THE ORTHODOX WORD
A BIMONTHLY PERIODICAL
1966 Vol. 2, No. 1
January - February - March
Published with the blessing of His Eminence John (Maximovitch), Archbishop of Western America and San Francisco, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
Editors: Eugene Rose, M.A., & Gleb Podmoshensky, B.Th.
Printed by the Father Herman Brotherhood.
Text set in 10-point Garamont type, titles in 18-point Goudy Bold.
CONTENTS
3 St. Mark the Anchorite from the Great Collection (in Greek) of the Lives of the Saints
14 The Orthodox Spiritual Life: Pray Without Ceasing from the Life of St. Gregory Palamas
20 The Sunday of Orthodoxy by Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich
24 The Resurrection of Christ
27 An Appeal to Patriarch Athenagoras by Metropolitan Philaret
31 The Ecumenical Patriarchate by Theoklitos, Monk of Dionysiou
37 Orthodoxy in the Contemporary World
39 New Books
40 A Pilgrimage to the Orthodox Holy Places of America: An Introduction
Copyright 1966 by Orthodox Christian Books & Icons.
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THE ORTHODOX WORD
THE SECOND YEAR
WITH THIS ISSUE The Orthodox Word begins its second year of publication. After one year our idea concerning the purpose of such a periodical has not changed: "to preach the truths of Orthodox Christianity, and in so doing to draw together those of like mind so as to offer a united witness of these truths." If anything, the events of the past year have only served to prove the need of an uncompromising and outspoken voice which could speak to and for those who wish to live and preserve the genuine Orthodoxy that has come down to us through the Holy Fathers. To do this our principal means will remain the presentation of basic Orthodox material, setting forth the faith and practice of the Church of Christ.
Another aspect of our purpose has found expression in reports and comments on contemporary happenings of general interest in the Orthodox world. It is in such articles that The Orthodox Word has aroused a certain amount of controversy, and the present issue will be found certainly no less "controversial" than its predecessors. One cannot, however, defend only the past of Orthodoxy; one must fight for it in the present as well – and never have there been more enemies of the Church, both within and without, than there are today. Here, of course, one must exercise caution as well as zeal; accordingly we have attempted to present, not our own personal opinions alone, but the thinking of the faithful Church, relying as much as possible upon the words of contemporary hierarchs and other authoritative spokesmen who are the true defenders of the Church in our day.
In our first year we have found an encouraging response from our readers, and for this we are most grateful. We invite, again, any contributions or comments, and, realizing our own weakness and inadequacy, we sincerely ask the prayers of all, that, despite its deficiency, our work may be of some use in the Lord's harvest.
ST. MARK THE ANCHORITE
4th century
Commemorated April 5
All illustrations for this Life are from the band of the late Greek iconographer Photios Kontagion. The photograph above is from a fresco in the church of St. Nicholas in Acharenon, Athens (the last church be frescoed). The illustrations accompanying the text are from the Greek Life of St. Mark (Athens, 1946).
The Life and Spiritual Endeavors of our Righteous Father
ST. MARK THE ANCHORITE
of Athens, Who Lived and Struggled on the Mountain of Thrace in the Desert Which Is Beyond the Hetjaians
MOST MEN ARE surrendered unto Satan and run after wealth and other things of this life. But there are a few who believe with simplicity in the words of Christ. And again among these are found a few who go and live far away from the world, struggling and walking their whole life on the narrow and arduous goat's trail which our Lord showed us. They go to the desert and seek to find the hidden door of Paradise. These blessed men are not mistaken, but rather, know well where their ancient Fatherland is found.
There were in old Egypt two holy fathers who lived deep in the desert. One was named John and the other was named Serapion. They lived a quiet life at this place, forgotten by all, and they thought that no other ascetic had withdrawn farther into the desert, and they praised God.
One night they reclined to sleep and St. Serapion saw in his sleep that two venerable elders stood over him and said, "How many years have you been at this desert and do not know the inner desert which is the door of Ethiopia? The Mountain of Thrace is found there, and on this mountain struggles St. Mark, an elder in deep age, one hundred and thirty years old, who has not seen man for ninety-five years. There is no other ascetic who has reached the heights which this saint has reached. And in forty days he rests."
The desert
When the day dawned, Abba Serapion related his dream to Abba John. And he answered him, "From God is your dream. But where is this Mountain of Thrace found?" And Abba Serapion said, "Bless me, holy elder, and God will open the way before me."
He walked towards Alexandria and reached this great city in five days, covering double the distance than the camel, which is called bampsini, walking day and night, or better yet, flying in his joy like the camelbird. In Alexandria he met a merchant, one of those who travel to far away places, and asked him to learn where the Mountain of Thrace is found. And the merchant answered, "There is much road to cover, my Abba Father: from the great sea to the Hetjaians I know that one goes in twenty days, otherwise by land thirty days are required or even more."
Abba Serapion took therefore a few dates with him and a little water in a water-squash, said his prayers and took to the road. He walked on that hot desert for twenty days as if he were walking on lighted coals. But the Lord Who refreshed the three Children in the Fiery Furnace covered Abba Serapion, and he was not pierced by the flaming darts of the sun which scorch even the earth in those parts. He saw neither beast nor bird, nor even an ant, nor any other living thing, nor grass, because rain never falls on that land.
On the twentieth day the water that he had in the water squash came to an end, and he fell, near death. Whereupon he saw again the two elders standing before him, and one of them gave him a certain root from a tree and said, "Take this root and go with the strength of God". Then they showed him the way and disappeared. And immediately he woke up and went towards the direction which they had showed him.
He walked seven days on a certain desert even more frightening than the first, and he licked the root which he held in his hand in order to satisfy his thirst, until he reached a very high mountain, and under the mountain he saw a great sea. And he started to climb for another seven days. And on the seventh day, night caught him before a cave. And he went close to the mouth of the cave and heard Saint Mark praying in the cave and saying, "A thousand years O Lord, are in Thine eyes like the day that has passed, like yesterday."
And when he had finished saying the Psalter, he began to say, "Blessed1 is your soul Abba Mark, for it has not been soiled with the mud of this world. Blessed is your body, for it has not been polluted by the unclean desires of the never satisfied flesh. Blessed are your eyes, for the devil has not been able to lead them astray in order to look upon strange faces. Blessed are your ears, for they did not hear the women who are the sirens of this vain world. Blessed are your hands, for they did not touch the false things which men love. Blessed is your nose, for it was not filled with perfumes of the devil. Blessed are your feet, for they did not walk in a sinful and accursed path. Blessed is your heart, for you did not cause sorrow to anyone, nor did anyone weep for you."
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1. The Greek word used here is makarios, i. e., happy, fortunate. The whole passage is known among Orthodox ascetics as the Beatitudes of the Senses.
After this he said again, "Glorify, O my soul, the Lord and all that is in me His Holy Name. May you forever be blessed, O Lord. Why are you grieved, O my soul? Do not fear. You shall not be held by the aerial custom houses.''1
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1. The teaching of the Church concerning the aerial custom houses is very ancient and is based on Holy Scripture and the revelations of the Holy Fathers. Some identify it with the partial judgement. Mention of it is made many times in the Octoechos and other liturgical texts. The most detailed account is in a homily of St. Makarios the Great of Egypt, found in the end of his Fifty Homilies (see Greek editions). Below is an excerpt from the Life of St. Anthony by St Athanasius the Great: "Once when he was about to eat, having risen up to pray about the ninth hour, he perceived that he was caught up in the spirit, and, wonderful to tell, he stood and saw himself, as it were, from outside himself, and that he was led in the air by certain ones. Next certain loathesome and terrible beings stood in the air and wished to hinder him from passing through. But when his guides opposed them, saying, "The Lord hath wiped out the sins from his birth, but from the time that he became a monk, and devoted himself to God, it is permitted you to make a reckoning. Then when they accused him and could not convict him, his way was free and unhindered. And immediately he saw himself, as it were, coming and standing by himself, and again he was Anthony as before. Then forgetful of eating, he remained the rest of the day and through the whole night groaning and praying. For he was astonished when he saw against what mighty opponents our wrestling is, and by what labors we have to pass through the air. And he remembered that this is what the Apostle said, according to the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). For in it the enemy has power to fight and to attempt to hinder those who pass through. Wherefore most earnestly he exhorted, Take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand the evil (Eph. 6:13), that the enemy, having no evil thing to say against us, may be ashamed (Tit. 2:8).
And after he began to say: "Lord, you tested me and came to know me. You understood my thoughts, and know from afar all that I put into my mind. You laid out the path which I tread. Lord, You know all things, the latest and the ancient. You moulded me and put Your hand upon me. My bone, which You created in secret, is not hidden from You, and Your eyes saw me who am nothing. Everyone will be written in Your book, none will be forgotten.
"Lord, You shall light my lantern, You shall light my darkness, You brought Your eyes to rest upon my humility, You rescued my soul from wants. And I said, 'I will hold fast to the ways of my Lord, and shall not fall into sin.'
"Lord, You made known unto me my end, and the number of my days. All are false and fleeting, and man who lives in this world, like a painting passes and fades, and whoever does not lean upon You, Lord, Who art glorified unto the ages of ages. Amen."
And after he said many other things from the Old Testament and the Gospels, he came out to the mouth of the cave and cried out with tears, "Abba Serapion." And Abba Serapion answered him with fear, "Bless me, elder," and St. Mark said, "The peace of Christ be upon you. Come draw near me, my child." And Abba Serapion went close to him and bowed low before him. And St. Mark said to him, "May the Lord give you your reward, my child, on the day of the Judgement, because you suffered many hardships to come to this barren place for me, the forsaken one."
St. Mark blesses Abba Serapion
And they entered the cave and sat in darkness. And St. Mark said again, "Ninety-five years it has been that I have not seen a man, and now I see your holy face."
And Abba Serapion asked him, "Tell me, holy elder, how did you come to this cave?" And St. Mark answered, "I was born, my son, in Athens, a Greek idolater. My parents put me to study and become a philosopher as the false people of my country become. But God had mercy on me and I became a Christian and was baptized, and put off the old man from me as a snake sheds its skin. My parents died, and I said, 'I too am a mortal man like my fathers. What profit to me this false world?' I got up, therefore, and left the world to those who love it and by the grace of God came to Alexandria. From Alexandria I went out onto the sand and walked many days and many nights until I reached a big and sinful city. From here I left and passed much sand and reached a great building full of idols, which they call Amanta. After this I walked some days upon parched earth that had never known the smell of water, and reached a place, which is called ouabe, and by the Greeks oasis, with water and many trees, and wild men living there. I saw that I was still close to men even as I had been in the world, and I walked many days and nights with a yearning to reach a place where there was no man. I walked in a great pit and saw petrified trees, but man I did not see until I reached the mountains of Zambarah close to the sea. From there, I walked forty days being guided by God, and finally reached this place, and my feet brought me straight to this cave without my governing them. For ninety-five years I have not seen man, nor even beast, nor bird, and I have not eaten bread or worn clothes. For thirty years I lived with much plight and privation, with hunger and thirst, and the snares of the devil. I ate, my child, earth from my great hunger, and from my great thirst I drank water from the sea. For twenty years I was naked like Adam. The demons would drag me down to the sea to drown me, and would cry out, 'Go away from our place, monk. From the beginning of the world no man set foot here, and now, how did you dare to come?' And I endured twenty years hungry and naked, and the compassion of the Lord made the nature of my body change and hairs grew all over my flesh, and an angel brought me to eat, and I saw the angels come near me, and I beheld the celestial kingdom and the monasteries where the souls of the saints rest."
And as St. Mark was talking the night went by, and it became dawn, and Abba Serapion saw the body of St. Mark covered with dense hair as if he were a beast, and fear overcame him and he was terrified, for he did not have a human appearance, and one could not distinguish that he was a man except for the voice that came from his mouth.
And St. Mark said, "Do not be afraid, my child, of the appearance of this body, for it is temporary. Instead tell me, does the world still stand and blossom according to its ancient manner?" And Abba Serapion answered, "Yes, Father, with the grace of Christ even more so than before the world exists and blossoms to this day." And Abba Mark said again, "Is there still persecution, and are there Greek idolaters?" And Abba Serapion answered, "May God have glory, by the prayers of the saints, the persecutions against Christians have ceased."
And the elder rejoiced and asked again, "Are there to be found in the world today certain saints who are able to work miracles and wonders? And who have works according to the faith of Christ, as it is written in the Gospels, that if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, 'Move from your place and fall into the sea' and it will do so?"
And as St. Mark was saying this, the mountain which was above them moved and went toward the sea. And the saint picked up his head, and seeing the mountain moving, he hit the stone with his hand and said, "I did not say to you to move, soulless mountain, which art more obedient than man. Remain in your place!" And it stood in its place and Abba Serapion fell down and St. Mark picked him up and asked him, "Have you not seen such a miracle in your days?" And St. Serapion answered, "No, elder!" And St. Mark sighed and wept and said, "Woe unto the world, because there are Christians in name only, and not according to their works. Blessed be God who brought me to this place so that I would not die in my country and be buried in earth which is desecrated by many sins."
And the day drew to an end and St. Mark said, "My child Serapion, it is time that we make agape." And he spread his hands and prayed. And they entered the cave and beheld a table and upon it a loaf of bread that was still hot and two broiled fish, and greens and olives and dates and a pitcher of water. And they sat. And St. Mark said, "Give the blessing," and immediately a hand appeared and blessed the table. And St. Mark said, "Bless, O Lord, the food and drink, now and forever and unto the ages of ages."
And when they finished, St. Mark made thanksgiving and said, "We thank You, Master, for the blessings which You give to Your unworthy slaves. The rich of the earth have become poor and have hungered, whereas those who seek the Lord shall not be denied of all goods unto the ages of ages." And immediately the table disappeared even as it had been set.
And St. Mark said to Abba Serapion, "Do you see, my child, how much God loves His own?" And he became silent. After a long time he opened his mouth and said, "Today, my child, ends the measure of my life, and the Lord sent you to bury with your holy hands my forsaken body." And he did not say another word all day.
Towards sunset, he said to Abba Serapion, "Brother, suffer with me that we may keep a vigil this night."
And they chanted from the Psalter, and St. Mark chanted as if he had a book before him, without ever having learned the letters of the Church. He chanted sorrowfully and humbly and said, "They did not keep the Testament of the Lord and they did not wish to abide by His law. They tempted God in their hearts, and asked Him to give them food to eat. They spoke illy of God and said, 'Will God be able to set a table in the desert? And He rained manna for them to eat, and He gave them the bread of Heaven. The bread of angels did man eat, He sent them food that they might be filled."
The mountain moves and changes its place
And he chanted sadly, "Do not surrender unto beasts a soul which confesses unto You its sins. The souls of the poor do not forget, O Lord."
And again he chanted sadly, "God is in His place which is sanctified He put those to sit in His House who live desolate and without kin." And again he chanted sadly, "God looked down from Heaven over the people to see if there be anyone among them, who with Knowledge seeks from God to help him."
And again he chanted sadly, "These things did I put with my mind, and refreshing water sprang in my soul, and I understood with a gladdening voice as if a joyous festival were heard, that I would go rest in a marvellous tent in the House of God. Why are you sad, O my soul? And why do you trouble me?"
And again he chanted sadly, "And I put into my mouth a new song, a hymn unto God."
And again he chanted sadly, "I shall bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be forever in my mouth. The Lord shall commend my soul. Let the meek hear it and be glad."
And again he chanted sadly, "A voice of rejoicing and salvation is heard in the tents of the just. Open, ye doors of justice, that I may enter and confess myself unto the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord and through it the just shall enter."
And finishing the Psalter, St. Mark turned to Abba Serapion and said, "Brother Serapion, bury my body in this cave and seal the entrance with stones. Then leave so that you shall not remain in this place."
And Abba Serapion began to weep, and Abba Mark said, "Do not weep my son, today, which is the day of my joy. God Who showed you the way to come, shall likewise show you the way to return to your obedience, but you shall not return by the road which you came. Brother Serapion, this day is the greatest day of all the days of my life. Today my soul leaves my diseased body, and goes to rest from its toils and from sin."
And as he was saying these words, the cave was filled with a light brighter than the sun, and the mountain was filled with a fragrance. And St. Mark took the hand of Abba Serapion and began to say,
"Farewell,1 O cave, wherein I passed my life, and said my prayers, and tamed my body. You again shall keep it secure until the terrible day when all men shall be resurrected.
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1. The word used here in Greek is sozou, i.e., "save thyself." It seems that in the early days of the Church, this expression was used at parting instead of "farewell," even as to this day in all Orthodox monasteries the greeting used is evlogeite, i.e., "bless ye," benedirits, whereupon the other answers Kyrios, i.e., "the Lord (bless you)."
Farewell, my body also, the house wherein I sat so many years with struggles and pains. Lord, unto You I surrender it, because for You it suffered hunger, and thirst and cold and heat and nakedness. Clothe it, Lord, with an incorruptible and glorious garment on the frightful day of Your Parousia.
Farewell, my eyes, which I tired with so many all-night prayers and unrelenting vigils.
"Farewell, kind animals, innocent trees and plants, flying clouds, wind which blows from the north, and from the south, and from the gulf, and from the sands.
"Farewell, the four blessed and good ends of the earth.
"Farewell, athletes and anchorites and eremites who sleep in the canyons and mountains.
"Farewell, O mountain which covered and hid me so many years.
"Farewell, desert also, speechless and cruel beast which tenderly protected me from the wild world.
"Rejoice, O Church of Christ and the whole universe!"
And having said these words, he knelt and lifted up his hands and said, "Lord! Lord! Protect and cover Your world, hide its sinful works from Your eyes!"
Abba Serapion sees the soul of St. Mark
Then he got up and embraced Abba Serapion and said, "Farewell to you also, Brother Serapion. May Christ give you your reward for the hardships which you suffered for me, on the day of His Appearance. I beseech you, my son, in the name of God, not to take anything from my body, not even one hair. Do not dress my body with clothes nor cover it, but rather let the hair with which the Lord has dressed me be my shroud."
