Anyone who wears a so-called ‘martinka’ (a bracelet made of red and white thread) on their wrist or attaches it to their clothing for health and happiness should know that from that moment (whether consciously or unconsciously), they have renounced God, and consequently, the Orthodox Faith and the Church. They cannot participate in its Holy Mysteries. We cannot simultaneously believe in God and in a ‘martinka.’ Faith and superstition have nothing in common, just as God has nothing in common with the devil. And we cannot serve two masters; either we will serve God or the devil—so everyone is free to choose whom they will serve. Any other superstition contrary to the Orthodox faith is not from God.
Wearing a ‘martinka’ is a superstitious and magical, and therefore demonic, practice because people who wear them believe that after putting them on on the first of March, they should not be removed until the arrival of spring and the appearance of swallows (or storks) and until the first tree blooms. According to this same erroneous belief, they must then hang the martinka on a tree and wish for good health and happiness, believing that these wishes will be fulfilled. Removing the martinka before the appointed time is considered bad luck, and therefore people keep it out of fear. Such a belief has no connection with the Orthodox faith but is simply superstition. We Christians wear a prayer rope (brojanica), adorned with a cross, which serves us for prayer.
Christian happiness and health do not come automatically, in some impersonal and easy magical way by simply doing or not doing something—without personal effort and self-sacrifice (as the devil taught Eve and Adam in the garden: “only if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will you be like gods”—see Genesis 3:4-5). Rather, they come solely through free effort in building a personal relationship with God, by purifying the heart from passions, by lovingly fulfilling God’s commandments, and by humbly participating in the Holy Mysteries of the Church. To this effort, God responds personally, freely, and lovingly at the right salvific time for each of us.
Christian happiness and health spring from personal communion with God, not from impersonal, fear-driven, and soul-destroying superstition.
S.N.S.
