Books I've Read(or am reading)-Nineteen: "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" by Victor E. Marsden (D)

This book is a very controversial one and I would like the reader to know that I post this with some reservation because it may be assumed that I hold positions as a result of such a book that may not actually be mine in fact.

The fact is that this book has had a major effect on history. Whether it is indeed a forgery, as its detractors claim, or whether it is true as its author claims, peoples' ideas have been set into motion as a result of this collection of these protocols and perhaps to understand the previous century and the one we are now in it is necessary to read such a book to see what, if any, effect this book may have had.

I myself will offer no comment except to note that the protocols have a very detailed and profound understanding of the human condition and in a C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters type of way, the Protocols view the human being in the reverse of the Benevolent God Who desires the healing of the human being through union with Himself and Who accurately expounds on the human condition so as to bring about this healing.

In the Protocols we have the same viewing of the fallen condition which is prone to sin and error but with the aim of exploiting this weakness to bring about the subjugation of the human being using this understanding of the psychology of the fallen human condition against itself. There is a certain wisdom in these protocols which surprised me.

Also, interestingly, Plato's Republic came to mind when I read this book. As the reader may know, in his work, Plato argued that Rule should be in the hands of a born and bred Philosopher King whose rule alone should be desired over the other forms of government he speaks of in descending value from the Philosopher King: Tyranny(and remember that a "tyrant", in the ancient Greek usage of this word denotes something other what a modern user of this word means, Oligarchy(the rule of the few) and in Plato's mind the worst form of government, Democracy.

Along these lines, it must be noted that in the aim of the protocols there is also manifested a certain desire by those orchestrating the events to bring about the good of those to be ruled for their own good as they, if left to themselves cannot rule. So the "takeover" is viewed in a "positive"light by the one being instructed in the protocols for the ultimate good of those to be ruled who cannot, because of an inherent weakness, rule themselves.

I will over the course of time print all the protocols. It is a fascinating work. I will preface each post with the above primer I have provided.

Protocol XVI

Brainwashing

1. In order to effect the destruction of all collective forces
except ours we shall emasculate the first stage of collectivism -
the UNIVERSITIES, by re-educating them in a new direction.
THEIR OFFICIALS AND PROFESSORS WILL BE
PREPARED FOR THEIR BUSINESS BY DETAILED
SECRET PROGRAMS OF ACTION FROM WHICH THEY
WILL NOT WITH IMMUNITY DIVERGE, NOT BY ONE
IOTA. THEY WILL BE APPOINTED WITH ESPECIAL
PRECAUTION, AND WILL BE SO PLACED AS TO BE
WHOLLY DEPENDENT UPON THE GOVERNMENT.

2. We shall exclude from the course of instruction State Law as
also all that concerns the political question. These subjects will
be taught to a few dozen of persons chosen for their pre-
eminent capacities from among the number of the initiated.
THE UNIVERSITIES MUST NO LONGER SEND OUT
FROM THEIR HALLS MILK SOPS CONCOCTING PLANS
FOR A CONSTITUTION, LIKE A COMEDY OR A
TRAGEDY, BUSYING THEMSELVES WITH QUESTIONS
OF POLICY IN WHICH EVEN THEIR OWN FATHERS
NEVER HAD ANY POWER OF THOUGHT.

3. The ill-guided acquaintance of a large number of persons
with questions of polity creates Utopian dreamers and bad
subjects, as you can see for yourselves from the example of the
universal education in this direction of the GOYIM. We must
introduce into their education all those principles which have so brilliantly broken up their order. But when we are in power we shall remove every kind of disturbing subject from the course of education and shall make out of the youth obedient children of authority, loving him who rules as the support and hope of peace and quiet.

WE SHALL CHANGE HISTORY

4. Classicism as also any form of study of ancient history, in
which there are more bad than good examples, we shall replace
with the study of the program of the future. We shall erase
from the memory of men all facts of previous centuries which
are undesirable to us, and leave only those which depict all the
errors of the government of the GOYIM. The study of practical
life, of the obligations of order, of the relations of people one to
another, of avoiding bad and selfish examples, which spread
the infection of evil, and similar questions of an educative
nature, will stand in the forefront of the teaching program,
which will be drawn up on a separate plan for each calling or
state of life, in no wise generalizing the teaching. This
treatment of the question has special importance.

5. Each state of life must be trained within strict limits
corresponding to its destination and work in life. The
OCCASIONAL GENIUS HAS ALWAYS MANAGED AND
ALWAYS WILL MANAGE TO SLIP THROUGH INTO
OTHER STATES OF LIFE, BUT IT IS THE MOST
PERFECT FOLLY FOR THE SAKE OF THIS RARE
OCCASIONAL GENIUS TO LET THROUGH INTO RANKS
FOREIGN TO THEM THE UNTALENTED WHO THUS
ROB OF THEIR PLACES THOSE WHO BELONG TO
THOSE RANKS BY BIRTH OR EMPLOYMENT. YOU
KNOW YOURSELVES IN WHAT ALL THIS HAS ENDED FOR THE "GOYIM" WHO ALLOWED THIS CRYING ABSURDITY.

6. In order that he who rules may be seated firmly in the hearts
and minds of his subjects it is necessary for the time of his
activity to instruct the whole nation in the schools and on the
market places about this meaning and his acts and all his
beneficent initiatives.

7. We shall abolish every kind of freedom of instruction.
Learners of all ages have the right to assemble together with
their parents in the educational establishments as it were in a
club: during these assemblies, on holidays, teachers will read
what will pass as free lectures on questions of human relations,
of the laws of examples, of the philosophy of new theories not
yet declared to the world. These theories will be raised by us to
the stage of a dogma of faith as a traditional stage towards our
faith. On the completion of this exposition of our program of
action in the present and the future I will read you the
principles of these theories.

8. In a word, knowing by the experience of many centuries that
people live and are guided by ideas, that these ideas are
imbibed by people only by the aid of education provided with
equal success for all ages of growth, but of course by varying
methods, we shall swallow up and confiscate to our own use
the last scintilla of independence of thought, which we have for
long past been directing towards subjects and ideas useful for
us. The system of bridling thought is already at work in the so-
called system of teaching by OBJECT LESSONS, the purpose
of which is to turn the GOYIM into unthinking submissive
brutes waiting for things to be presented before their eyes in
order to form an idea of them .... In France, one of our best agents, Bourgeois, has already made public a new program of teaching by object lessons.

