September Chivalry

Happy Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross! "Onward, Christ­ian sol­diers, Marching as to war, With the cross of Je­sus Going on be­fore."

From One Peter Five

By Charles Coulombe, STM, KCSS

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow—
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,—
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’

All of my life, I have been inspired by the idea of life being like the Knight’s Quest.  The Holy Grail, the Green Knight, St. George and the dragon – these ideas have always undergirded and strengthened me in the adventures I have encountered along the road of life.  Richard Kiley’s lyrics from Man of La Mancha put forth the same mental atmosphere:

This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

As a Catholic, I know that at the end of the Quest, if I stay true to what the church teaches, will be Heaven, and the road of life shall truly be El Camino Real – “the King’s Highway.”  Already, in my sixty-five years of life, I have encountered Holy Shrines, Eucharistic Miracles, Wise men, brave men, and foolish men; damsels in distress – and the occasional metaphorical dragon, against the historical backdrop of the years I have seen, with their triumphs and tragedies, their wars and their peace.  I must agree with the learned Leon Gautier:

..It is not necessary to believe that Chivalry belongs to any one epoch, or possesses any special character. The institution is dead, but its spirit lives, and there are knights under all the flags which have successively sheltered the honour of France — no matter what their colour! [and I would say the same of once-Christian countries! – CAC]

We may add, to prevent disappointment, that it is quite possible for any one of the present day to become as chivalric as any knight of old time, and if anyone will conform to the ten commandments of the Code of Chivalry which we have enumerated, he will find this feasible, and actually true.

Gautier’s important text from Tumblar House

Indeed, we see in the life of Bl. Karl, last Emperor of Austria, who was like a living embodiment of Medieval Chivalry dropped into the hapless 20th century – truly a light that shone in darkness, like his Divine Master, and also like Him, not comprehended by that darkness.

There are certain feast days that are particularly reminiscent of Chivalry: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, which the Arthurian tales always tell us were “well kept at Camelot” of Caerleon, Carlisle, or wherever else Arthur’s Court happened to be; Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, the Precious Blood, and Christ the King, which bring us directly to the contents of the Holy Grail; certain Marian Feasts, such as the Immaculate Heart of Mary, her Queenship, and Our Lady of the Rosary; and, of course, Saints’ Days such as George, Louis, Martin, Hubert, and Bl. Charlemagne.  As it happens, this month of September, the last before the annual celebrative season running from Halloween to Mardi-Gras, offers us three such observances.

The first is the Holy Name of Mary on September 12.  Just as the Kingship of Christ and the Queenship of Mary and the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts are intimately linked, so too are those of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.  As Dom Guéranger explains:

It was therefore in the order of Divine Providence that devotion to the most holy Name of Mary should spread simultaneously with the cultus of the adorable Name of Jesus, of which St. Bernadin of Siena was the apostle in the 15th century. In 1513 the Church of Cuenca in Spain was the first to celebrate, with the approbation of the Holy See, a special feast in honor of the Name of Mary; while the Franciscan Order had not yet succeeded in obtaining a like privilege for the adorable Name of Jesus. The reason of this is that the memory of that sacred Name included in the Feast of the Circumcision, seemed to the prudence of the Pontiffs to suffice. From the same motive we find the Feast of the most holy Name of Mary extended to the universal Church in the year 1683, and that of the most holy Name of Jesus not until 1721.

Our Lady justifies her beautiful title by partaking in the warlike exploits of the King of kings her Son. The city of Vienna having been delivered by her from the power of the Crescent, contrary to all hope, the venerable Innocent XI made this feast the memorial of universal gratitude to the liberatrix of the West. But we shall speak more explicitly of this glorious deliverance on the 12th of September, the day on which it occurred.

In his coverage of that day, the learned Benedictine continues:

Two glorious triumphs, two victories won under the protection of our Lady, have rendered this present day illustrious in the annals of the Church and of history. Manicheism, revived under a variety of names, had established itself in the south of France, whence it hoped to spread its reign of shameless excess. But Dominic appeared with Mary’s rosary for the defense of the people. On September 12, 1213, Simon de Montfort and the crusaders of the faith, one against forty, crushed the Albigensian army at Muret. This was in the pontificate of Innocent III.

Nearly five centuries later, the Turks, who had more than once caused the west to tremble, again poured down upon Christendom. Vienna, worn out and dismantled, abandoned by its emperor, was surrounded by 300,000 infidels. But another great Pope, Innocent XI, again confided to Mary the defense of the baptized nations. Sobieski, mounting his charger on the feast of our Lady’s Assumption, hastened from Poland by forced marches. On the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity, September 12, 1683, Vienna was delivered; and then began for the Osmanlis that series of defeats which ended in the treaties of Carlowitz and Passarowitz, and the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire. The feast of the most holy name of Mary inscribed on the calendar of the universal Church, was the homage of the world’s gratitude to Mary, our Lady and Queen.

Were this not Chivalry enough for one month, two days later is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, honouring the recovery of the True Cross form the Persians by Emperor Heraclius.  Here too, Dom Guéranger is a helpful guide:

Thou, O Cross, wert the rallying-standard of all Europe in those sacred expeditions which borrowed from thee their beautiful title of Crusades, and which exalted the Christian name in the East. While on the one hand thou wert thus warding off degradation and ruin, on the other thou wert preparing the conquest of new continents; so that it is by thee that our West remains at the head of nations. Through thee, the warriors in those glorious campaigns are inscribed on the first pages of the golden book of nobility. And now the new orders of chivalry, which claim to hold among their ranks the élite of the human race, look upon thee as the highest mark of merit and honor. It is the continuation of today’s mystery, the exaltation, even in our times of decadence, of the holy Cross, which in past ages was the standard of the legions, and glittered on the diadems of emperors and kings.

So truly was the Cross connected with the Crusades, that the Roman Pontifical until 1961 carried an Order “On the Blessing and Imposition of the Cross to those going for the Support and Defence of the Christian Faith, or the Recovery of the Holy Land.”  This ceremony included two prayers which make things very obvious:

Almighty God, who hast consecrated the sign of the cross with the precious Blood of thy Son, and who by the same cross of thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ hast willed to redeem the world, and by the power of that same venerable cross hast freed the human race from the handwriting of the ancient enemy; we humbly beseech thee, that thou wouldst deign to speak well of this cross with fatherly piety, and to impart to it heavenly power and grace, that whosoever shall bear it upon himself as a sign of the passion and cross of thine Only-begotten for the protection of body and soul, may receive in it the fullness of heavenly grace, and the strength of thy blessing. As thou didst bless Aaron’s rod to repel the perfidy of the rebels, so also do thou bless this sign with thy right hand; and bestow upon it the power of thy defense against all diabolical deceits: that it may confer salutary prosperity of soul and body on those who bear it, and multiply spiritual gifts in them. Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

This blessing of the Cross was followed by a blessing of him who would wear it:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who art the true and almighty God, the splendor and image of the Father, and eternal life; who hast declared to thy disciples that whosoever will come after thee must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow thee, we beseech thee of thy boundless mercy, that thou mayest always and everywhere protect this thy servant, who, according to thy word, desires to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow thee, and to hasten and fight against our enemies for the salvation of thy chosen people, and deliver him from all dangers, and absolve him from the bonds of sin, and bring to pass the desired vow that thou hast received. Thou, O Lord, who art the way, the truth, and the life, and the strength of them that hope in thee, mayest well direct his journey, and grant him all things prosperous; that amidst the straits of this present world he may always be guided by thy help. Send him, O Lord, your Angel Raphael, who accompanied Tobias on his journey and delivered his father from physical blindness, that he may be his defender on his way and on his return against all the visible and invisible snares of the enemy, and may he repel from him all blindness of mind and body. Who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, you live and reign, one God, forever and ever. R. Amen.

These blessing epitomised the spirit of both the Crusades and the Military Orders to which they gave birth.  To this day, for the Orders of Malta, the Holy Sepulchre, and the Teutonic Knights, the feats of the Holy Cross remans an important feast reminding them of the sacrifice of Christ to which they must unite their presently peaceful endeavours.  Of course, for all these Orders the Cross was their great badge – the Templars were the Red Cross Knights, Malta the White Cross, the Teutonic Order the Black Cross, and St. Lazarus the Green Cross.  Because the last named operated pharmacies across Europe, their symbol became and remains that of the European pharmacies, for all that it represents pot dispensaries in the United States.  In any case, this is a day to celebrate the many battles of Christendom against the armed enemies of the Cross, whether they were Muslim, heretics, or the later revolutionaries of various varieties.  Even more so can we celebrate those brave Catholics who in each of these cases took the Cross, willing to lay down their lives for their friends – and to pray that we be brave and chivalrous enough to do so, if our time requires it.  Nor need it be a purely military question.  The argument may be made that such folk as Operation Rescue were acting in quiet as Chivalrous a manner as any who rode with Arthur, Charlemagne, or Godefroy.

The last feast we’ll look at is Michaelmas – September 29, the feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel.  We’ll consult Dom Guéranger one more time:

The glorious Archangel appears today at the head of the heavenly army: There was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. In the sixth century, the dedication of the churches of St. Michael on Monte Gargano and in the Roman Circus increased the celebrity of this day, which had however been long before consecrated by Rome to the memory of all the heavenly Virtues.

The east commemorates on the sixth of September an apparition of the victorious Prince at Chone (ancient Collossæ) in Phrygia; while the eighth of November is the solemnity of the angels, corresponding to our feast of today, and bearing the title: ‘Synaxis of Saint Michael prince of the heavenly host, and of the other spiritual Powers.’ Although the term synaxis is usually applied only to religious assemblies here on earth, we are informed that in this instance it also signifies the gathering of the faithful angels at the cry of their chief, and their union eternally sealed by their victory.

Because of his role as chief of the Heavenly armies, St. Michael was early on hailed as a major patron of Chivalry, later sharing the status with the great St. George.  But this was not a mere honour; the bright Archangel had proved himself an actual ally of the Christian armies, appearing in several battles – reportedly in Lebanon as late as 1977.  He was of course also one of St. Join of Arc’s Heavenly inspirers.

These three feasts – the Holy Name of Mary, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the Dedication of St. Michael should lead us not only to become more Chivalrous in our daily lives, but to embrace a more militant Catholicism.  Certainly the month of September ends as the Christmas shopping season is beginning to get underway, and the annual battle for the “Holiday.”  At the very least, we can show our devotion to the Good Fight by buying exclusively religious Christmas cards to send out over the comig months!