The old garrison church at Colchester, soon to be the home of St John the Wonderworker parish

In ancient times, when it was a province of the Roman Empire, Colchester, a city located some 80 kilometres northeast of London, was the first capital of Britain. It was a garrison town of “special designation” in that period. In the nineteenth century, during the time of the Crimean War (1853-56), Colchester again became the location of a military base, where some 5,000 soldiers were trained for dispatch to the Crimean front. For their spiritual needs, the British government built a large garrison church. Today, the majority of English historians have come to the conclusion that the Crimean War was an entirely unnecessary conflict, it was “an error”, a “failure”, and many lives were ruined in the course of its useless slaughter.

In the years since, Colchester has remained a major British army base, being enlarged and updated over the years. In March 2007, the original garrison church was closed and divine services in it ended. A new, somewhat smaller, chapel was built for the servicemen in its place. It was in this area, with God’s blessings, through the prayers of our Patron and Father amongst the Saints John Maksimovich the Wonderworker, and with the material support rendered by the readers of the journal Orthodox England and the internet site Orthodoxengland.org.uk, that our parish leased modest premises in the small seaside town of Felixstowe for some 11 years, a place where St Felix (+647) preached in antiquity.

When it became available, I dared to believe that I could acquire the large (and now closed) church in which the soldiers of the Crimean War period said their prayers. Finally, we received the news last Wednesday, on 7 May 2008, that our tender for the purchase of the old church building was accepted. We were shaken by this good news. The total floor area of the church building is 650 square metres (@7,000 square feet), and the area of the chapel, office, conference room, and hall add an additional 170 square metres (@1,800 square feet).

We intend to dedicate the main church in honour of St John Maksimovich, who, some 50 years ago, was the ruling archbishop of London. We shall dedicate the chapel to All the Saints Who have Shone Forth in the British Islands. It seems to us that St John Maksimovich himself shall bless our intentions. Soon, we shall visit Russia and acquire an iconostas and all necessary church utensils and fixtures. The very existence of our parish, the only permanent Russian Orthodox church in the East of England, seems to me to be nothing short of miraculous. Everyone who sacrificed to help us in the acquisition of this former Protestant church that we intend to convert into a proper Orthodox church is a co-participant with us in this miracle. This miracle was a miracle of the survival of an Orthodox community that overcame many obstacles, having to move here and there, but, because of the spirit of self-sacrifice, determination, and fortitude shown by its people, it has lasted these past 40 years.

A church built by the heterodox and which served the forces fighting in an anti-Russian war, now, becomes a parish church of the Russian Orthodox Church. Some shall see it as an irony of fate or history, others shall see in it divine judgement, and it shall be an example of what we call in English “poetic justice”. We consider it a spiritual victory that we were allowed to acquire this church, it is a celebration of the purity of Orthodoxy. This church was built to admonish and inspire soldiers fighting a country confessing the Orthodox Faith. However, God’s inscrutable ways unfold before us, and before our eyes this previously heterodox chapel is converted into a temple of holy Orthodoxy.

Truly, Thou, O God, are the God who works miracles!

13 May 2008

Fr Andrew Phillips

Pastor, along with the clergy and parishioners of St John Maksimovich the Wonderworker

Pravoslavie.ru

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/080513123310 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

If anyone heard of this worthy project through my posts, thank you. Fr Andrew and his parish still need help, you can access his website via the blogroll on the right-hand side of the page.

Bog blagoslovit, Batiushka!

Blessed Hierarch-Confessor Laurus Skurla the Silent of Jordanville. Pray for us sinners, Vladyki!

Vara,

This all came to me in the night, even the melody of Tone V and the image of the icon. I did not write it, it just came. I got up early and wrote it all down, as it was given

Fr Andrew

Holy Hierarch Laurus of Jordanville

Sviatitel Lavr Iordangradskiy

(3/16 March):

First Suggestions

Troparion Tone V

Rejoice, O ye Carpathians,*

and dance all ye trees of the forests of New England!*

For the good and faithful servant,*

the humble monk and wise hierarch Laurus,*

who from childhood was pleasing to God,*

preaching the testament of Holy Russia*

and who on the feast of the Lord’s Ascension gathered into one *

those who in former times were divided,*

today sends up his soul into the heavens.*

This is indeed a triumph of Orthodoxy,*

as on the shores of the Pacific Ocean*

the angels ring bells of victory*

for him who on earth conversed with them;*

and we unworthy, scattered across the face of all the earth,*

pray to Thee, O Christ our God,*

that through his prayers our souls may be saved.

Icon

This should in outline resemble his official photograph with staff in hand, but as an icon resemble the San Francisco icon of St John of Shanghai in his mantle. However, he should be holding in his hands not a model of that temple, but a model of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

A personal e-mail communication from Fr Andrew Phillips

I cannot speak… I have no words in commentary. Read this and be edified, I say.

In Memoriam Metropolitan Laurus:

Metropolitan Laurus Skurla, Archbishop of New York and Eastern America, in the First Week of Great Lent 2008, the last week of his life

On the Holiness of Metropolitan Kyrill of Kazan and the Healing of the Russian Church of Extremism

Russian history is all about morality triumphing over difficulties, temptations, dangers, and enemies. That is how it always has been and how it always will be.

Ivan Ilyin

Foreword

The truth is always persecuted, slandered, hated, or ignored, that is, killed by indifference. Our Lord Himself warned His disciples that this would be so. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15:20). Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake (Matthew 24:9). Naturally, we have abundant evidence of this in recent and present times, as well as in the past.

In 2007, there took place the momentous and historic re-establishment of Eucharistic communion between the two parts of the Russian Church. They had been divided by the forces of spiritual impurity and worldliness following the persecution of the 1920s and the compromises of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) who had usurped power in Moscow with Communist backing. The re-establishment of canonical communion had been unthinkable only seven years previously. Why did it take place?

What brought it about were the unambiguous statements of the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate at its Jubilee Council of August 2000. Then they rejected Sergianism, Ecumenism (in the generally accepted sense of the word), and accepted the glorification by ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia) of the New Martyrs and Confessors. These acts were in fact the rejection of former positions, the rejection of extremism forced on the Church inside Russia by persecution. Having verified that these new policies were being put into practice, the re-establishment of canonical communion became merely a matter of time… not of “if”, but of “when”.

Patriarch Sergei Stagorodsky blessing troops of the Dmitri Donskoi Tank Brigade during the Second Great Patriotic War

In the World

This Jubilee Council marked the departure of the Patriarchate from the position adopted by the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius in 1927. Essentially, that Declaration had been a compromise by the Church administration with the Soviet Atheist State, showing an Erastianism and servility of extraordinary proportions. It implied that the triumphs of militant atheism were the triumphs of the Church. For a long time senior individuals within the Soviet Union had lied in order to justify Metropolitan Sergius’ compromise and been forced to put that lie into practice. The shift in 2000 was to take the compromises of Metropolitan Sergius out of the spiritual centre and put them back to where they belonged… on the political left. This “revealed the Renovationist nature of Sergianism”¹.

Renovationism was a form of modernism, or apostasy from the Orthodox Faith and Tradition that had begun mainly in St Petersburg before the Revolution. It had been promoted by pro-Revolutionary left-wing groups and was espoused by Gnostic philosophers and aristocrats. It was actively encouraged inside Russia in the 1920s by both the Communist Party and the Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, the abandonment of the Renovationist positions of Metropolitan Sergius in the Year 2000 left the remaining Renovationists in Moscow and abroad, notably those who for decades controlled the Sourozh Diocese in Great Britain, high and dry, despite their efforts.

For it should not at all be imagined that Renovationism existed only inside Russia, its scars affected the life of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Diaspora very deeply. This was despite the fact that most of the Renovationists, semi-Orthodox aristocrats and intellectuals in Paris and elsewhere, had left the Russian Church for the Patriarchate of Constantinople some three generations before, in search of a westernised Orthodoxy with its personality cults of dubious intellectuals. After 1945, the Paris Renovationists exported their ideology to Great Britain and North America, where they are still very active. In this way, Moscow Renovationists in Great Britain at least found the ground taken from under them and were faced with the opportunity of repenting and following the disciplines of the Church or otherwise rebelling and leaving for isolation.

Sadly, but exactly as predicted, the largely Anglicanised Renovationist group decided to rebel and leave the Russian Orthodox Church… all the while, incredibly enough, claiming to be “Russian Orthodox”. Thus, 25 years after being cast out, slandered and exiled to our Siberia, we faithful Russian Orthodox were charged with translating into English the documents from His Holiness in Moscow re-establishing Orthodoxy in the Sourozh Diocese. We were able to re-enter the Ennismore Gardens Cathedral of the Sourozh Diocese in London and find our rightful place there once more. In a historic concelebration, we were able to proclaim the long-awaited Russian Orthodox Church unity in the British Isles, in a Church now free of alien influences, our generation-long confession of the Faith vindicated.

Metropolitan St Iosif of Leningrad/St Petersburg the New Martyr (+1940)

Not of the World

Of course, it is true that the Renovationist Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius of 1927 had also provoked sectarian reactions at the other extreme inside Russia. These included extremists, self-proclaimed “traditionalists” and westernised moralists, who fell into Donatism. Among them were those who falsely proclaimed that they were only following the holy Metropolitan Joseph of St Petersburg, martyred for Orthodoxy in 1940², who had strongly opposed the compromises of Metropolitan Sergius. This was not the case.

They used the good name of Metropolitan Joseph as an excuse and justification for extremism. As a reaction to the servile attitudes of Metropolitan Sergius, some of these right-wing ideologues were actually willing to see a Crusade of the West against Russia, as preached by the Pope³. These were those who considered Sergianism a “heresy” and stated that the Moscow Patriarchate had no grace, welcoming Hitler’s 1941 invasion as a deliverance and even fighting alongside Hitler’s Orthodox-hating and Slav-hating forces. This was a tragic error.

So great had their hatred been that they found themselves hating their own, unable to allow for the miracle of repentance, like the elder son, who was unable to forgive his prodigal brother. They did not understand, as the last Rector of the Optina Monastery had predicted after the Revolution, that Communism would not fall through military intervention, but by itself, through its own economic and moral bankruptcy⁴. Thus, they accused other Orthodox, including those who, willingly or unwillingly, followed Metropolitan Sergius, of having no grace. This was devilish pride, a form of self-flattery and sectarian exclusivism. For in denying others grace, they were in fact granting themselves all grace, setting themselves up as the judgement of God.

The Martyrdom of Metroplitan St Kirill of Kazan the New Martyr (+1937)

In the World, But, Not of the World

However, there were those who stood in the middle ground, following the royal path, veering neither towards the administrative Renovationism of Metropolitan Sergius, nor towards sectarian Pharisaism, which asserted that all other Russian Orthodox had “lost grace”. Adopting the position of the ever-memorable Patriarch Tikhon, those in the middle ground followed the spiritual lead of the holy figure of Metropolitan Kyrill of Kazan, the holy Patriarch Tikhon’s first deputy.

Born in 1863, Metropolitan Kyrill was a widowed priest who had gained immense experience as a missionary both among former Nestorians in Persia and then in Russia, working against sectarian movements in Tambov. He was also the hierarch who had presided over the funeral of St John of Kronstadt, the centenary of whose repose we celebrate in 2008. Having lived for 37 years in the nineteenth century, he lived for 37 in the twentieth century. Of the twenty years he lived under the Bolsheviks, seventeen were spent in camps, prisons and exile and he was martyred in November 1937.

Metropolitan Kyrill was an outstanding practical pastor and also spiritual figure. He was one of those who had the discernment to see between the strictness of akrivia and the dispensation of oikonomia. He saw that although Metropolitan Sergius was wrong and therefore communion with him should be avoided, the Metropolitan was not a heretic. His error was due to his personal sin and weakness, it was not a sin of the whole Church.

The New Martyrs of Solovki

The Royal Path

This perception came from the fact that Metropolitan Kyrill of Kazan was neither a bureaucratic administrator and academic theologian like Metropolitan Sergius, nor a zealous but simplistic and ill-educated ideologue like some of the extremists in the anti-Sergianist movement. He was a pastor and, at that, a holy pastor. Little wonder that Metropolitan Kyrill was recognised by those in freedom as the true head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, of Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Kyrill wrote:

“I acknowledge it as a fulfilment of our archpastoral duty for those Archpastors and all who consider the establishment of the so-called ‘Provisional Patriarchal Synod’ (by Metropolitan Sergius) as wrong, to refrain from communion with Metropolitan Sergius and those Archpastors who are of one mind with him. By thus refraining, for my part, I am not in the least affirming or suspecting any lack of grace in the sacraments performed by Sergianists (may the Lord preserve us all from such thought), but I emphasise my unwillingness and refusal to partake of the sins of others”⁵. He considered that the talk of sacraments as being without grace was “zeal not according to knowledge”⁶.

A little later, in October 1929, Metropolitan Kyrill again wrote to Metropolitan Sergius on the subject of the latter’s extremist attitudes towards those who could not accept his unacceptable compromises with the atheist State: “How bitter it is, Vladyka, that you too, to an equal extent, reveal the loss of spiritual balance…the whole fullness of my abstention (from concelebration with you) concerns only you and the hierarchs who are of one mind with you”⁷. For Metropolitan Kyrill, as for the whole of the free Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Metropolitan Sergius was “a usurper of Church authority”⁸. In 1934, he wrote again: “The disorder in the Russian Orthodox Church I view not as concerning the teaching which She holds, but as concerning administration”⁹.

Blessed Elder Seraphim Rose of Platina (+1982)

Afterword

Over thirty years ago, the ever-memorable Hieromonk Seraphim Rose summed up these events in Orthodox wise: “A correct ‘Orthodoxy’ deprived of the spirit of true Christianity… this is the meaning of Sergianism, and it cannot be fought by calling it a ‘heresy’, which it is not, nor by detailing its canonical irregularities, which are only incidental to something much more important”¹⁰….“Metropolitan Kyrill’s position… is nothing but the balanced ‘royal path’ of Orthodox moderation between the extremes of Renovationism and Sergianist legalism on the one hand, and a too-hasty accusation of Sergianist heresy or lack of grace on the other”¹¹. Metropolitan Sergius’ error consisted in his “exceeding his powers”¹².

It is in the figure of the true Churchman, Metropolitan Kyrill, martyred in 1937, that the Church finds its spiritual centre of balance again. Through him we clearly understand the aberrations of Metropolitan Sergius. The voice of the Church spoke through him and it was he, and not Metropolitan Sergius, who has since been glorified and canonised by the whole Russian Church¹³. His voice is that of the New Martyrs and Confessors, the voice of unity, the voice of the Truth of God, the voice of the “spiritual sobriety of holiness”¹³. His was the voice of the spiritual purity of living Orthodoxy against the impurity of the Renovationist legalism of Metropolitan Sergius and also against the impurity of the sectarianism of those who declared that his sacraments possessed no grace. For it is only holiness that heals and it is only through holiness that Orthodoxy has been fully restored within the Russian Church.

