Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomini Domine, Hosanna in Excelsis, part forty-one

Donald John Trump’s needless, immoral, and unconstitutional war upon Iran has cost him greatly at home and abroad while, at the same time, this act of preventative war that is prohibited by the precepts of the Just War Theory, has provided the man who had assured Trump of an easy, Venezuela-style operation, Benjamin Netanyahu, to continue his genocide in Gaza, destroy much of southern Lebanon, and to effectively abrogate the September 13, 1993, Oslo Accords by annexing the West Bank on a de facto basis and subjecting generations-long residents there to displacement, torture, and murder.

Trump has managed to destroy whatever political strength he had after his decisive election victory over then Vice President Kamala Word Salad Harris Emhoff on Tuesday, November 6, 2024, ruined an economy that was beginning to recover from the devastation wrought by the policies of Joseph Robinette Autopen Biden, Jr., needlessly depleted the American military’s munitions supplies, recklessly put American military personnel in harm’s way, and driven the cost of gasoline, diesel, home heating fuel and jet fuel to levels that have made the cost of living for practically everything, thus alienating many middle class and working class Americans who had supported him in 2024, if not having voted for him in 2016 and 2020 as well.

Fixated upon the opulence provided by golden lampstands, picture frames, statues, arches, columns, doors, staircases and the like, President Donald John Trump has conveyed an air of imperviousness to criticism about his ostentatious displays of the trappings of power and has maintained his absolute intolerance of political dissent from his “right flank” while regularly engaging in the most vile form of character assassination against such former allies as Marjorie Taylor Green while seeking to destroy independent-minded Republicans such as United States Representative Thomas K. Massie for opposing the Iran War and for seeking transparency about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

No matter how much and how often he denies any comparison to then President George Walker Bush’s preventative war of choice against Iraq that began on March 19, 2003, after eighteen months of falsehoods about Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s supposed “weapons of mass destruction,” Trump’s delusional contention that the Mohammedan murderers who govern the Islamic Republic of Iran who have no qualms about arbitrarily executing thousands upon thousands of their own citizens were within “weeks of developing a nuclear weapon is precisely the same as what Dubya had done twenty-three years ago. The resulting stalemate in Iraq cost Bush the Lesser dearly in the 2006 midterm elections on Tuesday, November 7, 2006, as the hapless, stand-for-nothing Republicans lost control of both Houses of the Congress of the United States of America, ushering in Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi’s first four years as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, a position that she reclaimed on January 3, 2019, and held again until January 3, 2025, and paving the way for Barack Hussein Obama’s election as President of the United States of America on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

As much as he denies it publicly, though, President Trump has sent his Talmudic son-in-law, Jared the “Peacemaker” Kushner, to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) to find areas where the administration and Democrats could work together if, as expected at this juncture, the organized crime part of the false opposite of the naturalist “left” sweeps back into power while riding the wave of public dissatisfaction with Trump, his policies, his cult of personality, and his belief in his own infallibility and invincibility:

Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, met privately in recent weeks with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top outside adviser, and discussed potential areas of common ground, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting.

The rare engagement was held in a private space in New York City, offered up by a mutual friend of the two men, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting and a third who was briefed on it. They and others were granted anonymity to discuss a meeting about which they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Through aides, neither man would comment on the session, which was described by one person with knowledge of it as a broad conversation on a range of topics. Still, its timing underscored that those around Mr. Trump were well aware of the likelihood of a Democratic-led House, and trying to foster as much of a working relationship as possible before any change. Mr. Jeffries is in line to be the speaker, were Democrats to win the majority.

Democrats and the president have been savaging each other on the campaign trail with increasing fury as the midterm elections approach, and as Republicans are fighting to retain their thin House and Senate majorities.

Mr. Trump has called Mr. Jeffries a “thug,” and at a May campaign event referred to him as a “low IQ” person who had inspired him to deride Democrats as the “Dumocrats.” Mr. Jeffries routinely suggests that Mr. Trump is not only extreme but corrupt, vowing that Democrats would “hold the crooks accountable” if they won control.

The private get-together was described by one of the people as a catch-up for Mr. Kushner and Mr. Jeffries. The two men have stayed in touch since they worked together on a criminal justice bill midway through Mr. Trump’s first term.

During the recent meeting, the pair discussed housing, immigration and the high cost of living as potential areas of common ground. Mr. Kushner suggested that Mr. Jeffries should meet with the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, two people with knowledge of the meeting said.

The likelihood of any compromises between the White House and Democrats on those issues seems remote.

Mr. Trump this year refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill in part because he said it was “Warren centric,” referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, its top Democratic champion. And he has repeatedly expressed openness to a deal with Democrats on immigration, only to back away from any such agreement. He successfully lobbied Republicans to abandon a bipartisan border security bill in 2024.

White House officials and an aide to Mr. Kushner did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In a statement, Mr. Jeffries did not acknowledge the meeting, but suggested that the only way Democrats would cut deals with the administration would be if Republicans were willing to come their way on cost-of-living issues, his party’s top priority.

“Throughout this Congress, Republicans have adopted a my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing that has failed the American people,” he said.

He added: “In every conversation that we have with the Trump administration, we will continue to make it explicitly clear that the affordability crisis is not a hoax, and nothing short of transformational policy change is acceptable. We are fighting for an affordable America. The question is whether Republicans will join us.”

Mr. Kushner, who worked as a senior West Wing adviser in the president’s first term, is no longer formally part of Mr. Trump’s government. He has been deeply involved in the president’s efforts to resolve the war with Iran that Mr. Trump began, to enforce a cease-fire in Gaza and to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He and Mr. Jeffries also met last year, according to two people with knowledge of that conversation.

The meeting came as nearly all polls revealed Republicans to be at a disadvantage in the midterms, and showed how members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle were digesting what a Democratic majority next year could look like.

Should that happen, Mr. Jeffries would be under intense pressure from progressives to use his power as a check on Mr. Trump, including through aggressive oversight.

Mr. Kushner is frequently consulted by a number of Mr. Trump’s advisers, and he has told people that if anything bipartisan is to get done with Congress, Mr. Jeffries is the most serious person among Democratic leaders. Ms. Wiles, he has said, is the most serious inside the West Wing.

But with Republicans in control of both chambers, Mr. Trump has mostly steered around Congress in his second term, trampling its powers and prerogatives. He has faced little pushback from G.O.P. leaders.

Should Democrats win the House, Mr. Jeffries would have to balance the need to keep the government funded with Democratic calls to defy Mr. Trump at every turn, and possible pleas to impeach him for a third time.

Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Trump have danced around questions about what their relationship could look like next year should Democrats take control.

“I think he’s a nice guy,” Mr. Trump told Punchbowl News in a recent interview, when asked about Mr. Jeffries. “I’d probably get along with him very well.”

Mr. Trump pointed to a meeting with Mr. Jeffries in the Oval Office last fall — the only one they have had in his second term — and described it as a positive one.

In fact, during that meeting, which was billed as a bid to avert a government shutdown, the president positioned hats with a “Trump 2028” logo directly in front of Mr. Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, trolling the Democrats with the suggestion that he would run for a third term in violation of the Constitution.

Afterward, Mr. Trump posted an A.I.-generated meme of a mustachioed Mr. Jeffries wearing a sombrero, drawing an angry response from the House minority leader, who called the image racist and dared Mr. Trump to insult him next time “to my face.”

Soon after the meeting, the government shutdown began.

This year, Mr. Jeffries has remained noncommittal about any plans to pursue a third impeachment of the president, and has not discussed publicly what oversight could look like if his party were to win the majority.

“We’ve not ruled anything in and not ruled anything out in terms of accountability,” he told The New York Times in an interview last month, noting that his focus would be on forcing out major Trump officials.

“We’ve got to make sure we continue to get rid of toxic Trump cabinet secretaries,” he said. “Pete Hegseth, in my view, should be next on the list.” (Jeffries and Kushner Meet Privately as Midterm Attacks Fly.)

Ignoring the inconvenient little fact that the 2024 “bipartisan” immigration bill was merely an effort to cement the open border policies of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and then Secretary of Homeland Insecurity and Instability Alejando Mayorkas and was thus rightly opposed by then former President Trump, Jared Kushner is as delusional that he can reach some kind of modus vivendi with Hakeen Jeffires as he and his “negotiating” clown partner, Steven Witkoff, were in thinking that they could find some “common ground” between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy and Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to end the Russian war with Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, and now features a daily exchange of drone attacks targeting civilian residences in a display of mutual amorality and raw terrorism (see Russia, Ukraine trade attacks as Putin warns of ‘far more destructive’ hits | Russia-Ukraine war New).

Unlike the hapless members of the organized crime family of the false opposite of the naturalist “right,” their opposite number in the organized crime family of the naturalist left, no matter how divided these statists and Marxists might be amongst themselves, actually believe in things and willing to act on their beliefs. Sure, those beliefs are dangerous as they are based in a desire to crush all political dissent with the brute force of the civil state so as to make it impossible for “conservatives” to ever hold office again as they, the leftists, support wanton baby-killing until the day and even after birth, every manner of perversity and mutation thereof that mentally ill people keep inventing, and in making the average taxpayer slaves and wards of the civil state by means of massive regulatory policies and massive increases in confiscatory taxation.

The Republican clown show has featured all manner of legislators engaged in tawdry behavior that betrays their commitment to “family values” (the Democrats who engage in such behavior are simply being true to their own lack of belief in any kind of morality, no less of any fear of Divine Judgment upon their immortal souls given their total commitment to carnal licentiousness) and is so divided amongst itself that all it has managed to do in the past in the past nineteen months to spend money (the “Big Beautiful Bill”) and run up the national debt to the tune of thirty trillion dollars (sooner of later we are talking about real money) while being unable to pass a simple bill to assure than noncitizens cannot vote in Federal elections.

If Democrats do prevail in the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, it will be the fault of President Donald John Trump alone just as it was Tuesday, November 6, 2018, when Democrats regained control of the United States House of Representatives. Republicans are on the verge this year of losing the governorship of Ohio and Senate seats on Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, and possibly, yes, even Texas and Arkansas. And all because Donald John Trump was all too willing to do the bidding of the Zionist mass murderer named Benjamin Netanyahu without realizing or caring to realize how the war with Iran is affecting people worldwide, including in the underdeveloped nations and/or developed nations with high levels of poverty:

President Trump took Secretary of War Hegseth’s military cheerleading (‘U.S. military potency is awesome’) at face value, only belatedly to discover that the U.S. is out of interceptors in a war that hinges on air defences. ‘The restock mathematics is just as cold. Four years to refill the stocks (not four months), because components include rare earth materials that are controlled by China’.

Hegseth, it seems, is now in the dog-house, whilst Treasury Secretary Bessent’s star is ascendent.

Reportedly, Bessent has continuously reassured Trump that the oil shortage triggered by the closure of the Hormuz Strait “is temporary and manageable” (it isn’t), arguing too that energy-driven inflation also will ease once global tensions cool. He has bet his hat on it. And Trump seems to believe in the manipulation of oil and market futures.

However the figures floated around in Washington for vessels slipped through via the Oman corridor are fictitious. Brett Erickson, of Obsidian Risk Advisors, writes:

“After speaking to several of my professional colleagues that I trust absolutely, there is zero evidence whatsoever to support that 8M barrels per day are transiting via the Omani Route, and zero evidence that 9Mbpd is exiting the Strait of Hormuz per day. Zero. Not “maybe”, not “potentially”. No evidence. And even more damning, [there is] evidence directly to the contrary”.

To the question, “Is their plan to just lie low until everything falls apart? What then?”, Erickson replies:

“From what I understand, they actually think some of this information is correct. They’re stupid, not disingenuous necessarily … which is worse”.

Trump’s pivot to economic pressure as the key to Iranian capitulation is not a credible strategy. Even if a tighter siege did succeed in worsening further the plight of the Iranian people, it is implausible that their suffering would bring about some beneficial endgame – such as a Delcy Rodrigues style régime change?

Iran is in an existential war with the U.S. and Israel, and were the Iranian leadership ever to be pushed to having to choose between capitulation and escalating the confrontation, they would almost certainly opt for escalation. In fact, the decision to escalate militarily – to put the pressure on Trump – seems already to have been taken, as evidenced by recent statements by Mosen Rezaei, the newly-appointed Secretary of the Supreme National Security Committee. Iran will continue with pro-active military action, even if Trump opts to forego military action.

Iran, however, is showing no signs of economic collapse under the renewed U.S. blockade. Iran had an estimated 120–140 million barrels of oil positioned offshore in tankers at the outset of the conflict and has exported another 80 million barrels during the limited term of the MoU. The Rial has, in fact, strengthened during the MoU, so the question is: What happens if Iran not only refuses to capitulate, but instead toughens its posture towards Trump – as it appears to be doing?

Danny Citrinowicz, a leading Israeli military analyst, notes that maintaining the current standoff is hardly cost-free for the U.S.. Hormuz remains severely restricted; the Red Sea is blocked to Saudi exports; and U.S. forces are compelled to sustain an expensive military presence and blockade. Additionally, American munition inventories face pressure, and Tehran still retains numerous ways to harass U.S. forces and threaten regional shipping. Meanwhile, the economic consequences of disrupted energy flows certainly do not fall on Iran alone. As the Wall Street Journal noted this week:

“Persian Gulf energy producers are concluding that Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz will become permanent, disrupting their oil and gas exports and global energy supplies indefinitely … [effectively they have] no good option for countering [a more assertive Iran]”.

And oil is not the only component disrupted by the conflict. A series of vital supply-line components are disrupted too.

Should it ultimately transpire that the U.S. went to war without doing due diligence on its armoury status (wrongly assuming that the war would be concluded in a weekend, as David Barnea, head of Mossad insisted at the 11 July 2026 Situation Room briefing insisted to Trump), and should it transpire that the Treasury Secretary has been confabulating about the true energy situation, then some people ultimately will have serious questions to answer.

Israeli strategic commentator Shemuel Meir raises the most compelling doubts that need to be answered:

• Was the Iran war truly a ‘preventative’ war launched on a false pretext of an imminent threat?
• Did Netanyahu lie about the imminence of an Iranian nuclear threat?
• Or, in other words, did Netanyahu emulate the deceit of ‘Iraq and its Weapons of Mass Destruction’ to push Trump into the war?

Writing in early July this year, leading Israeli commentator Ben Caspit admonished Netanyahu:

“Really, Bibi? Did the Iranians have atomic bombs? Are you serious about that? You know, you’re the Prime Minister. Every statement, sentence or word you utter makes the headlines. When you say something like that, it has consequences. Are you aware of that? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint [you] … but Iran did not have atomic bombs. Not at all. Not even as a joke … One cannot say that Iran possessed atomic bombs. Because that is not true … Because it is entirely fictional”.

(In fact, Conflicts Forum noted in early July (see here) that alongside Caspit, a chorus of Israeli premier security and intelligence former officials and commentators alleged that Netanyahu had lied about Iran’s nuclear threat in the run up to Iran war – and that he continues to lie about an Iranian nuclear threat).

Shemuel Meir points out that in Israeli doctrine, a pre-emptive war is intended to remove an existential threat within an immediate time frame where there is no doubt about the threat’s imminence.

Meir states however that:

“We [the Israeli public] essentially do not know what happened or how the decision was made to launch a preventive war on June 13, 2025 (“Operation Rising Lion”), and its continuation in the second round of the preventive war on February 28, 2026 (“Lion’s Roar”). How the decision was taken to launch this war remains, as Aluf Benn puts it, Netanyahu’s ‘Black Box’ of decision-making.

He continues:

“Let us then try to examine the facts as far as possible. To determine how solid the justification was for a war that has changed the face of the Middle East and…despite being a conventional war, was the first nuclear preventive war in history. And one conducted with the approval of the U.S. President.

“The question arises: how is it that we have not seen a critical scrutiny and detailed investigative reporting into the decision-making behind the June 2025 preventive war? This is especially striking in light of two investigative reports published, rather surprisingly, in Israel over the past two weeks …

“Both these further investigations … rely on strong intelligence sources and good access to senior levels of the IDF General Staff. In both reports, we learned something that we had not heard anywhere else: facts and details concerning the Chief of Staff’s reservations about the second [28 February] preventive war, which was intended to solve the nuclear problem – by bringing down the regime”.

Meir adds:

“According to the investigative reports, the Head of Military Intelligence AMAN (the national intelligence assessor within the Israeli system) and the Head of the Intelligence Research Division assessed and wrote in the intelligence reports that were delivered to the Prime Minister and Cabinet members, that there was a low probability of success in the Second Iran War. For anyone familiar with Israel’s intelligence history, this was a courageous assessment”.

“In launching the two rounds of the same preventive war, Netanyahu stated that the reason for the war was “new intelligence” warning of an immediate existential nuclear threat to Israel’s destruction. According to him, Israel could not stand by and watch; there was an immediate imperative to go to war. To illustrate the immediacy of the threat, Netanyahu saturated the public discourse – both in the run-up to the first war and during the year between the two “wars” – with existential metaphors such as “a sword at our throat,” and compared Iran’s nuclear sites to the extermination camps of the Holocaust of European Jewry”.

“On the night of June 13, 2025, concerning the immediate existential threat posed by an Iranian nuclear weapon. Netanyahu declared that “we are in the twelfth hour”. Iran had reached the point of no return. In recent months, Iran had been racing ahead in “clear steps it had never taken before toward weaponization, that is, toward creating a nuclear weapon, and not merely accumulating fissile material””.

Was there then really an existential threat on 13 June 2025, Shemuel Meir asks –

“The ostensibly intelligence-based arguments concerning “new intelligence” presented by Netanyahu and the heads of the IDF General Staff about an acceleration of Iran’s nuclear weapons program in the immediate timeframe (weaponization was the key term in their arguments) stood in contradiction to highly reliable, up-to-date intelligence assessments. These included U.S. intelligence reports that contradicted the claims of an immediate nuclear threat and were apparently known to Israeli intelligence”.

“According to an investigative report by Ronen Bergman (Yedioth Ahronoth, June 26, 2026), based on senior Israeli intelligence sources, Israeli intelligence did not possess solid information indicating that a weapons program was actually being activated. There was only “troubling information about thoughts and talk,” but no smoking gun indicating that weapons laboratories were being activated.

The question arises: “Did all the senior officials in the IDF General Staff and Military Intelligence agree with and fully support the Prime Minister’s argument that this was a necessary preventive strike to thwart an immediate nuclear threat? Was this a war to eliminate an immediate existential threat, or a war of “opportunity exploitation”?”

(Other reports indicate that none of the senior officials present raised the possibility that Iran would not implode, nor that it might emerge stronger from the conflict).

Meir asks, were the senior IDF officers who took part in the decision following proper procedures, “or were they so swept up in Netanyahu’s euphoric mood that they failed to recognize the metaphysical mission he had assumed upon himself in his role as the “Protector of Israel” – to attack Iran and destroy every possibility of a diplomatic nuclear agreement?” (Meir analysed in an earlier article, “Requiem for the Nuclear Deal” that one-third of Netanyahu’s autobiography “My Story” is devoted to that same metaphysical mission [—] that a war against Iran’s nuclear sites was Netanyahu’s lifelong dream).

This clearly is an existential question for Israelis, given that the war so completely failed in its stated objective.

But it is absolutely pertinent too, for Americans. At the 11 February 2026 White House Situation Room briefing, Netanyahu made a hard sell to President Trump, suggesting that Iran was ripe for regime change and expressing the belief that a joint U.S.-Israeli mission could finally bring an end to the Islamic Republic.

Were the U.S. officials, who were present and who expressed doubt about the Israeli claims, aware that the Head of Israel’s Military Intelligence AMAN (the national intelligence assessor within the Israeli system) and the Head of Israel’s Intelligence Research Division assessed and wrote in the intelligence reports that were delivered to Netanyahu and Cabinet members, that there was a low probability of success that the Iranian Republic would implode? The Mossad Chief by contrast, insisted that Iran would be a quick and easy war.

The AMAN assessment however fully coincided with reliable leaks from U.S. intelligence officials and analysts that were published during the 12-Day War in June 2025.

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CBS all reported that these U.S. intelligence sources were unaware of any new intelligence indicating an Iranian dash for a bomb; that there had been no change in the intelligence assessment; that Iran was not on a path toward a nuclear weapon; and that no order had been given to proceed with weaponization.

Nonetheless, Trump ploughed ahead with the war – one that continues still today? Why? (Netanyahu’s Réprise of the ‘Iraq WMD Deceit’ – Re-launched To Promote War on Iran.)

Trump sure ploughed ahead with the war, and he has said that he would do it a hundred times over again if he thought it was “necessary” even, I suppose, at the cost of hurting ordinary Americans, including many millions of his own voters, and handing Congress back to those who are intent on truly destroying the country and of impeaching him for a third time while seeking to block all his judicial nominees to the Federal bench. All for the illusion of keeping Iran from being “within weeks of developing a nuclear weapon.”

I, for one, have no intention of going down the rabbit hole of what President Trump intends to make the Iranians wave what he said must be the “white flag of surrender” other than threatening to unleash an economic apocalypse upon them, which is a variation of his threatening to “bomb them back to the stone age where they belong” as he had some months ago now. His most recent threats indicate that he is not going to engage in further military action, most likely because the United States Department of War lacks the armament to do so, and while there is some indication that the civilian leaders of Iran are willing to negotiate to end the country’s economic distress, there is no guarantee that the Mohammedan theocrats or Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps would go along with such a solution (see Iran's top civilian leaders push for cutting a deal with President Trump to end the war).

We do know, however, that there was at least one attempt on Trump’s part to bribe the commander-in-chief of the so-called revolutionary guard:

Mike Pompeo, former aspiring Tony Soprano, admitted: “We lie, we cheat, we steal.” And we bribe.

A Transition Protocol source, as we revealed live, is unequivocal: The President of the United States – despite having “won” the war on Iran countless times, at least in the Vociferation stakes – made a major attempt to induce IRGC Commander-in-Chief Gen. Ahmad Vahidi and senior Iranian military leadership to break with the government in Tehran through enormous financial inducements.

So here we have POTUS playing good ol’ Divide and Rule – which the Brits learned from the Roman Empire – to fracture the IRGC from the inside.

This was not a mere exploratory diplomatic contact. Trump did not merely want to determine whether Vahidi supported U.S.-Iran negotiations.

According to our source – placed in the tight inner circle of Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – this was a full leadership-buyout operation, modeled on the Venezuela playbook, to fracture the Iranian state.

The attempt miserably failed.

Because Ahmad Vahidi completely rejected it.

The Trump administration had already created a somewhat direct conduit to Vahidi through Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, way back in May 2026. Then-DNI Tulsi Gabbard contacted Barzani – fully authorized by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance – and an encrypted connection to Vahidi was subsequently established through Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The channel stayed dormant – or in coma, for nearly 3 months. This time though Trump attempted to turn the channel into a de facto fracturing of the Iranian leadership, employing the conceptual precedent in Venezuela: isolate the central command; handsomely bribe those immediately around it for “cooperation”; and create the internal conditions for regime decapitation.

The source describes “billions of dollars” being waved as inducements to several members of the senior IRGC leadership through Vahidi. All that while Trump was on Hardcore Vociferation mode threatening Tehran and spinning his “control” of the Strait of Hormuz.

Nothing so far has been independently confirmed in public. And probably will not. But that does not mean the source is not credible.

The source is part of Leader Mojtaba’s tight inner circle; heard all about it directly from Vahidi; and later was fully authorized to disclose the extremely sensitive information to Pakistani mediators, especially Field Marshal Asim Munir, who Trump keeps calling virtually every day asking for “help” getting the Iranians back at the negotiating table (when he in fact blew up the negotiating table).

I bribe, therefore I am

Vahidi is not a peripheral military figure. Far from it: he is the commander of the IRGC – the institutional center of gravity of Iranian hard power. The Trump administration wanted access to the top of the IRGC itself.

But they bet on the wrong man. The number two man in Iran right now, overseeing everything including top IRGC decisions, is Mohsen Rezaee: the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and personal representative of Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Mohsen Rezaee is a former IRGC commander and his leadership is uncontested – as proven by the trust placed in him by the Leader. The overarching framework guiding his decisions – and people like Vahidi – is the Shi’te sense of moral duty, ethics, self-sacrifice and the spirit of Sovereign Resistance, values completely alien to an Empire of Grifters.

It’s no wonder that a crass neo-Crassus in War-a-Lago/Washington actually believed that a battle-tested military leader – and those around him – could sell the fate of a civilization-state for a mere bribe, and induced to defect, stand aside or facilitate regime change.

Applying the exact same Venezuela methodology means that the Trump administration actually believed they could translate it to a Shi’ite Iran context. That proves once again an astonishing degree of cultural stupidity.

The methodology may work for corrupt Latin American political/military elites: History tells us it happened so many times.

But to believe that offering protection, political survival, loads of money and/or a future share of the spoils to an IRGC that is far from being a loose political entourage around a vulnerable presidential palace fully demonstrates how the Empire of Grifters has no clue about the institutional cohesion of the Iranian security state.

All across the Global South, this will be regarded for what it is: another episode of the neo-Crassus Art of the Deal.

Complementing another recent episode, where the capo fraternizes with the DPRK then asks South Korea – “I asked for $10 billion” – for protection money.

That’s the pizzo. Not to be confused with pizza. Pizzo is Sicilian slang for extortion money. (How Trump Tried To Bribe the Head of the IRGC.)

What worked with then Vice President Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela prior to the American military occupation that seized Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, January 3, 2026, was not going to work with Amed Vahidi, and it not clear that even that President Trump’s threatened economic sanctions will not result in some kind of Iranian military response threatening America’s Gulf State allies, which have already suffered greatly as consequence from the war that the president said would be over in matter of weeks or months.

It is now almost exactly six months after the American-Israeli attacks began on Saturday, February 28, 2026, and that only substantive accomplishment has been to given the Iranian military control of the Strait of Hormuz that was entirely open at the time of the attacks.

Oh, yes, the other major “accomplishment” has been to give Benjamin Netanyahu a free hand in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon no matter how matter times the genocidal Israeli Prime Minister assures Jared Kushner that he, Netanyahu, will go along with the American plan to rebuild Gaza without once mentioning the fate of Palestinians, both Christians and Mohammedans, who are being killed, tortured, and displaced in the West Bank:

(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop James Curry, the lead bishop for the Holy Land for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, strongly condemned the Israeli military’s declaration of Taybeh — the last fully Christian village in the West Bank — as a “closed military zone.”

The move, announced by the Israeli army (IDF) last week, prohibits Israelis, foreign nationals, and journalists from entering the town. The IDF claimed that the measure aims to address ongoing attacks by illegal settlers.

In a statement published August 12, Bishop Curry expressed deep concern over the decision. “I was deeply alarmed to hear that Taybeh has been declared a closed military zone prohibiting Israelis, foreign nationals, and journalists from entering. It is claimed that this is designed to prevent attacks on residents by Israeli settlers, but it is far from clear that this move will achieve that objective,” he said.

“The Israeli government must find a way of protecting the legitimate communities from settler violence whilst allowing citizens to go about their normal business,” the bishop implored. “This ban will lead to a vital loss of income from tourism and pilgrimages and, thereby, international scrutiny on the situation.”

Curry drew on his personal experience visiting the village earlier this year. “The problem of settler intimidation is a very real one. When I visited the village as part of the Holy Land Coordination in January, the community reported ongoing attacks and intimidation, a growing number of checkpoints and endless financial pressures,” he said. “Families were leaving because they simply could not see how they could raise their children in safety and security. It was unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now.”

“The universal Church has been very clear on this – human dignity cannot apply to one person and not the other,” Curry affirmed.

He further criticized the lack of urgency from the British government in addressing human rights abuses in the West Bank.

“We have shared these accounts with Catholic MPs and relevant All-Party Parliamentary Groups,” the auxiliary bishop of Westminster reported. “There is a clear understanding of the seriousness of the situation, yet our government does not appear to be acting with sufficient urgency in responding to grave human rights abuses taking place in the West Bank, often without accountability and sufficient pressure being placed on the Israeli authorities to protect communities from violence. These attacks constitute a serious breach of international law and stand in violation of freedom of religion.”

Curry went on to urge Catholics in England and Wales to take action, stating, “I urge Catholics across England and Wales to stand in solidarity with the people of Taybeh. Please write to your Member of Parliament asking them to consider and act on the situation in Taybeh as well as in the wider West Bank.”

He emphasized the historical significance of the Christian presence, noting, “The Christian presence in the Holy Land is a vital part of the region’s DNA and has survived for more than 2,000 years. It would be a tragedy for Palestinians and Israelis alike if it were to disappear altogether.”

The bishop also quoted the local parish priest, Father Bashar Fawadleh of Christ the Redeemer Church in Taybeh, who “summed it up when he pointed out that Christians simply want to live alongside their neighbours ‘in peace, with justice and dignity.’”

‘Settlers’ seek to ‘pressure Palestinian families into leaving their land’

This condemnation comes amid a backdrop of escalating Jewish settler terrorist attacks against the Christian community in Taybeh, a village of around 1,500 residents that has been home to Christians since the time of Jesus Christ, referred to as “Ephraim” in the Gospel of John.

Over the last year, Christians in Taybeh have been victimized by an intensifying trend of systemic and targeted attacks from Jewish settlers “designed to create a climate of fear and pressure Palestinian families into leaving their land,” Fawadieh told Vatican News in an interview released last week.

During this period, heavily armed Jewish terrorists have committed acts of arson to Palestinian Christian agricultural fields, including igniting a fire near the fifth-century Church of St. George and its cemetery, hurling Molotov cocktails at homes and attempting to ignite a gas station.

They have set many vehicles ablaze and written threatening graffiti across private property, brought their livestock to graze upon private Christian Palestinian lands, roamed the streets heavily armed terrorizing residents, with reports of gunfire upon Christian citizens, and more, all in a climate of impunity provided by the occupying Israeli army.

And despite the IDF’s closure of Taybeh, designating it a “military zone” in order to ostensibly protect its citizens, violent Jewish settler terror attacks continued on the ground against the town’s Christians, including an attempt to dismantle a fence around a house and the releasing of dogs upon its residents.

“I invite every Catholic diocese worldwide to speak out about the situation here, to talk about these Christian brothers and sisters who are living in terror,” Fr. Fawadieh said last week. “The birthplace of the Christian community must not vanish into silence. Together, we can preserve this living testament of faith.”

He further appealed directly through Vatican News for Pope Leo XIV “to intervene for this last Christian village in the West Bank, so that these settler attacks cease and the occupation of our land stops.”

In an apparent response to this request, during Sunday’s Angelus address, Pope Leo affirmed, “I renew my appeal for an end to the ongoing violence against the Palestinian civilian population in the West Bank, and I urgently call on the international community to work toward advancing the two-state solution, for a just and lasting peace.” (Bishop condemns Israel shutting down Christian village in West Bank.)

JERUSALEM (LifeSiteNews) — “The West Bank is burning, bleeding, crying out in pain and suffering,” a leading Catholic priest in the Holy Land has warned, describing the deteriorating situation in the territory after being transformed by months of violence and military restrictions.

On July 26, Father Ibrahim Faltas, director of the schools of the Custody of the Holy Land, warned that the West Bank has become unrecognizable after months of escalating violence, urging those responsible for the bloodshed – and those who have the power to stop it – to find a way for building peace. Writing in Vatican News, Faltas described daily suffering affecting Palestinian communities and expressed hope that upcoming elections in Israel and the Palestinian territories would bring justice and a new balance in the war-torn region.

“The West Bank is burning, bleeding, crying out in pain and suffering,” Faltas wrote. “Like Gaza, the West Bank has become a territory that has lost its scale and its spaces, a place that is no longer recognizable.”

Faltas also said that Gaza and the West Bank had been divided physically and socially and wounded in its historical identity.

The Franciscan friar stated that every part of the West Bank is experiencing “violence and destruction” on a daily basis. According to his account, residents face “deprivation, restrictions, suffering, and humiliation.” “People are dying in an unofficial war, undeclared but that continues, constant and widespread,” the priest wrote.

Among the situations he highlighted were “countless fires” affecting homes and agricultural land, as well as severe limitations on movement between towns and villages. “It is no longer possible to travel from one city to another – even if they’re very close,” Faltas decried. “Whether for medical emergencies, to work, to help relatives, or to defend small family properties that have been illegally occupied and seized by aggressive and violent settlers.”

Faltas also reported receiving numerous requests for help from people facing increasingly dangerous and urgent circumstances. He said that “more than a thousand” checkpoints, along with “temporary roadblocks,” had become a dominant feature of a landscape that was once associated with olive groves, farmland, grazing animals, and the ordinary social and economic life of Palestinian communities.

The friar further argued that Israeli settlements had gradually surrounded villages and centers of community life over the years. “They encircle Palestinian life without embracing it – they suffocate it.”

He also said the situation was particularly damaging for young people, who struggle to envision a future for themselves, and for children who witness their land being burned and restricted.

Faltas cited additional examples of hardships faced by families. He said that parents are often unable to bring children requiring medical treatment to hospitals, that individuals cannot easily reach elderly or sick parents, and that “[f]athers are stopped at roadblocks that prevent them from going to work.” According to him, “these are situations that have persisted for months, even years, in the West Bank.”

He also spoke of fear generated by what he described as “countless raids” by violent Israeli settlers. Faltas said many Palestinians feel that even their homes no longer provide “refuge or safety.”

Faltas’ witness concluded with a reference to elections that have been announced in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. Faltas expressed the hope that the elections could bring justice to the people of the region. He added that believers continue to hope that the course of history can “change direction.”

The Custody of the Holy Land, to which Faltas belongs, is the Franciscan institution entrusted by the Catholic Church with the care of many Christian holy sites in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, and other parts of the Middle East. In addition to its religious mission, it operates schools, charitable works, and social programs serving local communities. (Holy Land priest: West Bank 'burning, bleeding, crying out in pain'.)

Palestinian politicians and analysts have warned against what they describe as an Israeli plan to illegally annex the occupied West Bank by implementing a series of decisions and actions under different pretexts.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, on Friday, ordered the military to prepare a plan for transferring civilian law enforcement in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli police.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the decision follows criticism over the army’s handling of Israeli settlers who besieged a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra.

Katz justified the shift, saying, “The army’s role is to combat Palestinian terrorism … and not chase hilltop youth.”

The Defence Ministry indicated the police would establish a dedicated force to handle these civilian matters.

However, Palestinian officials and a wide array of political experts warn this structural shift represents a dangerous acceleration of illegal annexation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera that the settlers are the “spearhead in the process of annexation and Judaisation”.

He drew direct historical parallels to the mass displacement of Palestinians, stating, “They repeat what the Zionist terror gangs did in 1948, like the Haganah and the Stern Gang.”

Barghouti warned that placing security in the hands of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and illegal Israeli settlements under Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich amounts to “handing over the West Bank to the settlers”.

He stressed that this is an open war on the population, adding, “The actual ruler in the West Bank is the known fascist terrorist Smotrich.”

De facto annexation

Analysts argue that replacing military occupation law with domestic civilian law fundamentally alters the legal reality of the territory. Mohanad Mustafa, an academic and researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the decision legally erases the borders.

“The government is dealing with the West Bank not as an occupied territory,” Mustafa said. He explained that by transferring power to a civilian police force, “this means that the government has annexed the West Bank”.

He noted this move absolves the military of its obligations under international law, placing enforcement under Ben-Gvir.

Mustafa warned that Ben-Gvir, who previously oversaw the demolition of thousands of Arab homes in Israel, will now command the police to “support the settlers more and more and push them more and more towards deepening their repression and terrorism against the Palestinians”.

Palestinian leadership strongly condemned the mandate. Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, described the move as a blatant violation of international agreements and an attempt to “impose Israeli law and sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to entrench the illegal annexation of Palestinian land”.

The Palestinian group Hamas echoed this sentiment, releasing a statement calling the order a “dangerous step on the path to imposing de facto annexation” that provides “cover and more protection for the escalating attacks and crimes of the settlers”.

Fascist militias

The Palestinian Authority has accused the Israeli government and its military of sponsoring settlers’ violence. Even Israeli members of parliament have accused the army of being complicit.

Analysts stress that relieving the military of its duties essentially deputises settler violence, turning them into an armed extension of the state.

Nihad Abu Ghosh, an expert in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that there is no contradiction between the army and the settlers. He noted that the settlers have evolved into “fascist militia formations” that perform the state’s dirty work.

“These are fascist militia formations, and there are similar precedents in many countries that were ruled by fascism, whether in Spain, Italy, Germany, or even Chile,” Abu Ghosh said.

He added that these militias carry out roles that “require evading any discipline, rules, or laws” to achieve a “creeping, gradual annexation to make it a reality”.

Apartheid and displacement

The dual legal framework resulting from this shift has drawn sharp international and local criticism. Shadi al-Shurafa, a researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the situation is a textbook definition of segregation.

“We are facing an application of an overt racist apartheid system in the West Bank,” al-Shurafa said, noting it involves one regime operating with two entirely different laws based on ethnicity.

He added that the ultimate goal of the current government is carrying out complete ethnic cleansing and trapping Palestinians in “isolated cantons and isolated Bantustans”.

Other experts argue that the move completely alters the international legal status of the territory, pushing the crisis into a new, more dangerous phase.

“The subject has bypassed the issue of annexation to a post-annexation phase and creating a reality where the Palestinian finds himself forced to think about migration,” said Adel Shadid, expert in Israeli affairs.

International complicity

Analysts also pointed to the role of the international community, particularly the United States, in enabling this systemic shift.

Shadid dismissed recent US condemnations of settler violence as mere theatre to “mislead global public opinion”.

He argued that the underlying project has full US backing, noting that “all that is happening now is an American-Israeli plan and there is harmony between the two right-wing administrations in Washington and here in Israel”.

Andrew Whitley, a former United Nations official and Chair of Trustees of the Britain Palestine Project, stressed that the planned transfer is “completely illegal” and urged immediate global intervention.

He told Al Jazeera that the “Palestinian state is disappearing before our eyes”, demanding that the international community move beyond rhetoric.

“We have to do much more than just wring our hands and complain that governments are not doing anything about this,” Whitley said, calling for concrete sanctions to halt the rapid erasure of the Palestinian presence. (‘Spearhead of annexation’: Israel hands West Bank rule to civilian police. For updates on the continued Israeli genocide in Gaza, please see Gaza is running out of places to bury the dead, Daily struggle for clean water and food takes a physical toll on Gaza children, and Israel kills 3 in Gaza as Netanyahu threatens attacks over kite launches.)

No amount of justifiable moral outrage nor repeated “papal” pleas for a two-state solution that the Zionists will never accept can bring a “just and lasting peace” to the Holy Land as peace in the land hallowed by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself is impossible if those who seized it by armed force in 1948 and have used sheer terror ever since then persist in their Christophobia and Zionist racialism that is caused by the fact that their souls are captive to the devil by means of Original Sin.

Indeed, the conciliar revolutionaries themselves have contributed greatly to the Zionists’ genocidal policies by means of their diabolical commitment to “dialogue,” “engagement,” and “encounter” rather than do what Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself and His Apostles after Him exhorted the Biblical Jews to do nearly two millennia ago: to convert to the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can never be a just social order within nations nor an enduring peace, the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ, among them.

Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV would consider it an act of apostasy against the “magisterium” of the “Second” Vatican Council’s Nostra Aetate, October 28, 1965, for anyone even to consider exhorting non-Catholics, including Jews and Mohammedans, whose immortal souls are also held captive to the devil by means of Original Sin, to convert to Catholicism and we can be assured from all that the seventh in the current line of antipopes has said and done in the past four hundred seventy-three days since he began his masquerade part as “Pope Leo XIV” the thought of quoting these words spoken by Our Lord Himself to the Jews has never occurred to him once in his presbyteral career:

At that time, Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, Therefore, behold, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from town to town; that upon you may come all the just blood that has been shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the just unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem! you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see Me henceforth until you shall say, Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord! (Matthew 23:34-39.)

There will never be peace in the Middle East until everyone in that region converts to the Catholic Faith and say in unison, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!”

(A Catholic with political and media connections in Washington, District of Columbia, who recommended that I appear on Crossfire in 1987 to discuss an outbreak of Palestinian-Israeli violence then was incredulous—perhaps "mortified" is a better word—when I said that I would say just that, that everyone involved had to convert to the Catholic Church, in a live appearance on television. Guess what? I did not appear on Crossfire.)

Every single bit of the Holy Land, including Jerusalem, was sanctified by the Incarnation, Nativity, Hidden Life, Public Life and Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Our Divine Redeemer, Christ the King.

Let me reiterate this fact: Jerusalem belongs to Christ the King and His Holy Church, not to the Zionist State of Israel or any other entity. Period:

34 Ideo ecce ego mitto ad vos prophetas, et sapientes, et scribas, et ex illis occidetis, et crucifigetis, et ex eis flagellabitis in synagogis vestris, et persequemini de civitate in civitatem :  35 ut veniat super vos omnis sanguis justus, qui effusus est super terram, a sanguine Abel justi usque ad sanguinem Zachariae, filii Barachiae, quem occidistis inter templum et altare.

36 Amen dico vobis, venient haec omnia super generationem istam.  37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, quae occidis prophetas, et lapidas eos, qui ad te missi sunt, quoties volui congregare filios tuos, quemadmodum gallina congregat pullos suos sub alas, et noluisti?  38 Ecce relinquetur vobis domus vestra deserta.  39 Dico enim vobis, non me videbitis amodo, donec dicatis : Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini. (Matthew 23: 34-39.)

What more is there to say?

It is enough for us who do believe in Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and all that He has revealed to us through His true Church to try to make reparation for our sins on a daily basis, offering whatever merit we might earn by doing so to the Throne of the Most Blessed Trinity as the consecrated slaves of Christ the King through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary and by praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.

Yes, pray Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary for peace in the souls of men that can be found only when one is in a state of Sanctifying Grace, which is the absolute prerequisite, although never a guarantor because of the vagaries of fallen human nature, for there to be peace within and among nations.

Yes, pray Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary without looking for results as it may very well be the will of God to keep us from being puffed up with pride if we saw how He permits His Most Blessed Mother to answer our prayers if they are offered up with humility and in fervent spirit of true Faith, true Hope, and true Charity.

Our Lady desires all non-Catholics (and all heretical Catholics) to be converted to the true Faith before they die, and she prayed for this very fervently as she stood by the foot of her Divine Son’s Most Holy Cross on Good Friday. We must make this prayer our own, and the fact that the conciliar revolutionaries do not pray for this marks them as the most avid anti-Semites on the face of the earth as they are content to leave souls in a dead religion until they die and then face the very King Whose Name they had despised their entire lives.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph,  pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Bartholomew, pray for us.

Appendix A

Dom Prosper Gueranger on the Feast of Saint Bartholomew

A witness of the Son of God, one of the princes who announced his glory to the nations, lights up this day with his apostolic flame. While his brethren of the sacred College followed the human race into all the lands whither the migration of nations had led it, Bartholomew appeared as the herald of the Lord, at the very starting point, the mountains of Armenia whence the sons of Noe spread over the earth. There had the figurative Ark rested; humanity, everywhere else a wanderer, was there seated in stillness, remembering the dove with its olive branch, and awaiting the consummation of the alliance signified by the rainbow which had there for the first time glittered in the clouds. Behold, blessed tidings awake in those valleys the echoes of ancient traditions: tidings of peace, making the universal deluge of sin subside before the Wood of salvation. The serenity announced by the dove of old was now far outdone. Love was to take the place of punishment. The ambassador of heaven showed God to the sons of Adam, as the most beautiful of their own brethren. The noble nights whence formerly flowed the rivers of Paradise were about to see the renewal of the covenant annulled in Eden, and the celebration, amid the joy of heaven and earth, of the divine nuptials so long expected the union of the Word with regenerated humanity.

Personally, what was this Apostle whose ministry borrowed such solemnity from the scene of his apostolic labors? Under the name, or surname of Bartholomew, (Son of Tholmai) the only mark of recognition given him by the first three Gospels, are we to see, as many have thought, that Nathaniel, whose presentation to Jesus by Philip forms so sweet a scene of St. John’s Gospel? (John 1:45-51) – a man full of uprightness, innocence and simplicity who was worthy to have had the dove for his precursor, and for whom the Man-God had choice graces and caresses from the very beginning.

Be this as it may, the lot which fell to our Saint among the twelve, points to the special confidence of the divine Heart; the heroism of the terrible martyrdom which sealed his apostolate reveals his fidelity; the dignity preserved by the nation he grated on Christ, in all the countries where it has been transplanted, witnesses to the excellence of the sap first infused into its branches. When, two centuries and a half later, Gregory the Illuminator so successfully cultivated the soil of Armenia, he did but quicken the seed sown by the Apostle, which the trials never wanting to that generous land had retarded for a time but could not stifle.

How strangely sad that evil men, nurtured in this turmoil of endless invasions, should have been able to rouse and perpetuate a mistrust of Rome among a race whom wars and tortures and dispersion could not tear from the love of Christ our Savior! Yet, thanks be to God! the movement towards return, more than once begun and then abandoned, seems now to be steadily advancing; the chosen sons of this illustrious nation are laboring perseveringly for so desirable a union by dispelling the prejudices of her people; by revealing to our lands the treasures of her literature so truly Christian, and the magnificence of her liturgy; and above all by praying and devoting themselves to the monastic state under the standard of the Father of western monks. (Mekhitarists, Armenian monks of St. Benedict) Together with these holders of the true national tradition, let us pray to Bartholomew their Apostle; to the disciple Thaddeus (One of the 72, Matthew 10:3) who also shared in the first evangelization; to Ripsima the heroic virgin, who from the Roman territory led her thirty-five companions to the conquest of a new land; and to all the martyrs whose blood cemented the building upon the only foundation set by our Lord. Like these great forerunners, may the leader of the second apostolate, Gregory the Illuminator, who wished to see Peter in the person of St. Sylvester, and receive the blessing of the Roman Pontiff—may the holy kings the patriarchs and doctors of Armenia, become once more her chosen guides, and lead her back entirely and irrevocably to the one Fold of the one Shepherd!

We learn from Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. Lib. v. c. l.) and from St. Jerome (De Script. Eccl. c. xxxvi.) that before going to Armenia, his final destination, St. Bartholomew evangelized the Indies, where Pantænus a century later found a copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew characters, left there by him. St. Denis records a profound saying of the glorious Apostle, which he thus quotes and comments: “The blessed Bartholomew says of Theology, that it is at once abundant and succinct; of the Gospel, that it is vast in extent and at the same time concise; thus excellently giving us to understand that the beneficent Cause of all beings reveals or manifests himself by many words or by few, or even without any words at all, as being beyond and above all language or thought. For he is above all by his superior essence; and they alone reach him in his truth, without the veils wherewith he surrounds himself, who, passing beyond matter and spirit and rising above the summit of the holiest heights, leave behind them all reflections and echoes of God, all the language of heaven, to enter into the darkness wherein he dwelleth, as the Scripture says, who is above all.” (Dion. De mystica theolog. c. i. §3)

The city of Rome celebrates the feast of St. Bartholomew tomorrow, as do also the Greeks who commemorate on the 25th of August a translation of the Apostle’s relics. It is owing, in fact, to the various translations of his holy body and to the difficulty of ascertaining the date of his martyrdom that different days have been adopted for his feast by different churches both in the East and in the West. The 24th of this month, consecrated by the use of most of the Latin churches, is the day assigned in the most ancient martyrologies, including that of St. Jerome. In the 13th century, Innocent III, having been consulted as to the divergence, answered that local custom was to be observed. (Decretal. lib. iii. tit. xlvi, c. 2. Consilium)

The Church gives us the following notice of the Apostle of Armenia.

The Apostle Bartholomew was a native of Galilee. It fell to his lot to preach the Gospel in hither India; and he announced to those nations the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of St. Matthew. But after converting many souls to Jesus Christ in that province and undergoing much labor and suffering he went into Eastern Armenia.

Here he converted to the Christian faith the king Polymius and his queen and twelve cities. This caused the pagan priests of that nation to be exceedingly jealous of him, and they stirred up Astyages the brother of King Polymius against the Apostle, so that he commanded him to be flayed alive and finally beheaded. In this cruel martyrdom he gave up his soul to God.

His body was buried at Albanapolis, the town of Eastern Armenia where he was martyred; but it was afterwards taken to the island of Lispari, and thence to Beneventum. Finally it was translated to Rome by the Emperor Otho III and placed on the island of Tiber in a Church dedicated to God under his invocation. His feast is kept at Rome on the 8th of the Kalends of September and during the eight following days that Basilica is much frequented by the faithful. (Matins, The Divine Office, Feast of Saint Bartholomew, August 24.)

On this day of thy feast, O holy Apostle, the Church prays in her Collect for the Mass, for grace to love what thou didst believe and to preach what thou didst teach. (Collect of the Day) Not that the Bride of the Son of God could ever fail either in faith or love; but she knows only too well that, though her Head is ever in the light, and her heart ever united to the Spouse in the Holy Spirit who sanctifies her, nevertheless her several members, the particular churches of which she is composed, may detach themselves from their center of life and wander away in darkness. O thou who didst choose our West as the place of thy rest; thou whose precious relics Rome glories in possessing, bring back to Peter the nations thou didst evangelize; fulfill the now reviving hopes of universal union; second the efforts made by the Vicar of the Man-God to gather again under the shepherd’s crook those scattered flocks whose pastures have become parched by schism. May thine own Armenia be the first to complete a return which she began long ago: may she trust the Mother-Church and no more follow the sowers of discord. All being reunited, may we together enjoy the treasures of our concordant traditions, and go to God, even at the cost of being despoiled of all things, by the course so grand and yet so simple taught us by thy example and by thy sublime theology. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Bartholomew, August 24.)

Appendix B

The Life of Saint Bartholomew, From The Golden Legend

Bartholomew is expounded the son of abovehanging the waters, or son of overhanging the sea. He is said of bar, that is as much to say as son, and tholos, which is as much to say as sovereignty, and of moys, that is to say water. And hereof is said Bartholomew, as a son hanging over the waters. That is of God, which enhanceth the minds of doctors on high, for to shed and bespring beneath the waters of doctrine. And it is a name of Syriac and not of Hebrew. And the first three suspendings that he had, ought to be noted: He was suspended or taken up from the love of the world, and he was suspended, that is to say ententive, in heavenly love, and he was suspended, that is to say wrapped, in the grace and in the aid of God. Not by his merits his life shone, but by the aid of God. Of the second came the deepness of his wisdom, of which deepness of wisdom Denis saith, in his mystical theology: The divine Bartholomew, of whom is much divinity and right little, and that the gospel is broad and great, and also it is short. And after the entent of S. Denis, Bartholomew will show that all things may be affirmed and showed of God under one consideration, and by another consideration may be more properly denied.

Of S. Bartholomew the Apostle.

S. Bartholomew, the apostle, went into India, which is in the end of the world. And therein he entered into a temple where an idol was which was named Astaroth, and he, as a pilgrim, abode there. In that idol dwelt a fiend that said that he could heal all manner sicknesses, but he lied, for he could not make them whole, but might better them but for a while. And the temple was full of sick people, and could have no answer of that idol, wherefore they went in to another city whereas another idol was worshipped named Berith, and they demanded him wherefore Astaroth gave to them no answer. And Berith said: Your god is bound with chains of fire that he neither dare draw breath ne speak after that Bartholomew, the apostle of God, entered into the temple. And they said to him: Who is that Bartholomew? And the devil said: He is the friend of God Almighty, and he is come into this province for to avoid all the gods of India. And then they said: Tell us some tokens and signs that we may know him and find him. And the devil said to them: He hath his hairs black and crisp, his skin white, eyes great, his nostrils even and straipht, his beard long and hoar a little, and of a straight and seemly stature. He is clad in a white coat, and a white mantle, which in every corner hath gems of purple and precious stones therein. And it is sith twenty-six years that his clothes never waxed old ne foul. He prayeth and worshippeth God on his knees a hundred times a day, and a hundred times by night. The angels go with him, which never suffer him to be weary ne to be an hungered, he is always of like semblant, glad and joyous. He seeth all things tofore, he knoweth all things, he speaketh all manner languages, and understandeth them, and he knoweth well what I say to you. And when ye seek him, if he will he may show himself to you, and if him list not, not shall ye find him. And I pray you, when ye find him, that ye pray him that he come not hither, that his angels do not to me as they have done to my fellow. Then they went and sought him diligently and busily two days, and found him not

On a day, one that was beset with a devil cried, and said: Apostle of God, Bartholomew, thy prayers burn me. And the apostle said: Hold thou thy peace and come thence. And anon he was delivered. And when Polemius, king of that region, heard this thing, which had a daughter lunatic, he sent to the apostle, praying that he would come to him and heal his daughter. And when the apostle was come to him and saw that she was bound with chains, and bit all them that went to her, he commanded to unbind her. And the ministers durst not go to her. And he said: I hold the devil fast bound that was in her, and therefore be not afeard; and then anon she was unbound and delivered. And then would have presented to the apostle camels charged with gold and silver and precious stones, but he could not be found in no manner. And on the morrow following, the apostle appeared to the king, alone in his chamber, and said to him: Wherefore soughtest thou me yesterday with gold and silver and precious stones? Those things be necessary to them that covet things worldly, but I desire no things terrien ne carnal. Then S. Bartholomew began to say many things, and inform the king of our redemption, and among other things how Jesu Christ vanquished the devil by marvellous and convenable puissance, justice, and wisdom. For it was convenable that he that overcame the son made of the earth, that was Adam, while he was yet a virgin, should be overcome of the son of the virgin. He overcame him then mightily, when he threw him puissantly out of his lordship which had thrown out by force our forefather. And thus, as he that overcometh some tyrant, sendeth his fellows tofore for to set up his sign over all, and to cast out tyrants, in like wise Jesu Christ sent his messengers over all for to take away the honour and the worshipping of the devil righteously. For it is right that he that vanquished man by eating, and held him, that he should be overcome by a man fasting, and hold man no longer. For it is rightful that he which by the art of the devil was despised, that by the art of Jesu Christ he should be vanquished. And like as the falcon taketh the bird, right so took he Jesu Christ in desert because he fasted, and would assay if he had hunger; and if he had hunger, that he might have deceived him by meat, and if he had no hunger, then knew he well without doubt that he was God. But he might not know him, for he had hunger, and consented nothing to him ne to his temptations.

And when he had preached the sacraments of the faith, he said to the king that, if he would receive baptism, he would show him his god bounden with chains. And the day following, when the bishops sacrificed within the palace of the king, the devils began to cry and say: Cease, ye cursed wretches, to do sacrifice to us, lest ye suffer worse than I that am bounden with chains of fire by the angels of Jesu Christ, whom the Jews crucified and supposed to have brought to death. Which death, that is our queen, he hath imprisoned, and hath bound our prince in chains of fire. And anon then they set cords on the image for to pull down and overthrow the idol, but they might not. The apostle then commanded the devil that he should issue and go out and break the idol all to pieces, and he issued out and destroyed and brake all the idols of the temple. And anon the apostle made his prayer, saying: O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, which hast given to us such power that we enlumine the blind, and cleanse the lepers, I desire and require that this multitude might be healed, and they all answered, Amen. And forthwith all the sick people were cured and healed. And then the apostle did do hallow and dedicate that temple, and commanded the devil to go in to the desert. Then the angel of our Lord appeared there, and flew round about the temple, and ensigned and graved with his finger the sign of the cross in four corners of the temple, saying: Our Lord saith this: Like as I have you cured and made you clean of all your sickness, so let this temple be made clean of all filth and ordure. but I shall show him of all filth and ordure. But I shall show him to you that dwelleth therein tofore, to whom the apostle hath commanded to go in to desert. And doubt ye not to see him, but make in your forehead such a sign as I have graven in these stones. And then he showed to them an Ethiopian more black than thunder, the face sharp, the beard long, his hairs hanging unto his feet, his eyes flaming as hot fire, and cast out sparkles of fire, and casting out of his mouth flames of sulphur, and his hands bound with chains of fire behind his back. And then the angel said to him: Because that thou hast heard that the apostle hath commanded, and hast broken all the idols of the temple, I shall unbind thee; go in to such a place whereas dwelleth no man, and be thou there unto the day of judgment. And when he was unbound he went his way with a great braying and howling, and the angel of our Lord mounted up to heaven in the sight of them all. And then was the king baptized, with his wife and his children and all his people, and left his realm and was made disciple of the apostle.

Then all the bishops of the idols assembled them together and went to Astrages the king, and brother to Polemius, and complained of the loss of their gods and of the destruction of their temples, and of the conversion of his brother made by art magic. Astrages was wroth and sent a thousand men armed to take the apostle, and when he was brought tofore him, the king said to him: Art thou not he that hast perverted my brother? And the apostle answered to him: I have not perverted him, but I have converted him; and the king said to him: Like as thou hast made my brother forsake his god and believe in thy God, so shall I make thee forsake thy God, and thou shalt sacrifice to my god. And the apostle said : I have bound the god that thy brother adored, and showed him bound, and constrained him to break his false image, and if thou mayst do so to my God, thou mayst well draw me to thine idol, and if not, I shall all to-break thy gods, and then believe thou in my God. And as he said these words, it was told the king that his god Baldach was overthrown and all to-broken, and when the king heard that, he brake and all to-rent his purple in which he was clad, and commanded that the apostle should be beaten with staves, and that he should be flayed quick, and so it was done. Then the christians took away the body and buried it honourably. Then the king Astrages and the bishops of the temples were ravished with fiends and died, and the king Polemius was ordained bishop, and accomplished the oflfice of a bishop twenty-two years much louably, and after that rested in peace full of virtues.

