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By Walt Garlington
Dear friends, if you have time, please pray for these members of the Southern family on the day they reposed. Many thanks.
December 3rd
William Grant Still, born in Mississippi, raised in Arkansas, and a well-respected musical composer.
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/william-grant-still-1775/
December 6th
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi [his photo is on left of the feature image at top], he had the difficult task of leading the South during the War, and was unjustly tortured by his Yankee captors for two years after the ordeal had ended. Interestingly, his death occurred on the feast day of one of the Church’s most beloved saints, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (the same St. Nicholas associated with the Christmas season). There have been a number of times when St. Nicholas has miraculously interceded on behalf of those wrongfully accused; perhaps we will find in the Eternal Day that there was some connection between St. Nicholas and President Davis during his imprisonment.
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/clyde-wilson-library/a-sacrifice-for-his-people-the-imprisonment-of-jefferson-davis/
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/jefferson-daviss-farewell-address/
Orthodox Christian convert Felicity Allen produced two important works on Davis: “Letters from Prison: Jefferson Davis to his Wife” and “Jefferson Davis, Unconquerable Heart.” The Kentucky-born writer was devoted to preserving the truth about Davis whom she greatly admired. Allen too reposed in December. May both her and Davis’ memory be eternal. – DM
December 10th
Gov. Francisco Hector, an active governor of Spanish Louisiana (1791-7), some of whose more far-seeing plans went unfulfilled because of geopolitical events outside his control.
https://64parishes.org/entry/francisco-luis-hector-baron-de-carondelet
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hector-baron-de-Carondelet
December 12th
Andrew Lytle of Tennessee, one of the great men of the South of any age.
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/understanding-andrew-lytle/
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/the-last-of-his-kind/article_abb6549b-413c-5f25-baf1-60a16c33a594.html
https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/andrew-nelson-lytle/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86282498/andrew-nelson-lytle
December 14th
General George Washington, probably Virginia’s and Dixie’s most famous son.
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/the-man-who-was-george-washington/
https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/washington-vs-lincoln/
https://www.brionmcclanahan.com/blog/why-was-washington-a-nationalist/
December 15th
Maggie Lena Walker, an enterprising black business woman whose talents allowed her to found, among other things, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and build it up into an organization with 1,500 branches.
https://www.biography.com/scholar/maggie-lena-walker
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9104631/maggie-lena-walker
December 17th
John Stewart, a free black man from Virginia who became a great preacher amongst the Wyandott Indians in Ohio.
https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/r-s/stewart-john-1786-1823/
https://www.wyandot.org/stew1.htm
December 18th
Antoine Dubuclet, one of the most successful free black plantation owners in Louisiana and the whole South. He would later serve as Louisiana’s State Treasurer.
http://www.frenchcreoles.com/CreoleCulture/famouscreoles/johnaudubon/johnaudubondubuclet.html
December 19th
Thomas Holley Chivers of Georgia, a talented poet, a doctor, and an acquaintance of Poe.
https://allpoetry.com/Thomas-Holley-Chivers
December 24th
Charlotte “Lottie” Moon, the self-sacrificing Virginia missionary to China.
http://cgbcbelton.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/lottie-moon1.pdf
http://bpnews.net/53987/chinese-government-designates-lottie-moons-church-as-historical-site
Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are! Anathema to the Union!
♱ St. Finnian of Clonard, 12/25 December
Finnian, known as the “Tutor of the Saints of Ireland,” stands with St. Enda of Aran at the head of the patriarchs of Irish monasticism. He showed great zeal and piety for God from his youth. He had already founded three churches before he set off for Wales to study at the feet of St. Cadoc at Llancarfan (September 25, 577). In Llancarfan he became close friends with St. Gildas (January 29, ca. 570), another of St. Cadoc’s disciples. Upon his return to Ireland, he founded the great Monastery of Clonard during the very same year the great St. Enda (March 21, 530) reposed in Aran. A multitude of illustrious and holy men studied under St. Finian, including the famous “Twelve Apostles of Ireland.” St. Finnian founded many other monasteries during his lifetime, including the famous island monastery of Skellig Michael off the southwest coast of Ireland.
Source
For fuller accounts of his life:
Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries and OrthoChristian
“Kontakion — Tone VIII”
Imitating the desert-dwellers of old, forsaking all the allurements of this world,
O venerable one, thou didst found houses for monastics throughout the Irish land,
filling its hills and vales with a host of noetic warriors who,
trained by thee, cut down the evil serpent with the sword of patience
and put his vile minions to flight through prayer.
Wherefore, we cry out to thee: Rejoice, O Finnian our father,
radiant beacon of the grace of God!
Source
