monastery, giving him the name John, after the future archbishop's own distant relative, Saint John (Maximovitch) of Tobolsk. On November 21 of the same year Fr. John was ordained hieromonk.

The city of Bitol was in the diocese of Okhrida. At that time the ruling bishop of this diocese was Nicholas Velimirovich—a noted preacher, poet, writer, and inspirer of the popular religious movement. He, as much as Metropolitan Anthony, valued and loved the young Hieromonk John, and himself exerted a beneficial influence upon him. More than once he was heard to say, "If you wish to see a living saint, go to Bitol to Father John."

For, indeed, it began to become evident that this was an entirely extraordinary man. His own students were first to discover what was perhaps Fr. John's greatest feat of asceticism. They noticed at first that he stayed up long after everyone else had gone to bed; he would go through the dormitories at night and pick up blankets that had fallen down and cover the unsuspecting sleepers, making the Sign of the Cross over them. Finally it was discovered that he scarcely slept at all, and never in a bed, allowing himself only an hour or two each night of uncomfortable rest in a sitting position, or bent over on the floor praying before icons. Years afterward he himself admitted that since taking the monastic vows he had not slept lying in a bed. Such an ascetic practice is a very rare one; and yet it is not unknown to Orthodox tradition.

Archbishop Averky of the Jordanville Holy Trinity monastery, then a young hieromonk in Carpatho-Russia, witnessed the deep impression Hieromonk John made upon the seminary students. When they returned home on vacations they would speak of their extraordinary instructor who prayed constantly, served the Divine Liturgy or at least received Holy Communion every day, fasted strictly, never slept lying down, and with true fatherly love inspired them with the high ideals of Christianity and of Holy Russia.

In 1934 it was decided to raise Hieromonk John to the rank of bishop, althought nothing was farther from his mind. A lady who knew him relates how she met him at this time on a streetcar in Belgrade. He told her that he was in town by mistake, having been sent for in place of some other Hieromonk John who was to be consecrated bishop! When she saw him the next day he informed her that the situation was worse than he had thought: it was him they wished to make bishop! When he protested that this was out of the question, since he had a speech defect and could not enunciate clearly, he was only told that the Prophet Moses had the same difficulty.

The consecration occurred on May 28, 1934. Vladyka was the last bishop of the very many to be consecrated by Metropolitan Anthony, and the extraordinarily high esteem in which that venerable hierarch held the new bishop is indicated in a letter which he sent to Archbishop Dimitry in the Far East. Himself declining an invitation to retire to China, he wrote: "Dear friend! I am very old and unable to travel … But in place of myself, as my soul, as my heart, I am sending you Bishop John. This little, frail man, looking almost like a child, is in actuality a miracle of ascetic firmness and strictness in our time of total spiritual enfeeblement." Vladyka was assigned to the Diocese of Shanghai, China.

Vladyka arrived in Shanghai in late November, on the Feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, and found a large cathedral uncompleted and a jurisdictional conflict to resolve. The first thing he did was to restore Church unity. He established contact with Serbs, Greeks, Ukrainians. He paid special attention to religious education and made it a rule to be present at the oral examinations of the catechism classes in all the Orthodox schools in Shanghai. He at once became a protector of various charitable and philanthropic societies and actively participated in their work, especially after seeing the needy circumstances in which the majority of his flock, refugees from the Soviet Union, were placed. He never went visiting for tea to the rich, but he was to be seen wherever there was need, regardless of times and weather. He organized a home for orphans and the children of needy parents, entrusting it to the heavenly protection of a Saint he highly venerated, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, who loved children. Vladyka himself gathered sick and starving children off the streets and dark alleys of Shanghai's slums. Beginning with eight children, the orphanage later housed up to a hundred children at one time, and some 1500 in all. When the Communists came, Vladyka evacuated the whole orphanage, first to an island in the Philippines, and then to America.

It soon became apparent to his new flock that Vladyka was a great ascetic. The core of his asceticism was prayer and fasting. He ate once a day at 11 p.m. During the first and last weeks of Lent he did not eat at all, and for the rest of this and the Christmas fast he ate only bread from the altar. His nights he spent usually in prayer, and when he finally became exhausted he would put his head on the floor and steal a few hours of sleep near dawn. When the time would come to serve Matins, someone would knock on the door, to no avail; they would open the door and find Vladyka huddled on the floor in the icon-corner, overcome by sleep. At a tap on the shoulder he would jump up, and in a few minutes he would be in church for services — cold water streaming down his beard, but quite awake.

Vladyka officiated in the cathedral every morning and evening, even when sick. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy daily, as he was to do for the rest of his life, and if for some reason he could not serve, he would still receive Holy Communion. No matter where he was, he would not miss a service. Once, according to a witness, "Vladyka's leg was terribly swollen and the concilium of doctors, fearing gangrene, prescribed immediate hospitalization, which Vladyka categorically refused. Then the Russian doctors informed the Parish Council that they released themselves of any responsibility for the health and even the life of the patient. The members of the Parish Council, after long pleas for mercy and threats of taking him by force, compelled Vladyka to agree, and he was sent to the Russian Hospital in the morning of the day before the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. By six o'clock, however, Vladyka came limping to the cathedral on foot and served. In a day all the swelling was gone."

Vladyka's constant attention to self-mortification had its root in the fear of God, which he possessed in the tradition of the ancient Church and of Holy Russia. The following incident, told by 0. Skopichenko and confirmed by many from Shanghai, well illustrates his daring, unshakable faith in Christ. "Mrs. Menshikova was bitten by a mad dog. The injections against rabies she either refused to take or took carelessly… And then she came down with this terrible disease. Bishop John found out about it and came to the dying woman. He gave her Holy Communion, but just then she began having one of the fits of this disease; she began to foam at the mouth, and at the same time she spit out the Holy Gifts which she had just received. The Holy Sacrament cannot be thrown out. So, Vladyka picked up and put in his mouth the Holy Gifts vomited by the sick woman. Those who were with him exclaimed: `Vladyka, what are you doing! Rabies is terribly contagious!' But Vladyka peacefully answered: `Nothing will happen; these are the Holy Gifts.' And indeed nothing did happen."

By now it had become known that Vladyka was not only a righteous man and an ascetic, but was also so close to God that he was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance, and there were healings by his prayers. A striking account told by an eyewitness, Lidia Liu, testifies to Vladyka's spiritual height. "Vladyka came to Hong Kong twice. It's strange, but I, not knowing Vladyka then, wrote him a letter asking him to help a widow with children, and I also asked him about some personal spiritual matter, but I never received an answer. A year passed. Vladyka came to Hong Kong and I was in a crowd that went to meet him in church. Vladyka turned to me and said, `It is you who wrote me the letter!' I was astonished, since Vladyka had never seen me before."

"A moleben was sung, after which Vladyka, standing before a lectern, was delivering a sermon. I was standing next to my mother, and we both saw a light surrounding Vladyka down to the lectern — a radiance around him a foot wide. This lasted a rather long time. When the sermon was over, I, struck by such an unusual phenomenon, told what we had seen to our friend, who replied to us: `Yes, many faithful saw it.' My husband, who was standing a little way off, also saw this light."