Today this should be particularly apparent to us in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, who mourn our Metropolitan Laurus, the Restorer of Church Unity in the spirit of the Holy Hieromartyr Kyrill of Kazan. For his lifelong struggle was also for the spiritual purity of the heritage of Holy Russia against extremism, against the dead letters of laws, against the abuse of canons in the interests of self-justification. This includes both the laws and canons of Renovationism, including the administrative Renovationism of Metropolitan Sergius, and the laws and canons of Old Calendarist ideologies which lead straight to the sectarianism of groups, which split away from the Church both inside Russia and outside Russia.

To His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, the Restorer of Church Unity:

Eternal Memory!

Sunday of St Gregory Palamas

The Preacher of Grace

Second Sunday of the Great Lent 2008

10/23 March 2008

Priest Andrew Phillips

East Anglia

Professor Ivan Mikhailovich Andreyevksy, Confessor for Christ’s sake on Solovki, author of Russia’s Catacomb Saints (under the pen-name I. M. Andreyev)

Notes:

1.

1. Zhuravsky, A. V. In the Name of the Truth and Dignity of the Church (NTDC), The Life and Works of the Holy Hieromartyr Kyrill of Kazan (Sretensky Monastery: Moscow, 2004) p. 768.

2. Schismatics using Metropolitan Joseph’s good name as an excuse to justify their extremism have considerably delayed his canonisation by the Church inside Russia. Although not at all excluded in the Church’s Report of 1995, that canonisation still has not taken place there, where there are small extremist groups who object to such things as tax code numbers and new passports and make of them some new heresy and are prepared to break away from the Church as a result. These still justify themselves using the holy Metropolitan Joseph as an excuse. ROCOR had no such inhibitions when it canonised him in 1981, because it did not fear any schisms as a result of his canonisation. (See NTDC, p. 790).

3. NTDC, pp. 786-87

4. The words of His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II himself in Sobiratel Russkoi Tserkvi (Moscow, 2001) p.54

5. Andreyev, I. M. (pen-name of Ivan M. Andreyevksy) Russia’s Catacomb Saints (RCS), Lives of the New Martyrs (Platina CA, 1982) p. 244

6. NTDC, p. 382

7. RCS, p. 248-49

8. RDS, p. 250

9. RCS, p. 253

10. RCS, p. 257

11. RCS, p. 257-58

12. NTDC, pp. 770 and 797-798

13. NTDC, p. 382

In Memoriam:

His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus

[1928-2008]

Today my heart and soul are filled with spiritual joy, spiritual mercy, the mercy of God. I am always joyful when I am in the holy Russian land. For me this is a Holy Land. I am joyful when I am able to concelebrate with hierarchs, priests and their flock, to pray to God and be worthy of the great mercy of God – to partake of the Mysteries of Christ here, in this holy land.

For myself, I am from the Carpathians. That is where the Slavs came from. And we were brought up to look on Russia, the Russian land, as a Holy Land… I ask for your holy prayers that the Lord may make us worthy to be together with the saints, especially with the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, who suffered and abundantly watered our Russian land with their blood.

Metropolitan Laurus after the Divine Liturgy at Sretensky Monastery in Moscow on 24 February 2008, as recorded by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov

There are people whose calling and destiny it is to fulfil a great task. They do not in the least seek after this, but they are chosen by God. They have greatness thrust upon them. For example, in Moscow on Monday 17 March, the influential Russian Union of Orthodox Citizens (UOC) suggested naming a street after a poor peasant boy from Slovakia.

“The merits of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus are so great that streets in our cities deserve to be named after him. A majestic Cathedral should be build to commemorate this outstanding man and the unification of the Russian Orthodox Church”, said the head of the UOC Moscow Department, Kirill Frolov, adding: “The UOC regards Metropolitan Laurus as a national hero. The unification of the Russian Orthodox Church was a great deed on the part of His Eminence, who achieved it despite devilish resistance from opponents of the Church and of Russia. The fact that Metropolitan Laurus passed away on the day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is the clearest proof of this. The unification of the Russian Church is indeed a great triumph for Orthodoxy”.

Vladyka had been found early on Sunday, 16 March, the morning of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, by Protodeacon Victor Lokhmatov. “His hands were under his head, as I always saw him when he slept”, he said. “He taught souls through the example of his life. He would get up earlier than all the others, he worked harder than all the others… He always had something good to say about others”. The future Metropolitan “carried out all the monastic obediences, starting from the cowshed to the typography”. We should not forget that the Monastery in Jordanville did its utmost to send out books to spiritually-starving Russia. Its postage bill to Russia at the beginning of the 90s was $5,000 a month.

As a bishop, the future Metropolitan was to be seen dressed as a simple hieromonk. One of his obediences was to wash the dishes in the Monastery. He would not have dreamed of removing his name from the rota, just because he was the abbot and had become a bishop. He was famed for his borshch soups. It was always possible to talk to this exemplary monk, always accessible like all the best hierarchs of the Church Outside Russia. And, on being chosen as Metropolitan in 2001, he said:

“And, now, what I feared has come to me. In my old age, my brother bishops have bound me and entrusted the ship of our Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia to me. I have accepted this as obedience to God, to the Church of Christ and to our Council of Hierarchs. For my part, I do not feel any superiority or any strength to guide this ship. I merely trust in God’s help and the prayers of our flock. Russian Orthodox and Orthodox in general must be one in spirit and deed”.

The Shrine to St John Maksimovich the Wonderworker of Shanghai, Paris, and San Francisco at the Cathedral of the Mother of God the Joy of All Who Sorrow (San Francisco CA)

It was at the Council in San Francisco in May 2006 that I first understood the nature of the Metropolitan’s humility. Here I saw not a Metropolitan, but, rather a poor village boy, whose mother had passed away, in the Carpathian foothills in Slovakia. In my mind’s eye, I saw him pedalling his bicycle, one of the best investments that the local Monastery ever made, to school in Svidnik, avoiding the Nazi soldiers. (Where is that bicycle now? Standing rusting in the corner of a barn in the Carpathians?) But, then, in San Francisco, Metropolitan Laurus stood side by side with Metropolitan Amphilochy of Monetengro, with a dozen bishops, presiding over a Council of a worldwide Church on the far distant shores of the Pacific Ocean.

This was a destiny. How was it possible? Because the Metropolitan was not a learned professor, not a politician, not a prince of the Church, who talk, but, do not do, but, for over sixty years a true monk, who simply listens and then does. He conquered by his example, by his Carpatho-Russian sincere faith, which is indeed greater than riches, by his virtue, by his humility.

As for the greatest event in his life, the canonical communion of the two parts of the Russian Church, the Metropolitan suffered greatly at the dissent of the vocal (but small) minority who opposed the episcopate. He always wanted to keep everyone together. Indeed, there will be those who will say that the stress caused by that dissent brought on his repose. He hid his emotions and his peaceful and calming spirit no doubt helped limit the amount of dissent, but nevertheless he suffered, a victim of the disobedience of others.

Having returned from his beloved Russia two weeks earlier, the Metropolitan served all the offices of the First Week of the Great Fast, except for Saturday, because he was not feeling well. The manner of his repose was that which Orthodox pray for – “painless, blameless, peaceful”, and it happened on the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, when by Moscow time, that Triumph had been completed. The day of the restoration of the icons was the day of the repose of him who had restored unity. He had completed his task, fulfilled the destiny which had been asked of him, the good and faithful servant had run his course and it was time to rest.

