Remembrances for December – 2025

 

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

3 December

William Grant Still, born in Mississippi, raised in Arkansas, and a well-respected musical composer.

https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/william-grant-still-1775/

6 Dec.

Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, he had the difficult task of leading the South during the War, and was unjustly tortured by his Yankee captors for two years after the ordeal had ended.  Interestingly, his death occurred on the feast day of one of the Church’s most beloved saints, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (the same St Nicholas associated with the Christmas season).  There have been a number of times when St Nicholas has miraculously interceded on behalf of those wrongfully accused; perhaps we will find in the Eternal Day that there was some connection between St Nicholas and Pres Davis during his imprisonment.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/clyde-wilson-library/a-sacrifice-for-his-people-the-imprisonment-of-jefferson-davis/

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2019/12/06/103484-saint-nicholas-the-wonderworker-archbishop-of-myra-in-lycia

10 Dec.

Gov Francisco Hector, an active governor of Spanish Louisiana (1791-7), some of whose more far-seeing plans went unfulfilled because of geopolitical events outside his control.

https://64parishes.org/entry/francisco-luis-hector-baron-de-carondelet

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hector-baron-de-Carondelet

12 Dec.

Andrew Lytle of Tennessee, one of the great men of the South of any age.

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/andrew-nelson-lytle/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86282498/andrew-nelson-lytle

14 Dec.

General George Washington, probably Virginia’s and Dixie’s most famous son.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/washington-vs-lincoln/

15 Dec.

Maggie Lena Walker, an enterprising black business woman whose talents allowed her to found, among other things, the St Luke Penny Savings Bank and build it up into an organization with 1,500 branches.

https://www.biography.com/scholar/maggie-lena-walker

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9104631/maggie-lena-walker

17 Dec.

John Stewart, a free black man from Virginia who became a great preacher amongst the Wyandott Indians in Ohio.

https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/r-s/stewart-john-1786-1823/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/stewart-john-1786-1823/

https://www.wyandot.org/stew1.htm

https://www.wyandotte-nation.org/culture/history/published/missionary-pioneer/

18 Dec.

Antoine Dubuclet, one of the most successful free black plantation owners in Louisiana and the whole South.  He would later serve as Louisiana’s State Treasurer.

http://www.frenchcreoles.com/CreoleCulture/famouscreoles/johnaudubon/johnaudubondubuclet.html

19 Dec.

Thomas Holley Chivers of Georgia, a talented poet, a doctor, and an acquaintance of Poe.

https://allpoetry.com/Thomas-Holley-Chivers

24 Dec.

Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Moon, the self-sacrificing Virginia missionary to China.

http://cgbcbelton.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/lottie-moon1.pdf

http://bpnews.net/53987/chinese-government-designates-lottie-moons-church-as-historical-site

Also, to celebrate some of the saints of December from the South’s Christian inheritance of various lands, follow these links on over:

https://southernorthodox.org/orthodox-saints-for-dixie-december/

https://confiterijournal.blogspot.com/2019/12/happy-feast-for-saints-of-december.html

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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!

‘Saint Brigid vs the Tech Bros’

 

In the last essay we wrote, we touched on some of the hubris of President Trump’s inaugural address.  After reading Big Tech leader Marc Andreessen’s ‘The Techno-Optimist Manifesto’, it seems likely that he is a powerful force directing Trump’s vision for the States (especially given the reports of Andreessen meeting with Trump multiple times).

A quick comparison between the inaugural address and the Manifesto shows some striking similarities:

 

Trump:

So, as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred. . . . The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.

 

Andreessen:

Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die.

 

We believe growth is progress – leading to vitality, expansion of life, increasing knowledge, higher well being.

 

We believe we are poised for an intelligence takeoff that will expand our capabilities to unimagined heights.

 

We believe the global population can quite easily expand to 50 billion people or more, and then far beyond that as we ultimately settle other planets.

 

We believe the ultimate mission of technology is to advance life both on Earth and in the stars.

 

Trump:

And it’s the lifeblood of a great nation. And, right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other. There’s no nation like our nation. Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth. No one comes close. Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted millions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand. If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve.

 

Andreessen:

Economists measure technological progress as productivity growth: How much more we can produce each year with fewer inputs, fewer raw materials. Productivity growth, powered by technology, is the main driver of economic growth, wage growth, and the creation of new industries and new jobs, as people and capital are continuously freed to do more important, valuable things than in the past. Productivity growth causes prices to fall, supply to rise, and demand to expand, improving the material well being of the entire population.

 

We believe this is the story of the material development of our civilization; this is why we are not still living in mud huts, eking out a meager survival and waiting for nature to kill us.

 

We believe this is why our descendents will live in the stars.

 

We believe that there is no material problem – whether created by nature or by technology – that cannot be solved with more technology.

 

Give us a real world problem, and we can invent technology that will solve it.

 

We believe that out of all of these people will come scientists, technologists, artists, and visionaries beyond our wildest dreams.

This is unsettling.  Mr Andreessen makes numerous statements in his Manifesto that are anti-Christian, yet he has the ear of the president.  First is his view of religion, which he views negatively in contrast to the free market, etc.:

 

We believe the ultimate moral defense of markets is that they divert people who otherwise would raise armies and start religions into peacefully productive pursuits.

The universalism of the Orthodox Church, where all humanity becomes one in Christ Jesus, where all divisions are transcended (Galatians 3:28), is transferred to his preferred community, the ‘church’ of technology:

 

We believe technology is universalist. Technology doesn’t care about your ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender, sexuality, political views, height, weight, hair or lack thereof. Technology is built by a virtual United Nations of talent from all over the world. Anyone with a positive attitude and a cheap laptop can contribute. Technology is the ultimate open society.

Then we have overt occult references, made with positive connotations:

 . . .

The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/saint-brigid-vs-the-tech-bros/.

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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!

‘Awaiting the Next Southern Ethnarch’

 

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 23^rd 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/.

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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!

‘The Human Archetype’

 

Christ the God-man slew the tyrant Death.

Christ the God-man ascended to the Heavens

With our whole human nature –

Flesh and soul and bones –

And set it at the right hand

Of the Father in Glory forever.

There, O man, is the archetype,

The telos, the final goal

Of our race – eyes that flame with fire,

And feet that glow like bronze;

A voice that thunders like the ocean,

And a tongue sharp as a sword;

Head and hair whiter than pure snow,

And a face that shines

More brightly than the summer sun.

All of that, our destiny –

To be sharers of the divine nature.

 

Yet we have lost that vision

Because of our inordinate affection

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/the-human-archetype/.

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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!