Bogorodica i Mitarstva (Na Engleskom) Dr. Adnan Trabulsi

7/22/2019 Bogorodica i Mitarstva (Na Engleskom) Dr. Adnan Trabulsi

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THE THEOTOKOS ANDTHE TOLL HOUSES

by Dr. Adnan Trabulsi


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THE THEOTOKOS

AND THE HERESY OF

THE TOLL HOUSESDr. Adnan Trabulsi

T

he Orthodox Church had been the target of so

many different teachings (from within and

from outside) that had tried to penetrate into

her dogmas since the Day of Pentecost. One of

those teachings is about the experience of the soul

right after death. It is called the teaching of the Toll

Houses or the aerial Toll Houses or the custom

houses, because it presumes the presence of toll

houses established by demons in the space through

1

which the soul supposedly has to pass through after

death in order to be tested and judged. One of its

most peculiar and strange aspects of this teaching is

the fear of the Mother of God from those Toll

Houses. Most of the modern defenders of the

teaching of the Toll Houses avoid mentioning the

fear of the Theotokos, or are completely ignorant

about it.

What are the Toll Houses?

The first person who mentioned and taught

about the so-called Toll Houses in a systematic

defined way in the Orthodox Church was St.1

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807-1867), followed bySt. John Maximovich (1896-1966). Their teaching

was published by Father Seraphim Rose (1934-

1982) who was a very strong believer in it. More

recently we find two contemporary major defenders

of the teaching of the Toll Houses myth who circu-

lated that teaching in their books: Metropolitan

Hierotheos Vlachos (from Greece) and the French

theologian Jean-Claude Larchet.2

1. As we will discuss in a different book, we can find several ideas similar tothose of the Toll Houses myth in some Gnostic documents and in somehistorical documents as early as the fourth century. Those few documents thatwere attributed to some of the Church Fathers were proven to bepseudepigraphical or forgery. The hallmark of the tollhousers is using thosepseudepigraphical documents as authentic!

2. We are not, by any means, trying to discredit those great Christiansmentioned here. They, in fact, are very prominent and distinguished in eithertheir ascetics.

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Before we discuss the teaching of the fear of

the Theotokos from those alleged Toll Houses, and

since the defenders of the Toll Houses teachings

(the "tollhousers") accuse their opponents of mis-

representing and misunderstanding them, it would

be appropriate first to present the definition of the

Toll Houses teaching from one of its famous and

prominent teachers, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov.

In his bookThe Soul After Death Fr. Rose

mentions St. Brianchaninov's description and the

purpose of the Toll Houses. According to St.

Brianchaninov, "All who have openly rejected the

Redeemer comprise the inheritance of Satan: their

souls, after the separation from the body, descendstraight to hell." What about the majority of Chris-3

tians who are not bad enough to go to "hell," and

not good enough to go to Heaven?

According to Fr. Seraphim, St. Brianchanin-

ov answers plainly: "But Christians who are in-

clined to sin are also unworthy of being immedi-

ately transferred from earthly life to blessed eter-

nity. Justice itself demands that these inclinations to

sin, these betrayals of the Redeemer should beweighed and evaluated. A judging and distinguish-

ing are required in order to define the degree of a

Christian souls inclination to sin, in order to define

what predominates in it eternal life or eternal

3. Fr. Seraphim Rose: The Soul After Death; St. Herman of AlaskaBrotherhood, CA, 1993; p. 65.

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death."4

According to St. Brianchaninov, then, most

souls upon death need to be evaluated, meaning that

their degree of goodness or wickedness is not yet

known, and need to "be weighed and evaluated." It

is not clear why God, according to the tollhousers,

cannot decide, upon death, the degree of the inclina-

tion of each Christian soul to sin, and why He needs

those demoniac trials. How are those souls "weigh-

ed and evaluated"? St. Brianchaninov, according to

Fr. Seraphim, gives a direct answer:

For the testing of souls as they pass

through the spaces of the air therehave been established by the dark

powers separate judgment places and

guards in a remarkable order. In the

layers of the under-heaven, from

earth to heaven itself, stand guarding

legions of fallen spirits. Each division

is in charge of a special form of sin

and tests the soul in it when the soul

reaches this division. The aerial de-monic guards and judgment places are

called in the patristic writings the toll-

houses, and the spirits who serve in

them are called the tax-collectors."5

4.Ibid., p. 65.

5.Ibid., p. 65-66

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We will discuss most of the teachings of the

Toll Houses in a separate book. In this booklet,

however, the discussion will be focussed on one

important part of this heresy: The fear of the

Mother of God (The Theotokos) from the Toll

Houses.

PROBLEMS WITH THE TOLL HOUSE

TEACHING

The teaching of the Toll Houses includes several

violations of the teachings of the One Holy, Catholic

and Apostolic Church. Among those violations is the

heresy of the fear of the Theotokos, the Mother of God,

of those alleged Toll Houses.St. Ignaty Brianchaninov was the first to mention

this heresy in a published essay Word About Death in

Russian in the 19th century. He claimed that the6

Theotokos, when informed by the Archangel Gabriel

about her imminent death,prayed tearfully to God to

protect her soul from the evil spirits that soar in the

space below heavens. And at her repose, Christ, her

son and God, came down, accompanied by angels

and heavenly spirits, in order to receive her holysoul. She prayed to Him according to St.

Brianchaninov: Receive my spirit in peace and

protect me from darkness, lest I would face any of

6. St. Ignatii Brianchaninov: Word About Death; Azbuka KlassicaPublications; St. Petersburg, 2011 (in Russian)

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the demons7

St. John Maximovich, as a faithful disciple of St.

Ignaty Brianchaninov, repeated this teaching in one of

his sermons, On the departure of the soul. This teaching

was

published by Father Seraphim Rose in his bookThe

Soul After Death. Although two contemporary8

defenders of the Toll Houses heresy, Metropolitan

Hierotheos Vlachos and Jean-Claude Larchet , are9 10

surely aware of this heresy, they do not reject it in their

own books on The Soul After Death and the Toll

Houses. One must take their silence as tacit agreement

with the whole Toll House doctrine.

St. John Maximovich teaches the following:

How terrible these demons and their toll-

houses are may be seen in the fact that

the Mother of God Herself, when

informed by the Archangel Gabriel of

Her approaching death, begged Her Son

to deliver Her soul from these demons

and, answering Her prayer, the Lord

Jesus Christ Himself, appeared from

heaven to receive the soul of His Most

7.Ibid.,p.95.8. Fr. Seraphim Rose: The Soul After Death; St. Herman of AlaskaBrotherhood, CA, 1993; p. 184.

9. Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos: Life After Death; Birth of theTheotokos Monastery, 2005.

