They had to silence his voice with a bullet: The political assassination of Charlie Kirk and a Turning Point for America

Requiescat in pace, Charles James Kirk (1993 -2025)

Charlie Kirk was assassinated while doing what he loved—talking with young people and getting them to ponder what they believe and why they believe it. 

Charlie was supremely effective at engaging with college-age crowds. The reason for this is because he was authentic. If he talked about Jesus, it's because he truly loved Jesus and he wasn't afraid to say so into a microphone in front of a thousand people, many of whom might not have been particularly receptive to the message. If he touted marriage, it's because he was married and knew that strong marriages are the core of a strong nation. If he rejected abortion, it's because he had a deep love for life and fathered two beautiful children of his own. If he loved freedom of speech, he proved it by giving a microphone to anyone who wanted to have a go at him in front of an audience. 

These same virtues made Charlie an object of pure hatred to the political Left. If he was authentic, the Left hated him because they are hypocrites. If he was joyful, the Left hated him because he made them appear positively miserable by comparison. If he was willing to have deep conversations with confused young people who disagreed with him, the Left hated him because angry slogans and blue-haired vitriol are all they have to offer. 

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It’s all about Jesus.

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 17, 2025

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If Charlie was tremendously brave to the point of standing before hostile crowds, one of which proved to have an assassin embedded within it, the Left hated him because at heart, they are cowards.

Charlie's outspoken and unapologetic love for the United States of America—our country, institutions, and history—caused an immediate and violent allergic reaction among the true believers on the Left. They recoiled like Howard Zinn when confronted with a primary source historical document.

The "hate has no home here" crowd could not tolerate such an eloquent, authentic, and exuberant advocate of faith, family, and freedom. And since they could not debunk his authenticity or refute his arguments, they had to silence his voice—with a bullet. 

In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, when Charlie's death was broadcast on social media, many, many on the political Left responded with: "Thoughts and prayers. Isn't that what we're supposed to say?" This mocking comment was repeated over and over, as if it was the epitome of a clever riposte. It was accompanied by many hundreds and thousands of "laugh" emoticons. 

This reaction well defines the state of post-Christian America today. Ugly only begins to describe it. I can only pray that most of the "people" reacting that way were bots and not actual humans. 

The best thing that could happen in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk would be the emergence of ten thousand more Charlie Kirks. Ten thousand more authentic young people who love America and are unafraid to engage in debate with the Left. Ten thousand more men who are unafraid to enter the lists and run toward danger, knowing that the Left may try to kill them. Ten thousand sharp, eloquent, enthusiastic voices who will confound the stale, soulless rhetoric of the Left.

What more fitting legacy could emerge than millions of zealous, activated young Americans joining Charlie's Turning Point USA to confront and ultimately defeat the Left? 

God willing, Charlie Kirk's death will truly become the turning point for America.

“Follow Your Heart” is awful advice ~ The dangers of Disney wisdom in a Post-Christian age

In practically every old cartoon from the 1940s and 50s, you can find the trope where one of the characters faces a comic moral dilemma. At that moment, two tiny versions of the character poof into being at either shoulder—one in angelic garb advising the more difficult selfless action, the other in a red suit with pitchfork urging the wicked, selfish alternative. 

But just as these cartoons are considered hopelessly quaint and old-fashioned today, so are the notions of morality which undergird them. Consider that we have now moved from the youthful innocence of Disney in the mid-20th century which produced such family-friendly fare as Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book, to a situation where Disney executives are openly demanding the promotion of deviant sexual practices to children and banning so-called gendered greetings at their parks like “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” because they are considered not inclusive.

Disney is a microcosm of how Americans at large have lost or killed their consciences—their ability to discern right from wrong or even admit that right and wrong exist. The Disney of the 1940s could safely encourage viewers to “follow their hearts” because the vast majority of people had reasonably well-formed consciences. That’s why Archbishop Fulton Sheen could have a top-rated TV show in the 1950s, and it is also why so many Americans in the early 1960s could respond with outrage when their Black brothers and sisters continued to be treated unjustly as second-class citizens.

But in a nation with no ability to discern right from wrong, with no understanding of how morality works, where acting in selfish ways is celebrated and even considered virtuous, the hollow advice to “follow your heart” suddenly becomes dangerous. It becomes a bomb within our families which threatens to destroy not only the individual but everyone around him, creating a blast radius that harms all of society.

A few sages of that earlier era knew even then that something was terribly wrong in America and the West. Venerable Pope Pius XII called out and condemned the relativistic new morality that was emerging at that time known as “situation ethics.” Venerable Fulton J. Sheen himself was aware of the very same trends. As early as 1936, he recognized that there was a nasty undercurrent actively eroding the moral pylons which supported Western civilization. Many of his modern contemporaries, he felt, were willfully deadening their consciences. He wrote:

“Would to God that our modern mind instead of denying guilt, would look to the Cross, admit its guilt, and seek forgiveness; would that those who have uneasy consciences that worry them in the light, and haunt them in the darkness, would seek relief, not on the plane of medicine but on the plane of Divine Justice.” ~Ven. Fulton J. Sheen: Calvary and the Mass

Who can deny that this trend of silencing the conscience via the use of psychiatry and drugs (legal and illegal) has accelerated since Sheen’s time, and at break-neck speed? 

By 1953 when his popularity was at its zenith, Sheen elaborated, saying that many had now succeeded in killing off their consciences—but at what cost? He wrote: 

“Some men believe that if they could drive God from the earth, the inheritance of sin would be there without remorse; and if they could but silence conscience, they could inherit peace without justice. It was just this mentality that sent our Lord to the Cross. If the voice of God could be stifled, they believed that they could enjoy the voice of Satan in peace…How many, even of those who have killed conscience can say, “I am happy; there is nothing I want?” ~Ven. Fulton J. Sheen: Victory over Vice

The honest answer to Sheen’s rhetorical question is: None. 

If you doubt that, consider the following trends that are prevalent in our increasingly atheistic and amoral society:

• Over 50% Of Liberal, White Women Under 30 Have A Mental Health Issue.
  
  
• Deaths from drug ODs, suicide soaring among millennials, report shows
  
  
• 39% of youth with same-sex attraction seriously considered attempting suicide; 71% reported feeling sad or hopeless for at least 2 weeks in the past year
  
  
• Why are Women so Miserable?

Since 2005, many hundreds if not thousands of articles pondering that last question have been written, and every possible reason for why women in particular are so utterly miserable in the post-Christian West has been proposed. My personal favorite is a 2017 article in the UK Guardian which posits that: “To be happier, women should try giving up on being good.” In the conclusion to this article, columnist Tim Lott writes: “Maybe women are unhappier than men because they pin themselves to higher moral standards. I think I would rather be happy than good.”

Did you get a whiff of brimstone reading that?

Sheen knew why people without God are miserable, just as the repentant reprobate Augustine of Hippo knew 1,600 years ago when he wrote: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” [Augustine, Confessions, Book I, Chapter 1]

The truth is this: When you are raised with a poorly formed conscience, a perverted sense of right and wrong, or worst of all—the inability to even define what is good, to discern selfishness from selflessness—you will be miserable. 

For such a person with a badly formed or dead conscience, “follow your heart” is the most catastrophic advice that can be given. Often that poor soul’s untutored heart will lead him directly to destruction.

The Roman Emperor Who Had Books about “Chemeia” Burned in Alexandria

A fanciful modern engraving of the Library of Alexandria aflame.

It is a common theme these days to hear folks opine about how the glories of ancient science were snuffed out ignominiously by triumphalist, fanatical Christians sometime in the Dark Ages. Normally, specific instances of this destruction are not called out, save for the case of Hypatia of Alexandria who has been elevated by modern audiences to a sort of proto-feminist demi-goddess of science for her slaying at the hands of a Christian mob. 

Yet, for those who maintain the trope that Christianity was responsible for the destruction of centuries of amazing scientific advancements wrought by Greco-Roman civilization, please allow me to present this interesting tidbit.

There is a great, encyclopedic work of the Byzantine middle ages called the Suda. The Suda is a lexicon of Greek terms which was compiled in about the 10th century AD. Far from a mere word-list, the Suda contains definitions and context for the terms listed (over 30,000 of them all told) and includes toponyms, the names of persons, and biographies of numerous ancient and medieval figures. It seems to have been created from a variety of ancient sources, many of which are now no longer extant. For more about this massive work of ancient scholarship, and the brilliant efforts of many dedicated contemporary scholars to make it accessible to everyone, see The Suda Online. 

I recently ran across a random passage in James Partington’s 1957 book entitled, A Short History of Chemistry. In this book, Partington explains that little is known today about ancient chemistry because much of what was written down did not survive antiquity. He says that the word “Chemistry” first appeared in a Roman edict in which all books of the Egyptians in Alexandria on the topic of chemeia are ordered to be burnt. Partington explains that the chemeia refers to the making of gold and silver, or what we would think of today as alchemy, which Partington points out is nothing more than the word chemeia with the Arabic article al affixed to it. Partington intimates that his source for this information is the Suda.

So off to the Suda Online I went. Lo and behold, here’s the entry for chemeia (χημεία) ~ 

[Meaning] the preparation of silver and gold. Diocletian sought out and burned books about this. [It is said] that due to the Egyptians' revolting behavior Diocletian treated them harshly and murderously. After seeking out the books written by the ancient [Egyptians] concerning the alchemy of gold and silver, he burned them so that the Egyptians would no longer have wealth from such a technique, nor would their surfeit of money in the future embolden them against the Romans.

So did you get that? The Roman emperor who mandated that books on chemeia be burned was not Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian or any other Christian emperor. It was Diocletian, the architect of the Great Persecution of Christians himself. Recall that it was also Diocletian who decreed that Christian books should be burned, so this is certainly not out of character for him.

And yes, as we can find in other sources, there was a serious rebellion in Egypt during Diocletian’s reign. This insurrection caused him such distress that when he finally re-conquered the city after a siege of eight months, he determined that he would put everyone who supported the rebellion to the sword and would not stop killing until the blood reached up to his horse's knees. Read more in Diocletian and the Roman Recovery.

Finally, I will point out that the works of at least two authors writing on alchemy post-Diocletian have survived antiquity, largely thanks to the preservation efforts of Christian Byzantine and Muslim Arabic scholars of the Middle Ages. The first is Zosimus of Panopolis in upper Egypt of the 4th century AD. The second is Stephanos of Alexandria, a philosopher who later migrated to Constantinople in the early 6th century AD.

"You Shall Not Commit Pederasty" ~ Straight from the Didache, A Catechism from the Apostolic Age

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With Holy Mother Church embroiled in a very public cycle of moral corruption, abuse, cover-up, discord, and hypocrisy, it is worth reflecting on the teaching of the ancient Church when it comes to those issues which some modern prelates seem hell-bent on changing. Specifically, I’m talking about moral teachings on sexuality which are at the core of the current crisis.

One doesn’t have to delve too deeply into Sacred Scripture and Patristic literature to discover unequivocal statements on the matter. They are present in the Gospels (here and here, for example), they abound in the Letters of Saint Paul (here, here, and here, for example). They are also present in the works of the early Fathers of the Church. Perhaps the most clear example may be found in the Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.

The Didache is an ancient Christian catechism which was most likely written during the Apostolic Age—that is, during the time when some of the Apostles were still alive. This brief document offers a litany of serious sins which includes the following:

“You shall not commit adultery. 
You shall not commit pederasty.
You shall not commit fornication.” 

For the record, fornication is any sex act outside of marriage. And, in this confused age, it is sadly necessary to point out that Jesus Himself defined marriage as a man and a woman becoming one flesh, and is an institution ordained by God. (See Mark 10:6-9). The Didache goes on to say:

“My child, be not a lustful one; for lust leads the way to fornication. Neither a filthy talker, nor of lofty eye; for out of all these adulteries are engendered.” 

As an aside, the Didache also contains strong censures of abortion and infanticide.

This is the behavior that is expected of Christians and it is in complete agreement with the teachings found in Sacred Scripture. Anyone who says otherwise is not transmitting the true Faith as taught by the Apostles. Churchmen who can not or will not uphold and teach these things are, therefore, failing in their mission, ordained by Christ, to help make sinners holy and are instead keeping them chained to their sins. As Blessed Bishop Oscar Romero said: “A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they can become entrenched in their sinful state, betrays the Gospel’s call.” (Source)

I recommend reading the entire Didache which may be found here. It is a fascinating ancient document, and Church Fathers such as Saint Athanasius the Great recommended it as a work which was: “appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us, and who wish for instruction in the word of goodness.” (source)

"The Oblivion of a Silent Age" ~ The effort of Diocletian and Galerius to wipe out Christian literature during the Great Persecution

A later representation of Saints Emeterius and Celedonius in Calahorra Cathedral.

In a previous post entitled The Scriptures Destroyed by Fire ~ An official Roman transcript of the Great Persecution of AD 304, we examined the transcript of an investigation of several Christians in Roman north Africa. The accused were under suspicion of possessing and hiding Christian literature which had been banned by imperial edict. This document gives an idea of how thorough the Roman legal apparatus could be when enforcing the law, even as far from the centers of power as the town of Cirta, situated about 200 miles west of Carthage.

We know that destroying Christian books and literature was a facet of the Great Persecution because it is explicitly mentioned by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History. Aside from the above-mentioned transcript of the investigation in Cirta, there are other ancient sources which back up this aspect of the persecution—that is, the desire of Diocletian and and Galerius to completely extirpate all written knowledge of Christianity from the face of the earth. Here are a few additional examples.

In the authentic acts of Saints Chionia, Agape and Irene who were martyred during the Great Persecution in Thessalonica, there exists another official trial transcript which is believed by most scholars to be genuine. In it we find the following exchange between Dulcetius, governor of the province of Macedonia, and Saint Chionia:

Dulcetius: "Have you not some books, papers, or other writings, relating to the religion of the impious Christians?" 

Chionia said: "We have none: the emperors now reigning have taken them all from us."

Soon after, Chionia and Agape were condemned to death, while Irene was sent back to prison. It seems that a search was done of Irene's home and Christian writings were indeed found there. Dulcetius called Irene before him to face cross-examination regarding this new evidence.

Dulcetius: "Your madness to plain, since you have kept to this day so many books, parchments, codicils, and papers of the scriptures of the impious Christians. You were forced to acknowledge them when they were produced before you, though you had before denied you had any. You will not take warning from the punishment of your sisters, neither have you the fear of death before your eyes: your punishment therefore is unavoidable. In the mean time I do not refuse even now to make some condescension in your behalf. Notwithstanding your crime, you may find pardon and be freed from punishment, if you will yet worship the gods. What say you then? Will you obey the orders of the emperors? are you ready to sacrifice to the gods, and eat of the victims?"

Irene: "By no means: for those that renounce Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are threatened with eternal fire."

Traditional image of Saints Agape,
Irene and Chionia.

Dulcetius: "Who persuaded you to conceal those books and papers so long?"

Irene: "Almighty God, who has commanded us to love him even unto death; on which account we dare not betray him, but rather choose to be burnt alive, or suffer any thing whatsoever than discover such writings."

Dulcetius: "Who knew that those writings were in the house?" 

Irene: "Nobody, but the Almighty, from whom nothing is hid: for we concealed them even from our own domestics, lest they should accuse us."

...

Dulcetius: "After you returned from the mountains, as you say, did you read those books to anybody?" 

Irene: "They were hid at our own house, and we durst not produce them; and we were in great trouble, because we could not read them night and day, as we had been accustomed to do."

Dulcetius: "Your sisters have already suffered the punishments to which they were condemned. As for you, Irene, though you were condemned to death before your flight for having hid these writings, I will not have you die so suddenly; but I order that you be exposed naked in a brothel, and be allowed one loaf a day, to be sent you from the palace; and that the guards do not suffer you to stir out of it one moment, under pain of death to them."

A hint of how successful the efforts had been to annihilate Christian writings during the Great Persecution may be found in The Peristephanon or Martyr's Garland of the late 4th century Latin poet from Spain, Prudentius. In the poem celebrating the martyrs of Calahorra, Saints Emeterius and Celedonius, written about 80 years after their deaths, we read the following lines:

But oh, the oblivion of a silent age!
     Extinguishing the record of such deeds,
The infidel long since destroyed the page,
     Which else had taught us how a martyr bleeds,

Envying to learned times that they should tell
     That passion’s history for all future years,
The order, time, and way how it befell—
     Sweet words to sound forever in men’s ears.

Yet this alone is what we cannot say,
     Whether, in prison pent, their hair grew long,
Or of their torments reckon the array...

[Taken from: A Hymn of Prudentius, published in The Month, Magazine and Review, 1873]

This provides a reasonable explanation as to why so many accounts of the ancient martyrs are fantastic stories of considerably later provenance, no doubt generated from dubious oral tradition. In many cases, probably little more was known than the name of the saint and the place of his or her martyrdom. It also makes the several authentic accounts that somehow survived the flames—such as that of Chionia, Agape, and Irene—that much more precious.

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The complete Passion of Saints Chionia, Agape, and Irene along with the full poem commemorating the martyrs of Calahorra by Prudentius may be found among the accounts related in the book, I Am A Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution from the Ancient Sources. Also included in this book is a chapter on the "traditores" and the burning of Christian books, as well as the account of the martyrs of Abitina who also suffered, in part, for hiding Christian literature.

The Shroud of Turin ~ A brief theoretical early provenance

A 16th century image showing the Shroud of Turin by Giulio Clovio.
Click here to see the full image.

Today being Good Friday for Christians around the world, it is a fitting time to look at one of the most enigmatic and widely debated relics of history: The Shroud of Turin. While there have been no end of scientific attempts to determine what this fascinating image might be and how it was made, I find the historical attempts to trace its provenance to be more interesting.

The earliest reference to a shroud associated with Jesus may be found in Sacred Scripture. In the Gospel of Saint John we find the following passage:

"Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulcher, and saw the linen cloths lying, And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulcher: and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." [John 20:6-9]

The question has been: what did the other unnamed disciple (traditionally Saint John himself) see to make him immediately believe? Of course, as evidence of the Shroud of Turin, this passage is cryptic at best.

A 10th century painting of Abgar V
of Edessa receiving the Image.

Some investigators, foremost among them, Ian Wilson in his book The Blood and the Shroud, have attempted to explain what happened to this linen cloth. They link the burial cloth with the fabled Image of Edessa (also called the Mandylion of Edessa), a likeness of Jesus that purportedly protected the city of Edessa from attack for nearly 600 years. As the theory goes, the image was brought to King Abgar V of Edessa who had requested that Jesus come to visit him and cure him of a disease. It was borne by one of the disciples—Addai or Thaddæus—along with a letter from Jesus himself. The account of this visit was recorded in the early 4th century in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History:

“Now, when they were come up, his princes happened to be standing there. And immediately, as he was entering in, a great vision appeared to Abgar on the countenance of Thaddæus the apostle. And, when Abgar saw Thaddæus, he prostrated himself before him. And astonishment seized upon all who were standing there: for they had not themselves seen that vision, which appeared to Abgar alone."

Eusebius's account also includes the supposed letter from Jesus to Abgar which was declared apocryphal by later Church authority. Eusebius claims, however, that he had seen the original documents himself, saying: "There is, however, nothing to prevent our hearing the very letters themselves, which have been taken by us from the archives, and are in words to this effect, translated from Aramaic into Greek." There is, however, in Eusebius's account, no direct mention of the famous image.

In AD 544, Edessa was attacked by the Persians. A generation later, an account of the siege was recorded by the historian Evagrius Scholasticus. His Ecclesiastical History contains the first mention of the Image of Edessa protecting the city from attack. The Persians had built a siege ramp against the walls. In an attempt to collapse the ramp, the Edessenes dug a mine beneath it and filled the cavity with wood and combustibles:

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"The mine was completed; but they failed in attempting to fire the wood, because the fire, having no exit whence it could obtain a supply of air, was unable to take hold of it. In this state of utter perplexity, they bring the divinely wrought image, which the hands of men did not form, but Christ our God sent to Abgarus on his desiring to see Him. Accordingly, having introduced this holy image into the mine, and washed it over with water, they sprinkled some upon the timber; and the divine power forthwith being present to the faith of those who had so done, the result was accomplished which had previously been impossible: for the timber immediately caught the flame, and being in an instant reduced to cinders, communicated with that above, and the fire spread in all directions. [The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius, Book IV, Chapter XXVII]

Interestingly, Evagrius links the "divinely wrought image" directly to King Abgar.

A Medieval miniature showing the Image of Edessa arriving in Constantinople. 

Later, so the theory goes, the Image of Edessa was brought to Constantinople. In a sermon commemorating this event in AD 944, the archdeacon of Hagia Sophia, Gregory Referendarius gives a very detailed account of the image's history. He also gives a description of the image which seems, perhaps not coincidentally, to have a certain affinity to the appearance of the Shroud of Turin:

"For this is not the art of painting, which provides a door for the mind to consider the original and depicts images. This reflection was imprinted from a living original....This reflection...has been imprinted only by the sweat from the face of the originator of life, falling like drops of blood, and by the finger of God. For these are the beauties that have made up the true imprint of Christ, since after the drops fell, it was embellished by drops from his own side. Both are highly instructive – blood and water there, here sweat and image." [The Sermon of Gregory Referendarius, as translated by Mark Guscin]

The image on the Shroud as it exists today.

Finally, in AD 1204, the city of Constantinople was taken and sacked by the rogue armies of the Fourth Crusade. A French knight, Robert of Clari, participated in the sack and later wrote a chronicle. In it, he records what he saw in the ancient Church of Saint Mary in the Blachernae section of Constantinople:

But among the rest, there was also another of the minsters, which was called the Church of my Lady Saint Mary of Blachernae, within which was the shroud wherein Our Lord was wrapped. And on every Friday that shroud did raise itself upright, so that the form of Our Lord could clearly be seen. And none knows – neither Greek nor Frank – what became of that shroud when the city was taken. [Robert of Clari's Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade, Chapter 93]

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While these tid-bits do not provide a complete, authentic provenance for the Shroud of Turin stretching back to ancient times, they are nonetheless tantalizing clues for the historian. As many times as skeptics try to bury the shroud as a forgery, the relic continues to raise itself up and provide an endless source of fascination for a modern world which considers the divine distant and the miraculous impossible.

For a much more filled-out version of the above provenance written in a compelling style that draws the reader in like a mystery novel, I highly recommend Ian Wilson's The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real as mentioned above.

Click to see a high-resolution image of the shroud with incredible detail.

"Eight Days Before the Kalends of January" ~ The Earliest Sources for the December 25 dating of Christmas

A seated marble statue said to depict St. Hippolytus.

It's that festive time of year when those who profess not to care a whit about religion expend countless hours and billions of pixels to demonstrate that Jesus Christ was not born on Christmas. But before you succumb to their pathological zeal, take a few minutes to read some of the ancient sources from which we originally derived the date of December 25 as the nativity of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

The first clear source for this date is Hippolytus of Rome, a somewhat mysterious figure from antiquity who may have been an anti-pope of the third century AD. He was later regarded as a saint thanks to his copious theological writings. Sadly, only fragments of his works have survived to the present day, but among them is a work in which Hippolytus provides an analysis of the Old Testament Book of Daniel. The earliest notice of Christmas being celebrated on December 25 comes from this work, as follows:

"For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the Kalends of January [that is, December 25], the fourth day [that is, Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year, but from Adam, five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty-third year, eight days before the Kalends of April (that is, March 25), the day of preparation [that is, Friday] the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls." [Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel, written ca. AD 205.]

Dedication page of the Chronography of AD 354.

The above passage may be found in French in Hippolyte Commentaire Sur Daniel (1947), translated by Maurice Lefèvre and included in the series Sources Chrétiennes. A detailed provenance of the manuscript may be found at the supremely useful blog maintained by Roger Pearse here.

Another early notice may be found in the Chronography of AD 354. This work is an illuminated calendar produced by an artist named Furius Dionysius Filocalus for a wealthy Roman patrician. As part of this calendar, there is a list entitled "ITEM DEPOSITIO MARTIRVM". The first line on this list says:

VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae.

This appears to corroborate Hippolytus's date above. Interestingly, Hippolytus is also mentioned in this calendar in a list of the Popes with a notice saying: "In that time the exiled bishop Pontianus and the presbyter Hippolytus were deported to Sardinia on the island of Vocina, Severus and Quintianus being consuls [AD 235]."

After about AD 350, overt references to December 25 as the date of Christ's birth are more numerous, particularly in the Greek east where the date seems to have been more variable before that time. Many in the east had celebrated the Nativity on January 6 -- which would later be recognized as the feast of the Epiphany. Saint John Chrysostom, later bishop of Constantinople but at this point a presbyter in Antioch, offers a meditation on preparing for the Nativity in his homily on the feast of St. Philogonios which was celebrated on December 20. Note that John clearly separates the Nativity from the feast of the Epiphany:

A feast is approaching which is the most solemn and awe-inspiring of all feasts. If one were to call it the metropolis of all feasts, one wouldn't be wrong. What is it? The birth of Christ according to the flesh. In this feast the Epiphany, holy Pascha, the Ascension and Pentecost have their beginning and their purpose. For if Christ hadn't been born according to the flesh, he wouldn't have been baptized, which is Epiphany. He wouldn't have been crucified, which is Pascha. He wouldn't have sent the Spirit, which is Pentecost. So from this event, as from some spring, different rivers flow - these feasts of ours are born. [John Chrysostom, On St. Philogonius, delivered December 20, AD 386]

In a subsequent homily that same year while still in Antioch, St. John offers evidence for the date by citing official Roman secular records of the census of Augustus mentioned in Sacred Scripture, as follows:

“The 25th day of December has been celebrated from the beginning as the birthday of Christ, and the knowledge of it is now transmitted to us….It is manifest from Scripture that Christ was born at the enrollment or census, and the very day was certain from a written document in the Roman archives….It is lawful for anyone to search these ancient records, publicly deposited at Rome, and there to learn the time of this enrollment.” [John Chrysostom, In Diem Natalem, Migne: Patrologia Graeca, 49, 353-354. Translation taken from Hyde: "The Date of Christ's Birth" in The Living Church, December 31, 1904 p. 319.]

It should be noted that several other early Christian writers, including St. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, appealed to these same census records when defending the Christian faith. The records seem to have existed into the 5th century when they were lost after the Goths and Vandals pillaged Rome.

The dating of Christmas to December 25 seems to have been well established in Africa by about this time as well. In his treatise On the Trinity, Saint Augustine of Hippo writes:

For He is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also He suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which He was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which He was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before nor since. But He was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th. [Augustine, On the Trinity, Book IV, Chapter 5, written beginning AD 400, published AD 428]

So it is clear that the roots of the December 25 date for Christmas stretch well back into antiquity.

The other common take-down posed at this time of year is that Christmas was artificially dated to December 25 to superimpose a Christian feast on top of a variety of pagan feasts which happened at around the same time, whether it be Saturnalia, or the birthday of Mithras, or the birthday of Sol Invictis, or the birthday of Horus.

This line of attack has been effectively dealt with many times, so rather than regurgitate the same refutation here, I would point you to this summary article here or this humorous video response by our separated brethren entitled: Horus Ruins Christmas. A balanced and very detailed article on this topic, entitled Sol Invictus and Christmas, is also well worth a read.

The Protestant Rebellion: 500 Years of Sinning Boldly

"Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here [in this world] we have to sin... No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day."

This quote is taken from a letter that Martin Luther wrote in 1521. Now in its 500th year, the protestant rebellion, which Luther initiated, destroyed Christendom and continues to divide the Body of Christ to this day. To commemorate this tragic event, we should reflect upon the prayer of Our Lord in the Gospel according to Saint John (17:11-23)

“Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are….Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. [19] And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me;

“That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me.”

Here are a few more quotes from the heresiarch known as Martin Luther. May the errors of Luther be extirpated from among mankind. May his remaining followers find the truth, repent and accept again communion with the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

“To kill a peasant is not murder; it is helping to extinguish the conflagration. Let there be no half measures! Crush them! Cut their throats! Transfix them. Leave no stone unturned! To kill a peasant is to destroy a mad dog!” – “If they say that I am very hard and merciless, mercy be damned. Let whoever can stab, strangle, and kill them like mad dogs.”

“What harm could it do if a man told a good lusty lie in a worthy cause and for the sake of the Christian Churches?”

“If I had to baptize a Jew, I would take him to the bridge of the Elbe, hang a stone round his neck and push him over with the words I baptize thee in the name of Abraham.”

"Burn their synagogues. Forbid them all that I have mentioned above. Force them to work and treat them with every kind of severity, as Moses did in the desert and slew three thousand... If that is no use, we must drive them away like mad dogs, in order that we may not be partakers of their abominable blasphemy and of all their vices, and in order that we may not deserve the anger of God and be damned with them. I have done my duty. Let everyone see how he does his. I am excused."

These quotes (plus many more) and their sources may be found here.

Video primary source for Constantine the Great's vision of a Cross in the heavens

Also, here is a short video reading of the passage from Eusebius detailing the miracle of the Cross in the sky and its immediate aftermath, done by Arx Publishing:



Constantine's miraculous vision of a cross in the heavens with the words, "Conquer by this" is an epochal event in history. This video offers an account of the vision as related to Eusebius Pamphilus, an historian and bishop, who was acquainted with the Emperor and heard the account first-hand from Constantine himself. He recorded the story in his Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine which was penned shortly after Constantine's death in AD 337.

The complete Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine may be found here in book form: http://www.evolpub.com/CRE/CREseries.html#CRE8

Constantine shows up randomly on Facebook

Here's a meme I created years ago featuring Constantine the Great, just shared again today by Great Eastern Roman Empire on Facebook:

"He saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, CONQUER BY THIS. At the sight he himself was struck with amazement and his whole army with him."

Quote taken from: Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine by Eusebius Pamphilus, written ca. AD 337. The famous incident of the cross in the sky occurred in AD 312 prior to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, a victory which secured Constantine's position as Augustus of the West. Many who witnessed it would still have been alive when Eusebius wrote his biography. For more information, see: http://www.evolpub.com/CRE/CREseries.html#CRE8

This Day in Christian Roman history -- The birth of the Emperor Claudius Gothicus

Bust of Claudius II Gothicus
from Santa Giulia Museum in
Brescia, Italy

May 10, AD 213, is reputedly the birthday of the Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus. Claudius ruled from AD 268 to 270, two very eventful years at the height of the "Crisis of the Third Century" when the Roman Empire was divided by civil war and overrun by barbarian invasions.

Born in the present day Balkan peninsula, little is known of Claudius's early life. His path to the throne was via the Roman army and he distinguished himself as a man of tremendous physical strength--it is related in the Historia Augusta that he could knock out the teeth of a horse or mule with a blow of his fist. He was eventually promoted to the rank of cavalry commander and upon the assassination of the emperor Gallienus, he was declared emperor by the army outside of Milan.

He won the title "Gothicus" by defeating a huge army of Goths which had ravaged the provinces of Illyricum and Pannonia at the Battle of Naissus in AD 269. His victory was so complete that it would be another 100 years before the Goths would menace the Empire again.

Claudius reigned during a time when Christians were actively persecuted by the empire and Claudius himself is considered in legend as the emperor under whom Saint Valentine was martyred in AD 270. What is perhaps most interesting about Claudius, however, is that he identified in some sources as an ancestor of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor. For example, in the Panegyrici Latini, one of the pagan panegyricists says, addressing Constantine in about AD 310:

And so I shall begin with the divinity who is the origin of your family, of whom most people, perhaps, are still unaware, but whom those who love you know full well. For an ancestral relationship links you with the deified Claudius, who was the first to restore the discipline of the Roman Empire when it was disordered and in ruins, and destroyed on land and sea huge numbers of Goths who had burst forth from the Straits of the Black Sea. [Taken from: Panegyrici Latini by Nixon and Rogers]

A good biography of Claudius Gothicus may be found here:
http://www.roman-emperors.org/claudgot.htm