tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72726046607171753952024-03-05T00:41:21.266-08:00Orthodoxen Kirche im Deutschland: a website redeemed and transfigured...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-92166580466273153702012-03-13T14:11:00.000-07:002012-03-13T14:11:24.867-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pravmir.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Schmorell1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.pravmir.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Schmorell1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Alexander Schmorell: Orthodoxer Neumärtyrer<br />
<br />
Alexander Schmorell and his small circle of friends were the the first Germans to publicly protest the Holocaust during WWII. News articles covering the "canonizing" of the anti-Nazi activist Alexander Schmorell on domradio.de here:<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.domradio.de/aktuell/79629/die-russisch-orthodoxe-kirche-spricht-alexander-schmorell-heilig.html">http://www.domradio.de/aktuell/79629/die-russisch-orthodoxe-kirche-spricht-alexander-schmorell-heilig.html</a></span><br />
<br />
and in the Mittelbayerische here:<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.mittelbayerische.de/nachrichten/oberpfalz-bayern/artikel/widerstandskaempfer_schmorell_/753502/widerstandskaempfer_schmorell_.html">http://www.mittelbayerische.de/nachrichten/oberpfalz-bayern/artikel/widerstandskaempfer_schmorell_/753502/widerstandskaempfer_schmorell_.html</a></span><br />
<br />
Jim Forest gives us a summary of Schmorell's life in English here:<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2011/02/02/alexander-schmorell-a-witness-in-dark-times/">http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2011/02/02/alexander-schmorell-a-witness-in-dark-times/</a></span><br />
<br />
Photos of the canonization service can be seen on <a href="http://www.pravmir.com/">Pravmir </a>here:<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.pravmir.com/canonization-in-munich-saint-alexander-schmorell/">http://www.pravmir.com/canonization-in-munich-saint-alexander-schmorell/</a></span><br />
<br />
His organization, the White Rose Society still exists. See <a href="http://weisse-rose-stiftung.de/">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-13611541550216175402011-11-29T13:04:00.000-08:002011-11-29T13:04:28.745-08:00die <span style="font-size: large;">Weihnachts-Fastenzeit</span>, die dem westlichen Advent entspricht, dauert vom 15 November bis 24 Dezember (nach alte und neue Kalender ableiten).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja5Bm34uuebtJrw1TJ1fdGo5PL0soLeP8_uhfM7dhqgrZTYUKOQnhnBQIKTzc_5_maTMZ_gWSKc323bGZ1CeqtgVUosdD-_mcRSNamDFIrwgakgumBRqYcEBJKZ_KwKOe7Wku54JCMs38/s1600/6251Advent_wreath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja5Bm34uuebtJrw1TJ1fdGo5PL0soLeP8_uhfM7dhqgrZTYUKOQnhnBQIKTzc_5_maTMZ_gWSKc323bGZ1CeqtgVUosdD-_mcRSNamDFIrwgakgumBRqYcEBJKZ_KwKOe7Wku54JCMs38/s320/6251Advent_wreath.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-54498560469923631562011-02-08T10:31:00.000-08:002011-02-08T10:31:07.404-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.royal-bavaria.com/Photos/Brewery/images/p1000213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://www.royal-bavaria.com/Photos/Brewery/images/p1000213.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Orthodox Stammtisch</span></span></b><br />
<br />
Friday, February 18th 7pm<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Royal Bavaria Restaurant and Brewery<br />
3401 S. Sooner Road</div>Moore Oklahoma USA<br />
<a href="http://www.royal-bavaria.com/">http://www.royal-bavaria.com</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.royal-bavaria.com/Photos/Resturant/images/p1000076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><a href="http://www.royal-bavaria.com/Photos/Resturant/images/p1000076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a></div>The <a href="http://www.ocf.net/groups/university_of_oklahoma/default.aspx">University of Oklahoma's Orthodox Christian Fellowship</a> will be joining the parishioners of <a href="http://www.royal-bavaria.com%20/">St. Elijah Orthodox Church</a> and <a href="http://www.holyascensionnorman.org/">Holy Ascension Orthodox Church</a> at Oklahoma's historic Biergarten to enjoy German cuisine, handcrafted beverages, and fellowship.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmCX661wgLRb2OZRgVIdDwUpKETv-YPUki9xzMPHPXEO5zaNQjeDSDdfaFA10QpGgeXWmxnxoy91n-vIEC6eq-ZnJUgEmQ95szpirjv9rpWCpc-4YDYLDRDBemESTcNQK81pECSUPcOLEv/s1600/Banner-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmCX661wgLRb2OZRgVIdDwUpKETv-YPUki9xzMPHPXEO5zaNQjeDSDdfaFA10QpGgeXWmxnxoy91n-vIEC6eq-ZnJUgEmQ95szpirjv9rpWCpc-4YDYLDRDBemESTcNQK81pECSUPcOLEv/s320/Banner-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-50042009981585636002010-11-16T11:09:00.000-08:002010-11-16T11:22:16.159-08:00<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">der Kommission der Orthodoxen Kirche in Deutschland</span><br />The first session of the Orthodox Episcopal Conference took place on 13-14 November in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the new name of <a href="http://www.kokid.de/">KOKID</a> (<a href="http://www.kokid.de/">der Kommission der Orthodoxen Kirche in Deutschland</a>). The Sunday liturgy was concelebrated by five Metropolitans and four Bishops. <span style="font-size:85%;">(Thank you to <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://ancientchristiandefender.blogspot.com/">Ancient Christian Defender</a>. Text taken from <a href="http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,31304.msg494433/topicseen.html#msg494433">orthodoxchristianity.net forums</a>).</span><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/TOLYWCOa5XI/AAAAAAAAAyA/u1_W-zyzqYQ/s1600/IMAG0174.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/TOLYWCOa5XI/AAAAAAAAAyA/u1_W-zyzqYQ/s320/IMAG0174.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540228364685206898" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-46996819946088905452010-10-09T09:03:00.000-07:002010-10-09T09:20:58.158-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Marienfahne.gif"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 234px; height: 211px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Marienfahne.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ein andere Orthodox Oktoberfest...</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sunday, October 17 2010</span><br />after Divine Liturgy at St. Elijah's Antiochian Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA<br /><br />OKTOBERFEST... a fund raiser for the charities supported by St. Elijah.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Bratwurst, Knockwurst, Sauerkraut, Schwarzebrot, Kuchen, (root) bier, (ginger) ale. </span><br /><br />Adults $10, kinder (under 12) $5Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-75533044898548137702010-07-05T11:35:00.000-07:002010-07-07T12:29:19.091-07:00<div style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Sr. Vassa Larin, a ROCOR nun of the Diocese of Berlin and Germany, is an assistant instructor of Liturgical Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria. In an interview conducted by Deacon Andrei Psarev, Sister Larin tells of her education and teaching experiences in Germany. She says "Since higher education in Germany was then free, Vladyka decided to take advantage of this. His decision shocked me at the time, because it never entered my mind that I as an American could study at a German university."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Tell us about your studies in the Department of Orthodox Theologyat Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. </span> <br /><br /><a style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.stift-kremsmuenster.at/typo3temp/pics/cdaa3f21fa.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 146px;" src="http://www.stift-kremsmuenster.at/typo3temp/pics/cdaa3f21fa.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Writing papers and then a thesis in German was a challenge, since I had learned the language mostly autodidactically, and not very well. The program of studies, equivalent to the Master’s Degree in the United States, included Ancient Greek, Old Testament and New Testament (Introduction to, History, and Exegesis), History of Philosophy, Church History, Patrology, Canon Law, Homiletics, Pastoral Theology, and Liturgical Studies. I majored in Liturgical Studies and wrote a thesis on the origins of the so-called Royal Office (tsarskoe nachalo) at the beginning of Byzantine matins. Having received a Master’s degree, I was urged by my professors to go on to the doctoral program.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >I first intended to write a dissertation on Canon Law, but it was at this time that I met the 75-year-old Professor Robert Taft, today the world’s leading expert on Byzantine Liturgy. It so happened that Fr. Taft read my thesis on Byzantine matins, and wrote me an email about it. In his email he both criticized my work in the most straightforward of terms, and offered to publish it upon its correction. He also invited me to read a lecture at a symposium he was organizing in Bavaria, where I soon met him in person. At the symposium Fr. Taft offered to finance and direct my work if I wrote my dissertation on Byzantine Liturgy (and not Canon Law, which he called “the bad side of the good news”), because, as he then put it, “The ROCOR has always been good at celebrating liturgy. Wouldn’t it be nice if it also had someone who knew something about it? Go tell your bishop that and let me know what he says.”</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >To make a long story short, with the blessing of Archbishop Mark I wrote my dissertation on “The Entrance Rites of the Byzantine Hierarchal Divine Liturgy” under Taft’s direction. Fr. Robert not only guided my research and writing of the dissertation; he also taught me the basics of liturgical scholarship and its methodology. “I don’t care what you say,” he would tell me, “as long as you back it up with evidence.” He taught me how to locate and analyze liturgical manuscripts, how to prepare scholarly publications, which periodicals to read on a regular basis, etc. He also took me to conferences and symposia around the world, where he introduced me to top scholars in our field, many of which were once his students. Several months before I completed my dissertation I received a job offer for a post-doctoral position at the University of Vienna’s Institute of Liturgical Studies.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >On December 18, 2008 I publicly defended my dissertation at the Orthodox Institute in Munich, with both Archbishop Mark and Fr. Robert Taft present. According to German academic regulations the “defense” was actually a two-hour oral examination on three different fields related to my work: Liturgical Studies, History of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, and Byzantine Studies (Byzantinistik). I received a “summa cum laude” for the exam and the dissertation, which is soon to be published in Rome as a volume of the series “Orientalia Christiana Analecta.”