Happy Feast Day of Justin Martyr!
Today is my name-day, as well as my second son’s birthday.
“O God, who through the folly of the Cross wondrously taught Saint Justin the Martyr the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, grant us, through his intercession, that, having rejected deception and error, we may become steadfast in the faith.”
For those of you unfamiliar with his works:
St Justin Martyr
– First Apology
– Second Apology
– Dialogue with Trypho
– Hortatory Address to the Greeks
– On the Sole Government of God
– Fragments of the Lost Work on the Resurrection
– Miscellaneous Fragments from Lost Writings
– Martyrdom of Justin, Chariton, and other Roman Martyrs
– Discourse to the Greeks
It was because he penned sentences like the following that I added his name to mine when I entered the communion of the Church, both to honor him, to ask his guidance and to remind myself to follow the highest ideals of philosophy:
Reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour and love only what is true, declining to follow traditional opinions, if these be worthless. For not only does sound reason direct us to refuse the guidance of those who did or taught anything wrong, but it is incumbent on the lover of truth, by all means, and if death be threatened, even before his own life, to choose to do and say what is right.
To which I say, amen.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
