How Can Dixie Recover Her Independence?

​Mr Kenneth Robbins left a comment not long ago which set us to thinking.  Here is the relevant part of it:

​Have you noticed that we Southerners have no leaders. We have produced great leaders since the landing at Jamestown. Where are our leaders now? We don't have any. By the renaming of military installations the removal of statutes they demonstrate their power over us. They can do what they want. We cannot stop them. Why? We are not organized because we have no leader. In my opinion we are under judgment of God, because we don't obey. . . . Folks had better turn back to God, Maybe in his mercy he will save us.

​These words brought to mind some questions – How have other Christian countries in the past regained their freedom from invaders and conquerors?  Are there any constants from their experiences that the South can implement in our own efforts to throw off the Yankee yoke?  Let’s look at the history of a couple of countries for answers.

The Greek War for Independence – 1821

​We begin in a land much loved by Southrons, the land of Greece.  From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the 19th century, the Muslim Turks treated the conquered Christian Greeks atrociously.  But in 1821, the Lord had mercy on the Greeks, and they began their war of liberation (an event Thomas Jefferson knew about and thought highly of).  The day it began has special significance:

The Revolutionary fighters in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire chose the holy day of the Annunciation as the symbolic start of their struggle.
 
On March 13, 1821 Metropolitan Germanos of Old Patras (Palaion Patron Germanos), accompanied by Greek fighters, had declared war against the Ottomans at the Agia Lavra Monastery, blessing the efforts of the freedom fighters.
 
March 13 is the day given by historians for this event. Yet Greeks chose March 25th as the historical day of the beginning of the war in earnest, so that the outbreak of the Revolution would coincide with the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary.
 
The Virgin Mary is the second-most sacred figure in the Greek Orthodox Church after Jesus Himself, and the choice of the day inextricably connects Orthodoxy with the Greek War of Independence.
 
When Palaion Patron Germanos raised the flag with the cross and blessed it, he signified that this was not only a war for freedom, but also a war of faith.
 
--Tasos Kokkinidis

The Greeks’ battle for freedom, then, includes the elements of seeking the blessing and protection of the Mother of God and marching under the protection of the Holy Cross.
 
Let us turn now to a second country.
 
The End of Russia’s Time of Troubles – 1612

The end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries is known in Russian history as “the Time of Troubles.” The country suffered the onslaught of Polish armies, which scoffed at the Orthodox Faith, plundering and burning churches, cities and villages. Through deceit they succeeded in taking Moscow. In response to the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes (May 12), the Russian people rose up in defense of its native land. From Kazan, the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God was sent to the army headed by Prince Demetrius Pozharsky.
 
Saint Demetrius of Rostov (September 21), in his Discourse on the Day of Appearance of the Icon of the Mother of God at Kazan (July 8), said:
 
“The Mother of God delivered from misfortune and woe not only the righteous, but also sinners, but which sinners? those who turn themselves to the Heavenly Father like the Prodigal Son, they make lamentation beating their bosom, like the Publican, they weep at the feet of Christ, like the Sinful Woman washing His feet with her tears, and they offer forth confession of Him, like the Thief upon the Cross. It is such sinners whom the All-Pure Mother of God heeds and hastens to aid, delivering them from great misfortunes and woe.”
 
Knowing that they suffered such misfortunes for their sins, the whole nation and the militia imposed upon themselves a three-day fast. With prayer, they turned to the Lord and His All-Pure Mother for help. The prayer was heard. Saint Sergius of Radonezh appeared to Saint Arsenius (afterwards Bishop of Suzdal) and said that if Moscow were to be saved, then people must pray to the Most Holy Virgin. Emboldened by the news, Russian forces on October 22, 1612 liberated Moscow from the Polish usurpers. A celebration in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was established in 1649. Even in our day this icon is especially revered by the Russian Orthodox nation.
 
--'Commemoration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God’
​

The same elements are found here as in Greece’s war of liberation:  the intercession of holy men and women and the presence of holy objects.
 
The pattern is found again earlier in Russia’s history in her battle against the Mongol Tatars

​The holy Prince Demetrios combined Christian piety with his remarkable political talents, devoting himself to the unification of the land of Russia and to the emancipation of Russia from the Tatar-Mongol Yoke.
 
