Posts Tagged ‘though’

Enormous Church Scandal in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on the selection of new Metropolitan for one of Biggest Church Eparchies the Eparchy of Sliven

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024

Priests-layman-monks-protest-against-Cassation-of-vote-for-New-Sliven-Metropolitan-Ierotey

Currently an enormous scandal has been ongoing in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The Church Mafia is fighting the People's will for choice of a Metropolitan in an attempt to 'install' a new Metropolitan, that is part of the clique clerics that has a connection to the Underground Criminal World in Bulgaria.

Sliven_Metropolitan-Ioanikij-Ikoanikius-Slivenski_mitropolit_Joanikij

Holy Liturgy Blessing of Metropolitan Ioanikij Nedelchev (Joanichius) in the Dormition of Mother of God Church in Nessebar 15 August 2008 
(Photo source Wikipedia)

The reason for the Scandal is the choice of a New Metropolitan of Sliven after the blessed passing of his Holiness Joanichius the Metropolitan of Sliven (2nd March 1939 – 9 January 2024 ), who has wisefully governed the Eparchy for almost a decate a 44 years in which he has seen the times and lived through when communist try to infiltrate the Churches completely as well as the new time after the fall of communist (socialist) regime in Bulgaria, where big part of ex-communist party has given money to different people to work and grow business for them leading to the dark years in which thje ex-communist reordered the country in a way to make each other a super rich and act only for their interests and against the interests of people, leaving a lot of people without any normal social benefits and normal standard of living for one to feel himself a person but pushing him all the time to live on the edge and just making money out of the people's tragedies for few and leaving on the border of poorness many.

Those dark years, where the country was bankrupt and people lost their money and belongings in favour of some people who become mega rich, stealing from the country's belongings selling them for pennys and destroying everything built till this moment however seems to have not ended.

The democracy and democractic choice for governors in Both the Country Stages of Power in Bulgaria (The National Assembly, President and local  city Mayers and all the other people assigned with functions to govern over the citizens) is still suppressed and people are installed on country government positions in the old communist 'scheme' of dictatorship not regarding at all the choice and will of people on who should govern the country.

So far so good everyone in Bulgaria now knows, that even though the European Union inclusion of the country and the attempt from the European Union messangers to change some realms of power distance and over-dominance of governors of Bulgaria and unwalfulness for the better, still the situation is critical and again following the old communist scheme before 1995 is again practiced fully not only in the Country but also in the Church.

Bulgarian Orthodox Church has done a lot of improvement and development at first after the great Scheme that was organized by Secret services of Bulgaria called (DS Darzhavna Sigurnost or Country Security / CS). After those terrible time of dictatorship only few of the new seclected Church highest authorities (Mitrpolitans) like Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin and Seraphim of Nevrokop as well as the old selected (during communism) but very much pious and truth loving Gavriil of Lavchanska eparchy has been legally selected venerating both the will of people and the will of the Highest Church governing Authorities, that is the Holy Synod.

Those metropolitans until today over the years, since their official election as Metropolitans after the pass of the old Metropolitans has shown their high spirituality and perseverence for God and the Church and  every normal orthodox christian in Bulgaria highly values, their good deeds for the Church, the preach and the charisma and their sincere desire and acts to help the Bulgarian Church institution rise up its position in the eyes of todays degradated youth to push back Church moral in society and educate the long time kept illiterate of faith nominal Christians in Bulgaria, just like they have done a lot to share the Gospel and help people in spiritual and material need and has truly dedicated themselves to follow the Gospel as it is preached and shown on a deed by Jesus Christ himself.

Unfortunately the old government installed Metropolitans (agents) in the Synod even though as publicly showing as a perfect and good are known by people in the country that most of them have some at least points of dark past (connection with Secret Services and compromising materials with sexual and immoral acts) that helped them to rise over the ladder of Church power to become the Metropolitans they are today.

This is not a secret to anyone in the country even though noone really speaks about it too frequent.

This is also at least partially the reason if not fully, why many people in Bulgaria even though baptized in the Church, choose to be a nominal Christians and not frequently visit Church services. I myself was one those people while my faith was missing (or partial and shaking) and took me very difficult and hard road to return back to my ancestors Orthodox faith. Many of people in Bulgaria that are about 40 – 50 has walked similar path and we all have interacted or seen some of the abnormalities in the Church and the unwalfullness in times. Don't get me wrong unlawfulness actually is normal as we're human and such we do sin all the time, but still there are some limitations on when unwalfulness that is created by our own passions ends and unwalfulness from a mania for power and money and even megalomania comes. 