And when he ceased talking, a voice was heard from Heaven, saying, "Bring Me the champion of the desert, the pillar of patience, My blessed and faithful servant. Mark! Mark! Come to rest in the place of justice." And St. Mark said to Abba Serapion, "My brother Serapion, let us kneel." And they knelt, and a voice was heard saying to someone else, "Open your bosom."
And Abba Serapion got up and turned and saw the soul of St. Mark dressed in a white garment, carried by angels and saints, being taken to Heaven. And the roof of Heaven opened and he saw the aerial customs which wanted to grab the soul of St. Mark. And a thunderous Voice was heard which said, "Flee, spirits of darkness, before the Light." And there was great commotion, and the soul of St. Mark was detained about one hour. And after, a Voice was heard saying, "Uplift the soul of My beloved." And the demons were dispersed.
And Abba Serapion saw a hand which reached out of Heaven and took the soul of St. Mark. And he did not see it again. And it was the third hour of the night.
The repose of St. Mark
St. Serapion kisses the tabernacle of St. Mark
And Abba Serapion prayed all night. And in the morning he chanted the funeral chants over the holy body, but he neither touched it nor moved it, nor even covered it with anything.
After, he took stones and sealed the mouth of the cave and descended the mountain. And he besought God to strengthen him that he might pass the frightful desert. And when the sun was setting, he saw before him the two elders whom he had seen in his dream, and they said, "Today you buried a body of which the whole world is not worthy.1 Come with us and we shall walk all night, so that you will not lose your strength from the heat of the day." And the three walked together until morning. And in the morning they said, "Go with the blessing of God." And they disappeared from his eyes.
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1. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destituse, distressed, afflicted-of when the world was not worthy-wandering in deserts, mountains, coves, and holes in the earth (Hebrews 11:37, 38).
And Abba Serapion walked a little farther and turned his eyes and saw that he was standing before the door of the church, at the cell of his obedience. And he marvelled, and remembered the words which were said to him by St. Mark, "You shall not return by the road which you came." And he glorified the Lord.
And Abba John heard his voice and came out of his cell and said, "Welcome back, Abba Serapion." And they entered the church and glorified God.
And Abba John said to Abba Serapion, "Brother, he was a true Christian. We are Christians in name only, whereas by our actions we are not in the least. Glory be to God, Who deems us worthy to see His saints." Amen.
THE ORTHODOX SPIRITUAL LIFE
THAT IT IS NECESSARY FOR ALL CHRISTIANS IN GENERAL TO PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
From the Life of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Wonderworker1
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1. Included as the final chapter of the Philokalis. Here printed for the first time in its entivery is English, newly translated from the Greek.
LET NO ONE, my brother Christians, think that only the clergy and monks are obligated to pray unceasingly and continuously, and not the laymen. Nay, nay! All of us Christians in general have an obligation to be found always in prayer.
The most holy Patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheus, writes in the Life of St. Gregory of Thessalonica that the divine Gregory had a beloved friend named Job a most simple man and very virtuous with whom, conversing once, he spoke concerning prayer and how every Christian must struggle always in prayer, and must pray unceasingly, as the Apostle Paul exhorts all Christians in general: Pray unceasingly (1 Thess. 5:17). And as also the Prophet David says, even though he was a king, and had all the cares of his kingdom: I saw the Lord before me continually (Ps. 15: 8). That is, I see the Lord always before me nostically (mentally), by means of prayer. The Theologian, Gregory, instructing all Christians, tells us that we must remember the name of God in prayer more often than we breathe. Having said this and many other things to his friend Job, the Saint told him in addition that we also must be obedient to the exhortations of the saints. Not only must we pray continuously, but we must teach all others in general monks, laymen, educated men, simple men, men, women, and children and we must incite them to pray unceasingly.
When the old man, Job, heard these things, it seemed like a novelty to him. He began to argue and to say to the saint that unceasing prayer is only for the ascetics and monks, who are outside the world and its distractions, and not for laymen, who have so many cares and labors. The saint again told him other passages and irrefutable proofs, but the old man, Job, would not be convinced. Wishing to avoid much talking and arguing, the divine Gregory kept silent, and each one went to his cell.
Afterwards, when Job was alone, praying in his cell, there appeared before him an angel of the Lord, sent by God, who desires the salvation of all men. After he had greatly censured him for arguing with St. Gregory and withstanding things that were obvious – through which the salvation of Christians is brought about – he ordered him, on behalf of God, to take care henceforth to guard himself not to say any contradictory thing regarding any other soul-benefitting activity, for by doing so he withstood the will of God. Neither with his mind should he dare accept a contradictory thought, nor think differently from that which the divine Gregory told him. Then that most simple old man, Job, went immediately to the Saint and fell at his feet seeking forgiveness for his contradiction and contention. And he revealed to him all that the angel of the Lord had told him.
You see, my brethren, that all Christians have the obligation, from small to great, to pray always with the prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. Their mind and heart must become accustomed to always saying it. And consider how much God is pleased in this and how much benefit comes from this. For out of His extreme love for man He even sent a heavenly angel to reveal it to us so that we may no longer have any doubt in this.
But what do the laymen say? "We are in so many affairs and cares of the world. How is it possible for us to pray unceasingly?" And I answer that God did not command us to do anything that is not possible, but He commanded only those things which we are able to do. For this reason it is possible for everyone who diligently seeks the salvation of his soul to achieve this. If it were impossible it would be in general impossible for all laymen, and there would not be found so many in the world achieving it. Of these many, let the father of the above mentioned St. Gregory be an example. Konstantine, that wondrous man, who, even though he was in the royal court, and called the father and teacher of the Emperor Andronicus, daily concerned with royal matters as well as the affairs of his house, very rich, having many possessions, servants, children, and a wife, despite all this was inseparable from God. So much was he given over to unceasing mental prayer, that most of the time he forgot those things concerning royal matters which the Emperor and the princes of the palace had discussed together with him, and would ask again concerning the same matters once and twice. Because of this, the other princes, who did not know the cause, would become agitated and reprimand him that he so quickly forgot and bothered the Emperor with his second questions. But the Emperor, who knew the cause, would defend him and say, "Konstantine, the fortunate one, has his own thoughts that do not allow him to attend to our words which are about temporary and vain matters. Rather, the mind of that blessed one is nailed to things true and heavenly. For this reason he forgets earthly matters, since all his attention is on prayer and God." Wherefore, as the most holy Patriarch Philotheus narrates, Konstantine was respected and beloved by the Emperor, all the nobles of the kingdom, and the princes, as he was also beloved by God. And he, the all-praised one, was deemed worthy to perform miracles.
In the Life of Konstantine's son, St. Gregory, the most holy Philotheus says that one time, for the fulfillment of a vow and for a blessing, with all his family, he (Konstantine) embarked on a small ship to go above Galatas to see one anchorite who was living there in solitude. While they were travelling, he asked the servants if they had brought any provisions to take the Abba to eat together with him. They replied that in their haste they forgot and did not take anything. The blessed man was a little saddened, but said nothing. As they were travelling in the boat he put his hand in the sea and with silent mental prayer entreated the God and Master of the sea to give him a fish. After a little time (Oh, the wondrous works, Christ King, with which You strangely glorify Your servants!) he took his hand out of the sea, holding a large bass, which he cast into the boat before his servants and said: "Behold! the Lord has taken care for us and His servant, the Abba, and sent him food." Behold, my brethren, with what manner of glory Jesus Christ glorifies those servants who are always with Him and who constantly call upon His most holy and most sweet name.
Even that just and holy Eudokimos, was he not also in Constantinople in the palace and in royal matters? Did he not attend the Emperor and the nobles of the palace with so many cares and temptations?
And yet with all this he was never separated from mental prayer even while he spoke (as Symeon the Translator narrates in his life). Wherefore, even though he, the thrice-blessed, was found in the world among worldly matters, he lived a life truly angelic and above the world. He was deemed worthy by the reward-granting God to receive a blessed and divine end. Other many and innumerable ones were in the world and were altogether given over to mental and saving prayer as is found in the lives of the saints.
