The TOC New Martyr Catherine Soutris (Nov. 15 os)

The crown of martyrdom didst thou receive, O Catherine, by struggling steadfastly for the tradition of our Fathers; and thou didst surrender thy soul to Jesus the Bridegroom, when, on the festival of the Archangels at Mandra of Megaris, thou didst sincerely proclaim the dogmas of the Faith of the Scriptures.

New Martyr Catherine was born in 1900 in the village of Mandra in the region of Megara, between Athens and Corinth. When the western calendar was forcibly imposed on the Christians of Greece in 1924, large numbers of Greek Christians spontaneously rejected both the new order of things and the Hierarchs responsible for enforcing that new order.

The forcible (and violent) imposition of the western calendar was the result of a sinister combination of secularizing political policies, inaugurated by the government of Emanuel Venizelos, coupled with the reformist-ecumenist ideas associated with syncretist freemasonry and an infatuation with the West, which had been quietly emerging within a circle of Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch (and elsewhere) from the 19th century forward. These ideas would become the stated policy of that Patriarchate under the guidance of the freemason and ecclesiastical adventurer, Patriarch Meletios IV Metaxakis.

New Martyr Catherine and her husband joined the widespread populist and spontaneous rejection of the government’s Synod of Bishops and their policies, and continued to worship with clergy and laity according to the traditional calendar. While much is written in our times concerning the futility and the wrong-headedness of making an issue of the 13 day difference between the western and the traditional calendar, the fact is that neither the 13 days nor even the calendar itself is the primary issue, any more than boiled wheat (kollyva, in Greek) was the issue during the kollyvades dispute; any more than painted pictures were the issue during the age of ikonoclasm. The question raised by the heresy of ikonoclasm was a fundamental Christological issue; the issue raised by the kollyvades Fathers concerned the liturgical reflection of fundamental Christian faith and practice, and the issue raised by the “old-calendar” movement is the issue of the basic definition of the Church herself, as that definition is manifested in the decrees of Councils and the writings of acknowledged Fathers.

The defense spontaneously organized by humble laymen and clergy in Greece from 1924 on was only in the first instance the defense of a given calendar, because contained within that defense was the instinctive defense of the integrity of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church” as such.

On the feast of the Archangels, November 8th (November 21st on the western calendar), 1927, Catherine was part of a large congregation of confessing Christians in her native village. During the Vigil for the feast (presided over by the Presbyter Christopher Psallidas) a detachment of police, ordered out by the Ministry of the Interior acting in response to a demand issued by the head of the government Synod, Archbishop Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, surrounded the village church. After an all-night Vigil, as the Liturgy for the feast began, the police began to batter down the doors of the church with their rifle butts. Windows were smashed. The apparent goal of the police forces was the arrest of Father Christopher (and the consequent termination of the liturgical assembly). But the efforts of the police were not met with success and they called for reinforcements. Meanwhile, inside the temple, most of the congregation received Holy Communion, and were preparing to leave the church and rest after the all-night service.

As the communicants began to leave, and as it became evident that the police were intent on arresting Father Christopher, a group of pious women surrounded him to form a protective wall, under the impression that the police would not physically attack women. Catherine Routis had left the church after Communion and made sure that her husband and 2 children were safely home, and then she had returned to the church to join the congregation’s non-violent efforts to protect its Presbyter. The police fired their guns into the air to scare off the lay defenders of their Priest, but to no avail. One woman, Angeliki Katsarellis, still inside the church, was hit in the forehead by one of the stray bullets. Women raised their voices against the violent police attack, and when a policeman raised his rifle to strike Father Christopher down, Catherine stepped between the Priest and the attacker and received the hard blow from the rifle butt on the back of her head. Falling to the floor of the church, her last words were Most holy Mother of God.

She was transferred by some of the women to Annunciation Hospital in Athens, along with the injured Angeliki Katsarellis. For 7 days New Martyr Catherine suffered in the hospital. At 4am on November 15 (November 28 on the western calendar), the first day of the Nativity Fast, Catherine Routis died. She has been commemorated among the Church’s New Martyrs ever since.

