For the inhabitants of Jerusalem, it remained a mystery how the retired legionnaire Gaius Cassius earned his living; due to cataracts of his eyes, he was decommissioned from military service and seemed to spend his days in idle wandering around the squares, streets and markets. He was seen everywhere and everywhere he was just lazily wasting his own time.
Cassius was pleased that this was exactly the impression the layman had of his person. He considered himself a great artist, because no one noticed how attentively Cassius listened to the conversations, looked closely at people, vigilantly peering into the faces of the newcomers. He was especially interested in a young man from Nazareth, tall, thin, with a sad look. He could often be seen in the midst of the townspeople, he was constantly explaining something unhurriedly, as if he was explaining the simplest truth to the incomprehensible, often his entourage consisted of a dozen young people, outwardly somewhat even similar to him. And they could always be found in the markets, among the mob of the city dwellers, and they had leisurely conversations with artisans, merchants or minor officials of the local administration. The native of Nazareth was called Jesus,and Cassius had the most precise instructions from his superiors - to collect "dirt" on him.
“The arrest is not far off,” Guy thought as he watched the thin figure of Jesus with his eyes. But, the longer Cassius watched the Nazareth, the more attentively he listened to his speeches, the more often he caught himself thinking that the speeches of Jesus, the train of thought, logic, captures him, and, most importantly, he believes the words of the preacher.
The arrest of Jesus took Cassius by surprise, the retired legionnaire did not sleep at night, and in the morning he tried to use all the "levers" known to him in order to achieve the release of the arrested person. But, alas, too serious figures were used in the game, and the ordinary servant of the “cloak and dagger” could be satisfied, at least, with the role of the commander of the legionary detachment who accompanied Jesus on the way to Calvary. All this way, Cassius did in silence, trying not to turn back, so as not to see the suffering of the one going to the execution.
… Cassius forbade the Roman soldiers to interrupt Jesus' feet (Gestas and Dismas, executed on the same day and hour, did not escape such torture), the bones of the Messiah should not be broken, otherwise his second coming would be impossible.
And one more thing that Cassius could do for the doomed Jesus - he eased his suffering with a blow of a spear in the side, between the fourth and fifth ribs. Such a blow in the Roman army was considered "merciful", it relieved the mortally wounded enemy from torment.
At the same second, when with a strong jerk, Cassius pulled out the weapon from the lifeless body of the executed, and blood and water gushed from the wound, Guy felt his eyes free from the weight that had pressed on them for many years. The cataract left a tortured Roman.
A few days after the execution of Jesus, he left the service. He settled in Cappadocia, where he preached the ideas of Christianity.
Promotional video:
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“Then he said:
Man is a rope stretched between an animal and a superman - a rope over an abyss.
Passage is dangerous, it is dangerous to be on the way, the gaze turned back is dangerous, fear and stopping are dangerous.
What is important in a person is that he is a bridge, not a goal: in a person you can only love that he is a transition and death.
I love those who cannot live otherwise than to perish, for they are walking across the bridge.
I love great haters, for they are great admirers and arrows of longing for the other side.
I love those who do not look for a foundation behind the stars in order to perish and become a victim - but sacrifice themselves to the earth, so that the earth would once become the land of the superman.
I love the one who lives for knowledge and who wants to know so that a superman might someday live. For this is how he wants his own death.
I love the one who works and invents in order to build a dwelling for the superman and prepare the land, animals and plants for his arrival: for this is how he wants his own destruction.
I love the one who loves his virtue: for virtue is the will to perish and the arrow of longing.
I love someone who does not save a drop of spirit for himself, but wants to be wholly the spirit of his virtue: for in this way, like a spirit, he passes over the bridge.
I love the one who, out of his virtue, makes his gravitation and his attack: for this is how he wants to live for the sake of his virtue and not live any longer.
I love someone who doesn't want to have too many virtues. One virtue is more virtue than two, for it is to a greater extent that knot on which the attack rests.
I love the one whose soul is wasted, who does not want gratitude and does not give it back: for he constantly gives and does not want to take care of himself.
I love someone who is ashamed when a dice falls out to him for good luck, and who then asks: Am I a cheating player? - for he wants death.