10. Jean-Claude Larchet:La vie aprs la mort selon la tradition orthodoxe;Le Cerf, 2001.

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Pure Mother and conduct it to heaven.11

This heresy, according to its teachers, contains

the following elements:

+ The Theotokos was afraid of the

demons of the aerial Toll Houses;+ The Theotokos was afraid of the trials

of those Toll Houses;

+ The Theotokos wept out of great fear;

+ The Theotokos prayed to Christ to

come down and receive her soul so she

would not have to go through those Toll

Houses;

+ The Theotokos soul was indeed

carried by Christ to heaven, bypassingthe Toll Houses;

+ The icon of the Dormition represents

this heresy by showing Christ carrying

His Mothers soul in His hands.12

In order to discuss this heresy, we would like

first to pose a question to the Toll Houses defenders: Do

the saints pass through those alleged Toll Houses?

The best way to answer this question is to let the

defenders of the Toll Houses myth give us the answer.

The answers of those defenders fall into two

groups: 1) The saints escape the Toll Houses and do not

pass through them; 2) The saints indeed pass through

11. Fr Serphim Rose, ibid, p.184.

12. Christ indeed carried His mothers soul, but this was because she is Hismother, the holiest of all human beings who ever lived, not because of anyToll Houses.

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the Toll Houses but very quickly.

Let us examine both groups of answers.

I-The saints do not pass through the Toll Houses.

Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos says:

The demons have no authority over the

men of God. All who are united with

God and have within their soul and heart

the uncreated energy of God are outside

the control of the demons. So the deified

will not go through the so-called customs

houses.

The righteous people, who duringtheir lives have purified their souls and

bodies from passions of the soul and

body and have been clothed in the pledge

of the Spirit and united with God, escape

the power of the customs houses, since

the demons have no power over them.

The souls of the righteous are led, free

and undistracted, toward God, with

whom they are united.13

Metropolitan Hierotheos also says:

Of course the souls of the saints, which

have been united with Christ and bear

13. Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos:Life After Death; Birth of the

Theotokos Monastery, 2005; p. 79.

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the seal of the Holy Spirit, cannot be

controlled by the demons.14

Metropolitan Vlachos quotes a saying by St.

Diadochos of Photike:

The soul of a man who rejoices in the

love of God, at the hour of death, is

lifted with the angels of peace above all

the hosts of darkness.15

Jean-Claude Larchet, in hisLa vie aprs la mort

quotes from a homily attributed to St. Macarius of

Egypt, more correctly, Pseudo-Macarius. This16

homily mentioned that, when the righteous soul onceleaves the body, it is received by the spirits of the saints

of the light and by Christ, the Lord of the peace. (p.90)

St. Macarius, according to Larchet, also says that the

spirits of the holy servants of God are received by the

angles who lead them to the Lord.17

Larchet repeats the saying of St. Diadochos of

Photike quoted by Metropolitan Hierotheos.18

14. Ibid.p.77.

15. ibid. p.23.16. There is a general agreement among scholars and historians that the authorof the homilies attributed to St. Macarius of Egypt has nothing to do with St.Macarius himself. Most probably the author was an ascetic writer from Syria.Larchet was aware of the studies that mentioned this point and published inDictionnaire de Spiritualitx (1977), col. 20-43. However, Larchet, Vlachosand most of the tollhousers insist to use documents that were proven to beforgery as long as they support their teachings.

17. Fr. Seraphim Rose: The Soul After Death; St. Herman of AlaskaBrotherhood, CA, 1993; p. 184.18. Jean-Claude Larchet:La vie aprs la mort selon la traditionorthodoxe; LeCerf, 2001; p.102.

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These answers lead us to conclude that the

defenders of the Toll Houses believe that the souls of

saints cannot be attacked or grasped by the demons.

Hence, they are sheltered from the Toll Houses.

II-The saints indeed pass through the Toll Housesbut very quickly.

Metropolitan Hierotheos quotes St. Andrew of

Crete who teaches that:

It is clear and indisputable that the souls

of all people, even saints, pass through

that obscure place, but they do not dwell

in it. The souls of the saints passthrough Hades without staying 19

Vlachos confirmed this idea on the pages 93 and

94 of his bookLife After Death but he contradicts this

idea on page 77 when he says:

The souls of the righteous are led, free

and undistracted, toward God, with

whom they are united.

On the other hand, Father Rose quotes St.

Brianchaninov, who said:

The great saints of God pass through the

19. Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos: Life After Death; Birth of TheTheotokos Monastery, 2005; p. 93

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aerial guards of the dark powers with

such great freedom because during

earthly l ife they enter into

uncompromising battle with them and,

gaining the victory over them, acquire in

the depths of their heart completefreedom from sin, become the temple

and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, making

their rational dwelling place inaccessible

for the fallen angels.20

We find the same idea inEternal Mysteries

beyond The Grave by Archimandrite Panteleimon:

Even the souls of holy men who havepleased God by their righteous life passthrough the trials to which all souls aresubject upon their death. The saints,however, are covered by Gods graceand pass through these trials with greatspeed and glory. 21

Lastly, Father Seraphim quotes St. Theophan theRecluses commentary on the eightieth verse of Psalm118: Let my heart be blameless in Thy Statutes, that Imay not be put to shame. St. Theophan says:

No matter how absurd the idea of thetoll-houses may seem to our wise men,they will not escape passing through

20. Fr. Seraphim Rose: The Soul After Death; St. Herman of AlaskaBrotherhood, CA, 1993; p. 83

21. Archimandrite Panteleimon: Eternal Mysteries Beyond The Grave; HolyTrinity Monastery, N.Y., 1996; p. 113.

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them. What do these toll-housesgatherers seek in those who passthrough? They seek. passions.Therefore, in the person whose heart ispure and a stranger to passions, theycannot find anything to wrangle over; onthe contrary, the opposing quality willstrike them like arrows of lightning.22

We may conclude then that saints will not passthrough the Toll Houses at all, or they will pass throughthem very quickly. We may also conclude that thereason for this resides in the grace that protects thesaints or because of the lack of passions in them.

Here we reach the important and crucial questionof our discussion.

22. . Fr. Seraphim Rose: The Soul After Death; St. Herman of AlaskaBrotherhood, CA, 1993; p. 8670.

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Did The Theotokos Pass Through the Toll Houses,

And Did She Fear Those Houses?

This question carries, within itself, the seed of

heresy, and discloses ignorance of the important dignity

and role of the Mother of God. However, since the

defenders of the heresy of the Toll Houses teach that

The Theotokos feared the Toll Houses, then it became

necessary to address this matter.

