| St. Paisius Velichkovsky. Russia adopted Holy Orthodoxy and its world-view with unusual ease, yet with sincerity and open-heartedness. One can say without reservation that Byzantium itself, whence we received holy Orthodoxy, did not suspect that in Russia, in the Russian people, a worthy successor was being prepared. So it must be that Russia was brought to the Christian faith through Divine Providence in order to preserve the truth of correct theology, of genuine Orthodox Christianity. One can assume that it was through Divine Providence, again, that a great and mighty Russia arose just when its populace converted to Christianity, at the very time when Western Christians departed from true Orthodoxy, falling to heretical falsehoods, when the Eastern Orthodox world was threatened by Islam; Russia was just then being prepared by Divine Providence to become the keeper of the true teachings of divine revelation, becoming the new chosen people for the preservation on earth of the true Orthodox faith. In our early Kievan history, through the efforts of Holy Prince Vladimir and his heirs, Russia began to blossom spiritually, to gain strength, both politically and administratively. Yet with the onslaught of the Tatars and the havoc they wrought, one could say that this blossoming ceased. Then, despite the heavy losses and sorrows endured by Russia from heathens and the heterodox, the hearts of the Russian people became even more closely bound to the Holy Orthodox Church, and the authority of the Orthodox faith reached a higher level. A new epoch of spiritual loftiness and renewal came in the centuries that followed—the 14th and 15th centuries. This is the era of St Sergius of Radonezh and his ascetic followers who established monasteries throughout northeast Russia, with settlements growing around them. Thus did " Holy Russia " expand and grow. Once again, in the early 16th century, because Russia found itself separated from the Orthodox East and because Byzantium was under Turkish control, the character of the spiritual struggle in our Fatherland gradually began to shift. Troubles and conflicts arose between the " possessors " and the " non-possessors. " Then our monastics were met with a much worse period, that of the reign of Emperor Peter I. It reached the point where monastics were persecuted, especially when foreign figures surrounded our country " s empresses. In the second half of the 18th century, a shift began, and Russian monasticism enjoyed a renascence. Of great significance for this rebirth and renewal of Russian monasticism was the Elder Schema-monk Paisius Velichkovsky. |
| In the later 14th and early 15th centuries there was a flowering of Armenian theology and philosophy, especially among pro-Roman Armenian writers, seen most notably in the works of Gregory Tat’evaci and his Book of Questions, which has a similar status in Armenian Church literature that John of Damascus had among the Byzantines, summing up a long tradition synthetically. In 1307 the hierarchy of Little Armenia entered into formal relations with the patriarchate of Rome following the Council of Sis, a union that was reaffirmed at the Council of Florence (1438–9), though this settlement was not endorsed at the time by any Armenian council. The clergy and people of Greater Armenia, however, did not accept the union, and after their experience of discussions at the Council of Florence, where the westerners had set out a program for sacramental observance by the Armenians (the text of the Pro Armenis), they decided to reestablish the line of independent catholicoi at Etchmiadzin in 1441. The catholicate at Sis entered a long period of relative political decline. The site was destroyed after the genocide in the early 20th century, and from the 1930s Antelias in Lebanon became the administrative center of the catholicate of Cilicia. The Armenian Church in the period after the Middle Ages continued to be influenced by both Latin and Byzantine currents. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Armenian bishop of the city rose in importance. After the 18th century he was recognized by the sultans as ethnarch of all the Armenian peoples in the Ottoman Empire. By this time Constantinople had become a major city where Armenian culture flourished. Venice, too, which provided printing presses for Armenian literature, was particularly significant in the 16th and 18th centuries in consolidating the Armenian religious and literary culture anew. After the Ottoman collapse, Constantinople quickly dwindled in significance, although Jerusalem remained until the 20th century as a significant center of Armenian affairs and pilgrimage center until demographic changes reduced its Armenian population drastically. The issue of having disparate catholicates continued into the modern era, providing a polarized “sense of belonging” in the affairs of the Armenian Church, which has only had the occasion of being addressed more strenuously among the Armenians in very recent times. Apart from the Catholic |
