Archbishop Evgenios Voulgaris (1716–1806): The Orthodox Confession

That is, An Exposition of Faith According to the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Eastern Church of Christ

Source: Orthodox Among the Nations: A Handbook of Religious Toleration, by Archbishop Evgenios Voulgaris of Sláviansk and Cherson, newly published in English by Newrome Press, 2026, pp. 133-162, 183-184.

 

 

1. I believe in one God, who is Spirit, mind beyond mind, transcending all that is intelligible; infinitely perfect, uncreated, all-good, supremely wise, all-powerful; the creator, sustainer, and provident ruler of all beings, both visible and invisible. These do not emanate from Him, nor are they from His nature, nor are they necessary, nor are they eternal; but He created them according to His own will, in an act of free choice, in time, according to His good pleasure. Through a simple act, He brought from nothingness into being that which formerly was not, and He moves and governs all that exists according to the purposes of His perfect providence. He could, if He willed, return all things to non-being; yet through His ineffable goodness He preserves and sustains them all.

2. I believe that this one and the same God is also three: one in His superessential essence and nature; and triune in the three superdivine persons. Considered in their hypostases—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—He is Father without beginning, unbegotten, and without cause. The Son and the Spirit are from Him, and He alone is their beginning, source, and cause. They go forth from Him essentially, prior to any act of will, in a manner utterly incomprehensible and inexplicable: the Son by generation, the Spirit by procession. This is not in time, but from eternity; not with one preceding and another following, but all at once; not in succession, but simultaneously. They are worshipped and contemplated theologically as the Son and Spirit in the Father, the Father and Spirit in the Son, and the Father and Son in the Spirit, according to the suprarational principle of mutual in-dwelling. [143]

The Son is co-beginningless with the Father, and co-eternal and timeless, yet has the Father as His beginning, cause, source, and root. He is begotten of Him impassibly and without change before all ages, being of the same essence as the One who begot Him, and equal in power and honor. He is the effulgence and express image of the Father’s hypostasis, having everything in common with the Father except unbegottenness and the property of being cause. He exists from the Father as cause through an ineffable generation worthy of divinity.

The Holy Spirit is co-beginningless with the Father and the Son, and also co-eternal and timeless. He also has the Father as cause, source, and root, from the beginning. He emanates hypostatically, from the Father alone, in a manner ineffable and beyond comprehension. He proceeds before the ages—not from the Son or after the Son, but with the Son He possesses His being from the Father, even if He is temporally sent through the Son for the sanctification and perfection of mankind in grace, and is made manifest and revealed through Him. He is of one essence with the Father and the Son, equal in power and glory, possessing all that the Father and the Son possess, except unbegottenness and generation.

3. The Triune Essence above all essences—the source of all goodness, the worker of good by nature, entirely lacking the principle of evil, and sustaining all creatures in a beneficent manner—has among its creations the intellectual and rational beings, that is, the angelic powers and human beings. These are endowed with free will and self-determination, able to incline toward what they wish, to be moved as they please, and to select freely from what is presented to them. I thus affirm and declare that evil has entered in as nothing other than the privation of good: a deviation from the rectitude of sound reason on the part of rational beings endowed with choice, by which it made its way into the world and gained the upper hand.

I speak first of the foremost of the angels, whom the sacred Scriptures call Lucifer, and who was distinguished by his radiant form, which revealed the glory and grace within him. Yet by his own willful wickedness he was transformed into an angel of darkness instead of light, and was cast down like lightning from Heaven into the abyss, where he was miserably ruined together with those who followed him.

Concerning the first man, the progenitor of the entire human race: though initially created upright by the hand of the Maker and adorned with the gift of innocence, he was later deceived by the counsel of the serpent and the persuasion of the woman, was overcome, and fell. In transgressing the command, he was found guilty and expelled from the Paradise in which he had been placed. He was deprived of life and supreme happiness; became mortal instead of immortal; and was subjected to just punishments, both temporary and eternal. Into these he drew with him the entire race descending from him according to the flesh, as though they were present in his loins and contained in him seminally as their forefather, though they did not sin by their own choice. This ancestral sin is communicated to all who descend from Adam, not by mere imitation or some other perverse or wicked choice, but because it was transposed into a kind of second nature for each individual and took deep root. Hence the inclination to sin has become inevitable and inescapable for every soul.

