Posted on 07/17/2005 7:22:03 AM PDT by sionnsar
"So what stripe are you? Milan Synod? ROCOR? Monophysite British Orthodox Church? Antiochian Archdiocese under Metropolitan PHILIP? Greek Orthodox? OCA?"
I have done my level best here at FR to avoid answering such questions as that and also to avoid asking them. I will say I am not a monophysite and I consider reard all of the councils through Nicaea II as being God-inspired Ecumenical Councils.
I will not weigh in on sanctity or lack of sanctity among those who do not confess the Holy Orthodox Faith. (Though personally, I'd be willing to let the Latins keep Theresa of Avila if we ever get back together: some of her more outrageous statements (e.g. "Life in this world is like a night in a second rate inn") remind me of the Desert Fathers.)
I will, however, note, that in the Synaxarion prepared by Simonas Petras Monastery on the Holy Mountain (not available in English, but translated into French as Le Synaxaire), the year 800 was chosen as the cut-off for
consideration of saints form the now-separated Partiarchate of Rome.
"the year 800 was chosen [at Simonas Petras] as the cut-off for consideration of saints form the now-separated Partiarchate of Rome."
Makes sense to me.
On the other hand, ROCOR gives England an extension to the Battle of Hastings (A.D. 1066), which allows for the appearance of Our Lady at Walsingham and for St. Edward the Confessor.
Should not Spain and Portugal should be cut off at A.D. 589, the date of the Council of Toledo?
How utterly bizarre and preposterous. Why on earth would one be afraid to name the Orthodox Church to which one belongs?
I might gather from your changed tag line that you support those who do not commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch and believe he is Orthodox in name only.
"Why on earth would one be afraid to name the Orthodox Church to which one belongs?"
If anyone says anything these days, who knows? He could get thrown out of his home for exercising freedom of speech. Why, just look at what happened to the Russians on Mt. Athos. Thus my tagline. Today it's Esphigmenou. Tomorrow, it could be you. Just scroll up and read about the excommunication of a traditionalist minded layman to see what's happening to the Episcopalians. It's getting insane around here.
Speaking of interesting Celtic saints, did you know the ROCOR used to commemorate King Macbeth of Scotland on the Feast of our Lady's Dormition? Maybe they still do. It seems he was the last King of Scotland who might be considered Orthodox just as St. Harold II was the last one south of the Hadrian's Wall.
After 1066, the good old C of E really went down the tubes. I mean, when you have to put your cathedral inside of a fortress, you know you've got serious issues.
Actually, September through April (in 4 volumes) of the Synaxarion prepared by Simonas Petras Monastery is indeed available in an English translation/edition. There is additional material that has been added for later saints, etc...
It is a beautiful work, well worth the money, and I can't wait for additional volumes to be published. The introductory material is also wonderful.
Understood. "Looks to be" was very judicious of you, and well appreciated. If you can just leave a little room in your mind for the possibility--however remote--that our ideas of original sin *may not be incompatible* with the Holy Orthodox faith of the Greek Fathers, though they are couched in a language you don't use and may not even particularly like, I can leave this thread a happy man.
Thanks for the clarification on the Orthodox calendar. Very enlightening, and I actually think that we Latins could do well to "localize" our calendar a little better. Why the feasts of St. John Neumann, St. Katharine Drexel and the North American Martyrs are not major feast days in the U.S. is utterly beyond me.
They certainly are not compatible. Where I come from (see the "Commonitory" - in Latin if you like, of the Western father St. Vincent of Lerins), we call that incompatibility heresy on the part of the Pope of Rome in 1854.
And where do you come from?
"And where do you come from?"
I am an Orthodox Christian and that is my spiritual perspective. Three canons are central to understanding what Orthodox Christianity is all about. These are: 1)The Canon of St. Jude found in St. Jude's Epistle, verse 3, 2) The Canon of St. Vincent of Lerins, and 3) The Canon of St. Basil the Great.
What "drives" the names and ranks of saints on our calendars is mostly sustained local veneration. The reason that a given saint is on the local calendar is not so much that because he was a local as it was that he is venerated locally.
The Orthodox Typikon always gives great latitude to the parish rector in determining which of the saints falling on that day in the calendar will be commemorated in the services on that day.
To read later.
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