Pastoral Encyclical to the Orthodox Greek People - 1935 |
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Unjustly
condemned by the schismatic Synod to deposition and a five-year
imprisonment in monasteries, and seized by force by the government [which
has become the executory arm of the (new calendar) Archdiocese, which by
its mere word has placed itself above the divine canons, the (Church's)
Charter, and the Constitution of Greece] because we had the courage and
spiritual strength to raise the glorious and venerable banner of
Orthodoxy, we consider it our pastoral duty before we depart [for prison]
to direct the following admonitions to you that adhere to the Orthodox
festal calendar of our fathers: While faithfully following the
Apostle's admonition, "Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye
have been taught, whether by word, or by our letter," do not cease
from struggling by every lawful and Christian means for the strengthening
and triumph of our sacred struggle, which looks to the restoration of the
patristic and Orthodox festal calendar within the Church; only this can
re-establish the diminished Orthodox authority of the Greek Church and
bring back the peace and unity of the Orthodox Greek people. By the
judgments which the Lord knows, the majority of the hierarchy of the Greek
Church, under the influence and initiative of its president, has placed
the blot of schism upon what up until now had been its pure and truly
Orthodox countenance, when it rejected the Orthodox festal calendar —
which has been consecrated by the Seven Ecumenical Councils and ratified
by the age-long practice of the Orthodox Eastern Church — and replaced
it with the papal calendar. Of course, this schism of the Orthodox Greek
people was created by the majority of the hierarchy, which forgot its
sacred and national mission and the old Greek [revolutionary] slogan:
"Fight for Orthodoxy and for Greek liberty," and which, without
the agreement of all the Orthodox Churches, introduced the papal festal
calendar into our divine worship, thereby dividing not only the Orthodox
Churches, but also the Orthodox Christians into two opposing camps. On account of this, we counsel all who follow the
Orthodox festal calendar to have no spiritual communion with the
schismatic Church and its schismatic ministers, from whom the grace of the
All-holy Spirit has departed, since they have set at nought the
resolutions of the Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the
Pan-Orthodox Councils that condemned the Gregorian festal calendar. The
fact that the Schismatic Church does not have grace and the Holy Spirit is
confirmed by Saint Basil the Great, who says: "Even though the
schismatics have not erred in doctrines, yet because Christ is the Head of
the Body of the Church, according to the divine Apostle, and from Him are
all the members quickened and receive spiritual increase, the
[schismatics] have been torn from the consonance of the members of the
Body and no longer have the grace of the Holy Spirit abiding with them.
And how, indeed, can they impart to others that which they have not?"
While the Schismatic Church imposes oppressive and intolerable measures in
order to violate our Orthodox conscience, we exhort you to endure all
things and to preserve the Orthodox heritage intact and unstained, even as
we received it from our pious Fathers, having us as luminous and
fortifying examples, seeing we are not afraid — even in the waning years
of our lives — to withstand with boldness and dignity the bigoted and
medieval measures of our exile and imprisonment in monasteries, as it were
in prisons. Esteeming this as honour and glory and joy, according to
the Apostle, who enjoins us to rejoice and boast in or sufferings in
behalf of Christ, we counsel you also to have endurance and persistence in
these griefs, and afflictions, and evils, and outrages to which you will
be subjected by a Church that is schismatic; and ever hope in God, Who
will not permit that you be tried above what you are able to endure, and
Who, in His infinite and unfathomable long-suffering, will be well-pleased
to enlighten those who, out of innocence, have been led astray and follow
the papal festal calendar; and in the end may he grant you the triumph of
Orthodoxy and the unity of those who bear the name of Christ, the Orthodox
Greek people, for whom we struggle to the glory of Christ, Whose grace and
infinite mercy be with you all. Germanos of Demetrias
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