to wit, I was actually familiar with the fact that Platina edited Blessed Fr. Seraphim's words for nearly as long as I've been interested in Orthodox Christianity. it weighed on my conscience, of course, as Platina isn't even on the "liberal" end of WO.
But you posted a photo above of some WO Hierarchs. I'm not sure what it's significance is; you'll have to give me a stronger hint. I see Met. Seraphim of Piraeus therein, a figurehead of "conservative new calendarism"
a sinner, but not a heretic
(I am 'ascender' on YouTube superchats)
Stylite Nous wrote: ↑Fri 30 August 2024 5:27 pmto wit, I was actually familiar with the fact that Platina edited Blessed Fr. Seraphim's words for nearly as long as I've been interested in Orthodox Christianity. it weighed on my conscience, of course, as Platina isn't even on the "liberal" end of WO.
But you posted a photo above of some WO Hierarchs. I'm not sure what it's significance is; you'll have to give me a stronger hint. I see Met. Seraphim of Piraeus therein, a figurehead of "conservative new calendarism"
We’ll, everything Old Rocor and Fr. Seraphim Rose stood for has been censored and ignored by Fr. Damascene and Bishop Gerasim. You’ve already touched on why the picture is an issue. This is Bishop Gerasim former abbot of Platina participating in some gathering involving the Moscow Patriarchate. Which isn’t a surprise because the Serbian Church is in communion with the MP and that’s who owns Platina and that’s why books like “Russia’s Catacomb Saints”, Fr. Seraphim’s Magnum Opus isn’t in print.
What did Rocor say about the MP when Fr. Seraphim was alive? What did he and they Think about the MP?
"True-Orthodox Christians, for the sake of the purity of Christ's Church, must remain separate from the schismatic body [the MP] and thereby show it the way of return to the True Church of Christ... Even if the Catacomb Church did not exist at all, the Moscow Patriarchate would still be guilty of schism and apostasy..."From: "The Catacomb Tikhonite Church (1974)" - the "Orthodox Word", # 59, Nov.-Dec. 1974.
"The condemnation by our hierarchy of the agreement with the atheists promulgated by the Moscow Patriarchate at the time of Metropolitan Sergius certainly remains in effect and cannot be changed except by the repentance of the Moscow Patriarchate. This policy, which seeks to serve both Christ and Belial, is unquestionably a betrayal of Orthodoxy. Therefore, we can have no liturgical communion with any bishop or cleric of the Moscow Patriarchate. [...] As the free part of the Russian Church, we can fully approve only that part of the Church in Russia which is called the Catacomb Church, and only with her can we have full communion."
Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, 12/25 August, 1981.)
Bishop Gerasim is now in the OCA and this is what Fr. Seraphim thought about the OCA.
“Global Orthodoxy” has not listened to the Synod’s pleas, and therefore those who wish to remain Orthodox have no choice but to leave “global Orthodoxy.” In the 15th century those who were not with St. Mark of Ephesus were not in the Church—and this situation is being approached today. Alas, the basic Church issues of today are disguised in clouds of rhetoric and academic half-truths. The capitulation of Orthodoxy today comes not in the forms of signatures to a pseudo-Union, but as a gradual series of acts of apostasy. Those who love the truth must now separate themselves from this relentless and soul-destroying process. The Church as seen through the eyes of the Metropolia presents a timid voice to the world, ever ready to apologize for its deviations and to accommodate itself to the times and to the powerful of the world. Not such is the Church of Christ! And there is precious little time left for us to thunder the truth to an indifferent world!”— Fr Seraphim Rose: Letter 052.
June 22/July 5, 1970
“You doubtless disagree. But I hope you can at least glimpse the depth and sincerity of what the “autocephaly” has inspired. “Autocephaly,” by the way, is surely a euphemism for the event that has occurred, when the Metropolia remains exactly what it was, when Moscow keeps every one of its parishes and even sends a new bishop and priests, when no Churches outside the Soviet block recognize it and Athenagoras calls it “non-existent” (and surely we will be allowed to agree with Athenagoras when he speaks the truth?). No, what has occurred is a concordat, a “legalization” of the Metropolia like that of the Soviet Patriarchate in 1927; and if you and the vast majority of even the clergy of the Metropolia were not in fact ignorant of Russian Church history for the last 43 years you would know that Metropolitan Sergius’ act in 1927 was condemned by many bishops in the USSR as initiating a “neo-renovationist schism,” that those bishops were imprisoned and/or killed because they opposed Sergius, and that therefore in your ignorance you are not only receiving “legalization” from a neo-renovationist schismatic body but are acting fully in accord with the Soviet “new church politics” whose aim is to use the Church to destroy itself, after giving maximum benefit to the Soviet Government itself. At the very least, you should have refrained from any kind of concordat when there is the slightest doubt that any of this might not be false, and when the majority of free Russian hierarchs do not agree with you; you should have waited (even [if] it takes a hundred years—truth is that important for the Church!) for a true and free All-Russian Council, instead of accepting the poisoned gift of the Moscow Robber Council.“— Fr. Seraphim Rose: Letter 068. Dec, 28/Jan. 10, 1970/71
“Some of our bishops, being under the influence of Solzhenitsyn (who says many good things but is certainly not very aware of church matters), suddenly got the idea of “uniting” with the two schismatic groups in America and Paris. Several bishops have told us themselves that the epistle sent to these groups was very poorly and hastily done, without even mention of the necessity to be one in the Truth. As a result, the Metropolia in America jumped at the opportunity to seduce us into having communion with them, and we really feared (at the time we wrote the article on the Catacomb Church and Metropolitan Theodosius) there might be some kind of hasty “union,” which would be disastrous for the cause of True Orthodoxy, and would have caused a schism, even if perhaps only a few would have been bold enough to separate from this “union.” Now, glory be to God, our Metropolitan Philaret has come out with a strong statement that communion is impossible; but the Metropolia certainly won the propaganda battle in the Russian newspapers by showing how lacking in “love” we are for refusing to have communion with them—as if we hate Christ Himself?”— Fr. Seraphim Rose: Letter 177.
May 16/29, 1975
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32)
Stylite Nous wrote: ↑Fri 30 August 2024 5:27 pmto wit, I was actually familiar with the fact that Platina edited Blessed Fr. Seraphim's words for nearly as long as I've been interested in Orthodox Christianity. it weighed on my conscience, of course, as Platina isn't even on the "liberal" end of WO.
But you posted a photo above of some WO Hierarchs. I'm not sure what it's significance is; you'll have to give me a stronger hint. I see Met. Seraphim of Piraeus therein, a figurehead of "conservative new calendarism"
† † †
“Orthodox people would like the World Council of Churches to be the Cradle for the One Church of the Future”— Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
"Clearly the World Council of Churches is the vehicle through which Antichrist will establish his one world church."—Statement issued by Jordanville in 1998-99
It is obvious to all that the calendar innovation caused a schism in the Greek Church in 1924, and the responsibility for the schism weighs exclusively on the innovators. This is the conclusion that will be reached by anyone studying the Patriarchal Tomoi…” letter from St. Philaret of NY to Metropolitan Epiphanios of Cyprus
“It is not we who go into schism by not submitting to Metropolitan Sergius, but rather you who are obedient to him go with him into the abyss of the Church's condemnation.”—Saint Joseph of Petrograd
"If every Orthodox Christian
is commanded by the canons to depart from a heretical bishop even before he is officially condemned, or be guilty also of his heresy, how much more must we depart from those who are worse and more unfortunate than heretics, because they openly serve the cause of Antichrist?”— Father Seraphim Rose, Letter 40, 1970
The MP has not changed since the time of Sergius. For this reason ROCOR has no union with it. ROCOR is in full communion with the True Orthodox Church in Russia, the Catacomb Church.
(Orthodox Russia, 1990, № 1, р. 8-10).
