Dear Gordo and Diak,
Your discussion raises a VERY crucial point, hagiographic and ecumenical, that is often the domain of theologians and rarely others - which is to the great credit of you both!
The matter of recognition of saints between churches, especially "controversial" saints is a complex issue on which there is more than one view.
Under the current practice of Rome, for example, if an Eastern Church should come into communion with it, the saints of that church CAN continue to be venerated although the ones that have had a reputation for being "anti-Roman" are expunged.
In addition, what Rome regards as "exotic cults" are forbidden as well and this is why the cult of St Pontius Pilate was expunged from the calendar of the Ethiopian Catholic Church.
And when the Orthodox of the Lviv area came into communion with Rome in 1700, the cult of St Athanasius of Brest was expunged from their tradition.
When the Russian Catholic Church was established, Met. Andrew Sheptytsky petitioned Rome to allow for the veneration of all the Russian saints, and this petition was granted in 1904 - save for certain exceptions such as St Athanasius and St Mark of Ephesus (and St Photios).
A BC priest who is a canon lawyer also told me that the names of "Anti-Roman" saints could remain in the calendar, but that they could not, under current conditions, have a liturgical cult.
Today, there are different EC parishes around and the really "Orthodox" ones would not think twice about having "controversial" or "anti-Roman" Orthodox saints' icons etc.
In fact, there was a time when Pope John Paul II himself praised one St Theophane the Recluse as a saint dedicated to prayer etc.
And in fact St Theophane had nothing good to say about the RC Church in his lifetime
.
And RC's who are into the Jesus Prayer are enamoured with St Paissy Velichkovsky, the translator of the Philokalia into Slavonic.
In fact, St Paissy was very much against the Unia and promoted devotion to St Mark of Ephesus as an "antidote" to the Uniatistic tendency etc.
If a Catholic were offended by anti-Roman statements of Orthodox saints, he or she would have to drop not a few names from his or her "popular list."
One could, however, emphasize the great holiness of saints like Mark of Ephesus etc. to show that being "anti-Roman" wasn't the ONLY reason for their canonization
.
St Photios is mentioned in the Way of the Pilgrim as someone very dedicated to the Jesus Prayer - which indeed he was.
St Alexis Toth was against the Unia, to be sure.
But there were many of our people who agreed with him, given the circumstances with the Catholic Church at that time.
Alexis was also a man of deep prayer who was devoted to the spiritual welfare of the new converts to Orthodoxy.
For example, he did not forbid their Latin devotions and defended them before less obliging Orthodox hierarchs. He knew the spiritual harm that could obtain if things were forced etc.
That the OCA promoted and promotes the cult of St Alexis Toth, in part, as a response to Catholic proselytism in Eastern Europe - of this I think there can be little doubt.
The RC Church did the same thing in the canonization of many of its saints in the Protestant reformation era too.
And we should remember that Mark of Ephesus actually came to Florence as a Unionist - he believed that God would heal the heresy of the Filioque as long as Rome would formally remove it from the Nicene Creed - that was Mark's minimum requirement for unity, and he was not against the papacy either.
That Rome could not be accommodating to the Orthodox party of Mark of Ephesus in this respect was, to be frank, Rome's fault.
Rome would not do that today, to be sure, knowing that unity was so close.
Alex
Anyway, I always remember Fr. Gregory Baum as being the most approachable and humble of all of them and a very kind man...willing to speak to even little me (I was just a kid of 21 at the time...and rather shy and quiet)...so he made a great impression on me. I also remember that he said once...that his entire family had died during the holocaust (he was a convert to Catholicism from Judaism). Those were exciting times, but as I look back upon them now, they were NOT great for spirituality and prayer---and hence, not great for growth for most of us in our relationship with the Lord. That's where the Eastern Christian Church came in (for me) and helped me to return to the path of spiritual struggle and that all-important relationship with Him! Thanks be to God for that!
