GB 1-3/2022

Stephen I was the third son of Byzantine Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (867-886) and of Empress Eudokia Ingerina and brother of the future Emperor Leon VI the Wise (886-912). Since childhood, Stephen, at his father’s order, was castrated and then entrusted to the priests for cultural and spiritual education and trained for an ecclesiastic career. Some of the historians of the time write that he had been nominated even for the patriarchal chair from that moment. In 886, when his brother, Leon VI, was elected Emperor, he appointed Stephen to be sincel (synkelos) and priest of his former teacher, Patriarch Photios, who had ordained him, as historical sources indicate. Despite his youth, patriarch Stephen was popular and enjoyed even a true spiritual reputation. The life of Euthymios (Vita Euthymii) comments on the fact that: „even though he was young of age, he was fully prepared to understand piety and progress in virtue”. The life of Basil the Young describes the young patriarch Stephen as „a man who was outstanding in any kind of virtue”. Stephen died at a young age, before the crisis regarding the tetragamic quarrel of his brother, Emperor Leon VI. Later he was canonised as saint of Byzantine Orthodox Church.

St. Gregory Palamas proposes some theological reflections on the bishop and his place in the community of believers. The present study seeks to briefly analyze some of these reflections, given that they were not developed in a specific theological work, but were presented directly to believers during the sermon. The role of the bishop is to lead the community to the communion of divine grace, and this position of leader does not mean a position of strength, but one of deep turmoil and search for the fulfilment of the pastoral ideal. The stability of a community also comes from the spiritual stability of the hierarch, who is part of a living communion with all those who preceded him and will follow him in his teaching mission.

The fifth century is the period when the cult of the Virgin Mary has been developed, where the first feasts appear dedicated to her, initially as local, and then as general. The earliest one is the Dormition of the Theotokos, which is attested in the second half of the fifth century. The feasts of the Nativity of Theotokos and the Annunciation are confirmed by historical documents in the first half of the sixth century, and the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple is attested a little later, in the eighth century, during the time of Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople. The generalization is attributed to St. Andrew of Crete, who would have brought the great feasts of the Virgin Mary to Constantinople from Jerusalem in the seventh century, but as can be seen, the Byzantines celebrated the feasts of the Mother of God before this period.

The five hymns dedicated to the pearl make a distinct group among the most significant of St. Ephrem’s work. A symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven, and, in the New Testament, a symbol of the mystery of faith, the image of the pearl has a long history in Antiquity. Patristic literature records very few, brief reflections on the symbolism of the pearl, as expected – among early Christians interest for precious stones did not enjoy a good reputation, as they were the avatars of Greek and Roman paganism. In this context, the complexity of the symbolism of the pearl in the work of St. Ephrem appears even more intriguing. The Saint builds on the pre-existing symbolism of the pearl, as found in the New Testament, and develops new dimensions of the symbol, such as the Christological one, in a way that also relies on the cultural heritage of Antiquity. The “valorization” of Antiquity involves a thorough selection and purification of the former symbolism of the pearl, a process much similar to the fundamental mystery of Christianity, which is baptism. This is why I define this as “the baptism” of a forgotten symbol.Without a doubt, the genius and grace that were bestowed upon St. Ephrem translate as his unusual gift for symbolic thinking, and also as his skill of seeing even the most trivial aspects of life as “windows” open to the Kingdom of God. At the same time, his poetic gift is deeply connected to a special sense of the real, as noted by the researchers of his work. The set of poems dedicated to the pearl, a symbol of the Eucharist advances the idea that the poetic work itself becomes “the baptism” (of / into a symbol) that leads to the partaking of the Eucharist by the poet. The hymns dedicated to the symbolism of the pearls are not a kind of testament of St. Ephrem’s, but the expression of a subtle and unique ars poetica et theologica. This is what I aim to demonstrate in this study dedicated to an important but long-forgotten Christian symbol.

The present article examines the theme of „testifying to the truth”, from a fragment of the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate (John 18, 37). The academic exegesis usually understands this text as being detached from the dialogue, like a last sermon of Jesus towards Christians before His Crucifixion (or like a last theological insertion from the part of the evangelist). My paper, however, underlines the fact that „testifying to the truth” has a natural logic inside the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate, and the Johannine theology of „truth” is being adapted to the level of understanding of the Roman governor.

The Christian Churches have been and are a fundamental pillar of Europe since the beginning of Christianism. The socio-political developments of recent years have required that this close connection to be validated by law, in Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, a document part of the Treaty of Lisbon. With many challenges, Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union was finally adopted, confirming the respect that the European institutions pay to the religious sphere. This article aims to give a brief overview of how the European Union relates to religious denominations in its territory.

The axiom that all life comes from a single primordial filament is a demonic fantasy whose origins go back to polytheism and who is clothed now in the modern scientific garments, among others, by Erasmus Darwin. But could this axiom be truly scientific? Is there still something real in what the pagans believed, through their natural knowledge distorted by their sinful passions? To solve this issue, we must research not only the revelation, but also the scientific facts. To scientifically demonstrate theory of the common descent there should be intermediate creatures (links) that make the transition between species in the fossiliferous deposits. This article shows that: the Holy Fathers do not agree with the pagan evolutionary pseudo-scientific ideology, but give it anathema; the phylogenetic tree of man, imagined by evolutionists, is extremely changeable and insecure, having no scientific but ideological criteria; that australopithecines (a kind of ape) were disguised as H. habilis (pseudo-intermediate link) due to lack of evidence on the centenary of Darwinism and desire for research funding; that scientific evidence shows that H. habilis is an ape, although evolutionists strive to present it as the missing link; that H. gautengensis, H. rudolfensis and H. floresiensis are also H. habilis (in fact apes), the latter provoking major controversies and being another example of fraud, used by evolutionists to prove, by all means, that their theory is true, contrary to the scientific evidence. Thus, not only does Transformism lack scientific evidence, regarding the missing link between the monkey and man, but they even nullify it, showing it its unreality. The quarrels of evolutionists and the falsity of their contradictory theory are not something new in science; they were also noticed by St. Hierarch Basil the Great, in connection with his contemporary science, very similar to ours, even if it had a more primitive technology.So, the article’s conclusion is, with scientific evidence, that H. Habilis is not an intermediate form of life between apes and humankind.

The purpose of this article is to re-frame the activity of work in the list of virtues in order to achieve the Christian goal of salvation. Realizing the acute danger of deterioration of the quality of labour, a degradation that is becoming increasingly evident in contemporary society and mentality, as a result of a wrong understanding and practice of the characteristics of this virtue, this article aims to draw some marginal notes aimed at restoring labour activity to a normal and healthy path. A „chronological” table will be used for this purpose: beginning with the antiquity perspective in terms of the place and ideology of labour, continuing with the Old Testament teaching (focusing mainly on the moments of the life of our original ancestors in the Garden of Eden – Adam and Eve –, as well as that of their fall and their banishment from Eden, while highlighting the repercussions that arose as a result of this fall) and the New Testament teaching (focusing on the doctrine contained in the Pauline work, especially in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians), and concluding with the revelation paradigm in the vision of St. Antony the Great in relation to the practice of work and its adoption, preservation and development within monastic communities (both early and contemporary) and by Christians in the world. The conceptions and ideologies of work that have survived in all these periods will be outlined, but exhaustiveness is beyond the scope of this article.