Former head of Christ the Savior Brotherhood, Vincent Rossi (Fr. Maximos), reposes in the Lord

Sonora, California, September 26, 2022

Abbot Damascene of St. Herman's Monastery tonsured Fr. Maximos as a stavrophore monk a week before his repose. Photo: Facebook Abbot Damascene of St. Herman's Monastery tonsured Fr. Maximos as a stavrophore monk a week before his repose. Photo: Facebook     

The former head of the Christ the Savior Brotherhood, who helped bring hundreds if not thousands of souls into holy Orthodoxy, has reposed in the Lord.

Fr. Maximos, better known as Vincent Rossi before becoming a monastic, reposed on Friday evening at St. Silouan the Athonite Monastery (ROCOR) in Sonora, California, on the eve of the monastery’s patronal feast, report the North American Thebaid and several others connected with the monastery.

Fr. Maximos had been a novice and then a riassaphore monk at the monastery since 2015. Awaiting his departure, on Sunday, September 18, Father received Holy Communion and Holy Unction celebrated by six priests, and was tonsured a stavrophore monk by Abbot Damascene of St. Herman’s Monastery in Platina, California.

Fr. Maximos then received Holy Communion every day leading up to his repose on Saturday.

In the 1970s, Fr. Maximos, then Vincent Rossi, was a member of the esoteric group the Holy Order of MANS, which combined Christian doctrine and spirituality with various New Age influences. He became the leader of the group following the death of its founder Earl Blighton in 1974, and under his direction, the Order gradually turned away from its New Age practices.

Rossi’s spiritual search eventually led him to the writings of Fr. Seraphim (Rose), through which he felt that Fr. Seraphim himself was calling him to Orthodoxy. The Order later made contact with Abbot Herman (Podmoshensky) and St. Herman’s Monastery in Platina, which had been co-founded by Fr. Seraphim.

Continuing the movement towards Orthodoxy, in 1988 the Holy Order of MANS transformed into the Christ the Savior Brotherhood (CSB) and joined the non-canonical Archdiocese of Vasiloupolis (Queens, New York) under “Metropolitan” Pangratios (Vrionis), a defrocked former priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.

In 1991, Rossi resigned as Director-General of the CSB and moved to England to pursue a doctoral degree in Orthodox Studies at the University of Oxford under Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware).

Individual CSB members and parishes moved into canonical jurisdictions throughout the 1990s, and in 2000, under the guidance of Abbot Gerasim of St. Herman’s Monastery, they moved en masse into canonical jurisdictions, mainly the Serbian and Bulgarian Churches and the Orthodox Church in America.

Rossi was later involved with the short-lived Rose Hill Orthodox great books college, and also served as Director of Education for the American Exarchate of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. He authored two books and nearly a hundred articles on theology, spirituality, and the environment.

He spent the last years of his life as a monastic at St. Silouan’s Monastery in Sonora, where he reposed in the Lord on Friday evening.