“The clergy in the last years will become an instrument of the Antichrist. They will teach blind obedience as a virtue of peace and salvation. A satanic obedience, which will require from the believer ‘ignorance’ and contempt for the teachings of the Saints and indifference to the truth and superficial piety.” — St. Niphon, Bishop of Constantia on the island of Cyprus (4th Century)
(“If you have a Bishop or Priest that teaches heresy by all means.. The Fathers tell you to flee them in the sense of contact… Not communion with the Church”— Fr. Peter Heers )
“All the teachers of the Church, and all the Councils, and all the Divine Scriptures advise us to flee from the heterodox and separate from their communion.” (St. Mark of Ephesus)
“Chrysostomos loudly declares not only heretics, but also those who have communion with them, to be enemies of God.” (St. Theodore the Studite, Epistle of Abbot Theophilus)
St. Maximus the Confessor said: “Even if the whole universe holds communion with the [heretical] patriarch, I will not communicate with him. For I know from the writings of the holy Apostle Paul: the Holy Spirit declares that even the angels would be anathema if they should begin to preach another Gospel, introducing some new teaching.” (The Life of St. Maximus the Confessor)
May you find the path of good disagreement, as Saint Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain teaches in his Interpretation of the Fourteen Epistles of Saint Paul, saying, "If he [the abbot or bishop] is evil in Faith, that is, he believes heretical and blasphemous doctrines, flee from him, though he be an angel from Heaven."
St. John the Almsgiver said: “We shall not escape sharing in that punishment which, in the world to come, awaits heretics, if we defile Orthodoxy and the holy Faith by adulterous communion with heretics.”
“With all our strength let us beware lest we receive Communion from or give it to heretics. ‘Give not what is holy to the dogs,’ says the Lord. ‘Neither cast ye your pearls before swine’, lest we become partakers in their dishonour and condemnation.” (St.John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, IV, 13.)
“Are all the many quotations from the holy Councils and Saints not enough for you? Or do you fear, perhaps, being cast out of the synagogue of the heretics? The fact that the other patriarchates hold communion with the Phanar is not really important. What is important is, who follows in the footsteps of the Saints and is with the truth?”— Elder Savvas
“Come out of her, My people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)
“Some have suffered final shipwreck with regard to the faith. Others, though they have not drowned in their thoughts, are nevertheless perishing through communion with heresy.” (St. Theodore the Studite)
“Guard yourselves from soul-destroying heresy, communion with which is alienation from Christ.” (St. Theodore the Studite, P.G. 99.1216.)
“Chrysostomos loudly declares not only heretics, but also those who have communion with them, to be enemies of God.” (St. Theodore the Studite, Epistle of Abbot Theophilus)
"Having called these false teachers "deceivers and antichrists," the apostle forbids her to accept them into her house or even to greet them, clearly because whoever becomes friendly with a false teacher subjects himself to the danger of being affected by his heresy. This unusual strictness of the "Apostle of love" is striking and so contrary to the modern idea of ecumenism that hopes for closer cooperation with the heterodox for the sake of
'mutual understanding.”
St. Nikephoros the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople (9th C.): Even if false hierarchs, while being in heresy, “will succeed in deceiving and enticing a certain number of ignorant ones and in gathering even a considerable number of followers, then they are outside the sacred walls of the Church just the same. But even if very few remain in Orthodoxy and piety, then it is precisely these that are the Church, and the authority and leadership of the ecclesiastical institution remains with them.” [Minor Apologetics, 8, P.G. 100, 844 D; quoted in “The Fifteenth Canon of the First-and-Second Council,” Vertograd-Inform, December, 1999, p. 18.]