It is interesting to note that there is a widespread belief amongst the ecumenists that the old calendarists constitute a violent movement. There has been violence aplenty, in fact, both in Greece and in Romania and elsewhere, directed against the confessing, traditional Christians by the ecumenists, but actual violence directed by the confessing members of the Church against the ecumenists has yet to be documented.

Sadly the pristine early years of steadfast resistance to the ecumenist innovations were followed by our own era, characterized by disturbances from within, as confessing but undisciplined and irresponsible Hierarchs, much-given to employing the tactics of verbal abuse and to the violent denunciation of fellow confessing Hierarchs, ad hominem for the most part, have become the familiar face of traditionalism in the public square. This undisciplined and unworthy behaviour defines the confessing Church of our times in the eyes of many, and it does the confessing Church a terrible disservice.

While theological debate and the defense of truth is necessary, the tone in which that defense is undertaken can determine the actual impact of Christian apologetics. It is not possible to view with any satisfaction the increasing failure of a style of apologetics that clearly has alienated many from within the ranks of the so-called “old calendar” movement, and kept many traditionalists within the ecumenist communities from abandoning their ecumenist Hierarchs and affiliating with confessing Orthodox Hierarchs.

Clearly, this is not the way to speak for the Church, because clearly, the actual interests of the Church are not served. One can disagree, without being disagreeable, and one can effectively defend the Church without ad hominem attacks. When the confessing Hierarchs of our own time understand this, the confessing Church will once again become the real option for serious and honest seekers for the truth both from the ranks of the ecumenist Synods, and from the ranks of those who have no connection with either “world” or with “confessing” Orthodoxy.

New Martyr Catherine of Mandra, pray to God for us and for the steadying and clearing of the Church’s voice in our confused and contentious times.

+Bishop Sergios of Loch Lomond, November 28, 2007

Above found at Saint Gregory of Sinai Monastery website.

The Noetic Pilgrim, A Kenotic Soul

Elder Schema-Bishop Theodore
of Valaam and Pskov Caves
(+November 8, 1996)

On this day according to the traditional Church Calendar, on the vigil of the Martyr St. Theodore of Amasea, we commemorate the falling asleep of schema-Bishop Theodore (Irtel) at the Abbey of the Holy Name in West Milford, New Jersey in America.  Elder Theodore’s repose at the Abbey was in fulfillment of staretz Justinian of Valaam’s prophesy regarding major future events in our Elder’s earthly life.

Continue Reading HERE

Three Positions Amongst the Orthodox Western Rite

 ”Western Orthodoxy” could not be considered to have existed after the Christian Church’s West/East Schism in 1054 a.d. Orthodoxy, thereafter, was confined to the Eastern Church. Yet today many Orthodox Christians of Western European descent harkens back to the first thousand years when the Western Church was Orthodox and united with the Eastern Roman Church.

Over the last century several local Orthodox Churches have had a hand in supporting Western Orthodoxy, among them: the Polish, Romanians, Czech, Serbians, and Greeks. More than these the Russians, Antiochians and the Ukrainians have had the longest run in building up and supporting a viable Orthodox Western Rite.

In the last ten years there has grown much criticism of Orthodox Western Rite.  Principally, whether the particular western liturgical use is “Orthodox” enough.

All Western Orthodox will cite the tomos of Moscow Patriarchate (1869) authorizing a corrected version of the Tridentine rite; also accepted in principal by the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate in 1882. The problem with a corrected Tridentine is that the so-called Tridentine version of the ancient Gregorian rite was itself a revision of the Papist Council of Trent (1570). We know from later liturgical scholarship that sufficient ancient manuscripts of pre-Schism liturgics are existent from which an adequate and thoroughly Orthodox Western Rite could have been based upon. In the absence of such scholarship a utilization of a corrected Tridentine rite was at least adequate.

