Author: orthodoxaustralia

This note sheds much light on the dark ideas behind and within the Cretan “Mission” document and other such deviational happenings within the Orthodox world. There is a grave danger out there, that is both contained within ecumenism, yet which also extends far beyond it – a danger which could (and has) even manifested itself in the utter absence of the dreaded pan-heresy. I hope this note may be of benefit to some. Some key points the Elder makes are:

1) It is a crime to betray the mission of the Orthodox Church.
2) It is a crime to attempt to make the Church subservient to agendas which are foreign to her.
3) Traitors to the Faith will form and join the Prostitute church which collaborates unethically with the red beast. The red beast does not only mean atheism, but any secular state.
4) A church that serves the agenda of an atheist state is most certainly not the vine of God.
5) The official Church can at some point be a church in name, while simultaneously being in the service of the beast.
6) Before the days of the Antichrist, systems of global justice, philanthropy, love etc, will already be in place and all of them will be subservient to the Antichrist.
7) It is a crime to appropriate Christianity to achieve humanistic goals and agendas. That which becomes adulterated will be destroyed, that which remains intact and true, not even the gates of Hades will overcome it.
8) Christianity cannot become a social system or an ethno-cultural political system.
9) The Catacomb Church was justifiable during Soviet times because there was a church in existence which had betrayed her mission.
10) The Church will once again enter into the catacombs.

Part 1

(this entire section, unless otherwise noted, is to be found in Volume IV of the Elder’s commentary on the Book of the Revelation, on pages 206-213):
“…Rome betrayed her great past. She betrayed her mission. She forgot the Apostolic constitutions and she once again began to follow in the footsteps of the ancient Rome of idolatry. Her downfall progressed after her possession by the Franks and Charlemagne and today she portrays a typical secularized church, a church following the whims of the world. The purpose of the Church is to sanctify the world, to have the world enter the life of the Church, not to have the Church espouse the life of the world.

Constantinople, the new Rome, chose the same path many times throughout history. Many times she partnered with worldly authorities and she managed to betray her mission as well. The new Rome did not hesitate to exile and persecute great and saintly Patriarchs to maintain good terms with the various demands of the palace. Both Saint John the Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian were persecuted, amongst many others. Saint Arethas did not hesitate tho write that the conduct of the New Rome is very comparable to the ancient Rome of idols. Accordingly, and due to her conduct, Constantinople the new Rome, was made desolate over the centuries. She progressively lost her flock and all of her territories.

Saint John of Damascus, the great theologian of the 7th century and a great Church Father, grew up in Syria, which was no longer part of the Byzantine Empire. All the eastern territories and eparchies belonged to the Arabs even in the 7th century. Thus the new Rome lost its territories, its flock and today she tries to hold onto her leadership status through ecumenism, this tragic pan-heresy, while dragging the rest of the Orthodox Churches behind her. Sadly we see these developments occurring today with our own eyes. The same thing happened to the third Rome Moscow. While she accepted Christianity as late as the 10th century, she attempted to supersede the second Rome – after its fall in 1453 – and succeeded surpassing even the first Rome in terms of persecutions against the Christian Church during communism.

I have in my possession a small booklet by the Russian bishop, Innocent of Novgorod, who published this article immediately after the Russian Revolution. Our Archimandrite Sophronius Doukas, who was serving as a parish priest of Kisnovo, Romania, translated it and circulated it here in Greece in 1935. Bishop Innocent attempts to correlate the events of the communist revolution with the prophecies of the Revelation. He wishes to point out the realization of some of these prophecies in terms of the persecution of the Church and the actions of the God-opposing powers in general. Furthermore he offers his interpretation on the special relationships of the great Prostitute who rides the beast.

The Russian bishop writes in his booklet (on page 96): “What is the significance of the beautifully clothed woman? (Revelation 17:4) She is not a serpent. She is not a beast having nothing in common with the people. She is not an unintelligent person who has nothing to do with Christianity. She is a human being indeed, a woman of luxury, adorned with purple, scarlet and precious gems. This woman refers to a Christian organization but not to a naked and deformed institution, not a heretical or Protestant sect; on the contrary, this woman clothed in luxury has special laws, great worship and formality. Indeed this is the living official church, the Prostitute. Such an organization manifested itself in Russia during the rule of the red beast.”

What is this “Living Church”? It is the union of Christianity, in this case with red atheism. Unfortunately those who consider themselves representatives of Christianity, servants of God (clergy), became servants of Satan while pretending to be in the service of God. One can truly marvel pondering the conception of this “Living Church”. When the atheists socialists declared war against God and Russia and proceeded to close monasteries, churches, to persecute, torture and execute bishops, irrespective of dogma, some Orthodox priests went to the Red Authority (Bolsheviks) to object to the persecution of the clergy. The Communist Party responded as follows: the clergy are considered enemies of the Communist Party and socialism because they support the authority of the Czar. The appellant priests answered that they had no problem serving and cooperating with the Soviet authorities as long as they were given all the rights that they had under the Czars.

The Soviet party agreed to give them whatever rights they wished for as long as they became agents of the red atheist authority and agreed to work for the extinction of all the enemies of the atheist state, not excluding the Christian religion. This group of abominable priests of the previous official Church accepted this proposal and immediately seceded from the Church and the Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. They immediately formed their own community with the name “Living Church”. By treading on this path, this woman dressed in luxury proved to be a prostitute riding upon the Red Beast. The representatives of Christ formed an alliance with the servants of the devil for the extinction of Christianity. The “Living Church” formed a synod that was ratified by the atheist Soviet authority and established the general civil office (GPU) , a committee of 3 atheists to commence and see to it that the synod gladly fulfilled and performed all requests of the red atheists of the Soviet state.

After this the agenda of the destruction of sacred Christian treasures and symbols was immediately implemented. The triad of the atheists, the committee over the synod, for example, expressed the desire to close all the monasteries. The synod, like a puppet, officially requested the closing of all the monasteries in the Soviet state. The Soviet state immediately “complied” with the request of the synod. The closing of the monasteries began. The monks and nuns were dismissed. The churches were turned into hospitals, nightclubs, theaters, etc.
To the general outcry, bursts of anger, cursing, and grumbling of the faithful, the red authority would commonly respond that this was not their idea; they were simply fulfilling the request of the “Christian synod”. Through this sinister methodology they closed many churches, and incarcerated, sent to concentration camps and executed myriads of bishops, priests and simple faithful Christians. As expected, the “Living Church” introduced many innovations; married priests were promoted to bishops and widowed priests were permitted to remarry while maintaining the office of the priesthood. Each bishop and priest of the “Living Church” was also an agent and informant of the GPU, the supreme council of the Soviet Union.

They turned in and brought charges against anyone, relative or stranger, who would speak against the atheist communist Soviet state. Ever so obedient to the desires of the authority and against the ecclesiastical canons they defrocked Patriarch Tikhon, denying him even the schema of a simple monk. It is impossible to enumerate all those who they surrendered to the cause of the red dragon through martyrdom and death. In short, the “Living Church” applauded, endorsed and blessed all the murderous activities of the Soviet state and cursed the enemies of the red serpent.

Let’s not think that the dissolute woman riding the red beast resembles only the “Living Church” of Moscow and her members; its meaning is much broader. The scope of the Great Prostitute encompasses all Christians, who irrespective of where they may be, while retaining the label of Christians, work for the destruction of Christianity and for the benefit of the red beast of atheism. Thus throughout all the centuries, and even in our days, Christians of all ranks, laypeople, priests, bishops, metropolitans, patriarchs and popes became subservient to the beast, personifying the Prostitute. Bishop Innocent of Novgorod is quite clear in these matters and there is no need for us to further explain or comment.

We must only attest that the same climate is beginning to exist here in Greece. May God help us. We are also beginning to betray our Church. The official Church can at some point be a church in name, while simultaneously being in the service of the beast. This reality can be seen and concluded through many elements, biblical, geographical and patristic. I believe it will be very helpful for us to revisit chapter 11. “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for 42 months.’” (Revelations 11:1-2)

We stated during the course of that chapter that according to the interpretation of the holy Fathers, Jerusalem, the holy city, stands for the Church. Saint John the Evangelist is mandated to exclude the city from this measurement. We previously stated that the measurement with the reed denotes God’s holy protection that was limited to the Temple, altar and the number of the active worshipers or members of the Church. The rest of the city/church is excluded from God’s protection for it has been turned over to the nations. These are the once baptized clergy and laity, who loved and compromised with the spirit of the world and live as members of a secularized church.

Father [Saint] Justin Popovich, who suffered greatly for the Faith, writes in his book: Man and God-Man, “Christianity can only be the salt of the earth with its God-human power, the salt which can preserve man from corruption and evil. A Christianity adulterated and mixed with various humanisms, becomes worthless salt, flavorless and bereft of its saltiness. Such salt, according to the inerrant words of the Savior, cannot be made useful again but will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. Every attempt and endeavor to equate Christianity with the spirit of this age, with the fleeting movements of some historical periods, with political parties and states, removes from Christianity its very special character which renders it that unique God-human religion of the world. It turns it into salt-less salt.”

Thus a church that serves the agenda of an atheist state is most certainly not the vine of God as Christ Himself says, ‘Every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up’ (Matthew 15:13). This is the group of so-called “faithful” and the type of church that will be trampled by the nations for 42 months or three and a half years. Saint John is instructed not to measure or include this type of Church because it lost God’s protection. If this “Living Church” of Russia was truly a Church then why was it persecuting the bishops, priests and laity? Why was it pushing them into the catacombs? There was the “higher church” and the “lower church”. If it was truly a free Church and not in the service of the atheist state, then why were there two of them? Why did the second church need to exist at all, why did one have to be underground? The very presence of the 2nd church clearly shows that there is a church in existence that has betrayed her mission.

(Lest anyone think that this phenomenon of a “higher” and “lower” church simultaneously existing at the same time and within the same territory ceased with the demise of the “Living Church” in the 1940’s and the creation of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1943, the Elder elsewhere states in a homily given on April 25th, 1982: “…during our days, in Orthodox lands like Russia, if the faithful people wish to celebrate a Divine Liturgy, a Liturgy in the true sense that would fulfill the needs of the faithful people, they celebrate in the forests and deserts … the Church has fled to the desert once again.” At this time the “higher church” in Russia was the Moscow Patriarchate – which bore many similarities to the “Living Church” and the “lower church”, which is praised by the Elder, was the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church. This information can be found in Volume III of the Elder’s commentary on the Book of the Revelation, on page 205.)

Bishop Innocent unequivocally calls her a prostitute riding the red beast. The Lord prophesied, ‘And because wickedness (iniquity/lawlessness) is multiplied, most men’s (the love of the many) shall grow cold’ (Matthew 24:12). The love of the many certainly includes clergy and bishops who are no longer inspired by the love of Christ. Their love is compromised due to financial gain. People often betray everything for monetary gain. Love of money does not hinder these descendants of Cain and Judas who betray the Faith and the Church. They are worthy descendants of Cain and Judas the Iscariot. Saint Paul further declares, ‘But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhumane, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people’ (2 Timothy 3:1-5). The Lord also spoke about such betrayal, ‘Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, ans children will rise against parents and have them put to death’ (Matthew 10:21).

In the ancient Church of the persecutions, those who surrendered the holy Scriptures to the persecutors were also traitors. The betrayal at this level is most heinous and repulsive, especially when holy Scriptures were hand-written and extremely rare. Indeed, these people cast their lot with Judas. St. Cyril of Jerusalem records in his 15th catechism when commenting on the days of the Antichrist, ‘I am mostly concerned about the hatred between Christian brothers.’ By brothers, he means laity, clergy and even bishops. He was the victim of such persecution by the bishop of Jerusalem who ordained him. His ordaining bishop became an Arian at some point and harshly persecuted St. Cyril for maintaining his Orthodoxy. Consequently, even among the low-ranking clergy we will have traitors to the Faith who will form and join the Prostitute church that collaborates unethically with the red beast or red dragon; that does not mean only atheism, but any secular state.

St. Kosmas the Aetolian, in his 56th prophecy states, “There will be a time when today’s harmony between lay-people and clergy will be absent.” In prophecy 57 he adds, “The clergy will exceed everyone in impiety.” In prophecy 108 he says, “There will be a time when Christians will rise up against each other.” This animosity between Christians does not refer to political parties or oppositions. The strife will be between those who have denied Christ and the Church, and those who have remained faithful. Finally, the early Fathers, especially the ascetics were repeatedly asked about the state of the clergy of the later days. Their answer was that the clerics would not differ much from laypeople. They will be more concerned about their own self-interests. We see this in the saintly life of Fr. Demetrios Gagastathis, who lived here in Trikala. His amazing life story has been published in a very large book. The metropolitan of Kozani, who served the communist agenda at the time, persecuted this holy priest, trying to kill him. The bishop wanted to kill his own priest!

Based on the aforementioned, there is plenty of ground that portrays the secularized church as a worthy representative of the Prostitute of the Revelation along with Babylon and Rome. We did not come to this conclusion based on this very impressive booklet of Bishop Innocent alone, but because we are also eyewitnesses to this mystery of lawlessness in our day. We have witnessed Orthodox bishops and priests totally agreeing and aligning themselves with secular authorities and ideologies of all types and colors, left, right, red, green, white, black, whatever party is on top. We readily see these opportunistic clerics flow along with these ideologies and betray the Church. According to St. Cyril, this is a sign of the end of times, and that the Antichrist is approaching when it becomes so easy for clerics to betray the mother Church. May God have mercy on us!

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Part 2 (which contains various other quotes from Elder Athanasios on this subject matter):

“The Antichrist will appear to be a philanthropist … he will implement means of feeding the hungry and eliminating poverty.” (Volume 3, page 130)
“Before the False Prophet arrives, a state of affairs – not persons – that are projected as systems of global justice, philanthropy, love etc., will already be in place and all of them will be subservient to the Antichrist.” (Volume 3, page 131)
“My friends, as it is necessary to reinforce the position – that we have repeatedly brought to your attention about the Utopia of a social and political Christianity. I will repeat: Christianity cannot become a social system or an ethno-cultural political system. The Church seeks refuge in the desert.” (Volume III, page 223)

“Throughout the centuries, there have been many times that historic movements have scandalously appropriated Christianity to achieve their humanistic goals. Different interests and political parties that wish to align themselves and their philosophies with Christianity in order to propagate their agenda… No we certainly do not need the conformation and compliance of the God-man Christ with the spirit of the times, but the conformity and compliance of the spirit of the times with the spirit of the eternity of Christ, of the God-humanity of Christ. This is the true and foremost mission of the Orthodox and Apostolic Church of Christ in the world. Only in this way will the Church be able to preserve the life-giving and irreplaceable personhood of the God-human Christ, which is of tremendous worth. In all the worlds (the visible, the invisible, and the ones to come) Christ is the supreme treasure and the salt of all measures and of all things. So we cannot subordinate Christianity to humanistic levels… That which becomes adulterated will be destroyed, that which remains intact and true, not even the gates of hades will overcome it.” (Volume III, pages 101-103)

More texts from the holy Elder on this subject matter will be added to this note in the future…

A less known and I would say more subtle influence that seems to have afflicted many contemporary Orthodoxy theologians and thinkers in recent times is Perennialism. Perennialism as defined on Wikipedia, is a perspective on modern spirituality that views each of the world’s religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown.

 

It was Rene Guenon who taught me to seek and love the Truth above all else, and to be unsatisfied with anything else; this is what finally brought me to the Orthodox Church. Perhaps a word of my experience will be of help for you to know.

 

For years in my studies I was satisfied with being “above all traditions” but somehow faithful to them; I only went deeper into the Chinese tradition because no one had presented it in the West from a fully traditional point of view.When I visited an Orthodox Church, it was only in order to view another “tradition”-knowing that Guenon (and one of his disciples) had described Orthodoxy as the most authentic of the Christian traditions.

 

Observation: Reading just this in the Introduction Chapter it kind of strikes me thinking about where I believe the argument seems to be going – that which sees “disorder” (or chaos) as just a temporary state of the reality which leads to a greater state of order. This certainly is very interesting to note as it sounds very much in the same tone with the new age teachings of all the occult philosophies, and strikingly close to the idea of “order out of chaos”. This in itself is not a strange idea to other similar teachings found in various “Christian” churches. The very idea of purgatory is probably very related to this concept, for it does away with the concept of hell as a permanent state of things and presenting it (hell) as a necessary step towards achieving a higher state (salvation). So from the very beginning we can observe that we are not presented with what Orthodoxy teaches as being a reality in which hell is a permanent state of disorder and chaos, and to where souls will be forever condemned, but just a transitory thing necessary for purification towards a higher spiritual state. This is very much the same thing as the idea of spiritual evolution towards the “omega point”, in which disorder is seen as a necessary step.

 Observation: Here we can see again the idea of “order out of chaos”. If one carefully examines this paragraph, the author seems to address to a “selected elite”, or “the few who understand” that the world needs to be “allowed” to reach a new “low”, or a “rectification point” where some sort of awakening of the masses occurs that mark the beginning of the “next step higher”.

Observation: According to this we are supposed to “spiritually evolve” from the lower form of “inferior multiplicity” the the higher level of “superior unity”, from a low form of “individual spirituality” to a higher form of “collective spirituality”.

16^th November 1912 – 27^th of September 2011

• Father Adrian  was a professional lawyer, during his young years
• After becoming a monk, at the end of WW2, Father Adrian enrolled as a university student, studying theology and philosophy as well
• Father Adrian spent many years in communist prisons, as a real enemy of atheist governments
• Father Adrian was part of the Burning Bush, the Orthodox movement from 1950’s
• Father Adrian lived his later years, after 1964, as a priest monk at different monasteries and churches in Romania
• Father Adrian was a very strong anti-ecumenist and he spoke up about the Truth, in any circumstances, even against top hierarchs who in return punished him by direct blows with the iron stick to his head…

“Humility is the greatest gift from God, the source of the others. Have meekness. Sacrifice yourself. And if you upset somebody, feel sorry and reconcile with him…”

“Only those who have the capacity to sacrifice for the others will be saved…”

“The atheists do not realise that they are unhappy without God. An atheist is like a paralysed person who does not feel pain anymore…”

“The communists said: one flock, one sheppard. But we know that only Jesus Christ is the Good Sheppard. We recognise His voice and we follow Him. The communists want to transform all sheep into goats.”

“In prison, I felt the closest to God. When you sense that all of them hate you, all hit you, all want your destruction, only then you could treasure the love of God towards you. He never leaves you!”

“Nowadays, one of the greatest heresies appeared, the world is confused, believing in signs rather than the Church, more in “secret codes” which are falsifying the truth, rather than the Truth given by Christ. A right believer has no need of such signs. The only hope that we must have is the one in our Good Lord. Therefore, we do not make plans on how to get away. God takes care of all who have faith in Him and who have hope in Him and also who call on Him.”

“There are many things that nobody else can understand. The strength that God gives to you would be one of them…  When I was arrested, the inquisitor wrested my cross from the neck and threw it into the rubbish bin. I took it from there. He beat me terribly and threw my cross again into the rubbish bin. I did not give up. Again I raised the cross from the bin and he trampled me under his feet. After 8-9 attempts, the officer gave up. He gave me some rest. Being in the torture chamber, I was talking to myself: “Resist! Do not betray Christ!” and maybe you will not believe me, my brother, but after 60 blows I did not feel any pain. My body worked without my will, as if going through a self-administered anaesthetic.

In the prisons of these extermination camps, you stop to exist; only Christ keeps you alive. After leaving that prison, I have heard that my poor mother, when she gave the akathists to the priest, she wrote my name on both lists, with the living and the dead, not knowing anything about me. My mother was right: in prison, I was alive and dead, in the same time.”

Would it be surprising to you, finding out that there is a clear religious proof behind that strange idea of Big-Bang and the billions of years, supposedly passed since the magic ‘event’? The following sources of information are not Orthodox viewpoints, but the historical details are REAL. Very shortly, we will be presenting excerpts from these on-line materials, with the necessary added notes and information, according to the Orthodox understanding.

Source: http://www.fixedearth.com/kabbala-1.html, http://www.fixedearth.com/kabbala-2.html, etc.

“The first fact is this: The Origins Scenario endorsed by the Theoretical Science Establishment today (heliocentricity, Relativity, Big Bangism, 15 billion years of evolutionism, Expanding Universe, etc.) is rooted in 1st, 13th, 16th, and 20th century–Kabbalism (Cabalism)”.  So, almost immediately after the Christ’s Resurrection, there are the ones who couldn’t ‘justify’ the murder of the One Who Came firstly for them. But the WHOLE Old Testament was a preparation for His Incarnation! From that point in time on (Christ’s Resurrection) all demonic inspirations fell on these people and were accepted, and then written down during following centuries. Yes, there are ‘changes’ added to the Holy Scriptures turning them into the un-holy: the Talmud and all the other accumulations that also ‘helped’ the sectarians who dropped from the Orthodox Church to maintain and increase that gap…

Better continue with another excerpt: “Nechunya ben HaKana, a 1st century Kabbalist, asserted that if you know how to use the 42 letter name for God you could decipher a lengthy time between the creation of the universe and of man. He estimated the age of the Universe at 15.3 billion years, some 2000 years ago, the very age modern astrophysics has just arrived at…..” This is something!!! So the random chance process (!) of finding the ‘name’ of God (?) would lead to the real calculation (?) of the time passed since its making??? And we are discovering that it is about 15 billion years? Wow!!! The whole ‘scientific’ approach that is taught in schools is basically a gamble, directly inspired from Kabala? As well known, the present time cabbalists also have their roots deeply anchored into this ‘original’ demonic mysticism!

