The Two-headed "holy father" Matthew?

Nikolaos Mannis | August 18, 2023

 

It is known to all the centuries-old idolatrous excesses of the Papists, with the exhibition for veneration, in their churches throughout the world, of thousands of false relics, which, if combined, form saints with many bodies and many heads...

What some would not expect, however, is that such phenomena would be encountered even among the so-called G.O.C., and indeed the ultra-G.O.C. of the Matthewite faction, who consider all of us Orthodox as "schismatic heretics."

As is known, the Matthewites (just like their ideological predecessors, the Donatists and the Russian Old Believers) are divided into several groups, each of which fantasizes that it constitutes the "Church of Christ."

Also, for those who are not aware, the women's sisterhood of the notorious – for the crimes that took place there in the past – Monastery of Keratea is likewise divided, with one group of nuns having been expelled (belonging to one of the factions of the Matthewites) and having taken refuge in the Monastery of Saint Paraskevi in Chalkis (which belongs to another faction of the Matthewites).

So far, so good.

We read on the website of one of these factions that at the Monastery of Saint Paraskevi, during the feast of "Saint" Matthew, the faithful "had the blessing to venerate his holy Relics and especially his myrrh-streaming holy Skull, which was also carried in procession after the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy"

(source: http://churchgoc.blogspot.com/2018/05/blog-post_25.html).

Photographs of the skull are even posted:

It is, however, known that at the Monastery of Keratea as well, the skull of the "holy father" is set forth for veneration, as we also see in the photographs from a website affiliated with the other faction (source: https://epistrofi-sotiria.blogspot.com/2021/08/1950-1950.html):

 

 

Obviously, one of the two is not authentic. There is, of course, also the possibility that neither of them is, for we have the written testimony of Bishop Akakios Pappas of Talantion — a close associate (for many years) of Matthew — which can also be confirmed by persons still living (such as Elder Efstratios Lavriotis), concerning the replacement of Matthew’s skull at the time of the exhumation:

They secretly opened the tomb—the most trusted ones—and found it unsealed, moldy and foul-smelling with dampness and mud at his feet; they then transferred him to another place where he was buried in order to be washed, and in his tomb they placed foreign bones with myrrh and an ancient large skull, for which it was said that a brother who knew the bishop of Bresthena well had brought it, and thus they replaced it! (Source: Απάντησις εις λιβέλλους, Athens, 1957, p. 20.)

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2023/08/blog-post_18.html