For how could it be otherwise? We believe that even those infants who have just been delivered in maternal labor; those who have remained pure throughout their lives by God’s grace; and even those born of sanctified mothers—not least the ever-virgin and most pure Mother of our Lord—partake in the consequences of the primordial transgression.

This is a kind of defect inherent in human nature, one that marred the first parent, the beauty of his innocence, and the obedience owed to the Creator, which was violated through him and in him. From this arose every affliction: the sweat and toil of labor; the hardships of life; and ultimately our return to the earth and exposure to decay. The greatest and most terrible of all, however, was voluntary subjection to the power of the primal evil, from which spring certain bitter fruits and shoots, as though arising from the root of the forefather’s disobedience.

4. Moreover, I believe that though the fallen angels did not escape the consequences of their transgression, the only-begotten Son of God did not refuse to rescue the human race—both those belonging to the seed of Abraham and those descended from Adam generally—who were so miserably subject to sin and corruption. But when the fullness of time came, according to His good pleasure, He underwent the inconceivable and awe-inspiring self-emptying, yet without being emptied. [144]

For He descended from the paternal embrace, without separation or change, taking our nature upon Himself for our sake, according to the Father’s good pleasure and by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. He did not adopt an angel or even a perfect human being as a helper in His mission, as with a prophet, but was Himself conceived in the all-immaculate and most holy womb of the ever-virgin Mary through the coming of the Spirit and the overshadowing of the Most High, without man or seed, and she bore Him without pain and without violation of her virginity in any way.

The Timeless One became man, was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, and showed the progress of age and growth in years. He truly came in the flesh, not merely in appearance. He lived among mankind and did not merely play the part of a man, nor inhabit a lifeless or insensible body, but assumed the full and perfect human nature with a sensible body and rational, intellectual soul. He did not mingle the natures but united them perfectly, without change or mixture, in one divine hypostasis, with each maintaining its respective properties, powers, activities, and wills intact. He remained what He was from the beginning—perfect God—and became what He was not before—perfect man. He performed His divine works as God, His human works as man, and submitted to all human sufferings without exception. He therefore truly suffered voluntarily and freely, was crucified, and died. His body was buried, and His soul descended into Hades, without His holy soul or body ever being separated from the divinity. He rose in power on the third day, ascended into Heaven on the fortieth day, and sat at the right hand of God the Father. From there, at the end of the age, He will come in glory to judge both the living and the dead.

There is not one Son of God before the ages and another in the latter days; not one who suffered and another who did not; not one seen on earth and another seated at the Father’s right hand. He is one and the same God-man, the pre-eternal and unchanging Word of God, who without change suffered in the flesh He assumed. He became the mediator between God and man, offered Himself as ransom for all, and established reconciliation through His own Blood. Through Him we have been freed from the dominion of the devil, brought to God, made heirs of adoption, and hope to partake of the glory that is to come.

5. I believe that the sacred Scriptures, both Old and New, are inspired and taught by God, for the Holy Spirit deemed it fitting to use the hands of the scribes, down to the smallest iota and stroke. The books of Scripture are numbered as the canon of the Church of Christ has clearly received and set forth, including those books that heretics, whether ancient or recent, have falsely claimed to be apocryphal or condemned. Much of their contents is lofty, obscure, and difficult to harmonize, as is appropriate for holy Scripture, whose profound mysteries are conveyed by means of allegory. For this reason, they present no small difficulty to those who seek to interpret them—not least when they have been translated from one language into another, as is often the case.

I do not consider it the task of just anyone to attempt to set them forth or interpret them as he pleases; such a bold and reckless approach is neither safe nor proper. Rather, they should be received by all with reverence, without presumption, and with faith, as the very word of God. They should be examined and studied thoughtfully and deliberately, with consideration for both the heights of contemplation and the foundation of moral practice [145] attained by those whom the Spirit raised up as teachers, prophets, and those endowed with some other measure of grace. For it was He who inspired and enlightened their minds for the edification and guidance of the body of the Church.

I also hold and maintain that the authority to set forth the unadulterated and authentic understanding of sacred Scripture belongs properly and exclusively to the Catholic Church. For just as she has always remained steadfast, watching, enlightening, and exposing error in order to elevate our understanding, so she will continue until the end of the age, according to the promise of Christ, the very Truth Himself.

