St. Gibitrudis October 26

 St. Gibitrudis

Feastday: October 26

Death: 665

Benedictine nun at Faremoutieren Brie, in France. She was trained by St. Fara.

St. Fulk of Pavia October 26

 St. Fulk of Pavia

Feastday: October 26

Birth: 1164

Death: 1229

Bishop of Pavia, Italy, born in Piacenza, of Scottish descent. After studying in Paris, France, he became the bishop of Piacenza and was then sent to Pavia by Pope Honorius III.

Fulk (1164 - 26 October[1] 1229) was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Piacenza from 1210 until 1217 and later as the Bishop of Pavia from 1217 until his death.[2][3] He served in various capacities prior to his episcopal appointment such as a canon and provost. He was known for making the effort of keeping out of political affairs since he wanted to dedicate himself more to diocesan affairs.[4] He was not consecrated as a bishop while in Piacenza until 1216 and some months after was transferred to Pavia where he would remain until his death.[2][3][5]

Life

Fulk was born in Piacenza in 1164 to Scottish parents who had Irish origins; he was also known as Folco Scotti with that surname being given during those times to Irish people who emigrated to the Italian mainland.[2][4] In 1184 he entered the Canons Regular of Sant'Eufemia before he did theological studies in Paris at the college there after having been sent there around 1185 (though he did first do his studies in Piacenza).[5] In or near 1194 he became the prior for Sant'Eufemia.[3]

Fulk for a brief period taught theological studies to students in Piacenza. He was appointed as a canon in Piacenza and after his studies in Paris became the archpriest for Piacenza.[5] He later was appointed as the Bishop of Piacenza on 2 August 1210 but Pope Honorius III later transferred him to Pavia diocese which he managed until his death. His selection for the Piacenza see received approval from the papal legate and Bishop of Novara Gherardo da Sessia who ensured that Pope Innocent III confirmed the selection. The pope himself conferred episcopal consecration upon him in 1216 just before transferring him to Pavia.[3]

It has been alleged in some sources that Fulk attended the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215.[3] Fulk died on 26 October 1229 in Pavia and after his death Pope Gregory IX canonized him as a saint during his pontificate; his remains were transferred from the old to new cathedral in 1567.[3]

St. Eata October 26

 St. Eata

Feastday: October 26

Death: 686

Eata St. Eata was one of twelve English youths whom St. Aidan educated at Lindisfarne, where Eata became a monk and a priest. At the request of St. Colman, he became the abbot. He was later abbot of Melrose and founded the monastery at Ripon in Yorkshire, which he left rather than abandon Celtic customs. After the Synod of Whitby, Eata, whom Bede describes as a man of peace, adopted Roman customs, and when Theodore of Canterbury divided the see of York into three bishoprics, he chose Eata to be the bishop of Bernicia. Eata served in this office from 678- 681. Theodore later split Bernicia into sees of Lindisfarne and Hexham and appointed Eata to Lindisfarne and Cuthbert to Hexham. The two men traded sees. Eata was the bishop of Hexham for a year before he died of dysentery in 686. He was buried near Wilfrid's church in Hexham.

Eata (died 26 October 686), also known as Eata of Lindisfarne, was Bishop of Hexham from 678 until 681,[1] and of then Bishop of Lindisfarne from before 681 until 685.[2] He then was translated back to Hexham where he served until his death in 685 or 686.[1] He was the first native of Northumbria to occupy the bishopric of Lindisfarne.

St. Eadfrid October 26

 St. Eadfrid

Feastday: October 26

Death: 675

Founder of Leominster Priory and a priest of Northumbria and Mercia, England

St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki October 26

 St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki

Feastday: October 26

Patron: of Thessaloniki, Greece patron of soldiers, patron of the Crusades

Birth: 270

Death: 306

Called a military martyr, and "the Megalomartyr" by the Greeks. He was a deacon martyred at Sirmium, in the former Yugoslavia. Early legends about Demetrius credit him with a military career. He was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and with St. George, he was the patron of the crusades.

This article is about the 4th-century Orthodox saint. For the other saint of the same name, see Pope Demetrius I of Alexandria. For the Crusader king of Thessaloniki, see Demetrius of Montferrat.

Demetrius (or Demetrios) of Thessaloniki (Greek: Άγιος Δημήτριος της Θεσσαλονίκης, Hágios Dēmḗtrios tēs Thessaloníkēs;[a]), also known as the Holy Great-Martyr Demetrius the Myroblyte (meaning 'the Myrrh-Gusher' or 'Myrrh-Streamer';[b] 3rd century – 306) was a Christian martyr of the early 4th century AD.

During the Middle Ages, he came to be revered as one of the most important Orthodox military saints, often paired with George of Lydda. His feast day is 26 October for Eastern Orthodox Christians, which falls on 8 November [NS] for those following the Old calendar. In the Roman Catholic church he is most commonly called "Demetrius of Sermium" and his memorial falls on 8 October.

Contents

1 Life

2 Veneration of sainthood and celebrations

3 Iconography

4 Music

5 See also

6 Notes

7 References

8 Sources

9 External links

Life

St Demetrius of Salonica, 18th century, Walters Art Museum

The earliest written accounts of his life were compiled in the 9th century, although there are earlier images of him, and the 7th-century Miracles of Saint Demetrius collection. According to these early accounts, Demetrius was born to pious Christian parents in Thessaloniki, Illyricum in 270.[3]

According to the hagiographies, Demetrius was a young man of senatorial family who became proconsul of the Thessalonica district. He was run through with spears in around 306 AD in Thessaloniki, during the Christian persecutions of Galerian,[4] which matches his depiction in the 7th century mosaics.

Veneration of sainthood and celebrations

Relics of Saint Demetrius at the Hagios Demetrios Basilica in Thessaloniki

Most historical scholars follow the hypothesis put forward by Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye (1859–1941), that his veneration was transferred from Sirmium[5] when Thessaloniki replaced it as the main military base in the area in 441/442 AD. His very large church in Thessaloniki, the Hagios Demetrios, dates from the mid-5th century.[6] Thessaloniki remained a centre of his veneration, and he is the patron saint of the city.

After the growth of his veneration as saint, the city of Thessaloniki suffered repeated attacks and sieges from the Slavic peoples who moved into the Balkans, and Demetrius was credited with many miraculous interventions to defend the city. Hence later traditions about Demetrius regard him as a soldier in the Roman army, and he came to be regarded as an important military martyr. Unsurprisingly, he was extremely popular in the Middle Ages. Disputes between Bohemond I of Antioch and Alexios I Komnenos appear to have resulted in Demetrius being appropriated as patron saint of crusading.[7]

Demetrius was also venerated as patron of agriculture, peasants and shepherds in the Greek countryside during the Middle Ages. According to historian Hans Kloft, he had inherited this role from the pagan goddess Demeter. After the demise of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Demeter's cult, in the 4th century, the Greek rural population had gradually transferred her rites and roles onto the Christian saint Demetrius.[2]

Most scholars still believe that for four centuries after his death, Demetrius had no physical relics, and in their place an unusual empty shrine called the "ciborium" was built inside Hagios Demetrios. What were purported to be his remains subsequently appeared in Thessaloniki, but the local archbishop John, who compiled the first book of the Miracles ca. 610, was publicly dismissive of their authenticity.[8] The relics were assumed to be genuine after they started emitting a liquid and strong-scented myrrh. This gave Demeterius the epithet Myroblyte.[3][c]

15th-century icon of St Demetrius (Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg)

In the Russian Orthodox Church, the Saturday before the Feast of Saint Demetrius is a memorial day commemorating the soldiers who fell in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), under the leadership of Demetrius of the Don. This day is known as Demetrius Saturday.[10] Demetrius was a patron saint of the Rurik dynasty from the late 11th century on. Izyaslav I of Kiev (whose Christian name was Dimitry) founded the first East Slavic monastery dedicated to this saint.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church revere Demetrius on 26 October (Димитровден Dimitrovden in Bulgarian); meanwhile the Serbian Orthodox Church and Macedonian Orthodox Church (Ohrid) and the Coptic Church have a feast on 8 November (called Mitrovdan in Serbian and Митровден in Macedonian).

The names Dimitry (Russian), Dimitar (Bulgarian), Mitri (short form of Dimitri in Lebanon) are in common use.

Iconography

Byzantine icon of the 10th century (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Modern Bulgarian icon of Demetrius spearing the gladiator Lyaeus, who is dressed in rather Turkish style (1824).

The hagiographic cycles of the Great Martyr Demetreus of Thessaloniki include depictions of scenes from Demeterius's life and his posthumous miracles.[11] Demetrius was initially depicted in icons and mosaics as a young man in patterned robes with the distinctive tablion of the senatorial class across his chest. Miraculous military interventions were attributed to him during several attacks on Thessaloniki, and he gradually became thought of as a soldier: a Constantinopolitan ivory of the late 10th century shows him as an infantry soldier (Metropolitan Museum of Art). But an icon of the late 11th century in Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai shows him as before, still a civilian. This may be due to iconic depiction customs on how saints are depicted.

Another Sinai icon, of the Crusader period and painted by a French artist working in the Holy Land in the second half of the 12th century, shows what then became the most common depiction. Demetrius, bearded, rather older, and on a red horse, rides together with George, unbearded and on a white horse.[12] Both are dressed as cavalrymen. Also, while George is often shown spearing a dragon, Demetrius is depicted spearing the gladiator Lyaeus (Λυαίος Lyaíos), who according to story was responsible for killing many Christians. Lyaeus is commonly depicted below Demetrius and lying supine, having already been defeated; Lyaeus is traditionally drawn much smaller than Demetrius. In traditional hagiography, Demetrius did not directly kill Lyaeus, but rather through his prayers the gladiator was defeated by Demetrius' disciple, Nestor.[11]

A modern Greek iconographic convention depicts Demetrius with the Great White Tower in the background. The anachronistic White Tower acts as a symbolic depiction of the city of Thessaloniki, despite having been built in the 16th century, centuries after his life, and the exact architecture of the older tower that stood at the same site in earlier times is unknown. Again, iconography often depicts saints holding a church or protecting a city.

According to hagiographic legend, as retold by Dimitry of Rostov in particular, Demetrius appeared in 1207 in the camp of tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria, piercing the king with a lance and so killing him. This scene, known as Чудо о погибели царя Калояна ("the miracle of the destruction of tsar Kaloyan") became a popular element in the iconography of Demetrius. He is shown on horseback piercing the king with his spear,[13] paralleling the iconography (and often shown alongside) of Saint George and the Dragon.

