Having entered the Christmas season, we ask those who find the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center beneficial to them to help us continue our work with a generous financial gift as you are able. As an incentive, we are offering the following booklet.

In 1909 the German philosopher Arthur Drews wrote a book called "The Myth of Christ", which New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has called "arguably the most influential mythicist book ever produced," arguing that Jesus Christ never existed and was simply a myth influenced by more ancient myths. The reason this book was so influential was because Vladimir Lenin read it and was convinced that Jesus never existed, thus justifying his actions in promoting atheism and suppressing the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the ideologues of the Third Reich would go on to implement the views of Drews to create a new "Aryan religion," viewing Jesus as an Aryan figure fighting against Jewish materialism. 

Due to the tremendous influence of this book in his time, George Florovsky viewed the arguments presented therein as very weak and easily refutable, which led him to write a refutation of this text which was published in Russian by the YMCA Press in Paris in 1929. This apologetic brochure titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ" was one of the first texts of his published to promote his Neopatristic Synthesis, bringing the patristic heritage to modern historical and cultural conditions. With the revival of these views among some in our time, this text is as relevant today as it was when it was written. 

Never before published in English, it is now available for anyone who donates at least $20 to the Mystagogy Resource Center upon request (please specify in your donation that you want the book). Thank you.



March 9, 2023

Bryana the Nun and the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste


At the Monastery of Savvathianon in Crete, there is a nun named Bryana who is an iconographer. Once, when she thought she had completed an icon of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, who are the patron saints of their katholikon, unknowingly she only depicted 39 martyrs instead of 40. As she looked at the icon that afternoon and wondered if it was good or not, suddenly a knock was heard at the door of her cell. Opening the door, she saw a young man who introduced himself as Severian. She greeted him and asked him to wait a moment before she came out to see him. When she returned to speak with the young man who was unknown to her, he was nowhere to be found. After inquiring about him, she realized that the young man who introduced himself as Severian was one of the Forty Martyrs she had forgotten to depict.
 
 

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