Father Dabney’s recent article
on Trump as a type of Alexander the Great, the last leader of an empire before
its splitting apart, resonated with us quite strongly. In our age that idolizes the masses
(democracy), the ability of strong leaders to change the course of history is
downplayed. But it has been proven
through the ages, from Righteous Gideon to Cincinnatus to St Vladimir of Kiev.
There is another saint of
Georgia, a
holy king named Ashot, who is also a strikingly good example of this. Muslim Arabs had conquered Georgia and were
ruling over her people when he inherited the crown in 786. He attempted to drive them out, but was
bested in battle and decided to flee.
But the Lord’s Providence led to a different outcome:
Ashot was compelled to leave Kartli, and he departed for
Byzantium with his family and small army. The refugees journeyed as far as
Javakheti in southern Georgia and stopped near Lake Paravani for a rest. But
while they were sleeping, a Saracen army assailed their camp. The king’s army
was doomed, but “God helped Ashot Kuropalates and his scant army. He bestowed
power upon them, and they defeated an enemy that greatly outnumbered them.” The
king was deeply moved by God’s miraculous intervention and decided that, rather
than journeying on to Byzantium as he had intended, he would remain in the
region of Shavshet-Klarjeti.
King Ashot led the way to a
renewal of Christian life in Georgia, despite the devastations she had
undergone:
At that time southern Georgia was suffering great calamities.
A cholera epidemic intensified the struggles of a people devastated by a
ruthless enemy. Very few had survived, but that powerless and wearied remnant
gladly received Ashot Kuropalates as their new leader, and the king began to
restore the region at once.
Ashot Kuropalates restored Artanuji Castle, which had
originally been built by King Vakhtang Gorgasali and later ravaged by the Arab
general Marwan “the Deaf.” Ashot founded a city nearby and proclaimed it the
residence of the Bagrationi royal family of Klarjeti. He also constructed a
church in honor of Saints Peter and Paul. As it is written, “God granted Ashot
Kuropalates great strength and many victories.”
The region of Klarjeti took on a new life, and through the
efforts of Saint Grigol of Khandzta and his companions, the former wasteland
was transformed into a borough bustling with churches, monasteries, and
schools. Georgian noblemen soon began traveling to Klarjeti to forge their
nation’s future with King Ashot and the other God-fearing leaders.
When God grants us
deliverance from external enemies, it is then that we must be vigilant against
internal threats. St Ashot let his guard
down, and because of that his work was undone:
But after some time the usually virtuous King Ashot fell in
love with a certain woman. He forgot his honor, his achievements, and his
loyalty to God and the nation and took her to Artanuji Castle, an estate that
had been built for the queen. Saint Grigol, however, heard about the king’s
adulterous relationship and became exceedingly sorrowful.
He repented, but as with the
Holy King David of Israel, the damage caused by his sin would reverberate and
have horrible consequences for his people:
The king rediscovered his love for God and his country, and he
prepared to return to Kartli. But his plans were foiled when a certain Muslim
warrior named Khalil invaded, conquering the lands of Kartli, Hereti, and Kvemo
Kartli.
Ashot sent his men to assemble an army, but before the troops
had been gathered, the Saracens attacked and forced them to flee. The king then
traveled to Nigali Gorge with the intent of enlarging his army. Some of the
draftees turned out to be traitors, and when the king discovered the betrayal,
it was already too late. He hid in a church, but the godless men found him and
stabbed him to death in the sanctuary. “They murdered him on the altar, as
though slaughtering a sacrificial lamb, and his blood remains there to this
day,” writes Sumbat, the son of Davit, in his book Lives of the Bagrationis.
. . . Venerable Grigol
and the Georgian people wept bitterly over the loss of their king and hope.
Saint Ashot’s holy relics were buried in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul
that he himself had built.
Dixie has a grand tradition
of excellent leadership: Francis Marion,
N. B. Forrest, Francis Nichols, and many others. Why does the Lord withhold from us another
leader of their caliber who will help us rebuild an independent, Christian
Dixie, like St-King Ashot? Perhaps it is
our sinfulness: This should always be
our first assumption. Perhaps, as Father
Dabney said, there are still other preparations that need to be made on an
earthly, practical level. Without a
clairvoyant prophet it is difficult for us to say with certainty.
Thus, we should do the things
we have been told clearly to do: Seek
holiness, seek friendship and union with God, love our neighbors and families,
honor our ancestors, etc. Let us prepare
ourselves as best we can so that we will not delay, but rather hasten, the day
when the Lord might grant us a liberator like the Holy Prophet and God-seer
Moses. Let us put away any internal vice
that might doom us to further subjugation to the Yankees/globalists.
Dimitri Obolensky says
something fascinating about language and Christianity: ‘ . . . a language which serves as a medium
for the Christian liturgy becomes thereby a sacred language, and . . . the
nation which speaks it is raised to the status of a people consecrated to God’
(The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern
Europe, 500-1453, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1971, p. 334). Our language here at the South has been so blessed,
from of old. One can still listen to that
liturgical language, like the
23rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer,
recited in the Old English tongue of many of our forebears if he wants to go
back that far in time.
This is a great blessing, but
also a heavy burden, for more is required of those who know about the Christian
Faith.
As the remnant of a Christian
people, then, we await the Lord’s deliverance from our foes, working all the
while in anticipation of that day (should He indeed desire to bring it about),
as many Christians in the past have done – seeking deliverance from barbarians,
from heretics, from Arian Vandals, from Muslim Arabs and Turks, from atheist
communists, and so on. Let us do so with
humility, as the Psalmist taught us, for this attracts the Grace of God:
But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art
my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying (Psalm 70:5).
***
Originally posted at Identity
Dixie, https://identitydixie.com/2025/02/07/awaiting-the-next-southern-ethnarch/.
--
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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