Protocol XVII

Abuse of Authority

1. The practice of advocacy produces men cold, cruel,
persistent, unprincipled, who in all cases take up an
impersonal, purely legal standpoint. They have the inveterate
habit to refer everything to its value for the defense and not to
the public welfare of its results. They do not usually decline to
undertake any defense whatever, they strive for an acquittal at
all costs, caviling over every petty crux of jurisprudence and
thereby they demoralize justice. For this reason we shall set
this profession into narrow frames which will keep it inside this
sphere of executive public service. Advocates, equally with
judges, will be deprived of the right of communication with
litigants; they will receive business only from the court and
will study it by notes of report and documents, defending their
clients after they have been interrogated in court on facts that
have appeared. They will receive an honorarium without regard
to the quality of the defense. This will render them mere
reporters on law-business in the interests of justice and as
counterpoise to the proctor who will be the reporter in the
interests of prosecution; this will shorten business before the
courts. In this way will be established a practice of honest
unprejudiced defense conducted not from personal interest but
by conviction. This will also, by the way, remove the present
practice of corrupt bargain between advocation to agree only to
let that side win which pays most.....

WE SHALL DESTROY THE CLERGY

2. WE HAVE LONG PAST TAKEN CARE TO DISCREDIT THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE "GOYIM," and thereby to ruin their mission on earth which in these days might still be a great hindrance to us. Day by day its influence on the peoples of the world is falling lower. FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE HAS BEEN DECLARED EVERYWHERE, SO THAT NOW ONLY YEARS DIVIDE US FROM THE MOMENT OF THE COMPLETE WRECKING OF THAT CHRISTIAN RELIGION: as to other religions we shall have still less difficulty in dealing with them, but it would be premature to speak of this now. We shall set clericalism and clericals into such narrow frames as to make their influence move in retrogressive proportion to its former progress.

3. When the time comes finally to destroy the papal court the
finger of an invisible hand will point the nations towards this
court. When, however, the nations fling themselves upon it, we
shall come forward in the guise of its defenders as if to save
excessive bloodshed. By this diversion we shall penetrate to its
very bowels and be sure we shall never come out again until
we have gnawed through the entire strength of this place.

4. THE KING OF THE JEWS WILL BE THE REAL POPE
OF THE UNIVERSE, THE PATRIARCH OF THE
INTERNATIONAL CHURCH

5. But, IN THE MEANTIME, while we are re-educating youth
in new traditional religions and afterwards in ours, WE SHALL
NOT OVERTLY LAY A FINGER ON EXISTING
CHURCHES, BUT WE SHALL FIGHT AGAINST THEM
BY CRITICISM CALCULATED TO PRODUCE SCHISM ..

6. In general, then, our contemporary press will continue to
CONVICT State affairs, religions, incapacities of the GOYIM,
always using the most unprincipled expressions in order by
every means to lower their prestige in the manner which can
only be practiced by the genius of our gifted tribe ... (Calling
the Jim Jones massacre in Guyana a mass suicide, not a
C.I.A./MK-ULTRA/U.S. Government massacre? Denying the
massacre of the Branch Dravidian sect at Waco, Texas, was a
needless and deliberate massacre by the
B.A.T.F./F.B.I/C.I.A/U.S. Government).

7. Our kingdom will be an apologia of the divinity Vishnu, in
whom is found its personification - in our hundred hands will
be, one in each, the springs of the machinery of social life. We
shall see everything without the aid of official police which, in
that scope of its rights which we elaborated for the use of the
GOYIM, hinders governments from seeing. In our programs
ONE-THIRD OF OUR SUBJECTS WILL KEEP THE REST
UNDER OBSERVATION from a sense of duty, on the
principle of volunteer service to the State. It will then be no
disgrace to be a spy and informer, but a merit: unfounded
denunciations, however, will be cruelly punished that there
may be no development of abuses of this right.

8. Our agents will be taken from the higher as well as the lower
ranks of society, from among the administrative class who
spend their time in amusements, editors, printers and
publishers, booksellers, clerks, and salesmen, workmen,
coachmen, lackeys, et cetera. This body, having no rights and
not being empowered to take any action on their own account,
and consequently a police without any power, will only witness and report: verification of their reports and arrests will depend upon a responsible group of controllers of police affairs, while the actual act of arrest will be performed by the gendarmerie and the municipal police. Any person not denouncing anything seen or heard concerning questions of polity will also be charged with and made responsible for concealment, if it be proved that he is guilty of this crime.

9. JUST AS NOWADAYS OUR BRETHREN, ARE
OBLIGED AT THEIR OWN RISK TO DENOUNCE TO THE
KAHAL APOSTATES OF THEIR OWN FAMILY or
members who have been noticed doing anything in opposition
to the KAHAL, SO IN OUR KINGDOM OVER ALL THE
WORLD IT WILL BE OBLIGATORY FOR ALL OUR
SUBJECTS TO OBSERVE THE DUTY OF SERVICE TO
THE STATE IN THIS DIRECTION.


10. Such an organization will extirpate abuses of authority, of
force, of bribery, everything in fact which we by our counsels,
by our theories of the superhuman rights of man, have
introduced into the customs of the GOYIM .... But how else
were we to procure that increase of causes predisposing to
disorders in the midst of their administration? .... Among the
number of those methods one of the most important is - agents
for the restoration of order, so placed as to have the opportunity
in their disintegrating activity of developing and displaying
their evil inclinations - obstinate self-conceit, irresponsible
exercise of authority, and, first and foremost, venality. (Janet
Reno? B.A.T.F.? C.I.A.?)

Protocol XVIII

Arrest of Opponents

1. When it becomes necessary for us to strengthen the strict
measures of secret defense (the most fatal poison for the
prestige of authority) we shall arrange a simulation of disorders
or some manifestation of discontents finding expression
through the co-operation of good speakers. Round these
speakers will assemble all who are sympathetic to his
utterances. This will give us the pretext for domiciliary
prerequisitions and surveillance on the part of our servants
from among the number of the GOYIM police ... (Australia's
One Nation Party? A.D.L./B'nai B'rith activities against the
peace?)

