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Walt Garlington

The Synaxis of Banned Confederates

1/16/2023

3 Comments

 
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There is a funny little word that is suddenly meaningful for Dixie:  synaxis.  It is an ancient Greek word that translates to ‘a gathering’.  On some Church calendars, there are several celebratory memorial synaxes:  the Synaxis of the 70 Apostles (4 Jan.), the Synaxis of St John the Baptist (7 Jan.), and so on.  We, as Southerners, should add a new synaxis of this kind to our yearly calendars, in light of what the uS military has decided to do with its base names, etc.:  The Synaxis of Banned Confederates.
 
The Pentagon has provided us with the names to include in our Synaxis, via a report from Newsmax:
 
‘The USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruiser named for a Civil War battle the confederates won, and the USNS Maury, an oceanographic survey ship named for confederate naval Cmdr. Matthew Fontaine Maury, are the two naval ships affected.
 
‘The nine Army bases affected are: Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Polk, Louisiana; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Gordon, Georgia; Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Pickett, Virginia; Fort Rucker, Alabama; and Fort Lee, Virginia.’
 
For clarity, they are, with the days they reposed,
 
-Commander Matthew Maury (1 Feb.)
 
-Gen Braxton Bragg (27 Sept.)
 
-Gen Leonidas Polk (14 June)
 
-Gen Henry Benning (10 July)
 
-Gen John Gordon (9 Jan.)
 
-Gen A. P. Hill (2 April)
 
-Gen John Bell Hood (30 Aug.)
 
-Gen George Pickett (30 July)
 
-Col Edmund Rucker (13 April)
 
General Robert E. Lee (who reposed on 12 Oct.), we feel, needs no introduction.
 
There are, of course, many more who could be named, but these will suffice for this Gathering, given that they are the ones singled out in the report.  Serious consideration should be given for other synaxes, though, like a Synaxis of the 12 Southerners who wrote I’ll Take My Stand, which could be held on the book’s original day of publication – November 12th.
 
And we know just what day to celebrate this Synaxis:  June 9th, the day a typical New England shrew, Senator Elizabeth Warren, proposed this genocidal scrubbing of anything Southern from the US military’s consciousness in 2020.
 
On this day, let us heartily celebrate the memory and achievements of these Confederate ancestors of ours, and pray for the peaceful rest of their souls with the righteous (as well as on the individual days of the repose of each, as we are able).
 
We should also include St Columba of Iona in these goings-on, asking him to pray for our ancestors and for Southrons living and not yet living, for his Feast Day is also on the 9th of June, he who did so much to bring our forefathers in Ireland, Scotland, and England to the Christian Faith. 
 
This attack on memory, virtue, etc., is undoubtedly unseemly and dangerous, but there is a positive side to it (as others have pointed out):  No longer will the names and reputations of our Southern forebears be defamed by being dragged into the Federal regime’s unlawful wars with all their atrocities, nor through all the sexual perversity and depravity that the woke Pentagon is now imposing on its soldiers and sailors in the name of diversity and inclusion.  Let them drag the names of those they revere – Lincoln, Emerson, Susan B. Anthony, Sheridan, Hillary Clinton, and all the rest of that strange, disreputable lot – through the blood and the mud instead.
 
However, there is one name that Southerners should insist be removed from a place:  the name of George Washington from Washington, D. C.  General Washington is too fine a gentleman to be associated with that vipers’ nest.  The District can no doubt find a more suitable name, perhaps their latest overseas puppet, Zelensky.  Aside from the massive financial and military aid to the corrupt neo-Nazi Kiev government, the D. C. Establishment has just recently created ‘Ukrainian Independence Park’ in the middle of the city; and some loopy Congressmen want to place his bust in the US House.  The new name ‘Zelensky, D. C.’ would simply close the loop.
 
If the un-Christian globalist types in D. C. are determined to wipe out the memories of our Southern ancestors, we must be more determined to preserve them, honor them, and pass them on to future generations.  It is essential, then, to observe Confederate Memorial Day when it comes round each year in the various Southern States, but with each new action of the Yankees/globalists to purge Southern history and culture, we must make a new effort of our own to counteract it.  Hence, our new Synaxis for the banned boys in grey.
 
(Our thanks to an anonymous tipster for the Newsmax link.)

3 Comments

Family in the Future Tense

1/1/2023

2 Comments

 
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​The first cold morning of fall in Louisiana
Sends my memory far away to Oklahoma,
To the cavernous den that you added to your house, Uncle Ken.
 
The icy air resting on the rock-strewn hills outside
Bites into the thin skin of mortal flesh, but the hearth inside
Glows with a wood fire, offering its warm benediction.
 
Within this little cosmos, you are all here, my family!
The love that surrounds us is from the Paraclete, surely,
And warms us better than the hearth, no cold malice within.
 
Here, in the awful, joyful stillness of your presence,
Vision becomes prophetic, brought into the future tense,
This precious room a faint foreseeing of our kinhouse in Heaven.

2 Comments

Saint Michael and the South

12/17/2022

1 Comment

 
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​‘ . . . according to God’s revelation in the Bible, not only do human beings have their own guardian angel but nations have them, too.
 
‘ . . . Not only does every nation have them, but also every city, every town, every locale, and particularly every temple devoted to the worship of God.’—Father Maximos (Quoted in Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence, Image, New York, 2001, p. 109)
Do you want heart-warming news, fellow Southrons?  Well, there it is, in those quotation marks:  Not only does the South have her own guardian angel, but Dixie is well-nigh full of them – an angel for the whole of us, an angel for each State, an angel for each county, parish, town, hamlet, forest, river, creek, and field.
 
For faithful Southerners seeking victory over the fallen passions, seeking healing of soul and body, and freedom from foes seen and unseen, this is encouraging to know.  For God has bidden the angels to help us in all these things.
 
The Holy Apostle Paul, his disciple St Dionysius the Areopagite, and other holy men and women reveal the mysteries of the angelic realm to us – the nine ranks of angels, their appointed duties, etc.  For example:
The THRONES (Col 1:16) stand after the Cherubim, mysteriously and incomprehensibly bearing God through the grace given them for their service. They are ministers of God’s justice, giving to tribunals, kings, etc. the capacity for righteous judgment.
 . . .
 
DOMINIONS (Col 1:16) hold dominion over the angels subject to them. They instruct the earthly authorities, established by God, to rule wisely, and to govern their lands well. The Dominions teach us to subdue sinful impulses, to subject the flesh to the spirit, to master our will, and to conquer temptation. 
 . . .
 
PRINCIPALITIES (Col 1:16) have command over the lower angels, instructing them in the fulfilling of God’s commands. They watch over the world and protect lands, nations and peoples. Principalities instruct people to render proper honor to those in authority, as befits their station. They teach those in authority to use their position, not for personal glory and gain, but to honor God, and to spread word of Him, for the benefit of those under them.
​Of particular interest to the South in these times when the enemies of God have become quite strong is the Archangel Michael:
Over all the Nine Ranks, the Lord appointed the Holy Archangel Michael (his name in Hebrew means “who is like unto God”), the faithful servitor of God, as Chief Commander. He cast down from Heaven the arrogantly proud Lucifer and the other fallen spirits when they rebelled against God. Michael summoned the ranks of angels and cried out, “Let us attend! Let us stand aright before our Creator and do not consider doing what is displeasing unto God!”​

According to Church Tradition, and in the church services to the Archangel Michael, he participated in many other Old Testament events.
​And in the New Dispensation of the Risen Lord Jesus, there are events like this:
From ancient times the Archangel Michael was famed for his miracles in Rus. In the Volokolamsk Paterikon is a narrative of Saint Paphnutius of Borov with an account of Tatar tax-gatherers concerning the miraculous saving of Novgorod the Great: “Therefore Great Novgorod was never taken by the Hagarenes... when... for our sins the godless Hagarene emperor Batu devoured and set the Russian land aflame and came to Novgorod, and God and the Most Holy Theotokos shielded it with an appearance of Michael the Archangel, who forbade him to enter into it. He [Batu] was come to the Lithuanian city and came toward Kiev and saw the stone church, over the doors of which the great Archangel Michael had written and spoken to the prince his allotted fate, ‘By this we have forbidden you entry into Great Novgorod’.”
It is altogether a very natural and fitting thing, then, for Dixie to ask St Michael to come to our aid:  ‘We invoke Saint Michael for protection from invasion by enemies and from civil war, and for the defeat of adversaries on the field of battle. He conquers all spiritual enemies.’
 
This is the key, though – We must ask.  The Lord and His holy saints and angels are perfectly willing, and ready, to help us (and they do help us in many ways without our knowledge or our request because of their perfect love), but if we do not ask, we will not get much aid from them.  Our Lord told us this in His Sermon on the Mount:  ‘Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened’ (St Matthew’s Gospel 7:7-8).
 
Nothing will be given, found, or opened unless we ask, seek, and knock.  Thus, we mustn’t be slack in our prayers to St Michael if we want to receive help from him.  The Akathist Hymn to St Michael contains this wonderful prayer (given here only in part) with which Dixie may beseech the Holy Archangel:
O holy and great Archangel of God Michael, first among the angels that stand before the inscrutable and transcen­dent Trinity, overseer and guardian of the human race, who with thine armies didst crush the head of the most-proud Morning Star in Heaven and dost ever put to shame his evil and cunning on earth, to thee do we flee with faith and to thee we pray with love; be thou an invincible shield and a firm bulwark of the Holy Church and our homeland, pro­tecting them with thy lightning-bearing sword from all ene­mies, both visible and invisible.  . . .  And leave not without thy help and protection, O Archangel of God, also us who glorify thy holy name today; for behold, even though we be great sinners, nevertheless we desire not to perish in our iniquities, but rather to turn to the Lord and be quickened by Him unto good works. Illumine, therefore, our minds with the light of God's countenance, which con­tinually shineth on thy lightning-like forehead, that we may understand what the good and perfect will of God is con­cerning us, and know all that which we ought to do, and that which we ought to despise and abandon.  . . .
​At then end of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, a compilation he put together in the 4th century, there are these words:
​He who rose again from the dead, Christ our true God, --through the intercessions of his all immaculate and all-blameless Holy Mother, (by the might of the precious and life-giving Cross; by the protections of the Honorable Bodiless Powers of heaven; at the supplication of the Honorable, glorious Prophet, Fore-runner and Baptist John; of the Holy, glorious, and all-laudable Apostles; of the Holy, glorious and right-victorious Martyrs; of our venerable and God-fearing Fathers; the Holy and righteous ancestors of God, Joachim an Anna;) of Saint(s) (N. NN.), whose memory we celebrate, and of all the Saints, have mercy upon us and save us, for as much as He is good and loveth mankind.
 
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us.

​And this echoes the words of St Paul:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel (Letter to the Hebrews 12:22-24).
Such is the covering, such is the armor, such is the protection that Dixie can and should put on – Christ, His Most Pure Mother, the Cross, the angelic powers, the Apostles, and all the saints. 
 
Especially in this context, let us hymn, exalt, and pray to St Michael the Archangel, that the Lord would save the South from all her spiritual and physical enemies.
 
As with St Alfred on Oct. 26th and St Andrew on Nov. 30th, it would be well for us to sing the Akathist Hymn to St Michael together as a people on Nov. 8th. 
 
I look forward to being with you all in spirit on that day as well!
 
In addition, one could also pray to the Guardian Angels of the South using this Akathist hymn or this canon, substituting ‘Dixie’ or the names of States, towns, neighborhoods, schools, churches, etc., where needed.

(Thanks to Perrin Lovett for pulling my attention in the direction of the Archangel Michael.)
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How Can Dixie Recover Her Independence?

11/17/2022

9 Comments

 
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​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!
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What Will Be at the End of the South’s Dark Night?

10/16/2022

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​The South is undoubtedly passing through a hellish time on earth, where all traces of her past culture are being expunged from existence and her people forced to adopt foreign and ruinous ideologies and practices.  Not even Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery are allowed to have a memorial in their honor any longer.  It is times like this that make the lives of the Christian martyrs so essential for her to read and dwell and act upon.  The lives of two warrior-princes, David and Constantine, are especially relevant for Southerners who are striving to defend and live the ways of their ancestors, for these two martyrs also lived in very dark times:
The 8th century was extremely difficult for the Georgian people. Marwan bin Muhammad (called “the Deaf” by the Georgians and “the Blind” by the Armenians), the Persian ruler and military leader for the Arab caliph, invaded eastern parts of the Byzantine Empire, then Armenia and Georgia.​

With fire and the sword he fought his way across Georgia from the east to the city of Tskhumi (now Sokhumi) in the region of Abkhazeti.
​Like Southerners of various sorts through the years who have fought to protect the fatherland from ravaging foes – whether false teachings like Unitarianism and evolution or actual physical foes like Yankee troops – the holy princes David and Constantine were able for a time to defeat the invaders, but later suffered an overwhelming defeat:
The princes David and Constantine Mkheidze of Argveti were faithful Christians and skilled military leaders. When they heard about the enemy’s invasion, the brothers prayed to God for protection, assembled their armies, and urged their people to pray fervently for God’s help.

The Persian warriors approached Argveti from Samtskhe and attacked the Georgians on Persati Mountain. The Georgian army won the battle, with David and Constantine leading the resistance against the fearsome conquerors.​

But before long the enraged Marwan the Deaf gathered an enormous army and marched toward Argveti to take revenge. This time the enemy routed the Georgian army. Many were killed and those who survived were forced to flee to the forests. The commanders David and Constantine were taken captive.
​The South, we may say, is in captivity, the same that David and Constantine underwent at the hands of Marwan the Deaf.  The parallel between the Georgians ‘fleeing to the forests’ and the Southern writer Donald Davidson’s poem ‘Sanctuary’ is worth taking note of:
You must remember this when I am gone,
And tell your sons—for you will have tall sons,
And times will come when answers will not wait.
Remember this: if ever defeat is black
Upon your eyelids, go to the wilderness
In the dread last of trouble, for your foe
Tangles there, more than you, and paths are strange
To him, that are your paths, in the wilderness,
And were your fathers' paths, and once were mine.
​The response of David and Constantine to their situation is instructive for Dixie:
​The Persian soldiers bound David and Constantine and brought them before Marwan the Deaf, who began to mock them. But they reacted with complete composure, saying, “Your laughter and boasting are in vain, since earthly glory is fleeting and soon fades away. It is not your valor that has captured us, but our own sins. For the atonement of these sins have we fallen into the hands of the godless enemy!”
The Southern generation that lived through the War with the North was able to say what the two Georgians said, that Southern sins led to their defeat. But modern Southrons seem to lack this humility.  Are we prolonging our time stumbling and drifting through the Yankee wilderness because of this?  But there is more:
The furious Marwan ordered that the brothers be beaten without mercy, but they steadfastly endured the suffering. Stunned by the brothers’ resolve, Marwan decided to win them over with flattery instead. Promising him great honors and command of the armies, he turned to the older brother, David, saying, “I have heard of your valor, and I advise you to abandon your erroneous faith and submit yourself to the faith of Muhammad!”​

St. David crossed himself and answered, “Let not this disgrace come upon us, that we would depart from the light and draw nearer to the darkness!” Then he condemned the error of the Islamic faith: “Muhammad converted you from the worship of fire, but he could not instill in you the knowledge of the True God. Therefore it appears as though you suffered a shipwreck and saved yourselves from the depths of the sea, but drowned in the shallow waters of the coast.”

Enraged at this reply, Marwan turned to the younger brother, Constantine, hoping to win him over to his side. But Constantine was also unbending, and he fearlessly glorified the Most Holy Trinity: “My brother David and I believe and follow the one Faith and one doctrine in which we have been instructed. Our faith is in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and we will die for the sake of the One True God!”

Marwan ordered that the brothers be starved to death. After they had suffered for ten days, Marwan sent sorcerers and charmers to arouse in them a desire to convert to Islam, but their efforts were in vain.
​Like the brothers, Dixie was ‘beaten without mercy’ during so-called Reconstruction, and also like them, they ‘steadfastly endured the suffering’ and ‘stunned’ their Yankee abusers.  And, again, similar to Marwan, the Yanks (and now the globalists) then resorted to flattery, sorcery, and charms (in the form of access to Elite circles, teaching of heretical ideas like American exceptionalism in public schools, promises of unending economic improvement, etc.), which, alas, have worked here at the South, causing many to renounce the good, long-established ways of their mothers and fathers.  We are ‘drowning in the shallow waters of the coast’ in Yankee errors like fundamentalism and pantheism.  The antidote, of course, is the profession of faith in the ‘One True God’ – the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by which David and Constantine overcame the wiles of their enemies, the faith toward which Southerners were once much more inclined.
 