On August 18, 1380, after gathering his forces for a decisive battle with Mamai of the Golden Horde, Saint Demetrios visited Saint Sergius of Radonezh (September 25) in order to receive his blessing. The Elder blessed two monks from his monastery, Schema-monk Andrew [Oslyaba] and Schema-monk Alexander [Peresvet], to go along and help the Prince. He also predicted that Saint Demetrios would be victorious. The Prince left Moscow with his army on August 20, and marched toward Kolomna.
 
One day, as they made camp before the Battle of Kulikovo, an Icon of St. Nicholas appeared in the air, hovering over a pine tree, and it descended into the hands of Saint Demetrios. There is a later Icon depicting this event, with Saint Demetrios kneeling before the Icon of Saint Nicholas, and laying his gold crown at the roots of the tree.
 
One of those who fought in the Battle of Kulikovo was a Lithuanian Prince by the name of Montvid Montvilo [changed later to Motovilov—W.G.], who saved the life of Saint Demetrios by shielding him from a Tatar sword with his own body. That night he beheld Saint Nicholas in a dream. The holy wonderworker told him that he had cushioned the blow because Prince Montvilo wore on his chest an Icon of Saint Nicholas, which was a family heirloom. In return for saving the Prince's life, Saint Nicholas told Prince Montvilo that one of his descendants would render great service to Russia.
 
 . . .
 
The Icon of Saint Nicholas, which was damaged by the Tatar's sword, was treasured as a holy relic in the family of George Nikolaevich Motovilov.
 
Nicholas Alexandrovich Motovilov was born on May 3, 1809, and reposed on January 14, 1879. His great service to Russia, of course, was to write down his conversation with Saint Seraphim of Sarov (January 2) about the aim of the Christian life, and how to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit.
 
After winning the battle, the Prince ordered a Moleben of Thanksgiving to God and to Saint Nicholas to be served. Later, he built a church and a monastery dedicated to St. Nicholas on that site.
 
Following his victory at Kulikovo Field, between the Don and Nepryadva Rivers (on September 8, the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos), Prince Demetrios received the honorific "of the Don." He established the Dormition Monastery at the Dubenka River, and the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos near the graves of those who died for their country. The Memorial Saturday before the Feast of Saint Demetrios of Thessalonika (October 26) was established in memory of the Orthodox warriors who were killed at Kulikovo Field in the great battle against the Horde.

 
The path ahead for the South is therefore quite clear – We need to unite around two things:  patron saints who will intercede for us in our own battle for independence from Yankees, globalists, LGBT tyrants, etc., and holy objects through which God’s Grace will also act to help us achieve that goal.
 
Two main patrons stand out from the other possibilities:  St. Alfred the Great of England (+899), from whose kingdom of Wessex the South received the foundation of her culture in Virginia, and the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, the Patron Saint of Scotland, whose X-shaped cross is the chief feature of our battle flag, the most recognizable symbol of our people.
 
If faithful Southrons can do nothing else together, we need to at least honor these two holy men on their main feast days as one people.  On the 26th of October, let us say as much as we can of the service to St Alfred.  On the 30th of November, let us do the same for the Holy Apostle Andrew.
 
Likewise, let us not fail to have in our homes an icon of St Alfred and an image or a flag bearing our dear Southern Cross of St Andrew.
 
These means may seem unconventional, but history tells us again and again that they are essential.  This is because a Christian’s war for freedom is primarily fought on a spiritual level, with spiritual ends in mind, though it also has material aspects to it. Blessed Photios Kontoglou explains, in the context of the Greek war:

"The slavery which pushed the Greeks to rise up against the Turk was not only about the deprivation and evils against the body, but, above all, the tyrant wanted to ruin their Faith, bothering them with their religious debts, changing their Faith and slaughtering and hanging them, because they did not deny their Faith to become Mohammadens. For them Faith and Homeland became one and the same thing, and the freedom they longed for was not only the freedom all revolutionaries long for, but it was the freedom to preserve their sacred Faith, with which they hoped to save their souls. Because for them, though near to the body which has many needs and with its suffering requires maintenance, there also existed a soul, which Christ said is worth more than the body...."
 
--Blessed Photios Kontoglou
​

​If we in the South will begin to walk together in unison in these small ways, the Lord will help us, perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly – that is in His hands – raising up leaders like St Demetrios of the Don and St Hermogenes and the many noble Greek clergy who led uprisings and who died as martyrs for the cause of Greece’s freedom; scattering our enemies; securing our fatherland; blessing our churches, families, farms, and cities.  Only let us repent, as Mr. Robbins said above, while we have the time.
 
I hope to be with you all in spirit on 26 October and 30 November!