A True History of Palestine and Israel 🍉

This true history, given by The Reverend Priest, Father David of Saints Constantine and Helen Antiochian Orthodox Church, is a great telling of the history of Palestine and Israel of the last 2000+ years, that simply states facts without excusing any of the many evils done by either the Zionists nor Hamas. 

His message of the forgotten people of this world begins at 01:26:00 at https://www.youtube.com/live/WyRTVHB6sE4?si=nrsaWCElm5JiMOgg and I cannot reccomend this highly enough. 

Help and Pray for Ukraine

Are you wondering how to donate and help Ukraine besides prayer, and don't want your money to errantly end up in the hands of scammers? You can donate money that will 100% go the Ukrainian people, without any executive or administration fees to pay anyone a salary through the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA at https://www.uocofusa.org/news_220224_1 marking your donations with the comment, "LET’S HELP UKRAINE". They have already used this money to get everyday supplies and medical supplies to the people of Ukraine and evacuate an orphanage of children and their teachers to Poland with the donations that they have received so far. If you prefer to donate with Facebook's own platform, you can do so at the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA at https://www.facebook.com/uocofusa.

After Almost 20 Years, I Finally Found Book 4 of "The Monastery Builders" Series

For almost 20 years I had been looking for book 4 in The Monastery Builders series, and yesterday, I finally go it! Let me tell you, it was well worth the wait. This is an incredible hagiographical series that I recommend for all Orthodox Christians. They were all published and printed with the blessing of His Grace, ALYPY, Bishop of Chicago, Detroit, and Middle America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR).

Here are links to all five books of The Monastery Builders series. Unfortunately, since it has long been out of print, they are not all available at good prices or even available at all.

1. The Lives of the Monastery Builders [This brown book was published in 1988] 
2. The Lives of the Monastery Builders of Soumela [This green book was published in 1991] 
3. The Lives of the Monastery Builders of Meteora [This blue book was published in 1991] 
4. The Lives of the Monastery Builders of The Great Cave (Mega Spelaion) [This purple book was published in 1992] 
5. The Lives of the Monastery Builders of The Holy Mountain Athos [This black book was published in 1992] 

The 5 Types of Love in Ancient Greek

Though there are more Greek words for love, variants and possibly subcategories, a general summary considering these Ancient Greek concepts are as follows:

Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē) means "love: especially charity; the love of God for man and of man for a good God." Agape is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one's children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love feast. Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children.

Éros (ἔρως érōs) means "love, mostly of the sexual passion." The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "intimate love". Plato refined his own definition: Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, "without physical attraction". In the Symposium, the most famous ancient work on the subject, Plato has Socrates argue that eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth, the ideal "Form" of youthful beauty that leads us humans to feel erotic desire – thus suggesting that even that sensually based love aspires to the non-corporeal, spiritual plane of existence; that is, finding its truth, just like finding any truth, leads to transcendence. Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth through the means of eros.

Philia (φιλία philía) means "affectionate regard, friendship", usually "between equals". It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle. In his best-known work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends (specifically, "brotherly love"), family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos is also the root of philautia denoting self-love and arising from it, a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.

Storge (στοργή storgē) means "love, affection" and "especially of parents and children". It is the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring. Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in "loving" the tyrant. This is also used when referencing the love for one's country or a favorite sports team.

Xenia (Greek: ξενία, romanized: xenía, meaning "guest-friendship") is the ancient Greek concept of hospitality, the generosity and courtesy shown to those who are far from home and/or associates of the person bestowing guest-friendship. The rituals of hospitality created and expressed a reciprocal relationship between guest and host expressed in both material benefits (such as the giving of gifts to each party) as well as non-material ones (such as protection, shelter, favors, or certain normative rights).

Saint Nicholas (Nikolai) the Tsar Martyr, Colonel Oleg Pantyukhov, and the Scout Movement

After reading the English language edition of Lord Robert Baden-Powell’s book, "Scouting for Boys", Tsar Nicholas Romanov II immediately issued an order for its translation and publication. An initial printing of 25,000 copies of the Russian edition of "Юный Разведчик" (Young Scout) were issued in 1908.

The book inspired a young Russian officer, Colonel Oleg Ivanovich Pantyukhov (1882-1973), to set up the first Russian Scout Troop.

Oleg Ivanovich Pantyukhov was born in Kiev on 25 March 1882, to a family of a military physician and an anthropologist. From 1892 to 1899 he studied at Tiflis cadet school. During his studies he became a member of the group named Pushkin Club. The group was somewhat similar to the modern Boy Scouts. Every weekend they went on hiking trips with camping in the nearby mountains.

From 1899 to 1901, Pantyukhov studied at the Pavlovsk Military School. After graduation he became an officer of the Leib Guard (Russian Imperial Guard) 1st infantry battalion stationed in Tsarskoye Selo. In 1908 he married Nina Mikhaylovna Dobrovolskaya, who later became one of the pioneers of the Girl Guide movement in Russia.

He organized the first Russian Scout Troop in Pavlovsk, on 30 April [O.S. 17 April] 1909. The Beaver Patrol, consisting of seven boys, built a campfire in the woods of Pavlovsk Park. A Russian Scout song exists to remember this event. By late 1910 scout organizations existed in Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg and Moscow.

On 19 December 1910, Pantyukhov met in St. Petersburg with Lord Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), the pair becoming good friends. The latter invited Pantyukhov to visit Scout organizations in England, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. On his return he wrote the first Russian Scouting books “Памятка Юного Разведчика” (Handbook for the Young Scout) and “В гостях у Бой-скаутов” (Visiting the Boy Scouts)

Tsar Nicholas II extended a personal invitation to Lord Baden-Powell to visit St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1911. The Tsar personally received the Boy Scout leader in his study in the Alexander Palace on 2 January 1911.

“There was no ceremony about him,” Baden-Powell recorded in his diary. “He shook hands and, speaking in very good English, asked me about my visit and then went on to talk about the Boy Scouts.” They then had “a very cheery talk (no one else present) of over half an hour,” after which they parted.

Baden-Powell departed fully convinced that the Tsar was absolutely sincere, and that he had “grasped the idea” of scouting. There is no question of Nicholas II’s interest in scouting was clearly genuine. Apart from ordering the Russian publication of "Scouting for Boys", he personally arranged to meet its author. With Baden-Powell installed in the Imperial capital’s grand Hotel de France, the Tsar could have left any official interview to one of his ministers. Instead, he issued a private invitation through the British Embassy, a request that apparently took his visitor by complete surprise.

This encounter was also quite unlike those with his Ministers and Duma politicians, meetings that the Tsar could not avoid, however much he disliked the advice they forced upon him. Put differently, with Baden-Powell it was Nicholas and Nicholas alone who both took the initiative and the agenda, and had no need to disguise his opinions or dissemble behind a mask of good manners.

The Tsar had explained to Baden-Powell how he had ordered the translation and publication of the Boy Scout handbook and reviewed the first Russian Scout detachment, and went on to outline his hopes for the movement. According to Baden-Powell, Nicholas II was “much impressed by the possibilities which lie in the Movement for developing discipline, patriotism and character,” and approved “teaching the boys by methods which really appealed to their imagination and keenness.”

In 1913 Oleg Pantyukhov wrote a book named “Спутник Бойскаута” (The Boy Scout Companion). Pantyukhov met Tsar Nicholas II and presented a Scouting badge for the Tsar's only-son, Tsesarevich Alexei, who had formally became a Scout. In 1914, Pantyukhov established a nationwide society called Русский Скаут (Russian Scout). Scouting spread rapidly across Russia and into Siberia, and by 1916 there were about 50,000 Scouts in Russia. When Baden-Powell traveled by train to Moscow to meet the central committee of the Scout Organization in Moscow, he met and passed about 3,000 Scouts.

During World War I Pantyukhov received the Cross of Saint George, for bravery. With the advent of communism after the October Revolution of 1917, and during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, most of the Scoutmasters and many Scouts fought in the ranks of the White Army and interventionists against the Red Army. During the October Revolution of 1917, he was the leader of the cadets who unsuccessfully defended the Kremlin from the Bolsheviks. In 1918, a purge of the Scout leaders took place, in which many of whom perished under the Bolsheviks. Those Scouts who did not wish to accept the new Soviet system either left Russia for good, like Pantyukhov and others, or went underground. In 1919 in Novocherkassk (controlled at the time by the White Army), Pantyukhov was unanimously elected the Chief Scout of Russia.

However, clandestine Scouting did not last long. On 19 May 1922, all of those newly created organizations were forcibly united into the Young Pioneer organization (1922-1990) of the Soviet Union and Scouting in the Soviet Union was banned as happened in all communist countries.

For more about Scouting in Russia, including Russian Scouting in Exile and its rebirth in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, please see the article, Orthodoxy and Scouting in America and Throughout the World.

NOTE: This blog post is based on an article by Paul Gilbert of TsarNicholas.org but has been modified and edited.

The Life of Scoutmaster and Saint, Basil of Kineshma, Hieroconfessor & New Martyr of the Communist Yoke

Bishop Basil, in the world Benjamin Sergeyevich Preobrazhensky, was born in 1876 in Kineshma, Kostroma province into the family of Archpriest Sergius and Matushka Paula.

In those years many of the clergy did not distance themselves from the worldly environment, and borrowed worldly tendencies and a worldly cast of mind from it. But Father Sergius Preobrazhensky and his wife, Matushka Paula, were not like those. There was nothing worldly in their home, and no objects of secular culture. After all, how could anything secular compare with the Sacred Scriptures!

Fr. Sergius did not accept in his home guests whose aim was vain talk. The whole sense and aim of earthly life for the couple was the cleansing of the mind and heart by prayer and the sacraments. And a purified heart was better able to detect the insidious traps of this world and the craftiness and evil thoughts coming from the devil. And for that reason the parents tried in every way possible to protect their children from the influence of the world, knowing how difficult it is to uproot the thorns of sin and passion once they have already grown.

Benjamin Sergeyevich was brought up from infancy in an atmosphere of prayer and spiritual exploits. Only prayer, only church services, only spiritual exploits, only true joy filled his life from early childhood. The whole structure of the life that surrounded him was similar to the monastic. Neither news, nor gossip, nor vain conversations - nothing of all this penetrated the high fence of their house, which the children were forbidden to leave. And it was a joy for the child when their house was visited by poor brothers and wanderers. On the very day of his baptism, when Benjamin was brought home from the church, an old wanderer woman arrived in their house, looked at the boy and said,

"He will be a great man."

And there were other prefigurings of his exceptional future. His parents did not even consider the study of letters to be important, and did not make haste about it. And this absence of worldly vanity taught the boy mental concentration, so that when the time came to study, he finished Kostroma theological seminary with distinction.

Then he entered the Kiev Theological Academy. When he was studying in the academy, Benjamin Sergeyevich began to preach in the town churches. His sermons soon became so well-known and popular that he was also invited to the villages on the patronal feasts of the village churches.

On June 28, 1901 he was appointed a teacher of polemical theology, history and polemics against the Old Ritualist schism and local sects in the Voronezh theological seminary. Having been interested since youth in the ascetic side of the Christian struggle, he wrote a dissertation "On the Skete Paterikon", for which he was awarded the degree of Master of Theology.

In 1910, having acquired a good knowledge of both the ancient and the modern European languages, he went to London in order to continue his education and become more closely acquainted with European culture. He got to know the Scout movement in England, and listened to lectures by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the World Scouting Movement. This led him to taking the position of Scoutmaster in the Russian Scout Organization.

In 1911 he was appointed teacher of foreign languages and general history in the Mirgorod men’s gymnasium in Poltava province, and in 1914 – teacher of Latin language in the Petrovskaya gymnasium in Moscow.

In the same year he went on a special trip to England and spent some time at a summer Scout Camp. On his return, he published a book on the Boy Scouts, and in 1917 – a second book on the subject together with V.A. Popov. In his book, “The Russian Scout Movement”, Yu.V. Kudryschov considers these two books the best of their kind. Benjamin took part in the Second All-Russian Congress of Instructors and Those Interested in Scouting from December 28, 1916 to 1 January, 1917.

In 1917 he graduated from a pedagogical institute. Also, towards the end of October, 1917, Benjamin was a witness of the battle for the Moscow Kremlin between the Junkers and the Bolsheviks.

Benjamin Sergeyevich decided to leave Moscow and devote his life to God. He became a Reader in the Ascension Church in Kineshma, helping his elderly father. He founded Orthodox circles for the study of the Holy Scriptures attached to the churches of the Kineshma diocese. In 1918, the authorities issued a decree forbidding the preaching of The Law of God in schools; so the light of Christ was forcibly removed from the hearts of the children. However, Benjamin Sergeyevich began to gather the children in the Ascension Church and preach the Law of God to them there. And then he became a missionary-preacher in his native land of Kineshma, going round the parishes on foot and founding circles of zealots of piety wherever he could, drawing them in by the reading and interpretation of the Word of God. He carefully examined the parishioners of the churches in which he had to preach during church services, and chose from amongst them a strongly believing woman who had a good knowledge of the Word of God, round whom he began to collect a church circle. In this circle the Gospel was read and then interpreted. Benjamin Sergeyevich himself did some of the interpreting. Besides this, the appointed church services were read, and church chants and spiritual verses beloved by the people were sung. It was difficult to organize these circles, but once created they gave fruit a hundredfold, educating many souls in such faithfulness and love for Christ that none of the misfortunes that came after could shake them. During the renovationist heresy these circles became unshakeable fortresses of Orthodoxy.

From September 30 to October 1, 1919, Benjamin Sergeyevich took part in the Congress of Scoutmasters of the South of Russia in Novorossiysk.

Being strict with himself and a strict fulfiller of the canons and regulations of the Church, Benjamin's father did not consider him ready for ordination to the priesthood and monasticism before he was forty. So only on July 16, 1920 was Benjamin ordained to the priesthood as a celibate; he was then 45. The ordination took place in the town of Kostroma and was performed by Archbishop Seraphim (Mescheryakov) of Kostroma. Soon after this, his father died, and Benjamin received the tonsure (to become a Hieromonk) with the name of Basil, in honour of Saint Basil the Great.

In 1921 he was arrested by the Ivanovo Cheka as having been “politically unreliable as a hostage in the days of the Kronstadt uprising”. On September 19, 1921 Fr. Basil was consecrated as Bishop of Kineshma, a vicariate of the diocese of Kostroma. Archbishop Seraphim of Kostroma and Bishops Hierotheus (Pomerantsev) and Sebastian (Vesti) carried out the consecration. After his consecration, he redoubled his ascetic efforts. Having renounced all personal property, he settled on the edge of the town in a small bath-house which was in the kitchen-garden of a soldier's widow, Anna Alexandrovna Rodina. The hierarch had no possessions or furniture, and he slept on the bare floor, putting a log under his head and covering himself up with some clothes. He hid his exploit from outsiders, receiving no-one in this place. Those who came met him in the chancellery, which was attached to the Ascension Church.

The bath-house was a long way from the church, one had to go through the whole town, but the  did holy hierarchn did not want to find a nearer place for himself, although at that time he served daily. Every morning while it was not yet light he would walk across the whole town to the church, returning home late at night. Not once was he apprehended by robbers on the street, but he meekly and lovingly gave them everything he had, and soon they began to recognize him from a distance and did not come up to him anymore. Besides the daily church services, in which he always preached without fail, the hierarch confessed his numerous spiritual children, going round the homes of all who needed his help and word of consolation, visiting monasteries and the circles he had founded scattered throughout the uyezd. On major feast-days the hierarch served in the cathedral, and from Thursday to Friday there were all-night vigils in the Church of the Ascension. The people loved these all-night vigils which were dedicated to the memorial of the Lord's Passion, and were present at them in great numbers. They were especially beloved of the workers, many of whom lived not in the very centre of the town, but in the environs, two hours' walk from the church. They stood through the all-night vigil and it was only late at night that they got home - in the morning they were again at work. But such was the grace of these services that people did not feel tired. During the Divine service the hierarch himself read the akathist to the Passion and there was such quietness in the church at that time, as if there were not a single person there, and every word was heard in the furthest corner.

The grace-filled words of Bishop Basil's sermon pierced the hearts and drew more and more people into the churches. After his sermons many completely changed their lives. Some, following the example of the hierarch, gave their property to the poor, dedicating their lives to the service of the Lord and their neighbours.

The light of faith and grace began to reach even the unbelievers and Jews who began to come to the church so as to hear the hierarch's words about Christ the Saviour.

Whatever people might think of the Christian faith and the Orthodox Church, almost everyone felt that the hierarch's words responded to the inner demands of the soul, clearly returning life to the soul and a feeling of meaning to life. And the authorities began to be more and more disturbed. But they found no excuse for arresting the hierarch, while his popularity amidst the people was so great that the authorities could not bring themselves to arrest him. And then they began to infiltrate people into the church whose task was to tempt the hierarch with questions during the sermon so as to confuse him. Vladyka Basil knew that there were such people in the church, and he replied to many of their questions beforehand. Convicted in their conscience, and understanding the pointlessness of their situation, the atheists left the church without asking any questions.

When famine had broken out in the region of the lower Volga river, and many orphans were beginning to be evacuated to orphanages, he gave a calling upon his parishioners to adopt these children as their own, and he himself, in order to establish an example, rented a house for five little girls and arranged for a pious Christian woman to look after them. By his prayers, many were miraculously healed from spiritual as well as from bodily ailments.

By 1922 the Scouting Movement had been banned by the Communist Authorities, so the Russian Scouting Movement went into exile in China, France, Serbia, Bulgaria, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and the United States of America.

In 1923, Saint Basil was arrested and sent into exile to the Ziryansky region, were he remained until 1925. After Vladika's return from exile, the Church in Kineshma started to grow quickly and become stronger. The municipal authorities became alarmed, and demanded that the bishop leave the city.

After two years of wandering from place to place, in 1928, he was again arrested, sat in jail for half a year, and was sentenced to three years of exile. After returning from exile, Vladika spent two years in the city of Orel. The authorities there returned him to Kineshma. As soon as he arrived, he and his cell attendant, who had faithfully followed him throughout all of these persecutions on the part of the godless authorities, were placed in jail. They wanted to pass the death sentence upon him, but could find no charge for justifying it. The authorities held them for five years in a camp — Saint Basil was sent to a camp not far from Rybinsk, and his cell attendant was sent to a camp near Murmansk.

After this sentence was served, the aging bishop spent only two years in freedom. Again he was arrested. At first he was sent to the Yaroslav prison, and then to the Butyrsky prison in Moscow. After eight months of incarceration, he spent five years in exile in the Krasnoyarsk region in the village of Birilyussy.

On July 31, 1945, the Saint reposed. In his will, he had stipulated that he wished for his remains to be returned to his native city, but in those years, such a thing was impossible. However, on October 5/18, 1985, his relics were found and translated to Moscow. In June of 1993, they were translated to the Convent of the Holy Entrance into the Temple in the city of Ivanovsk.

August 20/September 2 of 1982, Saint Basil was added to the list of the Saints of the Russian Orthodox Church. The "Conversations on the Gospel of St. Mark" by Saint Basil, published recently for the first time, were entered into the golden collection of Russian Christian literature. The relics of the Saint serve as a source of spiritual comfort and of healing for the bodily ailments of many of the faithful.

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More about the Saint:

Saint Basil of Kineshma is the patron saint of this blog. He was not only an Orthodox Christian Scoutmaster, but also was a Deacon, Presbyter, then Bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church in a time of great persecution. For many years I attended, and was the Deacon for an Orthodox Christian Church named for Saint Basil of Kineshma, so I have a special fondness for him. You can learn even more about this great saint in the spectacular book, "Saint Basil, Bishop of Kineshma, A Guiding Light" by the wonderful Nikodemos Orthodox Publishing Society.

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Troparion to the Saint, Tone 5
O new confessor of the Church of Russia, imitator of the labors of the apostles, fervent preacher of the Orthodox Faith, inspired interpreter of the Scriptures, who didst endure banishment, prison and tribulation at the hands of the ungodly, O Basil our father, thou royal adornment: as thou standest now before the Holy Trinity, pray for thy homeland and for those who honor thy holy memory as is meet.

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Kontakion to the Saint, Tone 3
We praise thy courage, O Basil, holy hierarch of Christ; we exalt the purity of thy faith, and marvel at thy gift of eloquence: for thou didst receive from heaven the divine grace to instruct and defend the flock of Christ.

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The First Scout Martyr: Saint Alexis the Passion-Bearer

The Most August Scout, Holy Passion-Bearer Tsarevich-Martyr Alexis. Killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

If we need an example of a life following the Scout Law, then we do not need to look farther than the vita of our Brother-in-Scouting, the Holy Passion-bearer Alexis (Alexei), Heir to the Russian Throne.  Saint Alexis was a Scout of the Tsarskoe Selo chapter. He became the first martyr within Scouting.

From the first day of his birth on July 30, 1904, Saint Alexis was thrown into suffering: he had developed hemophilia. This genetic disease, which St. Alexis received through his mother, the Holy Empress Alexandra, from her grandmother, the English Queen Victoria, causes incoägulability of the blood, owing to which a small scrape or any wrong move could entail death. Moreover, attacks of the disease are connected to great pains.

It would be understandable if, on the basis of such sufferings, St Alexis turned into a withdrawn, antisocial, and angry teenager. However, this did not happen. Instead, in the words of witnesses and peers, St Alexis was lively and happy, smart and noble, kind and attentive, and direct with his sympathies and emotions. Moreover, the disease seemed to teach him thoughtfulness and humility, and created within him a strong faith in the Lord, a very strong will, and empathy for the sufferings of the people. It was also seen that he loved his homeland and was a fierce patriot.

By order of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II, the book of the founder of the World Scouting Movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, "Scouting For Boys," was translated into the Russian language. The Sovereign not only acquiesced to the idea and symbols of scouting (the motto and emblem), but called to make every effort in order for Russian society to become interested in the Scouting Movement.

In July of 1914 the First World War began, which proved to be quite tragic for Russia. Russia mobilized, and together with others to the Front, went the founder of Russian Scouting, Oleg I. Pantuckoff [Pantyukhov]. However, at that time, a Scouting chapter has already developed in Tsarskoe Selo. St Alexis took great interest in Scouting, especially because his friend and relative, Grand Duke Georgy, being an active Scout, told him about the meets and hikes. St. Alexis quickly entered the ranks of the Tsarskoe Selo chapter of Scouts, becoming the second member of the Imperial Family after Georgy, of which he remained proud until the end of his life.

It is known to us exactly how actively St Alexis was able to take part in scout life, seeing as, speaking not of his disease, he had serious obligations: not only in preparation of becoming the ruler, but also in fulfilling his duty as the Heir to the Throne and taking part in public initiatives. Thus, as the heir, he was the chief of an entire series of regiments and was obligated to visit them with the goal of raising morale. His father often took him with him to the Front, and St Alexis loved his, as he took interest in military matters. However, we know that St Alexis remembered out motto "Be Prepared!" for his whole life, and tried to follow it always and everywhere.

Action on the Front did not turn in Russia's favor. Russia could not allow a prolonged war for herself. Defeat and great losses, a lack of manpower at the read, the interruption of production, hardships with provisions for the army, problems with supplies in the cities - all of this aggravated unhappiness in the populace and opened to door for the demagogues, and eventually, led to a crisis in leadership. The Emperor had to abdicate from the Throne on behalf of himself and his son, and the Provisional Government came to power, which in turn was quickly overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

The Provisional Government had already arrested the Imperial Family. The Bolsheviks, then, sent the family into exile in Ekaterinburg, intensified the prison régime and, finally, decided to completely destroy the family. On the horrifying night of July 16-17, 1918, the Bolshevik wardens ordered that the family get dressed and descend into the semi-basement of the house with the supposed purpose of evacuation. St Alexis, who was afflicted by his disease, was carried in his father's arms. Then, into the basement entered a death squad of mostly Hungarians (Russians were not trusted), the death sentence was read, the ringleader of the squad thereupon shot St Nicholas in the head, and this served as the signal for the other guns to fire at close range. The wounded Saint Alexis was finished off with bayonets and rifle butts. He was only 13 years of age upon his death.

At the end of the 20th century, the remains of the martyrs were found and identified. For his blameless death, for meekness, humility, and godliness during the most difficult of circumstances, for bravery in the face of suffering, for the very considerable moral dimensions to which he rose, for his unwavering faith, the Orthodox Church added Saint Alexis into the synaxis of passion-bearers.

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SOURCE: SGPA Scoutmaster periodical "Expertise" #166. July 2018, pp 8-9. Compiled by Scoutmaster Alexander Taurke from publicly-accessible documents for the upcoming book "The Faithful". Translated by Michael Kazmierczak of the Saint George Pathfinders a.k.a. Russian Youth Scout Association Abroad (in Exile).

Orthodox Christian Saints that were Scouts and Scouters

While it is somewhat common knowledge to many Scouts that Saint George the Trophy-Bearer of Cappadocia is the patron saint of Scouting, and that Sea Scouts share the same patron along with Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia, Saint Brendan the Navigator of Ireland, and Saint Cormac of the Sea, many may not know that some modern Orthodox Christian Saints were involved in Scouting.

I only list a few more prominent saints, but I am sure there are many more Orthodox Christian Saints that were involved in Scouting as well.

Saint Nicholas the Tsar Martyr - Had Scouting brought to Russia by Lord Robert Baden-Powell (pictured left)

Saint Basil the Hieromartyr of Kineshma - Scoutmaster and Bishop (pictured top left)

Saint Alexei the Royal Martyr and Passion Bearer - The First Scout of Russia (pictured right)


Saint John the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco - Scout Camp Chaplain in Europe and America (pictured top right)

You can see more about the founding of Scouting in America, in Russia, and in many traditional Orthodox Christian countries at https://orthodoxscouter.blogspot.com/2016/09/orthodoxy-and-scouting-in-america-and.html

I will post more about the lives of these holy saints of Scouting in the upcoming months. Holy Orthodox Scouts and Scouters, Pray unto God for us!

Saint Nicholas of Japan, Apostle to the Japanese

Saint Nicholas, Enlightener of Japan, was born Ivan Dimitrievich Kasatkin on August 1, 1836 in the village of Berezovsk, Belsk district, Smolensk diocese, where his father served as Deacon. At the age of five he lost his mother. He completed the Belsk religious school, and afterwards the Smolensk Theological Seminary. In 1857 Ivan Kasatkin entered the Saint Peterburg Theological Academy. On June 24, 1860, in the academy temple of the Twelve Apostles, Bishop Nectarius tonsured him with the name Nicholas.

On June 29, the Feast of the foremost Apostles Peter and Paul, the monk Nicholas was ordained deacon. The next day, on the altar feast of the academy church, he was ordained to the holy priesthood. Later, at his request, Father Nicholas was assigned to Japan as head of the consular church in the city of Hakodate.

At first, the preaching of the Gospel in Japan seemed completely impossible. In Father Nicholas’s own words: “the Japanese of the time looked upon foreigners as beasts, and on Christianity as a villainous sect, to which only villains and sorcerers could belong.” He spent eight years in studying the country, the language, manners and customs of the people among whom he would preach.

In 1868, the flock of Father Nicholas numbered about twenty Japanese. At the end of 1869 Hieromonk Nicholas reported in person to the Synod in Peterburg about his work. A decision was made, on January 14, 1870, to form a special Russian Spiritual Mission for preaching the Word of God among the pagan Japanese. Father Nicholas was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and appointed as head of this Mission.

Returning to Japan after two years in Russia, he transferred some of the responsibility for the Hakodate flock to Hieromonk Anatolius, and began his missionary work in Tokyo. In 1871 there was a persecution of Christians in Hakodate. Many were arrested (among them, the first Japanese Orthodox priest Paul Sawabe). Only in 1873 did the persecution abate somewhat, and the free preaching of Christianity became possible.

In this year Archimandrite Nicholas began the construction of a stone building in Tokyo which housed a church, a school for fifty men, and later a religious school, which became a seminary in 1878.

In 1874, Bishop Paul of Kamchatka arrived in Tokyo to ordain as priests several Japanese candidates recommended by Archimandrite Nicholas. At the Tokyo Mission, there were four schools: for catechists, for women, for church servers, and a seminary. At Hakodate there were two separate schools for boys and girls.

In the second half of 1877, the Mission began regular publication of the journal “Church Herald.” By the year 1878 there already 4115 Christians in Japan, and there were a number of Christian communities. Church services and classes in Japanese, the publication of religious and moral books permitted the Mission to attain such results in a short time. Archimandrite Nicholas petitioned the Holy Synod in December of 1878 to provide a bishop for Japan.

Archimandrite Nicholas was consecrated bishop on March 30, 1880 in the Trinity Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Returning to Japan, he resumed his apostolic work with increased fervor. He completed construction on the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Tokyo, he translated the service books, and compiled a special Orthodox theological dictionary in the Japanese language.

Great hardship befell the saint and his flock at the time of the Ruso-Japanese War. For his ascetic labor during these difficult years, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.

In 1911, half a century had passed since the young hieromonk Nicholas had first set foot on Japanese soil. At that time there were 33,017 Christians in 266 communities of the Japanese Orthodox Church, including 1 Archbishop, 1 bishop, 35 priests, 6 deacons, 14 singing instructors, and 116 catechists.

On February 3, 1912, Archbishop Nicholas departed peacefully to the Lord at the age of seventy-six. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church glorified him on April 10, 1970, since the saint had long been honored in Japan as a righteous man, and a prayerful intercessor before the Lord. He is commemorated on February 16th in the New Calendar and February 3rd on the old calendar. For his successful apostolic and evangelistic efforts, he was named Equal-to-the-Apostles and the Apostle to Japan.

Troparion — Tone 4
O holy saint Nicholas
The enlightener of Japan,
You share a dignity and the throne of the Apostles;
You are a wise and faithful servant of Christ,
A temple chosen by the Divine Spirit,
A vessel overflowing with the love of Christ.
O hierarch equal to the Apostles,
Pray to the Life-Creating Trinity
For all your flock and for the whole world.

The 13 Most Popular Posts of 2018 and All Time

The Orthodox Scouter's first post of 2019 isn't even about 2019, it is all about 2018! The top 13 viewed posts on this blog in 2018 were not all from 2018, so here are 2018's 2 most popular posts authored in 2018, 2018's 7 most popular viewed posts from years previous to 2018, and the 4 most popular posts of all time that are not listed in the lists prior to it. Read them all and let us know what your 13 favorite posts from this blog are.

2018's Top Viewed Posts Authored in 2018

1. Saint George the Trophy-Bearer Patch
2. DESMOS: International Link of Orthodox Christian Scouts

2018's Top Viewed Posts NOT Authored in 2018

1. Updated "Duty to God" Faith Requirements for Cub Scouts
2. HOW-TO: Traditional Orthodox Pascha (Easter) Basket
3. HOW-TO: Find Orthodox Christian Camps for Summer and Winter in America
4. The Scout Oath and the Holy Bible
5. The Scout Law and God's Laws
6. Conservation of the God-Created Environment in the Holy Bible
7. The Gospel According to Saint John, Chapter 6: A Parallel of the Passover and the Exodus of Israel

All Time Top Viewed Posts (Not Listed Above)

1. Sleeping Positions of Married Couples and What They Mean
2. Tattoos
3. A Timeline of Church History: Tracing the birth and continuity of the Christian Church from Pentecost to the present.
4. 30 Severely Corrupted Scriptures in the New Living Translation (NLT) Bible

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Excommunicated by the Moscow Patriarchate of All Rus' and All the North

From RT:

In the biggest rift in modern Orthodox history, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate, after it accepted a [schismatic sect claiming to be part of the] Ukrainian Orthodox Church as independent. 

The Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, has ruled that any further clerical relations with Constantinople are impossible, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s External Relations Department, told journalists, de facto announcing the breach of relations between the two churches. 

“A decision about the full break of relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate has been taken at a Synod meeting” that is currently been held in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, Hilarion said, as cited by TASS. 

The move comes days after the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate decided to eventually grant the so-called autocephaly to two [vagante] branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thus legitimizing the two clerical organizations. 