This confession of faith may cause more suffering or even death for Southrons; it certainly brought that upon the brothers:
​Finally the holy brothers David and Constantine were led to the riverbank near the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. There they were brutally beaten and bound. Heavy rocks were hung from their necks, and they were drowned in the river.
​But death is not the end, by the Grace of God; after suffering comes glorification (continuing the pattern begun by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself with His suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming), though that too may take many years to come to full fruition:
That night three beams of light descended from the heavens and lit up the place where the brothers had been drowned. According to God’s holy will, the ropes binding the holy martyrs were loosed, and their bodies floated to the surface. A group of faithful Christians carried them out of the river and buried them on the bank of the Tsqaltsitela River, in a church that Marwan the Deaf had devastated.​

The place of their burial remained concealed until the beginning of the 12th century, during the reign of King Bagrat the Great (1072-1117). Then, in fulfillment of King Bagrat’s decree, the Monastery of the Martyrs (Motsameta) [worth reading about itself—W.G.] was built over that place, and the incorrupt relics of the Great Martyrs are still preserved there.
​It may be some time yet, but let Southerners not lose heart that with deep repentance, steadfast faith in the One True God, unshakeable resolve before their enemies, and help from martyrs like Sts David and Constantine (who pray to God from His holy altar, Rev. 6:9-10), Dixie will also see her enemies defeated, her culture resurrected, and her heroes honored. 
 
Apart from that, what can she expect but her descent into another circle of Dante’s Inferno, the circle of Woke hell?
Notes:
All quotes about the life of Sts David and Constantine are from this web page.

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Why Keep Fighting for Dixie?

10/1/2022

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​The pressures to conform to the woke religion are enormous and widespread.  Institutions small and large, public and private – from school boards to the US Army; from Major League Baseball to US ambassadors – are attempting to force men, women, and children to accept un-Christian, unhistorical, untruthful ideologies about the sexes, about equality, about the climate, etc.
 
The South continues to be a target of the revolutionary reformers, a people whose culture must be demonized and destroyed in order for ‘progress’ to come nigh unto them and touch them with its precious hands.
 
It would surely be easier for faithful Southerners to simply give in to the pressures bearing down upon them, more sensible to accept our place in the technocratic order as sources of experimentation, exploitation, data, and revenue for the Pfizers, Amazons, and BlackRocks of the world.
 
Many unfortunately have faltered under the psychological, economic, etc., weight placed upon them.  But for those who have not, it is imperative that they remain unreconstructed, that they resist no matter the cost, that their fidelity to Dixie never waver.  The story of Queen Ketevan of Georgia (+1624) illustrates why this is crucial.
 
The country of Georgia has suffered many devastating invasions over her long history as a Christian people (her baptism came in the 4th century).  One particularly destructive incursion came early in the 17th century at the hands of Muslims under Shah Abbas I of Persia.  Desiring to extend his rule over the Georgian people, he launched a brutal assault:
​With fire and the sword the godless ruler plundered all of Georgia. The royal palace was razed, churches and monasteries were destroyed, and entire villages were abandoned. By order of the shah, more than three hundred thousand Georgians were exiled to Persia, and their homes were occupied by Turkic tribes from Central Asia. Hunger and violence reigned over Georgia.
​This is reminiscent of what many parts of Dixie suffered from Lincoln’s Army and from ‘Reconstruction’.  But Queen Ketevan did not despair despite these woeful circumstances, and neither should Dixie’s faithful sons and daughters as new battles rage within her between the woke and those who quite happily remain unwoke:
Queen Ketevan spent ten years in prison, praying for her motherland and loved ones with all her might and adhering to a strict ascetic regime. Constant fasting, prayer and a stone bed exhausted her previously pampered body, but in spirit she was courageous and full of vitality. She looked after those assigned to her care and instructed them in the spiritual life.
​When the Shah pressed her to renounce her traditions, to accept Islam, to marry him, and enjoy bountiful and comfortable living, she flatly refused, and this had a tremendous impact on the Georgian people:
​According to one foreign observer, her steadfastness delayed the Islamization of the Georgians in Persia: “In the course of a conversation at the court of Shah Abbas, where a young and recently converted Georgian was present, the question arose as to why it was that, while all young Georgians were forced to embrace Islam, their mothers were not. The explanation given by one of those present was that since the Queen would not change her faith Georgian mothers likewise refused.” (Z. Avalishvili, “Teimuraz I and His Poem ‘The Martyrdom of Queen Ketevan,’” Georgica [vol I, no. 4/5, 1937] pp. 22.)
​That is why it is vital for faithful Southerners never to give in to the Godless regime that holds sway today:  to encourage other Southerners individually to hold out, to withstand, to resist, no matter how overwhelming the opposing forces appear.  And it could also be that some new Joan of Arc will be inspired by seeing or hearing about a faithful Southron, and go on to lead Dixie collectively out of spiritual and/or physical captivity.
 
The immediate results of resistance may be disheartening at first glance, as Queen Ketevan’s may have looked to her people:
​Queen Ketevan was robed in festive attire and led out to a crowded square. Her persecutors subjected her to indescribable torment: they placed a red-hot copper cauldron on her head, tore at her chest with heated tongs, pierced her body with glowing spears, tore off her fingernails, nailed a board to her spine, and finally split her forehead with a red-hot spade. Saint Ketevan’s soul departed from her body, and the executioners cast her mutilated body to the beasts. 
​Yet the Most Holy Trinity will raise up the downtrodden and despairing through the presence and working of His Grace, whether manifesting internally or externally (or both) – But the Lord God sent a miracle: her holy relics were illumined with a radiant light.

​We do not know with certainty what lies ahead for Dixie, but recent events do not point to a calm, rosy future.  It is incumbent upon true Southerners, then, to preserve as much of their patrimony as they can so they might through it both awaken their misguided kinsmen from their phantasies about Yankee/American/globalist utopias as well as have a real community to offer them to rejoin if/when they do wake up.
 
But if they still refuse the good, old ways of our forefathers and mothers and attack us in cold blood, at least we will have the privilege of dying like the martyrs and can look forward to receiving an imperishable crown from Christ our Savior and perhaps also receiving some affection at our burial here on the earth, as our bodies join our Southern forebears’ in Dixie’s pleasant soil and our souls journey to meet theirs in the heavenly realm:
​Teimuraz wept bitterly for his mother [St Ketevan] and sons and buried the relics with great honor in the Alaverdi Cathedral of Saint George.
 
Your holy martyr Ketevan, O Lord, / through her sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. / For having Your strength, she laid low her adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons (from a hymn in honor of St Ketevan).

