S
The AINT who refused to be Commander-in-Chief
St. Cybi Mural in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales, UK
by NICHOLAS SOOY
W
hen considering the relationship between politics and Christianity, one of my favorite witnesses is that of St. Cybi the Tanned. His feast is November 8, which is right around when elections are usually held in the United States. St. Cybi, born in 483, was the son of Salomon, a warrior king in Wales. Cybi left his home at a young age and traveled to Jerusalem and Rome to venerate the holy sites of Christianity. During his travels, he was ordained to the holy priesthood and consecrated as a bishop. Upon returning home, he found he had inherited both his father’s throne and command of his army. But he refused to accept these positions. He refused to be the commander-in-chief. In the Church, we confess Jesus as our King, our ruler. At various times during Church history, this has distinguished Christians as a peculiar people. St. Theagenes of Parium, for example, who lived during the reign of St. Constantine, was martyred for refusing to pledge allegiance to Constantine’s co-emperor Licinius. St. Theagenes said, “I serve my King, and I cannot serve another . . . I am a Christian, and it is not possible for me to desert my Lord and King.” In another of my favorite anecdotes, a reporter in Russia interviewed a monk after the fall of communism. When asked if he was glad
that the oppression had ceased and that a better government was now in place, the monk replied that it did not make much difference to him. He said he was only surprised that it happened during his lifetime. He told the reporter that earthly kingdoms come and go, and we should care little for these, for our hope is in the eternal Kingdom. Christians were often reviled in the Roman empire for proclaiming that Jesus was King. They were called atheists for refusing to worship the imperial gods. And to the Roman authorities, their proclamation that Jesus was King often implied that Caesar was not. St. Luke records the anxiety that some had about Christians in the Book of Acts: “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too… and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” St. Cybi is not the only saint who has refused to rule because of his Christianity. St. Cadoc, a contemporary of Cybi who lived near him, also refused to succeed his father as king or to command his father’s army. Similarly, in 155, in one of the earliest works of Christian apologetics, a disciple of St. Justin named Tatian writes: “I do not wish to be a ruler. I do not strive for wealth. I refuse offices connected with military command.” Such a sentiment is not that
jacob's well
40
far off from what Jesus himself practiced. Before Christ began His ministry, He went off into the wilderness to fast and pray. There, Christ faced temptations sent by Satan, each of which challenged Him to display His divine power in ways that many contemporaries expected Him to, performing great miracles and conquering the world to rule it as Messiah and King. Christ refused these temptations, choosing to be a different type of Messiah, a different type of King. The Evangelists Matthew (4:1-11) and Luke (4:1-13) tell us that had Christ succumbed to these temptations, doing so would not have served God but rather Satan. “The devil took [ Jesus] to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” None of the disciples were there to witness Christ’s temptations, but surely Jesus told them of the event. It is likely that He wanted them to know just what kind of Messiah He was to be. In turn, the evangelists placed the event early in their narratives to signal the same to us. But not all of His disciples got the point. One tradition states that Judas betrayed Christ not because he hated Him or did not believe in Him. Rather, Judas was fed up with Christ not fulfilling the Messianic prophecies. Judas was likely a Zealot, who
