Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday 28 June 2014

Sarajevo assassination centenary



Today has been the centenary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo in 1914. There is a good online account and discussion about the shadowy forces in the background here.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand greets dignitaries in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, shortly before his assassination by Gavrilo Princip.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand greets dignitaries in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, shortly before his assassination by Gavrilo Princip.

Image:smh.com.au

The BBC has a report about various commemorations of the events of the day here. I do find it shocking that looking back over all that has flowed from Princip's action that day there are still Serb Nationalists who feel able to honour him with new statues. Given the appalling loss of life in two world wars, horrendous political repression of nations and traditions under evil regimes of the radical left and right, not to mention the more specific sufferings of the southern Slavs in more recent years, surely repentance and reflection not adulation is called for. Frankly it seems to me to be depraved to honour Princip, who has so much blood on his hands

There are reports in several newspapers about the divided mood in Sarajevo which can be seen online at Villain or hero? Sarajevo is split on archduke's assassin Gavrilo Princip - The Guardian,
100 years since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: A divided Sarajevo marks the event that triggered the ... - The Independent, and Bosnian Serbs in their half of Sarajevo erect statue of 'hero' assassin who triggered WWI as divided city marks 100th ... - Daily Mail . This last one has a good series of photographs of surviving relics from the events of 1914.

The Guardian also has an online article about how it covered the assassination in its page sin the summer of 1914 and this can be viewed here. There is another account of contemporay reaction in the post here from the blog To Find the Principles.

My previous posts about the events of that terrible day can be read at Sarajevo remembered
from 2010,  Sarajevo assassination from 2011 and Assassination in Sarajevo from 2012.

One thing one could do today was to pray for the souls of the Archduke and his Duchess, and for teh countless souls of those who died as a result, or whose lives were maimed by the consequences of that day. As I have opined before, ultimately, we are all victims of Sarajevo.

 







































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