As Archbishop of Western Europe (1950-1962), Saint John (Maximovitch) developed an avid interest in the Orthodox saints of the West.  To promote their veneration, he issued a ukase calling upon his clergy “to commemorate during services-at the lityas and in other prayers, as well as at the dismissals-those God-pleasers who are the patrons of that locale or that country where the service is being conducted and where they enjoy a particular veneration.  In Paris and its environs, for example, one should commemorate Hieromartyr Dionysius, Saint Genevieve, and Saint Cloud; in Lyons-Hieromartyr Irenaeus; in Marseilles-Martyr Victor and Saint John Cassian; in the area of Toulouse-Hieromartyr Saturninus, Bishop of Toulouse; in Tours-the holy Hierarch Martin. Where information is lacking or uncertain, clergy are to turn to us for clarification. Priests should encourage their flocks to honor these God-pleasers.”  (Ukase #223, 23 April 1953)

Following Saint John’s example, we offer our readers the lives of two little-known Celtic saints, who contributed to the rich legacy of Orthodoxy’s Western heritage.

In the sixth century, before the Anglo-Saxon invasions which caused such destruction of churches and monasteries and such slaughter, many Celtic monks left their monasteries to spread the Gospel abroad.  From Wales a large number crossed the Bristol Channel to Cornwall, where many of the people were still pagan, and from there over the sea again to Brittany, preaching, founding monasteries and building churches. More than thirty of these missionary monks from this century alone were later canonized.

SAINT MEWAN OF BRITTANY

One of the most famous of the Breton saints was Saint Mewan.  A relative of Saint Samson of Dol,* (* A Life of St. Samson appeared in OA #40, June 1984) he was born in Gwent of a noble family, and was well-educated, intelligent and serious-minded. When quite young he chose to renounce the world and lead a life of poverty.  As a disciple of his kinsman, he travelled with Saint Samson and a small group of monks on a missionary journey to Brittany. After some time in the monastery of Dol which they founded, Samson sent young Mewan to a certain count to beg for assistance in building his basilica. On the way Mewan met a wealthy and pious man, who promised him his own estate as a site for the monastery.  This offer was taken up later with Samson’s blessing when Mewan desired to lead a more solitary life.  The site proved suitable for a monastery except that there was no water.  Mewan prayed fervently, and struck his staff into the ground.  Immediately a spring of water gushed out.  This water healed both sick men and animals, so that soon the fame of it spread abroad, and people flocked to it from distant places.  The number of monks increased rapidly as his sanctity became known.

Once a count imprisoned and sentenced to death one of his servants for a trifling misdemeanor. St. Mewan begged the count to release him without avail.  Through the prayers of St. Mewan, the servant was miraculously released, and fled to the monastery for sanctuary.  The infuriated count broke in and seized him, ignoring St. Mewan’s warning that as a punishment he would die in three days’ time. As the count was returning home, he was seriously injured by a fall from his horse.   He repented, confessed and died on the third day.  Many miracles, particularly of healing, are recorded in the life of the Saint.   After his death his cult gradually spread all over France.  His well was famous for its powers of curing a malady popularly called “St. Mewan’s evil,” namely a malignant mange that eats the flesh down to the bone.  In the Middle Ages it was established that between four and five thousand pilgrims came annually for healing. The name Méen (Mewan) is pronounced like the French word for hand, main, so pilgrims used to wear a hand-shaped piece of cloth sewn on their clothes or hat.  They were supposed to live on alms throughout their pilgrimage, and give to the poor on their return the money they would have spent on the journey.  It is recorded that in the mid-seventeenth century some fifteen thousand pilgrims passed each year through Rennes, where a hospice was built to accommodate them.  Even in the late eighteenth century, annual pilgrimages were still being made and numerous healings of skin diseases reported.

A charming anecdote is told about Saint Mewan’s death.  Knowing beforehand the hour of his repose, he called the brethren together in words of love to give them his last instructions.  His godson Austol, who had never been parted from him and had always served him humbly, was pierced with grief. “Why, father,” he cried, “do you leave me your servant desolate?  It had been better that I had been buried by your hands and commended by your holy prayers before your departure.”  He wept bitterly, and his beloved godfather replied, “Dearest godson, continue with your usual labor, for by God’s mercy, in seven days you shall join me in the glory of the heavenly life.  The bond of love which unites us is not broken; no, it will be made even stronger.”

After the Saint’s death, Austol continued to serve the brothers as before. On the seventh day, having observed a three-day fast, he went alone to the church, and there peacefully reposed.  The brothers, finding him dead, and remembering the love which these two servants of God had for each other, opened Saint Mewan’s tomb and discovered that the Saint’s body, which diffused a divine fragrance, had moved and was lying on the right of the grave facing the space on the left as if waiting for his disciple. So Austol, who later was also glorified, was buried beside his beloved friend. The bones of the two saints thus declared the love that had always united them.

In the year 919 the relics of Saint Mewan and his disciple Saint Austol were moved to Central France to escape the Norsemen, and were brought back in 1074 on January 18, the day on which they are commemorated.

SAINT WINNOC OF FLANDERS

The chief saint of Flanders, Saint Winnoc, was a Cornishman of royal descent, who founded the monastery of Wormhout, twelve miles south of Dunkirk.  His life was written by a monk in the early ninth century.  It is said that he came with three other monks to a monastery at Sithiu, and the Abbot, seeing their humility and piety, set them to build a monastery at Wormhout and hostels for the poor. As the monastery grew, Winnoc was chosen abbot. Nevertheless he considered himself as the vilest of all men, undertaking the most disagreeable tasks and serving the brethren and the poor with all humility.  Mindful of the apostolic precept that “if any would not work, neither should he eat,” the Saint grieved when he became old and enfeebled so that he hadn’t strength to serve the brothers by his own labor.  One night he went alone to the mill to grind corn.  Locking the door, he prayed the merciful Lord to assist him.  The Lord had compassion on him, and the mill turned by divine power alone, while the saint continued his prayers of praise and thanks-giving.  The brothers wondered how someone so lacking in physical strength could grind so much flour every day.  At last curiosity impelled one monk to peep through an aperture.  On seeing the Saint standing in prayer and the mill grinding by the power of God, he was suddenly struck blind.  Falling at the feet of Saint Winnoc, he confessed his temerity and begged his pardon. The holy Winnoc made the sign of the Cross over the unseeing eyes, and through his prayers the brother’s sight was restored. So many were the miracles, indeed, through the prayers of Saint Winnoc, both during his life and after his death, that a book was later written about them.

Saint Winnoc died on November 6, the day he is commemorated, probably in the year 716.  Some years later, the whole church burnt down, but the Saint’s shrine was miraculously spared.  In the ninth century, during the Danish raids, his relics were removed to a safer place and later returned to Bergues-Saint-Winnoc, a hill surrounded by fens, where a church was built and dedicated to him.  It became the center of pilgrimage on Trinity Sunday, when there was a procession with his relics.  Numerous miracles of healing occurred.  In the time of drought, his relics were carried from church to church, and part of his stole used to be taken to women in childbirth.  In the eighteenth century a bishop suppressed the procession, but later it was revived.  An article of religious practices in Flanders written as recently as 1935, mentions devotion to Saint Winnoc, whose aid was invoked especially for whooping cough and fevers.