Fr. Maximos in repose. Photo: Facebook Fr. Maximos in repose. Photo: Facebook     

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9/26/2022

See also
Counsels of Fr. Seraphim (Rose) to Young Converts Counsels of Fr. Seraphim (Rose) to Young Converts
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) Counsels of Fr. Seraphim (Rose) to Young Converts Counsels of Fr. Seraphim (Rose) to Young Converts
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)
Young converts to Orthodox Christianity were especially drawn to Fr. Seraphim (Rose). His down-to-earth approach, elevated by the spiritual discernment he earned through the guidance of his spiritual mentors, his study of patristic writings, and mainly, his own podivgs and suffering in life, made him a true harbor from the storms of youth and a wise instructor to those having zeal without reason. The American Acquisition of the Patristic Mind The American Acquisition of the Patristic Mind
Vincent Rossi The American Acquisition of the Patristic Mind The American Acquisition of the Patristic Mind
The Significance of Fr. Seraphim Rose for the Christian of Today
Vincent Rossi
Fr. Seraphim’s soul was transformed by Tradition (the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church) into a flaming sword, capable of rending the veil of delusions of the modern world and revealing the Holy Place: the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic and Orthodox Church. Clash of Paradigms: The Doctrine of Evolution in the Light of the Cosmological Vision of St. Maximos the Confessor Clash of Paradigms: The Doctrine of Evolution in the Light of the Cosmological Vision of St. Maximos the Confessor
Vincent Rossi Clash of Paradigms: The Doctrine of Evolution in the Light of the Cosmological Vision of St. Maximos the Confessor Clash of Paradigms: The Doctrine of Evolution in the Light of the Cosmological Vision of St. Maximos the Confessor
Vincent Rossi
Going beyond the typical surface-level considerations of the degree of compatibility between evolution and Orthodox theology, Vincent Rossi offers an indepth explanation and examination of the shining cosmological vision of the great St. Maximus the Confessor, considering the implications of the theory of evolution in light of the seventh century saint's system.
Comments
Olaf8/20/2024 11:44 pm
I was blessed to spend 2 years as a trudnik with Frs. Maximus and Ignatius at St. Silouan's. Words can't express the depth nor the conviction of these 2 monks. I was planning to visit Fr. Maximus when I heard he was in his last days. Just a few days before I was to drive to Sonora, I got a call informing me that he reposed. Some glimpses into his life: whenever I saw him at the monastery, he was generally immersed in reading. Fr. Maximus was the most well-read person I have ever met. He was incredibly well-versed in philosophy, Patristics, and theology. He could perfectly and instantaneously grasp very deep theological writings--I generally would get lost after a paragraph or 2. Above all, he was a cheerful monk who overflowed with love for God and his neighbor. Olaf +Feast of St. Maximus the Confessor, Aug. 20, 2024
Dr Z1/21/2023 10:51 pm
Andrew (Victor) Rossi was an early teacher of mine. Circa 1972 Cambridge Massachusetts. He taught the symbology of Tarot as it related to jungian archetypes. I spoke with him regarding Krishnamurti who he held in great regard. I studied with Krishnamurti for years. I feel that the problem of religious duality, good vs evil must find resolution in the depths of silent awareness and the love that blossoms from it. The drop goes back into the ocean old friend. Thanks for the early spiritual direction.
Thomas Chase Ells10/8/2022 2:45 am
My dear friend, Vincent Andrew Fr Maximos, you were always dear to my heart. Bless you, may God keep you always. Memory Eternal. "O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who hast trampled down death and overthrown the Devil, and given life to Thy world, do Thou, the same Lord, give rest to the souls of Thy departed servants in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose, where all sickness, sighing, and sorrow have fled away. Pardon every transgression which they have committed, whether by word or deed or thought. For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind; because there is no man who lives yet does not sin, for Thou only art without sin, Thy righteousness is to all eternity, and Thy word is truth." "For Thou are the Resurrection, the Life, and the Repose of Thy servants who have fallen asleep, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever unto ages of ages. Amen."
Johann Morse10/1/2022 3:02 am
God rest your soul father! I work together with you and fought with you since 1970. A year or two ago he told me in Sonora at a parish feast that he thought he was going backwards. I entertain the thought to him did he had come full circle.
Dionysius Redington9/27/2022 5:10 am
Memory eternal. My wife and I were just talking about him for the first time in years; we had no idea he was dying. I wonder if his leaving the CSB and going to Oxford was a wise decision. The paradox of the CSB is that when it still had many trappings of a cult and received spiritual direction from a non-canonical abbot who eventually placed it under the omophor of an even less canonical bishop (with a criminal record), it was one of the most dynamic forces in world Orthodoxy; it had multicultural schools and shops and an amazing evangelical outreach to hippies, Goths, punks, New Agers, poverty-stricken urban Blacks, and other people of little or no interest to the mainstream church establishment. Then it joined the canonical church. Fragmented among America's various (generally bureaucratic and bourgeois) ethnic jurisdictions, it was quickly absorbed; these powerful Christian initiatives did not immediately disappear, but they began to wither (as did the dubious cult-like aspects, to be sure). Abbot Herman may have been a sinner, but he was a sinner with vision, and without vision the people perish. --Dionysius Redington
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