Therefore, my brother Christians, I beseech you, together with the divine Chrysostom, for the sake of the salvation of your souls do not be indifferent to this work of prayer. Imitate those of whom we have spoken, and follow them as much as possible. Though the thing seems difficult to you in the beginning, be assured and informed, as from the face of the All-ruling God, that when this very name of your Lord Jesus Christ is called upon by you every day, unceasingly, it shall ease all your difficulties. With the passing of time, as we become accustomed to it and find joy in it, we shall know by trial that it is neither impossible nor difficult, but possible and easy. For this reason the divine Paul, who knew better than we the great benefit that prayer has, commanded us to pray unceasingly (I Thess. 5:17). And he never advised a difficult and impossible thing which we could not do, and from which, consequently, it would be necessary for us to appear disobedient and transgressors of his commandments, and for this cause be condemned. Rather, the purpose of the Apostle, who said "pray unceasingly," was that we should pray with our mind inasmuch as it is possible for us to do it always. Even when we are working, walking, sitting, eating, and drinking, we are always able to pray with our minds and to have mental prayer, which is true prayer and pleasing to God. With the body let us work and with the mind let us pray. Let the outer man do every bodily service and the inner man be altogether dedicated to the worship of God and never absent from this spiritual work of mental prayer as the Godman, Jesus, commanded in the Holy Gospel, saying: When you pray, enter into your treasury;1 and closing your door, pray to your Father, Who is in the bidden place (Matt. 6:6). The treasury of the soul is the body; the doors of ourselves are the five senses. The soul enters into its treasury when the mind is not wandering here and there among the things of the world, but is found in our heart. Our senses close and remain sealed when we do not allow them to become attached to things that are tangible and are seen. In this manner our mind remains free from every worldly attachment. By means of hidden mental prayer you are united with God, your Father, and then, as the Evangelist says, Your Father Who sees in the hidden place shall reward you openly (Matt. 6:6). God, Who knows the heart, sees your mental prayer and rewards it with manifest and great gifts. Since it is the true and perfect prayer (that is: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me), it fills the soul with Divine grace and spiritual gifts just as myrrh, which, the more you close it in its vessel, the more it perfumes the vessel. So it is with prayer. As much as you close it in your heart, so much more does it fill us with Divine grace. Blessed and fortunate are they who accustom themselves to this heavenly work, because by this they defeat every temptation of the evil demons, just as David conquered the proud Goliath (I Samuel 17:51). With this they quench the disorderly desires of the flesh, just as the three children quenched the flame of the furnace (Daniel 3: 49, 50).2 With this working of mental prayer, they calm the passions just as Daniel tamed the wild lions (Dan. 6: 18-22). With this they bring down the dew of the Holy Spirit into their hearts, just as Elias brought down rain at Carmel (I Kings 18:45). This mental prayer is that which ascends unto the throne of God and is kept in golden bowls that the Lord may be censed with it, as the Theologian, John, says in Revelation: And the twenty-four presbyters fell down before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (Rev. 5:8). This mental prayer is a light that always enlightens the soul of man, and ignites his heart with the flames of the love of God. It is a chain that keeps God and man united face to face. O, incomparable grace of mental prayer! It makes a man always converse with God. O, truly wondrous and extraordinary thing, to be together with men, bodily, and found together with God, mentally! The angels do not have a material voice, but with their minds they offer doxology to God continually – this is their work; to this is all their life dedicated.
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1. The Greek word tameion, translated "closet" in the English versions, is more correctly translated "treasury" or "storehouse" – a place where valuables are kept in safety. Trans.
2. These verses are not included in the Protestant Bibles. They are found in the Septuagint and Douay versions, thus: But the angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and bis companions into the furnace: and be drove the flame of the fire out of the furnace. And be made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew, and the fire touched them not at all, nor troubled them, nor did them any harm. (Trans. note.)
Therefore, you too, brother, when you enter into your treasury and close the door – that is, when your mind is not scattered here and there, but enters into your heart, and your senses are closed and not attached to things of this world, and your mind prays there always, then you become linked to the holy angels, and your Father Who sees your secret prayer, which you offer in the hidden place of your heart, will reward you openly with great and spiritual gifts. What greater thing could you desire from this than to be always found with God mentally, as we said, and to converse with Him unceasingly? Without this, no man can be blessed, neither here nor in the other life. Therefore, brother, whoever you may be, when you take this book (the Philokalia) in your hands and desire to derive benefit to your soul by reading it, I beseech you fervently: remember to make a supplication to God with one "Lord have mercy" for the sinful soul of him who labored on this book and of him who went to expense to have it printed. For they have great need of your prayer that they may find Divine mercy for their souls, and you for yours. So be it; so be it.
THE SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY
By
ARCHIMANDRITE SEBASTIAN DABOVICH
At the end of the first week of Great Lent, when her children have been prepared by strict fasting and attendance at the long Lenten services, the Orthodox Church celebrates the "Rite of Orthodoxy". In each diocese the faithful gather around their bishop to celebrate the Church's triumph over error and heresy, to confess the true Faith and to cleanse the Church by excluding from her number by solemn anathema all who oppose and defile the purity of her credo. To faithful Orthodox this feast is a sign and confirmation of their unity with all who confess the one true Faith, both on earth and in Heaven for in the Church all are alive in Christ. This service is a touchstone of true Orthodoxy, in which no "ecumenism", no "dialogue" are possible, but only straightforward confession of that faith which has confirmed the universe".
The following is another in a series of reprints of articles published at the end of the last century by the first American-born Orthodox priest and missionary. Born in San Francisco in 1863 of Serbian parents, Arcimandrite Sebastian died in 1940 at the Zhicha Monastery in Yugoslavia, after a life devoted to preaching the Word of God.
ON THIS FIRST SUNDAY in Lent, the Church, in memory and in thanksgiving for her victory in the struggles and labors in protecting the true faith against the contentions of evil-minded heretics, celebrates the "Triumph of Orthodox Christianity," and for this reason we call this day "The Sunday of Orthodoxy."
It was in 787 A. D. that the Church, in universal Council assembled, decreed, among other resolutions and canonical acts, that it was lawful for Christians to use in their private and public worship sacred images (i.e., pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Mother, of the Saints, and sacred events in Biblical and Christian history), when divine adoration was ascribed to God alone, and when reverence is offered in honor of His works – the objects which these cherished pictures represent to us.
The Christian doctrine necessary for our salvation, as revealed in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, has been expounded and delivered to us, free from all mixture of human and heretical interpretation, by the Seven Great Councils. The one mentioned above was the last, namely the seventh. These councils defined the teaching concerning the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity in the one Godhead, the advent in the world of the Son of God, the relations between the Church Militant on earth and the Church Triumphant in Heaven, the Providence of God in our reward and in our punishment, the Apostolic Succession and Hierarchical Economy as necessary for the continuance of Christ's work in the world, the Seven Sacraments, and others.
It was not long, however, before again heresy began to show itself in some branches of the Church, and when some ambitious people would impose upon the Church their personal and fallible opinions. Toward off the false shoots and upstarts, and to remind Christians of the binding rules and canons of the Seven Councils, a large assembly of Holy Fathers and teachers gathered in Constantinople in 842 A. D. under the protection of the good Empress Theodora, and, mindful of the Divine Judgement pronounced of the Holy Spirit, though it was by the condescendingly lovable Apostle St. Paul, that if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha, they declared: To those who reject the councils of the Holy Fathers and their traditions which are agreeable to Divine Revelation, and which the Orthodox Catholic Church piously maintains, Anathema!
This council sat in convention during the first week of Great Lent. While fasting and praying they collected all the decisions of the Seven Councils. When Sunday came they marched in solemn procession, bearing the holy Cross, sacred images of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, being followed by a multitude of Christians devoutly chanting the hymn which you have heard today and which translated reads thus: To Thy most pure Icon we bow down, O Blessed One, praying for forgiveness of our sins, Christ our God; for, of Thine own will, Thou didst condescend to ascend the Cross in flesh, and thereby to deliver Thy creatures from the yoke of the enemy. Therefore we thankfully cry unto Thee, Thou hast filled all things with joy, O Saviour, Thou Who camest to save the world.
Having come into the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia this religious and noted assemblage offered the most impressive praise service or Te Deum ever known in the grand liturgies of the Holy Orthodox Church. We have in the words of the Psalmist David the key note which reechoed in the thunder of anathemas and resounded in the peals of praise of this complete and universal thanksgiving service: Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God alone that doest wonders. Here were recounted all the false teachings condemned by the Ecumenical Councils, and even persons were anathematized for willfully adhering to heresy, who did not repent of their sins and earnestly seek the truth by their return to membership in the Church of Christ. Among such were those "who deny the existence of God, and unreasonably maintain that the world exists of itself, and that all things happen through fate and without the Providence of God; those who insolently dare to say that the All-Pure Virgin Mary before Her bringing forth, in Her bringing forth, and after Her bringing forth was not a virgin; those who believe not that the Holy Spirit gave wisdom to the Prophets and Apostles, and through them proclaimed to us the true way to everlasting salvation, and that he confirmed them by wonders, nor believe that now He dwells in the hearts of true and faithful Christians leading them all to the truth; those who deny the immortality of the soul, who reject the Councils of the Holy Fathers and the traditions unanimous with Divine Revelation which the Orthodox Catholic Church with veneration preserves; those who defame and blaspheme the holy icons which the Holy Church uses to remember the works of God and His Saints, so that they who look upon the same may be incited to fear God and to imitate what they see; and those who say icons are idols."
It may be necessary before we proceed to explain the word anathema; it means condemnation and excommunication until restored after sincere repentance. In some cases it may be not only a temporal ban but a curse. Indeed, there are some members of the Church today, Christians, who do not fully realize that the Church of Christ is a living organism which, through the supernatural indwelling of the Holy Spirit, exists as a moral being empowered within her sphere not only to bless, but also to curse. Such ones of course do not read the Bible. Those who have studied the Epistles of the Apostles know that it was required of the Corinthians to put away from among themselves that wicked person (1 Cor. 5:13). Likewise the command was given to Titus, hear: A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject (Tit. 3: 10). Did not our Lord Jesus Christ say If thy brother neglect to bear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen man and a publican (Matt. 18:17). And again our Lord speaks: Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 18: 18).
Since the time of this council which we have just now been considering, the Church annually, until our day, "has celebrated the triumph of Truth over heresy, and blessed the memory of as well as commended the work of all them that by words, writings, teachings, sufferings, as also by a life well pleasing to God, have contended for Orthodoxy as her defenders and helpers". Among those now living are named the Royal and Imperial Benefactors, the Orthodox Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, the Holy Synods of the Russian and other Orthodox churches, the Most Reverend Bishops, the Reverend Clergy, all right believing Christians who, through saving faith and good works, are expecting everlasting blessedness. Thus the Church today in most of the Diocesan Cathedrals throughout the world, while joyfully praising and honoring them that "submitted their understanding to the obedience of Divine Revelation", and have contended for the same by following the Holy Scriptures and holding fast the traditions of the primitive Church, at the same time "humbly supplicates Almighty God for those who, by heresy or by schism, have set themselves against His evangelical truth that He may soften their hearts, open their ears that they may recognize His voice, heal their corruptions and deliver them out of error".
When we see how the Lord of creation and the Shepherd of His elect flock has preserved His Church undefiled and whole through long ages of the most terrible temptations, and when we hear the prophet cry out that God wills no one to be lost, but that all may come to repentance and to the understanding of the truth, we can not else but cry out: Who is so great a God as our God Thou art the God alone that doest wonders! Amen.
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
WE ARE INVITED to the company of Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Dominions, Angels and Archangels in place of the spirits who exalted themselves and fell. These exalted themselves and said in themselves to God: How will You make up our deficiency, which is intolerable and perceptible for You, as for the Most Wise, Who tolerates deficiency and disharmony nowhere in His world?" (St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ.)
...But to the wisdom and omnipotence of God there are no bounds. Through endless space, as if at a sign of the Divine band, are strewn numberless starry worlds, of extraordinary beauty and barmony. And lost in the midst of this immense cosmos is a speck the earth. And on it from dust and nothingness arises a new creature, man, with the precious gift of likeness to God.1
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1. I. M. Kontzevich, The Sources of Tolstoy's Spiritual Catastrophe (Munich, 1960), p. 104.
The descent of Christ into hell; the traditional icon of the Resurrection. By Pimen Sofronov.
When the ancient pre-Christian world had reached the spiritual readiness to accept Christ, God sent His Only-begotten Son to earth to transform men into heavenly beings. Christendom is the whole host of mortals who, with free will, have sensed the Divinity of Christ and chosen to die to "this world" only to be born again in Him and to live forever. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and the beginning of our spiritual rebirth.
The Body of Christ, the Orthodox Church, in the course of its first millenium worked out all that is necessary for man during the course of his earthly existence, while awaiting the General Resurrection to the next world. Christianity became the world religion; the highest peak of civilization was attained by Byzantium, where the whole of society was patterned upon Divine Truth.
But men, tempted by the Prince of this world to seek their end on the earth, gradually fell back, with the "Renaissance," to the pagan concept of life; developing their knowledge of this passing world, they ceased to have contact with God. To them God became "dead." As a result, the contemporary world-view is founded upon a refusal to face man's mortality and the inevitability of death in fact, upon a fear of death. Modern thought culminates in a dream, a form of what the Church calls prelest, of the communal construction of paradise on earth, the reigning idea of the present age. The Resurrection of Christ becomes merely a feast of spring...
To a sober Orthodox Christian, however, death is a reality both necessary and beneficial; for it forces man to seek and find the truth of himself beyond the bounds of his earthly existence, beyond time and space. The Christian acceptance of death gives a new value to life on earth; it gives divine hope and acts as the beginning of one's awakening to the New Birth in Christ.
By night, hidden from the ways of this world, like Nicodemus in the Gospel, must a contemporary man come to the truth of Orthodoxy in quest of Christ's Resurrection. Only the great mystery of a man's heart being touched by Christ Himself can orient one to sense truly the paschal joy. Words fail to describe what is beyond the human frame of reference. Yet when Christian martyrs, aflame with Christ's Resurrection, eagerly gave themselves up to their torturers, they knew by experience the Truth for which they were dying. The desert Fathers withdrew from the world to preserve this living holy Fire of Christ's Resurrection. Almost two thousand years later, St. Seraphim of Sarov, his heart purified by solitary podvig, became a vessel of this spirit and greeted every man with the joyous words, "Christ is risen," seeing God's image in every man.
Orthodoxy today is going through a period of trials and purification. Everywhere the most subtle temptations challenge the purity of one's faith; thus is one spiritually tested, to see if he hungers for the one True Christ or the multitudinous, many-faced antichrists. The Christian today can withstand these temptations only if, having personally experienced Christ's Resurrection in his heart, he realizes his own absolute sinfulness and knows the presence of Christ in his life. The annual period of Great Lent becomes a necessary preparation for the experience of the Risen Christ, and this experience is then repeated every Sunday throughout the whole year – for Sunday is the day of the Resurrection (in Russian the very words are identical). Thus the man who lives the life of the Church is gradually transformed by the power of the Resurrected Christ, even while still on earth, into a dweller of Heaven; for this, in truth, is that for which he was created.
A statement by the head of the free Russian Church on the Orthodox relation to the Church of Rome
AN APPEAL
TO HIS HOLINESS ATHENAGORAS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, NEW ROME, AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH1
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1. Translated from the newspaper Russian Life, San Francisco, Feb. 2, 1966.
Your Holiness:
From the Holy Fathers we have inherited the testament that in the Church of God all is done according to canonical order, in unity of mind and in agreement with ancient traditions. If, however, any from among the bishops or even from among the representatives of autocephalous Churches should do anything not in agreement with what the whole Church teaches, each member of the Church may declare his protest. The 15th rule of the Double Council of Constantinople in 861 acknowledges as worthy of "the honor befitting an Orthodox Christian" those bishops or clergy who withdraw from communion even with their Patriarch, if he should publicly preach heresy or teach such openly in the Church. Thus we are all guardians of the Church's truth, which has always been defended by concern that nothing possessing significance for the whole Church be done without the agreement of all.
For this reason our relation to various divisions which go beyond the bounds of separate Local Churches has also been determined not otherwise than by the agreement of all these Churches.
If our division with Rome was originally determined in Constantinople, subsequently it was accepted by the whole Orthodox Church and became an act of the whole Orthodox world. No one Local Church separately and in particular the Church of Constantinople, long respected by all of us, from whom our Russian Church received the treasure of Orthodoxy – can change anything in the matter without the prior agreement of all. Moreover we, the presently ruling bishops, cannot execute decisions which would be in disagreement with the teaching of the Holy Fathers who have lived before us in particular, insofar as the matter concerns the West, Sts. Photius of Constantinople and Mark of Ephesus.
In the light of these principles we, though we are the youngest of the representatives of the Church, yet as the head of the autonomous, free portion of the Russian Church, consider it our duty to declare a decisive protest against the act of Your Holiness concerning the solemn declaration, simultaneously with the Pope of Rome, of the removal of the excommunication proclaimed by Patriarch Michael Cerularius in 1054.
We heard many expressions of dismay when Your Holiness, before the whole world, did something novel, unknown to Your predecessors and contrary to the tenth Apostolic rule, by meeting the Pope of Rome, Paul VI, in Jerusalem. We shall say frankly, without hesitation: the offense was great. We have heard that as a result of this many monasteries on the Holy Mountain of Athos ceased to mention the name of Your Holiness during Divine services. Now, however, You go yet further when, by decree of Yourself and the bishops only of Your Synod, You abrogate the decree of Patriarch Michael Cerularius, confirmed and accepted by the entire Orthodox East. Doing this, Your Holiness acts in disagreement with the relation toward Roman Catholicism that has been adopted by our whole Church. It is not a question of one or another valuation of the conduct of Cardinal Humbert; it is not a question of any personal falling-out between Pope and Patriarch that could be casily healed by mutual Christian forgiveness; no the essence of the question lies in those deviations from Orthodoxy which have become rooted in the Roman Church during the course of centuries, first of all the teaching of Papal infallibility, definitively formulated at the First Vatican Council. The declaration of Your Holiness and the Pope justly acknowledges the act of "mutual pardon" as insufficient for the cessation of former as well as of more recent divergences. But more than that: this act places a sign of equality between error and truth. During the course of centuries the whole Orthodox Church has justly believed that she has departed in nothing from the teaching of the Holy Ecumenical Councils, while at the same time the Roman Church has accepted a series of novelties, discordant with Orthodoxy, in her dogmatic teaching. The more these novelties have been introduced, the deeper has the division become between East and West. The dogmatic deviations of 11th-century Rome did not yet contain such errors as were added later. Therefore the revocation of the mutual interdictions of 1054 might have had a significance in that epoch, but now it serves only as a witness of neglect for the most important and essential: namely, the new teachings, unknown to the ancient Church, that were proclaimed after that, of which several, being indicted by St. Mark of Ephesus, served as a reason why the Union of Florence was rejected by the Holy Church.
We declare decisively and categorically:
No union of any sort of the Roman Church with us is possible until she renounces her new dogmas, and it is not possible to reestablish communion in prayer with her without the decree of all Churches which, however, is not regarded by us as possible until the Russian Church, now compelled to live in the catacombs, becomes free. The hierarchy now headed by Patriarch Alexei cannot express the authentic voice of the Russian Church, for it is completely subservient to the atheist authority, executing its will. The representatives of several other Churches in Communist countries are also not free.
Inasmuch as the Vatican is not only a religious center, but also a state, and one's relations to it – as the recent visit of the Pope to the United Nations clearly showed – have also a political significance, one cannot fail to reckon with the possible influence of the atheist powers upon the hierarchy of the captive Churches, on one side or the other, in the question of the Roman Church.
History testifies that negotiations with those of different belief under the condition of pressure from political circumstances, have never brought the Church anything but disturbance and divisions. Therefore we consider it necessary to declare that our Russian Church Abroad, as undoubtedly also the Russian Church now in the "catacombs," will not consent to any "dialogues" whatever with other confessions concerning dogmas, and she rejects beforehand every agreement with them in this connection, acknowledging the possibility of a restoration of unity with them only if they accept in full Orthodox doctrine in that form in which it has been preserved until now by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. As long as this condition is unfulfilled, the interdictions of Patriarch Michael Cerularius maintain all their force, and their removal by Your Holiness is an act uncanonical and invalid.
To be sure, we are not opposed to well-wishing mutual relations with the representatives of other confessions, as long as Orthodox truth is not betrayed thereby. For this reason our Church at one time accepted the kind invitation to send observers to the Second Vatican Council, just as she had sent observers to the Protestant Conferences of the World Council of Churches, in order to have information from first hand concerning the work of these meetings, without any participation in their decisions. We value a good relation to our observers and study with interest their detailed reports, which testify to the beginning of significant changes in the Roman Church. We shall thank God if these changes will serve the cause of her drawing near to Orthodoxy. However, if Rome must change much in order to return to "the confession of the Apostolic faith," the Orthodox Church, which has preserved this faith until now uncorrupted, has nothing to change.
Church tradition and the example of the Holy Fathers teach us that no dialogue is conducted with Churches that have fallen away from Orthodoxy. To them is always directed sooner the monologue of the Church's preaching, in which the Church calls them to return to her bosom through rejection of every teaching not in accord with her. A genuine dialogue supposes an exchange of opinions, admitting the possibility of the persuasion of the participants in it for the attainment of agreement. As is apparent from the encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, Pope Paul VI understands dialogue as a plan for our annexation to Rome, or for the restoration of communion with her with the aid of some kind of formula, which however leaves her doctrine totally unchanged, and in particular her dogmatic teaching on the position of the Pope in the Church. But any agreement with error is foreign to the whole history of the Orthodox Church and to her very being. It could lead, not to unanimous confession of the truth, but to a visionary external union similar to the agreement of the differently-minded Protestant societies within the Ecumenical Movement.
May such a betrayal of Orthodoxy not penetrate to our midst!
We fervently beg Your Holiness to place a limit to the offense, for the path which You have chosen, if it should further bring You into union with the Roman Catholics, would call forth a division in the Orthodox world; for undoubtedly many of Your own spiritual children also will prefer faithfulness to Orthodoxy above the ecumenical idea of a compromising union with non-Orthodox without their full agreement in the truth.
Begging Your holy prayers, I remain Your Holiness' obedient servant.
Metropolitan Philaret Chairman of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
By THEOKLITOS, MONK OF DIONYSIOU Monastery of the Holy Mountain Athos
The conduct of the present Patriarch of Constantinople is bere viewed against the background of the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The author is the foremost literary figure of the Holy Mountain, author of works on St. Nicodemos and other Orthodox subjects, as well as articles on contemporary questions, and a spokesman for the large number of Orthodox Greeks who continue to hold firmly to the Orthodoxy of the Fathers.1
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1. Translated from the Greek religious newspaper Typos, Athens, June, 1965.
THE HISTORY OF the Ecumenical throne has been bound together with the Queen of Cities. From her it drew its ecumenicity, and from her it received its splendor for sixteen centuries. It experienced grandeur as "The Great Church of Christ," and as "the eye of the ecumene." It was the center of Orthodoxy, about which revolved and from which was illuminated the most holy Church. It was the protector (in the East) of truth. Its authority was universal and established by authority of an Ecumenical Council "by the fact that Constantinople has the kingdom and the senate."
The city fell under the blows of Asiatic barbarians. The Byzantine Kingdom was destroyed. But the Ecumenical Patriarchate, even without the worldly prop of "kingdom and senate" preserved undiminished its ecumenicity. No one thought to doubt it. Why? Because, even though this special honor as well as the title of New Rome was bestowed upon it for reasons of worldly splendor by the Fourth Ecumenical Council, its ecumenicity was derived rather from its bright history, from its struggles for Orthodoxy, from its acknowledgement by all the other Churches as the Mother Church, preserving dogma intact and tradition unmarred. It was ever regarded by local Churches in other parts as a security for the preservation of the unadulterated Apostolic preaching and Patristic dogmas.
Only once was the prestige of the Patriarchate of Constantinople insulted. And this when? Not after the subjugation by the Turks when it passed into ingloriousness, but rather when it was yet adorned with the worldly splendor of the Byzantine Empire. The conservative daughter of the Great Church of Christ, the Russian Church, when it was informed by Isidore of Kiev of the shameful false union of Ferrara, at once enclosed Isidore in prison and proclaimed the Ecumenical Patriarchate contaminated and broke off all relation with it. From that time there was forged the idea of Moscow as the Third Rome.
What does this all mean? That the ecumenicity of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and its prestige are shaken neither by loss of paternal lands, nor by deprivation of dioceses, nor by slavery. Both its prestige and its ecumenicity are shaken only by heresy. And this fact is a logical consequence of an institution which although militant in the world yet radiantly exhibits eternal truths which are neither strengthened nor yet weakened, by the changes of human things.
Today the Ecumenical Patriarchate is threatened by Turkey with displacement from the Queen of Cities. And we have been troubled, both as a Church and as a nation. And, most justly, we protested to all the world concerning this new barbarous design of the Hagarenes. We do not know finally what will come about. In any case we must struggle so that our Patriarchate may not be uprooted from the historic Phanar for reasons of national sentiment. But we must also be realistic. For it is possible, in spite of our every opposition, that the threats may be realized. And that which our race for centuries never even imagined might now become a reality. In this ever-moving world, the most unlikely and unexpected occurs. Did the Byzantines perchance fear that at some time they would be without a country? Did we perhaps ever expect the destruction of everything Greek in Asia Minor? At the present time in Turkey from four million Orthodox Greeks there now exist only a few thousands who are continually being expatriated. And in a not too distant future Hellenism there will be merely a nostalgic memory if the Lord does not overturn the "counsels of rulers" and reestablish in their old glory His people suffering on account of sins.
Therefore, the possibility can not be excluded that the Ecumenical Patriarchate may require a portion of Greek earth in order to be reestablished. Naturally we will give it. As hospitality? No. But as its own native Greek land. For the Patriarchate of Constantinople is Greek and reflects Greek-Christian values as no other institution, and embodies the ideals of the nation as no other establishment.
But although we are troubled with the idea of the uprooting of the Patriarchate and we speak against the Turks, we have not thought however if the cause is found in the Patriarchate itself. Perhaps our Patriarchate is self-persecuted – the same persecuting itself! For, after all, we are Christians and we believe that nothing happens without God, and indeed, when it concerns the Church of Christ, why should we not interpret events by faith, since we are faithful? Why should we not suspect that God Who permitted the destruction of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse permits the moving of the Patriarchate?
We read in the Revelation of St. John: Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, aud do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent... He that hath an ear, let him bear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.
Why, therefore, should we not believe that the "candlestick" of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is being "removed" by God Himself? For what reason? For its sins, perhaps, and for "blasphemies against the Spirit."
Since 1920 we have an influx of "blasphemies" (from the innovator Metaxakis and the Origenist Basil) which have reached their peak in the present Patriarch Athenagoras. "Blasphemies" without number, and of every kind! From 1949 until today, what have we not heard from his mouth. To what purpose should we repeat them? To what purpose should we speak of "his most beloved fatherland, Turkey"? Of his syrupy flatteries of Islam, although under no necessity, such as "we all believe in one God," or "when I become perplexed, I turn my gaze toward the portrait of Attaturk and am enlightened"? Of his self-formulated concelebrations with the Armenians? Of memorial services celebrated for dead Turks? Of the unforgivable photographs together with lamentable women? 1 Of the replacing of "God is the measure of truth" by "man is the measure"? Of his silence in the face of persistent accusations of his being a freemason? And of the scandalous affair of his insistent forcing of Iakovos on America, which threatened the unity of the Patriarchate? To what avail should we remind ourselves of the so well-known events of recent years in which the Patriarch of Constantinople ever consented to become a tool of a great worldly power in order to achieve a false union of churches at the expense of the Orthodox faith? Which one ever spoke in such a liberal and anti-Orthodox manner as this man? Who else ever said that "there are no differences between the Orthodox and the Latins?" Which other one wounded our national honor with his sickly Turkophilism? Who offered "earth and water" to the Pope? Who divided the Orthodox Greek Church into unionists and anti-unionists? Who ever led the prestige of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to such a humiliating position through a Latinizing policy without any tint of Orthodoxy? Why, then, do not all these constitute "blasphemies against the Holy Spirit"? And the evils which our Patriarchate and our people in Turkey underwent, do they not constitute "a just recompense" from God, not even sparing before such a condition the complete uprooting from the Queen of Cities?
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1. Photographs taken with beauty queens (trans. note).
Of course, they who reason without faith interpret the events differently. To us it makes no difference. If "from the dogma of creation follows necessarily the dogma of providence, and he who disbelieves in providence does not truly believe in God," then it becomes clear that we are not allowed to consider the development of human affairs in any other way except in God. And much more so when it concerns the Church.
From 1949, that is from the time when by the grace of America and Turkey, Athenagoras ascended the Ecumenical throne at the expense of the tragic Maximos, we have experienced only persecutions and sorrows. After exactly six years, the Greeks of Constantinople along with the Patriarchate underwent a second, indescribably tragic sacking. Some may say: because of the Cyprus issue. Yes, but the Cyprus issue was simply a pretext. Later there followed the expulsion from Turkey of thousands of Greeks. Now we face a clear threat of the disestablishment of the Patriarchate. That is disaster upon disaster in spite of all the Turkophilism of the Patriarch! And in spite of American assistance. And all this in order that we may be persuaded that when God is angry unto nought avail "the sons of men." And in order that the word of the Lord may be confirmed which says that when the salt loses its savor it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Already, after the humiliations which it has undergone (the Patriarch dragged to the courts, the Patriarchate censured by the Turks), and the dangers which it is suffering, after sixteen years of the Patriarchatship of Athenagoras our Patriarchate has become totally unrecognizable, controversial, uncertain, tested with fire, wavering between Protestantism, Orthodoxy, and Papism, with a diminished prestige. It is practically without a flock, battled by enemies, abandoned by "friends," pitied by Orthodox Churches, and by us mourned. But we have forgotten the Latins They also protest. Not, of course, because they are concerned for the Patriarchate. History tells us that they have not left unexploited an opportunity in order to wipe it off the face of the earth. The Latins fear to lose the Patriarch, the great friend, the great "unionist," as they call him, and thus lose the many unexpected promises. To no Patriarch did they do the honor to have a large portrait photograph of him in the Vatican, as was done for the "most spiritual" Athenagoras, as he was called, not without wages, by the famous Bea.
Those who look for advice to history, which is formed by God and men, see only one solution to the tragic dead-end into which the Ecumenical Throne has strayed. The abandoning of the so fatal "ecumenism," and the espousing again of much-betrayed Orthodoxy, by which Orthodoxy the throne of the Apostle Andrew existed in the midst of infinitely worse times, through the grace and invincible protection of God. Human calculations stemming from cowardice, faintheartedness, and unbelief with their inherent sacrifices of our most divine Orthodoxy, have been proven to be tragically deluding and deceiving. "God is not mocked." If "angels sinning He did not spare," how then will He not remove the "candlestick" of Constantinople, which is in danger of being extinguished by anti-Orthodox currents? For what further use is the unlit candle? For this reason we must as a Church face these happenings, in faith and prayer, in order to perceive that we primarily are at fault. And, abandoning hopes of salvation from the Papists and Protestants, we must draw near in repentance to Him who until today has preserved integral the Ark of our ethnoreligious traditions, even our Lord Jesus Christ, for "He careth for you."
His All-Holiness Athenagoras would offer an inestimable service to the Church and the Nation if, considering his tragic failures, he would decide, before it is far too late, to change his policy and bring back the ship of Jesus to that salvatory course of sail where he found it, from the Patriarchs who came before him. Or, if he cannot (for whatever reasons), let him surrender the helm to another, who thinks within the bounds of Orthodox teaching and tradition. And let us have no more "ecumenical" debuts for their light is so dazzling that the unfortunate candlestick which the Apostle Andrew lit is in danger of being put out totally.
It is sad that it has not been understood by circles in the Patriarchate how much the prestige of Orthodoxy has been diminished with the patristically inconceivable "ecumenism" of the Patriarch, and how much the Orthodox mind of our people has been corrupted. Three million Orthodox in the Western Hemisphere are wavering any moment to fall into the arms of the Papists and Protestants, inasmuch as they see their "own bishop" embraced at various times by heretics, and emotionally saying: "Nothing separates us! The past is full of misunderstandings!" And we are in danger from these confusing declarations about Orthodoxy of completely losing our faith. And yet, although the heretics have advanced unimaginably their positions within Greek Orthodoxy, although the holy bones and precious relics of our holy Fathers protest, although we verge on being definitely divided, although we have been abandoned by all and there exists the danger that even God may desert us to the mercy of the Turks, we mindlessly affirm that Orthodoxy "is projected on the world scene" in Jerusalem and by the laughable agents of Athenagoras in Europe and America!
In the meantime the Slavic Orthodox Churches twice gave a splendid lesson of Orthodox thinking to the Mother Great Church of Christ. One time in the year 1930, on the Holy Mountain Athos by the most wise and holy Nicholas of Ochrid, and once at the Third Meeting in Rhodes.1 And still we have not perceived from whence the ecumenicity and prestige of New Rome are endangered!
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1. Nicholas of Ochrid fought successfully at the Synod held on Mt. Athos in 1930 against the modernist innovations of Patriarch Meletios Metaxakis. At Rhodes, according to participants, the Slavic Churches united to censure the Ecumenical Patriarch for attempting to usurp papal powers, thus rejecting his claim to speak for the whole of Orthodoxy. Still another splendid lesson of Orthodox thinking was given in 1923 at the Pan Orthodox Council in Constantinople by the late Metrop. Anastassy, who courageously and resolutely opposed the innovations calculated to overthrow the sacred canons by the Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios IV.
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Translator's postface: Since this article was published, the Ecumenical Patriarch bas made three public statements which clearly indicate his beliefs and foreshadow future events. First, "We have the same faith, we worship the same God, we hold the same things as sacred and holy. Tradition has divided us, but it is necessary to find the incentive for union" (Rome, May 14, Reuters). The second statement: "We have been separated for 911 years and now the time bas come for us to be found together again. The Catholics and the Orthodox do not belong to two different Churches, but to two branches of the same Church" (Milan, Nov. 2, Corriere de la Sera). The third is the mutual lifting of the anathemas of 1054 between Constantinople and Rome (Dec. 7).
ORTHODOXY IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
THE LATEST STEP TOWARD "UNION"
The deviations from Orthodoxy of the present Patriarch of Constantinople have reached a new peak in the recent "ecumenical" act of "mutual pardon" with the Pope of Rome (Dec. 7, 1965). It is more than time to bring up in the English language Orthodox press what has been long discussed in the Greek and Russian press. With the formal statement of Metropolitan Philaret (reproduced above), together with a similar one made by Archbishop Chrysostomos of Athens, the voices of protest have now been joined by official declarations, and these have found responsive ears among the other Eastern Patriarchs. The Orthodox world is lining up into two camps; if the new "union" with Rome is accomplished, the unionists will find themselves in schism, cut off from the Orthodox Church.
As regards the Patriarch of Constantinople, a few basic facts should be kept in mind. First, he does not and cannot speak for the whole of the Orthodox Church; the present campaign of the unionists to make him the official spokesman for all of Orthodoxy has absolutely no foundation in Orthodox tradition; he is one bishop among many, enjoying a primacy only of honor among his fellow patriarchs and bishops.
Second, in the Orthodox Church no act or statement possesses validity merely because it comes from a bishop or patriarch; it can possess validity only if it is Orthodox. The actual statements and actions of Patriarch Athenagoras disqualify him to speak for any Orthodox Church, not even his own, since they represent, not Orthodoxy, but apostasy, – a departure from Orthodoxy which, if pursued further, will separate him entirely from the Church of Christ.
The propagandists for "union" disdain such facts; for them, fidelity to Orthodox tradition is a small thing. Their campaign, rather, is waged on the most primitive level, that of pure publicity – empty words and gestures which, though condemned by a sound Orthodox consciousness, are capable of exerting an immense influence over those, even within the Church herself, who are ignorant of Orthodox tradition.