Music

In 1962 the life and martyrdom of Demetrius became the subject of a 90-minute oratorio by Greek composer Nicolas Astrinidis. Three parts of the work were premiered at the first Demetria Festival in Thessaloniki on 26 October 1962. The entire oratorio was premiered in 1966 and received subsequent performances in 1985 (Thessaloniki) and in 1993 (Bucharest).[14] All performances have been recorded

St. Cuthbert of Canterbury October 26

 St. Cuthbert of Canterbury

Feastday: October 26

Death: 760

Benedictine archbishop of Canterbury. He was a monk at Lyminge, in Kent, England, until about 736, when he was appointed the bishop of Hereford. About 740, he became the archbishop of Canterbury. He is remembered as one of St. Boniface's correspondents in England.

Cuthbert (died 26 October 760) was a medieval Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury in England. Prior to his elevation to Canterbury, he was abbot of a monastic house, and perhaps may have been Bishop of Hereford also, but evidence for his holding Hereford mainly dates from after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. While Archbishop, he held church councils and built a new church in Canterbury. It was during Cuthbert's archbishopric that the Diocese of York was raised to an archbishopric. Cuthbert died in 760 and was later regarded as a saint.

Of noble birth,[1] Cuthbert is first recorded as the abbot of Lyminge Abbey, from where he was elevated to the see of Hereford in 736.[2] The identification of the Cuthbert who was Bishop of Hereford with the Cuthbert who became archbishop, however, comes from Florence of Worcester and other post-Conquest sources. The contemporary record in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Cuthbert was consecrated archbishop, where if he had been Bishop of Hereford, he would have been translated. No consecration is needed when a bishop is translated from one see to another. Given the nature of the sources, the identification of the bishop of Hereford with the archbishop of Canterbury, while likely, must not be regarded as proven.[3]

If Cuthbert was at Hereford, he served in that capacity for four years before his elevation to the See of Canterbury in 740.[4] He is credited with the composition of an epitaph for the tomb of his three predecessors at Hereford. The cathedral church of the see may not even have been located at Hereford by Cuthbert's time.[5][6]

Whoever Cuthbert was prior to his election to Canterbury, he probably owed his selection as archbishop to the influence of Æthelbald, King of Mercia.[7] A number of Mercians were appointed to Canterbury during the 730s and 740s, which suggests that Mercian authority was expanding into Kent.[8]

Canterbury

Cuthbert was the recipient of a long letter from Boniface who complained about the lax morals of the clergy in the British Isles,[9] and too much drinking of alcohol by the Anglo-Saxon bishops.[10] Cuthbert also sent letters to Lull who was Archbishop of Mainz and a native of England.[11] During Cuthbert's time as archbishop he no longer claimed authority over all of Britain, like his predecessor Theodore. Pope Gregory III in 735 had sent a pallium to the bishop of York, raising the see of York to the status of an archbishopric. As a sign of the enhanced status of York, Cuthbert only consecrated bishops south of the Humber and his synods were attended only by bishops from the south of England.[3]

Cuthbert presided over the Council of Clovesho in 747 along with Æthelbald of Mercia.[12] This gathering mandated that all clergy should explain the basic tenets of Christianity to the laity,[1] as well as legislating on clerical dress, control of monasteries, and the behavior of the clergy. It also mandated that each diocese hold a synod to proclaim the decisions of the council.[12] Cuthbert sent his deacon Cynebert to Pope Gregory III after the council with a report on the council and its resolutions. This action may have been taken in response to Boniface's complaints about Cuthbert and Æthelbald to the papacy.[1] The actions of the council were also gathered into a collection at Cuthbert's command.[13]

After the council, Cuthbert continued to correspond with Boniface up until Boniface's martyrdom in 754, and then sent condolences to Boniface's successor. Cuthbert held a second synod in 758, but nothing is known of any enactments it made. He also built the church of St. John the Baptist in Canterbury, which was destroyed by fire in 1067. He was buried in his new church.[14] The new church was located on the west side of the cathedral, and was used as a baptistery.[15][16] The church also became a burial site for many of the archbishops, and later was used for trials by ordeal. There is no explicit contemporary reference that states that these uses were intended by Cuthbert, but the fact that the church was dedicated to St. John the Baptist argues strongly that Cuthbert at least intended the new building as a baptistery.[17]

The burial practices of the archbishops did change after Cuthbert, but it is not clear whether this was intended by Cuthbert, as a Post-Conquest Canterbury cartulary has it, or due to other reasons, unconnected with Cuthbert. Although Sonia Hawkes argues that the change in burial customs, which extended over most of Britain, resulted from Cuthbert's mandating burial in church yards, instead of outside the city limits as had been the custom previously. However, the main evidence for this theory is a 16th-century tradition at Canterbury and the archaeological evidence of a change in burial patterns. Although a change did occur, the archaeological evidence does not give a reason why this change happened, and given the late date of the Canterbury tradition, the theory cannot be considered proven.[3]

Death and legacy

Cuthbert died on 26 October 760,[4] and was later considered a saint with a feast day of 26 October.[18] He was buried in his church of St. John, and was the first Archbishop of Canterbury that was not buried in St Augustine's Abbey.[19] His letters to the Anglo-Saxon missionaries on the European continent show him to have been highly educated.[20]

St. Cedd October 26

St. Cedd

Feastday: October 26

Patron: of Essex; Lastingham; interpreters

Birth: 620

Death: 664

Cedd A disciple of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, St. Cedd was the brother of St. Chad, Cynebill, and Cćlin, all of whom became monks. Cedd, whom Peada of Mercia invited to preach among the Middle Angles, was ordained in 653. A year later, the priest was sent as a missionary to Essex, when the East Anglian king Sigbert converted to Christianity. Finan of Lindisfarne made Cedd bishop because of his success. Cedd founded several monasteries, including Tilbury and Lastingham. In 664, Cedd was an interpreter at the Synod of Whitby and accepted Oswiu's adoption of Roman usage. Cedd died that year at Lastingham of the plague.

For the Hong Kong government department, see Civil Engineering and Development Department.

Cedd (Latin: Cedda, Ceddus; c. 620 – 26 October 664) was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from the Kingdom of Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, Anglicanism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The little that is known about Cedd comes to us mainly from the writing of Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The following account is based entirely on Book 3 of Bede's History.

Cedd was born in the kingdom of Northumbria and brought up on the island of Lindisfarne by Aidan of the Irish Church. He had three brothers: Chad of Mercia (transcribed into Bede's Latin text as Ceadda), Cynibil and Cælin).[1] All four were priests and both Cedd and Chad became bishops. The first datable reference to Cedd by Bede makes clear that he was a priest by the year 653.[2] This probably pushes his birth date back to the early 620s. It is likely that Cedd was oldest of the brothers and was acknowledged the head of the family. He seems to have taken the lead, while Chad was his chosen successor.

Aidan had come to Northumbria from Iona, bringing with him a set of practices that are known as the Celtic Rite. As well as superficial differences over the Computus (calculation of the date of Easter), and the cut of the tonsure, these involved a pattern of Church organization fundamentally different from the diocesan structure that was evolving on the continent of Europe. Activity was based in monasteries, which supported peripatetic missionary bishops. There was a strong emphasis on personal asceticism, on Biblical exegesis, and on eschatology. Aidan was well known for his personal austerity and disregard for the trappings of wealth and power. Bede several times stresses that Cedd and Chad absorbed his example and traditions. Bede tells us that Chad and many other Northumbrians went to study with the Irish after the death of Aidan[3] (651).

Cedd is not mentioned as one of the wandering scholars. He is portrayed by Bede as very close to Aidan's successor, Finan. So it is highly likely that he owed his entire formation as a priest and scholar to Aidan and to Lindisfarne.

Mission to Mercia

In 653, Cedd was sent by Oswiu of Northumberland with three other priests to evangelise the Middle Angles,[2] who were one of the core ethnic groups of Mercia, based on the mid-Trent Valley. Peada of Mercia, son of Penda, was sub-king of the Middle Angles. Peada had agreed to become a Christian in return for the hand of Oswiu's daughter, Alchflaed (c.635-c.714) in marriage. This was a time of growing Northumbrian power, as Oswiu reunited and consolidated the Northumbrian kingdom after its earlier (641/2) defeat by Penda. Peada travelled to Northumbria to negotiate his marriage and baptism.

Cedd, together with the priests, Adda, Betti and Diuma, accompanied Peada back to Middle Anglia, where they won numerous converts of all classes. Bede relates that the pagan Penda did not obstruct preaching even among his subjects in Mercia proper, and portrays him as generally sympathetic to Christianity at this point – a very different view from the general estimate of Penda as a devoted pagan. But, the mission apparently made little headway in the wider Mercian polity. Bede credits Cedd's brother Chad with the effective evangelization of Mercia more than a decade later. To make progress among the general population, Christianity appeared to need positive royal backing, including grants of land for monasteries, rather than a benign attitude from leaders.

Bishop of the East Saxons

Cedd was soon recalled from the mission to Mercia by Oswiu, who sent him on a mission with one other priest to the East Saxon kingdom. The priests had been requested by Sigeberht the Good to reconvert his people.[4]

The East Saxon kingdom was originally converted by missionaries from Canterbury, where Augustine of Canterbury had established a Roman mission in 597. The first bishop of the Roman Rite was Mellitus, who arrived in Essex in 604. After a decade, he was driven out of the area. The religious destiny of the kingdom was constantly in the balance, with the royal family itself divided among Christians, pagans, and some wanting to tolerate both.

Bede tells us that Sigeberht's decision to be baptized and to reconvert his kingdom was at the initiative of Oswiu. Sigeberht travelled to Northumbria to accept baptism from Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne. Cedd went to the East Saxons partly as an emissary of the Northumbrian monarchy. Certainly his prospects were helped by the continuing military and political success of Northumbria, especially the final defeat of Penda in 655. Practically, Northumbria gained hegemony among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

After making some conversions, Cedd returned to Lindisfarne to report to Finan. In recognition of his success, Finan ordained him bishop, calling in two other Irish bishops to assist at the rite. Cedd was appointed bishop of the East Saxons. As a result, he is generally listed among the bishops of London, a part of the East Saxon kingdom. Bede, however, generally uses ethnic descriptions for episcopal responsibilities when dealing with the generation of Cedd and Chad.