A similar event occured in 1939, when a certain parishioner began to lose her faith due to many tribulations which had befallen her. Once, upon entering the Church during Vladyka's service, she witnessed during the transubstantiation of the Holy Sacraments a little flame in the form of a large tulip descended into the Chalice. After this miracle her faith returned, and she began repenting of her faint-heartedness.

Vladyka visited prisons and celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the convicts. On one occasion in Shanghai, Vladyka John was asked to give communion to a dying man in a Russian hospital. This time he took another priest with him. On his arrival he spotted a gregarious young man in his twenties, playing a harmonica. This lad was to be discharged the next day. Vladyka John called to him and said: "I want to give you communion right now." The young man immediately confessed his sins and received communion. The astonished priest asked Vladyka why he did not go to the one dying, but tarried instead with an obviously healthy young man. Vladyka answered: "He will die tonight, and the other, who is seriously ill, will live many years." It happened just as he foretold.

Vladyka loved to visit the sick and did it every single day, hearing confessions and giving Holy Communion. If the condition of a patient should become critical, Vladyka would go to him at any hour of the day or night to pray at his bedside. Here is one undoubted miracle among the many worked by Vladyka's prayers; it was recorded and placed in the archives of the County Hospital in Shanghai.

L. D. Sadkovskaya was very much taken by the sport of horse racing. Once she was thrown off her horse; she hit her head on a rock and lost consciousness. She was brought to the hospital unconscious. A concilium of doctors agreed that her condition was hopeless and it was not likely that she would live until morning. The pulse was almost gone; the skull was fractured in places so that small pieces of the skull were pressing on the brain. In such a condition she would die on the operating table. Even if her heart would tolerate surgery and the result were successful, she would still remain deaf, dumb, and blind.

Her sister, after hearing all this, rushed to Bishop John in despair and begged him to save her sister. Vladyka agreed. He came to the hospital and asked everyone to leave the room and prayed there for about two hours. Then he called the chief doctor and asked him to examine her again. How surprised the doctor was to discover that her pulse was normal! He agreed to perform the operation immediately, but only in the presence of Bishop John. The operation was successful, and the doctors were amazed when, after the operation, the patient regained consciousness and asked to drink. Soon she was released from the hospital and lived for many years a normal life.

Vladyka visited the prison also, and celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the convicts on a primitive little table. But the most difficult task for a pastor is to visit the mentally ill and the possessed—and Vladyka sharply distinguished between the two. Outside Shanghai there was a mental hospital, and Vladyka alone had the spiritual power to visit these terribly sick people. He gave them Holy Communion, and they, surprisingly, received it peacefully and listened to him. They always looked forward to his visits and met him with joy.

Vladyka possessed great courage. During the Japanese occupation the Japanese authorities tried in every way possible to bend the Russian colony to their will. Pressure was directed through the heads of the Russian Emigrant Committee. Two presidents of this Committee strove to maintain its independence, and as a result both were killed. Confusion and terror seized the Russian colony, and at that moment Vladyka John, in spite of warnings from the Russians who were collaborating with the Japanese, declared himself the temporary head of the Russian colony.

During the Japanese occupation it was extremely dangerous to walk on the streets at night, and most people took care to be home by dark. Vladyka, however, paying no heed to the danger, continued to visit the sick and needy at any hour of the night, and he was never touched.

In Shanghai, a voice teacher, Anna Petrovna Lushnikova, taught Vladyka the proper method of breathing and pronunciation of words, thus helping him to better his diction. At the end of each lesson Vladyka paid her 20 dollars. In 1945, during the war, she was gravely wounded and happened to be in a French hospital. On a very stormy night, feeling that she might die, Anna Petrovna began asking the nurses to call Vladyka John, who was in France, so that he would give her Communion. The nurses refused since the hospital was locked up during the night due to war-time conditions. Anna Petrovna was beside herself and kept calling upon Vladyka. Suddenly, around eleven o'clock in the evening, Vladyka appeared in the ward. Unable to believe her eyes, Anna Petrovna asked Vladyka, weather this was a dream or did he really come to her. Vladyka smiled, prayed and administered communion to her. Following this she calmed down and slept. The next morning she felt cured. No one believed Anna Petrovna that Vladyka visited her that night since the hospital was tightly secured. However, her ward neighbor substantiated the fact that she also saw Vladyka. The greatest surprise was that under Anna Petrovna's pillow was found a 20 dollar bill. Thus Vladyka left a material evidence of his visit.

A former Shanghai altar boy of Vladyka's and presently Archpriest George Larin, relates: "Notwithstanding Vladyka's strictness, all the altar boys loved him very much. To me, Vladyka was an ideal whom I wished to emulate in every way. Thus, during Lent, I stopped sleeping in bed and lay on the floor, I stopped eating the usual meals with the family, but partook of bread and water in solitude … My parents became worried and took me to Vladyka. Hearing them out, the prelate asked the guard to go to the store and bring a sausage. To my tearful outcries that I did not wish to break Lent, the wise prelate admonished me to eat the sausage and to remember always that obedience to parents is more important than personal accomplishments. "How then shall I go on Vladyka?'—I asked wishing nevertheless to 'especially' apply myself. 'Go to Church as you always did, and at home do what your mother and father ask.' I remember how grieved I was then that Vladyka did not assign to me some 'special’ deeds."

With the coming of the Communists, the Russians in China were forced once again to flee, most of them through the Philippine Islands. In 1949 approximately 5,000 refugees from the Chinese mainland were living in an International Refugee Organization camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines. This island is located in the path of the seasonal typhoons which sweep through that part of the Pacific. During the 27-month period of the camp' s occupancy, the island was threatened only once by a typhoon, and it changed course and bypassed the island.

When the fear of typhoons was mentioned by one Russian to the Filipinos, they replied that there was no reason to worry, because "your holy man blesses your camp from four directions every night." They referred to Vladyka John; for no typhoon struck the island while he was there. After the camp had been almost totally evacuated and the people resettled elsewhere (mainly in the USA and Australia), it was struck by a terrible typhoon that totally destroyed the camp.

Paris

Vladyka himself went to Washington, D. C., to get his people to America. Legislation was changed and almost the whole camp came to the New World—thanks again to Vladyka. The exodus of his flock from China accomplished, Archbishop John was given in 1951 a new field for his pastoral endeavor: he was sent by the Synod of Bishops to the Archdiocese of Western Europe, with his see first in Paris, and later in Brussels. He was now one of the leading hierarchs of the Russian Church, and his attendance was frequently required at the sessions of the Synod in New York City.

In Western Europe Vladyka took a deep interest not only in the Russians in the diaspora, for whom he exerted himself tirelessly in labors similar to those for which he had been known in Shanghai, but also in the local inhabitants. He received under his jurisdiction local Dutch and French Orthodox Churches, protecting them and encouraging their Orthodox development. He celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Dutch and French, as before he had served in Greek and Chinese, and as later he was to serve in English.

Vladyka's interest in and devotion to the Church's Saints, of whom his knowledge was already seemingly limitless, was extended now to Western European Saints dating from before the schism of the Latin Church, many of whom, venerated only locally, were not included in any Orthodox calendar of Saints. He collected their lives and images of them, and later submitted a long list of them to the Synod.

