| Michael Prokurat, Alexander Golitzin, Michael D. Peterson Скачать epub pdf ATHOS, Mount ATHOS, Mount. Known as the Holy Mountain, Athos is a peninsula in northeastern Greece out into the Aegean Sea approximately one hundred miles southeast of Thessalonica (q.v.). Established by the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas in 963 under the leadership of St. Athanasius (q.v.) as the exclusive property of the monks, the world’s only “monastic republic” has endured the vicissitudes of Byzantium’s fall, the depredations of the Crusades (qq.v.), the relatively benign neglect of the Turkish Sultans, and since 1912 the perhaps more dangerous designs of the modern state of Greece. It has been the largest concentration of Orthodox monks virtually since its inception. Its twenty monasteries are: the Great Lavra of Athanasios of Athos (963), Vatopedi (10th c.), Agiou Paulou (10th c.), Iveron (10th c., orginally Georgian), Xeropotamou (10th c.), Ephigmenou (11th c.), Panteleimon (11th c., Russian), Docheiariou (11th c.), Xenophontos (11th c.), Constamonitou (11th c.), Caracallou (11th c.), Philotheou (12th c.), Hilandar (12th c., Serbian), Koutloumousiou (12th c.), Pantokrator (12th c.), Simonos Petras (13th c.), Dionysiou (13th c.), Gregoriou (13th c.), Zographou (13th c., Bulgarian), and Stavronikita (16th c.). Over the past millennium of its existence, Athos has been of incalculable importance for the Orthodox oikoumene (q.v.), marked by two great revivals: the first in the 14th c. and 15th c., characterized by the writings of Gregory Palamas and the Orthodox-wide movement of hesychasm (qq.v.), and second during the 18th c. and 19th c., which saw the publication of the Philokalia by Nicodemus the Athonite in Greek and Paisii Velichkovsky (qq.v.) in Slavic and Romanian. These two periods have indelibly imprinted the life and thought of the Orthodox Church. The present modest revival of monastic life, very much in the spirit of its predecessors, began in 1968 and may well bring the same kind of benefits to the whole Church. |
| John Anthony McGuckin St. John Klimakos (ca. 579-ca. 659) JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS The ascetic author par excellence, John Klimakos (meaning John “Of the Ladder”) lived on Mt. Sinai as a hermit and, later, abbot in the great monastery of St. Katherine there. The precise dates of his life are difficult to determine, but he is probably a contemporary of Maximos the Confessor (580–662). It seems reasonable to place his dates between ca. 579 and ca. 659. It is not known where John was born but he arrived at Sinai when he was only 16. When already quite advanced in age he accepted to write the Ladder at the request of another John, Abbot of Raithou. Originally entitled Spiritual Tablets, as many manuscripts indicate, it was the title Ladder which ultimately prevailed and which gives the book its unique flavor and feature. The Ladder consists of thirty steps (sections), including a range of virtues to acquire and vices to avoid. As a supplement to this John also authored a short treatise entitled To the Shepherd, describing the spiritual task of the abbot and likewise addressed to John of Raithou. Each step opens with a series of brief definitions, followed by a detailed exposition of the theme with illustrative anecdotes, and a terminal summary with inspiration. John is deeply influenced by the early desert tradition of Egypt as well as the Gaza monastics, such as Barsanuphius and John. In some ways, he lays the foundations for the “school” of Sinaite spirituality commonly attributed to Hesychios and Philotheos. His extensive influence is witnessed in the writings of St. Symeon the New Theologian (especially in his teaching on tears) and the 14th-century hesychasts, such as St. Gregory Palamas (especially in his teaching on silence and prayer). With the exception of the scriptures and the liturgical books, no other writing in Eastern Christendom has been studied, copied, and translated to the same extent as John’s Ladder of Divine Ascent. It has shaped not only Eastern Orthodoxy, and especially its monastic tradition, but also the entire Christian world. Even today, the Ladder is appointed to be read aloud in churches or in the refectory, as well as privately in the cells of Orthodox monasteries, each year during Lent, a practice that may date back to the time of the author’s life. There is no equivalent of the Ladder in the West, but its popularity may be compared with that of the Imitation ofChrist, though the two books differ greatly in character. |
| Catholic and Orthodox church leaders are calling on Christians in the Middle East to remain steadfast in their faith and to stay in the land of their birth, reaffirming that Christians have a place in the Muslim-dominated region. The five Christian patriarchs of the Church of Antioch, one of the five major churches that composed the Christian Church before the East-West Schism, met in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday in a show of Christian unity and steadfastness. They met at the headquarters of the local Greek Orthodox archdiocese in Damascus, a break from their usual meeting in Lebanon, to reassure all Christians of the region, the Catholic News Agency reported. “We do not condemn those that choose to leave, but we remind Christians that steadfastness in faith often entails a great deal of tribulation,” they said in a joint statement after their meeting. “We call on everyone who claims to have an interest in our fate to help us to remain,” said the leaders, namely Gregory III Laham (Melkite Greek Catholic), Bechara Rai (Maronite), Ignatius III Younan (Syriac Catholic), John X Yazigi (Greek Orthodox), and Ignatius Aphrem II (Syriac Orthodox). They described themselves as the authentic people of the land who are “deeply rooted in its earth that was watered by the sweat of our fathers and grandfathers, and we confirm more than ever that we are staying.” The apostolic nuncio to Syria also attended the meeting. The Syrian civil war and the conflict in Iraq have disrupted the lives of Muslims and Christians. Both conflicts have claimed many lives and forced millions of Iraqis and Syrians to be displaced from their homes. The Christian patriarchs asked Syrians to support the campaign to promote Syrian unity as well as “the right of Syrians to determine freely their own future without foreign interference” and a “political settlement of the Syrian crisis.” The leaders also asked the international community “to take its responsibility and to stop the wars in our land,” emphasising the need for peace. They also called for the return of refugees and the abducted back to their homes. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Repentance ANDREI PSAREV In Orthodox thought repentance is the blessed mourning of a person and longing for God (penthos) following after a sense of having moved away from him. It is a conversion to God and, as a result, is what scripture describes as radical change of mind or heart (metanoia, see Mk. 1.15 ). Christ came to save sinners having called them to repentance and belief in his gospel ( Mt. 9.13 ). The parable of the prodigal son ( Lk. 15.11 ) outlines the stages of how Orthodox understand the process of repentance: contrition, aversion from sin, repudiation of evil, confession, reconciliation with God and one’s neighbor. The words from the apostle about the impossibility of repentance for those who, by sinning, crucify Christ again (Heb. 6.4–6) reflect a dilemma of the early church; for in the 3rd and 4th centuries the Novatianists and Donatists permanently excluded from Eucharistic communion those who were guilty of serious sins. The greater church would not accept this rigorist approach, having prescribed in its canons various terms of abstinence from the Eucharist on account of grave sins; but no transgressor was ever to be deprived of the Eucharist at the time of their death (Nicea 1. Canon 13). There are no sins that may prevent a person from entering into the dedicated life of repentance which is monasticism (Quinisext Council. Canon 43). Repentance has been called in Orthodoxy the “second baptism.” Canon 12 of St. Gregory the Wonderworker (3rd century) defines how the church classifed penitents. In early times certain classes of sinners were debarred from full Eucharistic membership and had to stand apart from the community, in the narthex or outside the church building, sometimes for many years. St. Basil the Great (4th century) was not just occupied with the impact of sin on an individual, but also with the spiritual health of the entire congregation (St. Basil. Canon 88). In the same way as sin injures the body of the whole ecclesiastical community, through the healing of each member the entire church body acquires reconciliation with God ( 1Cor. 12.26 ). |
| Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral Reposes in the Lord Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and Exarch of the Holy Throne of Pec, Amfilohije, after having received Holy Communion, reposed in the Lord in the Clinical Hospital Center of Montenegro, on Friday, October 30, 2020, at 8.20 am, on the eve of the feast of St. Peter of Cetinje. The public will be soon informed about all other details regarding the funeral of the Most Reverend Metropolitan. Eternal memory and the Kingdom of Heaven! Amfilohije was born Risto Radovi in Bare Radovia in Lower Moraa, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro). He is a descendant of vojvoda Mina Radovi who participated in the unification of the Moraa region with the Principality of Montenegro in 1820. He studied at St. Sava Seminary and graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade in 1962. During his time as a seminarian in the late 1950s, Amfilohije knew the great theologian Justin Popovi, who influenced his thought a great deal. He also studied classical philosophy at the University of Belgrade. In Paris, Amfilohije studied at the Russian St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and in Bern at the Old Catholic Faculty. He completed his postgraduate studies in Bern and Rome, and then moved to Greece where he lived for seven years, took monastic vows and worked as a hieromonk of the Greek Orthodox Church. Amfiolohije was ordained as hieromonk at the Monastery of St. Gerasimus of Kefalonia in Argostoli, in Greek Province Kefalonia. The day before he had been ordained as hierodeacon by the same Metropolitan of Kefalonia, by whom who had taken monastic vows in 1967. Many times has His Eminence Amfilohije emphasized that Metropolitan Procopius played an important role in his life. In Athens, he completed his doctoral thesis on Saint Gregory Palamas and earned a doctor of theology degree. After spending one year at Mount Athos, he moved to Paris and worked as a professor at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute. |
| On 2 June 2015, the Rev. Michael Wang Quansheng, the oldest priest of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church died at the age of 90. He was born on 27 January 1924. Bishop Simeon (Du) of Shanghai ordained him in 1958. On Pentecost In 2008, the Rev. Michael Wang attended divine service at the Russian Consulate with the permission of the Chinese authorities. He was awarded with the Me4dal of St. Sergius of Radonezh, 1 st class. Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia awarded him in connection with the 50 th anniversary of the autonomous status of the Chinese Orthodox Church. Since that time, Father Michael took part in the services celebrated by archpriest Alexy Kiselev in Shanghai. Despite his advanced years and being retired, Father Michael took an active part in the revival of Orthodoxy in China. In September of 2009 he consecrated the church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk in Labudalin in the Inner Mongolia. When the Rev. Gregory Zhu Shipu, rector of the Church of Intercession in Harbin died in 2000, Father Michael celebrated the Divine Liturgy on Easter in 2010. In June of 2011 he concelebrated with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations at St. Nicholas’ church in Shanghai. The DECR chairman thanked him and other Orthodox Chinese, saying that ‘they have kept the Orthodox faith despites all hardships and obstacles.’ His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia paid his first official visit to China in 2013. On May 15, he celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the cathedral church in Shanghai. Father Michael Wang Quansheng concelebrated in attendance of many worshippers. His Holiness addressed clergymen of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church, Rev. Michael Wang, protodeacon Evangel Lu Yafu and sub-deacon Papy Fu Xiliang, saying that notwithstanding their advanced age, they possess a great inner power and added that together with all the Chinese they had experienced many trials in history and were witnessing the revival of China and of this holy church. Rev. Michael Wang was a spiritual leader of the Orthodox community in Shanghai and assisted in training of the new Chinese priests. |
| Saints Cyril and Methodius: Examples of Evangelism and Christianisation By encountering the Slavic people through their own culture and language, they were able to win their love and trust and evangelize them. They did not impose foreign languages or strange customs upon them, but lived with them, mastered their speech and embraced their culture and traditions. Saints Cyril and Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs (feast day: 24 May according to the old calendar; 11 May according to the revised) are celebrated by Slav Orthodox Christians as national and cultural heroes as well as saints. Much like the Three Great Hierarchs, Saints Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian, whose contribution to Greek literature tends to overshadow what made them such remarkable saints, Cyril and Methodius’ life and sanctity also are frequently overshadowed by their contribution to Slavonic literature through the invention of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets. Yet they are greatly revered outside the Slav world. So what makes these saints so significant for Orthodox Christians with little or no connection with or interest in the Slavonic language? At the heart of the universal admiration the Christian Orthodox world has for Cyril and Methodius is their remarkable missionary achievements. Prince Ratislav of Moravia wrote to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III (842-867), informing him that his people had rejected paganism and that they had embraced Christianity, but they had no one to teach them the faith in their own language. Roman Catholic missionaries had attempted to evangelize the Slavs, but they were unsuccessful, because they all had tried to do so in Latin or Greek. The Slavs needed missionaries who could speak their language. The prince’s request was answered in the persons of Cyril and Methodius. Cyril and Methodius were brothers, born in Thessalonica, Greece early in the ninth century. Both were highly educated, and both became monks; Cyril was also a priest who knew Slavonic. |
| Patriarch Daniel: Transform the Period of Medical Crisis in a Time to Strengthen Our Faith and Increase Our Love! Source: Basilica.ro On the Second Sunday of Great Lent, the Church opens before us the well-known page of the Holy Gospel about the cure of a paralytic man. This gospel passage shows us the healing power of our Saviour Jesus Christ and highlights the importance of caring for one’s health. Referring to the four friends who made an opening in the roof of a house to take the paralytic to the Saviour, Patriarch Daniel said that they “now symbolize all doctors, nurses, charitable priests, parents, siblings, friends, neighbours or colleagues who spiritually and materially help the sick and the suffering.” “Especially during this time, when a lot of people troubled by the new plague, the new epidemic, there is a great need for prayer and brotherly help, to strengthen their faith and to draw closer to God,” said His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel during his Sunday homily at St Gregory the Enlightener Chapel of his Patriarchal Residence. “Even if people are urged to isolate themselves, they must transform self-isolation into more intense communion with God through prayer and meditation, thinking about the gift of life and health,” the Romanian Patriarch said March 15. “This period shows us how fragile human life on earth is, how much need we have to keep in constant contact with God, the source of earthly life and eternal heavenly life.” “Therefore, we must transform this period of medical crisis in a time to strengthen our faith and increase our love for God and our peers.” His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said that “we need to think more about how we receive power from God through repentance for our sins, through prayer, by reading spiritual writings, through a more frequent Confession and Communion, and through every good deed.” The Patriarch recommended helping “first by prayer and then by sending material help and spiritual encouragement to those in isolation or quarantine.” |
| On Cheesefare Sunday, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania said that ‘fasting is an offering of man’s love brought to God’ and gave three fundamental pieces of advice for Christians to be able to bring this God-pleasing offering. Photo credit: Basilica.ro/Mircea Florescu ‘The Gospel reading of this Sunday has a major importance for the entire Lenten season,’ His Beatitude said adding that Great Lent is ‘a long period of inner spiritual ascent towards resurrection.’ 3 pieces of advice for Lent The Patriarch offered his reflections on the gospel passage read on the Sunday of the Expulsion of Adam from Paradise and insisted on three central teachings: ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,’ the Patriarch stressed citing the Gospel of Matthew. On Sunday, March 10, Patriarch Daniel attended the Divine Liturgy celebrated at St Gregory the Enlightener Chapel of his patriarchal residence in Bucharest. Why forgive others? Patriarch Daniel said that ‘forgiveness is the good beginning of the fasting season.’ Why? Because ‘by forgiving others we cultivate humility and inner freedom to live in God’s merciful love.’ ‘When we forgive, we free ourselves from a state of sadness, hatred or hostility towards somebody. If we forgive, we are free in our soul and we can truly pray and show that we desire God’s merciful love to forgive our own sins.’ ‘Forgiving the faults of our fellows is a condition to have our own sins forgiven by God,’ Patriarch Daniel said. The Patriarch of Romania explained that ‘by forgiving someone’s mistakes we admit that a person should not be reduced to a bad act committed at a certain time upsetting someone, because the same person can do also much good.’ ‘Forgiving the mistakes of a neighbour often involves a crucifixion of our own selfishness and opens the soul to the resurrection, to a new state of human communication and communion with God and with our fellow people,’ His Beatitude noted. How to observe fast? ‘We must fast in a state of joy, not with sadness,’ His Beatitude recommended. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Stylite Saints AUGUSTINE CASIDAY Asceticism in the form of ascending a column (in Greek, stylos) and remaining there for extended periods as a “column-dweller” or stylite is a distinctive feature of Eastern Christianity. This way of life was pioneered in 5th-century Syria by Simeon the Stylite (ca. 389–459). From the 430s Simeon built his column and gradually extended it to a height of some 16 meters in order to escape the crowds who gathered around him, and to pray. But he did not sever his connections with the faithful. On the contrary, pilgrims came from afar to marvel at Simeon, seeking support and even adjudication of legal and political matters, no less than spiritual guidance from him (Theodoret, Historia Religiosa 26.26; Syriac, Life of Simeon 56, 60, 77; Brown 1971: 90–1). At least one pilgrim to Simeon’s column actually followed his example: Daniel the Stylite (Life of Daniel 6, 21 ). In 460 Daniel (403–93) ascended his pillar near Constantinople, which allowed him to continue exercising influence albeit now within the imperial capital (Brown 1971: 92–3): “The Emperor Zeno is said to have taken his advice” (Life ofDaniel 55). Images and pilgrim tokens of the great stylites circulated within their own lifetimes as far away as Rome and Gaul. This probably explains how Walfroy of Carignan (d. 596 or 600) found out about Simeon Stylites. Unique among western ascetics, Walfroy set up a column near Trier, but he was sharply rebuked by bishops who compared him unfavorably to Simeon and then demolished the column to make sure he would not ascend it again (Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks 8.15). Walfroy’s Byzantine contemporary, Simeon the Younger (521–96), was also precocious and more accepted. He took to a pillar when he was only seven. Some years later, he relocated to the Wondrous Mountain where a monastery formed nearby. Simeon left behind several writings, which may perhaps be compared to the case of the Chronicle of the wars between Byzantium and Persia which was purportedly written in 504 by Joshua the Stylite. These few men are the most eminent examples from a “golden age” of stylite asceticism. |
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