In 1904, the Moscow Patriarchate, at St. (then, Archbishop) Tikhon of America’s request, had given its critique of the 1892 American Book of Common Prayer. Unlike the previous examination of the Tridentine rite, the Russian Synod did not give its whole-hearted blessing for its use; leaving it to the discernment and discretion of individual bishops in their own dioceses.  St. Tikhon’s request to the Holy Synod in Moscow was due to the complicated interactions in America between the Episcopalians and the Russian-American Archdiocese with some seeking conversion to Orthodoxy while requesting to maintain their liturgical traditions. There is no record of St. Tikhon ever having authorized the use of a corrected 1892 American BCP.  We do know that St. (then, Archbishop) Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, after his own careful and detailed examination of Anglicanism and their liturgical practices hence forbade his Orthodox flock to engage in any joint prayer or to worship in their churches.

In the beginning of the 21^st Century, there appear three major intractable positions among Western Orthodox. 

A Position of Liturgical “Prelest”.

In the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, the Church of Antioch’s Western Rite parishes are the swiftest growing among all the Orthodox jurisdictions.  The reason for their rapid growth may be owed to the same reasons for which the Antiochian Western Rite is so strongly criticized. Namely, they have wholly adopted many heterodox practices and devotionals that are at the same time unseemly and originating well after the Great Schism. Rev. Hieromonk Michael (Wood) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, in his 2008 open letter, has stated it this way,

“we see the unedifying spectacle of two liturgically warring groups operating within the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate in the USA – with those wanting what is essentially Roman Catholic Tridentine churches and ceremonial, with statues and all the late second millennium devotional additions such as the rosary, exposition, benediction, birettas, stations etc., in opposition to those who prefer the (much) modified sarumish usages which they grew up with in their former days”

In America, the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate fervently defends its own created “Divine Liturgy of St. Tikhon” as they claim to have been authorized in 1904 by the Russian Church. Such “authorization” as we stated above was never given and the AWRV’s critics question whether any or all the recommended corrections were realized in their use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer as the foundation of the so-called “St Tikhon’s Liturgy“.  It is for certain that one can see statuary, Stations of the Cross, Marian rosary, and other such schismatic devotionals in use in these parishes.  By extension, the AWRV is questioned as to its catechumenate process; as from the outside it appears that the Antiochian Western Rite are composed mainly of unconverted Episcopalians who have sought refuge amongst the Antiochians from their former modernizing and liberal communion.  If true, then these “converts” are not Orthodox and they have been successful at hijacking Orthodoxy for their own Anglo-Catholic survival.

A Position of Self-Aggrandizement.

In 1962, headquartered in Woodstock, New York, the Old Catholic Archbishop William (Brothers) led his community in America into Holy Orthodoxy through the Moscow Patriarchate thus becoming the Western Rite Exarchate of the Orthodox Church of Russia. Suspicious of the Soviet involvement in the Russian Church, Metropolitan William moved his community, in 1966, from Moscow Patriarchate into the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Exile under Archbishop Palladios (Rudenko). It was at this time that Dom Augustine (Whitfield), who had been with Metropolitan William since the 1950s, decided not to make this move. Hieromonk Augustine petitioned Archbishop John Wendland, the Russian Church-American Exarch, in this matter and was allowed to remain to establish his Our Lady of Mount Royal Western Orthodox Monastery. However, in 1975 Dom Augustine moved to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia with the blessing of Archbishop Nikon (Riklitzsky) who further authorized the Mount Royal mission and its observances. Fr. James (Deschene), a former Roman Catholic, was with Dom Augustine until the latter resigned from ROCOR in 1994. At that time Dom Augustine moved to Florida rejoining his former jurisdiction of Metr. William (+1979); by then it had become the Synod of Orthodox Bishops of the Western Rite whose autocephalous status was facilitated by Ukrainian Archbishop Palladios and confirmed by Patriarch Athenogroras in 1967.  [Note: This Synod of Orthodox Bishops of the Western Rite would later become the American Diocese of the Synod of Milan in 1997.] Dom James (Deschene) carried on the monastic mission for the Western Rite in Rhode Island renaming the monastic house Christminster under the omophor of (then) Bishop Hilarion (Kapral) of Manhattan.