6. Receiving what has been revealed to us in the God-inspired Scriptures as the written Word of God does not mean that the unwritten traditions handed down to us should be rejected. For if one were to do so, everyone would establish his own canon, opposing and contradicting one another. That certain sacred books are to be received as canonical and others not, and that their contents are to be understood in no other way, is determined by the tradition of the Church, whose authority is granted from above. This tradition was received from the apostles by the God-bearing fathers, who faithfully preserved it, unaltered and uncorrupted, in their writings as in a secure treasury, and thus handed it down to us. That these traditions must be firmly held and steadfastly observed is also set forth and recorded in the divine words. [146] I therefore embrace both the written and unwritten teaching with unshakable conviction and faith, knowing that together they contain all that is necessary for salvation, justification, and the attainment of the kingdom in the heavens; that is, what is to be believed, what is to be hoped for, and what is to be done, are all perfectly contained therein.

7. I believe that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ is that same Church first preached by the apostles and the initiates of the Word, who entrusted it to those who believed through them. After them, it was handed on to the bishops, presbyters, and deacons, and was nurtured and multiplied through the preaching that reached the ends of the earth. From that time even to our day, the Church has remained in unbroken succession through those who were lawfully and canonically entrusted with the care of the faithful, the ministry of the Word, and the distribution of grace through the sacraments, and it will continue steadfast and unchanged until the coming of the Lord. Its foundation is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; its pillars are the apostles and their valid successors down to the present day; and its stones that form it are those who are joined together and made firm by true faith in Christ and right confession.

The Church has one supreme and universal head. It would be unfitting that a mortal man should serve as the head of this body, for he would be unstable, inadequate, and liable to fall and be cast aside. The head of the Church is the Lord Himself, who secured it with His own Blood and continually sustains and gives it life through His Spirit, as He promised. Yet there are also secondary heads in the Church who, having been appointed and established as authorities in time by the first, universal, and eternal head, occupy His place. By virtue of their preeminent rank, they point us toward the source and perfecter of our salvation, and it is not inappropriate to acknowledge them as such, for the Spirit appoints and sets them as shepherds, overseers, ministers, and stewards of the grace dispensed to the faithful through them.

Those who, throughout the earth, hold the proper faith, believing in their hearts unto righteousness and confessing with their mouths unto salvation, are members in part of one complete, holy, and spiritual body, being joined together into the fullness of the Church. Accordingly, those already enrolled in Heaven among the firstborn in the blessed fatherland are not reckoned as members of the Church still dwelling on earth and waging its earthly struggle. Nor are those separated by heresies, false teachings, schisms, or gathered into alien congregations regarded as members; nor those who, by disobedience or perversity contrary to the divine ordinances and canons, have been judged as dead members and utterly cut off through excommunication and anathema.

Only those who, so long as they remain in this life, adhere to the true and immaculate doctrines of the Catholic and Apostolic faith, and believe in them faithfully and steadfastly—even if they are otherwise guilty of various sins—are properly reckoned as members. Indeed, the Church claims them as her own, intercedes to God on their behalf day and night, extends her hand to the fallen, cares for the weak so that they may be healed, strives to bring back the erring, and gladly receives those who return.

8. I hold that the particular local churches, and the hierarchs entrusted with their oversight through valid ordination, were established by the apostles: Clement over the Romans; Evodius over the Antiochians; Mark over the Alexandrians by Peter; Stachys over the Byzantines by Andrew; and James, before all others, over the Church of Jerusalem by the Lord. The same is true of the other churches, whose oversight has been maintained through unbroken succession down to our own time. Thus, each bishop is entrusted with the care of the affairs allotted to him, exercising proper authority, administering, and managing them, without violating the well-established limits set by the Fathers.

As for the operation and governance of the universal Church, and the delineation of boundaries within it, and the issuing of decrees: whenever a matter arises that requires inquiry and investigation concerning what is to be believed or done—matters that concern the whole body of Orthodox faithful—I maintain that this authority has not been entrusted authoritatively and monarchically to one alone, namely, the bishop of Rome, as those around him desire, but has been entrusted collectively to all the bishops gathered together as one; that is, to an Ecumenical Council.

And I believe and submit that it is the very Holy Spirit who gathers, moves, enlightens, and guides such a council, speaking truth through the assembled fathers, and who concurs with their judgments in the matters set before them. For this reason it is said, It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us; and again, it is written, Every man is a liar; [147] yet an Ecumenical Council, being constituted by the Spirit of truth and rendering its decisions in Him, is believed to be above all falsehood and every kind of deceit.

I acknowledge and accept seven Ecumenical Councils:

The first is the First Council of Nicaea, which taught the theology of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that the Son is of one essence with the Father, and was convened against the godless Arius.

The second is the First Council of Constantinople, which declared the Spirit to be of the same nature as the Father and the Son, and equal in honor to them both, and was convened against Macedonius, who fought against the Spirit.

The third is the Council of Ephesus, which affirmed that the incarnate Word of God was one person in two natures, and was convened against Nestorius the Christ-denier.

The fourth is the Council of Chalcedon, which declared the two unmingled, complete, and perfect natures, energies, and wills in the one person of the God-man, and was convened against Dioscorus and Eutyches.

The fifth is the Second Council of Constantinople, which defined the resurrection of the dead and confirmed the decisions of the earlier councils, and was convened against Origen, Didymus, and Evagrius.

The sixth is the Third Council of Constantinople, which refuted the error of the Monothelites, and was convened against Honorius, Sergius, and Pyrrhus.

The seventh is the Second Council of Nicaea, which condemned the iconoclasts and clearly affirmed the prohibition on adding or removing from the sacred and apostolic Symbol, and thereby confirmed all the preceding councils.

In addition to these, I also venerate and embrace the local synods convened at various times by right-believing fathers, which harmonize suitably and in concord with the pious melody of the seven just set forth.

But as for those others, in whatever land and by whomever they were convened for the definition of alien and spurious doctrines—such as the many assembled by the Latins, including those at Florence and Trent—these fall far short of deserving the title “Ecumenical,” or even of being reckoned at all among the councils of the Church. Rather, I regard them as assemblies of heresy and unlawful gatherings of those who, with reckless daring, adulterate and counterfeit the divine doctrines. And since they corrupt the Church, I hate them with a perfect hatred and turn away from them.

9. I hold in due reverence the seven venerable and wondrous mysteries, in which all the sanctification and initiation of the Church of God is contained and summarized. These were handed down by our Lord Himself and instituted and perfected through the descent and operation of the all-holy Spirit—not as mere symbols of the promises of God, like those under the shadow, but as true gifts of sanctifying and saving grace bestowed upon the faithful. These seven are equal in number to the gifts of the Spirit:

The first is Baptism, which even our Lord accepted for our sake, though He, being sinless, had no need of cleansing. Through three immersions and emersions in sanctified water—each accompanied by the invocation of one of the transcendent persons of the Trinity, and signifying also the baptizand’s voluntary assent—the initiate is baptized, and, as the celebrant proclaims, we are buried and raised with Christ. We thus recover that first and passionless birth which we lost through sin, being mystically reborn in the Spirit and made worthy of the gift of adoption.

The second is Chrismation, which our Savior accepted at Baptism by the coming of the Spirit as a dove, though He had no need of this. For as God, He always possessed the Spirit with Himself inseparably. And as the God-man, by virtue of the hypostatic union, the whole fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, and for this reason He is hymned as the Anointed One. [148] But He received the Spirit in order to show how necessary it is for the baptized to be anointed with the spiritual myrrh sanctified by the patriarchs and high priests. For through this most mystical oil, the grace of the Spirit rests upon those who are anointed, just as it did through the laying on of hands by Peter and John. By this grace the image of God, which had previously been effaced by sin, is refashioned; and the one initiated, being enlisted under the heavenly King, is sealed and perfected, and becomes a true Christian. This is not only because of his faith in Christ, but also because of the very chrism itself: for by anointing with chrism he is joined to the Anointed One and thus is rightly called Christian. [149]

The third is the lofty and awe-inspiring mystery of the Eucharist, which our Lord, on the night He was betrayed, consecrated when He offered Himself as both priest and sacrifice, offerer and victim. Taking leavened bread and wine of the vine, He blessed and sanctified them, and properly and indeed most truly changed and transubstantiated the bread into His almighty and theandric Body; and the wine into His precious and life-giving Blood; and He gave them to His holy apostles to eat and drink. He commanded them to do this in remembrance of Him, and through them guaranteed to those after them that they too might eat and drink, and thus truly and essentially partake of and commune in His all-holy Flesh and the Blood poured out for all. For it must not be believed that what is offered are symbols of these realities, nor merely types or images. Nor is it as if, through a threefold consubstantiation, [150] the God-man is present only in some measure of grace, or that the Lord is present only for those deemed worthy. [151] Rather, it is He Himself—that very One who suffered upon the Cross once and for all and who now sits at the right hand of the Father—who alone is mystically set forth for us upon every holy table, both before and during the act of communion. By the power of the perfecting Spirit and the invocation [152] of the priests—not, of course, merely by the recitation of the dominical words—the bread and wine are transubstantiated, and He is truly present under their visible forms. He is multiplied without division across many altars and under many loaves, broken without being divided, consumed without being spent; and He sanctifies all those who partake, provided only that they receive innocently and worthily.

The fourth is the Priesthood, which the God-man Jesus Himself, having partaken to the full of the fullness of the Spirit that rested upon Him—being indeed our priest and eternal high priest after the order of Melchizedek—granted to His apostles, giving them a share of the Spirit, commanding them to proclaim His Gospel to all nations, and granting them also the authority to bind and loose. This was especially so at Pentecost, when, having laid hands on them in a sense through the Spirit, whom He had promised to send, He clothed them with power from on high through tongues of fire. Through them, He conveyed to us, too, the gift of the Priesthood. This gift is neither simple nor uniform, nor does it impose a single and identical character upon all, but it is rather diverse and multiform, the various ranks differing greatly among themselves in rank, dignity, and power, so that this earthly hierarchy may in some way be likened and compared to the heavenly hierarchy of the angels. [153] For in addition to those ordinations that take place outside the sanctuary, which are called “impositions of hands,” [154] there are as follows: The first is that of the sacred deacons; being a ministerial order, they serve those above them. The second, which surpasses the first, is that of the presbyters, who have authority for the celebration of certain mysteries—though not all. The third is the highest and set above every order, and is that of the bishops, who are the celebrants of every mystery, and who communicate grace and illuminate every rank beneath them, since from this rank, as from a spring, all initiation, sanctification, illumination, and grace are poured forth into the Church.

The fifth is Marriage, which our Lord also established and sanctified when He did not deem the wedding at Cana unworthy of His presence. This mystery, which is great in and of itself, he used to reveal the pattern of another, even higher and greater mystery: that of the Church as the pure and spotless bride, joined to Himself as her bridegroom. Yet even if marriage is to be reckoned second to virginity in a life lived according to Christ (since virginity, by removing the one who adheres to it from attachment to the flesh, unites him more perfectly with God, and, what is more, makes him equal to the angels), nevertheless, marriage has been given to those unable to receive that word by way of condescension.

This is so they might have a helper like themselves, of which they have need, and might live chastely with one wife, and, what is of greater purpose, that lawful childbearing may preserve the human race without fail through successive generations until creation no longer groans under corruption.

The sixth is Repentance, by which those who fall after Baptism and in various ways stain and defile the robe of adoption must be purified and cleansed. They obtain remission of sins by approaching those who have received from the Lord the authority to bind and loose and making an unreserved and sincere confession of their transgressions, accompanied by sincere compunction of soul and a change of mind.

The seventh of these is Holy Oil, which the Lord delivered to the apostles, who handed it down to us. It is administered to us, who fall and rise again, as a symbol of divine mercy, granting us security and protection when we turn back from our sins, and contributing to our healing when we are sick. For those anointed it becomes the cause of abundant grace and sanctification. Of course, it is not only for those already departing from life and breathing their last, nor indeed only for those who are ill, but equally for those who are in good health, and who are pursuing repentance and conversion, according to the ancient tradition of the Church.

10. Since almost all of our piety is directed toward such things—namely, that believers should demonstrate their piety through deeds, giving through their conduct a sure witness of their internal disposition, just as a fruit proves the life contained within a tree—it is manifestly superfluous, and indeed proven to be undermining to faith itself, for anyone to teach otherwise. We have not believed that man is justified by faith alone, apart from works, but by a faith which, through works of righteousness, is active in its love. For to hold that Christ’s righteousness alone suffices for our salvation, without anything at all being contributed on our part, is a bold and arrogant teaching, casting men into the manifest danger of perdition, except in the case of infants who, after illumination, are snatched away in an untimely manner and before the use of free will.

Now we define faith as a correct and unerring conviction concerning God and divine matters, in unwavering assurance, and with the fullest assent of the soul, resting immovably upon the things revealed to us by God, even if it is altogether impossible to grasp these matters as they truly are. Works, however, are the keeping and fulfillment of all the commandments, by which we abstain from the evils forbidden us by the laws, and we firmly hold to the good things. Thus, we have within us our nature’s gift of free will, granting us the power to choose and pursue good works, and also our fruit-bearing faith in Christ and grace from Him, which leads us to perform these works in the right spirit and to direct them toward a supernatural end. It is for this reason we may hope to obtain through them the promised good things in the end.

11. I believe that whatever is destined to occur at fixed times, both the time and manner in which they will happen, is encompassed by God’s supremely infinite and perfect foreknowledge. He both wills and approves of the good, providing for and arranging so that it may come about. But He only foreknows and permits what is evil, without imposing absolute necessity or force upon the free and self-directed choices of creatures. Rather, even these He redirects and adapts toward some good and useful purpose, which demonstrates His supreme providence and goodness. Thus, in the case of free choice, the foreknowledge of God, which is unerring and infallible; and the will of man, to whom belongs free self-determination and complete liberty, come together. On the one hand, divine foreknowledge cannot be overturned by the volatility of man’s will, for divine foreknowledge is by nature fixed and unerring. But neither can free will be overthrown by foreknowledge’s absolute fixedness, since it was God Himself who created the will and endowed it with self-determination.

There are three kinds of events that will necessarily happen, not merely in the sense that God has foreseen them, but in the sense that they are bound to happen in no other way: some by nature, as necessarily determined; some by force, through imposition; and some freely, by human will and choice. According to His eternal foreknowledge, God predestines some for salvation, making use of their own good choices; and others He leaves to destruction, because of their wicked choices; but in neither case is He the source of the outcome in advance. He wills that all would be saved, and He grants an equal opportunity for salvation to all through His so-called prevenient grace. [155] But He wills that each one’s free will remain inviolate, so that each person may manage the grace given by Him on his own. Since, then, He foreknows that some will follow this grace and obey, and others will willfully choose evil and rebel, He resolved to add to the former a further special grace, active and cooperative in good, which brings about justification, perseverance to the end, and heavenly glory. But He determined to withdraw from the latter, permitting them to choose what lies before them as it seems good to them, and by their own wickedness to fall voluntarily from the kingdom prepared for all. The one course demonstrates His goodness and love for mankind; the other, His unimpeachable justice and judgment.

12. I believe that our Lord—who assumed once and for all our very substance, which He did not lay aside, nor will He ever lay it aside—Himself declared beforehand that He will come a second time upon earth. He will not be in the humble and servile form of His first coming, but in glory. And He will not come in order to save us by economy as before, but in order to judge the world according to His justice. At that time, all the dead will rise and their souls will be reunited to the bodies they inhabited in this life. In this way, each will necessarily receive the reward corresponding to the merit of his deeds in accordance with divine judgment.

The souls that have already departed, having been released from their bodies, are not in enjoyment of that glory, even if they have been purified through virtue and sanctity of life. Nor are they consigned to eternal punishment, even if they remain steadfast and unchangeable in their wickedness until the end of their lives. Nor are they cast into a purgatorial fire those who, as some claim, are cleansed through repentance alone but lack works worthy of repentance, in order to remove the filth of wickedness. For these teachings are foreign and entirely alien to the doctrines of piety that we hold, as they are neither consonant with the divine words nor with the teachings of the holy Fathers.

But the souls of those who have departed in righteousness, and in true faith, and in sincere repentance for their sins committed during the term of this earthly and transitory life, are even now waiting in hope of the enjoyment of the good things stored up in Heaven, which God has prepared for those who love Him. There they are kept by God in a place of light and ease until the moment when, at the coming Judgment, they shall receive the promised rewards after being reunited with the bodies in which they struggled. At that time they will be united to God in a most perfect and divine union and filled with His uncreated light. A sort of foretaste or first installment of this light was revealed, as much as they could bear, to the apostles on Mount Tabor. There, the God-man manifested His uncreated glory in a single ray, which we also believe to have been uncreated.

As for those who depart in repentance and confession and are genuinely penitent, they are not obliged to demonstrate the full extent of their repentance, nor to wipe away the traces of their wounds through groans, tears, and other labors of virtue. Rather, they are in a sense divided between hope and fear, and await that fearful day and the final Judgment of the impartial Judge.

Concerning them, the alms given by the living to the poor, their demonstrations of faith, and the prayers and petitions offered to the merciful God, as well as the intercessions of the saints, have power, not only for those remaining on earth, but also for those who have fallen asleep in holiness, for the prayer of the saints is powerful and effective. Therefore, our piety praises and honors them with divine honors; raises temples for them; organizes feasts and festivals for their glory; praises them with all kinds of hymns; and arranges their relics and icons according to proper order and relation. The saints are honored and revered with veneration, [156] but the Mother of our Lord, the true Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, who surpasses all the saints and even the angels, is honored and revered with the highest veneration, [157] which is not worship. [158] This is rightly and reasonably prescribed by the most ancient traditions.

Furthermore, the prayers that the Church offers at every hour, and especially the bloodless sacrifices presented at the most mystical table on their behalf, propitiate God Himself, so that whatever is lacking in those who have departed may be supplied to them; and that nothing shall be reckoned against them on the day of Judgment, but they shall find a portion at the right hand, and be counted among the sheep, worthy of the ineffable glory.

But the departed souls of the impious, and of those who have perished unrepentant in mortal sins, whose lives have come to an end in the full measure of wickedness, are weighed down in places of suffering, darkness, and gloom, where they pass their time in sorrow and unconsolable distress. They tremble and shudder at the judgment of their deeds, as if it has already been issued against them, and await the day on which they will be consigned to Gehenna and cast into the eternal fire.

 

ENDNOTES

143. Περιχώρησις.

144. “Ὑπέστη κένωσιν ἀκενώτως.”

145. “Κατὰ θεωρίας ὕψος, καὶ βάσιν πράξεως.”

146. “Θεῖοι λόγοι,” a patristic gloss for the Scriptures. Although Voulgaris does not himself provide examples of the λόγοι in question, popular references include Deuteronomy 32:7 and Proverbs 22:27 in the Old Testament; and 1 Corinthians 11:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15 in the New.

147. “Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ψεύστης.” Voulgaris employs this phrase in a way that is lost in translation: though one person alone may be untrustworthy, the faithful community together is reliable.

148. That is, the Christ.

149. This passage has been more freely rendered in order to communicate the connection, apparent in the Greek, between the words χρίσμα (chrism, anointing oil), Χριστός (Christ, anointed one), and χριστιανός (Christian, one who takes after Christ, the anointed One).

150. A reference to the Lutheran belief in consubstantiation; that the Lord is “in, with, and under” the bread and wine.

151. A reference to certain Calvinist beliefs that the Lord is only spiritually, not physically, present to those believers who partake in faith.

152. Ἐπίκλησις. This sentence defends the Eastern belief that the Eucharist is consecrated through the invocation of the Spirit at the epiclesis, and not the words of the Lord, “This is My Body, etc.” alone.

153. The common representation of the earthly hierarchy reflecting the heavenly hierarchy has its roots in Scripture, but finds its definitive exposition in the works of Dionysius the Areopagite. For a comprehensive treatment of Dionysius, see Mark Edwards, Dimitrios Pallis, Georgios Steiris, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).

154. Χειροθεσία. Voulgaris is indicating the distinction between ordination to minor orders, traditionally called cheirothesia, and ordination to major orders, traditionally called cheirotonia.

155. That is, the grace imparted to all without exception, enabling them to move toward the good. See Confession of Dositheos, Decree 3, in Trenham, Rock and Sand, 194–96.

156. Δουλεία (dulia), or “relative worship.”

157. Ὑπερδουλεία (hyperdulia), or the “utmost relative worship.”

158. Λατρεία (latria), or “absolute worship,” owed to God alone.