The Kollyvades Fathers and St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

We now come to one of the most crucial time periods and to perhaps the most important patristic interpretation as to the identity and boundaries of the Body of Christ, especially as it pertains to the present challenge to the Church posed by contemporary, syncretistic ecumenism.

In Lesson 7 we will look at the teachings of the so-called “Kollyvades Fathers,” 18th and 19th century saints and ecclesiastical fathers chiefly of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and in the region of Greece. Those considered "Kollyvades Fathers" include Ss. Athanasios of Paros, Makarios of Corinth, Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, Paisios Velichkovsky, Kosmas Aitolos, Nektarios of Aegina, Savas of Kalymnos and Nicephoros of Chios, Nicholas Planas. We will look mainly at the Athonite Kollyvades Fathers, especially their interpretation of Canon VII of the Second Oecumenical Council and their stance taken with regard to the reception of the heterodox into the Church.

We will also look at the writings on this matter of another Kollyvades Father in Russia, St. Hilarion (Troitsky), who truly was a great star in the firmament of the Russian Church in the first thirty years of the 20th century.

Lesson 7:

5:10 Introduction and Announcements

7:30 Prayer and Troparion

9:00 Intro: The Choir of the Kollyvades Fathers

17:30 Neophytos Kavsokalyvites & St. Athanasios Parios

19:50 St. Makarios of Corinth & St. Paisios Velichkovsky

20:53 St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

24:15 The Background to the Oros of the Three Patriarchs (1756), Patriarch Cyril V of Constantinople

29:30 Oros of the Great Church on the Baptism of Papal and Reformed Protestants (1756) - 1

34:37 Oros of the Great Church on the Baptism of Papal and Reformed Protestants (1756) - 2

38:43 Oros of the Great Church on the Baptism of Papal and Reformed Protestants (1756) - 3

44:15 Canon VII of the Second Oecumenical Council

51:00 Ecclesiological and Canonical Presuppositions

57:50 The Apostolic Canons (46, 47, 50, 68)

1:04:00 Canon VII of the Second Oecumenical Council (compared)

1:05:20 Solving the Problem of Apparent Contradictions (1)

1:09:00 Solving the Problem of Apparent Contradictions (2): Answer, part 1 - St. Nikodemos explanation of oikonomia

1:15:00 Solving the Problem of Apparent Contradictions (3): Answer, part 2 - Insistance on akriveia based on transgression as to the type or kind of baptism.

1:18:37 Solving the Problem of Apparent Contradictions (4): Answer, part 3 - Degree of deviation from Faith not of primary importance.

1:23:21 Summary by Fr. George Metallinos (1)

1:25:25 Summary by Fr. George Metallinos (2)

1:29:00 Application of the Canon to the Present Day (18th century) (1) - Conciliar Witness

1:32:00 Application of the Canon to the Present Day (18th century) (2) - Heresy and Loss of Baptism among the Papal and Reformed Protestants

1:33:45 Can Oikonomia be Applied to the Papal Protestants?

1:38:10 Question: Doesn’t the Latin pouring or sprinkling contain sanctification and grace by virtue of the invocations of the Holy Trinity?

1:41:05 Question: Why cannot “the same likeness of death” also be expressed through affusion or aspersion?

1:42:59 Four Important Questions posed to the Latins and Unionists (Vatican II responds: not interested in “signifying the death and resurrection of Christ.”)

1:45:40 The Latins are Absolutely in the Category of Needing to be Baptized

1:48:55 The Kollyvades Fathers and Dorotheos Voulismas

1:53:10 St. Hilarion (Troitsky): The “Russian Kollyvades Father” - on the the 1756 Oros, the Interpretative Key of Oikonomia and the Influence of the Latins on Russian theology and practice.

Question and Answers:

2:11:30 - The oikonomia in clinical baptism: emergency in the Church, not the norm outside the Church.

2:13:00 - Is Patiarch Cyril V, Cyril Loukaris?

2:14:00 - What about the saying: “We know where the Holy Spirit is, but not where it is not”?

2:18:50 - Are there always pastoral exceptions for administering baptism?

2:21:33 - If we skip baptism do we skip receiving our own guardian angel? What are we receiving from the heterodox (when we oiknonomize)?

2:23:36 - Are those converts who become priests, who have not been received by baptism or were received by Oikonomia without justification - is their ordination/priesthood legitimate?

2:25:55 - Can I insist that I be received by baptism if my priest refuses to do this? The norm and the exception in our day.

2:28:00 - What is the better translation: remission of sins or forgiveness of sins?

2:29:00 A family member was received into Orthodoxy by chrismation. What should I tell him with regard to baptism?

2:30:43 - What do you say to those who hold that once someone has received holy communion that this completes anything which is lacking? (Positions of St. Dionysios and St. Firmilian)

2:33:00 Closing comments and next week’s class

2:35:00 Troparion (for the Holy Cross of Christ)