An English nun

The icon reproduced here was painted by Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, another Boston suburb, and is available as a print. On the back of the print appers the following brief Life:

Saint Botolph was born in England around 610. In his youth he became a monk in Gaul. By 654 he had returned to England and founded the monastery of Ikanhoe in East Anglia-thereafter, the place came to be called “Botolphston” (from either “Botolph’s stone” or “Botolph’s town”), which was later contracted to “Boston”. Having led many in the way of salvation, and renowned for his sanctity and miracles, Saint Botolph reposed around the year 680. He was greatly revered by his Christian countrymen in antiquity, and is commemorated to this day in the name of two cities, both the original Boston in the Lincolnshire fens (about 100 miles north of London), and likewise its namesake in the New World, in Massachusetts. The feast of St. Botolph is celebrated June 17.

     Our last feature devoted to Orthodoxy’s Western Heritage (OA #57) focused on the “Holy Isle” of Lindesfarne and the Golden Age of Christian missionary work in Britain–the seventh century which witnessed the apostolic labors of St. Aidan, St. Cuthbert, the brother Saints Chad, Cedd, and their disciples. To those acquainted with this period, these are the names which first come to mind. Less familiar, perhaps, are the names of those women who were also to be found laboring in the mission fields from the early morning of Britain’s Christianization. While history tends to be more generous in its treatment of men, we are fortunate that the British chronicler of this period, the Venerable Bede, was justifiably impressed by the rich contribution made by women in rooting Christianity into British soil and recorded the particulars for the inspiration of posterity.

    There is more to growing a garden than scattering seed. The new shoots must be carefully nurtured, watered and cultivated. Just so, the Christian dedication of these women–whether as mothers or monastics–was no less vital to the eternal harvest of souls than the preaching and teaching of Britain’s apostles.

    Not a few of these saintly women were born or married into the most intimate circles of English royalty where, one can say without exaggeration, some had a direct influence on the history of the country. It was, for example, Queen Ethelburga, daughter of King Ethelbert of Kent, who persuaded her husband, King Edwin of Northumbria, to be baptized. Although King Edwin died in battle against the pagan Mercians only six years later in 633, his official recognition of Christianity greatly facilitated its spread within his realm.[commemorated as a martyr, October 12]. His widowed Queen returned to her homeland of Kent where she established and governed a double monastery for monks and nuns at Lyminge. It is quite certain that her daughter Eanfled was raised there. Like her mother, Eanfled married a king, Oswy, and after his death entered the monastic life; with her daughter Aelffled, she became a joint abbess of Whitby, another double monastery.

    Altogether there are records of over thirty abbesses in Britain canonized by the early Church. Many of them lived in the 7th or 8th centuries, a time of expansion at home and mission in Europe. The monastic communities over which they presided helped spread the ideal of Christian piety and served as centers of theological learning. As we have seen, it was not uncommon for these communities to include both men and women, a tradition already established in northern France where English girls of noble families were often sent for their education. Whether it was a question of finance, simplicity of organization or greater protection for the nuns in a turbulent age, it is impossible to say. The arrangement was acceptable to all, and no scandals seem to have resulted.

Some of these double ministers acquired a considerable reputation under the leadership of their abbesses who became justly renown for their spiritual discernment, theological scholarship and sanctity of life. Printed below are the lives of four saintly British abbesses, compiled for “OA” by a British Orthodox nun. 

Saint Hilda of Whitby

November 17th 

When King Edwin of Northumbria was preparing for baptism, he was instructed in the Faith by the Queen’s chaplain, Paulinus, who had been sent from Rome to England in 601 to help St. Augustine in his apostolic mission. (At that time, of course, Rome was still part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.) Living then at the court was the King’s grandniece Hilda. Undoubtedly, she also heard Paulinus’ teaching, and together with the King and his two sons she was baptized on the holy Feast of Pascha, 627. She was thirteen.

     While Hilda was still an infant, her mother had a dream that she was searching for her banished husband. Although she failed to find him, she discovered something very precious under her garments: a valuable jewel that cast alight so brilliant that all Britain was illuminated by its rays. This dream was fulfilled in her daughter.

    Hilda continued to live at court until she was thirty-three years old, that is, exactly half way through her life. She had, however, always longed for the monastic life, and prepared to join her sister who was already a nun in France. But Bishop Aidan, the saintly abbot of Lindesfarne, recognized her innate spiritual wisdom and persuaded Hilda to undertake her monastic labors on her native soil. Under his guidance she spent a year with a few like-minded companions observing the monastic rule. Soon after her profession she became abbess of a small monastery at Hartlepool, founded by the pious Hieu who is believed to be the first woman in Northumbria to take the monastic vows. There Hilda was often visited by her spiritual mentor, Bishop Aidan, and others who helped prepare her for the increased responsibilities of governing the double monastery which she founded eight years later at Whitby. There the monastics held everything in common and lived a strict, well regulated life, the quarters for men and women being kept entirely separate. Hilda insisted on study of the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, and proper preparation for the priesthood, teaching the monks and nuns by both precept and example. Five of the monks under her care later became bishops, three of whom were glorified as saints. The fame of her holy life spread, so that not only the laity but also clergy and rulers came from afar seeking her advice. Even those who had no direct contact with her profited simply by hearing of her holy life and labors. Bede wrote: “All who knew her called her ‘Mother,’ such were her wonderful godliness and grace.”

     One day in the monastery a worker called Caedmon came to the abbess to relate an extraordinary dream. He was a simple, unlearned man, self-conscious because of his inability to sing to the harp and recite poetry as others did as entertainment at feasts. That evening when he saw the harp being passed his way, he had left and returned disconsolately toms bed in the stables. Falling asleep, he dreamed that someone came and asked him to sing. He said sadly that he didn’t know how. “But you shall sing to me.” was the reply. “Sing about God’s creation.” Immediately Caedmon began to sing in praise of God verses he had never known before. When Abbess Hilda heard his beautiful, moving poem, she realized that this was a gift of God. From that time on Caedmon composed devotional songs of such great sweetness and power, that many were moved to greater piety. Until then, all religious writings had been in Latin, the language of the educated. Now for the first time people could hear of Christ’s Passion, Resurrection and Ascension in verses in their own tongue–English.

    Because of a dispute between the Roman and Celtic Churches over the computation of the date of Pascha, a Synod was convened in Abbess Hilda’s monastery at Whitby in the year 664. A decision was finally reached to follow the Roman practice, as propounded by St. Wilfrid, oneof her former monks, who had visited Rome several times. Inclined to the Celtic tradition of her spiritual mentor, Abbess Hilda nevertheless humbly accepted the change, though not ail the Celtic Church felt able to do so at the time.

    For six years towards the end of her life, the saintly abbess suffered from a painful illness. But she continued to instruct her flock and until the moment of her death never ceased thanking God for her purifying trial. The very night of her repose, a nun in another monastery founded by Hilda was woken by the bell which was normally tolled at the passing away of a nun, and she saw Hilda’s soul being guided to heaven by angels in a cloud of light. She informed her abbess of the vision, and all the nuns were called to prayer and the reading of the Psalter. In the morning news reached them confirming that St. Hilda had died that night. She is commemorated November 17th.

Saint Etheldreda of Ely

June 23

    St. Etheldreda was formerly one of the most venerated of all Anglo-Saxon women saints. Unfortunately we know very little of her life. She was born about the year 630, the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles. Though twice married, she retained her virginity. Her first husband, a very pious man, died soon after they were wed. Her second husband, King Egfrid, after twelve years of a brother-sister relationship, begged Bishop Wilfrid to persuade the Queen to consummate the marriage, promising him great wealth. Failing in his desire, her husband finally conceded to her request to enter a convent where she could serve Christ alone. A year later she built a double monastery at Ely, on the site of the present Cathedral, and became its abbess. 

    All revered Ethelreda for her strict ascetic life and loved her for her grace. She foretold the coming of a plague, indicating how many sisters would die of it; this included herself. Three days before her death in 679, a doctor made a large incision on a painful tumor under her jaw to drain away the poisonous matter, and this relieved her for a time. She nevertheless welcomed the pain, saying that as a girl she had loved to adorn herself with jewelry and necklaces, [1] so God was allowing her through the pain to be released from the guilt of vanity. “Now I wear a burning red tumor on my neck instead of gold and pearls.”

    Sixteen years after her death, her sister St. Sexburga, who succeeded Etheldreda as abbess, wished to transfer her remains into the church. When the coffin was opened, her body was found to be completely free of decay; the very cloths in which she was wrapped looked fresh and new. And to everyone’s amazement, the incision on her neck had healed, a fact confirmed by the same doctor who had operated on her.

    For many years miracles occurred at her tomb which became a center of pilgrimage. Numerous churches were dedicated to her, and countless girls were given her name (which was gradualIy corrupted to Audrey). To this day her hand remains incorrupt and can be venerated in a Roman Catholic church in Ely. St. Etheldreda is commemorated June 23.

Saint Leoba

September 28

     In the eighth century Christianity was preached throughout Germany and in the Netherlands by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, the greatest of whom was undoubtedly Boniface. Pope Gregory blessed his work and ordained him bishop. Having baptized many thousands of pagans and built numerous churches, Boniface decided to strengthen the new converts by erecting monasteries as centers of spiritual life. For this purpose he sent to England to Abbess Tetta of Wimborne for thirty of her nuns, under his kinswoman Leoba, to support him in his work.

    Leoba came from a pious noble family. Her mother, who was barren, dreamed in old age that a church bell was in her bosom. As she pulled it out it rang merrily. Her old nurse interpreted it to mean that she would bear a daughter, whom she must give to God. And indeed, in the year 700 a girl was born. She was called Thrutgeba with the added name Leoba meaning “beloved,” and by this name she was always known. In gratitude to God, her parents gave Leoba, while she was still quite young–into the care of Abbess Tetta.

    Tetta ruled strictly and with discretion over the double monastery, not allowing even clerics into the community of nuns. She instructed them with loving care, and here Leoba received excellent training. She herself was intelligent, industrious and virtuous. She strove to imitate any nun’ s individual good qualities, especially charity. One night she had a dream that a purple thread was coming out of her mouth, so long that she wound it into a ball. An aged pun interpreted this thread as wise spiritual counsels, and the pulling with her hand indicated action as well as words.

    At Boniface’s request, Abbess Tetta reluctantly allowed Leoba to join him with her nuns, and he made her abbess of a large monastery at Bischofsheim. So excellent was Leoba’s training in monastic life that many of her nuns became superiors of other monasteries, They were hard-working and educated to read and write in English and Latin, so as to be a support to the missionary priests. Leoba herself was always careful not to teach others what she did not carry out herself. She was universal in charity, patient, always cheerful, never ruffled, angelic in face, prudent, learned in the Scriptures, the Fathers and ecclesiastical law. It is said that the Scriptures were never out of her hand. People came to her in need or danger, bishops and royalty sought her advice.

    But the devil tried to disrupt the peace of the monastery. A cripple girl who used to beg at the monastery gate, and was indeed fed and clothed and cared for by the nuns, became pregnant. When the child was born she killed it in fear and threw it into a nearby stream, thus polluting the village water. A woman saw it there, screamed in horror and roused the whole village against the nuns, accusing them of the crime. St. Leoba calmly ordered the nuns to recite the entire Psalter with hands outstretched in the form of a cross, and then to process three times round the church with a crucifix. Afterward:, with hands upraised, she pleaded to God to deliver the community from this reproach. At this the cripple girl loudly called out and publicly confessed her crime. Freed from this sinister rumor, the reputation of the monastery was much enhanced, and people turned more and more frequently to Leoba when in distress.

     Once, when a fire threatened to destroy the entire village, everyone ran in terror to Leoba. She poured some salt which had been blessed by St. Boniface into a bucket of water, told them to throw it into the stream and use water further downstream to extinguish the flames. They obeyed, and to their great astonishment the fire was immediately quenched. On another occasion a violent storm which’ was doing great damage terrified the villagers who again rushed to Leoba for protection. She calmed them down and, quietly opening wide the church door, made the sign of the cross in the air, praying to the Mother of God for aid. Her prayer was answered: the winds changed direction, the thunderbolts ceased and the sky cleared.

     One of her nuns was afflicted with a painful disease of the bowels and was growing weaker daily. Her parents asked Leoba to pray for a speedy death. When the Abbess came to her bedside, she found everyone weeping because the nun had already passed away. Unperturbed, Leoba, with her own little spoon, put a few drops of milk she had blessed into the nun’s mouth. Gradually the nun showed signs of life; she opened her eyes and spoke. Within a week the nun was able to walk back to the monastery from which she had been carried in a litter.

    News of such holiness aroused religious fervor, so that many nobles entrusted their daughters into Leoba’s care. King Pippin of the Franks and his two sons venerated her greatly, and Queen Hildegarde loved her as her own soul and wished to keep her at court, but such a life had no place in Leoba’s heart and she would not be persuaded for anything in the world, instead she visited the various convents which she had founded, encouraging the nuns and giving them spiritual advice.

     Although they seldom met or even corresponded, Boniface held Leoba in great affection. Aware that his death was near (indeed, he was martyred shortly afterwards), he summoned Leoba and exhorted her to continue the work she had undertaken, and to give up any thought of ever returning to her native land, assuring her that she would be rewarded in the next life for her struggles. Boniface commended her to his monks, requesting them te treat her with reverence, and expressed his wish that at her death she should be buried close to his tomb in the monastery of Fulda, so that they who had served God with equal sincerity and zeal should await together the day of resurrection.

     Leoba died in 780, after a short illness, and was buried in Fulda near Boniface in fulfillment of his desire. Miracles are said to have occurred at both tombs. St. Leoba is commemorated September 28th.