The act of "mutual pardon" was such an empty gesture. Possessing no canonical validity in itself, what it was in fact was merely a sign to the world that the"union" is close at hand, that the Patriarch of Constantinople is prepared to abandon the Church of Christ to join the universal pseudo-religious organization envisioned by the Vatican.
Rather than anger, sorrow is perhaps the most appropriate response to such gestures – sorrow over the lack of love and understanding of their own tradition that such gestures reveal in the unionists. Anyone who actually believes that "nothing separates" Roman Catholicism from Orthodoxy, that they are but "two branches of the same Church," understands nothing whatever of genuine Orthodoxy. The unionists, apparently, are already Latins at heart, and the final act of union will only confirm their estrangement from the Church of Christ.
Let the unionists, then, the betrayers of Orthodoxy, become Catholics if they will; but let them cease from pretending to speak for the Orthodox Church, which most emphatically rejects them.
FIRST DUTCH ORTHODOX BISHOP
At the Liturgy on Sunday, Sept. 19, 1965, in the Russian Memorial Church dedicated to Job the Long-suffering in Brussels, the first Dutch Orthodox bishop, the former Archimandrite Jacob (Akkersdike), was consecrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret, together with the Most Rev. Archbp. Anthony (of Geneva) and the Right Rev. Bp. Nathaniel. The new bishop received the title of Bishop of the Hague and will be Archbp. Anthony's vicar for the Orthodox Dutch parishes.
The Dutch Orthodox Church is as yet small, the flock residing chiefly in The Hague and in Amsterdam. In The Hague they have a house with a women's convent. The growth of the Dutch Mission has been largely due to the efforts of two men: the new Bishop Jacob, and Hieromonk Adrian (Korporaal). Formerly Benedictine monks, they became interested in Orthodoxy through reading Patristic literature, finally becoming Orthodox themselves. After undergoing trials in the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, they asked Archbp. John of Western Europe to receive them, and since that time the Mission has flourished under the protection of the Russian Church Outside of Russia.
The Divine services of the young Church are conducted in Dutch. Hieromonk Adrian – who was raised to the rank of abbot on the same day – is principally responsible for the translation of the standard Orthodox service books into Dutch. Already through his efforts the Octoechos has been translated, and other translations are in progress.
Considerable interest in Orthodoxy has been awakened in the Dutch people. Already there have been numerous conversions from among Roman Catholics who have turned to Orthodoxy as a result of the current Protestantization of the Catholic Church. Here and elsewhere a broad field of missionary endeavor lies open before this young Church.
(Information from the Herald of the Western European Diocese, 1965, no. 5.)
NEW BOOKS
PALLADIUS: THE LAUSIAC HISTORY, trans. by Robert T. Meyer. The Newman Press, Westminster, Md., 1965. 265 pp.
The first great age of monasticism (the 4th and 5th centuries) was the background and spiritual foundation of the better known lives and writings of the great Fathers. Today it is the important theologians of that age that are best remembered; but the ordinary Christians of that day were more influenced by and hastened more to follow the great Fathers of the desert.
Egypt especially, from the number of its monks and hermits and the great sanctity of a few of them (St. Anthony the Great being the best known), became the chief center of the Christian monastic life. Many fled to the deserts of Egypt to undertake this life themselves; others, devout but not so firm in their resolve, travelled there as pilgrims to view the sites of the saints' great ascetic exploits, and to see and talk with living ascetics; others, not as fortunate, had to be content to read some of the many lives of the desert Fathers.
The Lausiac History of Palladius has been, throughout the centuries, one of the most popular accounts of the life of these Fathers. Written about 420 by a Bishop Palladius to the court chamberlain Lausus (whence the name), it contains not the lives of saints only, but offers rather a general account of the monastic and hermitic life of the time, attempts and failures at leading the Christian ascetic life being recorded side by side with the notable successes. Its value is thus all the greater. It is still regarded by historians as an important source for the early history of monasticism. For Christians it has the very practical benefit of giving valuable examples of the Christian spiritual life. It would be a serious mistake to regard these lives of desert ascetics as being relevant only to one age or to one special kind of life. The Orthodox Christian will recognize in them rather the Christian spiritual life itself, crystallized, as it were, in pure form. In different forms, it may be, the Orthodox believer of today wages the same spiritual battle, and so has much to learn from such a book. Here, as in much other early Christian literature, what has become only of historical or antiquarian interest to the non-Orthodox retains its full interest and practical value for the Orthodox Christian.
This new translation, one of a Roman Catholic series of "Ancient Christian Writers," makes The Lausiac History available to English-speaki readers for the first time in nearly fifty years. The English is clear, and the introduction and notes unobtrusive.
E. R.
The book reviewed bere may be purchased from ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN BOOKS & ICONS for $4.50.
A PILGRIMAGE TO
THE ORTHODOX HOLY PLACES OF AMERICA
AN INTRODUCTION
THE TRUE CHRISTIAN is a warrior fighting his way through the regiments of the unseen enemy to his homeland. Our homeland, according to the word of the Apostle, is beaven... The vain desires of this world drive us away from our homeland; love of them and habit clothe our soul as if in a hideous garment. The Apostles called it the external man. We, travelling in the voyage of this life and calling on God to help us, ought to be divesting ourselves of this hideous garment and clothing ourselves in new desires, in a new love of the age to come, and thereby to receive knowledge of how near or how far we are from our beavenly homeland.1
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1. From a letter of Father Herman, from "New Valaam," dated June 20, 1820.
These words of the teaching of our heavenly protector, Father Herman of Alaska, might well serve as an introduction to our pilgrimage. The Christian world-view eloquently presented therein asserts that men are temporary visitors travelling through this life to our real home, where we are to reap the fruits of our earthly labors. Thus any revelation of God's direct contact with men becomes a place kindred to us. Such-leaving historic sites aside are monasteries, those citadels of life and labor in Christ, where He in turn endows His servants with spiritual experience and opens their hearts to higher supernatural knowledge and consciousness. This is what Father Herman meant by changing the soul's spiritual garments.
In the Orthodox world pilgrimages to holy places have been regarded as a highly beneficial type of Christian spiritual labor. To the pilgrim monasteries are like oases on a hard journey through the exhausting desert of life. There he who "hungers and thirsts after righteousness" is able to receive strength enough to withstand any attacks in his unseen warfare, and to kindle a faith that moves mountains, walks on waters, and has communion with angels.
Today the podvig of authentic pilgrimaging is almost extinct. The inadequacy of true Christian witness on this continent has severely affected even Orthodox Christians. The "varieties of religious experience" which this country has produced are in actuality "varieties of psychic experience" and are hardly a testimony of authentic religiousness; upon a careful examination in the light of the laws of the true spiritual life and tradition, one can immediately detect their invalidity as Christian experience. Our times have been rightly called "post-Christian." Surely the recent drastic changes on all fronts undermine Christianity's last signs of life. Does that, however, mean that true Christianity is extinct? There where it is persecuted it is only strengthened in the catacombs and is concealed from us.
In America, where Orthodoxy is relatively young, there are nevertheless some holy places scattered like oases with springs of the Living Water. To them we can hold pilgrimages to strengthen our faith and accumulate the experience, badly needed today, of the spiritual world. But before embarking to these shrines of Orthodoxy, we must bear in mind that their greater value lies not as much in what they are in themselves, as in what they represent. Their potential higher power depends on the worth of our personal spiritual quest.
ALASKA, the first site of Orthodoxy in America, fascinates the 20th-century pilgrim as a distant virgin land clad in mist and adorned with still undiscovered treasures of divine Orthodoxy. The beautiful and picturesque St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka (our cover), having symbolized Orthodoxy in America for over a hundred years, will serve as our pilgrimage's preliminary point of destination and beyond it northward lies the holy island of Father Herman, whither we are bound.
SITKA, the site of Metropolitan Innocent's apostolic endeavours, treasures the famous Kazan "Madonna of Alaska" and many objects related to its great apostle. The cornerstone of St. Michael's was laid in 1844, and the Cathedral was dedicated in 1848. Early this year it was destroyed by fire, and funds are now being collected to build it anew.
Next issue: A Pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery near Jordanville, N.Y.
HOLY TRINITY ORTHODOX SEMINARY
LIBRARY BUILDING FUND
Work has already been started on the newest building at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York. It will house the Seminary library, which now comprises some 21,000 books, as well as an auditorium and chapel. The area that will be vacated in the main Seminary building when the new structure is completed is urgently needed for students' quarters, the number of seminarians having doubled in the last year.
Only one floor is to be built now; a second floor will be added later, to be used for classrooms. The building is modeled after the Seminary building at Pochaev Monastery in southwestern Russia.
Work was begun with the aid of a large donation by the Dean of Holy Trinity Seminary, Dr. Nicholas Alexander, and expenses are being kept to a minimum through the contribution of their labor by several seminarians. In order to finish even the first floor, however, many donations are yet needed. Orthodox Christians throughout America are urged to aid this worthy cause.
Contributions may be sent to:
LIBRARY BUILDING FUND HOLY TRINITY ORTHODOX SEMINARY JORDANVILLE, NEW YORK
The Orthodox Word No. 7
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