| The bastard gamine born from this political chaos was a short, irreligious, power-hungry Corsican who, after brandishing his tyranny over his post-revolution homeland, afterwards plunged the entire European continent, Russia and Britain included, into a series of wars that made the reformation wars of the 16th and 17th centuries look like child play. The battle of Waterloo put the bloodletting to a temporary rest. But for England in particular, these Napoleonic wars plunged the nation into an economic depression that would not be overcome until the middle of the 19th century. Looking back on this allows for a second look at whether or not “religion causes more harm than good.” The post-Christian European age quickly proved itself just as capable of human massacre as any of its previous forbearers. The 20th century, however, really takes the cake, revealing the total folly of any argument claiming that religious belief is the driving force behind human violence. Historians now estimate that the mutual casualties of WWI (20 million) and WWII (50 million) amount to more human beings killed during the first half of the 20th century than an all the previous centuries of human history combined. (My italics). And, as any 8th grader is now knows, these horrific wars of the 20th century were driven, not by any religious ideology, but by nationalism, (WWI) fascism, and atheistic communism (WWII). So, as David Bently Hart writes, “the historical evidence of the 20th century demonstrates that – far from bring an end to intolerance and cruelty [of religious institutions], these [political ideologies] proved themselves quite capable of incubating social evils more monstrously brutal, heartless, and violent than any hitherto imagined… showing the postmodern collapse of confidence in the Enlightenment project.” So, for Hart its all about body-count. For every single person killed in the name of religious intolerance, there are 1000’s and 1000’s more who have been slaughtered upon the altars secular ideology. Fittingly, it is high time for those are capable of any reasoning at all to repudiate once and for all the lunacy of the idea that religion is the principle cause of war. The true reason for the bloodshed is quite simple actually: the human race has an inclination towards hatred and violence towards its own kind that is unparalleled anywhere else on the planet. And unfortunately, this will be so until the end of the age. |
| The Moslems, like the Persians and Jews before them, objected to portraying God in art. They considered it sacrilegous and accused the Christians of being idol worshippers. The easternmost Christians were particularly sensitive to these charges, so when Leo III, an Armenian, became emperor of Constantinople, he forbade the use of icons. More Than Adornment Persecution and vigorous controversies were the result. Church leaders maintained that the icons were more than mere adornments to the churches: they represented the very core of Christianity – the Incarnation of God, “I have seen the human image (icon) of God,” said St. John of Damascus, “and my soul is saved.” Finally, in 843, the government gave in and the icons were restored to the churches. There are two distinct schools of iconography, the Greek and the Russian. In addition, many Western Romanesque paintings are local Italian, Spanish, and French variants of Byzantine iconography. Byzantine Greek iconography was the original model for all Christian art. The figures are generally massive, with clean cut lines and brilliant colors. Russian iconography came into its own from the 14th to the 16th centuries. It differs from the Greek in its more subdued colors, curiously elongated figures, and heightened sense of rhythm to the whole composition. Northern Russian artists felt the influence of Scandinavian Romanesque art, while from the south after the Mongol conquests of the I3th century came Persian art. But basically Russian iconography remains Byzantine. Work of Worship An icon is considered more a work of worship than a work of art. The painter must be a faithful member of the Church. He is expected to prepare himself by prayer and fasting. His art must be subordinate to the rule of faith. There are strict limits to the artistic imagination. All these rules were kept for centuries, in recent times the art of the icon has declined. The rules and the reasons for the rules have been forgotten. Icons have become “just pictures.” Naturalism has replaced symbolism. Eastern theologians consider the decline of icon-painting to be a sign of a decay of the Faith, and a lack of understanding of the dogmatic and devotional issues involved. |
| dates. The Age of Charlemagne. Armies of the Crusades. Armies of Islam, 7th to 11th Centuries. Armies of the Ottoman Turks, 1300–1774. Byzantine Armies, 886–1100. El Cid and the Reconquista, 1050–1492. Hungary & the Fall of eastern Europe, 1000–1568. The Knights of Christ. The Russo-Turkish War, 1877. . Saladin and the Saracens. . Saxon, Viking and Norman. . The Venetian Empire, 1200–1670. Nicosian, Solomon. Islam-The Way of Submission. London, 1987. Noja, Sergio. Maometto Profeta dell " Islam. Cuneo, 1974. Norwich, John Julian. Byzantium, The Early Centuries. London, 1988. . Venice, The Greatness and the Fall. London, 1981. . The Normans in the South. London, 1967. Nutting, Anthony. The Arabs. London, 1964. Ockley, Simon. History of the Saracens. London, 1757. Oman, C. W. C. The Byzantine Empire. London, 1892. Oman, Charles. The Art of War in the 16th Century. London, 1991. . The Art of War in the Middle Ages. London, 1991. The Sixteenth Century. London, 1936. Palm, Rolf. Les etendards du Prophete. Paris, 1981. Palmer, Alan. The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire. London, 1992. Panteli, Stavros. A New History of Cyprus. London, 1954. Partner, Peter. God of Battles. London, 1997. Patai, Raphael. The Arab Mind. New York, 1976. Peters, Rudolph. Jihad, Medieval and Modern. Leiden, 1977. Islam and Colonialism. The Hague, 1979. Pidal, Ramon Menendez. The Cid and His Spain. London, 1934. Poli, X. La Corse a l " expulsion des Sarazzins. Paris, 1907. Power, George. History of the Musulmans in Spain. London, 1815. Prescott, W. H. History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. London, 1850. Purcell, H. D. Cyprus. London, 1969. Rabbath, Edmond. Mahomet, prophete arabe et fondateur d " etats. Beirut, 1981. Rahman, H. V. A Chronology of Islam, 570–1000 C.E. London, 1995. Reinaud, M. Invasion des Sarrazins en France. Paris, 1836. Riche, Pierre, and Philippe Lemaitre. Les invasions barbares. Paris, 1991. Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed. The Atlas of the Crusades. London, 1990. Roberts, J. M. The Triumph of the West. London, 1985. |
| Completed in the 18th century, this church is one of the oldest in the city. It has two stories, with the lower church dedicated to St. John Damascene and the upper to the Vladimir Icon. Its alternative name is the Vladimirskaya Church, not to be confused with Prince Vladimir Cathedral. The design of this five-domed sanctuary straddles the line between Baroque and Classicism, with some predominance of the former. Baroque architecture is a style that emerged in Italy in the late 16th century. It spread widely across America, Europe and Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Portuguese sailors first used the word " Baroque " to refer to pearls of irregular shape. In Italian, the term came to describe an extravagant style with excessive decor and complication. Erratic forms, extravagance, abundant ornamentation and complexity are some of the keywords for Baroque. Its most typical features include: In a nutshell, baroque is a byword for exuberance and extravagance. Classicism has its roots in the ancient philosophical tradition of rationalism. In many ways, it is the opposite of Baroque. Some of its characteristics are: In summary, classicism is the style of reason and harmony. The building of the Vladimirskaya Church combines the seemingly incompatible features of Baroque and Classicism without creating an impression of chaos or eclecticism - an outstanding architectural feat. The church stands in the city centre, near Vladimirskaya Square and Nevsky Prospect. Centuries ago, this area - called the Moscow Suburb - was outside the city limits. To enter the city, a traveller would have to cross the bridge over the Fontanka river at the Anichkov outpost. The first permanent residents settled the suburb in 1737 after a spate of devastating fires of 1736 and 1737 that destroyed many homes. Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna signed a high order that allocated an area beyond the outpost to a housing development for the employees of the Royal Court. The area received the name Pridvornye Slovody (or Royal Court Quarters). The master plan for the development included a marketplace and a church near it. However, in practice, construction did not start until eighteen years later, in 1745, at the initiative of the head of the cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty, Baron Ivan Cherkasov. |