As we mentioned earlier, St. Brianchaninov was

the first one who mentioned this teaching (Collected

Works, vol. 3, Tuzov ed., St. Petersburg, 1883, in

Russian), foll-owed by St. Maximovich (Life after

Death, in The Orthodox Word, 1971, No. 4), and Fr.

Seraphim Rose published Maximovichs teachings in

His The Soul After Death pp. 18-95. Metropolitan

Hierotheos Vlachos and Jean- Claude Larchet were23

23. Larchet mentioned Maximovichs sermon onLife after death in his bookLa vie aprs la mort, p. 122, footnote #89.

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aware of this teaching and did not criticize it or reject it,

or even mention it, thereby indicating their acceptance.

Fr. Rose mentioned an anonymous critique of

Maximovichs sermonLife after Death. That critique

contained several points, one of which is the fear of The

Theotokos. The critique, according to Father Rose,says:

This tale also included a patently

blasphemous description of the repose of

the Most Holy Theotokos. 24

Of course, we would expect Father Rose to

dispute this critique and defend the teaching of the fear

of The Theotokos. However, he took an unexpectedturn by saying:

Archbishop Johns name is not

mentioned here, although from the

description it is precisely clear what

sermon the critic is referring to; but such

language shows as intolerable disrespect

no matter which Orthodox authority he

might be attacking! This is the end of25

Fr. Roses response to the critic in thismatter.

Father Rose was obviously offended by the way


25.Ibid.p. 258.

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the critic mentioned and criticized this teaching.

Specifically, Father Rose resented what seemed to him

disrespect to Archbishop John Maximovich, but he did

not see any disrespect to The Theotokos herself or to

Christ Himself by entertaining such blasphemy against

her. In Fr. Roses opinion, a bishop, like JohnMaximovich, should not have been criticized, even if he

had erred gravely!

Moreover, when he mentioned The Theotokos

fear of the Toll Houses, he said in a footnote in his

book that

This is visually depicted in the traditional Orthodox icon

of the Dormition. Obviously, the defenders of the Toll26

Houses distorted not only Theological teachings of the

Orthodox Church, but her iconography as well.

The teaching of the fear of The Theotokos from

the Toll Houses is a very serious deviation from the

Orthodox faith. It contains grave errors that are

diametrically opposed to the teachings and belief of the

Orthodox Church.

As we found above, the advocates of the Toll

Houses believe that the saints do not pass through the

Toll Houses or pass through them very quickly without

difficulty. So the question here is:

How could the tollhousers teach that TheTheotokos is in fear of the Toll Houses, while they also

teach that the saints do not fear them at all? Are the

saints more holy than the Virgin, or more glorious or

more confident of their victory over Satan and his

26. Fr. Seraphim Rose: The Soul After Death; St. Herman of AlaskaBrotherhood, CA, 1993; footnote on page 184.

15

demons? Are the saints more full of Grace than The

Theotokos?

Second, the tollhousers teach that the Toll

Houses are integral aspects of the so-called Particular27

Judgment. Fr. Rose says:

In Orthodox dogmatic theology the

passage through the aerial tollhouses is a

part of the particular judgment by mean

of which the fate of the soul is

determined until the last judgment. 28

According to this heresy then, the Toll Houses

were established by demons to detain the departing soul

by trial during its ascent after death so its proper place

can be determined, based on the outcome of those trials.

This means that before entering the Toll Houses, the

fate of the departing soul is not known yet. Because the

soul is not perfected, and not spotless, and not sinless,

it needs to be put into trials to determine how many

unrepented sins it has before death. Since the saints are

perfect or almost perfect , according to the tollhousers,29

then the saints will not pass through those alleged Toll

27. Although the Orthodox Church speaks of a partial judgment, not aparticular judgment.


29. It is not easy to understand the notion of saints by the tollhousers.However, it is not consistent with the Orthodox teaching at all. The tollhousersused a Gnostic document written by Gregory of Thrace to support theirteaching; they canonized Basil the New and Theodora based on this Gnosticdocument; they think that St. Maximovich cannot err, according to FatherRose, and is beyond any criticism, while they teach heretical teachings aboutthe Theotokos. Contradiction is the hallmark of the teachings of the tollhousers.

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Houses, or will pass them very quickly since they have

no unrepented sins re-maining before their death.

The critical question here is: Why did The

Theotokos fear the Toll Houses? If she feared them then

she was not spotless, sinless, or blameless. She had

something to fear about, perhaps a sin she didnt wantto be disclosed during those alleged demoniac trials.

What a blasphemy! What a shame! The spotless, the

sinless, the Most Holy One, she, whom the archangel

greeted her as being Full of Grace, the Mother of

God had some unrepented sin or sins that caused her to

fear those Toll Houses!

If the Toll Houses determine the fate of The

Soul After Death, then The Theotokos fear of them

means that her souls destiny was not really determined

after her repose. She merely evaded the trial not by a

fullness of grace or holiness but by a special privilege.

Also, The Theotokos fear of the Toll Houses

means that she had to go through them, which means, in

turn, she had to go through a particular judgment,

because the Toll Houses are this judgment. Then,

according to the tollhousers, The Theotokos was really

under judgment when she died, and that contradicts the

teaching of the Holy Church about her.

Knowingly or unknowingly, the tollhousers denythe teachings of the Holy Church and the fullness of her

belief in Mary (Mariology), which is based on the

Churchs teaching about Christ (Christology). If Mary

feared the Toll Houses, then Mary was not sinless and

Christ didnt come from a sinless woman who could not

have been the New Eve. Jesus Christ, therefore, cannot

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be the God incarnate, or Son of God. If Mary was not

sinless, then she could not be the Holy of Holies, the

Ark, the Temple of God, the Queen of Heaven, more

honorable than the Cherubim. All these titles that the

Church uses would be meaningless and a pack of lies!

It would be impossible to summarize theChurchs teachings on The Theotokos in just a few

sentences. However, we can mention what is proper to

our discussion here, and then we can appreciate how

much this heresy that accuses The Theotokos of fear

deviates far from the teachings of the One, Holy,

Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Christ Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He is

our Saviour and our salvation. Everything in the Holy

Bible, the Holy Tradition, and liturgy and life of the

Church, the art and history of the Church, is centred

upon Christ, the Rock. All the teachings of the Church

about Mary (Mariology) are inseparable from the

teachings of the Church on Christ (Christology ). Any

error in our teachings on Mary reflects an error in our

teachings on Christ.

When the fullness of the time had come,

God sent forth His Son, born of a wom-

an, born under the law, to redeem thosewho were under the law (Galatians

4:4-5). So, Christ, the Son of God, The

Word, became flesh and dwelt among us

(John 1: 14).

Christ did not come randomly, accidentally, or

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by chance. He came to carry out the mystery of the

divine dispensation that was foreseen by God from

eternity. For this reason, before the world, the Virgin

was chosen from among the ancient generations by the

good will of God the Father before the ages 30

God foresaw Mary before all ages and providedfor her birth by a series of pious generations that

preceded her and culminated in Joachim and Anna, her

parents. Many prefigures in the Old Testament pointed

to Mary: the tent of Abrahams hospitality, the parting

of the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy of

Holies, the Temple, the Burning Bush, the golden

censer, and the golden urn of manna, the ladder of

Jacob, etc.

Mary was conceived in a miraculous way, lived

a life that surpassed human nature. She was dedicated

wholly to God in soul and body. Her will was subject to

the divine will completely. She was Full of Grace, the

maiden worthy of God, the beauty of human nature, as

St. John of Damascus says:31

When Gabriel disclosed to Mary

how the divine dispensation would be

carried out, she consented and showed

full obedience. By the disobedience ofthe first Eve humanity fell; by the

obedience of the Second Eve humanity is

saved. She was a coworker with God to

save us. She was not an impersonal tool

30. St. John of Damascus, First Encomium on the Dormition, Ch. 3.

31. Homily on the Birth of The Theotokos, chapter 7.

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or vessel, or a passive servant that would

be used by God. She was Full of Grace.

Her unconditional acceptance of Gods

plan made her the Mother of God, the

Mother of Life, the Mother of the

Church. Her womb became morespacious than the heavens, and the

heaven of heavens. In her womb came

and dwelt He Who is uncontainable..

O forever virginal Por-tal of God, O

hands that carried God and knees that

became a throne higher than the

Seraphim.32

The Holy Spirit descended upon

her, filled her and carried out a

seedless conception by which the

Son of God became the Son of

Man. The humanity of Jesus Christ

was made and born from the

Virgin free of evil, sin, and death.

She became the Queen where the

King resides, and the Ark and Holy

of Holies where God rests, and the

Paradise where all blessings are tobe found. She alone stands at the border between

created and uncreated nature according to St. Gregory

Palamas.33

32. St. John of Damascus, Homily on the Birth of The Theotokos, chapter 9

33.Mary The Mother of God: Sermons by St. Gregory Palamas, Edited byChristopher Veniamin; Mount Thabor Publishing, USA, 2005; Homily on theDormition; p. 77.

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She is created, yet she surpassed all human limits

and became God-like. She became beyond compare

more glorious than the Seraphim, because she has34

more grace, more glory than the angels and archangels,

and all creatures.

The hypostatic Life, who was incarnate in her,preserved the virginity of her soul and of her body.

Death could not hold her except for a short time;

corruptibility could not reach her; the Devil could not

approach her. As the Queen of Life and Light, as the

Paradise, as the Holy of Holies, she became the source

of all blessings. Her body is life-giving and the True

Ark that leads people from earth to heaven; her tomb

became a ladder to heaven. The Tradition of the Church

kept for us the story how God guarded her body during

her funeral procession. The Church saw in this35

incident a sign of The Theotokos dignity as the Queen

that was unreachable by any adversary power, visible or

invisible.

The Theotokos is the Mediatress through whom

the incarnation took place, and from her body the body

of Christ was taken, and through her mediation, He

saved and vivified the human race, as St. Modestus of

Jerusalem says:36

The Theotokos is the Mother of theChurch, the Mother of all believers. As

she told the servants at the Wedding in

Cana: Whatever He says to you, do it

(John 2: 5) she instructs us to do the

34. Theotokion of the Divine Liturgy of St. Chrysostom.

35. First Kathisma, Matins of the Dormition, Forefeast.

36.Encomium on the Dormition, PG, 68-2, 3288.

21

same and helps us by her grace to do so.

She intercedes for us to Christ her Son,

and her intercession is incomparably

greater than that of the saints and angels.

She is the only Queen Mother, the

rational Paradise.

And Germanus of Constantinople says:

No one is filled with the knowledge of

God except through you, All-Holy One.

No one is saved but through you, O The

Theotokos. No one is delivered from

danger but through you, O Virgin Moth-

er. No one is redeemed but through you,

O Mother of God. No one receives the

gift of mercy but through you who

contains God.37

It is clear that the accusation against The

Theotokos regarding fear of the alleged Toll Houses is

not a minor issue. It is as serious as the denial of her

other titles such as: All Holy, Immaculate, Most bless-

ed, Mother of God, Ever-virgin, and More honourable

than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond comparethan the Seraphim. Our belief in The Theotokos cannot

be selective. Each one of her titles expresses certain

theological teachings the Church has held since the day

of Pentecost. We cannot hold a certain teaching about

The Theotokos that contradicts the Churchs other

37. Second Homily on the Dormition, PG 98, 349B, C.

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teachings about her.

It is obvious that the notion that The Theotokos

had fear contradicts the teachings of the Church and

discredits the role Mary played in the history of

salvation. Let us consider this heresy in the light of the

liturgical tradition of the Church, then in the light of theteachings of the Church Fathers who wrote on the

Dormition.

23

How Do the Teachings of the Church, as Expressed

in Her Liturgy, Prove That Fear by The Theotokos

Is

Incorrect, False and Heretical?

We pray what we believe and we believe what

we pray. The Holy Church expressed her faith towards

The Theotokos in her liturgical prayers. The titles givento the Virgin are not just titles honouring her; they

contain what the Virgin means to the believers, and the

roles she played in the history of salvation. Those titles

summarize the Churchs faith in The Theotokos. It

would be very difficult to list all the titles of The

Theotokos here, but a brief list will give the readers a

good idea about the roles of Mary.

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The Mother of God; the Queen; the Holy of

Holies; the Ark; the Temple; the Paradise; the Most

Holy; the All-Holy; Immaculate; Most Blessed; Full of

Grace; the Ever-Virgin; The Lady; the Virgin Bride of

God; The only Kings pure Dwelling Place and Palace;

Fiery Throne of the only Omnipotent; Unfailing Well--Spring of the living Water; Blameless Calf for the

faithful; Dwelling of Light; Urn of Manna from on

high; the Ladder; Depth Unknown; Virgin Maid;

Unburning Bush; Chariot of noetic Sun; the Mediatress;

the Mother of the Church; the Church; More

Honourable than the Cherubim and More Glorious

beyond compare than the Seraphim.

In the light of all these titles given to The

Theotokos, the heresy of the fear of The Theotokos

from alleged Toll Houses would be blasphemous,

because this heresy teaches exactly the opposite of what

the Church believes and teaches and prays. Let us take

more specific examples from the Churchs liturgical

Tradition.