The Church as everyone knows has a set of Financial activities that are interesting for people willing to live a relatively confort live and less, or people who want to become a succesful businessman in cassocs, without having too high education but having a high perseverence to follow orders without thinking of superior.
For that reason over the past years of 'pseudo' democracy, where the country shows the face of a fully free to the world even though such a democracy and law is followed only for simple things and for the big and important government questions 'its all about money' and law is not venerated.

For that reason many people that are in the High Stages in the Church, for the lack of proper spiritual elders in the Church and the activities of Bulgarian Secret Services SS (DS) operations, as well as Mafia sponsorship  has installed even from communism times till now, the pseudo spiritual pastors, who are ex or even current informers to SS / Mafia as well as because of lack of normal high church authorities, many of whom were governed by the communist party has been filled with many people unworthy due to their sinful life and thinking and unfollowing the Christ Highest standard of Love God and the Neighbor but only considering their own corrupted interests and interests of their masters to whom they seem to be simple a puppets who receive benefits for following the orders of the masters …

You would say everywhere is the same and that would be true in more a or less for each country Local / Public / Government institution.
But when the unwafulness becomes a standard and public unwalfulness is tolerated that is a indicator for either a lack of country or dictatorship in it.
If such unwafullness as unfollowing the norms of Public Law are happening in the Country every now and then that is normal, but what becomes abnormal if such anomalities has become a standard also for not only how things happen in Government Parliaments but how things happen in the Church, then this is a tragedy.
The Church has always been the Highest standard and example for people and even today for many it is still a barrometer for whereto things are going.

For those who don't know the Church's governence Authorities The Metropolitans (a High Powered Monks Bishops who give a vows for unaffection to money posetions and worldy goods that promised God to work only and mainly for the Good of the Church members the people assembly Ecclasia) has the holy duty to not only persevere for their own salvation but has taken the responsibility to lead the people following the Highest Standards of The Christ Gospel in their way to salvation. Those people in the Bulgarian Church who govern it are callet the Holy Synod (or Assembly of Metropolitans) and as of today's article writting are 28.02.2024 are numbered of 13 'elders / starci (as called in Bulgarian) who should take the important decisions for the Church, those 13 are being exchanged with others that should be selected once one passes over using a special procedure for choice that is written in the so-called 'Church institution' the Church statuses regulations, that are written and approved together with Priests ,Monks, and Laymen and has been selected to be followed as a legal internal way on how the Church takes decision of the seclection of new Metropolitans once one passes away. To this date this law has been followed and this kind of selection procedure, where the Church members the people choose on the new Metropolitan together with Priests in a special selection day that is set by the Holy Synod elders and with one Elder (A Metropolitan from the Holy Synod) who will be observer on how the people and clergy vote for their new Hierarch and as currently we had this Eparchy of Sliven His Holiness Joanichius metropolitan of Slived – Died  passing to Christ just 49 days ago and a decision was taken by the Holy Synod to organize the selection procedure for new Metropolitan. 

The procedures of selection of new Metropolitan has been followed closely up to the smallest details, and two candidates has been selected just like the Church accepted rules prescribes those was

On the first circle of selections (which by the way  were publicly translated in Facebook !!!) 3 bishops were selected

1. Ierotey of Agathopolski (received most votes)
2. Arsenij Znepolsky (second in votes)
3. Mihail Konstantijski (third in votes)

A second circle up to the official selection rules was done on which Arsenij has been put out of the list as he received only 17 votes for the people will.

 

1. Bishop Ierotey of Agatopolos spiritual district (received 26 votes by Sliven's Monks, Priests and Laymen that are part of Eparchal assembly as to the Church rules)
2. Bishop Mihail of Konstant  spiritual district (received 22 votes by Sliven's Monks, Priests and Laymen that are part of Eparchal assembly as to the Church rules)

 

His-Holiness-Bisohop-Ierotey-Kosakov-the-peoples-choice-for-new-Metropolitan-of-Sliven-Eparchy

Bishop Ierotey

 

(note both spiritual districts are no longer existing in Bulgarian Orthodox Church due to territorial change of the country and this titles are given usually to non metropolitan Bihops in the Bulgarian Church).

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The selection process was leaded by Metropolitan Ioan (John) of eparchy Varna and Veliko Preslav. 
After the selection his Holiness John of Varna and Velikopreslav has been very happy and told publicly to the news the first part of selection of new Metropolitan for Sliven has been sucessfully finished and no any irregularities on the votes process has been seen.

The official process and practice in that case in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church so far has always been to ratify the Choice of People and select one of the two that seems for the 14 Metropolitan Eldersas the most suitable for the Eparchy to lead and teach the people on the Gospel and Christs Words and lead them in their path to Salvation and to protect the flock against heresies etc. etc.

The practice up to this date was to ratify one of the two chosen Bishops as favourites and Entrone him as the Official Governor and local Church Spiritual Leader of the Eparchy of the Holy Orthodox Church and the person who will take the important decisions for the Eparchy and by the Public head official representative of the Priests, Monks and Layman of those eparchy.

A date was set on which the Synod should come up with an information on his selection of the new Bishop of Sliven between the pre-selected ones Ierotey or Mihail.
Everyone was expecting the choice and the clirics and people of Sliven Bulgas and the many black sea Black Sea tourist famous destinations cities such as  Ahtopol, Chernomoretz, Pomorie, Rezovo as well as people from villages and everyone was waiting to celebrate and congrat their new Metropolitan and accept him in the Synodal Palace in Sliven. 

But guess what happens, the official set process of selection is cancelled in a very unwalful way out of the Sudden the Sinodal elders makes a paradoxal decision without any official explanation to cancel the prior vote selection of Metropolitan Ierotey or Mihail !!! 

During that strange behaviors there even more oddities, the Patriarch is in Hospital and unconscios and not part of the decision of the Synod, which makes the important decision out of Quorum of 14 + 1 (patriarch), moreover the strange unlogical and unargumented decision however is not approved by 3 of of the Synodal Elders


+ Gavriil
+ Seraphim 
+ Danijl

Who has the fame of the few only truthful uncorrupted or unkept by compromats or sex or other public scandals and who are serving Holy Liturgies, serving, working steadily for the goodness of church temples, the people and the interest of the Bulgarian nation.
Besides that the Patriarch did not take any decision as his health situation is unclear (some people in the Church even doubt whether he is still alive?? as no laymen or clergy man is allowed to enter the Hospital where officially he is said to be health with a severe deadly disease a cancer on the white lungs). 
Besides that the Metropolitan of America His Beautitude Yosif Metropolitan of America did not took part of the discussions in the Synodal Palace.
Meaning out of 12 present Sinodal Elders during the decision assembly in Synodal palace  only 8 do vote for and 5 vote against. Strange enough the observer of the whole voting process that took place 2 weeks ago in Sliven Sinodal Palace Joan of Veliko Preslav has also voted for the cassation of the choice??

Now Suddenly John starts suddenly talking the vote was not really done in a proper way even though he himself has been part of the vote and has confirmed after the vote that everything was flawless actual and honest and there was no corruption during the vote and again (The vote has been shown on facebook LIVE !!!).
That of course leads to the fact that someone has pushed him to make those strange choice of cassation from somewhere and to publicly claim the voting process has been compromised controrary to what he claimed earlier. 

But the strangeness here in Metropolitan voting does not end. On those same day where the Synod has chosen to cassase (cancel) the voting by sliven's eparchy people and priests, there is an offer made that the Official way of how a selection of new metropolitan is made is changed immediately !!!
The Church is immediately voted by those same 8 of Elders that has voted for the cassation and those "Elders". What a coincidence HUH


OR IS IT A CONSPIRACY ? 


And this offer to cancel the current Rules that are provided by officially Church legal binding document on the process of Choice of Metropolitan that has been used until today and whose latest revision was from 2009 and has been accepted on a Church National Assembly ratified by Layman, Deacons, Priests, Monks, Ipodeacons, Layman to be the official guide for how the voting of new metropolitan should be made as well as how to solve different complex situations that could emerge in the Church realms.

For over 150 years of the existing of new Bulgarian history, after liberation (The Church Statues state rules has been the leading guide for the Highest authorities like a help manual so things in the Church are done in lawful way and everything as transparent as possible, now without the allowness of people and clergy except the synod they want to cancel those Church Statuses not caring about the people opinion.

Sorry guys but this is the 21 century and in realms of 21 century this kind of behavior is called Dictatorship !!! Every normal member of the Bulgarian Church recognized those and now a great set of discussions in facebook and on many Bulgarian websites and informational websites are explaining a lot of hidden details on the real reasons for those scandal which in short are:
 

1. The Patriarch of the Church Neofit is near his deadbed or has passed away and this is kept in secret until new Metropolitan is installed
according to the Plans and in that way the group of Nikolay even prankly called Nikolayts (for their dedication to Nicolay) will be complete
enough in order for him to succeed to be Enthroned as next Patriarch ?


2. There is Metropolitan Nikolay who is well known by at least 10+ years that has appetite to become patriarch or to command over the whole Church Synod and Bishops and those same person has forced his protegees to make that unlogical choice as he has helped him somewhere in their career development, by installing his new protegee Arsenij or someone else under his dominance power group who he is dictating pretty much like Hitler his Gestopo (just to name one scandal person who is a famous part of his group this is Sionij who by some proven sources has been claimed to have been involved with things that does not fit to his high position in society such as pedophilia sex, alcoholism and other criminal deeds that has connection to the Secret Servies and the Mafia of Bulgaria.


3. Sliven Metropoly (Eparchy) has a lot of Public Business interest for businessman involved as the Eparchy is a common tourist destinations and a lot of investors wants to buy a cheap Church land and such a dead could be easily helped with installing the right new Metropolitan on the Eparchy Ship steering wheel. Rumors are ongoing that this two priests are receiving money to act as they did for quite some time within different circuits of the Church.


4. Both pepople and Clergy preselected Bishops Ierotey and Mihail does not have compromats and are not easily blackmailed as a consequence as many others have, and are known in the public and common people in the Church to have a good Spiritual life in Christ and are famous for their good deeds and has already helped a lot of people in need both materially and spiritually and continue to do so as their faith for Christ is real and not nominal dictated only by public and material interests and that does not fit the overall agenda.

Ierotey has been part of Sliven's eparchy for 21 years and has been next to Metropolitan Joanikij (Yoanikius) for the last 10 years and has been his Vicar Bishop and has taken care about the Graceful elder Metropolitan Joanikij while he was on a deadbed, was his spiritual Childrean of him and knows pretty well the things in the Eparchy.

While Mihail who is also serious monk and has lived a secluded life in Greek monastery and a notorious Greek Elder near Athens and has been proven to also a Quality good and Highly spiritual person and monk. 

Even though it is logical and expected by people for Ierotey to be the selected candidate as he is already known with the people for 21 years and people know them and love him.
Mihail is also a good suit because he has a good spiritual base, even though being ordered as bishop much later than Ierotey and having much less experience as such.

After the cassation the Elders did not come with an official explanation on why really the cassation was made. Secondly they had come up with a later news on bg-patriarshia.bg which is the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, with a very cloudy message that the voting is cancelled with no explanations.

Just recently after 3 of the other Metropolitans who has been against the cassation came with a very thoroughful and clearly explained position, on why changing the rules for a Metropolitan selection while the selection is ongoing is anti-Church deed which is not accepted and they throughfully explained why chaing the Church statue rules, to be legal should be made on an official Church National Assembly gathering as it was used to accept the Church statue rules after all.
In the same Church statue rules, it has been pointed that the Church rules are most important Church Organ after, Holy Bible, Holy Tradition and Canons. Church canonists of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church specialist on the topic has been already explained why a dead of changing the Church statue rules without taking in consideration the members of the church the layman and the low clergy priests, monks is totally unchurch and evil.

Intesrestingly enough two brother priests (or better say fake priests as their deeds are not worthy for priesthood) Silvestar and Evgeni ( Yanakievi ) of the Sliven Eparchy who created a lot of scandals historically in the Bulgarian Church and has pressed and harmed many normal people, has preached a lot of ultras ideas and neven stick to their right hierarchical place (presenting themselves as saints and truthful lovers of Bulgarian faiths and traditions, often rioting the people are the main people who have been 'sceaming' and attacking about venerating the legal choice of Sliven's eparchy people and priest.

In a very unscrupulous way they spread lies about people in facebook and everywhere and are presenting themselves as the protectors of truth and Christianity and people who care about the 'clearness of faith' etc. Those scandal personalities continue to put more and more disturbance in facebook and the media preaching open lies that are against the Authority and personal dignity of Bishop Ierotey who.

They publicly claim Bishop Ierotey has been making money, by selling Church lands belonging to Pomorie Monastery who he has been a bishop of, those false claims that Ierotey has stole and sold land of monastery has been publicly shown as false by official documents and are available to be seen here.

Many Church important figures such as Profesor Ivan Zhelev (who has for 25 years has been official translator of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church) and many other has given already his opinion that the situation within the Church is absurd some, can see behind the strange coincident and indeaquate reactions of most of Synodal Elders a conspiracy with some specific aims such as creating a planned Schism within the Church or complete take over of the Church highest government bodies by the Mafia in Bulgaria Underground world or / and the Secret Services (DS) who after communist are well known to have a very good connections.

Nomatter what is the reason behind the Synod activies, one thing is clear people in the Bulgarian Church are not so stupid as they thought and such an unwalfulness is not going to be tolarated by people in the mask of humility as they want to convince her!
Protests in front of Slivent's synodal palace has taken place already, and such protests are about to continue as a follow up in front of Synod especially as people want their voice to be heard and not be commanded as a dumb flock as some people seems to want, breaking all democratic norms !!!

Unfortunately the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Synod with those last indeaquate and inadequate decisions puts another spot on the reputation of the Church which anyways is not so high as of today, because of certain Metropolitans indeate talks, decisions and acts, pretty much like it happened in official govenment.
That is sad and anti-people as obviously now the recent unwalfulness was tried to be shown as absolutely canonical and good and for the good of people that decisions on who should be governing an eparchy of Bulgarian Church has to be only taken by the so called 'Elders', many of whom as today in difference with the past their ancestors has neven been a serious monks not succeeded in any spiritual deeds and has been made bihops and monks with breaking church canons or rules.

The best one could do in that terrible situation to help resolve is to sign up a petition against the unwalful decision of the Synod to cancel the vote decision made for new Sliven Metropolitan.

Lord have mercy over the Bulgarian Holy Church and keep her out of those wolves in sheeps cloting, who try to destroy your Church and flock !!!

Few words on Saint Prophet Daniel feast day in Orthodox Church December 17

Friday, December 17th, 2021

Saint-Prophet-Daniel-orthodox-icon 

 

Few words on Saint Daniel the Prophet Feast

 

Many of us today in the world who are baptized and members of the Church or do at least accept the Christian principles deeply routed in most of the Civillized developed workd tend to excuse themselves for not being good and doing the righteous things, thinking it is hard to stand for the christian principles and norms in a general antichristian atmosphere pointing it as a reason to not follow the guidance recommendations of the Church.

However we should not excuse ourselvse with the circumstances or the Church clergy who seems to us to not follow properly the spiritual vows. We should not excuse with time we're living in as it is reflected in perfect examples in the spiritual life of the saints and the practice of monks, who always have the golden rule to not excuse themselves for anything in the world for not following Gods perfect will and predestination in the good.

Lets look at the first Christians who lived, did their life was easier or more favourable than today for confessing the faith ? Even materially if we think at the times back then most people were poor, they have attained everything they had with a hard labour and was busy 24/4 / 7 days a week, there was no medicine for almost nothing except few herbal treatments, there was no dentist, no electricity and no transport. The doctors who can help at times of sickness were few, in the beginning of Christianity, it was prohibited to be Christian and being a Christian was a sure sentence for death sooner or later, not to mention that emperors and the powerful of the day were requesting from people obedience in anything they say and slavery was popular and even many much more than today lived all their live in slavery both physical and spiritual (as most people did not have the chance to hear the Graceful words of the Holy Gospel). Priests were scarce, there was practiculally no education and there was no easy way to produce and keep information, paper was not there. Having a book was only possible for few of the richest people who were the top layer of society. The few knowledgable who can read or knew solution to the innumerable problems of man were considered nobles (Elders / wise men)  had been often wanted and scarce as well as kept near the "top management" people who governed society society – kings, emperors, governors or amy man. This is rawly how the world looked back then. Even though that people both Christians and non Christians had been more stronger in spirit and had been unshakable in their decisions for confession their life credo. 

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  • Those old nobles have been divided  generally speaking into two categories the fraudants:
    Wizards (whose wisdom was received by the demons)
  • Second truthful ones
    Servants of God the prophets the righteous, the Jewish priests who confessed truely the One True God, the saints and other gifted people by God.

Tomb-with-relics-of-Saint-Daniel_at_Assa
The most likely location of holy relics of Prophet Daniel Tomb of Daniel at Susa, Iran

Among the truthful ones perhaps most significant for elevating the humanity from the worst to perfect are the prophets, who has the revelation from God directly from God, to be leaders and examples for perfection of the religion, moral and political life for the Old Testamental choosen people the Jews and respectively after Christ's crucifix the Christians who has held their place as the true choosen children of God and through them for the gentile.

Today we celebrate the memory of one of the supreme prophets who has lived in world for all ages – Saint Prophet Daniel his name is delivered from Jewish and means "God (El) is my judge"

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Daniel and the Stone Slavonic Icon (Bulgarian ?)

Prophet Daniel is the biblical hero of the Book of Daniel who interprets dreams and receives apocalyptic visions. His book is one of the most notable prophetic book in which in a hidden way it is said what is expecting the world until the end of the times.
 

The Prophet Daniel appears in the Old Testament in the Book of Daniel as a captive carried away to Babylon by order of Nebuchadnezzar after the fall of the kingdom of Judah during the sixth century before Christ. His ministry as a prophet came late in his life. He is commemorated by the Church on the December 17.

While remaining loyal to his faith in the one God, Daniel attained a high position of the court of Nebuchadnezzar and was known for his skill in the interpretation of dreams (Daniel 1:17 and 2:14) and of mysterious handwritings on the wall. He is included in the Septuagint among the prophets and was referred to by Christ as a prophet in Mark 13:14 and in Matthew 24:15. The precise time and circumstances of Daniel's death are not recorded. By tradition his age at death was near 100 years. A number of places have claimed to be his place of burial, including Susa in present day Iran, Daniel's Tomb in Kirkuk in Iraq, as well as Babylon, Egypt, and Tarsus.

He is a descendant of Jude's knee, he was descending of noble rich family, presumably he might have descendent even from king's line an evidence for that is the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II, after the conquest of Jerusalem in (year 607 B.C.) give an order to select the best and most educated and intelligent from the captured jews with the goal to learn the Chaldean language and receive education, and prepare for a government service.

These young man has been put into many temptations as the custom of the chaldean civillizations was pagan and contradicted the jewish.
Four of the chosen ones were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (who as an attempt to change the mindset and are identity of the ones and distant them from their original jewish mindset, were renamed with the Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah even though the babylonization attempts of their identity, have shown severe firmness and continued to follow the Jewish Law of Moses.

As they were part of the kings palace courtiers, they lived surrounded by luxurity, they did not forget God's law diligently they prayed and eat as food only bread and fruits, refusing any food given by the Kings table as this food has been consecrated to the pagan idols the babylonians were worshipping.

The good God seeing the perseverance in goodness of the youngsters and their fortitude in confession of truth and strict follow the Mishrah (the law of the jews) gifted them with amazing abilities to understand visions and dreams.

Catacomb-of-Priscilla-Fiery_furnace_01

Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, late 3rd century/early 4th century.

At the beginning the four were not among the famous ones in the babylonian kingsdom, however they became famous as the king has called them to interpret a troubling dream he had – a dream the king immediately forgot. Noone among the wise mand and wizards couldn't neither tell the kings dream nor tell what it meant thus, by God's providence the 4 ones whose fame continuously grow in kingdom were summoned and Daniel could interpret the kings dream and the meaning of it. The king out of amazement decided for future to always council the the 4 God people, as he saw their wisdom exceeded the wisdom of the other liege in the kingdom. Daniel and his 3 friends were tested by the fire, as they have been thrown in fiery furnace fire, as a punishment for their rejection to obey a Golden pagan idol statue as god, breaking the king's decree.

Sveti-Otroci-v-Peshti-ikona

Icon Source: Pinterest

In the burning enormous fire the king was amazed to see not 3 but 4 people (the fourth one was an Angel of God who was protecting them). The fire not only did not damaged them even though it was all throughout their body but did not even burn the clothes or the hairs on them. 

Prayer of the Three Holy Youths known in Church as "The Song of Daniel" 

The Prayer of the Three Holy Youths is a component of the biblical Book of Daniel. It is a segment of a larger component called The Prayer of Azariah and the Prayer of the Three Holy Youths which. although part of the Septuagint text, is considered by Protestants as part of the Apocrypha rather than a fully canonical part of Scripture, and so appears in most English-language bibles as a seperate section. If included within the larger text of Daniel, it would appear in the third chapter of between verses 23 and 24.

In Orthodox Christian worship, the prayer is the basis of the seventh and eighth biblical canticles sung at Orthros. Although the text of the canticles are generally not read in contemporary practice, the hymns sung as part of the canon reference the theme of the Three HolyYouths. At Vespers of Holy Saturday, the text of the prayer is heard as part of one of the fifteen Old Testament readings prescribed for that day. In Byzantine practice, the closing refrains to each verse "bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever" are chanted elaborately.

The song constitutes a hymn of thanksgiving to God for deliverence from the fiery furnace into which the three young men, Ananias, Azarias and Misael (also known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) had been cast by the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar. They were cast into the furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol that Nebuchadnezzar had created. However, an Angel of the Lord entered the furnace and protected the three young men. In liturgical practice, the event is seen to presage the Resurrection of Christ, thus its inclusion in the canon.

The Abingdon Bible Handbook (ISBN 0687001692) suggests that the Prayer was based on an earlier composition and was added to the existing text of Daniel sometime in the second or first century B.C.

The Song of the Three Holy Youths​

Text

Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers: thy name is worthy to be praised and glorified for evermore:
For thou art righteous in all the things that thou hast done to us: yea, true are all thy works, thy ways are right, and all thy judgments truth.
In all the things that thou hast brought upon us, and upon the holy city of our fathers, even Jerusalem, thou hast executed true judgment: for according to truth and judgment didst thou bring all these things upon us because of our sins.
For we have sinned and committed iniquity, departing from thee. In all things have we trespassed, and not obeyed thy commandments, nor kept them, neither done as thou hast commanded us, that it might go well with us.
Wherefore all that thou hast brought upon us, and every thing that thou hast done to us, thou hast done in true judgment.
And thou didst deliver us into the hands of lawless enemies, most hateful forsakers of God, and to an unjust king, and the most wicked in all the world.
And now we cannot open our mouths, we are become a shame and reproach to thy servants; and to them that worship thee.
Yet deliver us not up wholly, for thy name's sake, neither disannul thou thy covenant:
And cause not thy mercy to depart from us, for thy beloved Abraham's sake, for thy servant Issac's sake, and for thy holy Israel's sake;
To whom thou hast spoken and promised, that thou wouldest multiply their seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that lieth upon the seashore.
For we, O Lord, are become less than any nation, and be kept under this day in all the world because of our sins.
Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before thee, and to find mercy.
Nevertheless in a contrite heart and an humble spirit let us be accepted.
Like as in the burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, and like as in ten thousands of fat lambs: so let our sacrifice be in thy sight this day, and grant that we may wholly go after thee: for they shall not be confounded that put their trust in thee.
And now we follow thee with all our heart, we fear thee, and seek thy face.
Put us not to shame: but deal with us after thy lovingkindness, and according to the multitude of thy mercies.
Deliver us also according to thy marvellous works, and give glory to thy name, O Lord: and let all them that do thy servants hurt be ashamed;
And let them be confounded in all their power and might, and let their strength be broken;
And let them know that thou art God, the only God, and glorious over the whole world.
And the king's servants, that put them in, ceased not to make the oven hot with rosin, pitch, tow, and small wood;
So that the flame streamed forth above the furnace forty and nine cubits.
And it passed through, and burned those Chaldeans it found about the furnace.
But the angel of the Lord came down into the oven together with Azarias and his fellows, and smote the flame of the fire out of the oven;
And made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind, so that the fire touched them not at all, neither hurt nor troubled them.
Then the three, as out of one mouth, praised, glorified, and blessed, God in the furnace, saying,
Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers: and to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
And blessed is thy glorious and holy name: and to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou in the temple of thine holy glory: and to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
Blessed art thou that beholdest the depths, and sittest upon the cherubims: and to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou on the glorious throne of thy kingdom: and to be praised and glorified above all for ever.
Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven: and above ail to be praised and glorified for ever.
O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever,
O ye heavens, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye waters that be above the heaven, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye winds, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever,
O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye dews and storms of snow, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord: bless and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye light and darkness, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye ice and cold, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye frost and snow, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O let the earth bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye mountains and little hills, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye things that grow in the earth, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye mountains, bless ye the Lord: Praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye seas and rivers, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye beasts and cattle, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye children of men, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O Israel, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye holy and humble men of heart, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever: far he hath delivered us from hell, and saved us from the hand of death, and delivered us out of the midst of the furnace and burning flame: even out of the midst of the fire hath he delivered us.
O give thanks unto the Lord, because he is gracious: for his mercy endureth for ever.
O all ye that worship the Lord, bless the God of gods, praise him, and give him thanks: for his mercy endureth for ever.

 

Daniel and the Lions Den

Daniel was also thrown at another time in a Den hole with Hungry Lions (a typical fun for Romans usually the victim was a very dangerous criminal), however in adverse to the well known natural laws instead of cutting him into pieces eating him the Lions started licking the legs of Saint Prophet Daniel.

Daniel-and-lions

The Grace of God in Holy Prophet Daniel restoring the original Lions nature of grass-feeding animals as they were.
The abundance of Grace of the Holy spirit of the Lions turned them to treat the prophet as Cats would their beloved master.

Prophet-Daniel-and-in-the-Lions-Den-Daniil_DanielsDen_MarcellinusAndPeter

Daniel and the Lions (Book of Daniel 6:16-24)fresco of catacomb of Saint Marcellinus and Peter in Rome

Daniel and his friends, even though the paganism has followe their faith and establishment of the fathers, even though the hardship. How sad it is that today many of us are excusing with the time and the situation or encirclement as a reason to not follow the prescription spiritual cures of the Church (The holy mysteries, Confession, Repentance, Fasting and Holy Communion).

No ! We should not excuse ourselves with the situation and time of living. Are the first Christians lived in more benevolent world and did this stopped them from following Christ's teachings strictly and go for a martyrdom to them following the bright examples of the prophets ?
 

Church Troparion sung on Church service (Tone 2)

Great are the accomplishments of faith,
for the Three Holy Youths rejoiced in the fountain of flames as though in the waters of rest;
and the prophet Daniel appeared,
a shepherd to the lions as though they were sheep.
So by their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls!

 

Kontakion sung on Church service (Tone 6)

You did not worship the graven image,
O thrice-blessed ones,
but armed with the immaterial Essence of God, you were glorified in a trial by fire.
From the midst of unbearable flames you called on God, crying:
Hasten, O compassionate One!
Speedily come to our aid,
for You are merciful and able to do as You will.

Troparion-of-saint-Daniel-17-December-Church-Slavonic

Troparion of Saint Daniel and the three Jewish Youths Feast sung in Church (Church Slavonic)

Today 17 of December, we celebrate prophet Daniel and the the three Jewish youths Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were chosen to serve the worldly emperor, but they preferred ofthe One God and be God's choosen people than to choose the temporary world glory.

Let us also follow the example of saint Daniel and the three Youths, and follow the Gods revelations, the divine revelation moral law nevertheless of the environment and the circumstances, because God shows mercy to those who love him and his laws. 

Let by the Holy Prophets Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah God have mercy on us all the sinners ! Amen!

Text Translated from Bulgarian from Father's Karamihailev Preach (A Priest in Bankia's Church Saint Cyric and Julita) with inclusions

Historical and other references used:

 

1. The Holy Bible also briefly mentions three other individuals of this name: The Book of Ezekiel (14:14, 14:20 and 28:3) refers to a legendary Daniel famed for wisdom and righteousness. In verse 14:14, Ezekiel says of the sinful land of Israel that "even if these three, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness."

2. In chapter 28, Ezekiel taunts the king of Tyre, asking rhetorically, "art thou wiser than Daniel?" The author of the Book of Daniel appears to have taken this legendary figure, renowned for his wisdom, to serve as his central human character.
3. The Book of Ezra (8:2) mentions a priest named Daniel who went from Babylon to Jerusalem with Ezra.
4. The First Book of Chronicles (3:1) mentions a son of David called Daniel.

5. https://orthodoxwiki.org/Prophet_Daniel
6. https://orthodoxwiki.org/Prayer_of_the_Three_Holy_Children
7. Orthodox Church Service Liturgical Books (Chasoslov)
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_(biblical_figure)

Why and how to fix when Debian Linux detects and shows only 3GB of memory even though 4 or more are present

Saturday, September 8th, 2012

I was quite shocked to find out free -m was showing 3GB of memory on a brand new purchased Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge71 (according to guarantee paper with 4GB). I got angry seeing this, I paid 350 EUR for a Desktop host and suddenly, there is one giga less …

Since I was not sure if by mistake someome shipped the system with 1 Gigabyte or there is something wrong with Linux unable to detect the whole amount of memory I entered BIOS (on Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge series – to enter BIOS press F1.

Interestingly in BIOS, I can see 4 GigaBytes of memory are present, well this was puzzling … :

Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge71 esktop PC BIOS picture

Still free -m show me 3GB:

# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2989 186 2803 0 4 76

-/+ buffers/cache: 105 2884
Swap: 5651 0 5651

I checked also in top and htop, hoping maybe there 4 Gigas will show up but nope there also the whole amount of system memory was identified as 2989 MB.

I thought for a while and my first thought was probably, the memory is not detected because there might be integrated Videocard configured to use 1 GB of RAM. So next logical thing to do was check in BIOS, what kind of settings are set for the Video adapter.

possible settings for Video Setup menu are:

IGD,
PEG,
or AUTO

PEG stands for (PCI-e Graphics Device
– IDG is abbreviaton from (Internal Graphics Device)
I give a try to all of them, but I didn’t see any change in amount of detected memory. Debian Squeeze Linux 6.0.5 was always detecting 2989 max memory. I also tried also changing the amount of IGD Pre-allocated Memory Size from 128M to 32MB as well as decreasing the amount of Total Graphics Memory to 128MB. Unfortunately doing all kind of changes didn’t influenced the amount of detected memory by Linux kernel …

To make sure the 3GB detected memory is not because of some Debian Squeeze GNU / Linux bug I tried using a PuppyLinux 4.2.1 LiveCD just to see PuppyLinux was also detecting with 1 GIGA less…

Onwards after a quick research online I red people are experiencing similar problems on Linux, whether a 32 Bit kernel is used on 64 bit machines.
Weirdly it seems 32 Bit Linux kernels (even the new ones) are having troubles detecting more than 3GB of memory, but there is a need for some kind of bigmem supporting kernel .
Here is the exact Linux kernel version making the troubles:

# uname -a;Linux pcfreak 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Sun May 6 04:01:19 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux

Until checking the kernel release, I didn’t realized in the hurry installed a 32 bit version of Debian on the 64 bit machine so to fix up the situation installed 64 bit version kernel;

# apt-get install --yes linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64

And Hooray! After restarting and booting with the new 64 bit (amd64) kernel, the missing 1 Gigabyte of memory started being detected:

# uname -a;
Linux pcfreak 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Sun May 6 05:12:07 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3913 261 3651 0 4 71
-/+ buffers/cache: 186 3727
Swap: 5651 0 5651

Seeing system boot up fine with the amd64 bit kernel, I removed the old 32 bit kernel, e.g.:

# apt-get --yes remove linux-image-2.6.32-5-686

Well that’s all folks 🙂