Letters from Vladyka Gregory (Grabbe) of Washington

[SavaBeljovic]

I recently got a hold of a bunch of books and belongings that belonged to our Hieroschemamonk Elia (Yenovkian) who reposed in August of 2020. Among these things were two letters from Vladyka Gregory Grabbe, one from 1992 and one from 1995.

While brief, I thought they were interesting and wished to share them here. I will transcribe the letters at a later date.

[Barbara]

Do you have any idea to what that second letter referred ? Are there any clues among Fr Elias' other possessions ?

Who, in short, was Hieroschemamonk Elias concerned might be a heretic ?

The 1st letter is fascinating ! I have seen mention on our Euphrosynos Cafe that Bishop Gregory [Grabbe] wrote quite a bit about Masons, but never saw further details.

The book must have been published originally in Belgrade when the Grabbe family was in exile there.

Are there copies of the book anywhere ? It seems that would be GREAT to reprint it ! Maybe YOU would be the translator, since you know Serbian< English, Russian ?!

It would be so telling to have what Bishop Gregory wrote available.

At the minimum, there is an accusation from the days when the Synod was relocated to New York that he himself was a Mason. The book would exonerate him from that charge.

But much more useful would be the rich fountain of knowledge that he had gathered.

Would you say that Bishop Grabbe was at all like Sergei Nilus ? How would you compare these two Church writers who - apparently - both exposed Freemasonry's activities against the Church ?

Then, TOO, what is the treasure trove of information Bishop Gregory found of all places, on the Greek isle of Lemnos in 1920's ? What was he doing there anyway ? I'd love to find out this past history.

[Barbara]

Maybe we could draft Sava to ALSO translate the autobiography of Bishop Anthony [Grabbe] ?
The latter showed me a copy of it, and would have given me one, but it published in the Russian Federation, and all in Russian. No use to me, unfortunately !

But that would ALSO contain incredible information about the past of the True Orthodox Bishop, who founded and ran the St Sergius School at the Synod headquarters in New York.

Plus, of course, much Grabbe family history.

[Barbara]

Not to bother you too much, Sava, but maybe you could fill us in on the spiritual history of Schemamonk Elias ?
I have heard his name, but don't recall too much about him.

THANKS !

[CafeReader1]

better that there be a link to a readable PDF. Here all I can see is purple on black

Monk Symeon

[SavaBeljovic]

better that there be a link to a readable PDF. Here all I can see is purple on black

Monk Symeon

+
Rt. Rev. Bishop Gregory
95 Elm Street
Elmwood Park
New Jersey 07407

12/25 Febr. 1992

Dear Father Elia,

Just now I am not able to write a longer letter. I will write it in a day or two. Anyhow I see no reason for you to be seriously worried. There's no signs of possible heretical threat. We are all busy with problems in Russia.

Wait for my answer to you latter.

May the blessing of the Lord be with you

• Bishop Gregory

Dear Father Elia:

Please pardon me for not answering your 3 letters: one dated April 14 and two with no dates. It is harder and harder for me to keep up with my correspondence., so I have to ask my daughter for help.

Regarding your question about the possibility Archbishop Valentin will intervene in America I can only say, that in his encyclical letter to Russian poeople in Russia and abroad, he states, that in his Church Administration no one is held by force : every one is free to leave and of the parishes abroad any one seeking his omophorion is welcome to apply.

As far as the question of translating my book on masons, it is very hard to accomplish. I have it in numerous quotations from French, German and English sources. My book was written in Russian and then translated into Serbian. This makes actually two translations of the quots. Translating it for the third time - would ruin the original text beyond recognition. There could only be one way to do it: go to the libraries and sirch for the original text. It is not only very time consuming, but I am sure, that in many cases it would be impossible to find those books even in the libraries, and of course, the material I found 75 years ago on the island of Lemnos.

May the Lord's blessing be with you.

June 8/321 1995 + Bishop Gregory

[Barbara]

That was cute "sirch" - ! Well it does look like it SHOULD be spelled that way !

Image of Bp Gregory earlier in life, in the world, when he was George Grabbe
Maybe someone can see whether there is a date in the writing on the lower right hand corner ?