+ The Theotokos, being the living

tabernacle of God, shall never be

touched by an unclean hand... (Matins of

the Annunciation)

How could The Theotokos be approached and

examined by the demons of those Toll Houses, if she is

the living Tabernacle that cannot be touched by any

unclean creature?

+ Christs book endowed with life and

25

clearly sealed with the Spirits grace.

(Akathist)

+If Mary was sealed with the grace of the

Holy Spirit, how, then can she be open to

examination by those unclean spirits?

+ Thou art the death-knell of Hades, and

the only Kings pure dwelling place and

palace; rejoice, fiery throne of the only

Omnipotent. (Akathist)

Mary is the pure dwelling place and palace of the

heavenly King. She is, then, the death-knell of Hades,

since the King has conquered Hades, sin and death by

His death and resurrection. How can the demons, the

princes of Hades, stand approaching the cause of theirdefeat and loss?

+Rejoice, radiant dayspring that hast

dawned, for thou didst dispel the gloom

of night, and wholly annihilate the dark-

some ranks of the demons hosts.

(Akathist)

The Mother of Light has dispelled the darknessand its powers. The All-Holy has annihilated the

darksome ranks of the demons and their hosts. Demons

lost all their power and dominion by the divine

Incarnation. Incarnation is the cause of creation, and it

is far greater than creation. Without the Virgin there is

no mystery of divine Incarnation, and there is no

creation.

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+Rejoice, for thou art alone the gateway

and portal which God the Word travers-

ed. O Lady, thou didst crush the bars

and gates of Hades by thy childbirth...

(Akathist)

Again, the Virgin was the Portal through which

God incarnate came to the world to save us. She is the

cause of the defeat of Satan and all his angels, and the

death of death, and the crush of Hades, because she

brought forth the Son of God who descended to Hades

and crushed its bars and gates, to release all the

prisoners there. How could Mary be subject to the

princes of Hades and their assumed trials? How could

demons tolerate approaching the cause of their loss?

+Rejoice, O most spotless Maid The

death of Hades, and bridal chamber of

light

+Rejoice, thou through whom Hades

was laid bare. (Akathist)

+We profess thee, O Lady, as the true

Mother of God thou hast freed men

from Hades bonds...(Great Canon toThe Theotokos)

The Most-Holy was the Mother of Life to the

children of life, and the Mother of death to the children

of death. Through her Hades was deadened; through her

the demons of Hades were embittered; through her the

grace of Light and life was poured upon us; and through

27

her judgment of the wicked was achieved. How can

Hades or its demons approach her? How can the most

wicked ones approach the most spotless One?

+ Rejoice, fiery chariot of God the

Word, O thou Queen of all; for in theethe Tree of Life was planted, even the

Lord God, O living paradise (Akathist)

Mary was the Living paradise, because where

the Lord walks, there Paradise is (Gen.3:8). If Satan

and his demons were expelled from Paradise, once and

for all, then how could Satan or his demons approach

the living Paradise, the True Paradise? How could the

most cold and wicked creatures approach the Fiery

Chariot of God the Word ? How could the prince of

dark approach the Queen of all?

+The dead are, through thee, O Virgin,

quickened the multitude of aerial

spirits suffereth defeat, O salvation of all

mortals. (Akathist)

Thus Church has been expressing her faith in the

Virgin since the day of Pentecost. The Church never

failed to ascertain to her children that The Theotokosdefeated the aerial spirits, the demons. This is the clear

teaching of the Holy Fathers; this is the solid dogma of

the Holy Church. This is why every Christian prays to

The Theotokos to be a fervent protector and help, and

to defend me from the assaults of adversariesand in

the hour of my departure, to care for my wretched soul,

and drive far from it the dark countenances of evil

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demons (The service of the Compline)

Who should fear whom? Who should be the

source of terror to whom? After the complete defeat of

demons by the Virgin, the tollhousers still believe that

she was in fear of them at her departure? What a shame!

TheAkathistinforms us:

+Rejoice, Wounding of demons bewail-

ed by them;

+Rejoice, Downfall of demons

The Virgin was the wound inflicted on all

demons and evil powers that never heals. She was a

wound to them when she lived a life that surpassed all

limits known to creatures; she was a wound to them

when she subjected her human will to the divine Will to

accomplish the mystery of Incarnation; she was a wound

to them when she bore the divine Child in her ever-virg-

in womb for nine months; she was a wound to them

when she gave birth to Emmanuel, the Saviour of the

world, in a miraculous way that was hidden to the

Prince of this World; she was a wound to them when

she interceded to her Son to fill what was missing at the

Cana of Galilee, that is, the grace that was missing in

the life of the people; she was a wound to them whenshe kept all these things in her heart. (Luke 2:51) She

was a wound to them when Christ, from the Cross,

spoke to her as The Mother of all believers. (John

19:26-27) She was a wound to them when Christ

Himself escorted her most pure soul to her heavenly

residence; she was a wound to them when death and

decay could not grasp her, but had to release her most

29

blessed body after her repose. Further in the Akathist

we hear:

+Rejoice, Bulwark against invisible

foes.

+Rejoice, thou who dist cast down frompower the inhuman tyrant.

This is how the Church prays to The Theotokos.

This is what every Christian asks of the Mother of God:

Unto Thee do I commit mine every hope, O Mother of

God; guard me under thy shelter. (The service of the

Compline) How could any Christian think, even for a

second, that The Theotokos would fear the demons?

+I who stand in the presence of God am

sent to declare unto thee the divine will,

O all-spotless Virgin. Why dost thou fear

thou me, who rather am afraid of thee?

Why, O Lady, art thou in awe of me,

who am in holy awe of thee? (Matins of

the Annunciation)

The grace of The Theotokos at the Annunciation

was incomparably more glorious than all the grace of allthe angels and archangels, and of all other creatures.

The archangel Gabriel himself felt awe and fear before

the majesty of The Theotokos, addressing her as the

heavenly Queen, the True Ark, the True Holy of

Holies. If the great Archangel full of divine grace stood

in fear and awe before The Theotokos and the Mother

of his Lord and God, how could Satan, who is

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completely void of grace, tolerate approaching the

Virgin who isFull of Grace ?

+I stand before thee in fear as a servant

before his Lady; and in dread, I fear to

look upon thee now, O Maiden. TheWord of the Father shall descend upon

thee like rain upon a fleece, even as it

hath seemed good to Him. (Matins of the

Annunciation)

The Church records Gabriels words to the

Mistress and Lady of all on the Annunciation, showing

how the mystery of divine dispensation was so great, so

marvellous, far beyond the understanding of all

creatures, angelic and human. For this reason, Mary,

the faithful servant of this mystery, without whom this

mystery could not have happened, surpasses all

comprehension. As Christ Him-self, before His death

and resurrection, hid the radiance and illumination of

His divine nature, except in the moments of His

Transfiguration, thus the Mother of God, while on

earth, hid the radiant grace that filled her, the divine

illumination that dwells in her. She was the Holy of

Holies, the Kings Dwelling and Palace, the East Gatewhere no creature can pass. However, the Great Gabriel

felt overwhelming grace that was radiating from the

Mother of God; he felt it in a way that made him trem-

ble in awe and fear, for he was ministering to her as

much as he was ministering to God Himself. For the

mystery of our salvation requires two parts, divine and

human, God and man.

31

If we profess all these aspects of The Theotokos,

it is all the more heretical and all the more madness to

suppose that she would fear the demons or imaginary

aerial Toll Houses.

How Does this Heresy Violate the Teaching of the

Fathers Who Wrote about the Dormition?

The Fathers of the Church could not contemplate

Christ without seeing the Mother of God, nor

contemplate The Theotokos apart from her Son Jesus.

Their teachings about Christ showed their faith in the

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person of the Virgin and the role she played in our

salvation. And their teachings about Mary reveal the

width, and the depth, and the height of the mystery of

our salvation. She is wherever her Son is. And, ever

sensitive to our needs and burdens (They have no wine!)

she prays perpetually to her Son on our behalf. And shealways instructs us, his servants, to be attentive to His

words and to keep His commandments: Whatever He

says to you, do it. (John 2:5)

Let us now present some of the most prominent

Fathers who wrote on the Dormition of The Theotokos.

With their help we can see how much the teaching of

her alleged fear of the toll houses deviates from the

experience and teaching of those holy Fathers.

ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS

Today the Eden of the new Adam

welcomes the spiritual Paradise where

our condemnation has been cancelled,

where the true life is planted, where our

nakedness is clothed againFor in this

Paradise the serpent has no means of

entry, that serpent whose false promise

of divinization led us to a covetousnessthat made us the equal only to irrational

beasts. (St. John of Damascus, Homily

II on the Dormition)38

38. On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies; Translation andIntroduction by Brian E. Daley, S.J. SVSP, New York, 1998; p. 205.

33

The Mother of God is the spiritual Paradise.

Satan was expelled from the old Paradise, and he has no

entry to this Paradise, to The Theotokos. He could not

and cannot approach her. How can Satan approach the

Mother of life, the Mother of Light, the Spiritual

Paradise? Jesus bruised the head of the serpent, the headof the devil (Genesis 3: 15). How could he, then,

approach the Mother of the One who crushed his head?

Shall not Paradise receive her? Shall not

heaven open its gates wide with joy?

Surely it will! Eve once lent her ear to

the message of the serpent, and allowed

herself to hear the Enemys advice But

Mary, the truly all-blessed one, lent her

ear to the Word of God, and was filled

with the energy of the Spirit. She bore

the Fathers good pleasure in her womb,

at the angels word, and without sensual

passion or contact conceived the very

person of God the Word, who fills all

things. She brought him into the world

without suffering the pains that adhere to

our nature, for she was wholly united

with God. How shall death consume her?How shall the realm of death receive

her? How shall corruption dare to

assault that body once filled with life?

These things do not belong to her; they

are all foreign to both the soul and the

body of the one who bore God. (St. John

of Damascus, Homily II on the Dormi-

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tion)39

If corruption dares not to assault her body, how

could we imagine that it might assault her soul after her

Dormition? If death dares not to receive her, because

she was all-blessed, filled with the energy of the Spirit,she bore the Fathers good pleasure, and because she

was wholly united with God, how could Satan, the

prince of death, approach her soul or body after her

Dormition? How could she fear imaginary demoniac

Toll Houses, while she was filled with the energy of the

Spirit? Demons cannot approach the grace of God. They

would be burnt as if by a fire. How can we, then,

assume that demons will approach her soul, and will put

her into trial? What a shameful idea! What a heresy!

I mean that the king must have come to

the one who gave him birth, to receive

her soul into his pure and holy hands,

her soul so upright and spotless. (St.

John of Damascus, Homily II on the

Dormition)40

Christ, the Heavenly King, did indeed come to

receive the soul of His Most pure Mother, not becauseof any fear in her of demons or toll houses, God forbid,

but because it was His good pleasure (eudokia) to come

down to escort the most pure soul of His mother, the

Queen of Heaven. To scatter the demons of the air is

39. Ibid., p. 207.

40. On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies; Translation andIntroduction by Brian E. Daley, S.J. SVSP, New York, 1998; p. 214.

35

but a minor power of the Queen of Heaven.

If St. John here says that the soul of the Mother

of God was spotless, how could the tollhousers posit

any trial that this spotless soul would undergo in her

ascent to Heaven? And by whom would this trial be

conducted? By demons? That the most pure, spotless,blameless soul would need to be tried by the most

wicked, most evil demons is irrational.

And what happened next? I imagine that

the elements of nature were stirred up

and altered, that there were sounds,

crashes, rumblings, as well as

remarkable hymns from angels who flew

before her, providing her with an escort

and with companions on the way. Some

of them would have acted as a guard of

honour for her spotless, holy soul, and

would have ascended with it on its way

to heaven, until they had brought the

Queen to her royal throne (cf. Ps 44:10

[LXX]); others would have surrounded

her holy, sacred body, singing the songs

that only angels can sing in honour of the

Mother of God The sickness wouldhave melted away; the cohorts of demons

would have fled, rushing every

which-way to their dens beneath the

earth. The air, fiery ether, the sky would

have been made holy by the ascent of her

spirit, as earth was sanctified by the

deposition of her body (St. John of

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Damascus. Homily II on the Dormi-

tion)41

What a marvellous scene St. John describes here.

The earth is sanctified by the holy body of The

Theotokos; the air is sanctified by the most pure soul ofThe Theotokos; the angels guard her body and escort

her soul; the demons flee away in fear of being burned

by the radiant grace of the Mother of Grace. After all

this, how can we allow ourselves to think that The

Theotokos would appear in front of the demons to be

judged by them? This heresy is not lesser than the

heresy of denying her ever-virginity.

Let the demons flee, says St. John of

Damascus. (Homily III on the Dormition)42

Thus, St. John of Damascus understood both the

dignity of The Theotokos and the lowliness of the

demons. The demons must flee when the Queen of

Heaven goes forth towards her heavenly home. The

demons were once defeated by Her Son; they would not

even venture to approach His Mother for any reason.

The Theotokos was a mystery unapproachable not only

by humans only but also by angels and archangels. The

Archangel Gabriel himself addresses the Virgin in this

way:

Rejoice, Height hard to climb for human

thought. Rejoice, Depth hard to explore,

even for the eyes of Angels. (Akathist)

41. Ibid., p.214-5.

42.Ibid., p. 234.

37

Come down, come down, O Lord, and

pay your mother the debt you owe her,

the return she deserves for having

nourished you. Open your divine arms;

receive your mothers soul, you who onthe cross entrusted your own spirit into

your Fathers hands Place your soul in

the hands of your own Son! (St. John of

Damascus, Homily III on the

Dormition)43

The Virgin Mary deserved to be the Mother of

the Lord, because she was the best woman in human

history to deserve this. God did not force her against

her will to be the mother of his Son. In the Fullness of

time, humanity offered to God the best human being that

could ever have existed. Because of her extreme piety

and holiness, because of her absolute dedication, God

found her to be the best virgin that deserved to be His

Sons Mother. Upon her Dormition, there was a debt

that needed to be recompensed by her Son. It was the

debt due to the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God,

the Mother of Life and Light. For all these reasons,

Christ Himself descended and received the soul of Hismost pure Mother.

Let the earth rejoice (Ps 96:11), as her

body is laid to rest; let the air leap as

her spirit ascends! (St. John of

43.Ibid., p. 236.

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Damascus, Homily III on the

Dormition)44

As the unborn John the Baptist leaped in his

mothers womb for joy (Luke 1:44) upon hearing the

voice of the Mother of God, the air leaped for joy uponreceiving the pure soul of the Mother of God who

sanctified the earth and the air.

After all these divine teachings of St. John of

Damascus, can we rationally attribute to him the

teaching of the Toll Houses? How can that inspired

mouth, illumined mind, and loving heart teach such a

blasphemy as The Theotokos fear of the demons of toll

houses? Where in the teachings of this great saint can

we find such heresy? But the tollhousers do not hesitate

to falsify facts and falsely claim that St. John of

Damascus teaches this heresy. Father Seraphim Rose,

for example, claims that the Octoechos, the liturgical45

book written by St. John of Damascus contains

references to the Toll Houses. It is a shame to mislead46

readers; St. John of Damascus wrote only a small part

of the Octoechos, and the rest was written between 100

and 200 years later. Besides, all the assumed references

to the Toll Houses in the Octoechos do not mean what

the tollhousers want them to mean. It is impossible toimagine that St. John of Damascus believed in the Toll

Houses since he never wrote anything about them. The

44.Ibid., p. 237.

45. Not to be confused with the Paraklitiki, which have no doctrinal value,being written by unknown person in unknown times.


39

Churchs greatest book of dogmatic theology,A Concise

Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, was written by John

of Damascus. A close examination of this great book

reveals not even a hint of the existence of Toll Houses.

ST. ANDREW OF CRETE

That countless company of

inspired human witnesses

is gathered together, as we

have already said, and all

the spiritual orders of

heavenly powers, perhaps,

are hovering invisibly

above, gathered for this wonderful spectacle.

The holy souls of the saints are there, too, I

think, drawn together by God around her bed

It is fitting, after all, that the souls of those

who have finished their lives and are now made

like God should gather near the queen of our

nature, to go before her on her way: to lead

her and be her escort, and to begin the final

hymns in her honour. (St. Andrew of Crete,

Homily III on the Dormition)47

This was the proper due to the Mother of God, that

the saints, the angels, and the archangels should escort the

pure soul of the Queen of Heaven. How can the tollhousers

imagine that demons, dark powers, and evil principalities

47. On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies; Translation andIntroduction by Brian E. Daley, S.J. SVSP, New York, 1998; p. 137-8.

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can approach the Queen and dare to put her on trial? Truly,

this is a satanic teaching!

As we mentioned earlier, the Church, in her

prayers, expressed her faith in The Theotokos, based on

her faith in Christ Himself. The Church services are full oftitles given to The Theotokos to express her role in the

history of salvation. The Fathers of the Church talk about

that role and those titles. St. Andrew of Crete, for

example, says about the Mother of God:

You are the great achievement of Gods

awe-inspiring plan You are the lovely

dwelling-place (Ps 83:1 [LXXI]) where God

has consented to be with us, the truly

desirable land.You are the eternal

treasure,


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that it had held from the beginning of history. Along with

Hades, sin and death and the demons lost their dominion as

well. Yet, after so great a victory achieved for us by

Christ, the tollhousers wish to go back to when Hades and

demons had power over humans. What a shame!

ST. GERMANUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

When we look at another saint in

the Orthodox Church who wrote

on the Dormition of the Mother of

God, we find again that the

Orthodox Church never taught or

held any of the heretical teachings

of the fear of The Theotokos

.

When you moved on from the earthly

realm, it is clear that you entered the

heavens; yet even before that, you had a

share of heavenly things, nor did you leave

our earth completely when you departed

from us. (St. Germanus of Constantinople,

Homily I on the Dormition)49

The Virgin Mary received Christ, God incarnate, in

her womb, for our salvation. She became the Holy of

Holies, the Ark and the true Temple of God. All these

happened while she was on earth, before her Dormition.

She was the heaven and the Queen of heaven before her

49.Ibid.p. 154.

43

death. Upon her Dormition she received what was already

due, what she was already worthy of. How could demons

tolerate approaching her soul upon her departure, and how

could demons even be able to put the Queen to trials?

Demons were expelled from heaven, and Satan fell fromheaven like lightening (Luke 10: 18). How could Satan

approach heaven again? How could Satan approach the true

heaven, The Theotokos who is made higher than heavens

and broader than the heaven of heavens according to St.

Germanus?

You are higher than heaven (Job 11:8),

and wider than the heaven of heavens

even that seventh heaven (St. Germanus

of Constantinople, Homily I on the Dormi-

tion)50

Do the tollhousers not know that The Theotokos is

made higher than the heaven of heavens, and the Holy of

Holies? Do they not know that this was always the faith of

the Holy Church from the days of Christ till our days?

When the Virgin Mary was told by Gabriel about

her approaching death,

When she heard this message, the Mother

of God rejoiced greatly taking but little

account of this passing human life; lighting

great lamps throughout her house, she

invited her relatives and neighbours, swept

50.Ibid.p. 163

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her room and decked her bed with flowers,

as if it were all a virgins bridal chamber,

that bed which until then she had flooded

every night with prayerful tears, in her

longing for Christ her Son. (St. Germanusof Constantinople, Homily I on the Dormit-

ion)51

Indeed the Mother of Christ wept, but not because

of any presumed fear of Toll Houses, for she offered

prayerful tears nightly in her longing for Christ her Son.

She never feared death; she cannot fear death because the

opposite is true. Death indeed fears the Mother of Life, the

Mother of Jesus who defeated death and sin and demons on

the Cross, once and for all. The heresy of the Toll Houses

turns all things upside down. It has the Mother of God

fearing death, while death, for her, was a feast, a feast of

crowning the Queen of Heaven when she enters Heaven,

her proper dwelling place. This is why the saints express

the joy of Mary when she was told about her departure. St.

Germanus says:

But she said to them [to the apostles]:

Greetings, spiritual sons of my Son!Remember His words, how he ordered us at

the time of his Passion not to turn the

worlds joy into mourning (John 16:20);

today, as I take my departure to Him, do

not turn delight into sadness. (St. Germanus

51. Ibid.p. 163

45

of Constantinople, Homily II on the Dormi-

tion)52

The Church chants on this holy feast:

Come let us rejoice in Zion, the divine and

fertile hill of the living God, beholding The

Theotokos; for Christ hath translated her to

the most worthy and divine abode, in the

Holy of Holies; for she is his Mother.

(Menaion of the Feast of Dormition)

The living Paradise enters her Paradise, and the

living Heaven enters her heaven:

Come, then, with joy! Open up Paradise,

which your ancestor Eve, your natural

sister, has locked. (St. Germanus of

Constantinople, Homily II on the Dormi-

tion)53

Mary, the New Eve, opened Paradise, which was

closed by Eve, our first mother. If The Theotokos opened

Paradise for us, how could she fear the demons who wereexpelled from Paradise forever?

ST. MODESTUS OF JERUSALEM

52.Ibid.p. 174

53.Ibid.p. 174

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And when Christ our God,

co-eternal with his Father and the

Spirit, chose by decree to take her

to himself, to share in his glory -

his most blessed mother, who is,after him, the greatest of all beings,

all the angels and archangels rushed

through the air to gather in a joyful

visit to this world, sent from heav-

en by God to be the celebrants of

her holy falling-asleep. (St. Modes-

tus of Jerusalem,An Encomium on the Dormition)54

Who else can welcome the pure soul of the Mother

of God, except the angels of light, the angels of divine

grace? Who else can escort that soul to her heavenly throne

except the heavenly servants of God? Where are the

demons now, where are the angels of darkness, of evil?

Can they even approach her body or her soul? Will they be

able to do that? Can the darkness bear to come closer to the

light? Can the evil bear the grace of God? Would God have

allowed it? If God did not allow a certain Jew to defile the

body of His Mother, during her funeral, how would He

allow the demons to assault her soul, or put it on trial?What madness it is to think so and to teach so!

The One who gave the law on Sinai, and

who administered it from Sion, our God

summoned his ark of sanctification to be

54. p. 84-85

47

brought home from Sion to himself She is

not carried like Moses ark of old, drawn

by oxen, but she is escorted and surrounded

by an army, heavens holy angels. (St.

Modestus of Jerusalem,An Encomium onthe Dormition)55

Again, all the Fathers of the Church believe that the

angels and archangels escorted the soul of The Theotokos

upon her Dormition. Because thus it was fit for the Mother

of God to be escorted; thus it was fit for the Queen of earth

and heaven to be treated.

For she was foreseen and revealed in

prophecy by the activity of the life-giving

Holy Spirit the gate to which no falsehood

draws near there the one truly life-giving

way leads us on, and our Lord and God lifts

us, by that way, to his Father They

gathered at that gate, and like archangels

greeted the celebrated Mother of God; and

just as they were ready to send on to the

Lord that [angelic] escort whom they

dispatched with her to the heavens, theyannounced the good news to her (St.

Modestus of Jerusalem, An Encomium on

the Dormition)56

55.Ibid.p. 84-85

56.Ibid.p. 84-85

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The gate mentioned by Ezekiel (44:1-3) is a

prefiguring of The Theotokos. This portal shall be shut; it

shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the

Lord God of Israel shall enter by it; and it shall be shut.

The Church proclaims her faith in the ever-virginity of TheTheotokos by pointing out that that gate was a prefiguring

of the Mother of God:

The portal of God through which the Creator,

having become flesh, passed through, preserving her

sealed. (Theotokion Typicon (Third Tone of the Divine

Liturgy)

St. Modestus concludes here something more: if

that gate shall be shut forever, then it cannot be accessible

to any creature, how much more to any falsehood [or evil]?

How can, then, the demons, who cannot stand in the truth

(John 8: 44), draw near that gate, that forbidden field?

In the services of the Dormition of The Theotokos

in the Orthodox Church, we have no references of fear of

Toll Houses, or that she prayed to her Son to deliver her

soul from passing through those alleged Toll Houses, or

that she feared being put on trial at those Toll Houses. The

services are free of such blasphemous ideas. We chant:

Come, ye people, let us praise the all-holy,undefiled Virgin, from whom did issue incarnate,

in an ineffable manner, the Word of the Father,

crying, and saying, Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is thy womb which did contain Christ.

Placing thy soul between his holy hands, intercede

thou with him, O undefiled one, to save our souls.

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(Vespers of the Dormition)

Truly, the mystery of The Theotokos is what the

Church chants:

+Rejoice, Height hard to climb for human

thought.

+Rejoice, Depth hard to explore, even for

the eyes of Angels ( Akathist).

No wonder that it takes a deep spiritual

understanding to comprehend the mystery of the Mother of

God who is beyond our understanding. As the Son of God

was destined for the fall and rising of many (Luke 2:34),

and as the message of the cross is foolishness to those who

are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power

of God (1Corinthians 1:18), likewise, the mystery of The

Theotokos is the fire that tests our faith, our belief, and our

understanding of the mystery of the divine dispensation for

our salvation. This is why the Church makes The Theotok-

os the criterion against which our belief is measured:

+Rejoice, thou who showest philosophers

to be fools. +Rejoice, thou who provest logicians

illogical.

+Rejoice, for the inventors of myths are

faded away. (Akathist)

The Toll Houses teaching that accuses The

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Theotokos of fearing the Toll Houses is blasphemous. It

changes the Churchs Christology, Theotokology, and

soteriology. It substitutes a forgery in place of the

Apostolic Faith that was delivered to us throughout the

generations. It discredits the victory of Christ over Satan,sin, and death. It imputes to Satan and his legions powers

they had lost once and for all through the Resurrection of

Christ.

Anyone who knows about this teaching and chooses

not to condemn it cannot be an Orthodox Christian. He will

be either a heterodox or a hypocrite.

This teaching is a heresy, and every Christian

should condemn it and declare it Anathema! Amen.

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Behold, God Himself will give you a sign:A virgin will conceive and bear a child.

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Bogorodica i Mitarstva (Na Engleskom) Dr. Adnan Trabulsi

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