Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (above), the Nobel prize-winning Russian author, died in Moscow today in 2008. Imprisoned and exiled by Stalin for 11 years after the Second World War, Solzhenitsyn’s experience in the concentration camp system fuelled novels such as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Cancer Ward, and his non-fiction masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago, exposing the oppressive character of the Soviet state. For the latter book, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union to West Germany in 1974. His experience prompted his rejection of atheism and Marxism, and his return to Russian Orthodox Christianity.
‘Communist propaganda would sometimes include statements such as “we include almost all the commandments of the Gospel in our ideology”. The difference is that the Gospel asks all this to be achieved through love, through self-limitation, but socialism only uses coercion… Untouched by the breath of God, unrestricted by human conscience, both capitalism and socialism are repulsive.’ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 2003
Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, as he became, was born today in 1923 in the village of Salaam, Upper Egypt. Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church for more than 40 years – he died in 2012 – he began his religious life by living as a hermit for six years in a remote cave in the Nitrian Desert. His time as Pope saw a revival of monastic life and an expansion of the Coptic Church, but also a sharp increase in persecution in an increasingly Islamic Egypt.
Christopher Columbus set sail from Andalusia in southern Spain this evening in 1492, hoping to find a new sea route to India and Asia, so he could tap into the lucrative spice trade. His three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña, departed from Palos de la Frontera a day after the town’s biggest feast day of the year – the Franciscan feast of Our Lady of Angels. A couple of months later, on 12 October, his three ships stumbled upon Cuba and Hispaniola, and Europe’s exploitation… er… exploration of the New World began. Columbus himself never accepted that he had discovered a new continent, and died believing he had reached the East Indies.
‘Presently we discovered two or three villages, and the people all came down to the shore, calling out to us, and giving thanks to God… An old man came on board my boat; the others, both men and women cried with loud voices: “Come and see the men who have come from the sky.”’ Voyage Journal, 13 October 1492
Today in 2003, The Episcopal Church of the USA voted to approve the appointment of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson was openly gay and had lived with his male partner for 15 years. The vote was surrounded by dirty tricks, including conservatives prophesying church schism, an allegation of sexual harrassment that was later withdrawn, and a false accusation that ‘Gene Robinson’s website is linked by one click to 5,000 pornographic websites.’
It is the feast of St Augustin Kažotić, Bishop of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, in the 14th century. One of his best-loved ‘miracles’ is about a plate of partridge set before him by Pope Benedict XI during a visit to Rome. Kažotić was a vegetarian, so he prayed for the Lord to save him in this socially awkward situation. The Lord responded by turning the partridge into fish. True story.