There may be some who will try and use his repose for their own ends. We believe it more likely that his repose will rather seal unity and bring back to the fold those of goodwill who are still reticent. As a prominent laywoman in New York, Lyudmila Kholodnya, has said: “The schism is already on the sandbanks and I think that it will end with this”. We recall that less than a month ago Metropolitan Laurus was in Moscow, receiving the Compatriot of the Year prize from the Mayor of Moscow. The Metropolitan said: “We must save our souls in love for each other and in unity”.

Exactly a week ago I sent Vladyka a postcard from the shores of the North Sea and asked for his prayers. I do not know whether he received it or not. I remember how I had once wanted to ask him a question. He smiled at me in his grandfatherly way. I had received my answer and it was no longer necessary to ask my question. Everything had been said in his smile. But, I will remember him best at the Council in San Francisco. In the talk I gave there, I said a word in his native Carpatho-Russian – po-nashomu, meaning “in our (Carpatho-Russian) language”. His smile was unforgettable. I think he was touched that someone had remembered his Carpathian roots, those simple and honest roots that had determined the course and pattern of his life and set us all an example.

Archbishop Hilarion Kapral of Australia and New Zealand, locum tenens of the ROCOR

Metropolitan Laurus, the fifth First Hierarch of the Church Outside Russia in 87 years, was Metropolitan for only seven years. He was the last bishop of the pre-war generation. All our other active bishops are aged under 60. We do not know what will happen at their Synod after the Paschal celebrations and who will take the place the Metropolitan as Sixth First Hierarch of our Church. All we can do is pray and obey, as the Metropolitan would surely have advised us to do.

But, if I may add a thought of my own, the best thing that could happen is that all those who call themselves Russian Orthodox and live outside Russia, whether in Western Europe, the Americas or elsewhere, should now, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexis and His Synod in New York, join themselves to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. In this way, the spiritual unity that we already have may be transfigured further into a visible administrative unity. This would be the greatest memorial to Vladyka Metropolitan, much greater still than a majestic Cathedral in Moscow. To him we all sing:

Eternal Memory!

17 March 2008

Fr Andrew Phillips

(No URL, personal e-mail to me)

Editor’s note: I can only wholeheartedly endorse everything written by Fr Andrew. I, too, wish for the unity of all Russian Orthodox Christians. It is time for the Soviet construct known as the OCA to end, and for the healthy elements within it to reunite with the mother church. We should ask the Carpatho-Russians and Ukrainians to join us as well, if they will, and one hopes that they shall. We should send the Romanians in the OCA back to their mother church in Romania, which is now free, with our blessings and good wishes, and with the hope that we shall remain good neighbours (and, no doubt we would!).

Brothers! A sign of Orthodox unity in Moscow

There is no hope at all for the idealistic “union of all Orthodox Christians in America” preached by SVS and the Again crowd. Indeed, because of the nature of diaspora Orthodoxy, it may never be. Instead, we should work at uniting the various strands of Orthodoxy in our country, that is, there should be a united Serbian Church, a united Greek Church, a united Russian Church, a united Arab Church, and a united Romanian Church. We could indeed cooperate on projects of good will, and we could do much good together. Nevertheless, the discarnate “united Orthodoxy” preached by some recent converts (especially in the Antiochian archdiocese) is not only unattainable, but, dangerous in the extreme.

This “Union Orthodoxy” is suffused completely with amoral American suburban notions, and its primary credo is not Orthodoxy, but, rather, it subscribes to a positivism that is little different from its secular analogue. Indeed, it is MORE dangerous because of its religious veneer. One can see this in the refusal of the OCA to effectively remove Nikolai of Alaska for ordaining a convicted sexual offender to the clergy. The OCA’s response has been psychobabble. What would the Metropolia bishops have done? They would have called in the Alaska State Troopers, removed Nikolai from church housing, and banned him from all Church property by the issuance of the proper court order (an easy item to procure, by the way). QED, done quite smartly, and without delay or fuss! Methinks that the OCA is a step DOWN the evolutionary ladder!

We must honour Vladyki’s memory by completing his project of Church unity. If a few unrepresentative intellectuals squawk, let them do so, and let them wander away to whatever destination they choose. They shall be happier there than amongst us. As for us, we should clasp our hands together and fashion the unity that God has set before us, not the notional unity that was nothing but an opium dream of heretics such as Alexander Schmemann.

We owe Vladyki that much. We shall honour him by following his deeds, not by repeating his words. May God bless us in the completion of such a task.

Follow this link to this article:

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/virtue.pdf

follow this link to this article:

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/100_anniversary.pdf

An Orthodox Life of St Nicholas of Libertyville

(+ 5/18 March 1956)

St Nicholas of Libertyville is more commonly known as St Nicholas of Zhicha or St Nicholas of Ochrid. He was born in Lelich in western Serbia on 23 December, the feast of Saint Naum of Ochrid, 1880, the eldest of nine children. His parents Dragomir and Katherine Velimirovich were pious peasant farmers, who lived on a farm where they raised a large family. His pious mother was a major influence on his spiritual development, teaching him by word and especially by example. As a small child, Nicholas often walked three miles to the Chelije Monastery with his mother to attend services there. Sickly as a baby, Nicholas never developed a robust constitution, and failed the physical requirements in his application to the military academy.

As a youth, however, Nicholas was very lively and had an exceptional talent as a comedian. He was tempted to join a troupe of actors but his mother insisted that he become a priest. He was not physically strong as an adult. He failed his physical requirements when he applied to the military academy, but his excellent academic qualifications allowed him to enter St Sava’s Seminary in Belgrade, even before he finished preparatory school. On graduating, in 1905, he was chosen to pursue further study abroad and Nicholas earned doctoral degrees from Berne in 1908 and Oxford in 1909. Returning home, he became gravely ill with dysentery. He vowed that if the Lord granted him recovery, he would devote the rest of his life to His service. And so it was that later that year he was tonsured at Rakovica Monastery on 20 December 1909. That same day he was ordained to the priesthood.

He spent the following year, 1910, studying in Russia, in preparation for teaching at the seminary in Belgrade. In addition to teaching courses in philosophy, logic, history, and foreign languages (he became fluent in seven), he produced an anthology of homilies that manifest his gift for being able to express profound thoughts in a way that made them accessible to the common man. In 1910 he went to study in Russia to prepare himself for a teaching position at the seminary in Belgrade. At the Theological Academy in St Petersburg, the Rector asked him why he had come. He replied: ‘I wanted to be a shepherd. As a child, I tended my father’s sheep. Now that I am a man, I wish to tend the rational flock of my heavenly Father. I believe that is the way that has been shown to me’. The Rector smiled, pleased by this response, then showed the young man to his quarters.

After completing his studies, he returned to Belgrade and taught philosophy, logic, history and foreign languages at the seminary. He spoke seven languages and this ability proved very useful to him throughout his life. Fr Nicholas was renowned for his sermons, which never lasted more than twenty minutes, and focused on just three main points. He taught people the theology of the Church in a language they could understand, and inspired them to repentance.

At the start of World War I, Fr Nicholas was sent to England on a diplomatic mission to seek help in the struggle of the Serbs against Austria. His doctorate from Oxford gained him an invitation to speak at Westminster Abbey. As one Anglican minister later recalled: ‘The Archimandrite Nicholas Velimirovich came, and in three months left an impression that continues to this day. His works, ‘The Lord’s Commandments’ and his ‘Meditations on the Lord’s Prayer’ electrified the Church of England. His vision of the Church as God’s family, as over against God’s empire, simply shattered the West’s notion of what it had regarded as the Caesaro-Papism of Eastern Orthodoxy’. Next Fr Nicholas left England and went to America, where he proved to be a good ambassador for his nation and his Church.

The future saint returned to Serbia in 1919, where he was consecrated Bishop of Zhicha and later transferred to Ochrid. The new hierarch assisted those who were suffering from the ravages of war by establishing orphanages and helping the poor. Bishop Nicholas took over as leader of Bogomlicki Pokret, a popular movement for spiritual revival which encouraged people to pray and read the Scriptures. Under the bishop’s wise direction, it also contributed to a renewal of monasticism. Monasteries were restored and reopened and this in turn revitalized the spiritual life of the Serbian people. In 1921 Bishop Nicholas was invited to visit America again and spent two years as a missionary bishop. He gave more than a hundred talks in less than six months, raising funds for his orphanages. Over the next twenty years, he lectured in various churches and universities.

On 6 April 1941 German troops poured into Yugoslavia, and the government soon capitulated. Serbian mortality in the Second World War was less the result of military action than it was of the frightful atrocities committed by the occupying Axis forces and by the Ustashi, a Roman Catholic Croat terrorist organization that collaborated with the Nazis in return for political support. As many as 750,000 Serbian men, women, and children were tortured and massacred, among whom were many priests, monks and nuns, while thousands more were sent to death camps in Germany. As an outspoken critic of the Nazis, Bishop Nicholas was arrested in 1941 and confined in Ljubostir Vojlovici Monastery until September 1944, when he was sent, together with Patriarch Gavrilo, to the infamous death camp at Dachau. There he witnessed unspeakable horrors and was himself tortured before the camp was liberated by American troops in May 1945.

The Patriarch returned to Yugoslavia, but Bishop Nicholas went to England. The Croat Communist leader Tito was just coming to power in Yugoslavia, where he persecuted the Church and crushed those who opposed him. Bishop Nicholas believed he could serve the Serbian people more effectively by remaining abroad. In 1946 he went to America, following a hectic schedule in spite of his health problems which were exacerbated by his time in Dachau. He taught for three years at the Serbian seminary of St Sava in Libertyville, just outside Chicago, before settling at the Russian Monastery of St Tikhon in South Canaan, Pennsylvania in 1951. Here he taught and also served as the seminary’s Dean and Rector. He also lectured at Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in Jordanville.

On Saturday 17 March 1956 Bishop Nicholas served his last Liturgy. After the service he went to the refectory and gave a short talk. As he was leaving, he bowed low and said, ‘Forgive me, brothers’. This was unusual, something which he had not done before. Like the brilliant autumn leaves of dying nature, so too, as Bishop Nicholas finished his earthly days, his face was transformed, bearing a stamp of that other world where ‘the just shine like the stars’. On 5 March 1956 (18 March in the secular calendar) Bishop Nicholas fell asleep in the Lord, Whom he had served throughout his life. He was found in his room kneeling in an attitude of prayer. Though he was buried at St Sava’s Monastery in Libertyville outside Chicago, he had always expressed a desire to be buried in his homeland. In April of 1991 his relics were transferred to the Cetinje Monastery in Lelich. There he was buried next to his friend and disciple Fr Justin Popovich (+ 1979). On May 19, 2003, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church recognized Bishop Nicholas (Velimirovic) of Ochrid and Zhicha as a saint and entered his name into the church calendar.

St Nicholas’ writings are of great benefit to the whole Church and are today especially popular in Russia, where he is known as ‘St Nicholas the Serb’. He thought of his writings as silent sermons, addressed to people who would never hear him preach. In his life and writings, the grace of the Holy Spirit shone forth for all to see, but in his humility he considered himself the least of men. Though he was a native of Serbia, St Nicholas has a universal significance for all Orthodox Christians. He was like a candle set upon a candlestick giving light to all. A spiritual guide and teacher with a magnetic personality, he attracted many people to himself. He also loved them, seeing the image of God in each person he met. He had a special love for children, who hastened to receive his blessing whenever they saw him in the street.

A biography of Bishop Nicholas Velimirovic, published in Belgrade in 1986, bears the title, Novi Zlatoust, A New Chrysostom. Its author, Igumen Artemije, now a bishop in Kosovo, is not the first to have drawn this comparison. Nearly thirty years earlier, St John of San Francisco, who had been a young instructor at a seminary in Bishop Nicholas’ diocese of Zhicha and in whose consecration St Nicholas had taken part, had called him ‘a great saint and Chrysostom of our day (whose) significance for Orthodoxy in our time can be compared only with that of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky. They were both universal teachers of the Orthodox Church’ He was a man of compunctionate prayer, and possessed the gift of tears which purify the soul. He was a true pastor to his flock protecting them from spiritual wolves, and guiding them on the path to salvation. He has left behind many soul-profiting writings which proclaim the truth of Christ to modern man. In them he exhorts people to love God, and to live a life of virtue and holiness.

In his writings, St Nicholas left a legacy of enduring and inestimable value, and he is to be honoured among the great writers of the Church. His two-volume Prologue of Ochrid (the uncensored version) should be familiar to all Orthodox. One Serbian bishop declared that ‘the only two books one needs to digest and put into practice to obtain salvation are the Bible and The Prologue of Ochrid’. A second volume of his Homilies was also published in English in 1998. Among his other works available in English are The Life of Saint Sava, The Mystery and Meaning of the Battle of Kosovo, The Wise Abbess of Ljubostinja (written during his imprisonment there in the early 40s), various other writings in the remaining volumes of A Treasury of Serbian Spirituality and scattered articles, sermons and missionary letters. Other works include: Beyond Sin and Death (1914), The Spiritual Rebirth of Europe (1917), Orations on the Universal Man (1920), Thoughts on Good and Evil (1923), The Faith of Educated People (1928), Symbols and Signs (1932), The Faith of the Saints (an Orthodox Catechism in English, 1949), and The Only Love of Mankind (published posthumously in 1958). We look forward to the time when more of these are translated into English.

While the mere facts of St Nicholas life inspire awe, such a skeletal portrait does not explain his spiritual magnetism and the soul-penetrating power of his writings. These were the fruit of his life-long striving to know and to serve the Truth, which, in turn, kindled a habit of unceasing prayer and a practised consciousness of continually abiding in the presence of God. As St John of San Francisco relates in his tribute written two years after the repose of his old friend, Bishop Nicholas: ‘The young Velimirovich, while growing in body, grew all the more in spirit. As a sponge soaks up water, so he absorbed learning. Not only one, but many schools had him as their pupil and auditor. Serbia, Russia, England, France and Switzerland saw him in their lands as a bee collecting nectar. He not only strove to learn much, he also strove to acquire Truth. Firm in the Orthodox faith, he sought to obtain even with his mind that which faith gives. He did not doubt in the truth of faith; rather, he longed to sanctify his intellect with the Truth, and to serve the Truth with his mind, heart, and will. He developed his mind such that with its fruits he nourished not only himself but others as well. As much as he grew in knowledge, so he grew in spirit…Constantly pondering the ultimate questions, he gathered wisdom from everywhere - from learning, from nature, from the happenings of everyday life. Most of all he enlightened his soul with the Divine light, nourishing it with the Holy Scriptures and prayer’.

May we also be found worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven through the prayers of St Nicholas, and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory forever. Amen.

Holy Hierarch Father Nicholas, Pray To God For Us!

