Jul 7 2021

Journey with God – the pilgrimage

Religious pilgrimage is a sure sign of humanity. According to Romanian Patriarch Daniel, there are many reasons for pilgrimage and it has deep spiritual significance when it is experienced properly and properly understood. The pilgrim is a person who wishes to visit and worship in biblical holy places, tombs of martyrs, relics of saints, miraculous icons or places where famous spiritual elders live.

1.The main reasons for pilgrimage are the following:

Worship is a visual reminder of places where the wonderful love and action of God is manifested for people and through people. The worshiper is someone who wants to touch the holy place or the holy relics in which and through which the sanctifying presence of God has only manifested itself in the strongest degree, so that the worshiper can strengthen his faith and love for God.
Therefore, worship is performed to enhance prayer and spiritual life.
Worship is often understood as a spiritual act of thanksgiving to God for all the gifts received from Him; thus it becomes in itself both a healing action and a thanksgiving offering.
Worship also includes an act of repentance for sins and is crowned with confession of all sins committed, with prayers for forgiveness and salvation of the soul.
Worship can also be motivated by a strong desire to receive God’s help to accomplish something important or to heal from physical or mental illness.

2.The profound spiritual significance of worship is that it gives both spiritual benefit to the personal life of the pilgrim and to the life of the Church.

Worship as seeking and tasting the sanctity of our existence. Through worship, man and God seek and meet each other in a relaxed and mystical way. Abraham left his homeland, Ur of the Chaldees, and traveled far away to the land that the Lord had promised him, Canaan (Gen. 12: 1-5).

Religious worship is the search in this world for that which is not of this world – the Kingdom of God, of which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33) and “My kingdom is not of this world”(John 18:36).

Worship also has a prophetic meaning, which is described by a modern theologian as follows: “These communities of people (ie worshipers) who sing their faith, symbolize and establish the multifaceted community of people (nations) for whom it is written. in the last chapter of the book of Isaiah and in the visionary book of Revelation.As of Abraham’s day, all believers are worshipers traveling through the wilderness to the Promised Land, step by step they realize that Christ accompanies them on the way and invites them to recognize Him in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:35).

Worship teaches us that the mission of the Church is to seek holiness and its desire to realize the fullness of life in the Lord. A tourist trip is not a pilgrimage if it does not become a mystical journey, an inner pilgrimage, an effort to get closer to God through prayer and reconciliation.

Robert Johnson 0 Comments

Jul 7 2021

Honoring the saints of the West (2)

The author of this text himself St. Archbishop John (Maximovich) of Shanghai Miracle Worker (+1966) was canonized a saint on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Orthodoxy in America in 1994 and his memory is celebrated on July 2 in all Orthodox Sisters-Churches. The text we offer here is from his report to the Council of Bishops in 1950.

In the establishment of Christianity in France, preached there in the days of the holy apostles, the saints of the following centuries worked hard to fight the penetrating heresies. St. Martin, Bishop of Turkey (of the city of Tours), became especially famous. We also find his life in the Russian Chetimines, although it was published on October 12, not on November 11, when he died and when his memory is celebrated. His teacher was the venerable St. Hilary of Poitiers. St. Martin, whose memory is widely revered, worked for the enlightenment not only of Gaul-France but also of Ireland, since St. Patrick, its educator, was a close relative of his and was under his spiritual influence.

St. Patrick was distinguished by a strict life and, like St. Martin, combined the works of the saint with monastic exploits. During his lifetime he became famous for many miracles that contributed to the conversion of the Irish. He is celebrated as a saint from the day of his death (491 or 492) with a series of signs testifying to his holiness.

Also in Ireland, two other pillars of the Church in Gaul traveled to fight pelagianism – Saints Hermann of Auxerre and Lup Troy. Both became famous for their fearlessness in preaching and protecting their flock from the barbarians, as well as for many miracles during their lives and after their deaths.

St. Hermann Oxersky died in 439, and his relics were kept incorruptible for centuries until they were destroyed by the Calvinists. St. Lupus, mentioned in St. John’s Iliotropon, Archbishop of Chernihiv (later Metropolitan of Tobolsk), became a monk in the Lerin monastery under the leadership of St. Honorat, the worthy successor of Rev. Honorius, the founder of this monastery. . Later, St. Honorat became bishop of Arles, where the church was built by the first bishop – Trophimus, a disciple of St. Apostle Paul. St. Lup was elected bishop of the city of Troyes, but continued to lead a strict ascetic life. Saving his city from Attila and performing several miracles, he died in 479. His relics survived until the French Revolution, when they were burned, but still to this day have survived a few fragments of them.

A century after these saints lived St. Herman, Bishop of Paris. From ancient times his life has come down to us, from which we understand that he was distinguished by piety from early childhood, and his childhood was difficult. Accepting monasticism in the monastery of St. Symphorian, he led the harshest life, a significant part of which was dedicated to prayer. He became famous for his miracles, becoming bishop of Paris, combining an ascetic way of life with pastoral work and acts of charity. Warned in old age of his impending demise, he died on May 28, 576. His name is a church whose construction was initiated by him on the site of the former temple of Isis in honor of St. Martyr. Vincent. In his time a church was also built in honor of St. Hermann of Auxerre, whom he revered and whom he imitated. His work and life finally established Christianity in France.

In present-day France, a host of saints and ascetics, pillars of Orthodoxy, and teachers of piety in this part of Europe begged. Then began the Christianization of the northeastern part of the continent. We associate with him the name of Saint Ansgar (or Ansgar), Bishop of Hamburg and later of Bremen.

The life of Ansgar, which we have today, was written by his student, Archbishop Rimbert. We learn from him that he was born in 801 and at the age of seven received a vision in which he was called to serve God. He was brought up in a monastery and at the age of 12 was tonsured a monk. He led a strict ascetic life, and then went to preach among the pagans inhabiting Northern Europe. At the age of 21 he went to Hamburg, then to Denmark, where he baptized the king with the people. From there he went to Sweden. In 831 he was ordained bishop of Hamburg and all the peoples of the North (Scandinavia). His sermon spread to Denmark, Sweden, and the Polben Slavs inhabiting present-day northern Germany. He was filled with zeal and a willingness to suffer for Christ. Grieving that he had not received a wreath of martyrdom, he was comforted by a voice from above and died quietly on February 3, 865. He combined his apostolic works with inner cultivation and from time to time retired to solitude. He was full of mercy, which he spread wherever he learned there was a need, regardless of location. He took special care of the settlers, widows and orphans.

Saint Ansgar performed many healings during his lifetime, but in his humility he considered himself a sinner. He wanted to do his good deeds and miracles secretly. The grace of God that rested upon him was so obvious that only two years after his death he was canonized and named in the Martyrology of 870. His incorruptible relics were buried. Thus, his life and the power of God’s grace manifested through him, as well as his canonization, when the West was still part of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, leave no doubt that he is a holy man of God.

The sanctity of Bishop Ansgar cannot be questioned due to the fact that his name was not in the Greek lunar and liturgical books – this cannot be a sign of a negative attitude of the church in the East towards a saint. The Greek lunar calendar does not include the contemporaries of St. Ansgar, the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, although they were well known in Constantinople. And the Catholic Church itself celebrates them much more than St. Ansgar himself. In the Greek liturgical books it was not and is not the consecrator of Bulgaria St. Boris-Michael, who was baptized by the Greeks, there is no St. Ludmila Ceska, baptized by St. Methodius himself; neither St. Vyacheslav or the glorified with the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople St. St. Boris and Gleb, or Peter of Moscow. Of all the Russian saints in the Greek mines, only St. John of Novgorod and the Venerable Barlaam Khutinski are mentioned in the synaxariums without consecrated services. The Church of Greece commemorates the Blessed Princess Olga, and there is a troparion and kondak for her, different from those in Russia. All this shows that neither we will stop honoring our Russian saints, nor can the Greeks have any negative attitude towards them. There are also numerous Greek saints, whose names are not found in the Minas and the lunar calendar, but their memory is celebrated in the places where they begged and services are held there. St. Ansgar served not only political purposes, but Christ and his apostolate was sealed in the countries he brought to Christ. The subsequent apostasy of these countries did not diminish the importance of his ministry, and the ministry of St. Methodius was not harmed by the apostasy of Moravia and Pannonia, which he had baptized for centuries.

In different parts of the universe, Christ’s righteous have worked for the One God, led by one spirit, and glorified by Him. The wave of revolutions and reforms destroyed their holy relics in the West, and coming to our Fatherland it also sacrilegiously reached out to the Russian saints. She also tried to destroy their memory, as Julian the Apostate burned the holy relics of the monks. But they rejoice in the Heavenly Church, and we are obliged to glorify their works even more, thus glorifying God, who works miracles through them.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 7 2021

The President of Northern Macedonia: The Bulgarian Church has not moved a finger to help us

The President of Northern Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul on June 19th, where he paid an official visit. On June 26th, he commented for the Macedonian media on the meeting at which the issue of the church status of the Macedonian Church was discussed, saying that it was necessary to talk with the new Serbian Patriarch Porphyry.

Commenting on Macedonia’s Nova TV, the northern Macedonian president said the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the body that can undoubtedly grant autocephaly to the Macedonian Church. Now the Serbian Church, which is against the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and where we have to go to get autocephaly, has a new patriarch. He should also be consulted. I would not like to comment further. “

The president added that his country has no problems with the Bulgarian Patriarchate, unlike the Serbian one. “However, as I know from the leadership of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Church did not move a finger to help us.”

The North Macedonian president is clearly referring to the intensification of Bulgarian-Macedonian church contacts in 2017, when the BOC undertook to petition the other local churches to settle the status of the Macedonian Church. Then the Bulgarian Synod established a special commission chaired by the Stara Zagora Metropolitan. Cyprian to deal with the problem and negotiate with the other local churches. However, it has not been known since then that anything has been done by the commission in question.

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 6 2021

PM Modi Greets HHDalai Lama on Birthday

By — Shyamal Sinha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi let the world know on his birthday that he had rung Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to wish him a happy 86th birthday, disregarding any potential disapproval from China.

Beijing regards the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in northern India for more than six decades, as a dangerous “splittist”, or separatist, and frowns on any engagement with him.

Indian leaders have generally been circumspect about public contact to avoid upsetting Beijing, but with India’s own relations with China at a low ebb, Modi said in a tweet he had passed on his best wishes personally.

“Spoke on phone to His Holiness the @DalaiLama to convey greetings on his 86th birthday. We wish him a long and healthy life,” Modi said.

Several state leaders subsequently greeted the Dalai Lama saying his values, teachings and way of life is an inspiration to humanity.

Chinese troops seized Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a “peaceful liberation”, and the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959, following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

New Delhi recognises Tibet as an autonomous region of China, but has several territorial disputes with Beijing elsewhere on their 3,500 km (2,173 mile) Himalayan border.

Relations deteriorated in June last year following the most serious clash in decades, when Chinese troops attacked an Indian border patrol with rocks and clubs, killing 20. China later said it lost four soldiers during that clash.

Tens of thousands of troops remain in close proximity at several points in the western Himalayas, on the border running through India’s Ladakh, a region sometimes called “Little Tibet”, because of its Tibetan culture and predominantly Buddhist religion.

Back in 2019, when Modi was still pursuing a detente with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his government had asked Tibetans in India not to hold a rally to mark the 60th anniversary of the uprising.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen also wished the Dalai Lama a happy birthday, tweeting: “Thank you for teaching us the importance of coming together to help one another through this pandemic.”

In a video message, the Dalai Lama hailed India and said “Since I became a refugee and now settled in India, I have taken full advantage of India’s freedom and religious harmony.”

He added that he had great respect for India’s secular values such as “honesty, karuna (compassion), and ahimsa (non-violence).”

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet.

At the age of two, the child, then named Lhamo Dhondup, was recognised as the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

In 1950, after China’s invasion of Tibet, he was called upon to assume full political power. In 1959, he was forced to escape into exile. Since then, he has been living in Dharamsala.

Shyamal Sinha 0 Comments

Jul 6 2021

Honoring the saints of the West (1)

Christianity in the West was preached in the first centuries in many places by the apostles themselves. For centuries, Orthodoxy in the West was firmly defended, and Eastern confessors sought to seek support in times of heresy (St. Athanasius, St. Maximus). Many martyrs and ascetics, who served as the basis of the Church, celebrated here. of Western Christianity by the One Ecumenical Church obscured the truth. When it is established that an ascetic or saint was revered as a saint until the fall of the West, he is revered as a saint by the Orthodox Church.

Many saints are not given a special day to remember them, although some of them are mentioned in certain services. The lives of martyrs, ascetics and other saints are known only to God. They are all glorified on All Saints’ Day, as is said in Synaxara on this day. The saints, hitherto unknown in the East, but revered within the West, belong in their earthly life to different centuries and have become famous in various ways.

They are the martyrs of the first centuries of the early Christian church, the ascetics and the saints. The latter two persons partly merged, as many of the ascetics later became saint-bishops. Regarding the first, ie. martyrs, there is no dispute, because by their sufferings for Christ they acquire the right of veneration from the Church. Such are, for example, St. Potin bishop of Lyon and the other martyrs of Lyon.

We have long been a torment in Marseilles. Victor, injured by his baptized guards Alexander, Felician and Longinus. Above their tomb, Rev. Cassian the Roman created a monastery in which he struggled and died. In the Orthodox lunar calendar we find several martyrs named Victor, but from the description of their sufferings we understand that these are different saints.

From ancient times the holy martyr is also very revered. An Albanian near London, where his relics still rest. Some church sources mention the legion of St. Maurice, who suffered for Christ in the mountains of Switzerland, like the company of St. Andrew Stratilat in the East. This Mauritius is named after another Mauritius who suffered with his son Photius, but in the place and type of their suffering they are clearly different saints.

He consecrated with his blood Toulouse and Bishop Soturnin, who was dragged for Christ through the city streets in the middle of the third century.

All these martyrs, whose blood was the seed of Christ, whom the Church sings almost daily in the various martyr’s troparions and sticheras, represent the crimson with which the Church of Christ adorned herself.

The successors of the martyrs in the establishment of faith and piety in the West, as well as in the East, were the saints and reverends. The first monasticism in the West was closely connected with the East. Information about him and his founders have been preserved in the works of their students or other close writers at the time.

One of the main nurseries in the West was the Lerin Monastery. The life of its founder, St. Honorius, is preserved in his eulogy by his disciple Hilary, Bishop of Arles. It is known from him that St. Honorius traveled through Egypt and Palestine with his brother, and after his return from there he established his own monastery in Florina. He performed many miracles during his earthly life. St. Pavlin Nolanski was spiritually connected with the monastery, on whose instructions St. Evcheriy arrived here, leaving many works, including “Life of St. Maurice and the Holy Martyrs of the Thebes Legion”. Rev. Cassian lived in the monastery for some time and later founded his monastery in Marseilles. It is noteworthy that St. Cassian is revered throughout the Orthodox Church, although we commemorate him once every four years, and in the Catholic Church as a local saint his memory is commemorated annually in Marseilles, where the remains of the martyr Victor rest in the temple. of his relics preserved after their destruction during the French Revolution. St. Vincent of Lerin, a church teacher who is more revered in the East than in the West, also left his work for the Sacred Tradition in the same monastery. England and Ireland were connected with the East through the Lerin Monastery, because it was a spiritual support for the educator of England, Rev. Augustine and his associates. St. Patrick lived there for a short time and was enlightened in Ireland.

The monastery, founded by St. Columbus in Ireland, was in communion and regular bilateral relations with the monasteries of the East in the eleventh century, and, according to some sources, after the break of Rome with Constantinople. The remains of this monastery still exist today with the relics of its venerable founder. The followers of St. Columbus were the Venerable Columbus, Fridolin and Gaul, who went from Ireland to Switzerland in the 6th century and contributed greatly in Gaul and northern Italy to the establishment of Christianity and the protection of Orthodoxy from heretics.

During their lifetime, they performed miracles and predicted the future. Their detailed lives are kept in the monasteries there and their memory is revered in the places associated with them.

Among the French monks stand out the names of St. Genoveva and St. Claudoald, called Claude.

Reverend Genoveva, born in 423 and introduced herself to the Lord in 512, was distinguished from her childhood by piety and spent her whole life in prayers and extreme abstinence. In her childhood, her vocation was foreseen by St. Hermann of Auxerre, and he blessed her to dedicate herself to God. She was spiritually connected with Rev. Simeon the Pilgrim, who knew about her. She performed many miracles during her life, the most glorious being when she saved Paris from Attila with her prayers. The memory of this miracle is not only preserved in the church tradition, but is also marked with a column at the place where Attila reached. She was considered the patroness of Paris and France, and the destruction of her relics during the revolution did not harm or end her veneration as such.

Venerable Clodoald was from a royal family that perished in a time of strife. Growing up and understanding the miseries of earthly glory, he did not want to claim his rights to the throne, but accepted monasticism and the strictest ascetic feat. He spent some time in complete solitude, then founded a monastery, in the temple of which his relics are kept to this day. He introduced himself to the Lord in the middle of the 6th century.

St. Clotilda was the grandmother of Rev. Claudoald and the Queen of France, who raised her grandson. For France it has the same significance as for the Roman Empire St. Helena, for Russia – St. Olga and for the Czech Republic – St. Ludmila. Thanks to her, her husband Clovis I was baptized and then finally established himself in Orthodoxy. Through her life, instructions and prayers, she preached and affirmed Christianity in France. After the death of her husband, she led a life of abstinence and care for the needy and needy. Warned from above of her demise (30 days before), she presented herself in peace on June 3, 533. Her relics were kept and lithium marches were used with them until the French Revolution, when they were burned.

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 6 2021

Bulgaria deserves a monument for the rescue of the Jews

After the end of World War II, it became clear that the greatest genocide in human history had taken place – the victims of the Hitlerite regime were 6 million Jews. Following these revelations, it is only natural that society’s focus should be on this monstrous crime, on the death camps.

This focus was later shifted and more attention was paid to those in power who prevented the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews and helped many others emigrate to Palestine and countries outside Nazi control. In Bulgaria, this happened at the will of Tsar Boris III and several governments, which proved extremely inconvenient for the new communist regime – the author of the oxymoron “monarcho-fascism” and declared the people and the Communist Party as saviors.

All documents about the events of the Second World War in the archives of Western European countries, the United States and Israel are freely available.

Through these documents, it becomes clear that the process of Jewish emigration is not a matter of geography, but of a consistent state policy, associated with complex diplomacy, Nazi opposition and insufficient involvement of Western allies.

The speculation can only end with the publication of the truth as it is and as documented – for the assistance provided by the Bulgarian authorities for the emigration of thousands of Bulgarian and foreign Jews and although it does not aim to show all the actions of the government to preserve the Jews on Bulgarian territory, considers this issue as a mandatory condition for their subsequent resettlement in Palestine. Because there is no way back from Adolf Eichmann’s camps.

On February 16, 1943, Prime Minister Bogdan Filov announced to the German ambassador Heinz-Adolf Beckerle the state position on the Jews with Bulgarian citizenship. Literally – “The Jews of Sofia and old Bulgaria will be mobilized primarily in labor activity for the Bulgarian interest.”

The ambassador sent a report to Berlin in a flash. This document has been carefully concealed by the communist authorities for decades because it turned history upside down. It shows that the king and the government, despite the German intervention, were determined to keep the Bulgarian Jews within the borders of the country, at least a month before the protest of 43 deputies, led by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Dimitar Peshev, the intercession of the Church and many cultural figures.

Even more clearly – the state decision was not taken under pressure,

and is a concrete expression of Bulgarian politics at the highest political and managerial level on the Jewish question.

As early as February 8, a report by German deportation specialist Theodor Daneker informed the chief executioner of the Jews, Eichmann, of his meeting with Interior Minister Petar Gabrovski, who said that at present there could be no question of the expulsion of Jews from the country’s old borders. The minister intended to use them for community service.

The protests of influential circles in defense of our compatriots are extremely important – they give strength to the rulers to defend the accepted line at a time when the Nazis are making great efforts to implement their plans for total eviction. Peshev’s petition, signed only by members of the ruling majority, is admirable, but is inherently a supportive rather than a decisive factor.

The preservation of the Bulgarian Jews within the borders of the country was finally decided by Tsar Boris at his meeting with Hitler on March 31, 1943.

Tsar Boris’s order to expel the Jews from Sofia to the countryside instead of to the camps in occupied Poland was dated May 20, 1943, and had nothing to do with the St. Cyril and St. Methodius demonstration, which was four days later. late.

Tsar Boris III planned a radical change in foreign policy – a break with the Reich and Bulgaria’s accession to the Western Allies. Are these intentions the cause of his death? Was he poisoned and by whom?

Not only has he planned, he has taken the first serious steps in this direction. My personal conviction that his death was caused by poison is based on the firm opinion of German doctors and the established Kremlin practice of removing awkward politicians. To detect this crime, we need to have the order for the operation, the weapon and information about the physical perpetrator. So far, however, no such documents have been found. From data in the German archives we can only conclude that the Bulgarian monarch was not poisoned by Hitler.

Should Bulgaria bear guilt and repent for the tragic fate of 11,343 Jews from the “newly annexed territories” sent to the death camps?

This is an issue that requires special attention and thorough research. It should take into account:

– These lands were occupied by the Wehrmacht without any participation of the Bulgarian army. They were given for the occupation of the kingdom without any contract, with a bare German promise that they would become Bulgarian after the end of the war. They are not recognized as our territory by any country.

– The Jews in the Aegean and Macedonia are Greek and Yugoslav subjects, whom the Nazis consider subject to their regulations.

– The Germans strongly state that these Jews will be accommodated in the Eastern Provinces, where they will work for the Reich. In Sofia, they do not assume that the Nazis lied most unceremoniously – almost all Jews were immediately exterminated in the Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps.

In this regard, I will quote a world-famous American Jew – Abraham Foxman. He is a longtime director of the League against Defamation, one of the leading organizations on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

His assessment is an undoubted reason for pride: “There is nothing perfect in life. And that was not perfect.

Because this saved the Bulgarian Jews, but did not save the Macedonians…

That’s right. Yes. I’m sorry! And I’m sure many other people are sorry. But if only every country in occupied Europe had saved its Jews! Oooh! Then we would not need museums and monuments! We would not talk about the Holocaust! ”

Will a monument to the rescue of the Jews in Bulgaria be erected, as is the thesis of Abraham Foxman?

– Bulgaria deserves such a monument because it is the only country in Nazi-controlled Europe that has preserved all Jews on its territory.

I will quote Foxman again: “Today there is a movement around the world to build Holocaust museums. I don’t know if there should be a museum in every country. But here in Bulgaria is the real museum. Because here is the museum, if you do it, if you build it – here in Bulgaria.

This is a museum of fame! He must be in Bulgaria, “said Georgi Bozduganov in an interview with Henrieta Kostova of the Maritsa newspaper.

P. S. Georgi Bozduganov’s new book – “Almost Impossible” arouses great interest. In it, with unique documents found in archives in Bulgaria, London, Geneva, Jerusalem, is presented the feat of the Bulgarian state, which during World War II saved not only Jews within the Kingdom, but also provided a way to escape from Nazi terror of thousands other Jews; valuable edition, which was presented for a first time on June 30 in Plovdiv-Bulgaria.

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 6 2021

THE ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE “THEOLOGICAL EPISTLES” OF ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZE

Cappadocia has been a Christian territory for sixteen centuries. In this land one finds that dreamy intimacy of the Byzantine church, the supernatural atmosphere which the Fathers of the Orthodox Church, like Gregory of Nazianzus, wished to see realized in the sanctuary. St. Gregory bequeathed us 244 letters / epistles (Greek Patrology, volume 37), which, like most of his verses, we date to the period of his withdrawal from Arians between 383 and 389. But the two epistles to Presbyterian Cledonius (CI and CII) were written in 382 and were directed against the heresy of the Apollinarians (cf. J. Mossey, Gregoire de Nazianze, – Dictionaire d ”Histoire et de Geographie Ecclesiastique, Fascicule 126, 1987, col. 17-18). A deliberate local church council was convened against Apollinarianism in Rome in 382, in which he took an active part and blah. Jerome. Together with letter CCII (202), they compiled the three “Theological Messages” of the saint, which were thoroughly studied by P. Gallay of the Institute of Scientific-Critical Publishing “Christian Sources” in Paris.

