George,Quijote and the Dragon

To-day is Saint George’s, and the traditional date of the death of Miguel de Cervantes. Heroism of the struggle, with the ardor of a chivalric, christian heart ties these two together. The dragon is symbolic of a fearsome adversary. Saint George defeated him. In Cervantes Don Quijote, our befuddled caballero was, in spirit, the perfect christian chevalier. I could write a book on this, but I have not the audience, nor the support...
Jurij Zaninović. Bridge with four dragons. 1900-01. Ljubljana.
I am also fascinated with the word for the creature: draco, drakon, zmaj, aždaja, smok. There are particular dragons, and there are types of dragons, and the general dragon. (The east asian dragons have a different ethos, from the indo-european dragons.) These dragons share with the biblical dragon an interchangeability with the serpent, but with wings and fire, which greatly increases their fearsome mythology. There are exceptions to their rapacious, evil ferocity, some are guardians. This is surprising and interesting. The dragon of Ljubljana, ljubljanski zmaj, supposedly guards the bridge, and the city; yet in the small town of Sveti Jurij (Saint George) not far off, the traditional heraldic depiction of the armoured and caped saint dispatching the fearsome beast with a lance is the coat of arms, shield, and flag. A similar Jurij serves Moscow. Now, the serbs also love George, as the english once did, but in addition to the generic slavonic zmaj, they also name aždaja. This dragon came from Persia and the zoroastrians, but not directly. The barbarian turks picked up words from conquered civilisations and were linguistic vehicles.

To further speculate, wildly, and most uncertainly: there is the less common words 'pogoj' dragon, and, in srpskohrvatsko, 'pakoa', hell, perhaps suggesting sulfurous pitch*. In addition the greek 'hades', 'aidelon', and 'άδης', fires of hades, and in Plato, the house of hades. From the greeks the russians got 'ad' in addition to their variation of peklo, pekel, pakao, pekla. There is the persian 'aži dahāka'. Is there a multi-lingual convergence of creature and locale? of dragon and hell? Or am I like the father in, My big fat greek wedding, creating fanciful etymologies?
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*Jakob Grimm noted the fire and stench of slavonic hells, and modern greek hell. The hebraic 'gehenna' has often been translated into hellfire, and fire and brimstone means fire and sulfur.

Saint Blaise

Twenty-five years ago, a small book of humor, Growing Up Catholic, came out. On a corner of a page, there was listed two, and only two, Catholic fun days; one was Saint Patrick’s, there were irish on the committee, and the other was ― Saint Blaise. Now, in protestant America, it is doubtful that Blaise is even known, considering, the often, odd naming practices as a given, christian name.

On his name day ― 3 February, or Sunday of Candlemas, throats are blessed by crossed tapers. During mass, or after, people line up to hear the words, in the old latin, “Per intercessionem S. Blasii liberet to Deus a malo gutteris et a qouvis alio malo”, or in english, “May God at the intercession of St. Blaise preserve you from throat troubles and every other evil”, as beeswax candles are pressed about the throat, and the priest, or deacon, pronounces the sign of the cross.* This little ceremony, as with the imposition of ashes, is both optional for the faithful, and open to all, irregardless of their faith, meaning ― you do not have to be a Catholic. Some people remember this, fondly, from their elementary school days. Others still enjoy it as adults, and are even disappointed if the local priest does not celebrate the blessing.

Why this? Blaise is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. He was a bishop and physician in Sebaste of Armenia, at that interesting time, when christianity was becoming legal. He was tortured and beheaded, under Licinius, in 316, after the Edict of Toleration. While imprisoned, he saved a boy from choking on a fish bone, hence his help for the throat.

Now, there is a bit of an english wordplay with candles and the name Blaise (Blaze). We can also, other than being safe from choking and malady, be free from uttering bad, or hurtful words. Some of us can still be in the need of his intercession.
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*sometimes said so rapidly as to resemble a mumbling blur of syllables
noto bene: St. Blaise is patron of Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast, banner supra. Recently, in Sivas (modern Sebaste), archaeologists have found a grave, that, they believe may have been for Blaise. Some of his relics reside in Dubrovnik.

Saint Sava

Nebojša Đuranović. Saint Sava as srb archbishop. 1995. Belgrade.
Rastko Nemanjić *1175 was the first archbishop of the church in Srbija. His brother Stefan was the first king. Their father, Stefan Nemanja, began the royal lineage.

As a youth he went off to Mount Athos and became the monk Sava. In time, his father joined him as the monk, Simeon. Both are in the canon.

In 1208, Sava returned home, to bring peace to his brothers, and to begin the srb church as it separated from Ochrid. In 1219, Sava was consecrated as archbishop. After returning from Palestine, a second time, he caught pneumonia, and died at Turnovo, Bulgaria on 14 January 1235. Two years later Vladislav, the king of the srbs, took his remains to, a new monastery, in Mileševa. The casket was opened. Sava was incorrupt, and exuding the odor of sanctity.

His relics were taken from Mileševa, in 1595, and were burnt by the turks on Holy Friday. Three hundred years later, a society was started to build a cathedral, on that spot, Savinac Hill in the Vračar area in Beograd. Construction began in 1935, and was suspended on account of german and communist hostilities. Construction began, again, in 1985. To-day, the building is complete, save for interior art. Of the orthodox churches, Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople, is larger, but under control of turkish authorities for the last five and a half centuries.

Perhaps, Sava can be compared to Saint Patrick, in the esteem, sentiment and historicity his nation has for him. In the lands where people have emigrated, the irish have Patrick parish, the poles have one for either or both Stanislaus, and so on. The srbs have one for Sava, in Cleveland there are two srb parishes, both are Saint Sava.

Death penalty

To-day, I have come to the conclusion, that, I feared for some time, that, I might. I can not support the death penalty in the United States, nor perhaps anywhere.

The classical personification of Lady Justice is, that of, a woman, blindfolded, holding, both, scales and a sword. The symbolic metaphor is, that, while weighing the case in hand, no outside influences are in play, and, if warranted, the sword, which is at rest, is available for execution. This makes for a clean logical exposition.

Fiat justitia ruat coelum is a legal maxim. At first, it would suggest to many, that justice no matter what the circumstances, and consequences may be, will be done; but then, how is justice defined? Well yes, if justice means fairness and equity; but what if justice means only an official ruling and command? Then what is decreed, whether it is truly ‘just’ or grandly unjust, must be done.

Seneca writes* of the governor Gnaeus Piso and his justice. A soldier returns without his companion. Piso sentences him to death, as the sentence is about to be executed, the soldier in charge sees the presumed dead companion. This man returns to Piso and tells the tale. Piso has all three executed. Piso was not to be contradicted.

Now, we do not live in pagan imperial Rome. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion in January 1993, in which, he, with Clarence Thomas concurring, state innocence is not a reason to deny the execution of a man, Leonel Torres Herrera. The, supposed, pro-life, justice’s words:

... reluctance of the present Court to admit publicly that Our Perfect Constitution lets stand any injustice ... embarrassing question ...

Herrera was executed the twelfth of May 1993, in Texas. In the year 2000, the governor of Illinois, George Ryan made the statement:

We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system.

He said this after a 13th person, whom was to be executed, was shown to be innocent of the crime he was sentenced to. Since Illinois had revived the death penalty, 13 years previous, 12 had been executed. There had been students of journalism, in the class of a Northwestern professor, that had investigated death penalty cases. This academic exercise had shown the governor of the faulty course of justice in his state. Now as one who has read, and considered, the dangerously, subversive, collection of documents, that the church calls, the New Testament. I have to conclude: that Jesus is against such killing, as He is with all killing. Divine Mercy, and obeying the precepts of God, forbid killing; and that includes judicial killing.

The governments of man, and the state, and that includes the United States are not christian institutions. Arguments then, can be made for such killing, but not as christians. Now, besides the Illinois, Texas and Scalia points, it is also true: the United States has more people imprisoned, by absolute number and by percentage, than of any land; another mark of american exceptionalism. Why is this country so criminal, or so imprisoned? There is something gravely in disorder, here.

There is not a uniform system of justice in this country. There is too much caprice, too much imbalance and unbalance. The chains that hold the scales have been broken. The legal system, that impacts the average person, is not the legal system, that impacts the special people of power, influence, wealth and the politically separate. There has been eight years of criminal government leading this country. A new administration, this time legally installed, will be here in a fortnight. There has been little talk of visiting justice upon the wrongdoers. Bi-partisanship is rubbish, when the one party only transgresses, and dictates, and the other tries collegiality, and does not pursue justice, while the former party is unrepentant and contentious.

There is no one imprisoned, in this country, who has broken more laws than the current, now ending, administration. Then there are all their collaborators, minions, underlings and enablers. Truly, no one in America, has more blood on their hands, than bushjr and cheney. They have been a menace to the entire world. If they are not even investigated, let alone convicted and tried ― how can anyone be capitally charged?

The historian Jean Bodin† was read by Thomas Jefferson. In his mention of the knez and the slovene people, before their christianisation, and loss of independence, they found the embodiment of the social contract. Every year (later only on his initial installation), the knez (duke) of the slovenes took the oath to lead his people from the people, on the Knežji kamen, sedes Karinthani ducatus, as his throne underneath an oak. If he was to be found wanting in his leadership, he was to be executed (it is not recorded when this stopped).‡ The leader of his people was responsible to the people. We have no such system of responsibility.
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*De Ira, Book I, Chapter xviii. 41 a.D.
† Method for the Easy Understanding of History, 1566, Six livres de la Republique Paris, 1576. Also written earlier, a chronicle by John of Viktring (Johannes Victoriensis, Abbot of Viktring/Vetrinj), †1347, Liber certarum historiarum.
‡The last enactment of this was in 1414, for the next candidate (that inherited the office was the Habsburg emperor, Frederick III, whom would not).
noto bene: The last president, Bill Clinton, knew something of this democratic practice.

Draža Mihailović

Dragoljub Draža (Čiča) Mihailović *April 27, 1893, †July 17, 1946.

When the Axis armies of the fascist countries descended upon Jugoslavija, on the 6th of April 1941, they crushed the Royal Jugoslav Army, but not as quickly as they intended. This caused a delay in the offset of the main theatre of the world war. This hiccough allowed the germans to experience a russian winter, that, they did not plan for. This low evaluation of the slavonic nations was typical of the germans.

On the 15th of April, Colonel Mihailović refused to surrender at Doboj, Bosna. He retreated to the hills of his boyhood. On the 4th of May, Herr Hitler gleefully told the world, that, Jugoslavija was no more. Four days later, Draža Mihailović reached Ravna Gora to meet other units of army, his group was alone. So was born the Četnik resistance. A četa is a band. It is to be understood, that, the četniki were, moreso, independent irregulars, than a centralised army.

Spontaneous uprisings occurred throughout the rest of the year. When it came to the knowledge of Hitler, that a thousand germans were dead, a new policy was to be carried out: 1 german dead, 100 srbs to be executed, one german wounded, 50 srbs executed. And it was.

Mihailović needed to re-evaluate the situation. Mihailović was very much of the same character, and in the same position as Charles de Gaulle: a patriotic nationalist, a soldier of greater intelligence and ability than his superiors, and determined to a degree of stubbornness. Both would not surrender and refused to be pawns of the allies, thereby, vexing them.

The situation in the Balkans was more complicated than in France. On 19 September ’41 Mihailović had his first meeting with a man, whom would only identify himself as “Tito” at Struganik. They had different motivations.

Mihailović was a Srb restorationist, “Tito” was a ruthless bolshevik. Mihailović had seen the Ustaš and German massacres of Srbs. Mihailović fought the initial German invasion. “Tito”, only, began after the Soviet Union was attacked. He cared not at all about civilian casualties, even better, for future communist consolidation purposes.

Mihailović decided that the most productive. and humane course would be a general uprising, Ustanak, at the opportune time, and sabotage, not so readily identifiable by the occupiers. Draža, correctly, saw that the internal wars as a higher priority than suicidal attacks against the germans. The communists and the ustaš were more pressing enemies of the moment.

At first, british propaganda, and therefore american soon thereafter, promoted the četniki. Then with the soviets they chose the partisans, a motley group, with communist leadership. In America, Louis Adamic agitated for the communists.

On 28 February 1943, Mihailović spoke at Donje Lipovo. Churchill was notified and was furious. He sent a statement to the Srb premier in exile:

In the course of the speech, General Mihailovich said that the Serbs were now completely friendless, that the English, to suit their own strategic ends, were urging them to undertake operations without the slightest intention of helping them now or in the future, and that the English were now fighting to the last Serb in Yugoslavia ... that he would never be a party to this “shameful commerce typical of English perfidy. ”

The Ustanak was achieved, but the partisans were credited and supported by the Big Three. OZNA (Odeljenje za Zaštitu Naroda — Department for Protection of People) caught Mihailović on March 13, 1946. Draža Mihailović was put on a show trial in 1946, the Belgrade Process, and executed, with others, 18 July 1946.

Many individual americans and british soldiers could have gave evidence on behalf of Mihailović, they were not called. Mihailović was innocent, and this mattered not at all. Diplomatically, Tito was to be supported, after 1948 especially, by the Anglo-Americans. Mihailović’s counterpart, and friend, de Gaulle would not be a party to the Anglo-American perfidy.

Saint Vitus' Day - Vidovdan (Julian reckoning)

Saint Vitus was a young Christian martyred in Sicily under Diocletian. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. He is asked to intercede for those with epilepsy. He has been popular in central europe and the balkans. The cathedral in Prague is dedicated to him. In art he is sometimes pictured as being boiled in a pot of oil. In regard to the Serbs his day is, especially, poignant.

The Turks, Ottoman, were expanding into Europe, into the Balkans. The Serbs had a small empire and had aspirations. The Serbs had recently twice defeated the Turks. They met each other, again, on June 15, 1389 at Kosovo Polje, the Field of Blackbirds. The Turks had about double the manpower, and both armies were of the tens of thousands strong.

The only turkish sultan, Murad, who would die in battle, died there. In Turkish fashion, when his son, Bajezid, received the news, he had his brother, Jakub summoned. The brother was strangled and the Turks had a new sultan. The Serbian military nobility was cut down, including their tsar Lazar. Proportionately the Serbs lost in the heavy carnage. The Serbs would be hostage to the Turks for centuries.

Rebecca West in the late 1930s went to the Balkans. In 1941 there appeared her book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia. It was over a thousand pages, in two volumes; it was a blend of history and travelogue. As T.E. Lawrence championed, and explained, the Arabs in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom, she explains the Jugoslavs. She came to the grey (siva) falcon (soko) from the poem about Lazar, where he and the Serbs receive the Eucharist before the Turks attack:

Poletio soko titsa siva,
Od svetinje, od Jerusalima,
I on nosi titsu lastavitsu ...

The black lamb is an illusion to the sacrificial nature of the Christian. The Serbs (and West) see themselves as the sacrificial protectors of christian civilisation before the onslaught of the moslem Turks.

