19 October 2014. A Church Service in Poland

******

______________________________

The young bishop in the vid is Rostislav Gont, the First Hierarch of the Local Church of Czechia and Slovakia.

BMD

Advertisement

6 September 2014. Tonight in Gorlice… Vespers at the Relics of St Maksim Sandovich

_____________________________

The Uniates constantly scream, “We’re Orthodox in union with Rome”… that’s hooey in the First Degree. To be “Orthodox in Union with Rome” they’d have to have icons of St Mark of Ephesus, St Germogen of Moscow, St Maksim Sandovich, and St Aleksei Kabalyuk in their churches set out for veneration… they don’t and they won’t, as they kiss the naked bum of the Roman Curia. Keep your distance especially from Galician Uniates, the UGKTs (“Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church”)… they’re the worst of the lot for they bless the murders of the junta as they blessed the murders of the Nazis, as they blessed the oppressions of the Poles and Habsburgs. The Uniates do NOT honour St Maksim’s podvig for Church UNITY. The Uniates honour the memory of his oppressors. I CALL THAT UNMITIGATED EVIL.

In these evil days when Orthodox in the “Ukraine” hang on the cross, mainly through the efforts of Galician Uniates, for us to have anything at all to do with the UGKTs, its institutions, or its clergy and hierarchy is nothing short of crackbrained and mad. Notice who does so… especially notice those like Vassa Larina who’re traitors for filthy lucre’s sake (she sold out to Bob Taft, and he got her a job in Vienna). Note well that the official websites of the OCA and the ROCOR didn’t mark the anniversary of St Maksim’s martyrdom, nor did they note the fact that OCA and ROCOR clergy went to Poland to take part in the commemoration. Is kissing the ass of the Uniates so important to the OCA/ROCOR First Families (SVS is the worst of the lot)? Our co-religionists hang on the cross… all that they can talk about is Bart’s bootless statement on environmentalism or a molieben to mark the beginning of the school year. I’d call that culpable and without excuse. In times of peril for the Church… indeed, our days are such… those who willingly seek out and initiate contact with the enemies of Christ’s Church are without defence. I’d say, “Look at the good trees… look at the bad trees. There are more of them than simply Potapov, Paffhausen, and Webster… note well who schmoozes up to Uniates and who defends them”. Yes, do have a care… the times are evil and some of the most evil actors on the stage are Orthodox clergy. As St John Chrysostom put it, “Bad priests are the lampstands of Hell”.

Have a care… there be cowpats in that there field…

BMD

22 September 2012. A Point to Ponder. Is He a Saint… The Church Says “Yes”… The Uniates Say “No”

______________________________

Those who honour St Maksim’s podvig LOVE Christ and His Church… what does that tell us about those who minimise or deny that podvig? That’s why we have nothing in common with Uniates… they deny such manifest holiness and reality. Don’t hate them… but pay no heed to their lying propaganda of an “Eastern Church”… it does NOT exist. St Maksim died because he refused to dilute the Unity of Christ’s Church. We should do likewise. We forget tserkovnost (“churchmindedness” is a very pale translation of this central Orthodox concept) at our own peril.

BMD

Our Father Amongst the Saints Hieromartyr Maksim Sandovich (+1914), Murdered by the Papist Habsburgs

______________________________

St Maksim Sandovich was born in 1882 in the village of Żdynia in Carpatho-Russia. At present, this area is near the Polish–Ukrainian border, but it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time. From an early age, St Maksim showed extraordinary piety. When he was a schoolboy, he’d get up early in the morning to read his prayers and sing hymns. He wanted to become a monk or a priest, so, after he completed his schooling, he became a novice in one of the Uniate monasteries. However, in short order, the life there disappointed him, and, after three months, he went from there to the Pochaev Monastery, famous for its rigour, the spiritual life of its brotherhood, and its adherence to Orthodoxy. When Maksim was still a novice, Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky (1863-1936) of Kiev visited the monastery. He asked the abbot to release one of the novices to study in seminary, to ordain him to serve in Carpatho-Russia, where many Uniates had returned to Orthodoxy. The abbot chose to send Maksim. He left his dreams of a monastic life, and he followed Metropolitan Antony. After finishing seminary in Zhitomir, Maksim married a Byelorussian girl and accepted ordination to the priesthood in 1911. Metropolitan Anthony offered him the opportunity to stay with him in Kiev, but Fr Maksim refused, and he returned to his homeland.

