Word XX. Concerning the Departure of Certain Persons From the Bosom of the Orthodox Church Into Roman Catholicism or Another Non-Orthodox Confession, or Into Pashkovism, Tolstoyism, and the Shtunda

The press has begun to speak of cases of betrayal of Orthodoxy by certain persons. These cases, thankfully rather rare, are indeed of such a kind that they cannot but disturb the believing conscience of Orthodox Russian people, who set devotion to the faith of their fathers above everything, above personal happiness, even above life itself. And believers are grieved not so much by these isolated cases of falling away from Orthodoxy in themselves—evil has always been and will always be in the world—as by the indifference with which our society regards these cases. More than that: there are people who even try to justify such apostasy, hypocritically speaking, in doing so, of freedom of conscience, the search for truth, and the like. This is already utterly incongruous, and indeed cannot but grieve deeply every believing person. And so, to the joy and comfort of Russian people, the well-known Kronstadt pastor Father John, honored throughout all Russia, on February 24 of this year 1897, delivered a stern, censuring word against all apostates from Orthodoxy. We consider it a pleasant duty to acquaint our readers with this highly significant word.

Do those persons who, by birth, baptism, and upbringing were in the Orthodox Church, and are departing, or have departed, into Roman Catholicism or some other non-Orthodox confession, or into the Shtunda, Pashkovism, or Tolstoyism—do they realize all that they are leaving behind, and all that they are taking on, and to what extreme, to what deprivation, they are coming?

Let us establish a definite point of view on the Orthodox Church and on other confessions and sects.

What, then? Is the Orthodox Church and faith merely a name, without historical significance and without the full force of truth and vitality—or is it the firm and unshakeable edifice of the Heavenly, Eternal, All-Wise, and Almighty Architect-God, like a mountain, great and wondrous, upon which and within which the Lord Himself, the Head of the Church—Jesus Christ—unceasingly lives and works for the salvation of all the faithful?

Is the Orthodox Church a name only, without actual orthodoxy and without the greatest, indescribable power, unconquerable by any powers of hell? Is it not proper to her to triumph unceasingly over every device of enemies, seen and unseen, and over human cunning and absurd fables?

Does the Orthodox Church stand alone in the world, without glorious and loud witnesses to her truth and orthodoxy, to her wondrous life-giving and saving power, even to our own time? Does not the All-True and Almighty, All-Saving Head of the Church—Christ Himself—unceasingly stand for us, filling her with glory and salvation and His unconquerable power? Is not the Most Holy Sovereign Lady, the Mother of God, always with us, unceasingly pouring out miracles of mercy upon the Orthodox believing and the earnestly praying? Are not all the Apostles and Prophets, with their God-inspired writings, whose pure meaning we have not violated by a single jot, both for us and with us? Are not all the Martyrs, who well kept the faith and finished the course, and were crowned by Christ, the Giver of the contest, with crowns of glory and incorruption, with us and for us? Are not the great ecumenical teachers and hierarchs—Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory the Wonderworker, Gregory of Nyssa, and Chrysostom John—for us and with us? Are not the adamants of Orthodoxy, the venerable fathers—Anthony the Great, Athanasius of Athos, Paul of Thebes, Isaac of Dalmatia, that golden stream of Orthodox writings and honey-flowing hymns, John of Damascus—and our own Russian venerable fathers, Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, Sergius of Radonezh, Zosima and Sabbatius of Solovki, Varlaam of Khutyn, and all our other wondrous venerable fathers—with us and for us? Do those persons who renounce Orthodoxy, and those among our intelligentsia who consider every faith, even the Mohammedan and the Buddhist, a matter of indifference, know what pillars of Orthodoxy all our right-believing holy princes were: the Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir, who chose Orthodoxy out of all the Christian faiths; and especially St. Alexander Nevsky, the right-believing prince, the confuter of Latinism, Daniel and Roman of Galicia, St. Michael of Chernigov, and Michael the right-believing prince of Tver? Is the recent glorification of the newly revealed hierarch and wonderworker of Chernigov, Theodosius, an empty spectacle? Are not the incorruptibly reposing hierarchs of all Russia, glorious to this day before God and before men—Peter, Alexis, Jonah, and Philip, the wonderworkers of Moscow, and the whole multitude of Russian hierarchs and servants of God glorified by God: Nikita, John, Moses, and Euthymius of Novgorod, Demetrius of Rostov, Mitrophan and Tikhon of Voronezh, and the rest? And Seraphim of Sarov, glorified by God even in his lifetime by appearances of the Lord and the Mother of God, and awaiting his turn for open glorification—is he not a witness to the truth and the saving power of our faith and our Church? Finally, I will say: is not the whole history of the Church, from the beginning to this day, for us? What other faith can boast of so many witnesses to the truth? But whoever renounces Orthodoxy renounces communion with all the saints, who, among other reasons, are called saints precisely because they kept the holy dogmas of the faith and demonstrated them in deed; and whoever renounces the Orthodox faith, by that very fact, renounces communion with the Head of the Church Himself—Christ. I ask again, of every one and each who wavers in the holy Orthodox faith: have we been abandoned by the wonder-working and saving power of God? Are we not continually saved in our holy faith and Church? And who among the Orthodox, the sensible and enlightened, who have proved by experience the saving power of their faith and its satisfaction of our whole being—who among them will leave his Orthodoxy and pass over into some other faith? There is only one true and all-saving faith in the world—the Orthodox faith; such it is by its history, by its truth, by its very essence, full of light and living power—which cannot be said of other confessions; for in them truth is mixed with false human speculation, institutions, and rules contrary to Revelation, and greatly hindering the salvation of souls. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away, says the Lord (Mt 24:35). Meanwhile, in the non-Orthodox confessions, many of the Lord’s words are distorted (concerning the Holy Spirit, concerning both kinds in Communion, concerning the headship of the Church).

Let us, then, hold firmly to the Holy Church and to our Orthodox faith. Only the Orthodox Church is the pillar and ground of the truth, for in her the Spirit of truth eternally abides, unceasingly and loudly testifying to this world of her truth.