</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >After Archimandrite Robert Taft's presentation at the ROCOR Women's conference last summer, I was told by one of our clergymen that non-Orthodox people should not offer instruction to the Orthodox on matters of faith. Would you please comment on this idea?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >This is a very important issue, and since it disturbs many people I will try to answer in some detail. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Let me first comment on the fear of the non-Orthodox that appears to have inspired the comment of our clergyman. It seems that some of our faithful experience Orthodoxy first and foremost as fear, while their faith remains largely uninspired, uncurious, and hence uninformed. Such an Orthodoxy often has no idea about its own tradition, about the wealth of history behind the liturgy one attends every Sunday, or even about scripture itself. At the same time, a fearful Orthodox is often willing to spend hours in the Internet, feeding on church politics and dulling the theological senses all the more. To such a culture of ignorance and fear, even the most brilliant non-Orthodox scholars of our Byzantine liturgy are seen as threats, rather than a humbling admonishment to our own negligence of Orthodox tradition.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Let me recall the lecture to which you are referring. At the ROCOR Women’s conference Professor Taft gave a talk on the topic “Women at Worship in Byzantium: Glimpses of a Lost World,” in which he described the liturgical life of women in the Byzantine Empire based on 5th-14th c. historical witnesses. The participants of the Women’s Conference learned that there was a women’s choir in Hagia Sophia; that Byzantine women once took part in all-night vigils; that there were barriers in the church restricting the mingling of men with women in the church; that several Church Fathers admonished the Byzantines for their misbehavior in church etc. If the clergyman you mentioned intended to say that this lecture was an example of “non-Orthodox instructing Orthodox on matters of faith,” I would have to ask: exactly which “matters of faith” were touched upon in this lecture? Does our clergyman consider the history of women in Byzantium “a matter of faith”? Would an “Orthodox” description of a women’s choir in Hagia Sophia differ from a “Roman Catholic” description?</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Be that as it may, I would nonetheless agree that history is generally a “matter of faith.” Especially because there is no such thing as completely impartial, objective history. However, a knowledge of history requires education. And in the past the Church has hardly been self-sufficient in matters of education, utilizing not only non-Orthodox, but completely secular and even pagan institutions/systems of thought when needed. Beginning at least with the Gospel of John, the Church turns to the terminology developed by pre-Christian philosophers to formulate her own dogmas. An openness toward secular education – with a firm grasp and love for one’s own faith – characterized later apologists and teachers of the Church as well. Saints Gregory the Theologian and Basil the Great took pride in having been educated in a pagan school at Athens. The great Chrysostom was taught by Livanius and Theodore of Mopsuestia – the one a pagan, the other a heretic. Although these Holy Fathers lived in times of rampant heresies and dogmatic confusion, they did not cultivate an Orthodoxy of fear. It was rather an Orthodoxy of responsibility and dogmatic awareness, inspired and fortified by a thirst for education.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Many centuries later the Russian Church had no formal system of theological education until it was imported from the Roman-Catholic West via Kiev around the middle of the 17th c. It is an historical fact that St. Peter Moghila organized his theological schools according to Jesuit models, and it was this educational system that was instituted in Muscovy. The reason for importing our educational system from the West was very simple: this was not only the best educational system at the time, it was the only one at the time. The alternative to learning from the West was remaining uneducated. Should the Russian Church have rejected Western education and preferred to remain uneducated? Let me put it differently: If given a choice, would any of us prefer for our children to remain uneducated rather than giving them an education? So the Russian Church chose to learn from the West, demonstrating common sense and, I might add, humility.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Today we have a similar situation. Many Orthodox families in the West send their children to Catholic schools and universities, or to non-Orthodox public or private schools. In these institutions our youngsters are taught, among other things, history, literature, philosophy – subjects that could involve “matters of faith.” In school the children have contact with non-Orthodox in religious matters: for example, they recite the Pledge of Allegiance, pronouncing the name of God together with non-Orthodox, Muslims, Jews, and perhaps atheists. Many of us allow our children to watch movies such as “The Passion” by Mel Gibson, a non-Orthodox. Indeed, we allow ourselves and our children to have contact with non-Orthodox in “matters of faith” on various levels and on a daily basis.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Is it the will of God that we find ourselves in this situation, surrounded by this non-Orthodox world? The Church has never taught us otherwise. The Founder of the Church left His disciples in this world, having said, “Take heart, for I have defeated the world.” And so the Church sings, “Take heart, ye people of God, for He has defeated the enemies… (</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Derzayte lyudie Bozhii, ibo toy pobedi vragi…</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >).” This is not a religion of fear.</span> <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:85%;" >Of course the faith of the Church is exclusive, and we owe our loyalty to her alone: we embrace one faith, and not many different faiths at once. But this does not mean that we have no contact with people of other faiths. Marriage is also exclusive, but a married couple does not lock itself in a closet, excluding all contact with other men and women. That would be absurd and unhealthy, and the same would be true of the Church if it ghettoized its everyday life.</span><br /><br />The text above is an abbreviated version of the article <a href="http://rocorstudies.org/index.php?sid=130&aid=10764&idpage=">"Orthodoxy Is Not a Religion of Fear"</a> which can be read in its entirety at <a href="http://rocorstudies.org/index.php?sid=130&aid=10764&idpage=">Rocorstudies.org</a><br /><br />Also covering Sister Vassa: <a href="http://solzemli.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/this-is-not-a-religion-of-fear-says-nun-vassa-larin/">“This is Not a Religion of Fear”</a> and <a href="http://www.stift-kremsmuenster.at/index.php?id=735&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=663&tx_ttnews[backPid]=724&cHash=8a66fb4bc8">Nonne Vassa sprach mit die junge über das Mönchtum</a><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-74493381531167376622010-01-30T06:57:00.000-08:002010-01-30T09:01:15.074-08:00<div style="text-align: justify;">Many times "Trinity" is rendered in German as <span style="font-style: italic;">Trinität </span>or <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreieinigkeit</span>. And sometimes <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreizahl </span>(triad) is used. The compound <span style="font-style: italic;">Drei-einig-keit</span> means "three-united-ness", very close to how we would (with our finite minds) conceptualize the Trinity in English.<br /><br />In the case of the <a href="http://orthodox.de/kloster.php">Holy Trinity Monastery</a>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreifaltigkeit </span>can be recognized, as <span style="font-style: italic;">drei </span>= <span style="font-weight: bold;">three </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">keit </span>more or less translates to <span style="font-weight: bold;">ness</span>. However as I thought about the compound, <span style="font-style: italic;">faltig </span>had me stumped. How did the Trinity come to be described with the word "wrinkled"?? At least that's the only meaning I was familiar with. So I did some searching online which seemed to confirm the mundane, that <span style="font-style: italic;">faltig </span>just means "wrinkled".<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/S1eMKU22dyI/AAAAAAAAApk/TNFGKPWf5p4/s1600-h/dreifaltigkeit.bmp"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 169px; height: 93px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/S1eMKU22dyI/AAAAAAAAApk/TNFGKPWf5p4/s400/dreifaltigkeit.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428961984843773730" border="0" /></a>Then I came across the digitized version of <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=NVIBAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false"><span style="font-style: italic;">A Grammar Of The German Language For High Schools And Colleges</span></a> by Hermann Carl George Brandt (Allyn and Bacon, 1894), which gives <span style="font-style: italic;">faltig</span>'s archaic meaning of "folded" from the verb <span style="font-style: italic;">falten </span>"to fold". <br /><br />I do not know to what extent <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreifaltigkeit </span>is used less often than <span style="font-style: italic;">Trinität </span>or <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreieinigkeit</span> since the elements were compounded in older times. But even using an archaic word, it is still translated as "Three-folded-ness". I find this a terribly beautiful and a poetic image.<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"></div><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-86415106215148961282010-01-24T16:34:00.000-08:002010-01-24T16:38:48.198-08:00<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pascha Gottesdienst Berlin</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Christus ist aufverstanden</span>- sang in Arabisch und Griechisch, Berlin 2008<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fn2HZAzfx8">Part 1</a> - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98VQ4JKvUN0">Part 2</a> - Part 3 (below) - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCeGZ3Sxh24">Part 4</a><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K-HjvXzwv6o&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K-HjvXzwv6o&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-47405785935127897952010-01-20T15:11:00.000-08:002010-01-20T20:59:30.673-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/S1ePd2b3yFI/AAAAAAAAAps/Y0ePKiOZJ2Y/s1600-h/hg_kloster_01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 73px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/S1ePd2b3yFI/AAAAAAAAAps/Y0ePKiOZJ2Y/s400/hg_kloster_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428965618809817170" border="0" /></a>A short video of the <a href="http://orthodox.de/kloster.php">Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery</a>, under the Bulgarian Patriarchate, located in Buchhagen. The German chant is wonderful...<br />