The Moscow Patriarchate also said that it would not abide by any decisions taken by Constantinople and related to the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “All these decisions are unlawful and canonically void,” Hilarion said, adding that “the Russian Orthodox Church does not recognize these decisions and will not follow them.” 

At the same time, the Russian Church expressed its hope that “a common sense will prevail” and Constantinople will change its decision. However, it still accused the Ecumenical Patriarch of initiating the “schism.” 

The move taken by Moscow marks arguably the greatest split in the history of the Orthodox Church since the Great Schism of 1054, which separated [Roman] Catholics [from the] Orthodox Christians, as it involves a break of communion between the biggest existing Orthodox Church – the Moscow Patriarchate – and Constantinople Patriarch, who is widely regarded as a spiritual leader of world’s Orthodox Christians, even though his status is nothing like that of the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church. 

Constantinople’s decision seems to be serving the interests of the Ukrainian [political] leadership rather than the Orthodox Christians living there. While most Orthodox clerics in Ukraine still pledge loyalty to the head of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill, and consider themselves to be part of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kiev actively supports a schismatic force, which has been unrecognized by any other Churches until now. 

This religious movement led by the former Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, who is now [claiming to be the] "Patriarch Filaret in Ukraine", has sought to gain the status of an independent Orthodox Church, “equal” to the Moscow Patriarchate, since 1990s. Meanwhile, it did not hesitate to seize Moscow Patriarchate’s churches by force. 

In its October decision, the Holy Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate “canonically reinstated” Filaret and his followers “to their hierarchical or priestly rank” and restored their communion with the Church, thus effectively declaring that it does not see them as schismatic. This particular move also provoked angry reaction in the Moscow Patriarchate [and other canonical Orthodox Churches around the world]. 

“A schism remains a schism. And the leaders of a schism remain as such,” Hilarion said, adding that “a Church that recognized schismatic 'priests' and entered into communion with them … excluded itself from the canonical field of the Orthodox Church.” 

He also named restitution of Filaret’s and his followers’ hierarchical or priestly ranks as one of the major reasons behind the Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod’s decision to break all ties with Constantinople. 

According to TASS, 40 churches have been forcefully seized by the Kiev Patriarchate between 2014 and 2016. In the first half of 2018 alone, Ukraine witnessed 10 new [violent] attacks on Russian Orthodox Churches. Now, as Constantinople is launched a procedure of granting independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, such attacks might further intensify, some experts warn.

As such, members of the Russian Orthodox Church, including ROCOR, can no longer attend, commune, marry, confess, or receive any mysteries at any church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Likewise clergy of the MP and ROCOR may no longer concelebrate with priests under the Patriarch of Constantinople. Russian Orthodox Christians may continue to attend and receive the mysteries at any other Patriarchate Church, Canonical Autonomous Orthodox Church, or Canonical Autocephalous Orthodox Church worldwide.

My DNA: Tracing my ancestory to Noah, Adam, and Eve!

I recently had my DNA tested by 23andMe. If you'd like to check out your DNA, you can save by registering at this link: https://refer.23andme.com/s/ir2tk I guarantee that you will find it fascinating!

Most of it was unsurprising, such as having Irish ancestry. My paternal grandfather was born in Ireland shortly before immigrating with his mother, Queen Tobin Stanosheck to America. Recently we learned that my maternal grandfather's family had lived in Ireland for some time before immigrating to America. Through my maternal line it appears we are related to Clan McLaren/MacLaren too.

Both my maternal grandmother's and grandfather's families had lived in Germany so having German DNA was not surprising.

Now the last names of my grandfathers are Polish-Russian and Welsh. So having DNA from Poland and Great Britain was not a surprise. But what was a surprise was that although my last name is a blend of Polish and Russian, I have no Russian DNA, but do have Ukrainian DNA. (I've actually had an intuition about this before getting tested).

Surprise #2 is that we were always told that my maternal grandmother was Czech, but according to my DNA, she was actually Slovak, as I have Slovak DNA but no Czech DNA.

Surprise #3 is that my DNA can be traced all the way back to Noah. We are related to Noah via his son, Japheth, his grandson Gomer, and his great-grandson, Ashkenaz.

It looks like someone in my ancient family members moved from Syria to the Slavic lands, and then up to Scandinavia. Where exactly, my DNA doesn't know, but it was in my mother's side of the family.

So many people who get their tests done get surprise African or Asian DNA, but my test showed my DNA to be solely European (as far as it can go back). Here is the exact (to 99.98% accuracy) breakdown:

Here are the histories that my DNA tells:

The stories of all of our paternal lines can be traced back to just one man: the common ancestor who lived in eastern Africa at the time, Adam.

Your paternal-line ancestors gradually moved north, following available prey and resources as a shifting climate made new routes hospitable and sealed off others. Then a small group ventured across the Red Sea and deeper into southwest Asia. Your ancestors were among these men, and the next step in their story is marked by the rise of  your ancestors in the Arabian Peninsula.

Passing through the Middle East, your paternal-line ancestors continued on to the steppes of Central Asia, vast grasslands stretching all the way from central Europe to the eastern edge of Asia.

The next step in your story can be to the common ancestor of a man who likely lived in Central Asia. His descendants roamed the vast steppes of the continent, where they hunted huge mammals like the mammoth.

Your ancestral path forked off again in western Asia, but farther south in the Iranian Plateau your ancestors flourished.

As the people of the Fertile Crescent domesticated plants and animals for the first time. Around 8,000 years ago, the first farmers and herders began to push east into Central Asia and north into the Caucasus Mountains. Some of them eventually reached the steppes above the Black and Caspian Seas. There, they lived as pastoral nomads, herding cattle and sheep across the grasslands, while their neighbors to the south developed yet another crucial technology in human history: bronze smelting. As bronze tools and weaponry spread north, a new steppe culture called the Yamnaya was born.

Perhaps triggered by a cold spell that made it difficult to feed their herds, Yamnaya men spilled east across Siberia and down into Central Asia. To the west, they pushed down into the Balkans and to central Europe, where they sought new pastures for their herds and metal deposits to support burgeoning Bronze Age commerce. Over time, their descendants spread from central Europe to the Atlantic coast, establishing new trade routes and an unprecedented level of cultural contact and exchange in western Europe.

The men from the steppes also outcompeted the local men as they went; their success is demonstrated in the overwhelming dominance of the lineage in Europe, especially Ireland and Wales.

You descend from a long line of women that can be traced back to eastern Africa. If every person living today could trace his or her maternal line back over thousands of generations, all of our lines would meet at a single woman who lived in eastern Africa, Eve. The story of your maternal line begins with her it.

While many of her descendants remained in Africa, one small group ventured east across the Red Sea, likely across the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb into the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Your story continues with one of two branches that arose from southwestern Asia. Researchers have long debated whether they arrived there via the Sinai Peninsula, or made the hop across the Red Sea at the Bab-el-Mandeb. Though their exact routes are disputed, there is no doubt that the women migrated across all of Eurasia, giving rise to people from Portugal to Polynesia.

One of those branches traces back to a woman who likely lived in the Middle East or the Caucasus Mountains. Her descendants appear to have migrated into northern Europe, and then through southwestern Asia as far as Pakistan with the expansion of agriculture about 8,000 years ago.

Women carrying this haplogroup likely migrated into and across Europe during this stretch of milder climate.

Today, they are mostly spread across southeastern Europe and into the Middle East, including in the North Caucasus and northern Iran. Some can also be found in the northern and western reaches of Europe, including in Britain, Finland, and even western Siberia.

DESMOS: International Link of Orthodox Christian Scouts

The International Link of Orthodox Christian Scouts (DESMOS, from Greek "Δεσμός", bond) is an autonomous, international body committed to promoting and supporting Orthodox Scout associations and to be a link between the Scout Movement and Orthodox churches.

DESMOS was founded in 1994 at the holy site of the Penteli Monastery in Athens, Greece, with the mandate of the World Scout Bureau, in consultation with the Deputy Secretary General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, and with the blessing of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.

It enjoys consultative status with the World Scout Committee and forms the World Scout Inter-Religious Forum together with the Council of Protestants in Guiding and Scouting, International Catholic Conference of Scouting, International Union of Muslim Scouts, International Forum of Jewish Scouts, Won-Buddhism Scout, and World Buddhist Scout Brotherhood.

