Fr. Arseny

"Father Arseny 1893-1973 Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father", Translated from Russian by Vera Bouteneff, St Vladimir's Press, NY 2001. The Roman Emporers of terror were small fish compared to Joseph Stalin, the granson of an Othodox priest. His savage reign for thirty years killed nearly 30 million Orthodox. This is the story of one Christian survivor. His love for God, his strength in life his dedication to his little flock, his heroism, his suffering for Christ is a story of Christian human survival, a lesson to be learned. The world knows of the suffering of the Jews, made popular by the wealth of that community in Western civilization. Not so for the Orthodox. They have suffered in silence, being a mere shadow of a memory in the forgetfulness of history; much like the death and destruction of the Armenians by the Turks. As Adolf Hitler once said, " No one will do anything about the European Jews, look what the Turks did to the Armenians. The world remained silent." There are no museums for the Orthodox in Washington, DC, there are no memorials on television once a year. My friends in the Orthodox faith, please read this book. The Orthodox faith is the faith that Christ said that its gates would never be broken by the powers of the evil one. Its strength shows me that it is the true faith, the one that will prevail against all evil. There has been no satanic power on this earth towards Christ's faithful servants like Stalin.

Ron,
I loved this book so much. I think there is another book about Fr. Arseny. If I find it I will read that one too.
Thanks so much for your input about Orthodoxy and the unheard stories of suffering. Perhaps one day "Orthodoxy" will be heard world wide.

Elefteria,

The 2nd book about Fr Arseny is available from St Vladimir's Press. It is titled- Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witnesses. It's price is $14.95

If anyone is looking for an edifying book to read the 1st book about Fr Arseny is excellent. All I'll add is that when I visited my friend who is a monk on the Holy Mountain he told me that one of the Fr's gave it to him to read but told him not to start reading it at night. He asked why & the Fr jokingly told him that if you do you'll still be reading when the sun comes up.