Tea at Trianon: The Mystery of the Cross in the Old Testament

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, January 8, 2026

The Mystery of the Cross in the Old Testament

From The Uncreated Light:

When people were dying from venomous snakes in Numbers 21 after speaking against the Lord, God saw the repentance of the people and told Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8).
This prefigures the Cross as well as St. Cyril of Jerusalem notes, “This was the figure which Moses completed by fixing the serpent to a cross, that whoever had been bitten by the living serpent, and looked to the brasen serpent, might be saved by believing. Does then the brazen serpent save when crucified, and shall not the Son of God incarnate save when crucified also? On each occasion life comes by means of wood.” + St. Cyril of Jerusalem (4).
Jesus Himself alludes to this event in John 3:14, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, likewise, the Son of Man must be lifted up.” Just as the serpent poisoned, God uses a serpent to heal. Just as all humanity fell in Adam, all humanity is raised and healed in Christ. This was done by means of the Cross. The serpent was bronze as it appears to be poisonous but is not, the same way Christ voluntarily took on sin even though He was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ was lifted up both on the Cross and in His ascension into heaven.
Both St. Luke of Simferopol and St. Gregory Palamas are cited as saying the snake was positioned horizontally by Moses on the stake, so that it resembled the Cross. St. Luke says, “Moses fashioned a large snake from bronze and put it on a pole similar to a cross. This was a clear type of our Lord Jesus Christ, who saves all from the death of sin, who with deep faith turn to Him, and with tears venerate His cross, through which He saved the world.” (5).
This along with Christ’s own words speak this reality. As does the icon of the event, the Cross is there. This specific one is a Russian icon from the 1500’s, the earliest surviving icon from the iconoclast period of this event is the 1000’s to my knowledge. (Read more.)