Holy Hieromartyr Isidore of Estonia

 

By Lampros K. Skontzos

The Church of Christ is founded upon the confession of Her Saints and watered with the blood of the millions of Martyrs who did not submit to the godless powers of the world, but offered their lives for the saving truth of the Orthodox Faith.

Among them are also Martyrs who were not put to death by pagans, but by the hands of heretics who bore the name of Christ.

To this host belongs the Holy Hieromartyr Isidore of Estonia together with the seventy-two fellow Martyrs who suffered with him, victims of the murderous frenzy of the papal Uniates.

Saint Isidore lived in the fifteenth century and was from Estonia. He was a devout Orthodox presbyter of the parish of Yuryev in Livonia (in today’s Latvia–Estonia region) and was deeply devoted to the one saving Orthodox Faith.

His ministry, however, coincided with particularly grievous times, when the papal Uniates unleashed harsh persecutions against the Orthodox who refused to submit to Papal authority.

“Orthodox Uniates”: Dangers to the Church (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

At the funeral of Pope Francis, a group of cassock-wearers were heard chanting “Christ is Risen” in Greek, which impressed many [Greek] journalists, who were amazed because the entire world attending the funeral could hear the Greek language with this particular chant. They considered this very honorable. However, they did not know that these were Latin Uniates, whom the Vatican has in its fold and who are active in many Orthodox countries, to the detriment of Orthodox Christians.

The word Unia is a Polish-Latin word, which means union, and is an esoteric way of union between the Orthodox and Latins, regardless of doctrinal differences. The beginning of the Unia is considered to be the Lateran Synod of 1215, at which the Pope allowed the Orthodox East to keep their ecclesiastical customs, but to commemorate the Pope in the services and thus have communion with the Latins.