St. Nikolai Velimirovich: "Are the people at fault if godless elders and false prophets lead them onto foreign paths? The people are not at fault to as great an extent as their elders and the false prophets, but they are at fault to some extent.For God gave to the people also to know the right path, both through their conscience and through the preaching of the word of God, so that people should not blindly have followed their blind guides, who led them by false paths that alienated them from God and His Laws." (The Prologue from Ochrid, Birmingham: Lazarica Press, 1986, vol. II, p. 149)
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32)
† † †
“St. Mark of Ephesus, stood up for the truth against the whole council, rejecting its decree (the Unia) because it contradicted Orthodox tradition—the whole Orthodox Church eventually likewise rejected it. Even so today the proponents of reform and unia will have many and subtle arguments, and we will oppose them not only with arguments and citations from the Fathers, but even more with the example of St. Mark of Ephesus.”— Fr. Seraphim Rose: Letter 094. Aug. 29/Sept. 11, 1971
† † †
“Do you know the Life of St. Maximus the Confessor? All the Orthodox Patriarchs accepted the Monothelite heresy, and he was begged, for the sake of peace and harmony in the Church, to do what everyone else was doing and keep his opinions to himself. And he said: “Even if the whole world enter into communion with the (heretical) Patriarch of Constantinople), I alone will not.” That is the kind of Orthodox confession that has preserved the Church for 2000 years; that is the faith that St. Herman lived; that is what we must follow today. Indeed, we have the example of St. Peter the Aleut who died for refusing to accept Roman Catholicism, which, according to our modern ecumenists, is very little different from Orthodoxy. And we are gladly willing to suffer torture and martyrdom for this faith, but we will never recognize either the Patriarchate or the Metropolia, which have betrayed this faith.”— Fr. Seraphim Rose: Letter 061. August 30/Sept. 12, 1970
† † †
“Do you not realize the seriousness of our firm conviction that the Metropolias concordat with Moscow is a betrayal of the Orthodox Church and of the faithful both within and without the USSR? Do you know of the propaganda benefits which the Moscow Church and the Soviet Government have already obtained from the autocephaly? (Thanks, for instance, to published statements of the Bishop of Sitka that are pure Soviet propaganda.) Do you know the whole story, from 1927 to today, of the Catacomb Church and its persecution by the Soviet Secret Police according to indications given by the Moscow hierarchs? Your Metropolia now supports this persecution by its support of the Patriarchate, and when your bishops appear in the Soviet Union as honored guests of the Patriarchate, the faith of every Catacomb Christian is publicly trampled upon. Do you see, in a word, how we are opponents of your autocephaly and protest publicly because of sorrow in our hearts that is too deep to hold back? We believe that you and many other sincere people in the Metropolia have accepted the autocephaly out of ignorance of its full implications. But it is then our duty to inform you of the full facts and beg you to stop this path of betrayal and sacrilege. St. Herman cannot possibly be the patron of such an “autocephaly,” and we only pray that in time this will become clear to many.”—Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina: (Letter 061.
August 30/Sept. 12, 1970)
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32)
Here's something that I'd love for Fr. Joseph to hammer.
My very first thought: Are these holy saints of the patriarch that we are not allowed to “blaspheme,” only the conservative New Calendarists' saints? Am I still allowed to call out open masons and syncretists, or are the saints of liberal New Calendarists also off limits? And if I can reject some of the canonisations, just how ecumenist does the elder need to be before I can say something?
Unseen.Warfare wrote: ↑Sat 24 August 2024 10:13 pm“Did any of the genuine Saints of Orthodoxy have any need to... feel the pulse of visitors, in order to divine?
Did they assume - with their bodies, like the sorcerer Porphyrios did - a "mystical" posture-pose at the Oracle at Dodoni?
Did they admire... the statue of Zeus in the Athens Museum, instead of enlightening the people and uncovering the demonic religion of idols?
Did they "see" ancient ruins buried under the earth? And in fact, the way that Porphyrios "saw" the antiquities that were in Belgrade?!
Did they hold the hand of a patient, the way that the sorcerer Porphyrios did, and cauterize him without sedation in the operating room?Did they pounce... like felines, the way that the sorcerer Porphyrios did, and strip their interlocutor, in order to prove that he had indeed undergone surgery, and thus confirm their... gift of divination?
Did they "go through walls", the way that the sorcerer Porphyrios did, because -according to the enthusiastic narrations of his spiritual children- he had an excellent knowledge of molecular structure and the splitting of matter?
And if Porphyrios was indeed a saint, why did his disciples translate his relics by night? Could it be that on exhuming him, there were signs that debunked his fame as a saint?
(Magazine "Agios Agathangelos Esphigmenite" 2005 Issue 211)
I've never read about elder Porphyrios but I've recently heard that in his book Wounded by Love, he teaches New Age doctrines. Have you read it?
