Is there a George Washington – Constantine connection?
The Emperor Constantine made it legal to be Catholic in 313 AD. He ended centuries of vicious anti-Catholic persecution with The Edict of Milan. He supported Catholic Teaching. He helped bring the unifying Nicene Creed into existence. Before he died, in 337 AD, he received Catholic Baptism from a Catholic Bishop.
George Washington once commissioned a British genealogy expert to find out his ancestry. The Duke of Buckingham was among his ancestors. The Duke of Buckingham was a contemporary of Henry VIII. The two were friends. For awhile. Their friendship ended when people became aware that The Duke of Buckingham actually had more right to be King of England than Henry.
The Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason, over the objections of St. Thomas More.
Henry VIII suffered serious brain injury from falling off his horse in full armor while showing off. The brain-damaged King was easily persuaded by supporters to declare himself “Pope”. He confiscated Catholic properties in England and provided them to his supporters.
About two hundred and fifty years after Buckingham’s murder, George Washington led the American War for Independence from Britain’s Protestant Establishment.
“Our first President, George Washington, died a Catholic. While he lay on his deathbed he sent his slaves across the Potomac to bring back his close friend, Father Leonard Neale. S.J. Neale spent some time alone in the President’s sick room. When he returned to the Jesuit house, his fellow religious asked him the outcome of his visit and he simply answered, “Everything has been taken care of.” The entire story is related in the Jesuit annals. The Negro slaves, who had been imbued with Baptist anti-Catholic bigotry, passed on the story that “Master George had been seduced by the scarlet woman of Rome”. Our first President had always kept a beautiful picture of Our Lady in His living room; he adopted the Catholic practice of blessing himself before meals; he was largest contributor, giving more than even Bishop Carroll, to the building of St. Augustine’s church in Philadelphia; he very often attended Mass; and he often told his troops that if they did not refrain from abusing the Holy Name of Jesus they would surely lose the war.”
Some see, and some deny. Is there a George Washington – Constantine connection?