Mr Pat Buchanan made a statement that shows extraordinarily well how abnormal the beliefs of the United States are. He wrote in a recent column,
‘Clearly, among the reasons for our present division and national malaise is that we have lost the great animating cause earlier generations had: the Cold War. Americans have found no substitute cause to replace the Cold War and no substitute adversary like the late Soviet Empire.’
If the US were a ‘Christian nation’, as Mr Buchanan and others claim they are, there would be no need to go searching for ‘great animating causes’ to keep the union together. A true Christian country/ethnos has already decided that the ultimate unifying/animating cause, their highest calling, is the acquisition of holiness, union with God, theosis – for the individual, the family, and for the whole community, whether living, forthfared, or not yet living.
Furthermore, as the Orthodox Christian Faith takes root in a country, there will arise saints who embody the best of the history and traditions of their kinsmen, who become living icons and symbols of their country. Look at any place where the Orthodox Church has flourished and you will find them:
Sts Cuthbert and Audrey (Etheldreda) in England;
St Sava in Serbia;
St Sergius of Radonezh in Russia;
St Martin of Tours in France;
St Spyridon in Cyprus;
Sts Herman and Jacob Netsvetov and Martyr Peter the Aleut in Alaska;
And so forth.
St Kyriakos of Tazlău, Romania, offers a clear illustration of how this works itself out in the life of a nation:
‘ . . . his was a life of exceptional holiness. Believers from the surrounding area have maintained their respect for this chosen vessel, passing his name down from father to son.
‘Saint Kyriakos was born into a peasant family, and became a monk at the Tazlău Monastery when Dositheos was the Igoumen. He was from the nearby village of Mastacăn, a village which today belongs to the community of Borlești.
‘Venerable Kyriakos of Tazlău lived on a knoll in front of the monastery, remaining in permanent communion with divine grace, which first entered his soul at Holy Baptism. He was so pure that he had attained the measure of perfect manhood (Ephesians 4:13). He did not choose such a life when he was an old man, after tasting the sweetness of this fleeting life, but embraced it from his youth, like a fool for the sake of Christ. Since he surpassed the other monks in humility, prayer, and virtue, he was found worthy of the grace of the priesthood.
‘Desiring to attain further perfection, Saint Kyriakos withdrew to a mountain called Măgura Tazlăului, where he lived for fifty years. There he struggled in a manner similar to the great hesychasts of old, sustaining himself with dried bread and fruits, keeping all-night vigils and shedding copious tears. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, he was able to forsee future events, and to cast out evil spirits.
‘Through solitary prayer in his cell, Saint Kyriakos uprooted the thorns of the passions from his body, and acquired the opposite virtues. The joy of Christ's Resurrection assuaged the sorrows of his soul, and his face shone with the uncreated light of Tabor. He did not experience any discouragement in his struggle with temptations and with evil spirits.
‘In time, many disciples flocked to him seeking his spiritual counsel. These, in turn, became hesychasts and lived in the mountains of Tazlău, Nichitu, and Tarcău.
‘After reaching an advanced age, Saint Kyriakos surrendered his soul to God on December 31, 1660. His disciples buried him in a cave on Măgura Tazlăului, and many miracles took place through his holy relics.’
But ‘America’, generally speaking, will not have saints like this because it isn’t a real, organic entity. It is an artificial union of distinct cultural areas (which are authentic) held together by the threat of force (‘Secede, and you’ll get blasted like the South’) and by the promise of economic prosperity (which is becoming more and more tenuous as giant transnational corporations increase their control over the economy, along with sharp increases in immigration allowed by the federal government).
Saints like those above will only appear in great numbers within the context of those real and unique cultural regions we have discussed before – New England, the South, Great Plains, etc. – as the Orthodox Church enculturates herself amongst them, making prudent use of the good traditions that remain alive within each of them. . . .
The rest is at
https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/americas-absent-mission
Or at
https://katehon.com/en/article/americas-absent-mission
Italian translation:
https://www.geopolitica.ru/it/article/la-missione-assente-dellamerica
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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