Saint Walburga

February 25

     Among the clerics and monastics that responded to St. Boniface’s appeal for help in Germany was a pious family of two brothers and a sister, his blood-relations, who were all later canonized. St. Willibald worked for forty years as missionary and pastor in Bavaria and became the first bishop of Eichstatt. At Heidenheim near Stuttgart he founded a double monastery, of which his brother St. Winebald was made abbot. For many years it was famous as a center for the education of clergy, and valuable help was given to Boniface by the Abbot and his sister Walburga in the organization of the Church over a wide area. On the death of Winebald in 761, his sister, who like Leoba had been a nun at Wimborne in Dorset, succeeded him as superior, and there she remained as abbess of both men and women until her death in 779.

     Unfortunately, little is known of Walburga’s holy life. She was buried in Heidenhelm. Some time later her body was taken to the Church of the Holy Cross at Eichstatt and placed in a tomb from which myrrh soon began to gush forth. Before long news spread of miraculous healings, particularly with eye diseases, and her tomb became a center of numerous pilgrimages. Pregnant women also received help from her in answer to their prayers.

    The translation of her relics took place on May 1st, which happened to be “Walpurgisnacht,” the night dedicated to the German fertility goddess Walpurgis, when witches convened to a place in the Harz mountains for wild dances and the practice of magic. The unfortunate similarity between the names easily led to confusion. Perhaps this is the reason why Mussorgsky’s tone poem “Night on Bald Mountain,” which is descriptive of the witches orgies, ends with the sound of church bells.

    St. Walburga is commemorated on February 25, the date of her repose, and on May 1st.

Recommended for further reading: Bede’s History, of the English Church and People; 364 pp. 

[1] A note of interest    “In the 16th and 17th centuries ladies often wore in lieu of necklaces cheap sillk or lace collars, called St. Audrey’s Lace,’ This ‘Tawdry Lace,’ sold at St. Audrey’s Fair in Ely each year on October 17, became a byword for cheap finery, and thus the word “tawdry” eventually entered our language…” (From John Adair’s The Pilgrim’s Way, Thames & Hudson, 1978)

    The history of Christianity in Switzerland is invariably associated with the names of Calvin and Zwingli, influential leaders of the Protestant Reformation, whose forceful contempt of the Roman Church combined with their sense of mission to sweep away the evidence of history and have them crowned as Switzerland’s apostles. Their apostolate, however, belonged to a new order which they themselves had devised. It was severed from the True Vine whose shoots had been rooted in the Swiss soil centuries earlier by the genuine successors of Christ’s Apostles.

Saint Beatus

Commemorated May 9

    According to oral tradition–often more reliable than the skeptic deliberations of modern scholarship, the first missionary to the pagan Helvetii was a first-century hermit of Gaelic origin, St. Beatus (Latin for “blessed”). He is said to have been baptized in England by St. Barnabas. Upon his conversion, St. Beatus gave up his earthly possessions and traveled to Rome where he was ordained by the Apostle Peter and sent with a companion, Achates, to evangelize the area we know today as Switzerland. The two missionaries settled in Argovia, just east of the Jura Mountains, where they persuaded many Helvetians to abandon their pagan cults of Mars and Hercules and to erect temples to the true God.

     For the sake of greater solitude, St. Beatus journeyed south to Interlaken, He settled into a cave above the lake and there he spent the rest of his life in prayer and fasting. St. Beatus died in old age c.112. Veneration of the Saint was popular in the Middle Ages and survived the hostility of the Reformation period when pilgrims were driven back from his cave at spear-point by Zwingli’s followers. Located in a mountain named after the Saint, Beattenberg, his cave still exists and remains a place of pilgrimage.

     Although the earliest recorded accounts of St. Beatus’ life, dating no earlier than the 10th and mid-11th centuries, have not been historically authenticated, there is no reason to dismiss them as legendary, as have ( some modern scholars. It should be remembered that Helvetia was conquered in 58 BC by the Romans whose civilizing influence was advantageous to early Christian missionary work, in spite of pagan Rome’s hostility. Nevertheless, in the absence of further documentation, one would hesitate to agree with a later tradition that calls St. Beatus the Apostle of Switzerland. This honor has been more justly conferred upon St. Gall, one of that great company of Irish monks whose major contribution towards the conversion of Gaul, Germany, the Low Countries and Switzerland remains to be fully appreciated. But even before St. Galls arrival in the early 7th century, Christianity had been making inroads into Switzerland, peopling its rugged landscape with monastics and watering its soil with the blood of martyrs.

Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion 

Commemorated September 22

     Towards the end of the third century (c. 285), the Roman Emperor Maximian Herculius summoned a select legion from Thebes (in Upper Egypt)to strengthen his western front. The legion was composed of Christian warriors whose ardor in battle was matched by an equally ardent faith.

     In celebration of a military success, all the soldiers were ordered to sacrifice to the pagan gods. The Theban legion refused to comply and withdrew from the encampment at Octodurum (today’s Martigny) southeast to Agaunum. Maximian tried to intimidate them into submission by randomly executing one tenth of the legion. But he did not succeed. The head of the legion, St. Maurice, encouraged his soldiers to stand fast in their faith and prepare themselves for the honor of suffering for Christ in imitation of their martyred companions who had already joined the armies of Christian warriors in heaven. Another tenth of the legion was executed. Finding the remaining soldiers still unwilling to surrender their faith, Maximian ordered a general slaughter. The legionnaires, numbering several thousand, did not resist. The site of their martyrdom, outside Agaunum (today’s St. Maurice), received the name Verroliez which is old French for vrai lieu or “actual place,” i. e., where the martyrs were slaughtered, a name it carries to this day.

     In Agaunum the pagan executioners celebrated their bloody operation. A man by the name of Victor, on learning the cause of such revelry, refused to drink with the soldiers or to accept any of the dead legionnaires’ belongings. On being questioned he unhesitatingly confessed the Christian faith and was promptly executed.

      Unfortunately, of the nearly 6,000 martyrs slain in Agaunum, tradition has handed down to us only the names of St. Maurice, St. Exuperus, St. Victor and St. Candidus (a senator). Their story was recorded by St. Euchertus, bishop of Lyons (c. 434);

      Two of the Theban soldiers, Victor and Ursus, escaped the slaughter and fled north to Solothurn where they began preaching the Gospel. It wasn’t long, however, before they were caught by soldiers of the pagan governor Hirtacus and executed. Their relics are still in Solothurn.

    Soon after the Agaunum slaughter, the Theban martyrs began working miracles. A church was built in Agaunum and also a monastery. The latter was enlarged in 515 by the pious Burgundian King Sigismund, a convert from the Arian heresy. Agaunum, with 900 monks, became the chief monastic center of Burgundy. Day and night choirs of monks took turns in chanting psalm s.

Saint Verena 

Commemorated September 1

    Not long after the martyrdom of Victor and Ursus, there came to Solothurn a Theban girl, a relative of one of the slain legionnaires. She had left her native Egypt for Italy where she heard news of the slaughter, and made her way to Switzerland in search of the relics of her martyred Theban brethren. After praying on the spot of their martyric exploit, she proceeded to Octodurum, but the local pagans forced her departure, and so she went to Solothurn where one surviving legionnaire was still living. There the young woman, Verena, settled in a cave and began leading a solitary life of prayer.

    St. Verena had one companion, an elderly woman who was a secret Christian and who provided her with food and in general looked after her needs. The recluse began to attract the local populace and converted members of the Almani tribes who, in turn, asked that she take charge of their daughters and educate them. And so it developed that St, Verena became a kind of abbess of a small community of women.

    Naturally, the pagan governor Hirtacus was not pleased by the Saint’s activity, and he had her imprisoned. One night St. Maurice appeared to St. Verena in her prison cell and comforted her, giving her courage to remain firm in her faith. That same night Hirtacus was struck by a violent fever which doctors were unable to relieve. Knowing St. Verena’s reputation, he asked her to pray for him. Cured through the holy virgin’s prayers, Hirtacus freed her to resume her pious activities.

    The great veneration which the people had for the Saint gave her no rest. She decided to leave Solcthurn and went first to Coblenz and then to an island on the Rhine. It was infested with snakes which she chased out by’ her prayers. She did not stay on the island, however, but went to Zurzach. After spending some time near a church dedicated to the Mother of God, she resumed her solitary life in a cell. A church was built there after her repose, and miracles continued to manifest the grace of God which St. Verena had acquired during her earthly sojourn. 

From St. Gregory of Tour’s Vita Patrium (Life of the Fathers–serialized in “The Orthodox Word”) and other early sources, we know that in the 5th century the monastic centers of Gaul, notably Lerins and Lyons, spilled their influence north and east into the Jura Mountains. There, alpine clefts and forested ravines provided a suitable ‘desert’ for monastic lovers of solitude whose severe asceticism was styled after that of the Egyptian Fathers. As their number increased a more established form of cenoebitic monasticism was introduced as, for example, at Agaunum. In the Jura, disciples of the brother Saints Romanus and Lupicinus spread out to found a whole series of monasteries. There also the Saints’ sister Yole governed what was perhaps the first wilderness monastic community for women in the West, known as “La Balme.”

    But despite the successful rooting of the monastic tradition in Swiss soil, the missionary field was in need of Still more laborers. The warring Franks and Burgundians presented just the challenge for those indomitable missionaries par excellence–the Irish monks. 

Saint Gall

Commemorated October 16

    It was in Ireland that St. Gall was born, just about the time that St. Comgall founded his famous monastery of Bangor(c. 555) where St. Gall was sent by his parents to be educated. There the young Cellach (St. Gall’s name at birth’) became well-versed in both Sacred Scripture and poetry.

    St. Comgall was a strict and righteous ascetic who guided several thousand monks. Among his disciples was St. Columban (not to be confused with St. Columba or Columcille of Iona) who ordained St. Gall to the priesthood after the latter had spent some years in ascetic labors. With St. Comgull’s blessing, St. Gall was chosen together with eleven other monks to accompany St. Columban on a missionary venture.

     Full of the evangelistic fervor that characterized the Bangor monks, the group traveled first to England and then, about the year 585, they crossed the channel. Thanks to the support and kindness of a Frankish king, they settled in Annegray, in the Vosges Mountains, where they founded a monastic community. Disciples began to gather, attracted by St. Columban’s reputation as a strict ascetic. In 590 St. Columban, together with St. Gall, founded the famous monastery at Luxeuil, a former spa that had been plundered by the Huns. In the ruins of an old house the Irish monks built first a chapel and then established a monastery. The monks became more and more numerous and the fame of St. Columban and his community was such that they were often visited by King Thoudoric (Thierry), son of Childebert II.

     In character with his strictness, St. Columban never compromised in applying the teachings and regulations of the Church. He reproached King Thoudoric for abandoning his wife and living with his mistress, an arrangement which suited Theuderic’ s mother, Queen Faileuba, for she was thereby able to share her son’s power. Although the King had great respect for St. Columban, his willful mother, to protect her interests, managed to estrange the two men and have the holy monk banished from the kingdom.

     In 610 St. Columban left Luxeuil with St. Gall and some of the other monks. They went to King Theuderic’s half-brother, King Theodebert of Austrasia whose residence was in Metz. Travelling south through Germany they met with great difficulty in preaching the Gospel, being persecuted and expelled from almost every place where they wanted to establish themselves. Finally, a God-fearing priest living near the Lake of Constance, Willemar, allowed them to stay in Bregentz. There the monks built cells and started converting the surrounding pagan populace. But they had to pay for their success. Two of the monks were killed by some of the pagans in their militant resentment of the Gospel preaching. The bodies of these two martyrs were placed under the altar of the Brigantina Monastery (later called Mererau). 

   About this time there occurred an incident recorded by St. Columban’s biographer, Jonas of Bobbio, who also knew St. Gall. The latter was given an obedience to fish in the Breuchin, a river which flows into the Lauterne. But he decided to try his luck in the L’Ognan, a tributary of the Aar, instead. He caught nothing. On being reproved by St. Columban for his disobedience,, be went as he had been told to the Breuchin and there he had a large catch.

    In 612 Theuderic killed Theodebert and became King of Austrasia. Once more St. Columban had to leave his kingdom and move on. He asked St. Gall to accompany him to Italy (where he was to found the famous Bobbio Monastery). But St. Gall, severely ill, was unable to fulfill such an obedience. St. Columban had to accept his disciple’s remaining in Bregenz, but as a penance he forbade him to celebrate the Divine Liturgy as long as he, Columban, was still alive.

    After St. Columban’s departure and St. Gall’s recovery, the latter took some of the monks that had remained in Bregenz, and moved further up the Lake of Constance to what is now Saint-Gall. There they built a few cells. St. Gall studied the local language and converted so many pagans that he was popularly called the Apostle of Constance. He also had the gift of healing and performed several miracles. The daughter of Duke Gonzon (or Gunzon) was possessed by an evil spirit. When St. Gall delivered her from the chains of the devil, her father was so thankful that he wanted St. Gall to become a bishop, but the Saint declined.

    True to his strict Celtic monastic training St. Gall carefully guarded himself from acquisitiveness. Money that he could not refuse he distributed to the poor. The chronicle of his Life states that once a deacon of his monastery wanted to keep a precious vase for the altar, St. Gall sternly forbade him: Do not keep it; one must be able to say with St, Peter: “Silver and gold have I none” (Acts 3:6). ‘

    After Matins one morning, St. Gall was miraculously informed of the death of St. Columban. He told the other monks and they celebrated a funeral service. One of the monks was then sent to Italy for a report. He returned with the confirmation of St. Columban’s repose and a letter from his Bobbio disciples. Among other things, the letter explained that before dying St. Columban had asked them to give his abbot’s staff to St. Gall as a token of forgiveness for his incapacity to follow him to Italy three years earlier. St. Gall wept abundantly, for he had never forgotten his spiritual father’s love, and until receiving this confirmation of his death, out of obedience he had not celebrated the Divine Liturgy and more than once had refused offers to become bishop. His obedience thereby preserved him in the rigorous monastic life so cherished by the Irish monks.