In 1995, Bishop Hilarion (Kapral) was elevated to Archbishop and assigned to the See of Australia & New Zealand. We are unaware of Hieromonk Michael (Wood)’s spiritual biography. What we do know is that Fr Michael had been a member of the Anglican Church prior to his conversion to Orthodoxy. In consideration of which Orthodox jurisdiction he should make his conversion he had a lengthy conversation with Archbishop John (LoBue) of the American Diocese of the Synod of Milan in which the two discussed Western Rite liturgics within Orthodoxy.  Archbishop John, being traditional in his Orthodoxy and very conservative in his liturgics preferring nothing less than Pre-Schism Western Rite, could not move the future hieromonk from his innovationist leanings regarding Anglican liturgics within the Orthodox Church.  Sometime following his elevation Archbishop Hilarion blessed Fr. Hieromonk Michael (Wood) to lead the Western Rite movement in Australia and New Zealand as well as to produce needed service books. Both Metropolitan Phillip of the American Antiochian Archdiocese and Archbishop Hilarion of ROCOR do not possess an intimate knowledge of Western Rite liturgics. Each deferred to the expertise of others. Abp Hilarion would come to depend upon Fr. Michael as sola auctoritas. However, such undisputed authority has lead Fr. Michael into such self-aggrandizement for his version of the Western Rite that he calls for a “single standard” throughout Western Orthodoxy. At no time during the first thousand years of Orthodoxy in the Western Church had there ever been such standardization.

In his open letter, Hieromonk Michael (Wood) states [emphasis added],

“One of the unfortunate facts of Orthodox life is the historically inadvertent but nevertheless uncanonical proliferation of extensions of all the national Local Churches of Orthodoxy into the western world, with the resultant duplication of dioceses in a manner which blatantly violates the order of the Church. This does not help Orthodoxy in its mission to bring the fullness of Christ to the West.

We, in Western Rite Orthodoxy have also to worry about duplication problems which blunt the message of Christ and our mission to our people in the West. In a sense, it is unfortunate that the Holy Synod of Russia authorized several Western Rites for use. (ROCOR later authorized a third (Germanus) and it seems that a Moscow Patriarchate Archbishop has authorized a fourth rite (Stowe)).

Because of this, we see the unedifying spectacle of two liturgically warring groups operating within the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate in the USA – with those wanting what is essentially Roman Catholic Tridentine churches and ceremonial, with statues and all the late second millennium devotional
additions such as the rosary, exposition, benediction, birettas, stations etc., in opposition to those who prefer the (much) modified sarumish usages which they grew up with in their former days.

None of these things is authorized within the Russian Church. The Russian authorizations were made upon the submissions of Dr. Overbeck and Archbishop (Saint) Tikhon, both of which were non-Tridentine based submissions.

Following on from that, and the liturgical work of Abbot Augustine, from within ROCOR, Archbishop Hilarion has authorized the Saint Colman Prayer Book for our use. It contains three versions of the Divine Liturgy, with one (Sarum based) ceremonial standard for all three rites. The three versions of the Divine Liturgy therein are: The Sarum (Usus Cascadae); the English Liturgy and the Liturgy of Saint Gregory (Usus Providentiae). The Book contains a simplified Breviary and all the common occasional Offices needed by a Parish Priest.

I think that if we all adhere to one or other of these three Liturgies, making our own ROCOR Book standard and as far as is possible, ordering our churches and chapels to a very basically compatible standard, we could avoid the problems that the Antiochians have fallen into. This means ignoring the pseudo-Sarum of the “Milan Synod” book, the various Anglican, Roman, Antiochian Missals and others floating about which have no Russian Orthodox authorization.”

