St. Andrew of Ufa: On Bishops and Catascops (1928)

Caveant Christiani!

(Be wary Christians)

 

 

A suspicious reader, having read this title, may think that we, taking advantage of revolutionary freedom, abuse it and introduce into use the hitherto unheard-of word "catascop"[*], completely unnecessarily and superfluously. Incidentally, this word had been introduced into Church language very long ago and not by us, but by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria who had to suffer much from false bishops throughout his long-suffering episcopal life - these did not give him rest even in exile. It is these prevaricating and false Bishops that Saint Athanasius called “catascops”. The exact translation of this Greek word into Russian will be made further on: in the meantime, we remind the reader that the word “Bishop” means overseer - overseer of the sanctity and purity of Ecclesiastical life. One might assume, therefore, that the word "catascop," in the terminology of St. Athanasius, is the opposite of a bishop.

From the treacherous activity of these catascops, we shall see that this is so: a catascop is a creature who promotes himself as a replacement for a true Church Bishop when such a true people’s Bishop becomes uncomfortable to the sinful land.

Catascops are people that wear the costume of a Bishop, but in reality, are anti-Bishops such as Caiaphas, who was identified as the High Priest by his vestments, but whose soul belonged to the crowd which the Church song labels: “who are murderers of the righteous”.

Unfortunately, it’s a great pity that Ecclesiastical history reveals a mass of persecutions against the righteous Saints by the unlawful catascops. Dear reader, open “The Lives of the Saints” and you will literally find narrations about the activities of the catascops from the very first pages. Here is the “Lives of the Saints” for January: the lives of Saints Basil the Great, Athanasius of Alexandria, Maximus the Confessor, and the Russian Saint Phillip of Moscow. The Global-bearers of the contemporary darkness have always feared the light and always strive to extinguish every source of Christian light. They drove out the true Bishops and replaced them with substitutes, with those who were ready to bow down to any darkness for the sake of personal benefit. And in the life of the Holy Church, there were terrible times when hundreds of Bishops and dioceses fell away from the true Faith, and She only survived in the wilderness among the persecuted laity. 

For example, the Council of Rimini (in the year 359), which had 400 Bishops, and the Council of Seleucia of the same year, which had 150 Bishops, simultaneously betrayed the Orthodox Faith by carrying out the will of unlawful Emperor Constantius and his heretical courtiers.  Having betrayed the Faith, these 550 catascops expelled such a righteous figure as Saint Athanasius, who at the time remained the only illuminator of the Faith in the whole of the Orthodox East. 

At this same time, Saint Hilary of Poitiers raised his voice in the West against these unlawful Bishops. He wrote in horror to these apostates: “A servant – I am not saying a good servant but a decent one – cannot tolerate the insult inflicted on his master. A soldier protects his king, even at the risk of his own life – shielding him with his own body. A watchdog barks at the slightest sound and throws itself at the first suspicious figure. While you, Bishops, listen quietly when you are told that Christ is not the true God! Your silence is a sign of agreement with this blasphemy – and you stay silent! But what am I saying! You even protest against those who are defending the truth! You are joining your voice with the stranglers of truth!”.  

Such can be false catascop-Bishops who for the sake of their own welfare are ready to sell the truth and strangle their brothers. 

But let us read about the Lives of the above-mentioned holy fathers.

When Saint Basil the Great carried out his Episcopal duties, his contemporary – the Emperor Valens (himself an Arian who considered Jesus Christ to be a simple Jew), continually interfered in Ecclesiastical affairs and expelled Orthodox Bishops. Those Bishops that were firm in their faith were driven out from their cathedras by Valens who replaced them with his own Arain-catascops; the feeble-hearted cowards were forced to betray Orthodoxy. Finally, Valens met Basil the Great, who expressed unshakeable valor in the confession of his faith. The enraged Emperor screamed at the Saint: “Nobody has ever dared to speak to me like that!” Saint Basil quietly responded with: “It’s only because you haven’t as yet met an actual Bishop of the Church”. 

The entire life of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria was a continuous struggle primarily with the unworthy catascop-Bishops who used the civil authorities to achieve their dark goals. Even the Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine was among the persecutors of Saint Athanasius, after the entire Council of Bishops, headed by the unworthy Eusebius of Nikodim, demanded the removal of this great Saint. But the most severe persecution of Athanasius was the fourth and last one. At the time, the ruler was Magnentius – the murderer of Emperor Constans.

This Magnentius instigated a cruel persecution against Saint Athanasius and all of his adherents who acknowledged him as their lawful Patriarch; bound Bishops were led away by soldiers, the houses of widows and orphans were plundered, Christian maidens were locked in yokes, and pure pillaging occurred in the townships. And all of this was done before the eyes of the Bishops, who at the same time were conducting their own dirty works. In the end, they achieved the exiling of the Orthodox Bishops Ammonius, Moynus, Gaius, Adelphius, Athenodorus and many others who were then replaced by Arians subservient to the murderer Magnentius.

Meanwhile, the Orthodox population of Alexandria deeply resented the iniquity of these rapist bishops; believers rushed to their temples to protect them. But the lawless Bishops didn’t stop at anything: savage clashes occurred (massacres), followed by murders and the vandalism of the seized temples. Such were the most striking strokes, in the life of Saint Athanasius, in his struggles with the Bishop-apostates.

The life of Maximus the Confessor presents itself as an entire history of his struggle with the Monothelite Emperor and his hench-Patriarchal helpers – Sergius, Pyrrhus, and Paul. Saint Maximus declared: “When I will see the Church of Constantinople as She was previously, then I will enter into communion with Her. As long as there are heretical temptations and heretic bishops, no word or deed will convince me to ever enter into communion with them."

When the false Bishop Theodosius (the royal catascop) tried to convince Saint Maximus to fulfill the will of the Emperor, Saint Maximus asked Theodosius if he remembered those sworn promises that he gave before the Holy Gospel. Theodosius replied: “What can I do when the pious Emperor wants the complete opposite?” Then, Saint Maximus sternly censured him: “Why did you and those with you give your promise before the Holy Gospel if you didn’t have a firm intention of fulfilling your promise? Truly, all of the heavenly powers will not convince me to do what you propose. For what answer will I give - not I say – to God, but to my conscience, if, because of the empty glory and opinion of man, I reject the right Faith that saves those who love it?"

We have presented only a few examples (and only from the one January Volume of “The Lives of the Saints”) of how many great Bishops-Confessors endured tortures from their contemporary catascops. These sad examples can be multiplied to the extreme. But let us leave Greek history: and let us look at the history of the Russian Church. To our great sorrow, in the history of the Russian Church you can also find a sufficient number of catascops. But, of course, at different times there were different numbers.

As is known, the history of the Russian Church falls into two parts, which are very different from each other as pertains to the character of the Church authorities. The first part was before the schism of the Old Believers and the second was after the notorious Council of 1667, which blessed and approved all of the violence of the Tsars against the religious conscience of the subjects. During the reign of Tsar Peter the Great, these violations and the torture of Christians was cynically savage.

Peter hated the appearance of any type of freedom or independence among his subjects, and being a firm atheist himself, he drove out faith in others with a fanatical cruelty. That’s why, before Tsar Peter, unworthy bishops were found only as a rare exception, and after his upbringing – on the contrary – genuine church bishops began to be found only on very rare occasions.

As far as we know, before the Council of Bishops in 1667, there were only three cases of treason among the Bishops. The first was during the times of Ivan the Terrible and concerned the Martyred Metropolitan Phillip. This great Saint fearlessly denounced Ivan for his atrocities. This made the Tsar furious and he brought his spiritual father to trial, and demanded from the court the condemnation of the innocent sufferer.

The presiding judges with Archbishop Pimen of Novgorod as the head, judged Phillip as being guilty. The last words of the Saint were: “Tsar, do you think I am afraid of death? Having achieved old age, I am ready to commit my soul unto the Almighty – my Judge and your Judge. It’s better to die as an innocent martyr than to silently tolerate abominable lawlessness. I am leaving the staff and mantle to the Metropolitan. And to you, all of the enlighteners and servants of the altar, shepherd faithfully the flock of Christ; prepare to give an answer and fear the heavenly Tsar more than the earthly one."

But the enlighteners and servants of the altar had long ago forgotten about Christ’s flock, as the will of the earthly Tsar was far more frightening than any Heavenly Judgment to them… Metropolitan Phillip, the faithful servant of the Holy Church and of Her people, was defrocked and killed.  

The second major historical example of the betrayal of God’s truth and the Church to be voiced by a Bishop was the case of Metropolitan Gelasius of Krutitsk. Boris Godunov sent this Metropolitan to Uglich to investigate the death of the Tsarevich Dimitri. And this Metropolitan (truly a catascop) reported to his master that which he wanted to hear – that Dimitri's death was simply a random act of suicide. Such were the Metropolitans from Krutitsk!

The next significant false Bishop in the history of the Russian Church was Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan. At the time, the Impostor Dimitri was made very uncomfortable by the Patriarch Job who was beloved by the people. It was necessary to get rid of him – and get rid of him they did. He was incarcerated in the Staritsky monastery. Ignatius was then elevated to his position - naturally without any election. When Ignatius hypocritically asked for a blessing from the former Patriarch, Job responded: “A gang has a head, a flock has a pastor”. The new false Patriarch was agreeable to anything! He agreed to elevate the pseudo-Dimitri to the throne and to marry him to Marina Mnishek – a Papist whom he anointed with Holy Chrism before giving them Holy Communion... For these types of catascops – everything is possible!

We will not, here, innumerate the minor betrayals by the catascops in Russian Church history, because we are not in the least bit interested in describing betrayals by Bishops against the Holy Church. Our only aim is to prove to the reader that sometimes obedience to bishops is extremely destructive for everyone that comes into contact with them… Caveant christiani!

Therefore, we will bypass even the frightening Council of 1667, when 2 Eastern Patriarchs accepted enormous bribes in order to carry out the will of the unhinged mind of Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, and cursed the entire history of the Russian Church with all of the Saints of the Russian land...

This was so deformed and unheard of that the best Russian people - immediately and decisively - moved away from all state-official church administration, and organized their own personal Church**, whose history is one of continuous suffering for the independence and freedom of Church life. 

On the part of the civil tsarist authorities, the persecution of this church-communal freedom began, and the best and most firm in the faith of the Russian people began to starve in prisons, burn in log cabins, thousands were sent to hard labor and were beheaded... Meanwhile, the cathedra of Moscow Metropolitan-Martyr (Phillip) was occupied by the torturer-Patriarch Joachim, who was concerned not so much for the interests of the church laity as for his personal welfare. 

But now, Emperor Peter sat on the Russian throne – a complete agnostic and delinquent, blasphemer and debaucher - as it should be for an ungodly one. For him and his obduracy, the very existence of the Patriarch was unacceptable, because even in silence, the head of the faithful people was an accusation of the Tsar’s lawlessness. And Peter, without thinking, placed a “Locum tenens to the Patriarchal throne” in place of a Patriarch. The first “Locum tenens” was Stephan Yavorsk, whose Catholic name was Stanislaus... It is from here that, in Russia, began all types of Church forgeries and fabrications – all types of “Locum tenens”, replacements and others, etc...

Thus, Stephan was the first helper to the godless Peter. The second assistant was Theophan Prokopovich, who carried the name of Elias in the Catholic school: this was the second “Locum tenens” and a heavy drunkard. Under these “Locum tenens”, the Russian clergy were drawn into a system of police informants; they were obliged to inform the government authorities concerning those parishioners who were dissatisfied with the government. With this, the priest was obliged to inform even in those cases where he found out such information during confession...

It was the most treacherous system on the part of the government. And only St. Demetrius of Rostov objected to this system; the remaining bishops turned into formal catascop spies. It is from these catascops that a “holy governing Synod” was formed, which replaced the Patriarch. 

The actual “Locum tenens” to the patriarchal throne became the prosecutor of the Synod, who chose as the members of the “holy Synod” those who held views compatible with his own. Among them were clandestine Masons, open atheists, kind officers and doctors-gynecologists. And each of these members chose as his helpers, Bishops (catascops) according to his own taste... One can only imagine what type of Church administration it was! The name of this department was given by one fatal Russian surname – it was one continuous rasputinism!

Catascops and rasputinism are completely inseparable from each other both ideologically and in fact.

* * *

But what is so especially frightening about Ecclesiastical catascops to the Holy Church? We will try to answer this question. This is our answer: before anything else, the catascops fully compromise Church life among the unbelievers, catascops disintegrate the inner life of the Church, and finally – the catascops with their total unscrupulousness defile whatever environment they have to mix into. We will now attempt to elucidate our three answers.

What is Christianity? What is Church life? Christianity is an ardent love toward Christ our Saviour; Christianity is not an abstract idea but an unceasing ardency of spirit, prayer, joy, enthusiasm, sacrificial Eucharistic striving toward Christ. It was in this spirit that the first Bishops of the Church, the Holy Apostles and their great successors, the enlighteners and holy Martyrs, who formed religious communes of brotherhoods around themselves; in these communes the flame of grace-filled faith and brotherly love was always alive. The whole meaning of life to these communes was in Christ: every Christian could say of himself that for him, Christ was his life, while death was an acquisition… And everyone that accepted baptism was consciously preparing himself for suffering in Christ’s name. Thus, the ardent faith of the Bishops drew the pure of heart to them and the Holy Church.

