Russia remains the throne of error.
- Roland Flores
- Nov 14
- 10 min read
Ave María! May Our Lady, The Immaculate Mother of God, together with St. Peter, Pope St. Nicolas and St. Josaphat, pray for us. In recent years there has been a great desire to celebrate Russia as a champion against the degeneracy that plagues the western world. However, Russia is the origin of many modern errors. As our Lady warned at Fatima “Russia will spread her errors” I would like to spend some time on this feast day of St. Josaphat, discussing the original error of Russia. There are many already who discuss Marxism in greasy detail, and for this reason, I will not touch upon the topic of communism outside of how it used Russias original error against the Church.
The great error of Russia.
It is no secret that the dominant belief system in Russia is the schismatic Russian “Orthodox” Church, don’t be fooled by the name, there is nothing orthodox about them. A branch of of the Greek schismatic Church. However, this schism did not begin in Russia but in Constantinople. To understand Russia’s error, we must begin there.This schism has its roots in 858 AD. At the time certain Greek nobles deposed the Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople because he refused to permit a certain nobleman, who was having an affair with his widowed daughter-in-law, into the Hagia Sophia Cathedral. In response, these Greek noblemen had Patriarch Ignatius arrested and removed from the throne. They then replaced him with Photios, who was only tonsured a monk on 20 December. On the 4 following days after Photios was successively ordained lector, sub-deacon, deacon and priest, and then on Christmas Day, he was consecrated a bishop and installed as patriarch of Constantinople. Itshould be noted that Photios was consecrated by l excommunicated bishop Gregory Asbestas, who was excommunicated by Patriarch Ignatius in 853 for heresy and disobedience. Many monasteries and bishops refused to recognize Photios. This controversy in Constantinople, led to a local council in 859. Unimaginably, the sway of Greek nobles caused that the council confined the removal and imprisonment of Ignatius, and validated the election of Photios. The new patriarch wrote several letters to Pope St. Nicolas the Great in Rome, disingenuously explaining his election. The wise Roman Pontiff St. Nicolas investigated, ruling that Ignatius' confinement and removal without a formal ecclesiastical trial meant that Photios's election was un-canonical. Eventually, after years of delegates and letters, in 863 Pope St. Nicolas deposed Photios I, and reappointed Ignatius as the rightful patriarch, triggering a schism. The Greeks argued that the Roman patriarch had no justification over Constantinople, and in 867 Photios I excommunicated Pope St. Nicolas for heresy, namely the Church teachings on Papal authority, The filioque, and the use of Latin. The same year Photios ordered an attack on all Roman Catholic priests and missionaries in Bulgaria. Rightfully, the same year, Photios I was deposed as patriarch by the new Emperor Basil I after deposing the schismatic Emperor Michael III. However, instead of repenting Photios I held his claim and fled to the Skepi monastery in Chalkeio. The Fourth Council of Constantinople 870 declared that "Photius never was a bishop.” He was condemned for his "diabolical and fraudulent actions in the synod of 867" as well as his "defamatory writings" against the Pope and Latin Church. The Council, remembering how Photius came to power, declared that no man could be raised to the rank of bishop without having spent at least ten years in a lower clerical state. However in 877, Ignatius died and Photios again was reinstated as the patriarch of Constantinople. Pope John VIII, sent a letter to Photios claiming that he would recognize him if he would repent of his former errors and become validly consecrated. Photios took this request as an insult but despite this a Council in 880 formally reconciled Photsio to the Church. This peace lasted until 1054, when patriarch Michael I of Constantinople ordered the closure of all Latin Churches in his jurisdiction and barred western liturgies. The patriarch’s refusal to accept the teachings of the Filioque, papal supremacy, and Roman liturgical customs fueled a series of excommunications from both sides. This tension between Rome and Constantinople did not last long with the rise of Turks. The Turks had recently conquered Jerusalem and persecuted not only Christian pilgrims but also Arabs. Before long the Turks were threatening Byzantium. The patriarch and emperor in Constantinople asked Pope Urban II in Rome for military aid thus ushering in the age of the Crusades. The Greeks however, continued in their errors. In 1182, jealous of the Catholic’s successful economy in the city, Greek mobs began attacking the Latin quarter after the death of emperor Manuel I.