2. As the majority of conspirators act out of love for the game,
for the sake of talking, so, until they commit some overt act we
shall not lay a finger on them but only introduce into their
midst observation elements .... It must be remembered that the
prestige of authority is lessened if it frequently discovers
conspiracies against itself: this implies a presumption of
consciousness of weakness, or, what is still worse, of injustice.
You are aware that we have broken the prestige of the GOY
kings by frequent attempts upon their lives through our agents,
blind sheep of our flock, who are easily moved by a few liberal
phrases to crimes provided only they be painted in political
colors. WE HAVE COMPELLED THE RULERS TO
ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR WEAKNESS IN ADVERTISING
OVERT MEASURES OF SECRET DEFENSE AND
THEREBY WE SHALL BRING THE PROMISE OF AUTHORITY TO DESTRUCTION.

3. Our ruler will be secretly protected only by the most
insignificant guard, because we shall not admit so much as a
thought that there could exist against him any sedition with
which he is not strong enough to contend and is compelled to
hide from it.

4. If we should admit this thought, as the GOYIM have done
and are doing, we should IPSO FACTO be signing a death
sentence, if not for our ruler, at any rate for his dynasty, at no
distant date.

GOVERNMENT BY FEAR

5. According to strictly enforced outward appearances our ruler
will employ his power only for the advantage of the nation and
in no wise for his own or dynastic profits. Therefore, with the
observance of this decorum, his authority will be respected and
guarded by the subjects themselves, it will receive an
apotheosis in the admission that with it is bound up the well-
being of every citizen of the State, for upon it will depend all
order in the common life of the pack ....

6. OVERT DEFENSE OF THE KIND ARGUES WEAKNESS
IN THE ORGANIZATION OF HIS STRENGTH.

7. Our ruler will always be among the people and be
surrounded by a mob of apparently curious men and women,
who will occupy the front ranks about him, to all appearance
by chance, and will restrain the ranks of the rest out of respect
as it will appear for good order. This will sow an example of
restraint also in others. If a petitioner appears among the people trying to hand a petition and forcing his way through the ranks, the first ranks must receive the petition and before the eyes of the petitioner pass it to the ruler, so that all may know that what is handed in reaches its destination, that consequently, there exists a control of the ruler himself. The aureole of power requires for his existence that the people may be able to say: "If the king knew of this," or: "the king will hear it."

8. WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICIAL DEFENSE,
THE MYSTICAL PRESTIGE OF AUTHORITY
DISAPPEARS: given a certain audacity, and everyone counts
himself master of it, the sedition-monger is conscious of his
strength, and when occasion serves watches for the moment to
make an attempt upon authority .... For the GOYIM we have
been preaching something else, but by that very fact we are
enabled to see what measures of overt defense have brought
them to....

9. CRIMINALS WITH US WILL BE ARRESTED AT THE
FIRST, more or less, well-grounded SUSPICION: it cannot be
allowed that out of fear of a possible mistake an opportunity
should be given of escape to persons suspected of a political
lapse of crime, for in these matters we shall be literally
merciless. If it is still possible, by stretching a point, to admit a
reconsideration of the motive causes in simple crimes, there is
no possibility of excuse for persons occupying themselves with
questions in which nobody except the government can
understand anything .... And it is not all governments that
understand true policy.

Protocol XIX

Rulers and People

1. If we do not permit any independent dabbling in the political
we shall on the other hand encourage every kind of report or
petition with proposals for the government to examine into all
kinds of projects for the amelioration of the condition of the
people; this will reveal to us the defects or else the fantasies of
our subjects, to which we shall respond either by
accomplishing them or by a wise rebuttment to prove the
shortsightedness of one who judges wrongly.

2. Sedition-mongering is nothing more than the yapping of a
lap-dog at an elephant. For a government well organized, not
from the police but from the public point of view, the lap-dog
yaps at the elephant in entire unconsciousness of its strength
and importance. It needs no more than to take a good example
to show the relative importance of both and the lap-dogs will
cease to yap and will wag their tails the moment they set eyes
on an elephant.

3. In order to destroy the prestige of heroism for political crime
we shall send it for trial in the category of thieving, murder,
and every kind of abominable and filthy crime. Public opinion
will then confuse in its conception this category of crime with
the disgrace attaching to every other and will brand it with the
same contempt.

4. We have done our best, and I hope we have succeeded to obtain that the GOYIM should not arrive at this means of contending with sedition. It was for this reason that through the Press and in speeches, indirectly - in cleverly compiled school-books on history, we have advertised the martyrdom alleged to have been accredited by sedition-mongers for the idea of the commonweal. This advertisement has increased the contingent of liberals and has brought thousands of GOYIM into the ranks of our livestock cattle.

Protocol XX

Financial Programme

1. To-day we shall touch upon the financial program, which I
put off to the end of my report as being the most difficult, the
crowning and the decisive point of our plans. Before entering
upon it I will remind you that I have already spoken before by
way of a hint when I said that the sum total of our actions is
settled by the question of figures.

2. When we come into our kingdom our autocratic government
will avoid, from a principle of self-preservation, sensibly
burdening the masses of the people with taxes, remembering
that it plays the part of father and protector. But as State
organization cost dear it is necessary nevertheless to obtain the
funds required for it. It will, therefore, elaborate with particular
precaution the question of equilibrium in this matter.

3. Our rule, in which the king will enjoy the legal fiction that
everything in his State belongs to him (which may easily be
translated into fact), will be enabled to resort to the lawful
confiscation of all sums of every kind for the regulation of their
circulation in the State. From this follows that taxation will
best be covered by a progressive tax on property. In this
manner the dues will be paid without straitening or ruining
anybody in the form of a percentage of the amount of property.
The rich must be aware that it is their duty to place a part of
their superfluities at the disposal of the State since the State
guarantees them security of possession of the rest of their
property and the right of honest gains, I say honest, for the control over property will do away with robbery on a legal basis.

4. This social reform must come from above, for the time is
ripe for it - it is indispensable as a pledge of peace.

WE SHALL DESTROY CAPITAL

5. The tax upon the poor man is a seed of revolution and works
to the detriment of the State which in hunting after the trifling
is missing the big. Quite apart from this, a tax on capitalists
diminishes the growth of wealth in private hands in which we
have in these days concentrated it as a counterpoise to the
government strength of the GOYIM - their State finances.

6. A tax increasing in a percentage ratio to capital will give
much larger revenue than the present individual or property
tax, which is useful to us now for the sole reason that it excites
trouble and discontent among the GOYIM. (Now we know the
purpose of the 16th Amendment!!)