The three “Theological Epistles” refer exclusively to the false teaching of the heresiarch Apollinarius (P. Gallay, Introduction, I. La doctrine des “Lettres Theologiques”, – Gregoire de Nazianze, Lettres Theologiques, Sources Chretiennes № 208, Paris, 1974, p. 2). Therefore, we are obliged to proceed to the study of these messages through the Christological doctrine of Gregory of Nazianzus and through it to discover his anthropology, because in these his works we do not find a pure doctrine of man. Apollinarianism defended the thesis that “the flesh, which due to economy (a term in St. Paul, which signifies God’s plan for the salvation of mankind and widely used by church fathers and teachers in interpreting the Incarnation) was not received by the Only Begotten Son. transformation of our nature, but this carnal nature was “from the beginning” in the Son.

The word metastychiosis denotes a profound transformation affecting the elements, but in this case the term refers to the new life in Christ. Gregory attaches great importance to the subject of the deification of Christians. The destiny of man is considered in the light of the Incarnate Word, the uncreated Image of God, and through the action of the all-sanctifying and all-perfecting Spirit. The ability of man to be deified is the most important element in theology for man according to the author. Thus the principle of anthropology crystallized: The Word became man, for man’s sake, and man, because of the incarnate Word, was called to become God. Hence the reason for St. Gregory’s reaction to the evolution of Christology in Apollinarius, stemming from an earlier evolution in his anthropological views. The heresiarch of Laodicea teaches: “Our spirit is complete and sovereign, but in its relation to soul and body, and incomplete in general, because in relation to God it is in a state of complete obedience …” (quoted in St. Gregory of Nazianzus) , Letter 202, III, 10, – Sources Chretiennes № 208, Paris, 1974, p. 91), dividing man into three parts (trichotomy): nus, psyche and soma (spirit, soul and body). According to him, Christ diminished the soul, but the Word was the spiritual soul of the God-man. Apollinarius the Younger was a translationist, i.e. believed that since the soul is inherited by the parents, and Christ did not have an earthly father in the flesh, therefore he could not have a carnal soul, and the life-giving principle of the flesh of Christ (a heavenly body but truly carnal) is not the flesh, but from the Word itself (P. Gallay, op. cit., p. 17).

The Council of Ephesus in 431 adopted one extensive passage from Scripture 101, and the Council of Chalcedon (451) adopted the entire Scripture. In another of his epistles on Apollinarianism, Letter 202, written in 387, Gregory warned his successor, Nectarios of Constantinople, of the harm of the sect’s false teachings (cf. J. Quasten, Initiation aux Peres de l’Eglise, Paris). , 1963, p. 355).

The most important message of St. Gregory the Theologian is: “God is man,” and in Christ we do not separate man from God. And he substantiates this thesis on the basis of the Holy Scripture, which teaches that Christ is not only flesh, that he is not only Logos-Sark, but Man, Son of Man, Logos-Man. The union between soul and body in man is mysterious. The starting point of his anthropology is precisely the strange and unexplored relation of the carnal body mixed with the radically opposite nature of the soul, to the extent that the soul is for the body as God is for the soul (cf. Th. Spidlik, La spiritualite de l’Orient Chretien, Ch. IV: L’anthropologie chretienne, Roma, 1978, p. 115). The soul ascends the body (from the lowest) to itself, to the divine (to the highest), and it itself ascends to God through the Word. The soul in these aspirations depends entirely on the mercy of God, Who alone fully understands the meaning of this “mixing.” Many human souls do not look brilliant from afar, but at first they reveal themselves dirty and unclean. Thus in the Theological Letters of St. Gregory the Theologian we find the close connection of anthropology with the triumphant Christological teaching.

Modern anthropology uses the term “homo absconditus” to denote this apophatic side of human nature (that which is incomprehensible in the forms of our thought), because in it there always remains for us an unknown and vague side, beyond any definition and formulation. The Incarnation itself is necessary for the salvation of men, and so Christology and anthropology are connected with the soteriological views of Gregory the Theologian: “The Son of God became man to become the sons of human sons of God” of union with Christ for all believers who have gone through death and resurrection. The bliss bestowed by Adam, lost through Adam, is inherited again in the second Adam, if we are fully born, crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 6 2021

THE STATE, THE CHURCH AND THE FREEDOM

In human society, freedom does not consist in the ability to do whatever you like, it would be an extreme disorder in the State, which would turn into oppression. But it consists in the possibility, thanks to civil laws, to live according to the precepts of eternal law. For those who rule, freedom is not to be able to command indiscriminately and on their whims. This would be criminal for the Church and very harmful for the State. The power of human laws must be such that it is seen as an application of the eternal law, and nothing is decreed that is not contained in the divine law, which is the source of all law – ecclesiastical or state. Very wise bl. Augustine wrote: “I believe that you see well that that civil law has nothing just and lawful that men have not drawn from this eternal law” (On Free Will, Book I, Chapter IV, No. 15).

If any authority were to decree something contrary to the principles of common sense and detrimental to the public good, this precept would have no legal force, for it would not be a just rule, and would divert men from the good for which society was created. Human freedom contains in itself the need to obey some supreme and eternal reason. This mind is nothing but the very power of God, Who commands and forbids. And this most just authority of God over men not only does not take away or diminish freedom, but rather protects and perfects it.

Indeed, the perfection of every being is to pursue and reach its goal – and the ultimate goal to which human freedom must aspire is God. Because there is true and false freedom. Freedom as the basis of human perfection must be applied in truth and good. And the essence of truth and good cannot be modified by the will of man, nor is it influenced by the nature of things, it is unchangeable. Unlimited freedom is not a right, on the contrary, the Church rejects only unlimited freedom. Everything that can be useful for the common good in the State, everything that helps to protect the people against the arbitrariness of the heads of state who do not care for the people’s good; anything that prevents the unjust abductions of the State to the detriment of the community or the family; everything that concerns the honor, the human person and the preservation of equal rights for every citizen, all this the Church has patronized, as evidenced by the monuments of previous times. The Church has brought freedom to the human race, although it rejects the absolute freedom that is built for individuals or peoples in arbitrariness or in slavery. The Church has willingly accepted the progress made daily in the direction of human and religious rights and freedoms.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 5 2021

LET’S NOT BE BLIND FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE FOREIGN SOUL …

People of different nationalities and religions can live in peace. First a purely human understanding is reached, then the problems are solved. This is how the Christian works. There is always a divine element in the understanding and sympathy between people of different nationalities and religious communities, a sense of peace coming from above. Any dialogue between people of different faiths could develop on a good basis – the similar requirements for integrity and correctness that we encounter in different religions. This would create trust and tolerance. And at the heart of Buddhism are good norms of human behavior: abstinence from bad desires and violence, not to lie, swear and gossip. The Jewish religion forbids murder, adultery, theft, lying – in the realm of morality, Judaism and Christianity draw from one treasury – the Old Testament. According to Islam, everyone should do good, be honest, praise the love of truth, the need for unity among people, mutual forgiveness and giving alms. God does not wish evil on the people we call non-Christians, and they are dear to him – when they do good, it proves that God guides their conscience. Thus our duty is this: not to fight with anyone, to pray for both friends and enemies, so that we do not remain blind to the beauty of another’s soul. One of the methods of the modern search for ecclesial unity is the “hierarchy of truths.” This expression appears as a result of the Second Vatican Council and finds its place in par. 11 of the Basic Document on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio (1964), which reads as follows: carry out the task with love of truth, clarity and modesty. When comparing teachings and views, they should remember that there is an order or “hierarchy” of truths in Catholic teaching, insofar as they vary in their relation to the nearness of the Christian faith. Thus he will discover the way in which this kind of “fraternal competition” will arouse a deeper consciousness and a clearer expression of the immeasurable and unsearchable fraternities of Christ (cf. Eph. 3: 8). The ecumenical interpretation and theological study of this concept was prepared in 1985 in the Joint Working Group (MWG) between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church.

Representatives of Orthodox groups initially perceived it as a new concept that could lead to doctrinal compromises and that is alien to the Orthodox theological approach, because the truth cannot be divided and distinguished “to varying degrees of validity.” In the Holy Scripture, on which the unity of the Church is based, no distinction is made between major and minor truths, essential and insignificant teachings. Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life.” The understanding of the truth is a result of the grace of St. The Spirit of truth (John 16:13), who guides us to the fullness of this truth and testifies of Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12: 3). The Orthodox Advisory Group of the World Council of Churches clarified that this critical position does not mean that there is no distinction or distinction in Orthodox theological discussions and formulations. Orthodox theologians believe that the concept of “hierarchy of truths” could help to recognize and recognize constant and common teachings of the faith, such as the seven Ecumenical Councils and others. expositions of the Christian faith. The assertion of a “hierarchy of truths” is based on the belief that there is indeed a difference in the “closeness” of each individual truth to the foundation of faith, and the center and foundation is the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, to whom faith and life are oriented. .

For almost a century now, the Orthodox Church has been participating in the ecumenical movement, in various international Christian forums, in bilateral and multilateral dialogues. Ecumenism is a multi-layered concept. Initially, it was used to denote the desire for rapprochement between Christians. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between the terms “ecumenism”, “ecumenical movement”, on the one hand, and “ecumenical contacts of the Orthodox Church” or “Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement” – on the other. The most important goal of the Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement has always been and should continue to be the witness to the doctrine and catholicity (universal character) of the Church Tradition, and, above all, to the truth of the unity of the Church as it took place in the life of the local Orthodox churches. Participation in the ecumenical movement does not mean recognizing the equivalence or equivalence with other participants in that movement. Membership in the World Council of Churches (WCC) does not mean its recognition as a church reality of a more comprehensive order than the Orthodox Church itself, insofar as it is one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. The spiritual value of the WCC is determined by the readiness and aspiration of the member churches to listen to and respond to the testimony of universal truth. “Ecumenical” or the universe in the early centuries of Christianity meant the inhabited land, the totality of the countries of Greco-Roman culture, the countries of the Mediterranean basin or the territory of the Roman Empire. The adjective “ecumenicals” became the definition of the Byzantine Empire as “universal empire”, because the borders of the empire to this era more or less coincided with the territories in which the Church of Christ was spread.

The ecumenical movement originated in the bowels of Protestantism on the border between the 19th and 20th centuries. Its emergence is associated with the awakening of the “will to unite” in a divided Christian society. In addition, the initial motives and impulses for ecumenism are the need for international Christian cooperation and the desire to overcome the defeats of the mission of denominationalism. A characteristic feature of the end of the nineteenth century was the emergence of confessional unions, alliances and alliances. In the first third of the 20th century, the ecumenical movement was not one, but a collection of a number of inter-Protestant movements. In fact, from the very beginning, its initiators sought a way to create a single body of the ecumenical movement, which was achieved in 1948 with the establishment of the World Council of Churches in Geneva – perceived as the most visible loop of Christian unity for the coordination of interdenominational cohesion. Based on the principle “dogma divides, life unites” without waiting for a doctrinal consensus to be reached, unity is realized in a practical aspect – mission, service to the needy.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 5 2021

Qumran horoscopes (4Q186, 4QMessAr)

Among the Dead Sea manuscripts were found two documents from cave пе 4, one of which was written in ancient Hebrew and the other in Aramaic, and the dating of these manuscripts probably dates back to the end of the first century BC. These documents contain fragments of “horoscopes” or more precisely – of astrological physiognomies about the relationship between the characteristics of the individual and fate, according to the configuration of the stars at the birth of the individual. The Hebrew text published by J. Allegro is written with a childish cryptography (cipher). The text goes from left to right, instead of the normal for biblical Hebrew – from right to left, and also uses along with the standard square font (“ketav meruba”) and letters from the archaic (paleo-) Hebrew (or Phoenician), as well as letters from the Greek alphabet.

Here we see a description of three types of personalities according to how light and darkness are reflected in them. The first man is very bad, with eight parts of darkness and one part of light. The second type of personality is rather good and contains: six parts light against three parts darkness. The latter type of man is almost perfect and is composed of eight parts light and one part darkness.

Insofar as physical characteristics such as height, fullness, etc. are considered, their disproportion is associated with injustice and evil, while their opposites reflect virtue.

In the astrological terminology of the document, the term “second column” undoubtedly means “second house”; and birth “at the feet of a bull” should most likely be interpreted as the period in which the sun is in the lowest part of the constellation Taurus.

The Aramaic horoscope represents, according to its publisher J. Starkey, horoscope of the last prince of society, ie the royal Messiah. The text itself contains an allusion to the wonderful birth of Noah.

