Historic Orthodox Catechesis

Patristic Sources

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures

  • English Translation by Leo McCauley. 2 vols. Fathers of the Church 61, 64. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1969–70.

  • One of the most significant and earliest examples of in-depth catechetical sermons. The pre-baptismal lectures were likely delivered during Lent of 349/50, and transmitted by a scribe. The mystagogical homilies were likely delivered towards the end of Cyril’s career, in the 380s. Some have thought they were actually by his successor, John of Jerusalem, in the 390s.

  • The FC volume contains the Procatechesis (a pre-Lentend call to catechesis), 18 Catechetical Lectures on the Creed, and 5 mystagogical homilies on the rites of inititation, including Eucharist and Prayer. The procatechesis and 5 mystagogical homilies have also been translated more recently by Maxwell Johnson as Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Lectures on the Christian Sacraments. Yonkers, NY: SVS Press, 2017. The famous Journal of Egeria provides a fascinating description by a Spanish pilgrim named Egeria, who traveled to the Holy Land and observed Lent and Easter sometime in the 380s—possibly a witness to St. Cyril himself.

  • The homilies can be organized as follows:

    • The Procatechesis: An invitation to catechesis and baptism and to put away sin and immorality.

    • Catecheses 1-3: The meaning of “one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”

    • Catechesis 4: A summary of the Creed in “10 doctrines”

    • Catechesis 5: A lecture on the meaning of “faith”—both in its objective and subjective senses.

    • Catecheses 6-9: On the unity, fatherhood, omnipotence, and creative activity of God the Father.

    • Catecheses 10-15: The birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Christ

    • Catecheses 16-17: On the Holy Spirit

    • Catechesis 18: On the Church, Resurrection of the Flesh, and Life Everlasting

    • Mystagogies 1-2: On Baptism: First part of baptismal ceremony, renunciation, and profession of faith, and the Rites of the “inner chamber”

    • Mystagogy 3: On the Holy Chrism

    • Mystagogies 4–5: The Eucharist and Holy Liturgy

St. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions

  • Trans. Paul Harkins. ACW 31. New York: Paulist Press. 1963.

  • A series of 12 homilies delivered by the great theologian and orator John Chrysostom, likely in Antioch in the 390s. These 12 homilies are been compiled from 3 different manuscript collections. These include:

    • 8 homilies from MS 6 of the Monastery of Stavronikita on Mt. Athos. Discovered in 1955 and published by Fr. Antoine Wenger in the Sources Chretienne series in 1957 (= Stav.)

    • 4 homilies published by A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, published in 1909 (= PK)

    • 2 homilies published in PG 49 (pp.221–40) by Montfaucon (= Montf)

      • Montf. 1 overlaps with PK 1

      • Stav. 3 overlaps with PK 4.

  • Homily 1 (Stav. 1): A prebaptismal invitation to the spiritual marriage and military enlistment of baptism. Delivered 30 days before baptism

  • Homily 2 (Stav. 2): A second prebaptismal sermon, delivered 10 days after the first, which continues discussion of baptism. Describes rite of exorcism, role of sponsors, renunciation of Satan and covenant with Christ, anointings, sacramental formula at Antioch.

  • Homily 3 (Stav. 3 / PK 4): Delivered on Holy Thursday

  • Homily 4 - 8 (Stav. 4–8): Postbaptismal homilies on the moral life in Christ

  • Homily 9 (Montf 1 / PK 1)

  • Homily 10 (PK 2)

  • Homily 11 (PK 3)

  • Homily 12 (Montf 2)

St. Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetical Discourse

  • Translation: St. Gregory of Nyssa: Catechetical Discourse: A Handbook for Catechists. Trans. Ignatius Green. PPS 60. SVS Press, 2019.

  • Can be found in many versions, but this edition includes Greek and English facing pages, plus a helpful introduction by the editor and translator that appreciate the literary genre of this text as a “catechetical handbook”—a series of notes and arguments that would be especially valuable for catechists instructing those coming to the faith from different groups.

Early Modern and Modern Catechisms

Catechism of St. Peter Mogila (1640)

  • Published in English as: The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church from the Version of Peter Mogila, trans. J.J. Overbeck (London: Thomas Baker, 1898).

  • Peter Mogila (1597-1646) was the head, beginning in 1615, of a theological school at Kievan Caves Monastery, and in 1632 was elected Metropolitan of Kiev. Though opposed to the Romanism and Protestantism, Mogila was trained in Latin schools and education methods, which he introduced to the monastery. Mogila originally wrote a text in Latin entitled An Exposition of the Faith of the Orthodox Church in Little Russia, intended for theologians and using Scripture quotations from the Latin Vulgate. It was first submitted to a council in 1640, after which, under the supervision of Metropolitan of Nicaea Meletios Syrigos and several others, it underwent many substantial revisions—many of which were not to Mogila’s approval. He went on to publish a Slavonic translation as a “Brief Catechism,” which was intended for the instruction of young people, and in 1649 it was translated in to Slavonic-Russian and presented in Moscow. The amended version by Syrigos was, meanwhile, approved by a synod of four Metropolitans in 1643, and later appeared in Greek in 1695.

  • The text remains controversial as emblematic of what many Orthodox theologians over the last century have called the “western captivity” of Russian theology. In Georges Florovsky’s treatment in Ways of Russian Theology, he writes: “It was not so much the doctrine [of Mogila’s Confession], but the manner of presentation that was, so to speak, erroneous, particularly the choice of language and the tendency to employ any and all Roman weapons against the Protestants even when not consonant in full or in part with Orthodox presuppositions. And it is here that the chief danger of Mogila’s Latin ‘pseudomorphosis’ or ‘crypto-Romanism’ surfaces. The impression is created that Orthodoxy is no more than a purified or refined  version of Roman Catholicism.”

The Catechism of Platon II of Moscow (1765/1775)

  • Platon II (1737–1812) was the Metropolitan of Moscow from 1775–1812. In 1757, he was appointed as an instructor in Greek and rhetoric at the Slavic Greek Latin Academy of Moscow, after which he served at the Russian court as a tutor to the royal children. The origin of the catechism began in 1765 with the publication of Orthodox Doctrine: or, A Short Compend of Christian Theology. In 1775, he became Archbishop of Moscow, and that same year issued a catechism for the use of clergy, followed, in the following year, by a shorter catechism for children. and then in Greek in 1805 and subsequently revised at a Synod in Greece in 1851 and 1857. It was also translated and abridged into English in 1814 and 1847.

  • An abridged English edition was published in 1867, based on the 1857 Greek edition, as: The Great Catechism of the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Orthodox Church. Translated by J.T.S, Bishop of Iona. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1867.

  • The catechism comprises 2 parts of 3 chapters each:

    • Part 1: Of Natural Religion

      • Of the Existence of God

      • Of the Divine Essence

      • Of the Worship of God

    • Part 2: Of Revealed Religion

      • Of the Gospel Faith

      • Of the Divine Law

      • Of the Lord’s Prayer

Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow (1823)

  • St. Philaret wrote both a Larger and Shorter Catechism. The Larger Catechism was approved for use in 1830 by a synod in Moscow. Originally written in a Slavic-A Russian edition appeared in

  • An English translation entitled The Longer Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church, also known as The Catechism of St. Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, was translated in 1845 by R.W. Blackmore. Both catechisms were edited and arranged by Joshua Schooping for St. Theophan the Recluse Press in 2020.

  • Arranged in the threefold form of Creed (Faith), Prayer (Hope), and Decalogue (Love). An online version of the Longer Catechism can be found here.

Sacred Catechism of Vernardakis (1872)

  • Demetrios Vernadakis was a professor at the Univeristy of Athens. This catechism was selected by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1872 as a distinguished catechism and recommended for use in schools. It was translated into English by Claude Delaval Cobham in 1903. with a preface by Ven. Beresford Potter.

Divine and Sacred Catechism of Apostolos Makrakis (1885)

  • Apostolos Makrakis (1831–1905 was a lay theologian, preacher, and philosopher in Greece. From 1856 to 1863, he was the Dean in the lyceum of Spyridon Patmios in Constantinople. He then spent time in Paris, Athens, and Constantinople. For a time, he edited a newspaper called Justice, then a journal called Logos, and also had several failed political campaigns. In 1876, he opened a philosophical college called “New Philosophical and Educational College of the Logos,” and would go on to publish a three-volume educational system: Grammatomatheia (1876), Leximatheia (1878), and Logomatheia (1882). His teaching about the tri-composite nature of man was highly controversial, and resulted in his imprisonment and the temporary dissolution of the college from 1879–1881.

  • In 1885, he published his Divine and Sacred Catechism, an edition of which was published in 2021 under the imprint of the Holy Monastery of St George.

Contemporary Orthodox Catechetical Texts

Metropolitian of Nafpaktos Hierotheos, Entering the Orthodox Church: The Catechism and Baptism of Adults, trans. Marina Mary Robb. SVS Press, 2006.

Metropolitian of Nafpaktos Hierotheos, A Visual Catechism of the Orthodox Church. SVS Press.

