October 2

Home / Uncategorized / October 2
by gerryadmin

2006 Murder of five Amish children

On October 2, 2006, an employed church-going husband and loving father named Charles Carl Roberts IV entered a one-room schoolhouse in West Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and took the teacher and students hostage. After allowing some of his prisoners to leave, Roberts then lined up the remaining ten students, all girls, and began to shoot them. He killed five and wounded five others before killing himself as police broke in to the building. His suicide notes gave a variety of reasons for his actions, including a history of sexual molestation and anger at God.

What astonished the world after these deaths was the reaction of the local Amish community which reacted not with anger or frustrated calls for vengeance but with compassion for the killer and pity for his family. A spokesman said, “I don’t think there’s anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts.” Amish residents attended Roberts’s’ funeral and embraced his relatives. These extraordinary examples of Christian behaviour helped healing in the lives of all concerned. The killer’s wife, Marie Roberts, said that she and her three young children had been overwhelmed by the community support. “Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need,” she wrote. “Gifts you’ve given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. … Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you.” Terri Roberts, the killer’s mother, still volunteers to care for one of the victims, confined to a wheel-chair for life.

October 2

Home / Today in History / October 2
by gerryadmin

saladin_and_guy

1187 Saladin Captures Jerusalem

The Catholic knights of the First Crusade had taken much of the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean away from Muslim forces by 1100 and set up a number of Christian enclaves, principally the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The westerners had benefited from Islamic political divisions in the area but as the 12th century wore on, those divisions were healed and an Arab counter-attack had begun. In 1144 Edessaa fell to the Turks, prompting an unsuccessful Second Crusade that failed to return the city to Christian control.

In the person of An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known in the West as Saladin, Muslim forces in the Middle East found a powerful leader. In 1169 he conquered Egypt from the Fatimid dynasty and in 1174 he made himself master of Syria. Despite attempts to kill him by the Assassins (a Shi’ite sect) he managed to unite most of the Arab forces in a bid to oust the Crusaders from the Middle East.

On July 4, 1187 Saladin defeated a large Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin (depicted in the dreadful Hollywood film Kingdom of Heaven which you must never, ever watch if you value historical truth) taking the King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, prisoner, and massacring Templar and Hospitaller prisoners. He then moved against the city of Jerusalem and placed it under siege. Defenders under Balian of Ibelin swore to destroy sacred Islamic sites inside the city if reasonable surrender terms were not granted, so Saladin agreed to let Christians withdraw from the city on payment of a low ransom. On October 2, 1187 the city surrendered, with Saladin keeping about 15,000 Christian residents as slaves.

The fall of Jerusalem prompted the Third Crusade, led by Richard Lionheart of England who was able to defeat Saladin in battle but could not recapture the city. Saladin achieved a glowing reputation among Christians during the Middle Ages as a noble infidel. Dante placed him in Limbo along with other virtuous non-Christians such as Socrates and Plato.

October 1

Home / Uncategorized / October 1
by gerryadmin

October 1

St Theresa of Lisieux

There is nothing to say that saints have to live long and arduous lives; hagiographies are full of the tales of young people who have been canonized for flashes of sanctitude or a single action. Few saints of tender years can have had so great an influence as this French woman who died at the age of 24 after a long battle with tuberculosis.

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin (1873-97) was born into a pious middle-class family in northwestern France and decided at an early age she wished to be a nun, a resolve that strengthened when she experienced a vision of the Virgin. At 15 she entered the Discalced (Shoeless or Barefoot) Carmelites, a contemplative order of cloistered women with a house at Lisieux, Normandy which her sisters had already joined. She took the religious name Theresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. The rest of her short life she spent inside the walls of her convent, praying, serving and writing.

Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.

It is through her exposition of “the little way” that made Theresa famous, winning her sainthood after her death and the title Doctor of the Church. In her poetry and her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, Theresa advocated a life of child-like trust and small loving actions. She is the patroness of African missions, those suffering from AIDS or tuberculosis, air crews and florists.

September 28

Home / Today in Church History / September 28
by gerryadmin

935 The murder of “Good King Wenceslas”

The Czechs know him as Vaclav, their patron saint, and process with his skull on this day; English-speakers believe he was a king and sing about him on the day after Christmas. Wenceslas (908-935) was Duke of Bohemia at a time when his nation was pressured by pagan Magyar invaders from the east and expanding German rulers in the west who often levied tribute from the Czechs. Bohemia had been evangelized and partially converted to Christianity but powerful pagan factions held out. Court politics were particularly brutal. Wenceslas’s mother had ordered his grandmother, St Ludmilla, strangled and when he reached the age of majority Wenceslas exiled his mother.

On this date in 935 followers of his brother Boleslav stabbed Wenceslas on his way to church. It was once thought that Wenceslas, a pious Christian, was killed by Boleslav (nicknamed the Cruel) over religion but now his death is attributed to factional politics. Almost immediately after his murder a saintly cult grew up around the dead man, one which grew throughout the Middle Ages. Like Charlemagne to the French; Frederick Barbarossa to the Germans; Arthur to the English, and Sebastian to the Portuguese, Wenceslas is a Sleeping King — one who is not truly dead but only slumbers until his nation needs him.

“Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen” …. Though music critics have complained for over a century about the awkward combination of words and music, the St. Stephen’s Day carol by J.M. Neale has proven to be an enduring favourite. Neale’s words, written in 1853, about the tenth-century Bohemian duke were matched to a spring carol from the sixteenth-century collection Piae Cantiones with an 1871 arrangement by John Stainer. Why Neale should have chosen Wenceslas to embody the call to Christmas charity remains a mystery. Some claim that there was a long-standing legend about his generosity which English soldiers who fought during the Thirty Years War in Bohemia brought home, but, if there was, no trace of it remains. Neale would most likely have used “the feast of Stephen” because December 26 (St Stephen’s Day) was Boxing Day in England, a customary time for seasonal charity.

September 27

Home / Uncategorized / September 27
by gerryadmin

1627 Birth of the “Eagle of Meaux”

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704) has been called the greatest pulpit orator ever; his name is a byword for elegance of speech. As a preacher and Catholic bishop he engaged in the great religious controversies of his time, taking on Protestants, Quietists, ultramontanists and secularists; as a tutor to the heir to the throne he failed miserably.

Bossuet was born to a prosperous provincial family of lawyers with powerful connections. He was destined by his family for the Church and in the amiable corruption of the age became tonsured at age 10 and a canon of the cathedral of Metz at 13. Though he continued to take advantage of sins against canon law such as absenteeism, Bossuet took his religious commitment seriously; he studied for the priesthood under St Frances de Sales and received his Doctor of Divinity.

Even in his teens Bossuet had a reputation as a brilliant public speaker and he eventually attracted the attention of the court of Louis XIV. He preached before royalty and was rewarded with a bishopric and the post of tutor to Louis’ oldest son, the Grand Dauphin. His efforts in this regard were misplaced and wasted. To school the lumpish lad he wrote three grand tomes, a treatise on knowing God and oneself, a history of the world, and a creaky master-piece entitled  Politique Tirée des Propres Paroles de L’Ecriture Sainte. [This is the book I translated as Political Theory Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture for part of my Master’s thesis.] The latter was the last bold attempt at defending absolute monarchy, no surprise from a courtier of the Sun King, but it fell on deaf ears — not only those of the Dauphin but the larger world about to experience the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions. It may be said that Bossuet was born a generation too late but that his golden expressions are still valued by lovers of the French language.

September 25

Home / Today in Church History / September 25
by gerryadmin

1555 The Peace of Augsburg

Martin Luther’s 1517 attack on the doctrine of Purgatory and indulgences did not result, as he had hoped, in a reform of Catholic church practices; instead it led to wide-spread schism, violence and open warfare. German territories were particularly hard-hit as the hundreds of minor states that made up the Holy Roman Empire coalesced into rival camps, some professing Lutheranism, some Catholicism, and some religiously neutral. When the Emperor Charles V decided to use the force of arms to defend Catholicism, Protestant princes formed the Schmalkaldic League for self-defence. Though Charles defeated the League, he could not enforce a religious settlement on Germany, harassed as he was by the French on his western border and the Turks to the east. Worn out by the struggle Charles decided to abdicate and spend his last years in retirement in Spain.

The vast Habsburg empire that Charles had ruled was split. His son, Philip, was given Spain, the Netherlands, parts of Italy, and overseas holdings in Africa, the Americas and Asia. His brother, Frederick, was given the German lands and the title of Emperor. Philip was determined that no heretic should survive in his realms and continued the policy of war and persecution. Frederick opted for a policy of toleration by separation as set out in the Peace of Augsburg, negotiated between the Lutheran princes and Charles, before his abdication.

The main principle of the Peace, which largely ended sectarian warfare in Germany for several generations, was cuius regio, eius religio, or “whose kingdom, his religion”. The prince of each territory (either Lutheran or Catholic only, no provision was made for Anabaptist or Calvinist options) would determine the religion of his subjects. Those who did not wish to live under such a regime were given five years to sell up and move to a more congenial location. Despite some local breakdowns, the Peace was largely observed until the eruption of the tragic Thirty Years War in 1618.

September 23

Home / Today in Church History / September 23
by gerryadmin

1122 An End to the Investiture Controversy

Like every long-enduring institution, the papacy has had its up and downs, with moments of greatness mixed with periods of lassitude or decline. Around the turn of the first millennium the office of the Bishop of Rome was in a sorry shape. The era of corruption known as the Pornocracy had seen the papacy in the hands of Roman gangs with the bastard teenage sons of harlots ascending the papal throne. Despite attempts at correction by the Cluniac movement and the German emperors, this corruption continued into the eleventh century with popes trying to sell their position and three men simultaneously claiming the See of Peter.

The papacy was finally set on the path of reform by Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, who in 1049 sponsored Leo IX as pope. Leo and his successors set about to repair the damage of centuries – mandating clerical celibacy, banning absenteeism, pluralism and simony. The latter sin had been originally defined as the buying or selling of church offices but zealots now widened the term to include any kind of lay interference in the naming of abbots, bishops or popes, especially where the secular ruler invested the clergyman with the symbols of rank: the staff and ring. The College of Cardinals was established and henceforth it would be charged with naming popes. This spawned the Investiture Controversy, a struggle between lay and clerical spheres that broke out into open warfare. Popes were deposed and anti-popes named; emperors were deposed and rival claimants named.

The newly-reformed papacy was anxious to ensure that never again would local lords control the church; local rulers argued that these powerful church officials were also holders of feudal rights and vast land-holdings. As such they were political players who ought to be nominated by their kings or emperors. Though the most heated exchanges and open battles were in Germany and Italy, this was a crisis that occurred in many western European realms.

On this date in 1122, Pope Calixtus II and Emperor Henry V agreed to the Concordat of Worms, whereby secular rulers would cease their formal investing but retain considerable say in the appointment of church officers in their lands. The struggle between popes and emperors would continue, however, in other areas, to the detriment of both.

September 22

Home / Today in Church History / September 22
by gerryadmin

St Maurice and the Theban Legion

In 287, at Agaunum in the Swiss Alps, a strange massacre took place. It was the murder of a legion of Roman troops, recruited from Egypt, by their fellow soldiers.

St Maurice is said to have been born near Thebes on the Nile River in 250 and to have joined the Roman army. Despite his professed Christianity, he rose in the ranks and ended up in command of a legion, a unit of 6,000 men. In 287 under the command of Emperor Maximian he was ordered to sacrifice to the pagan gods and attack local Christians. He and his unit refused to do so, so they were subject to “decimation”, the execution of every tenth man. They remained steadfast and were eventually all killed.

The story of the Theban Legion and Maurice were extremely popular in the Middle Ages and for a thousand years his spurs and sword were used in the coronation of Holy Roman emperors. Maurice is portrayed in art as an African in armour, sometimes carrying a spear or a flag with a red cross. He is the patron saint of alpine troops, the pope’s Swiss Guards, infantrymen, weavers, dyers, cloth makers and swordsmiths and can be invoked by those suffering from cramp and gout.

A Canadian Battles the Fuzzy-Wuzzy

Home / Uncategorized / A Canadian Battles the Fuzzy-Wuzzy
by gerryadmin

In the 19th century, Sudanese territory was claimed by Egypt, which ran a corrupt and oppressive rule over the territory. In 1881 a devout Muslim religious scholar named Muhammad Ahmad declared himself the Mahdi, the legendary prophesied figure that would appear at the end of time and who would herald the arrival of Isa (Jesus) and the Final Judgment. He was able to rally the disaffected tribes of the Sudan against the Egyptians, conquering much of the upper Nile valley. Like ISIS and their caliphate, the Mahdi attempted to reintroduce the pure, harsh Islam of the 7th century.

After several military attempts to defeat the Mahdi, the British (who now controlled Egypt) decided to pull out of the Sudan and sent the charismatic, popular hero General Charles Gordon to arrange the evacuation. Gordon, instead, chose to stay and fight. He and his troops were massacred in the capital Khartoum in 1884, causing an enormous scandal back in Britain. Though the Mahdi soon died, his successor, known as the Khalifa, built a powerful Mahdist state that attempted to spread its variety of Islam by the sword.

In 1898 the British decided to put an end to this threat to European imperialism in Africa, sending an army up the Nile, under General Herbert Kitchener. The Mahdist forces greatly outnumbered Kitchener’s troops but the British had machine guns and artillery. Near the confluence of the Blue and White Niles at Omdurman, the wild charges of the Mahdists (called “dervishes” or “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” by the British) were mowed down by disciplined fire of the more modern army.


Four Victorian Crosses were awarded for that day’s action including one to a Canadian, Captain Raymond de Montmorency of the 21st Lancers (whose charge is depicted here.)

The citation for the medal reads: “At the Battle of Khartum on the 2nd September 1898, Lieutenant de Montmorency, after the charge of the 21st Lancers, returned to assist Second Lieutenant R. G. Grenfell, who was lying surrounded by a large body of Dervishes. Lieutenant de Montmorency drove the Dervishes off, and, finding Lieutenant Grenfell dead, put the body on his horse which then broke away. Captain Kenna and Corporal Swarbrick then came to his assistance, and enabled him to rejoin the Regiment, which had begun to open a heavy fire on the enemy.”

De Montmorency was born in Quebec in 1867, the son of a British general, and he joined the British Army at the age of 20. After Sudan, de Montmorency was assigned to South Africa where he fought in the Boer War, dying at the Battle of Stormberg in 1900.

The classic 1939 movie “The Four Feathers” recreates the Battle of Omdurman with a cast of tens of thousands. It’s quite impressive. Do not, on any account, watch the putrid remake of 2003.