    St. Gall then resumed the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. He spent most of his time in his cell, leaving it only to preach the Gospel and to instruct his humble flock. Like St. Seraphim of Sarov centuries later, St. Gall used to spend days and nights praying and meditating on God’s Word. A bear would visit him and bring him wood. (Today a bear is represented on the town flag of St. Gall as the symbol of the Saint!) The chronicle mentions that the God-fearing King Sigebert (to be distinguished from the one mentioned above) who founded several monasteries, had great veneration for St. Gall. His daughter refused to marry in order that she might become a nun and live close by the holy apostle.

     In 625 St. Eustase, abbot of Luxeuil, died. His monks chose St. Gall as his successor, but the Saint declined the position. Luxeuil had become a very rich monastery, and St. Gall’s love for poverty was as firm as his love for obedience and humility.

     With his disciples St. Gall followed the rule of St. Columban. It was-very strict, based upon absolute obedience, silence. fasting and abstinence. Infractions brought severe consequences.

     The only writing of St. Gall that has come down to us is a homily which he delivered when his disciple John became a bishop. St. Gall himself had been proposed for this honor but he again declined, recommending his disciple in his stead. (The text of the homily is found in Canisius’ Lectiones Antiquae.)

     St. Gall died on the 16th of October 646 (some sources say 630). at an advanced age. (As an added note of interest, the Oxford Dictionary of Saints states that his shrine remained until the Reformation; when it was rifled, his bones were seen to be unusually large.) 

     Hundreds of saints, bearers of the Orthodox faith, preached and died in Switzerland during the first centuries of Christianity. Aside from those already mentioned, we should not overlook the names of St. Felix and Regula, St. Lucius, St. Emerita, St. Fridolin (who appears on a Swiss cantonal flag!), St. Pirmin, St. Theodulus, St. Ursula and the numerous saints of the Jura, St. Maire–bishop of Lausanne, St. Salonins-Bishop of Geneva. These are but some of those known to us, whose memory is gradually being revived to the glory of God, wondrous in His saints.

     After the Schism of 1054, Switzerland followed Rome into the Latin error together with the rest of Western Christendom. Ties with its Orthodox heritage were further weakened in the 16th century when its major cities of Zurich and Geneva became strongholds of the Reformation. But by God’s merciful Providence, beginning in the 18th century, through immigrants from Greece and Russia, an Orthodox presence became manifest once again on Swiss soil. By the following century Switzerland had become a popular resort and cultural center for Russia’ s intelligentsia. Although some were thoroughly westernized, others preserved an Orthodox piety and stimulated the growth of parishes. A Russian parish established in Bern in 1816 was transferred to Geneva in 1848 where, thanks to the generosity of the Geneva authorities who offered the Russians a piece of land, a proper Orthodox church was built. Completed in 1866, it was expanded in 1916 and stands today as the episcopal see of Geneva and Western Europe, presided over by Archbishop Anthony (Bartosevich). The next church to be erected was St. Barbara’s in Vevey on the Swiss Riviera, a charming town where several famous Russians lived for a time, among them: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (in 1857) and Fyodor Michailovich Dostoevsky.

Saint Barbara’s Church in Vevey

Count Peter Shuvalov, Russia’s diplomatic representative at the Berlin Congress in 1878, had a church built in Vevey in memory of his daughter Barbara. She had married Count Orlov in 1870 and died two years later while giving birth to a daughter, Mary, who soon followed her mother into the next world, Construction began in 1874 and in 1878 the church was ready for divine services. It was the Count’s desire that the remains of his daughter be transferred next to the church, but the local authorities refused permission, and her tomb remained in St. Martin’s cemetery, a stone’s throw from St. Barbara’s.

     According to Swiss law and tradition, after a certain number of years tombs are opened, their remains buried further down in the ground, and new tombs are erected in the place of the old ones. In 1955 this fate threatened to obliterate the tomb of Barbara and Mary Orlov. Fortunately, Vladika Leonty the Russian bishop of Geneva and Switzerland at the time (brother of the pre sent Archbishop Anthony), managed to secure permission to have the remains of Barbara Petrovna and her daughter transferred next to the church, in fulfillment of her father’s original wish. A beautiful marble cross, exquisitely incised with Slavonic lettering, stands to this day over her simple tomb behind the church.

    The church of St. Barbara is a classic example of Russian religious architecture. Although built by local craftsmen, its plans came from Russia as did most of its paintings and icons. Surmounted by a single gold cupola, it is decorated outside with Slavonic calligraphy; inside, similar designs adorn the walls around the frescoes and icons. 

    Services at St. Barbara’s are chanted in Church-Slavonic and French. The faithful who attend these services are a mixture of native Russians, Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians, with the addition of a growing number of Swiss converts. A special service to all the saints of Orthodox Switzerland was written in French by Priest Pierre Cantacuzene and is celebrated annually at St. Barbara’ s.

    Today, Switzerland has a population of some 38,000 Orthodox Christians. These are predominantly descendents of Russian, Greek Serbian and Romanian immigrants, as well as exiles from communist dominated countries and refugees from the Middle East. The different parishes reflect this ethnic diversity. An increasing number of Orthodox are native Swiss, German and French, the majority of whom have been received into the Church by priests of the Russian Church Abroad. These converts have, quite naturally, been the most active in the rediscovery of Orthodoxy’ s Western heritage, an endeavor stimulated and pioneered by Blessed Archbishop John Maximovitch. Through his prayers, may the spiritual fruit, inspired by the lives of those men and women saints whose wholesale dedication to Christ cultivated the flowering of the True Vine in Switzerland in centuries past.

Material provided by Claude Lopez-Ginisty. illustrated by Dominique Lopez; map–OA. Life of St. Gall first published in “L’Observateur Orthodoxe ,” Montreal, Sept. 1984; based on the life of St. Gall written by Vualfrid Strabon (d. 849), a monk of St. Gall’s monastery. Additional facts from “The Orthodox Word” Nos. 25 and 74.

Lindisfarne: the Holy Isle

     Just before His Ascension, the Lord gave His disciples command to “Go…and teach all nations,” On the authority of Eusebius and others it is known that among those to hear the Gospels in the still infant years of the Church was the distant land of Britain, The Roman occupation in the first centuries brought increased trade, the ,growth of towns and cities and a relative stability which facilitated the spread of Christ’s light. But the gradual decay of the Empire allowed invading pagan tribes of Angles and Saxons to overpower the Britons, and their Church suffered disintegration. Fortunately, however, Christianity had been carried west beyond the boundaries of Roman rule, beyond reach of the bellicose Saxons, to the Celts of Ireland where it spread and flourished as perhaps nowhere else. It was from Ireland that missionaries came preaching the Gospel to the heathen tribes of Britain’s northern wilds. They first landed on the west coast of Scotland where, in 563, they established a monastic beachhead on the island of Iona. In the next century an equally important center of spiritual activity was to be found off the east coast on another ‘holy isle,’ Lindisfarne, whose missionary monks made an invaluable contribution towards invigorating British Christianity and enriching its heritage with their Celtic tradition.