Also what's the deal with the translation of his body by night? Is this a well known about his life and what is the suspicion of their findings of his body? Was it rotting? Did they expect incorruption but were disappointed? I recall someone here mentioned that incorruption in some regions by Orthodox Christians was viewed that there were unrepentant/unconfessed sins and why the body was not "swallowed up" by the earth, as to say it was rejected.
God’s Revelation to the Human heart
By Fr. Seraphim Rose
The life of St. Nicetas of the Kiev Caves, who lived nearly a thousand years ago in Russia:
Drawn by zeal, Nicetas asked his Abbot to bless him to live in reclusion. The Abbot (who was then St. Nikon) forbade him, saying, "My son! It is not good for you who are young to be idle. Better for you to live with the brethren. By serving them you will not lose your re-ward. You know yourself how Isaac was deluded by demons in reclusion. He would have perished if the special grace of God, through the prayers of our holy Fathers Antony and Theodosius, had not saved him."
"Father," Nicetas replied, "I will never be deceived by anything of that kind, but I want to stand firmly against the wiles of the demons and to ask God to give me the gift of miracle-working, like Isaac the Recluse, who even till now performs many miracles."
"Your desire," said the Abbot again, "is beyond your power. Be on your guard lest, having been ex-alted, you fall. I, on the contrary, order you to serve the brethren, and you will receive a crown from God for your obedience."
Nicetas, drawn by the strongest zeal for the life of reclusion, had not the least desire to attend to what the Abbot said to him. He carried out what he had set his mind on. He shut himself up in reclusion and continued praying without ever going out. After some time, once when he was praying he heard a voice praying with him, and he smelled an extraordinary fragrance.
Deceived by this, he said to himself, "If this were not an angel, he would not have prayed with me and there would not have been the fragrance of the Holy Spirit." Nicetas began to pray earnestly, saying,
"Lord, manifest Thyself to me intelligibly, that I may see Thee." Then, there was a voice which said to him, "I will not appear to thee because thou art young, lest, having been lifted up, thou fallest down."
The recluse replied with tears, "Lord, I will never be deluded, because the Abbot taught me not to attend to diabolic delusion, but I will do all that Thou orderest me.
Then, having obtained power over him, the soul-destroying snake said, "It is impossible for a man while still in the flesh to see me. But look, I am sending my angel to stay with thee. Carry out his will."
With these words a demon in the form of an angel appeared to the recluse. Nicetas fell at his feet and worshipped him as an angel. The demon said, "Henceforth do not pray, but read books. In this way thou wilt enter into constant converse with God and wilt receive the power to give salutary teaching to those who come to thee, and I will unceasingly pray to the Creator of all for thy salvation."
The recluse believed these words and was still further deceived. He stopped praying and occupied himself with reading. He saw the demon constantly praying and rejoiced, supposing that an angel was praying for him. Then he began to talk much from Scripture to those who came to him, and to prophesy like the Palestine recluse.
His fame spread among worldly people and reached the grand prince's court. Actually he did not prophesy, but he told those who came to him where stolen goods had been put or where something had happened in a distant place, obtaining his information from the demon who attended him. Thus he told the Grand Prince Izyaslav about the murder of Prince Gleb of Novgorod, and advised him to send his son to take over the princedom and rule in his stead. This was sufficient for worldly people to hail the recluse as a prophet. It is observable that worldly people and even monks without spiritual discernment are nearly always attracted by humbugs, imposters, hypocrites and those who are in demonic delusion, and they take them for saints and genuine servants of God.
No one could compare with Nicetas for knowledge of the Old Testament. But he could not bear the New Testament, never took his talks from the Gospels or the Apostolic Epistles, and would not allow any of his visitors to mention anything from the New Testament.
From this strange bias in his teaching, the fathers of the Kiev Caves Monastery realized that he was deceived by a demon. At that time there were many holy monks endowed with spiritual gifts and graces in the monastery.
They drove the devil from Nicetas by their prayers.
Nicetas stopped seeing it. The fathers brought Nicetas out of reclusion and asked him to tell them something out of the Old Testament. But he affirmed with an oath that he never read those books which he previously knew by heart. It turned out that he had even forgotten how to read, so great was the influence of the satanic delusion; and it was only with great difficulty that he learned to read again. Through the prayers of the holy fathers, he was brought to himself, he acknowledged and confessed his sin, he bewailed it with bitter tears, and he obtained a high degree of sanctity and the gift of miracle-working by a humble life among the brethren. Subsequently St. Nicetas was consecrated as Bishop of Novgorod.*
This story raises a question for us today. How can a religious seeker avoid the traps and deceptions which he encounters in his search? There is only one answer to this question: a person must be in the religious search not for the sake of religious experiences, which can deceive, but for the sake of truth.
(We know from the many clear warnings of Christ's true saints, that a false church will arise and be integrated into the world religion of Antichrist. It follows therefore, that along with it's buildings, icons and clergy this false church must also have it's saints, prophets, miracle workers and teachers. Their sanctity however must be a fraud, their prophecies misguided, their miracles illusions and their teachings demonic. The spiritual life as taught by the Holy Fathers has been called a science of sciences, a repeatable experiment that every Christian must conduct within themselves, and so this teaching should be consistent no matter what time or place those ascetics struggled and recorded their experiences and wisdom. In the words of Saint Theophan the Recluse:
'The positive teaching of the Church serves to know whether a concept is from the Truth. This is a litmus test for all teachings. Whatever agrees with it, you should accept it, whatever does not - reject. One can do it without further deliberations.'
The cult of the Athonite 'elders' is inescapable for those caught in the fallen church. They have become the standard of holiness and most trusted teachers of the modern Orthodox Christian. Porphyrios, Paisios and Iakovos are the three big ones, although there are others whose names I forget. As the world orthodox churches draw nearer to ecumenical unity with the heterodox, and ultimately, every non-christian religion, the spiritual life of the people must first be adapted so as to complement, or at least not contradict, the spirituality of the emerging unified religion that is the inevitable outcome. It is my contention that the elders of world orthodoxy have made significant changes to the understanding of the nature of man and the spiritual life of the Christian, and that these changes are in line with what we would expect if they were indeed preparing those people for the acceptance of the world religion.)
[Example of Demonic Miracles amongst the Pseudo Saints]
let me recount the story of a priest from Mount Athos, a Serbian monk. He was a representative of the Hilandar Monastery at the Lera Koinotita, the governing body of Mount Athos. Hilandar Monastery is found in the North and East of Mount Athos, in the environs of Karyes. It consists of a large number of sketes and cells. The majority of the cells had been inhabited by Russian monks ever since the mid-19th century. By the mid-1960s many of the cells were empty, and the rest were occupied by sickly and infirm old monks cherishing the memories of the good old pre-revolutionary years and the splendour of the Russian monastery, its sketes and cells at that time. Many were living in abject poverty. Sometimes, they were taking out from their caches some gold roubles minted under the Tsar and exchanged them for the bare necessities. I mentioned my last visit with Elder Porfyrios in one of my conversations with the priest from Hilandar. That livened him up, and he shared with me this story. It happened while the elder was still residing on Mount Athos. An old Russian monk had just died in a cell in upper Kapsala, north of Kirye. When the last inhabitant dies, the cell and all the possessions therein must be returned to the monastery. It was rumoured that a cache of gold had been hidden somewhere in the cell or around it. “The monastery is always in need,” said the priest. This was especially true of Hilandar, as with the government in place in Greece at the time, its chances for getting help were very bleak. “I wish we could find the gold,” said the priest. But this was no easy task to look for gold in an old half-destroyed cell. They had looked everywhere when the priest finally went to elder Porfyrios to ask him for help. He was hopeful, as he was asking on behalf of the monastery, not for his own benefit. The elder’s advice was clear. He instructed the priest to look in the rubble near the well. They should lift the slab at the thickening of the wall, and take out the stone under it. They would find the gold under the stone hidden in a hole. “Do not look anywhere else. You will find nothing,” concluded the elder.
They found the gold exactly where the elder had told them.
https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2 ... eptiveness
Doesn’t this sound familiar to the life of
St. Nicetas of the Kiev Caves? The abilities the demons granted him seem to be the exact same abilities that Ephraim and Porphyrios possessed… Pun intended.
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32)