The object of the Link is as follows:

1. To develop and promote the spirit of brotherhood and understanding among Scouts of the Orthodox Christian Faith.
2. To promote warm relations and co-operation between Scouting and the official local Orthodox Churches.
3. To develop an educational curriculum that should enhance the spiritual dimension in the personalities of young Orthodox in accordance with the purpose, principles and method of the Scout Movement.
4. To introduce Scouting in such states or areas where Orthodox Church is established.
5. To co-ordinate the activities of "DESMOS" with non-Scout Organisations having the same objectives.
6. To motivate co-operation among "DESMOS" members.
7. To motivate and promote Scouting to Orthodox boys and girls on global basis.

Member organizations include:

• Armenia: Hayastani Azgayin Skautakan Sharjum Kazmakerputiun (Kazmakerputyun)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Savez izviđača Bosne i Hercegovine
• Bulgaria: Organizatsia na Bulgarskite Skauty
• Cyprus: Cyprus Scouts Association
• Finland: Suomen Partiolaiset
• Greece: Scouts of Greece
• Israel: Israel Boy and Girl Scouts Federation: Christian Orthodox Scout Association
• Jordan: Jordanian Association for Boy Scouts and Girl Guides
• Lebanon: Lebanese Scouting Federation: National Orthodox Scout Association - Scout National Orthodoxe
• Macedonia: Sojuz na Izvidnici na Makedonija
• Moldova: Organizaţia Naţională a Scouţilor din Moldova
• Palestinian Authority: Palestinian Scout Association: Palestinian Orthodox Scouts Association
• Poland: Polish Scouting and Guiding Association
• Romania: Cercetaşii României
• Russia: Russian Association of Scouts/Navigators
• Serbia: Savez Izviđača Srbije
• Uganda: The Uganda Scouts Association: Uganda Orthodox Scouts
• Ukraine: National Organization of Scouts of Ukraine
• United States: Boy Scouts of America: Eastern Orthodox Committee on Scouting

Other Interesting Blog Stats

While my blog's audience is definitely mostly American, here are the top 15 countries that my visitors are from:

1. United States of America
2. Russia
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. France
6. Canada
7. India
8. Ukraine
9. China
10. Australia
11. Romania
12. Ireland
13. Singapore
14. South Korea
15. Macedonia

Here are the top 7 browsers they use:

1. Microsoft Internet Explorer
2. Google Chrome
3. Mozilla Firefox
4. Apple Safari
5. Opera
6. Samsung Browser
7. Lynx

Here are the top 7 Operating Systems used to access this blog:

1. Microsoft Windows
2. Apple Macintosh (Mac OS X)
3. Apple iPhone (iOS)
4. Google Android
5. Linux
6. Unix
7. Blackberry

Here are the top referring sites to my blog: 

1. Google
2. Orthodox Scouter Blog Spot
3. Facebook
4. Bing
5. Hao Hao Report
6. Link Within
7. Daum

Who Founded the Ancient Christian Pentarchy, the Later Patriarchates, the Autonomous Orthodox Churches, and Autocephalous Orthodox Churches?

The Short answer is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit through the Apostles founded the Orthodox Christian Church. But you may not know who founded each local Orthodox Church. Many were founded by the 12 Apostles, but some were founded by the 70 Apostles (Luke 10:1–24) or later Saints who were called Apostles to other lands because of their missionary work on founding many churches and translating the Bible and Service Books into the local languages. So here is a list which is now also in the right row of links as well:

ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH PENTARCHY OF PATRIARCHATES

• The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Orthodox Church of Rome) was founded by Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle
• The Patriarchate of Alexandria (Orthodox Church of Egypt) was founded by Saint Mark the Apostle & Evangelist
• The Patriarchate of Antioch (Orthodox Church of Syria) was founded by Saint Peter the Chief Apostle
• The Patriarchate of Jerusalem (Orthodox Church of Palestine) was founded by Saint Iakovos (James) the Apostle & Brother of the Lord
• The Patriarchate of Moscow (Orthodox Church of Russia) was founded by Saints Cyril & Methodius the Apostles to the Slavs

NON-PENTARCHY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH PATRIARCHATES

• The Orthodox Church of Bulgaria was founded by Saint Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles
• The Orthodox Church of Georgia was founded by Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle
• The Orthodox Church of Romania was founded by Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle
• The Orthodox Church of Serbia was founded by Saints Cyril & Methodius the Apostles to the Slavs

APOSTOLIC ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

• The Orthodox Church of Albania was founded by Saint Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles
• The Orthodox Church of Cyprus was founded by Saint Barnabas the Apostle of the Seventy
• The Orthodox Church of Greece was founded by Saint Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles
• The Orthodox Church of Poland was founded by Saints Cyril & Methodius the Apostles to the Slavs
• The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands & Slovakia was founded by Saints Cyril & Methodius the Apostles to the Slavs

AUTONOMOUS ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

• The Orthodox Church of Belarus was founded by Saints Cyril & Methodius the Apostles to the Slavs
• The Orthodox Church of Bessarabia was founded by Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle
• The Orthodox Church of China was founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle of the Twelve
• The Orthodox Church of Crete was founded by Saint Titus the Apostle of the Seventy
• The Orthodox Church of Estonia was founded by the Saint Yaroslav the Wise Prince
• The Orthodox Church of Finland was founded​ by Saint Willibrord the Apostle to the Frisians
• The Orthodox Church of Japan was founded by Saint Nicholas (Nikolai) the Apostle to the Japanese
• The Orthodox Church of Latvia was founded by Saint Bruno (Boniface) of Querfurt the Apostle to the Prussians
• The Orthodox Church of Moldova was founded by Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle
• The Orthodox Church of Ohrid was founded by Saint Justinian the Great Emperor
• The Orthodox Church of Sinai was founded by Saint Helena (Helen) the Empress & Saint Constantine the Great Emperor
• The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was founded by Saint Andrew the First-Called Apostle

Of note, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) counts as its founder, Saint Herman the Wonderworker of Alaska, although when he helped establish the Orthodox Christianity in the Americas in the 1700s it was as an eparchy (diocese) of the Russian Orthodox Church since Alaska was still part of Russia.

Saints Olga the Empress & Vladimir the Prince, and the Baptism of Rus'

In 957, Saint Olga visited Emperor Constantine VII in Constantinople. He admired her looks and intelligence, noting to her that 'You are fit to reign in this city with us.' She agreed to be Baptized and thus became a Christian, with name Helen, after the Patriarch Polyeuctus had instructed her in the faith. Before her Baptism, Constantine asked her hand in marriage, but Olga deferred claiming that she wanted to be Baptised an Orthodox Christian first. Again, after the Baptism, Constantine requested her hand in marriage, but the quick-thinking Olga tricked him (since he was her Godfather in Baptism), noting that he called her his daughter in Baptism and so such a union is forbidden under Christian law. While Constantine commented to Olga about her trickery, he lavished gifts on her when she returned to Kiev. In Kiev she instructed her son, Svyatoslav, and entreated him to be baptized. While he could not bring himself to commit to Baptism, he would not forbid others.

In 968, while Svyatoslav was occupied elsewhere, Pechenegs surrounded Kiev in a siege where Olga was living, caring for her grandsons Yaropolk, Oleg, and Vladimir. As the people became weaker with hunger and lack of water, Olga inspired a lad to escape the siege and bring relief. By this time sickness had come upon the aging Princess Olga. At the same time her son wanted to move his residence to Pereyaslav on the Danube River, leaving Olga in Kiev. Olga restrained Svyatoslav from leaving until after she had died. She died on July 11, 969 and was buried by a priest, having ordered that there would not be a funeral feast.

While Olga was not successful in converting her son or many others to the Christian faith, her example may have been a great influence on her grandson, Vladimir, who in 988 became an Orthodox Christian and led the inhabitants of Kiev and Rus' to follow him in the Baptism of Rus'. For her leadership in bringing Christianity to Russia, she is considered the first saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Introduction of Christianity into the lands of the Slavs began at least a century before the great event in Kiev. Traditionally, the missionary brothers Saints Cyril & Methodius are credited with bringing Orthodox Christianity to the Slavs, in their own language, in the 860s, although the southern Slavs had already known Christianity thanks to Saint Andrew the Apostle. Among the eastern Slavs, whose ruling princes, the Rus, were descended from the Varangian (Norse) chieftains/traders, introduction of Christianity appears to have occurred in several stages.

