Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch makes official visit to Holy House of Mary, Site of Assumption

EPHESUS, TURKEY 11 May 2019 (ORCNS) - HIRH Cardinal Don Rutherford Cardinal Johnson, Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarchate made an official visit and pilgrimage to the Holy House of Mary near Ephesus in modern-day Turkey. The house is where the Blessed Virgin Mary lived in her later years and from where she was assumed into heaven.

Sri Lankan Attacks -- Post-Mass Statement by the Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch

21 April 2019 -- Statement by HIRH Cardinal Don Rutherford I, Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch after mass on Easter Sunday on the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka earlier in the day.

Easter Greetings from the Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch

20 April 2019 - Holy Saturday and Easter Vigil - Easter greetings in the four principal languages of the Imperial Patriarchate from HIRH Don Rutherford I, Archprince of St. Stephen and Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch.

The Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch comments on the fire at Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris. I remember the venerable old cathedral well, climbing up the narrow stairs, the gargoyles, all the little details that are easy to miss. It is a fond memory of the Europe I knew and loved in my youth, a society and culture that most Europeans have ceded away and destroyed. Some of us still proudly call ourselves European, invoking the memory of Caesar, of Charles the Hammer, of Charlemagne, St. Louis IX, Friedrich the Great, and many others, with determination that our Faith and our culture will never be allowed to die, but will flourish once again. The great cathedral may burn, but its image is forever seared into my memory. We in the Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarchate, then, dedicate the liturgy of Holy Week to the renaissance of European Christianity. Deus vult!

+Rutherford PI

Statement of the Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch on the Christian Victims of the Killing Spree in Nigeria

On behalf of the Imperial Patriarchate of St. Stephen, we express our sympathy for and solidarity with the victims of the anti-Christian killing spree in Nigeria. At present the death toll is at least 200. We pray not only for the victims of this senseless violence, but for all those Christians who are persecuted for their faith around the world. The nations of the world are morally obligated to shun hypocrisy and do their part to put an end to such violence. 

+Rutherford P.I. 

Statement on New Zealand Mosque Shooting by the Imperial Patriarch

On behalf of the people of the Imperial Patriarchate of St. Stephen, we express our heartfelt sadness at the mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is unfortunate that some resort to brutal violence to settle their differences. It is unfortunate that some cannot live and let live. Let us pray for the victims of all violence in places of worship around the world.

Rutherford P.I.

Merovingian & Carolingian Origins of the Imperial Patriarchate

The ethnic heritage of the modern institution of the Imperial Patriarchate of St. Stephen stretch back over 1500 years to the ancients Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties that ruled much of Europe from after the fall of the Roman Empire until the Napoleonic era. The Merovingian dynasty was Frankish and considered the oldest ruling dynasty of modern-day France (which takes its name from the Franks). Clovis I, grandson of the founder of that dynasty, united Gaul (essentially modern-day France) under their rule in the fifth century. Their territory expanded to include much of the Germanic territory, as well as Burgundy. They were succeeded by the Carolingians, which takes its name from Charlemagne, crowned Emperor of the Romans by the Pope in the year 800. Charlemagne also conquered much of Italy from the Lombards and established the Imperial Kingdom of Italy. Charlemagne is considered the founder of the Holy Roman Empire.

Lothair I, son of Charlemagne, King of Italy

Two of the main territories within the ethnic heritage of the Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarchate, Etruria (Tuscany) and Westphalia, have deep roots that go back to the Holy Roman Empire and beyond. During the Napoleonic era, those two territories were established as kingdoms within the French Empire. Their legacy came to the Imperial Patriarchate later via right of the Holy Roman Empire in a form of reclamation, and thus the heritage of the Napoleonic era remains by right as a valued part of that heritage. Etruria, due to its rule, also brings Spanish legacy.

Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain,
Queen of Etruria (center), with her
son Louis II, Napoleonic King of Etruria (left)
and daughter Princess Maria Luisa Carlotta.

Napoleon (himself an Italian), upon becoming Emperor, saw the new French Empire as a legitimate reestablishment of the ancient Merovingian dynasty. That dynasty is the oldest in France, even older than the Bourbons. Their symbol was the bee, and thus Napoleon made regular use of the bee as his own symbol. His other (and more famous) symbol of the Empire was the eagle, reminiscent of both the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.

Emperor Napoleon in regalia
as King of Italy

Also, as ecclesiastical claimant to the temporal patrimony of Florence and the ancient Margraviate of Tuscany in the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperial Patriarchate holds succession to the honorific title of Imperial Vice-King of Italy in the Holy Roman Empire. The Vice-King was the crowned, de facto ruler of the Imperial Kingdom of Italy (the title of King of Italy was usually held by the Holy Roman Emperor). Indeed, that title has links to the very origins of the Imperial Patriarchate’s patronage of St. Stephen the Deacon and Protomartyr. The first Vice-King of Italy, during the first period of Carolingian rule of Italy, was Bosone I d'Arles, King of Lower Burgundy and Provence. He was given the title by Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor, King of West Francia, and King of Italy. There exists an image of Bosone humbling himself before Saint Stephen the Deacon and Protomartyr, celestial Patron of the Patriarchate of St. Stephen, in a fresco in the Abbey of Charlieu in Burgundy. Also, the Basilica of Arles was dedicated to St. Stephen. The Carolingian Kingdom of Arles succeeded the Merovingian Kingdom of Burgundy and is a major line of the Margraves of Tuscany and Kings of Italy. 

King Bosone of Lower Burgundy and Provence, Imperial Vice-King of Italy,
humbles himself before Saint Stephen the Deacon and Protomartyr,
celestial Patron of the Patriarchate of St. Stephen.
From a fresco in the Abbey of Charlieu in Burgundy.

Also within the heritage of the Imperial Patriarchate are direct Merovingian titles recognised and held by family right by the Imperial Patriarch and the Governor-General. Their family titles were given in time the Imperial Patriarchate and thus descend with the specific semi-hereditary, semi-elected ecclesiastical offices to which they are tied.

The descent from the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties is depicted in the Imperial Patriarchate’s symbology. The basic coat of arms of the Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarch features a white eagle on a blue shield.  The Frankish eagle on the shield recalls both Carolingian heritage and the Merovingians, for the shield is similar to that of the Merovingian Kingdom of Burgundy. Holding imperial dignity and co-imperial rank, the shield is depicted upon a golden double-headed eagle.

Basic coat of arms of the 
Imperial Patriarch of St. Stephen

The Anglo-Italian Imperial Patriarchate of today has a rich ethnic heritage rooted in the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties stretching from the Italian peninsula to the northern Rheinland and spanning over 1500 years of history. Latino and Germanic, it is a composite of distinct and ancient legacies united together in one ecclesiastical sovereignty. The Imperial Patriarchate carries those legacies into the future.