Father of Stoic revival awarded Order of Duke Ketel

On 17 February 2023, Erik. D. Wiegardt, founder of the New Stoa, the Stoic Registry, the College of Stoic Philosophers, the Black Eagle Stoic Monastery and many other Stoic projects, received the Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Ketel from Count Miklós Cseszneky, Grand Master of the Hungary-based organization.

Erik Wiegardt has been a Stoic for more than half a century, and he is widely considered as the re-founder of the Stoa. His latest project is Eternal Questions, a journal of metaphysics.

The Order of Duke Ketel was established in the last century, under the auspices of the House of Savoy, by a Hungarian-Croatian aristocrat Count Gyula Cseszneky as a dynastic honour of his lineage, which is one of the most ancient noble families of Hungary and Croatia. The name of the Order refers to a legendary ancestor of the House of Cseszneky: Duke Ketel was a Khazar-Pecheneg leader who, according to mediaeval chronicles, at the end of the 9th century joined the Magyar confederation led by Grand Prince Álmos, and then participated in the conquest of Hungary. The Grand Cross is the most prestigious grade of the Order, inferior only to the Grand Collar, which is reserved for heads of state and the Holy Father.

The Most Honourable Knight Erik D. Wiegardt is also an honorary knight of the Order of Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic chivalric organization.