"And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world." -Revelation 12:9
April 23 is the anniversary of many historic events, including William Shakespeare’s birthday. But the two on which I will focus in this piece are the Battle of Clontarf and St. George’s martyrdom, as they both deal with warriors fighting pagans and championing Christianity.
St. George, whose feast is today, was a soldier who suffered torture and martyrdom for the faith around the start of the fourth century in Lydda, which is now part of Israel. But before that, a very old tradition states that George came to Libya to find that a dragon had been terrorizing the countryside and eating young women. There he rescued the doomed princess by killing the dragon. After that, he gave a sermon to the locals on Jesus, converted them to Christianity, and distributed the reward he received for his heroism to the poor. Some argue that the dragon was metaphorical, representing paganism, which George conquered by his preaching. Others note that the Devil does sometimes appear in the form of a dragon (e.g., Revelation 12, St. Margaret of Antioch's vision). But whether George slew the dragon with his lance or his preaching, he certainly won a victory against pagan evil.
The other anniversary for today has more specific historical documentation. The Battle of Clontarf occurred on April 23, Good Friday of the year 1014, on the shores of Dublin Bay between the forces of Ireland’s High King Brian Boru and a coalition of Irish rebels and Vikings. While there is debate as to how many of the Vikings were pagan, contemporary or proximate sources framed the battle as not merely a political and military contest, but also a religious contest to determine if the Catholic Christian Irish or the pagan Norsemen would dominate Ireland. While Brian Boru was tragically killed after the battle while praying in his tent, his troops were the victors, and Viking power in Ireland received a massive blow.
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Ireland, like America and the rest of the West, is now being inundated with a new paganism. As most Americans are no longer devoutly practicing Christians, the Catholic faith has become increasingly sidelined in Ireland. Sexual sin, sexual perversion, interest in the occult, and mockery of religion are widespread in Western nations. Or, as G.K. Chesterton put it in his epic poem "The Ballad of the White Horse," "I have a vision, and I know/ The heathen shall return... What though they come with scroll and pen,/ And grave as a shaven clerk,/ By this sign you shall know them,/ That they ruin and make dark."
The neo-pagan does not come with swords or ships or statues of idols, but he has his weapons, his propaganda, his false myths, his quasi-religious political cults, his idolizing of sex and selfishness and power, and these are even more effective. For the neo-pagans have conquered the West's culture and institutions more thoroughly than any ancient pagan army could have.
That is not to say all is lost. As St. George and Brian Boru found and used the most effective weapons of their day against pagan evil, so we too have to find the tools and weapons that will help us battle for the soul of the West.
