Category Archives: Saints and Soldiers

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Oct. 17

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Icon of the maryrdom of St. Ignatius

Icon of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius

Here are the seven letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and apostasy. Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome.

Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. The excerpt below is from his letter to the Romans. He had some experience with soldiers, and compares them to leopards.

 

“All the way from Syria to Rome I am fighting with wild beasts, by land and sea, night and day, chained as I am to ten leopards (I mean to a detachment of soldiers), who only get worse the better you treat them. But by their injustices I am becoming a better disciple, ‘though not for that reason am I acquitted.’ What a thrill I shall have from the wild beasts that are ready for me! I hope they will make short work of me. I shall coax them on to eat me up at once and not to hold off, as sometimes happens, through fear. And if they are reluctant, I shall force them to it. Forgive me — I know what is good for me. Now is the moment I am beginning to be a disciple. May nothing seen or unseen begrudge me making my way to Jesus Christ. Come fire, cross, battling with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs, crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil — only let me get to Jesus Christ!

Not the wide bounds of earth nor the kingdoms of this world will avail me anything. ‘I would rather die’ and get to Jesus Christ, than reign over the ends of the earth. That is whom I am looking for — the One who died for us. That is whom I want — the One who rose for us. I am going through the pangs of being born. Sympathize with me, my brothers! Do not stand in the way of my coming to life — do not wish death on me. Do not give back to the world one who wants to be God’s; do not trick him with material things. Let me get into the clear light and manhood will be mine. Let me imitate the Passion of my God. If anyone has Him in him, let him appreciate what I am longing for, and sympathize with me, realizing what I am going through.

The prince of this world wants to kidnap me and pervert my godly purpose. None of you, then, who will be there, must abet him. Rather be on my side — that is, on God’s. Do not talk Jesus Christ and set your heart on the world. Harbor no envy. If, when I arrive, I make a different plea, pay no attention to me. Rather heed what I am now writing to you. For though alive, it is with a passion for death that I am writing to you. My Desire has been crucified and there burns in me no passion for material things. There is living water in me, which speaks and says inside me, “Come to the Father.” I take no delight in corruptible food or in the dainties of this life. What I want is God’s bread, which is the flesh of Christ, who came from David’s line ;and for drink I want his blood: an immortal love feast indeed!

Daniel Baker, Conscientious Objector

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The Catholic Peace Fellowship has a great series of podcasts called Warcast for Catholics, “a podcast dedicated to a discussion of war and peace in the Catholic tradition.”

I found the podcast with Daniel Baker,a veteran of the War in Iraq, to be particularly interesting. He said that when he began to struggle with his military duties, he went to the philosophy department in his local bookstore looking for meaning in his life. He encountered the writing of Thich Nhat Hanh. Then he started to read about Saint Francis and more about the Church’s teachings on war. When it became apparent that he was not going to be able to switch jobs within the military, he went online and tried to find a way to get out of the military.

On the Internet he encountered the website for the Catholic Peace Fellowship and other sites that informed him about the option of conscientious objection, which he didn’t know existed. He says, “No one knew about it on base, neither did the chaplains, because when I went to talk to one chaplain, he just talked about the Just War theory.” (We once called the Archdiocese of Military Services to inquire about the process for becoming a conscientious objector. They told us that they had no information about the process.)

Daniel Baker says, “This whole experience converted me from Catholicism to Catholicism [laughter], because I really saw meaning behind everything. It’s ironic that a Buddhist opened my eyes to Christianity and none of the Christians I ever knew did.”

He also says: “I’d like to say that there are many great people in the military. I hope their eyes are opened like mine were. A lot of them have good hearts and many of them sympathize with my ideas.” You can listen to the full podcast with Daniel here.

 

St. Maurice of Carnoet, Oct. 13

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“May Jesus Christ, and his holy Mother, whom I serve, drive out those wolves who rage violently in the slaughter of men.” — St. Maurice of Carnoet. 

wolf eyes St. Maurice of Carnoet – Saints & Angels – Catholic Online

St. Maurice was talking about wolves, literally, in the passage above, but here is an interesting meditation on wolves and their depiction in the Bible: “Individually, the wolf is rather a timid animal. It will avoid a man rather than meet him…But, collectively, the wolf is one of the most dangerous animals that can be found.”

St. Colman of Stockerau and Torture

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Saint Colman of Stockerau was an Irish or Scottish pilgrim who was martyred in Austria in 1012 while on the way to the Holy Land. He was mistaken for a spy because of his strange appearance. Because he spoke no German, he could give no account of himself. He did nothing wrong, and was in fact a very holy man, but he was tortured and eventually hanged. His feast day is October 13.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has a list of several public Catholic responses to torture, one of which is called “No Excuses for Torture” published in America magazine in 2010 and written by Stephen M. Colecchi. Colecchi points out:

“In Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the statement on political responsibility that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued in November 2007 in preparation for the 2008 national elections, the bishops referred to the issue of torture five times. Echoing the catechism, they declared that torture is ‘intrinsically evil’ and ‘can never be justified’ and stated categorically: ‘The use of torture must be rejected as fundamentally incompatible with the dignity of the human person and ultimately counterproductive in the effort to combat terrorism.’ It is counterproductive not only because experts tell us that it does not work, but also because it undermines the very good it hopes to achieve: the common good of all.'”

See Suleiman Abdallah, see Murat Kurnaz, see Maher Arar, how many others?

Josh Stieber, Conscientious Objector

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This is a great interview with Josh Steibler, a young Christian who enlisted in the army after high school. He was deployed to Baghdad from Feb 07- Apr 08 with the military company shown on the ground in the “Collater Murder” video.

 

Josh Stiebler

Josh Stiebler

In the interview (and interviewed by Slate here), he talks about going to a Christian high school and reading books like The Faith of George W. Bush. The former President was presented to him as an ideal of Christian manhood, someone who was carrying out God’s will. When he found himself in the military he began having trouble reconciling his faith with the way in which he was being psychological conditioned to hate the enemy and become inured to killing, chanting things like:

 

I went down to the market where all the women shop;
I pulled out my machete and I begin to chop;
I went down to the park where all the children play;
I pulled out my machine gun and I begin to spray.

When he wrote home to his religious leaders expressing his reticence and uncertainty about what he was doing, they assured him that what he was doing was good and right, and that the ends justified the means.

One, two, three, four.
Every night we pray for war.
Five, six, seven, eight.
Rape. Kill. Mutilate.

From the Slate interview:

Pretty quickly after I got in, I started to see inconsistencies between how the military was talked about in such glorified ways [when I was] growing up, and then how it was acted out in training. Training was very desensitizing. We screamed slogans like, “Kill them all, let God sort them out.” We watched videos with bombs being dropped on Middle Eastern villages with rock and roll music in the background. People really started to celebrate death and destruction, and that definitely didn’t match up to what I’d expected. I’d told myself that I was willing to kill if necessary, but that wasn’t the same as celebrating it.

It seems to be a story of someone coming to Christ despite, not as a result of, his Christian upbringing.

I really had to face the fact that I couldn’t have it both ways. Either I was going to try to find this inward reality where sacrificial love was possible for a higher goal, or I was going to let self-defense be my ultimate value.

For a while, Josh wrote a blog here.

St Ethelburga’s Center for Reconciliation and Peace

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St. Ethelburga's Church, April 1993

St. Ethelburga’s Church, April 1993

Saint Ethelbega lived until 675AD and was the first leader of a monastic order for women in England. Her Feast Day is October 11, and the church of St. Ethelburga the Virgin in London is dedicated to her. It survived the Great Fire and the Blitz, but was extensively damaged in an IRA attack in 1993. It has since been restored and is now a Saint Ethelburga’s Center for Reconciliation and Peace, a non-profit charity which aims “to help people build relationships across divisions of conflict, culture and religion.”

St. Peter Tuy, Oct. 11

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Martyrdom of Saint Pierre Borie

Martyrdom of Saint Pierre Borie

The Catholic Church in Vietnam was devastated during the Tay Son rebellion in the late 18th century. The Vatican estimates the number of Vietnamese martyrs at between 130,000 and 300,000. The tortures these individuals underwent are considered by the Vatican to be among the worst in the history of Christian martyrdom. Saint Peter Tuy was a Vietnamese priest that was beheaded in 1833.

Officers and soldiers that helped to identify, capture, and kill Christians were greatly rewarded with promotions and gold and silver. Villagers who turned people in were rewarded with gold and silver as well.

The missionary Father Pierre Duclos said: “with gold bars murder and theft blossom among honest people.”

St. Peter Tuy – Saints & Angels – Catholic Online

DiLorenzo on the Spanish-American War

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Today Catholic economist Tom DiLorenzo published an article about a speech delivered by William Graham Sumner in 1899. Sumner believed the Spanish-American War was the turning point for the United States, when it changed from a constitutional republic into an empire.

The speech was entitled “The Conquest of the United States by Spain” to denote the fact that the Spanish-American war, an imperialistic war of conquest, was no different from the types of aggressive wars that the old empires of Europe had been waging for centuries.

William Graham Sumner:  “The thirst for glory is an epidemic which robs people of their judgment, seduces their vanity, cheats them of their interests, and corrupts their consciences.”