The catascops cannot be compared with Ecclesiastical Bishops in any shape or form. 

For catascops, concerning the essence of the matter: the Church, as a mystical, God-established community - this doesn't exist to them, there is no community at all, but there is only a chancellery, and at best the "Office of the Orthodox Confession", established some time ago, and then formed, re-formed, registered etc. etc...

In such an “Institution”, no burning of the heart is required at all! All that is required is the authority of the bishop, the prestige of the bishop's authority and universal silence with a sinking heart. That's the whole content of church life! This content is extremely similar to absolute emptiness: it has bred a huge mass of Russian sectarianism around the Russian Orthodox Church, for no living soul, of course, will agree to the voluntary fading of all its heartfelt abilities.  

Thus, the catascops are systematically humiliating and demeaning Church life among both the faithful and the unbelievers. We stated that Christian baptism, in the first period [of Church history], was a baptism into martyrdom, and as models of such a Confession were the bishops of the Church, who defended church dogmas. These are not the same times! 

We recently heard how after spending several months in prison in 1922, one sharp-witted Bishop told his parishioners that “now my main dogma is: don’t sit in prison”. You will agree, dear reader, that such a “main dogma” is incapable of inspiring anyone unto any [salvific] feat; on the contrary, such extreme unscrupulousness can alienate not only feeble souls from the Church, but even those that are honest and sincere.

That’s why instead of enthusiasm, instead of an Ecclesial crucifixion, we now see at every step only an oath, treason and a pathetic imitation of the modern traitors of the Holy Church – the catascops. Only recently, such a scene played out in a Soviet institution. One elderly citizen went there and asked for a place for fifty rubles. As his merit before the Soviet government, he cited the following: "I am a former priest, I publicly renounced my rank and announced it in the newspaper."

- Why did you do that?

- In order to get a place in the civil department.

- And only for fifty rubles?

- Yes.

- So if you sell your faith for 50 rubles, then for how many kopecks will you sell us?

A typical conversation! And how often one hears of such conversations! Thus, the catascops from the former "Office of the Orthodox Confession" are corrupting their flock with just their presence!

* * *

How do you distinguish a genuine Bishop from a genuine catascop?

This is a very important question, because both the Bishops and catascops wear the same vestments: in church, they have the “same services”... Nearly everything is the “same” to the eyes of the short-sighted people, who are unfamiliar with Church life. In fact, there is a huge difference between a Bishop and a catascop - approximately the same as between a living creature and a stuffed animal - or between a genuine priest and a hooligan, attired in church vestments.

It’s completely unthinkable for a genuine Bishop not to be among his Church flock - to be outside of his spiritual, Ecclesiastical family. He knows his flock by name, and the flock knows his voice. To him, his flock is the beloved brothers and sisters to whom he gives his soul, his salvation. To a Church Bishop, his flock is his family to which he is tied organically and inseverably. He cannot “rule” this family; this family cannot “subordinate” itself to its Bishop – because these are not “family” words. No! A Bishop “gives birth” to his blessed family – just as the Apostle Paul did - after lengthy “birth pangs”, and this family lives in his heart and is nourished by his heart-felt love. A genuine Bishop relies only on people and knows only their Ecclesiastical needs.

For a catascop, there is no family. To him, it’s all sentimental nonsense. 

To him, only the directives of the authorities exist - for this, it’s imperative for him to have a command “centre”. Without this “centre”, a catascop cannot live, cannot breathe. A “centre” is as essential to him as air - without the “centre”, it is as inconceivable as the “genuine Russian people” were without gendarmes and genuine Russian insults... A catascop by nature and without fail must control someone, “lord over” someone, register someone, report to someone, inform on someone, etc., etc... And with this and without fail, be a lackey to someone and cringe a little…

Where is there brotherhood here?! Here, there is only the lord's [catascop's] cry unto the – silencing of the flock and the shearing, shearing, shearing…!

Yes-Yes! Between a Bishop and a catascop – there is a huge difference! Between them, a massive chasm has been confirmed! Although on the face of it there is a big similarity, and it would appear they seem to be the same.

In conclusion, I have to apologize to the reader. At the beginning of the article, I promised to give you an exact translation of the word “catascop”. Unfortunately, despite my exhaustive search in various languages of the Middle East – including Greek, I was unable to find the translation. Therefore, I can only surmise the meaning of this word and leave the rest to the reader.

 

* Catascops (Greek: κατασκοπος - spies [or stool pigeons]) - a common name for military personnel who carried out observation, reconnaissance functions both in their own and in enemy territory with the subsequent transfer of this information to the military command; in Russian language, the word "spyatai" would most accurately correspond to this Greek term.

** These opinions of St. Andrew on the "Old Believer" schism are not entirely consistent with the consensus of the Saints.

 

(The text above has been kindly translated by Seraphim Larin)

[For more information concerning St. Andrew of Ufa, please see “At the brink of eternity: the miraculous death of St. Andrew of Ufa (†1937)”:  https://catacombhistory.blogspot.com/2019/12/at-brink-of-eternity-miraculous-death.html]

 

 

Source: https://catacombhistory.blogspot.com/2022/01/st-andrew-of-ufa-on-bishops-and.html

A Prayer of Daily Confession for a Person Entering on the Way of Salvation

From the writings of Saint Dimitry of Rostov

 

Having found a silent place and being alone, sit down and meditate on your life, recall to mind all sins that you have committed from your youth on, those you have confessed, and those left unconfessed. Having brought back to mind all from the depth of your heart, sigh, beat your breast, and if this is possible, weep.

Stand up and fall on your knees; raise your mind from the earth to the Throne of God’s Grace, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim. There, having seen God with eyes of true vision, seated on a high exalted Throne, regarding your appeal, foreseeing all your ways and attentive to what you want to say, fall down at His most merciful feet, and with fear begin to speak thus to Him:

O Most Gracious God, the source of all goodness, infinitely merciful, Creator, Redeemer, and my Saviour. To Thee, Who guides the deepest mysteries of the universe, Who doth test hearts, I confess my sins and bring before Thy All-Seeing Eye to the hearing of all Thy Angels and Archangels my evil deeds. I have sinned, O my Lord and Creator, in…

Here mention all your sins with your lips in detail, as if whispering into the ear of God, with shame, with shamefulness of thy face, with your heart trembling with fear and saying with tears:

By these, I have brought Thee sorrow, O my Lord.

Having completed your confession of sins, say the following:

These are my wounds, my sores, my defilement, O most merciful Healer, this is my heavy burden, O gracious Lord, this is my shame and nakedness, O most patient Judge.