All sober minded Western Orthodox trust that, now, with Metropolitan Hilarion (located in New York City) having at his side as Vicar, the Bishop-elect John (Shaw) –who is a great liturgical scholar of both Eastern and Western rites– that such voices exampled by the Tasmanian hieromonk will be tempered. To some degree this has already begun. The Sarum Use which Fr. Michael finds disreputable and he attributes to the Milan Synod are actually the works of ROCOR’s own Fr. Hieromonk Aidan (Keller) which Metropolitan Hilarion has blessed for use within ROCOR.

A Position of Humble Perseverance.

Under Archbishop Palladios’ influence, the autocephalous Synod of Orthodox Bishops of the Western Rite had undertaken the monumental task of translating into English language and assembling into a useful order extant ancient manuscripts of Western liturgy and ceremonials of pre-Schism period. Much of this labor fell upon (then) Schemamonk John (LoBue) whose scholarship is unquestionable; still he sought the consultation of Archpriest John Shaw (current Bishop-elect of Manhattan, ROCOR).  In 1993 St. Gregory Press, the publication arm of this Western Rite Synod, began publishing its service books. To date there is the Mass Book: Ordinary of the Sarum Use, the two main volumes of the Monastic Psalter, four supplementary volumes for the Holy Theotokos, two supplementary volumes for Patronal Feasts and various volumes of the Lectionary for All-Night Vigil and twenty-eight volumes of The Propers for their particular season in the Church Calendar. As for the sources consulted, the Preface to volume one of The Monastic Psalter states,

“Three main manuscripts were available, however, being the Portiforium of St. Oswald of York, (also known as the Portiforum Wulstani), the Antiphonale Wigorniense of Worcester Cathedral Priory where St. Oswald (died A.D. 992) was Bishop, and the Breviary of Abingdon Abbey in Winchester (later called Hyde Abbey) where St. Ethelwaold (died A.D. 984) was Bishop. These two great monastic reformers of the 10th Century Orthodox Church in England. They have left for us a wonderful treasure of prayer for the entire Church year. Second only to the RSB which provides the main structure and cycle of Psalms for the Psalter, the aforementioned Antiphonale Witgorniense provided the main Antiphons and Responsories. The Portiforium of St. Oswald which appears also to have been derived from Winchester, provided the many Chapters and Collects that have been used, and the Abingdon Breviary provided those items missing from the first two manuscripts. Together, they provide us with a clear picture showing how the Monks and Nuns of the Orthodox West conducted what St. Benedict calls. “the Work of God.’”
(from the Preface, The Medieval Monastic Psalter of Orthodox England, Noted in the English Language, St. Gregory Press, West Milford, N.J., 1993).

This Western Rite Orthodox Synod -which would become the American Diocese of the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Western Europe & the Americas in 1997; a Western European descendant of the True Orthodox Church of Greece-well understood the gravity of its liturgical mission, which was:

“…the need to present the ancient Western usage of Monks and Nuns that followed the Rule [RSB] of St. Benedict of Nursia in a manner that was completely Orthodox, i.e., completely in accordance with the doctrine, canons, and practices of the Orthodox Church. This, of course, requires that the Hours be done in the completely ancient manner that was practiced in the first millennial Orthodox Churches of the West, which by the year 950 a.d. had spread through the greater part of the civilized world, from the Baffin Islands in what is now Canada, to the island of Valaam in Lake Ladoga in the present day Russia, to the Western Rite Monastery of Amalphon (called Morphonu by the Greeks) on Mount Athos. This usage was the singularly predominant prayer of the Monks and Nuns of the present day Italy, France, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England. It has been considered most appropriate to look to the latter country, whose Monks and Nuns were the source of conversion for the aforementioned countries in the north of Europe, and which had received the Monastic Office itself from St. Augustine of Canterbury, the Italian monk that had been the Prior of St. Andrew’s Monastery on the Coelian Hill in Rome where our Father among the the saints, St. Gregory Dialogus, Pope of Old Rome, had been the Abbott. St. Bede the Venerable writes that St. Gregory, after learning that St. Augustine had successfully begun the mission among the Angles and relating his joy for this success in a letter to St. Eulogius, Pope of Alexandria, sent “all things needed in general for Divine Worship and the services of the Church, sacred vessels, altar clothes, furniture for Churches, vestments for the Clergy, relics, and also many books.” It is the latter books that served as the foundation for this life of prayer in the Latin usage of the Monks and Nuns of medieval England that these volumes of Monastic Office in the English language are meant to continue. Secondly, it was needed to produce these Office books using that ancient and essential tool of assistance for prayer service in the Western Rite that has come to be known as the Gregorian Chant.”  (ibid).