Whether the members of the Qumran sect predicted the future through astrological instruments, or used horoscope-like compositions as literary schemes, is not currently possible to determine, although some researchers (J. Strugnell, G. Vermes) are more willing to accept the second possibility.

The fact of finding such texts among the Qumran scrolls should not surprise us. Although orthodox Jews rejected astrology in disgust, others, such as the Hellenistic Jewish writer Eupolemus, attributed the invention of astrology to Patriarch Abraham himself.

Messiah’s horoscope – calculation of the birth of Noah 4QMessAr

“I … on his arm: two … birthmarks. And his hair will be red. And there will be moles … and a small birthmark on your thigh. / And in two years he will know / how to distinguish / things from each other. In his youth he will be like … / like a man / who knows nothing until the time comes when he will know the three books.

And then he will attain wisdom and learn to understand … a vision will come to his knees. And with his father and his ancestors … life and old age. Advice and dignity will be with him and he will know the human secrets. His wisdom will reach all peoples and nations, and will know the secrets of all that lives. And all their plans against him will be in vain, and his power over all living things will be great. His plans (will succeed) because he is God’s Chosen One. His birth and the breath of his spirit … and his endeavors will be forever and ever … “

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 5 2021

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

It is difficult to determine the exact number of practicing (regular church) Orthodox Christians, it is only certain that the majority of self-identified as such do not know what God’s commandments are or what the Orthodox Catechism teaches, because they are from the so-called “Christmas Christians” ( celebrating Christmas and Easter in a family circle) or, as similar Christians around the world are also called – “four-wheeled Christians”, i.e. those who attend church for the first time in a pram to be baptized, their next entry into the temple is in a wedding limousine, when they enter into a church marriage, and finally they all leave for the last time for the temple, riding in the mourning hearse.

There is a lot of talk in our country in the last decade of the twentieth century that Orthodoxy is the spiritual treasure of the nation and the Fatherland. Most believers sincerely agree with this statement. Everyone is convinced that spirituality is a good thing, that the road to the temple should not be turbulent and that in the spiritual treasury of Orthodoxy the Church of Christ has been accumulating and preserving the values of eternal life for two thousand years. But how can each of us receive our share of this spiritual treasure?

– Through the revival of the Orthodox parish – “The Little Church of Christ”. The purpose of the parish life and the active Orthodox fraternities at the temples is: a) to unite all parishioners more closely around the parish church, b) to teach Christians to read and assimilate the Word of God and the spirit of the Holy Orthodox Church and apply it in life c) to create in Christians a need and habit for heartfelt prayer and for prayerful participation in worship and teaching of common church singing, d) to develop in the Orthodox flock love for one’s neighbor, attracting them to participate in a comprehensive church-charitable and educational activity.

Spreads imaginary asceticism. Many have lost the way of Christ, fallen into unbelief, heresy, or even unbelief. It does not include those of our brothers and sisters who have become interested in all sorts of new religious movements, clairvoyants, psychics and others. occult practices. They are very good Christians, poor in spirit and thirsty for spiritual food, but deprived of the leadership of the Holy Orthodox Church; given to themselves, to their own worldview. It is the duty of the pastors, irrevocably and most urgently and most sacredly, to give the necessary spiritual food to these good Christians and to establish them in the bosom of our native Holy Orthodox Church, from which they have not yet separated, but are in such danger as being deprived of their immediate helm in the transition from earthly human life to the Kingdom of heaven and eternal life after death.

Few people in our time would remember an excerpt from a biography of a Bulgarian or pan-Orthodox saint, no gospel parable, no at least one meaningful saint, no gospel parable, no at least one meaningful theological thought, and almost no one would point to a case where a good deed was prompted by a heard church sermon or a deeply experienced worship service. There are few who, before making their choice, will look to the gospel or consult a priest. Most will consult a horoscope, magician or psychic – clairvoyant, because for them the only criteria are the human mind and private religious ideas and superstitions. It turns out that we live in a country with a “victorious occultism” – a sign of a deep moral and religious crisis.

There is still no functional evidence of the essence of the Orthodox faith in the mass media. Theology and Orthodoxy could not be learned from most printed and ethereal “sketches” on church themes. Media comments and conversations tend to be conducted in two directions: ethnographic-folklore, in the style of folk Christianity with pagan customs and practices.

The Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Solovyov emphasizes that this is exactly the dream of the Antichrist – to close Orthodoxy in a ritual and ethnographic reserve. In The Tale of the Antichrist, which crowns Soloviev’s posthumous work The Three Conversations, the Antichrist, proclaimed president of the globe, hopes to buy the favor of Orthodox Christians by addressing them with the words: “Dear brothers, I know that after you there are those for whom the most valuable thing in Christianity is the Sacred Tradition, the old symbols, the ancient songs and prayers, the icons and the liturgical rite. And in fact, is there anything more precious to the religious soul? Know, beloved, that today I have signed a decree granting huge financial resources to the World Museum of Christian Archeology in order to collect and preserve the monuments of church antiquity. Orthodox brothers, who cares about this will of mine, who can accept me and call me his true leader and bishop, let him step here …! ” – Then the elder Iоan became and declared that “the most valuable thing in Christianity is Christ himself”.

Let us not forget that if we do not speak of Christ, we will not be able to imitate Him in life and work. Our word will cease to be a religious sermon, but will remain a kind of lecture on church history and archeology, in “spiritual cultural massism.”

So, only if we distinguish between what is truly Christ’s in Christianity and what is holy in holy Orthodoxy, will we be able to hope for peace of mind, earthly prosperity and eternal life, because only through the true Redeemer, Savior and God – Lord Jesus Christ, we will overcome the centuries.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 5 2021

FORERUNNERS OF ARIANISM (PHENOMENOLOGY OF ARIANISM)

Paul of Samosata is Bishop of Antioch, where he holds the public office of Procurator ducenarius, and has the unreserved support and patronage of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. In 267, Zenobia’s husband Odenat and his eldest son died, and nominally the rule over the Palmyrians and the titles of great “King of Kings” and corrector totius orientis passed to his younger son Vabalat, but he actually ruled his widow. The educated ruler of Palmyra is tolerant, against any persecution, protector of Christians, unlike the Roman Empire, which is a systematic persecutor of Christianity.

After the reign of Emperor Gallian (253-258) and the short reign of Emperor Claudius II the Gothic, he headed Rome for approx. two months in 270, Quintil, who was the brother of Emperor Claudius II and semi-legally assumed power after his death. The Senate recognizes Quintil, but not the strong Danube Army, which sympathizes with its commander Aurelian, a brilliant military genius who repeatedly defeated the Palmyrian troops. The empire grew after 267 all the way to Antioch. After the final Roman victory, Zenobia became part of the spoils, shown in the triumph of Emperor Aurelian in Rome in 272, Bishop Paul, because of his close relationship with the defeated queen of Palmyra, as a kind of her agent in Antioch, is a suspicious person for the emperor and the new ruler of Rome. This may have been used very strategically by his ecclesiastical opponents, sending a letter to the emperor to resolve the intra-Christian dispute by removing the conciliar convict bishop of Antioch, who is known for his loyalty to the Roman enemy Zenobia. The idea of an imperial church was born quite naturally, because the Christian figures of the era were not deprived of political consciousness. The first information about the idea of an imperial church, according to Prot. N. Afanasiev, can be traced back to the III century, just when the Council of Antioch of 268 on the case of the Bishop of Antioch Paul of Samosata wrote a message to all the bishops of the ecumenism (the entire known world), οἰκουμένη.

Paul’s teachings and dogmatic deviations were considered at several councils between 264 and 266, the first of which St. Dionysius of Rome wanted to take part in, but was hindered by his infirmities. Bishop Firmilian of Caesarea, St. Gregory the Wonderworker, his brother Atinodorus and many others participated. Being a very rich man, many of his neighboring bishops became his friends and followers. Many also supported his doctrine, which he insisted was Orthodox. At the first synodal meetings, the majority defended his teachings and he was declared Orthodox. At another council he was convicted, but promised to correct his mistakes, which he did not do. Another council was convened in 268-269, on the way for which Bishop Firmilian died. The moderator and accuser of this Council of Antioch was the Antiochian presbyter Malchion, who, in addition to being highly educated, was also the head of the Greek-speaking school of Antioch. In his dispute with Bishop Paul, he succeeded in exposing him as a heretic and in effecting his removal from the episcopal chair. He is also the author of the message that the council addressed to Pope Dionysius of Rome, Maximus, Bishop of Alexandria and the rest of the Ecumenical Episcopate and Clergy, partly preserved by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea. In this epistle, Paul is accused of illicit enrichment, arrogance and sanctification, erecting a high pulpit in the temple, and insulting those who do not applaud and greet him with handkerchiefs, and the like. Separately, his scandalous behavior, accepting a woman to live in his home and allowing the same to his clergy. The controversial Archbishop of Antioch, even condemned by the ecclesiastical synod, was unable to be removed from the chair until the conquest of Antioch by Emperor Aurelian in 272, and even then refused to vacate the episcopal residence. A complaint was sent to the pagan Roman autocrat, who rightly ruled (according to Eusebius) that the house belonged to those recognized by the Italian bishops and the city of Rome – apparently this was the main argument before him that the question of legitimacy was based. of the fact of communion with the Roman Church. Bishop Paul was forcibly and humiliated by the secular authorities, after which nothing more is known about his identity. But his legacy and followers did not disappear definitively once the Council of Nicaea found it necessary to establish that the baptism performed by the Paulists was considered invalid. It is separately connected with the dogmatic statements of St. Lucian and Arius, who are also Antiochians.

His teachings are close to the dynamic monarchy of Theodotus, but he is also called a follower of Artemon or Artemis, leader of an anti-Trinitarian sect in Rome in the third century. only man, falsifying Scripture and abusing Tradition to prove his mistakes. Both ancient Christian historians cite refutations of this heresy: Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea speaks of an unnamed work, and Theodoret of Cyrus quotes a title, The Little Labyrinth, a book originally attributed to the Roman priest Caius and more recently. time – of Hippolytus, the supposed and most probable author of the work Philosophoumena.

He manifested through the Old Testament prophets, especially in Moses, but he was most active in the Son of David, born of the Holy Spirit by a Virgin. Christ, the Savior, is human in nature, but St. A spirit inspires him from above. The Father and the Son are one God, although Christ is from the earth with his own personal characteristics. Therefore, there are two Persons in Christ. The Logos as Wisdom dwells in the person Jesus, as we live in our homes, and acts in Him as inspiration, teaches Him, and abides with Him, united to Him not in essence but in quality. So Mary did not give birth to the Word, because she did not exist above all created, but an ordinary person like us. It seems that Bishop Paul of Samosata accepted the conception of Jesus through St. Spirit, saying, “Mary did not give birth to the Logos, because she did not exist eternally, but gave birth to a man like us.” But he never speaks of an earthly father of the Savior, and it is very likely that he accepted the blameless conception, because the authority of the double gospel testimony of Matthew and Mark is an indisputable miracle for him. He composed many church hymns, considering the hymns to be an important part of the worship service, but in them he avoided any hint of the deity of Jesus Christ. “The man Jesus is the Christ-Anointed (Messiah) of God, who appeared in the fulfillment of time, doing the will of God, and thus (apparently in progressive moral development) becomes God.”

The union of two Persons is possible only by mutual consent of the two wills, expressed in the unity of actions and arising from love. Through the immutability of His will, He is like God and united with Him, remaining free from sin. Through His sufferings He overcomes the sin of our firstborn and is joined to God, becoming one with Him in intention and action. God works miracles in Him to prove that He is the Redeemer and Savior of mankind. Through an ever-growing and unceasing friendship, He combines Himself with God in such a way that He can never be separated from Him forever, and His name is above every name as a reward for love. He can be called “God of the Virgin”, “God of Nazareth”. It exists eternally, but only in the sense of predestination.

St. In his Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, John Chrysostom criticizes the Jews for not fully understanding the goods that belonged to them, so that those who came from Persia were ahead of those living in Jerusalem, while refuting the teachings of Marcion and Paul of Samosata. The first, Marcion, teaches that Jesus Christ is the son of the supreme and good God and that he has not real but apparent human nature, and the second that Christ is not God but an ordinary man: “The star, approaching, stood above the very head (of the child), thus pointing to His divine origin. And when she stopped, she brought for worship not simple Gentiles, but the wisest of them. Do you see that the star appeared in vain? The sages, even after hearing the prophecy and hearing its clarification from the chief priests and scribes, were still attentive to it. Let Marcion be ashamed, let Paul of Samosata be ashamed, who did not want to see what the sages saw – the leaders of the Church (I am not ashamed to call them such). Let Marcion be ashamed to see them worshiping God in the flesh. Let Paul of Samosata be ashamed to see how Christ is worshiped not just as a man. Although diapers and mangers show that the sages worship the incarnate, they still do not worship the common man.”

The baptism of Christ is understood by the heretical bishop Paul of Antioch as a step towards its union with the Logos. And if Jesus Christ would be God by nature, then there will be two Gods, which is why Paul of Samosata forbids chants to Christ and openly rejects the ancient (mostly Alexandrian) interpretations of the Holy Scriptures.

The Council of Antioch condemns not only the personality and teachings of Paul of Samosata with the term “ὁμοούσιος” he uses, but in the wrong sense in which he uses it – not because he understands the unity of the Hypostasis in the Trinity (as Hilary believes), but because he it means that from a common essence, substance, originates the Father and the Son, or it is divided between the two (as understood by St. Basil and St. Athanasius. The concept of “oneness” was rejected by the conciliar fathers in 268-9). , “In order to refute Pavel Samosatsky’s unitarian conception of God, apparently under the influence of Origen, the conciliar fathers determined with the help of the word” ουσία “(essence) that the Word has a definite personal existence.”

In the fourth century, the Nicene doctrine met with strong opposition, precisely because of this newly introduced Nicene term in the Creed, which had already been rejected by a council in Antioch. In Search of Christian Unity, William Rush sheds light on the path to theological dialogue in the living faith of divided Christian communities in antiquity and interprets it in relation to the modern ecumenical movement, emphasizing overcoming division by consensus of all universal Christianity with basic help. and the action of St. Spirit, which is manifested in the conciliar church activity.

As an illustration, he uses the approach of the Council of Nicaea of 325 to the actions of the Council of Antioch of 268, held 57 years earlier. The Nicaean Fathers in connection with the inclusion of the term “one in the Symbol of Faith” God-Son and God-Father, strongly defend the decisions of Antioch in connection with the anathema of the Bishop of Antioch Paul (Samosatski) and his use again to clarify the relationship between the Son and the Father ὁμοούσιος.

This act of the Council Fathers reveals how the continuity between the pre-Nicene local church councils was understood less as a legal principle than as a spiritual and theological process of reaffirmation and complementarity. On the other hand, the First Council of Nicaea is a model for the new type of reception that was imposed in the fourth century – its decisions were generally accepted only after 56 years of disputes, scandals and disputes marked by dozens of councils and counter-councils, anathemas, imperial interventions and violence.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 5 2021

FORERUNNERS OF ARIANISM (TRIADOLOGICAL DISPUTES)

The triadological disputes in the fourth century are related to the denial of the equality and unity of the Son and the Father. Many oppose the newly introduced term ὁμοούσιος, even among those who oppose Arianism. Their arguments were twofold. First, the term is not found in Scripture. Second, the term raises suspicions that it contains Savelian notes. Pavel Samosatsky used it earlier to deny the personal distinction in the Triune God, for which he was condemned. The Nicene Creed uses ὁμοούσιος as a synonym for hypostasis, which is foreign to some who are accustomed to understanding the second word as “person.” Learning about one incarnation sounds like pure Savellianism, which is why Alexandrians talk about three incarnations or faces. Things are further complicated by the fact that the word “ουσίος” itself is quite ambiguous. “Ossios” can be used to indicate the identity of the entity in numerical division. It can be said, for example, that two men are ὁμοούσιος only because they are both male. In the Nicene Creed, the word was used to indicate the identity of the essence, and in the fourth century “the hypostasis emphasizes being (existentia) and the usia (ουσία) the essence (essentia)”, understood in Aristotle’s meaning of ουσία, in meaning of “essence” and “being”. Until the complete clarification of the above, the contradictions whose roots we find in the previous epoch have not been overcome. Two things contribute to the inevitability of these contradictions: a) the contradictory Christology of Origen, b / the monarchical tendencies of the Antiochian school.

For the Church in the East and in the West, Origen is considered the most famous theologian of his time. He is generally perceived as an Orthodox theologian, although his Christology is not at all Orthodox. He is the most productive writer on Christological topics and has contributed immensely to the history of theology, developing the thesis of the eternal birth of the Son, but it is here that in relation to the divinity of the Son he interprets the “only begotten Son” in the sense that it is an instruction. only for the eternal sonship of Jesus Christ by God. For, if He is born in time, then the Son will not be different from the other creatures, from which it follows that He should not be called “the only begotten”.

On the other hand, Origen also teaches that the Son is not God in the same sense as His Father. The Father is “God,” while the Son is only “God.” The son is, according to him, “of a different nature,” “born of the will of the Father.” He calls the Son a “secondary God” in order to distinguish him from the Father (autotheis), from which it follows that the Son is subordinate, subordinate, to the Father. As Origen writes in his Commentary on John 2: 6: “Therefore, if all things are created by the Logos, then they were not created by the Logos, but by a stronger and greater than Him. And who else could this be, except Father? ” A. Spassky notes that “the Neoplatonic Trinity and the Christian, according to the views of St. Gregory the Theologian are essentially identical”, only “the boundary line separating the Neoplatonic Trinity from the Christian” for St. Gregory consisted precisely in the fact that “Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate persons. “

The presbyter of Antioch, St. Lucian, is also accused of being a forerunner of the Arian heresy. As a teacher from the Antioch school, following its realistic bias, he, while acknowledging the eternal existence of the Son of God, declared Him to be a supreme creation of God, created from non-existence, from nothing. The future leaders of Arianism, the bishops Eusebius of Nicomedia, Mary of Chalcedon, and Theognid of Nicaea, were grouped in the school of St. Lucian, and many historians included Arius himself in this group. St. Lucian was reconciled to the Church as early as 282, long before the advent of the Arian heresy, and the church authorities formally accepted his conciliatory declaration of faith of 289, and was also acquitted posthumously of accusations of Samosat heresy by the same Antioch conciliar fathers. who in 341 condemned Arius).

In the last decades of the second century, two forms of doctrine appeared, which, although fundamentally different from each other, modern historians unite under the common name of monarchy. Dynamic monarchism, more commonly called adoptionism, accepted Christ as an ordinary man on whom the Spirit of God descended. This is a Christological heresy in essence, but it is relevant to Trinitarian theological disputes. The other is modalism. Both teachings are united by an obsession with divine unity, monarchy. Even Novatian (c. 250) interpreted adoptionism and modalism as two erroneous approaches in defense of the biblical dogma that God is one.

The conclusion is that not all supporters of the Nicene Creed are Orthodox. As early as the pre-Nicene period, Orthodox triadology, i.e. the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity must overcome two opposing delusions. One of them is subordinationism, which insists that the second incarnation of the Holy Trinity is lower than the first, and the third is lower than the second. The other extreme that deviates from the Orthodox understanding of the dogma of the Holy Trinity is modalism, ie the merging of the three incarnations, the denial of their independence. And while Arianism is in itself the ultimate form of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in which the relationship between the hypostases is understood in the sense of subordination, among the defenders of the Nicene Creed there are representatives of the opposite extreme – modalism, or Savelianism. The forerunners of Arianism from the pre-Nicene period are the Origen Christology and the monarchical tendencies of the Antioch school and its notable representative St. Lucian. The teachings of Arius are mainly related to the dogmatic statements in the views of the Bishop of Antioch Paul of Samosata, the main theses of which are that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one Person (πρόσωπον). The Son or the Logos is disembodied, being only the wisdom of God, which is in God, as the mind is in man. Before all worlds He was born as a Son (Λόγος προφορεικὸς) without a virgin; because it is without image and is not visible to humans.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 5 2021

86th Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Celebrated in Belgium

Dignitaries at the 86th birthday celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Antwerp, Belgium on 3 July.

Antwerp: Tibetan Community in Belgium celebrated the 86th Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Antwerp on Saturday, 3 July under Covid restriction of a maximum of 250 persons. Representative Tashi Phuntsok was the Chief Guest. The staff of the Office of Tibet, leaders from other Tibetan organisations, and the public formed the select audience.

Once the portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was enthroned and the Tibetan national anthem was sung, Mr Phurbu Dhondup, President of the Tibetan Community made a brief introductory remark. He then distributed ballot papers for the election of President and Vice President from the 11 members of the 9th Tibetan Community board elected earlier.

Representative Tashi Phuntsok gave a brief outline of the four commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He called on all to emulate them in their daily lives. He cajoled the audience to imagine the presence of His Holiness in his residence in India and reflect on the enormous grace and blessings that he has bestowed on us. That should be enough to propel us to do better, eschew selfishness, anger, pettiness, and narrow-mindedness. We should embrace and imbibe his practical messages of universal responsibility, harmony amongst various groups, work for Tibet, and indeed use the Nalanda traditions of mental science to bring about peace of mind through compassion, love, tolerance, etc, he added.

Talking briefly about the hard work of the outgoing board, he pointed out the major success was the most lawful and smooth conduct of the Tibetan elections. Despite being the hardest period of Covid, both the preliminary and the actual elections were carried with the proper permission of local authorities. The donations to Indian PM Cares for Covid were substantial 15000 Euros. Recently at the instance of President Penpa Tsering’s appeal for relief and alleviation and Covid wave for Tibetans in the Indian Subcontinent, by yesterday another 12000 Euros have been donated by Tibetans in Belgium for onward transmission to the Health Department in India.

He applauded all Tibetans in Belgium and especially the outgoing Committee. He welcomed the new 11 members and wished all the best at the same time.

Mr Lhakpa, Accountant presented the accounts of the Community. It was followed by the announcement of the results of the elections of President and Vice `President of the Tibetan Community – Mr Palden and Mr Dorjee respectively. They were administered the oath by Mr Phurbu Dhondup, the outgoing President. Led by Representative Phuntsok the new and former board members were presented scarves by other delegates of Tibetan organisations.

Mr. Lobsang Dhondup, Vice President said the words of thanks. Thus concluded the somewhat abbreviated celebrations under the second year of unrelenting Covid 19.

Report filed by OOT Brussels

Representative Tashi Phuntsok giving the keynote address.

Shyamal Sinha 0 Comments

Jul 4 2021

The biblical herb that cures all diseases

God’s plant, an herb described in the Bible and the Qur’an! People believed that God created her to heal everything he could to torture a human being!

Black cumin

Black cumin is an annual plant of the buttercup family. Famous for its fruit – black seeds called black cumin (do not confuse it with ordinary cumin, which can be found in almost every store). One of the most popular herbs in the history of medicine. In ancient Egypt, it was used to improve digestion, with colds, headaches, infections and toothaches. The seeds of black cumin were found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It is mentioned in the Bible and the Qur’an. The Islamic prophet Muhammad speaks of him as follows: “.

Black cumin cures every disease except death “

A panacea

Black cumin was used in ancient Egypt, and today is known as one of the most effective herbs for the prevention and treatment of a number of health problems. Many refer to it as a panacea, those who treat almost all diseases.

More than 200 studies have been conducted at various universities and it has been shown that black cumin has a beneficial effect on a large number of diseases, especially autoimmune – such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, asthma, allergies, allergic rhinitis, as well as lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, reducing diabetes, high blood pressure, eczema, acne, bronchitis, pneumonia and sinusitis, gastritis, ulcers, Helicobacter pylori disease, black poor movement, cancer, and is of great help in chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Clinically proven black cumin relieves the symptoms of allergies, allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. Its oil dilates the airways and makes breathing easier, has an antibiotic action and prevents the development of secondary bacterial infections, which often occur with seasonal allergies. Naturally and safely prepares the body to react to milder allergens and gradually increases the body’s tolerance to them.

Great for the heart

Cumin is also good for the cardiovascular system. By strengthening the walls of blood vessels and increasing their resistance leads to the regulation of blood pressure.

Studies show that the use of black cumin oil lowers total cholesterol, triglycerides, and so-called bad (LDL) cholesterol levels. It can be used to lower blood sugar levels by stimulating the pancreas to secrete insulin and increasing the sensitivity of cells to it. It shows a special effect in type two diabetes.

