The Feast Of St. James The Apostle Matamoros

 

Today's the Feast of St. James the Greater, brother of St. John. He was beheaded on the orders of King Herod Agrippa around 42 A.D. and is thee patron saint of equestrians, soldiers and Spain. Here's a prayer:

GRANT, O merciful God, that, as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

According to legend St. James was buried in Spain and gave supernatural aid to the Christian army at Clavijo, defeating the Moslem Moors:

During the Battle of Clavijo, it is said that Saint James the Great miraculously appeared to provide assistance to an outnumbered Spanish Christian army, helping them gain victory against the Moors who had started their conquest of Hispania in AD 711. The battle is placed between AD 834 and 844, about 800 years after the death of St James the Greater. According to legend, Saint James, appeared as a warrior on a white horse amidst the Spanish army, wielding a white banner. Upon seeing him, the Christian army cried out “¡Dios ayuda a Santiago!” which translates to “God save St. James!” It is believed that more than 5,000 Moors were killed during the battle, earning St James the title Matamoros or “Moor-slayer”.

 

¡Dios ayuda a Santiago!

LSP

Romanov Martyrs

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Imperial family's murder by a Bolshevik death squad.

In a melee of wild shooting, squad leader Peter Irmakov was drunk, Tsar Nicholas died almost immediately. His children and family retainers were not so fortunate.

It took a further 20 minutes of "disorganized" firing, clubbing and bayoneting to kill the rest of the family until, it's reported, the floor of room was slick with blood and brains, like an "ice rink."

Even then, two of the Tsar's daughters were still breathing when they were carried out of the building. The bodies were eventually burned with sulphuric acid and buried in a shallow grave. You can read about it here, here and elsewhere.

Early this morning, at 2.30 am, marking the time of the bloodthirsty, pitiless, drunken, raving, satanic, child killing executions, thousands of Russians marched and processed in pilgrimage to the site of the murders, where a church was built at the turn of the millennium.

The Russian Church has canonized the Romanov victims of Red Terror as martyrs and perhaps it's no accident that the peace summit between Trump and Putin, America and Russia, against globalist, atheist socialism took place on the eve of this anniversary.

Of course Bolshevism is gone from Russia. Judging from the frenzied reaction of our media and their BillSoc (billionaire socialist) overlords to Helsinki, its spirit is alive and kicking in the West.

By the blood of the Martyrs,

LSP

The Feast of St. Andrew

Listen up, Heathen. Today's the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle who was martyred by the pagan Roman state. Here's his collect, from the 1928 BCP:

ALMIGHTY God, who didst give such grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay; Grant unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy Word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently to fulfil thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Andrew, pray for us.

LSP

Feast of Stephen, Tyson Fury

No sooner are our Christmas day celebrations over, than the Church brings us face to face with martyrdom, in the person of St. Stephen, it's his Feast today, and the Holy Innocents.  It seems that the Word made Flesh attracts enraged, deadly opposition. 

That was true then and it's true now, with more Christians dying for their faith than at any other time in history. Of course the secular governments of the West are complicit in this, not least in their refusal to protect the Christians of the Middle East.

Be that as it may, here's the Collect for the day:

GRANT, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of thy truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those who suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Tyson Fury

St. Stephen, pray for us, and I wish everyone a happy Boxing Day.

God bless,

LSP

Christ the King

Viva Cristo Rey!

Christ's kingship is exemplified in the sacrificial love of the cross and it's frightening to see the irrational rage that can evoke in people.  Why? Perhaps because deep-seated wickedness hates to be exposed and reacts first with derision and then with a kind of brute fury against its opposite.

Christ the King

The Church, which is inevitably drawn to the cross, will have to expect more of that as we get further into our brave new secularist experiment. 

Viva Cristo Rey.

LSP