“The Milan Synod”, being a common nomenclature for the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Western Europe & the Americas, has been cited by potential Western rite critics for its pseudo-Sarum rite. Similarly, as Fr. Michael states in his open letter:

“Add to this the intrusion of a highly incorrect book (albeit beautifully and expensively bound and printed) having its origin in the “Milan Synod” purporting to be Sarum, but which is in fact merely a collection of obscure, very localized variations pasted together for their presumed acceptability to Byzantine liturgical sensibilities.”

And in his self-promotion for a standardized liturgical form albeit his own St. Colman Prayerbook Fr Michael continues:

“. . . This means ignoring the pseudo-Sarum of the “Milan Synod” book, the various Anglican, Roman, Antiochian Missals and others floating about which have no Russian Orthodox authorization.”

What is being referred to and criticized here is not the monumental work of Archbishop John that has been published by St. Gregory Press and is the standard amongst English-speaking Western Orthodox throughout the Milan Synod. Rather, these criticisms are of the Old Sarum Rite Missal (1998) that was produced by Fr. Hieromonk Aidan (Keller) when he resided at the Milan Synod’s Monastery of St. Hilarion in Austin, Texas.  Fr. Aidan’s work on the Sarum Use came several years after and was conducted very separate from that of Archbishop John’s.  While the worst we might say of Fr Aidan’s Missal might refer to its extravagance it seems that it never received any official standing outside his own former Archdiocese of Austin and Western America.  Still, the then ROCOR Bishop of Manhattan gave his blessing that St. Hilarion Press publications could be sold by St. John of Kronstadt Press Bookstore. And, the now, Metropolitan Hilarion has approved of Fr. Aidan’s liturgical materials as well as those of St. Gregory Press to be used in Western rite settings in the ROCOR Diocese of Eastern United States.

There is much dysinformation in cyberspace about the Milan Synod, its American Diocese and its liturgical practices. It always amazes us how few people make an effort to contact us at The Abbey of the Holy Name directly in answer to their questions. Yet we, in imitation of our archpastor, remain in humble perserverance. His Eminence Archbishop John is a true archpastor who, being pious and long-suffering, takes such criticism much like the proverbial “water off the duck’s back”. His concern is that he shepherds his flock in a manner that facilitates our true repentance and genuine adherence to the True Faith in Christ. It is therefore of great importance that the liturgical life of his Western rite parishes and monastics also conform to the very same Orthodoxy that has been handed down from the Apostles to the Holy Fathers and through the many saints of the Church. If the Western Divine Liturgy and the various ceremonials fail also to teach the True Faith then there is something inherently wrong. More times than not it is due to the fact that such ailing liturgics is due to either poor translation or the original text sources are themselves wholly un-Orthodox.  Such is not the case with what is available from St. Gregory Press and utilized in the Milan Synod. Anyone wishing to examine samples of these services may view the Library page of Kellion.org or obtain a copy of volume 1 of the Monastic Psalter from St. Gregory Press.  Let us know what you think.

We trust Fathers Hieromonk Michael, Hieromonk Aidan, Bishop-elect John (Shaw), Dom Augustine, Dom James and so many others would agree that there must be scholarly integrity in the restoration of the Western Rite among the Orthodox.  And yet, perhaps Fr Michael will concede that, with good scholarship and quality translation there is room in Holy Orthodoxy of the 21^st Century -as there was in the first millennium of Orthodox Europe-for more than one Rite. Right?

–Rev. Fr. Stavrophoremonk Symeon
The Hermitage of St. John the Theologian
a monastic dependency of The Abbey of the Holy Name