From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   October 12th - St. Edwin   
      
   Edwin, born in 584, was a prince of the Royal family of Deira in England.   
   His father, King Aelle, was deposed, and Edwin was forced to flee and was   
   raised in exile.   
      
   Once Edwin, a pagan, met a stranger who predicted the restoration of his   
   kingdom if he would promise to do whatever would be taught him regarding his   
   own salvation. Edwin promised and the stranger, laying his hand upon his   
   head, bade him remember that sign. Shortly after that incident, due to   
   diverse political and military circumstances Edwin recovered the Kingdom of   
   Deira, and afterward became King of all Northumbria, one of the seven parts   
   into which England was divided at that time.   
      
   When his first wife died, he married the Catholic Princess Ethelburga,   
   daughter of the King of Kent. He agreed that she should be allowed to   
   practice her religion and promised to study the truths of the Catholic   
   Faith. He also welcomed to his court St. Paulinus, Archbishop of York and   
   chaplain of the Queen, who began to exercise influence over him. An attempt   
   on Edwin's life was made, but he was saved by a minister who took the dagger   
   blow directed against him. The same night his wife gave birth to a daughter,   
   Enflaed. That child became the first Catholic baptized in his kingdom.   
      
   Touched by these two things, Edwin promised to convert if he would win the   
   war against the King of the West Saxons. He conquered this King on the   
   battlefield, and stopped worshipping the idols and began to take instruction   
   from St. Paulinus. To encourage him, Pope Boniface V sent a letter and   
   gifts, but Edwin remained pagan. St. Paulinus continued to teach him, but   
   the King did not convert.   
      
   One day, the Archbishop approached the King, laid his hand on his head, and   
   asked him if he remembered that sign. Edwin recalled the stranger from time   
   past; quite moved he repented of his former life, converted, and was   
   baptized on Easter 627. He became an exemplary Catholic and an apostle of   
   his people. He also helped the Catholic Faith to be spread in other Kingdoms   
   of the English Heptarchy.   
      
   Penda, a powerful pagan King of Mercia, in alliance with the Welsh Prince   
   Cadwallon invaded Northumbria. At the battle of Hatfield Chase, on October   
   12, 633, they defeated and killed St. Edwin.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   There would be many things worthy of comment in the life of St. Edwin, King   
   and warrior, but I will draw only one important point to your attention.   
      
   Normally, when we study this period of Europe's foundation, we see that   
   there were glorious men, like Clovis, who by the merit of their Baptism won   
   many battles, defeated all their enemies, and brought their peoples to the   
   Faith. They did not oblige their peoples to believe, but their example and   
   arguments convinced them to convert and embrace the Catholic Faith. Those   
   glorious men ended their lives in an aura of splendor that represented the   
   dawn of the Middle Ages.   
      
   But in the life of St. Edwin, even though he won many battles and converted   
   numerous people, he ended his live defeated, his kingdom invaded.   
      
   After the long and difficult work of St. Paulinus to convert him, St. Edwin   
   embraced the Faith with sincerity; he also helped to convert many others and   
   died in defense of the Faith.   
      
   The fact that his life ended with defeat gives me the opportunity to remind   
   you that we also must pass through defeats in our fight against the   
   Revolution.   
      
   Many of us have a triumphalist mentality whereby we imagine that we should   
   never suffer a defeat. We think that we should make continuous strong blows   
   against the Revolution, going from battle to battle in victory. This march   
   against our enemies is seen as a kind of military parade, conquering all the   
   enemies with grandeur and arriving on the next chapter of History - the   
   Reign of Mary - without a single scar on our bodies.   
      
   This mentality is very wrong, and the life of St. Edwin is a model for us to   
   understand how life is not like this. Not only he, but Our Lord Jesus Christ   
   was defeated from a human point of view. Our Lord was rejected, persecuted,   
   thrown into prison, violently beaten, crucified, and killed. Almost all of   
   his friends and disciples abandoned Him; at the foot of the Cross He had   
   only one apostle and a few women who continued loyal to him. This was all   
   that remained of His lifetime of apostolate. That is, humanly speaking, His   
   death represented a complete failure.   
      
   We know, however, that from that defeat our Redemption came; we know that   
   sharing the merit of the Passion, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of   
   Christians. Its fecundity produces the repentance of those who abandon the   
   Catholic cause and their true contrition and return, as happened with the   
   Apostles. It also attracts the hardest sinners to the good path. The   
   Catholic blood shed in the defense of the Faith has this virtue. This is a   
   very important and elevated principle that we should never forget, that   
   should be a source of constant encouragement in our spiritual lives.   
      
   There is also another simpler and less elevated principle: If we enter a   
   battle in which we cover the enemy with blows, it is absolutely normal that   
   we also should receive many blows. If our fight has some victories, it is   
   normal that it also have some defeats. Such defeats are also a part of war.   
   Whoever thinks differently is outside of reality, is living in a dream world   
   where he will have many unpleasant surprises.   
      
   I had a German fraulein who was governess of my sister and me when we were   
   children. I remember that during World War I she was indignant when the   
   English pilots bombed Berlin. "O those arrogant English!" She used to   
   exclaim. "How dare they bomb Berlin! They have no right to do that!" I did   
   not share her indignation, because I thought her argument was void. In fact,   
   if the Germans were bombing London and Paris, I could not understand why the   
   English and French pilots should not also bomb Berlin. If you attack the   
   house of your neighbor, your neighbor acquires the right of counter-attack.   
   It is the principle of legitimate self-defense. It is absolutely normal. It   
   is the basic law of war.   
      
   So, defeats should be accepted as normal in our fight. They should not be   
   cause for surprise or discouragement. Our fight is a work of dedication to   
   the Catholic cause that, as in any fight, seeks the final victory. But   
   before that victory comes, we must have defeats - and we already have had   
   many. A manly spirit faces the defeats, re-starts again from zero, even from   
   below zero, and continues the fight for Our Lady.   
      
   Elias the Prophet, for whom we have a special devotion and who in many   
   senses is our model, will one day come to fight against the Antichrist. It   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)