TRAVELING COMPANIONS

Great news today. My book of saints has been published in the USA by Conciliar Press under the title “Traveling Companions; Walking with the Saints of the Orthodox Church.”

According to the publisher's blurb: “Do you long to establish a relationship with the saints, but find them—or the volumes written about them—a little intimidating? The saints started out as ordinary Christians, just like us, and they are  waiting to accompany us on our journey to heaven if we will only reach out our hands. Traveling Companions is a manageable volume that briefly introduces saints from a variety of times, places, and walks of life, all in language that brings them close to contemporary readers’ lives. You’re sure to find companions here that you will be happy to walk with all the way to the Kingdom.”

For the time being, the book is only available direct from Conciliar Press at a price of $18.95 + postage: http://www.conciliarpress.com/products/Traveling-Companions%3A-Walking-with-the-Saints-of-the-Church.html  I can vouch for the fact that their postage charges are not outrageous and they accept PayPal. It will be available in Orthodox bookshops in the USA in a few weeks but distribution to bookshops in UK and Europe may take a little longer. I'll keep you informed. It will be on Amazon shortly but I'm not sure if that's only Amazon.com (USA) or whether it will be accessible via UK Amazon (Amazon.co.uk). Updated news is available on my Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/chrismooreybooks

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting some extracts from the book to give you some idea of the content and style. I'll begin this week with the most recently canonized Orthodox saint, Alexander Schmorell of Munich. His story is fascinating not only in its own right but for the light it sheds on the largely unknown resistance to Hitler within Germany.

Alexander of Munich, Holy New Martyr (July 13)

On a freezing day in February, 2012, a moving ceremony was held in Munich in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. It was the beginning of two days of services held to recognize the glorification as a saint of a young German student who was beheaded by the Nazis in 1943. Venerated locally for many years as a Passion Bearer, Alexander Schmorell stands out as a shining example of someone who put his Christian beliefs into practice even amid the horrors and complexities of modern totalitarianism.

Alexander was a mild-mannered and peaceable character, handsome and popular with the girls, and it is  highly likely that, in a different age or country, he would have lived out an unexceptional life as a doctor in Munich. However, a man called Hitler changed all that.

Alexander was born in 1917 in Orenburg, Russia, of Russian and German parents, and was brought up Orthodox. In 1921, the family fled the Bolsheviks and settled in Munich. While studying medicine in Munich in 1940, Alex joined two other students, Hans Scholl and Willi Graf, to form the White Rose resistance group. The main activity of the group was the production and distribution of anti-Nazi leaflets. Although these were joint efforts, it is  almost certainly Alexander who was responsible for the moving outburst against the  Holocaust in the second leaflet: “Here we see the most frightful crime against human  dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history. For Jews, too, are human  beings.” The leaflets generally reject Prussian militarism and quote widely from the Bible, classical philosophy, and the giants of German literature. They are deeply imbued with Christian belief, and some of the language is clearly stamped with Orthodox theology.

In the summer of 1942, the three medical students were drafted as combat medics to the Eastern Front, where Alexander was appalled at the treatment of enemy soldiers and civilians. Remembering his mixed  background, he declared that there was no way he could ever kill either a Russian or a German. While in the east, he was able to meet Orthodox priests and attend the Holy Liturgy with his friends. It must have been a bizarre sight to see Alexander, Hans, and Willi joining the Orthodox church services dressed in their Nazi uniforms!

Distribution of the White Rose leaflets was extended throughout Germany and Austria, and the group also began painting slogans around Munich. While the slogan “Freedom” was treasonous in itself, there can’t have been many places in Germany where the graffiti “Down with Hitler” could be seen in 1942! At the beginning of 1943, however, several members of the group were arrested, and their trial and execution marked the beginning of the end of the White Rose.

Alex was arrested in February 1943. After interrogation by the Gestapo, he was tried on a charge of high treason, sentenced to death, and guillotined on July 13, at the age of twenty-five. His letters from prison to his family, especially the final one, are very moving,  accepting his fate and restating firmly his religious faith: “By the will of God, today I shall have my earthly life come to a close in order to go into another, which will never end and in which all of us will again meet.” He was buried in the cemetery behind  Stadelheim Prison. Along with the other members of the White Rose, he is, of course, respected and honored

throughout contemporary Germany for his heroic stand against Nazism.

