Bishop Constantine (Essensky) of the old ROCOR, found incorrupt after 18 years in the grave, then re-buried !
Just like it was the case in Romania one year ago with the incorrupt body of Blessed George Calciu, another saint found having his body incorrupt was quickly re-buried, this time in America. The local first hierarch of the current Moscow Patriarchate / ROCOR, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York, led the re-burial service. It appears the policy of quickly re-burring away those saints with incorrupt bodies revealed by God to us has become the norm in all the Orthodox Churches today. Blessed Bishop Constantine Essensky (reposed 1996) lived and died under the old ROCOR before being swallowed by the Moscow Patriarchate. The late ROCOR before joining MP produced many important saints and Blessed Constantine only comes to show us how important ROCOR was for the preservation of the true faith.
http://eadiocese.org/News/2014/dec/bpconstantine.en.htm
But the discovery of another saint being re-buried should not surprise us any more. For the darkness to rule, light has to be buried everywhere it is found!
Instead let us say a few words about what really makes a saint so highly glorified by God that not even his/her body gets corrupted? What is that one key ingredient all in this special category of saints posses?
The right answer is often also the simplest. Corruption means compromise, which means if one did not compromise, did not get corrupted. And what a better way for Christ to show us His appreciation than preserving the bodies of these saints uncorrupted? It is understood in the Orthodox tradition that such saints will not even go through the second Judgement, that is how great these saints are regarded, and that their incorrupt bodies show they have already resurrected in the kingdom of Heaven.
But how do we know that what we stated here is true? The answer is simple. Let us examine what really happened in the case of Blessed George Calciu. It is always best to give it a little time after the events unfold to start to get the full picture. What we in fact learned earlier this year, in April of 2014, some 5 months after the events around re-burial of Bless George Calciu, what was revealed was that two versions of the will supposedly left by Fr Calciu were found to exist. It was also revealed that the first, more recent version, was the one much circulated by the media. This official version was also the one where Fr Calciu allegedly expressed his wish to be reburied if found incorrupt. But another version of the will surfaced, an older one, that was a little bit different, in fact it was so different that would make one think the two were written by completely two different people (see Romanian article below). It is now understood that the first version was custom tailored to fit the storyline of the official Orthodox authorities. If we were to just mention one sentence from the more credible second will (and most likely the real one), Fr George Calciu gave this argument in choosing where to die: “prefer sa mor aici fara nici un compromis”, meaning “I prefer to die here without having to make a compromise”.
And certainly Blessed George Calciu was one of those who refused to make any form of compromise even when faced with the threat of execution. Three times on the same day, while in detention, he was offered to accept compromise or die, and he refused compromise. No wonder his body was found incorrupt!
The message of these saints with incorrupted bodies is clear: No compromise, Christ is not up for sale or interpretation. Preserving Christ’s Truth, unaltered, uncompromised and unchanged is the single most important aspect of preserving our Orthodox faith.
Let us therefore allow time as it shall be revealed sooner or later in which way did Bishop Constantine (Essensky) stand uncompromised in defending Christ’s truth! Holy Bishop Constantine pray to Christ God for us.
Other references: http://orthodoxaustralia.org/2013/12/10/blessed-george-calcius-body-found-incorrupt-after-7-years
Errata: Sorry for the mistake we made earlier stating the saint was uncovered after 8 years, Blessed Constantine’s body was discovered after 18 years in the grave! 18 years!
