Famous Christmas deaths



(View from Elisabeth Petrovna's mirror)

Being born on Christmas Day is often looked upon as an honor.  Logic might then dictate that dying on this day could be viewed as quite the opposite.  Ironically, the deaths of three historical leaders who were known for their persecution of religious minorities occurred on Christmas Day.

First there was Pope Adrian I.  True, he had his problems.  Shortly after his accession, the papal territory was invaded.  Adrian I had to beseech Charlemagne for help with this situation.  After Charlemagne successfully quelled the invasion (and then some), he and Adrian I remained on friendly terms despite their differences regarding the veneration of images (Charlemagne: strongly against,

Adrian I:  okay with).  In fact, Wikipedia reports that Adrian I was so okay with the veneration of images that he anathematized “all who refused to venerate the images of Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, or saints.”

Then there was Elisabeth Petrovna, Empress of Russia for over 20 years (being the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I didn’t hurt her resume any).  When she wasn’t primping in front of the mirror or showing off the results to Count Razumovsky, she managed to do a fairly good job of running the empire.  For example, Wikipedia reports that she abstained “from executing a single person during her reign.”  However, her compassion did not seem to embrace religious minorities.  History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume I by Dubnow, Dubnow and Friedlaender reports on Petrovna’s assiduous practice of religious intolerance.  Muslims and Jews were especially targeted.  Mosques were destroyed,

and Jews “were expelled with one hand and pushed into the doors of the church with the other.”

During the more recent past, there was Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania’s General Secretary of the Communist Party and long-term head of state.  Wikipedia reports that his first decade in power was marked “by an open policy towards Western Europe and the United States,” and his second decade “was characterized by an increasingly brutal and repressive regime.”  The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada reported in 1990 that Ceausescu had stated that “backwardness, superstition and religion had no place within the ideal of Communist Society.”   In keeping with this stance, Ceausescu kept a tight rein on “admissions to seminaries, the construction of churches and the distribution of religious materials.”

Resources

http://www.pubquizhelp.com/christmas/births.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=vL60sEf7OPoC&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=elizabeth+petrovna+religion&source=bl&ots=wmYBBJQX7c&sig=-dJtBezEYXJWsARudHHQnBkaHjc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J1nxTobKLIXr0gHivYXQAg&sqi=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=elizabeth%20petrovna%20religion&f=false

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Adrian_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6ac3758.html

Copyright December 23, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved