Wolfenbuttel-Brunswick Commandery Knights Templar - militie templi iurisdictiones gothorum imperii: August 2015

Foundational Evidence Scotland Is A Gothic And Orthodox Nation

Scots Are Called An Early Gothic Tribe By The Scholars, and codified in foundational charters of the nation.

The Gothic Emperor Alaric co-founded the ancient Abbey of Iona Scotland with the ecclesiastical vessels reclaimed from Rome, together with King Fergus.

The Gothic Migration Map (below) with commentary from Lithuanian-American Author Balaicius.

The Orthodox Connection, the Orthodox Patron Saint of Scotland, Saint Andrew (His flag remains, as well as the ongoing tradition of his Orthodox Deacon, 1st Century Bishop and Apostle of Great Britain, Saint Aristobulus).

Bede, the renown historian, writing six hundred years before Scotland's Declaration also stated that the people of Scotland came from Scythia, between the Black and Caspian Seas. The legal document, the "Declaration of Abroath" (Scotland's Declaration of Independence) was written and signed by all the Nobility of Scotland at the time of the great war led by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. This was delivered to the pope and remains today as a legal document of Gothian (Saxon true Israel) heritage.

This book attached by LA WADDELL (or Haberman's "Tracing Our Ancestors", or Steven Collin's books on the Goths) should remove any slightest doubt that the ancient Scythian Goths (Ukrainians etc) are the same as the Scots. Calling the Scots a Gothic Nation is not a revolutionary thing. One only has to look at the Declaration of Arbroath, signed by Robert the Bruce and all the Barons, known as their Declaration of Independence. In it, it defines the place by the Black Sea the Scottish Nation came from (out of Scythia / Ukraine). MUCH MUCH more to come! (Visigoths the*Western Goths, and Ostrogoths *Eastern Goths, just scratches the surface of our heritage.)

This file is available in the Gothian Templar Facebook Group, available for download at this url:
https://www.facebook.com/download/944329518943325/181257248-The-Phoenician-Origin-of-Britons-Scots-Anglo-Saxons-1924-1st-edition%20-%20Copy.pdf

This is proof that from ancient times the Clans of the Scots (as differentiated from Picts) fought not only with the Saxons, but also with the Goths, as one people. Our migration charts (and histories) that are readily available demonstrate the Saxon migrations were just a later migration of the same Celtic and Gothic people. Celtic being a much earlier migration.

Fergus II, King of Scotland, was another great Imperial Goth:

After many battles he had routed the Romans out of Scotland. He recalled the Culdee priests and provided they be Pastors over the whole Kingdom of Scotland.(1)

He assisted "Alaric the Goth" at the Sack of Rome. He brought away as part of the plunder some valuable 'geir' and a chest of books which he afterwards presented to the monastery of Iona (in circa 410 AD). (2)

Iona, the Culdees headquarters under Columba, was established via gifts from Emperor Alaric the Goth, to King Fergus:

" The public," says Pennant, " was greatly interested in

the preservation of this place, for it was the repository of

most of the antient Scotch records. The library here must

also have been invaluable, if we can depend upon Boethius,

who asserts that Fergus the II., assisting Alaric the Goth in

the sacking of Borne, brought away, as share of the plunder, a

chest of books, which he presented to the monastery of Iona.

Aneas Sylvius (afterwards Pope Pius II.) intended, when he

was in Scotland, to have visited the library, in search of the

lost books of Livy, but was prevented by the death of the

king, James I. A small parcel of them were, in 1525, brought

to Aberdeen, and great pains were taken to unfold them, but,

through age and the tenderness of the parchment, little could

be read ; but from what the learned were able to make out,

the work appeared by the style to have rather been a fragment

of Sallust than of Livy."

But the account given by Boece is clogged with difficulties.

1. It is said that, besides the chest of books, there fell to the

share of Fergus sacra queda/rn vasa, " certain sacred vessels,"

which he also brought with him. Now, Boece himself lias

told us what we know from other sources, that the Goths

respected the sacred edifices. Alaric gave a peremptory

order, that all the consecrated vessels belonging to St Peter

should be transported, without damage or delay, to his church.

But, although these only are mentioned, in consequence of

their being found by the soldiers under the care of an aged

virgin ; it is most probable that this prince would show the

same regard to all other vessels consecrated to the purposes

of religion.

2. This account involves a gross anachronism. Fergus

must have made his donation to the monastery of Iona about

a hundred and sixty years before the foundation-stone of it

was laid. For Boece says that Alaric sacked Rome A. 412.

Now, Columba did not land in Iona till the year 563, or as

some say, 565. Here, we are told, Fergus employed approved

scribes, for reducing the manuscripts to the form of books,

several ages, as would seem, before the art of writing was

known in the country.

3. The same writer elsewhere says that, although Fergus

had appointed Iona to be a repository for the public records,

yet Alexander I., on account of the great difficulty of the

access to Iona, had caused our annals to be transferred to the

priory of Restennet, in Angus. Maitland has observed that

hence it w T as evident, that in Boece's time there could be no

records at Iona ; and, therefore, that he could not get his

Veremundus from this island.

As Boece mentions our annals only, it may be said, that

he did not refer to the ancient classical works, which

Alexander might not think of demanding from the monks

of Iona.

It might even be supposed, that Maitland had not sufficient

ground for charging Boece with self-contradiction, as to our

annals; as some of them, notwithstanding the requisition

made by Alexander I., might have been retained at Iona,

being concealed by the monks, or afterwards procured by

them from other quarters ; of which circumstance Boece

might be informed, when he made more particular inquiry

with the view of writing his history. But it cannot be

denied, that, by referring to works unknown to all our

historians, as to those of Cornelius Hibernicus, Veremund, and

Campbell, of whose writings, nay, of whose existence, we can

discover no other vestiges, he has greatly injured the credi-

bility of his whole story with respect to the communications

from Iona. The most favourable opinion which can possibly

be formed of the conduct of Boece, and it is very little to

his credit indeed, is, that he had destroyed the manuscripts

which he had used, that his own history might be in greater

request. This, as we learn from Gordon of Stralogh, was the

tradition which, when a young man, he had heard at

Aberdeen.

Nor can it at all be believed, that the classical MSS. were

brought from Koine by Fergus. There is little probability

indeed that Fergus ever was at Rome ; and still less, that an

Irish prince, in that early age, would encumber himself,

during his military labours, with a chest of books, written in a

language to which, we may reasonably suppose, he was an

entire stranger. "(3)

The Declaration Of Arbroath, Proof The Scottish Are Israelites From “Greater Scythia”

Greater Scythia Israel Scotland declaration of Abroath

Scotland’s Declaration of Independence was fought for by by the famed William Wallace, and was signed (and sealed) by Robert the Bruce and all the Scottish Nobles ultimately.

The Declaration of Arbroath(Scotland’s most precious national possession), as sealed by Robert the Bruce and his nobles is portrayed below. It contains the claim of being confirmed in the faith by Saint Andrew(historically by his assistant Aristobulus). It says that the Scots “journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea….they came twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea[ca.250BC], to their home in the west where they still live today.”

The British historian Bede, writing five hundred years earlier, also stated that the people of Scotland came from Scythia, between the Black and Caspian Seas, where Israel was dispersed. Herodotus called the Scythians the “Sacae,” which comes from the name Isaac, one of the names that Jacob (Israel) said would live on among Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 48:16). God said “in Isaac shall thy seed be called”. Saint Paul reiterated these words, “in Isaac shall the seed be called” (Romans 9:8).

(4)

MIGRATIONS OF THE GOTHS

If any are interested in getting this graphic in the larger format (for classrooms etc) contact marshalofsalem@yahoo.com 12x18" on thick poster paper. (From p. 44 of Robert B.'s God's (TRUE)Chosen People
- Guthones / Goths / Getae / Jeats (“the people of God”); and Teutons (“of the whole tribe,” the name was originally Teutones Guthones and became shortened to Goth; Deutsche {German} and Dutchboth come from the word Teuton);
[* it is also possible that the Danish tribe of Jeats derived their name from a variation of Jutes.]
- Celt / Keltoi / Galatai (meaning, “the hidden people”— “My people hath been a lost sheep... they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.... Because [you] have forsaken Me, and have not kept My Law.... Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not .... [but] Mine Eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from My Face.... [but He will regather them] from all the lands whither He had driven them”; Jeremiah 50:6; 16:11,13,17,15).
- Gaels / Gauls (some think that these two words are one and the same; however, I believe they are different. Most probably Gaul comes from the Hebrew gaw-al, numbered as #1350 in Strong’s Concordance, which means, “to be the next of kin, to redeem” or even “redeemed” or even “avenger of blood”). However, I believe clearly that the word —
- Goth is from the Israelite tribe of Gad, which in Hebrew is #1410 gawd, from #1464 guwd, “to crowd, attack, overcome, invade”, which is related to #1413 gawdad, “to crowd, gash (as if by pressing into)”. Clearly this explains the behavior of the Goths, as well as the Celts who spread across Europe even earlier than the Goths.
Gadhael, Gaidheal, or Gaoidheal, was the national name of the Celts of Caledonia (Scotland). However, the Roman Gallia was not from the Celtic root gal, but a Latinization from the Teutonic wal (the Germanic w often becomes g in Latin-based languages; as evident in the famous Welf and Waiblingen families of Germany, which became Guelph and Ghibellene in Italy). Strabo, the Greek geographer, of the early Britons, recorded: “a plaid wrapped around his body, .... He spoke Greek with a fluency, that you would have thought he had been bred up in the Lyceum, and conversed all his life with the Academy of Athens”. Similar things have been said about the early Scots; which is no surprise, since the ancient Britons, Cornish, Welsh Silurians, and Merovingian Frankish kings all traced their ancestry to the Trojans (Greeks from Troas). John Eadie recorded in his, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians (1859) that the words Galatae, Galat, Galli, and Kelti are the same word and that the ancient name of Scotland, Caledonia, named for the Caledonii, is from the Greek words Kalatia / Kalaton. He also says that Gael is contraction of Gadhael, Gaidheal, or Gaoidheal, and are responsible for names such as Argyll (Ar-gadhael). He says the words seem to be related to the Irish, Gal, “a battle cry”, and Gala, “arms”; and will therefore, mean, “armed” (translated as pugnaces, aramti, in Latin). Strabo recorded that they were “warlike, passionate, and ever prepared to fight”.(5)

The Cross of Saint Andrew - the blue and white emblem of Scotland's patron saint - is believed to be the oldest continuously used flag in the world. Simple in its design, it has withstood centuries of political and religious turmoil, and remained the standard for Christian Scots, as well as those who have forgotten the reason their banner bears the Cross. (For the record, Saint Andrew was martyred on an X-shaped cross). Like the people for whom it flies, Saint Andrew's Cross has proven its resilience and strength.

The endurance of Saint Andrew's Cross is seen in the presence it still has in Scotland's largest emigree nation - Canada. In a country whose first Prime Minister was a MacDonald, whose first woman Prime Minister was a Campbell, and which boasted no fewer than nine Prime Ministers of Scottish ancestry (only five Prime Ministers were French), it is not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that Scotland still has at least a pint or two of its own running through the bloodstream of Canadian culture. Official ceremonies, academic awards, university names and traditions, along with the pipers who lead their processions - all these have been inherited from the practices of the Celts of Scotland, through their Canadian children.



The Cross of Saint Andrew can be found on 5 Canadian provincial flags, either within the Union Jack, or in the mirrored image of the flag of Canada's New Scotland, Nova Scotia. Yet those who trace their roots from that chilly isle to this great land do not often read back far enough to discover the essence of Scotland's Celtic roots, roots that reflected the faith of Saint Andrew for nearly one thousand years in a Celtic Church that was vibrant, independent, and fully Orthodox.

For those who entertain new-agey illusions about the Celtic Church, there is bad news: Celtic Christian worship was in most ways very similar to the life of Orthodox parishes today. What is very clear, Celtic Christians had far less in common with the free-wheeling nature worship one might find in certain Protestant or Roman Catholic circles than it did with the spiritual life of Greek monasteries in Byzantium. This shouldn't surprise us: the Greeks and the Celts had the same faith and liturgical life, while the Christian Celts and the modern western confessions, distorted by the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation, do not.

In his classic book, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, F.E. Warren thoroughly outlines this common spiritual inheritance. Concrete examples are numerous. Celtic Christians fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays, the universal observance of the Church in the first millennium. They rejected the claims to universal authority that Popes of Rome often claimed over Church decisions in custom, belief, and practice, and resisted innovative changes to early Church practices, including the Church calendar. The Celts observed a highly ascetical life, strongly shaped by the widespread presence of monasteries, where monks and non-monastics alike would say the services of the Hours on a daily basis.

The presence of married priests among the Celts did not arise out of a special dispensation from Rome, but rather, from the Celtic Church's independence from Rome. Around 400 A.D., the Celtic Church was large enough to attract the attention of Saint Jerome, who noted that the Celts were in communion with Rome, Gaul, and Africa - part of the universal witness to the One Faith. At the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Saint Wilfred affirmed the Orthodoxy of the Celts, despite the concerns of their critics that some local Celtic customs were at variance with Rome. Saint Columbanus, the great champion of the independence of the Celtic Church, repeatedly upbraids the Roman Church for its claims to universal authority - the timeless Orthodox defense against the extension of papal powers. "Let no bishop leave their diocese," he thunders, "lest he interfere with the affairs of the Church."

Saint Wilfred                                          Saint Columbanus

Synaxis of All Saints who shone forth in Scotland

Saint Donald                       Saint Columba                               Saint Cummian                        Saint Donan

Saint Ninian

The artistic life of the Celtic Church shows a warm interplay between the images of the universal Orthodox witness, and local Celtic traditions. Architectural decoration, ribbons in stone carvings, and giant initial letters in manuscripts reflect a North African influence, a fact not lost on most modern authorities on the Celts. The use of icons, and iconostases, were seen in various Celtic churches, including the burial place of Saint Brigid, the great Celtic saint. Celtic depictions of Christ as a child, wrapped in mummy-like swaddling bands, reflect Egyptian and Byzantine iconography. Like Orthodox bishops today, Celtic bishops used staves bearing the heads of snakes, like Moses in the desert. We can only imagine how much more we would know if the persecutions of Diocletian (305-313AD) had not destroyed many churches in the Celtic diaspora on the European continent (the earliest Celtic Church dated from around 200 A.D).

Liturgically, the Celtic Liturgy will seem familiar to Orthodox Christians, which is not a surprise in light of the fact that it represents one of the oldest Orthodox liturgies. The celebrant faced the altar, behind an icon screen, offering up the sacrifice of the Holy Mysteries of Communion with both elements together in the chalice. Communion was almost certainly delivered on a spoon; many such spoons have been found. A little water was added to the chalice before Communion, just as it is in the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. There was even use of a small Eucharistic knife or spear, used for dividing Communion before it was placed in the chalice.
The souls of the departed were uniformly commemorated at the Liturgy, with long lists of saints, both local and universal, named at the services (there is some suggestion that the Celts did not ask for specific prayers from the saints; their general intercessions were assumed). The episcopal blessing, at Liturgy and perhaps other times, was bestowed in the manner of the Greek Church, with the fingers of the celebrant in the form of the Christogram (IC XC):

A variety of other liturgical parallels exist. Women were always veiled in the Celtic Church for the reception of Holy Communion. It is known that the Celts served at baptism an unction with blessed oil (as well as chrismation), and performed a ritual washing afterwards, much like the Slavic churches do to this day (the Greek custom of covering a newly baptized child with olive oil is an expansion on this practice, which works very well in Mediterranean climates, but which finds its limits in chilly northern climes). There is some suggestion that the Celts celebrated the Liturgy without wearing shoes, in the manner of the Copts of Egypt (just like the North American saint of our time, Saint John Maximovich). Noting the Celtic monastic connection with the Copts, this would come as no surprise.

It should not surprise us to find these similarities, since in comparing the Celtic Church to the Church in Byzantium, or to Orthodox Christianity today, we are in fact comparing the Church to itself. The Orthodox Christianity of the Apostles, of the Ecumenical Councils, of the Byzantines, the Slavs, the Arabs, and the Celts - it is one faith, not many. The Celtic Church was astonishingly similar to Orthodox life today - because it was Orthodox.

The inheritance of Saint Andrew, whose proud banner waves in front of many a Presbyterian church in Canada, is not to be found inside these churches. Nor is the bold heart of the Celtic Christians of Scotland to be found at Burns dinners or chip shops or the Lodge of the Scottish Rite. The banner of the Celts is an Orthodox Christian one; it always has been. And it is a banner that flies proudly in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Canadians, who still await the rediscovery of their own Orthodox Celtic roots, which cannot be found in the western confessions. These confessions of the last thousand years would have been virtually unrecognizable to the Celts of a millennium ago - the same Celtic Christians who would feel right at home in any Orthodox church in North America today.

Canada's first Scottish leader, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, lies buried in the cemetery of a parish church in Kingston, Ontario, the same building that is home to the Orthodox Community of Saint Gregory of Nyssa. Perhaps it is in such a representation that we can rediscover the heritage of the founders of our own nation, its own enduring and brave Orthodox roots, put down in Celtic lands by the same Orthodox monastic saints who once made pilgrimage across the ocean to our own land. For it is only these roots that will keep Saint Andrew's banner long and gloriously waving - not just in our hearts, but in our lives.
____________________________________

Background note: The St. Andrew's cross is a distinctive shape because the Apostle Andrew, who would later become the patron saint of Scotland, asked that he not be crucified on a cross of the same shape as that on which Jesus Christ was executed. (See the Great Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church, November 30th)

The legend of the birth of the Scottish flag takes place circa AD 832 near Athelstaneford in East Lothian. Angus mac Fergus, King of the Picts, and Eochaidh of Dalriada faced off against the army of Athelstane, King of Northumbria, comprising Angles and Saxons. On the eve of the battle, it is said that the Scots saw the clouds in the evening sky arranged in a formation exactly like that of St. Andrew's cross. The Scots saw this as a harbinger of their victory. When they were victorious the following day, they adopted a white St. Andrew's cross on a field of azure blue as their national standard.

Father Geoffrey Korz, (Dormition, 2007)

=========================================================================

Troparion (Tone 4)

Andrew, first-called of the Apostles

and brother of the foremost disciple,

entreat the Master of all

to grant peace to the world

and to our souls great mercy.

Kontakion (Tone 2)

Let us praise Andrew, the herald of God,

the namesake of courage,

the first-called of the Savior's disciples

and the brother of Peter.

As he once called to his brother, he now cries out to us:

"Come, for we have found the One whom the world desires!"

(6)

References:

1. "Staffa and Iona described and illustrated" By Staffa

2. "The History of Scotland, from the Earliest Period of the Scottish...", Volume 1 By James Carruthers

3. "A Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees..." Pgs 219-220 byJamieson
4. "History of the Orthodox Church of the Culdees" Dr. Stephen Michael Nott-Brunswick
5. "God's True Chosen People" Robert A. Balaicius
6. "Saint Andrew the first-called Apostle,Patron Saint of Scotland" OODE

Wolfenbuttel-Brunswick Commandery Knights Templar - militie templi iurisdictiones gothorum imperii

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Monday, August 10, 2015

Gothian Templars

Land of the Scythians (True Israelite Goths)

Traditions of the Imperial Goths - ON OUR GOTHIC CROSSES

Foundational Evidence Scotland Is A Gothic And Orthodox Nation

Foundational Evidence Scotland Is A Gothic And Orthodox Nation

Scots Are Called An Early Gothic Tribe By The Scholars, and codified in foundational charters of the nation.

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