In recent years, research has shown the antitumor activity of black cumin and can be used as an aid in the treatment of cancer because it acts directly on cancer cells and strengthens the body’s defenses.

Treatment and beautification with black cumin oil against hair loss and stimulation of hair growth; in nervous disorders; to relieve cough; in the fight against fatigue; improving memory; reduction and erasure of wrinkles; against inflammation in the body; in the fight against high cholesterol; against lichens; pain relief in rheumatism; against headache; against acids; in case of eye problems; to reduce high blood pressure against diarrhea; fungal treatment; for the prevention of colds.

Black cumin seed treatment to prevent miscarriage; against kidney stones; in gastrointestinal diseases; with sore throat; to strengthen the body.

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 4 2021

Cossack Autocephalous Church

I will start from there, what is the so-called Ukrainian Cossacks today? If anyone thinks that these are slacks, chubas, kulish (millet porridge), hopak (Ukrainian dance) and other costumed historical role-playing games – this is nothing like that. More precisely, it looked like that in the beginning. After all, Cossack culture is unique and purely Ukrainian. But this culture is part of the Cossack system called military democracy. Military! And if a certain number of men gather in one place to “restore and promote the Cossack traditions,” then these traditions are primarily military. And since the typical Ukrainian Cossacks are patriotic, Russia had to create its own controlled branch.

Today in Ukraine there are several large networks of Cossack formations and associations. is Alexander Panchenko. This is a very famous person with openly pro-Russian sentiments. Panchenko’s exploits in the field of “popularizing Cossack traditions” in the Russian spirit are described in great detail. In 2014, he threatened to ask the Cossacks of the Great Don Army for help if “Galician separatists and fascist elements increase pressure on Zaporozhye.” KVZN unites under its wing a large number of Cossack unions, organizations, palanquins, as well as security organizations and public formations for law enforcement. And they are all completely under the control of the Russian Church in Ukraine.

The “Extraordinary Circle of the Union of Cossack Troops of Russia” gathered representatives of the “free” Cossack organizations in the city of Podolsk in June 2011 and announced the revival of the “Cossack local” or “Cossack autocephalous church”. This prompted the head of the Synodal Committee for Interaction with the Cossacks, Bishop Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, to make a special statement published on the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

He emphasized that throughout the history of Orthodoxy there had not been any separate Cossack church, and the Cossacks had always been children of the Russian Church.

The political scientist Anastasia Mitrofanova reminds that in the years of the civil war the intellectuals from the Cossack circles formed the idea of a Cossack ethnic group, which had to live in its own country – Kazakhstan. The idea of liberating Kazakhstan was later used by various anti-Soviet forces: the Polish “Prometheans”, the Nazis, and in 1959 Kazakhstan was included among the “enslaved nations” by US law № 86-90. Therefore, according to her, at least two important ideas are revealed in this event in Podolsk – anti-communism and ethnic separatism. A third is added to them: the desire to establish one’s own church.

The various separatist groups have two main claims to the Russian Orthodox Church: cooperation with the Soviet government and proximity to the modern Russian government. Both are important for the free Cossacks (or at least for a certain part of it). The meeting was attended by representatives of the clergy of the RIPC (catacomb church), and the “temporary management” of the newly formed Cossack church was attended by a representative of the ROCA (Zagadan White Emigrant Church), i.e. of one of its jurisdictions, which did not sign the recent Act on Canonical Communion with the ROC – Moscow Patriarchate. Apparently, for the time being, the “Cossack Church” will be one of the subdivisions of the schismatic RIPC. All this is due to a whole knot of problems in which ethnic and church separatism are intertwined.

Also of concern is the fact that Cossacks who are not ethnic separatists and consider themselves Russians, but who are dissatisfied with the policies of the Moscow Patriarchate, can join the movement. The numerous conflicts between the Cossack organizations and the dioceses lead us to this conclusion, mainly related to the desire of the Cossacks to see in their organizations close clergymen in spirit, and the diocesan authorities do not try enough to satisfy these demands.

A similar conflict with opposition between the diocese and the flock in Vladikavkaz was reported by the newspaper “North Caucasus” from 28.11.2011. The conflict situation that arose in the republic is a spoon with quite bitter spiritual food for the solemn banquet on the eve of the forthcoming centenary “Orthodoxy in Ossetia”. The demonstration (15-17.11.11) in front of the church “St. George the Victorious ”. The specific request of the protesters is not to allow the relocation of the former deputy of the male Alan Holy Dormition Monastery in RSO – Alanya Fr. Anthony on a new service in Dagestan, announced by the head of the Council of the Vladikavkaz and Makhachkala Diocese, Archbishop Zosim. One of the participants tells how on their knees they begged Bishop Zosim not to take away their priest and what an insult to the mountaineer it is not to respect his kneeling request.

North Ossetia is an Orthodox republic, at least eighty percent, said Boris Dzilikhov, a Caucasian bishop: They can kill him there… ”A signature with more than 1000 signatures was submitted to the Head of the Republic Taimuraz Mamsurov with a request to assist in a meeting with the head of the ROC Patriarch Kiril to resolve the dispute in favor of the believing people.

The ataman of the Union of Cossacks in Russia Pavel Zadorozhny, the ataman of the Stavropol Cossack army Dmitry Strigunov, other atamans and Cossacks could testify to this. This principle of equal care of all Cossacks finds its development in the establishment on the initiative and with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia of the Synodal Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church for Interaction with the Cossacks, with Bishop Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk appointed committee.

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 4 2021

The Triune God in the Old Testament

If the Hebrew Scriptures do indicate the possibility of multiplicity, then the question naturally arises – how many persons ultimately exist in the Godhead? Studying the Hebrew Scriptures, we find that, in the end, only three particular Persons were considered divine.

The name Elohim

Elohim is generally considered to be a plural noun ending in the masculine gender “-im”. The word Elohim itself is used of the true God in Genesis 1: 1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, and in Exodus 20: 3 – “thou shalt have no other gods before me” and in Deuteronomy 13: 2 – ” … Will follow other gods (elohim)… “Despite the use of the plural“ Elohim ”we cannot prove the trinity of God, but this at least opens the door to the doctrine of multiplicity in the Godhead, as this word is used to denote both the true God, so also for the many false gods in Old Testament times.

Plural verbs used with “Elohim”

In fact, all Hebrew scholars recognize that the word Elohim, taken separately, means a plural noun. But many deny that this allows for any multiplicity in the Godhead. This view is based on the following reasoning: when “Elohim” is used in a conversation about the true God, it is followed by a singular verb. When it comes to false gods, it is always followed by a plural of the verb. Rabbi Greenberg of the Sinai Synagogue in Philadelphia, USA, affirms this idea as follows (quoted in Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Judaism and the Trinity, 1987 – ISSUES, vol. 1: 8, 1978): “In essence, the used in the opening verse of Genesis, the verb “bar” – which means “he created” – is in the singular. It does not take a thorough knowledge of Hebrew to make it clear that the opening verse of Genesis speaks clearly of God in the singular. ”

This statement is, in principle, correct because the Bible teaches that God is the only God, and therefore the general model is a plural noun combined with a singular verb when it comes to the true God. There are many places where this word is used to indicate the true God in combination with the plural of the verb:

Genesis 20:13 – “God (Elohim) led me on a journey (literal translation: They led me on a journey) through the house of my Father…”

Genesis 35: 7 – “And here God (Elohim) appeared to him” (literal translation: they appeared to him)

2 Kings. 7:23 – “God (Elohim) came” (literal translation: they were coming)

Ps. 57:12 – “verily He is the God who judges” (literal translation: they judge)

The name is Eloah

Is the use of the plural form Elohim in the mention of the true God and the false gods by the authors of the Old Testament scriptures simply due to the lack of another alternative. However, there is only one form of Elohim – Eloah, which is used, for example, in the Book of Habakkuk 3: 3 and Deuteronomy 32: 15-17. It has been used 250 times, while the plural form is more preferred and has been used 2500 times, which can be argued in favor of God’s multiplicity.

Multiple pronouns

The following argument from Hebrew grammar is that God often speaks of Himself, clearly using a plural pronoun:

Genesis 1:26 – “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

It is unlikely that God addresses the angels, since man was created in the image of God and not in the image of angels. Midrash Rabba acknowledges the power of this place and comments on it as follows:

Rabbi Samuel bar Hanman, on behalf of Rabbi Jonathan, says that at the time Moses wrote the Torah, reaching this verse that reads, “And Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” Moses asked: “Lord Almighty, why do you give an excuse to the sectarians (believers in the Trinity of God)?” And God answered Moses, “You write, and whoever wants to be deceived, let him be deceived” (cf. Midrash Rabba on Genesis 1:26, New York, NOP Press, N.D.). Obviously we have an attempt to circumvent the delicate question of why God speaks of Himself in the plural. And we have such problematic places in the Old Testament scriptures in:

Genesis 3:22 – “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us.”

Genesis 11: 7 – “Let us go down and mix their tongues.”

Isaiah 6: 8 – “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us? ”

It is clear from the last passage that the single “I” is equivalent to the plural “We”, therefore the opposite statement would also be true.

Multiple descriptions of God

Another aspect based on the linguistic analysis of the ancient Hebrew original is the fact that often the nouns and adjectives used to describe God are plural, as evidenced by the following few examples:

Ecclesiastes 12: 1 – “Remember thy Creator” (literal translation: creators)

Ps. 149: 2 – “Let Israel rejoice in their Maker” (literal translation: creators)

Joshua 24:19 – “God is holy” (literal translation: Holy Gods)

Is. 54: 5 – “For the Creator is your husband” (literal translation: creators, spouses)

Therefore, on the one hand, the scriptures affirm the unity of God, and on the other, they lead us to the concept of a complex unity that allows for multiplicity in God.

Scheme

Deuteronomy 6: 4 eng. dr.-evr.

“Listen.” Scheme

Israel: Israel

Lord Adonai

Your God, | Elohen

Lord Adonai

is one!” | ехад

This verse is known as “Sh’ma” and has always been Israel’s greatest religion. It is this verse that is used more than any other to confirm the fact of the unity of God and, most often, to oppose the position of multiplicity in the Godhead. Is it sufficiently justified, however?

On the one hand, it should be noted that the words “your God” in the Hebrew original mean “your gods.” The main argument for us is contained in the word “ehad” = from another Hebrew. “One”. A review of all the Hebrew texts shows that the word “ehad” does not mean absolute unity, but a compound one. For example, in Genesis 1: 5, the combination of evening and morning includes one (ehad) day. This day is translated as “day one” and not with the ordinal number “day one”. This first day to some extent contains all the other days, because the creative process of creation is not over. In Genesis 2:24, a man and a woman united in marriage “become one flesh.” Ezra 2:64 states that the whole society became “one” (ehad), even though it was made up of many people. Ezekiel 37:17 gives us an extremely impressive example when the two scepters merge to become one (ehad). Thus, the use of the word “ehad” in the scriptures shows that it is a composite, not an absolute, unity.

On the other hand, there is a Hebrew word meaning absolute unity. This is the “Yahid” we find in many passages in the Scriptures, where the emphasis is on the meaning of “one.” If Moses intended to point to absolute unity with God, he could choose the most appropriate word for it. Maimonides, taking into account the power of the word “Yahid”, used it in compiling his “Thirteen Foundations of Faith” instead of the word “Ehad”. However, Deuteronomy 6: 4 does not use “Yahid” but “Ehad.”

God is at least Two

(The words Elohim and Yahweh are used to denote at least two persons)

To illustrate the plurality even more clearly, the Hebrew Scriptures cite situations in which the word “Elohim” occurs to denote two persons in the same verse. One such example is Psalm 44: 7-8: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever; the scepter of righteousness – the scepter of Your kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore, O God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. ”

We must note that the address is to the first Elohim, and to the second Elohim – this is the God of the second Elohim; therefore, the God of God has anointed Him with the oil of joy.

Another example is Hosea 1: 7: “And I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them in their Lord God; I will save them not with bow, nor with sword, nor with war, nor with horses, nor with horsemen.”

It was Elohim who said that He would have mercy on the house of Judah and save them with the help of Yahweh; so Elohim number one saves Israel through Elohim number two.

But not only is the Elohim used to refer to two persons in the same verse, but this is also seen in the use of the very name of God. An example of the above is Genesis 19:24: “And the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD in heaven.”