He began his pastoral service in Grabe, near his native village. In this place, he celebrated Orthodox Liturgy for the first time after the Catholic rulers imposed the Unia on Carpatho-Russia in the 17th century. During a personal call on his relatives, the authorities arrested him and gave him a substantial fine and an eight-day gaol-sentence. Despite this, Fr Maksim continued to serve in neighbouring villages, which led to new measures against him and the Orthodox Christians who aided him in his mission. In March 1912, the Habsburg authorities imprisoned him in Lvov. Two years later, he was in court again, this time facing charges of spreading the Orthodox faith, the use of liturgical books in Church Slavonic, and collaboration with Russia, which opposed Austria-Hungary. On all the charges, the saint replied, “My only politics is the Holy Gospel“. Despite much perjury against him, abuse, isolation, and all kinds of suffering, in June 1914, the court acquitted St Maksim, along with his associates, so, they returned to their native places. However, in August 1914, upon the outbreak of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian authorities arrested Fr Maksim again, along with his wife, who was pregnant, his father, and several Orthodox villagers. They put them in gaol in Gorlice. On 6 September 1914, without a trial before a judge, Fr Maksim received an extrajudicial death sentence. They dragged him from his cell and shot him in the prison yard, in front of all the arrested Orthodox. Falling to the ground, the Holy Hieromartyr of Christ said, “Long live Holy Orthodoxy!” Then, enraged, one of the executioners rushed at him and stabbed him with a dagger.

Only in 1922 were the remains of the saint transferred to his native village of Żdynia, where Orthodox believers buried him next to the church. Since then, many pilgrims went on otpust to his tomb. Holy Hieromartyr Maksim Sandovich’s veneration spread among Carpatho-Russian Orthodox, it persisted even after the Habsburg authorities deported many of them to the Talerhof concentration camp; St Maksim became a symbol of their national and religious identity. The Local Church of Warsaw and all Poland glorified St Maksim in 1994… the first saint glorified by this Local Church after its autocephaly in 1924. His memory isn’t included in the current edition of the Mineya of the Local Church of Moscow and all the Russias.

19 September 2012

Hieromonk Makarios of Simonopetra Monastery (Mount Athos)

Pravoslavie.ru

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/56146.htm

From Synaxarion: Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church, published by Sretensky Monastery in Moscow

Editor’s Note:

Let’s keep it simple. Freddie M-G, Dreher, Fathausen, and all the rest of the konvertsy cavalcade schmooze up to and pander to Uniates. I’d observe that the Uniates colluded in the murder of St Maksim and that they refuse to recognise him as a saint to this day. You can stand with the konvertsy indifferentists or you can stand with the REAL Church, which honours St Maksim. Any questions? Yet, they lecture us, and call us “nominal” and “lax”… I’ll retire to Bedlam with Mr Scrooge…

This Sunday is the closest Sunday to St Maksim’s feastday on the Orthodox calendar. Don’t forget him… and those who came after him, too. Unfortunately, the Uniate clergy and leadership were (and are) busy beavers in their service of the Pope of Rome… they continue their attacks on Christ’s Church and its true ministers and believers to this day. You must trust NOTHING from Uniate sources (such as the website Byzantine Texas)… either its outright lies or its “castrated truth”… truth with vital parts cut out. Caveat lector…

Nothing is forgotten… no one is forgotten. Lest we forget…

BMD