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Saint Matrona And Stalin

By Bob Small

Joseph Stalin, known as Joseph Vissarrionovich Stalin born as Joseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili, has a mixed evaluation from a historical perspective.  Many of his actions were monstrous but the Allies might have lost World War 2, if he hadn’t had Russia switch sides.  In 2024, he’s still a source of controversy in his native Georgia.

There is an icon showing Stalin being blessed by Saint Matrona of Moscow the Holy Trinity (Saemba) Cathedral.

A youthful Stalin attended the Russian Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis, Georgia with the intent of becoming a priest. 

Activist, Nata Peradze threw blue paint on the icon on Jan. 9. 

This action generated a reaction in which members of the far-right “Alt Info” party to surround Ms. Peradze’s house but luckily local Police quickly arrived.

Ms. Peradze is not alone in her opinion regarding the icon. Gocha Barnov, a theologian, told TV channel Mtavari Arkhi that the icon’s presence in the cathedral was ‘blasphemous’ and that it should be removed immediately.    Davit Tarkan-Mouravi, the leader of the far-right, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia announced that he had donated the icon to the Church.

Stalin became an avowed atheist and that the meeting memorialized in the Icon — which is mean to honor Saint Matrona — is apocryphal at best.

However, let truth not stand in the way of a good story.

Saint Matrona was a contemporary of the dictator, though, being born a few years after and dying one year before in 1952. Like Stalin, she lived in Moscow but as a Christian and many miracles are attributed her.

One reason that Ms. Peradze threw the paint on the icon  is her family’s history which she blames on Stalin.

“It’s my pain,” Ms. Peradze told Al Jazeera. “We have no [discussions] about what happened and no memorials for the people who went through hell because of this guy. There were priests on my father’s side and on my mother’s there were dissidents. Some were deported to Siberia and some were lost and we never knew what happened to them.” 

There has been a resurgence in Stalin’s popularity in Georgia, with at least 11 new statues of him appearing since the governing Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012.

Perhaps we should remember Stalin as a complicated individual who…how should we finish this sentence?

Conference Concerns Autism

By Bob Small

Another flyer from the  Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Conference was about the Autism Health Summit scheduled for Feb. 2 and 3 in San Antonio.

It will be streamed live online.

Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids (PERK) is encouraging it be watched. PERK says that because there is no medical cure for autism, many parents turn to biomedical treatments and therapies. Most of these treatments are low-risk, and some have the potential to be life-changing. 

This is not to be confused with any of the “establishment” conferences about autism such as the International Conference on Autism which follows the accepted narratives.

The New York Times article  Autism Prevalence Rises Again, Study Finds implies that there are not more cases of autism but as Professor Catherine Lord of the UCLA Medical School says “I have a feeling there is just more discovery.”

There are a number of issues brought up on Adults with Autism  How to navigate adulthood on the autism spectrum  “As individuals continue to grow and develop . . . what autism looks like in a person, really changes”.  This was from Vanessa Bal, Rutgers University associate professor of psychology.

“For some people, not having an explanation of how to understand themselves is really difficult,” she says. 

Rebecca Faith Quinn, an LA actress with autism said . “A lot of autism experts get so focused on the autism that they forget they are looking at an autistic person, , , , That is a very dehumanizing experience.”  

In summation, adults with autism are very often an ignored population.

For many years when I woke up at seven in the morning for my driving job. I listened to Imus in the Morning once I delivered my charge, and then, after breakfast, driving home.  Imus was controversial and sometimes went way past controversy and ended up apologizing for things he should not have said.

The CHD wrote a  a tribute him for his support of those suffering from autism.

“His commitment to airing all sides of controversial issues became apparent to the autism community in 2005 and 2006 as the   Combating Autism Act  (CAA) was being discussed in Congress. The Act, which was ultimately signed into law by George W. Bush in December of 2006, “

The treatments for autism continue to be controversial.

Conference Concerns Autism