The spirit which animated the scientists and their bosses to build and develop the atomic bomb made them all so daring. Einstein, Fermi, Bohr, Oppenheimer and comp had a distorted understanding of this material world and its invisible rulers. One of them, mathematician and physicist Schroeder deeply immersed himself into the religion of death. He said: “Nachmanides the kabbalist…says that although the days [of Genesis I] are 24 hours each, they contain ‘kol yemot ha olam’ –all the ages and all the secrets of the world…. Nachmanides says:  There’s only one physical creation, and that creation was a tiny speck…. As this speck expanded out, this substance–so thin that it has no essence– turned into matter as we know it…. The moment that matter formed from this substanceless substance, time grabs hold…. Einstein’s…E=MC2, tells us that energy can change into matter. And once it changes into matter, time grabs hold… This moment of time before the clock begins for the Bible lasted about 1/100,000 of a second. A minuscule time. But in that time, the universe expanded from a tiny speck to about the size of the solar system. From that moment on we have matter, and time flows outward.” 2  (Emph. added here and throughout)”

ATTENTION!!!: “Kabbalist Schroeder himself embraces and furthers the Kabbalist Rabbi’s “creation scenario” this way: “Let’s look at the development of time, day by day, based on the expansion factor [1 million times 1 million from start till now]…. The calculations come out to be as follows:

• The first Biblical day lasted 24 hours…But…from our perspective it was 8 billion years.
• The second day of 24 hours…was 4 billion years.
• The third day…was two billion years.
• The fourth day…1 billion years.
• The fifth day…1/2 billion years.
• The sixth day…1/4 billion years

“Then you add it up [Schroeder continues] and you get 15 3/4 billion years …the same as modern cosmology allows….”

Many more present scientists and researchers are following these ‘inspirational’ initiatives further down, as contemporary propaganda needs extra cannon fodder. But it is always that the ‘scientific’ proof of billions of years MUST never be challenged! And the ‘religious’ version the timeline must be dismissed. The problem with this ‘exact’ time-frame IS ITS PRECISE RELIGIOUS stand point! The Jews who lived during Christ’s time as a Man walking on earth were supposed to follow Him, entirely! But their choice, not totally, was quite different therefore ‘solid justifications’ had to be devised ‘intelligently’, and the devils quickly helped! Along these years their ‘validation’ for the DEICIDE grew bit by bit, ‘religiously’ (by inventing the so-called belief in Islam to fight better with the Orthodox), historically (by removing important passages from ‘their’ Old Testament), philosophically (by introducing reasons of a speculative ground), artistically (by stressing the human and material aspects of all resorts, detrimentally to the spiritual), educationally (by those very blunt no-scientifically findings), etc.

This mentioned website http://www.fixedearth.com has numerous interesting topics, most of them related to the TRICKS that we have to go up against, as these hoaxes were played on us for many centuries: the Earth spinning around its ‘axes’, the Earth ‘revolving’ around the Sun, the industrial production of fake images (CGIs) about the cosmos and the universe, etc. All of these could be made up only because this invention, the so-called Big Bang process, was possible! And it was possible, as this Kabbala was spiritually instilled in us, and growing by the day… NOT TO BE!!! Once that our Earth were just a tiny speck of dust in this universe, and not THE CENTRE OF COSMOS WHERE CHRIST WAS BORN, we would be lost! But we are not lost, because our Redeemer suffered on His Cross, Died and Resurrected. For Ever!

Words of wisdom, offered to a group of Orthodox pilgrims from Melbourne, by Abbot Father Petroniu Tanase from the Romanian Skete Prodromu (the Forerunner), at the Holy Mount Athos (on 23rd May 2005)

The Romanian skete Prodromu (“The Forerunner”) from the Holy Mount Athos is certainly a very welcoming place.  One of the greatest things that anyone could have noticed was the Abbot bowing down to the ground in front of the door, waiting in this position until all the pilgrims, after meal, have left Trapeza.  This Orthodox greeting could be ‘translated’ as such: I wish you to humble yourself, so you can gain the Heavens!  Do not practice tourism, even in Sacred places, but act according to what God expects from you: look for Him, and He will be right next to you!  Get rid of your ego, so the Truth can dwell in you.

Father Petroniu Tanase: These people, the hermits (the monks living in wilderness / desert) live in reclusion and prayer.  They gave up the bodily needs, without saying many prayers, limiting themselves to “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner”.  In order that one could reach that spiritual stage, as it is found in Philokalic writings and at Saint Symeon the New Theologian, one can not go straight to this Hesychastic experience.  There is a need for a long preparation.  In other words, man must be at peace from four directions.  They are:

1. to be at peace with God, because He is our Maker,
2. to be at peace with his neighbour,
3. to be at peace with the material world (food, clothing, etc.) – because we can not use all these things as we like; otherwise these things lead us to gluttony, for instance, which is not from God,
4. to be at peace with ourselves, because we are not the masters of this “machinery” – our body.  This machinery can run quite well, but it does not depend on us.  In other words, our beating heart is made by Someone Else, so we must be at peace with our body.

If all these things are fulfilled, we can start praying… And another thing: to reach the stage of passionless.  What is to be passionless?  It is the control of passions – gluttony, fornication, love of money and riches, hatred towards brethren – etc. first of all we have to get rid of all these things, reaching the stage of being passionless.  Nevertheless, after sinning we still have the marks of sins, which we wear: they are inclinations to sin and these leanings towards sin are difficult to drop, therefore a passionless life is hard to achieve.

Once that man is at peace with God, with his neighbour, with the material world and with himself, he also must be passionless.  Who can do all these things in today’s world?  In today’s world the Hesychastic prayer is not anymore possible.  Only the hermits can reach to this prayer.  Saint Basil the Great says, explaining the Apostle’s words of “pray unceasingly”, that to God we do not need to say many things.  Therefore, let us fulfil the Apostle’s words: either you drink, or you eat, thank to the Lord.  We believe, as our Saviour promised to us, that He is with us until the end of the age.  We do not say that we are here and God is in Heaven.  God is with us!

The Power of God sustains our existence and is everywhere.  As a proof that this is the teaching of the Church, it is the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in Heaven” and not our Father who is in Heaven!  We speak directly to God our Lord!  He is not at one kilometre away.  He is present next to us all the time!  But we can not understand with our limited minds, as He sees and hears us…  In spite of this reality, why do we forget this, as if He is not present… We imagine that if I do something during night time, locked in my room or cell, He does not know me and He does not see me… Saint Basil the Great says to follow exactly what the Apostle said.  When we wake up from sleep we must say: thank God that I am awaked.  Likewise in everything; when I start working I thank God that He gives me health to be able to do that job.  This is the prayer that the Apostle is talking about: pray unceasingly.  So, it is different from what the Hesychast living in desert does…

An example: a well-known Hesychast from Romania, St Paisius Olaru from Monastery Sihastria told us this story.  An old woman comes to him asking: ‘What should I do, because I am illiterate, I can not read.  I do not know many prayers from books.  Shall I be saved?’ ‘How do you pray?’ asked the father.  ‘Like this’, answers the old woman.  ‘When I sweep the room, I say: cleanse, O Lord, my heart of all the rubbish as I clean of dirt my house, to make room for Thee and to please Thee as I like a clean the house.  Likewise, when I wash clothes I say cleanse, O Lord, my soul of dirt in the way that I cleanse my clothing, so I shall be pleasing to Thee as I like my clothes to be clean.  Is this a good prayer?’  Saint Paisius answered with ‘pray only like this!’  So this woman was praying unceasingly haven’t been reading from Saint Basil the Great.  We need to make no confusion between the Hesychastic prayer form wilderness and the continuous prayer that man in the world could and should do.