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<center><br />
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DKWvjjhridE&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DKWvjjhridE&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div></center>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-90121717900714764072009-12-25T22:06:00.000-08:002009-12-25T22:19:59.091-08:00Fröhliche Weihnachten!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4sRYDoJV-lZraotwHjPfxJ74rV2W4xLmFczmuCiqfFFJodzxoNkImtweDaGjsgYqCapJBOD5Gcl310gGSqHUyAxQrEePXg7LvhTtYO7RF6M9VmMybqCvkCsJq5nrII_S9Q6HUQNcCTWC6/s1600-h/schneekirche.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 286px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4sRYDoJV-lZraotwHjPfxJ74rV2W4xLmFczmuCiqfFFJodzxoNkImtweDaGjsgYqCapJBOD5Gcl310gGSqHUyAxQrEePXg7LvhTtYO7RF6M9VmMybqCvkCsJq5nrII_S9Q6HUQNcCTWC6/s400/schneekirche.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419425462774108354" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Heute ist uns der Heiland geboren. Lasset uns gehen und anbeten!</span></span><br /><p></p><p style="font-style: italic;">Today a Savior is born to us. Let us go and worship Him.<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"></p><div id="refHTML"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-21503649462084339272009-10-22T11:20:00.000-07:002010-01-20T15:47:18.502-08:00Orthodox OktoberfestIgnore the politics of this film trailer and simply enjoy watching Oktoberfest in the Orthodox Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh...<br /><br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/96w4Cd7j9bs&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/96w4Cd7j9bs&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-77142411534575762702009-07-25T14:27:00.000-07:002010-01-05T14:36:42.420-08:00Gerontas Joseph von Vatopaidi- Das erste Wunder<h2><span style="font-size:100%;">Das erste Wunder von Gerontas Joseph von Vatopaidi (Athoskloster) nach seinem Tod: 45 Minuten nach seinem Entschlafen hat er gelächelt. (Γερμανικά, German)</span></h2> <a href="http://vatopaidi.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/das-erste-wunder-von-gerontas-joseph-von-vatopaidi-athoskloster-nach-seinem-tod-45-minuten-nach-seinem-entschlafen-hat-er-gelachelt/"><span class="submitted">19 Ιουλίου, 2009 — auf VatopaidiFriend </span></a> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/keidia-52.jpg"><img style="width: 330px; height: 493px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11620" title="keidia-5" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/keidia-52.jpg?w=432&h=648" alt="keidia-5" /></a></p> <p>Sehr geehrter Herr Papanikolaou</p> <p>wenige Stunden nach der Beerdigung von Gerontas Iosif veröffentlichten Sie im WordWideWeb einen Artikel mit dem Titel: “Die Bestattung des seligen Gerontas Iosif (Joseph) von Batopaidi – Ein Lächeln aus der Ewigkeit”, der mit wenigen Worten das Geschehene erklärt und einige Photographien bietet. Die Photographie des Entschlafenen, der lächelt, und zwar nicht allein mit seinen Lippen, sondern im gesamten Ausdruck seines Antlitzes hat einen großen Eindruck auf die Welt gemacht und das können wir in Artikeln und Abhandlungen auf vielen Internetseiten sehen.<br /></p><p>Und in der Tat trifft niemand auf Tote mit leuchtendem Antlitz, mit friedlichem Ausdruck, mit tiefer Ruhe, und sogar mit dem Lächeln. Zum einen sagen alle Geistlichen Väter, daß die Stunde des Todes schrecklich für den Menschen ist, zum anderen lesen wir in den Büchern über die Väter (Gerontika), daß auch diejenigen, die ein wenig im geistlichen Leben vorangeschritten sind, wegen der Demut sich nicht überheblich zeigen, bis sie ins andere Leben hinübergegangen sind, wo es keine Gefahr mehr gibt. Zu guter Letzt war Gerontas Iosif herzkrank und viel von Krankheit geplagt. Wie also konnte er lächelnd entschlafen?</p> <p>Die Antwort ist: <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">NEIN</span>, er entschlief nicht lächelnd, aber er lächelte nach seiner Entschlafung.</p><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/12.jpg"><img style="width: 361px; height: 279px;" class="size-full wp-image-11621 aligncenter" title="1" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/12.jpg?w=600&h=464" alt="1" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/23.jpg"><img style="width: 389px; height: 318px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11623" title="2" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/23.jpg?w=600&h=490" alt="2" /></a></p> <p>Nach Gesprächen mit einigen Vätern des Klosters will ich Ihnen folgende Erklärung des Geschehenen geben.</p> <p>Die zwei Mönche, die mit ihm bis zum letzten Augenblick zusammen waren, liefen sofort los, um den Abt Efrem zu informieren und auch die übrigen Väter und achteten zunächst nicht auf den Entschlafenen, der zudem noch mit halboffenem Mund verblieben war.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/32.jpg"><img style="width: 376px; height: 284px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11622" title="3" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/32.jpg?w=600&h=451" alt="3" /></a></p> <p>Schließlich kamen sie zurück, um ihn gemäß der monastischen Ordnung (für die Aufbarung) zu bereiten. Der Abt Efrem gab den Befehl, daß sie sein Gesicht unbedeckt lassen. Die Väter versuchten, den Mund zu schließen, aber es war zu spät, der Mund blieb offen. Sie banden schließlich eine Binde herum, die seinen Mund geschlossen halten sollte, aber als sie diese wieder wegnahmen, blieb der Mund wieder offen. Es waren seit seiner Entschlafung ungefähr 45 Minuten vergangen.</p> <p>- Geronta, sieht es nicht häßlich aus mit solch einem Mund, was sollen wir machen?</p> <p>- Laßt es wie es ist, bedeckt nicht sein Gesicht.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/53.jpg"><img style="width: 319px; height: 213px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11624" title="5" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/53.jpg?w=600&h=400" alt="5" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/62.jpg"><br /></a></p> <p>Sie nähten ihn in seinen Mönchsmantel wie üblich. Die ganze Anstrengung, ihn in seinen Mantel zu legen und ihn einzunähen dauerte in etwa weitere 45 Minuten. Schließlich schnitten sie den Stoff rings um sein Gesicht gemäß dem Auftrag, und sie fanden den Gerontas genau so, wie ihn nun alle sehen: lächelnd. Er hatte sie gehört und er machte ihnen diesen kleinen Gefallen, um sie nicht traurig zu machen? Oder er wollte uns eine Idee davon geben, was er gesehen hat und von der Situation, in der er sich jetzt befindet nach seinem Weggang aus dem gegenwärtigen Leben?</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p> <p>Das Lächeln des Gerontas Iosif ist das erste übernatürliche Geschehen nach seiner Entschlafung und geschah zu einem großen Trost für alle.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/keidia-17.jpg"><img style="width: 361px; height: 241px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15292" title="keidia 1" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/keidia-17.jpg?w=622&h=415" alt="keidia 1" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dsc_0982.jpg"><img style="width: 329px; height: 219px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15293" title="dsc_0982" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dsc_09825.jpg?w=590&h=392" alt="dsc_0982" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dsc_09886.jpg"><img style="width: 393px; height: 588px;" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15294" title="dsc_0988" src="http://vatopaidi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dsc_09886.jpg?w=478&h=717" alt="dsc_0988" /></a></p> <p>Panagiotis Koutsoú</p> <p>Aus dem Griechischen von p. Martinos</p><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-68918158966633459442009-05-14T07:06:00.000-07:002009-05-14T08:53:25.221-07:00St Walburga, Abbess of Heidenheim<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_hRmLQeh0-Esr1WTe7OfDR8sT22XhR9qjMvOhOqMahmatasnte2KtMFO16d7nkmKqylyTl5uWSDQCDtrxsiJzYvpoOEvbFotP5o9NwmMnPIYqedxizqOzwmx68OZsLUi094gSgW1Nc7F/s1600-h/St+Walburga+3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335705383443266418" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 266px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_hRmLQeh0-Esr1WTe7OfDR8sT22XhR9qjMvOhOqMahmatasnte2KtMFO16d7nkmKqylyTl5uWSDQCDtrxsiJzYvpoOEvbFotP5o9NwmMnPIYqedxizqOzwmx68OZsLUi094gSgW1Nc7F/s400/St+Walburga+3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><em>Today, 1 May on the Old Calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Walburga, Abbess of Heidenheim, also known as 'Walpurgis', 'Gauburge', 'Vaubourg', 'Falbourg', and 'Waltpurde'. Here is the account of her life on the Fish Eaters </em><a href="http://www.fisheaters.com/walpurgisnacht.html"><em>site</em></a><em> (also see my other post at </em><a href="http://logismoitouaaron.blogspot.com/2009/05/model-of-mortificationst-walburga.html"><em>Logismoi</em></a><em>):</em></div><br /><p align="justify">St Walburga was born in Devonshire, England in A.D. 710. Her parents were a West Saxon under-king who became known as St Richard, and St Boniface's sister, Winna. She had two brothers, boys who grew up to be known as SS Willibald and Winibald. When she was eleven, her father and brothers went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, so she was sent to the abbess of Wimborne who ran her Benedictine abbey with holiness and discipline in mind. Walburga's father died in Lucca a year after her arrival at the abbey, and she remained there for twenty-six years, receiving a good education, including the study of Latin. This last skill allowed her to write the account of her brother Willibald's pilgrimage, an act which has led to her being seen as the first female author of England and Germany.<br /><br />Boniface wrote to the Abbess, asking that nuns be sent to help in in his work, and in A.D. 748, his wish was granted when the Abbess sent along some Sisters, Walburga amongst them. En route to Germany by boat, a great storm arose. As the waters raged above and beneath, Walburga knelt on the deck and prayed. Instantly, the sea became calm, and the sailors went on to proclaim the miracle at their destination. She made her way through Antwerp and then on to Mainz, where she met her Uncle Boniface and her brother, Willibald.<br /><br />She spent some time in the abbey at Bischofsheim, and was later made abbess of Heidenheim, part of a double-monastery where her favorite brother, Winibald, ruled over the male monastics. When this beloved brother died, she not only ruled her abbey, but ruled over his monastery as well, and became known for her sanctity and miraculous gifts of healing. The story is told of how one night her Sisters came to accompany her down to supper, and found the hall to her room bathed in a divine light that remained until Matins the next morning.