Saturday, May 12, 2018

Rolling Parish - ARRCC Priest, Walsingham Guard Chaplain Serves Firefighters

LEXINGTON, S.C., USA 12 May 2018 (ORCNS) - Fire trucks are a well-known sight that indicates help is on the way. For Msgr. Abbot Anthony Giunta, TOR Mar, PhD, JCD, fire trucks are also a parish on wheels. As a fire chaplain, he not only helps the public he encounters, but serves those who serve. Firefighters and other first responders often are unable to attend church regularly and receive pastoral counseling, so Abbot Anthony brings the church to them. 

Msgr. Giunta leads worship on Sundays and also conducts scriptural studies on Wednesdays. Holy Week rites were also provided -- a much-needed opportunity for those who give up so much of their time in service to others. 

This sort of missionary service is nothing new to the Abbot. He is a long-time hospital chaplain who is frequently requested by name by patients. He also is a police chaplain and has served as a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol. 

Abbot Anthony Giunta in uniform as a fire chaplain.

Abbot Anthony is the Superior General of the Franciscan Third Order Regular of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a religious order within the Old Roman Catholic Patriarchate of St. Stephen (Anglican Rite Roman Catholic Church). He also holds the rank of Colonel in the Walsingham Guard, the humanitarian organisation of the Patriarchate with a military heritage dating back to the Crusades, and is the Commandant of the Regiment of Chaplains.

Monday, May 7, 2018

The Sacred Merovingian Dynasty in DNA - Haplogroup G2A

Amidst the chaos that followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, a new power arose -- the Merovingian Dynasty. They were the predecessors to the Carolingians (the family of Charlemagne) that formed the Holy Roman Empire, and indeed the Carolingian Dynasty descended from the Merovingians. Their blood remains in some families today. 

Merovingian King Clothair I

The Merovingians were Franks and so are an important part of the history of what eventually became Germany and France (France takes its name from the Franks). They have even been the subject of fiction, such as the highly fanciful version of the Merovingians portrayed in The DaVinci Code. The real Merovingians, however, laid the groundwork for the structure of Medieval Europe and eventually the modern western world. At its greatest extent, the lands of the Merovingians covered much of Europe, from western Germany to the Spanish border, and from the north of France to the northern border of Italy. Charlemagne added Italy (formerly ruled by the Lombards), Bavaria, and other territories to the empire. 

As science and technology have progressed, DNA evidence has helped to provide more insight into the Merovingians. Based on DNA found in a gravesite linked to the dynasty, their Y-DNA haplogroup (that's the direct male line) is G2A with a likely subclade (subdivision) of P140. That haplogroup is rare and of Latin origin, with a particular concentration in central Italy. It is sometimes known as the "Merovingian Haplogroup."

King Richard III (Plantagenet) of England
A part of the Merovingian DNA Haplogroup

When the body of King Richard III was discovered and tested, the haplogroup was the same -- G2A. Blood on a handkerchief believed to have been soaked in the blood of King Louis XVI at his execution was likewise the same haplogroup. However, other tests on living male-line descendants of the Bourbon family suggest that Louis was of a different haplotype, R1b-U106. 

King Louis XVI (Bourbon) of France
It is unclear if he is of the Merovingian Haplogroup of not.
However, as a king, he succeeded them in rule of France.

The legacy of the Merovingian Dynasty and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire, persists to this day around the globe. In the monarchies and even in the republics of the modern world, their blood runs through the veins of several noble families and distinguished lineages.