There be divers opinions of the manner of his passion. For the blessed Dorotheus saith that he was crucified, and saith also: Bartholomew preached to men of India, and delivered to them the gospel after Matthew in their proper tongue. He died in Alban, a city of great Armenia, crucified the head downward. S. Theoderus saith that he was flayed, and it is read in many books that he was beheaded only. And this contrariety may be assoiled in this manner, that some say that he was crucified and was taken down ere he died, and for to have greater torment he was flayed and at the last beheaded.

In the year of our Lord three hundred and thirty-one, Saracens assailed Sicily, and destroyed the isle of Lipari whereas the body of S. Bartholomew lieth, and brake up the sepulchre and threw the bones hither and thither. And it is said that his body came in such wise from India thither into that isle. When the paynims saw that this body and his sepulchre were greatly honoured for the miracles that befell, they had thereof great despite, and laid them in a tomb of lead, and threw them into the sea, and by the will of God they came into this isle. And when the Saracens had departed and thrown the bones here and there, and were departed thence, the apostle appeared to a monk and said to him: Arise up, and go and gather together my bones that be departed. And he said to him: By what reason shall I gather together thy bones, and what honour ought we to do to them, when thou sufferest us to be destroyed? And the apostle said to him: Our Lord hath spared this people here a long while by my merits, but for their sins that they have sinned, which cry vengeance unto heaven, I have not con get pardon ne forgiveness for them. And then the monk said: How shall I among so many bones find thine? And the apostle said to him: Thou shalt gather them by night, and them that thou shalt find shining thou shalt take up. And the monk went, and found them all as he had said, and took them up, and brought them with him in to a ship, and sailed with them to Benevento, which is chief city of Apulia, and thus were they transported thither. And it is said now that they be at Rome, howbeit they of Benevento say they have the body.

There was a woman that brought a vessel full of oil for to put in the lamp of S. Bartholomew, and how well she inclined the vessel for to pour out the oil, there would none issue out, how well she touched with her finger the oil clear. And then one cried and said: I trow this oil be not agreeable to the apostle that it should be in his lamp, wherefore they put it in another lamp and it issued anon.

When that the emperor Frederick destroyed Benevento, and he had commanded that all the churches that there should be destroyed, and enforced them to bear away the goods from that city into another place, there was a man which found men all white shining, and him seemed that they spake together of some secret thing, and he marvelled strongly who they were and demanded them, and then one of them answered and said: This is Bartholomew, the apostle, with the other saints which had churches in this city, that speak and ordain together in what manner and by what pain this emperor should be justified, that hath cast them out of their tabernacles. And they have now confirmed among them by firm sentence that he, without tarrying, shall go to the judgment of God for to answer thereupon. And anon the emperor died an evil death.

It is in a book read of the miracles of saints that, a certain master hallowed solemnly the feast of S. Bartholomew, and the devil in the form of a maid appeared to this master that preached. And when he saw her, he bade her to come and dine with him, and when they were set at the table she enforced her much for to draw him to her love. And then S. Bartholomew came to the gate and prayed that he might come in for the love of S. Bartholomew, and she would not, but sent him bread, and he would none take, but prayed the master by his message that he should say what thing that he supposed was most proper in a man. And he answered: To laugh. And the maid said: Nay, it is sin in which a man is conceived, born and liveth in sin. And S. Bartholomew answered that he had well said, but she had more profoundly answered. And the pilgrim demanded after at the master, where the place was contaimng the space of a foot where had God made greatest miracle. And he said, the sign of the cross, in which God had made many miracles. And she said: Nay, it is the head of a man, in which the little world is. And the apostle allowed the sentence of that one and of that other, and then he demanded the third time: How far it was from the sovereign siege or seat in heaven unto the lowest and deepest place of hell. And the master said that he wist not; and she said: I know it well, for I fell down from that one to that other, and it behoveth that I show it to thee. And the devil fell down into hell with a great bruit and howling, and then they sent for the pilgrim, and he was vanished and gone and away and they could not find him. And in like wise nigh according to this is read of S. Andrew.

The blessed Ambrose saith thus in the preface that he made of this apostle in abridging his legend: Jesu Christ, thou hast vouchsafed to show to thy disciples, preaching, many things of thy divine Trinity in marvellous manner, and thy majesty, among whom thou hast sent the blessed Bartholomew honour by right great prerogative in to a far country. And how be it that he was all far from human conversation, nevertheless he deserved by the increasing of his predications to mark and think in thy sign the beginning of that people. Ah! by what louings is the marvellous apostle to be honoured. And when the hearts of the people of his neighbours sufficed not to him to receive his seed, he through-pierced like in fleeing in to the last countries of the lands of India, and entered in to the temple where there was great company of sick people without number, and made the devil so mute that he gat no remembrance to them that adored him, and the maid that was lunatic by torment of the devil he did unbind and delivered her all whole to her father. Oh, how great was this miracle of holiness, when he made the fiend, enemy to the lineage human, to break and destroy his own idol, and to bring it to nought. Oh, how worthy is he to be numbered to the heavenly company to whom the angel appeared, to praise the faith of him by his miracles, and came from the sovereign hall and showed to all the people the devil chained, and right foul, and the sign of the cross impressed in the stone bearing health. And the king and the queen were baptized, with the people of their cities. And at the last the tyrant brother of Polemius, new in faith by the relation of the bishops of the temple, made the blessed apostle, constant in the faith, to be beaten, flayed, and receive right foul death. And as he denounced the mischief of death, he had and bare with him, in to the glory of heaven, victory of his glorious strife.

And the blessed Theodore, abbot and noble doctor, saith of this apostle in this manner among other things. The blessed apostle Bartholomew preached first in Licaonia, and after in India, and at the last in Alban, a city of great Armenia, and there he was first flayed and afterward his head smitten off, and there he was buried. And when he was sent of our Lord to preach, as I suppose, he heard how our Lord said to him: Go, my disciple, to preach, void out of this country, and go fight and be capax of perils. I have first accomplished and finished the works of my father, and am first witness, fill thou the vessel that is necessary and follow thy master, love thy lord, give thy blood for his blood, and thy flesh for his flesh, and suffer that which he had suffered, let thine armour be debonairty in thy sweatings, and suffer sweetly among wicked people and be patient among them that perish thee. And the apostle recoiled not, but as a true servant and obeissant to his master went forth joying, and as a light of God illumining in darkness the work of holy church, like as the blessed S. Austin witnesseth in his book, that, like a tiller of Jesu Christ, he profiteth in spiritual tilling. S. Peter the apostle taught the nations, but S. Bartholomew did great miracles. Peter was crucified the head downward, and Bartholomew was flayed quick, and had his head smitten off. And they twain increased greatly the church by the gifts of the Holy Ghost. And right as a harp giveth a right sweet sound of many strings, in like wise all the apostles gave sweet melody of the unity divine, and were established by the king of kings. And they departed among them all the world, and the place of Armenia was the place of Bartholomew, that is from Ejulath unto Gabaoth. There thou mayst see him, with the plough of his tongue, ear the fields unreasonable, sowing in the deepness of the heart the word of the faith, and in planting the vines of our Lord and trees of paradise. And to every each setting medicinally the remedies of the passions, rooting out pernicious thorns, cutting down trees of felony, and setting about hedges of doctrine. But what reward yielded the tyrants to their curate? They gave to him dishonour for honour, cursing for benediction, pains for gifts, tribulation for rest, and right bitter death for restful life. And sith that he had suffered many torments, he was of them discoriate and flayed quick, and died not, and yet for all that he had them not in despite that slew him, but admonished them by miracles, and taught them by demonstrances, that did him harm. But there was nothing that might refrain their bestial thoughts, ne withdraw them from harm. What did they afterwards? They enforced them against the holy body, and the malades and sick men refused their mediciner and healer, the city refused him that enlumined their blindness, governed them that were in peril, and gave life to them that were dead. And how cast they him out? Certainly, they threw the body into the sea in a chest of lead, and that chest came from the region of Armenia with the chests of four other martyrs, for they did also miracles and were thrown with him into the sea. And the four went before a great space of the sea, and did service to the apostles like as servants in a manner, so far that they came into the parts of Sicily in an isle that is named Lipari, like as it was showed to a bishop of Ostia which then was present. And these right rich treasures came to a right poor woman. And these right precious margarets came to one not noble, the bright shining light came to one right heavy. And then the other four came in to other lands, and left the holy apostle in that isle, and he left the other behind him. And that one which was named Papian went into a city of Sicily, and he sent another, named Lucian, into the city of Messina. And the other twain were sent into the land of Calabria, S. Gregory into the city of Columna, and Achate into a city named Chale, where yet at this day they shine by their merits. And then was the body of the apostle received with hymns, louings, and candles honourably, and there was made and builded a fair church in the honour of him. And the mountain of Vulcan is nigh to that isle, and was to it much grievous because it received fire, the which mountain was withdrawn by the merits of this holy saint from that isle seven miles, without to be seen of any body, and was suspended toward the sea. And yet appeareth it at this day to them that see it, as it were a figure of fire fleeing away. Now then, therefore, I salute thee, Bartholomew, blessed of blessed saints, which art the shining light of holy church, fisher of fishes reasonable, hurter of the devil which hurted the world by his theft. Enjoy thee, sun of the world, enlumining all earthly things, mouth of God, fiery tongue pronouncing wisdom, fountain springing goodly, full of health, which hallowest the sea by thy goings and ways not removable, which makest the earth red with thy blood, which repairest in heaviness, shining in the middle of the divine company clear in the resplendishour of glory. And enjoy thee in the gladness of joy insatiable. Amen. And this is that Theodore saith of him. (Blessed Jacobus de Voragine, O.P., The Golden Legend, The Life of Saint Bartholomew.)