By these deeds of mine, I have saddened, angered, and irritated Thy goodness; with these I have besmirched Thy image, and Thy Holy Spirit I have offended, and my Guardian Angel I have driven away from myself; with these Thy most precious Blood shed for me, I have trampled upon and considered as nothing; with these I ruined the beauty of my soul and denuded Thy Grace, and with these I have desecrated the Church, which Thou hast bought with Thy Blood, corrupting my whole body, making members of my body to commit fornication, defiling my soul with sinful, blasphemous, proud, wicked lecherous thoughts.

By voluntarily allowing and taking pleasure in them, by these I brought joy to the demons, tears to angels and death to my soul with sinful, blasphemous, proud, wicked, lecherous thoughts. hand of torpor and sealed with stones of mercilessness.

These, O Lord, are my trespasses, which have gone over my head, outnumbered the hairs of my head and the grains of sand in the sea. Confessing these I reveal, condemn, judge and blame myself, not only for these which I remember, but also for those I do not remember and do not understand to be sinful, and which I do not now know how to confess, all these I place before the immensity of Thy mercy, most merciful and gracious God.

After so grave and so many of my shameful deeds, after so great a confusion of my mind and insanity, after so many terrible falls and unfeelingness, having barely come to myself and from the depth of despair, looking at Thy wonderful mercy unconquered by all the sins of mankind, and acknowledging that Thou dost not want the death of the sinner but are mercifully awaiting his conversion and for the special sake of the sinner Thou hast unsparingly spilled Thy Blood merely to call him to repentance.

Having comprehended this, I a sinner, having surpassed the sins of the whole world, the second devil by my bad deeds, an imitator of Judas, a co-crucifier, I damned and impious, an unlimited sea of abominations, a bottomless abyss of uncleanliness, I nasty one, defiled doer of all evil, run towards Thee and fall down before Thee, most merciful and gracious One, with my heavy ladened heart, in repentance, I cry to Thee:

I have sinned, O Father, before Thee and Heaven; I have sinned and broken Thy Commandments; I have sinned as no one else has. I am not worthy to be called Thy son; I am not worthy to look up and see the heights of Heaven; I am not worthy to part my lips before Thee, I who until now have been Thine enemy. But I pray to Thy grace, and I bring my prayers to Thy benignity: Have mercy upon me, O God by Thy loving-kindness, by the multitude of Thy tender mercies, wash away my transgressions. Have mercy upon me, forgive and cleanse, for it is only from Thee that one can expect cleansing.

Lord, if Thou desirest, Thou canst cleanse me. I know Thou dost wish all to be saved. Save then me also, Thou canst if Thou wishest to condescend in Thy mercy to me, O Lord, remember Thy ancient favors and bounties and forgive my sins, do not remember my evil deeds, do not enter into judgment upon them with Thy servant, neither repay me according to my deeds, nor condemn me with Thy severity, nor punish me with Thy wrath.

Open before me the doors of Thy goodness, open before me the doors of repentance, and in repentance accept me, and restore me to reason, raise me, the fallen one, seek out for me, the erring one, and accept me, the lost one, heal me, the wounded one, and resurrect me, who am dead.

Lord God Almighty, draw me back, show Thy Countenance to me and I will be saved; with Thy glory enlighten Thy servant. How long willst Thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long willst Thou hide Thy countenance from me? Turn Thy face from my sins, do not turn Thy Countenance away from me for I grieve. Hear me, O Lord, soon.

I know that I am unworthy of Thy love and mercy, but am only worthy of all the punishment which hell has; I am worthy of the unrelentless worm, the gnashing of teeth, the infernal darkness, the unquenchable fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. I am worthy of Tartar, before which Satan himself trembles.

But as great as Thy greatness is, so also is Thy mercy, and there is no sin which can overcome Thy loving-kindness to men.

For this reason, I do not despair but depend upon the inexhaustible, abundant grace that continuously is descending upon all of us and Thine ineffable kindness; I depend upon Thee, O Lord, and place my hope in Thee, that I may not be shamed forever.

Thou art my hope, O Lord, and such hope is never put to shame. Do not put me to shame, O Lord, on the terrible Judgment Day before the countless heavenly host and all the Saints.

I am most profoundly sorry for having angered Thee, my Creator, I have brought sorrow to Thine eternal goodness by my wickedness, and Thee Whom I should always have loved and kept Thy Commandments, Thee I have wounded with innumerable sins as if I had hated Thee. Thee Whom I should have desired with my whole heart, I barely thought of and neglected, Thee Whom I should have enjoyed with sweetness, Thee I have brought sorrow and abandoned; to Thee I should have clung, Thee I have torn away from, Thee alone for Whom I should have lived, towards Thee I became as one dead, and I live for sin to fulfill my passions and desires.

He Whom I should have feared and revered, Him have I insulted and dishonored in my younger brethren and myself, defiling myself completely in deed, word and thought. He to Whom I should have given thanks and praise constantly, remaining with Him, Him I repulsed and ran away on the paths of corruption, and was lazy to open my lips to praise His Holy Name.

O Lord my Desire, O my God most merciful, do not be angry with me, a sinner, to the last. Now, all that I most painfully regret and never will cease to regret.

Oh, that I may never again wound Thee, my Lord. Oh, that I may be the first among the dead rather than to anger Thee, my gracious Lord God.

In vain was I born, in vain was I brought up, and do I live till now in vain, only to bring Thee pain and sorrow?

May my heart now be broken with sorrow; may the hardness of my heart now fall apart and be crushed in regretfulness, so that I may wither completely as wax by inner fire: and all this because I have angered Thee, as I have lost my God, fell away from His grace, insulted His goodness, drew away from His love, cut myself from His glory, cast from His merciful presence. May mine eyes emit a water’s outlet day and night, I have not kept Thy Law, I have abundantly failed and abundantly sinned against Thee.

My heart is saddened by this and does not trepidate as much before pain or wanes as much in weakness from the falling away of heavenly blessings as from my having angered Thee, Who art All Goodness, All Sweetness, All-Loving, All to be desired, and over this alone I shall never cease being sorry, now and forever.

May my life pass away in sickness and my years in sighs, may my soul be weakened with sickness and may my bones be withered over this, that I have brought so much sorrow to my God, my Creator, my Lord, my Redeemer.

And what will I do? I know that Thou art good, that Thou art merciful, my Redeemer, so merciful that Thou hast not spared Thy own life, and didst give Thy life for us sinners, and that Thou dost not treat us according to our trespasses, nor for our sins dost Thou punish us.

This shall I do, I shall fall down before Thy Feet, and bow and cry before Thee, my Lord, Who hast created me.