As in Zechariah 2: 8-9, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; For glory hath he sent me unto the people which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. Behold, I lift up my hand against them, and they shall be the prey of their servants; and then shall ye know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.

And here we see one Yahweh sending another Yahweh to perform a specific task (the personal name of the God of Israel is recorded in the Hebrew Bible with four consonants – YHVH = Yahweh. Pronouncing the same is avoided from the 3rd century BC; originally replaced with “Adonai” (our Lord) and later with “ha-Shem” (the Name). 593). The name Jehovah is a hybrid misreading of the original sacred tetragram with the vowels of Adonai, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Judaica, col. 593).

God is a Trinity

If the Hebrew Scriptures do indicate the possibility of multiplicity, then the question naturally arises – how many persons ultimately exist in the Godhead? We have already seen God’s name applied to at least two persons. Studying the Hebrew Scriptures, we find that, in the end, only three particular Persons were considered divine.

First, in many cases when it comes to the Lord Yahweh. This use is so common that it does not even need to be cited.

The second person in question is the Angel of Yahweh. This person has always been considered unique and different from other angels. In almost every passage where we find him, he is spoken of as the Angel of Yahweh and Yahweh Himself. For example, in Genesis 22:11 he is an angel of Yahweh, but in verse 22:12 he is God. An extremely interesting passage is Exodus 23: 20-23, where this angel has the power to forgive sins, as Yahweh’s own name is contained in him, which implies that unconditional obedience is given to Him. There can be no question of an ordinary angel.

The presence of God’s own name applies to this angel, indicating his divine status.

The third main person is the Spirit of God, often called Ruach Ha-Kodesh. There are many references to the Spirit of God in passages from Genesis 1: 2, 6: 3; Psalms 50:13, 138: 7; 11: 2, 63: 10-14. The Holy Spirit cannot be just an emanation (impersonal force), because in him we observe all the characteristics of an individual (intellect, emotions and will) and he is considered divine.

Thus, from the various sections of the Hebrew Scriptures, it is evident that the three persons are spoken of as divine and appearing to God: the Lord God Yahweh, the Angel of Yahweh, and the Spirit of God.

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 4 2021

The Bishop’s cat Bishop

The most famous cat in the Pskov region of Russia is called Bishop (Church Slavonic/Russ. Vladika), reports TASS. His “possessions” extend on the territory of the Pskov-Pechora Holy Monastery, one of the largest and most ancient male monasteries in Russia. The owner of the fluffy handsome man is also a bishop – Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Pskov and Porkhov, who is also the abbot of the monastery. The cat has an Instagram account and more than sixteen thousand followers, which is increasing every day. They follow Vladika’s posts and leave thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.

The cat came to the monastery almost a year ago as a gift for the abbot. Then it was a one-year-old kitten, but quickly became a constant companion of the miter. Tikhon. The Red Maine Coon attends every monastery meeting. He is allowed to lie on the table among the important documents or to stretch out in the bishop’s chair. The cat greets its owner after worship or business trips. Moreover, Mitr. Tikhon is allergic to cats, but not to Vladika.

“When the bishop works, the cat is always nearby. Fortunately, it turned out that the Maine Coons have hypoallergenic fur. As Bishop Tikhon himself says, the cat is more serious than he is. The animal likes to go out on the bishop’s balcony and watch what is happening on the Assumption Square of the monastery. Bishop Tikhon takes his red-haired friend when he travels on business. Once I even flew with my master to Moscow by plane and to everyone’s surprise I was very calm, “said the secretary of the miter. Tikhon Fr. Anthony, who runs the monastery cat’s blog.

One of the most popular photos there is that of the two bishops. The comments to it state that the pet is very similar to its owner. One of the most interesting stories is how the cat got its name. Mitr. Tikhon tried different names, calling him by them. He tried with the Novice, the Vicar, the Cellar, but the redhead didn’t even turn around. But as soon as he heard the Bishop, he immediately jumped up, says Fr. Anthony.

The cat can walk on the territory of the whole monastery complex, but he is not allowed to enter any of the ten temples.

In his Instagram account, the cat also appears in the role of a press secretary: he talks about the church holidays, visits the bazaar on the monastery square, invites guests to the holy monastery. The handsome redhead is also involved in charity, his online friends donate to causes mentioned by the Bishop. Among them is financial support for a cat shelter.

“We have an official account of the monastery with serious information,” says Fr. Anthony, and Vladika’s profile is for a wider range of readers who prefer lighter content.

Through the stories and videos of the cat Vladika many people get acquainted with the life in the Pskov monastery, the holidays, the Christian customs and even take pilgrimages there. The Instagram account states that the account of the cat of the Pskov Metropolitan is maintained by the secretaries in their “free” time.

Photos: Инстаграм _vladyka_the_cat_

News desk 0 Comments

Jul 4 2021

The Geneva Kulturkampf (Projections of 19th century religious discrimination)

Kulturkampf is a term in the history of Prussia and Germany, denoting a period of political and ideological clashes in the most general sense between German Protestantism and German Catholicism, and in a narrower sense between the rising German statehood represented by Otto von Bismarck and the perceived from it as hindering the national rise (in terms of secular education, civil marriages, etc.), subordinate to the Pope Catholic clergy. It all began in Berlin in 1870 with the annexation by Prussia of the other German states, which gave rise to the second (and later the third) German Reich. In 1872, the influential Jesuit order was banned. A number of other laws and administrative measures limit the influence of the Catholic Church in Germany. After a period of more or less intense struggle, in 1887 the new Pope Leo XIII declared the conflict over, which he said “harmed the church and did not benefit the state.”

This struggle also affected the French-speaking cantons of the Swiss Confederation. In the 19th century, the canton of Vaud and the city of Lausanne adopted discriminatory measures on religious grounds. Additional political decrees restrict certain civil rights of members of the Salvation Army. Today, this historical period is a black hole in the collective memory of even the Swiss themselves. This phase in Geneva‘s collective memory is called the Kulturkampf (German: Kulturkampf – “cultural struggle”) or the struggle for civilization and secularism. This delicate and trivial technical term disguises the serious crimes of the State against religious communities.

In November 1871, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), German nationalism intensified. His ideal of the Reich could not tolerate the religious authority of the pope. In fact, one third of the German people – German Catholics – are threatened with isolation, excluded from German nationalism. A multifaceted and relentless repression hit the churches for five years: priests were expelled from public schools; the constitution has been modified in its part concerning the freedoms of the Church; certain congregations were dissolved and their members expatriated. The Catholic Church has never been subjected to such all-encompassing attacks and blows. This European climate in political and spiritual aspect also warms the spirits in the Republic of Geneva.

The Lake State Council passed a law imposing a registration regime for religious congregations. The text of the law, which is still in force today, provides for the disbandment of those who oppose state regulation, as well as numerous fines for violators. In reality, however, the Geneva Council of State does not want a Roman Catholic episcopate in the city. And without much worry, on February 17th. A Swiss citizen was expelled, namely: Monsignor Mermillod, vicar bishop. In an equally authoritarian way, the political clique plans to reorganize the Catholic Church according to its views. By a large majority in the Grand Council on 19 February. In 1873 a restrictive law was passed. Catholic representatives make the mistake of abstaining, which, in effect, makes it easier to vote and pass the law without hindrance. Thus in the Geneva Republic – “Protestant Rome” began the nightmare known as the “Religious Question”.

The legislature provides for Catholic citizens to be able to elect only the curette until the episcopal deputy, the vicar, is approved by the council of state. On this basis, the existence of a Catholic diocese in the canton is prohibited. However, Roman Catholics refused to obey this secular dictate, which led to the nationalization of their church, called the National Catholic Church. This led to a government-ordered forcible takeover of the Catholic Church in Compessier on 20 January. 1875 and searches of the church of Shen-Burg on April 2, 1878 and others.

Meanwhile, during this era, the wind of freedom and democracy passed through Switzerland and throughout Europe. The federal constitution was adopted in 1874. The following year, the Geneva notables, Voltaire’s neighbors, did not even consider banning religious corporations in the canton and nationalizing their property. It will take twenty years for the situation to calm down and for the notion of tolerance to permeate souls. These grotesque measures did not only affect Catholics. Protestants also pay a high price.

The history of this explosive dossier culminated in 1906, when all state subventions, subsidies and contributions to religious organizations were discontinued.

Someone will say that this is an old story? This is not true at all! These are not historical incidents unrelated to the present. Today’s situation shows that the instincts for witch-hunting are not forgotten at all, but only asleep and ready to wake up at any moment for a new life. It is true that naming an avenue in the city of Geneva in memory of Cardinal Mermillod washes the face of the Geneva state from past crimes, but it is much more important to seek peaceful coexistence in a spirit of understanding and difference, of course, with respect for the law. .

In Geneva, the radical government of the state councilor Antoine Carteret (1870-1879) decided to implement the policy of the German chancellor, as applied by the radicals in the other Swiss cantons and in many other European countries. Let us recall the meaning of the word “radical”, as defined by Paul-Émile Littré at the end of the last century: “Who works for complete change, regardless of the political agenda in a democratic sense,” the word derives “root” and indicates the idea of radical change. As laudable as the idea is, radicalism opens the door to extremism insofar as a branch of the Geneva radicals, that of the liberal radicals, decides to erase all religious organizations perceived as enemies of the new democratic order, arguing the old radicalist argument that religion is “undemocratic ”.

Let us try to summarize and systematize the main events of the Geneva Kulturkampf, as told to us by historians (cf. “Histoire de Genève de 1798 à 1931”, published by the Historical and Archaeological Society of Geneva):

October 1870 Antoine Alfred Désiré Carteret, a radical liberal, becomes President of the Council of State of Geneva (the highest executive body in the republic).

June 18, 1871 Introduction of a bill, dictated by A. Carteret, prohibiting participation in the educational system of religious corporations or congregations.

October 1871 A. Carteret presents a bill on “religious corporations.”

October 23-25, 1871 Joseph Hornung, professor of law at the Geneva Academy (University), gave two lectures at the Grand Conseil (cf. Discours prononcés au Grand Conseil le 23 et le 25 octobre 1871 par Joseph Hornung, Genève, Imprimerie Soullier et Wirth, 1871), one in which he defended the principle that the State and the Church should be united and one in which he supported the new law on religions by denigrating the Roman Catholic monastic congregations, namely, accusing them of: conspiracy to cover Europe with a monastic network; the state must retain its power over the Church; Catholic congregations follow their own judiciary and refuse to obey the state one, and their members are subjected to violence; the withdrawal of the monastic communities from the world and their unquestioning obedience leads the latter to “social death”; the vows of poverty of their members are nothing more than an instrument for enriching the property of their members and their disinherited families.

February 3, 1872 The Grand Council (ie Parliament) passed the law on corporations by 51 votes to 32. This law is still in force in Geneva, reads, inter alia, the following: no group belonging to a religious order and living in a dormitory will be called a congregation; no group without the authorization of the Grand Council may be dissolved by the Council of State; no approval criteria are specified.

October 19, 1872 The Grand Council passes a law on education: education is secular. The state also oversees private schools.

February 17, 1873 The Vicar Bishop of Geneva, Msgr. Gaspard Mermillod is expelled from the Swiss Federal Council by Switzerland, if he is a Swiss citizen.

February 19, 1873 The law on the reorganization of the Catholic cult, inspired by A. Carteret, was voted by the Grand Council (77 votes in favor, 8 against and 2 abstentions). The state imposes elections for clergymen from the parishioners and recognition, approval of a bishop by the state authorities. Most Roman Catholics refuse to obey the law.

17 January 1874 The Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican Ambassador) is no longer recognized by the Swiss Federal Council and receives his passport and credentials back.

May 10, 1874 The National Catholic Church is established in Geneva. It is considered schismatic by Rome. Roman Catholics are boycotting the election, thus failing to reach the required quorum.

May 29, 1874 The new Swiss Constitution is adopted by the people of Switzerland. It contains several articles restricting the freedom of Catholics.

January 30, 1875 The quorum was abolished by law.

August 23, 1875 A decree was issued banning all religious corporations in the Canton of Geneva.

August 28, 1875 A law is passed banning any religious services in public places. This law has not been repealed to date.

May 24, June 3, 1876 The Grand Council (mostly made up of radical liberals) “purges” the magistrates so that, in the words of Antoine Carteret, “the tribunals can do what the people want.”

