An exercise in Faith: Pre-Bolshevism Christianity in Russia

Hello dear friends,
I thought I'd start this week with a lesson in faith and piety. I found these lovely photos from the beginning of last century, and I'd like to share them with you.

Photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time - when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun. The Library of Congress purchased the original glass plates back in 1948.

Children near a church, White Lake, Russia, 1909

Church on the wharf at Mezhevaya Utka, 1912

Nikolaevskii Cathedral from southwest in Mozhaisk in 1911
Photos, via here

Decades of the strictest oppression, when hateful leaders declared that "God does not exist" and that "Religion is the opium of the masses", have done nothing to stop the Russian people from being pious. As soon as the restrictions fell, the people returned to their faith in Jesus Christ.

But isn't it a pitty that so many had to lose their way?

And isn't it a pitty that although we are not persecuted (yet...) as they were, we lose our Faith in less oppressive circumstances?

Sweet God's blessings to you, my friends, and a beautiful week to all,

Russian Orthodox priest shot in Moscow

Ever since the end of the Communist era, Christianity in Russia has been on the rise. Russians who are by their nature a romantic and pious people fill the churches on major feasts and in every occasion proclaim their devotion to their once forbidden faith.

Russians as is with most nations of Slavic origin were converted from paganism to Christianity by two Greek monks, two brothers born in Thessaloniki, Sts Cyril and Methodius (read more about them here) and they follow the Greek-Orthodox rite.
I just read that a Russian Orthodox priest, Fr.Daniil Sysoyev, was assassinated inde the church he was serving. I only now discovered his blog (found here, click on the Google translation bar to translate in English).

A masked gunman shot Father Daniil Sysoyev in the head and chest after asking for him by name, police said. The choirmaster, Vladimir Strelbinsky, was seriously wounded in the attack at St Thomas Church in southern Moscow.

Father Daniil, 35, died of his wounds in hospital late last night. A Russian newspaper reported that he had recently told its journalists of 14 death threats by telephone and e-mail, which he had received as a result of his work among Muslim migrants from former Soviet republics.
Father Daniil’s missionary zeal was extremely unusual in Russia, where the main faiths have an unspoken agreement not to seek converts among each other’s adherents.

Alexander Verkhovsky, of the SOVA Centre, which monitors hate crimes in Russia, said: “In our country it’s accepted that, among the main religions, people don’t preach in each other’s circle of influence.”
However, Father Daniil also had enemies among Russian nationalist groups and admirers of Joseph Stalin, whom he criticised on his blog for ignoring the murders of innocent people. The priest also made enemies among radical Russian pagans for his efforts to persuade people to leave religious cults.


(From The Times)

Below is Fr.Daniil's post of November 7:
(Translated from the Russian by Google)

By the day of the Revolution


Today is a rainy day calendar. Servants of Satan for 70 years, took over Russia, and destroyed it, millions of Christians.


But the worst thing that contagion of communism indestructible until the Second Coming of the Lord. After all, the root of this evil in the devil's envy. It is often called a sense of social justice. People feel the oppression of this passion, sincerely believe themselves righteous, murdering those whom they called their fists or parasites, because they work better.


We often hear that this or that nothing was accused of kulaks, because he was just a good worker. But crime Communists simply that is what they killed, raped and robbed by those who did not like them. There is no evil in the fact that you're rich. If you are at the same time to support the weak, help the poor, care for the Church. But for the red plague itself is wealth - evil. But inevitably, and God himself became disgusted with the Communists. After all, he super-rich. Envy inevitably leads to the destruction of all. After all, envy - the case of Satan the destroyer. It is no accident that communism could not do anything for the average person. He could only kill, but not able to build. In the wise words of Solomon: A sound heart - life for the body, and envy - rottenness of the bones". (Prit.14: 30) And it did. Communism putrefied bones of those who believed him rot in real Butovskii ditches.


It is no coincidence that despite all attempts to catch up and overtake America, all of the Soviet population lived in poverty. Even members of the CPSU lived worse than an ordinary manager now. After "in a hurry to get rich hath an evil eye, and did not think that poverty shall come upon him." (Prit.28: 22)


Envy - the cause of the fall of Adam. Envy - the cause of deicide. Envy - the mother of communism. Envy waits for the lake of fire.


But as our Bible lesson a day, 7 November: "Do not eat the bread of a man who not desirous of his dainties: for he thinketh in his heart, so is he," Eat and drink, "he says to you, but his heart is not with you. Morsel which thou hast eaten izblyuesh, and kind words you spend your naprasno.V ears of a fool do not tell, because he will despise the wisdom of thy words. " (Prit.23 :6-9)


So it is important to beware of the Orthodox communion with the Communists. not eat with them, much less make friends with them. They are infected with leprosy devil. And if they do not repent of their diabolical envy, then you and me that they infect.

I totally agree.

May God rest Fr. Daniil's soul and lead us in His eternal ways.