From this period of Vladyka's presence in Western Europe, Mrs. E. G. Chertkova reminisces: "On several occasions I visited Vladyka when he lived in the Cadet Corps building near Paris. He had a small cell on the top floor. In the cell were a table, an armchair and several chairs and in the corner—icons and a lectern with books. There was no bed in the cell since Vladyka did not lie down to sleep, but prayed by leaning on a tall stick with a cross-bar on top. Sometimes he prayed on his knees; most likely when he prostrated himself he would then fall asleep for a little while in that position on the floor. That is how he exhausted himself! Sometimes during our conversation it seemed to me that he dozed. But when I stopped, he would immediately say: "Continue, I hear you.'"

"Since for a long time our church did not have a permanent priest, once a priest from another parish came to us to celebrate Vespers. The whole service lasted only 45 minutes (usualy it takes 2 and a half hours)! We were horrified! So many parts of Vespers were skipped that we decided to tell Vladykaabout this. We hopped that he will influence the priest to follow the established order of Orthodox services. But Vladyka, smiling pleasently, said to us: `How difficult it is to please you people. I celebrate too long, and he too short!' With such kindness and meeknes he taught us not to judge."

Vladyka's reputation for holiness, too, spread among the non-Orthodox as well as the Orthodox population. In one of the Catholic churches of Paris, a priest strove to inspire his young people with these words: "You demand proof, you say that now there are neither miracles nor saints. Why should I give you theoretical proof, when today there walks in the streets of Paris a Saint — Saint Jean Nus Pieds (Saint John the Barefoot)." Many people testify to the miracles worked by the prayers of Archbishop John in Western Europe.

V. D. recounts: "Many were aware that it was not necessary to ask Vladyka to visit someone. The Lord Himself inspired him where and to whom to go. Vladyka John was known to many in the French hospitals and was admitted therein at any time. Besides, Vladyka unerringly directed his steps to where he was needed. My brother was once taken to the hospital after receiving a head wound. The x-ray revealed a large fracture of the skull. His eyes swelled and became sanguinous; he was in critical condition. Vladyka, who did not know my brother, somehow found him in the hospital, prayed over him and gave him Communion. When my brother underwent a follow up of head x-rays, there was no fracture to be found. My brother recuperated very fast. The doctor was dumbfounded!"

In San Francisco, where the cathedral parish is the largest in the Russian Church Abroad, Vladyka's life-long friend, Archbishop Tikhon, retired due to of ill-health, and in his absence the construction of a great new cathedral came to a halt as a bitter dispute paralyzed the Russian community. In response to the urgent request of thousands of Russians in San Francisco who had known him in Shanghai, Archbishop John was sent by the Synod in 1962 as the only hierarch likely to restore peace in the divided community. He arrived at his last assignment as bishop twenty-eight years to the day after his first arrival in Shanghai—on the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, November 21, 1962.

Under Vladyka's guidance a measure of peace was restored, the paralysis of the community was ended, and the cathedral finished. Yet, even in the role of peacemaker, Vladyka was attacked, and accusations and slanders were heaped upon his head. He was forced to appear in public court—in flagrant violation of church canons—to answer to preposterous charges of concealing financial dishonesty by the Parish Council. All involved were completely exonerated; but this filled Vladyka's last years with the bitterness of slander and persecution, to which he unfailingly replied without complaint, without judging anyone, with undisturbed peacefulness.

Vladyka remained true to the end to his path of faithful service to the Church. To those who knew him in his last years, perhaps two aspects of his character stood out. First was his strictness regarding the Church and the Law of God.

At the end of October, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of All Saints. There is a tradition that during the preceding night the dark spirits celebrated their own festival of disorder. In America this "celebration" called Halloween has become an occasion on which children make mischief dressed in costumes of witches, devils, ghosts, as if calling on the dark powers—a diabolic mockery of Christianity. A group of Russians organized on this night a Halloween Ball. In the San Francisco Cathedral at this time was the All-night Vigil celebrated, and a number of people were absent, to the great sorrow of Vladyka. After the service Vladyka went to the place where the ball was still in progress. He climbed the steps and entered the hall, to the absolute astonishment of the participants. The music stopped and Vladyka, in complete silence, glared at the dumbfounded people, slowly and deliberately making the round of the entire hall, staff in hand. He spoke not a word, and none was necessary; the mere sight of Vladyka stung the conscience of all, as was evident from the general consternation. Vladyka left in silence; and the next day in church he thundered his holy indignation, in his flaming zeal calling all to the devout Christian life.

Yet Vladyka is not best remembered by his flock for his sternness, but rather for his gentleness, his joyfulness, even for what is known as "foolishness for Christ's sake." The most popular photograph of him captures something of this aspect of his character. It was especially noticeable in his conduct with children. After services he would smile and joke with the boys who served with him, playfully knocking the mischievous ones on the head with his staff. Occasionally the Cathedral clergy would be disconcerted to see Vladyka, in the middle of a service (though never in the altar), bend over to play with a small child! And on feast days when blessing with holy water was performed, he would sprinkle the faithful—not on the top of the head as is usual, but right in the face (which once led a small girl to exclaim, "He squirts you"), with a noticeable glint in his eye and total unconcern at the discomfiture of some of the more dignified. Children were absolutely devoted to him, despite his usual strictness with them.

Anna Hodyriva recounts: "My sister Xenia Yarovoy, who lived in Los Angeles, suffered for a long time with a painful hand. She sought physicians, tried home remedies, yet nothing helped. She finally decided to turn to Vladyka John and wrote to him in San Francisco. Some time went by and the hand was healed. Xenia began to forget about the previous pain in her hand. On one occasion, when she visited San Francisco, she went to the Cathedral for services. At the end of the service Vladyka John held the cross to be kissed. On seeing my sister he asked: `How is your hand?' Vladyka saw my sister for the first time! How then did he recognize her and know that it was she who had a painful hand?"

Anna S. recollects: "My sister Musia and I got into an accident. A drunken young man was driving towards us. He struck the door with great force on the side where my sister was sitting. The ambulance was called and she was taken to the hospital. Her condition was very serious—a lung was punctured and a rib broken, which caused her great pain. Her eyes were invisible in her swollen face. When Vladyka visited her, she lifted her eyelid with her finger and upon seeing him took his hand and kissed it. She could not speak since she had a tracheotomy, but tears of joy flowed from her eyes. After that Vladyka visited her several times and she began to get better. Once Vladyka entered the ward and announced, `Musia is feeling very poorly now.' He then went to her and, closing the drape around her bed, he prayed for a long time. During his prayer we were approached by two physicians and I asked them how serious was my sister's condition, and if I should summon her daughter from Canada? (We had not informed the daughter yet of her mother's accident.) The physicians answered: `To call or not to call the family is your problem—we cannot guarantee that she will survive until the morning.' Thank God that she not only survived that night, but was completely cured and returned to Canada. My family and I believe that Musia was saved by the prayers of Vladyka John."