In the twentieth century June 15 O.S. was 28 June N.S., and the day again, and again was politically significant:

• In 1914, the first world war began in Sarajevo
• In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end the war
• In 1921, king Aleksandar introduced the Vidovdan Constitution (Vidovdanski ustav), proclaiming the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Old Jugoslavija)
• In 1989 Milošević went to the site and, thereafter, succeeding disasters visited the nations
  
• In 2001 Milošević was deported to the Hague to be tried for war crimes

The Turks destroyed the mediæval Srbija and Milošević severely blackened their modern identity. Kosovo fell again and again. The historical presence of the Serbs, the Gypsies and Christianity are being obliterated in the province to-day.

Stepinac

Blessed Aloysius Stepinac (*1898, †10 February 1960), became archbishop of Zagreb, before the start of the Second World War. During the german hegemony, Hrvatska (Croatia) cleaved from Jugoslavija and became a client state. At first, Stepinac, as a nationalist, was approving of the new state. The Ustaš were fascists, Stepinac was not. In public and in private, Aloysius Stepinac urged and worked against the hateful tenets and actions of the parties in power.

"All men and all races are children of God; all without distinction. Those who are gypsies, black, european, or aryan all have the same rights.... for this reason, the Catholic Church had always condemned, and continues to condemn, all injustice and all violence committed in the name of theories of class, race, or nationality. It is not permissible to persecute gypsies or jews because they are thought to be an inferior race."

When the greater european war and the civil wars in Jugoslavija were ended, the Partisans of Tito (Josip Broz), with allied connivance, thirsted for revenge. Murders and atrocities were de rigueur. Heavy handed indoctrination and a policy of terror were programmatic.

Stepinac was primate of Hrvatska and arrested, for a short time at the end of the war. Stepinac upon release, spoke against the crimes of the new regime. For over a year, the propaganda and coercion campaign continued. Stepinac would not collaborate with communists either.

September of '46, he was again arrested and false charges were brought against him. During the show trial, he spoke on 3 October, stating his innocence and the political nature of the trial. Eight days later he was declared guilty of high treason. He was released 5 December 1951.

At the time of Stepinac's trial, my father was also confined. He was a peasant conscript. A part of the military training was political education — well it is everywhere. He could not be successfully persuaded, nor could he act successfully convinced. He was accused of being ‘a reactionary bourgeois’. Neither, reactionary nor bourgeois, was in his vocabulary. Peasants, at least not in the villages, where he had spent his life, had used those words or concepts. Before the war, the option was either: clericalist or liberal, and both were Catholic, and the villagers were all peasants. The war brought the varieties of fascists and partisans, and the partisans were controlled by the communists. The communists were known to exist, only elsewhere, before the war.

While my father was imprisoned, he heard guards and jailers speak. They all knew and said in private, that Stepinac was innocent. Stepinac was the most visible opponent of the new regime, if Tito could use him as Henry Tudor did Cranmer, then Stepinac would not have suffered. A co-öpted church would be tolerable, it would be of utility to the new socialist state. But the Catholic Church though, is not confined to political borders; opponents, of the Church, are vexed that they cannot fully control it. A national or patriotic church ‘independent’ of Rome is dependent on the state or its ruler(s). The communists knew this, the fascists knew that, caesars and kings knew that, the leaders of the French Revolution knew that, the supporters of Luther knew that, the various anti-catholic groups through US history knew that.

During my father's confinement he was tortured, his teeth were pulled and he was burned with cigarettes. He was also declared guilty, but sentenced to death. Conveniently, he was allowed to escape and eventually reached Italy. After time in Pozzuoli's refugee camp, he was allowed to immigrate to the US, where he was called DP.

I was born two months before Stepinac died. My father asked me one day, when I was of university age, what exactly did ‘bourgeois’ and ‘reactionary’ denote. He denied being the former, and was proud to confirm the latter.

Anton Vovk *1900, †1963

Auxillary Bishop Anton Vovk, on 20 January 1952, in his duty to preside over the sacrament of confirmation was set upon, at the train station, in Novo Mesto Slovenija, Jugoslavija. A group of young communists poured gasoline on him and made a torch of him. He had been warned not to go there, he insisted to exercise the duties of his office

A ten day, suspended sentence was meted out by the court since the attack was "acted under a justified impulsion of revolt against the reactionary clergy, enemy of the people." Tito's Jugoslavija persecuted the Catholic population in socialist partisan zeal. At the end of the war many were martyred, the terror was not yet ended.

Vovk survived, never to be well again. He was later to attend the Second Vatican Council, where the West could see what communist occupation of a territory meant.

Causa:
ANTON VOVK in odium fidei, uti fertur
priest for 40 years, bishop for 16, first archbishop of Ljubljana (1961-63)
born: 19 May 1900 in Vrba, Gorenjska - Slovenija (Austrian empire)
protocol number: 2247
nulla osta: 23 January 1999
actor: Nadškofijski Ordinariat, Ciril-Metodov trg 4, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenija

Presidents Acknowledge Nations' Brutalities

25 September 2003

Earlier this month in Beograd, Serbia, the former jugoslav capital, Svetozar Marović, the president of Serbia and Montenegro surprised the Croat president Stjepan Mesić by admitting national fault in the war after Croat secession. "I want to apologize for all the evils that any citizen of Serbia and Montenegro inflicted upon or committed against any citizen of Croatia." The architect of the war, Slobodan Milošević is imprisoned and on trial in Holland for crimes against humanity. Mesić then quickly reciprocated for his nation's wrongs against the Serbs. " I also apologize to all those who have suffered pain or damage at any time from citizens of Croatia who misused the law or abused their position. As I said, anywhere, any time." Outside observers had no clue that this would occur.

Milošević had caused several disastrous wars in the former multinational state. People died, suffered and lost their human dignity, their homes and many their humanity. The Serbs, as did all the Balkan peoples, had suffered for centuries under the Turks and then in the german wars of this last century. The last of the former, brought about a multi-sided civil war in which the communists won with allied connivance. After a transnational pogrom that physically eliminated anyone who would not externally profess in the personal dictatorship of Tito, the newly reformed country settled in to an independent socialism. After Tito's death one sly, remorseless and conscienceless appartchnik, Milošević, amassed power by playing to Serb nationalism. The suppressed national desires and animosities yearned and churned to break out.

A series of wars broke out, NATO and the U.S. intervened, there was a Christmas bombing of Beograd and a partial occupation of Bosna and Kosovo. All these horrors are on the hands of Milošević and his cohorts, some who are still operating. Milošević made his nation seem as monsters to the world and every war he agitated and lost. The veneer of civilization on people is quite thin indeed and many people shared in actions.

That Croatian-Serb war ran from 1991 to 1995. Estimates of 20,000 dead and over a quarter million Serbs displaced from their homes in Croatia (national and ethnic borders are not the same), many still so, came from that one conflict in the wars of the break up of Jugoslavija.

An apology is a defense, a rationale. It is a word that is almost always misused in english. What these two presidents did was repentedly admit gross failings in national behavior to their brothers of another nation. No translation was necessary, they speak the same language, they were not talking of abstract hypotheses of psychic emotion but of physical blood and gore realities. The only thing we do not know is the level of sincerity involved.

What can strike us as remarkable, in America, is the very act of those words being spoken. George H. W. Bush took a boastful pride in the vow that he as president would not ever to say that America would be sorry for anything (one of the several matters was the wartime internment of japanese Americans, Clinton did not have that reluctance). And who can imagine similar words of admission to trip from George W. Bush's tongue.

What 'men' do is speak the truth. Alexander Isajevich Solzhenitsyn at the end of his Nobel acceptance speech said, "One word of truth outweighs the world." Earlier his compatriot Boris Leonidovich Pasternak had said, "In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it." We are all called to do this, why is it so unusual when it is done?
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