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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Julian the Apostate

ON THIS DAY, in the year of Our Lord 363, the Roman Emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus, called ‘the Apostate,’ gained his eternal reward.

Julian the Apostate is known for having repudiated Christianity in favor of an eccentric version of a philosophized Roman paganism. But like many Christians today, raised under a heretical interpretation of the religion, his attachment to the Holy Catholic Faith was weak and he ended up rejecting it.  How many today claim to be delighted by the eccentric reforms which were supposed to have been required by the Council, yet never themselves darken the door of a Church, ending up completely outside of the Church? How many people today, especially powerful people, are repulsed by the yoke of Christ, and instead piece together their own religion, one completely pleasing to them?

Among his policies included the Imperial support of schools, hospitals, and charities; not out of a love for learning, the sick, and the poor, but rather to break the back of the Catholic Church, who provided most of those services in the Empire. This is a kind of robbery, because the sick and the poor are the treasure of the Church. He sought to eliminate all Christian influence on political life, and worked hard to provoke schism and heresy within the Church, using the effective policy of ‘divide and conquer.’

The direct persecution of Christians, he knew, would not work, for the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church; rather, he attacked Christ indirectly, by harassing and marginalizing Him. For this reason, Julian the Apostate is admired and imitated today by those who hate Christ. This kind of persecution, a new one in its day, ended with Julian, but it appears to have been revived once again in our own day.

2 comments:

  1. There is plenty to admire about Julian quite apart from his religious policies. He really was a remarkable man.

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