Vladyka's life was governed by the standards of the spiritual life, and if this upset the routine order of things it was in order to jolt people out of their spiritual inertia and remind them that there is a higher judgment than the world's. A remarkable incident from Vladyka's years in San Francisco (1963) illustrates several aspects of his holiness: his spiritual boldness based on absolute faith; his ability to see the future and to overcome by his spiritual sight the bounds of space; and the power of his prayer, which beyond all doubt worked miracles. This incident is related by the woman who witnessed it, Mrs. L. Liu; the exact words of Vladyka were confirmed by the Mr. T. who is mentioned.

"In San Francisco my husband was involved in an automobile accident and was seriously injured; he his balance and suffered terribly. At this time Vladyka had many troubles. Knowing the power of Vladyka's prayers, I thought: "If I ask Vladyka to come to my husband, he will recover;" But I was afraid to do this because Vladyka was so busy then. Two days passed, and suddenly Vladyka came to us, accompanied by Mr. B. T., who had driven him. Vladyka stayed with us about five minutes, but I believed that my husband would recover. The state of his health was at its most serious point then, but after Vladyka's visit there was a sharp crisis, and then he began to recover, living four more years after this. He was quite aged. Afterwards I met Mr. T. at a Church meeting and he told me that he had been driving Vladyka to the airport. Suddenly Vladyka had said to him: "Let's go now to the Liu's." He objected that they would be late for the plane and that he could not turn around at that moment. Then Vladyka had said: "Can you take the life of a man upon yourself?" He could do nothing but drive Vladyka to us. Vladyka, as it turned out, was not late for the plane."

The Death of a Saint

Among those who knew and loved Vladyka, the first response to the news of his sudden death was: it cannot be! And this was more than a reaction to the suddenness of the event; for among those who were close to him there had unaccountably developed the notion that this pillar of the Church, this holy man who was always accessible to his flock, would never cease to be! There would never be a time when one would not be able to turn to him for advice and consolation! In one sense, in a spiritual sense, this has since turned out to be true. But it is also one of the realities of this world that every man who lives must die. Vladyka was prepared for this reality.

To the manager of the orphanage where he lived, who had spoken in the spring of 1966 of a diocesan meeting to be held three years later, he indicated, "I will not be here then." In May, 1966, a woman who had known Vladyka for twelve years and whose testimony, according to Metropolitan Philaret, is "worthy of complete confidence" was amazed to hear him say, "I will die soon, at the end of June—not in San Francisco, but in Seattle."

Again, on the evening before his departure for Seattle, four days before his death, Vladyka astonished a man for whom he had just served a moleben with the words, "You will not kiss my hand again." And on the day of his death, at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy which he celebrated, he spent three hours in the altar praying, emerging not long before his death, which occurred on July 2, 1966. He died in his room in the parish building next to the church. He was heard to fall and, having been placed in a chair by those who ran to help him, breathed his last peacefully and with little evident pain, in the presence of the miracle-working Kursk Icon of the Sign.

Before the of canonization of Archbishop John his relics reposed in a chapel in the basement of the San Francisco cathedral (after the canonization in July of 1994 the relics of Archbishop John were moved to the main floor of the cathedral). Soon after his repose, a new chapter began in the story of this holy man. Just as St. Seraphim of Sarov told his spiritual children to regard him as living after his death, and to come to his grave and tell him what was in their hearts, so our Vladyka also has proved to be hearing those who revere his memory. Soon after his death a one-time student of his, Fr. Amvrosy P., saw one night a dream or a vision: Vladyka, clad in Easter vestments, full of light and shining, was censing the cathedral. He joyfully uttered to him just one word while blessing him: "happy."

Later, before the end of the forty-day period, Fr. Constantine Z., long Vladyka' s deacon and now a priest, who had lately been angry at Vladyka and had begun to doubt his righteousness, saw Vladyka in a dream all in light, with rays of light shining around his head so brightly that it was impossible to look at them. Thus were Fr. Constantine's doubts of Vladyka's holiness dispelled.

The manager of the St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Home and long a devoted servant of Vladyka, M. A. Shakmatova, saw a remarkable dream. A crowd of people carried Vladyka in a coffin into St. Tikhon's Church; Vladyka came to life and stood in the royal doors anointing the people and saying to her, "Tell the people: although I have died, I am alive!"

As during his life time, Vladyka continues to be very active in helping those who need him. Here are just two of the thousands of cases of Vladyka's miracles. Victor Boyton, who witnessed the healing of his friend by Vladyka John, recounts: "The miracle occurred after I had received the copyright to the English publication of Orthodox Life from Jordanville, N.Y., which included photos of Vladyka John. I had a friend, a Moslem from Russia, who was suffering from leukemia and was losing his sight. The doctors concurred that in three months time he would be blind. Placing the picture of Vladyka John by my vigil light, I began to pray daily for my friend. After a short period of time my friend was healed from the leukemia and began to see normally. The eye doctors were amazed at this occurrence. From then on, my friend has lead a normal life and reads without impediment."

The archpriest Stephan Pavlenko recollects: "My brother Paul, although not in the military, lived for some years in Vietnam. There he sought children who were wounded or orphaned due to the then continuing war. He placed them either in orphanages or hospitals. Thus he became close with his future wife, a certain Vietnamese Kim En who was also involved with helping the unfortunate children. My brother introduced Kim to the Christian faith and to the lives of many of God's Saints. She told my brother that during her very difficult times there appeared to her in her dreams a certain monk who consoled her and told her what to do. Once, towards Easter time, I sent my brother some cassettes of monastic songs as well as some books and journals of a spiritual context. Having received my parcel and having shown the spiritual literature to Kim he was surprised, when upon seeing the cover of a certain journal she exclaimed: `This is the monk who appears to me in my sleep!' She pointed to a well known picture of Vladyka John, taken among the graves of the New Diveevo monastery in Spring-Valley, New York. Kim was baptized in the Orthodox Church with the name Kyra."

Epilogue

Blessed Archbiship John of Shanghai and San Francisco was canonized as a Saint by the Russian Church on July 2 1994. It was a wonderfull and unforgettable event to which hundreds of clergy and many thousands of laymen came from all over the world!

The importance of St. John for the people of the twentieth century cannot be underestimated. Those who knew him personally or have read about his life and miracles have learned of the tremendous spiritual power embodied in this frail little man. God was drawn to the burning, loving heart of Vladyka John, which became a vessel of His grace. He entrusted the Saint with heavenly secrets and the ability to transcend physical laws, making him a point of contact between Himself, the Creator, and us, His creatures.

There can be no doubt that Vladyka John has been sent by God as a gift of holiness to the people of the last days. At a time when imitation has become the norm in all aspects of life, when the authentic spirit of the Christian Faith has been so hidden that most are oblivious of its very existence, he can be seen as a model of genuineness.

Vladyka John has set the right "tone" of true apostleship in the modern world. As more people are drawn into the Orthodox Church of Christ before the final unleashing of evil, may they look to him as their loving guide and a pastor who knows no death. He is a kind of "measuring stick" that indicates who and what is real in our confusing times. The unit of measure is nothing other than pure Christian love, which he possessed and distributed in abundance. With this love, the intense struggle of spiritual life becomes worth the effort.