Fr. Daniel Sysoev, Catechetical Talks. Link.

Fr. Thomas Hopko, ed., The Orthodox Faith. 4 vols. SVS Press. Contains volumes on:

  • Doctrine and Scripture

  • Worship

  • Church History

  • Spirituality

Catherine Aslanoff, The Living God. SVS Press.

Catherine Aslanoff, The Incarnate God: The Feasts of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, 2 vols. SVS Press.

A collection of creeds and catechisms was published as The Holy Standards: The Creeds, Confessions of Faith, and Catechisms of the Eastern Orthodox Church by St. Theophan the Recluse Press in 2020. In addition to the Nicene, Athanasian, and Chalcedonian Creeds, it also contains the Confession of Dositheus, the Catechism of Peter Mogila, and the Shorter and Longer Catechisms of St. Philaret of Moscow, as well as an Appendix containing the Synodikon of Orthodoxy. Link to the Amazon page here.

Contemporary Orthodox writing on Catechesis

Byron David Stuhlman, The Initiatory Process in the Byzantine Tradition: Texts in Translation from Early Manuscripts of the Euchology and Typikon of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, with a Brief Commentary (Gorgias Press, 2009).

  • “This study sets out all the provisions for initiation in the Byzantine tradition, drawing on early manuscripts of the euchology and the typikon of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia). The sections of the book provide texts and commentary for enrolment of children in the rites of the eighth and fortieth days, catechesis and prayers during Lent, final preparations, including consecration of Chrism and the rites of apotaxis and syntaxis on Good Friday, Baptism at the Easter Vigil, postbaptismal rites and rites of closure, and provisions for the other baptismal feasts.” (Publisher’s description)

Fr. Josiah Trenham, “Making Your Parish a Catechetical Powerhouse.” A workshop (approx. 2 hours) given in 2015.

  • Introduces the need for sound catechesis in American Orthodox churches. Provides guidance for how priests first need to catechize themselves, and then look to build a catechetical foundation in their churches. He has also written an article entitled “Starting Down the Royal Path: How to Become an Orthodox Christian,” which outlines the process of the catechumenate in an Orthodox setting. Includes litanies and prayers for entering the catechumenate, the content and goals of catechesis, the roles of sponsors, and the rites of baptism and postbaptismal mystagogy.

Fr. John Parker, “Radechesis: A Radical Return to the Roots of Christian Catechesis”

  • At a presentation given at the 2019 International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA) conference, reposted on Ancient-Faith Ministries, Fr. Parker outlines a model of a Lenten catechumenate that adapts key elements from the patristic catechumenate, which he calls “Radechesis”:

Radechesis, as I call it, is a radical return to the roots of Christian catechism. It draws in form or content from all the sources mentioned above, and is designed for a too-fast catechumenate: from the beginning of the Nativity Fast until Holy Saturday. Radechesis continues, in the fourth-century style, to dismiss the catechumens during the Liturgy, and to continue to instruct them after the Paschal season once they have already been initiated into the Orthodox Church. Radechesis employs the priest as catechist for twelve sessions—three on the Creed; three on the “code,” as I call the moral teachings of the Church; three on the Sermon on the Mount (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving), and three on interpreting the liturgical services, specifically baptism, vespers, matins, and the Liturgy.

Radechesis also employs up to twelve lay catechists, for which parish council members are ideal, six of which teach during the dismissal of the catechumens during the Divine Liturgy, and they simply read Chrysostom’s Twelve Baptismal Instructions—impossible to summarize; they simply have to be read out loud. They read Twelve Baptismal Instructions out loud, two per week, which results in the instruction for all. So the parish council members are actually the ones learning from Chrysostom, though they’re the ones reading out loud.

The other six lay catechists teach on the following six topics: the genealogy of Jesus (a part of the reading of the Gospel of Matthew, I’ll explain in a moment); confession; communion; burial; stewardship; and Paschal traditions. All of this is wrapped up in a plan for reading all four gospels, the book of Acts, Genesis, Isaiah, and Proverbs, and the Psalms. This is all wrapped up in the context of a “Rule of St. Benedict” method of parish community service, where the catechumens are asked to clear the church bathrooms every week, wait on tables, and wash dishes at our coffee hour, and to tend to the lampada, the oil lamps, in our churches, each of which has a particular biblical rationale and a portion of the Scriptures to recite while doing so.

Lastly, pun intended, the catechumens go last in all parish life, liturgical and practical, until the day of their reception into the Church, at which time they go first for 40 days; thereafter they become what you might call a routine parishioner.