     Among those converted and baptized at Iona was St, Oswald who, in 633, succeeded St. Edwin as king of Northumbria, a sizeable area occupying Britain’s northeast and one of the three largest Saxon kingdoms; the other two were Mercia–located in the Midlands and ruled by the fiercely pagan king Penda, and Essex, further south, which had been converted not long before by St. Augustine of Canterbury and his monks from Rome. At once Oswald sent to Iona for a missionary to evangelize his still pagan subjects. The first to arrive, Corman, found the Northumbrians to be “of an obstinate and barbarous temperament,” and he returned to Iona having failed in his mission. As the Scot fathers were deliberating their next course of action–for they were not easily dissuaded where there was an opportunity to save souls–one of the brethren addressed the defeated Corman, suggesting that perhaps his approach had been too severe, that he should have followed the example of the Apostles in giving his ignorant hearers “the milk of simpler teaching,” and guiding them more gradually towards perfection. The fathers were impressed by the monk’s discreet wisdom and elected him to launch a new missionary effort.

Saint Aidan: First Abbot

     Thus it was that after being consecrated bishop, Aidan arrived in Northumbria in 635 and settled on Lindisfarne where he set about establishing a monastery. The location he chose had several recommendations: the sea formed a wail protecting an isolation desirable for the concentrated spiritual activity of the monks, while for missionary purposes access to the mainland was provided by a natural causeway which appeared twice a day at low tide. As both bishop and abbot Aidan divided his time between his strict monastic observances and his expeditions into the countryside to preach the Gospel. King Oswald, whose royal residence at Barnburgh lay within sight of the Holy Island, occasionally accompanied the Gaelic-speaking Bishop as an interpreter. According to the Venerable Bede who has provided the primary source for Aidan’s Life, “many Northumbrians, both noble and simple, laid aside their weapons, preferring to take monastic vows rather than study the art of war.” When he died sixteen years later, Aidan was crowned with the well-deserved title “Apostle of the Northumbrians.”

     The success of Aidan’s apostolic labors was the fruit of his monastic struggles and holy life. An admirer called him “indifferent to the dignity of a bishop, but influencing all men by his humility and devotion.” And Bede wrote that “the highest recommendation of his teaching to all was that he and his followers lived as they taught.” Even on his long baptizing tours, Aidan went about mostly on foot, stopping to talk to those whom he met: the heathen he urged to be baptized and the Christians he encouraged towards a still more perfect way of life. His companions on these journeys, “whether monks or lay folk, were required to meditate, that is, either to read the scriptures or to learn the Psalms.” In the practice of abstinence Aidan himself set an example for his monks by keeping a complete fast on Wednesdays and Fridays until the ninth hour, a custom which inspired imitation among many devout lay people. The bishop’s self-continence was equally apparent in his attitude towards money and possessions; as a “father to the wretched,” he was quick to give to the poor the alms and gifts which be himself received. When Oswald’s successor, King Oswin, gave Aidan a fine horse which he agreed to use in case of a particularly difficult or urgent journey, the saintly Bishop did not hesitate to give it away with all its royal trappings to a beggar who met him with a request for alms. Some gifts of money Aidan used to ransom those unjustly sold into slavery. Many of these later became his disciples.

     The Bishop’ s exemplary character and selfless activity and the high spiritual caliber of his monks impressed many to undertake the angelic life and others to make large gifts of land for the founding of monasteries and building of churches. A school was established on the Holy Island where young boys were sent to be trained by the Scottish monks as priests and missionaries. The pupils not only learned Latin and memorized the Gospels and Psalter, but in living with the older monks they were exposed to a world of concentrated prayer and missionary fervor which prepared them for a life of service to God. The combined emphasis on monasticism and missionary activity was characteristic of the Celtic tradition and helped preserve a spiritual vigor less noticeable in the Canterbury school.

     Those discipled at Lindisfarne traveled throughout Britain, and as far as the Netherlands, establishing monastic communities as local centers for their missionary work. Aidan also encouraged the establishment of convents, and he tonsured the first Northurnbrian nun Hieu. He persuaded the devout woman Hilda to forsake her intention to become a nun in Gaul and to remain in England where she founded several convents; her most renowned community was a double monastery for men and women at Whitby on the Yorkshire coast, which produced at least five bishops before it was destroyed in 867 during the Danish devastation of the north. “So great was her prudence,” wrote Bede, “that not only ordinary folk, but kinas and princes used to come and ask her advice in their difficulties and take it.”

       God blessed His faithful servant Aidan with spiritual gifts. Bede reports several incidents in which they were revealed, carefully assuring his readers that they are “no groundless fables,” but based on reliable sources. There was, in one case, a priest named Utta who was sent on a mission to Kent from where he was to return by sea. When he came to ask Aidart’s blessing for the journey, the Bishop gave him some holy oil and forewarned him of a storm he would encounter. “Remember then to pour the oil on to the sea, and the wind will immediately drop, giving you had foretold.

     Another example of Aidart’s wonderworking powers was manifest during the protracted ‘holy war’ which the obstinately pagan King Penda led against the northern Christians; it lasted some 20 years until his defeat in 654. From his retreat on Farne Island where he used to go for periods of solitary prayer, Aidan saw a column of smoke rising above the walls of the royal city some two miles distant. Raising his hands in entreaty, he cried out, “Lord, see what evil Penda does!” Immediately the wind shifted away from the city towards the assailants who retreated in haste.

     Aidan died at Barnburgh on August 31, 651. His body was initially buried at Lindisfarne, but when, in 664 the monastery accepted the decision of the Whitby Synod to adopt the Roman tradition, Aidan’s second successor as abbot, St. Colman, took St. Aidan’s remains and retired to Iona, still a stronghold of the Celtic Church to which Aidan had been faithful to the last.

    Even after the Whitby Synod, the spirit of the Celtic tradition continued to be spread abroad by those who had been spiritually nourished by Aidan and his Lindisfarne disciples. Among those who carried on Aidan’s apostolic work were the four Anglo-Saxon brothers: Cedd, Cynebil, Caelin and Chad, former pupils at the Lindisfarne school. All four became priests and two eventually became bishops who founded monasteries and built churches after the tradition of their spiritual father. Cedd, after preaching in Mercia, one of Britain’s last pagan outposts, became Bishop of Essex; while Chad, who most resembled Aidan in his genuinely humble and devout character, returned from Ireland where Aidan had sent him to study , and pursued missionary work in his native Northumbria before being made Bishop of Mercia. The brother-bishops followed Aidan’s example: both were also abbots and resided at monasteries they founded–Cedd at Lastingham and Chad at Lichfield. Chad died in 672 and soon thereafter was venerated as a saint.

