Orthodox Reflections

By Walt Garlington, an Orthodox Christian living in Dixieland.  His writings have appeared on several web sites, and he maintains a site of his own, Confiteri: A Southern Perspective.

The project of Americanism is heretical. It had its birth in the transference of the ability to confer salvation from a religious body, Christ’s Church, to a political body, the United States. This spiritual disease was initially limited to the New England colonies, but it gradually spread elsewhere, eventually infecting all the colonies/States as a result of various events: the Great Awakening, the French and Indian War, the War for Independence from Great Britain, the War between the States, WWII, etc.

Because the political body of the US has replaced the Church, we must not expect to find saints in the usual Christian sense of that word – holy men and women and children who are overflowing with God’s Grace. Instead, the ‘saints’ of the US will be those who either exemplify the worldly, post-Christian, American ideals of liberty and success or who sacrificed in some way to uphold the salvific political system of the States (or both).

The most exalted of that pantheon of new-style gods and goddesses is President Abraham Lincoln, who is the martyr par excellence of Americanism. The comparisons of Lincoln to Christ are not few in number:

“If you see a parallelism,” one reverend defended, “you cannot say the preacher makes it. If it exists, God made it.” (Another claimed that the assassination of Lincoln was “without parallel in all the annals of earthly history!” but quickly added, “excepting Him…who was the only begotten of God…and hence not to be brought into comparison with mere man. Excepting only the God-man our Savior, there has never been so sad a death!”

Despite disagreements over the degree to which explicit parallels between Lincoln and Christ could be made, both blacks and whites used the same biblical language to construct their image of Lincoln. Lincoln was often implicitly compared to Christ, quickly earning the title of “Martyr-President.” In many cases the two martyrdoms were simply juxtaposed and the audience was left to draw its own conclusions. “Jesus may, by wicked hands, be crucified, but His cause lives. That is a part of God’s plan. Abraham Lincoln has fallen a martyr…But whilst our hearts are bleeding, our hopes are not crushed.”

. . . “In all future history his name will stand beside that of Washington. If he was the father of his country, under God, Abraham Lincoln was its savior” (Source).

Washington & Lincoln (Apotheosis), 1865

Because Lincoln is Christ, America is also the Church:

But not all analogies were between Lincoln and Christ. The day after Lincoln’s death, a Philadelphia newspaper editorialized, “The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. So the blood of the noble martyr to the cause of freedom will be the seed to the great blessing of this nation.” Here the central analogy was not between Christ and Lincoln, but between Christ’s church and Lincoln’s nation (Ibid.).

And Lincoln isn’t merely analogous to or equal to Christ; he perfects the work of Christ:

Reverend Henry Bellows of New York City informed his congregation that “Heaven rejoices this Easter morning in the resurrection of our lost leader . . . dying on the anniversary of our Lord’s great sacrifice, a mighty sacrifice himself for the sins of a whole people.” In Philadelphia, minister Phillips Brooks assured his flock that, “If there were one day on which one could rejoice to echo the martyrdom of Christ, it would be that on which the martyrdom was perfected” (Ibid.).

Abraham Lincoln, the Martyr, Victorious, 1866 engraving currently housed in the Library of Congress

But this is not all. Lincoln is also the Holy Prophet Moses, leading the peoples of the States to the Promised Land of political/economic utopia:

Many extended this characterization of Lincoln as Moses and applied it to the country as well. “We have passed the Red Sea and the wilderness, and have had unmistakable pledges that we shall occupy that land of Union, Liberty, and Peace which flows with milk and honey.” What the author envisioned was not the America which then existed, but rather the America promised by the potential of Lincoln’s leadership. Lincoln was “the Moses of our American Israel” who was supposedly “called of God to lead us through the great and terrible wilderness of strife, to the promised land of unity, peace, and concord.”

Lincoln, however, was killed at the threshold of that new country as Moses was not allowed to pass into the promised land. He was “our Moses, who, under God, has lead us through the wilderness,” and who was struck down “in full view of the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey.” Lincoln had stood on the precipice. He had ensured the future of his people yet been unable share in them (Ibid.).

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For those who have studied a little actual history, these claims that Lincoln ushered in some new era of ‘unity, peace, and concord’, that he ‘saved the union’, etc., are easily seen for what they are: a pile of rubbish. He is rather the Apollyon of the original political agreement between the States. A recent Southern Agrarian writer, Tom Landess, explains:

This Union did not come about accidentally. Lincoln created it out of his own imagination and then invented a rhetoric to justify it, a grammar that has been used ever since that time. You must realize that before the War Between the States, virtually all Americans believed that the nation was a loosely connected alliance of political states, each with a sovereign will of its own and a right to resist the power of central government, which, since the beginning of the Republic, was regarded as the ultimate enemy.

“Keep it small, keep it diversified” was the view of federal authority held by the Founding Fathers; but Lincoln believed—and said in the Gettysburg Address—that the Founding Fathers were wrong, that they had imperfectly conceived the nation at the outset and that he, Abraham Lincoln, had a responsibility to refound it, to bring about a “new birth.” What he meant by this “new birth” was the emergence of a strong, centralized government which had the will and the power to impose a certain conformity on its membership.

If you want to know where the idea of Big Government came from in this country, it came from Lincoln.

In addition to a strong central government, the Founding Fathers also feared a chief executive who exercised absolute power. The tyrant was the ultimate villain in an increasingly diversified political order, and we must remember that, as a matter of strategy, the Declaration of Independence denounced the sins of George III rather than those of his duly elected Parliament despite the fact that the poor king was considerably less responsible than the people’s representatives. Indeed, it was only later, in 1861, that Abraham Lincoln finally became the imperial ruler that Thomas Jefferson denounced in the body of the Declaration (Source).

Another Southern writer adds,

Even in the South, students have been required to study the Gettysburg Address and treat it as though it has historical validity. H.L. Mencken noted the fallacy of the address’ claim that Union soldiers died for self-determination: “It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. What was the practical effect of the battle of Gettysburg? What else than the destruction of the old sovereignty of the States, i.e., of the people of the States? The Confederates went into battle free; they came out with their freedom subject to the supervision and veto of the rest of the country… (Source)

The deification of Lincoln after his murder was itself another act of dishonesty, given great impetus by those who despised him while he was alive:

After the Southern States were denied their independence, “deification” immediately ensued. Abraham Lincoln was elevated as the martyr to represent this new founding with its massive centralization of power, so desired by the Radical Republicans. Lincoln’s bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon observed: “The ceremony of Mr. Lincoln’s apotheosis was planned and executed by men who were unfriendly to him while he lived. The deification took place with showy magnificence; men who had exhausted the resources of their skill and ingenuity in venomous detractions of the living Lincoln were the first, after his death, to undertake the task of guarding his memory, not as a human being, but as a god.” Has any plan in history been more effective? (Ibid.)

Despite all the propaganda portraying Lincoln as a saint-martyr, the fakery of the Lincoln cult, the sham holiness behind it, is easily detected in that there are no genuine, spontaneous, wide-scale celebrations of him anytime during the year. Government workers get a day off for his birthday in February, but that is hardly an organic act of celebration. It is the usual top-down imposition of a festival that all Revolutionary regimes try to institute in their desire to control the lives of the people they govern.

More telling is the complete absence of any pro-Lincoln activities on the day he was ‘martyred’ – April 15^th. Perhaps it is fitting that federal tax filing day is precisely this day: an appropriate symbol for the subservience of all the peoples of the States to the Leviathan that Lincoln established in Washington, DC.

But at Lincoln’s Memorial on that day, relatively few gather around his statue in the ‘temple’ built to resemble an ancient Greek temple dedicated to Zeus. He simply continues to look out from his throne with his cold stare, his closed fist ready to strike any who dare defy the new order he instituted.

This is a remarkable difference between Christian martyrs and the chief martyr of Americanism. The Orthodox Church’s martyrs attract streams of Christians (and sometimes non-Christians, too), year after year. One of her most recent martyrs, murdered by the communists for his steadfast faith in Christ not many years after Lincoln’s death, the holy Tsar Nicholas II (+1918), is illustrative of this. Though he, like President Lincoln exercised political power, the legacy of the two diverges widely. The image of Tsar Nicholas draws people to him, because of his close union with Christ:

At some point, the publishing house of Sretensky Monastery released a book by Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, Tsar: A Book about the Holy Royal Passion-bearers. In the recollections published there—once used as materials towards canonization—there are almost no miracles in the usual sense of the word, but there’s something different. They convey to us a very important truth that the Tsar’s appearance wasn’t deceptive. The image of the Tsar and all the Royal Passion-bearers emerges here just as we knew it from photographs and portraits. I remember how impressed I was with photos of the Tsar the first time I saw them. I realized he’s a man of the highest order. There’s something so good about him, as if natural, like air, like water, gracefully calm precisely because he’s tsar, because he’s given by God, because he’s like an elemental force. He’s as if independent from us by the gift given to him by God, and at the same time close, dear, as if I’d always known him.

Later, I realized that’s how we perceive Christ Himself and all His saints. He’s a man, marked by God, and there’s an amazing naturalness in him. This is how a tsar should be. A tsar is as if brought near to God; he’s between his subjects and God. He has the face of a man who knows what’s most important and is therefore filled with peace. There’s such peace in him that we can rely on him, and we’re like children before him. Many of our intuitive thoughts are confirmed, starting with the description of little everyday things and ending with major events. Holiness takes on flesh (Source).

The holiness of his life and of the other Royal Martyrs of Russia attracts thousands of pilgrims from around the world each year to the site of their martyrdom:

Every year on July 16, the “Royal Days” (Царские дни) begins in the Ural city of Ekaterinburg, Russia—the place where Tsar Nicholas II, along with the rest of the royal family and several faithful servants, met their martyric death. The Royal Family was glorified by the Moscow Patriarchate as Passion Bearers in 2000 and as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) in 1981. Whether you consider them Passion Bearers, Martyrs, or both, miraculous help and visitations from the Holy Royal Family have been documented. And in remembrance of, and gratitude for, their sacrifice, tens of thousands of people assemble each year in Ekaterinburg for a cross procession of 21 kilometers on the night of July 16–17. The cross procession began at 2:30 this morning at the Church on the Blood (located over the site of the heinous crime against the Royal Family) and proceeded to the monastery at Ganina Yama, the place where the family’s holy remains were unceremoniously buried by the communist murderers.

Russian news agency Tass has reported that 40,000 people arrived for the procession last night. Pilgrims from all corners of Russia, as well as from Czechia, Uzbekistan, Serbia, and other countries, took part in the 2025 cross procession.

. . . Last year, around 40,000 people participated in the Royal Days cross procession. In 2015 (before the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian special military operation in Ukraine), as many as 60,000 people participated from all over the world (Source).

Tsar-Martyr Nicholas does not replace Christ or Moses for Russians. Rather, his life is simply an example of the sacrifice that Christ’s Love inspires in people, a lamp that shines Christ’s Light upon us:

He said that for anyone, even for the person most indifferent to faith, it is enough to open and carefully read the diaries of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to see that these were holy people who dedicated their entire lives to service—the highest form of love commanded by God.

“You see,” he said, ‘They carried their service to God and to people throughout their entire lives; it was the foundation of their worldview and faith, which determined their actions and decisions.’. If this is not taken into account, then their lives and the martyrdom they endured for their country will remain completely incomprehensible—just as the podvig of the first Russian passion-bearer saints, Princes Boris and Gleb, will remain incomprehensible.

One may speak endlessly about the political miscalculations of the Tsar, but it is impossible to deny that Nicholas II was a true Orthodox Tsar, the Anointed of God, who thought in terms of service to God and people, according to his understanding.

The right of a true Tsar is to die for his people—and he fulfilled this to the end. At the end of April 1918, within the confines of the Ipatiev House, Nicholas II wrote in his diary:

“Perhaps a sacrificial offering is necessary for the salvation of Russia: I shall be that offering—may God’s will be done!”

The Tsar could not even imagine leaving Russia. When he was offered the chance to flee abroad, he firmly replied:

“I would not want to leave Russia. I love her too much…”

A few days before the tragic death of the Royal Martyrs, Grand Duchess Olga wrote:

“Father asks to convey to all who remain loyal to him not to take revenge for him—he has forgiven everyone and prays for all, and to remember that the evil that is now in the world will become even stronger, but that evil will not conquer evil—only love will.”

The Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers at Ganina Yama is a living symbol of this holy, sacrificial love. The place where one of the most terrible atrocities of the twentieth century was committed has not become a valley of sorrow and grief, but a place of spiritual transfiguration in Christ, a place of God’s glory, the victory of Life over death! (Source)

A few days before the tragic death of the Royal Martyrs, Grand Duchess Olga wrote:

“Father asks to convey to all who remain loyal to him not to take revenge for him—he has forgiven everyone and prays for all, and to remember that the evil that is now in the world will become even stronger, but that evil will not conquer evil—only love will.”

The Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers at Ganina Yama is a living symbol of this holy, sacrificial love. The place where one of the most terrible atrocities of the twentieth century was committed has not become a valley of sorrow and grief, but a place of spiritual transfiguration in Christ, a place of God’s glory, the victory of Life over death! (Source)

Here is the key difference between Lincoln and St Nicholas: The martyrdom of the Tsar leads to spiritual transfiguration, to entry into the glorious, miraculous Kingdom of God, while Lincoln’s death merely transforms a political order, opening the door into the shabby Kingdom of Man:

Nowhere in any monastery, neither on Valaam nor in Optina, have I seen so many children as in the Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers! Children with their parents—in the churches during services, along the picturesque flower-lined alleys, on benches next to their mothers, in the museum, near the monuments, and by the Memorial Cross. Instead of sorrowful and mournful faces—everywhere are the joyful, smiling, and happy faces of children! And this is one of the most convincing proofs of the holiness of the Royal Martyrs.

. . . Many participants of the Royal Cross Procession told me about the inexpressible feeling of joy when you become a partaker of the Paschal victory of good over evil, of love over hatred, of life over death! With Christ, the land of blood becomes a Paradisal garden, where there is no sorrow, nor sighing, nor death, where the Royal Passion-Bearers glorify the Risen Christ.

Through the prayers of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers many miracles occur. The rector of the Church of Peter and Paul in Talitsa, Archpriest Igor Balabanov, told me that when the all-Russian Royal Cross Procession came to them, the icon of the Royal Passion-Bearers they carried began to stream myrrh right during the liturgy, witnessed by eight clergymen. The icon became covered, as if with dew, with fragrant oily drops that grew and ran down before their eyes.

In the morning, they woke up—and the apartment was filled with a wondrous fragrance. They looked: the icon of the Royal Passion-Bearers was entirely covered with droplets of myrrh.

And my colleague Svetlana Ladina’s icon of the Royal Passion-Bearers, brought by friends to the Royal Cross Procession, also streamed myrrh during the night. In the morning, they woke up—and the entire apartment was filled with an incredible, wondrous fragrance. They looked: the icon of the Royal Passion-Bearers was covered with myrrh droplets. A report about this miracle was made on the Soyuz channel—it is easy to find online (Ibid.).

It is also noteworthy that, whereas President Lincoln’s enemies lied about him to spread his cult amongst clueless Americans, the veneration of Tsar Nicholas II developed amongst Russians and others in spite of the slander of his enemies, who did everything they could to make men either hate him or forget him:

It is symbolic that the Royal Cross Procession begins at night, when everything is enveloped in darkness, and ends at dawn. It is as though you are walking the path of the cross of the last Russian Tsar and his family, appointed for them by the Lord. From darkness to light, from the triumph of evil that with inhuman hatred slaughtered the Tsar and his family—who were not even supposed to be remembered—to the living symbol of their victory: a corner of Holy Rus’ filled with flowers and gold, the Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers (Ibid.).

Lincoln could have earned himself true honor and respect throughout the generations in the US if he had acquired the same humility that was in Tsar Nicholas, the humility to give up political power for the sake of avoiding unnecessary bloodshed:

St. Nicholas II was faced with a tough choice: either to unleash a civil war in Russia or abdicate the throne. And he gave up the throne, hoping to prevent the Revolution and a bloody civil war that would follow it in the country. In one of his telegrams, he wrote about his decision to abdicate as a sacrifice “for the sake of the real good and for the salvation of Russia” (Source).

But that humility was not in Abraham Lincoln, and the result was the unnecessary shedding of rivers of blood:

Lincoln’s third choice—-the most likely of all—was simply to do nothing, to wait until the South made some overt move and then to react accordingly. For the sake of more than 600,000 killed on the field of battle, one wishes that he had been just a little more circumspect, a little less sure of his own ability to read the minds of his opponents. Wait a month and see. Then another month. Then another. Surely the South would not have marched against the Union. Few believe that Davis would take such a drastic step. And all those young men would have grown old and wise—perhaps so wise that they would have found a way to reconcile their differences and to reestablish a Union they were born under. But, as I’ve already said, Lincoln did not approve of that Union. He wanted to found a new one. And the only way to accomplish such an end was to risk war.

Perhaps it never occurred to him that 600,000 men would die. Perhaps he was certain that the conflict would be brief and benign, a skirmish or two on the outskirts of Washington, over in the twinkling of an eye, with a few Union dead, a few Confederate dead, and everyone embracing after the show. But if that is what he believed, such an opinion constituted an inordinate pride in his own prescience, one that we can only forgive by a supreme act of charity (provided, of course, that our forgiveness is solicited).

I will only add that despite his often quoted rhetoric of reconciliation, he instituted a policy of total war—the first in our history—and saw to it that his troops burned homes, destroyed crops, and confiscated property—all to make certain that civilians suffered the cruelest deprivations. He also refused to send needed medical supplies to the South, even when that refusal meant depriving Union soldiers of medicines needed to recover from their wounds. And finally, in the last year of the War, when Davis sent emissaries to negotiate a peace on Lincoln’s own terms, he ordered them out of Washington that the War might continue and the Republicans win re-election. As a result, 100,000 more troops were killed, North and South (Source).

The religion of Americanism destroys, but the Way of Christ in the Orthodox Church brings life and builds up. May all the peoples of the States realize this sooner rather than later, and may God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, grant rest to the soul of President Lincoln where the righteous repose, granting these things through the prayers of his friends and fellow-workers St-Tsar Nicholas II and all those martyred with him.

The content creators over at Christian Saints Podcast let us know that they have been covering similar topics to this and have even more related content dropping shortly. Be sure to check out their episodes.