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| St. Damascene pictured with a house which contained a catacomb church in the 1940s |
Fr. Seraphim Rose writes, in "Russia's Catacomb Saints": "Bishop [and now Saint] Damascene evaluates with the greatest mystical depth the inward essence of the [1927] Declaration [of Metropolitan Sergius] in his essay 'The Seal of Christ and the Seal of Antichrist,' even though the Declaration itself is not mentioned there".
Here are the holy words of St. Damascene, Bishop of Glukhov:
"Why is it that the seal of Antichrist, as St. John the Theologian affirms, will be placed not upon the forehead and the hand simultaneously, but upon the forehead or the hand? Likewise, St. Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea, writes: He will strive so that the mark might be placed upon everyone... In some it will be on the right hand, so as to instruct those who have been deceived to be bold in their deception and darkness. This will occur because at that time there will be people who will affirm that it is possible and permissible to recognize the God-fighting authority of Antichrist if only one remains a Christian in one's soul.
From such ones the Antichrist will not demand that they share his way of thinking; in other words, upon all such ones he will not place the seal on their forehead, but will demand of them only the recognition of his authority, which is, according to St. Hippolytus, the seal on the hand, since through recognition of the human authority which will be God-fighting and against God, lawless and filled with every impiety, a Christian by this very fact will cut off from himself every possibility of doing good and righteous deeds, for in his faith there will be missing the chief sign of uprightness - the confession of God as God and the recognition of Him as the Being that stands above all.
All such ones, even though they might bear the name of Christian, in very deed will be, according to the works of their hands, true servants of Antichrist, who has deceived them by the worship of his image, which is the mark of the beast.
Repentance is impossible for such ones, according to the teaching of the Holy Church; and it is impossible only because the seal of Christ and the seal of Antichrist are incompatible, and the reception of one banishes the presence of the other. The banishing of the grace of the Holy Spirit through the mark of the beast fills the heart of all such ones with the first sign - fearfulness - which will bring them to an easy destruction. St. Hippolytus writes: 'On the contrary, if anyone will be deprived of the Holy Spirit, that is, if one will not have upon himself or has lost the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit which was given in Holy Chrismation, he will fight with fear in a cowardly manner, will hide, will be afraid of the present temporal death, will conceal himself from the sword, will not endure chastisement, since he is constantly thinking about the world.'"
St. Damascene of Glukhov wrote approximately 150 anti-Sergianist epistles before receiving the crown of martyrdom in 1937.
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| St. Damascene of Glukhov |