As early as 867, Patriarch Photius of Constantinople advised the other Orthodox Patriarchs that members of the Rus, who had been baptized by his bishops, had become enthusiastic Christians. As the Primary Chronicle and other sources noted the Rus of the ninth century remained staunch pagans, and the outcome of the missionary efforts of Photius’ bishops is not clear. Constantine VII and later Byzantine historians, including John Skylitzes and John Zonaras, continued to maintain a story of Christianization of the Rus, including enumeration of Orthodox Sees among the Rus.

The Primary Chronicle notes that a sizable part of the population of Kiev was Christian in the mid tenth century although noting the ruling princes continued following pagan customs. The Chronicle describes the actions in the mid tenth century of the ruling regent of Kiev, Princess Olga of Kiev, who visited Constantinople with a Priest Gregory. While it is unclear when and where she was Baptized, she became an Orthodox Christian and attempted to convert her son, Svyatoslav. But, he remained a stubborn pagan to his death in 972. His son and successor, Yaropolk I, appeared to be conciliatory towards Christianity and may have entertained visiting Christian missionaries.

After Yaropolk’s death in 980 and the ascension of his brother Vladimir as the ruling prince, Vladimir led a pagan reaction to Christianization efforts. This revitalization of pagan worship failed, however. By the mid 980s Vladimir realized the need to adopt the true religion. In 987, as reported in the Primary Chronicle, and after consulting with his boyars (knights), Vladimir dispatched envoys to study the religions of neighboring nations. Upon returning, the envoys reported their impressions, noting their objections to the religions of the Muslims, Jews, and German Christianity, while expressing the joy of the festive ritual in the cathedral Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

Concurrently, Emperor Basil II in Constantinople approached Vladimir for aid suppressing a revolt of some of his generals. In response, Vladimir sent troops to help Basil put down the revolt. As part of their earlier agreement, Vladimir was baptized with the Christian name Basil, and followed his baptism by a marriage to Basil II’s sister, Anna Porphyrogenita in the town of Chersonesos in Crimea.

Having accepted Christianity, Vladimir then called the people of Kiev to Baptism in the Dnieper River - the iconic event of the Baptism of Rus'. First, Vladimir’s twelve sons and many boyars were baptized. Then, the next day all the residents of Kiev were called to the river, where the Orthodox priests completed the sacrament of baptism. In the following days the ceremony was observed throughout the realm of Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev and Novgorod.

By the act of Baptizing his subjects, Vladimir signaled the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity as his state religion. Also, it was this event that Russia, the lands of the Rus and the Slavic east, entered into the greater Christian world as part of the Hellenic Christian heritage. For the Byzantines, the Baptism of the Russians signified their integration into the Byzantine Roman empire itself."

Saint George the Great-Martyr, Victory-Bearer, and Wonderworker; Patron Saint of Scouting

The Holy Great Martyr George the Victory-Bearer, was a native of Cappadocia (a district in Asia Minor), and he grew up in a deeply believing Christian family. His father was martyred for Christ when George was still a child. His mother, owning lands in Palestine, moved there with her son and raised him in strict piety.

When he became a man, Saint George entered into the service of the Roman army. He was handsome, brave and valiant in battle, and he came to the notice of the emperor Diocletian (284-305) and joined the imperial guard with the rank of comites, or military commander.

The pagan emperor, who did much for the restoration of Roman might, was clearly concerned with the danger presented to pagan civilization by the triumph of the Crucified Savior, and intensified his persecution against the Christians in the final years of his reign. Following the advice of the Senate at Nicomedia, Diocletian gave all his governors full freedom in their court proceedings against Christians, and he promised them his full support.

Saint George, when he heard the decision of the emperor, distributed all his wealth to the poor, freed his servants, and then appeared in the Senate. The brave soldier of Christ spoke out openly against the emperor’s designs. He confessed himself a Christian, and appealed to all to acknowledge Christ: “I am a servant of Christ, my God, and trusting in Him, I have come among you voluntarily, to bear witness concerning the Truth.”

“What is Truth?” one of the dignitaries asked, echoing the question of Pontius Pilate. The saint replied, “Christ Himself, Whom you persecuted, is Truth.”

Stunned by the bold speech of the valiant warrior, the emperor, who had loved and promoted George, attempted to persuade him not to throw away his youth and glory and honors, but rather to offer sacrifice to the gods as was the Roman custom. The confessor replied, “Nothing in this inconstant life can weaken my resolve to serve God.”

Then by order of the enraged emperor the armed guards began to push Saint George out of the assembly hall with their spears, and they then led him off to prison. But the deadly steel became soft and it bent, just as the spears touched the saint’s body, and it caused him no harm. In prison they put the martyr’s feet in stocks and placed a heavy stone on his chest.

The next day at the interrogation, powerless but firm of spirit, Saint George again answered the emperor, “You will grow tired of tormenting me sooner than I will tire of being tormented by you.” Then Diocletian gave orders to subject Saint George to some very intense tortures. They tied the Great Martyr to a wheel, beneath which were boards pierced with sharp pieces of iron. As the wheel turned, the sharp edges slashed the saint’s naked body.

At first the sufferer loudly cried out to the Lord, but soon he quieted down, and did not utter even a single groan. Diocletian decided that the tortured one was already dead, and he gave orders to remove the battered body from the wheel, and then went to a pagan temple to offer thanks.

At this very moment it got dark, thunder boomed, and a voice was heard: “Fear not, George, for I am with you.” Then a wondrous light shone, and at the wheel an angel of the Lord appeared in the form of a radiant youth. He placed his hand upon the martyr, saying to him, “Rejoice!” Saint George stood up healed.

When the soldiers led him to the pagan temple where the emperor was, the emperor could not believe his own eyes and he thought that he saw before him some other man or even a ghost. In confusion and in terror the pagans looked Saint George over carefully, and they became convinced that a miracle had occurred. Many then came to believe in the Life-Creating God of the Christians.

Two illustrious officials, Saints Anatolius and Protoleon, who were secretly Christians, openly confessed Christ. Immediately, without a trial, they were beheaded with the sword by order of the emperor. Also present in the pagan temple was Empress Alexandra, the wife of Diocletian, and she also knew the truth. She was on the point of glorifying Christ, but one of the servants of the emperor took her and led her off to the palace.

The emperor became even more furious. He had not lost all hope of influencing Saint George, so he gave him over to new and fearsome torments. After throwing him into a deep pit, they covered it over with lime. Three days later they dug him out, but found him cheerful and unharmed. They shod the saint in iron sandals with red-hot nails, and then drove him back to the prison with whips. In the morning, when they led him back to the interrogation, cheerful and with healed feet, the emperor asked if he liked his shoes. The saint said that the sandals had been just his size. Then they beat him with ox thongs until pieces of his flesh came off and his blood soaked the ground, but the brave sufferer, strengthened by the power of God, remained unyielding.

The emperor concluded that the saint was being helped by magic, so he summoned the sorcerer Athanasius to deprive the saint of his miraculous powers, or else poison him. The sorcerer gave Saint George two goblets containing drugs. One of them would have quieted him, and the other would kill him. The drugs had no effect, and the saint continued to denounce the pagan superstitions and glorify God as before.

When the emperor asked what sort of power was helping him, Saint George said, “Do not imagine that it is any human learning which keeps me from being harmed by these torments. I am saved only by calling upon Christ and His Power. Whoever believes in Him has no regard for tortures and is able to do the things that Christ did” (John 14:12). Diocletian asked what sort of things Christ had done. The Martyr replied, “He gave sight to the blind, cleansed the lepers, healed the lame, gave hearing to the deaf, cast out demons, and raised the dead.”

Knowing that they had never been able to resurrect the dead through sorcery, nor by any of the gods known to him, and wanting to test the saint, the emperor commanded him to raise up a dead person before his eyes. The saint retorted, “You wish to tempt me, but my God will work this sign for the salvation of the people who shall see the power of Christ.”

When they led Saint George down to the graveyard, he cried out, “O Lord! Show to those here present, that You are the only God in all the world. Let them know You as the Almighty Lord.” Then the earth quaked, a grave opened, the dead one emerged from it alive. Having seen with their own eyes the Power of Christ, the people wept and glorified the true God.

The sorcerer Athanasius, falling down at the feet of Saint George, confessed Christ as the All-Powerful God and asked forgiveness for his sins, committed in ignorance. The obdurate emperor in his impiety thought otherwise. In a rage, he commanded both Athanasius and the man raised from the dead to be beheaded, and he had Saint George again locked up in prison.

The people, weighed down with their infirmities, began to visit the prison and they there received healing and help from the saint. A certain farmer named Glycerius, whose ox had collapsed, also visited him. The saint consoled him and assured him that God would restore his ox to life. When he saw the ox alive, the farmer began to glorify the God of the Christians throughout all the city. By order of the emperor, Saint Glycerius was arrested and beheaded.

The exploits and the miracles of the Great Martyr George had increased the number of the Christians, therefore Diocletian made a final attempt to compel the saint to offer sacrifice to the idols. They set up a court at the pagan temple of Apollo. On the final night the holy martyr prayed fervently, and as he slept, he saw the Lord, Who raised him up with His hand, and embraced him. The Savior placed a crown on Saint George’s head and said, “Fear not, but have courage, and you will soon come to Me and receive what has been prepared for you.”

In the morning, the emperor offered to make Saint George his co-administrator, second only to himself. The holy martyr with a feigned willingness answered, “Caesar, you should have shown me this mercy from the very beginning, instead of torturing me. Let us go now to the temple and see the gods you worship.”

Diocletian believed that the martyr was accepting his offer, and he followed him to the pagan temple with his retinue and all the people. Everyone was certain that Saint George would offer sacrifice to the gods. The saint went up to the idol, made the Sign of the Cross and addressed it as if it were alive: “Are you the one who wants to receive from me sacrifice befitting God?”

The demon inhabiting the idol cried out, “I am not a god and none of those like me is a god, either. The only God is He Whom you preach. We are fallen angels, and we deceive people because we are jealous.”

Saint George cried out, “How dare you remain here, when I, the servant of the true God, have entered?” Then noises and wailing were heard from the idols, and they fell to the ground and were shattered.

There was general confusion. In a frenzy, pagan priests and many of the crowd seized the holy martyr, tied him up, and began to beat him. They also called for his immediate execution.

The holy empress Alexandra tried to reach him. Pushing her way through the crowd, she cried out, “O God of George, help me, for You Alone are All-Powerful.” At the feet of the Great Martyr the holy empress confessed Christ, Who had humiliated the idols and those who worshipped them.

Diocletian immediately pronounced the death sentence on the Great Martyr George and the holy Empress Alexandra, who followed Saint George to execution without resisting. Along the way she felt faint and slumped against a wall. There she surrendered her soul to God.

Saint George gave thanks to God and prayed that he would also end his life in a worthy manner. At the place of execution the saint prayed that the Lord would forgive the torturers who acted in ignorance, and that He would lead them to the knowledge of Truth. Calmly and bravely, the holy Great Martyr George bent his neck beneath the sword, receiving the crown of martyrdom on April 23, 303.

The pagan era was coming to an end, and Christianity was about to triumph. Within ten years, Saint Constantine would issue the Edict of Milan, granting religious freedom to Christians.

Of the many miracles worked by the holy Great Martyr George, the most famous are depicted in iconography. In the saint’s native city of Beirut were many idol-worshippers. Outside the city, near Mount Lebanon, was a large lake, inhabited by an enormous dragon-like serpent. Coming out of the lake, it devoured people, and there was nothing anyone could do, since the breath from its nostrils poisoned the very air.

On the advice of the demons inhabiting the idols, the local ruler came to a decision. Each day the people would draw lots to feed their own children to the serpent, and he promised to sacrifice his only daughter when his turn came. That time did come, and the ruler dressed her in her finest attire, then sent her off to the lake. The girl wept bitterly, awaiting her death. Unexpectedly for her, Saint George rode up on his horse with spear in hand. The girl implored him not to leave her, lest she perish.

The saint signed himself with the Sign of the Cross. He rushed at the serpent saying, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Saint George pierced the throat of the serpent with his spear and trampled it with his horse. Then he told the girl to bind the serpent with her sash, and lead it into the city like a dog on a leash.

The people fled in terror, but the saint halted them with the words: “Don’t be afraid, but trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him, since it is He Who sent me to save you.” Then the saint killed the serpent with a sword, and the people burned it outside the city. Twenty-five thousand men, not counting women and children, were then baptized. Later, a church was built and dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos and the Great Martyr George.

Saint George went on to become a talented officer and to amaze the world by his military exploits. He died before he was thirty years old. He is known as Victory Bearer, not only for his military achievements, but for successfully enduring martyrdom. As we know, the martyrs are commemorated in the dismissal at the end of Church services as “the holy, right victorious martyr....”

Saint George was the patron saint and protector of several of the great builders of the Russian state. Saint Vladimir’s son, Yaroslav the Wise (in holy Baptism George), advanced the veneration of the saint in the Russian Church. He built the city of Yuriev [i.e., “of Yurii.” “Yurii” is the diminutive of “George”, as “Ivan” is of “John”], he also founded the Yuriev monastery at Novgorod, and he built a church of Saint George the Victory Bearer at Kiev.

The day of the consecration of Saint George’s Church in Kiev, November 26, 1051 by Saint Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus, has entered into the liturgical treasury of the Church as a special church feastday. Yuriev Day is beloved by the Russian people as an “autumn Feast of Saint George.”

The name of Saint George was also borne by the founder of Moscow, Yurii Dolgoruky (+ 1157), who was the builder of many churches dedicated to Saint George, and the builder of the city of Yuriev-Polsk. In the year 1238 the heroic fight of the Russian nation against the Mongol Horde was led by the Great Prince Yurii (George) Vsevolodovich of Vladimir (February 4), who fell at the Battle at the Sita River. His memory, like that of Igor the Brave, and defender of his land, was celebrated in Russian spiritual poems and ballads.

The first Great Prince of Moscow, when Moscow had become the center of the Russian Land, was Yurii Danilovich (+ 1325), the son of Saint Daniel of Moscow, and grandson of Saint Alexander Nevsky. From that time Saint George the Victory Bearer, depicted as a horseman slaying the serpent, appeared on Moscow’s coat of arms, and became an emblem of the Russian state. This has strengthened Russia’s connections with Christian nations, and especially with Iberia (Georgia, the Land of Saint George).

Saint George is the Patron Saint of Aragon in Spain, Beirut in Lebanon, the Boy Scouts of America, Bulgaria, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, the Hellenic Army, Malta, Montenegro, Moscow in Russia, Palestine, Portugal, Sufferers of Skin Diseases, the U.S. Army's Armor Branch, and World Scouting.

Saint George's Feast Day is celebrated on April 23rd. He is commemorated on April 24th in the Czech Republic and Hungary; In Georgia he is also commemorated on both April 23rd and November 23rd. When Pascha (Easter) falls on the Feast Day of Saint George, his feast day is transferred to Bright (Easter) Monday instead.

1st through 3rd grade Eastern Orthodox Scouts (Tiger, Wolf and Bear Cub Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and Daisies and Brownies in the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.) can earn a Saint George Medal after completing the Saint George Program offered by the EOCS: Eastern Orthodox Committee of Scouting, an agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America.

To learn even more about Saint George be sure to read this amazing book: "The Martyrdom of Saint George of Cappadocia" from the All Time Heroes from All Times Series. I cannot recommend this book enough for both youth and adults!

Troparion

You were bound for good deeds, O martyr of Christ: George; by faith you conquered the torturer’s godlessness. You were offered as a sacrifice pleasing to God;thus you received the crown of victory. Through your intercessions, forgiveness of sins is granted to all.

Kontakion

God raised you as his own gardener, O George, for you have gathered for yourself the sheaves of virtue. Having sown in tears, you now reap with joy; you shed your blood in combat and won Christ as your crown. Through your intercessions, forgiveness of sins is granted to all.