By the prayers of Saint John may God bless and save us. Amen!

https://pravoslavie.ru/54575.html


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Why I Abandoned Papism

Saint Paul Ballaster-Convolier, Bishop-Martyr in Mexico, from Spain (+1984)


Bishop Paul de Ballester-Convallier: A contemporary New Martyr of Orthodoxy (25th anniversary of his martyrdom: 1984-2009)

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the death as a martyr of the late Bishop Paul de Ballester-Convallier (1927-1984). As a memorial to him we reprint here his article which explains why and how he was converted to Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism.
The article below of the then Hierodeacon Fr. Paul Ballester-Convollier was published in two follow up articles by Kivotos magazine (July 1953, p. 285-291 and December 1953 p. 483- 485). Previously a Franciscan monk who had turned to Orthodoxy, Bishop Paul was made titular bishop of Nazianzus of the Holy Archdiocese of North and South America with its seat in Mexico. There he was met with a martyric death.

The news of his murder was reported on the first page of the newspaper Kathemerini (Saturday, February 4, 1984) which says:

THE GREEK ORTHODOX BISHOP PAUL WAS MURDERED IN MEXICO

As it became known from the city of Mexico, before yesterday the Bishop of Nazianzus, Paul De Ballester of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, died. He was murdered by a 70 year old Mexican, a previous military man who was suffering from psychiatric illness. The funeral was attended by Archbishop Iakovos who was aware of the work of the active bishop. It should be pointed out that Bishop Paul was of Spanish origin, was received into Orthodoxy as an adult and excelled as a shepherd and author. The Mexican authorities do not exclude the possibility that his murderer was driven to his act through some sort of fanaticism.Bishop Paul was a native of Catalonia, Barcelona and studied in seminaries at Athens and Halki. He was ordained in Athens as a deacon in 1953 and as a priest in 1954. His ministry as a priest was first in Constantinople (1954-1959) and then in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (1959-1984). In 1970 he was consecrated titular Bishop of Nazianzus (in New York) with its seat in Mexico. His work there as a churchman, university professor and voluminous author was brilliant and conspicuous, but unfortunately it was sealed with his premature death. He was murdered after the end of the Divine Liturgy in the city of Mexico in 1984. His funeral was attended by Archbishop Iakovos who praised the exceptional work of this vibrant bishop.

Bishop Paul of Nazianzus not only proved worthy of his calling, but also became a neomartyr of Orthodoxy. In a recent visit to Mexico of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in 2006, the order was given to Metropolitan Athenagoras of Mexico and Central America to transfer the relics of the late Bishop Paul of Nazianzus to the Metropolis and laid to rest at the monument of this Bishop that lies in the front court of the Cathedral Church of Saint Sophia which was erected by this ever-memorable hierarch.

This was taken from John Sanidopoulos excellent blog, Mystagogy, and he has corrected some of the typographical errors of previous translations of this text for it to make more sense and be more readable.

* * *

Why I Abandoned Papism

Hierodeacon Paul de Ballester-Convallier

1. How It All Began

My conversion to Orthodoxy began one day while I was re-ordering the Library catalogues of the monastery I belonged to. This monastery belonged to the Franciscan order, founded in my country of Spain. While I was classifying different old articles concerning the Holy Inquisition, I happened to come across an article that was truly impressive, dating back to 1647. This article described a decision of the Holy Inquisition that anathematized as a heretic any Christian who dared believe, accept or preach to others that he supported the apostolic validity of the Apostle Paul.

It was about this horrible finding that my mind could not comprehend. I immediately thought to calm my soul that perhaps it was due to a typographical error or due to some forgery, which was not so uncommon in the Western Church of that time when the articles were written.

However, my disturbance and my surprise became greater after researching and confirming that the decision of the Holy Inquisition that was referred to in the article was authentic. In fact already during two earlier occasions, namely in 1327 and 1331, the Popes John XXII and Clemens VI had condemned and anathematized any one who dared deny that the Apostle Paul during his entire apostolic life was totally subordinate to the ecclesiastical monarchical authority of the first Pope and king of the Church, namely the Apostle Peter.

And a lot later Pope Pius X in 1907 and Benedict XV in 1920, had repeated the same anathemas and the same condemnations.

I had therefore to dismiss any possibility of it being due to an inadvertent misquoting or forgery. So I was thus confronted with a serious problem of conscience.

Personally it was impossible for me to accept that the Apostle Paul was disposed of under whatever Papal command. The independence of his apostolic work among nations, against that which characterized the apostolic work of Peter among the circumcised, for me was the unshakable event that shouted from the Holy Bible.

The thing was totally clear to me who he was, as the exegetical works of the Fathers on this issue do not leave the slightest doubt.

“Paul”, writes St. Chrysostom, “declares his equality with the rest of the apostles and should be compared not only with all the others but with the first one of them, to prove that each one had the same authority”.

Truly, together all the Fathers agree that “all the rest of the apostles were the same like Peter, namely they were endowed with the same honour and authority”. It was impossible for any of them to exercise higher authority over the rest, for the apostolic title that each had was the “highest authority, the peak of authorities”. They were all shepherds, while the flock was one. And the flock was shepherded by the apostles in conformity by all.

The matter was therefore crystal clear. Despite this, the Latin teaching was against the situation. This way for the first time in my life I experienced a frightful dilemma. What could I say? On one side was the Bible and Holy Tradition and on the other side the teaching of the Church?

According to Latin theology it is essential for our salvation to believe that the Church is a pure monarchy, whose monarch is the Pope. This way the synod of the Vatican, voting together all the earlier convictions, declared officially that “if any one says … that Peter (who is assumed to be the first Pope) was not ordained by Christ as the leader of the Apostles and visible Head of all the Church … is under anathema”.

2. I Am Addressing My Confessor

Within this psychological disturbance I addressed my confessor and naively described the situation. He was one of the most famous priests of the monastery. He heard me with sadness, aware that it involved a very difficult problem. Having thought for a few minutes while looking in vain for an acceptable resolution, he finally told me the following that I confess I did not expect.

“The Bible and the Fathers have harmed you, my child. Set it and them aside and confine yourself to following the infallible teachings of the Church and do not let yourself become victim of such thoughts. Never allow creatures of God whoever they may be to scandalize your faith in God and the Church.”

This answer he gave very explicitly and caused my confusion to grow. I always held that especially the word of God is the only thing that one cannot set aside.

Without allowing me any time to respond, my confessor added: “In exchange, I shall give you a list of prominent authors in whose works your faith will relax and be supported”. And asking me if I had something else “more interesting” to ask, he terminated our conversation.

A few days later, my confessor departed from the monastery for a preaching tour of churches of the monastic order. He left me the list of authors, recommending that I read them. And he asked me to inform him of my progress in this reading by writing him.

Even though his words did not convince me in the least, I collected these books and started to read them as objectively and attentively as possible.

The majority of the books were theological texts and manuals of papal decisions as well as of Ecumenical Synods. I threw myself to the study with genuine interest, having only the Bible as my guide, “Thy law is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths” (Ps. 118:105).

As I progressed in my study of those books, I would understand more and more that I was unaware of the nature of my Church. Having been proselytized in Christianity and baptized as soon as I completed my encyclical studies, I continued with philosophical studies and then as I speak to you I was just at the beginning of the theological studies. It consisted of a science totally new to me. Until then Christianity and the Latin Church was for me an amalgam, something absolutely indivisible. In my monastic life I was only concerned with their exterior view and I was given no reason to examine in depth the bases and reasons of the organic structure of my Church.

