The Theotokos in Pauline Theology

One common attack by Protestants is the overwhelming absence of the Theotokos in the writings of the New Testament. If she is so central a figure in Christianity, why isn't she mentioned in Scriptures? The argument is an argument from silence, yet she is very much central in Pauline theology. It is difficult for someone to see who is not used to the centrality of the Theotokos in Christianity, but we see her presence there loudly. St. Paul is often times confused as to whether it seems he supports women in leadership positions in the Church or if he is simply just a male chauvinist. It is very clear from a myriad of writings that St. Paul is abundantly supportive of the role of women in the Church, yet feminists like to attack him as being against women on the basis of one or two texts that suggest otherwise. This is because they silence the Theotokos, the most important woman of all. The most controversial text on women in St. Paul's theology is 1 Timothy 2:11-15,

Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

Looked at in an isolated manner from Tradition, we can see how Protestant exegetes would turn this into bickering about what the proper role for women in tradition is. Yet we know from experience that the Catholic and Traditional view of the role of women is great and high. We have seen women as Empresses commanding their kingdoms such as Pulcheria, Irene of Athens, and Theodora the wife of Theophilos, Tamara of Georgia, the Old Testament shows women as heroes and as great leaders of the Israelites such as Deborah, Esther, and Judith, and St. Paul shows a respect for women such as Priscilla, Junia, and Phoebe. We cannot isolate one text and presume it as the whole. Even further, St. Paul's commentary on the origin of sin show it coming not from Eve or a woman but through Adam, the first man (Rom. 5:12).

When we go back all the way to the text of Genesis, we note that it is through the descendant of the woman that the serpent's head is to be crushed (Gen. 3:15). The pangs of childbearing would come upon the woman. And in Galatians 4, St. Paul draws an allegory between the descendants of Hagar and Sarah in comparing the children of the promise to the children of bondage (4:21-31) and also elaborates on the importance of Christ's birth to a woman (4:4-7). The key is not in that the woman is to be saved through a physical birth-giving. St. Paul is actually in fact elaborating quite a Marian theology in 1 Timothy 2.

It is through man in Pauline theology that sin comes into the world. Yet here, he recognizes the woman's involvement in sin coming into the world as well. It is in this acknowledgment that he is able to unite man and woman together. Without the Theotokos in the Christian Church, we come to a conclusion that is both a-theological and we place an artificial cultural restraint on St. Paul. Yet this is not the case. The Theotokos, in her humility, while alive, did not allow anyone to speak of her directly. Yet here, St. Paul speaks of her indirectly, but with loud and concise clarity for the Christian believer. It is through birth-giving that the woman is saved. Through her birth-giving of Christ. Eve led Adam to sin, but the obedience of the Theotokos, the humility of Our Lady, led to the God-Man coming into the world through her birth-giving of Him. Where we see the First Adam, we must also look to the Second Adam. Christians must also look to the Second Eve when we see the First Eve. Thus, when St. Paul references the First Eve, we must also look for the Second Eve, the Theotokos.

The Ven. Met. Andrei Sheptytsky

Andrei Sheptytsky was born July 29, 1865 in Prylbychi Yavoriv County, Galicia and died November 1, 1944 in Lviv. He lived through two world wars and experienced totalitarianism under two different socialist regimes of the Bolsheviks and the Nazis. He was actually baptized as a Roman Catholic but petitioned the Pope for a change of rites which was granted. He would soon become one of the foremost leaders in the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church. He was both political and theological and in all things focused on the service of the Church and the Gospel of Christ in Ukraine. He would go on to study at the Jesuit university in Cracow, Poland and would very quickly ascend within the ranks of the Greek Catholic clergy. A fierce traditionalist, he would be deemed with suspicion by his fellow Ukrainians at first who believed he wanted to Latinize the Greek rites, but instead, he went the other direction. He became one of the strongest supporters, if not the strongest supporter, of the Eastern Catholic rites. He was a Uniate and always defended unification with Rome, but he would support the full expression of the Eastern rites in the Catholic faith.

He was known for both his political and his theological activities. In 1914, he would be arrested by the Tsarist government for his activities with the Austro-Hungarian government during World War I. After his release in 1917, he would speak in defense of an independent Ukrainian national state and would support the establishment of the Western Ukrainian National Republic. He would be confined to Lviv for his support of the Ukrainian National Rada by the Polish government. In 1931, he established the Ukrainian Catholic Union in order to further the Church's social teaching and enhance its standing in Ukraine. He would be denounced by pro-Soviet Ukrainians for his criticism of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 and his condemnation of the Communist government.

When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, Sheptytsky encouraged obedience to the new occupying state. However, when he realized their persecution of the Jews, he was at the forefront of the Church leaders to defend them. His mistake was one that was made by the Russian Liberation Army, for those familiar with The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Many believed the Nazi government would promise more freedom than the Soviets had, for when one only lives under a totalitarian regime, it is easy to fail to distinguish or discriminate the fact that no totalitarianism is better than another.

Sheptytsky was a learned man, well-regarded for his pastoral and theological discipline. He was an intellectual, a politician, and a Churchman. He aided Pope Pius X in the establishment of the Russian-Greek Catholic Church. The move met with little success as very few became adherents to the new church and it was heavily opposed by the Ukrainian Orthodox, yet Sheptytsky's vision for an Uniate Church in Russia would not be dissuaded so easily. He met many learned philosophers, theologians, and Catholics when he visited the Russian Empire in the late 19th century, including Vladimir Soloviev. His title of Bishop of Komianets-Podilskyi, though an inactive eparchy, gave him full responsibility of all the Eastern Rite Catholics throughout the Russian Empire. It was the Petersburg Synod of Eastern Catholics in 1917-1918 that reversed much of the damage of the Synod of Zamość. The Petersburg Synod also approved the veneration of canonized Orthodox saints in the Eastern Catholic Church. Of course, certain saints who had died in schismatic churches were already venerated such as St. John the Almsgiver, St. Elesbaan, the King of Ethiopia, and St. Isaac of Nineveh.

Sheptytsky wanted to unite all of Ukraine under a united Ukrainian Church. His vision was to establish a Ukrainian Church under the authority of the Pope of Rome. He was heavily Eastern and sought the restoration of Eastern traditions, but he was always a fierce Papist. The Ukrainian Orthodox hated this idea for they would never want an autocephalous church underneath the authority of the Pope of Rome. Sheptytsky was an Hebraist and was well-studied in the Hebrew language. This helped him gain Jewish allies when the Nazi persecutions began. He kept Jews in hiding in the monasteries and instructed his flock to do the same. His brilliance and resilience under persecution earned the respect of the Church and when the Soviets took the Ukraine again, the persecutions of the Church would remain moderate. He stayed in Lviv until his death in 1944.

Many of his works have been published posthumously. The Sheptytsky Institute under the University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto is named after him. He had visited Canada in 1912. His disciple, Met. Josyf Slipyj, he consecrated, and was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. Some of his works were published in volumes such as The Works of the Servant of God Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky: Pastoral Letters and The Church and Church Unity: Documents and Materials. He wrote much on topics such as ecumenism, theology, spirituality, history, and philosophy. His vision for an Uniate Church under the full authority of the Pope of Rome would be betrayed at Vatican II when the hierarchy broke for a false ecumenism favoring the Eastern Orthodox Church's role as opposed to the Traditionalist Catholic position, and the Catholic position, of the Church's jurisdictional authority being fully placed under the Pope of Rome. Sheptytsky was nevertheless influential for Eastern Rite Catholics and Ukrainian-Greek Catholics in recovering much of the Eastern Tradition that had been lost and forming us once again back to the Catholic theology of the one Mother Church. We are not Orthodox in Union with Rome. We are Greek Catholics and our theology is Catholic. Met. Andrei Sheptytsky is venerated on November 1 in the Ukrainian Catholic calendar.

Sources:

Confessor Between East and West, Jaroslav Pelikan

"Sheptytsky, Andrei"

"Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky (Andrei Sheptytsky) who was called 'the apostle of Ukrainian Truth'"

Frankenstein, Pt. III

The conclusion of Mary Shelley's novel is the battle between creator and creature. It is the event where the Frankenstein monster shall show how he has ascended to be like his creator, no, greater than his creator. The Frankenstein monster begins to control his own creator. He stalks his creator where he travels, he infects the mind of his creator. Victor is completely given over to his scientific pursuits. When Elizabeth writes to him, it she questions as to whether he has found another love. Indeed he appears to have found another love. It is the endless battle between himself and his monster. It is his passion for the study of science that he has given himself over to. Elizabeth is quite right to presume he has found another love. Every bit of Victor's soul is consumed with his relationship with the monster. He has no way to escape from the monster.

Victor creates not out of love, but out of fear and his desire to control something. Instead, he has become controlled. He is under his monster's servitude yet he thinks himself free. In full imitation of Lucifer, the monster has declared his own creator to be his slave. And because his creator has failed to create out of love, indeed, the creator has become a slave. It is a warped relationship between creature and creator. The creature has coerced his creator to make for him an Eve, a companion whom he can relate to and love, and here, the creator is conflicted. Is it worth it to create another with the hopes that his creation will adhere to the promises that he has made shall he have his companion? Or would he end up creating two demons? Yet the Creator of All who created out of love imbibed his creation with the gift of free will. To create out of love implies risk for love implies risk. Victor continues to create as one who is attached to the idea of control. It was in the remembrance of the death of his mother that he first created, hoping to reverse the despair of losing a loved one. And it is in the effort to exert control over life that Victor chooses to create again.

Yet not knowing if he can actually control the new life form or if his creature will adhere to the promises made, Victor decides to destroy the project he is working on in front of his own creation. The monster is horrified. The monster has emotions. The monster expresses them in front of Victor. Recognizing that Victor is the creator though, the monster, in a pure Satanic act, goes after those Victor loves most. Misery loves company and so misery attempts to drag down those around Victor. Those whom Victor loves. This is the way the monster inflicts anguish upon Victor. This is a form of Satanic revenge. When Satan rebelled against God, he could not defeat even the Archangel Michael yet fell from Heaven. Seeing that he could not defeat his own Creator, Satan went for the Creator's own creation, distorting it and leading it into death.

The monster vows to be present on Victor's wedding day. Soon, Victor finds his friend Henry Clerval has been murdered by the monster. He finds himself on trial just as Justine has found herself on trial. Yet instead of being blamed for his monster's crime, his father comes to testify on his behalf and the judge sympathizes with him. Victor goes free for what his creation has done yet Justine died. He is given Elizabeth's letter which questions him on who it is he really loves. Victor has been trapped by his scientific explorations. Victor has been playing God. Victor has not been giving any love and he does not seem to desire to be loved. There are those who are willing to love yet refuse to be loved. They are without love. There are those who never give love and they also refuse to receive love. These men are the most unhappy. Victor finds himself among those men. The monster has become representative of Victor. Victor's life is identified by the monster and Victor finds himself identifying his own life with that of the monster more and more.

The monster will eventually be the one responsible for killing and destroying everything near to Victor yet it is Victor who has already held that responsibility. The creature is in many ways a metaphor for Victor. Much like the portrait of Dorian Gray becomes a metaphor for Mr. Gray's deterioration, the monster gradually kills everyone dear to Victor Frankenstein until there is just Victor left. Then, Victor, upon dying, is seen by the monster, and here begins the monster's own repentance. The monster, in many intents and purposes, is a model of who Victor Frankenstein is at his very core. Victor runs from himself and from others and isolates himself from others. Victor has put himself at enmity with himself and others. The monster only materializes what it is Victor has already done inwardly. The monster is an outward manifestation of who Victor is interiorly.

Frankenstein, Part II

In the second part of Shelley's work, we are confronted with the monster yet again. But the monster doesn't seem so monstrous when it first explains its narratives. Often times, a victim of abuse takes the eventual form of its own abuser. In the first part, we see how a materialistic worldview drives a man into the overarching realm of attempting to create life and bestow upon things gifts that he cannot rightfully bestow upon anyone. In the second part, we see him forced to confront the hideous beast that he created out of his desire to control what he could not possibly control. But the beast doesn't seem so hideous. The beast asks and demands a defense. The beast is in a situation where it is not monster, but abused by another monster. One wonders who the real beast is when the monster begins giving his narrative which leads to the death of William that Justine is unfortunately blamed for and executed for. Is the real monster the abusive creator, Victor Frankenstein, who scorns his own creation or is the real monster the creation? Is the real monster that which shows sympathy and affection for this family he finds in the woods, or is the real monster the family which will scorn him and run him out because he doesn't look like them?

The beast tells his story of how he comes across a family living a small house in the woods. How he acquires knowledge of both the language and the behavior of humans from studying their movements, their tongue, and their way of life. The beast realizes the father of this family is blind and cannot see. The beast has been discriminated against in his early life for how he appears to other people. In secret, he provides help to the children of this blind man in their daily tasks. The beast is successful in the first part of his story in earning one's sympathies for him. As his story continues, one is drawn to show compassion for the beast in his circumstances. How could his creator have left him in such a condition? Then, when he decides to finally reveal himself, he shows himself to the blind father. Lady Justice always wears a blindfold. It can only be a blind man who can adequately judge the character of the individual heart, and so the beast shows himself to the blind man, hoping that his character can be judged and not his appearance. But the children see him and the son of the blind man begins attacking him and beating him. The monster can do nothing but bear the punishment. It is too great. They care nothing for how he has assisted them during his time in the woods. They care only about his appearance.

In this time, he finds many works to read including the notes of Victor Frankenstein regarding his creation and the work Paradise Lost by John Milton. It is Paradise Lost that catches the beast's attention the most. He finds himself like Adam in that he has been created for a unique purpose. But he finds himself like Satan in bringing liberty to people, suffering from an oppressive Creator. Frankenstein's notes regarding this monstrous creation of his only serves to convince him more about this. Frankenstein has a rejection for his creation. Unlike God, who declares His creation good, Frankenstein declares his creation in the most downcast terms as possible. One wonders if the creation of a monster has more to do with what is felt in the creation of it or in the actual heart of the monster itself. Should Frankenstein have called his creation "good", would his creation have been "good" in appearance and in heart? It seems as if the creation here is "good" in heart, but not in appearance. Frankenstein constantly attacks the nature of the appearance of the beast over and above all other things.

But more importantly, the monster feels alone. The monster sees in Paradise Lost how God created for Adam a mate, Eve. The monster finds himself more like Lucifer because he has been abandoned by his own creator, dejected, and does not know his own creator. The monster wants to be Adam. The monster compares himself to be a monster but the monster desires himself to be a human. The monster has human emotions. This is the creation of Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein has created "life" through a means of perversion and has abused his own creation throughout its making. As a result, he has ended up with a perversion that desires revenge on his creator. But the monster does not want that revenge. The monster wants to be given a chance to be a creation. The monster desires accompaniment because he knows it is not good to be alone.

Shelley attacks a commonly held view of God here that is found in certain strands of Protestant theology. Unironically, this strand of Protestant theology originated in Geneva where Frankenstein's hometown location is. In studying and comparing Victor Frankenstein to the God of Genesis, one sees in Frankenstein, aspects that are much more like that of the Calvinist Deity than the true God. The Gods are quite different in both nature and reason, actually. The God of the Scriptures is a God of compassion, co-suffering, seeks to benefit and know His creations, calls His creations good, and desires relation. That is a God who is Love. But the God of the Calvinists is much more like Victor Frankenstein. The God of the Calvinists despises his creations, does not desire intimacy, picks and chooses where ultimately they end up, does not view all of his creations as good, and does not care if certain creations are left alone. The God of the Calvinists is incapable of desiring an individual soul because the God of the Calvinists loves only communally. The God of the Scriptures loves according to the individual heart. The Calvinist Deity is a sharp contrast to the True God, for while God is Love, the Calvinist Deity despises certain men and blesses other men. The Calvinist Deity creates certain humans directly for the Hellfire. The Calvinist Deity is incapable of stepping outside himself and stretching down to love each unique human individual or providing for their needs.

The beast starts his mission in seeking out Victor Frankenstein in order to enact revenge on the maker for detesting him. When one is bound to the Calvinist Deity, this is only a natural act of regression. The Calvinist Deity creates to oppress. It does not matter what the creation does, everything is fixed for the creation. There can be no chance of intimacy. Thus, the beast, seeing himself rejected by both creator and man, burns down the house of the family he claimed and thought of as his friends, then he seeks to carry out vengeance upon the very one who made him. The beast seeks out Frankenstein in his hometown of Geneva and seeing the innocent William, realizes this is a Frankenstein, and has no sympathy upon the relation of Victor. But seeing the woman's picture, he begins to think of Adam and Eve again and he begins to desire that intimacy that Adam and Eve were given. He demands that Victor create for him an Eve. It is unknown whether the monster will carry out his promise after Eve is created, to leave the town alone, but Victor must comply with the demand.

Frankenstein vol. 1

Mary Shelley's classic horror novel, Frankenstein, begins with Victor Frankenstein aboard Walton's ship, explaining the creature he references as a daemon. He begins the narration of his events by focusing on his childhood and growth to the point where he would be pushed into the natural philosophies by his father. His mother's death has a very grand impact on him and he references it again once the creature he creates is resurrected. It is shortly into his studies that he begins his alchemical work on the monster. Being sucked into such work, he condemns himself for the loss of relations he suffers in its making.

"If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind."

Consumed by the task of the creation of life, he is ecstatic when he finally has completed his project. But he describes vividly in his dream how he embraces his cousin Elizabeth, only to witness her form turn into that of the corpse of his own deceased mother. There seems to be a reflection in this of the loss of life and the desire to create new life after witnessing such death and decay. People, I have noticed, seem to always want to control the things they cannot control. They try to accumulate control over these things when they've seen the moments of their own weaknesses. Hence, the death of one's mother leads Victor to begin creating life.

But he begins to see how his resistance to affections has poisoned even his own creation. When he travels with his friend Clerval, he receives a notice from his father that his younger brother William has been murdered. How dreadful that such a young one has been murdered. In Shelley's nihilism, she views death is something that severs one from the eternal presence of their loved one. There is nothing after death, this life is all there is. Thus, Clerval reflects on the Stoic position but then promptly rejects it.

"His friends mourn and weep, but he is at rest: he does not now feel the murderer's grasp; a sod covers his gentle form, and he knows no pain. ... Those maxims of the Stoics, that death was no evil, and that the mind of man ought to be superior to despair on the eternal absence of a beloved object, ought not to be urged. Even Cato wept over the dead body of his brother."

The dead may be at rest, but they are eternally apart from us. This is the emptiness that the Stoic philosophy leads. There can never be an eternity so any death must naturally perpetuate an eternal absence from our loved ones, even if they may now be in a state where there is no pain. A contrast to this is seen in Justine's response to her own death.

Realizing that the murderer of his brother had been his own creation, Victor seeks out to defend as innocent the accused Justine. But it is to no avail. The jury has been rigged against her. She is to be sentenced to death for a murder she had not committed. She confesses to the crime knowing full-well she did not commit the crime. But there is circumstantial evidence and a confession nevertheless. This is all there is needed for the jury to irk themselves to ire over what has happened to William. They seek a scapegoat, and it is Justine who is penalized. Justine is to be put to death. Elizabeth cannot fathom how her dear friend could have betrayed her so much. It is the betrayal that hurts her more than the fact that her friend has been unjustly tried. But Justine embraces a different metaphysic of the other world. It is one that acknowledges that this unjust death she will suffer will be for her sanctification.

"Dear, sweet Elizabeth, do not weep. You ought to raise me with thoughts of a better life, and elevate me from the petty cares of this world of injustice and strife. Do not you, excellent friend, drive me to despair."

It is sharp contrast to the thoughts of Clerval which are more echoing of Shelley's than Justine's are. Justine welcomes the death for this unjust cause because she acknowledges that there is an eternity to fly to. But Clerval has no knowledge of that. He rejects it. This sharp contrast between nihilism and eternity shows how the characters and the storyline plays out in the acceptance of death both in our own world and in Frankenstein. We see this even today in our own world. There is a population of people that looks forward to eternity and has no fear of death. These people are currently feared by those who fear death. The people who fear death the most are the people who try to prolong life, even by trying to create life and perform experimentations to extend and prolong the natural span of life. But such experimentations lead to evil ends and are based on evil means.

Victor, upon seeing the condemned Justine, reflects upon his own guilt. He knows that he should have been condemned, not the innocent Justine. But he refused to stand up for her. The blood-guilt of two murder victims must then be on his head for he has allowed this to happen to Justine.

"Thus the poor sufferer tried to comfort others and herself. She indeed gained the resignation she desired. But I, the murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation."

But one wonders why he does not confess his guilt. He knows yet another innocent will die because of him. Yet he keeps silent. He fears his testimony will not be believed. But perhaps he also takes a nihilistic approach. For is death ends all things, then there can be no repentance. If all of this life is the material, repentance is futile. There can be no more hope for man than what he can make in this life. Thus, the Hell he feels is only temporary, though he knows he is responsible for the murder of two innocent victims.

St. Demetrios the Great Martyr

"O emperor, I esteem thy monarchy; however, I honor, above thee, much more, the God of heaven and earth, Who is King of the cosmos."

St. Demetrios had been raised Christian by his parents and adhered to the Faith from his earliest age. He pursued a military career as all strong young men of age tend to lean toward, especially in the Roman Empire. He found favor with the Emperor Maximian Gelerius, the Pagan and persecutor of Christians, though the Emperor was unaware that this Demetrios was in fact a devout and pious Christian. St. Demetrios was vested with significant honors by the Emperor and made military commander over the city of Thessalonike.

He protected this city for his life and faithfully served the Empire. But he also used his position to spread the Gospel of Christ, teaching his men the doctrines and teachings of Christianity. The Devil was furious for many men were converting to Christianity through the saint's pious teachings and some of the imperial guard decided to report the saint to the Emperor. The Emperor was at first grieved for St. Demetrios was such a proven military commander, yet he forgot that grief for the Emperor was more enraged with the spread of Christianity and the abandonment of the Pagan idol worship. He sought to convince St. Demetrios but it was to no avail. Demetrios was dedicated to Christ. For the Roman Emperor had now given himself in opposition to Christ and no man can serve two masters.

St. Demetrios was thrown into the bathhouse. During the games, that year, one of those who was catechized by Demetrios, St. Nestor, was pitted against the gladiator Lyaios. Lyaios was a Scythian who had killed many Christians in the gladiatorial ring. Nestor wanted to prove the triumph of God to all witnessing so he sought Demetrios's intercession. He came to the bathhouse before his combat and asked for Demetrios's blessing. Then, when Nestor was thrown into combat, Nestor cried out to the God of St. Demetrios and he pierced the gladiator Lyaios through the heart. The Emperor was furious that his friend Lyaios was killed, his friend who had killed so many Christians. He ordered that Nestor be beheaded.

Seeing that St. Demetrios's name was called upon, the Emperor accused the Holy Martyr of witchcraft and ordered his soldiers to thrust their lances through the saint. The saint gave up his soul to God and received the crown of martyrdom.

St. Demetrios is a well-renowned protector of Thessalonike and though there are many miracles, one great miracle features his defense of the city of Thessalonike from the Avars during the Emperor Phokas. The Avars had captured two young maidens and having been defeated by the miracles of St. Demetrios already, the believed Demetrios to be a god. They ordered the maidens to embroider a cloth with the image of Demetrios on it. Fearing the Avars would abuse this cloth and mock the image of Demetrios, they refused. But the saint appeared to them and instructed them to do so. They began embroidering. They completed their project by October 26th, the Feast Day of the saint. Having completed their project, they fell asleep exhausted. In their sleep, the saint showed up and whisked them away to the Church in Thessalonike. When they woke up, they did not realize where they were, the Thessalonians were amazed. Because of his defense of the city from the Hagarenes, Lyaios is sometimes depicted as a Turk in iconography.

St. Alfred, the Great King of England

Alfred was the youngest of five children and not expected to become the King of England. Because of this, his education was not largely focused on. He was not expected to become a King. He even desired to become a monastic and sought after a monastic life from an early age because his succession to the throne seemed unlikely. Yet at the age of five, Alfred was sent to the Pope of Rome where he was received with royal dignity and given the vestment of the Roman consulate. Alfred, living after the time of Charlemagne, would have been considered a resident of the Western Roman Empire through England's alliance with the Franks. It was not until he was twelve that he taught himself to read. His mother presented a book of English poetry to her sons and promised to give it to the first person who could learn to read it. Alfred was attracted to the beauty of the book so much that he began studying its contents and, learning from his teacher, began to learn to read. When one considers how intellectually influential the King became in England, this detail of his life, that he was unable to read for so long a period, seems almost remarkable. Especially given his overall resume of works that he translated!

Alfred was born to King Aethelwulf and his wife Queen Judith. In the year 855 A.D., his older brother Aethelbald seized the throne of England as Absalom once did the throne of Israel from his father David. Though the people would have been more than happy to see Aethelwulf restored to the throne when he had finally returned from visiting Rome, it was not the wish of Aethelwulf to see his son punished so. Aethelwulf allowed the King Aethelbald to continue ruling though the people would never refer to Judith as the Queen for the scandalous nature in which Aethelbald had proclaimed his own mother as his wife. Instead, the people referred to her as the "King's wife". Aethelwulf would repose two years after his return from Rome and Aethelbald would repose in 860 A.D., in the twelfth year of Alfred's life. Aethelbehrt succeeded his brother and it was then that England would experience numerous raids from Viking armies. These raids would end up changing the course of the young Alfred's life forever.

Aethelbehrt would crush the Viking forces, causing them to flee. But after five years, Aethelbehrt would go the way of all flesh. Alfred's brother Aethelstan had reposed some time in between. Aethelred would assume the Kingdom and Alfred would find himself second in line for the throne as more Vikings would raid England. He would fight alongside his brother, Aethelred, pushing the Vikings back, sometimes losing battles. But Alfred's life was now fully occupied by military campaigns against the Vikings as they ravaged the various parts of England. It was in 871, after Easter, that Aethelred would repose and Alfred would assume full reign over the English government. Alfred pushed the Vikings back but the fighting with the Danish Pagans would resume in 875. In 878, the Danish King Gunthram amassed a large assault upon Wessex. Alfred and his men were cornered. It was at this time, before the Great Battle of Edington, that St. Neot would appear in a dream to St. Alfred promising him victory. So likewise, a strange figure showed up at the fortress of St. Alfred. A beggar, asking for rations, St. Alfred retained full generosity not knowing who the beggar was. He gave the last supply of rations to this beggar. The next day, the rations were restored. The beggar, being none other than St. Cuthbert himself. The Battle of Edington was a decisive victory for the Anglo-Saxons and Gunthram embraced Christianity, being baptized with St. Alfred as his godfather.

From this point on, the Danish occupation of England was broken and Danish military forces would begin to be slowly driven out from England. St. Alfred would unify all of England through their common Christian creed and he would begin to set up institutions of education throughout all of England. Alfred, having regretted his lack of education growing up, sought to build up the university system in England and founded the University of Oxford. He also compiled different translations of the Psalms, he translated Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, different parts of Pope Gregory I's Book of Pastoral Care and Dialogues, and St. Augustine's Solioquies. In a compilation of religious and classical works that the saint made known as Blooms, he wrote:

"Therefore he seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life, where all shall be made clear."

He commissioned the writing of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and The Anglo-Saxon Martyrology. He also wrote many numerous laws for his country, much like St. Justinian was a lawgiver for the Romans, St. Alfred was a lawgiver for the English.

St. Alfred was a pious, righteous, and devout King. One area of his life that he struggled with was his burning sexual passion. In order to fight these carnal desires, he would get up early from his sleep and visit the sites of churches, relics, and would venerate the holy icons of numerous saints and martyrs, until these desires finally would cease. Though on his wedding day, he would be inflicted with yet another illness of the flesh. St. Alfred would continue to be inflicted with illnesses throughout his life, but he bore all with humility and penitence. He built England up from ruin, uniting all under one ruler, drove out the Vikings, converted Pagans, and established learning in England. St. Alfred is the only English King to have been given the epithet, "the Great", and he truly was a great King.

His concluding prayer of his translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, is the appropriate place to end.

"Lord God Almighty, maker and ruler of all creatures, I beseech You on behalf of Your mighty mercy, and through the sign of the Holy Cross, and through St. Mary's maidenhood, and through St. Michael's obedience, and through the love and merits of all Your saints, that You guide me better than I have done towards You; and direct me according to Your will and my soul's need better than I myself am able; and strengthen my mind to Your will and to my soul's need, and confirm me against the devil's temptations; and keep far from me foul lust and all iniquity; and protect me from my enemies visible and invisible; and teach me to perform Your will, that I may inwardly love You before all things with pure thought and clean body, for You are my Creator and Redeemer, my sustenance, my consolation, my trust and my hope. Praise and Glory be to You now and forever, world without end. Amen."

Alfred reposed October 26, 899, entering into eternal glory.

See also:

James Thornton, Pious Kings and Right-Believing Queens

Asser, Life of King Alfred