| Plate 56 The monastic cells (living quarters) of Rohia Monastery in Northern Romania. The monastery flourished even under communist oppression under the leadership of its higumen bishop, Justinian Chira. Photo by John McGuckin. During the time of the persecution of Christians, many priests and faithful of the Danubian lands suffered martyrdom for Christ, such as Bishop Ephrem, killed in 304 in Tomis; the Daco-Roman priest Montanus and his wife Maxima, who were drowned, also in 304; and martyrs Zoticos, Attalos, Kamasis, and Filippos (whose relics were discovered in 1971 in a paleo- Christian basilica in Niculitel, Dobrogea). We also know of St. Sava called the Goth, St. Niceta the Roman, and several others. Relics of martyrs who died in the Decian persecutions (249–51) have also been recently discovered by archeologists. The second and fourth ecumenical councils put the territories north of the Danube under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Constantinople. Later, the faithful in the Dacian lands of present-day Romania, north of the Danube, were placed under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the archbishopric Justiniana Prima, founded by Emperor Justinian (535). The city of Sucidava, where probably a diocesan seat existed (the ruins of a basilica from the 4th to 5th centuries were discovered there), had an important role in the introduction of Christianity north of the Danube. All these diocesan seats disappeared about the year 600, during the great Avaro-Slavic migration. During the 7th to 10th centuries the Slavs settled on the territories of present-day Serbia, Bulgaria, and their surroundings, and exerted a strong influence on Dacian Christianity to the point where even the Slavic language penetrated into Daco-Romanian worship, even if this language was not generally understood by the community. Thus, the Romanian people were the only people of Latin origin confessing the Orthodox faith to use the Slavic (Slavonic) language in worship until about the end of the 17th century. Starting in the early 16th century, Slavonic was slowly replaced by Romanian once more. The last liturgy in Slavonic was published in Wallachia in 1736 and in 1863 Romanian became the only official language of the church. |
| In Western Europe the great Cistercian monastic reform movement of the Benedictine Order (now known as the Trappists) arose. This movement’s greatest representative, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), was an ascetical, mystical theologian and church activist of aristocratic background. He promoted the Second Crusade (of 1147), and theologically he fought against Peter Abelard (1079–1142), another important early Scholastic theologian and author of the famous Sic et Non. The Carthusian movement of intensely contemplative, semi-eremetic monasticism, founded in 1084 by Bruno, expanded rapidly in this era. Together with the centralizing of Papal power and the victory of the Papacy over the secular rulers in the controversy over lay investiture, the 12th century also saw the rise of the Victorine school of Augustinian theology, led by Hugo (d. 1141) and Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173). Another major Scholastic theologian, Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160), wrote his very influential Sentences in the 1150s. On the more popular level, the Waldensian movement arose in the 1170s, led by a merchant of Lyons named Valdes. This very energetic layman emphasized itinerant, Scripture-based lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and works of charity. The various Waldensian groups suffered various forms of persecution at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church during the succeeding centuries. Finally in the 16th century, most of them merged with various Protestant groups. Also, the dualist heretical movement known as the Cathari arose in Germany around 1140, under the influence of Bogomilism from Eastern Europe. By around 1200 the Cathari had grown and spread to such an extent that they were the principal target of the Inquisition that was instituted in the early 13th century. In southern France these heretics were known as Albigensians. In 1147, the Second Crusade was launched with the goal of winning back the Crusader Kingdom of Edessa which had fallen to the Muslims. Preached by Bernard of Clairvaux, this crusade was led by King Louis VII of France and Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III. These Crusaders further alienated the Byzantines by their uncouth behavior. At the same time, the Westerners had learned to hate the Greeks, considering them to be deceitful, and their Church heretical. The chronicler Odo of Deuil listed the various practices and beliefs of the Greek Christians now scorned by the Westerners, and he recorded their willingness to kill the Greeks as heretics. More and more, the Latins dreamed of seizing Constantinople for themselves, and they were urged to do so by some of their own clergy. |