The Latin massacre was indiscriminate: neither women nor children were spared and Latin patients lying in hospital beds were murdered. Catholic Houses, churches, and monasteries were looted. Catholic clerics received special attention from the mob and Cardinal John, the papal legate, was beheaded and his head was dragged through the streets by a dog. An estimated 60,000 Catholics were killed and over 4,000 were ironically sold into slavery by the Schismatic Greeks. This event eventually resulted in the more widely known Sack of the Constantinople, which killed thousands of Greeks and weakened the city. These events would only worsen the situation between Rome and Constantinople until 1453, when Constantinople was conquered by the Turks. After this Islamic victory over the schismatic Greeks, a new location was needed to serve as the headquarters of the Greek Christian world. As early as 1492, Zosimus, Metropolitan of Moscow expressed Moscow as the “ new Rome.” He said in his work Presentation of the Paschalion: "the new Tsar Constantine of the new city of Constantine — Moscow." This false notion was expressed in another place like this: “So know, pious king, that all the Christian kingdoms came to an end and came together in a single kingdom of yours, two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and there will be no fourth [emphasis added]. No one shall replace your Christian Tsardom according to the great Theologian.” In the midst of this was born our Saint of today, Holy Josaphat. In what is today Western Ukraine, the holy monk St. Josaphat labored for souls among those in the schismatic eastern churches. Many converted through his preaching and sanctity, and entered the Greek Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI wrote of St. Josaphat: “Having thus prepared himself well, he began firmly but with kindness to plead the cause of the restoration of unity. His success was immediate, so much so that even his adversaries bestowed upon him the title “winner of souls.” Marvelous in truth was the number of souls which he led back to the unity of the Fold of Jesus Christ.” Filled with hatred, a schismatic mob broke into St. Josaphat’s residence and beat him severely. The schismatics would also strike the holy monk on the head with an axe, killing him on 12 November 1623. St. Josaphat’s body is buried St. Peter Basilica in Rome, under the altar of Saint Basil the Great. St. Josaphat who labored against the schismatic Russian Church was Canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX. Though his work strengthened the Greek Catholic Church, the Schismatic Russian church remained supreme.Both the Tsar and bishop of Moscow would continue to hold this sentiment, against the patriarch of Constantinople. Ironically as the torch of persecution was passed from the Turks to the Freemasons only dome remained. In 1871 the dust settled Rome remained, defeated and surrounded by the Italian revolutionary army but unconquered. Moscow officially fell to communists forces in 1917. Today Rome is the only Church to remain a sovereign state.
Schism is a compromise with the devil.
Schism, which has begotten a multitude of heretical beliefs, now plagues Russia and the other schismatic churches. Since the communist revolution, the Russian Church has risen from the ashes, not a champion leading conversion but now a vassal of the secular Russian state. Beginning in 1941 Comrade Joseph Stalin, revived the Russian Schismatic Church to help promote morals and ethnic pride to intensify patriotic fervor for the war effort. On 5 September 1943, Metropolitans Sergius, Alexius (Simansky) and Nicholas (Yarushevich) had a meeting with Stalin where they received permission to convene a council on 8 September. This council elected Sergius Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russia. Which by the way is a direct violation against both Roman Catholic and Schismatic Eastern Apostolic canon, as no church hierarch can be consecrated by secular authorities. In 2017 Russian documents were declassified which stated that People's Commissariat for State Security had agents both for the clergy and the laity which were engaged in the selection of candidates for participation in the 1945 Council. The document stated: "to outline persons who have religious authority among the clergy and believers, and at the same time checked for civic or patriotic work". In another declassified letter sent in September 1944, it is stated: "It is important to ensure that the number of nominated candidates is dominated by the agents of the NKBD, capable of holding the line that we need at the Council.” With the might of Communist Soviet Union, the schismatic Russian clerics began a persecution against all other Christian sects in Russian controlled areas. This was in fact because Russia was trying to make their new colonies more Russian. No group was persecuted as was the Catholic Church.