I am an abyss of sins, and I plunge myself into the abyss of Thy infinite mercy, my God, and pray Thee, lead me towards true repentance and enliven me who am dead and of stony heart. Thou didst accept many sinners who repented: David, Manasseh, Josea, the publican, the harlot, the prodigal son, Peter, Paul, Photina, Theis, Pelagia, Mary of Egypt, do not reject me who have surpassed all these in my sins; for Thou came to call not the righteous, but sinners unto repentance.

Call me also, who am more sinful than all others. Even if I have done nothing good before Thee, but do Thou grant me according to Thy Grace, that I may begin to do that which is good. And make me worthy, O Lord, to love Thee, as once I loved that very sin, that I may serve Thee without laziness, as once I served the devil, the flatterer. That I may serve Thee with special zeal, my Lord God Jesus Christ, all the days of my life if Thou wilt grant me Thy Grace and help.

In truth, I marvel at Thy great patience, O most merciful One, that during the time I committed sins, Thou didst not judge me according to Thy righteous judgment, nor hadst Thou warned me with Thy anger, nor cut me off with Thy wrath, nor from on high Thou didst not strike me dead as with lightning, nor hadst ordered to the earth to open and for me to be lead alive into hell, and neither didst Thou permit me to be ravaged by sudden death.

And when I marveled much at this, I realized how unlimited is Thy mercy in awaiting my repentance and the transformation of my sinful life, leaving me without punishment, that I may recover my sense and come to a feeling of my iniquity and abandon my evil beginnings.

This I understood, and with repentance, I drew towards Thee, not I myself, but Thou hast guided and led me towards Thyself. And for what purpose Thou hast done this, and what led Thee towards such mercy, and what need there is that Thou shouldst call me?

I do not know. This only do I know, that I am a Sinner and without excuse and have been Thine enemy until now, and am yet unchanged, but in as much as Thou Thyself hast called me and led me before Thee, enlighten my mind, open my lips, teach me what I should say before Thee, and cleanse me of my iniquities, and abominations, sprinkle me with the hyssop of Thy mercy, make me whiter than snow, that I may not stand before Thee in abomination and defilement.

It would have been far better for me to be hidden somewhere in the dark depths of the earth than to stand before Thy great inaccessible Glory, in such shame, in such shameful nakedness, standing defiled with all my bad sins and in all my hideousness before the eyes of the Seraphim and Cherubim, angels, in Thy presence. But there is no place that can hide me before Thy most luminous eyes, more bright than the sun.

I marvel and am perplexed by this, that Thou dost not abhor having permitted me, with such abominable iniquities, to stand before Thee and boldly, more than that, impudently to speak to Thee.

How canst Thou not abhor looking upon my impure heart and the abomination of my soul? Why do not Thy representatives immediately forbid me with fiery repulse and drive me from Thy Countenance? Why don’t they, being abhorred with me, not cast me tied into the darkness of hell?

But Thou being graceful and good, do not desire this to happen. Great indeed, very great is Thy mercy, far above the heavens, deeper than the most deep abyss of hell, wider than all the earth and sea in Thy goodness which dost not desire me to perish but awaiteth my conversion, and rejoiceth in the repentance of a sinner.

Great is Thy mercy, O Lord, as Thou dost bear one in patience who have promised Thee to repent and again have fallen far, even lower than before. Often have I promised to repent and by oath have I declared this, yet I, a passionate sinner, have lied.

I repent in trepidation that Thou willst cut me off. And an hour later I sin again, Thou dost once again show mercy towards me and dost not destroy me with my sins. Glory to Thy great long-suffering patience, glory to Thy mercy, glory to Thy goodness, glory to Thy immeasurable kindness, glory to the great multitude of Thy graciousness, glory to Thy merciful Countenance. Standing before Thee, my Lord God, I bring Thee my will and my intention resting on a hope of receiving help from Thee in my undertaking, from this day forth, from this hour, from this very instant — to reform my evil and damned life with all my strength, and grieve over my past sins unto my death, and with Thy help to guard myself from all such dangers.

Thou knowest, my Lord, that I hate my despicable deeds and myself, and because of them I hate my sinful life, and no longer do I wish to anger Thee with them, my good God. Only, O Lord, help Thou me; without Thy Almighty help and grace, I can in no way overcome my evil deeds and sinful habit, and cannot do a single good thing, without Thee I can do nothing. I have the desire to repent; if Thou willst help me Thou canst cleanse me, Lord; help me and I shall be saved.

I believe, Lord, in Thy goodness, help my disbelief. I believe that Thou art near to all who call upon Thee sincerely.

Truly, truly, truly do I wish with all my heart to come to repentance to Thee, my God. Lord God, hear and help me; Lord, strive to help me.

After this, having stood up, confirm thyself in hope in the Lord, and meditating on His great goodness and mercy, read the 102nd Psalm that your soul may find consolation:

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name, etc.

If it should be impossible for you to keep in your memory all these words, then put them into your mind as brief statements, thus:

1. I confess to God all my sins

2. I consider myself unworthy of His mercy, but only worthy of eternal punishment.

3. Nevertheless, I do not despair,

4. Humbly I ask forgiveness.

5. I firmly desire to change my life.

6. I believe undoubtedly, that my sins will be forgiven.

 

Source: Orthodox Life, November-December 1960, pp. 15-21.

Fr. Chrysanthos of Spinalonga, who communed lepers and consumed the Holy Communion

Sarantos Filippopoulos | July 27, 2024

 

 

We have referred many times through features on our website to the so-called unsung heroes—those who never saw the spotlight of publicity, who never appeared in newspaper headlines or news reports, likely because they didn’t fit the profile that the media constructs for the public.

And yet, these everyday heroes—simple people with whom we can identify and whom we can admire for their actions—are the ones who truly deserve to be honored, and whose work ought to be made known. This task is taken up by other ordinary people, the people themselves, who pass on their heroic deeds by word of mouth, hoping they will not be forgotten and will remain shining examples for all of us.

Our Association strives to highlight such stories, and today we present to you Hieromonk Chrysanthos, the priest of the lepers, who remained faithfully by their side not merely until the very end, but even long after!

Hieromonk Chrysanthos Koutsoulogiannakis lived on Spinalonga and served the lepers.

For ten whole years, the priest of Spinalonga communed the lepers and then consumed (drank) the remaining Holy Communion without contracting leprosy!

One of the historical details we learn about the “island of the living dead” is that the Hansen’s disease patients who lived on Spinalonga were angry with God, because their illness was a great and unbearable trial.

A priest from Ierapetra once dared to visit them and serve the Divine Liturgy in the church of Saint Panteleimon, which existed and was decaying on the island, together with its new inhabitants. They say that at the first Liturgy not a single soul attended.

The lepers listened stubbornly to the chanting from their cells—sometimes they drowned it out with their groans, other times with their curses. But the priest returned. At this second visit, one of the patients boldly stepped to the threshold of the church.

— “Father, I’ll stay for your Liturgy, but on one condition. At the end, you will commune me. And if your God is truly all-powerful, then afterward you will consume the remainder, and you won’t be afraid of my leprosy.”

The priest nodded in assent. The word spread through the nearby cells, and several began to gather at the side of the church, where there was a small breach in the wall, allowing a limited view of the sanctuary. The Hansen’s disease patients waited at the end of the Liturgy and saw the priest tearful and kneeling at the Holy Prothesis, consuming the remaining Gifts.

A month passed. The Hansen’s patients waited for him. They believed that this time he would come back as a patient, not as a priest. But the priest returned healthy and rosy-cheeked, and began once again, with renewed spirit, to ring the bell of the old chapel.

The miracle of Spinalonga that happened again and again

From that point on, and for at least ten years, Spinalonga had its priest. The Hansen’s disease patients rebuilt the church with their own hands, and at the same time, they rebuilt their faith. They communed regularly and always secretly watched their priest at the moment of the consumption, to be assured that the “miracle of Spinalonga” was happening again and again.

In 1957, with the discovery of antibiotics and the healing of the lepers, the leprosarium was closed and the island became deserted. Only the priest remained on the island until 1962, to commemorate the lepers for up to five years after their death. Behold, then, a modern silent hero, who was honored by no one for his work!

 

Greek source: https://www.ionikienotita.gr/?p=48337

 

Papa-Chrysanthos of Spinalonga (+1972): A “God-sent” “Saint” on the Island of the Damned

Kostas Pappas

 

 

Spinalonga is a small island near Elounda in eastern Crete.

It is known as “the island of the living dead,” since lepers from Crete and the rest of Greece were isolated there until 1957.

Even mentioning its name was taboo for many years, as it had become identified with the pain and misery of the Hansen’s disease sufferers who lived there.

This dramatic chapter of the island’s history begins in 1903, when the Leper Colony was established on Spinalonga to isolate those suffering from Hansen’s disease from the healthy population.

In antiquity, the name of the island was Kalydon, and it was renamed Spinalonga during the period of Venetian rule, a name derived from spina lunga, which means “long thorn.”

Because leprosy was considered an incurable disease at the time and people were unaware that the vast majority of individuals possess natural immunity to it, the stigma extended to the entire family of the patient, which was thus driven into social isolation. There was no state care, and lepers survived solely on public charity.

In 1913, with the union of Crete with Greece, lepers from all over the country began to be transferred there, and gradually Spinalonga was designated as the International Leper Colony of Europe.

At the entrance of the leper colony, a chilling inscription had been placed with the message: “He who enters must abandon all hope…”

The patients on Spinalonga were entitled to a small monthly allowance, which often did not cover their food or medication.

A significant change came in the 1930s, when Epameinondas Remoundakis, a third-year law student, was transferred to the island after falling ill.

The young Epameinondas fought for the improvement of living conditions for the island's inhabitants.

Through his initiatives, he brought lime for the disinfection of the houses and managed to install a generator so that there would be electricity.

He organized a cleaning service for the exterior and communal spaces, and thanks to his efforts, the island acquired a theater, cinema, cafés, and a barbershop, while loudspeakers were installed in the streets playing classical music.

Trades began to be practiced, a rudimentary form of commerce emerged, and a school was also established, with a leper serving as the teacher.

During the Occupation, Spinalonga was one of the very few places in Greece where neither the Italians nor the Germans set foot.

Due to fear of contagion from leprosy and the revulsion caused by the sight of the lepers, very few ever went to the island, and only to deliver food and other essential items.

Into this atmosphere of isolation and fear toward the lepers came a man of God, Hieromonk Chrysanthos Koutsoulogiannakis, who overturned everything! He was the priest who changed the lives of the people of Spinalonga and taught them experiential love.

Indeed, he was truly “God-sent” for the inhabitants, as he was assigned there as parish priest on his own initiative.

“Orthodox Truth” contacted Mr. Dimitris Papadakis, former high school principal and president of the Literary Association of Heraklion, Crete, who knew Fr. Chrysanthos and conveyed to us the greatness of the priest’s soul, as reflected in his conversations with him, as well as in the testimony of a former Hansen’s patient at the Leprosarium of Spinalonga, which proves that through his love, Papa-Chrysanthos transformed the “long thorn” (spina lunga) into a blossom of ministry and offering.

“Thrown away like manure into a stinking dung-pit”

“In 1947, the chaplain of the lepers of Spinalonga, Meletios Vourgouris, received a two-month leave from the Bishop of Petra, Dionysios Maragoudakis, from July 20 to September 20, in order to travel to the Holy Land. At the end of his leave, he did not return to his post. The Bishop was unable to find a priest to replace him,” states Mr. Papadakis.

Themos Kornaros, in his book Spinalonga (1936), writes: “Those who had worked all their lives without ever getting enough bread now find themselves, in their illness, thrown away like manure into a stinking dung-pit called Spinalonga.” The fear of the disease spreading was great; people believed it was transmitted even through breathing. The journalist Angelos Sgouros illustrates this fear in an article from August 1929 in the newspaper Empros. He writes characteristically: “Everyone who heard that I was going to Spinalonga called me crazy. Many, upon my return to Athens, looked at me with horror as a carrier of leprosy. The appearance of the lepers—with their bodies covered in rashes and ulcers, fingers severed, faces with eroded cheeks, eyes sunken into their sockets or bulging, lips torn or rotted, eyebrows, eyelashes, and teeth fallen out—provoked repulsion.”

"At that time, the hieromonk of the Monastery of Phaneromeni in Ierapetra, Chrysanthos Katsoulogiannakis, expressed his desire to his Bishop, Philotheos Mazokopakis, to fill the vacancy. Thus, in 1947, he was appointed chaplain of the lepers of Spinalonga," emphasizes Mr. Papadakis, and adds: "Hieromonk Timotheos Perakis, later Abbot of the Monastery of Phaneromeni, told me: 'The monks of the monastery admired Chrysanthos for his decision—a decision of self-denial—to go to Spinalonga as the replacement of Hieromonk Meletios. On the day of his departure, we celebrated the Divine Liturgy. We bid him farewell with great emotion and pride, because a hieromonk of our monastery would be serving as chaplain in Spinalonga.'"

