Reclaim the Middle Ages

"Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica" by Ary Scheffer, 1846 Saint Augustine of Hippo was a mama’s boy!? Today, the traditional western European church celebrates Saint Monica’s day (c. 330 – 387 Anno Domini). She was the mother of Saint Augustine and the main reason – or insistence – for the great life and contribution to Christendom her son would have. Given in marriage to Patricius - a pagan Roman man - most of Monica’s young life would be spent in fervent prayer for her husband who, though of a violent nature and opposed to her Christian faith, always held her in high regard – like a true noble pagan man of old. She shared a home with a mother-in-law who, with her quarrelsome character, was an added pain to her life in a household where she felt as if she did not belong. Augustine was one of her three children surviving infancy, and his ill health until early adulthood was an added reason for fervent prayer on Monica's part. Upon regaining hea

Ivory tablets found in Durrës Read on - it is a happy thing! The ivory tablets above were found in Durrës in 1979 by archaeologist Fatos Tartari in a monumental tomb of the Illyrian era. The tablets were placed inside a large glass urn filled with a black liquid believed to have served for their preservation in time. Along the tablets were also found two styluses used for engraving on them and an ebony comb which, among other ornamental features, indicated it was the burial place of a woman. I mean, an Albanian woman would not leave her house without a comb in her purse, let alone enter the afterlife without one! The journey there may take one moment only, but hair gets dishevelled anyway and an Albanian woman would not face God (then believed gods) while unpresentable. We still take great care that our dead look their best when they depart for their journey, though Islam has hugely toned this down and deprived us of our pagan and then Christian joy in beauty, be that in

Ilir në betejë; pamje e gdhendur në tokëzën e një rripi. Mendohet të jetë imazh i Medaurit, zoti ilir i luftës. / An Illyrian in battle - impression on a belt buckle. It is thought to be an image of Medaurus, the Illyrian war god. Vazhdimësia e gjuhës përbën të paktën gjysmën e dokumentimit të historisë së një kombi. Arma në figurën e mëposhtme është një sica ilire, shpatë e shkurtër e përdorur prej paraardhësve tanë në ndeshje nga shumë afër për... t’i dhënë fund armiku kur ky afrohej pak si tepër. Unë besoj se “sica” është fjala paraardhëse ilire për fjalën shqipe “thika”, ku germa e parë “s” me shumë gjasa është për shkak të shqiptimit latin të fjalës (tingulli “th” nuk është pjesë e gjuhës latine). Ne e kemi ruajtur këtë fjalë ndër shekuj, për shkak se ishte që në fillim pjesë e gjuhës sonë, si dhe për shkak se armët gjithmonë kanë pasur vend të veçantë në shpirtin dhe historinë shqiptare. Sica ilire / An Illyrian sica Sica ishte armë shumë e veçantë, pasi ilirë

Father De Smet among his Native American friends. Before they bent the knee Arab style, Belgians had priests seeking out the lost among the Native Americans. 19 June 1868: Father Pierre-Jean De Smet is sent to pursue peace between the United States and the Sioux Indians in present-day Montana. Born in Belgium in 1801, Father De Smet became a Jesuit priest in 1821 and then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1823 with the ambition to become a missionary to the Native Americans. He studied their languages, customs and traditions, in order to be fully equipped to spread the Gospel in the manner best understandable to them. He started with the Potawatomi villages in Iowa, with the full preparation for missionary work taking him about seven years. He established St. Joseph’s Mission in Iowa and made use of all his skills to reach his targeted people both with the Good News of God’s salvation and with a helping hand in their daily struggles. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet.

Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, striking rebel Wat Tyler Once upon a time, London had Lord William Walworth as Mayor. Now there is Sadiq Khan… 13 - 15 June 1381: Wat Tyler brings the Peasants’ Revolt to London, marching into the city at the lead of his peasant army, burning and looting as they went. In true irreverent peasant style, government building were destroyed, prisoners released (Bastille much?), a judge and other prominent Londoners beheaded. They say each hardship is a blessing in disguise, and the Black Death was so to the surviving peasants. With nearly one third of the English people dead from the illness, the remaining labour force was scarce, thus much more expensive. The inevitable social changes did not sit too well with the traditional feudal system though, which needed the natural course of events to adapt to an emancipated peasantry. In true irreverent peasant style though, the protesters had no time for that, starting the revolt in late May

(Written on February 14th, 2018) The following is a personal attempt a Christian/libertarian to interpret Saint Valentine’s Day and the man “remembered” by it. This is also a public statement of my admiration for the “Dark Ages”, the Middle Ages and tainted glass in churches. Saint Valentine (226-269 AD, according to church history) was a Christian believer of apparently an important position in the Christian community of the time, later to be considered a personality in the history of Catholicism – at that time not yet the official faith of the Roman Empire. (To be clear, everyone who knows me also knows that I am not against Catholicism, on the contrary; I am just stating it was a later development in history.) Paganism continued being the main faith of the Empire or, better say, the mechanism by which the name “Emperor” was pronounced as “God”. (It is the same nowadays: tons of letters are altered from the word “Christianity”, God and the concepts of sin and et

The homemakers looking forward to the bright future ahead. (Article written on March 8th 2018) Why is the 8 th of March seen as Mother’s Day rather than Women’s Day in Albanian popular culture and who should we really celebrate? The question poses two issues for analysis. The first issue provides us with some historical background. A “holiday” of pure socialist/communist roots, the International Women’s Day was first proposed at the International Socialist Women Conference in August 1910. Scheduled mainly for the last Sunday of February, it took several years until the “holiday” was finally settled on March 8 th . The date coincides with Saint Petersburg’s textile worker’s revolt on March 8 th , 1917, as per the Gregorian calendar, a date that is also considered as the start of the bitter Bolshevik coup d’état. The “holiday” is closely tied to larger socialist progressive movements of the times and the push to ruin empires, traditions and values inherited through the