Isaakos wrote:jdigrande wrote:Does anyone know if St. Matthew approached ROCOR or the Serbian Church, looking for a bishop to help him ordain bishops prior to the single handed consecration of 1948? Are there copies of any letters sent to these churches by St. Matthew?
Thanks for any help in this matter
Yes he did, I know this because I was told by various priests that this was the case. There was retired bishop named Benjamin who was a member of the synod of Jerusalem whom he was talking to as well as a Russian Bishop Victor I believe. He made some attempts to ask others to help, but the climate for traveling at the time was horrible.
Not only that OTHER saints like St. John the Romanian directed others to Him. St. John the Romanian died not commemorating the Patriarch of Jerusalem over his communion with the new calendarists.
Exactly, in order to travel in or outside the Soviet-block countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Serbia, etc., one needed to obtain forged passports and risk being killed for doing so. In addition, Old Calendarist bishops would have to shave their beards and put on secular clothing in order to travel. That these clergy would have to forge documents and then lie to atheistic authorities when traveling was not worth the risk to their salvation. Then there was aways the risk that they would be recognized or caught as true bishops are not good at lying. If they were to be arrested, then with the truth serums and psychoactive drugs, they could be forced to reveal the whereabouts of their catacomb congregation. It was just not worth the risk.
Please do remember that almost all of Archbishop Stephanos' parishes in the Slavic countries are still being persecuted. They are still part of the underground catacomb churches. They do not advertise their presence on the Internet nor in phone books.
Do not forget that Greece, because of their socialistic-communistic government, had severe travel restrictions on any Old Calendarist priests and bishops. In fact, they still do. When several bishops under Archbishop Kallinikos visited Mt. Athos to give aid and spiritual help to certain Old Calendarist priests and monks living in caves, they needed to obtain passports from a special office in Greece that is friendly to Old Calendarists.