September 27, 1876 The property of religious corporations was incorporated into that of the state.

October 6, 1878 The people of Geneva refuse a reform of the Geneva Constitution proposed by A. Carteret, which provides for the strengthening of the powers of the State. In particular, the aim is to ban religious education.

November 10, 1878 A. Carteret suffered a serious loss in the elections to the Grand Council.

April 14, 1883 cardinal Mermillod, now Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva, has been recognized by the Swiss Federal Council.

1893-1900 Roman Catholics gradually regain most of their temples.

June 15, 1907 The Grand Council passed a law separating the Churches from the State (60 votes to 23), and the appropriation of temples ceased. The Act of February 19, 1873, was repealed.

June 30, 1907 The people of Geneva pass the law.

May 16, 1944 The Council of State decrees that only the Protestant National Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Christian Catholic Church (formerly the schismatic National Catholic Church) be recognized by the State (a status directly related to tax relief).

May 20, 1973 The people of Switzerland vote to repeal Articles 51 and 52 of the Swiss Federal Constitution, which until then had banned the Jesuits and the construction of new monasteries, with a total of 790,000 votes in favor and 650,000 against. 16 and a half cantons against 5 and a half.

Today, part of the legislation of the Kulturkampf era is still valid in Switzerland and Geneva and applies to minority religious communities that are not traditional for the confederation, namely:

1) Art. 50 (4) of the Swiss Federal Constitution, which states that an episcopate may not be established in Switzerland without the approval of the Confederation.

2) Art. 176 of the Geneva Constitution: a religious congregation or corporation may not be established in the canton without the permission of the Grand Council, and this authorization may be revoked.

3) The Law of February 3, 1872 on Religious Corporations (a magazine that the Council of State may dissolve unauthorized religious corporations).

4) The Act of August 28, 1878, which forbade religious services and religious dress in public places.

5) The regulation of May 16, 1944, defining only the Protestant National Church and the two Catholic churches as state-recognized.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Jul 4 2021

ANCIENT LIBRARIES

The Library of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, built by the Holy King and Prophet Solomon 3,000 years ago. There, in the temple library, the sacred books (of the Old Testament) were kept in order not to add anything to the sacred text. This, according to the Talmud, guaranteed the purity of the scriptures. There were three sacred scrolls in the Jerusalem temple (Hebrew for Sefer, Megillat Sefer): Sefer Mahon (named after a settlement near Tiberias, an important literary center), Sefer Zatute (miniature, minuscule scroll), Sefer Hee ( according to the name of its owner, who was a noted writer).

When the Bible speaks of a book, it means a scroll, because the shape of the biblical scroll was a roll, poetically described by the prophet Isaiah (34: 4): “The heavens shall be made like a book.” The books, the scrolls were written on both sides (or we have the so-called opistography). Moses also placed the scroll “baaron” or in a wooden coffin, as Xenophon wrote in “Anabasis” – books, position in “wooden vessels” (dr.- gr. “Kivotos” = dr.-Hebrew “aron”) . Sometimes such a court had 2-3 compartments for the individual books. In Qumran, the biblical scrolls found were wrapped in linen cloths and placed in cylindrical pottery. In Judaic Archeology, Josephus describes the procession of Emperor Titus Flavius, and that his warriors wore spolia templi (temple booty), which included temple scrolls (the same are depicted in Rome on the triumphal arch of the emperor, who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple). . After the destruction of a temple in Jerusalem, temple terminology and practice was transferred to Jewish synagogues. To this day, the sacred books are kept in a special chest, box or coffin in a deliberate apse (niche).

The library in the Qumran caves. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls between 1947 and 1956 was an event that ushered in a new era of Bible study, early post-biblical Judaism, and the beginning of Christianity. Written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and dating from 200 BC. until the middle of the first century AD, they allowed an incomparable and revolutionary view of Jewish life and worldview in Palestine during a fateful period in the development of Jewish and Christian religious thought. With their first publication in 1962 and the revised 1975 edition, these unbiblical Qumran texts became an accessible and convenient introduction to the organization, customs, history, and beliefs of the municipality that created them. These remarkable documents serve as an authoritative guide in the study of ancient Judaism and the nascent Christianity of the same period.

The manuscript hiding places found in the caves near the Dead Sea, near Ain el-Feshka and Hirbet-Qumran, were hidden by the members of the New Union (ancient Hebrew “Haberit Hadasha”), as those living in a separate and special a religious community built on the principles existing in the ancient Jewish sect of the Essays.

When the Roman legions of Emperor Titus quelled the Israeli revolts in Palestine (c. 66-70 AD), the Qumrans left their shelters and hid their library in nearby caves. Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), who was a senior officer at the imp. Titus, who described in his “Natural History” the geography of Palestine and some cultural and historical facts and manifestations of that country, tells us that in his time west of the Dead Sea lived wonderful Jewish ascetics: “… west of Asphalt Lake are the Essays … These are people of their kind; without a woman, in denial of all that is the fruit of Venus; without money … Day by day they are reborn revived in equal numbers thanks to the multitude that comes; because there are many who are tired of life (want) to accept their way of life ”. (Historia naturalis, V, 17). The members of this secluded Jewish colony, which flourished in the first century AD, are also called essays by Dion Chrysostom (c. 40-120 AD), a Greek rhetorician and philosopher with a penchant for the Stoics and Cynics. . Bishop Synesius (370-413 AD), who was also a rhetorician, philosopher and poet, quoted Chrysostom Dion as follows: “… praises the essays for the happiness enjoyed by their entire city, which is located near the Dead Sea, in the middle of Palestine, not far from Sodom.

The Library of Alexandria is the most famous in human history. Egypt has traditionally had the greatest concentration of world literature since ancient times. Above the library of Pharaoh Ramses II was the following inscription: “Spiritual medicine.” During the conquest of Alexandria in 640, Caliph Omar found in the city 4,000 palaces and baths, 400 theaters and 700,000 books in the library. There were copies of the Hebrew scriptures in the Library of Alexandria, but they apparently did not agree with the prototype, so Ptolemy asked the Jerusalem high priest for “scrolls written,” and he, in turn, asked him to return them after work. in the temple “in a safe way.” There were two other Jewish temples on the territory of ancient Egypt, which had rich bookstores for the Jews in the diaspora (in settlement). The temple at Leontopolis, north of Cairo, was founded by Onias, grandson of Simon under Ptolemy VI, under the emperor. Vespasian (69-79 AD) was imprisoned after 233 years of existence. The temple on the island of Elephantine (in today’s Jezeret Aswan, Upper Egypt, around the Aswan Dam, known for the temple of the god Khnum, depicted as a ram) was founded before 525 BC. and destroyed in local riots in 411. The earliest date that can be associated with the existence of the colony is 525 BC. The Bible reports that after the fall of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Jews fled to Egypt. Even then, they built a temple on the model of Jerusalem, in which a college of priests performed services by offering bloodless and incense sacrifices. The Elephantine papyri from his rich library describe various social relationships, and an Aramaic papyrus depicts the custom of celebrating the Passover. Appeared in kr. 20th century on the market of antiques pieces of papyrus and sharps (pieces of vessels) with texts in Aramaic, related to the ancient Hebrew language. More Egypt. pharaohs for border guards housed military garrisons of mercenaries in the border fortifications. In the 5th century BC, when these documents were written, Egypt was under Persian rule. The Persian authorities continued this tradition and a Jewish colony, officially called the “Jewish army”, lived to guard the southern border of Elephantine Island.

The library of Noosa, a town near present-day Kirkuk, from 2000 BC, the Middle Bronze Age. The documents are mainly of a legal nature: they contain many parallels with the biblical books – about the marital relationship (wife-sister), in Adam’s family it is a natural custom; concubinage – dr.-evr. “Pilegesh” – (Sarah-Hagar); the theft of the teraphim from Rachel, and they were a sign of inheritance; for the right of adoption for the purpose of inheritance of the property (Eliezer and his slave) and others.

The Marie Library, on the middle reaches of the Euphrates, is housed in the Marie Palace, which is 35,000 square meters and has a perfectly preserved sewer system, although it was destroyed in the 18th century BC. with preserved frescoes with ritual actions. Found in the archives of the palace library are 25 thousand cuneiform tablets, 5 thousand contain diplomatic correspondence from the era of the patriarchs; temple of the god Dagan. Names close to the biblical ones – “Benjamin” = Benjamin (translated Son of my right hand); and “Laba-an” and “Nahur” are the names of cities, but bear the name of their founder or the people of their founder.

The Ugarit Library (7000-1200 BC), an ancient Phoenician city discovered opposite Fr. Cyprus on the hill of Ras es-Shamra (from Arabic “Dill head”). Of particular interest are the finds from the late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1200 BC), when a huge number of written monuments were discovered, incl. temples (in 2 temples of Baal and Dagon) and priestly libraries, palace archives, small private collections in private houses. A general Semitic feature, e.g. is parallelismus membrorum, or the custom of repeating the same thought in other words – hence the hymnology of Canaan strongly influenced the biblical psalms; moreover, that the ancient Hebrew language itself, according to philological research, is only a dialect of the Canaanite language. Thus, Psalm 28 (29) reveals many elements (individual words and stylistic features) with some Ugaritic epics, and it is possible that the Israeli author used deliberately selected ancient linguistic expressions for the purpose of a poetic archaization.

The library of Asurbanipal from 7 BC, opened in his palace and in the temple of the god Anu with 25,000 tablets, 5 thousand of them contain epics, dictionaries, fables in Sumerian and Akkadian languages. The epic of creation (Marduk v. Tiamat) “Enuma elish”, whose main character is Gilgamesh (or Utnapishtim, saved in the flood by the god Ea); in the numerological written monuments found in it, the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days were declared unfortunate. The palace of King Ashurnasirpal II (842-859 BC) was discovered during excavations in the middle of the 19th century on the Nimrud hill. and on Kuyunjik Hill rising against Mosul on the other side of the Tigris River, where ancient Nineveh and the palace of Sennacherib (704-681 BC), one of the most powerful rulers of the Assyrian kingdom, were discovered. Then the library of the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC) was opened, which contained 30,000 volumes, representing clay tablets with cosmogonic myths, divination and incantation texts, medical, philosophical, astronomical, mathematical and philological works. – a key to the whole Assyro-Babylonian culture. Sending his dignitary Shadanu to Babylon, the king gave him the following instructions: “On the day you receive my letter, take with you Shuma, his brother Bel-eshir, Apla, and the artists of Bursippa whom you know …, collect all the tiles which are in their houses, and the tablets which are in the temple of Isis. Find the valuable tiles from which there are no copies in Assyria and bring them to me! I just wrote to the high priest and the mayor of Brosip that you, Shadanu, must keep these tiles in your warehouse and that no one should deny you tiles. If you see that a tile or ritual text is suitable for the palace, look for them, take them and bring them to the palace. ”

The libraries of the Balkan Peninsula. during Turkish slavery. During the conquest of Bulgaria by the Ottomans, many monastic libraries were destroyed, and the surviving manuscripts were mostly exported to the free Orthodox countries. It is interesting that the book treasures in the city of Plovdiv had a completely different fate. Turkish troops penetrated the territory of Southern Bulgaria and in 1363-1364 captured a number of settlements in Thrace. This happened at a time when the son of Orhan-Sultan Murad I Hudavendigyar (1362-1387) was on the sultan’s throne. In front of Plovdiv is the experienced military leader Lala Shahin. The resistance turned out to be meaningless at night, in the catacombs under the church “St. St. Constantine and Helena ”, the garrison, men, children and women left the city and the siege directly in the Rhodopes. The next day, the Metropolitan of Plovdiv, in white clothes and other noble citizens, went to Lala Shahin and handed him the symbolic key of Plovdiv on a pillow. Lala Shahin, pleased that he had not made any sacrifice, ordered the entry into our city to be without “gasаvat”, ie. without destroying it. Another thing that the Turkish governor of Plovdiv, Shehabeddin Pasha, did was to collect all the written information (archives and books) and create the Plovdiv library. And it was built in today’s Old Plovdiv. Ironically, during the liberation of Plovdiv in 1878 by the Russian troops, this library was set on fire by captain Burago’s dragoons and the chronicles of the greatness of our city – the thousands of scrolls of books from ancient Rome, Byzantium and the Latin Empire were destroyed.

Petar Gramatikov 0 Comments

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Category Archives: Religion

Your Privacy is important to us