3. The Preposterous Teaching About the Pope

Exactly then, within the bouquet of articles that wisely my spiritual leader had put together, the true nature of this monarchical system, known as the Latin Church, started to unravel. I suppose a summary of her characteristics would not be superfluous.

First of all, to the Roman Catholics, the Christian Church

“is nothing more than an absolute monarchy”

whose monarch is the Pope who functions in all her facets as such. On this Papal monarchy

“all the power and stability of the Church is found”

which otherwise

“would not have been possible”.

Christianity is supported completely by Papism. And still some more,

“Papism is the most significant agent of Christianity”, that is “it is its zenith and its essence”.


Pilgrims kissing the Pope's feet.

The monarchic authority of the Pope as the supreme leader and the visible head of the Church, the cornerstone, Universal Infallible Teacher of the Faith, Representative (Vicar) of God on earth, shepherd of shepherds and Supreme Hierarch, is totally dynamic and dominant and embraces all the teachings and legal rights that the Church has. “Divine right” is extended on all and individually on each baptized man across the whole world. This dictatorial authority can be exercised at any time, over anything and on any Christian across the world, whether lay or clergy, and in any church of any denomination and language it may be, in consideration of the Pope being the supreme bishop of every ecclesiastical diocese in the world.

People who refuse to recognize all this authority and do not submit blindly are schismatic, heretic, impious and sacrilegious and their souls are already destined to eternal damnation, for it is essential for our salvation that we believe in the institution of Papism and submit to it and its representatives. This way the Pope incarnates that imaginary Leader, prophesied by Cicero, who writes that all must recognize him to be holy.

Always in the Latin teaching,

“accepting that the Pope has the right to intervene and judge all spiritual issues of each and every Christian separately, that much more does he have the right to do the same in their worldly affairs. He cannot be limited to judging only through spiritual penalties, denying the eternal salvation to those who do not submit to him, but also he has the right to exercise authority over the faithful. For the Church has two knives, symbols of her spiritual and worldly power. The first of these is in the hands of the clergy, the other in the hands of Kings and soldiers, though they too are under the will and service of the clergy”.

The Pope, maintaining that he is the representative of Him whose

“kingdom is not of this world”,

of Him who forbade the Apostles to imitate the kings of the world who “conquer the nations”, nominates himself as a worldly king, thus continuing the imperialism of Rome. At different periods he in fact had become lord over great expanses, he declared bloody wars against other Christian kings to acquire other land expanses, or even to satisfy his thirst for more wealth and power. He owned a great number of slaves. He played a central role and many times a decisive role in political history.

The duty of the Christian lords is to retreat in the face “of the divinely appointed king” surrendering to him their kingdom and their politico-ecclesiastical throne “that was created to ennoble and anchor all the other thrones of the world”. Today the worldly capital of the Pope is confined to Vatican City. It consists of an autonomous nation with diplomatic representations in the governments of both hemispheres, with an army, weapons, police, jails, currency, etc.

And as a crown and peak of the almightiness of the Pope, he has one more faithful privilege that even the most ignoble idolaters could not even imagine – the infallible divine right, according to the dogmatic rule of the Vatican Synod that took place on 1870. Since then on
“humanity ought to address to him whatever it addresses to the Lord: ‘you have words of eternal life'”.
From now on there is no need of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church
“into all truth”.
There is no more need of the Holy Bible nor of Sacred Tradition, for now there is a god on earth based on the infallible. The Pope is the only canon of truth who can even express things contrary to the judgment of all the Church, declare new dogmas which the faithful ought to accept if they do not wish to be cut off from their salvation.
“It depends only on his will and intention to deem whatever he wishes, as sacred and holy within the Church”
and the decreetal letters must be deemed, believed and obeyed “as canonical epistles”. Since he is an infallible Pope, he must receive blind obedience. Cardinal Bellarmine, who was declared a Saint by the Latin Church, says this simply:
“If the Pope some day imposed sins and forbade virtues, the Church is obliged to believe that these sins are good and these virtues are bad”.

4. The Answer of My Confessor

Having read all those books, I felt myself as a stranger within my Church, whose organizational composition has no relation to the Church that the Lord built and organized by the Apostles and their disciples and as intended by the Holy Fathers. Under this belief I wrote my first letter to my superior:

“I read your books. I shall not contravene the divine warrants so that I may follow the human teachings that have no basis at all in the Holy Bible. Such teachings are a string of foolishness by Papism. From the provisions of the Holy Bible we can understand the nature of the Church and not through human decisions and theories. The truth of faith does not spring but from the Holy Bible and from the Tradition of the whole Church”.

The reply came fast:

“You have not followed my advice,” complained my elder, “and thus exposed your soul to the dangerous impact of the Holy Bible, which, like fire burns and blackens when it does not shine. In such situations like yours, the Popes have pronounced that it ‘is a scandalous error for one to believe that all the Christians could read the Holy Bible’, and the theologians assure us that the Holy Bible ‘is a dark cloud’. ‘For one to believe in the enlightenment and clarity of the Bible is a heterodox dogma,’ claim our infallible leaders. As far as the Tradition, I do not consider it necessary to remind you that we should primarily follow the Pope on matters of Faith. The Pope is worth, in this case, thousands of Augustinians, Jeromses, Gregories, Chrysostoms…”.

This letter accomplished to strengthen my opinion rather than demolish it. It was impossible for me to place the Holy Bible below the Pope. By attacking the Holy Bible, my Church was losing every worthy belief ahead of me, and was becoming one with the heretics who “being elected by the Bible turn against it”. This was the last contact I had with my elder.


5. The Pope is Everything and the Church is Nothing

However I did not stop there. I had already started to “skid due to the skid” of my Church. I had taken a road that I was not allowed to stop until I found a positive solution. The drama of those days was that I had estranged myself from Papism, but I did not accost any other ecclesiastical reality.

Orthodoxy and Protestantism then were for me vague ideas and I had not reached the time and opportunity to ascertain that they could offer something to soothe my agony. Despite all this I continued to love my Church that made me a Christian and I bore her symbol. I still needed more profound thinking to reach slowly, with trouble and grief, to the conclusion that the Church I loved was not part of the Papal system.

Truly, against the monocracy of the Pope, the authority of the Church and of the episcopal body is not intrinsically subordinate. Because according to Latin theology

“the authority of the Church exists only when it is characterized and harmonized by the Pope. In all other cases it is nullified”.

This way it is the same thing whether the Pope is with the Church or the Pope is without the Church, in other words, the Pope is everything and the Church is nothing. Very correctly did Bishop Maren write, “It would have been more accurate if the Roman Catholics when they recite the ‘I Believe’ would say ‘And in one Pope’ instead of ‘And in one … Church'”.

The importance and function of the bishops in the Latin Church are no more than that of representatives of the Papal authority to which the bishops submit like the lay faithful. This regime they try to uphold under the 22nd chapter of St. John’s Gospel, which according to the Latin interpretation,

“the Lord entrusts the Apostle Peter, the first Pope, the shepherding of His lambs and of His sheep”,

namely, He bestows on him the job of the Chief Shepherd with exclusive rights on all the faithful, who are the lambs and all the others, Apostles and Bishops, namely, the sheep.

However, the bishops in the Latin Church are not even successors to the Apostles, for as it dogmatizes:

“The apostolic authority was lacking with the Apostles and was not passed down to their successors, the bishops. Only the Papal authority of Peter, namely the Popes.”

The bishops then, having not inherited any apostolic authority, have no other authority but the one given to them, not directly from God but by the Supreme Pontiff of Rome.

And the Ecumenical Synods also have no other value than the one given to them by the Bishop of Rome,

“for they cannot be anything else except conferences of Christianity that are called under the authenticity and authority of the Pope”.

It would suffice the Pope to exit the hall of the Synod saying, “I am not in there anymore”, to stop from that moment on the Ecumenical Synod from having any validity. If it is not authorized and validated by the Pope, who could impose this authority on the faithful?

6. The Frightful Answer of a Jesuit

I almost gave up on my studies during that period, taking advantage of the hours that my Order allowed me to retire to my cell, to think of nothing else but my big problem. For whole months I would study the structure and organization of the early Church, straight from the apostolic and patristic sources.

However, all this work could not be done totally in secrecy. It looked obvious that my exterior life was greatly affected by this great concern which had overwhelmed all my interest and sapped all my strength. I never lost an opportunity to inquire from outside the monastery whatever could contribute towards shedding light to my problem. This way I started to discuss the topic with known ecclesiastical acquaintances in relation to the trust I had in their frankness and their heart. This way I would receive continuously the impressions and opinions on the topic which were for me always interesting and significant.

I found most of these clerics more fanatical than I expected. Even though they were deeply aware of the absurdity of the teaching on the Pope, being stuck to the idea that

“the required submission to the Pope demands a blind consent of our views”

and in the other maxim by the founder of Jesuits: “That we may possess the truth and not fall in fallacy, we owe it to always depend on the basic and immovable axiom that what we see as white in reality it is black, if that is what the hierarchy of the Church tells us”. With this fantastic bias a priest of the Order of Jesus entrusted me with the following thought:

“What you tell me I acknowledge that they are most logical and very clear and true. However, for us Jesuits, apart from the usual three vows, we give a fourth one during the day of our tonsure. This fourth vow is more important than the vow of purity, obedience and poverty. It is the vow that we must totally submit to the Pope. This way, I prefer to go to hell with the Pope than to Paradise with all your truths.”

7. “A Few Centuries Ago They Would Have Burnt You in the Fires of the Holy Inquisition”

According to the opinion of most of them, I was a heretic. Here’s what a bishop wrote to me: “A few centuries ago, the ideas you have, would have been enough to bring you to the fires of the Holy Inquisition”.

However, despite all this I intended to stay in the monastery and give myself to the purely spiritual life, leaving the responsibility to the hierarchy for the deceit and its correction. But could the important things of the soul be safe on a road of superficial life, where the arbitrariness of the Pope could pile up new dogmas and false teachings concerning the pious life of the Church? Moreover, since the purity of teaching was built with falsehoods about the Pope, who could reassure me that this stain would not spread into the other parts of the evangelical faith?

It is therefore not strange if the holy men within the Latin Church started to sound the alarm by saying things such as:

“Who knows if the minor means of salvation that flood us do not cause us to forget our only Savior Jesus…? Today our spiritual life appears like a multi-branch and multi-leaf tree, where the souls do no more know where the trunk is that everything rests on, and where the roots are that feed it.”

With such a manner we have decorated and overloaded our religiosity, so that the face of Him who is the “focus of the issue” is lost inside the “decorations”. Being therefore convinced that the spiritual life within the bosom of the Papal Church will expose me to dangers, I ended up taking the decisive step. I abandoned the monastery and after a little while I declared I did not belong to the Latin Church. Some others seemed prepared until then to follow me, but at the last moment no one proved prepared to sacrifice so radically his position within the Church, with the honor and consideration they enjoyed.
This way I abandoned the Latin Church whose leader, forgetting that the Kingdom of the Son of God “is not of this world” and that “he who is called to the bishopric is not called to any high position or authority but to the deaconate of all the Church”, but instead imitating him who “wishing in his pride to be like God, he lost the true glory and put on the false one” and “sat in the temple of God as god”. Rightly did Bernard De Klaraval write about the Pope:

“There is no more horrible poison for you, no sword more dangerous, than the thirst and passion of domination”. Coming out of Papism, I followed my voice of conscience that was the voice of God. And this voice was telling me, “Leave her … so you may not partake of her sins and that you may not receive of her wounds”.

8. In the Bosom of Orthodoxy

Secondly, as my departure from Papism became more broadly known within the ecclesiastical circles and was receiving more enthusiastic response in the Spanish and French Protestant circles, so was my position becoming more precarious.
In the correspondence I received, the threatening and anonymous abusive letters were plentiful. They would accuse me that I was creating an anti-papist wave around me and I was leading by my example into “apostasy” Roman Catholic clerics “who were dogmatically sick” and who had publicly expressed a sympathetic feeling for my case.

This fact forced me to leave Barcelona, and settle in Madrid where I was put up – without my seeking – by Anglicans and through them I came in contact with the World Council of Churches.

Not even there did I manage to remain inconspicuous. After every sermon at different Anglican Churches, a steadily increasing number of listeners sought to know me and to confidently discuss with me some ecclesiological topics.

Without therefore wishing it, a steadily increasing circle of people started forming around me, with most being anti-papists. This situation was exposing me to the authorities, because in the confidential meetings I had agreed to attend some Roman Catholic clerics started to appear who were generally known “for their lacking and weakening faith regarding the primacy and infallibility of the Highest Hierarch of Rome”.

The fanatical vindictiveness that some papists bore against my person I saw fully expressed and reach its zenith the day I replied publicly to a detailed ecclesiological dissertation which they had sent to me as an ultimate step to remove me from the “trap of heresy” that I had fallen in. That work of apologetic character had the expressive title: The Pope, Vicar of our Lord on Earth. And the slogan that the arguments in the book ended up with, was the following: “Due to the infallibility of the Pope, the Roman Catholics are today the only Christians who could be certain for what they believe”.

In the columns of a Portuguese book review, I replied:

“The reality is that due to this infallibility you are the only Christians who cannot be certain about what they will demand that you believe tomorrow”.

My article ended with the following sentence:

“Soon, the road you walk, you will name the Lord vicar of the Pope in heaven”.

Soon after I published in Buenos Aires my three volume study, I put an end to the skirmishes with the Papists. In that study I had collected all the clauses in the patristic literature of the first four centuries, which directly or indirectly refer to the “primacy clauses” (Matt 16:18-19; John 21: 15-17; Luke 22: 31-32). I proved that the teachings about the Pope were absolutely foreign and contrary to the interpretation given by the Fathers on the issue.

And the interpretation of the Fathers is exactly the rule on which we understand the Holy Bible.

During that period, even though from unrelated situations, for the first time I came in contact with Orthodoxy. Before I continue to recount the events, I owe it to confess here that my ideas about Orthodoxy had suffered an important development from the beginning of my spiritual odyssey. Certain discussions I had on ecclesiological topics with a group of Orthodox Polish, who passed through my country, and the information I received from the World Council regarding the existence and life of Orthodox circles in the West, had caused me a real interest.

