Happy Christmas everyone!

 The servants of the Three Kings don't appear at all interested in the Nativity. It's as if they are saying, "Did we travel so far just for this?" The ox and the ass are far more attentive!

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Stories: Blogs

                           Blogs

 They followed each others' blogs and social media entries, though they had never met and did not even correspond directly. Their works were completely different: he wrote little stories, fantasies for the most part, whereas she wrote about the small incidents of her daily life, in a wry and amusing fashion. He deduced from these that she was a university graduate, young and unmarried, who worked in a college library where there were plenty of old books. She had no idea who he might be, or how old he was. 

   Because of this lack of contact, they built up  imaginary pictures of each other. She saw him as a would-be warrior against the forces of darkness; he saw her engaged in a quiet but unsuccessful search for love. And both were right.
   They might have appeared to be opposites, but in the sight of God they were no more than opposite sides of the same coin: they complemented each other, and together formed a Unity; for in their different ways they were searching for the same thing, which so many philosophers and mystics sought:  the Absolute; the ultimate single Whole that is truth and love and everything.

England: St. Mary the Virgin; Shrewsbury

           History

The church was traditionally said to have been founded by King Edgar the Peaceful, around 960, but may be even older. In the mid-12th century, the old Saxon church was demolished and a new one was built, in cruciform shape. The side aisles were added at the start of the 13the century, with the earlier walls being replaced with round Romanesque arches. At the same time, the chancel was extended and the west tower and the south porch added. The church attained its present form in the later 15th century.

   In 1071 William the Conquerer granted Shrewsbury and most of the surrounding lands to Roger de Montgomery,who built the castle and founded an abbey. Shrewsbury was already a significant town by the time of the Domesday Book, 1086.

   In 1215,in the chaos that marked the end of King John's reign, Shrewsbury was seized by the Welsh prince Llewellyn ap Ioreth, who continued to cause great destruction until the town was regained by Henry III in 1234.

   St. Mary's became a "Royal Peculiar", under the direct jurisdiction of the Crown rather than the local Bishop, This only ceased under George III. It was a "collegiate church", served by Canon Priests under a Dean.

   The church ceased to hold regualr services in 1987, and is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

       The south porch,dating from around 1200, has a fine Norman arch.

There is a small Norman door on the north side, now bricked up.

The lower part of the west tower, in red sandstone,is late Norman; the upper part is Perpendicular. The spire, at 138 feet, is one of the tallest in England. The top collapse in 1894 and fell through the roof. Some people saw the disaster as God's punishment for the spread of evolutionary ideas by Charles Darwin: a Shrewsbury man!

Outside the west door is a memorial to Robert Cadman,who in 1794 attempted to slide headfirst down a rope stretched from the belfry to the far bank of the River Severn. The rope snapped and he was killed!

The nave; looking east

 The chancel arch dates from the start of the 13th century. There would once have been a rood screen, which was destroyed in the Reformation, and the sone altar was removed in 1584 as "idolatrous". The chancel is dominated by the magnificent Jesse window (see later). The magnificent "Angel" ceiling dates from the late 15th century: it was smashed when the spire collapsed but, amazingly, was rebuilt using the original wood. The twin small arches are a Victorian addition to allow extra light.   

To the right of the altar is a sedilla from the Norman period

 

Romanesque columns line the nave. 

Some of them feature comical faces

Stained Glass

Any stained glass in the church was destroyed in the 16th or 17th centuries, and only a few fragments remain. The magnificent stained glass windows in St. Mary's were all brought from elsewhere.

The chancel is dominated by a magnificent Jesse window. 

It was made in the 14th century at the behest of a local knight, Sir John de Charleton, who is commemorated in the bottom row, probably for a Franciscan friary that stood on the other side of the Severn. When this was dissolved in the Reformation, the window was taken to Old St. Chad's church in the town, and then reinstalled in its present position when that church collapsed in 1788.

The Trinity Chapel, to the south of the chancel, has a tomb efficy of Sir Simon de Leybourne, who died around 1308. His crossed legs should indicate that he was a crusader, though the crusades had all but finished by his lifetime. 

The windows in the Trinity Chapel are mostly Victorian, though there are two on the south wall from 16th century Flanders.

The windows in the north aisle date from 1479, and come from Trier cathedral in Germany. The windows contain a variety of disconnected votive scenes of donors and saints.

To the left of the altar are early16th century windows telling stories of the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the famous 12th century abbot.  They came from the abbey of Altenberg, near Cologne, and date from the early 16th century. They were bought by the Reverend William Rowland in the mid-18th century for £425: a large sum at that time!

   The stained glass windows on the south side were again purchsed by William Rowland. Saint Bernard and a number of other saints are featured.

This one, from Trier features St Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine and discoverer of the True Cross, on the left; and on the right, the Emperor Charlemagne, who is not normally recognised as a saint.

This one is from Altenberg. The central section tells the story of St Bernard and the "miracle of the flies"! 

   The nave, looking towards the west door.

England: St Enodoc's church, Cornwall

St Enodoc's church is tucked away among the sand dunes, at the edge of a golf course, on the east bank of the Camel estuary in north Cornwall.

The church is Norman in origin, with a small 13th century spire. For a long time it was buried in the shifting sands, and was only dug out and restored in 1863.

It is best known for the grave of Sir John Betjeman, the much-loved former Poet Laureate.

This whole region is very popular with holiday-makers. Much of the coastline is rocky, and the tides are extreme.

Round the corner in Polzeath, we found the surfers were out in force.

On the west bank of the Camel is Padstow, a little port that is now a popular holiday resort and gastronomic centre.

We can recommend the area for a visit!

Politics/ Philosophy: Populism.

Populism is a term much used, but seldom defined. It is generally used as a word of abuse, giving rise to the comment by the old cynic P. J. O'Rourke: "Populism is an epithetic catch-all whenever the ideas popular with the good and the great aren't popular".  It is a term generally linked with the political Right, in opposition to what is alleged to be the ruling elite. In this essay I would like to compare and contrast populism with the traditional anti-elite ideology; Marxism.

Both populism and Marxism stress the unfairness of the present status quo, Both maintain that society is controlled by an elite that ignores the interests of the mass of the people though Marxism lays far more stress on the economic aspects. Both aim their appeal at classes and groups who feel themselves to be excluded and exploited. Both appeal to the traditional working classes for support, but populists also target the "petty-bougeoisie" (the self-employed, shopkeepers and lower-grade clerical workers) and the farmers: large groups which the Marxists despise or ignore.

 

Populists stress patriotism and nationalism, which may merge into racism. Marxists ignore, or even denounce, patriotism and nationalism; though when Marxism became identified with the Russian state, patriotism and nationalism returned with a vengeance. In Britain and the USA, people on the Left are more likely to apologise for their nation's history than glory in it as a Populist would do. Populists therefore accuse their opponents of being unpatriotic. 

Marxists look forward to a Utopian future of freedom and prosperity for all after the revolution. Populists, by contrast, generally look backward to a supposedly golden past, from which the nation has declined. Thus, Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America great again!" necesarily implies that America has ceased to be great. In Britain, the Brexiteers have always maintained that we were better off before we joined what was then the Common Market.   

Marxism has always had a certain appeal to intellectuals, but populists profess to despise intellectualism. In the words of Michael Gove during the Brexit debate: "The country has had enough of experts". It was not made clear whose advice he would be taking instead.

Populists strongly support traditional cultural values, whereas Marxists (when in opposition) are more likely to favour the artistic avant-gard

Both Marxists and Populists denounce their enemies, whom they allege hold a dominating, malevolent and sinister hold over society. For Marxists, the enemies are economic ones: capitalists, financiers and big business. The enemies invoked by the Populists are more nebulous: a liberal elite who are imposing their politically-correct views on society, crushing free speech and depriving people of their fun. It is suggested that the actual political leaders are either willing accomplices or hopeless dupes. When asked to supply actual names in this sinister group, neither Marxists nor Populists can produce a very convincing list. The major difference is that Populists are likely to name among their enemies foreigners and those of alien race or culture inside the country. Marxists would not do this. 

When I began to consider this contrast, it occurred to me that Marxists, when established in power in countries such as the old Soviet Union, quickly adopt many Populist attitudes; particularly nationalism and dislike of alien ideas. They accuse their internal enemies of lack of patriotism, are deeply suspicious of  independent intellectualism. They ridicule the cultural avant-gard, which they criticise as being remote from ordinary people, and are generally traditional and philistine in their artistic tastes. This is where Marxism and Populism come together. 

 

The Battle of Blore Heath, September 1459

Blore Heath lies on the A53 a few miles eastwards from Market Drayton, midway between the town and the village of Loggerheads, and close to the border between Shropshire and Staffordshire.  In September 1459 it was the scene of one of the early battles of the War of the Roses.
   The Yorkist Earl of Salisbury was leading his forces south to join his son Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and the Duke of York at Ludlow. On September 23rd he was intercepted by Lancastrian troops under Lord Audley. Salisbury had about 3,000 men under his command, and was heavily outnumbered, but reinforced his open right flank with a laager of supply-wagons, and managed to repulse rather unco-ordinated attacks by both infantry and cavalry. After Lord Audley was killed, several hundred of his men changed sides and large numbers of the rest were slaughtered as they attempted to flee. Some 2,000 Lancastrian were killed, with the Yorkists losing only a tenth of this number.
   Salisbury's victory was complete, and he was able to proceed on his way, helped by a "whimsical" friar who deceived any pursuing Lancastrians by firing a cannon throughout the night. He explained when captured the next day that he had only been doing it to keep up his spirits!
   Salisbury did not enjoy his triumph for long. In December next year the Yorkists were disastrously defeated at Wakefield. The Duke of York was killed in the battle, his younger son Edmund, Earl of Rutland was caught and stabbed to death by Lord Clifford, and Salisbury himself was captured and executed. 

   As soon as York's eldest son, the 19-year-old Edward, heard of this disaster he hastened to London where he had himself proclaimed King. The Earl of Warwick supported him, thereby beginning his climb to legendary status as "Warwick the Kingmaker". 

   The appalling bloodshed of the War of the Roses was to continue for another quarter of a century.

There is a cross commemorating the death of Lord Audley in a field just south of the road.

Puss in Boots: A Fairy Tale Retold

The miller's youngest son set out to seek his fortune, accompanied only by his cat, Puss. After they had walked for several days, they noticed a royal cortege approaching, and Puss told the young man to undress and jump into a nearby river.
   Puss then ran up to the King's coach, calling, "Help! Help! My master, the Marquis of Carabas, was bathing in the river, and robbers have stolen his clothes!"
   The royal carriage stopped, and the King motioned to the young man to stand up in the water, which fortunately was deep enough to come up to his waist.
   "Goodness!" exclaimed the princess,who was accompanying her father, "What a handsome young man!"
   "That's as maybe", said the King, "But I don't think I've ever met the Marquis of Carabas. Do any of you know him?" he asked the courtiers. But it turned out that none of them had ever met such a person either.
   "I must say", mused the Lord Chamberlain, "He doesn't strike me as being a nobleman. Look at his hair! Look at his hands! Now then", he said to the young man, "Can you name any nobleman who will vouch for you?"
   But of course the miller's youngest son couldn't.
   "He doesn't talk like a Marquis either!" was the Lord Chamberlain's verdict. "And if he is a Marquis, why does he choose to bathe in this muddy river? Hasn't he any lakes or streams on his estates?"
   The King considered. "Now look here, my man", he pronounced eventually, "I've no idea who you are. We'll give you some clothes to make you decent, then you'd better be on your way. If you really are the Marquis of Carabas, then I apologise, but you surely understand we can't be too careful with strangers in these dangerous times".
   So the Lord Chamberlain gave the miller's youngest son a set of clothes and a few coins, and warned him not to come near the King again. 
   "The cat, however, is a different matter", said the King. "Just fancy: a cat that talks! Would you like him as a pet, my dear?" he asked the princess.
   "Oh, yes please daddy!" she exclaimed.
   So the miller's youngest son walked disconsolately away, but Puss was taken to the palace, where he lived happily ever after.

Sparrows

Sparrows have been raising a second brood in our birdbox.
Pictures taken through our kitchen window
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Scotland: Rosslyn Chapel

A few years ago we visited Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh. It was built by William Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, after 1450, but for some reason was never completed.

Unfortunately the documentation of the building has been lost, so no-one knows why it was embellished with such a riot of carving,

of which the most spectacular and famous example is the "Apprentice pillar" to the right of the altar.

The chapel figures in the novel "The Da Vinci Code", and in that book's predecessor, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", where it is linked with the Templars, the secret descendants of Christ, Masonic ritual and so forth. There appears to be no contemporary justification for this. In the 17th century another William Sinclair, Lord of Rosslyn and a descendant of the original builder, was appointed patron of the recently-formed Guild of Masons in Scotland; but at that time this was purely a craft organisation and bore no resemblance to any later Masonic secret society. Any association with the Knights Templar was only suggested much later.
   I doubt if those responsible for the upkeep of the chapel are upset by these legends, because they must be excellent for the tourist business!   

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Hagia Sophia, Istambul

In the 6th century A.D. the Byzantine Empire, a survivor of the Roman Empire, ruled the whole eastern Mediterranean from the Balkans to Egypt, and its capital, Constantinople, "the second Rome", was the greatest city in that part of the world. In 537 the Emperor Justinian therefore decided to build a particularly spectacular church to replace an earlier building which had burnt down. It was completed five years later. It still stands, though damaged by earthquakes over the centuries, and much changed internally. It was named the church of Hagia (or Saint) Sophia. (Incidentally, there was never such a person as Saint Sophia. The name translates from the Greek as "The Holy Wisdom")

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The most daring feature of the buildings is the enormous dome. It is supported on pendentives (four round arches) so that it appears to be floating free. It was to be 900 years before any new dome was built in western Europe.

The interior of the church was famous for the mosaics it accumulated over the centuries. Many depicted Emperors and their Empresses giving offerings to Christ.
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In 1054 a breach occurred between the Roman and Greek churches, which became permanent. The two became increasingly different in doctrine and organisation. Whereas the Popes in Rome aimed at independence of secular power, and claimed moral authority over the Kings of western Europe, the Patriachs of Constantinople were very much under the authority of the Emperor. Meanwhile, missionaries from Constantinople converted the pagan Russians to the Greek Orthodox faith, with very important consequences for the future.

   For more than five hundred years after Justinian the city fought of attacks by Persians, Avars and Arabs, before falling amidst frenzied looting and destruction to the French and Italian soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. For the next few decades Hagia Sophia became a Catholic church before Greek Emperors regained control. The Byzantine Empire never recovered from the disaster, and the territories under its control continued to shrink.
   The Turks irrupted out of Central Asia in the 11th century, defeated the Byzantine armies at the battle of Manzikert in 1071 and occupied most of Anatolia. Finally in 1453 the Sultan Mehmed the Conquerer seized Constantinople itself. The city was renamed Istambul and Hagia Sophia was coverted into a mosque. The mosaics were destroyed or painted over, huge rondels bearing the names of Allah and Mohammed in Arabic calligraphy were hung in the corners under the dome, a mihrab indicating the direction of Mecca was placed in the apse and tall minarets built outside. Within a century the Turks ruled a vast dominion, the Ottoman Empire, stretching from the gates of Vienna through into Iraq, Arabia, Egypt and north Africa. The Sultan was also the Caliph: the successor to the Prophet Mohammed and spiritual leader of all Moslems throughout the world.
   The fall of Constantinople left Russia as the only major state following the Orthodox faith. This led to many Russians to the mystical belief that Moscow was "the third Rome", and that their civilisation was not only unique but singularly blessed. This belief has persisted, and has had an important impact on the way Russian have viewed the rest of the world.

In the 19th century the Ottoman Empire shrank at a rapid rate and finally collapsed in the First World War. The army chief Kemal Ataturk took power, abolished the Sultanate and the Caliphate and created a secular state, with its capital at Ankara, that was ethnically Turkish; the Greek and Armenian minorities have been killed or driven out. Only the Kurds remained to challenge this ethnic unity. The Roman alphabet replaced the Arabic one, though neither is really suitable for the Turkish language. Among other reforms, Hagia Sophia ceased to be a mosque and became a museum, with the mosaics again revealed after centuries of plaster and paint were carefully scraped away.

Some personal notes. When I toured Turkey some thirty years ago, I was struck at how many statues there were of Ataturk. He seemed to be everywhere, striking heroic poses, leading children towards the glorious future, and so forth. It reminded me very much of the prevalence of Lenin statues in the Soviet Union. In Cappadocia and other places we found numerous relics of Greek and early Christian civilisation. There were churches cut into the soft rock, with faded religious paintings on the walls. All were now deserted. Our guide explained that after the First World War "the Greeks were returned to their homeland". Since the Greeks had lived in this region for at least 1500 years before the arrival of the Turks,I was tempted to ask when the Turks would return to their homeland, which was somewhere around Uzbekistan.
   A few years later I had a conversation with the historian Professor Norman Stone, who was about to take up a post at the Universary of Ankara. I asked him why he thought that Ataturk had succeeded in imposing a secular society in his country where the Shah of Iran had failed. He replied, provocatively, by asking why Ataturk had succeeded where Lenin had failed! But with Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque again, it may well be that Ataturk failed too.

Welsh Castles

Since we have not been allowed to drive into Wales for the past three months, here are some pictures of Welsh castles that we have visited inprevious years.

Beaumaris.

Caernarfon.

Carew.

Carreg Cennan.

Conwy.

Criceith

Denbigh.

Dolwyddelan.

Flint.

Harlech.

Manobier.

Montgomery.

Housemartins

Housemartins have been nesting under our eaves.
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An antislavery campaign, 1792

In this cartoon of 1792, James Gillray imagines George III and the royal family joining the boycott of slave-grown sugar by drinking their tea without sugar. King George declares it "Delicious!" and Queen Charlotte urges her daughters to remember the "poor blackamoors", and "Above all, remember how much expense it will save your poor Papa!" The princesses do not look convinced.
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Gillray seldom lost an opportunity to ridicule the royal family: invariably portraying George III as ludicrously mean and penny-pinching, Queen Charlotte as grotsquely ugly, and the Prince of Wales as a lecherous glutton. How very different from most media coverage today! 

T4: The Nazi campaign to gas the mentally ill

   With the coming of war, the Nazis began a programme to gas the mentally ill, which was codenamed "T4".
   Such a programme obviously accorded with Nazi eugenic ideas. In 1929 Hitler had attacked the "sentimental humanitarianism" of maintaining the weak at the expense of the healthy, and soon after coming to power a law was enacted for the compulsory sterilisation of people of part negro race and other "inferiors", and in the winter of 1938-9 came the "Knauer case", where the father of a handicapped boy petitioned Hitler for euthanasia. Hitler not only gave his approval, but authorised his personal phyysician, Dr Brandt, and Philip Bouhler of the Fuhrer Chancellery (the KdF) to take similar action in future. Thus in August 1939 the "Reich Committee for Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditarily and Congenitally Based Illnesses" was set up. Doctors and midwives were ordered to register serious mental and physical defects at birth, and forward them to the Reich Committee, who would make the decision on life or death by means of a plus or minus sign on the document. Those condemned as "living burdens for the nation" were taken to special clinics where they were either poisoned or left to die of malnutrition. It is not known how many children were killed under this procedure; presumably several thousand.
   Sometime in summer 1939 authorisation was given for the euthanasia of adults; once again to be controlled by Brandt and Bouhler of KdF. The Ministry of the Interior was to order the registration of people who fell into such categories as the mentally disturbed, feeble-minded, paralytic, senile, epileptic and criminal lunatics; with just a few classes such as war veterans being excluded. Again, plus or minus signs by the assessors led to life or death. Carbon monoxide gas was decided on as the best method of killing; the first operation being carried out at the Brandenburg Asylum near Berlin, where twenty vitims were locked in a shower room and poisoned by gas pumped in from cylinders. After a few minutes, teams nicknamed "burners" extracted any gold teeth and SS squads removed the bodies to a crematorium. There was, we are told, "no disorder". 
   Following the defeat of Poland, several thousand Polish mental patients were shot, and others were poisoned with monoxide in a specially converted furniture van by an SS unit, but these appear to have been ad hoc killings on local initiative.

   In October 1939 (the precise date being uncertain) Hitler signed a document authorising Bouhler and Brandt "to extend the powers of certain doctors in such a way that ..... those suffering from illness deemed incurable to be granted a merciful death". (There was never a formal law on euthanasia, nor has a directive authorising the Holocaust ever been found). A body named the "Reich Association of Asylums" was set up. Control of the operation was given to Department II of the KdF, whose head office was at Tiergarten 4 in Berlin; hence the codename "T4" for the whole project. A Chancellery official, Viktor Brack, was placed in charge. Euthanasia centres were set up, post office vans used as transport,and asylum directors instructed as to how many patients they would be required to supply.  
   By May 1940 a centre at Hartheim ner Linz in Austria was ready to operate, with a system so efficient that it formed the model for all later mass killings. The victims were undressed and taken to a gas chamber disguised as a shower room, where they were poisoned with carbon monoxide. Squads then extracted and goldteeth and removed the bodies to a crematorium. An unusual feature was that relatives were informed of the unfortunate demise of loved ones from illness, and sent urns of ashes. The site was responsible for perhaps 20,000 deaths. Another successful site was at Hadamar in Hesse, where a party was held to celebrate its ten thousandth gassing.
   Himmler enetered the scene in summer 1940 when he requested the extension of the programme to cover sick inmates of the concentration camps. These victims were taken to euthanasia centres and gassed; an operation codnamed 14F13.

   There were strict instructions that the programme be kept secret, but this proved impossible. Mistakes were made informing relatives, such as a case where a victim was said to have died of appendicitis, when his appendix had actually been removed ten years earlier. Many of the guards, unable to take the strain of the horrors they had witnessed, took refuge in getting blind drunk in local taverns. People living near Hadamar noted the evil-smelling smoke from the crematorium chimney, which they soon learnt to associate with the arrival of the transports. Worst of all, children took to shouting "Here come some more to be gassed!" as the blacked-out vans arrived, and taunted each other with, "You're stupid! You'll be put in the oven in Hadamar!" Eventually this led to one of the very rare acts of public opposition to Nazi rule.

   The Bishop of Munster was Cardinal August, Count von Galen; an aristocrat as well as a Prince of the Church; a Catholic consrvative anda close friend of Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen. For more than a year hehad been concerned by reports of euthanasia, and on August 3rd 1941 he preached a sermon in which he denounced the T4 programma as murder of the innocent. This was an immediate sensation, as thousands of copies of the sermon were printed and circulated. Von Galen was not alone: a few days later the Bishop of Limburg, whose diocese included Hadamar, wrote to the Ministry of Justice complaining about what had been happening. There were some minor public demonstrations, including even one against Hitler himself on a visit to Bavaria when the arrivalof his train happened to coincide with the reoval of some mentally handicapped children.

   The Nazi leadership was furious, but helpless. As Goebbels commented, the best reponse would have been to hang the Bishop, but since at that stage they did not want to antagonise the church, they could do nothing but retreat. And so on August 24th the Nazi regime, in one of its very few reversals under public pressure, ordered a halt to he T4 programme. It has been estimated that some 70,000 victims had been killed in five major centres.

   The obvious suspicion is that T4 was in the nature of a dress rehearsal or dry run for the Holocaust. The first gassings of Jews began not long afterwards, and some of the personnel involved were inherited from T4. The first commandant at Hartheim was Christian Wirth ("the savage Christian"), who soon became a kind of roving inspector of the euthanasia centres, and then a few months later could be found in charge of the first death camp at Chelmo, where Jews were gassed with carbon monoxide fumes in converted furniture vans. Another recruit for T4 was an Austrian policeman named Franz Stangl, who would later be placed in charge of the massive extermination camp at Treblinka. The Nazis may also have learnt that secrecy could not be maintained if extermination was carried out on German soil, so all the death camps were built in occupied Poland. But all this implies a degree of forward planning seldom to be found in Nazi Germany.

Saints against the plague

Two saints whose aid was traditionally invoked against the plague were Saint Roch (or Rocco) and Saint Sebastian.
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Saint Roch is said to have been born in Montpellier in the south of France in the 14th century. He went on a pilgrimage to Rome, where the plague broke out, and he healed many of the disease before catching it himself. He was first succoured by a dog, and recovered. He then returned to his native town, but he had been away so long that no-one recognised him and he was thrown into prison, where he died. Saint Roch is shown pointing to the plague-spot on his thigh, and holds a pilgrim's staff. He is accompanied by a dog.
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Almost nothing is known for certain about Saint Sebastian. He is supposed to have been an early Christian martyr, who was shot with arrows during the persecution of the Emperor Diolcletian, though he recovered from this and was battered to death instead. He is portrayed as a scantily-clad young man full of arrows, tied to  dead tree. It is possible that his connection with the plague is that the arrows, and the fact the he recovered from them, symbolise the invisible arrows of the disease. He has of late become something of a Gay icon.
  
Here are Rocco and Sebastian together with Saint George, in an Italian Renaissance painting in the National Gallery in London.

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I wonder if Saints Roch and Sebastian are suitable saints to be invoked for protection against the Corona virus? Or do we stand in need of new saints?