| .?.?. the mind when it unites with the heart is filled with unspeakable joy and delight. Then a man sees that the Kingdom of heaven is truly within us. When you enter the place of the heart .?.?. give thanks to God, and praising His mercy, keep always to this activity, and it will teach you things which you will learn in no other way. .?.?. when your mind becomes established in the heart, it must not remain idle, but it should constantly repeat the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” and never cease. For this practice, keeping the mind from dreaming, renders it invincible against all suggestions of the devil and every day leads it more and more to love and longing for God (Saint Nicephorus, 14th c., Discourse on Sobriety). To practice the hesychast method of prayer requires always and without exception the guidance of a spiritual guide, one must not use this method unless one is a person of genuine humility and sanity, filled with all wisdom and peace. To use this method without guidance or humble wisdom is to court spiritual disaster, for the temptations that come with it are many. Indeed, the abuses of the method became so great in recent centuries that its use was greatly curtailed. Bishop Theophan tells that the bodily postures and breathing techniques were virtually forbidden in his time since, instead of gaining the Spirit of God, people succeeded only “in ruining their lungs” (cf. The Art of Prayer, lgumen Chariton, ed.). Such abusive and abortive uses of the method-itself something genuine and richly rewarding-were already known in fourteenth century Byzantium when Saint Gregory Palamas defended the tradition. And evidence exists from as early as the fourth century to show that even then people were using the prayer foolishly and to no avail by reducing it to a “thing in itself” and being captivated by its form without interest in its purpose. Indeed, the idolatrous interest in spiritual technique and in the pleasurable benefits of “spirituality” and “mysticism” are the constant temptations of the spiritual life-and the devil’s most potent weapon. Bishop Theophan called such interest “spiritual hedonism”; John of the Cross (16th c. Spain) called it “spiritual gluttony” and “spiritual luxury.” Thus, by way of example from various times and places, come the following admonitions. |
| 7 . Kravetskii A. G. Sviashchennyi Sobor Pravoslavnoi Rossiiskoi Tserkvi: iz materialov Otdela o bogosluzhenii, propovednichestve i khrame [The Sacred Council of the Russian Orthodox Church: Materials of the Committee on Services, Preaching and the Temple]. Bogoslovskie trudy – Theological Studies, 1998, vol. 34, pp. 202–388. 8 . Mateos J. Le Typicon de la Grande Église. I. Le Cycle des Douze Mois. Rome Pont. Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1962. 9 . Mateos J. Le Typicon de la Grande Église. II. Le Cycle des Fêtes mobiles. Rome Pont. Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1963. 10 . Meeus J. Astronomical Algorithms. Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell, Inc., 1991. 11 . Mironositskii P. P. o poriadke tserkovnykh chtenii Evangeliia (po povodu otstupok tekushchego goda) [On the order of the reading of the Gospel in Church (Concerning Transfers in the Readings for the Current Year)]. Pribavleniia k tserkovnym vedomostiam – Additions to the Church Gazette, 1916, vol. 7, pp. 212–218, 250–257. 12 . Najim M., O’Grady P. B. The Liturgical Books of the Orthodox-Catholic and Apostolic Church: Origins, Introduction, and Use. Volume I, «The Scriptural Liturgical Books». Balamand, Lebanon: St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology, 2015. 13 . Nikol’skii K., Archpriest. Posobie k izucheniiu ustava bogosluzheniia Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi. [A Handbook for Studying the Order of Services of the Orthodox Church]. Saint Petersburg, 1907. 14 . Pentkovskiy A. M. Kalendarnye tablitsy v russkikh rukopisiakh XIV–XVI vv. [Calendar Tables in russian Manuscripts of the 14th–16th Centuries]. Metodicheskie rekomendatsii po opisaniiu slaviano-russkikh rukopisnykh knig [Methodological Recommendations for the Description of Russian Slavonic Manuscripts]. Moscow, 1990. Issue 3, part 1, pp. 136–197. 15 . Pentkovskiy A. M. Lektsionarii i Chetveroevangeliia v vizantiiskoi i slavianskoi liturgicheskikh traditsiiakh [Lectionaries and Gospels in the Byzantine and Slavic Liturgical Traditions]. Evangelie ot Ioanna v slavianskoy traditsii [The Gospel of John in the Slavic Tradition]. (A. A. Alekseev et al., eds.). Saint Petersburg, 1998, pp. 3–36. |
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