Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, with the after-feast of Dormition of the Most-Holy Theotokos, and with the day of the martyrdom of the Holy Hierarch Gorazd of Prague!

It’s unfortunate that probably few of us know about this wonderful saint, missionary, and martyr of the 20th century.

The Holy Priest-Martyr Gorazd was born in 1897 into a pious Catholic family in Moravia. (Moravia is that place in Czechia where earlier, in the 9th century Sts. Cyril and Methodius had their mission, and where the Holy Scriptures and the texts of Liturgy in the Slavonic translation were originally used. One could say that this was the birthplace of all the Slavic Orthodox Churches.) In 1902 he became a Catholic priest. After the First World War and the beak-up of the Astro-Hungarian Empire, along with many other Czechs and Slovaks at that time, the future Bishop Gorazd left the Catholic church. These people had a strong interest in that historical Slavic Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

The future saint joined the Serbian Orthodox Church and soon was tonsured a monastic, after which he was ordained to the rank of priest and then bishop. In 1922-23 bishop Gorazd found himself in the United States, where he preached the Orthodox faith to Czech and Slovak immigrants. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he continued his missionary activities to attract those who had left the Roman-Catholic church to the true Orthodox Church. Despite the roadblocks set up by the civil authorities, the mission began to grow.

In 1942, during the Second World War, the German military governor was assassinated in front of the Orthodox cathedral in Prague. The assassins hid themselves in the cathedral, without the knowledge of the bishop. When the Germans learned of this, the Orthodox population began to be repressed, despite the fact that they did not participate in the attack, nor did they actively hide the killers. Bishop Gorazd, who at that time was in Germany and played absolutely no role in these events, rushed back to Prague. He took upon himself responsibility for what had taken place in the Cathedral, so as to save the Orthodox from trouble. He was arrested and on the 4th of September was shot, after which his body was burned.

Although he isn’t a martyr in the classical sense (he wasn’t killed because he refused to deny Christ), he is nevertheless a martyr, a passion-bearer, like Sts. Boris and Gleb who willingly sacrificed their lives so that others would not suffer, so that others would not have to lose their lives.

Today, let’s pray to the Priest-Martyr Gorazd that all the Slavs, our brothers and sisters, who are still far from the Church and a morally upright Christian life remember their history, see the beauty of Christianity, and return to the Church, striving to live according to God’s commandments. Let’s pray that there be peace among all the Orthodox Slavs. Let’s pray that faith in Christ and love towards our neighbours burn in our hearts like it was with the Holy Hierarch Gorazd. Let’s pray that when we stand before difficult decisions as to whether to live for our own sake, for the sake of our comfort, or for the sake of Christ and our neighbours, courage be manifest in us and we choose Christ and service to our neighbours.

priest Alexis