<br /><br />On September 23, 776, she and her brother, Willibald, went to translate Winibald's relics to Heidenheim, but upon opening his tomb, found that no remains were left. Soon after this miracle, she became ill, and then died on February 25, 777 in the company of Willibald, who laid her to rest near Winibald. Willibald himself died in 786.<br /><br />Jumping forward about a hundred years to A.D. 870, the Bishop of Eichstadt in Bavaria went to restore Walburga's monastery and church. In the process, the workmen desecrated her tomb, and she appeared to them to reproach them for their negligence. The good Bishop reacted by ensuring a solemn and respectful translation of her relics to the Church of the Holy Cross (now known as St Walburga's) in Eichstadt on September 21. But it is what happened twenty-three years later, in A.D. 893, that helps keep St Walburga in our consciousness. In that year, the successor to the Bishop who translated her relics opened her tomb to retrieve some of those relics for the Abbess of Abbess of Monheim. He found that her remains exuded an oil—a healing substance known as the ‘Oil of Saints’. This precious substance has been exuding from her remains yearly ever since between 12 October and 25 February, her Feast in the Benedictine Breviary, only stopping ‘during a period when Eichstadt was laid under interdict, and when blood was shed in the church by robbers who seriously wounded the bell-ringer’ (from the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15526b.htm">Catholic Encyclopedia</a>). The Abbess got her relics, and some were also sent to Cologne, Antwerp, Furnes, and other places—many of these translations giving rise to Feasts—but it is her tomb in the church in Eichstadt that, to this day, exudes the fragrant, healing oil. A Benedictine nunnery (see picture below) immediately arose near the church that houses her tomb so that the Sisters could tend to her relics and help with the pilgrims who came for the healing oil. The Sisters have been there now for a thousand years.<br /><br /><em>Here as well is a brief German account from </em><a href="http://www.str-tv.at/lokales/pfarre/tagesheilige/februar.htm"><em>this site</em></a><em>:</em><br /><br />Walburga war die Tochter des Königs Richard von England und der Wunna und die Schwester von Willibald von Eichstätt und Wunibald von Heidenheim. Sie wurde um 748 von Bonifatius, dem Bruder ihrer Mutter, mit Lioba und anderen Gefährtinnen als Missionarin nach Deutschland gerufen und lebte als Nonne im Kloster Tauberbischofsheim. Mit drei Ähren habe sie ein Kind vom Hungertod errettet; auf dem Wege zur kranken Tochter eines Burgherrn sei sie von Hunden angefallen worden und habe den ihr zu Hilfe eilenden Knechten zugerufen, sie stehe unter dem Schutz Christi, worauf die Hunde von ihr abließen. 761 wurde Walburga zur Äbtissin des von Wunibald gegründeten Benediktinerklosters in Heidenheim in Franken ernannt; das dortige Doppelkloster war ein wichtiger Missionsstützpunkt. Sie ist dort auch bestattet. Die ‘alpurgisnacht’vom 30. April auf den 1. Mai hat inhaltlich keinen erkennbaren Zusammenhang mit der Heiligen, manche Überlieferungen berichten aber von ihrer Kanonisation durch Papst Hadrian II.er regierte 867 - 872—an einem 1. Mai, und in England wurde ihr Gedenktag am 1. Mai begangen.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-85941496559582122462009-05-10T21:30:00.000-07:002009-05-10T21:38:04.874-07:00The Letters of Fr Clement (Sederholm)<div align="justify"><a title="Posts by Ручьёв" href="http://incendiarious.wordpress.com/author/norespite/">Ручьёв</a> at <a href="http://incendiarious.wordpress.com/">Incendiary</a> has thankfully begun the task of translating the letters of <a href="http://www.germanorthodoxchurch.org/2009/04/orthodox-german-hieromonk-clement.html">Fr Clement (Sederholm)</a>, the German-Russian who converted to Orthodoxy from Lutheranism and became a monk of Optina Pustyn'. The first translation was just posted, along with the promise of more.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><blockquote><div align="justify">[Following the request of Christopher at <a href="http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2009/04/orthodox-german-clement-sederholm.html">Orrologion</a>, I have begun translating some selections from the letters of Fr Clement Sederholm (1830-1878) to his father. In the book I have acquired there are only 15 letters, and they are mostly from the period of Fr. Clement’s life after he was tonsured a monk at Optina in 1863 (ten years after converting to Orthodoxy). One feature that runs throughout all these letters is Fr Clement's unwillingness to openly argue with his father over points of theology. (Evidently at some point they did have such arguments as they are hinted at in early letters.) While in many letters Fr Clement talks about theological matters it is usually simply stating what the Orthodox believe or do, as in this first selection.]<br /><br />I can briefly explain to you concerning prolonged prayers in our [Orthodox] Church. Every one of us prays not for himself only and not in their own way. We gather together for common church prayer in order to fulfill the unity and mutual love which is commanded by the Holy Spirit as well as what is prescribed by the apostle: forsake not the assembly as do some (Heb. 10:25). No matter how elevated the apostles stood they did not remove themselves from the assembly of believers (Acts 3:1). And that a few prayers of the Church are stronger than the prayers of one man can be seen from the fact that the Apostle Peter was freed from prison by the prayers of the Church (Acts 12:5-19). Our church prayers are made up of psalms, church songs, and various prayers. Every person praying follows the church prayers as they can: if his thoughts scatter he can quickly gather his senses and again follow after the course of the service and pray. But when someone prays alone and composes prayers himself then if his thoughts scatter it is harder for him for begin again to pray; and where does he start? If you, at your age and after long years of studying lofty subjects, feel how hard it is to keep your thoughts together, what can be said about a beginner? Concerning those who already reached the a high level of spiritual life, they add their short prayers to the common church prayer.<br /><br />I heartily wish that my explanation turns out to be satisfactory to you.<br /><br />October 26, 1863</div></blockquote></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-27594117694860561222009-05-09T11:52:00.000-07:002009-05-09T11:55:48.069-07:00Victory Day in Dachau<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01uXMB9ZacKtmtktPEa6NsqhW412hTNawjr_VQklrJizkTcokFby4gtqWUlSp5oWwHZJ4JZf1MGq_u1jKG5YopmnGkBE9OBgi0497jwjtZ-HxI2DFzbpT9yU-9IUU6TMaOhcrx9lh6JgT/s1600-h/Dachau+chapel+1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333899371725085090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01uXMB9ZacKtmtktPEa6NsqhW412hTNawjr_VQklrJizkTcokFby4gtqWUlSp5oWwHZJ4JZf1MGq_u1jKG5YopmnGkBE9OBgi0497jwjtZ-HxI2DFzbpT9yU-9IUU6TMaOhcrx9lh6JgT/s400/Dachau+chapel+1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><em>From </em><a href="http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2009/05/victory-day-in-dachau.html"><em>Ora et Labora</em></a><em>:</em></div><br /><br />Today is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Day_%28Eastern_Europe%29">Victory Day</a> in Russia, marking the anniversary of the surrender of the Nazi government to the Soviet Union in 1945. The day will be marked in Moscow and elsewhere with the sorts of parades that we all remember from the days of the Soviet Union: tanks and soldiers and missiles rolling through Red Square as the power elite stands in rigid attention.<br /><br />A very different sort of procession was organized today in the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Archpriest Ilya Limberger of the <a href="http://www.rok-stuttgart.de/">Church of St Nicholas</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuttgart">Stuttgart</a> led a procession of young people on foot from the <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_des_Heiligen_Hiob_von_Potschajew">Monastery of St Job of Pochaev</a> in Munich to the concentration camp in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp">Dachau</a>, a distance of some 12.5 kilometers (nearly 8 miles). Once at Dachau they served a panikhida (memorial service) for the reposed and a moleben (service of intercession) to <a href="http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/stnikolai.aspx">St Nicholas</a> (Velimirović) of Ohrid and Ziča who, along with Patriarch Gavrilo of Serbia, was imprisoned in Dachau for several months in 1944.Both services were performed in the Russian Orthodox chapel (depicted above) built in honor of the Orthodox prisoners who perished at Dachau. An online <a href="http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachauscrapbook/MemorialSite/RussianOrthodox.html">guide</a> to the chapel notes the following:<br /><br /><blockquote>A small Russian Orthodox Catholic [sic] Chapel stands on a mound just to the left of the tourist entrance into the crematoria area. It was built in honor of an estimated 6,000 Russian Prisoners of War who died in the Dachau camp or were executed at the SS firing range at Herbertshausen. All Russian POWs who were believed to be Communist Commissars were executed, in Dachau and elsewhere, on an order from Adolf Hitler who issued this directive on the eve of the German invasion of Russia on July 22, 1941. In all the camps, the Russian POWs were treated much worse than other prisoners in retaliation for the atrocities committed by the Russians against German soldiers. The Russians had not signed the most recent agreement at the Geneva Convention and were not following the rules of warfare with regard to German Prisoners of War. After the liberation of Dachau, the remaining Russian POWs were turned over to the Soviet Union in accordance with the Allied agreement at Yalta in 1943. The Soviet Union treated these returning prisoners as traitors and immediately sent them to the gulags, as the Communist concentration camps were called.</blockquote><br />For an extraordinary account of the celebration of Pascha in Dachau in 1945, shortly after its liberation, go <a href="http://www.germanorthodoxchurch.org/2009/04/orthodox-pascha-in-dachau.html">here</a>. For another brief account (in French) of today's pilgrimage, go <a href="http://www.moinillon.net/post/2009/05/09/nos-croises">here</a>.<br /><br /><em>With the Saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no sighing, but life everlasting.</em><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-1646227563912047932009-04-20T19:07:00.000-07:002009-04-20T19:27:48.152-07:00Orthodox Pascha in Dachau<div align="justify"><em>Taken from </em><a href="http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2009/04/pascha-in-prison-camp-four-accounts.html"><em>Ora et Labora</em></a><em>:</em></div><br /><div align="justify">The [following] <a style="FONT-STYLE: italic" href="http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/RahrDachauPascha.php">account</a>, by the late Gleb Rahr (+2006), tells the story of the celebration of Pascha at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp">Dachau</a> shortly after its liberation in 1945. It is among the most extraordinarily moving things I've ever read. It's been posted on a good number of websites and blogs, but I can't help but reproduce it once again. The photograph below depicts the interior of the Russian Orthodox <a style="FONT-STYLE: italic" href="http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/MemorialSite/RussianOrthodox.html">chapel</a> in Dachau, which the author mentions. Notice in particular the large icon behind the Holy Table.