Notes:
All quotations about the life of the Holy Martyr Queen Ketevan are from this web page: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2022/09/13/102608-greatmartyr-ketevan-queen-of-georgia
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Whom Will We Serve, the Free Market or Christ?

9/10/2022

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U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (4th District, La.) said something in reply to the furor that erupted over his commentary on Little Demon that deserves some commentary of its own: ​
Disney and FX have made a decision to embrace and market what is plainly and obviously evil. We the people have the freedom to call it out and to decide what we want to do about it. I am encouraged that many millions of families are taking a stand over this, that countless many have committed to part ways with the companies responsible for the new series, and that some concerned citizens (like OneMillionMoms.com) have created an online petition to try to stop it. ​

That is the beauty of America, y’all. We have the right to debate and disagree and take appropriate action in the free marketplace when our consciences compel us to do so. And you know what’s most ironic here? That precious freedom we enjoy—those inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—are given to us by God. We should exercise that freedom responsibly. And we ought to honor Him for it. 
The implication is that it is just fine to have explicitly evil ‘entertainment’ being broadcast over the public airwaves as long as Christians have the ability to voice their objections to it. 

But this raises a very serious question:  What is the highest aim of our society?  Maintaining an amoral freedom with no responsibility to any traditional religious values?  Or a society where as many people as possible know the freedom that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Body the Church? 

If we choose the first, we undermine the Church as well as many of the freedoms that we have enjoyed for centuries.  Without the principles of Christianity acting as guardrails in the marketplace of ideas, if Christianity is simply one of many voices in that marketplace, other principles will become dominant, and they won’t be as generous and merciful as what we have known heretofore.  Mary Harrington acknowledges that this is already unfolding in the West: ​

A couple of years ago, Adam Garfinkle made this case, in an essay examining the decline in “deep literacy” following the arrival of the internet. Delving into the interlocking histories of print, Christianity and democracy, the author argued that all three of these combined to create a particular type of subject well-suited to democratic governance. And, he suggests, the principal means by which such democratic subjects were shaped was long-form reading. 

 . . .  

If “deep reading” produced democracy as its governing political form, what can we expect to see associated with its networked digital successor? As Garfinkle sees it, this would probably be toward “a less abstract, re-personalized form of social and political authority concentrated in a ‘great’ authoritarian leader”. 

We may already be seeing this borne out. On this side of the pond, research by the think tank UK Onward revealed support for democratic norms falling with every generation, but then plunging sharply among those under 44. Notably, Onward’s data also show that after an authoritarian spike across the board, that coincided with Covid, every demographic has returned to more or less their previous dislike of strongman leadership — again, except those under 44. 

And these trends are not just observable in Britain. Most young Western people are more authoritarian than their elders.  . . .  

We can also kiss goodbye to the “marketplace of ideas”. This might have seemed plausible when everyone aspired to long-form, deliberative, rationalism and a broadly shared moral framework. When these are things of the past, we all absorb disaggregated, de-contextualised snippets of information at speed, our reading material rewards us for not concentrating long enough to think something through, and we can see everyone else thinking in real time on our screens? 

Well, it turns out that this makes “the marketplace of ideas” much more volatile, infectious, and politicised, and accordingly less willing to notice politically inconvenient facts. That is, less a vector for collective truth-seeking than an accelerant for conspiracy fantasy, purity spirals and unhinged meme wars. And this is chipping away at faith in the capacity of debate to make anything better. 
If we choose the second option, aiming for a society of Christians, then that will necessarily entail us putting limits on what can enter and move about freely in the marketplace of ideas.  Whatever undermines the Church would have to be excluded or strictly limited; shows like Little Demon would have to be banned. 

Louisiana, thanks be to God, actually took a good step in the direction of Christian limits of the marketplace by passing and enacting Rep. Laurie Schlegel’s HB 142, which ‘would create a “civil cause of action against commercial entities that publish and distribute material for minors on the internet that don't verify the age of their users first.” In other words, Louisiana parents would be able to sue entities that distribute sexually explicit material for damages if the entity failed to take legitimate steps to verify the age of its users.’ 

In the debate surrounding this law, the same question of primacy arose:  Is the marketplace itself the highest good, or does the marketplace exist to serve some higher principle?  The La. State Legislature and Gov. Edwards (surprisingly!) responded correctly in favor of the latter: ​​
Morell recognizes the responsibility of parents to protect their children from social-media and pornography addictions, but also points to social phenomena that demand a legal response: 

‘Even if you do stay strong in this [home] environment, and keep your own kids off them, the whole social environment of their class or school is really affected by these kids using the social media apps… A collective solution is needed to say, "Yes, there are certain things that should be left to parents, but as a society, we recognize that when something is dangerous or harmful to children, we haven't left that to individual parents who said we should bar kids from something because it's harmful."’ 
The passage of HB 142 is praiseworthy, but the questions raised above remain largely neglected.   

There can be no doubt, however, that the rich fruits of a Christian culture – the virtues (love, joy, peace, patience; forgiveness, second chances
; fearlessness in the face of death; etc.), the
arts (hymns, architecture, paintings, literature, and more besides), and the Saints – do not grow from the wild tree, the morally neutral and unregulated market.  If we want those blessings, we must cherish and nurture the Church more than the nihilistic free market. 