An Orthodox Life of St Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn

(+ 14/27 February 1915)

St Raphael was born in Syria in 1860 to pious Orthodox parents, Michael Hawaweeny and his second wife Mariam, the daughter of a priest in Damascus. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it was near his namesday on 8 November (21 November on the secular calendar). Due to the violent persecution of Orthodox, when their parish priest St Joseph of Damascus (10 July) and his companions were martyred, the Hawaweeny family was forced to flee to Beirut for safety. It was here that the future saint first saw the light of day. Indeed, as the child’s life unfolded, it was evident that he would have no abiding city in this world, but would seek the city which is to come.

He was baptized ‘Rafla’ in Beirut on the Feast of the Theophany 1861 and that spring the family was able to return to Damascus. The child attended elementary school, where he did very well, but in 1874 it became clear that Michael Hawaweeny would no longer be able to afford his son’s tuition. Fortunately, help came from Deacon Athanasius Atallah (later Metropolitan of Homs), who recommended to Patriarch Hierotheus of Antioch that he be accepted as a student of the Patriarchate in preparation for the priesthood. He was such a good student that he was selected to be a substitute teaching assistant in 1877. The following year he was appointed as a teacher of Arabic and Turkish. On 28 March 1879 he was tonsured monk by Patriarch Hierotheus, and served as His Beatitude’s cell attendant.

Since the seminary at Balamand had been closed in 1840, Patriarch Joachim III of Constantinople invited the Patriarch of Antioch to send at least one deserving student to study on scholarship at the School of Theology at Halki and the future Saint Raphael was selected. On 8 December 1885 he was ordained to the diaconate. In July 1886 the young deacon received his Certificate of Theology and returned to his homeland in the hope of serving the Church there. Patriarch Gerasimus of Antioch was impressed with Deacon Raphael and often took him with him on pastoral visits to his parishes. Indeed, when His Beatitude could not be present, the deacon was asked to preach.

Deacon Raphael was not satisfied with his knowledge and thirsted to learn more. This did not stem from pride, but from his fervent desire to benefit others. Therefore, he asked Patriarch Gerasimus to permit him to study at a school in Russia, promising to return and serve as the Patriarch’s Russian-language secretary. The Patriarch gave his blessing and Deacon Raphael was accepted as a student at the Theological Academy in Kiev. In 1889 Patriarch Gerasimus ordered the young deacon to take over as head of the Antiochian Dependancy in Moscow. He was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Sylvester, the Rector of the Academy, at the request of Patriarch Gerasimus. A month later, he was raised to the rank of Archimandrite by Metropolitan Ioannicius of Moscow and confirmed as head of the Antiochian Dependancy.

After two years, Archimandrite Raphael was able to reduce the representation’s debt by 15,000 roubles. He also arranged for twenty-four Syrian students to come to Russia to further their education. When Patriarch Gerasimus resigned in order to accept the See of Jerusalem, Archimandrite Raphael regarded this as an opportunity to free the Arab Church of Antioch from its domination by Greek bishops, who treated it as a colony. Burning with love for the Church of Antioch and wishing to restore the administration of the Church to its native clergy and people, Archimandrite Raphael began a campaign, writing letters to Antiochian bishops and influential laymen. He also wrote articles in the Russian press, drawing attention to the plight of Antioch. His courageous efforts did not meet with success, however, and there was a price to pay for telling the truth.

In November 1891 Metropolitan Spyridon, a Greek Cypriot, was elected Patriarch of Antioch. He had probably purchased the election by distributing 10,000 lira to notable people in Damascus, as was the custom in the East at that time and more recently. Archimandrite Raphael refused to commemorate the new Patriarch during services at his church in Moscow. As a result, he was suspended by Patriarch Spyridon. Archimandrite Raphael accepted his suspension and continued to write articles in Russian newspapers in defence of the Antiochian cause. The Greek Patriarchs of Antioch, Constantinople, Alexandria and Jerusalem successfully petitioned to forbid Russian newspapers from publishing his articles.

With this door closed to him, Fr Raphael began to publish his writings in book form. Eventually, Patriarch Spyridon wrote to the Assistant Overprocurator of the Russian Synod, a friend of Fr Raphael, asking him to persuade Fr Raphael to ask for the Patriarch’s forgiveness. He did so and the suspension was lifted. Fr Raphael was allowed to transfer from the jurisdiction of Antioch to the Church of Russia and remain there. He went to Kazan, taking a position as instructor in Arabic studies at the theological academy. He remained there until 1895, when he was invited by the Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society of New York to be the priest of the Arab Orthodox there.

When Fr Raphael heard of the needs of his countrymen who were scattered across a foreign land, he crossed the ocean to labour in another foreign country. He arrived in New York on 2 November 1895 and was welcomed by a delegation of Arab Orthodox who were awaiting their leader from Russia. On 5 November, his first Sunday in America, he assisted the Russian Bishop of America, Bishop Nicholas, in serving the Divine Liturgy at the Russian church in New York City. Less than two weeks after his arrival, Fr Raphael found a suitable place in lower Manhattan to set up a chapel and furnished it with items that he had brought with him from Russia. Bishop Nicholas consecrated the chapel to St Nicholas.

This zealous priest remained in New York teaching, preaching and celebrating the divine services for his parishioners. It was not long, however, before he heard of smaller communities of Arab Orthodox scattered throughout the length and breadth of North America. Since these Arab immigrants had no priest to care for them, it was not surprising that some had neglected their faith. This was a concern for Fr Raphael throughout the course of his life. Although, obviously, he was not opposed to friendly relations with Non-Orthodox based on shared beliefs, Fr Raphael never lost sight of the clear line of distinction that exists between the Orthodox and the heterodox and had to warn the faithful against attending heterodox organizations.

The Orthodoxy of Fr Raphael’s life and teaching was shown over and over again by his words and his actions. He always upheld and defended the spotless Orthodox Faith which was ‘delivered to the saints’. Although at first he did not understand the teachings of the heterodox, he soon saw how far they were from Orthodox teaching. When he realized this, he took steps to protect his flock from harmful influences. He directed his people not to attend heterodox services lest they become confused by ‘divers and strange doctrines’. He believed it would be preferable for the head of the household to read the Hours at home from the service book, when it was not possible to go to church.

In summer 1896 Fr Raphael undertook the first of several pastoral journeys across the continent. He visited thirty cities between New York and San Francisco, seeking out the lost sheep in cities, towns and on isolated farms. He fed the spiritually hungry people with the Word of God in each place where he stopped. He performed marriages, baptisms, heard confessions and celebrated the liturgy in the homes of the faithful where there was no church building. In other words, he zealously fulfilled his ministry as a preacher of the Gospel, enduring many hardships and afflictions and was watchful in all things concerning the care of his flock.

In 1898, with the blessing of Bishop Nicholas, Fr Raphael produced his first book in the New World - an Arab service book called The Book of True Consolation in the Divine Prayers. This book of liturgical services and prayers was very useful to priests in celebrating the divine services, and also to the people in their personal prayer life. Between May and November 1898, Fr Raphael set off on his second pastoral tour. During this trip he became convinced of the need for Arabic-speaking priests to serve in the new churches he had established. When he returned to New York, he made a report to Bishop Nicholas expressing these concerns. With Bishop Nicholas’ blessing, Fr Raphael was able to bring educated priests from Syria. He also sought out educated laymen whom he could recommend for ordination. Both as an Archimandrite and later as Bishop, St Raphael would appoint pastors only after obtaining the blessing of the Russian hierarch who headed the American Mission.

