Rome in the Fall
I’m new to an Orthodox discussion community (monachos.net). The members are educated and (often) leaders of the church. The topics are discussed in depth and with citations.
Just to share. I found this post interesting:
We went to Butovo today. Just to mention some information we were given. It now appears the shootings there continued until the early 1950s. Some of those who did the shooting are still alive. One man is insane; he says nothing but repeats over and over again, ‘they turned on the lights and we fired’. It seems the guards said to the prisoners, ‘do you believe that the Soviet system will last for ever?’ The reply was, ‘no – it is punishment for our sins but it will not last’. They were then shot. At first, the shootings took place in a large brick hut. The smell of blood became too strong. The executioners could not get rid of this smell from their bodies and in some cases, their wives left them. So the shootings then took place in the open. For some executioners, the stress became too much and they said they could not carry on. They were shot. Prisoners arrived in vans marked ‘bread’. They were shot at night. In the morning a bulldozer flattened the place killing any who were still alive and slightly covered the bodies with earth.
I found this news story about Butovo:
Butovsky Poligon is a symbol of a much larger, bloodier conflict in Russian society, that between the Bolsheviks and the Russian Orthodox Church. One thousand of those killed here are known to have died for their Orthodox faith. Over 320 have been canonized as “new martyrs” of the church – bishops, monks, nuns and lay people who were victims of the Soviet regime.
It’s hard to describe the influence martyrdom has on the Orthodox Church. My Priest often makes “political” statements (regarding our president, or the war in the middle east, for instance) based on his perception of religious persecution. That perception, in turn, is biased by the fact that even the youngest children in the church are regularly read to from books detailing the brutal tortures which occurred in The Lives of the Saints. An example:
Then they tore holy virgin’s eyes out with hooks, but she bravely endured everything, praying for her tormentors that the Lord would open their spiritual eyes.
Seeing her completely healed of all her wounds, they stripped her and beat her, and slashed her body with razors. A wondrous fragrance then filled the air. Then she was stretched out on the ground and beaten for so long that the servants had to be replaced several times.
She was hung up and scraped with iron claws, and her breasts were cut off.
On the following day, they took St Tatiana to the circus and loosed a hungry lion on her.
They threw Tatiana into a fire….
The judge then condemned the valiant sufferer to be beheaded with a sword.
Father Alexis bemoans: I hope that I might do the same some day! But, in the church’s favor, it doesn’t promote voluntary martyrdom and has even “forgiven” those who denounce Christ under duress.
I said to Fr. Alexis: If someone held a gun to me and told me to say that one plus one equals three; they could make me say it but a gun could never convince me the “truth” of the statement.
Yea, still, he said, we’re supposed to put our beliefs into action …
Rome will never rise again! Another church member yelled angrily.
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