Russia's New Martyrs & The Catacomb Church: A Type of the End Times

Spring-Summer Course 2: May 25 - July 27, 2021

This course will introduce and examine the witness and stance of the new martyrs under the atheist yoke, as well as the life, witness and stance of the Church in Russia during the first two decades of Bolshevik rule (1918-1938).

This course aims to present the ecclesiological and spiritual stance and witness of the confessors and martyrs of the Church under militant atheism, for the purpose of learning valuable lessons for the faithful today, who face the rise of authoritarianism and Caesaropapism in the post-Covid world.

- To better understand the historical conditions to which the Church of Russia was subjected from 1918-1938.

- To encounter and be edified by the witness of the confessors and martyrs during this period.

- To glean spiritual and ecclesiastical insights from the stance of the new martyrs for application to our own situation today.

- To discern the errors of Caesaropapism (and “Sergianism”) and how the saints understood and countered this error.

Meets: Tuesday evenings, 9 PM (EST), 6 PM (PST).

Lectures are held: May 25; June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; July 6, 13, 20, 27.

Viewable through Crowdcast, Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook pages.

Q&A sessions are held exclusively through Crowdcast on Thursday evenings 9 PM (EST), 6 PM (PST).

Lesson 1: May 25th: Introduction: Russia’s Golgotha, A Type of the End Times

Lesson 2: June 1st: The Onslaught of Persecution and Resistance under St. Tikhon

Lesson 3: June 8th: The Renovationists and the Orthodox Response

Lesson 4: June 15th: The Satanic Bolshevik Mentality and Methodology

Lesson 5: June 22nd: The Lives and Witness of the New Martyrs (1918-1928)

Lesson 6: June 29th: The Declaration & Stance of Metropolitan Sergius (“Sergianism”)

Lesson 7: July 6th: Consequences of the Declaration and the Orthodox Response

Lesson 9: July 20th: The Lives and Witness of the New Martyrs (1928-1938)

Lesson 10: July 27th: Conclusion: Lessons for the Last Christians

Please submit your questions ahead of each lesson. Questions can be submitted directly to the Crowdcast page of the particular lesson, which is preferable, or under the announcement in Patreon for each lesson. All questions submitted during the lecture will be answered at the Question and Answer session on Thursday evening.

Join The Orthodox Ethos Patreon Page to participate in the class (access to the Q&A sessions and discussion, PDFs and other material): patreon.com/frpeterheers

Russia’s Catacomb Saints by Ivan Andreyev and Fr. Seraphim Rose

The Course text is available online: http://russiascatacombsaints.blogspot.com