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Sunday, July 27, 2008

St. Sylvester Bishop of Rome

During periods of relative calm, even then, the Church was opposed by her foes; but only due to the staunch defense of the faith she was able to make converts. See the Orthodox Christian Information Center:

Jan. 2, 2006 St. Sylvester Bishop of Rome

http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=100007

this brief excerpt tells what happened when Jews opposed the Church with sorcery.

...During the reign of the emperor St. Constantine the Great the Jews arranged a public debate to determine which faith was true.... St. Sylvester spoke for the Christians, and the Jews had one hundred and twenty learned rabbis led by Zambres, a magician and sorcerer.... St. Sylvester convincingly demonstrated that all the prophets foretold the birth of Jesus Christ from the all-pure Virgin, and also His voluntary suffering and death for the redemption of the fallen race of mankind, and His glorious Resurrection.

The saint was declared the victor in the debate. Then Zambres tried to resort to sorcery, but the saint obstructed the evil by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zambres and the other Jews came to believe in Jesus Christ, and they asked to be baptized.
.... End of Excerpt.

We need to be careful. Several years ago in the 1990's in New York City, someone who claimed to be using Orthodox iconography to show the Blessed Virgin Mary properly, did just the opposite. She was shown incorrectly with a black background and worst yet in the Pantocrator position reserved for Jesus Christ and then to make matters worst, it was entitled cosmocrator. Cosmocrator is a gnostic term for the devil as an immanent god of the universe. This, like everything else of the devil is a position full of lies. This isn't Apostolic, Catholic or Orthodox.

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