Pat Kirill SKIPS Rocor's Great Luminary Met Philaret !

[Maria]

St. Philaret was tortured by the Japanese in Northern China during WW II for refusing to do obeisance to an idol they had erected next to the Church. He was almost blinded and was left permanently disfigured. As they started to burn his back he said he prayed to St. Nicholas for strength and although he smelled his own flesh burning, he felt no pain. His torturers were so moved by his faith and courage that they left his congregation alone. Yet many in World Orthodoxy, such as Bishop Tikhon, take delight in mocking him and denying that he is a Confessor.
His relics are incorrupt and miracle working.
It would shock me to see ROCOR/MP glorify him; but God knows his Saints.

Are you referring to the retired Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) of San Francisco (OCA) or another Bishop?

[Maria]

Does this help?

http://st-sergius.org/Bio/Metp/translation.html

-Antonios

Thank you very much. This was very inspirational.

The brief biography did not give the date of his birth and the date when he fell asleep in the Lord.

[m. Evfrosinia]

I think that skipping Metropolitan Philaret at the service in China was either intentional on the part of the committee that put together the text for the service (I'm pretty sure that Pat. Kyrill just reads whatever is put before him, he doesn't compose something like that himself) so as to silence any rumors about the possibility of the ROCOR-MP glorifying Met. Philaret, or a purposeful "slap in the face" of the ROCOR-MP, to emphasize that Met. Philaret was not "one of theirs".
As all of the Russian Orthodox Clergy in China, Met. Philaret ended up in the MP after World War II. He was forbidden to preach when he refused to defend the MP in his sermons, and after he began to forbid his spiritual children to accept Soviet passports and return to the USSR. But he remained within the MP for 10 years, until the ROCOR was finally able to get him a visa for Australia. One of his first actions once he was out of China was to repent of this before Metropolitan Anastassy-- he spoke of this in his acceptance speech when he was elected Primate of the ROCOR in 1964.
The ROCOR-MP has spoken vaguely of the possibility of glorifying Met. Philaret, especially since it is widely known that his relics are incorrupt. Were they to actually do this, they would have to produce such a watered down version of his life and especially his teachings, and either ignore or censor so many of his sermons, that in my opinion such a "glorification" would be more of a mockery than a display of any sort of veneration.

[Lydia]

St. Philaret was tortured by the Japanese in Northern China during WW II for refusing to do obeisance to an idol they had erected next to the Church. He was almost blinded and was left permanently disfigured. As they started to burn his back he said he prayed to St. Nicholas for strength and although he smelled his own flesh burning, he felt no pain. His torturers were so moved by his faith and courage that they left his congregation alone. Yet many in World Orthodoxy, such as Bishop Tikhon, take delight in mocking him and denying that he is a Confessor.
His relics are incorrupt and miracle working.
It would shock me to see ROCOR/MP glorify him; but God knows his Saints.

Are you referring to the retired Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) of San Francisco (OCA) or another Bishop?

Yes, Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald. He also refuses to accept that St. Constantine is a real Orthodox saint . You can read his long-winded diatribes on many Orthodox forums.

[Barbara]

Sorry, Maria, I did not see your request. I will check another site, too.
Maybe that one has it all anyway ; I will look at that.

Mother Evfrosinia, as usual, is very observant. Of course she knew the great Metropolitan firsthand too - which
helps in assessing everything.

I figured 100% it was a deliberate gesture by whomever wields power behind the scenes in the MP. Good point that Patriarch has no time to make up lists or write lengthy compositions himself.
But I couldn't BELIEVE they would be so brazen as to do this that I checked through the list about 5 times to make sure I had not missed
Archimandrite Philaret [Vosnesensky] as he was then.

I think any glorification would be better than nothing. Even a pale shadow of a bio acclaiming his virtues would be a big boost up.
I figure later generations who will dissolve the union [God willing!] can then correct the errors made out of overwhelming zeal to
cater to MP sentiment.

For example, Met Laurus gave the vestiments of Metropolitan Philaret over to the MP as a gesture of the weak slave to his angry master.
That was APPALLING. It revealed Met Laurus' abject servitude to unknown forces over there.
Who on earth would do such a placatory thing?

Now the MP doesn't even recognize Met Philaret. Showing that bowing to the devil never pleases the Devil [listening, James R ?!].
It makes a hungry monster feel MORE confident in his vassals, that's all.

Mother Evfrosiniya, didn't Met Philaret stop serving the entire rest of his time in Harbin until escaped to Australia ?
I figured he was not really "in the MP" - just an unwilling captive until he could escape.

[m. Evfrosinia]

Met. (then Archimandrite) Philaret continued to celebrate while under the MP during his last 10 years in Harbin, though he remained in a sort of semi-retirement, and wasn't permitted to preach. He said that he felt he couldn't leave his spiritual children entirely alone, as he was the only priest that was speaking out against the MP at all, but even his enforced silence was a clear message to his flock. He spoke of this period as an enforced, unwilling captivity, that weighed heavily upon his soul and his conscience, which is why he repented of it to Met. Anastassy when he got out of China. I think it's important to note that the MP in 1954-1964 was quite different from the MP of today. There were still some pre-revolutionary bishops alive, and there were the other bishops from China, including Met. Philaret's father, Archbishop Dimitri, who ended up in the MP and were forcibly "evacuated" to the USSR. Met. Philaret knew that many, if not all of them, supported him, even if they, for various reasons, couldn't or didn't speak out as openly as he did. He must have felt that it was still possible to speak out openly and honestly within the MP, at least in China. I doubt that he would have made the same decision in today's circumstances.