</div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWqbdQstfiy1qhcHE22VfhYkZt0lRNbylFnWysNj-FWgFrfR7GTmi3uaPkJ-ya6W-vYR0WWW3PRDHGRsNg6jM8HIDIjCIkLvhUm086jL1BtDMROwDcTGsNlGuImrF07NN6u24hyx7ZBMK/s1600-h/Dachau+chapel.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326963601471466930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWqbdQstfiy1qhcHE22VfhYkZt0lRNbylFnWysNj-FWgFrfR7GTmi3uaPkJ-ya6W-vYR0WWW3PRDHGRsNg6jM8HIDIjCIkLvhUm086jL1BtDMROwDcTGsNlGuImrF07NN6u24hyx7ZBMK/s400/Dachau+chapel.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><blockquote><div align="justify">This is my father's account of how he celebrated the feast in 1945.</div><div align="justify"><br />The last transport of prisoners arrives from Buchenwald. Of the 5,000 originally destined for Dachau, I was among the 1,300 who had survived the trip. Many were shot, some starved to death, while others died of typhus...</div><div align="justify"></div><br />April 28th: I and my fellow prisoners can hear the bombardment of Munich taking place some 30 km from our concentration camp. As the sound of artillery approaches ever nearer from the west and the north, orders are given proscribing prisoners from leaving their barracks under any circumstances. SS-soldiers patrol the camp on motorcycles as machine guns are directed at us from the watch-towers, which surround the camp.<br /><br />April 29th: The booming sound of artillery has been joined by the staccato bursts of machine gun fire. Shells whistle over the camp from all directions. Suddenly white flags appear on the towers—a sign of hope that the SS would surrender rather than shoot all prisoners and fight to the last man. Then, at about 6:00 p.m., a strange sound can be detected emanating from somewhere near the camp gate which swiftly increases in volume...<br /><br />Finally all 32,600 prisoners join in the cry as the first American soldiers appear just behind the wire fence of the camp. After a short while electric power is turned off, the gates open and the American GIs make their entrance. As they stare wide-eyed at our lot, half-starved as we are and suffering from typhus and dysentery, they appear more like fifteen-year-old boys than battle-weary soldiers...<br /><br />An international committee of prisoners is formed to take over the administration of the camp. Food from SS-stores is put at the disposal of the camp kitchen. A US military unit also contributes some provision, thereby providing me with my first opportunity to taste American corn. By order of an American officer radio-receivers are confiscated from 'prominent Nazis' in the town of Dachau and distributed to the various national groups of prisoners. The news come in: Hitler has committed suicide, the Russians have taken Berlin, and German troops have surrendered in the South and in the North. But the fighting still rages in Austria and Czechoslovakia...<br /><br />Naturally, I was ever cognizant of the fact that these momentous events were unfolding during Holy Week. But how could we mark it, other than through our silent, individual prayers? A fellow-prisoner and chief interpreter of the International prisoner's committee, Boris F., paid a visit to my typhus-infested barrack 'Block 27' to inform me that efforts were underway in conjunction with the Yugoslav and Greek National Prisoner's Committees to arrange an Orthodox service for Easter day, May 6th.<br /><br />There were Orthodox priests, deacons and a group of monks from Mount Athos among the prisoners. But there were no vestments, no books whatsoever, no icons, no candles, no prosphoras, no wine...<br /><br />Efforts to acquire all these items from the Russian parish in Munich failed, as the Americans just could not locate anyone from that parish in the devastated city. Nevertheless, some of the problems could be solved: The approximately 400 Catholic priests detained in Dachau had been allowed to remain together in one barrack and recite mass every morning before going to work. They offered us Orthodox the use of their prayer room in 'Block 26', which was just across the road from my own 'block'. The chapel was bare, save for a wooden table and a Czenstochowa icon of the Theotokos hanging on the wall above the table—an icon which had originated in Constantinople and was later brought to Belz in Galicia, where it was subsequently taken from the Orthodox by a Polish king. When the Russian Army drove Napoleon's troops from Czenstochowa, however, the abbot of the Czenstochowa Monastery gave a copy of the icon to Tsar Alexander I, who placed it in the Kazan Cathedral in Saint-Petersburg where it was venerated until the Bolshevik seizure of power. A creative solution to the problem of the vestments was also found. New linen towels were taken from the hospital of our former SS-guards. When sewn together lengthwise, two towels formed an epitrachilion and when sewn together at the ends they became an orarion. Red crosses, originally intended to be worn by the medical personnel of the SS-guards, were put on the towel-vestments.<br /><br />On Easter Sunday, May 6th (April 23rd according to the Church calendar),—which ominously fell that year on Saint George the Victory-Bearer's Day, Serbs, Greeks and Russians gathered at the Catholic Priests barrack. Although Russians comprised about 40 percent of the Dachau inmates, only a few managed to attend the service. By that time 'repatriation officers' of the special 'Smersh' units had arrived in Dachau by American military planes, and begun the process of erecting new lines of barbed wire for the purpose of isolating Soviet citizens from the rest of the prisoners, which was the first step in preparing them for their eventual forced repatriation. In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been an Easter service like the one at Dachau in 1945. Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon adorned the make-shift 'vestments' over their blue and gray-striped prisoners uniforms. Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to Slavonic, and then back again to Greek. The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras—everything was recited from memory. The Gospel—'In the beginning was the Word'—also from memory.<br /><br />And finally, the Homily of Saint John Chrysostom—also from memory. A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infectious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live. Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to speak through him to us and to the rest of the world as well! Eighteen Orthodox priests and one deacon—most of whom were Serbs, participated in this unforgettable service. Like the sick man who had been lowered through the roof of a house and placed in front of the feet of Christ the Saviour, the Greek Archimandrite Meletios was carried on a stretcher into the chapel, where he remained prostrate for the duration of the service.<br /><br />The priests who participated in the 1945 Dachau Easter service are commemorated at every Divine Service held in the Dachau Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel, along with all Orthodox Christians, who lost their lives 'at this place, or at another place of torture' ('na meste sem i v inykh mestakh mucheniya umuchennykh i ubiennykh'). The Dachau Resurrection-Chapel, which was constructed by a unit of the Russian Army's Western Group of Forces just before their departure from Germany in August, 1994, is an exact replica of a North-Russian 'tent-domed' (Shatrovyie) church or chapel. Behind the altar-table of the chapel is a large icon depicting angels opening the gates of the Dachau concentration camp and Christ Himself leading the prisoners to freedom. Today I would like to take the opportunity to ask you, Orthodox Christians all over the world, to pass on the names of fellow Orthodox who were imprisoned and died here in Dachau or in other Nazi concentration camps so that we can include them in our prayers. Should you ever come to Germany, be sure to visit our Russian Chapel on the site of the former concentration camp in Dachau and pray for all those who died 'at this place, or at another place of torture'.<br /><br />Khristos voskrese! Christos anesti! Christ has risen! El Messieh Qahm!</blockquote></div></div><br />Christus ist auferstanden!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-12105561611140936272009-04-19T17:22:00.000-07:002009-04-19T17:52:20.980-07:00Ein frohe Osterbegrüßung!<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 0);">Christus ist auferstanden!</span> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 0);">Er ist wahrhaftig auferstanden!</span></span><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0P3FeuLTpO6-C4t46esOT45gae4cgKZYc6CvNZyYGTFoFTpbxJMybX596azoDe5ec94l4sjmgIr_U0GbZ_O018uZHI7H8pIK6sOyZeSIg_ETbhe8O3zJRCWAJem3XfzlY7poRT9OVs5N/s1600-h/Pascha09.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0P3FeuLTpO6-C4t46esOT45gae4cgKZYc6CvNZyYGTFoFTpbxJMybX596azoDe5ec94l4sjmgIr_U0GbZ_O018uZHI7H8pIK6sOyZeSIg_ETbhe8O3zJRCWAJem3XfzlY7poRT9OVs5N/s400/Pascha09.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326569489092826386" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 0);"><br /><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-49549131158808252352009-04-18T10:26:00.000-07:002021-04-18T10:26:34.202-07:00Meet the Blog Authors- David Schneider<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/SXAxieieeMI/AAAAAAAAAQE/EkJDiDhvk6o/s1600-h/me8.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291784030543313090" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/SXAxieieeMI/AAAAAAAAAQE/EkJDiDhvk6o/s320/me8.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 158px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 211px;" /></a>I am an American of German descent.
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My ancestor, John Schneider was born on October 8, 1851 in a town called Guma. I have searched extensively for this location but have yet to find it. On account of the frequent shifting of national borders from the 1700s to 1945, the original location of Guma could lie anywhere between eastern France, Hungary, and Russia.
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
Further complicating the issue is that German place names are sometimes shortened in everyday speech. Dr. Hans Rudolph Nollert, German professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, suggested that "Guma" may be colloquial for <a href="http://www.gummersbach.de/"><font style="font-style: italic;">Gummersbach</font></a>. Or just as easily might represent <font style="font-style: italic;">Gummlin</font>, <font style="font-style: italic;">Gummanz</font>, or <font style="font-style: italic;">Gumbsheim</font>.
John Schneider arrived in the U.S. around 1861 or ’62, before the receiving facilities at Ellis Island were constructed. He settled in Clark County, Ohio where he married Elizabeth German in April of 1877.
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/SWmBTkOa0zI/AAAAAAAAAPM/AGmb-4DEO58/s1600-h/st+johns1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289901410465010482" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QXEQ6l_T8No/SWmBTkOa0zI/AAAAAAAAAPM/AGmb-4DEO58/s320/st+johns1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 221px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 250px;" /></a>John established a blacksmith shop in Springfield and was a founding member of <a href="http://www.stjohns-springfield.com/">St. John's Lutheran Church</a>. The current church building was erected in the 1890s and is inscribed with <font style="font-style: italic;">Evangelische-Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche</font> on the stone facing. <a href="http://www.stjohns-springfield.com/">St. John</a>’s continues to have an active congregation and its own private grade school. St. John’s also has a collection of antique German Bibles donated by local families.
<div style="text-align: justify;">There are 85 Schneider graves located in the <a href="http://www.ferncliffcemetery.org/">Ferncliff Cemetery in Springfield, Ohio.</a> Among them are Ruth Huffman and Harry Edward (my grandparents), and my uncle Stephen E. Schneider. May their memory be eternal.
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
St. John's Lutheran Church in Springfield
<a href="http://www.stjohns-springfield.com/">http://www.stjohns-springfield.com</a>
<div style="text-align: justify;">I have very little connection to Germany. I lived for several years in Ohio where there were many opportunities for a child to hear the German language. That education was briefly practical when I visited Munich and Heidelberg in 1982.
My elders had a more visceral experience with Germany.
Harry Edward Schneider, my grandfather, served in the U.S. Army in World War II and repaired the bombers that limped back to England after air raids on Germany. His job was to get them air-worthy again for their next mission. My family still has his fleece-lined bomber suit.
My great uncle on my mother's side was one of the first to enter the gates of Nazi prison camps as American forces liberated Germany. He refused to talk about what he saw in those camps.
</div></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-81258948522990520082009-04-17T10:46:00.000-07:002009-04-17T10:55:15.517-07:00Good Friday in Germany<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKMdGjl-7RwOw5u9K2-6TNn7wIIQVrpsoQIdG6lh1RL0pw73bjLSRy2j3L4_1Ok9G_YsXv_PsU6WKAhMMmYik6xjvLo377hxR8ocw8l9U0tpssRO7C4kj5YaskB-nIs9cHOPQR1SlqPhMC/s1600-h/German+Cross+shrine+1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325720120348444386" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKMdGjl-7RwOw5u9K2-6TNn7wIIQVrpsoQIdG6lh1RL0pw73bjLSRy2j3L4_1Ok9G_YsXv_PsU6WKAhMMmYik6xjvLo377hxR8ocw8l9U0tpssRO7C4kj5YaskB-nIs9cHOPQR1SlqPhMC/s400/German+Cross+shrine+1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">From <a href="http://www.ottawa.diplo.de/Vertretung/ottawa/en/06/Lifestyle__culture/seite__easter.html">this</a> informative page:</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The German name for Good Friday (<em>Karfreitag</em>) comes from the Old High German form <em>kara</em>, which has the same meaning as the English word 'care'. This gives the meaning of 'Sorrowful Friday to the day when Christians remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is also known as 'Quiet Friday' (Stiller Freitag) for obvious reasons. On this very solemn day no church bells are rung in Roman Catholic churches. Some children believe that the bells are sent to Rome at this special time to be consecrated. Consequently the male members of the communities make up for the lack of noise with the 'Good Friday rattles' - in appearance rather like football rattle - which not only provide them with pleasurable task of making a lot of noise but also summon the villagers church services. In Swabia a loud-mouthed person is rebuked with saying: 'You have a mouth like a Good Friday rattle' (<em>Dui hot e Meul wie e Karfreitigrätsch</em>).</div><br /><div align="justify">In former times there were far more restrictions on individual behaviour on this day of mourning than there are today. The drinking of alcohol was strictly forbidden in order to bring to mind the fact that Jesus Christ was thirsty whilst on the Cross. No one was allowed to kill an animal and the blacksmith was not allowed to use either hammer or nails, since these were employed in the Crucifixion. In some homes the crockery which had been specially polished during the Green Thursday spring clean was kept covered up in baskets until Easter Saturday, since it was considered unfitting for anything sparkling to be on view on Good Friday.There are special church services on Good Friday, some lasting for three hours, and Bach's St. Matthew's Passion is performed in many churches. Passion Plays used to be popular on Good Friday but are rarely performed today. The Passion Play in the Eifel mountains was banned around the year 1800, because it was considered to have become too worldly and to be too distracting. Many families eat the familiar Lenten food on Good Friday, choosing fish in preference to eggs or meat, and in some areas the bread eaten on Good Friday has the sign of the cross marked on the crust. Twigs from the sloe tree and buchthorn are sometimes brought into the house as an Easter decoration, reminding the householders of the crown of thorns which Jesus Christ was made to wear. Furthermore, a symbol of new life and future growth is to be found in the blossoms the branches bear, in the same way as Jesus Christ in his resurrection was the first fruit of believers.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-41138811182345384662009-04-13T11:58:00.000-07:002009-04-13T12:19:28.878-07:00Göttingen Scholar to speak on Syriac Christianity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.uni-goettingen.de/admin/bilder/pictures/ec7eb39f54a608daf8353f2b8e5c6534.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 108px; height: 134px;" src="http://www.uni-goettingen.de/admin/bilder/pictures/ec7eb39f54a608daf8353f2b8e5c6534.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The <a href="http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/%7Ecsss/CSSS_Mission.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;">Canadian Society for Syriac Studies</span></a> is hosting <a href="http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/55424.html">Professor Martin Tamcke</a> of Göttingen University, Germany. His presentation is entitled<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">The Correspondence between Mar Thoma V of India and Professor Karl Schaaf </span>(18th Century)<br /><br />8 pm: Wednesday April 15, 2009<br />Hosted at the University of Toronto's<br />Koffler Institute for Pharmacy Management<br />Room 108, 569 Spadina Avenue<br />University of Toronto<br /><br />Karl Schaaf (1646-1729) was a professor of Aramaic and Syriac and was responsible for a series of definitive lexicons and grammatical works on the Syriac language. Schaaf also corresponded with the Syriac Bishop of Malabar.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-37905976031063697662009-04-09T14:15:00.000-07:002009-04-10T08:05:07.140-07:00Orthodox German: Hieromonk Clement (Sederholm)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgfDcxRSEut_loejSxhM8RVgTsE4txzqhOSyIewq4q9cmryoZ68WNLCXChgGPkrBfdeF1tO5DWukI28irkwbAnLBHgW784Vv68A8NRSOb5wDsGNpmPNAYwnmCN4DmKRj4iFybHzJvlhDD/s1600-h/Fr+Clement+Sederholm.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322804656342085682" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 251px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgfDcxRSEut_loejSxhM8RVgTsE4txzqhOSyIewq4q9cmryoZ68WNLCXChgGPkrBfdeF1tO5DWukI28irkwbAnLBHgW784Vv68A8NRSOb5wDsGNpmPNAYwnmCN4DmKRj4iFybHzJvlhDD/s400/Fr+Clement+Sederholm.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify"><em>From </em><a href="http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2009/04/orthodox-german-clement-sederholm.html"><em>Orrologion</em></a><em>:</em></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Thanks to <a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://incendiarious.wordpress.com/about/#comment-2020">Ручьёв</a> of the <a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://incendiarious.wordpress.com/">Incendiary</a> blog, I have found a book I have long been looking for. Of course, it's in Russian - which I don't read - but I at least know that the book has been published in this century rather than the turn of the last (like, 1902).</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://www.pravkniga.ru/jiznpodvijnikov.html?id=4216"><em>Православный немец. Иеромонах Климент (Зедергольм)</em></a> [<em>Orthodox German: Hieromonk Clement (Sederholm)</em>] was published in 2005 by Московское подворье Свято-Введенской Оптиной Пустыни [the Moscow dependency of the Holy-Entry Optina Hermitage].</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">It contains letters to his father (a Lutheran pastor, thus my interest), two biographies of Fr. Clement (one of which was written by Konstantin Leontiev and is available online <a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://knleontiev.narod.ru/texts/zederholm.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-post.html">here</a> [also, John Hogg has begun an English translation of it in the combox <a href="http://orrologion.blogspot.com/2009/04/orthodox-german-clement-sederholm.html">here</a>]) and six other articles of his. Two works of his have appeared in English - <a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://www.stherman.com/Catalog/Optina_Elders/leonid_book.htm"><em>Elder Leonid of Optina</em></a> and <a style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" href="http://www.stherman.com/Catalog/Optina_Elders/anthony_book.htm"><em>Elder Anthony of Optina</em></a> - both published by St. Herman Press.<br /><br />I am eager to see this text translated into English and would be thankful for any help at all in even a rough translation into English.