Furthermore, I started to get different Russian and Greek books and magazines from London and Berlin, as well as some of the prized books that were provided by Archimandrite Benedict Katsenavakis in Napoli, Italy. Thus my interest in Orthodoxy would continue to grow.

Slowly, slowly in this way I started losing my inner biases against the Orthodox Church. These biases presented Orthodoxy as schismatic, without spiritual life, a drained group of small churches that do not have the characteristics of the true Church of Christ. And the schism that had cut her off, “had made the devil for their father and the pride of the Patriarch Photios for mother”.

So when I started to correspond with a respected member of the Orthodox hierarchy in the West – whose name I do not believe I am permitted to publish due to my personal criterion that was based on those original informations – I was thus totally free from every bias against Orthodoxy and I could spiritually gaze objectively. I soon realized and even with a pleasant surprise that my negative stance I had against Papism was conforming completely to the ecclesiological teaching of Orthodoxy. The respectable hierarch agreed to this coincidence in his letters, but refrained from expressing himself more broadly because he was aware that I lived in a Protestant surrounding.

The Orthodox in the West are not at all susceptible to proselytism. Only when our correspondence continued enough, the Orthodox bishop showed me to read the superb book by Sergei Boulgakov titled Orthodoxy, and the not less in depth dissertation under the same title by Metropolitan Seraphim. In the mean time I had also written specifically to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

In those books I found myself. There was not even a single paragraph that did not meet completely the agreement of my conscience. So much in these works as in others that they would send to me with encouraging letters – now even from Greece.

I clearly saw how Orthodox teaching is profound and purely evangelical and that the Orthodox are the only Christians who believe like the Christians of the catacombs and of the Fathers of the Church of the Golden Age. They are the only ones who can repeat with holy boasting the patristic saying, “We believe in whatever we received from the Apostles”.

That period I wrote two books, one with the title The Concept of the Church According to the Western Fathers and the other with the title Your God, Our God and God. These books were to be published in South America, but I did not proceed with their release so that I may not give an easy and dangerous hold to the Protestant propaganda.

From the Orthodox side they advised me to let go of my simply negative position against Papism, in which I was dirtied, and to shape my personal “I Believe” [Faith or Creed] from which they could judge how far I was from the Anglican Church as well as the Orthodox.

It was a hard task that I summarized with the following sentences: “I believe in everything that are included in the Canonical books of the Old and New Testament, according to the interpretation of the ecclesiastical Tradition, namely the Ecumenical Synods that were truly ecumenical, and to the unanimous teaching of the Holy Fathers that are acknowledged catholically as such”.

From then on I began to understand that the sympathy of the Protestants towards me was cooling down, except of the Anglicans who were governed by some meaningful support. And it is only now that the Orthodox interest, despite being late, as always, started to manifest itself and to attract me to Orthodoxy as one who was “possibly Catechumen”.

The undertakings of a Polish university professor, whom I knew, cemented my conviction that Orthodoxy is supported by the meaningful truths of Christianity. I understood that every Christian of the other confessions is required to sacrifice some significant part of the Faith to arrive at complete dogmatic purity, and only an Orthodox Christian is not so required. For only he lives and remains in the substance of Christianity and the revealed and unaltered truth.

So, I did no more feel myself alone against the almighty Roman Catholicism and the coolness that the Protestants displayed against me. There were in the East and scattered around the world, 280 million Christians who belonged to the Orthodox Church and with whom I felt in communion of faith.

The accusation of the theological mummification of Orthodoxy had for me no value, because I had now understood that this fixed and stable perseverance of the Orthodox teaching of truth was not a spiritual solidified rock, but an everlasting flow like the current of the waterfall that seems to remain always the same yet the waters always change.

Slowly, slowly the Orthodox started to consider me as one of their own.

“That we speak to this Spaniard about Orthodoxy”

wrote a famous archimandrite, “is not proselytism”. They and I perceived that I was already birthed in the port of Orthodoxy, that I was finally breathing freely in the bosom of the Mother Church. In this period I was finally Orthodox without realizing it, and like the disciples that walked towards Emmaus close to the Divine Teacher, I had covered a stretch close to Orthodoxy without conclusively recognizing the Truth but at the end.

When I was assured of this reality, I wrote a long dissertation on my case to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and to the Archbishop of Athens through the Apostolic Diaconate of the Church of Greece. And having no more to do with Spain – where today there does not exist an Orthodox community – I left my country and went to France where I asked to become a member of the Orthodox Church, having earlier let some more time for the fruit of my change to ripen.

During this period I further deepened my knowledge of Orthodoxy and strengthened my relationship with her hierarchy. When I became fully confident of myself, I took the decisive step and officially was received in the true Church of Christ as her member. I wished to realize this great event in Greece, the recognized country of Orthodoxy where I came to study theology. The blessed Archbishop of Athens received me paternally. His love and interest were beyond my expectations.

I should say the same for the then chancellor of the Sacred Archdiocese and presently Bishop Dionysius of Rogon who showed me paternal love. It is needless to add that in such an atmosphere of love and warmth, the Holy Synod did not take long to decide my canonical acceptance in the bosom of the Orthodox Church. During that all-night sacred ceremony I was honored with the name of the Apostle of Nations, and following that I was received as a monk in the Holy Penteli Monastery. Soon after, I was tonsured deacon by the Holy Bishop of Rogon.

Since then I live within the love, sympathy and understanding of the Greek Church and all her members. I ask from all their prayers and their spiritual support that I may always stand worthy of the grace that was given me by the Lord.+


FJTO


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Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life!

St. John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Repentance is expressed by the Greek word, metanoia. In the literal sense, this means a change of mind. In other words, repentance is a change of one's disposition, one's way of thinking; a change of one's inner self. Repentance is a reconsideration of one's views, an alteration of one's life.

How can this come about? In the same way that a dark room into which a man enters is illumined by the rays of the sun. Looking around the room in the dark, he can make out certain things, but there is a great deal he does not see and does not even suspect is there. Many things are perceived quite differently from what they actually are. He has to move carefully, not knowing what obstacles he might encounter. When, however, the room becomes bright, he can see things clearly and move about freely.

The same thing happens in spiritual life.

When we are immersed in sins, and our mind is occupied solely with worldly cares, we do not notice the state of our soul. We are indifferent to who we are inwardly, and we persist along a false path without being aware of it.

But then a ray of God's Light penetrates our soul. And what filth we see in ourselves! How much untruth, how much falsehood! How hideous many of our actions prove to be, which we fancied to be so wonderful. And it becomes clear to us which is the true path.

If we then recognize our spiritual nothingness, our sinfulness, and earnestly desire our amendment - we are near to salvation. From the depths of our soul we shall cry out to God: "Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy according to Thy Great mercy!" "Forgive me and save me!" "Grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother!"

As Great Lent begins, let us hasten to forgive each other all hurts and offenses. May we always hear the words of the Gospel for Forgiveness Sunday: If ye forgive men their debts, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their debts, neither will your Father forgive your debts (Matt. 6:14-15).


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On Holiness

St. John Maximovitch of San Francisco (+1966)

Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them.

Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God.


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