tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post3481544324938377124..comments2023-10-04T09:50:08.070-05:00Comments on Logismoi: 'Thou Wast Magnified as a Good Soldier of Christ'—St GeorgeAaron Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-4057624118518016152009-05-08T14:28:00.000-05:002009-05-08T14:28:00.000-05:00Glad to be of assistance.Glad to be of assistance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-43825056586571592562009-05-06T15:09:00.000-05:002009-05-06T15:09:00.000-05:00It sounds like we're not so different, you and I.It sounds like we're not so different, you and I.Aaron Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-57904042809603488112009-05-06T14:50:00.000-05:002009-05-06T14:50:00.000-05:00Yes, I know the feeling exactly. I think it's both...Yes, I know the feeling exactly. I think it's both a question of age and of information overload, particularly with the introduction of the Internet. I used to have something like a photographic memory for print sources (even if I couldn't remember the exact wording, I could at least remember precisely where I had seen something written), but that sort of memory seems to have been scrambled by too many hours staring at pixels.Felix Culpahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18062279686869827534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-56379606833981854532009-05-06T14:39:00.000-05:002009-05-06T14:39:00.000-05:00Wonderful! Thank you, Father. The mystery is solve...Wonderful! Thank you, Father. The mystery is solved!<br /><br />Actually, not only did I mentally combine those statements, I also thought I had read them in article, 'A Prologue of the Orthodox Saints of the West' published in <I>Vita Patrum</I>. I read it through once and skimmed it a second time, but was overcome with frustration when I didn't find it. My once pristine memory for the sources (and sometimes the wording) of things I've read is fading fast! I'm afraid my posts will continue to suffer due to this difficulty.Aaron Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-44296118518172709472009-05-06T14:30:00.000-05:002009-05-06T14:30:00.000-05:00I think you're likely combining this account in yo...I think you're likely combining this account in your mind with the opening paragraphs of Fr Seraphim's introduction to St John of SF's essay on the veneration of the Theotokos. There he speaks of how the nun insisted on accepting literally the account of the Apostles being brought on clouds to the scene of the Dormition: <br /><br />http://www.stmaryofegypt.org/library/st_john_maximovich/on_veneration_of_the_theotokos.htm<br /><br />The nun Fr Seraphim mentions was Schema-Abbess Ariadna of the Convent of Our Lady of Vladimir in San Francisco: <br /><br />http://www.roca.org/OA/141/141e.htmFelix Culpahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18062279686869827534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-39139689624881571192009-05-06T14:15:00.000-05:002009-05-06T14:15:00.000-05:00Thank you, sir! I do remember reading that, and it...Thank you, sir! I do remember reading that, and it is probably in part what I was thinking of. But I thought I also remembered something about a nun!<br /><br />Anyway, I'm adding the reference to the post.Aaron Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-74321273270423039762009-05-06T14:05:00.000-05:002009-05-06T14:05:00.000-05:00The following from Fr. Seraphim's article "The The...The following from Fr. Seraphim's article "The Theological Writings of Archbishop John" may be what you're thinking of:<br /><br />We read in the Lives of Saints that a dragon came and began tempting the Saint, like St. Marina and St. John the Much-Suffering. What are we to think of this? You read this text to people who live here in Platina or San Francisco or anywhere in the modern world, who are not totally raised in the spirit of Orthodox piety, and they will tend to laugh at you. You try to give an explanation: "Well, there really were dragons," and they say, "Oh, don't fool us, you're making up things. This is superstition. You mean you really still believe that?" What do you answer them? Or if any of your children read at home the life of a saint and then go to school and talk about it, the people there will laugh them to death. "You mean you read these silly stories?" they will say. "Dragons occurring with big smoke?" In the Lives of Saints, the hair of St. Marina and the beard of St. John the Much-Suffering are actually singed by the dragon with fire coming out of his mouth. How are you to understand that? St. Marina was in prison; how did the dragon get by the guard, how did he get through the locked door? What's going on? Is there such a thing as a dragon in the first place? If you are very simple in your faith, you will say, Well, I believe it because that's what the Holy Fathers handed down to me." And they will say, "Oh yes, but you have to gather the writings of the Holy Fathers and correct them and throw out things like that." And in fact, if you look at the Roman Catholic Church today, you see that they do exactly that. They think that St. Nicholas or St. George do not even exist; they throw them out because they say this is superstition. ... As a matter of fact, we do have arguments. There are those who have read the Lives of the Saints and believe them because the Holy Fathers have handed them down, and who at the same time have gone through college and understand what goes on in the Western mind. ... Today, we have a situation in which Orthodoxy, having gone through this Western learning, is able to answer people from the West on their own grounds. That is, we are just as sophisticated as they are; we are just as aware of modern science and modern learning; and we will not be in the position of the simple villager who simply does not know what to say when someone starts criticizing dragons. On the contrary, now a person who reads stories about dragons will be very good about finding out the Patristic teaching on this: how it is that a devil who is immaterial can singe a beard. We know that, according to St. Macarius the Great and other Fathers, the devil is not entirely immaterial. Only God is immaterial; and the devils and angels have actual bodies, although they are much more refined than our bodies. That, of course, was the case with those dragons which tortured St. Marina and St. John the Much-Suffering. They were not beasts, but were demons who took forms in order to frighten ascetics. We know this for various reasons, especially because when the Saint made the sign of the Cross or prayed, the dragon disappeared. It is obvious that this was an apparition of the demons. There are other cases, such as the dragon of St. George, in which it looks like a real dragon was involved, some kind of real beast. Such beasts have existed; in fact there are records of them. Even recently--thirty years ago in Monterey--one was dragged up on the beach: a very unusual beast resembling what we would call a "sea monster." This, then, is a different matter, when there are actual beasts which do not disappear when you make the sign of the Cross and when you actually drag their bodies through the streets as St. George did.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com