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><em>I shall also append Leonard Stanton's brief overview of Fr Clement's life in his wonderful book</em>, The Optina Pustyn Monastery in the Russian Literary Imagination<em> (NY: Peter Lang, 1995), p. 152:<br /><br /></em>The author [of the Life of Elder Leonid of Optina], Karl (later Father Kliment) Zedergol'm, died in 1878, before Dostoevsky's last visit to Optina. Zedergol'm was a cantakerous man of great culture and learning. He was at home both in a monastic setting and in the inner circles of Russia's literary <em>beau monde</em>. He graduated in classics from Moscow University in 1853, having written a master's thesis on Cato the Elder that [Konstantin] Leont'ev, his biographer, called both stimulating and controversial. In the same year, Zedergol'm converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy. (His father was the head Lutheran pastor in Moscow at the time.) Zedergol'm was at home in the brilliant Moscow salons, particularly Mrs Elagin's with its erudite ferment of German Romantic thought and Slavophilism. He was a protégé of Ivan Vasil'evich Kireevskii, Russia's first original philosopher, and counted among the friends of his youth some of the leading lights of the Moscow literary intelligentsia, including Tertii Filippov and the 'young editors' of The Muscovite. After a brief career as a layman working in the Holy Synod, Zedergol'm entered Optina Pustyn in 1862 and soon became a monk and a priest as well. He was never himself an elder, nor was he possessed of a sufficiently irenic disposition ever to have been considered for elderhood. He devoted himself to literary endeavors at Optina, as a translator of spiritual works from Latin and Greek into Russian, as the author of the elders' biographies, and as secretary to Elder Amvrosii.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-59630447453272284212009-04-08T21:54:00.000-07:002009-04-10T08:04:12.245-07:00St Rupert of Salzburg<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkKM_uleG0KV9Bo4spwBLTo_fEMuEiSVbAn8L2ctnk7ZcJcGCSBIQA_7Y6lblbWijB8iGdl9jfwo4KVw8S7MVucTsfzQZGb3kelnSZJ0iAPzFQiH2q3Rra3rQ8nneJkOJLmuOGBY3I_-fW/s1600-h/St+Rupert+of+Salzburg.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322550841922322466" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 265px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkKM_uleG0KV9Bo4spwBLTo_fEMuEiSVbAn8L2ctnk7ZcJcGCSBIQA_7Y6lblbWijB8iGdl9jfwo4KVw8S7MVucTsfzQZGb3kelnSZJ0iAPzFQiH2q3Rra3rQ8nneJkOJLmuOGBY3I_-fW/s400/St+Rupert+of+Salzburg.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Today, 27 March on the old Orthodox calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Rupert (c. 660-718), Bishop of Salzburg (other forms of his name are Ruprecht, Hrodperht, Hrodpreht, Roudbertus, Rudbertus, and Robert). According to one <a href="http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/oeaustri.htm">Life of St Rupert</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>He was gentle and chaste, simple and prudent, devout in praise of God, full of the Holy Spirit. He was also circumspect in his decisions and righteous in his judgement. He possessed great spiritual discernment, and his good deeds formed his flock into true images of Christ, for he inspired them not only with his words, but by the example of his works. He often kept vigil, weakened himself with fasting, and adorned his works with compassion. He gave away his riches that the poor might not go hungry, believing himself to be one who should clothe the naked and help the destitute.</blockquote>Traditionally believed to have been one of the Merovingians, very little is known about St Rupert’s early life. At some point he was a made Bishop of Worms, a position he held until about 697, when he was invited by Duke Theodo II to Bavaria to do missionary work. St Rupert was greeted by the Duke at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regensburg">Regensberg</a>, and ‘set out immediately on a journey along the Danube, preaching in towns and villages as far as Hungary’ (Butler’s Lives of the Saints, New Full Edition: March, rev. Teresa Rodrigues [Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1999], p. 261). He went to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enns_(city)">Lorch</a>, and built a church dedicated to St Peter on the Wallersee, later becoming the town of <a href="http://www.seekirchen.salzburg.at/">Seekirchen</a>.<br /><br />At St Rupert’s own request, Duke Theodo gave him about two square miles of the old ruined Roman town of Juvavum. According to the previously quoted <a href="http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/oeaustri.htm">Life</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Some very reliable men came to the blessed hierarch and told him of an amazing phenomenon which had taken place when they had gone into an unnamed wilderness area now called Bongotobum (Pongau). Three or four times they had seen heavenly lights shining like bright lamps in the sky and they had also experienced a wonderful fragrance in the same place. The pious bishop sent the priest Domingus to Bongotobum because of the reports which he received concerning these lights. It was his desire that the priest would verify the authenticity of these wonders by erecting in that location a wooden cross which the holy one had made and blessed with his own hands. When Domingus arrived, he at once began the First Hour with the monks who had come with him. They saw a bright heavenly light which descended from the sky and lit up the entire region with the brightness of the sun. Domingus saw this vision on three nights in a row, and experienced the wondrous fragrance as well. He erected the blessed cross in that place, and it was miraculously transported to a spot above the dwelling of St Rupert, confirming the truthfulness of what had been reported to him! St Rupert took word of the miraculous occurrence to Theodo and then he himself went into the wilderness to the very spot, and seeing that it was suitable for habitation, began to cut down aged oaks and brought in building materials that he might build a church with dwellings for a monastic community.</blockquote><br />Here he built a church and monastery dedicated to St Peter (<a href="http://www.stift-stpeter.at/">the Archabbey of St Peter</a>), which St Rupert himself served as abbot, as well as a women’s monastery dedicated to the Theotokos (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonnberg_Abbey">Nonnberg Abbey</a>), and where he installed his niece, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Erentrude">St Erentrude</a>, as abbess. Both are still functioning monasteries under the Benedictine rule, and the latter was made famous as the monastery of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp">Maria von Trapp</a>’s novitiate. St Rupert is said to have encouraged the development of salt mining at his new see, and it is from this industry that the city acquired the name by which it is still known today: Salzburg, or ‘Salt castle’ (I have blogged about this beautiful city a little bit before, in connection with St Rupert’s successor, <a href="http://logismoitouaaron.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-vergilius-of-salzburg.html">St Vergilius</a>). For this reason, St Rupert is often depicted holding a container of salt (see <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_von_Salzburg">here</a>, for instance).<br /><br />Despite his attachment to a particular see, St Rupert continued to travel throughout the area, ‘preaching the Faith and founding many other churches and monasteries’, until finally, ‘After a life of strenuous activity he left his helpers to carry on the work and returned to Salzburg, certain that he was about to die. He died on Easter Sunday, probably between 710 and 720’ (Butler, p. 262). According to the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13229a.htm">Catholic Encyclopedia</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>. . . [H]e died at Salzburg, aided by the prayers of his brethren in the order; his body reposed in the St Peterskirche until 24 September 774, when his disciple and successor, Abbot-Bishop St Virgil, had a portion of his remains removed to the cathedral. On 24 September 1628, these relics were interred by Archbishop Paris von Ladron (1619-54) under the high altar of the new cathedral. Since then the town and district of Salzburg solemnize the feast of St Rupert, Apostle of Bavaria and Carinthia, on 24 September.</blockquote><br />One can read more about St Rupert in German <a href="http://www.bbkl.de/r/rupert.shtml">here</a> and <a href="http://www.erzbistum-muenchen.de/EMF091/EMF009063.asp">here</a>, and about Nonnberg Abbey <a href="http://www.salzburg-rundgang.at/sehenswuerdigkeiten/kirchen_und_kloester/kloster_nonnberg/">here</a>. The second link includes the following hymn for Ss Rupert and Vergilius:</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><blockquote><div align="justify">Lied zum Fest der Heiligen Rupert und Virgil</div><div align="justify">Melodie: Gotteslob 639 (Ein Haus voll Glorie schauet)</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Ein Jubellied erschalle,<br />dem heiligen Bischofspaar,<br />das hier in unserem Tale<br />einst Hirt und Lehrer war:<br />Singet Preis und Lob<br />Gott, der sie erhob<br />auf Salzburgs Bischofsthron<br />und uns zum Schutzpatron.<br /><br />Sankt Rupert hat verkündet<br />das Evangelium,<br />den Bischofssitz gegründet<br />als Hort dem Christentum.<br />Gottes Wort und Macht</div><div align="justify">ist in dunkler Nacht</div><div align="justify">uns Schirm und unser Licht</div><div align="justify">bis Christi Tag anbricht.<br /><br />Sankt Virgil trug die Lehre </div><div align="justify">des Glaubens in die Fern;<br />dass er das Land bekehre,<br />war Auftrag ihm vom Herrn.<br />Hütet Gottes Geist,<br />der den Weg uns weist,<br />dem Volk auf Pilgerfahrt,<br />das um das Kreuz sich schart.<br /></div></blockquote></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-50116850543090942882009-02-23T08:11:00.000-08:002009-02-23T09:04:10.327-08:00The Jewish Roots of Orthodox Baptism<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1nYZ_MSr5NnG_YHT0Jv8v1AgqJukcoey3FUiCr0816HKsvm4HIGLHUW5ZOErPV0vrB_gcUw8znoHdfKQkIflwhdWxvuaYoLAzwA8-sp5X-8FuXk6F6T26hYzv6faPaGnp87I-jsi3LU0/s1600-h/mikveh.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 192px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1nYZ_MSr5NnG_YHT0Jv8v1AgqJukcoey3FUiCr0816HKsvm4HIGLHUW5ZOErPV0vrB_gcUw8znoHdfKQkIflwhdWxvuaYoLAzwA8-sp5X-8FuXk6F6T26hYzv6faPaGnp87I-jsi3LU0/s320/mikveh.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292530611378023266" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I really do not like to dwell on previous incarnations of the <span style="font-style: italic;">GermanOrthodoxChurch </span>website, but I find it highly ironic and almost humorous that racists would try and emulate or masquerade as the Orthodox Church- especially given the Jewish roots of Orthodox worship, practice, tradition, and mysticism.<br /><br />Take baptism, for example. Like much of early Christian worship, Baptism was a Jewish custom. The people living in the Middle East in the first century were already familiar with the practice. So when the Jews and Greeks saw John the Baptist immersing people in the river, they didn't say to themselves "what is this strange act"? It was something they were already familiar with. An article once posted on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website said:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A significant parallel exists between Jewish proselyte baptism (when pagans were converted to Judaism) and early Christian baptism. The contacts between early Christian baptism and proselyte baptism, with the similarities in terminology, interpretation, symbolism, and the rite itself, are especially notable. What is of greatest interest, however, is that the baptism of the early Church followed that of proselyte baptism, in which children and infants were baptized with the convert’s family. This is especially significant when one realizes that the very early Church was made up primarily of converted Jews. -</span>“Infant Baptism” by Jordan Bajis.