Martyr Hermias at Comana

Commemorated on May 31

Holy Martyr Hermias suffered for Christ in the city of Comana during the persecution under the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161). The governor Sebastian, who was in Cappadocia to arrest Christians, urged the saint to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, promising him honors and mercy from the emperor.

The old soldier bravely confessed his faith in Christ. After long exhortation, the governor gave orders to torture the saint. They beat him on the face so that the skin peeled from his face, and they threw him into a red-hot oven. When the oven was opened after three days, the martyr Hermias emerged from it unharmed.

The governor Sebastian ordered the sorcerer Marus to poison St Hermias with a potion. The poisonous drink did the saint no harm. A second goblet with even stronger poison also failed to kill the saint. The sorcerer believed in Christ the Savior, and was immediately beheaded. St Marus was baptized in his own blood, and received a martyr's crown.

St Hermias was subjected to even more terrible tortures. They raked his body with sharp instruments, threw him in boiling oil, and gouged out his eyes, but he gave thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they suspended the martyr head downward. For three days he hung in this position.

People sent by the governor to verify his death found him alive. Struck by the miracle, they were blinded with fright and began to call out to the saint to help them. The holy martyr ordered the blind to approach him, and healed them in the Name of Jesus Christ.

In anger the governor ordered the skin flayed from the saint's body, but he remained alive. Then the crazed Sebastian beheaded him with his own sword. Christians secretly buried the body of the martyr Hermias, whose relics bestowed numerous healings.

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Venerable Isaac the Founder of the Dalmatian Monastery at Constantinople

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Repose of the Blessed John of Ustiug the Fool-for-Christ

Commemorated on May 29

Blessed John, Fool-for-Christ, Ustiug Wonderworker, was born in the village of Pukhovo, near Old Ustiug, of pious parents Sava and Maria. From his youth he distinguished himself by a strict life of fasting. On Wednesdays and Fridays he ate nothing, and on other days he ate only bread and water. His parents moved to the city of Orlets along the River Iug, forty versts from Ustiug. Left widowed, the saint's mother took monastic tonsure at the Orletsk Trinity monastery. The young John started by keeping silence, and then he embraced the struggle of foolishness for the sake of Christ.

Going about the city of Ustiug, he lived in a hut that had been built for him, and spent his nights at unceasing prayer. By day, however, he went about the streets of the city barefoot and in rags all year long, resting sometimes on a dung heap. He endured much abuse and derision from the people of the city.

During his life, the saint had been granted a gift of wonderworking. He died at a young age on May 29, 1494, and was buried near the Dormition cathedral in the city of Ustiug. Afterwards, a church dedicated to him was built over his relics.

The Service to Blessed John of Ustiug was composed in the sixteenth century. His life was written in 1554, based on the recollections of people who had known him. The holy ascetic was famed as an intercessor during invasions of enemies, and as a healer of those afflicted with various maladies.

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St Eutychius the Bishop of Melitene

Commemorated on May 28

The Hieromartyr Eutychius, Bishop of Melitene, was a co-worker with the Holy Apostles, and he suffered for Christ in the city of Melitene during the first century.

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Leavetaking of Pascha

Commemorated on May 27

On Wednesday of the sixth week of Pascha, we celebrate the Leavetaking of the Feast. While most Feasts have their Leavetaking on the eighth day, Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, has its Leavetaking on the thirty-ninth day. The fortieth day is the Feast of the Lord's Ascension, which marks the end of the Lord's physical presence on earth. He does not abandon us, however. He has promised to be with us always, even until the end of the age (MT 20:28). As we sing in the Kontakion for Ascension, "Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from those who love Thee, but remaining with them and crying: I am with you and no one will be against you." There is a similar thought expressed in the Troparion for the Dormition: "In falling asleep, you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos."

The services today are celebrated just as on the day of Pascha itself. The daily readings from Holy Scripture, of course, will differ. After the Dismissal at Liturgy, the paschal hymns are no longer sung. The prayer "O Heavenly King" is not said or sung until Pentecost.The Winding Sheet (Plaschanitsa) is taken from the altar and is put in its proper place. Even though today is a Wednesday, fish, wine, and oil are permitted.

Today we also commemorate the Finding of the Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Meeting" in Kalamata in the Peloponnesus.

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Apostle Alphaeus of the Seventy

Commemorated on May 26

The Holy Apostle Alphaeus of the Seventy came from the Galilean city of Capernaum and was the father of the Apostles James and Matthew.

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Hieromartyr Therapon the Bishop of Cyprus

Commemorated on May 25

The Hieromartyr Therapon, Bishop of Cyprus, lived a life of asceticism in a monastery, and afterwards he served as a bishop on the island of Cyprus. At the time of the persecution under Diocletian (284-305), St Therapon bravely confessed the name of Christ and died a martyric death.

The relics of the hieromartyr were at first located on Cyprus and were glorified by numerous miracles. Later, in the year 806, they were transferred to Constantinople. The relics were moved because of a danger of invasion by the Saracens. As the ship sailed to Constantinople, myrrh began to flow from the relics, and travellers on the ship were miraculously saved during a storm by their prayers to St Therapon.

Upon arrival at Constantinople, the relics of the hieromartyr were placed in a temple built in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God of Eleousa or "the Merciful" (November 12).

In the year 806 the relics were again transferred into a temple built in honor of the Hieromartyr Therapon, myrrh flowed from them, and miracles took place. Through the prayers of St Therapon, those who are seriously ill are healed, and the dying restored to life.

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Sunday of the Blind Man

Commemorated on May 24

After the Midfeast (John 7:14), the Lord Jesus Christ came to the Temple again and taught the people who came to Him (John 8:2). After leaving the Temple, He opened the eyes of a man "who was blind from his birth (John 9:1).

The miracle described in today's Gospel (John 9:1-38) is even more remarkable than it might seem at first.St Basil and other Fathers tell us that this was not just a case of giving sight to a blind man born with eyes that did not function, but to someone who had no eyes at all! The second Exapostilarion for this Sunday says, "Along the way, our Savior found a man who lacked both sight and eyes…."

The Gospel says, "Since the world began, it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one who was born blind" (John 9:32). There are examples in the Old (Tobit 2:17) and New (Mark 8:22-26) Testaments of blind people receiving sight, but this is something completely unprecedented.

The Savior placed clay in the man's empty sockets and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When he obeyed these instructions, the eyes of clay became living eyes!

In his MENAION, St Demetrius of Rostov calls the blind man St Celidonius (see his account of St Lazarus in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles on January 4).

Kontakion - Tone 4

I come to You, O Christ,
Blind from birth in my spiritual eyes
And I call to You in repentance:
You are the most radiant light of those in darkness!

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St Michael the Confessor the Bishop of Synnada

Commemorated on May 23

Saint Michael the Confessor From his youth he longed for the monastic life and was sent by Patriarch Tarasius (784-806) to a monastery on the coast of the Black Sea. St Theophylactus (March 8), the future Bishop of Nicomedia also entered the monastery together with him.

At the monastery both monks engaged in spiritual struggles and were soon glorified by gifts from the Lord. Once, during a harvest, when the people were weakened by thirst, an empty metal vessel was filled with water by the prayer of the monks.

Patriarch Tarasius consecrated St Michael as bishop of the city of Synada. Through his holy life and wisdom, St Michael won the love of believers, and the notice of the emperors Nicephorus I (802-811) and Michael I Rangabe (811-813). St Michael was present at the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 787.

When the Iconoclast heretic Leo the Armenian (813-820) assumed the throne, he began to expel Orthodox hierarchs from their Sees, appointing heretics in their place.

St Michael defended Orthodoxy, bravely opposing the heretics and denouncing their error. Leo the Armenian brought St Michael to trial, but not fearing torture he answered resolutely, "I venerate the holy icons of my Savior Jesus Christ and the All-Pure Virgin, His Mother, and all the saints, and it is to them I bow down. I shall not obey your decrees to remove icons from churches."

Leo then banished St Michael to the city of Eudokiada, where the confessor died about the year 821. The head of St Michael is preserved in the Great Lavra of St Athanasius on Mount Athos, and part of the relics are at the Iveron monastery.

Troparion - Tone 4

From your youth you dedicated your life to God,
and you were proclaimed shepherd and hierarch of Christ, holy Michael.
You endured afflictions and exile
because you honored the icon of Christ;
now you pour forth healings for us all.

Kontakion - Tone 8

As a most honorable hierarch and champion of true piety,
undaunted by fear of the notorious tyrant,
you conquered his heretical opposition, freely proclaiming in a loud voice:
"I venerate the icon of Christ and of His all-pure Mother!"
Therefore, we honor you, O Michael!

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St John-Vladimir the Prince of Bulgaria, the Greatmartyr and Miracle-worker

Commemorated on May 22

The Holy Martyr John-Vladimir, a Serbian prince, was born in the tenth century. From his childhood he was raised in piety, and at maturity he wisely governed his holdings Illyria and Dalmatia, preserving the holy Faith in purity.

The noble prince was married to Kosara, a daughter of the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel. Summoned for talks with the Bulgarian Tsar John-Vladislav, he was treacherously murdered by the Tsar on May 22, 1015, at the entrance to a church. Kosara, the pious spouse of the holy prince, entered a women's monastery that she built, and where also she died, not leaving the church until the very end of her life. The relics of the holy prince are located near Elbosan.

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Equal of the Apostles Helen, the Mother of the Emperor Constantine

Commemorated on May 21

Saint Helen was the mother of St Contantine the Great, and was probably born at Drepanum (Helenopolis) in Asia Minor to parents of humble means. She married Constantius Chlorus, and their son Constantine was born in 274. Constantius divorced her in 294 in order to further his political ambition by marrying a woman of noble rank. After he became emperor, Constantine showed his mother great honor and respect, granting her the imperial title "Augusta."

After Constantine became the sole ruler of the Western Roman Empire, he issued the Edict of Milan in 313 which guaranteed religious tolerance for Christians. St Helen, who was a Christian, may have influenced him in this decision. In 323, when he became the sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire, he extended the provisions of the Edict of Milan to the Eastern half of the Empire. After three hundred years of persecution, Christians could finally practice their faith without fear.

The emperor deeply revered the victory-bearing Sign of the Cross of the Lord, and also wanted to find the actual Cross upon which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. For this purpose he sent his own mother, the holy Empress Helen, to Jerusalem, granting her both power and money. Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem and St Helen began the search, and through the will of God, the Life-Creating Cross was miraculously discovered in 326. (The account of the finding of the Cross of the Lord is found under the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14). The Orthodox Church commemorates the Uncovering of the Precious Cross and the Precious Nails by the Holy Empress Helen on March 6.

While in Palestine, the holy empress did much of benefit for the Church. She ordered that all places connected with the earthly life of the Lord and His All-Pure Mother, should be freed of all traces of paganism, and she commanded that churches should be built at these places.

The emperor Constantine ordered a magnificent church in honor of Christ's Resurrection to be built over His tomb. St Helen gave the Life-Creating Cross to the Patriarch for safe-keeping, and took part of the Cross with her for the emperor. After distributing generous alms at Jerusalem and feeding the needy (at times she even served them herself), the holy Empress Helen returned to Constantinople, where she died in the year 327.

Because of her great services to the Church and her efforts in finding the Life-Creating Cross, the empress Helen is called "the Equal of the Apostles."

Troparion - Tone 8

Your servant Constantine, O Lord and only Lover of Man,
Beheld the figure of the Cross in the Heavens,
And like Paul, not having received his call from men,
But as an Apostle among rulers set by Your hand over the royal city,
He preserved lasting peace through the prayers of the Theotokos.

Kontakion - Tone 3

With his mother Helen, Constantine today brings to light the precious Cross: The shame of unbelievers,
The weapon of Orthodox Christians against their enemies,
For it is manifest for us as a great and fearful sign in struggle!

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Uncovering of the relics of St Alexis the Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia

Commemorated on May 20

The Uncovering of the Relics of Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus. Before his blessed repose in 1378 St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, left instructions to place his body in the Chudov (Miracle of the Archangel Michael) monastery in the Kremlin. He designated a burial place outside the altar of the church, since in his humility he did not want to be buried in the temple. But the pious Great Prince Demetrius Ivanovich Donskoy (1363-1389), greatly esteeming the holy hierarch, gave orders to place the body of Metropolitan Alexis inside the church, near the altar.

On May 20, 1431 the stairway of the temple where the saint rested crumbled from old age. During the construction of a new temple, the incorrupt relics of St Alexis were uncovered. At a Council of Russian hierarchs the commemoration of Metropolitan Alexis was established on the day of his repose, February 12, and on the day of the uncovering of his relics, May 20. He is also commemorated on October 5.

In 1485, the relics of the saint were transferred into a church dedicated to him. At present, they rest at the Patriarchal Theophany cathedral in Moscow. The Life of St Alexis is found under February 12.

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Venerable Cornelius the Abbot of Komel, Vologda

Commemorated on May 19

Saint Cornelius of Komel was descended from the boyar (noble) family Kriukov. His brother Lukian served at the court of the Great Prince of Moscow. When Lukian, who was getting old, decided to go to the monastery of St Cyril of White Lake, he was followed by Cornelius, who longed for the solitary life from a young age.

After he was tonsured, the young Cornelius began his monastic endeavors with a difficult obedience: he wore heavy chains in the bakery. In his spare time he occupied himself with copying church books. Because of his love for solitude, St Cornelius later left the White Lake monastery, and he visited Rostov.

At Novgorod, St Gennadius (December 4) attempted to hold on to him, but the ascetic settled in a desolate spot near Novgorod. When people began to visit here also, he moved to the Tver Sabbatiev wilderness monastery. Later, in 1497, he settled in the Komel forest, not far from Vologda, where he built a cell. Monks began to gather around the cell of St Cornelius. In 1501 he built a wooden church in honor of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos. In that year Metropolitan Simon ordained him as hieromonk.

In 1512, when the number of brethren had grown, the saint built a stone church and he compiled a Rule for the brethren, based on the Rules of Sts Joseph of Volokolamsk and Nilus of Sora. This was the third monastic Rule written by Russian saints.

St Cornelius of Komel was distinguished by his charity toward the unfortunate, and during a famine he built an orphanage in the monastery courtyard. Because of his love for the poor and orphaned, St Cornelius was often granted visions of St Anthony the Great (January 17), for whom he had a special reverence. He constructed a church at his monastery in honor of this great ascetic.

The saint's strictness of life provoked some of the brethren to grumbling, and St Cornelius was compelled to leave the monastery. He settled at Lake Sursk, 70 versts from his monastery. At times he also lived at the Trinity-Sergiev Lavra. Interceding for the monks of the Korniliev monastery, Great Prince Basil Ivanovich urged the saint to return to his own monastery. The ascetic gave in, and having returned to his own monastery, he transferred its guidance to his disciple Laurence and shut himself in his cell.

During a Tatar incursion into the Vologda region St Cornelius went with them to the outskirts of White Lake. The saint died at the age of eighty-two on May 19, 1537. Many disciples of St Cornelius were also glorified for their holiness of life, Sts Gennadius of Liubimograd (January 23), Cyril of New Lake (February 4), Herodion of Iloezersk (September 28), Adrian of Poshekhonye (March 5), Laurence and Cassian of Komel (May 16).

The commemoration of St Cornelius (May 19) was established on January 25, 1600 by Patriarch Job and a council of bishops. The Life of the saint was written by his disciple Nathaniel in the year 1589. There is a service and an encomium to the saint, and the Rule of St Cornelius has been preserved.

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Saint Silouan the Athonite on Love

Thanks to Irene who sent this to me and Tracy Elizabeth who sent it to her:

"The soul cannot know peace unless she prays for her enemies. The soul that has learned of God's grace to pray, feels love and compassion for every created thing, and in particular for mankind, for whom the Lord suffered on the Cross, and His soul was heavy for every one of us.

The Lord taught me to love my enemies. Without the grace of God we cannot love our enemies. Only the Holy Spirit teaches love, and then even devils arouse our pity because they have fallen from good, and lost humility in God.

I beseech you, put this to the test. When a man affronts you or brings dishonor on your head, or takes what is yours, or persecutes the Church, pray to the Lord, saying: "O Lord, we are all Thy creatures. Have pity on Thy servants and turn their hearts to repentance," and you will be aware of grace in your soul. To begin with, constrain your heart to love enemies, and the Lord, seeing your good will, will help you in all things, and experience itself will shoe you the way. But the man who thinks with malice of his enemies has not God's love within him, and does not know God.

If you will pray for your enemies, peace will come to you; but when you can love your enemies - know that a great measure of the grace of God dwells in you, though I do not say perfect grace as yet, but sufficient for salvation. Whereas if you revile your enemies, it means there is an evil spirit living in you and bringing evil thoughts into your heart, for, in the words of the Lord, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts - or good thoughts.

The good man thinks to himself in this wise: Every one who has strayed from the truth brings destruction on himself and is therefore to be pitied. But of course the man who has not learned the love of the Holy Spirit will not pray for his enemies. The man who has learned love from the Holy Spirit sorrows all his life over those who are not saved, and sheds abundant tears for the people, and the grace of God gives him strength to love his enemies.

Understand me. It is so simple. People who do not know God, or who go against Him, are to be pitied; the heart sorrows for them and the eye weeps. Both paradise and torment are clearly visible to us: We know this through the Holy Spirit. And did not the Lord Himself say, "The kingdom of God is within you"? Thus eternal life has its beginning here in this life; and it is here that we sow the seeds of eternal torment.

Where there is pride there cannot be grace, and if we lose grace we also lose both love of God and assurance in prayer. The soul is then tormented by evil thoughts and does not understand that she must humble herself and love her enemies, for there is no other way to please God.

What shall I render unto Thee, O Lord, for that Thou hast poured such great mercy on my soul? Grant, I beg Thee, that I may see my iniquities, and ever weep before Thee, for Thou art filled with love for humble souls, and dost give them the grace of the Holy Spirit.

O merciful God, forgive me. Thou seest how my soul is drawn to Thee, her Creator. Thou hast wounded my soul with Thy love, and she thirsts for Thee, and wearies without end, and day and night, insatiable, reaches toward Thee, and has no wish to look upon this world, though I do love it, but above all I love Thee, my Creator, and my soul longs after Thee.

O my Creator, why have I, Thy little creature, grieved Thee so often? Yet Thou hast not remembered my sins.

Glory be to the Lord God that He gave us His Only-begotten Son for the sake of our salvation. Glory be to the Only-begotten Son that He deigned to be born of the Most Holy Virgin, and suffered for our salvation, and gave us His Most Pure Body and Blood to eternal life, and sent His Holy Spirit on the earth.

O Lord, grant me tears to shed for myself, and for the whole universe, that the nations may know Thee and live eternally with Thee, O Lord, vouchsafe us the gift of Thy humble Holy Spirit, that we may apprehend Thy glory."

Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra, who suffered under Decius

Commemorated on May 18

The Holy Martyr Theodotus and the Holy Seven Virgins, Tecusa, Phaine, Claudia, Matrona, Julia, Alexandra and Euphrasia lived during the second half of the third century in the city of Ancyra, Galatia, and died as martyrs for Christ at the beginning of the fourth century. St Theodotus was an innkeeper and was married.

Theoteknos, prefect of Ancyra, issued a proclamation informing Christians that they were obliged to offer sacrifice to idols, and if they refused, they would be tortured and killed. Pagans would delivere Christians over to torture, and then divide up their property.

Theodotus was not afraid to bury the remains of holy martyrs, either carrying them off secretly or ransoming them from the soldiers. When the Christian churches at Ancyra were destroyed and closed, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in his inn. Knowing that martyrdom awaited him, St Theodotus predicted to the priest Phrontonos that soon they would bring him the relics of martyrs, at a place chosen by both of them. In surety of his words, St Theodotus gave the priest his ring.

At this time, seven holy virgins died for Christ. The eldest, St Tecusa, was the aunt of St Theodotus. The holy virgins Tecusa, Phaine, Claudia, Matrona, Julia, Alexandra and Euphrasia had dedicated themselves to God from their youth, living in constant prayer, fasting, temperance and good deeds. All of them had attained to an advanced age.

Brought to trial as Christians, the holy virgins bravely confessed their faith in Christ before Theoteknos and were given over to torture, yet remained steadfast. The prefect then gave them to shameless youths for defilement. The holy virgins prayed intensely, asking help from God. St Tecusa fell down at the feet of a youth, and pushing back her veil she showed him her grey hair. The young men were startled, and ran off weeping. The prefect then ordered that the saints take part in offering sacrifice to the idols, but again the holy virgins refused. For this they were sentenced to death. A heavy stone was tied to the legs of each, and all seven of the holy virgins were drowned in a lake.

On the following night St Tecusa appeared in a dream to St Theodotus, asking him to take her body and give it Christian burial. St Theodotus, taking with him his friend Polychronius and several other Christians, went to the lake. It was dark, and a torch illumined their way. The holy martyr Sosander appeared in front of the guard who was posted by the pagans at the shore of the lake. The frightened guard ran off in terror.

The Christians found the bodies of the holy martyrs and carried them to church, where they were buried. Learning that the bodies of the holy martyrs had been stolen, the prefect flew into a rage and gave orders to arrest all Christians and torture them. Polychronius also was seized. Unable to endure the torture, he accused St Theodotus of stealing the bodies. St Theodotus was prepared to die for Christ. Speaking with other Christians, he bequeathed his body to the priest Phrontonos, to whom he had given his ring.

The account of the life and martyrdom of St Theodotus and the suffering of the holy virgins was compiled by Nilus, a contemporary and companion of St Theodotus. Nilus lived in the city of Ancyra during the persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian, and witnessed the saint's death.

St Theodotus is also commemorated on June 7.

Troparion - Tone 4

Your holy martyr Theodotus and his companions, O Lord,
through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God.
For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries,
and shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through their intercessions, save our souls!

Kontakion - Tone 2

Podoben: “Seeking the highest...”
You struggled well, O Theodotus,
together with your fellow athletes and the passion-bearing virgins.
You have received all have received crowns of honor.
Therefore, unceasingly pray to Christ God for us all.

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St. Basil of Ostrog

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Commemorated on May 17

The Holy Martyr Photina (Svetlana) the Samaritan Woman, her sons Victor (named Photinus) and Joses; and her sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva, Kyriake; Nero's daughter Domnina; and the Martyr Sebastian: The holy Martyr Photina was the Samaritan Woman, with whom the Savior conversed at Jacob's Well (John. 4:5-42).

During the time of the emperor Nero (54-68), who displayed excessive cruelty against Christians, St Photina lived in Carthage with her younger son Joses and fearlessly preached the Gospel there. Her eldest son Victor fought bravely in the Roman army against barbarians, and was appointed military commander in the city of Attalia (Asia Minor). Later, Nero called him to Italy to arrest and punish Christians.

Sebastian, an official in Italy, said to St Victor, "I know that you, your mother and your brother, are followers of Christ. As a friend I advise you to submit to the will of the emperor. If you inform on any Christians, you will receive their wealth. I shall write to your mother and brother, asking them not to preach Christ in public. Let them practice their faith in secret."

St Victor replied, "I want to be a preacher of Christianity like my mother and brother." Sebastian said, "O Victor, we all know what woes await you, your mother and brother." Then Sebastian suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyes. He was dumbfounded, and his face was somber.

For three days he lay there blind, without uttering a word. On the fourth day he declared, "The God of the Christians is the only true God." St Victor asked why Sebastian had suddenly changed his mind. Sebastian replied, "Because Christ is calling me." Soon he was baptized, and immediately regained his sight. St Sebastian's servants, after witnessing the miracle, were also baptized.

Reports of this reached Nero, and he commanded that the Christians be brought to him at Rome. Then the Lord Himself appeared to the confessors and said, "Fear not, for I am with you. Nero, and all who serve him, will be vanquished." The Lord said to St Victor, "From this day forward, your name will be Photinus, because through you, many will be enlightened and will believe in Me." The Lord then told the Christians to strengthen and encourage St Sebastian to peresevere until the end.

All these things, and even future events, were revealed to St Photina. She left Carthage in the company of several Christians and joined the confessors in Rome.

At Rome the emperor ordered the saints to be brought before him and he asked them whether they truly believed in Christ. All the confessors refused to renounce the Savior. Then the emperor gave orders to smash the martyrs' finger joints. During the torments, the confessors felt no pain, and their hands remained unharmed.

Nero ordered that Sts Sebastian, Photinus and Joses be blinded and locked up in prison, and St Photina and her five sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva and Kyriake were sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero's daughter Domnina. St Photina converted both Domnina and all her servants to Christ. She also converted a sorcerer, who had brought her poisoned food to kill her.

Three years passed, and Nero sent to the prison for one of his servants, who had been locked up. The messengers reported to him that Sts Sebastian, Photinus and Joses, who had been blinded, had completely recovered, and that people were visiting them to hear their preaching, and indeed the whole prison had been transformed into a bright and fragrant place where God was glorified.

Nero then gave orders to crucify the saints, and to beat their naked bodies with straps. On the fourth day the emperor sent servants to see whether the martyrs were still alive. But, approaching the place of the tortures, the servants fell blind. An angel of the Lord freed the martyrs from their crosses and healed them. The saints took pity on the blinded servants, and restored their sight by their prayers to the Lord. Those who were healed came to believe in Christ and were soon baptized.

In an impotent rage Nero gave orders to flay the skin from St Photina and to throw the martyr down a well. Sebastian, Photinus and Joses had their legs cut off, and they were thrown to dogs, and then had their skin flayed off. The sisters of St Photina also suffered terrible torments. Nero gave orders to cut off their breasts and then to flay their skin. An expert in cruelty, the emperor readied the fiercest execution for St Photis: they tied her by the feet to the tops of two bent-over trees. When the ropes were cut the trees sprang upright and tore the martyr apart. The emperor ordered the others beheaded. St Photina was removed from the well and locked up in prison for twenty days.

After this Nero had her brought to him and asked if she would now relent and offer sacrifice to the idols. St Photina spit in the face of the emperor, and laughing at him, said, "O most impious of the blind, you profligate and stupid man! Do you think me so deluded that I would consent to renounce my Lord Christ and instead offer sacrifice to idols as blind as you?"

Hearing such words, Nero gave orders to again throw the martyr down the well, where she surrendered her soul to God (ca. 66).

On the Greek Calendar, St Photina is commemorated on February 26.

Kontakion - Tone 8

The Samaritan Woman came to the well in faith;
She saw You, the Water of Wisdom, and drank abundantly
She inherited the Kingdom on High and is ever glorified!

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SAINT OR FEASTED POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

Martyr Vitus at Lucania

Commemorated on May 16

The Holy Martyrs Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia suffered for Christ during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305).

St Vitus was the son of an illustrious Sicilian dignitary, the pagan Gelas. Gelas tried to turn his son from Christianity, but failed. Paternal love then turned to hatred, and he decided to kill Vitus.

In order to save the boy, his tutor St Modestus and his governess St Crescentia, who were Christians, secretly took him from his parental home. They saw a boat at the river, and an angel entered the boat with them. They reached the Italian district of Lucanium, where the saints lived quietly, hiding from those who would persecute them. The holy youth continued to heal the sick and convert pagans to Christianity. His fame soon spread throughout the region.

Sts Vitus and Modestus went to present themselves before Diocletian, and were thrown into prison. Then the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the prisoners, strengthening them for their contest. He helped them, and the fetters fell from their hands.

Ascribing the miracle to magic, Diocletian ordered that St Vitus be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. The saint stood in it as if in cool water, and remained unharmed. Then a fierce lion was set loose. The young man made the Sign of the Cross, and the beast laid at his feet and began to lick them. They tied the holy martyrs to pillars and began to scrape them with iron claws.

St Crescentia came out of the crowd of spectators, confessed herself a Christian and reproached the emperor for his cruelty. He also sentenced her to torture.

St Vitus called out to God, "O God, save us by Thy power and deliver us." Then an earthquake struck, and many pagans perished beneath the collapsed buildings. Diocletian fled to his chambers in fear. An angel released the martyrs from the pillars and took them to Lucanium.

St Vitus prayed that God would accept their souls in peace and not deprive those who kept their memory of His benefaction. A Voice came from Heaven, "Thy prayer is heard." Then the saints joyfully surrendered their souls to God.

The holy martyrs Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia suffered for Christ in the year 303. These saints are also commemorated on June 15.

The relics of Saint Vitus were transferred to Prague. The Holy Prince Vyacheslav (Wenceslaus) of the Czechs (September 28) built a church in honor of St Vitus, in which he was afterwards buried.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2008:

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

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 XI

The Totalitarian State

1. The State Council has been, as it were, the emphatic
expression of the authority of the ruler: it will be, as the "show"
part of the Legislative Corps, what may be called the editorial
committee of the laws and decrees of the ruler.

2. This, then, is the program of the new constitution. We shall
make Law, Right and Justice (1) in the guise of proposals to
the Legislative Corps, (2) by decrees of the president under the
guise of general regulations, of orders of the Senate and of
resolutions of the State Council in the guise of ministerial
orders, (3) and in case a suitable occasion should arise - in the
form of a revolution in the State.

3. Having established approximately the MODUS AGENDI we
will occupy ourselves with details of those combinations by
which we have still to complete the revolution in the course of
the machinery of State in the direction already indicated. By
these combinations I mean the freedom of the Press, the right
of association, freedom of conscience, the voting principle, and
many another that must disappear for ever from the memory of
man, or undergo a radical alteration the day after the
promulgation of the new constitution. It is only at the moment
that we shall be able at once to announce all our orders, for,
afterwards, every noticeable alteration will be dangerous, for
the following reasons: if this alteration be brought in with harsh
severity and in a sense of severity and limitations, it may lead
to a feeling of despair caused by fear of new alterations in the same direction; if, on the other hand, it be brought in a sense of further indulgences it will be said that we have recognized our own wrong-doing and this will destroy the prestige of the infallibility of our authority, or else it will be said that we have become alarmed and are compelled to show a yielding disposition, for which we shall get no thanks because it will be supposed to be compulsory ... Both the one and the other are injurious to the prestige of the new constitution. What we want is that from the first moment of its promulgation, while the peoples of the world are still stunned by the accomplished fact of the revolution, still in a condition of terror and uncertainty, they should recognize once for all that we are so strong, so inexpugnable, so super-abundantly filled with power, that in no case shall we take any account of them, and so far from paying any attention to their opinions or wishes, we are ready and able to crush with irresistible power all expression or manifestation thereof at every moment and in every place, that we have seized at once everything we wanted and shall in no case divide our power with them ... Then in fear and trembling they will close their eyes to everything, and be content to await what will be the end of it all.

WE ARE WOLVES

4. The GOYIM are a flock of sheep, and we are their wolves.
And you know what happens when the wolves get hold of the
flock? ....

5. There is another reason also why they will close their eyes:
for we shall keep promising them to give back all the liberties
we have taken away as soon as we have quelled the enemies of
peace and tamed all parties ....

6. It is not worth to say anything about how long a time they
will be kept waiting for this return of their liberties ....

7. For what purpose then have we invented this whole policy
and insinuated it into the minds of the GOY without giving
them any chance to examine its underlying meaning? For what,
indeed, if not in order to obtain in a roundabout way what is for
our scattered tribe unattainable by the direct road? It is this
which has served as the basis for our organization of SECRET
MASONRY WHICH IS NOT KNOWN TO, AND AIMS
WHICH ARE NOT EVEN SO MUCH AS SUSPECTED BY,
THESE "GOY" CATTLE, ATTRACTED BY US INTO THE
"SHOW" ARMY OF MASONIC LODGES IN ORDER TO
THROW DUST IN THE EYES OF THEIR FELLOWS.

8. God has granted to us, His Chosen People, the gift of the
dispersion, and in this which appears in all eyes to be our
weakness, has come forth all our strength, which has now
brought us to the threshold of sovereignty over all the world.
There now remains not much more for us to build up upon
the foundation we have laid.

Protocol XII

Control of the Press

1. The word "freedom," which can be interpreted in various
ways, is defined by us as follows -

2. Freedom is the right to do what which the law allows. This
interpretation of the word will at the proper time be of service
to us, because all freedom will thus be in our hands, since the
laws will abolish or create only that which is desirable for us
according to the aforesaid program.

3. We shall deal with the press in the following way: what is
the part played by the press to-day? It serves to excite and
inflame those passions which are needed for our purpose or
else it serves selfish ends of parties. It is often vapid, unjust,
mendacious, and the majority of the public have not the
slightest idea what ends the press really serves. We shall saddle
and bridle it with a tight curb: we shall do the same also with
all productions of the printing press, for where would be the
sense of getting rid of the attacks of the press if we remain
targets for pamphlets and books? The produce of publicity,
which nowadays is a source of heavy expense owing to the
neecessity of censoring it, will be turned by us into a very
lucrative source of income to our State: we shall lay on it a special stamp tax and require deposits of caution-money before permitting the establishment of any organ of the press or of printing offices; these will then have to guarantee our government against any kind of attack on
For any attempt to attack us, if such still be possible, we shall inflict fines without mercy. Such measures as stamp tax, deposit of caution-money and fines secured by these deposits, will bring in a huge income to the government. It is true that party organs might not spare money for the sake of publicity, but these we shall shut up at the second attack upon us. No one shall with impunity lay a finger on the aureole of our government infallibility. The pretext for stopping any publication will be the alleged plea that it is agitating the public mind without occasion or justification. I BEG YOU TO NOTE THAT AMONG THOSE MAKING ATTACKS UPON US WILL ALSO BE ORGANS ESTABLISHED BY US, BUT THEY WILL ATTACK EXCLUSIVELY POINTS THAT WE HAVE PRE-DETERMINED TO ALTER.

WE CONTROL THE PRESS

4. NOT A SINGLE ANNOUNCEMENT WILL REACH THE
PUBLIC WITHOUT OUR CONTROL. Even now this is
already being attained by us inasmuch as all news items are
received by a few agencies, in whose offices they are focused
from all parts of the world. These agencies will then be already
entirely ours and will give publicity only to what we dictate to
them.

5. If already now we have contrived to possess ourselves of the
minds of the GOY communities to such an extent the they all
come near looking upon the events of the world through the
colored glasses of those spectacles we are setting astride their
noses; if already now there is not a single State where there
exist for us any barriers to admittance into what GOY stupidity
calls State secrets: what will our positions be then, when we
shall be acknowledged supreme lords of the world in the person of our king of all the world ....

6. Let us turn again to the FUTURE OF THE PRINTING
PRESS. Every one desirous of being a publisher, librarian, or
printer, will be obliged to provide himself with the diploma
instituted therefore, which, in case of any fault, will be
immediately impounded. With such measures THE
INSTRUMENT OF THOUGHT WILL BECOME AN
EDUCATIVE MEANS ON THE HANDS OF OUR
GOVERNMENT, WHICH WILL NO LONGER ALLOW
THE MASS OF THE NATION TO BE LED ASTRAY IN
BY-WAYS AND FANTASIES ABOUT THE BLESSINGS
OF PROGRESS. Is there any one of us who does not know that
these phantom blessings are the direct roads to foolish
imaginings which give birth to anarchical relations of men
among themselves and towards authority, because progress, or
rather the idea of progress, has introduced the conception of
every kind of emancipation, but has failed to establish its limits
.... All the so-called liberals are anarchists, if not in fact, at any
rate in thought. Every one of them in hunting after phantoms of
freedom, and falling exclusively into license, that is, into the
anarchy of protest for the sake of protest....

FREE PRESS DESTROYED

7. We turn to the periodical press. We shall impose on it, as on
all printed matter, stamp taxes per sheet and deposits of
caution-money, and books of less than 30 sheets will pay
double. We shall reckon them as pamphlets in order, on the one
hand, to reduce the number of magazines, which are the worst
form of printed poison, and, on the other, in order that this
measure may force writers into such lengthy productions that
they will be little read, especially as they will be costly. At the same time what we shall publish ourselves to influence mental development in the direction laid down for our profit will be cheap and will be read voraciously. The tax will bring vapid literary ambitions within bounds and the liability to penalties will make literary men dependent upon us. And if there should be any found who are desirous of writing against us, they will not find any person eager to print their productions. Before accepting any production for publication in print, the publisher or printer will have to apply to the authorities for permission to do so. Thus we shall know beforehand of all tricks preparing against us and shall nullify them by getting ahead with explanations on the subject treated of.

8. Literature and journalism are two of the most important
educative forces, and therefore our government will become
proprietor of the majority of the journals. This will neutralize
the injurious influence of the privately-owned press and will
put us in possession of a tremendous influence upon the public
mind .... If we give permits for ten journals, we shall ourselves
found thirty, and so on in the same proportion. This, however,
must in no wise be suspected by the public. For which reason
all journals published by us will be of the most opposite, in
appearance, tendencies and opinions, thereby creating
confidence in us and bringing over to us quite unsuspicious
opponents, who will thus fall into our trap and be rendered
harmless.

9. In the front rank will stand organs of an official character.
They will always stand guard over our interests, and therefore
their influence will be comparatively insignificant.

10. In the second rank will be the semi-official organs, whose
part it will be to attack the tepid and indifferent.

11. In the third rank we shall set up our own, to all appearance,
opposition, which, in at least one of its organs, will present
what looks like the very antipodes to us. Our real opponents at
heart will accept this simulated opposition as their own and
will show us their cards.

12. All our newspapers will be of all possible complexions —
aristocratic, republican, revolutionary, even anarchical - for so
long, of course, as the constitution exists .... Like the Indian
idol "Vishnu" they will have a hundred hands, and every one of
them will have a finger on any one of the public opinions as
required. When a pulse quickens these hands will lead opinion
in the direction of our aims, for an excited patient loses all
power of judgment and easily yields to suggestion. Those fools
who will think they are repeating the opinion of a newspaper of
their own camp will be repeating our opinion or any opinion
that seems desirable for us. In the vain belief that they are
following the organ of their party they will, in fact, follow the
flag which we hang out for them.

13. In order to direct our newspaper militia in this sense we
must take special and minute care in organizing this matter.
Under the title of central department of the press we shall
institute literary gatherings at which our agents will without
attracting attention issue the orders and watchwords of the day.
By discussing and controverting, but always superficially,
without touching the essence of the matter, our organs will
carry on a sham fight fusillade with the official newspapers
solely for the purpose of giving occasion for us to express
ourselves more fully than could well be done from the outset in
official announcements, whenever, of course, that is to our advantage.

14. THESE ATTACKS UPON US WILL ALSO SERVE
ANOTHER PURPOSE, NAMELY, THAT OUR SUBJECTS
WILL BE CONVINCED TO THE EXISTENCE OF FULL
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND SO GIVE OUR AGENTS AN
OCCASION TO AFFIRM THAT ALL ORGANS WHICH
OPPOSE US ARE EMPTY BABBLERS, since they are
incapable of finding any substantial objections to our orders.

ONLY LIES PRINTED

15. Methods of organization like these, imperceptible to the
public eye but absolutely sure, are the best calculated to
succeed in bringing the attention and the confidence of the
public to the side of our government. Thanks to such methods
we shall be in a position as from time to time may be required,
to excite or to tranquillize the public mind on political
questions, to persuade or to confuse, printing now truth, now
lies, facts or their contradictions, according as they may be well
or ill received, always very cautiously feeling our ground
before stepping upon it.... WE SHALL HAVE A SURE
TRIUMPH OVER OUR OPPONENTS SINCE THEY WILL
NOT HAVE AT THEIR DISPOSITION ORGANS OF THE
PRESS IN WHICH THEY CAN GIVE FULL AND FINAL
EXPRESSION TO THEIR VIEWS owing to the aforesaid
methods of dealing with the press. We shall not even need to
refute them except very superficially.

16. Trial shots like these, fired by us in the third rank of our press, in case of need, will be energetically refuted by us in our semi-official organs.

17. Even nowadays, already, to take only the French press,
there are forms which reveal masonic solidarity in acting on the
watchword: all organs of the press are bound together by
professional secrecy; like the augurs of old, not one of their
numbers will give away the secret of his sources of information
unless it be resolved to make announcement of them. Not one
journalist will venture to betray this secret, for not one of them
is ever admitted to practice literature unless his whole past has
some disgraceful sore or other .... These sores would be
immediately revealed. So long as they remain the secret of a
few the prestige of the journalist attacks the majority of the
country - the mob follow after him with enthusiasm.

18. Our calculations are especially extended to the provinces. It
is indispensable for us to inflame there those hopes and
impulses with which we could at any moment fall upon the
capital, and we shall represent to the capitals that these
expressions are the independent hopes and impulses of the
provinces. Naturally, the source of them will be always one and
the same - ours. WHAT WE NEED IS THAT, UNTIL SUCH
TIME AS WE ARE IN THE PLENITUDE POWER, THE
CAPITALS SHOULD FIND THEMSELVES STIFLED BY
THE PROVINCIAL OPINION OF THE NATIONS, I.E., OF
A MAJORITY ARRANGED BY OUR AGENTUR. What we
need is that at the psychological moment the capitals should
not be in a position to discuss an accomplished fact for the
simple reason, if for no other, that it has been accepted by the
public opinion of a majority in the provinces.

19. WHEN WE ARE IN THE PERIOD OF THE NEW
REGIME TRANSITIONAL TO THAT OF OUR
ASSUMPTION OF FULL SOVEREIGNTY WE MUST NOT
ADMIT ANY REVELATION BY THE PRESS OF ANY FORM OF PUBLIC DISHONESTY; IT IS NECESSARY THAT THE NEW REGIME SHOULD BE THOUGHT TO HAVE SO PERFECTLY CONTENDED EVERYBODY THAT EVEN CRIMINALITY HAS DISAPPEARED ... Cases of the manifestation of criminality should remain known only to their victims and to chance witnesses - no more.

Protocol XIII

Distractions

1. The need for daily bread forces the GOYIM to keep silence
and be our humble servants. Agents taken on to our press from
among the GOYIM will at our orders discuss anything which it
is inconvenient for us to issue directly in official documents,
and we meanwhile, quietly amid the din of the discussion so
raised, shall simply take and carry through such measures as
we wish and then offer them to the public as an accomplished
fact. No one will dare to demand the abrogation of a matter
once settled, all the more so as it will be represented as an
improvement... And immediately the press will distract the
current of thought towards, new questions, (have we not
trained people always to be seeking something new?). Into the
discussions of these new questions will throw themselves those
of the brainless dispensers of fortunes who are not able even
now to understand that they have not the remotest conception
about the matters which they undertake to discuss. Questions of
the political are unattainable for any save those who have
guided it already for many ages, the creators.

2. From all this you will see that in securing the opinion of the
mob we are only facilitating the working of our machinery, and
you may remark that it is not for actions but for words issued
by us on this or that question that we seem to seek approval.
We are constantly making public declaration that we are
guided in all our undertakings by the hope, joined to the
conviction, that we are serving the common weal.

WE DECEIVE WORKERS

3. In order to distract people who may be too troublesome from
discussions of questions of the political we are now putting
forward what we allege to be new questions of the political,
namely, questions of industry. In this sphere let them discuss
themselves silly! The masses are agreed to remain inactive, to
take a rest from what they suppose to be political (which we
trained them to in order to use them as a means of combating
the GOY governments) only on condition of being found new
employments, in which we are prescribing them something that
looks like the same political object. In order that the masses
themselves may not guess what they are about WE FURTHER
DISTRACT THEM WITH AMUSEMENTS, GAMES,
PASTIMES, PASSIONS, PEOPLE'S PALACES .... SOON
WE SHALL BEGIN THROUGH THE PRESS TO PROPOSE
COMPETITIONS IN ART, IN SPORT IN ALL KINDS: these
interests will finally distract their minds from questions in
which we should find ourselves compelled to oppose them.
Growing more and more unaccustomed to reflect and form any
opinions of their own, people will begin to talk in the same
tone as we because we alone shall be offering them new
directions for thought... of course through such persons as will
not be suspected of solidarity with us.

4. The part played by the liberals, Utopian dreamers, will be
finally played out when our government is acknowledged. Till
such time they will continue to do us good service. Therefore
we shall continue to direct their minds to all sorts of vain
conceptions of fantastic theories, new and apparently
progressive: for have we not with complete success turned the
brainless heads of the GOYIM with progress, till there is not
among the GOYIM one mind able to perceive that under this word lies a departure from truth in all cases where it is not a question of material inventions, for truth is one, and in it there is no place for progress. Progress, like a fallacious idea, serves to obscure truth so that none may know it except us, the Chosen of God, its guardians.

5. When, we come into our kingdom our orators will expound
great problems which have turned humanity upside down in
order to bring it at the end under our beneficent rule.

6. Who will ever suspect then that ALL THESE PEOPLES
WERE STAGE-MANAGED BY US ACCORDING TO A
POLITICAL PLAN WHICH NO ONE HAS SO MUCH AS
GUESSED AT IN THE COURSE OF MANY CENTURIES?

Protocol XIV

Assault on Religion

1. When we come into our kingdom it will be undesirable for us that there should exist any other religion than ours of the One God with whom our destiny is bound up by our position as the Chosen People and through whom our same destiny is united with the destinies of the world. We must therefore sweep away all other forms of belief. If this gives birth to the atheists whom we see to-day, it will not, being only a transitional stage, interfere with our views, but will serve as a warning for those generations which will hearken to our preaching of the religion of Moses, that, by its stable and thoroughly elaborated system has brought all the peoples of the world into subjection to us. Therein we shall emphasize its mystical right, on which, as we shall say, all its educative power is based .... Then at every possible opportunity we shall publish articles in which we shall make comparisons between our beneficent rule and those of past ages. The blessing of tranquility, though it be a tranquility forcibly brought about by centuries of agitation, will throw into higher relief the benefits to which we shall point. The errors of the GOYIM governments will be depicted by us in the most vivid hues. We shall implant such an abhorrence of them that the peoples will prefer tranquility in a state of serfdom to those rights of vaunted freedom which have tortured humanity and exhausted the very sources of human existence, sources which have been exploited by a mob of rascally adventurers who know not what they do .... USELESS CHANGES OF FORMS OF
GOVERNMENT TO WHICH WE INSTIGATED THE "GOYIM" WHEN WE WERE UNDERMINING THEIR STATE STRUCTURES, WILL HAVE SO WEARIED THE PEOPLES BY THAT TIME THAT THEY WILL PREFER TO SUFFER ANYTHING UNDER US RATHER THAN RUN THE RISK OF ENDURING AGAIN ALL THE AGITATIONS AND MISERIES THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH.

WE SHALL FORBID CHRIST

2. At the same time we shall not omit to emphasize the
historical mistakes of the GOY governments which have
tormented humanity for so many centuries by their lack of
understanding of everything that constitutes the true good of
humanity in their chase after fantastic schemes of social
blessings, and have never noticed that these schemes kept on
producing a worse and never a better state of the universal
relations which are the basis of human life ...

3. The whole force of our principles and methods will lie in the
fact that we shall present them and expound them as a splendid
contrast to the dead and decomposed old order of things in
social life.

4. Our philosophers will discuss all the shortcomings of the
various beliefs of the "GOYIM," BUT NO ONE WILL EVER
BRING UNDER DISCUSSION OUR FAITH FROM ITS
TRUE POINT OF VIEW SINCE THIS WILL BE FULLY
LEARNED BY NONE SAVE OURS WHO WILL NEVER
DARE TO BETRAY ITS SECRETS.

5. IN COUNTRIES KNOWN AS PROGRESSIVE AND ENLIGHTENED WE HAVE CREATED A SENSELESS, FILTHY, ABOMINABLE LITERATURE. For some time after our entrance to power we shall continue to encourage its existence in order to provide a telling relief by contrast to the speeches, party program, which will be distributed from exalted quarters of ours .... Our wise men, trained to become leaders of the GOYIM, will compose speeches, projects, memoirs, articles, which will be used by us to influence the minds of the GOYIM, directing them towards such understanding and forms of knowledge as have been determined by us.

Protocol XV

Ruthless Suppression

1. When we at last definitely come into our kingdom by the aid
of COUPS D'ETAT prepared everywhere for one and the same
day, after definitely acknowledged (and not a little time will
pass before that comes about, perhaps even a whole century)
we shall make it our task to see that against us such things as
plots shall no longer exist. With this purpose we shall slay
without mercy all who take arms (in hand, like Waco? Randy
Weaver? Port Arthur? Oklahoma?) to oppose our coming into
our kingdom. Every kind of new institution of anything like a
secret society will also be punished with death; those of them
which are now in existence, are known to us, serve us and have
served us, we shall disband and send into exile to continents far
removed from Europe. IN THIS WAY WE SHALL
PROCEED WITH THOSE "GOY" MASONS WHO KNOW
TOO MUCH; such of these as we may for some reason spare
will be kept in constant fear of exile. We shall promulgate a
law making all former members of secret societies liable to
exile from Europe as the center of rule.

2. Resolutions of our government will be final, without appeal.

3. In the GOY societies, in which we have planted and deeply
rooted discord and protestantism, the only possible way of
restoring order is to employ merciless measures that prove the
direct force of authority: no regard must be paid to the victims
who fall, they suffer for the well-being of the future. The
attainment of that well-being, even at the expense of sacrifices, is the duty of any kind of government that acknowledges as justification for its existence not only its privileges but its obligations. The principal guarantee of stability of rule is to confirm the aureole of power, and this aureole is attained only by such a majestic inflexibility of might as shall carry on its face the emblems of inviolability from mystical causes - from the choice of God. SUCH WAS, UNTIL RECENT TIMES, THE RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY, THE ONE AND ONLY SERIOUS FOE WE HAD IN THE WORLD, WITHOUT COUNTING THE PAPACY. Bear in mind the example when Italy, drenched with blood, never touched a hair of the head of Sulla who had poured forth that blood: Sulla enjoyed an apotheosis for his might in him, but his intrepid return to Italy ringed him round with inviolability. The people do not lay a finger on him who hypnotizes them by his daring and strength of mind.

SECRET SOCIETIES

4. Meantime, however, until we come into our kingdom, we shall act in the contrary way: we shall create and multiply free masonic lodges in all the countries of the world, absorb into them all who may become or who are prominent in public activity, for these lodges we shall find our principal intelligence office and means of influence. All these lodges we shall bring under one central administration, known to us alone and to all others absolutely unknown, which will be composed of our learned elders. The lodges will have their representatives who will serve to screen the above-mentioned administration of MASONRY and from whom will issue the watchword and program. In these lodges we shall tie together the knot which binds together all revolutionary and liberal elements. Their
composition will be made up of all strata of society. The most secret political plots win be known to us and fall under our guiding hands on the very day of their conception. AMONG "HE MEMBERS OF THESE LODGES WILL BE ALMOST ALL THE AGENTS OF INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL POLICE since their service is for us irreplaceable in the respect that the police is in a position not only to use its own particular measures with the insubordinate, but also to screen our activities and provide pretexts for discontents, ET
CETERA.

5. The class of people who most willingly enter into secret societies are those who live by their wits, careerists, and in general people, mostly light-minded, with whom we shall have no difficulty in dealing, and in using to wind up the mechanism (of the machine devised by us. If this world grows agitated the meaning of that will be that we have had to stir up in order to break up its too great solidarity. BUT IF THERE SHOULD ARISE IN ITS MIDST A PLOT, THEN AT THE HEAD OF THAT PLOT WILL BE NO OTHER THAN ONE OF OUR MOST TRUSTED SERVANTS. It is natural that we and no other should lead MASONIC activities, for we know whither we are leading, we know the final goal of every form of activity whereas the GOYIM have knowledge of nothing, not even of the immediate effect of action; they put before themselves, usually, the momentary reckoning of the satisfaction of their self-opinion in the accomplishment of their thought without even remarking that the very conception never belonged to their initiative but to our instigation of their thought...

GENTILES ARE STUPID

6. The GOYIM enter the lodges out of curiosity or in the hope by their means to get a nibble at the public pie, and some of them in order to obtain a hearing before the public for their impracticable and groundless fantasies: they thirst for the emotion of success and applause, of which we are remarkably generous. And the reason why we give them this success is to make use of the high conceit of themselves to which it gives birth, for that insensibly disposes them to assimulate our suggestions without being on their guard against them in the fullness of their confidence that it is their own infallibility which is giving utterance to their own thoughts and that it is impossible for them to borrow those of others .... You cannot imagine to what extent the wisest of the GOYIM can be brought to a state of unconscious naivete in the presence of this condition of high conceit of themselves, and at the same time how easy it is to take the heart out of them by the slightest ill-success, though it be nothing more than the stoppage of the applause they had, and to reduce them to a slavish submission for the sake of winning a renewal of success .... BY SO MUCH AS OURS DISREGARD SUCCESS IF ONLY THEY CAN CARRY THROUGH THEIR PLANS, BY SO MUCH THE "GOYIM" ARE WILLING TO SACRIFICE ANY PLANS ONLY TO HAVE SUCCESS. This psychology of theirs materially facilitates for us the task of setting them in the required direction. These tigers in appearance have the souls of sheep and the wind blows freely through their heads. We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM .... They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very
creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality ....

7. If we have been able to bring them to such a pitch of stupid
blindness is it not a proof, and an amazingly clear proof, of the
degree to which the mind of the GOYIM is undeveloped in
comparison with our mind? This it is, mainly, which
guarantees our success.

GENTILES ARE CATTLE

8. And how far-seeing were our learned elders in ancient times
when they said that to attain a serious end it behooves not to
stop at any means or to count the victims sacrificed for the sake
of that end .... We have not counted the victims of the seed of
the GOY cattle, though we have sacrificed many of our own,
but for that we have now already given them such a position on
the earth as they could not even have dreamed of. The
comparatively small numbers of the victims from the number
of ours have preserved our nationality from destruction.
Death is the inevitable end for all. It is better to bring that
end nearer to those who hinder our affairs than to ourselves, to
the founders of this affair. WE EXECUTE MASONS IN
SUCH WISE THAT NONE SAVE THE BROTHERHOOD
CAN EVER HAVE A SUSPICION OF IT, NOT EVEN THE
VICTIMS THEMSELVES OF OUR DEATH SENTENCE,
THEY ALL DIE WHEN REQUIRED AS IF FROM A
NORMAL KIND OF ILLNESS.....Knowing this, even the
brotherhood in its turn dare not protest. By such methods we have plucked out of the midst of MASONRY the very root of protest against our disposition. While preaching liberalism to
the GOY we at the same time keep our own people and our agents in a state of unquestioning submission.

10. Under our influence the execution of the laws of the
GOYIM has been reduced to a minimum. The prestige of the
law has been exploded by the liberal interpretations introduced
into this sphere. In the most important and fundamental affairs
and questions, JUDGES DECIDE AS WE DICTATE TO
THEM, see matters in the light wherewith we enfold them for
the administration of the GOYIM, of course, through persons
who are our tools though we do not appear to have anything in
common with them - by newspaper opinion or by other means
.... Even senators and the higher administration accept our
counsels. The purely brute mind of the GOYIM is incapable of
use for analysis and observation, and still more for the
foreseeing whither a certain manner of setting a question may
tend.

11. In this difference in capacity for thought between the
GOYIM and ourselves may be clearly discerned the seal of our
position as the Chosen People and of our higher quality of
humanness, in contradistinction to the brute mind of the
GOYIM. Their eyes are open, but see nothing before them and
do not invent (unless perhaps, material things). From this it is
plain that nature herself has destined us to guide and rule the
world.

WE DEMAND SUBMISSION

12. When comes the time of our overt rule, the time to manifest
its blessing, we shall remake all legislatures, all our laws will
be brief, plain, stable, without any kind of interpretations, so
that anyone will be in a position to know them perfectly. The
main feature which will run right through them is submission to orders, and this principle will be carried to a grandiose height. Every abuse will then disappear in consequence of the responsibility of all down to the lowest unit before the higher authority of the representative of power. Abuses of power subordinate to this last instance will be so mercilessly punished that none will be found anxious to try experiments with their own powers. We shall follow up jealously every action of the administration on which depends the smooth running of the machinery of the State, for slackness in this produces slackness everywhere; not a single case of illegality or abuse of power will be left without exemplary punishment.

13. Concealment of guilt, connivance between those in the service of the administration - all this kind of evil will disappear after the very first examples of severe punishment. The aureole of our power demands suitable, that is, cruel, punishments for the slightest infringement, for the sake of gain, of its supreme prestige. The sufferer, though his punishment may exceed his fault, will count as a soldier falling on the administrative field of battle in the interests of authority, principle and law, which do not permit that any of those who hold the reins of the public coach should turn aside from the public highway to their own private paths. FOR EXAMPLES OUR JUDGES WILL KNOW THAT WHENEVER THEY FEEL DISPOSED TO PLUME THEMSELVES ON FOOLISH CLEMENCY THEY ARE VIOLATING THE LAW OF JUSTICE WHICH IS INSTITUTED FOR THE EXEMPLARY EDIFICATION OF MEN BY PENALTIES FOR LAPSES AND NOT FOR DISPLAY OF THE SPIRITUAL QUALITIES OF THE JUDGES .... Such qualities it is proper to show in private life, but not in a public square which is the educational basis of human life.

14. Our legal staff will serve not beyond the age of 55, firstly
because old men more obstinately hold to prejudiced opinions,
and are less capable of submitting to new directions, and
secondly because this will give us the possibility by this
measure of securing elasticity in the changing of staff, which
will thus the more easily bend under our pressure: he who
wishes to keep his place will have to give blind obedience to
deserve it. In general, our judges will be elected by us only
from among those who thoroughly understand that the pan
they have to play is to punish and apply laws and not to dream
about the manifestations of liberalism at the expense of the
educational scheme of the State, as the GOYIM in these days
imagine it to be .... This method of shuffling the staff will serve
also to explode any collective solidarity of those in the same
service and will bind all to the interests of the government
upon which their fate will depend. The young generation of
judges will be trained in certain views regarding the
inadmissibility of any abuses that might disturb the established
order of our subjects among themselves.

15. In these days the judges of the GOYIM create indulgences
to every kind of crimes, not having a just understanding of their
office, because the rulers of the present age in appointing
judges to office take no care to inculcate in them a sense of duty and consciousness of the matter which is demanded of them. As a brute beast lets out its young in search of prey, so do the GOYIM give to them for what purpose such place was created. This is the reason why their governments are being ruined by their own forces through the acts of their own administration.

16. Let us borrow from the example of the results of these
actions yet another lesson for our government.

17. We shall root out liberalism from all the important strategic
posts of our government on which depends the training of
subordinates for our State structure. Such posts will fall
exclusively to those who have been trained by us for
administrative rule. To the possible objection that the
retirement of old servants will cost the Treasury heavily, I
reply, firstly, they will be provided with some private service in
place of what they lose, and, secondly, I have to remark that all
the money in the world will be concentrated in our hands,
consequently it is not our government that has to fear expense.

WE SHALL BE CRUEL

18. Our absolutism will in all things be logically consecutive
and therefore in each one of its decrees our supreme will must
be respected and unquestionably fulfilled: it will ignore all
murmurs, all discontents of every kind and will destroy to the
root every kind of manifestation of them in act by punishment
of an exemplary character.

19. We shall abolish the right of appeal, which will be
transferred exclusively to our disposal - to the cognizance of
him who rules, for we must not allow the conception among
the people of a thought that there could be such a thing as a
decision that is not right of judges set up by us. If, however,
anything like this should occur, we shall ourselves quash the
decision, but inflict therewith such exemplary punishment on
the judge for lack of understanding of his duty and the purpose
of his appointment as will prevent a repetition of such cases ....
I repeat that it must be born in mind that we shall know every
step of our administration which only needs to be closely watched for the people to be content with us, for it has the right to demand from a good government a good official.

20. OUR GOVERNMENT WILL HAVE THE
APPEARANCE OF A PATRIARCHAL PATERNAL
GUARDIANSHIP ON THE PART OF OUR RULER. Our
own nation and our subjects will discern in his person a father
caring for their every need, their every act, their every
interrelation as subjects one with another, as well as their
relations to the ruler. They will then be so thoroughly imbued
with the thought that it is impossible for them to dispense with
this wardship and guidance, if they wish to live in peace and
quiet, THAT THEY WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THE
AUTOCRACY OF OUR RULER WITH A DEVOTION
BORDERING ON "APOTHEOSIS," especially when they are
convinced that those whom we set up do not put their own in
place of authority, but only blindly execute his dictates. They
will be rejoiced that we have regulated everything in their lives
as is done by wise parents who desire to train children in the
cause of duty and submission. For the peoples of the world in
regard to the secrets of our polity are ever through the ages
only children under age, precisely as are also their
governments.

21. As you see, I found our despotism on right and duty: the
right to compel the execution of duty is the direct obligation of
a government which is a father for its subjects. It has the right
of the strong that it may use it for the benefit of directing
humanity towards that order which is defined by nature,
namely, submission. Everything in the world is in a state of
submission, if not to man, then to circumstances or its own
inner character, in all cases, to what is stronger. And so shall we be this something stronger for the sake of good.

22. We are obliged without hesitation to sacrifice individuals,
who commit a breach of established order, for in the exemplary
punishment of evil lies a great educational problem.
When the King of Israel sets upon his sacred head the
crown offered him by Europe he will become patriarch of the
world. The indispensable victims offered by him in
consequence of their suitability will never reach the number of
victims offered in the course of centuries by the mania of
magnificence, the emulation between the GOY governments.

24. Our King will be in constant communion with the peoples,
making to them from the tribune speeches which fame will in
that same hour distribute over all the world.

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