Bede's record makes clear that Cedd demanded personal commitment and that he was unafraid to confront the powerful. He excommunicated a thegn who was in an unlawful marriage and forbade Christians to accept the man's hospitality. According to Bede, when Sigeberht continued to visit the man's home, Cedd went to the house to denounce the king, foretelling that he would die in that house. Bede asserts that the King's subsequent murder (660) was his penance for defying Cedd's injunction.

After the death of Sigeberht, there were signs that Cedd had a more precarious position. The new king, Swithhelm of Essex, who had assassinated Sigeberht, was a pagan. He had long been a client of Æthelwold of East Anglia, who was increasingly dependent on Wulfhere of Mercia, the Christian king of a newly resurgent Mercia. After some persuasion from Ethelwald, Swithelm accepted baptism from Cedd. The bishop traveled into East Anglia to baptize the king at Ethelwald's home. For a time, the East Saxon kingdom remained Christian.

Bede presents Cedd's work as decisive in the conversion of the East Saxons, although it was preceded by other missionaries, and eventually followed by a revival of paganism. Despite the substantial work, the future suggested that all could be undone.

Monastic foundations

Cedd founded many churches. He also founded monasteries at Tilaburg (probably East Tilbury, but possibly West Tilbury) and Ithancester (almost certainly Bradwell-on-Sea).

Cedd was appointed as abbot of the monastery of Lastingham in his native Northumbria at the request of the sub-king Œthelwald of Deira. Bede records the foundation of this monastery in some detail,[1] showing that Ethelwald was put in contact with Cedd through Caelin, one of the bishop's brothers, who was on the king's staff. Cedd undertook a 40-day fast to purify the site, although urgent royal business took him away after 30 days, and Cynibil took over the fast for him.

Cedd occupied the position of abbot of Lastingham to the end of his life, while maintaining his position as missionary bishop and diplomat. He often traveled far from the monastery in fulfillment of these other duties. His brother Chad, who succeeded him as abbot, did the same. Cedd and his brothers regarded Lastingham as a monastic base,[5] providing intellectual and spiritual support, and a place of retreat. Cedd delegated daily care of Lastingham to other priests, and it is likely that Chad operated similarly.

Final years

Cedd had been brought up in the Celtic Rite, which differed from the Roman Rite in the dating of the religious calendar and other practices, including the tonsure of monks. Supporters of each rite met at a council within the Northumbrian kingdom known as the Synod of Whitby. The proceedings of the council were hampered by the participants' mutual incomprehension of each other's languages, which probably included Old Irish, Old English, Frankish and Old Welsh, as well as Latin. Bede recounted that Cedd interpreted for both sides.[6] Cedd's facility with the languages, together with his status as a trusted royal emissary, likely made him a key figure in the negotiations. His skills were seen as an eschatological sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, in contrast to the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel.[7] When the council ended, Cedd returned to Essex.

According to Bede, Cedd accepted the Roman dating of the observance of Easter.[8] He returned to his work as bishop, abandoning the practices of the Irish of Dál Riata.

A short time later, he returned to Northumbria and the monastery at Lastingham. He fell ill with the plague and died on 26 October 664.[1][9] Bede records that immediately after Cedd's death a party of thirty monks travelled up from Essex to Lastingham to do homage.[10] All but one small boy died there, also of the plague. Cedd was initially buried at Lastingham in a grave. Later, when a stone church was built, his body was moved and re-interred in a shrine inside the church of the monastery. Chad succeeded his brother as abbot at Lastingham.

King Swithhelm of Essex died at about the same time as Cedd. He was succeeded by the joint kings Sighere and Sæbbi. Some people reverted to paganism, which Bede said was due to the effects of the plague. Mercia under King Wulfhere was the dominant force south of the Humber, so it fell to Wulfhere to take prompt action. He dispatched Bishop Jaruman to take over Cedd's work among the East Saxons. Jaruman, working (according to Bede) with great discretion, toured Essex, negotiated with local magnates, and soon restored Christianity.[11]

St. Albinus October 26

 St. Albinus

Feastday: October 26

Death: 760

Bishop and missionary companion of St. Boniface, originally called Witta. An Anglo-Saxon by birth, he became a Benedictine monk, probably at the monastery of Pereum, Germany. There he was chosen to be one of the missionaries accompanying St. Boniface. Albinus became bishop of Buraburg in Hesse, Germany, in 741. He remained the head of that see until his death.

St. Bean October 26

 St. Bean

Feastday: October 26

Image of St. Bean

On December 16, there is named in the Roman Martyrology and in certain Irish calendars a Saint Bean in Ireland, who had been confused with the St. Bean whose feast is still observed in the Scottish diocese of Aberdeen, but on October 26, as founder of the bishopric of Mortlach in Banff which was the forerunner of that of Aberdeen. Nothing else is known about him. The fourteenth century chronicler Fordun, states that he was made bishop by Pope Benedict VIII, at the request of Malcolm Canmore, who is said to have founded an episcopal monastery at Mortlach. If true, this would be between 1012 and 1024; but the See of Mortlach is generally said to date from 1063. St. Bean's dwelling place is supposed to have been at Balvanie, near Mortlach (Bal-beni-mor, "the dwelling of Bean the Great"). His feast day is October 26th.

2020-10-26ஸ்ட்ராஸ்பூர்க் ஆயர் அமாண்டூஸ் Amandus von Straßburg

2020-10-26

ஸ்ட்ராஸ்பூர்க் ஆயர் அமாண்டூஸ் Amandus von Straßburg

பிறப்பு 

290

இறப்பு 

355, 

ஸ்ட்ராஸ்பூர்க், பிரான்ஸ்

இவர் ஸ்ட்ராஸ்பூர்க் மறைமாவட்டத்தின் முதல் ஆயர். இவர் 343 ல் சார்டிகா(Sardika) நகரில் நடந்த பொதுச்சங்கத்தின் தலைவராக தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டார். 346 ஆம் ஆண்டு கொலோன் நகரில் நடந்த பொதுச்சங்கத்தையும் தலைமையேற்று நடத்தினார். இவர் இறந்தபிறகு, ஸ்ட்ராஸ்பூர்க் பேராலயத்தில் இவரது உடல் வைக்கப்பட்டது. இவர் எப்போதும் ஆயருக்குரிய உடையுடனே வாழ்ந்தார் என்று கூறப்படுகின்றது. இவரைப்பற்றிய மற்ற குறிப்புகள் எதுவும் கொடுக்கப்படவில்லை

செபம்:

ஞானத்தின் ஊற்றே எம் இறைவா! சிறந்த அறிவாளியான் ஆயர் ஆமாண்டூசை எம் திருச்சபைக்கு தந்தமைக்காக நாங்கள் உமக்கு நன்றி நவில்கின்றோம். எம் திருச்சபையில் உள்ள ஆயர்கள் அனைவருக்கும் ஞானத்தையும், அறிவையும் தந்து, உம் மந்தையின் ஆடுகளை பேணி வளர்க்க, தேவையான அருளை தந்திட வேண்டுமென்று இறைவா உம்மை இறைஞ்சி மன்றாடுகின்றோம்.

புனிதர் முதலாம் ஆல்ஃபிரட் ✠(St. Alfred the Great. அக்டோபர் 26

† இன்றைய புனிதர் †

(அக்டோபர் 26)

✠ புனிதர் முதலாம் ஆல்ஃபிரட் ✠

(St. Alfred the Great)

ஆங்கிலோ-சாக்ஸன் இன அரசர்:

(King of the Anglo-Saxons)

ஆட்சிகாலம்: ஏப்ரல் 23, 871 - அக்டோபர் 26, 899

இவருக்கு முன்னர் பதவி வகித்தவர்: எத்தெல்பெர்ட் (Æthelred)

இவருக்குப் பிறகு பதவி வகித்தவர்: மூத்த எட்வர்ட் (Edward the Elder)

பிறப்பு: கி.பி. 849

வேன்டேஜ், பெர்க்ஷயர்

(Wantage, Berkshire)

இறப்பு: அக்டோபர் 26, 899 (வயது சுமார் 50)

வின்செஸ்டர் (Winchester)

நினைவுத் திருநாள்: அக்டோபர் 26

பேரரசர் ஆல்ஃபிரட், ஆங்கிலோ - சாக்சான் அரசின், (Anglo-Saxons) வெசெக்ஸ் (Wessex) பகுதியை கி.பி. 871ம் ஆண்டு முதல் கி.பி. 899ம் ஆண்டு வரை ஆண்ட அரசர் ஆவார்.

வெசக்ஸின் அரசன் எதெல்வுல்ஃப் (King Æthelwulf of Wessex) மற்றும் அவரது முதல் மனைவியான “ஒஸ்பூர்” (Osburh) ஆகியோரது கடைசி மகனாகப் பிறந்தவர் ஆல்ஃபிரட் ஆவார். கி.பி. 853ம் ஆண்டு, தமது நான்கு வயதில் ரோம் நகர் அனுப்பப்பட்ட இவர், திருத்தந்தை நான்காம் லியோவால் (Pope Leo IV) அரசனாக அபிஷேகம் செய்விக்கப்பட்டார். ஆல்ஃபிரட், தமது குழந்தைப் பருவத்தில், சாக்ஸன் கவிதைகள் (Saxon poems) கொண்ட ஒரு புத்தகத்திலுள்ள கவிதைகளை மனப்பாடம் செய்து தமது தாயாரிடம் ஒப்பித்து, அந்த புத்தகத்தை பரிசாக வென்ற கதையை ஆயர் “ஆஸ்செர்” (Bishop Asser) கூறுகிறார்.

இவரது அண்ணன் “எதல்ரெட்” (Æthelred) இறந்தபின் அரியணை ஏறிய ஆல்ஃபிரட் மிகத் திறமையான ஆட்சியாளராவார். ஆட்சிப் பொறுப்பை ஏற்றபின் வில்டன் என்ற இடத்தில் நடந்த போரில் டேனியர்களிடமிருந்து வெசக்ஸ் நாட்டைக் காத்த பெருமைக்குரியவர். ஆங்கிலோ - சாக்சானிய அரசர்களுல் முதன் முதலில் பேரரசர் என அழைக்கப்பட்ட பெருமைக்குரியர் இவரே ஆவார். இவருடைய வாழ்க்கை வரலாறு “வெல்ஷ்” (Welsh) அறிஞரும், ஆயருமான “ஆஸ்செர்” (Asser) என்பவரால் ஒன்பதாம் நூற்றாண்டில் எழுதப்பட்டது. 

தனது நாட்டில் கல்வி, அமைதி, ஒழுங்கு, சட்டம், இராணுவம் ஆகியவை நிலைபெற அரும்பணியாற்றினார். டேனிஷ் (Danish) படையினரால் மீண்டும் அச்சுறுத்தல்கள் ஏற்படாதிருக்குமாறு தமது இராச்சியத்தின் பாதுகாப்பை கட்டியெழுப்பினார். அடிக்கடி கடலோரப்பகுதிகளில் தொல்லைகள் தந்த டேனிஷ் (Danish) படையினரை ஒடுக்குவதற்காக கடற்படையையும் நிறுவினார். தமது இராணுவத்தை மறுசீரமைத்த அவர், தெற்கு இங்கிலாந்து முழுவதும் நன்கு பாதுகாக்கப்பட்ட குடியேற்றங்களின் ஒரு தொடரை கட்டமைத்தார்.

கல்வியின் முக்கியத்துவத்தில் வலுவான நம்பிக்கை கொண்டிருந்த பேரரசர் ஆல்ஃபிரெட், தமது முப்பது வயதில் இலத்தீன் மொழியைக் கற்றார். இவர், சிறந்த கல்வியாளராகவும், சிறந்த நிர்வாகியாகவும், கருணையுள்ளம் கொண்டவராகவும் விளங்கினார். கற்றறிந்த மற்றும் இயற்கையாகவே ஒரு கருணையும் இரக்கமுமுள்ள மனிதனாக புகழ் பெற்றவர் ஆவார். கல்வியை ஊக்குவித்த இவர், ஆரம்பக் கல்வியில் இலத்தீன் மொழியை விட ஆங்கில மொழியையே ஊக்குவித்தார். தமது அரசியலின் சட்ட அமைப்பு, இராணுவ அமைப்பு மற்றும் அவரது மக்களின் வாழ்க்கைத் தரத்தை மேம்படுத்த பெரிதும் பாடுபட்டார்.

கி.பி. 899ம் ஆண்டு, அக்டோபர் மாதம் மரித்த பேரரசர் ஆல்ஃபிரட், அவரது தலைநகரான வின்செஸ்டரில் (Winchester) அடக்கம் செய்யப்பட்டார்.

† Saint of the Day †

(October 26)

✠ St. Alfred the Great ✠

King of the Anglo-Saxons:

Reign: April 23, 871 – October 26, 899

Predecessor: Æthelred

Successor: Edward the Elder

Born: 849 AD

Wantage, Berkshire

Died: October 26, 899 (Around Age 50)

Winchester

Feast: October 26

Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.

King of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and one of the outstanding figures of English history, as much for his social and educational reforms as for his military successes against the Danes. He is the only English monarch known as 'the Great'.

Alfred was born at Wantage in Oxfordshire in 849, fourth or fifth son of Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons. Following the wishes of their father, the sons succeeded to the kingship in turn. At a time when the country was under threat from Danish raids, this was aimed at preventing a child inheriting the throne with the related weaknesses in leadership. In 870 AD the Danes attacked the only remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, whose forces were commanded by Alfred's older brother, King Aethelred, and Alfred himself.

King Alfred of Wessex is probably the best known of all Anglo-Saxon rulers, even if the first thing to come into many people’s minds in connection with him is something to do with burnt confectionery. The year 1999 saw the 1100th anniversary of his death on October 26th, 899, at the age of about 50. The occasion is being marked with conferences and exhibitions in Winchester, Southampton, and London, but the scale of celebrations will be modest compared with those which commemorated his millenary, and culminated in the unveiling by Lord Rosebery of his statue in Winchester.

Alfred’s reputation still stands high with historians, though few would now want to follow Edward Freeman in claiming him as ‘the most perfect character in history’ (The History of the Norman Conquest of England, 5 volumes, 1867-79). Alfred is someone who has had greatness thrust upon him. How and why did he acquire his glowing reputation, and how does it stand up today?

There can be no doubt that Alfred’s reign was significant, both for the direction of the country’s development and for the fortunes of his descendants. After the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia had fallen to the Vikings, Wessex under Alfred was the only surviving Anglo-Saxon province. Alfred nearly succumbed to the Vikings as well, but kept his nerve and won a decisive victory at the battle of Edington in 879. Further Viking threats were kept at bay by a reorganization of military service and particularly through the ringing of Wessex by a regular system of garrisoned fortresses. At the same time, Alfred promoted himself as the defender of all Christian Anglo-Saxons against the pagan Viking threat and began the liberation of neighbouring areas from Viking control. He thus paved the way for the future unity of England, which was brought to fruition under his son and grandsons, who conquered the remaining areas held by the Vikings in the east and north, so that by the mid-tenth century the England we are familiar with was ruled as one country for the first time.

His preservation from the Vikings and unexpected succession as king after the death of four older brothers, seem to have given Alfred a sense that he had been specially destined for high office. With the help of advisers from other areas of England, Wales and Francia, Alfred studied, and even translated from Latin into Old English, certain works that were regarded at the time as providing models of ideal Christian kingship and ‘most necessary for all men to know’.

Alfred tried to put these principles into practice, for instance, in the production of his law-code. He became convinced that those in authority in church or state could not act justly or effectively without the ‘wisdom’ acquired through study, and set up schools to ensure that future generations of priests and secular administrators would be better trained, as well as encouraging the nobles at his court to emulate his own example in reading and study. Alfred also had the foresight to commission his biography from Bishop Asser of Wales. Asser presented Alfred as the embodiment of the ideal, but practical, Christian ruler. Alfred was the ‘truthteller’, a brave, resourceful, pious man, who was generous to the church and anxious to rule his people justly. One could say that Asser accentuated the positive, and ignored those elements of ruthless, dictatorial behaviour which any king needed to survive in ninth-century realpolitik. Alfred and Asser did such a good job that when later generations looked back at his reign through their works they saw only a ruler apparently more perfect than any before or after. Alfred is often thought to have provided his own epitaph in this passage from his translation of the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius:

I desired to live worthily as long as I lived and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works.

Alfred, particularly as presented by Asser, may have had something of a saint in him, but he was never canonized and this put him at something of a disadvantage in the later medieval world. The Normans and their successors were certainly interested in presenting themselves as the legitimate heirs of their Anglo-Saxon predecessors but favoured the recognised royal saints, especially Edmund of the East Angles, killed by the Danish army which Alfred defeated, and Edward the Confessor, the last ruler of the old West Saxon dynasty. St Edmund and St Edward can be seen supporting Richard II on the Wilton diptych, and members of the later medieval royal houses were named after them. Nor were Alfred’s heroic defeats of the pagan Vikings enough to make him the favoured military hero of the post-Conquest period. None of the Anglo-Saxon rulers qualified for this role. After Geoffrey of Monmouth’s successful promotion, the British Arthur was preferred – a man whose reputation was not constrained by inconvenient facts, and who proved extremely adaptable to changing literary conventions. However, Alfred was lauded by Anglo-Norman historians, like William of Malmesbury, Gaimar and Matthew Paris, and their presentations, and occasional embellishments, of his achievements, would be picked up by later writers. Alfred’s well-attested interest in learning made him the obvious choice to be retrospectively chosen as the founder of Oxford University when that institution felt the need to establish its historical credentials in the 14th century.

Alfred’s lack of a saintly epithet, a disadvantage in the high Middle Ages, was the salvation of his reputation in a post-Reformation world. As a pious king with an interest in promoting the use of English, Alfred was an ideal figurehead for the emerging English Protestant church. The works he had commissioned or translated were interpreted as evidence for the pure Anglo-Saxon church before it had become tainted by the false Romanism introduced by the Normans. With a bit of selective editing, Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical provision came to bear an uncanny resemblance to Elizabethan Anglicanism. Archbishop Matthew Parker did an important service to Alfred’s reputation by publishing an edition of Asser’s Life of Alfred in 1574, even if he could not resist adding the story of the burnt cakes which came from a separate, later, Anglo-Saxon source. Perhaps even more significant for getting Alfred’s reputation widely known was the enthusiastic notice of him in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1570 edition), where material derived from sources of Alfred’s own time was mixed with stories with a later currency, such as his visit to the Danish camp as a minstrel which was first recorded in a post-Conquest account. It was also writers of the sixteenth century who promoted the designation of Alfred as ‘the Great’, an epithet that had never been applied to him in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Comparable claims of the contribution of the Anglo-Saxons to English life were used to support radical political change in the seventeenth century, when it was argued, for instance, that the right of all freemen to vote for representatives in Parliament was lost Anglo-Saxon liberty. The relative abundance of sources from Alfred’s reign, including his surviving law-code and Asser’s description of his interest in law and administration, naturally meant that attention was drawn to him by those searching for an ancient constitution to serve contemporary needs. Alfred himself was an unlikely champion for the more radical movements and was more readily adopted by those who wanted to show Stuart, and eventually Hanoverian, rulers, how they could become successful constitutional monarchs by emulating their most famous Anglo-Saxon ancestor. Robert Powell, in his Life of Alfred, published in 1634, attempted to draw parallels between the reigns of Alfred and Charles I, something which often called for considerable ingenuity, and his hope that Charles would share the same respect for English law as that apparently shown by Alfred proved misplaced. Rather more impressive as a work of scholarship was Sir John Spelman’s Life of King Alfred, which drew upon an extensive range of primary material and itself became a source for later biographers. The work was dedicated to the future Charles II when Prince of Wales, and was completed during the Civil War in 1642, in the royalist camp at Oxford. Spelman was to die the following year of camp fever, and publication of the biography was delayed until more propitious times. In fact, any attempts to interest Stuart monarchs in their Saxon forebears had only limited success. The Stuarts’ preferred cultural reference points were from the classical world rather than the history of their own islands.

The common Saxon heritage of the Hanoverians and the Anglo-Saxons provided more fertile ground for the promotion of a cult of King Alfred. His first aristocratic and royal backers came from the circle which gathered around Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-51), the eldest son of George II, and was united by the opposition of its members to the prime minister Robert Walpole. Walpole’s opponents called themselves ‘the Patriots’, and Alfred was the first ‘Patriot King’, who had saved his country from tyranny, as it was devoutly hoped Frederick himself would do when he succeeded his father. A number of literary works centred upon Alfred were dedicated to the prince. Sir Richard Blackmore’s Alfred: an Epic Poem in Twelve Books (1723) enlivened the conventional accounts of Alfred’s reign with an extensive description of his imaginary travels in Europe and Africa, in which were concealed many heavy-handed compliments to Prince Frederick. Of much more lasting worth was Thomas Arne’s masque Alfred, which was first performed in 1740 at the prince’s country seat of Cliveden. The main text was provided by two authors already active in Frederick’s cause, James Thomson and David Mallett, but included an ode by Viscount Bolingbroke, one of the leaders of the opposition to Walpole who had defined their political philosophy in his essay ‘The Idea of a Patriot King’ (1738). A visual representation of this political manifesto was provided in Lord Cobham’s pleasure grounds at Stowe. Alfred’s bust was included alongside those of other Whig heroes in ‘The Temple of British Worthies’ completed in 1734-35 by William Kent. Alfred is described as ‘the mildest, justest, most beneficient of kings’ who ‘crushed corruption, guarded liberty, and was the founder of the English constitution’, in a pointed reference to qualities which George II was felt to lack. Alfred’s bust was placed next to that of the Black Prince, a Prince of Wales whose noble qualities were perceived as having been inherited by Frederick, particularly if he followed the example of King Alfred rather than that of his father.

The Stowe landscape gardens also contain a Gothic Temple, in which ‘Gothic’ should be understood as ancient Germanic. The building was dedicated ‘to the Liberty of our Ancestors’ and was surrounded by statues of Germanic deities (albeit in Classical pose), while the ceiling of the dome was decorated with the arms of the earls of Mercia from whom Lord Cobham claimed descent. This new interest in the Germanic past began to trickle down to other sectors of society. Those who could not afford to erect their own monuments to Alfred’s greatness might nevertheless find remembrances of him in the Wessex landscape. In 1738, the antiquarian Francis Wise, hoping to improve his promotion prospects at the University of Oxford, produced a pamphlet ‘concerning some antiquities in Berkshire’ in which he argued that the White Horse of Uffington had been cut to commemorate Alfred’s victory over the Vikings at the battle of Ashdown and that all other visible antiquities nearby had some connection with the campaign. His claims were entirely spurious but helped to publicize the idea that Alfred’s influence permeated the very fabric of the country. Those who could not have a Saxon memorial in their grounds or in the nearby countryside could at least own a print of the new genre of History painting. Alfredian topics, especially ‘Alfred in the neatherd’s cottage’ (the cake-burning episode), were among those frequently reproduced.

Alfred at Stowe was also remembered as one ‘who drove out the Danes, secured the seas’, and his role as defender of the country and supposed founder of the British navy ensured him increasing fame as the country found itself embroiled infrequent foreign wars as the reign of Frederick’s son, George III, progressed. A series of patriotic Alfred plays, opera and ballets were performed, particularly during the French Wars (1793-1815). More often than not they ended with the rousing anthem which had closed Arne’s Alfred, ‘Rule Britannia’, which became increasingly popular as an expression of loyalty to the crown under the threat of foreign attack. It was from this period that ‘Alfred’ became favoured as a Christian name at all levels of society.

As in other European countries, a new national pride in nineteenth-century England had an important historical dimension and an accompanying cult of the heroes who had made later success possible. The English, it was believed, could trace language and constitutional continuity back to the fifth century when they had defeated the effete Romans, and it became increasingly felt that other, positive, facets of ‘the national character’ could be traced back this far as well. These characteristics were felt to have made those of Anglo-Saxon descent uniquely programmed for success and to rule other less fortunately endowed peoples, and the best of them were represented by King Alfred himself. Alfred was fast being rediscovered as ‘the most perfect character in history’, and alongside his defence of constitutional liberties, his country and true religion were added renewed admiration for his Christian morality and sense of duty.

Anglo-Saxonism and the accompanying Alfredism could be found on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas Jefferson had ingeniously argued that as the Anglo-Saxons who had settled in Britain had ruled themselves independently from their Continental homelands, so the English settlers of America should also be allowed their independence. He believed both countries shared an Anglo-Saxon heritage and proposed a local government for Virginia based on a division into hundreds, an Anglo-Saxon institution widely believed then to have been instituted by Alfred. A less attractive side of this fascination with Anglo-Saxon roots was that it helped foster a belief in racial superiority, as celebrated in a short-lived periodical called The Anglo-Saxon (1849-50), which aimed to demonstrate how ‘the whole earth may be called the Fatherland of the Anglo-Saxon. He is a native of every clime – a messenger of heaven to every corner of this Planet.’

One of the chief supporters of The Anglo-Saxon, who wrote large segments of it if no other copy was available, was Martin Tupper, the author of several volumes of popular, highly sentimental and moralistic verses. Alfred was one of Tupper’s particular heroes, largely because he felt many of the King’s writings anticipated his own, and it was through his impetus that the millenary of Alfred’s birth at Wantage was celebrated in 1849, one of the earliest of all such jubilees. The event was not the success for which Tupper had hoped, largely because he left arrangements rather late in the day and had no influential backers.

During the reign of Victoria, who gave birth to the first Prince Alfred since the Anglo-Saxon period (b.1844), King Alfred was accepted as the founder of the nation and its essential institutions to such an extent that one commentator was moved to complain ‘it is surely a mistake to make Alfred, as some folks seem to do, into a kind of ninth-century incarnation of a combined School Board and County Council’. Alfred was no longer a mirror for princes, but an exemplar for people at all levels of society and, above all, for children. Charles Dickens’s A Child’s History of England (1851-53) can stand for many such works where Alfred was used to demonstrating the best of the English character:

The noble king... in his single person, possessed all the Saxon virtues. Whom misfortune could not subdue, whom prosperity could not spoil, whose perseverance, nothing could shake. Who was hopeful in defeat, and generous in success. Who loved justice, freedom, truth, and knowledge.

So much had Alfred become the epitome of the ideal Victorian that Walter Besant, in a lecture on Alfred in 1897, thought it entirely appropriate to apply to his verse that Alfred, Lord Tennyson had written to commemorate Prince Albert.

Alfred was no longer the totem of one political party. In 1877 Robert Loyd-Lindsay, Conservative MP for Berkshire and a perfect exemplar of the paternal landlord of Disraeli’s ‘Young England’ movement, provided Wantage with the statue that Tupper had hoped to raise in 1849, but for which he had failed to get funds. Wantage also got the grand occasion it had missed then as Edward, Prince of Wales, to whom Lindsay had once been an equerry, unveiled the statue carved by Count Gleichen, one of the Prince’s German cousins. In 1901, the year of Queen Victoria’s death, there were even greater celebrations to commemorate the millenary of that of Alfred. Problems with the calculation of Anglo-Saxon dates meant it was widely believed then that Alfred had died in 901, rather than 899, which is now recognized as the true date of his death, but at the time it seemed particularly apposite to many that the great Queen and her illustrious forebear had died a thousand years apart. On the surface, the Alfred millenary appeared to fulfil its aim, as advertised in the National Committee’s prospectus, of being ‘a National Commemoration of the king to whom this Empire owes so much’. The procession through the heart of Winchester to the site of Hamo Thornycroft’s giant statue of the King included representatives of Learned Societies and Universities ‘from all lands where the English speaking-race predominate’ (needless to say, they were all white males) and members of the different armed forces. Alfred was further commemorated in the same year by the launching of a new Dreadnought, the HMS King Alfred.

But in 1901 Britain was embroiled in the Boer War, and the priority was the reality of the present rather than an imagined past. The National Committee did not raise nearly as much money as it had expected and had to abandon many of its ambitious plans, including one for a Museum of Early English History. Many were worried about the direction Britain’s imperial policy was taking. Charles Stubbs, Dean of Ely, took advantage of the millenary year to suggest that Alfred’s standards were not only in advance of his own age but in advance of those of many statesmen of the present day, especially in their conduct of the Boer War, which had been prompted by ‘the insolence of pride... by the passion of vengeance... by the lust of gold’. But there was also a more positive side to the celebrations when Alfred was used, as he had been in the past, as a cloak for the introduction of change in society. It was not by chance that the statue was unveiled by the Liberal leader Lord Rosebery, for the former Whig support for British Worthies had never completely died away, and Liberals were prominent in the many commemorations of the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was a row over the statue of Oliver Cromwell, commissioned in 1895 by Rosebery from Thornycroft for the House of Commons, that precipitated the former’s resignation as Prime Minister. The most active members of the National Committee were leading Liberals and others, like the positivist Frederic Harrison and litterateur Walter Besant, who were associated with them in the promotion of Working Men's’ Colleges or the London County Council, formed in 1888 with Lord Rosebery as its first Chairman. Most active of all in the promotion of Alfred was the secretary of the National Committee and mayor of Winchester, Alfred Bowker, who used the millenary as an opportunity to develop the profile and scope of the Corporation of Winchester by, for instance, purchasing the site of Alfred’s final resting-place at Hyde Abbey with adjoining land that could be used for public recreation (as it still is today).

Lord Rosebery commented that the statue he was to unveil in Winchester can only be an effigy of the imagination, and so the Alfred we reverence may well be an idealized figure... we have draped around his form ... all the highest attributes of manhood and kingship.

Alfred, though no doubt gratified by his posthumous fame, would have trouble recognising himself in some of his later manifestations, and would find it difficult to comprehend, let alone approve, some of the constitutional developments he was supposed to have championed. One hopes that it will not be possible for such a wide divorce between an idealised Alfred and the reality of Anglo-Saxon rule to occur again, but it is possible that Alfred’s symbolic career is not over. Now that Britain is relapsing into its regional components, who better than Alfred, the champion of the English language and Anglo-Saxon hegemony, to be a figurehead of the new England?

~ Barbara Yorke

✠ புனிதர் எவரிஸ்டஸ் ✠(St. Evaristus)அக்டோபர் 26

† இன்றைய புனிதர் †

(அக்டோபர் 26)

✠ புனிதர் எவரிஸ்டஸ் ✠

(St. Evaristus)

ஐந்தாம் திருத்தந்தை:

(5th Pope)

பிறப்பு: ஏப்ரல் 17, 44

பெத்லகேம், யூதேயா

(Bethlehem, Judea)

இறப்பு: கி.பி சுமார் 107

ரோமை, ரோமப் பேரரசு

(Rome, Roman Empire)

ஏற்கும் சமயம்:

ரோமன் கத்தோலிக்க திருச்சபை

(Catholic Church)

கிழக்கு மரபுவழி திருச்சபை

(Eastern Orthodox Church)

இயற்பெயர்: எவரிஸ்டஸ் (அல்லது) அரிஸ்டஸ்

நினைவுத் திருநாள்: அக்டோபர் 26

புனிதர் எவரிஸ்டஸ் அல்லது அரிஸ்டஸ் (Aristus) கத்தோலிக்க திருச்சபையின் ஐந்தாம் திருத்தந்தையாவார். திருத்தந்தை புனிதர் “முதலாம் கிளமெண்ட்” (Pope Clement I) இவருக்கு முன்னர் திருத்தந்தையாகப் பதவியிலிருந்தவராவார். திருத்தந்தை புனிதர் “முதலாம் அலெக்சாண்டர்” (Pope Alexander I) இவருக்குப் பிறகு ஆட்சியிலிருந்தவராவார். தொடக்க கால கிறிஸ்தவ அறிஞர்களான இரனேயுஸ் மற்றும் செசரேயா யூசேபியஸ் (Eusebius) இச்செய்தியைத் தருகின்றனர்.

எவரிஸ்டஸ் என்னும் பெயர் கிரேக்க மொழியில் "இனிமை மிக்கவர்" என்று பொருள்படும்.

வாழ்க்கைக் குறிப்புகள்:

திருத்தந்தை எவரிஸ்டஸின் ஆட்சிக்காலம் குறித்து ஒத்த கருத்து இல்லை. "திருச்சபை வரலாறு" என்னும் நூலில் யூசேபியஸ் அந்த ஆட்சிக்காலம் கி.பி. 99 முதல் கி.பி. 108 வரை நீடித்தது என்கிறார். "லிபேரியன் குறிப்பேடு" என்னும் நூல் எவரிஸ்டஸின் பெயரை "அரிஸ்டஸ்" என்று குறிப்பிடுவதோடு, அவரது ஆட்சிக்காலம் கி.பி. 96 முதல் கி.பி. 108 வரை தொடர்ந்ததாகக் கூறுகிறது.

"திருத்தந்தையர் நூல்" (Liber Pontificalis) என்னும் ஏடு தருகின்ற கீழ்வரும் செய்திகள் உறுதிப்படுத்தப்படவில்லை. அதன்படி, கிரேக்கப் பின்னணியைச் சார்ந்த எவரிஸ்டஸ், யூதத் தந்தைக்கு பெத்லகேமில் மகனாகப் பிறந்தார். மறைச்சாட்சியாக உயிர் துறந்தார். ரோமத் திருச்சபையைப் பல பங்குகளாகப் பிரித்து குருக்களை நியமித்தார். 15 ஆயர்களையும் 17 குருக்களையும் 2 திருத்தொண்டர்களையும் ஏற்படுத்தினார்.

மேற்கூறிய ஏடு குறிப்பிடுவது போல, எவரிஸ்டஸ், புனித பேதுருவின் கல்லறையின் அருகே அடக்கம் செய்யப்பட்டார் என்று உறுதியாகத் தெரிகிறது. அவரது பணியிடம் 19 நாள்கள் வெறுமையாய் இருந்தது.

ரோமத் திருச்சபையின் முதல் திருத்தந்தையர்களின் பெயர்கள் திருப்பலியின் நற்கருணை மன்றாட்டில் இருக்க, எவரிஸ்டஸின் பெயர் மட்டும் அங்கு காணப்படவில்லை. இதிலிருந்து, இத்திருத்தந்தை பற்றிய உறுதியான வரலாற்றுச் செய்திகள் தெரியாத நிலை திருச்சபை வரலாற்றின் முதல் நூற்றாண்டுகளிலிருந்தே நிலவி வந்துள்ளது எனத் தெரிகிறது.

புனிதராகப் போற்றப்படுதல்:

எவரிஸ்டஸ் எவ்வாறு மறைச்சாட்சியாக உயிர்துறந்தார் என்பது பற்றியும் உறுதிப்பாடு இல்லை. கத்தோலிக்கம் மற்றும் கிழக்கு மரபுவழி திருச்சபைகள் இவரை புனிதராகப் போற்றுகின்றன. இவர்தம் நினைவுத் திருவிழா அக்டோபர் 26 ஆகும். 1969ம் ஆண்டிலிருந்து இவரது பெயர் கத்தோலிக்க திருச்சபையின் பொது நாள்காட்டியில் மறைச்சாட்சிகள் பட்டியலிலிருந்து அகற்றப்பட்டு, இப்போது தனி நாள்காட்டியில் மட்டுமே உள்ளது.

† Saint of the Day †

(October 26)

✠ St. Evaristus ✠

5th Pope:

Birth name: Evaristus or Aristus

Born: April 17, 44

Bethlehem, Judea

Died: 99 AD

Rome, Roman Empire

Feast: October 26

Pope Saint Evaristus is accounted as the fifth Bishop of Rome, holding office from c. 99 to his death. He was also known as Aristus. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.

Like the man/God he followed, Evaristus was a Jew, born in Bethlehem. His father, Juda, was of Greek origin but lived in Bethlehem, only a few miles from the temple in Jerusalem, the goal of all good Jews. Evidently, Juda moved his family from the town, probably just before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Little is known about Evaristus, as is common among our first popes. They did not rule over Rome as we would like to believe. They were in hiding or working one on one with other new Christians and their communique was not saved. We can piece together several things to get a look at the Church’s early life.

Evaristus being a Jew shows that, at that time, the Christians were still seen as a sect of Judaism, even a whole generation after the death of Peter and Paul. Paul tended to preach a Gentile church, drawing the other Apostles slowly to his way of thinking. The Council of Jerusalem, around 50 AD, changed the nature of the Christian faith to the effect that Gentiles did not have to become Jewish first, i.e., no circumcision. However, they were required to eat no meat sacrificed to idols and abstain from sexual immorality. This was a definite break in the relationship with the original religion. The orthodox Jews could not accept many of the teachings of the sect and remained antagonistic towards the new religious thoughts. Evaristus was, thus, one of the Jews who accepted the death and Resurrection of the Lord to the exclusion of the orthodoxy. By 98 AD, the Christians of Rome were considered separate from the Jews. Emperor Nerva, who ruled 96-98 AD, proclaimed that the Christians did not have to pay the annual tax for Jews. Pliny the Younger then claimed that Christians were not Jews because they did not pay the Jewish tax, in his letters to Emperor Trajan. Unfortunately, not being considered a taxable Jewish sect, the Christians were thus in a position to be persecuted for not following the state religion.

Appearing on the scene in Rome in 98 or 99 AD, Evaristus may have been one of a group of presbyters, rather than a sole bishop. He was said to have organized the city into segments, or parishes, assigning one priest to each parish, laying the foundation for the College of Cardinals. Evaristus supposedly conferred ordination three times during December, although there is no basis for this information, since Christmas was not yet celebrated, nor was Advent yet a time of fast and prayer.

St. John the Evangelist, the last of the Apostles, most likely died during the time of Evaristus’ reign, around 99 AD. Evaristus died around 107-109 AD, during the reign of Trajan. Whether he was martyred or not, we have no record. However, in 108, Trajan began another round of persecutions. Pliny, mentioned above, wrote to Trajan about the lamentable condition of the Christians who were being slaughtered daily. “The whole account they gave of their crime or error (whichever it is to be called) amounted only to this—viz, that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet before daylight, and to repeat together a set form of prayer to Christ as a god, and to bind themselves by an obligation—not indeed to commit wickedness; but, on the contrary—never to commit theft, robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word, never to defraud any man: after which it was their custom to separate, and reassemble to partake in common of a harmless meal.” Evaristus may have been one of them. He is buried in the Vatican, near St. Peter.

St. Daria October 25

 St. Daria

Feastday: October 25

 

Image of St. Daria

There is very little known about them. Chrysanthus was an Egyptian, son of a Patrician, Polemius. He was brought to Rome from Alexandria during the reign of Numerian, and despite the objections of his father, who had brought him to Rome, was baptized by a priest named Carpophorus. Chrysanthus refused is father's attempts to get him married, finally married Daria, a Greek and a priestess of Minerva, converted her, and convinced her to live with him in chastity. When they converted a number of Romans, Chrysanthus was denounced as a Christian to Claudius, the tribune. Chrysanthus' attitude under torture so impressed Claudius that he and his wife, Hilaria, two sons, and seventy of his soldiers became Christians, whereupon the Emperor had them all killed. Daria was sent to a brothel, where she was defended by a lion, brought before Numerian, who ordered her execution, and was stoned and then buried alive. When several followers of Daria and Chrysanthus were found praying at their crypt, among them Diodorus, a priest, and Marianus, a deacon, they were all entombed alive. Their feast day is October 25.

St. Ambrose Edward Barlow October 25

 St. Ambrose Edward Barlow

Feastday: October 25

Birth: 1585

Death: 1641

Martyr and one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. A convert, Ambrose studied for the priesthood at Douai, France, and Valladolid, Spain. In 1615 he was a professed Benedictine, affiliated by request to the Spanish Abbey of Celanova. For twenty-four years, Ambrose worked in Lancashire, England, despite the dangers. He was arrested four times but was released. On his fifth arrest, he was executed at Lancaster.

Ambrose Edward Barlow, O.S.B., (1585 – 10 September 1641)[1] was an English Benedictine monk who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. He is one of a group of saints canonized by Pope Paul VI who became known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Contents

1 Early life and education

2 Mission

3 Arrest and execution

4 Canonisation

5 Hagiography and relics

6 Legacy

7 References

8 Further reading

9 External links

Early life and education

Barlow Hall, 1910

Ambrose was born at Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester in 1585 (in the parish of Manchester).[2] He was the fourth son of the nobleman Sir Alexander Barlow and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Urian Brereton of Handforth Hall.[3] The Barlow family had been reluctant converts to the Church of England following the suppression of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Ambrose's grandfather died in 1584 whilst imprisoned for his beliefs and Sir Alexander Barlow had two thirds of his estate confiscated as a result of his refusing to conform with the rules of the new established religion.[4] On 30 November 1585, Ambrose was baptised at Didsbury Chapel and his baptism entry reads "Edwarde legal sonne of Alex' Barlowe gent' 30". Ambrose went on to adhere to the Anglican faith until 1607, when he converted to Roman Catholicism.

Baptism Record of Ambrose Barlow

In 1597, Ambrose was taken into the stewardship of Sir Uryan Legh, a relative who would care for him whilst he served out his apprenticeship as a page. However, upon completing this service, Barlow realised that his true vocation was for the priesthood, so he travelled to Douai in France to study at the English College there before attending the Royal College of Saint Alban in Valladolid, Spain. In 1615, he returned to Douai where he became a member of the Order of Saint Benedict, joining the community of St Gregory the Great (now Downside Abbey), and was ordained as a priest in 1617.[4]

Mission

Wardley Hall

After his ordination into the priesthood, Ambrose returned to Barlow Hall, before taking up residence at the home of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Morleys Hall, Astley.[5] Sir Thomas' grandmother had arranged for a pension to be made available to the priest which would enable him to carry out his priestly duties amongst the poor Catholics within his parish. From there he secretly catered for the needs of Catholic 'parishioners', offering daily Mass and reciting his Office and Rosary for the next twenty-four years. To avoid detection by the Protestant authorities, he devised a four-week routine in which he travelled throughout the parish for four weeks and then remained within the Hall for five weeks. He would often visit his cousins, the Downes, at their residence of Wardley Hall and conduct Mass for the gathered congregation.[4]

Arrest and execution

Ambrose was arrested four times during his travels and released without charge.[6] King Charles I signed a proclamation on 7 March 1641, which decreed that all priests should leave the country within one calendar month or face being arrested and treated as traitors, resulting in imprisonment or death. Ambrose's parishioners implored him to flee or at least go into hiding but he refused. Their fears were compounded by a recent stroke which had resulted in the 56-year-old priest being partially paralysed. "Let them fear that have anything to lose which they are unwilling to part with", he told them.[4]

Lancaster Castle

On 25 April 1641, Easter Day, Ambrose and his congregation of around 150 people were surrounded at Morleys Hall, Astley by the Vicar of Leigh and his armed congregation of some 400. Father Ambrose surrendered, and his parishioners were released after their names had been recorded. The priest was restrained, then taken on a horse with a man behind him to prevent his falling, and escorted by a band of sixty people to the Justice of the Peace at Winwick, before being transported to Lancaster Castle.[4][5]

Father Ambrose appeared before the presiding judge, Sir Robert Heath, on 7 September when he professed his adherence to the Catholic faith and defended his actions. On 8 September, the feast of the Nativity of Mary, Sir Robert Heath found Ambrose guilty and sentenced him to be executed. Two days later, he was taken from Lancaster Castle, drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, hanged, dismembered, quartered, and boiled in oil. His head was afterwards exposed on a pike.[4][5] His cousin, Francis Downes, Lord of Wardley Hall, a devout Catholic rescued his skull and preserved it at Wardley where it remains to this day. It is not the skull of Roger Downes of that same family, the libertine and friend of the Earl of Rochester.

When the news of his death and martyrdom reached his Benedictine brothers at Douai Abbey, a Mass of Thanksgiving and the Te Deum were ordered to be sung.[4]

Canonisation

On 15 December 1929, Pope Pius XI proclaimed Father Ambrose as Blessed at his Beatification ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. In recognition of the large number of British Catholic martyrs who were executed during the Reformation, most during the reign of Elizabeth I, Pope Paul VI decreed that on 25 October 1970 he was canonising a number of people who were to be known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales of whom Ambrose was one.[7][8]

Hagiography and relics

Church of St Ambrose of Milan, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

The blue plaque outside Manchester Cathedral

Challoner (see below) compiled Barlow's biography from two manuscripts belonging to St Gregory's Monastery, one of which was written by his brother Dom Rudesind Barlow, President of the English Benedictine Congregation. A third manuscript, titled "The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow", was written by one of his pupils for Dom Rudesind, and is in the John Rylands Library, Manchester; it has been printed by the Chetham Society.[9]

Two portraits of Barlow and one of his father, Sir Alexander, are known to exist.[9]

Several relics of Ambrose are also preserved; his jaw bone is held at the Church of St Ambrose of Milan, Barlow Moor, Manchester; one of his hands is preserved at Stanbrook Abbey[6] now at Wass, North Yorkshire, and another hand is at Mount Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Oregon; and his skull is preserved on the stairwell at Wardley Hall in Worsley, the one time home of the Downes family, and now the home of the Catholic Bishop of Salford.

Legacy

St Ambrose Barlow Church in Astley

The church of St Ambrose of Milan at Barlow Moor is in the parish of his birthplace. It was founded in 1932, and is dedicated to St Ambrose of Milan but changed to St Ambrose Barlow at his canonisation.[10] St Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic church and primary school in Astley is also named after Ambrose.

Other schools named after the saint include The Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Didsbury, St Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Swinton near Manchester, and St Ambrose Barlow Catholic High School in Netherton, Merseyside. One of the boarding houses at Downside School is named Barlow in his honour.

An Oblate Chapter (association of secular Benedictines) of Douai Abbey, meeting at St Anne's Roman Catholic Church in Ormskirk, has St Ambrose Barlow as its patron.

St. Boniface I October 25

 St. Boniface I

† இன்றைய புனிதர் †

(அக்டோபர் 25)

✠ புனிதர் முதலாம் போனிஃபேஸ் ✠

(St. Boniface I)

42ம் திருத்தந்தை:

(42nd Pope)

பிறப்பு: ----

ரோம் (Rome)

இறப்பு: செப்டம்பர் 4, 422

ரோம் (Rome)

நினைவுத் திருநாள்: அக்டோபர் 25

திருத்தந்தை புனிதர் முதலாம் போனிஃபாஸ், கத்தோலிக்க திருச்சபையின் 42ம் திருத்தந்தையாக கி.பி. 418ம் ஆண்டு, டிசம்பர் மாதம், 28ம் தேதி முதல், கி.பி. 422ம் ஆண்டு, செப்டம்பர் மாதம், 4ம் தேதி வரை பணியாற்றினார். இவர் புனித அகஸ்தீனுடைய சமகாலத்தவர். “புனிதர் அகுஸ்தீன்” (Saint Augustine of Hippo), இவருக்கு தன் படைப்புகளுள் பலவற்றை அர்ப்பணித்துள்ளார்.

(Liber Pontificalis) எனும் மேற்கத்திய திருச்சபையின் திருத்தந்தையர் அல்லது ஆயர்களின் நடப்புகள் மற்றும் சடங்குகள் பற்றின விபரங்கள் எழுதப்பட்டிருக்கும் புத்தகத்தில், திருத்தந்தை போனிஃபாஸ் பற்றின விபரங்கள் சிறிதளவே காணப்படுகின்றன. இவர் ஒரு ரோமன் என்றும், கிறிஸ்தவ தேவாலயத்தின் மூப்பரான (Presbyter) “ஜோகண்ட்டஸ்” (Jocundus) என்பவருடைய மகன் என்றும் அறியப்படுகிறது. இவர், திருத்தந்தை “முதலாம் டமாஸ்கஸ்” (Pope Damasus I) அவர்களால் குருத்துவம் பெற்றவர் என்றும், “கான்ஸ்டண்டினோபிலில்” (Constantinople) திருத்தந்தை “முதலாம் இன்னொசென்ட்டின்” (Innocent I) பிரதிநிதியாக செயல்பட்டவர் என்றும் அறியப்படுகிறது.

திருத்தந்தைத் தேர்தலில் குழப்பம்:

திருத்தந்தை “சோசிமஸின்” (Pope Zosimus) இறப்புக்குப் பின், இருவர் திருத்தந்தை பதவிக்கு முன்மொழியப்பட்டனர். ஒருவர் போனிஃபாஸ், மற்றவர் “யூலாலியஸ்” (Eulalius). இதனால் ஏற்பட்ட குழப்பத்தை தவிர்க்கக் கோரி ரோம ஆட்சியாளர் “சிம்மாக்குஸ்” (Aurelius Anicius Symmachus) என்பவர் இரவேன்னா நகரில் தங்கியிருந்த ரோமப்பேரரசர் “ஹொனோரியசை” (Emperor Honorius) வேண்டி கடிதம் எழுதினார். அவர், முதலில் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டவர் யூலாலியஸ் ஆதலால், அவருக்கே ஆதரவளித்தார்.

ரோமப் பேரரசின் பேரரசி “கல்லா பிலசிடியா” (Empress Galla Placidia) மற்றும் அவருடைய கணவர் “மூன்றாம் கான்ஸ்டன்ஷியஸ்” (Constantius III) கூட யூலாலியுசுக்கு ஆதரவு தெரிவித்தனர். இருந்தாலும், யார் திருத்தந்தை என்னும் குழப்பத்தைத் தீர்ப்பதற்கு வசதியாக போனிஃபாசும், யூலாலியுசும் ரோமுக்கு வெளியே அனுப்பப்பட்டனர். அச்சமயம் இயேசுவின் உயிர்த்தெழுதல் விழா அண்மையில் நிகழவிருந்ததைப் பயன்படுத்திக்கொண்ட யூலாலியுசு, பேரரசின் உத்தரவுகளையும், சட்டத்தையும் மீறி ரோமுக்குத் திரும்பினார். இது ரோம ஆட்சியாளர்களுக்குப் பிடிக்கவில்லை. இதைத் தொடர்ந்து பேரரசர் “ஹொனோரியஸ்” (Emperor Honorius) போனிஃபாஸ்’தான் முறைப்படி திருத்தந்தை ஆவார் என்று அறிவித்தார்.

போனிஃபாஸ் ஆட்சி:

திருத்தந்தை போனிஃபாஸ், தமக்கு முந்தைய சில திருத்தந்தையரின் திருச்சபையின் நிர்வாகம் சம்பந்தமான கொள்கைகள் சிலவற்றை மாற்றியமைத்தார். “பெலாஜியஸ்” (Pelagius) எனும் பிரிட்டிஷ் துறவி போதித்த “பெலாஜியனிசம்” (Pelagianism) எனும் இறையியல் கோட்பாடுகளைக் கண்டித்தார். இதனை எதிர்த்து போராடுவதற்காக, இவர் “புனிதர் அகுஸ்தினாருக்கு” (St. Augustine) ஆதரவளித்தார்.

பேரரசர் “இரண்டாம் தியோடோசியசை”, (Emperor Theodosius II) அவரது மேற்கத்திய அதிகார வரம்பான “இலரிக்கம்” (Illyricum) திரும்ப வற்புறுத்தினார். மேலும், திருப்பீடத்துக்கு உள்ள உரிமைகளை இவர் நிலைநாட்டினார்.

Feastday: October 25

Patron: of brewers; Fulda; Germany; World Youth Day

Death: 422

Boniface I Ordained by Pope Damasus I, St. Boniface was a priest at Rome and served as papal legate to Constantinople under Innocent I. When Pope Zosimus died in December, 418, a majority elected Boniface pope, and a minority elected Eulalius pope. Pope and antipope were consecrated on the same day. The Council of Spoleto was convoked in 419 to settle the dispute. Symmachus the Prefect supported Eulalius, and the Emperor Honorius supported Boniface, who was enthroned after the council. Boniface condemned Pelagianism and encouraged St. Augustine to write against it. When Boniface died in 422, he was buried in a chapel which he had built in the cemetary of St. Felicity.

"Boniface" redirects here. For others with the given name or surname, see Boniface (name).

For other uses, see Saint Boniface (disambiguation).

Boniface (Latin: Bonifatius; c. 675[2] – 5 June 754 AD), born Winfrid (also spelled Winifred, Wynfrith, Winfrith or Wynfryth) in the Devon town of Crediton in Anglo-Saxon England, was a leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He organised significant foundations of the church in Germany and was made archbishop of Mainz by Pope Gregory III. He was martyred in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others, and his remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus which became a site of pilgrimage. Boniface's life and death as well as his work became widely known, there being a wealth of material available—a number of vitae, especially the near-contemporary Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi, legal documents, possibly some sermons, and above all his correspondence. He is venerated as a saint in the Christian church and became the patron saint of Germania, known as the "Apostle of the Germans".

Norman F. Cantor notes the three roles Boniface played that made him "one of the truly outstanding creators of the first Europe, as the apostle of Germania, the reformer of the Frankish church, and the chief fomentor of the alliance between the papacy and the Carolingian family."[3] Through his efforts to reorganize and regulate the church of the Franks, he helped shape the Latin Church in Europe, and many of the dioceses he proposed remain today. After his martyrdom, he was quickly hailed as a saint in Fulda and other areas in Germania and in England. He is still venerated strongly today by German Catholics. Boniface is celebrated as a missionary; he is regarded as a unifier of Europe, and he is regarded by German Catholics as a national figure. In 2019 Devon County Council with the support of the Anglican and Catholic churches in Exeter and Plymouth, officially recognised St Boniface as the Patron Saint of Devon.

Prayer card, early 20th century, depicting Boniface leaving England

The earliest Bonifacian vita, Willibald's, does not mention his place of birth but says that at an early age he attended a monastery ruled by Abbot Wulfhard in escancastre,[4] or Examchester,[5] which seems to denote Exeter, and may have been one of many monasteriola built by local landowners and churchmen; nothing else is known of it outside the Bonifacian vitae.[6] This monastery is believed to have occupied the site of the Church of St Mary Major in the City of Exeter, demolished in 1971, next to which was later built Exeter Cathedral.[7] Later tradition places his birth at Crediton, but the earliest mention of Crediton in connection to Boniface is from the early fourteenth century,[8] in John Grandisson's Legenda Sanctorum: The Proper Lessons for Saints' Days according to the use of Exeter.[9] In one of his letters Boniface mentions he was "born and reared...[in] the synod of London",[10] but he may have been speaking metaphorically.[11]

According to the vitae, Winfrid was of a respected and prosperous family. Against his father's wishes he devoted himself at an early age to the monastic life. He received further theological training in the Benedictine monastery and minster of Nhutscelle (Nursling),[12] not far from Winchester, which under the direction of abbot Winbert had grown into an industrious centre of learning in the tradition of Aldhelm.[13] Winfrid taught in the abbey school and at the age of 30 became a priest; in this time, he wrote a Latin grammar, the Ars Grammatica, besides a treatise on verse and some Aldhelm-inspired riddles.[14] While little is known about Nursling outside of Boniface's vitae, it seems clear that the library there was significant. In order to supply Boniface with the materials he needed, it would have contained works by Donatus, Priscian, Isidore, and many others.[15] Around 716, when his abbot Wynberth of Nursling died, he was invited (or expected) to assume his position—it is possible that they were related, and the practice of hereditary right among the early Anglo-Saxons would affirm this.[16] Winfrid, however, declined the position and in 716 set out on a missionary expedition to Frisia.

Early missionary work in Frisia and Germania

Saint Boniface felling Donar's Oak

Boniface first left for the continent in 716. He traveled to Utrecht, where Willibrord, the "Apostle of the Frisians," had been working since the 690s. He spent a year with Willibrord, preaching in the countryside, but their efforts were frustrated by the war then being carried on between Charles Martel and Radbod, King of the Frisians. Willibrord fled to the abbey he had founded in Echternach (in modern-day Luxembourg) while Boniface returned to Nursling.

Boniface returned to the continent the next year and went straight to Rome, where Pope Gregory II renamed him "Boniface", after the (legendary) fourth-century martyr Boniface of Tarsus, and appointed him missionary bishop for Germania—he became a bishop without a diocese for an area that lacked any church organization. He would never return to England, though he remained in correspondence with his countrymen and kinfolk throughout his life.

According to the vitae Boniface felled the Donar Oak, Latinized by Willibald as "Jupiter's oak," near the present-day town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse. According to his early biographer Willibald, Boniface started to chop the oak down, when suddenly a great wind, as if by miracle, blew the ancient oak over. When the god did not strike him down, the people were amazed and converted to Christianity. He built a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter from its wood at the site[17]—the chapel was the beginning of the monastery in Fritzlar. This account from the vita is stylized to portray Boniface as a singular character who alone acts to root out paganism. Lutz von Padberg and others point out that what the vitae leave out is that the action was most likely well-prepared and widely publicized in advance for maximum effect, and that Boniface had little reason to fear for his personal safety since the Frankish fortified settlement of Büraburg was nearby.[18] According to Willibald, Boniface later had a church with an attached monastery built in Fritzlar,[19] on the site of the previously built chapel, according to tradition.[20]

Boniface and the Carolingians

Fulda Sacramentary, Saint Boniface baptizing (top) and being martyred (bottom)

The support of the Frankish mayors of the palace (maior domos), and later the early Pippinid and Carolingian rulers, was essential for Boniface's work. Boniface had been under the protection of Charles Martel from 723 on.[21] The Christian Frankish leaders desired to defeat their rival power, the pagan Saxons, and to incorporate the Saxon lands into their own growing empire. Boniface's campaign of destruction of indigenous Germanic pagan sites may have benefited the Franks in their campaign against the Saxons.

In 732, Boniface traveled again to Rome to report, and Pope Gregory III conferred upon him the pallium as archbishop with jurisdiction over what is now Germany. Boniface again set out for the German lands and continued his mission, but also used his authority to work on the relations between the papacy and the Frankish church. Rome wanted more control over that church, which it felt was much too independent and which, in the eyes of Boniface, was subject to worldly corruption. Charles Martel, after having defeated the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate during the Battle of Tours (732), had rewarded many churches and monasteries with lands, but typically his supporters who held church offices were allowed to benefit from those possessions. Boniface would have to wait until the 740s before he could try to address this situation, in which Frankish church officials were essentially sinecures, and the church itself paid little heed to Rome. During his third visit to Rome in 737–38, he was made papal legate for Germany.[22]

After Boniface's third trip to Rome, Charles Martel established four dioceses in Bavaria (Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, and Passau) and gave them to Boniface as archbishop and metropolitan over all Germany east of the Rhine. In 745, he was granted Mainz as metropolitan see.[23] In 742, one of his disciples, Sturm (also known as Sturmi, or Sturmius), founded the abbey of Fulda not far from Boniface's earlier missionary outpost at Fritzlar. Although Sturm was the founding abbot of Fulda, Boniface was very involved in the foundation. The initial grant for the abbey was signed by Carloman, the son of Charles Martel, and a supporter of Boniface's reform efforts in the Frankish church. Boniface himself explained to his old friend, Daniel of Winchester, that without the protection of Charles Martel he could "neither administer his church, defend his clergy, nor prevent idolatry".

According to German historian Gunther Wolf, the high point of Boniface's career was the Concilium Germanicum, organized by Carloman in an unknown location in April 743. Although Boniface was not able to safeguard the church from property seizures by the local nobility, he did achieve one goal, the adoption of stricter guidelines for the Frankish clergy,[24] who often hailed directly from the nobility. After Carloman's resignation in 747 he maintained a sometimes turbulent relationship with the king of the Franks, Pepin; the claim that he would have crowned Pepin at Soissons in 751 is now generally discredited.[25]

Boniface balanced this support and attempted to maintain some independence, however, by attaining the support of the papacy and of the Agilolfing rulers of Bavaria. In Frankish, Hessian, and Thuringian territory, he established the dioceses of Würzburg and Erfurt. By appointing his own followers as bishops, he was able to retain some independence from the Carolingians, who most likely were content to give him leeway as long as Christianity was imposed on the Saxons and other Germanic tribes.

Last mission to Frisia

Saint Boniface crypt, Fulda

Nailhole in the Ragyndrudis Codex

According to the vitae, Boniface had never relinquished his hope of converting the Frisians, and in 754 he set out with a retinue for Frisia. He baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting for confirmation at a place not far from Dokkum, between Franeker and Groningen. Instead of his converts, however, a group of armed robbers appeared who slew the aged archbishop. The vitae mention that Boniface persuaded his (armed) comrades to lay down their arms: "Cease fighting. Lay down your arms, for we are told in Scripture not to render evil for good but to overcome evil by good."[26]

Having killed Boniface and his company, the Frisian bandits ransacked their possessions but found that the company's luggage did not contain the riches they had hoped for: "they broke open the chests containing the books and found, to their dismay, that they held manuscripts instead of gold vessels, pages of sacred texts instead of silver plates."[27] They attempted to destroy these books, the earliest vita already says, and this account underlies the status of the Ragyndrudis Codex, now held as a Bonifacian relic in Fulda, and supposedly one of three books found on the field by the Christians who inspected it afterward. Of those three books, the Ragyndrudis Codex shows incisions that could have been made by sword or axe; its story appears confirmed in the Utrecht hagiography, the Vita altera, which reports that an eye-witness saw that the saint at the moment of death held up a gospel as spiritual protection.[28] The story was later repeated by Otloh's vita; at that time, the Ragyndrudis Codex seems to have been firmly connected to the martyrdom.

Boniface's remains were moved from the Frisian countryside to Utrecht, and then to Mainz, where sources contradict each other regarding the behavior of Lullus, Boniface's successor as archbishop of Mainz. According to Willibald's vita Lullus allowed the body to be moved to Fulda, while the (later) Vita Sturmi, a hagiography of Sturm by Eigil of Fulda, Lullus attempted to block the move and keep the body in Mainz.[29]

His remains were eventually buried in the abbey church of Fulda after resting for some time in Utrecht, and they are entombed within a shrine beneath the high altar of Fulda Cathedral, previously the abbey church. There is good reason to believe that the Gospel he held up was the Codex Sangallensis 56, which shows damage to the upper margin, which has been cut back as a form or repair.