I love the one who throws golden words in front of his deeds and always fulfills even more than he promises: for he wants his own death.
I love the one who justifies the people of the future and redeems the people of the past: for he wants death from the people of the present.
I love the one who punishes his God, because he loves his God: for he must perish from the wrath of his God.
I love the one whose soul is deep even in wounds and who can die at the slightest test: he so willingly walks across the bridge.
I love the one whose soul is overflowing, so that he forgets himself, and all things are contained in him: thus all things become his ruin.
I love the one who is free in spirit and free in heart: so his head is only the womb of his heart, and his heart leads him to destruction.
I love all those who are heavy drops falling one after another from a dark cloud hanging over a person: lightning approaches, they announce and perish like heralds.
See, I am a herald of lightning and a heavy drop from a cloud; but this lightning is called superman."
* * *
The fame of the sermons of Cassius spread far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. Not only did his speeches sternly denounced the authorities, the sermons of Longinus the Spearman (by this name his followers and supporters knew) were adopted by the rebels, whose speeches had shaken the empire in recent years.
An order was given for his arrest and trial, but Longinus, like an old soldier, did not die crucified on a cross, but under blows of swords: leaving his house surrounded by legionaries, according to legend, he grinned wryly and, taking advantage of the confusion of young inexperienced commanders, waved hand:
- Ruby guys!
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* * *
Historian Nikolai Lisovoy sees the story of Cassius-Longinus in a different light, in a different interpretation:
“… Longinus in Latin is simply“long”. Taller guys were generally selected for the Roman army, especially for the command staff. It is in vain that they sometimes think that military service is incompatible with religious faith. Rather, on the contrary: a sense of duty, aggravated to the point of giving one's life and taking someone else's, brings a person closest to the problem of Christian choice.
What was he like in life, this commander of the Roman century, who arrived in Jerusalem in April 33 with a detachment of the prefect of Judea Pontius Pilate? Probably a tough and honest warrior, accustomed to discipline, who served not for fear, but for conscience. Perhaps he witnessed how in the fortress of Antonia, on the cobbled pavement of Lifostroton, the soldiers marched, played dice, beat the prisoners, as in any garrison. Maybe he was a participant in these games and cruel fun …"
One way or another, the dispute is only about "prehistory", about who Cassius-Longinus was before his appearance in Jerusalem. But maybe this is not so important.
Another thing is important:
“In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, behind the altar of the Greek Catholicon, there is an Orthodox chapel dedicated to Saint Longinus the Centurion.
This is said about him in the Gospel: "But the centurion and those who watched Jesus with him, seeing the earthquake (at the time of the Savior's death on the Cross) and all those who were, were terrified and said: verily He was the Son of God" (Matt. 27.54).
This gospel verse is inscribed on the marble balustrade of the chapel. Some of the holy fathers believed. what Longinus also means by the evangelist John the Theologian in the story of how Jesus' ribs were pierced:
“When Jesus had tasted the vinegar, he said: It is finished! And, bowing his head, he betrayed the spirit.
But since it was Friday then, the Jews, so as not to leave the bodies on the cross on Saturday, - for that Saturday was a great day, - asked Pilate to break their legs and take them off.
So the soldiers came, and they broke the legs of the first, and the other, who was crucified with Him.
But when they came to Jesus, as they saw Him already dead, they did not break His legs, But one of the soldiers pierced His ribs with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.
And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth for you to believe.
For this happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: let not His bone be broken.
Also in another place the Scripture says: they will look to the One whom they pierced. (John 19: 30-34).
Matthew:
“But the centurion and those who watched Jesus with him, seeing the earthquake and more and more, were terrified and said - verily He was the Son of God” (27.54).
Mark:
“The centurion standing opposite Him saw how He, having cried out, gave up the ghost, and said: Truly this Man was the Son of God” (15:39).
Luke:
"But the centurion, seeing what was happening, glorified God and said: Truly this man was a righteous man" (23.47).
* * *
About the Spear and the master who made it (Phinehas or Phineas) we will find evidence in the Bible, chapter 25:
1. And Israel dwelt in Shittim, and the people began to commit fornication with the daughters of Moab.
2. And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate their sacrifices and bowed to their gods.
3. And Israel cleaved to Baal Feor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
4. And the Lord said to Moses: Take all the leaders of the people and hang them up to the Lord before the sun, and the fury of the Lord's anger will be turned away from Israel.
5. And Moses said to the judges of Israel: Slay, every one of your people, who cleave to Baal-Fegor.
6. And now one of the sons of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his brethren, in the eyes of Moses and in the eyes of all the congregation of the children of Israel, as they wept at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting.
7. Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, seeing this, got up from among the community and took his spear in his hand, 8. And he followed the Israelite into the bedroom and pierced both of them, the Israelite and the woman, into her womb; and the slaughter of the children of Israel was ended.
9. The dead from the defeat were twenty-four thousand.
10. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
11. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, being jealous for me among them, and I did not destroy the children of Israel in my zeal;
12. Therefore say: behold, I give him my covenant of peace, 13. And he will be to him and to his descendants according to him the covenant of the eternal priesthood, because he showed zeal for his God and interceded for the children of Israel.
14. The name of the slain Israelite, who was killed with the Midianite, was Zimri son of Salu, leader of the generation of Simeon;
15. and the name of the slain Midianite woman Hazva; she was the daughter of Tzur, chief of Ommoth, the tribe of Midian.
16. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
17. Carry with the Midianites and smite them, 18. For they dealt with you with hostility in their deceit, deceiving you with Fegor and Hazvoy, the daughter of the ruler of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the defeat for Fegor.
Among the inhabitants in the Middle Ages, there was a belief that the Spear of Longinus consists of two rods of its constituent, twisted into a spiral, which may serve as a sign of the organic origin of the Spear, which “is capable of flying, twisting and untwisting from two ends, but still acts only at the will of that, who has it at the moment”.
But, in this case, the assertion that the Spear originally belonged to a Roman legionary (even the commander and servant of the “cloak and dagger”) is controversial. Or, perhaps, Cassius used this spear only once - on the day of Jesus' execution? Or did the Spear take on this shape after the metal came into contact with the blood of Jesus pouring out of the wounds?
Jewish legends went even further in their fantasies: God created the Spear for the first wife of Adam Lilith, so that she could bear children, cutting off the flesh from herself with the blows of the Sacred Spear. This legend, apparently, can explain the absence of both legs of Lilith.
* * *
The description of the Spear was preserved in the "History" of Liutprand of Cremona (completed in 961):
A lot of time has passed since biblical times. Forty-five monarchs owned the Spear - biblical and very real personalities. And legends and real stories are associated with each of the owners: King Solomon, King Saul, Joshua, Herod the Great, Caesar; then it ended up with Cassius.
From Cassius (canonized as "Longinus the Spearman"), the Spear of Fate got to Joseph of Arimathea, who, together with the Holy Grail, took it to Brittany, transferring these relics to the "Fishing King".
Then the Spear "surfaced" during the time of Constantine the Great, who founded Constantinople (according to legend, it was the blow of the spear that served as a signal to where to build the fortress walls of this glorious city). Constantine the Great ordered a nail to be inserted into the tip, one of those that had been driven into the body of Jesus.
The next owner of the Spear is Diocletian, then the Visigoth king Odokar, the ruler of the Goths Allaric (414-507), who took Rome and crushed the Western Roman Empire, a little later - Theodosius, Theodoric (who stopped the warlike and seemingly invincible leader of the Huns Attila), Justinian.
Then - the Spear at Clovis (Merovinga) and goes to Charlemagne (he was presented with a priceless relic by the Patriarch of Jerusalem; according to other sources, he received from the Pope as a sacred insignia the “victorious romphea” / the spear of Emperor Constantine /). Karl believed that thanks in large part to the Spear of Destiny, he had won more than fifty battles.
Several copies of the Spear of Destiny are known:
One is kept in the Vatican, the second is in Krakow (without an insert in the form of a nail), another is in Paris (it was brought here in the 13th century by Saint Louis, the one who smashed the heretics - Cathars-Albigensians, organizing a crusade against his own people).
The most famous Spear is the one that is kept in Vienna, in the Hofburg Museum: its origin dates back to the 3rd century.
The real - "documented" - history of the Spear of Longinus begins on June 14, 1098 in Antioch. The events were described by the chronicler and canon Raimund of Agil. Saint Andrew appeared to one of the participants in the Crusade, the commoner Peter Bartholomew, several times and indicated the place where the Spear of Destiny was buried. He also demanded that this be reported directly to Raymond, Count of Toulouse. The most interesting thing is that the place where the spear was buried turned out to be quite unexpected - in St. Peter's Cathedral. It is believed that with the help of a spear, almost impregnable Jerusalem and many other strongly fortified cities of the "infidels" were taken.
For reasons not entirely clear, the crusaders began to doubt the sanctity of the spear. And then the angel of the Lord came to Peter Bartholomew in a dream again and offered to show the unbelievers the power of the Spear. A large fire was made, and Peter passed through it, holding the Spear of Longinus in the folds of his clothes, and came out safe and sound. This happened on the eve of Friday (that is, Holy, in April 1099, during the siege of the Arch). There were several thousand witnesses. Again, for some unknown reason, immediately after the fire, a crowd rushed at him. If not for the four knights who tried to protect him, Peter would have been torn to pieces on the spot. In any case, he suffered several severe wounds, from which he died a couple of days later (Trackers. Su. Spear of Destiny. Part 1. [?]).
This Hofburg specimen is associated with the names of other emperors, also widely known in world history:
The Spear of Destiny was also in the hands of Frederick Barbarossa, from him passed to Henry I (Adolf Hitler counted off the history of the "thousand-year Reich" from the reign of Henry I. Hitler repeatedly noted: "The spear is the finger of fate." (See also: Power of magic cults in Nazi Germany. M., 1992.)) "Birdcatcher", from him to Otto I, then - to Otto III, after - to Sigismund I. (The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, issued a decree according to which the Spear should never leave borders of the empire).
Henry I (King of Saxony) held a spear during the battle with the Hungarians at Untrust. The son of Henry I, the owner of the Spear, defeated the Mongol hordes at Leh.
Even under Sigismund, the location of the Spear of Destiny was determined - the Cathedral of St. Catherine in Nuremberg, but under the Hapsburgs it was transported to Vienna.
Until the twentieth century, it only once left the Vienna storehouse, Bonaparte Napoleon tried to appropriate it, but it disappeared from him in the most mysterious way. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Spear again took its place of honor in the Hofburg, resting on the red velvet.
* * *
The Hofburg Palace is the most beautiful architectural monument. Here's what we will find in any of the travel guides to the Austrian capital:
The main entrance to the Hofburg is at Michaelerplatz: a huge gate, built in 1889 according to plans from the 18th century. They have green (like Muslim) domes, four sculptural groups with the same "pumped up" Hercules, smashing its many enemies, and on the right and left - two more fountains - "Austria conquering the sea" and, accordingly, "Austria conquering dry land. " True, by the time the fountains were built, the conquest of both of them was a real fantasy, since the huge Austro-Hungarian empire lost its beautiful Venetian possessions and lost in shame the hardest Austro-Prussian war.
Inside the arch there is a domed vestibule, and in it (on the right) is the entrance to the royal apartments, where the bulk of the curious rushes all the time. Lovers of luxurious architecture, however, have absolutely nothing to see: in search of beautiful architectural ensembles, it is best to drive to Schönbrunn. And here the interest is, first of all, only the numerous rooms of Franz Joseph, whose appearance at one time made the hero of Musil's novel "A Man Without Properties" "think about a lawyer or a dentist who lives without sufficient isolation between an office and a private apartment" seemed simple.
These modest apartments give an excellent idea of the lifestyle of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Sissi: you can imagine how he and she did physical education from morning to evening, read a lot, received guests, and ruled the state.
It is worth stopping at In der Burg Square (literally: "in the city"; or "in the fortress"). And again, you will discover the amazing simplicity of the life of the Austrian court in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. This simplicity came from the Middle Ages, when, due to the surrounding world, luxury was the lot of a few, even among the high society.
“In der Burg”, the name means “in the fortress”, but there is no fortress here now. Its remains (in the form of a lifting mechanism from the bridge) can be found inside the red and black Swiss gate. The first fortified castle was erected on this site in the 13th century, when the extinct Babenberg dynasty (whose palace stood on Am Hof square / that is, “in the courtyard” /) was replaced by the famous Bohemian ruler Otokar Przemysl.
His Austrian land plot, however, literally a couple of years later (in 1278) with sword and fire tore off Count Rudolf Habsburg for himself, hacking the hapless Otokar in battle.
Since the Habsburg wanted to prove the legality of his actions, he left the residence in the same place.
The Viennese residents, however, thought differently: they estimated the murder of Otokar as an attempt on their own independence and raised an armed uprising. The uprising was drowned in blood, the number of those executed was in the thousands. The Habsburg dynasty established itself in Vienna for more than six hundred years.
This fortress experienced a real siege only once, when in 1481 the young and arrogant Hungarian ruler Matthias Corvin declared war on Vienna, forcing the then emperor Frederick III to catch and eat all Viennese dogs, cats and rats (when the last mouse was caught, Frederick, lest it came to cannibalism, gave the order to surrender).
Matthias Corwin was merciful, he released the Habsburgs from the Hofburg. A few years later they returned to flee from the Turks in 1683, and from Napoleon in 1805 and 1809, and, finally, in 1848, from another uprising of angry residents Vienna.
Let's remember the Swiss gate again, it was built in 1552 by the first Habsburg, who was also the first to settle in the Hofburg, - Ferdinand I. He received Austria as a gift from his elder brother, the then Spanish king Charles.
On the gate in gold letters is a long list of the possessions of Ferdinand, fortunate in life and indefatigable for "jokes" successfully added to his possessions through inheritance (the clumsy and heavy-handed Habsburgs always increased their territories by paperwork, including marriages and inheritance, and only extremely rarely by sword and fire).
Ferdinand's list ends with "ZC", which means "etc." But Switzerland is not on the list, just later this gate was guarded by the Swiss guard. Hence the name.
Some of the buildings that form the In der Burg square were built in the 16th century, but the idea to make a ceremonial square out of them belonged to the 17th century, the Baroque era, when the Hofburg was at its peak. It happened under Leopold I, who, having saved Vienna forever from the Turkish danger, indulged in his artistic mania. The capital has acquired the appearance of a construction site. In the Hofburg, he built a huge theater for the performance of his own musical works, where he himself sometimes played the main roles. But the theater was made of wood and has not survived; it burned down, as always, from a penny candle.
In the center of In der Burg Square there is a monument - not to the zealous Ferdinand and not to the talented Leopold, but to the person under whom the country's prestige was irreparably damaged - Emperor Franz I, who also managed to visit Franz II, and the Second earlier than the First …
This amazing story is connected with the fact that since the 15th century the Habsburgs were not only the rulers of Austria, but also the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire - "a prestigious fiction which, according to the just formulation of the already mentioned Matthias Corvinus, was neither sacred, nor Roman, nor empire" …
In fact, it was a symbolic designation of a unified German empire. Since the Habsburgs achieved, thanks to their dynastic connections, an unofficial monopoly on this title, it was simply inconvenient for them to be called the rulers of one, absolutely tiny Austria. But when, in the early 1800s, Napoleon began to seriously discuss plans to unite Europe under French banners, Emperor Franz II, just in case, invented the title of "Kaiser of the Austrian Franz I", thus trying to protect himself from the attacks of his warlike neighbor. But he did not take into account the character of Napoleon, a native of the plebeian environment, for whom titles, titles, and origin did not matter.
The Holy Roman Empire, bursting at the seams and existing more on paper, was abolished by Napoleon in 1806 with one stroke of the pen (after the fact, everything was legally formalized).
And the indefatigable and fearful Franz decided the connection with the new empire in a different way, the same not in the original, but in a proven way, passing his daughter off to Napoleon. The diplomatic abilities of the Viennese ruler had to be surprised more than once, for example, when it became clear to everyone in Europe that the Napoleonic empire was about to collapse, and the most unlucky Corsican would be sent into exile. Franz took on a different role at that time - the host of the historic Congress of Vienna (1815), during which the fate of the future Europe was not so much decided as the money of the newly-minted Austrian Empire was danced and consumed (every night a dinner for several thousand guests was served in the Hofburg). The monument to Franz was erected in the "quietest" 1840s,when "good appetite combined with moderate ambition (so vividly displayed by the defeatist Franz) were elevated to the status of the highest virtues." [?]
That's the whole story of the Hofburg, which even without the Spear of Fate kept within its walls could count on the title of "relic".
* * *
In 1224, a unique royal reliquary - "Imperial Cross" (kept in the Hofburg) was made for the wedding to the kingdom of Henry II.
The Imperial Cross is a large reliquary cross, 78 cm high and a crossbar 71 cm long, standing on an oak stand covered with gold foil and adorned with precious stones and pearls on both sides. The cross is equal in shape, Greek, with square overlays at the ends and in the median bone.
Created by German jewelers, the Imperial Cross was designed from the very beginning to store imperial relics. Inside the cross, there are ark-cases opening from the front, in which were kept the particles of the Life-giving Cross (in the lower vertical part), the Holy Spear (in the crossbar) and other relics.
The spear of Saint Longinus is currently kept separately.
Longinus's spear is a two-piece steel tip, held together with silver wire and tied with a gold sleeve. The length of the spear is 50 cm. The inscription on the golden sleeve reads: "The Spear and the Nail of the Lord." On the inner silver hoop - the text:
"Henry III, by the grace of God, the Roman emperor, Augustus, ordered this hoop to be made in order to fasten the Nail of the Lord and the Spear of Saint Mauritius."
* * *
Who just admired the Spear, who just did not feel the desire to conquer the world, just leaving the walls of the Hofburg?
Politicians and military men, philosophers and piety, adventurers and priests …
The history of two great representatives of the human race, the philosopher and composer, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883), visited the Hofburg in 1878:
Nietzsche and Wagner stand in front of the display case with the Spear in the Hofburg.
Nietzsche:
- God died … He was killed and you and I …
Wagner answered him with the words that Nietzsche himself put into the mouth of Zarathustra:
“God died, and these detractors also died with him …
Whom Wagner had in mind:
Himself and Nietzsche?
Or others?
After the birth of Wagner's Parsifal (1882), the roads of these two people parted. Each of them went his own way, which, however, is natural … (It is believed that Nietzsche was angry with Wagner for the “Christian notes” in “Parsifal.” Nietzsche objects to Christianity, because it accepts, as he puts it, “slavish morality” … According to his estimates, the French Revolution and socialism, in essence, are identical in spirit to Christianity. All this he denies and all for the same reason: he does not want to consider all people as equal in any respect. / Bertrand Russell /)
Wagner is one of the few who touched the secret evangelical relics, his "Parsifal" is proof of this.
- The German people, - noted Wagner, - were created for a great mission, about which their neighbors - Slavs, French or Scandinavians - have no idea. The mission of the Germans is to rid the world of the worship of the "golden calf". And this is not a purely "national mission", but a universal one.
Hitler was well acquainted with the music and literary works of Richard Wagner. He also knew that Wagner, together with Nietzsche, had visited the Hofburg. The Fuehrer's library contained several of the author's books, including the one on which Wagner published his famous article "Judaism in Music" (First published in the edition: "Neu Zeitschrift fur Musik" in September 1850.).
Hitler read Wagner carefully, underlining with a pencil the most interesting, in his opinion, the most significant statements:
“In the state, society is obliged to sacrifice part of its own selfishness for the welfare of the majority. The immediate goal of the state is stability, the achievement of calmness."
* * *
“The people are those who think instinctively. The people behave unconsciously and, on this basis, naturally and instinctively."
* * *
“Democracy is not a German concept at all, but a concept borrowed from somewhere. Franco-Jewish democracy is a disgusting thing."
* * *
… He recalled Novalis: “Probably, no one deviates so far from the goal as the one who imagines himself already knowing an extraordinary kingdom and being able to describe its structure in few words and find the right path. Understanding is not given to anyone who has united and has become, as it were, an island … Long incessant communication, free and skillful contemplation, sensitivity to quiet signs and omens, inner poetic life, developed feelings, a simple and pious soul - this is what is essentially required of a true friend of nature …"
(As it turned out, Novalis was also "looking for" the Grail: the symbol of German romanticism "Blue Flower" Novalis was compared to the Sacred Chalice.)
"The Holy Grail and the Third Reich", Vadim Telitsyn