7. The force upon which our king will rest consists in the
equilibrium and the guarantee of peace, for the sake of which
things it is indispensable that the capitalists should yield up a
portion of their incomes for the sake of the secure working of
the machinery of the State. State needs must be paid by those
who will not feel the burden and have enough to take from.

8. Such a measure will destroy the hatred of the poor man for
the rich, in whom he will see a necessary financial support for
the State, will see in him the organizer of peace and well-being
since he will see that it is the rich man who is paying the necessary means to attain these things.

9. In order that payers of the educated classes should not too
much distress themselves over the new payments they will
have full accounts given them of the destination of those
payments, with the exception of such sums as will be
appropriated for the needs of the throne and the administrative
institutions.

10. He who reigns will not have any properties of his own once
all in the State represented his patrimony, or else the one would
be in contradiction to the other; the fact of holding private
means would destroy the right of property in the common
possessions of all.

11. Relatives of him who reigns, his heirs excepted, who will
be maintained by the resources of the State, must enter the
ranks of servants of the State or must work to obtain the right
to property; the privilege of royal blood must not serve for the
spoiling of the treasury.

12. Purchase, receipt of money or inheritance will be subject to
the payment of a stamp progressive tax. Any transfer of
property, whether money or other, without evidence of
payment of this tax which will be strictly registered by names,
will render the former holder liable to pay interest on the tax
from the moment of transfer of these sums up to the discovery
of his evasion of declaration of the transfer. Transfer
documents must be presented weekly at the local treasury
office with notifications of the name, surname and permanent
place of residence of the former and the new holder of the
property. This transfer with register of names must begin from
a definite sum which exceeds the ordinary expenses of buying and selling necessaries, and these will be subject to payment only by a stamp impost of a definite percentage of the unit.

13. Just strike an estimate of how many times such taxes as
these will cover the revenue of the GOYIM States.

WE CAUSE DEPRESSIONS

14. The State exchequer will have to maintain a definite
complement of reserve sums, and all that is collected above
that complement must be returned into circulation. On these
sums will be organized public works. The initiative in works of
this kind, proceeding from State sources, will bind the working
class firmly to the interests of the State and to those who reign.
From these same sums also a part will be set aside as rewards
of inventiveness and productiveness.

15. On no account should so much as a single unit above the
definite and freely estimated sums be retained in the State
Treasuries, for money exists to be circulated and any kind of
stagnation of money acts ruinously on the running of the State
machinery, for which it is the lubricant; a stagnation of the
lubricant may stop the regular working of the mechanism.

16. The substitution of interest-bearing paper for a part of the
token of exchange has produced exactly this stagnation. The
consequences of this circumstance are already sufficiently
noticeable.

17. A court of account will also be instituted by us, and in it the
ruler will find at any moment a full accounting for State
income and expenditure, with the exception of the current
monthly account, not yet made up, and that of the preceding month, which will not yet have been delivered.

18. The one and only person who will have no interest in
robbing the State is its owner, the ruler. This is why his
personal control will remove the possibility of leakages or
extravagances.

19. The representative function of the ruler at receptions for the
sake of etiquette, which absorbs so much invaluable time, will
be abolished in order that the ruler may have time for control
and consideration. His power will not then be split up into
fractional parts among time-serving favorites who surround the
throne for its pomp and splendor, and are interested only in
their own and not in the common interests of the State.

20. Economic crises have been produced by us for the GOYIM
by no other means than the withdrawal of money from
circulation. Huge capitals have stagnated, withdrawing money
from States, which were constantly obliged to apply to those
same stagnant capitals for loans. These loans burdened the
finances of the State with the payment of interest and made
them the bond slaves of these capitals .... The concentration of
industry in the hands of capitalists out of the hands of small
masters has drained away all the juices of the peoples and with
them also the States .... (Now we know the purpose of the
Federal Reserve Bank Corporation!!)

21. The present issue of money in general does not correspond
with the requirements per head, and cannot therefore satisfy all
the needs of the workers. The issue of money ought to
correspond with the growth of population and thereby children
also must absolutely be reckoned as consumers of currency
from the day of their birth. The revision of issue is a material question for the whole world.

22. YOU ARE AWARE THAT THE GOLD STANDARD
HAS BEEN THE RUIN OF THE STATES WHICH
ADOPTED IT, FOR IT HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO
SATISFY THE DEMANDS FOR MONEY, THE MORE SO
THAT WE HAVE REMOVED GOLD FROM
CIRCULATION AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.

GENTILE STATES BANKRUPT

23. With us the standard that must be introduced is the cost of
working-man power, whether it be reckoned in paper or in
wood. We shall make the issue of money in accordance with
the normal requirements of each subject, adding to the quantity
with every birth and subtracting with every death.

24. The accounts will be managed by each department (the
French administrative division), each circle.

25. In order that there may be no delays in the paying out of
money for State needs the sums and terms of such payments
will be fixed by decree of the ruler; this will do away with the
protection by a ministry of one institution to the detriment of
others.

26. The budgets of income and expenditure will be carried out
side by side that they may not be obscured by distance one to
another.

27. The reforms projected by us in the financial institutions and
principles of the GOYIM will be clothed by us in such forms as
will alarm nobody. We shall point out the necessity of reforms in consequence of the disorderly darkness into which the GOYIM by their irregularities have plunged the finances. The first irregularity, as we shall point out, consists in their beginning with drawing up a single budget which year after year grows owing to the following cause: this budget is dragged out to half the year, then they demand a budget to put things right, and this they expend in three months, after which they ask for a supplementary budget, and all this ends with a liquidation budget. But, as the budget of the following year is drawn up in accordance with the sum of the total addition, the annual departure from the normal reaches as much as 50 per cent in a year, and so the annual budget is trebled in ten years. Thanks to such methods, allowed by the carelessness of the GOY States, their treasuries are empty. The period of loans supervenes, and that has swallowed up remainders and brought all the GOY States to bankruptcy. (The United States was declared "bankrupt" at the Geneva Convention of 1929! [see 31 USC 5112, 5118, and 5119).

28. You understand perfectly that economic arrangements of
this kind, which have been suggested to the GOYIM by us,
cannot be carried on by us.

29. Every kind of loan proves infirmity in the State and a want
of understanding of the rights of the State. Loans hang like a
sword of Damocles over the heads of rulers, who, instead of
taking from their subjects by a temporary tax, come begging
with outstretched palm to our bankers. Foreign loans are
leeches which there is no possibility of removing from the
body of the State until they fall off of themselves or the State
flings them off. But the GOY States do not tear them off; they
go on in persisting in putting more on to themselves so that they must inevitably perish, drained by voluntary blood-letting.

TYRANNY OF USURY

30. What also indeed is, in substance, a loan, especially a
foreign loan? A loan is - an issue of government bills of
exchange containing a percentage obligation commensurate to
the sum of the loan capital. If the loan bears a charge of 5 per
cent, then in twenty years the State vainly pays away in interest
a sum equal to the loan borrowed, in forty years it is paying a
double sum, in sixty - treble, and all the while the debt remains
an unpaid debt.

31. From this calculation it is obvious that with any form of
taxation per head the State is baling out the last coppers of the
poor taxpayers in order to settle accounts with wealthy
foreigners, from whom it has borrowed money instead of
collecting these coppers for its own needs without the
additional interest.

32. So long as loans were internal the GOYIM only shuffled
their money from the pockets of the poor to those of the rich,
but when we bought up the necessary persons in order to
transfer loans into the external sphere, (Woodrow Wilson and
F.D. Roosevelt) all the wealth of States flowed into our cash-
boxes and all the GOYIM began to pay us the tribute of
subjects.

33. If the superficiality of GOY kings on their thrones in regard
to State affairs and the venality of ministers or the want of
understanding of financial matters on the part of other ruling
persons have made their countries debtors to our treasuries to
amounts quite impossible to pay it has not been accomplished without, on our part, heavy expenditure of trouble and money.

34. Stagnation of money will not be allowed by us and
therefore there will be no State interest-bearing paper, except a
one per-cent series, so that there will be no payment of interest
to leeches that suck all the strength out of the State. The right
to issue interest-bearing paper will be given exclusively to
industrial companies who find no difficulty in paying interest
out of profits, whereas the State does not make interest on
borrowed money like these companies, for the State borrows to
spend and not to use in operations. (Now we know why
President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 when he refused
to borrow any more of the "Bank Notes" from the bankers of
the Federal Reserve Bank and began circulating non-interest
bearing "Notes" of the "United States of America"!!!).

35. Industrial papers will be bought also by the government
which from being as now a paper of tribute by loan operations
will be transformed into a lender of money at a profit. This
measure will stop the stagnation of money, parasitic profits and
idleness, all of which were useful for us among the GOYIM so
long as they were independent but are not desirable under our
rule.

36. How clear is the undeveloped power of thought of the
purely brute brains of the GOYIM, as expressed in the fact that
they have been borrowing from us with payment of interest
without ever thinking that all the same these very moneys plus
an addition for payment of interest must be got by them from
their own State pockets in order to settle up with us. What
could have been simpler than to take the money they wanted
from their own people?

37. But it is a proof of the genius of our chosen mind that we
have contrived to present the matter of loans to them in such a
light that they have even seen in them an advantage for
themselves.

38. Our accounts, which we shall present when the time comes,
in the light of centuries of experience gained by experiments
made by us on the GOY States, will be distinguished by
clearness and defmiteness and will show at a glance to all men
the advantage of our innovations. They will put an end to those
abuses to which we owe our mastery over the GOYIM, but
which cannot be allowed in our kingdom.

39. We shall so hedge about our system of accounting that
neither the ruler nor the most insignificant public servant will
be in a position to divert even the smallest sum from its
destination without detection or to direct it in another direction
except that which will be once fixed in a definite plan of
action. (Is this why a "private corporation," known as the
"Internal Revenue Service," is in charge of collecting the
"payments" of the "Income Taxes" and the IRS always deposits
those "payments" to the Federal Reserve bank and never to the
Treasury of the United States??)

40. And without a definite plan it is impossible to rule.
Marching along an undetermined road and with undetermined
resources brings to ruin by the way heroes and demi-gods.

41. The GOY rulers, whom we once upon a time advised
should be distracted from State occupations by representative
receptions, observances of etiquette, entertainments, were only
screens for our rule. (Like the House of Windsor (Guelph) and
the rest of the "Black Nobility"?) The accounts of favorite courtiers who replaced them in the sphere of affairs were drawn up for them by our agents, and every time gave satisfaction to short-sighted minds by promises that in the future economies and improvements were foreseen .... Economies from what? From new taxes? - were questions that might have been but were not asked by those who read our accounts and projects.

42. You know to what they have been brought by this carelessness, to what pitch of financial disorder they have arrived, notwithstanding the astonishing industry of their peoples ....

READ THE PREVIOUS POST IN THIS SERIES:

Revelation of the Hymn Axion Estin to a monk on Mt. Athos by the Archangel Gabriel

June 11

Reading:

The Synaxis of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is celebrated today for the following reason: In 980, during the reign of Emperor Basil II, when Nicholas Chrysoberges was Ecumenical Patriarch, the holy Archangel Gabriel appeared in the guise of a monk to the disciple of a certain elder living in a hermitage belonging to the Monastery of Pantocrator on the Holy Mountain. During Matins, after the monk had chanted the customary hymn, "More honorable than the Cherubim . . . ," composed by Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, the Angel chanted the same hymn, but with the following prelude: "It is truly meet to call thee blest, the Theotokos, the ever-blessed and all-immaculate and Mother of our God." Marveling at the hymn's beauty, the monk asked his visitor - who appeared also to be a monk - to record this new text in writing, which the Angel did by miraculously inscribing the words on a piece of slate, using only his finger, and straightway he vanished from sight. This slate was brought to the Church of the Protaton, and from thence to Constantinople, to the imperial court and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as evidence of the miracle. Henceforth, this version of the hymn to the Most Holy Theotokos began to be chanted in the Divine Liturgy in all the churches. The place where the miracle took place is now called Adein, from the Greek word which means "to sing." The icon itself, before which this hymn was first chanted, is called "the icon of the Axion estin" ("It is truly meet") and it is kept in the sanctuary of the Church of the Protaton on the Holy Mountain.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

Ye hosts of the Fathers of Mount Athos, gather today, and shout with a voice of jubilation, leaping for joy, and faithfully keeping feast: For, behold, the praise of the most pure Theotokos wondrously and awesome is sung by the Angel; and therefore, as the Mother of God, we glorify her name.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone

All of Athos keepeth feast this day in gladness; for it wondrously received from an Archangel's holy hand the hymn whereby thou hast ever been praised as the Mother of God, as is truly meet.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Hieromartyr Timothy the Bishop of Prusa

Commemorated on June 10

The Hieromartyr Timothy, Bishop of Prusa (Bithynia), received from the Lord the gift of wonderworking because of his purity and sanctity of life. At Prusa he converted many pagans to the faith in Christ. The emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), upon hearing about St Timothy had him locked up in prison, but even there also the saint continued to preach the Gospel. Julian forbade him to teach about Jesus Christ, but the saint continued to spread the Christian Faith. Finally, the emperor gave orders to behead the saint. His holy relics were afterwards transferred to Constantinople.

Troparion - Tone 1

By sharing in the ways of the Apostles, you became a successor
to their throne.
Through the practice of virtue,
you found the way to divine contemplation, O inspired one of God;
by teaching the word of truth without error,
you defended the Faith, even to the shedding of your blood.
Hieromartyr Timothy entreat Christ God to save our souls.

Kontakion - Tone 5

The Typikon does not provide a kontakion for Hieromartyr Timothy.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Venerable Cyril the Abbot of White Lake

Commemorated on June 9

Saint Cyril, Igumen of White Lake, (in the world Cosmas) was born in Moscow of pious parents. In his youth he was left an orphan and lived with his kinsman, the boyar (nobleman) Timothy Vasil'evich Vel'yaminov, in the surroundings of the court of the Great Prince Demetrius Donskoy (1363-1389). Secular life bored the youth. At the request of Stephen of Makhra (July 14), Cosmas was dismissed to the Simonov monastery, where he took vows under Theodore (November 28) with the name Cyril.

Cyril fulfilled his monastic obediences under the guidance of the Elder Michael, who afterwards was Bishop of Smolensk. By night the Elder read the Psalter, and Cyril bowed making prostrations, but at the first ringing of the bell he went to Matins.

He asked the Elder permission to partake of food every second or third day. The experienced Elder did not allow this, but blessed him instead to eat with the brethren, only not to the extent of satiety. Cyril carried out his obedience in the bakery: he carried water, chopped firewood, and distributed bread. When St Sergius of Radonezh came to the Simonov monastery to see his nephew Theodore, he would seek Cyril in the bakery and converse with him about spiritual matters before seeing anyone else.

They transferred Cyril from the bakery to the kitchen. He gazed into the burning fire and told himself, "Beware, Cyril, lest you fall into fire eternal". Cyril toiled for nine years in the kitchen and God granted him such tender emotion, that he was not able to eat the bread he baked without tears, blessing the Lord.

Fleeing the glory of man, he began to act as a fool-for-Christ. As punishment for transgressing against propriety, the Superior of the monastery placed him on bread and water for forty days. Cyril underwent this punishment with joy. But the saint could not conceal his spirituality, and the experienced Elders understood him. Against his will they compelled him to accept ordination to the priesthood. When he was not serving in church, Cyril occupied himself with heavy work. When Theodore was made Archbishop of Rostov, the brethren chose Cyril as archimandrite of the monastery in 1388.

Rich and important people began to visit the monk to hear his guidance. This disturbed the humble spirit of the saint. Despite the entreaties of the brethren, he would not remain as abbot, but secluded himself in his former cell. Even here frequent visitors disturbed him, and he crossed over to old Simonovo.

St Cyril's soul yearned for solitude, and he asked the Mother of God to show him a place conducive for salvation. One night he was reading an Akathist in his cell before the Hodigitria icon of the Mother of God, and had just reached the eighth Kontakion, "Seeing the strange Nativity, let us become strangers to the world and transport our minds to heaven." Then he heard a voice say, "Go to White Lake (Belozersk), where I have prepared a place for you."

There at the desolate and sparsely populated White Lake, he found the place which he had seen in the vision. St Cyril and his companion St Therapon of White Lake and Mozhaisk (May 27), set up a cross and dug a cell in the ground near Mount Myaura at Siversk Lake.

St Therapon soon went to another place, and St Cyril remained where he was. However, he was not able to live in his underground cell for even one year.

Once Cyril, troubled by a strange dream, lay down to sleep under a pine tree, but just as he closed his eyes, he heard a voice cry, "Run, Cyril!" Cyril only just managed to jump away as the pine tree came crashing down. From this pine tree the ascetic made a cross.

Another time Cyril nearly perished from flames and smoke when it cleared away the forest, but God preserved His saint. A certain peasant attempted to burn down the cell of the monk, but as much as he tried, he did not succeed. Then having repented with tears, he confessed his sin to Cyril, who tonsured him into monasticism.

Two monks Cyril loved, Zebediah and Dionysius, came to him from Simonov monastery, and then Nathanael, who afterwards was steward of the monastery. Many began to come to the monk seeking to be tonsured. The holy Elder perceived that his time of silence was ended. In the year 1397 he constructed a temple in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God.

When the number of brethren had multiplied, the monk gave the monastery a Rule of cenobitic life, which he sanctified by the example of his own life. Thus, no one could talk in church, and no one could leave before the end of services. They also came to venerate the Gospel according to seniority. At meals they sat each at their own place, and there was silence. From the trapeza, each went quietly to his own cell. No one was able to receive either letters or gifts without having shown them to Cyril, nor did anyone write a letter without his blessing.

Money was kept in the monastery treasury, and no one had any personal possessions. They went to the trapeza even to drink water. The cells were not locked, and nothing was kept in them but icons and books. In the final years of Cyril's life, the boyar (nobleman) Roman decided to give the monastery a village and sent the deed. Cyril knew that if the monastery came to possess a village, then the brethren would become concerned about the land, settlements would disrupt the monastic solitude, and so he refused the gift.

The Lord rewarded His saint with the gift of clairvoyance and healing. A certain Theodore desired to enter the monastery, but the Enemy of mankind instilled in him such hatred for Cyril that he could not look at the saint, nor listen to the sound of his voice. He approached Cyril's cell and, seeing his grey hair, he was not able to say a word from shame. The saint said to him, "Don't be sad, my brother, for all are mistaken about me. You alone know the truth and my unworthiness. I am actually a worthless sinner." Then Cyril blessed Theodore, promising that he would not be troubled by such thoughts in the future. From that time Theodore lived at peace in the monastery.

One time there was no wine for Divine Liturgy, and the priest told the saint about this. Cyril ordered a monk to bring him the empty wine vessel, which he opened full of wine. During a time of famine Cyril distributed bread to all the needy and he did not stop, even though the normal reserves hardly sufficed for the brethren. Despite this, the more bread was distributed, the more it increased. The monks then realized that God would provide for their needs, through the prayers of Cyril.