Appendix C

Father Francis X. Weninger on Saint Bartholomew

The Gospel gives us no other account of St. Bartholomew, than that he was joined by our Saviour to those men whom He called as Apostles, and chose to convert mankind. Hence, with the others, he followed the Divine Teacher, and learned from Him the doctrine which he afterwards preached to the nations. The life of this saint, after the ascension of Christ, is described by authentic writers as follows. When the Holy Apostles, after the Holy Ghost had descended upon them, dispersed to preach the gospel to the whole world, St. Bartholomew was sent into East India and the neighboring countries. He repaired thither, not without great hardship, and wandering through cities and villages, he everywhere converted great numbers of the heathen. Having provided all these places with priests, he journeyed to Greater Armenia.

Arriving at the capital of this state, he repaired first to the grand temple of the idol Asteroth, where he found a great many blind, deaf, lame, and otherwise disabled persons, who were praying to this god to restore their health. Some were helped, others not. The devil, as he afterwards confessed, at the command of St. Bartholomew, had first, by witchcraft or other means, made these persons blind, deaf, or lame, and when they sought help in his temple, he destroyed the spell cast upon them, or used natural means to restore their health, while they believed that their god had helped them. Satan used also to speak by the image of this idol, and reply to those who questioned him. From the moment, however, when the Holy Apostle entered the temple, the devil had become silent, and answered not a word.

To the Armenians, this silence was incomprehensible; hence they asked the idol of another temple the reason of it. Satan, by the mouth of the image, said that Bartholomew, an Apostle of the true God, was the cause of it, and that the same would happen to him as soon as this Apostle should come into his temple. The idolatrous priest desired to know who this Apostle was, and by what means they could recognize him. Satan described him most minutely, adding that he prayed a hundred times during the day and as many times during the night. They immediately sought for St. Bartholomew, and found him just after he had delivered a man possessed of the devil; for Satan cried with a loud voice, that he was tormented by the prayers of St. Bartholomew, and forced to give way. After the idolaters had thus become acquainted with the Saint, they began to deliberate what they should do with him.

Meanwhile, Polymius, the king, whose daughter was also possessed by the Evil One, and who had heard of the deliverance of the one mentioned above, sent to the Apostle, humbly requesting him to come and free his daughter in a like manner. Bartholomew said a short prayer, after which he commanded Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ, to leave the body of the possessed, which was instantly done. The joy of the king and the whole court, and the astonishment of the people of the city, were indescribably great. The king, to show his gratitude to the Saint, offered him a large sum of money and many other presents. St. Bartholomew accepted nothing, saying: "I am not here to seek gold and silver, but to convert the people, and lead souls to the knowledge of the true faith and to heaven." After this he began to speak to the king and courtiers of the only true God, and explained to them how the only-begotten Son of God, by His sufferings and death, had redeemed the world. He told them fearlessly, that the gods which they all worshipped were false gods, nay, nothing but spirits of hell, and to prove this he proposed to force the devil himself, who until now had spoken to them through the idol, publicly to confess the same.

The king, went on the following day, with all his courtiers, to the temple. St. Bartholomew came also, and asked the idol Asteroth, in the name of Jesus Christ, to say who he was. The devil began to lament and to howl, but at last, forced by the divine power, confessed that he was one of the spirits of hell, who had, until then, wickedly deceived the king and the people. He said further, that there was only one true God, Who was He whom St. Bartholomew, His Apostle, preached and adored. All present looked at each other and knew not what to think or what to say. The holy Apostle then commanded the devil to leave the idols, and destroy them all, without exception, throughout the whole city. The devil obeyed, and the idols of the city fell from their altars and were dashed to pieces. This sufficed to convince the king that St. Bartholomew was a proclaimer of the truth, and after being instructed in the Christian faith, he and his wife and children were baptized. The example of the king was followed by the whole court, and by most of the inhabitants of the capital; and not long after the twelve principal cities of the state became converted to Christianity. To preserve so large a number of faithful in the church, St. Bartholomew ordained many priests, and appointed them to take charge of the new converts.

This glorious victory of the gospel left only the idolatrous priests stubborn in their error, and as, after the downfall of their idols, they were despised and derided, they thought of means to revenge themselves on the holy Apostle. And when many plans had failed, they turned their eyes upon Astyages, a brother of King Polymius, who reigned over the other part of Armenia, and accused St. Bartholomew before him as an enemy and disturber of the land, who had even succeeded in seducing the king and the whole court, and who was intent upon entirely exterminating the ancient worship of the gods. Astyages, in whose weak mind idolatry had taken deep root, resolved to avenge the wrong which had been done to the gods. He called the holy Apostle to his court under the pretext of hearing his instructions. No sooner, however, had the holy man made his appearance, than the tyrant threatened him with the most cruel torments and the most terrible death, if he did not immediately sacrifice to the gods.

St. Bartholomew endeavored to convince him of the nothingness of his gods, but the tyrant would not listen, and commanded the executioners to seize the Saint, and tear the skin from his whole body, and thus slowly put him to death. The order was executed, and the holy Apostle was flayed alive. During this inhuman torture the Saint ceased not to praise God and to proclaim the true faith. God preserved his life miraculously until the skin was torn from his whole body, and as he still continued to declare the true God, the tyrant had him beheaded. The Almighty, however, visibly punished the king and the idolatrous priests, who had instigated this fearful cruelty. They all became possessed of the Evil One, and after having been tormented by him for thirty days, they were strangled. The holy body of the Martyr was placed by the Christians in a leaden coffin, and was buried with all due honors. In the course of time the pagans cast the leaden coffin with the relics of St. Bartholomew into the sea; but the waves miraculously supported it and carried it to the island of Lipari, the Christian inhabitants of which received the sacred deposit with joy, and placed it in a church erected for the purpose. Thence this sacred treasure was brought to Benevento, and finally, in the reign of Otho II., it was transported to Rome, where it is kept at this day in great honor.

Practical Considerations

I. Bartholomew, the holy Apostle, threw himself on his knees a hundred times during the day, and as often at night, to pray to the Almighty. An Apostle found leisure for this, though overburdened with work and assured of divine aid in all his undertakings. You have not so much work, neither are you assured of divine aid, and yet you seldom take refuge in prayer to the Almighty. What is the reason of this? You are perhaps, one of those negligent persons, who do not even think of their morning and evening prayers, but like dumb brutes rise and lie down again. Of course, it never comes into your mind to pray during the day. Do you call that, I will not say, a Christian, but even a rational life? Will you go on in this manner? I do not require of you to bend your knees a hundred times during the day and night, but I advise you to pray more frequently and more devoutly than you have done heretofore.

Before all things, do not omit to turn your thoughts to heaven, morning and evening, if only for one short prayer. If ever you omit to do this, let it be on those days when you need no benefits from the Almighty. But when will such a day dawn? Surely, never as long as you live; for there is no day in which neither your soul nor your body may be exposed to such dangers as to require the assistance of the Most High. Hence it is no more than your duty to pray in the morning most fervently for this divine assistance. And as no day passes on which the Almighty bestows no grace on you either in soul or body, it is therefore no less your duty at the close of the day to offer Him your grateful thanks. During the night, you are as little secure from the persecutions of the evil one, and of wicked men, as during the day; hence, you need God's protection at night as well as in the day. But how can you expect this aid, if you do not even ask for it? "We rise in the morning," says St. Chrysostom, "and know not what may happen to us through the day; we live surrounded by danger: why then, do we not call on God for help?" Let it at least be done morning and night, and also during the day, while you are at your work.

Hear the words of St. Lawrence Justinian: "Nothing is so powerful to overcome the rage of our enemies as continual prayer. But as other affairs do not permit us to pray continually, we ought to pray during our work. He who is occupied with good works, prays to God with a loud voice, though his tongue is silent. We ought, nevertheless, to endeavor, before we begin our day's labor, to send a prayer on high. For, as a soldier without his weapons dares not enter the field of battle, so a Christian should begin nothing without arming himself with prayer. When going out and returning home, prayer should accompany him. He should not lie down to rest before having recommended himself, soul and body, to the Almighty."

II. St. Bartholomew rather suffered himself to be flayed than offend God by sacrificing to an idol. The martyrdom was inhuman, the pain inexpressibly great. But all this had an end; all was soon over. Had he acted differently, had he offended God, he would have escaped this dreadful torture, but he would now be suffering much greater pains, and such as never end; as the tyrant and those idolatrous priests suffer, who were the cause of his martyrdom. They were tormented during thirty days on earth, and after that, they have suffered in hell until now, and will suffer for all eternity. Hence, tell me, if you had to suffer, either with the holy Apostle, or with the idolatrous priests and the tyrant, with whom would you rather share the pains? I believe that you would certainly prefer to be flayed with St. Bartholomew; for, his sufferings, although so terrible, ended, and, in comparison with the pains of hell, were but very trifling. I ask you further: why then have you so frequently offended God when you had not to fear torments?

Why have you voluntarily placed yourself in danger of being cast forever into the torments of hell? Ah! you cannot have considered the pains, the torments which attend the sinner in hell! Think seriously of it in future, and you will not sin, and will therefore escape hell. To think frequently of hell, is a powerful means to escape it; and to forget it, casts many into the whirlpool of sin, and thence into hell. St. Chrysostom writes of the rich man as follows: "If this man had thought of the fire of hell, he would never have sinned: but never calling it to mind, he sinned, and thus was cast into the flames." Hence I advise you to think often of hell. (Father Francis X. Weninger, Feast of Saint Bartholomew, August 24.)