There are countries in the world that are doing exactly that, like Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Hungary.  We hope the rising generation of leaders here in the States, and in the South especially – which has shown more faithfulness to Christianity than the other cultural regions of the U. S. – Rep. Johnson (La.), Gov. DeSantis (Fl.), Attorney General Landry (La.), Treasurer Moore (W. Vir.), J. D. Vance (Ohio), and others, will pay special attention to leaders like Orban and to Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, whose speech in honor of Orban will make for appropriate closing material for all of us to dwell further upon (via the good folks at Chronicles): ​

Patriarch Porfirije started his address by noting that each individual and each community lives according to its own value system. With these values, he said, they organize private, social, and cultural life, form public morality, set priorities and standards, build relationships with others, and nurture their authentic identity: 

‘Today, however, we are faced with waves of new value systems that are often aggressively imposed on a global scale with the aim of eradicating every existing natural and civilizational order, to establish a new paradigm. In this vortex, the intention is to destroy the foundations of identity and the very pillars of individuals and communities, to make everything relative, fragile, and fluid. You, on the other hand, stand for the Christian value system that springs from the Gospel, which God established. These are the values that created both the Hungarian and the Serbian people, the values that created Europe as we knew it until yesterday, as we lived in it until yesterday. In that we are the same; there is no difference between us.’ 

The Patriarch pointed out that very few public figures use the words God, faith in God, the Church, spirituality, Christian values, the unity of all Christians, or the mission of the Church in their political vocabulary but that Orbán does so regularly: 

‘The word “soul,” otherwise completely forgotten in contemporary discourse, is present in your public statements and in your commitment. Specifically, the phrase “the struggle for the soul of Europe” confirms your uniqueness. These words, when you say them, are not political platitudes, demagogic phrases to win votes. No! You, Mr. Orbán, live as you speak. That is why you are a statesman who deserves the trust of your people. That is why the eyes of many other Europeans are often turned towards you, Your Excellency. And my Orthodox Serbian people listen carefully to the position you take on any issue, especially the most difficult social, economic, and even political problems of our time, which shake Europe and the modern world.’ 

The Patriarch concluded by stating that the relations between the Hungarians and the Serbs today are the best they have been for centuries and that Orbán additionally deserved the award for his contribution to the excellent relations between the two nations: 

‘We invoke God’s blessing on your Hungarian people. We pray to God for you, Mr. Orbán, for your associates, and especially for your family. May Christ the Lord, through the prayers of Saint Sava of Serbia and Saint Stephen, King of Hungary, preserve and improve the harmony of Hungarians and Serbs for many blessed years.’ 

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Darya Dugin:  In Memoriam (Poetry)

9/3/2022

3 Comments

 
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​A youthful sunflower,
   Golden, beaming,
Standing with your father
   Proudly musing,
Cut down by coward’s hand
   With hidden bomb,
IED assassin
   Riding along
In your car – explosion,
   Mangled body
Burned past recognition –
   Latest Yankee
Victim, another corpse
Without remorse
Thrown upon the heap –
Millions, for the glory
Of America, slaughtered
On the unholy altar
Of a false belief
In its superiority.
City on a hill?
Rather, a haunt of jackals
And a hive for demons,
Men without reason,
The coagulation of evil on the earth.
When will You free us from its grasp, O our Savior?

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The Weapons of Our Warfare

8/20/2022

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​Folks in the States got another big hint recently of the totalitarian direction Washington City is headed with the raid on President Trump’s home in Florida.
 
Southerners who remember even a sliver of their history will understand that this is simply the post-Lincoln federal government reverting to type, as a review of the rule of the Yankee General Benjamin Butler in New Orleans in 1862 alone illustrates.
 
But if folks need other examples of what lies at the end of this sort of injustice, we offer one from the much-suffering nation of Georgia from the 20th century under the communists:
On August 14, 1924, a delegation from the village of Simoneti came to the metropolitan to request that he consecrate their local church. At the appointed time, the metropolitan arrived in Simoneti with his retinue and consecrated the church. That night, a group of Chekists (Soviet security agents) broke into the house where Metropolitan Nazarius and his entourage were staying, bound and beat them, and then dragged them to the village council. Without an investigation, the Troika (a Soviet extraordinary council of three judges) sentenced to death Metropolitan Nazarius and four other clergymen—Priest Herman Jajanidze, Priest Hierotheos Nikoladze, Priest Simon Mchedlidze, and Archdeacon Besarion Kukhianidze. A layman, Axalmotsameni, was also sentenced to death. They were shot to death in the Sapichkhia Forest.
This is the kind of benevolence that is waiting for Southerners and others in the States who do not give their allegiance to the Leftist/globalist/Marxist elite who have taken over Washington and many other powerful institutions in the [u.] S.
 