A good example of this was in former lands of the Austrian empire, then parts of Soviet Poland and Ukraine. In 1939, the Soviet state began the process of transferring churches in these region to Moscow’s Church and re-opening them with Russian priests. In the new Soviet territory, Communist control of Russian Church used priests to Spread Soviet influence. In a declassified letter from head of the Committee for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, Georgii Karpov explained: “We have determined that the Russian Orthodox Church can and should play a role … in Ukraine, in Belarus, in Lithuania, in Latvia, and abroad.” One of the main of the objectives of this operation was to transfers the Greek Catholic Church over to the Russian schismatic Church. The Greek Catholic stronghold was western Ukraine, with over 3 millón Greek Catholics living there alone. The original mission fields of St. Josaphat, where he labored for the salvation of souls and was martyred by a schismatic mob. Soviet rule forced the Greek Catholic Church underground, and forced millions of priests and faithful to choose between reminding faithful and joining the schismatic Church. During this persecution 7 bishops were killed in 1948 alone, thousands of Catholics perished in communist prisons and labor camps. This persecution lasted from 1939 until 1989, though the persecution became less server through the years. In todays Russia and its sphere of influence, the Russian Orthodox Church still finds itself as a vassal of the Russian state as evident in the current Russian-Ukrainian war.
The grand conversion of Russia.
This current war between Ukraine and Russia, neither a friend of Christendom, brings us to a full circle to our beloved St. Josaphat. In 1923 Pope Pius XI wrote an Encyclical to the eastern Churches in schism. This Encyclical served to strengthen the faith of eastern Catholics and as an invitation to the Schismatic Churches. “The blood of St. Josaphat even today, as it was three hundred years ago, is a very special pledge of peace, the seal of unity.” Pope Pius XI continues in a different place: “Although he was much impressed by the splendors of the Slavic liturgy, he always sought therein first and foremost the truth and glory of God. Because of this, and not because he was impressed by arguments, even as a child he turned towards communion with the Ecumenical, that is, the Catholic Church.” What a lesson for people today who flock to the schismatic eastern Churches because of their liturgy. Instead we hear in these holy words on how St. Josaphat inspired faithfulness to the Church: “Great indeed were the fruits of this glorious martyrdom, especially among the Ruthenian bishops who knew how to draw from his death a living example of firmness and courage, as they themselves testified two months later in a letter sent to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda: “We too are ready, as one of our number has already done, to offer our life’s blood for the Catholic religion.” As a result of and almost immediately after this martyrdom, a great number of people, among whom were the very murderers of the Saint, returned to the bosom of the unity of the Church of Christ.” Finally, we hear of the necessity of Mary in this unification of the eastern schismatics to the Church. “Another bond which should serve to unite us with the Eastern Slavs is their truly singular devotion for the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. This love for Mary at one and the same time cuts them off from many heretics and brings them closer to us. Our Saint, too, was conspicuous for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin and with childlike confidence trusted in her favor in his work for unity.” These words echoing Our Lady’s request for Russia to be converted, note how she does not say the Soviet Union but Russia, the seat of the largest eastern schismatic Church. I will end this article with prophetic words of hope from Servant of God Benedictine Father Prosper Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year 1875: Russia becoming Catholic would mean an end to Islamism and the definitive triumph of the Church upon the Bosphorus [Turkey]. The Christian empire in the east would be restored with a glory and a power hitherto unknown. Asia evangelized, not by a few poor isolated priests but with the help of an authority greater than that of Charlemagne… this transformation will be the greatest event of the century that shall see its accomplishment. It will change the face of the world. Is there any foundation for such hopes? Come what May, St. Josaphat will always be the patron and model of future apostles of the union of Russia and in the whole Greco-Slavonic world.”
Prayer to St. Josaphat for the conversion of schismatics.
O Saint Josaphat, wonderful Saint and heroic martyr for the union of our Church with the Vicar of Christ, the Pope of Rome. Thou are glorious on account of thy zeal in the propagation of the true Catholic faith among our people. Thou art wonderful because of thy heroic martyrdom for the unity of faith of our people with the Holy See of Rome, the true center of orthodox Catholicism.
References:
“Ecclesiam Dei” by Pope Pius XI, 1923.
Photian Schism.
Liturgical Year by Father Guéranger, Prosper, 1806-1875.
To achieve this end, as it is necessary on the one hand for the Schismatic Easterners to lay aside their ancient prejudices and to seek really to know the true life of the Church, not attributing to the Roman Church the faults of mere individuals, faults which she is the first to condemn and seeks as well to correct; so the Latins, on their side, must strive to understand better and more profoundly the history and customs of the Easterners. It was because of an intimate knowledge of these facts that the apostolate of St. Josaphat turned out so successful.