This was the normal state of affairs in America at the time. Fr Raphael welcomed Bishop (later St) Tikhon when the latter replaced Bishop Nicholas as the ruling bishop in America. On 15 December, St Tikhon came to serve the Liturgy at the Syrian church of St Nicholas. Raphael told his people that their new Archpastor was one who ‘has been sent here to tend the flock of Christ - Russians, Slavs, Syro-Arabs and Greeks - which is scattered across the entire North American continent’. At that time, thank God, there were no parallel jurisdictions based on mere nationality. The Church united those of diverse backgrounds under the protection of the Russian Archbishop. This was the norm until the Russian Revolution, after which petty nationalism and secular chauvinism began to disrupt Church life both inside and outside Russia, including in North America.

In March 1899, Fr Raphael received permission from Bishop Tikhon to start collecting funds for a cemetery and to build a new church to replace the chapel, located in an old building on a dirty street. In the spring he left on another pastoral tour of forty-three cities and towns. Travelling by land and sea and undeterred by the obstacles and difficulties before him, he spent seven months in the north-eastern, southern and mid-western regions of the United States. Fr Raphael ministered to Greeks and Russians as well as Arabs, performing weddings and baptisms, and regularizing the weddings of Orthodox people who had married outside the Church. He also chrismated children who had been baptized by Roman Catholic priests.

In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he reconciled those whose personal enmity threatened to divide the Arab community. Although civil courts had been unable to make peace, St Raphael restored calm and put an end to a bitter feud. While in Johnstown, he received a telegram informing him that Metropolitan Meletios (Doumani) had been elected Patriarch of Antioch. With great joy Fr Raphael told his people that for the first time in 168 years, a native Arab had been chosen as primate of the Church of Antioch. His long-term battle against Greek colonialism which had begun in Russia had been won. After the new Patriarch had been installed, Archimandrite Raphael was put forward to succeed Metropolitan Meletios as Metropolitan of Latakia in Syria. The Patriarch, however, stated that the Holy Synod could not elect Fr Raphael because of his important work in America. In 1901 Metropolitan Gabriel of Beirut wrote to Archimandrite Raphael asking him to be his auxiliary bishop, but he declined, saying that he could not leave his American flock. First, he wanted to build a permanent church and acquire a parish cemetery.

The latter goal was achieved in August 1901 when Fr Raphael a section of Mt Olivet cemetery on Long Island. In December 1901 Archimandrite Raphael was elected Bishop of Zahleh. Patriarch Meletios sent a telegram congratulating him and asking him to return. Fr Raphael thanked the Patriarch, but again declined higher office. He said that he wished to complete the project of building a church for the Syrian community in New York. The following year, he bought an existing church building on Pacific St. in Brooklyn, and had it remodelled for Orthodox worship. Bishop Tikhon consecrated the church to the great joy of the faithful in attendance. Thus, Fr Raphael’s second project was completed.

Since the number of parishes within the Diocese of North America was growing, Bishop Tikhon found it impossible to visit all of them. The diocese had to be reorganized in order to administer it more efficiently. Therefore, Bishop Tikhon submitted a plan to the Russian Holy Synod to transfer the See from San Francisco to New York because most parishes and individuals were concentrated in the east. Since various ethnic groups required special attention and pastoral leadership, Bishop Tikhon proposed that Fr Raphael be made his second vicar bishop, the Bishop of Alaska being his first.

In 1903 the Holy Synod of Russia unanimously elected Fr Raphael to be Bishop of Brooklyn, while retaining him as head of the Syro-Arab Orthodox Mission in North America. The Holy Synod announced the election to Patriarch Meletios, who was pleased by their decision. Bishop Tikhon wrote to Fr Raphael to inform him of his election and he accepted. Thus, on the third Sunday of Lent 1904, Fr Raphael became the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated on American soil. Bishop Tikhon and his vicar, Bishop Innocent, performed the service at St Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn. The new bishop’s vestments were a gift from the future Tsar-Martyr, Nicholas II. Following his consecration, Bishop Raphael continued his pastoral labours, ordaining priests, assigning them to parishes and helping Bishop Tikhon.

At the end of 1904 Bishop Raphael announced his intention to publish a journal called Al-Kalimat (The Word) as the official publication of the Syro-Arab mission. This would help to link the people and parishes of his diocese more closely together. Bishop Raphael knew that he could not visit all Orthodox Christians across North America in person, but through the ministry of the printed word, he could preach the word of salvation even to people he would never meet. The content was to be spiritual, moral and churchly so that the journal could reinforce people in their Faith. The Word would focus on five primary topics: dogmatic truths, ethical teaching, historical and contemporary church subjects, a chronicle of baptisms, weddings, etc., and official pronouncements. The first issue was printed in January 1905 and Saint Raphael considered this milestone as one equal in importance to the acquisition of St Nicholas Cathedral and the parish cemetery.

In July 1905 Bishop Raphael consecrated the grounds for St Tikhon’s Monastery and blessed the orphanage at South Canaan, Pennsylvania. Three days later, he presided at a conference of diocesan clergy at Old Forge, Pennsylvania, because Archbishop Tikhon was in San Francisco. Among the clergy in attendance were three who would also be numbered among the saints: Fr Alexis Toth, Fr Alexander Khotovitsky, and Fr John Kochurov (the latter two were later martyred by the Communists in Russia). For the next ten years Bishop Raphael tended his growing flock. With the growth of his New York community came an increase in the number of children and he was concerned about their future. He wanted to establish an evening school to educate them in an Orthodox atmosphere, because the future of the Church depended on the instruction of the young. Children who did not speak Arabic were already going to Non-Orthodox churches where Sunday school classes were conducted in English. Bishop Raphael saw the need to use English in worship and in education.

In March of 1907 the future St Tikhon had to return to Russia and was replaced by Archbishop Platon. Once again Bishop Raphael was considered for episcopal office in Syria, being nominated to succeed Patriarch Gregory as Metropolitan of Tripoli in 1908. However, that was not to be. On the Sunday of Orthodoxy 1911, Bishop Raphael was honoured for his fifteen years of pastoral ministry in America. The Russian Archbishop Platon presented him with an icon of Christ and praised him for his work. In his humility, Bishop Raphael could not understand why he should be honoured merely for doing his duty. He considered himself an ‘unworthy servant’, yet he did perfectly the work that fell to his lot.

Toward the end of 1912, Bishop Raphael fell ill while working in his office. Doctors diagnosed him with a heart ailment. After two weeks he felt strong enough to celebrate the liturgy in his Cathedral. In 1913-1914 Bishop Raphael continued to make pastoral visits to various cities. In 1915 he fell ill again and spent two months at home, bearing his illness with patience. At 12.40 am on February 14/27 he rested from his labours. They called him, but he did not answer – he had left this earthly life.

From his youth up, Bishop Raphael’s greatest joy had been to serve the Church. When he came to America, he found his people scattered abroad, and he called them to unity. He never neglected his flock, but travelled throughout America, Canada and Mexico in search of them so that he might care for them. He kept them from straying into strange pastures, protecting them from spiritual harm. During twenty years of faithful ministry he nurtured them and helped them to grow. At the time of his death, the Syro-Arab Mission had 25,000 faithful and thirty parishes. Bishop Raphael was also a scholar and the author of several books. He wrote many, if not most, of the articles that appeared in The Word. He served his own Arab community and also reached out to Greeks and Russians, speaking to them in their own language. He became fluent in English, encouraging its use where necessary.

Bishop Raphael came into contact with all sorts of people, and was a gentle father to them. He gained their love and respect by first loving them, and also through his charming personality and excellent character. He was always kind, merciful and condescending with others, but was strict with himself. He accomplished many good things during his earthly life, and now he joins the holy angels in offering unceasing prayer and praise to God. On the discovery that his relics were incorrupt and sweetly scented, Bishop Raphael was canonized in the Year 2000. Many attribute the rapid growth in the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America in the last few years to his heavenly intercessions.

Holy Hierarch Father Raphael, Pray to God for us!

(editor’s note: There is no connection between St Raphael and the present so-called “Antiochian” jurisdiction in the US. The latter is not a logical outgrowth of his work, which was under the omophor of the legitmate Russian hierarchy of the American mission. Any connections drawn by that group and St Raphael are disingenuous at best, and are reflections of the ambitions of the hierarch of that jurisdiction, not historical truth.)

An Orthodox Life of St John of San Francisco

(+ 19 June/2 July 1966)

St John of San Francisco (1896-1966) is also known as St John of Shanghai, St John of Western Europe and St John the Wonderworker. Such were the many places where he was bishop, such were his many qualities. He was considered a saint in his own lifetime and icons began to appear in Orthodox churches not long after his repose. A zealous bishop and theologian of the Orthodox Church, St John is still well remembered with great spiritual love in Australia, the Philippines, Western Europe, in North and South America and, today, increasingly in Russia, where churches have already been dedicated to him.

The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia canonized Archbishop John on the 28^th anniversary of his repose, 2 July 1994. In preparation for this glorification, the tomb containing his relics was opened. When the sepulchre cover was removed, the metal coffin was found to be in a poor state of preservation due to moisture. Rust had eaten through the coffin and the cover was rusted tightly shut. Inside, the Gospel Book over the remains had virtually disintegrated, the cross in the Archbishop’s hand was corroded, an icon had deteriorated and the episcopal vestments were mildewed and falling apart. The relics of Archbishop John, however, were incorrupt. His skin was white and soft and his body was found to be very light due to dehydration but quite intact. Those who venerated the relics discovered that they exuded a sweet fragrance. Exposure of a body to an amount of moisture that had deteriorated metal and other objects would have caused rapid decomposition. There was no basis to argue that Archbishop John’s body had undergone mummification.

This man of God was born on 4 June 1896 in the province of Kharkov in what was then southern Russia. At baptism he was given the name Michael. As a child he was serious for his years and he later wrote: ‘From the first days when I began to become aware of myself, I wished to serve righteousness and truth. My parents kindled in me a striving to stand unwaveringly for the truth, and my soul was captivated by the example of those who had given their lives for it’. Following the desire of his parents, he entered law school in Kharkov. He was naturally gifted student, but spent more time reading Lives of Saints then attending academic lectures. ‘While studying the worldly sciences’, he wrote, ‘I went all the more deeply into the study of the science of sciences, into the study of the spiritual life’.

After the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, he was evacuated together with his family to Belgrade in Serbia, where he entered the faculty of theology at the University. In 1926, a year after his graduation, he was tonsured a monk and given the name John, after his own distant relative who is a canonized saint, St John of Tobolsk (Archbishop John was to be buried with an icon of his saintly relative). In November of that same year, he was ordained priest. Soon he became a teacher at the Seminary of St John the Theologian in Bitol. More than once the bishop of that diocese would say: ‘If you wish to see a living saint, go to Father John’.

It was his own students who first became aware of Fr John’s great feat of asceticism. At night they noticed that he would stay up, making the rounds of the dormitories and praying over the sleeping students. ‘Finally, it was discovered that he scarcely slept at all, and never in a bed, allowing himself only an hour or two each night of uncomfortable rest in a sitting position, or bent over on the floor, praying before icons’. This ascetic feat he continued for the rest of his life, bringing his body ‘into subjection’, according to the holy Apostle Paul: ‘But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified’ (I Corinthians 9, 27).

At the age of 38 he was consecrated bishop by the great theologian Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky), in the company of several bishops who are now saints. He was sent to the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in Shanghai. There he took an active interest in the religious education of the young, encouraged and participated in various charitable organizations, founded an orphanage, and gathered sick and starving children off the streets. He always wore clothing of the cheapest Chinese fabric and often went barefoot, sometimes giving his sandals away to some poor man. He served the divine liturgy daily, as he did for the rest of his life. In China it became evident that Bishop John was not only a righteous man, but a true ascetic, a man of prayer and a wonderworker.

Once in Shanghai Bishop John was asked to the bed of a dying child, whose case had been called hopeless by the doctors. Entering the apartment, he went straight to the room in which the sick boy lay, although no one managed yet to show him where this was. Without examining the child, he immediately fell down in front of the icon in the corner, which was very characteristic of him, and prayed for a long time. Then, assuring the relatives that the child would recover, he quickly left. And in fact the child became better towards morning and he soon recovered, so that a doctor was no longer needed. He loved to visit the sick and if the condition of a patient would become critical, he would go to him at any hour of the day or night to pray at his bedside. There were cases when patients would cry out to Bishop John in the middle of the night from their hospital beds and he would go to see them without even being called by phone.

When the coming of the Communists, the Russians in China were forced to flee again, mostly through the Philippines. At one time 5,000 of the refugees were living in an International Refugee Organization camp on the island of Tubabao, located in the path of typhoons. When the fear of typhoons was mentioned by one Russian to the Filippinos, they replied that there was no reason to worry, because, ‘your holy man blesses your camp from four directions every night’. They referred to Bishop John, for no typhoon struck the island while he was there.

In trying to resettle his flock in Christ our Lord, Bishop John went to Washington D.C. There he had to meet a committee in the Senate to appeal for the Russian refugees. However, he went only after he had celebrated the divine liturgy. Once the liturgy was over, he went to the Senate on behalf of the Russian refugees, but was by then late. By the time the small of stature holy man had entered the Senate, they had already moved on to another item on the agenda. Nevertheless, everyone in the Senate stood up out of respect, for they saw that a man of God had entered the room and wanted to hear his appeal on behalf of the Russian refugees in the Philippines. After Bishop John had given his report to the Senate Committee, the refugees were able to go to America and live in San Francisco. All the Russian refugees were able to go to America - including his orphanage, which he later established in San Francisco and which became known as St Tikhon’s Orphanage.

In 1951 Bishop John was sent to Western Europe and here he was later made Archbishop. Here too his reputation for holiness spread - and not only among the Orthodox. In one of the Roman Catholic churches of Paris, a priest strove to inspire his young people with these words: ‘You demand proofs, you say that now there are neither miracles nor saints. Why should I give you theoretical proofs, when today there walks in the streets of Paris a saint - St Jean Nu Pieds - St John the Barefoot. In the twelve years that St John spent looking after various nationalities in Western Europe and also in North Africa, he gave hope to all and an example of Orthodox truth, faithfulness and piety amid the errors and apostasies of the post-war period in Western Europe. It was here especially that he became renowned as a missionary, receiving Western European Orthodox back into their ancestral faith after some nine hundred years. He also restored veneration for the ancient local saints of the many lands of Western Europe, laying the foundations of the later struggles of other Orthodox, who followed in his footsteps.

At the end of 1962 Archbishop John was transferred to America, in fact to San Francisco and many of his former flock from China. As Archbishop of San Francisco, he was called on to sort out a bitter internal division among the Russian Orthodox. Many of these had become secular and politically-minded Americans and had forsaken the purity of their ancestral faith of Holy Rus. In particular they were divided with regard to the building of the new Cathedral. Archbishop John was to suffer much, including being put on trial in a secular court, but he bore slander and indignity from false brethren with patience and humil