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

​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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