<br /><br />Baptism, or “<span style="font-style: italic;">mikveh</span>” in Hebrew, is the ceremonial and purifying washing of an object or person in the presence of witnesses. The object or person becomes sanctified, or purified and set aside for a holy purpose. From Old Testament times onward, this has been applied to new mothers, burnt offerings, personal garments, one's hands before a meal, etc. Even in modern Jewish homes, kitchen utensils are immersed in a <span style="font-style: italic;">mikveh</span>, thus a simple meal is transformed into an act of spiritual significance. We can see examples of this ritual in the following Old Testament passages:<br /><br />Exodus 19:10-14<br />Exodus 30:18-21<br />Leviticus 11<br />Leviticus 17:16<br />Numbers 8:7<br /><br />Christian baptism was the continuation of the Jewish <span style="font-style: italic;">mikveh </span>- the sanctification and entrance of the person into the faith community. Churches that baptize babies do so with the belief that those who are baptized (infants and adults) are being set apart for a holy purpose and the process of salvation has begun in their lives.<br /><br />The Old Testament teaches that males coming into the Covenant should be circumcised. Hebrew men who accepted God’s Covenant were to be circumcised, but what about Hebrew children? Did the law require that they wait until an “age of accountability” so they could decide for themselves? No, the Law taught that Hebrew infants were to be circumcised as a sign of God’s covenant, just like any adult convert. The early Church simply continued with this understanding when baptism became the “circumcision of the New Covenant” for the New Testament Christians (Colossians 2).<br /><br />Forbidding the baptism of infants (“believer’s baptism”) came about in Europe with the Protestant Reformation. In their zeal to distance themselves from anything resembling Roman Catholicism, the Anabaptist and Mennonite reformers lost sight of the historical meaning behind baptism. Protestant theology was heavily influenced by European political ideals, particularly the new emphasis on individual rights and thus baptism became the “public declaration of one’s personal decision.”<br /><br />In the Conservative and Orthodox Jewish traditions, men and women still go to the purifying waters every shabbat eve. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, full immersion is required, often done in a large basin, exactly as going to the mikveh. Chrismation and the Eucharist immediately follow. Just as the Jewish mikveh is done in view to partake in the Shabbat meals, baptism/Chrismation culminates in the Eucharistic meal.<br /><br />We are like the burnt offerings and kitchen utensils in a Jewish home in that we can never fully comprehend our sanctification through the mystery of Baptism, no matter what our age is. Yet, we as Christians are separated for a Holy purpose, and we begin the process of salvation through the mystery of Baptism. We are then able to enter God’s temple as “a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”<br /><br />Jordan Bajis's article is also careful to point out:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Baptism in and of itself, of course, is not enough. It must be accompanied by genuine faith. No parents should be allowed to baptize their infant if they themselves have not made an expressed commitment to serve Jesus Christ and raise their children in accordance with God’s Word. As adults, we are called to accept the challenge of our baptism and live dedicated lives for Christ. If we do any less, we have rejected Christ and the gift of salvation He has made available to us since our birth.</span><br /></div><br />- by David Schneider with the assistance of Fr. Aleksandr Winogradsky FrenkelUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-38223578875504874332009-02-20T10:11:00.000-08:002009-04-10T08:03:54.750-07:00St Pirminius in Reichenau<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj05_2Qn3StTvc874wwGtnYBLObhb_Nm49c1NFxipz46Ld-dd49D47om293KpF_v3ITF8paSzcbFfDb2YbbIy5a9OMn2Y_OAu0ktvlvydFW6g93wB0s23OZY6MhTQWEpZNx8Ih02lTJ0yy_/s1600-h/Ora+et+Labora.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304944417227641122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 350px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj05_2Qn3StTvc874wwGtnYBLObhb_Nm49c1NFxipz46Ld-dd49D47om293KpF_v3ITF8paSzcbFfDb2YbbIy5a9OMn2Y_OAu0ktvlvydFW6g93wB0s23OZY6MhTQWEpZNx8Ih02lTJ0yy_/s400/Ora+et+Labora.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">From <a href="http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2008/07/saint-pirminius-in-reichenau.html">Ora et Labora</a>:</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">This photograph, which I originally <a href="http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2008/04/its-later-than-you-think.html">posted</a> during Bright Week, prompted a reader to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5134782302655515338&postID=8135570333202393973&pli=1">ask</a> for an explanation. I'm happy to oblige. This is a photograph of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial">sundial</a> painted on the outside wall of the rectory outside the <a href="http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/en/monastery-reichenau/Abbey-Church/245440.html">Abbey Church</a> (which it depicts in its current form) on the island of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichenau_Island">Reichenau</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Constance">Lake Constance</a>, Germany. The figure holding the staff and treading on a serpent is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pirmin">St Pirminius</a> (or Pirmin, c.670 - 753). The monk <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/sainth1a.htm">Hermann the Cripple</a> (+1054 – great timing!) writes the following in his chronicle for the year 724:<br /><br /><blockquote>Saint Pirminius, abbot and bishop, is led by the princes Berthold and Nebi to Charles, who entrusts Reichenau to him. He drove out the snakes and during his three-year stay organized monastic life.</blockquote><br />The inscription, <em><a href="http://logismoitouaaron.blogspot.com/2009/02/ora-et-labora.html">ora et labora</a></em>, is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedictine">Benedictine</a> exhortation (in Latin) to 'pray and work'. This points to the abbey's monastic roots. Abbot <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walahfrid_Strabo">Walahfrid Strabo</a> (842-849), in a letter to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_IV">Pope Gregory IV</a> (827-844), praises the abbey in these words:<br /><br /><blockquote>That earlier-named site of our endeavors indeed occupies first place in these regions. It is dedicated to the Most Pure, Blessed Virgin Mary and the Prince of the Apostles Peter. A not insignificant group of men who conduct their lives after the Rule of Saint Benedict is united there. The fullness of their spiritual wisdom nourishes the adjacent land with ample instruction.</blockquote><br />Saint Pirminius left Reichenau in 727, and reposed on November 3, 753, as Abbot of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornbach">Hornbach</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatinate_%28region%29">Palatinate</a>, the last monastery that he founded. His holy relics are preserved in the <a href="http://www.jesuitenkirche-innsbruck.at/english.html">Jesuit Church</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innsbruck">Innsbruck</a>.<br /><br />Visitors to Reichenau should by all means visit the treasure room – and do confirm ahead of time that it will be open – in order to venerate a large <a href="http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/en/245440.html?image=286968">relic</a> of the the <a href="http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsLife.asp?FSID=100019">Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark</a>, as well as a number of other ancient relics, most of which were likely brought from Constantinople during the Crusades.<br /><br />Holy Saint Priminius, pray to God for us! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7272604660717175395.post-36372071993900274752009-02-17T19:25:00.001-08:002009-04-10T08:03:35.481-07:00Tolkien on the Germanic Ideal<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwcviwEbX9RPjCr_ufBclederF4QXdb__D-cdJP5dHoplcjJhnMQIu7NUHbMzCcsdKJhxV7gH48ot_CHw7JjFjAwsuoW2dVdTb1KdDL6KW4he0mtF7Jb9ZfsM2CYLoYo3UEtKrdArsAZWv/s1600-h/Tolkien_1916.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303973574483590130" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 222px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwcviwEbX9RPjCr_ufBclederF4QXdb__D-cdJP5dHoplcjJhnMQIu7NUHbMzCcsdKJhxV7gH48ot_CHw7JjFjAwsuoW2dVdTb1KdDL6KW4he0mtF7Jb9ZfsM2CYLoYo3UEtKrdArsAZWv/s320/Tolkien_1916.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Strictly speaking, this has nothing to do with ‘German Orthodoxy’, but it does represent a very Orthodox view of national pride, one that is most definitely in conflict with Nazism. Furthermore, an important part of the <em>Daseinszweck</em> of this blog is specifically the response to those who would have German identity—and even love of the German land and people—and hatred of others go hand in hand. From a letter of J.R.R. Tolkien to his son Michael, dated 9 June 1941, in <em>The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien</em>, ed. Humphrey Carpenter with Christopher Tolkien (Boston: Houghton, 1981), p. 55-6:<br /><br /><blockquote>People in this land seem not even yet to realize that in the Germans we have enemies whose virtues (and they are virtues) of obedience and patriotism are greater than ours in the mass. Whose brave men are just about as brave as ours. Whose industry is about 10 times greater. And who are—under the curse of God—now led by a man inspired by a mad, whirlwind, devil: a typhoon, a passion: that makes the poor old Kaiser look like an old woman knitting.<br /><br />I have spent most of my life, since I was your age, studying Germanic matters (in the general sense that includes England and Scandinavia). There is a great deal more force (and truth) than ignorant people imagine in the ‘Germanic’ ideal. I was much attracted by it as an undergraduate (when Hitler was, I suppose, dabbling in paint, and had not heard of it), in reaction against the ‘Classics’. You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil. But no one ever calls on me to ‘broadcast’, or do a postscript! Yet I suppose I know better than most what is the truth about this ‘Nordic’ nonsense. Anyway, I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.<br /></blockquote></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0