Holy Fathers say – Saint John of the Ladder – that there is no communal life when you have a scattered mind.  The Hesychastic prayer is difficult to be reached.  You’d rather say: Lord, have mercy!  In the church we have a Liturgical life.  During Pascha we say: Christ is Risen from the death!  We do not just say: O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!  There are feasts when we do not necessarily say: Lord, cleanse me of my sins.  The Liturgical life comes with other and different states of the soul – and besides, living together with others, in the monastery or in the world, differs from the life that the hermits have.  If you are interested in the prayer of the heart, the Hesychastic prayer, do not believe that you can do it in Melbourne.  You would rather try and do what Saint Apostle Paul advises us: either you eat or you drink, give thanks to God our Lord.

The Saints, the hierarchs and Saint Basil the Great know what they say.  You live in this so-called Western civilisation.  Does it not look unnatural and abnormal?  Especially this continuous obsession with sexuality?  After the monk’s life, everything can be explained very simply.  The first thing which you have to abstain from in a monastery is eating too much.  Without this refrain from filling up your belly, that is fasting, all the other things simply fall.  If our belly is stuffed up, straight away the demon of fornication enters the man’s heart.  In this ‘society of consumption’, from a good living, psychologically talking, all the other things unfold.  The ‘promotion’ of a full belly is something completely abnormal.  The insistence on these things is coming from the devil; we should keep our human dignity of men as created by God.

Answering questions, as posed by pilgrims:

About the Orthodox family

Here at the monastery, we do not have a family as you know it.  But no matter of how the situation is, we must live a Christian life.  We know the Teaching of our Saviour.  The Psalmist says in the First Psalm: ‘blessed is the man who walketh in the law of the Lord’.  The Church teaches us all the good things: the sacraments, how to fast, alms giving, prayer – we have the Right Teaching, the Orthodox Teaching.  If we hear differently do not get involved; it is not our business.  Every one who teaches differently will be judged by God.  The Church does not teach wrongly.  The Orthodox should not be a stranger to the True Teaching.  There are many books available.  One of the heavy sins is ignorance.  One can teach erroneously from a lack of knowledge.  Holy Fathers clearly name these sins: lack of knowledge, carelessness and forgetfulness – and they can generate all the other sins.  But if we keep everything that we have: the New and the Old Testaments, the Orthodox services, fasting, etc., we will not fail.

About the influence of the worldly (Masonic) teachings

We should not have anything in common with such teaching.  We do not go to those people.  As Holy Fathers say, if you touch the dirt you are getting dirty.  We have nothing to take from them.  Our Teaching is fulfilling and sufficient for our salvation.  We should not discuss with others and be influenced by them.  They need Orthodoxy.

About commemoration of the pope of Rome

It is wrong.  The priest must pray for his bishop.  Personally, in his private life, the deviant one can pray for the pope and for the pagans – but with a price: damaging his soul dangerously.

About families where members belong to other religions (Catholics, Protestants, etc.)

This is a mistake.  The family must be united, so that it can not be broken.  I hear similar things from Romania – there are only troubles and misunderstandings, because people look for material interests.  If one of the members of a family is of another faith, he must be brought back to Orthodoxy.  The Catholics and Protestants have wrong teachings, which can not harmonise because of the mentalities resulting from those teachings.  For instance, the Catholics preach that the pope is God’s deputy on earth!  The Orthodox does not believe that because it is not true.  The Saviour, when He ascended to Heaven, says: I am with you until the end of the age.  Christ God is the One Who leads His Church, so it could not be a creature, a man leading the Church.  Holy Fathers say: if only one hour the man would live, he will be full of sins.  There is no infallible man.  There is no logic in what the Catholics say that the pope would have a special charisma.  There is nothing like that in the Holy Scriptures.  This is an invention, and here at the Holy Mount, we do not recognise the Catholic baptism.  When someone wishing to come to Orthodoxy arrives here, we baptise him.

More important details:

Some twelve years ago we have been to the Holy Mount Athos, in a pilgrimage. We were ten people, and i was the only Romanian, as the other ones were Orthodox faithful from Melbourne, Australia, of different origins: Lebanese and Russian. Interpreting during our presence at the Romanian Skete was not an easy task…

In the context of the blasphemies arranged at the Cretan “synod”, part of this article tried to correct and to answer in an Orthodox manner to these stumbling things. At that time, in 2005, we knew about diverse heresies found in patriarchs and bishops and other people of the Orthodox Church, but the urgency that we live presently we did not feel then… Our path to these holy places was full of Orthodox teachings of great help: fixing family problems, finding jobs, understanding all things around in an Orthodox manner – all resolved! Of course, a few wounds and scratches happened too, after the Orthodox gains! But we could see clearly what Orthodoxy means, Who is NOT A RELIGION, but the ABSOLUTE LIFE INTO CHRIST!

And another detail: shortly after arriving back to Australia, personally i was a witness to a miracle. I was looking for a job, and this job i received on the day celebrating Holy Unmercenary Doctors Cosmas and Damian, at the Greek Orthodox College Saints Anargiri Cosmas and Damian!!! The Holy Relics of these Saints from Prodromu Skete and the prayers, as done by the dwellers living there, made the miracle! Glory to God, glory to Thee, O Lord!

Many more pictures with the Abbot can be found at: http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/Orthodox_Elders/Romanian/Fr._Petroniu_Tanase/index.shtml

Archpriest George Mitrofanov, Professor of St. Petersburg Theological Academy

Already in the first response of Russian religious philosophers to emergence of the Eurasian collections was marked with tempting “novelty” ideology of Eurasianism, clearly contrasted with its entire previous national and Orthodox-oriented trunk stream of Russian religious and philosophical thought and at the same time in a mental worldview simplistically allying this ideology with with organically perceived communism as a revolutionary-radical tradition of Russian social thought.

“The Eurasian generation, which grew up during the war and revolution, does not feel related to our religious generation and does not want to continue its covenants,” noted Berdyaev. “… It’s will is directed toward simplification, towards elementalization, to everyday forms of Orthodoxy, to traditionalism, timid and suspicious of all religious creativity.”

Considering ideocratic establishment of the state as the supreme goal of ethno-cultural development of the Eurasian civilization, Eurasians essentially came to calling the association apocalyptic notion of the State-Church, which should be totally strengthen in the vast expanses of the Eurasian continent.

The most popular in Europe Russian philosopher N.A. Berdyaev and most respected in the Orthodox world Russian theologian, Archpriest George Florovsky, so in  different in many ways, come to strikingly consonant with the conclusions regarding false religious myths Eurasian ideocratic “Leviathan” which carry the clear stamp of Antichrist.

“Eurasian ideology asserts that the state is a becoming, not perfected Church,” wrote Berdyaev: “Thus, a principled monism is established in the understanding of relations between the Church and the state and the state is understood as a function and organ of the Church, the state acquires a comprehensive significance. The fundamental dualism of the two orders – the Church and the state, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Caesar, which will remain until the end of the world, is not recognized, is erased, as it has been already many times in the history of Christianity. This is one of the eternal temptations beset the Christian world, and on this basis born utopia, take a variety of forms – from papal and imperial theocracy to Communism and Eurasian … Eurasians don’t call it a theocracy, but ideocracy. Ideocracy is the rule of the chosen ruling stratum, claiming to be the bearer of a true communist ideology. Formally, this is very much like communism. Communism also is ideocracy, the dominance of the ruling class picked up, claiming to be the true bearer of the communist ideology, the ideas of ??the proletariat … utopian etatism of Eurasians leads them to the false and dangerous idea that ideocratic the state should take over the organization of all life, that is, organization of the whole culture, thinking, creativity, organization and souls of men, which is the task of the Church. This is also the task of the communist state, which assumes itself as the Church and replaces the Church.”2

“In Eurasian “state maximalism” there is a sharp and blasphemous temptation,” Archpriest George Florovsky emphasized: “The Eurasian interpretation all the time remains unclear, what is a culture (or “cultural-subject”) – becoming a church or becoming a state … Seems in Eurasian thought sequence recognizing in the state and only in it the people and their constituent lower “conciliar” persons are attached and united to Christ? Such assumption is sinister, but the real ghost rises over Eurasianism as a shadow of the Great Beast … In the final analysis, for the Eurasians Church in the state, not the state of the Church, – ecclesia in re publica, ne res publica in ecclesia. Of these formulas, which began to appear in all severity even at the time of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine, the Eurasians choose the first in their inner will. ”

To a certain extent, the Eurasianists, sensing the utopian nature of the ideological chimera of the ideocratic state, tried to justify its viability and prospects for the novelty, mostly seeming, and the successes, for the most part imaginary, of the Bolshevik dictatorship in Russia.

Reflecting on the ideological and ethical negligence confusion which often pushed intellectually gifted and patriotic followers of Eurasianism to the recognition of the communist regime, Archpriest George Florovsky discovered the root cause of these features of the Eurasian ideology in the deep alienation of its fundamental theoretical principles from the church world. It is these theoretical principles that inevitably prompted the Eurasians to view the religious life of peoples, regardless of its doctrinal content, as just one of the features of the “developmental” of a particular nation.

“The Eurasianists feel and define themselves as “the recognizers of Russian cultural originality,” wrote Archpriest George Florovsky: “… They open their originality everywhere, from “place of development” to the religious sphere. With great attention they depict in detail “geographical features of Russia”, emphasize the ethnic composition, without forgetting even the peculiarities of the racial coefficient of haemagglutination of the peoples of the Eurasian continent. They are busy with the morphology of Russia-Eurasia and this takes all their attention. The geographical unity and originality of the “Eurasian” territory amazes them so much that in their representations the real subject of the historical process and formation is, as it were, territory, not even nations. Therefore, the history of the Russian people is dissolving for them in the history of Eurasia as a kind of environment and “place of development” … And just as the “common principle of life” is realized in the plurality of species and “local” types, and only in them, and “religious principles” get a diverse expression for “local development” and only in the aggregate of these “local” expressions can be realized. “Religious principles” are thus introduced into the cultural-type identity, in the multiplicity of “local clothes,” in each type in their own”4.

In the desire of Eurasianism to justify communism for his efforts to reverse the spiritual and historical development of Russia and to direct it toward pagan Asia, Archpriest George Florovsky rightly saw the manifestation not only of an anti-European Christian but also of an anti-Orthodox Russian character both of the Eurasian and communist ideologies.

“On the relationship with Asia, both blood and spiritual, the Eurasianists always speak with enthusiasm and even rapture, and in this rise both Russian and Orthodox features are drowning,” emphasized Archpriest George Florovsky. “In the Soviet modernity, from the internationalist scenery, the Eurasians saw for the first time “spontaneous national identity and a non-European, semi-Asian face of Russia-Eurasia”, saw “a genuine, historical, ancient, not invented “slavic” but the real Russian-Turanian Russia-Eurasia, the successor of the great heritage of Genghis Khan” … Actually, the Eurasianists are trying to establish some kind of religious unity of Eurasia, in a strange way, without removing the borders in the faith. They do not stop at the rule of religious tolerance. They are in a hurry to bring not only a religious-moral, but also religious-mystical basis. So is created the seductive and deceptive theory of “potential Orthodoxy”. In Eurasianism, there was a certain pink tale about paganism, and it also completely forgot the fundamental difference between “paganism” pre-Christian and “paganism” after the Christian. Here, after all, there is not one chronological difference: in preserving their “pagan” appearance after Christ, historical subjects not only mystically, metaphysically, but also empirically manifest and exercise an indisputable opposition to the truth. “5

Archpriest George Florovsky emphasized that the anti-Western, Asian-naturalistic pathos characteristic of Eurasianism opposed this ideology not only to the Europe oriented Russian culture of the imperial period, but to the entire preceding Russian Orthodox culture, which grew on the basis of the Byzantine-Imperial legacy rather than the Mongolian-Horde.

“Geographically and biologically it is not so difficult to draw the western border of Russia, maybe even build a wall on it,” said Archpriest George Florovsky. “It is hardly so easy and simple to divide Russia and Europe in the spiritual-historical dynamics; and it is hardly necessary. It must be firmly remembered that the name of Christ connects Russia and Europe, no matter how distorted and even slandered in the West. There is a deep and unsettled religious border between Russia and the West, but it does not eliminate the inner mystical-metaphysical contiguity and the circular Christian bail. Russia as a living successor to Byzantium will remain an Orthodox East for the non-Orthodox but Christian West within a single cultural and historical cycle … “The Mongolian legacy, the Eurasian statehood” obscures the “Byzantine heritage, Orthodox statehood” in Eurasian schemes. And at the same time, the Eurasianists do not feel that Russia was not the only “system of ideas” from Byzantium, but the richness of Church life. This is a gift, an assignment, and a vocation. This gift is given and determined by the “historical mission” of Russia in the perspectives of cultural life, not with the Eurasian “flesh” and not with a hostile face.”6

Emphasized by the Eurasians as the most important attribute of the Orthodox-Russian essence of their ideology, its anti-Western and anti-Catholic sentiment was by no means a sign of a profound churching of Eurasian views. But, being very in tune with the class and xenophobic obsession of National Bolshevism, this orientation of Eurasianism is another eloquent testimony to the ideological alienation of this ideology from the fundamental values ??of both Russian and international Christian culture.

“The Eurasians are not faithful to the Russian idea, they break with the best traditions of our religious-national thought. They take a step back in comparison with Khomyakov and Dostoevsky, and in this they are spiritual reactionaries. They are particularists, opponents of Russian all-humanity and universality, opponents of the spirit of Dostoevsky,” wrote N. A. Berdyaev. “…The attitude of the Eurasianists to the West and Western Christianity is fundamentally false and unchristian. Cultivating dislike and disgust for other nations is a sin in which one should repent. Nations, races, cultural worlds can not be exceptional carriers of evil and lies. This is not a Christian point of view. Christianity does not allow such a geographical and ethnographic spread of good and evil, light and darkness. In the face of God, good and evil, truth and lies are not divided into the East and the West, Asia and Europe. Christianity, and not the people of the nineteenth century, brought to the world the consciousness that there is no Hellene and Jew. Hatred of Western Christianity, Catholicism is sin and homicide, denial of the soul of Western peoples, rejection of the sources of their life and salvation.”7

The identification of “Eurasian Russianness” and the Orthodox ecclesiastical character characteristic of Eurasians conditioned the prevalence of nationalism in the Eurasian ideology of a pagan spiritual nature. “There is a love for the Fatherland righteous and holy, and it is salutary and effective,” said Archpriest George Florovsky. “And there is a sinful love, and this love is an abomination to the Lord, and, perhaps, indifference is preferable to serving the “ideal of Sodom.” Moscow the Third Rome and Moscow the Third International – are not two equal, though, and polar forms of national impulse, and – are two abyses… And we must “test the spirits”, even when they are in the form of an angel from heaven… In the days of trial, tribulation and distress This must be remembered, perhaps even more firmly and unswervingly, than in the days of abundance, glory and power of the earth … In order not to take up the evil work, – for the construction of the Tower of Babel “8.

Made by the European-educated intellectuals of Russian abroad and focused on the recent ideological “achievements” of fascism, which has been successfully challenged in communism place “the ruler of the people’s minds” in Europe, Eurasianism could largely contribute to the transformation kneaded with homegrown xenophobia Stalinist national communism within a reasonable organic-Eurasian and the “orthodox” -language worldview of communism and fascism. The ominous prospect of such an ideological mutation of communism that could delay its ideological destruction and thereby plunge Russia into a new spiritual and historical catastrophe, a presentiment of some Russian religious philosophers as early as the 1930s.

“In Russia tomorrow there are many elements that would be specially adapted to turn a red catastrophe of red fascism, ending in a new, nationalistic militant fascism, Eurasian in the expression of one’s own face and Orthodox in the spirit of domestic confession; One-party, historiosophy, which is compulsory for all citizens, with Asian contempt for the individual and with a fierce denial of all freedom in the name of the titanic missionism of one sixth world, which has just revived the sacred name of Russia on its territory,” wrote F.A. Stepun. “To serve such fascism there will be: .. incalculable economic wealth in Russia, one of the most powerful armies in the world, a huge organizational experience of the GPU, a very big psychological resources of offended national pride, the habit of the entire population is naturally divided by the representatives of the ruling on the selection and obedient herd of slaves, with only thirst in their souls, that they be left alone and arrange a decent external life for them.”9

Eurasian mutated communist renovationism trying to convince the contemporary Orthodox Christians in Russia and for the salvation of the Orthodox Church a new, this time it was not just a communist, but communo-“orthodox” Eurasian totalitarian state, and thus runs the risk of condemning the Church for new, “which can not only kill the body, But also the soul of” Russian Christians historical trials.

“How not Bolshevism is not vile, you can think of something even more vile – Bolshevism in the name of Christ,” stressed Fedotov about Eurasianism, who had revealed to him modern times and as if foreseeing the spiritual and historical temptations of Russia in the 1990-2000s. “GPU techniques in the service of the Church would be a thousand times more disgusting than the same methods in the service of atheism, because there is an inner affinity between ends and means, between faith and life, between the idea and the policy … Eurasianism in power, the control of the Bolshevik system, even Bolshevism could be rehabilitated “10.

So deeply and comprehensively analysis of the anti-Christian essence of Eurasianism and, most importantly, at the initial stage of the formation of a new totalitarian ideology managed to recognize the impending prospect of the Eurasian religious and naturalistic pseudomorphoses Communism representatives of Russian religious and philosophical thought in the first half of the twentieth century were able to prevent future Orthodox thinking participants of spiritually-historical revival of Russia on border of XX-XXI centuries about the on Russian Church and the Russian culture the new danger of religious-ideological Eurasian yoke.

Archpriest George Mitrofanov

1 Бердяев Н.А. Евразийцы. Россия между Европой и Азией: Евразийский соблазн. Антология. М., 1993, с.298-299.

2 Бердяев Н.А., Указ. соч. с.302-303.

3 Флоровский Георгий., Евразийский соблазн. Из прошлого русской мысли. М.,.1998. с.338-339.

4 Там же, с.327-328.

5 .Там же, с.334-335.

6 Там же, с.333, 337.

7 Бердяев Н.А. Указ. соч., с.294-295.

8 Флоровский Георгий. О патриотизме праведном и греховном. Из прошлого русской мысли. М., 1998, с.143.

9 Степун Ф.А. О свободе. Чаемая Россия. СПб., 1999, с.273-274.

10 Федотов Г.П. Правда побежденных. Судьба и грехи России. Избранные статьи по философии русской истории культуры. СПб., 1991, т.1, с.29.

Father George Calciu: “He did not talk much, but every word coming from his mouth was a holy word – only about Christ, only about love, only about forgiveness. He was praying unceasingly…”

Elder Dumitru Bordeianu : “There was nobody more tortured like Constantin! He was arrested on 15^th of May 1948 and condemned for 25 years. He was a man of an extraordinary complexity and intelligence, being a master of many spheres, from music and art, to mathematics and philosophy. Constantin was a very affectionate man, living everything to the maximum. He was subjected to the greatest torture, being also beaten for every other young legionnaire, resisting with such heroism, unequaled… He was a Saint while still living… we were all felling the presence of the Holy Spirit in the cell.”

When there were conflicts among us, he was praying and his praying was working. We knew that he was praying, silently, and his face was completely changed. Holy Martyr Constantin moved to Heavens at 37 years of age, after a long suffering, without any complaint but giving support to everybody else!

Blessed Constantin, Holy Confessor and Martyr of Christ, pray to God for us!

On 19^th of July 1952, Father Ilie Lacatusu [Eellee Lakatoosho] was arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where the political prisoners (mainly Orthodox and followers of the Legion of the Archangel Michael) were forced to build a channel between Danube River and the Black Sea. He was part of the large priests’ brigade. After one year, as Father Ilie became sick, he was moved to another prison (Targu Ocna – Mine Fair), all these years being kept imprisoned without any condemnation. During his imprisonment, Father Ilie was also sent to the extermination camp of Periprava, at the Danube Delta, again with another great number of other priests. Father Ilie was freed in 1964, being given a house arrest and forced to work as a bricklayer. Finally, he could serve as a parish father until 1978. Father Ilie Lacatusu became unwell and reposed, moving to the Heavenly realm, on 22^nd of July 1983.

Extraordinarily, Father Ilie prophesised many things in regards to his departure. He foresaw the time of his reposing, and then at exhumation (September 1998) his incorrupt body was a proof of his blessed life. Many more other miracles, happening all the time, were witnessed by thousands, giving to all strength in this apostate age.

During his lifetime, in prisons, Father Ilie was always an example to everyone of how the Orthodox must behave. Saint Iustin Parvu, who was the abbot from Petru-Voda monastery, remembers: “I stayed for four years with Father Ilie Lacatusu, at the extermination camp of Periprava, in the Danube Delta. His behaviour was remarkable, generally, through his strong interiorisation and quietness; rarely you could hear him saying something. When he did, it was mainly for urging us to pray when there was a danger. I can say about this man, that he had the gift of meekness. He was always trying not to stand out, but to turn into the insignificant to others.

I remember of a wonderful event, when Father Ilie played a very important role. On 30^th of January, in that working colony, we were all sent directly into the channel to cut the reed. Can you imagine what it meant, on a freezing temperature, during the winter? Death! We were all frightened, especially that we noticed the militiamen ready to use their machineguns. Probably they were waiting to execute us, believing that we could refuse the order. There was an area of about 40 hectares of water and the reed was just at the bottom… We all started to murmur and had no thought to get into the water. The militiamen told us to get into the water and collect two sheaves / bundles of reed, each. But how to do this???

We hesitated… but Father Ilie had a very firm word and encouraged all: “We get in, because these ones have a bad thought: they will shoot us. Let us get into water, because the Mother of God and the Holy Three Hierarchs will take us out, unharmed!” Well, and we entered the water up to our chin. We cut and collected the reed, put in bundles. We stayed in the water for about three hours, and then we had to arrange the two bundles, which were cleaned, measured, and fixed according to size. And the temperature was minus 30 degrees Celsius, with a thick ice of 20-30 centimetres, so you could see through the yellow lilies, blossomed under the water. And at all time, there were birds in the sky, as if looking at us… But at the end of this ordeal, we all were unharmed and wet. Water was pouring from us. A great miracle that it was… In the morning, when we started, it was such a fog, very cloudy and very cold. But at once, the sun popped up in the sky, and it was such a light… And suddenly such a heat everywhere, that the militiamen themselves started to run away… but they came back.

After that day of work, we took off our clothes, which turned dry as if they were placed on the hottest oven, with such a steam… We took our shoes, got dressed and back to the colony. And so, the Mother of God and the Holy Hierarchs were with us all, and helped us, on 30^th of January. And no one got sick! Due to the prayers of Father Ilie, because otherwise, we all could have been dead”.

 Blessed Father Ilie pray to Christ God for us!

2/03/1905 – 29/04/1975

Radu Gyr (Demetrescu) was an extraordinary man, with a heart as large as the sky with its beauties! He spent many years in communist extermination camps, suffering extreme punishments. In spite of these tortures, Radu Gyr wrote very daring pieces of literature, while suffering of diverse illnesses and depravations in prison, and after his fierce detention. He was a remarkable leader, within the Legion of Archangel Michael, the only true Orthodox movement of the 20^th century.

The following passage is translated from the address below, containing fragments written by Octavian Voinea who spent time in prison with Radu Gyr: http://ortodoxinfo.ro/2017/04/29/sinaxarul-sfintilor-din-inchisori-marele-poet-national-radu-gyr/

“Romanian literature without Radu Gyr looks like an ugly bride… The Lord did not forget us completely, as He sent to us a guide, a guardian angel, who as a maestro, knew how to play the harp while we were on the way of despair…  Radu Gyr was not a strategist to lead the Legion of the Archangel Michael through the swamp of those times of darkness. He was the fire which melted the strongest steels. He was a light not just for his comrades, but for the whole Romanian nation.

“In the twentieth year of his imprisonment, these villains thought to give the tone of re-education with him, Radu Gyr. To make him to bow his head in front of the haughty persecutors! His name and his poems were interwoven with prayers to God, from all the tormented ones. Radu Gyr tasted in full the barbarian regime of the extermination prisons. When he was on the brink to die, he was taken to the infirmary to be ‘saved’, for new tortures.

“Radu Gyr, the great poet, died on 29^th of April 1975, twelve years since his release from imprisonment. In complete silence all the ones who knew him, the heart of the Orthodox Movement, prayed to the Lord for his soul who departed. Radu Gyr was buried on 2^nd of May, just on the Great Friday, when the Christians commemorate Christ’s Crucifixion…

“Radu Gyr’s poetry is so great, that if it would be published entirely, the whole atheist & communist gatherings would hide in the most remote places of the rubbish bin of history, where nobody will search anything, anymore. Radu Demetrescu Gyr is not just a Romanian poet, but he is belonging to the whole mankind, as a guidance and glory to the generations to come.”

Presently, our beloved Radu Gyr is again ostracized by serious attempts to remove his name given to certain places, as a memorial. Our brother into Christ, born as a Jew, was a staunch Orthodox believer who was also trying to appease the ones from his old stock. This is one of the main reasons for such on-going punishments, until today… On his death bed, Father George Calciu, another Saint of the Prisons, said:  “They will fight with us as dead, but we will be next to you, the living, who are fighting the oppressor. Even not alive on this earth, we will be victorious!”

We tried to translate into English a specific poem, written in prison. While being punished for many years, this particular production attracted death punishment for Radu Gyr! It was one of those moments when the oppressor was really stumbling. Many, many of his companions learnt it by heart and passed it to the others. In the most recent years (after 1990) this poem was ‘legally’ published in Romania, and looked at as a ‘new’ discovery.  On the other hand, it was hard to translate such poetry due to the extraordinary language used: yes, almost impossible to discover equivalent words in English, to the Romanian ones. Nevertheless, we tried…

Get up you George and get up you Johnny!

Not for a fresh bread made in the oven,
not for the barns or acres and tawny,
but for tomorrow free air unwoven,
get up you George and get up you Johnny!

For your people’s blood spilled on the plains,
for your vivid chants nailed by the brawny,
for your bright tear that’s kept in the chains,
get up you George and get up you Johnny!

Not for the gnashing of teeth in distaste,
but collect shouting on meadows bonny
heap of horizons and stars that are chased,
get up you George and get up you Johnny!

Like that go to drink the freedom from pail
to immerse like a sky in its jolly
apricots flowers snowing on you, hail,
get up you George and get up you Johnny!

And then to touch with your embracing kiss
on Icons, porch, doors and on balcony,
on things of freedom you encounter bliss,
get up you George and get up you Johnny!

Get up you George, on ropes and on chains!
Get up you Johnny, holy bones from gorge!
upwards to light after fire full reigns,
get up you Johnny and get up you George!

Ridica-te Gheorghe, ridica-te Ioane!

Nu pentru-o lopată de rumenă pâine,
nu pentru patule, nu pentru pogoane,
ci pentru văzduhul tău liber de mâine,
ridică-te, Gheorghe, ridică-te, Ioane!

Pentru sângele neamului tău curs prin şanţuri,
pentru cântecul tău ţintuit în piroane,
pentru lacrima soarelui tău pus în lanţuri,
ridică-te, Gheorghe, ridică-te, Ioane!

Nu pentru mania scrâşnită-n măsele,
ci ca să aduni chiuind pe tapsane
o claie de zări şi-o căciula de stele,
ridică-te, Gheorghe, ridică-te, Ioane!

Aşa, ca să bei libertatea din ciuturi
şi-n ea să te-afunzi ca un cer în bulboane
şi zărzării ei peste tine să-i scuturi,
ridică-te, Gheorghe, ridică-te, Ioane!

Şi ca să pui tot sărutul fierbinte
pe praguri, pe prispe, pe uşi, pe icoane,
pe toate ce slobode-ţi ies inainte,
ridică-te, Gheorghe, ridică-te, Ioane!

Ridică-te, Gheorghe, pe lanţuri, pe funii!
Ridică-te, Ioane, pe sfinte ciolane!
Şi sus, spre lumina din urmă-a furtunii,
ridică-te, Gheorghe, ridică-te, Ioane!