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Autumnal Feasts

   The wheel of time spins tirelessly on. Everything changes and everything passes. Those hot, stuffy days, when the scorching stones of the big city would bring exhaustion to its inhabitants, have departed from us. The last warm rays struggle to penetrate the cool air, where the flocks of hovering birds take enjoyment in them. These days hold a mystical sorrow for the life that is dying, and a distant premonition of the coming resurrection. But even more beautiful than the dying nature are the Orthodox feasts of autumn. And so in the quiet of Holy Trinity Monastery and Holy Ascension Cathedral, we celebrated the Dormition of the Mother of God, the feast of St. Job of Pochaev, on the following day the great feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, and then the memory of St. Alexander Nevsky (the patronal feast day of the Lakewood church).

Once, not long before the Great War, tens of thousands of worshipers would gather at the Pochaev Lavra for two great feasts: St. Job of Pochaev and the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Then-Archbishop Anthony of Volyn, future founder of the Russian Church Abroad, would summon the faithful to the Pochaev Lavra on these days. And these feasts were dear to the hearts of the people. Having persevered the harsh summer, having gathered their harvests in the fields, farms, and gardens, the Orthodox residents of these western lands, oppressed by their heterodox neighbors, came fervently to the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God and to St. Job of Pochaev in his grandiose Dormition Church, built by Count Potocki on a mountaintop, and which Emperor Nicholas I called an "audacious structure." This church housed over five thousands, and it so happened that in those days even it could not hold all of the worshipers. In one of the last years, so many people came that the iron railings on the massive stone stairs could not hold them back, and many people fell off; thankfully not to the left side, into the ravine that was there, but to the right side, and only a few of those who fell received bruises and sprains. In the aftermath of this unpleasantness, as the generous landlord, Archbishop Anthony gave every victim 100-150 rubles, with which one would buy himself a new horse, or another would solidify his holdings. And thus the injuries healed on their own.

So it once was in the boundless expanses of Russia. Now we celebrated the feast of the Beheading here in New York, in Holy Fathers Church (600 W 153 St.). This church is located in a picturesque spot in New York: on the side of a hill, between an old cemetery and the wide, abounding Hudson River. This church is highly prized by our whole diocese. It was the first founded by the now-reposed Archbishop Apollinary. Although it is situated in the basement of a large building, it is nonetheless a true church, well prayed-in and grandly adorned with icons; it disposes one to prayer, and attracts many of our worshipers.[1] Jarov’s male choir sang during the divine service, under the artful direction of the parish’s longtime choir director, A. Krasnoumov, along with Priest Sergay Kargay, recently arrived from Venezuela with a young hierodeacon, Fr. Anthony, who not long before had undergone a complicated surgery in St. Luke’s Hospital, and who still bears marks of his illness. As an aside, there in the hospital the American doctors, alongside our compatriot Dr. B.N. Petrov, and the hospital staff, surrounded our young monk with love and attention, caring for him as though he were family. May the Lord reward them for it.[2] Among our worshipers, in addition to the parishioners, there stood many DPs, recently having arrived from Europe, where they learned how properly to pray and not be burdened by the long services.

The feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, or Forerunner, is one of our 15 great feasts (7 feasts in honor of the Lord, 1 feast in honor of Christ and the Mother of God, 4 feasts in honor of the Theotokos, 2 in honor of St. John the Baptist – his Nativity and Beheading, and 1 in honor of the Apostles – the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul). These 15 feasts are like satellites, surrounding our Sun – the festival of festivals, the feast of feasts, the Lord’s Pascha, eternal joy – victory over death.

What is special about the feast of the Beheading is in its confirmation of truth as the eternal and immutable foundation of Christ’s Church.

Two thousand years ago, in the palace of Herod, already subdued by Roman conquerors, but nonetheless having preserved its arrogance and pride, there is a banquet. King Herod celebrates his birthday. His guests are the noble dignitaries of his waning kingdom: his commanders and lords. And here appears the "dancer," the young daughter of Herodias, Herod’s unlawful wife. Her artful dancing elicits the delight of the drunken crowd. Herod, showing off his imaginary might before his underlings, promises the dancer whatever she asks of him, "unto the half of my kingdom." This, of course, he could not fulfill, being as he was under the authority of the Roman occupiers. The dancer runs to her mother for counsel, and Herodias decides to exact her revenge on the great prophet, languishing on her account in Herod’s prisons. More than once has Herodias asked of Herod that he kill John, because he said of her: "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife" (Mark 6:18). Herod had considered this murder himself, but when he was sober, he decided against it, as "he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet" (Matthew 14:5). He himself trembled with awe before his prisoner: "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly" (Mark 6:20).

 

But now he is drunk with passion, arrogant and proud. Hearing this senseless request, he seems for a moment to grow sober. — "And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her" (Mark 6:26). "Would that thou hadst not made that vow, O iniquitous Herod, offspring of a lie," says the Holy Church. "And since thou didst make the vow, would that thou hadst not carried it out; for it were better to have foresworn thyself and receive life, than remaining true to thine oath to have cut off the head of the Forerunner." Herod fulfilled his oath. The head of "the greatest among them that are born of women," the "mediator of the Old and Forerunner of the New, leader of the preaching of the Gospel," as the Church calls him, was severed. He received his end, barely 30 years of age, in the prime of his glory, having the greatest authority amongst his countrymen. But did this great prophet choose correctly, from the point of view of worldly wisdom? Was it worth the cost to involve himself in Herod’s private life? Would it not have been better for him to join Christ in preaching, supporting His activity with his own authority? Or maybe he would even have been better off making a concession to Herodias and using his influence over Herod to curry favor with the king? After all, he was not killed for preaching the Gospel, nor was he killed for bearing witness to the Messiah, but for an extraneous circumstance, which had no direct connection to the preaching of the Gospel. Many similar insidious questions might be posed today to those who wish to follow the great prophet’s example.

 

John the Baptist’s death for the sake of truth clearly speaks to the character of the new teaching for which the great prophet was the forerunner. John bore witness to the world that Jesus Christ was truly the promised Messiah, the Son of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. And humanity, saved, accepted John’s witness as truth, because he was a bearer of truth his whole life. One who has impressed his life into the service of truth cannot err in bearing witnessing to the Messiah. He who was faithful over a few things will be faithful all the more so over many things. The great prophet could make no concessions, no compromises. Since life saw fit to present him with these circumstances, in which he was called upon to bear witness to truth, he did so without any vacillation. His heart and mind could harbor no thought of compromise. In this we can see his true greatness. And this law remains the law of Christianity for all time. There can be no falsehood or wickedness at the basis of Church life. The ship of the Church must follow the straight path of truth. The ship cannot, as one famous spiritual writer recently wrote, "sway to and fro…" Where there is uncertainty, there is departure from Christ’s Church, there it is impossible, as the same writer wrote, "to carry those human souls, faithful to the Lord, to the eternal shore." That is why the great feast of the Beheading of the Holy Prophet St. John the Baptist is so dear to us. In it is confirmed the clear and immutable path of Christ’s Church – that path is the path of truth.



[1] In 1961, a splendid church was built in the Russian style on that same street in New York.

[2] Since 1968, Fr. Anthony has been the Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem in the rank of Archimandrite.

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Eastern American Diocese | Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia