Hallowed Be Thy Name: The Name-Glorifying Dispute in the Russian Orthodox Church and on Mt. Athos, 1912–1914
Review of the book by Tom Dykstra
Brilliant and detailed narrative about a bizarre and fascinating episode of religious history, that occurred in the 20th century.
In 1912, Russian troops besieged a monastery in Mount Athos (Greece) and shipped off 880 monks to exile for believing that the Name of God is God Himself and is in itself divine. The monks were devoted to the Jesus Prayer, which figures prominently in Salinger’s Franny and Zoey. They repeated/meditated on a simple prayer — “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” They repeated it so often and so fervently that it was echoed in the pattern of their breathing and the beating of their heart, so that they prayed perpetually. The leader of the “Name-Praisers” was Alexander Bulatovich, AKA Father Anthony, who before becoming a monk, was a cavalry officer and an African explorer, and who fought in Manchuria.
Full disclosure — the author of this book thanked me in his acknowledgements and I thanked him in the acknowledgements to my The Name of Hero, an historical novel based on the life of Bulatovich. I just read and enjoyed Hallowed Be Thy Name for the second time, in preparation for my returning to writing about Bulatovich, completing the story of his life.