© Conciliar Press 2013

NOTES and LINKS: 

A full and very evocative description of the service of glorification of Alexander can be found on http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2012/02/10/schmorell-canonization/

A German film about another member of the group, called Sophie Scholl—The Final Days, is still available on DVD with English subtitles.

A longer version of this story will be included in my next book which is about 20^th century Orthodox martyrs. You can also find an enormous amount of material about the White Rose group, including all the leaflets and all Alexander’s letters from prison, on www.katjasdacha.com.

For German speakers, the website of the White Rose Fellowship is also well worth visiting http://www.weisse-rose-stiftung.de/

CAT & MOUSE – ORTHODOX STYLE

A lovely little story to lighten your hearts during Lent. It’s reproduced by kind permission of the writer Alex Riggle. His website, The Onion Dome, is well worth a visit if, like me, you don’t think Orthodoxy and a sense of humour are incompatible. http://theoniondome.com   

Dynamouse and Magnificat

Dynamouse lived in the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church and ate crumbs of prosfora that people dropped during the Divine Liturgy. She didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to. This was a great way of life for Dynamouse until the new priest arrived, and caught her at it. He decided to bring his cat, Magnificat, to the church to “clean up that rodent problem,” as he said.

Thus it was that Dynamouse met Magnificat on a Sunday when all the humans were down in the basement drinking coffee. Magnificat chased Dynamouse up one side of the church and down the other, and finally caught her.

“Any last words before I eat you?” asked Magnificat.

“No, just let me prepare to die,” said Dynamouse. “If you will relax your grip a bit, I shall be able to cross myself.”

So Magnificat relaxed his grip, and Dynamouse disappeared down a hole in the baseboard.

“That won’t happen again!” said Magnificat to himself.

The next time they met was on the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. Magnificat chased Dynamouse up one side of the church and down the other, and finally caught her.

“I’ve got you now and I’m not going to ‘relax my grip,’ so you need to prepare to die without crossing yourself,” said Magnificat.

“You can’t eat me today, it’s a strict fast day,” said Dynamouse.

“Oh, I forgot about that,” said Magnficat. “I’ll have to wait until next time.”

So he let her go, and she disappeared down a hole in the baseboard.

The next time they met was on a Sunday again. Dynamouse was wearing a necklace with a cross on it. Magnificat chased her up one side of the church and down the other, and finally caught her.

“You can’t eat me while I’m wearing a cross,” said Dynamouse. “Let me take it off.”

“Of course,” said Magnificat. But as he let her go, she disappeared down a hole in the baseboard.

“Tricked again!” sighed Magnificat.

The next time they met was on a Saturday after a baptism. Some of the holy chrism had dropped onto Dynamouse’s head when the priest was chrismating the baby. Magnificat chased her up one side of the church and down the other, and finally caught her.

“You can’t eat me with holy chrism on my head, it wouldn’t be right,” said Dynamouse.

“I suppose that’s true,” said Magnificat.

So he let her go, and she disappeared down a hole in the baseboard.

The next time they met was on Christmas Eve.

“Strict fast,” said Dynamouse.

“Sigh,” said Magnificat.

The next time they met was on Theophany. Magnificat chased Dynamouse up one side of the church and down the other, and finally caught her. Dynamouse didn’t have a cross on. It wasn’t a strict fast day. She didn’t have holy chrism on her head. And she knew better than to ask to cross herself.

“I guess you’ve got me this time,” she said. “Try and keep the crumbs cleaned up when I’m gone, will you?”

“I can’t do it,” confessed Magnificat. “I’ve had more fun catching you than I’ve ever had in my life. If I eat you, whatever will I do with my spare time? I’m going to have to let you live. As long as you promise not to move away.”

“You mean we’re like — friends?” asked Dynamouse.

“Yeah, I guess we are,” said Magnificat. So he let her go, and she disappeared down a hole in the baseboard.

But she came back in less than a minute with a necklace with a cross on it for Magnificat.

“I’ve never had a friend before — can I give you this present?”

And she put the cross around his neck.

“Thank you,” said Magnificat. “Happy feast!”

“Happy feast!” said Dynamouse.

Both Story and Picture are Copyright © 1997-2013 Alex Riggle. All Rights Reserved.