Templar Edification

The day upon which I’m writing this missive now before you, 21 May, marks for Eastern Christians the commemoration of the Roman Emperor Constantine, hailed as “Saint,” “the Great,” and “Equal to the Apostles.” Others have not been quite so generous with their praise. For centuries, the Roman Empire persecuted Christianity. Cast out from synagogues after a tragic parting of the ways, Christians had no resort to the legal protections offered by the Senate to ancient religions such as Judaism. Worship in urban centers literally went underground, as house churches became catacomb churches, celebrating the Eucharist atop the martyrs’ tombs. Recent scholarship has sought to downplay the severity of Roman persecution, in part due to the exaggerations of medieval hagiography [defn: the writing of the lives of saints], and in part as a reaction against American Christianity’s recent history of claiming victimhood whilst nakedly pursuing political power. Yet for generations, prominent churchmen ...

May to me is without question the most beautiful month of the year. Growing up in Pennsylvania, autumn had always been my favorite season, yet since settling in Minnesota I’ve developed a new appreciation for spring—which doesn’t hit until May. Away recedes the ice and snow after six long months of winter, and up pop the sights and sounds and smells of fresh new life, new growth, new warmth. It is simply lovely. One of the themes to which I have often returned during my year as Grand Prelate has been to debunk the popular notion that Christian holidays are secretly pagan in origin. Halloween, Christmas, and Easter regularly come under fire as the year rolls ‘round, and I find myself pointing out that Christian observances are overwhelmingly Jewish in their origins, as well befits a religion centered upon worshipping a rabbi as our God. Besides all that, “pagan,” as G.K. Chesterton memorably wrote, is really just another word for human. Seasonal celebrations around the world share simil...