“He had an ascetic appearance, with a faded cassock and monastic cap”

Mr. Papadakis also did not fail to mention the moving acquaintance he had with Father Chrysanthos, stressing: “I had the good fortune to meet Hieromonk Chrysanthos on the fifteenth of August, 1967, at the Monastery of Toplou, where, at the invitation of my beloved and respected Abbot, Archimandrite Philotheos Spanoudakis, I stayed for a week. He was short in stature, had an ascetic appearance, with a white beard. The years weighed heavily on his shoulders. His cassock and monastic cap were faded,” while he retrieves from memory images and events:

“One morning I was with Father Chrysanthos in the small courtyard outside the katholikon. Then an elderly man appeared. As soon as he saw Father Chrysanthos, he exclaimed with surprise and joy: ‘Father Chrysanthos…’ And at that moment, two arms opened for an embrace. In the humble cell of Fr. Chrysanthos, I had the opportunity to meet the visitor and to prompt him to speak to me about his experiences with the priest on the island: ‘I was a leper,’ he said. ‘I lived in Spinalonga for many years. The disease had deformed us. The fear of contagion made all healthy people not dare to come near us. The doctor, the nurses, the other public servants, and the women who washed our clothes left the island shortly before sunset and went by motorboat to Plaka, which was to the west and opposite Spinalonga. They needed to spend a few hours away from the “island of the living dead,” as journalists from Athenian newspapers called Spinalonga at the time.

We all felt the need for a priest. Only he could comfort us with the word of God, support us spiritually. But a priest came to our island from Elounda only twice a month.

He would come on Saturday evening, perform vespers, and leave. He would come again the next day, perform the Divine Liturgy, and leave. He would come on other occasions too—but then it was from dire necessity, to bury our dead!

One day a few of us were sitting in the courtyard of our coffeehouse, which was near the gate.

Then, farther off, a priest appeared. We all understood he had come to the island to serve. As soon as he saw us, he approached. He greeted us warmly.

We all stood and greeted him with a slight bow. But none of us extended a hand to shake his. A leper must not shake hands.

That is, so as not to transmit his cursed disease. But then he shook hands with all of us! He told us simply that he would stay with us to help us fulfill our Christian duties. Our emotion was great.’”

“We all communed and
then we saw him
consume what remained!
We wept like children.”

The account of Fr. Chrysanthos’ second day on the island is as follows: “The next day we went to the Church of Saint Panteleimon. All of us—men, women, and children—attended the Divine Liturgy with compunction, which he celebrated with Doric simplicity and immeasurable piety. That Sunday we did not receive Communion. We hadn’t been informed in time about the Divine Liturgy and had not fasted. At the end of the Liturgy, we received the antidoron from his hand. And as we took the antidoron, we all kissed his hand! It was something he himself desired. As he gave the antidoron, he brought his hand close to our mouths. Tears welled up in all our eyes from emotion. Before he came, we used to take the antidoron from a basket woven of reeds, which the sexton would place on the candle stand. The following Sunday, nearly all of us went to church. The church was packed, as was its courtyard. That day we all received Communion. At the end of the Divine Liturgy we saw our priest consume what remained in the Holy Chalice from our Communion! We all opened our eyes in astonishment. We thought we were dreaming. Thick, burning tears burst from our eyes. The previous priest—surely by divine economy—used to pour what remained from our Communion into the sacrarium. Hieromonk Chrysanthos stayed with us day and night. And he remained with us for ten years! During those years he showed love to all of us. He would visit us in our homes. He guided us all. With the little money he had, he helped the poor. And he did this while keeping the commandment: let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing. I am grateful, as are all the sick of Spinalonga, to Father Chrysanthos for...” — but he could not finish his sentence. He broke into silent weeping.”

“Father Chrysanthos,” continues Mr. Papadakis, “with his gaze fixed on the ground as he listened to the descriptions of the former Hansen’s disease patient, said with inner grandeur: ‘I believe that what I did is not so remarkable. It is what any minister of the Most High, any Christian, would have done. I helped, as much as I could, our fellow human beings to bear the cross of their Golgotha. Besides, the disease is not transmitted through Holy Communion, through the body and blood of Christ.’”

He stayed to tend the graves!

With emotion, Fr. Chrysanthos spoke to Mr. Papadakis about his decision to remain on the island when everyone else had left: “The leper colony of Spinalonga closed. It was July 1957. Everyone left the island; I alone remained.”

I asked him why, and he replied: “I had to tend the graves of the Hansen’s disease patients. I also had to, standing before their graves, chant the Trisagion for the repose of their souls. I left the island in 1959. My health had deteriorated. That’s when I left the island. My bishop placed me in this monastery.”

The writer Nikos Stratakis visited Spinalonga at the time when Father Chrysanthos was living there alone. In a text of his from 1959, he refers to Fr. Chrysanthos, writing:

"Today the island of pain is deserted. Nothing disturbs its silence... As we walked along the cobbled road, a filthy and ragged man, with an ascetic and Byzantine emaciation, in front of the church, is drawing water from the cistern and watering two stunted little trees. This monk is the last remnant of the solitary life of the rock. He clung to it like a barnacle, just as his soul clung to his ascetic flesh."

 

Greek source:

https://www.romfea.gr/prosopa/1721-enas-theostaltos-agios-sto-nisi-ton-kataramenon

Sermon on Disobedience in Times of Profanation of the Orthodox Faith

Nektarios Dapergolas, Doctor of Byzantine History

July 26, 2020

 

 

We are living in dreadful times of apostasy from God — an apostasy that, unfortunately, has extended even to a great part of the clergy — and also in times when striking signs from above are being manifested (indicatively, I recall the fire at Panagia Varnakova, but of course also the ongoing escalation of Turkish provocations), which we see moving neither our people nor our ecclesiastical leaders.

At the very least, not in a way that would direct them toward the right path: that of repentance and conversion. On the contrary, we see on the part of the latter (i.e., the ecclesiastical leaders) a continued tactic of self-justification on the one hand, and on the other, an attack against those who refuse to yield to the wretched post-patristic fable of blind and unconditional obedience–submission of the Christ-named flock to guides who may now very well be “fools and blind,” and thus spiritually ruinous. And we are not speaking merely of mockery, intimidation, and other verbal assaults, but also of threats and even actual persecutions against monks, priests, and laypeople (e.g., chanters) who “dared” to criticize bishops for their stance on major issues of the faith, such as Ecumenism, communion with heretics and schismatics (cf. the Ukrainian pseudo-church), and the neo-Barlaamite blasphemy we have been experiencing over the past three months with the churches being locked (and then sterilized), along with the abominable things we are seeing concerning Holy Communion in Orthodox churches abroad (which, as I have explained in a recent article, we are very likely to see soon in our own country). However much the clerics in delusion (and their murky-minded lay fellow travelers) may say, the bishops possess not the slightest infallibility, nor can obedience to them be unconditional; moreover, the defense of the faith against unsound bishops is not only permitted, but is the duty of all.