The saint calmed a storm on the lake which threatened the fishermen. He predicted that none of the brethren would die until after his death, despite a plague that would rage. Then many would follow after him.

The saint served his final Divine Liturgy on the day of PentecoHaving giving final instructions to the brethren to preserve love among themselves, Cyril reposed in the ninetieth year of his life on June 9, 1427 on the Feast day of his namesake Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. Within a year after the saint's death, more than thirty of the fifty-three brethren died. The monk often appeared to the survivors in dreams to offer advice and guidance.

Cyril loved spiritual enlightenment and he instilled this love in his disciples. In 1635 there were more than two thousand books in the monastery, including sixteen "of the Wonderworker Cyril." Three letters of the monk to Russian princes survive down to our time. They are remarkable specimens of his spiritual instruction and guidance, love, love of peace and consolation.

The veneration of the holy ascetic began not later than 1447-1448. The Life of Saint Cyril was commissioned by Metropolitan Theodosius and Great Prince Basil the Dark. It was written by the Athonite monk Pachomius the Logothete, who dwelt at the Cyrilov monastery in 1462 and met with many eyewitnesses and disciples of Cyril. He learned the most from Martinian (January 12), who had lived with the saint from his youth.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Translation of the relics of the Greatmartyr Theodore Stratelates

Commemorated on June 8

The Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates suffered for Christ in Heraklea on February 8, 319. At the time of his sufferings the holy Great Martyr Theodore ordered his servant Varus to bury his body on the estate of his parents in Euchaita. The transfer of the relics of the Great Martyr Theodore took place on June 8, 319.

On this day we also recall a miracle of the icon of the Great Martyr Theodore in a church dedicated to him at a place called Karsat, near Damascus. A group of Saracens had turned this church into their residence. There was a fresco on the wall depicting Theodore. One of the Saracens shot an arrow into the icon of the Great Martyr. From the saint's face, where the arrow had stuck into the wall, blood flowed before the eyes of everyone. A short while later, the Saracens who had settled in the church killed each other. Accounts of this miracle are given by the Anastasius of Mt. Sinai (April 20) and John of Damascus (December 4).
Troparion - Tone 4

Waging war with the sword of truth, O great martyr,
You proved yourself a capable general for heaven's King.
You were equipped wisely with the arms of faith, O Theodore,
And you conquered the legions of the devils.
Because you became a martyr in victory we bless you!

Kontakion - Tone 2

You put on the whole armor of faith with great courage,
O glory of martyrs, Theodore;
The word of God was the arrow with which you vanquished the enemy!
With all the martyrs, ever intercede with Christ God for us all!

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Martyr Priscilla of Rome

Commemorated on June 7

Saint Priscilla suffered at Rome with the hieromartyr Marcellus, Bishop of Rome, and the holy deacons Sisinius and Cyriacus; also Smaragdus, Largus, Apronian, Saturninus, Crescentian, Papias and Maurus and the holy women martyrs Lucina (Lucy), and the emperor's daughter Artemia during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian (284-305) and their successors, Galerius (305-311) and Maxentius (305-312).

The emperor Maximian, ruler of the Western Roman Empire, deprived all Christians of military rank and sent them into penal servitude. At this time the emperor's daughter Artemia and another twenty-one prisoners were executed with St Cyriacus, then buried.

The bodies of the holy martyrs Cyriacus, Smaragdus and Largus were exhumed and reburied on the estates of two Christian women, Priscilla and Lucy, on the outskirts of Rome, after they had transformed Lucy's house into a church.

Ascending the throne, Maxentius gave orders to destroy the church and turn it into a stockyard, and he sentenced the holy Bishop Marcellus to herd the cattle. Exhausted by hunger and cold, and wearied by the tortures of the soldiers, Marcellus became ill and died in the year 310.

The holy women Pricilla and Lucy were banished from Rome in disgrace, and their estates confiscated and plundered.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Venerable Bessarion the Wonderworker of Egypt

Commemorated on June 6

Saint Bessarion, Wonderworker of Egypt was an Egyptian. He was baptized while still in his youth, and he led a strict life, striving to preserve the grace given him during Baptism. Seeking to become more closely acquainted with the monastic life, he journeyed to the holy places. He was in Jerusalem, he visited St Gerasimus (March 4) in the Jordanian wilderness, he viewed other desert monasteries, and assimilated all the rules of monastic life.

Upon his return, he received monastic tonsure and became a disciple of St Isidore of Pelusium (February 4). St Bessarion took a vow of silence, and partook of food only once a week. Sometimes he remained without food or drink for forty days. Once, the saint stood motionless for forty days and forty nights without food or sleep, immersed in prayer.

St Bessarion received from God the gift of wonderworking. When his disciple was very thirsty, he sweetened bitter water. By his prayer the Lord sent rain upon the earth, and he could cross a river as if on dry land. With a single word he cast out devils, but he did this privately to avoid glory.

His humility was so great that once, when a priest ordered someone from the skete to leave church for having fallen into sin, Bessarion also went with him saying, "I am a sinner, too." St Bessarion slept only while standing or sitting. A large portion of his life was spent under the open sky in prayerful solitude. He peacefully departed to the Lord in his old age.

Troparion - Tone 4

O God of our Fathers,
Always act with kindness towards us;
take not Your mercy from us,
but guide our lives in peace
through the prayers of the venerable Bessarion and Hilarion the New.

Kontakion - Tone 2

You imitated the powers on high, venerable Bessarion,
living by example the life of those who take flight.
Led by steadfast desire to the heavenly good things of Christ the King,
you put passing things from your mind and attained to Him.
Entreat Him without ceasing for the sake of us all!

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Hieromartyr Dorotheus the Bishop of Tyre

Commemorated on June 5

The Hieromartyr Dorotheus was bishop of the Phoenician city of Tyre, during the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Heeding the words of the Gospel (Mt.10:23), the saint withdrew from Tyre and hid from the persecutors. He returned to Tyre during the reign of St Constantine the Great (306-337, May 21), again occupying the bishop's throne he guided his flock for more than fifty years, and converted many of the pagans to Christianity. When the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) began openly to persecute Christians, St Dorotheus was already over 100 years old. He withdrew from Tyre to the Myzean city of Udum (present day Bulgarian Varna). Delegates of the emperor arrested him there for his refusal to offer sacrifice to idols. They began to torture the holy Elder, and under torture he surrendered his soul to the Lord (+ ca. 362) at the age of 107.

Some ascribe to St Dorotheus the compilation of a work, "The Synopsis", a collection of sayings, and including lives of the holy prophets and apostles

Troparion - Tone 4

O Dorotheus, wise hierarch of Christ,
You received the light of wisdom as a gift from the Father of lights.
You increased the talents given to you
And in your old age contested beyond the bounds of nature.
And now, O Hieromartyr, you even intercede for our souls!

Kontakion - Tone 3

By preaching Orthodox doctrine, O Hieromartyr,
You offered yourself as a godly and holy gift.
First you excelled in asceticism
And then in the contest of martyrdom,
Attaining the victor’s prize from Christ our God!

Kontakion - Tone 5

You were resplendent, O blessed Dorotheus,
With virtues brighter than the sun and with your sufferings!
You shine forth and enlighten the land,
Dispelling the darkness of idolatry and base heresy.
Therefore, we celebrate your memory with splendor!

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Mary & Martha, the sisters of Lazarus

June 4

Reading:

The Holy Myrrh-bearers Mary and Martha, together with their brother Lazarus, were especially devoted to our Savior, as we see from the accounts given in the tenth chapter of Saint Luke, and in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Saint John. They reposed in Cyprus, where their brother became the first Bishop of Kition after his resurrection from the dead. See also the accounts on Lazarus Saturday and the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone

Since ye believed in Christ with strong and ardent faith, and ever worshipped His divine and mighty deeds, ye both adorned yourselves with all the splendour of sacred virtues. With your holy brother now, ye are also vouchsafed to dwell with the ranks of Saints on high, O ye sisters of Lazarus; and with him, O wise Mary and Martha, ye pray for us all unto the Master.

Kontakion in the Third Tone

In the town of Bethany, ye dwelt of old; now in Heaven ye abide in Paradise, where our Lord's countenance shineth. For ye gave your hearts and souls up with fervent longing unto Him that is the Life and the Resurrection; as ye stand on high, O Mary and Martha, pray Him to grant salvation to us.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Martyr Paula and those who suffered with her at Byzantium

Commemorated on June 3

Saint Paula lived in the third century, and was martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian (270-275).

The holy virgin Paula witnessed the contest of the holy martyrs Lucillian, the youths Claudius, Hypatius, and Dionysius. She had dedicated herself to the service of those suffering for Christ. She brought food to Christian prisoners, washed their wounds, gave them medicine, and also buried the bodies of martyrs.

After the death of St Lucillian and the four young men, St Paula returned to Nicomedia and continued with her holy service. The holy virgin was arrested and cast into a furnace, but by the power of God she remained unharmed. Then they sent her to Byzantium, where she was beheaded.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

New Martyr John the New of Sochi, who suffered at Belgrade

Commemorated on June 2

The Holy Great Martyr John the New of Sochi, lived in the fourteenth century in the city of Trebizond. He was a merchant, devout and firm in his Orthodoxy, and generous to the poor.

Once, he happened to be sailing on a ship while pursuing his trading activities. The captain of the ship was not Orthodox, but got into an argument about the Faith with St John. Having been vanquished by the saint's words, the captain resolved to make trouble for him when they got to Belgrade. During the ship's stay at Belgrade, the captain went to the city ruler, a fire-worshipper, and suggested that on his ship was a studious man who also desired to become a fire-worshipper.

The city ruler invited St John to join the fire-worshippers and renounce his faith in Christ.

The saint prayed secretly, calling on the help of Him Who said, "When they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak, neither do you premeditate; but whatsoever will be given you in that hour, speak that, for it is not you that speaks, but the Holy Spirit" (Mark 13:11). And the Lord gave him the courage and understanding to counter all the claims of the impious and firmly confess himself a Christian. After this, the saint was so fiercely beaten with rods that his entire body was lacerated, and the flesh came off in pieces. The holy martyr thanked God for being found worthy to shed his blood for Him and thereby wash away his sins.

Afterwards they put him in chains and dragged him away to prison. In the morning the city ruler ordered the saint brought forth again. The martyr came before him with a bright and cheerful face. The intrepid martyr absolutely refused to deny Christ, denouncing the governor as a tool of Satan. Then they beat him again with rods, so that all his insides were laid bare.

The gathering crowd could not bear this horrible spectacle and they began to shout angrily, denouncing the governor for tormenting a defenseless man. The governor, having the beating stopped, gave orders to tie the Great Martyr to the tail of a wild horse to drag him by the legs through the streets of the city. Residents of the Jewish quarter particularly scoffed at the martyr and threw stones at him. Finally, someone took a sword and cut off his head.

St John's body with his severed head lay there until evening, and none of the Christians dared to take him away. By night a luminous pillar was seen over him, and a multitude of burning lamps. Three light-bearing men sang Psalms and censed the body of the saint. One of the Jews, thinking that these were Christians coming to take up the remains of the martyr, grabbed a bow and tried to shoot an arrow at them, but he was restrained by the invisible power of God, and became rigid.

In the morning the vision vanished, but the archer continued to stand motionless. Having told the gathering inhabitants of the city about the vision and what was done to him by the command of God, he was freed from his invisible bonds. Having learned about the occurrence, the ruler gave permission to bury the body of the martyr in the local church. This occurred between the years 1330 and 1340. There is some question about the year of the saint's martyrdom. St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain gives the year as 1642, while others say it was 1492.

The captain who had betrayed St John repented of his deed, and decided secretly to convey the relics to his own country, but the saint appeared in a dream to the priest of the church, and prevented this. After seventy years the relics were transferred to Sochi, the capital of the Moldo-Valachian principality, and placed in the cathedral church.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Martyr Justus and those with him at Rome

Commemorated on June 1

The holy martyr Justus suffered with St Justin the Philosopher and others in the year 166. They were brought to Rome and thrown into prison. The saints bravely confessed their faith in Christ before the court of the prefect Rusticus. Rusticus asked St Justin whether he really thought that after undergoing tortures he would go to heaven and receive a reward from God. St Justin answered, "Not only do I think this, but I know and am fully assured of it."

The prefect proposed to all the Christian prisoners that they offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. When they refused he issued a sentence of death, and the saints were beheaded.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008: