I am about to do a Civil War related posted and came across this at So It Was a Holy Cause After All. By the way that is not a "Confederate Flag" in the pic but the Mississippi flag.
In his update he says
Update: I don’t mind having to admit a mistake every once in a while, but this time I really dropped the ball. I thought I had confirmed this story with a sufficient number of SCV websites, but Karen Cox tells me that the entire story is apocryphal. Ruth Ann Coski, who used to work at the Museum of the Confederacy, carried out the necessary research and discovered that the crown was made by Varina Davis. It looks like the Myth of the Lost Cause is indeed just a myth, but I would still like to know why Pope Benedict is standing in front of a Confederate flag.
Karen Cox in the comments says:
"Kevin–I remember the first time I saw the crown of thorns. It was at the Museum of the Confederacy, on loan from its home at the Confederate Museum in New Orleans. I was familiar with the whole Jefferson Davis-as-Confederate martyr theme of the Lost Cause, but when I saw the crown I thought it was a bit over the top. . .and very thorny. The MOC researched it and found that it was made by Varina Davis for her husband. Still, it begs the question: why..."
I must say I have always taken this bizarre bit of Catholic and Confederate History as Gospel. Mainly because this is referenced in Jefferson Davis's private letters.
So did Mrs Davis make this story up to buoy her husbands spirits? I would be interested in the MOC's research in this matter . If I find the answer I shall post it.
4 comments:
In that period of time the South had the largest Catholic Population in the USA, which is true from its very beginning. The French of Louisiana, the Spanish of Florida.
Jefferson Davis was being persecuted in his two year long stay in yankee prison, and it is very likely that the Crown of Thorns was sent by the Pope.
The Vatican was the only country to recognize the Confederate States of American. Our cause was Just.
Well I am not sure the Cause was Just :) but this is intererting and the Diplomatic Hitory of the North and the SOuth have been of great interest to me.
I will try to track this down
I do know that Jeff Daivs was always a great freind of Catholics and spoke out agianst discrimination against them
"The Vatican was the only country to recognize the Confederate States of American. Our cause was just."
uhh, can you say "non sequitor." the Vatican approving of the CSA doesn't make the CSA just, it makes the Vatican badly mistaken.
Has anyone bothered to have the crown examined by botanical experts in Europe and the USA to see where the material of the crown is indigenous?
Would this not be of value in the discussion?
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