Groundless, then, is the accusation from the outset concerning an uncanonical reaction against bishops, to whom we are supposedly obliged to show complete obedience. We even heard from the mouths of some Greek metropolitans the astonishing claim that it constitutes a pan-heresy not to obey one’s bishop (!!!). I simply remind that our ecclesiastical administrative system is indeed episcopal, but not… a junta-like monarchy, no matter how many metropolitans perceive and implement it as such (especially in recent times, during which—with the grave personal and theological co-responsibility of the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos—a distorted ecclesiology has unfortunately developed, to the detriment of conciliarity and in favor of views increasingly reminiscent of papal infallibility). However, it is abundantly clear that a patriarch or a bishop is not entitled to do whatever he wishes, and that his being reproved by any clergyman—ranging from simple protest to cessation of commemoration—especially for very specific actions in which heterodoxy and heresy are demonstrably present, is not only not uncanonical, but is also a moral obligation and a practice grounded in the Holy Canons.

Completely unfounded, therefore, are the claims regarding obedience supposedly owed in any case. We must even say that the reproof of bishops is not only a right but also an obligation—not only of the clergy but also of us, the laity. This is a duty solidly established in multiple ways: from the Apostle Paul himself (who explicitly instructs in the Epistle to the Galatians, addressing the simple flock, that if anyone should come in the future—even an angel from heaven—and preach anything new to them, “let him be anathema”) to St. Athanasius the Great and other great Fathers. Indicatively, I will remind that St. John Chrysostom and St. Nicephorus the Confessor both state explicitly that even if only a few individuals preserve the Orthodox Faith intact, they alone constitute the Church of Christ—without specifying whether they be clergy or laity. I will also recall the famous phrase of St. Justin Popović, who said that when the Church forbids a simple grandmother from reproving her bishop, that will mark the end of the Church. And let me also remind of the foresight of St. John Maximovitch, who said that in the difficult years to come, heresy will have spread so extensively that the faithful will no longer be able to find a priest to protect them from delusion, and so their guide will be the writings of the Holy Fathers, and each believer will henceforth be responsible for the entirety of the Church’s faithful. After all this, how is it possible that some people demand we obey without protest hierarchs who are manifestly in error—who, instead of rightly dividing the word of truth, scandalize the people by speaking words of heterodoxy and falsehood?

Therefore, in this way, the accusation is naturally overturned—that we should not publicly criticize our hierarchs because this supposedly shows a lack of respect and allegedly scandalizes many people. First of all, let us clarify that we are not speaking here of judgment and irreverent condemnation, but of reproof concerning delusion and heresy. On this point, we have every right—indeed, an obligation—as is once again made clear by St. John Chrysostom, as well as other great Fathers of our Church (in a forthcoming article we shall have the opportunity to say more, based on their very words). Beyond that, the notion that it is the reprover of the scandal-causer who causes scandal, and not the scandal-causer himself, cannot withstand even the slightest scrutiny. On the contrary, the public exposure of the heretical monstrosities that are increasingly issuing from the mouths of high-ranking clergy, as well as their public refutation, constitute a duty and responsibility for those who possess some theological knowledge, in regard to those more ignorant—so that the latter may be edified in the truth and not led astray.

As for the matter of supposed lack of respect, the truth is that we certainly do respect their clerical rank—and indeed, quite evidently far more than they themselves do. Beyond that, however, how long can one remain silent in the face of clergymen who for decades oscillate between impious modernism (discarding clerical attire, liturgical translations, etc.) and the most profane blasphemy (common prayers and all sorts of contacts and intermingling with condemned heretics, as well as with those of other religions), provoking with continuous New Age-style statements and actions? And how long can one stay silent regarding the unspeakable things we have been witnessing especially in recent months, with the Ukrainian pseudo-autocephaly, with the concelebrations of many of our hierarchs with schismatics, defrocked and unordained pseudo-clergy, and also with the ongoing blasphemy and offense against God on account of the so-called pandemic? We are certainly obliged to pray that God may enlighten them and grant them repentance and return—but as long as this does not happen, and the scandal they cause continues to escalate, it is obvious that we are also obliged to react. After all, “those who are not angered by what they ought to be, are thought to be fools.”

And of course, we have absolutely no intention of becoming judges and moralists of all things (for we sometimes hear that accusation too, when we censure the words and actions of ecumenist hierarchs—even the acta of horrific pseudo-synods like that of Crete). But naturally, this accusation also proceeds from malice and is entirely hypocritical. First of all, the role of the moralist inherently contains conceit and arrogance. Yet arrogance characterizes those babbling theologians of “love” (the ones of “post-patristicism” and modernist revisionism), that is, those who dogmatize new signs (and… monsters), essentially considering themselves superior to the Holy Fathers, to the Sacred Canons, and to Holy Tradition. We, on the contrary, remain faithful to those things (refusing to change even a single iota), a stance which is by definition humble. We may have (and indeed we do have) a thousand and one faults as human beings, but this particular stance is humble. Furthermore, we are by no means “judging everyone.” We are simply presenting our position on glaring facts of profane distortion of our faith by specific individuals who are distorting it. If for some people these facts are not glaring, the problem lies exclusively in their own eyes. Not in ours.

As for certain other favorite “arguments” of some adherents of blind obedience (as well as of some supposedly conciliatory and neutral types)—namely, that we must not react because by raising our voices we “advertise” the issue, or that we should only pray and God will provide a solution and reveal the truth—these are also clearly unfounded. Because, of course, with regard to the matter of prayer, it is indeed paramount, and no one disputes its importance. But God has also given us a mind to understand, eyes to see, and a mouth to speak. And here the Gospel saying applies: “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” If we do not speak and do not react at the time when our faith is being persecuted, we will be without excuse before Him. Such passive and disengaged stances, therefore, cannot belong to any true Orthodox Christian, especially in today’s critical times. The Fathers themselves are clear and categorical on this point (as was already mentioned, we will examine this in more detail in a forthcoming article). As for the claim that if you don’t talk about something, you don’t advertise it and it thus becomes... insignificant, this is simply a cloak for cowardice. With that kind of “logic,” we would never speak out about anything—whether about the political degradation of the country, or the dechristianization of our homeland, or the dehellenization of education, or the scourge of illegal immigration, or anything else. On the contrary, we are obliged to respond to all these things—and all the more so, of course, when it comes to the paramount issue of our faith and the rabid attempt to corrupt it from the forges of the pan-heresy of Ecumenism. Or perhaps all these “moderates” no longer even consider it a pan-heresy (or not even a heresy at all)?

Let us therefore reverse the situation, let us cease maintaining a defensive stance in the face of their audacity, and let us pose to them the above question directly. The time has come when we will all be called to take a stand—enough already with half-words spoken in the shadows. Here there is a vast abscess, spreading and devouring our very flesh. In the face of this, no one has the right any longer to remain silent…

 

Greek source: https://aktines.blogspot.com/2020/07/blog-post_553.html