And while it is important to remain engaged in the existing political processes so that we can do what good we can in that arena, politics is ultimately only the outer manifestation of deeper spiritual processes.  We are not, therefore, going to defeat our inhuman, transhumanist, Marxist opponents simply with constitutional amendments, with revisions to the law code, and those kinds of things.  To overcome a demonic ideology, we must use weapons commensurate with the battle, which is at its root a spiritual battle.  Therefore, our main weapon will be the very thing that annihilated the power of the devil and his demons over mankind:  the Holy Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Its power has been manifested over and over again in history:
In ancient times, a severe pestilence broke out in Constantinople, the capital of the Greek state, which claimed many human lives. After the Wood of the Cross of the Lord was carried through the streets of the capital with prayers and the sprinkling of buildings and homes with holy water at the request of the faithful, the deadly disease stopped, and all Christians offered the deepest thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
--Archimandrite Kirill (+2017)
​St Ephraim the Syrian (+373) urges Christians to always do the following:
Instead of a shield, protect yourself with the True Holy Cross, marking your limbs and heart with it. Use the sign of the cross to overshadow yourself not only with your hand, but also in your thoughts mark with it your every occupation at the times: your arrival and your departure, your resting and rising, your bed, and whatever service you go through – first cross everything in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This weapon is very strong, and no one can ever harm you if you are protected by it.
​And perhaps most to the point is this account from the life of St Oswald, King of Northumbria (+642):
The place is shown to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald, being about to engage in this battle, erected the symbol of the Holy Cross, and knelt down and prayed to God that he would send help from Heaven to his worshippers in their sore need. Then, we are told, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be set up, the king himself, in the ardour of his faith, laid hold of it and held it upright with both his hands, till the earth was heaped up by the soldiers and it was fixed. Thereupon, uplifting his voice, he cried to his whole army, “Let us all kneel, and together beseech the true and living God Almighty in His mercy to defend us from the proud and cruel enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.” All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved (St Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England1, Book III, Ch. II, p. 136).
A similar spirit was within the Southern army as they fought against the invading Northern revolutionaries, as recounted by Richard Weaver in The Confederate South, 1865-1910 (later published as The Southern Tradition at Bay):
​ . . . the Southern people reached the eve of the Civil War almost untouched by the great currents of rationalism and skepticism, and their allegiance to the older religiousness was reflected in their fighting men.  Into the strange personnel of the Confederate Army, out of “regions that sat in darkness,” poured fighting bishops and prayer-holding generals, and through it swept waves of intense religious enthusiasm long lost to history (LSU dissertation, 1943, p. 96, PDF version).
​In other words, holiness matters.  Not the prideful arrogance of the Yanks and their near-of-kin, the globalists, that masquerades as holiness, but true holiness – the kind that arises when the Grace of God penetrates even into the muscles and the bones, to use the words of one of St John Chrysostom’s prayers.  And we carry it with us when we go about our business in the world, and even into the military battles we fight, and with it we are able to conquer our foes:
​Sennuphius was a great ascetic and wonderworker of the Egyptian desert. He was a contemporary of Patriarch Theophilus and Emperor Theodosius the Great. He is called the "Standard-bearer" because by his prayers he once helped Emperor Theodosius to gain a victory over the army of his adversaries. When the emperor summoned Sennuphius to Constantinople, Sennuphius replied that he was unable to do so but sent him his tattered monastic habit and staff. Setting out to battle the emperor donned Sennuphius' monastic habit and carried the staff and returned victorious from battle.
This we also see again and again in Church history – the presence of holy men and women, or their prayers, or the presence of some other holy object, turning the tide in battle for the Christians.  Archimandrite Kirill added to what he said above about the Holy Cross:
Later, another significant event was added to this miracle, namely that by carrying icons of the Savior and the Mother of God before his soldiers, the Orthodox Greek Emperor Manuel defeated the Saracens. At the same time, the Orthodox Russian Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky also defeated the Volga Bulgarians, carrying icons of the Savior and Mother of God. That these victories were won by a supernatural power was testified to by the Heavenly radiance emanating from the icons, illuminating the people who were there. 
​All of this fits quite well into the Southerner’s religious milieu.  Quoting Professor Weaver again:
Whether he was a Virginia Episcopalian, dozing in comfortable dogmatic slumber, or a Celt, transplanted to the Appalachian wilderness and responding to the wild emotionalism of the religious rally, he wanted the older religion of dreams and drunkenness – something akin to the rituals of the Medieval Church, and to the mystic celebrations of the ancients (The Confederate South, p. 97)
​Mundane politics will have its role to play in freeing the South from wokeness, Yankee imperial dreams, and the rest of those harmful ideologies and systems, but by itself it is quite impotent.  Only when the Southern people, armed with the Holy Cross of Christ, full of His Grace, carrying the icons of the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, singing the Psalms and other hymns – in our homes and in our churches, in our neighborhoods and about our towns – only then will we be able to crush the demons who provide the strength of Dixie’s enemies.  And that will enable victories on the other fronts of our battle:  cultural, political, etc.
 
To our enemies and other outsiders, we may well look ridiculous, weak, and foolish as we do these things.  However, the Holy Apostle Paul reminds us of something we must never forget:
 
‘ . . . the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men’ (I Corinthians 1:25).
 
Deo vindice!

Notes:
1 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org
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Leadership and Culture Creation

7/31/2022

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Christ Church in Weems, VA

​We have perhaps imbibed a little too heavily of the libertarian likker here at the South of late, believing naively that when a need arises, ‘the market’ will spontaneously act to meet that need.  This is not an ironclad law by any means.  Especially when it comes to the creation and preservation of a people’s culture, strong leadership that is willing to undergo hardships and sacrifices, rather than acquiesce to the soft seductions of monetary profits and related interests, is often needed.
 
Serbian and Southern history again intertwine to illustrate this for us.  We begin with Stefan Lazarevic (+1427; also called Stefan the Tall), the son of the Great Martyr at the Battle of Kosovo Polje, Prince Lazar (+1389).  Serbia had been crushed by the Muslim Turks; if decisive action were not taken, Serbia’s Christian identity itself was at risk of being lost.  Thankfully for the Serbian people, the very young Stefan did not shrink back but took upon himself the difficult task of putting the shattered pieces of the Serbian ethnos back together again:
Already as a thirteen-year-old, by coincidence, he began his ruling career. And the task is too difficult - Serbia with great material and human sacrifices, in which there is powerlessness and general fear of the Turkish invasion.
 
The surviving nobles retreated to their territories without wanting to take care of the population.
 
In such circumstances and with the wholehearted help of his mother, Stefan matured as a person, statesman and warrior.  . . .
 
As an Ottoman vassal, Stefan led Serbian detachments in the battles of Rovine, near Nikopolje and Angora.
 
The Battle of Angora in 1402 was a heavy defeat for the Ottoman forces, but also the place where Stefan's warrior skills shone the most. After her, he received the title of despot.
 
