Remembrances for February - 2022

 

Dear friends, if you have time, please pray for these members of the Southern family on the day they reposed.  Many thanks.

But one may ask:  ‘What good does it do to pray for the departed?’  An answer is offered here:  https://orthochristian.com/130608.html

Along with prayers and hymns for the departed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6je5axPodI

11 Feb.

Charles Gayarré.  ‘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.’

https://64parishes.org/entry/charles-gayarr

14 Feb.

Alcée Fortier.  ‘Fortier published numerous works on language, literature, Louisiana history, folklore, Louisiana Créole languages, and personal reminiscence. His perspective was valuable because of his French Créole ancestry and he became the first historian to apply the folklore concept to Louisiana's cultural traditions.’

https://64parishes.org/entry-image/alce-fortier

http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/stjames/bios/fortiera.txt

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146777449/alcee-fortier

15 Feb.

Oscar Adams, Jr.  A sharp lawyer and judge in Alabama.  He was the first black man to serve on Alabama’s Supreme Court.

http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3138

28 Feb.

Abel Upshur, one of Virginia’s many talented and well-respected sons.  He died young in a naval accident while serving as Secretary of State in 1844.  He wrote an important refutation of Justice Joseph Story’s theory that the united States are one, inseparable nation.  It is A Brief Enquiry, linked here along with another of his works:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_P._Upshur#External_links

More about Sec Upshur is at these pages:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/review/abel-p-upshur/

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/lectures/abel-upshurs-critique-of-joseph-storys-commentaries-on-the-constitution-of-the-united-states-by-donald-livingston/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37679771/abel-parker-upshur/photo

Also, to celebrate some of the saints of February from the South’s Christian inheritance of various lands, follow this link on over if you’d like:

http://confiterijournal.blogspot.com/2020/02/happy-feast-for-saints-of-february.html

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Offsite Post: ‘Southern Myths and Legends’

 

Southern history is full of semi-legendary figures – from explorers and settlers like John Smith and Daniel Boone to unconquerable warriors like Francis Marion and Bedford Forrest to centaur-cavalrymen like J.E.B. Stuart.  But what are we doing with these riches?  Unfortunately, not a lot.

Johnny Cash shows what is possible.  His ballad ‘The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer’ about the half-mythical folk hero John Henry is one of his finest works.

The graphic novel recounting the deeds of General Patrick Cleburne is also praiseworthy.

And there are some excellent poems scattered here and yonder. 

But more needs to be done.  Dixie’s young folks especially are ‘gobbling poison’, in C. S. Lewis’s words, for lack of true sustenance, turning in increasing numbers to alternative sexual identities to try to give meaning to their lives.  They need the Gospel first of all, of course, but mankind has been constituted in such a way that he also needs roots, stability in a place and in a tradition, in order to be a whole, healthy person, body and soul.  We need to find new ways to pass on the Southern inheritance to our children and to Southrons of all other ages. 

This inheritance is being suppressed, but Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent years in the Soviet gulag and witnessed the unbelievable destruction of Russia’s thousand-year-old Christian culture, gives us reason for hope.  While Russia was living in the midst of that nightmare, he was able to say, ‘When “the overly straight shoots of Truth and Goodness have been crushed, cut down, or not permitted to grow,” then perhaps the “whimsical, unpredictable, and ever surprising shoots of Beauty will force their way through and soar up to that very spot, thereby fulfilling the task of all three”’ (The Solzhenitsyn Reader, Wilmington, Del., ISI Books, 2006, p. xxxvi).  And that is what has happened in Russia, where Communism has been overthrown and a return to tradition is well underway.  Through new works of beauty, the South can also preserve and renew her heritage.  It is to Mr Solzhenitsyn’s fellow Russian Christians that Southerners can turn for a remarkable example of how this has been accomplished in another country, of how the influence of folk legends can remain strong over an extraordinarily long period of time.

Several hundred years ago, Ilya (Elijah) Muromets lived and died.  He is recognized as a saint by the Orthodox Church, and the legends about his life form a wonderful tapestry that extend into many fields of the arts.  An encyclopedist has written,

For nearly a millennium, tales of Ilya Muromets have been passed on from generation to generation. In traditional fables he is a wise elder, whereas in the most recent cartoon – Vladimir Toropchin's “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber” – he is a dynamic and rather muscular young man, determined to gain the favours of a voluptuous blonde (a princess, of course). Films, cartoons and even video games have been dedicated to his eventful legendary life. All of these unlikely representations are united by one determining feature: physical and spiritual integrity, dedicated to the protection of the Homeland and People.

 . . . Over the centuries, Ilya Muromets' canonical image has been preserved, yet he has also gained popular acknowledgement in new, adapted forms. He is the protagonist of many literary works, the hero of numerous movies (e.g. Aleksandr Ptushko's film Ilya Muromets), paintings (e.g. bogatyr s and Ilya Muromets by Viktor Vasnetsov), monuments and cartoons. There’s even an aircraft named after Ilya Muromets. Designed by Igor Sikorsky it was Russia's and the world's first four-engine strategic bomber.

We do not have to confine depictions of our Southern heroes to traditional mediums.  Films, cartoons, video games, internet videos – any canvas should be welcomed, as it is with St Ilya in Russia.

The encyclopedist goes on to say,

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/southern-myths-and-legends.

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘Bridges to God’

 

In the Law and the Prophets,

In the Holy Gospels,

In creatures of all kinds,

The Logos manifests Himself.

 

Now after the Holy Ascending

Of the Savior and the coming

Of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost –

Mysterious Procession of the Father –

The Son of God reveals Himself

In a new wise, in His Saints.

 

Through forgetfulness of themselves,

And unceasing remembrance of

And fiery love for God and their neighbor,

They attract the Grace of the Holy Ghost.

Being united with Him, their souls and bodies

Purified, cleansed of dead carnal dross,

The flesh spiritualized, and clarified,

They have become noble vessels,

Precious jewels of many hues

In whom the Logos comes to dwell,

Filling the world with the brightness

And beauty of His Uncreated Glory,

Which shines upon all men and all things,

Most wondrously reflected and refracted

Through the resplendent facets of His friends.

 

Being beacons in the earth,

Incarnating Christ again among men,

They draw the weary eyes of all to God –

Destroying dark atheism,

Strengthening the faith of believers;

Overturning false teaching;

Upholding and living true dogma.

 

They are bridges by which we can safely

Cross the deep chasm of sin and death

To reach the Kingdom of Heaven,

Portals through which we enter the Church,

In which we participate

In the Great Banquet of our King,

Receiving the gifts of His Most Pure Body

And His Most Precious Blood, uniting us

To Himself and to one another

And to all His Saints, now and forever

And to the ages of ages.  Amen.

***

For more on the Saints and their relationship with us:

http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/place_lives.aspx

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!