The writer Aleksandar Tešić, the author of the novel about despot Stefan "The one who taught darkness to shine", says:
 
"After this battle, the fame of despot Stefan spread far and wide. Everyone admired him like a warrior. Even the Mongols "took off his hat". On the other hand, in the battle of Angora, Sultan Bayezid was captured and soon died, and there was a statement by despot Stefan that it was his happiest day because he freed himself from Bayezid's shackles."
​A parallel may be seen in the way Dixie had to pull herself together after falling to the Yanks in the War:
William G. “Parson” Brownlow was a Tennessee Unionist who did not discriminate between black Africans and white Southerners; he hated both equally. After the war, Brownlow was elected Tennessee Governor in an election in which only other white Unionists were allowed to vote. Of Southern whites Governor Brownlow decreed, “Let them be exterminated,” and called on the federal government to “make the entire South as God formed the earth, without form or void.” In turn, Forrest responded, “If they bring this war upon us, there is one thing I will tell you – that I shall not shoot any negroes so long as I can see a white Radical to shoot, for it is the Radicals who will be to blame for bringing on this war.” When Brownlow went to the U.S. Senate and Clinton DeWitt Senter (a more moderate Tennessee Unionist) took his place as Governor, Senter ceased his predecessor’s apocalyptic threats, disbanded the militia, and promised to restore suffrage to former Confederates. Forrest considered the Klan’s mission accomplished and ordered its disbandment. “There was no further need for it,” he explained. “The country was safe.” - James R. Roesch
​But a leader’s work does not end simply because the clash of swords has ceased.  The well-being of a people is not secure without the protection and enhancement of their cultural edifice.  Just as a man needs a home to dwell in, so a community of men needs a culture to live within.
 
St Stefan’s example is helpful and very multifaceted:
Deeply aware of the delicate position of small Serbia among the great ones, in 1403 Despot Stefan became a vassal of the Hungarian King Sigismund. However, in exchange for that, Serbia got its "white city", Belgrade became an integral part of Serbia and its capital.
 
Until that time, Belgrade was a ruined, abandoned and "haunted" city. The despot took care of him and ruled in him for about 15 years. There he also built a church dedicated to the Mother of God, the protector of both him and Belgrade. The newly created capital proclaimed the Ascension of the Lord - Savior's Day - as its SLAVA, and that has not changed to this day.
 
Thanks to his exceptional skill in governing, Despot Stefan broke the resistance of the authorities, and he used the periods of peace to strengthen Serbia in political, economic, cultural and military terms.
 
 . . .
 
It would be difficult to find a more versatile and educated ruler in Serbian history than despot Stefan. But he also has an exceptional place in the history of Serbian medieval literature.
 
This ruler of a fervent soul wrote "The Word of Love" (Slovo ljubve), one of the most beautiful and most discreet poetic works in the Serbian language. That anthem of love was created in the time of short-term freedom, when the time of vassalship passed. The "Slovo ljubve " or "Word of love" consists of ten parts (stanzas), whose initial letters give its name to the so-called acrostic.
 . . .
 
The great enlightening role of despot Stefan is best reflected in the founding of the monastic transcription school in his endowment Manasija, which at that time was unique in the Balkans and culturally important not only for Serbia but for all other Slavic peoples in Europe.
 
In that school, not only various significant modern Byzantine church and secular works were translated from Greek, but also corrections of many previously translated such books were made, through which mistakes made either due to insufficient knowledge of the Greek language or due to disorder of old Serbian orthography were corrected.
 
He ordered his biographer Constantine the philosopher to create a grammar of the Serbian language better known as "Skazanije o pismenih" (A Tale of Letters).
​We see the same activity in the older generations of the South.  Robert ‘King’ Carter of colonial Virginia, and his father, John, built the famous Christ Church in the 17th century, which still stands.
 
Nineteenth-century Louisiana produced two notable examples of cultural crafting in Francois Valcour Aimé and Charles Gayarré.
 
Among the acts of Mr Aimé are these:
Aime donated money as well as a pair of large silver candlesticks and a set of the Stations of the Cross to St. James Catholic Church. In 1859 Aime purchased and reopened Jefferson College for $20,000 and established a governing board of directors comprised of his four sons-in-law: Florent Fortier, Alexis Ferry, Septime Fortier, and Alfred Roman. Aime constructed a Gothic chapel on the campus dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in memory of Gabriel and Felicie.
 
 . . .
 
In 1864 Aime transferred Jefferson College to the Society of Mary, re-creating it as the first Marist college in the United States. 

​About Mr Gayarré, we find that he contributed the following:
New Orleans native Charles Gayarré wrote the first complete history of Louisiana: a four-volume series entitled Louisiana History (1866). Originally written in French, his study focused on the region’s domination by France, Spain, and then the United States. Many of the components for this work came out of public lectures that Gayarré began giving in the 1840s. He also wrote and published other histories, political tracts, government reports, plays, novels, biographies, and articles in numerous journals, establishing himself as one of Louisiana’s literary pioneers.
 
 . . . At his death on February 11, 1895, Gayarré was poor but well respected by his friends and colleagues as the father of Louisiana history and one of the state’s literary pioneers. At Gayarré’s death, [Grace] King wrote that the “early cultural history of the state” was being buried with him.

​As these and other examples show, a beautiful culture does not arise from ‘spontaneous free market forces’ any more than a beautiful, orderly cosmos arises from the random collision of individual atoms.  Focused, determined leaders willing to sacrifice their fortunes and energies, confront grief and pain, and so forth are essential.  But the allure of money, comfort, ‘fun’, and other such modernisms (not to mention the lies of Yankees and others about Southern culture) has dissipated the ability of Dixie’s folk to perpetuate the leadership needed to build and maintain such a culture.  It is all the more imperative, then, to look back into the past – our own, as well as that of other Christian countries like Serbia – to draw inspiration and practical lessons for the difficult task of re-establishing a vibrant Christian culture in our beloved Southland.
 
A great champion of Georgian national autonomy, Mr Ilia Chavchavadze (+1907; canonized as St Ilia the Righteous in 1987 by the Georgian Orthodox Church) identifies the three fundamental strands of a people’s cultural tapestry and then asks a pertinent question about them:
​Ilia the Righteous was often heard declaring, “We, the Georgian people, have inherited three divine gifts from our ancestors: our motherland, our language and our faith. If we fail to protect these gifts, what merit will we have as men?”
​This is precisely the question we must ask ourselves as Southerners.
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    Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer (and, when able, a planter). He makes his home in Louisiana and is editor of the 'Confiteri: A Southern Perspective' web site.

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