     It would be well here to insert a brief explanation concerning the Synod of Whitby mentioned earlier, for it affected not only Lindisfarne but also the future course of the British Church. Reference has been made to differences between the Celtic tradition and that of Rome introduced to Britain by St. Augustine of Canterbury. In practice the difference related to the monastic tonsure, the calculation of the date of Pascha and the basic organization of the Church. In the monastically-oriented Celtic tradition bishops were subordinated to abbots and the entire structure was less rigid than in the Roman tradition with its emphasis on a well-ordered state and central authority. Britain was not so large but that these two traditions didn’t eventually come into conflict; the Synod of Whitby was convened to determine which tradition to follow. The victory of Canterbury signaled not only the unfortunate wane of Celtic influence, but also the alignment of the British Church with Tome by which it was gradually drawn into schism with the rest of the Western Church.

    Many of the Lindisfarne monks were, quite naturally, unhappy with the Synod’s decision, and some, like St. Colman, left to join monasteries in the west. It was during this very difficult period of adjustment that one of England’s most beloved saints, Cuthbert, came to be abbot of Lindisfarne, and through his spiritual stamina peace was restored.

Saint Cuthbert: Favored of God

     Cuthbert’s recorded miracles surpass those of any other saint in this period of monastic flowering. When his remains were uncovered on the 11th anniversary of his repose, March 20, 687, he was found to be entirely incorrupt, “looking as though still alive; even his vestments were fresh.” It was in honor of St. Cuthbert that the famous Lindisfarne Gospels were written and so intricately illuminated. And it was to ensure his veneration by future generations that the Lindisfarne monks commissioned Venerable Bede to write a full account of his life, a task completed in 721.

     Cuthbert was Lindisfarne’s sixth abbot and manifested a spiritual kinship with its founder. As a youth pasturing sheep he saw on the night of St. Aidan’s repose a vision of angels bearing a shining soul into the heavens. He was inspired to become a monk at Melrose, the first and most famous of Lindisfarne’s offshoots established by Aidan, where his saintly spiritual mentor Fr. Boisil foretold his future consecration as bishop. Appointed prior, Cuthbert skillfully instructed not only the monks but, like Aidan, undertook extensive missionary journeys to preach to the Picts, a rough mountain people still inclined to their pagan ways. His counsel to all was “Learn to have constant faith and hope in the Lord.”

    At the age of 30 Cuthbert was transferred to Lindisfarne as prior. While preserving the spirit of the Celtic tradition, he accepted the decision of the Whitby Synod for the sake, no doubt, of harmony, and his peaceful persuasion gradually won over the monks. Cuthbert felt strongly the Celtic love for the desert, and after twelve years he resigned as prior of Lindisfarne to withdraw, like Aidan, to the austere solitude of Farne Island where a wall cut off the sight of all but the heavens towards which he directed both heart and mind. Nine years passed when the king himself came to the island to persuade Cuthbert to become Bishop of Lindisfarne. Once again Cuthbert undertook vigorous missionary work, but a foreknowledge of his approaching death sent him back to the Farne only two yea rs later. In a matter of weeks a severe illness and trial by demons completed the purification which his ascetic and apostolic labors had begun.

    Cuthbert was buried at Lindisfarne where his grave attracted hundreds of pilgrims until Viking raiders forced the monks in 875 to leave the island, taking with them the coffin of their beloved saint, Today his holy remains –as also the Venerable Bede’s–rest in Durham Cathedral, sadly disturbed, no doubt, by grievous events which have marked the recent course of the Anglican Church.

    Such a brief sketch is hardly adequate to convey the significance of such a wonderful saint, and it is hoped that the reader will be inspired to fill in the details by reading his Life. Although we may regret his acceptance of the Whitby decision, Bede’ s eloquent and reliable testament leaves no doubt as to Cuthbert’s sanctity. Surely he belongs together with his predecessors Aidan, Finan, Chad and others who are as jewels in the crown of Lindisfarne’s holy legacy. The English Church, while it ultimately rejected the Celtic tradition centered at Lindisfarne, owes it a great debt which today’s generation of British converts to Orthodoxy–the faith of their ancestors-are just beginning to repay through their rediscovery and veneration of a host of Celtic saints.

             St. Bede the Venrable will be the subject of worldwide attention in 1985, the 1250th anniversary of his death.  At least one icon, to the author’s knowledge, is being painted for the feast day, May 27th.

            Our subject did for British Christianity what Eusebius did for Constantinople and what St. Nestor did for Kievan Rus, namely, he recorded the histor of Chistianity in his own region up to his own time.  Indeed, his History of the English Church and People has run into numerous editions and is a best-selling religious paperback throughout the English-speaking world.

            St. Bede was born probably in 673, in the ancient kindgom of Northumbria.  The exact site of his birth is unknown, but it was in the region of the modern city of Yarrow in northern England.  At the age of seven he was sent to school at the newly-founded monastery of Wearmouth, the ruins of which may still be visited, only the church surviving intact.  He was, however, soon moved to the monastery’s twin house at Jarrow where he remained until his death.  It was perhaps this early training that caused him to be ordained to the diaconate when only 19.  Eleven years later he was made a priest.  That he retained a love for the services may be seen from a letter which he wrote:  “I know that the angels are present at the canonical Hours, and what if they do not find me among the brethren when they assemble?  Will they not say, Where is Bede?  Why does he not attend the appointed devotions with his brethren?”

            Our saint was a pupil of St. Benedict Biscop (commemorated Jan. 12), who had founded both monasteries and who had previously been a monk at Lerins, the most ancient monastery in Europe.  From Lerins, monasticism spread throughout the European continent.  It was the large library of books which St. Benedict Biscop brought with him from Lerins, as well as from other libraries in Europe, which enabled St. Bede to write many of his scholarly works.

            On the eve of his death, St. Bede said that “from the time of my receiving the priesthood until my fifty-ninth year, I have worked, both for my own profit and that of my brethren, to compile extracts from the words of the venerable fathers on Holy Scripture, and to make commentaries on their meaning and interpretation.”  St. Bede is known for his biblical commentaries, but he is even better known for his work as a Church historian.  He certainly must have known personally several of the Anglo-Saxon saints.  His histories were written for edification, however, rather than as scholarly exercises, and topics outside this scope tend to be omitted by him.

            No historian is completely objective, and St. Bede is no exception.  It should be borne in mind when reading his books that he was a patriotic Northumbrian and his work was intended for royal use.  Secondly, he is better informed about events in his own part of Britain than elsewhere.  Thus, Wales features hardly at all in his work, for it was not then linked with England, and its population was ethnically different.

            Christians seeking the history of Britain’s many Orthodox saints, including St. Cuthbert and the Proto-martyr St. Alban, are often totally dependent upon St. Bede’s accounts.  The Saint has been criticized for his account of the Synod of Whitby (664), at which virtually all the English – except for the ancient monastery of Iona – accepted the Roman dating method for Pascha.  Modern scholarship suggests that this rather emotional topic was not the reason this local council was summoned, although the question of the Paschal calendar was put on its agenda.  There were men of undoubted sanctity on both sides of the dispute.  The king’s own bishop, St. Colman of Lindesfarne (commemorated Feb. 18) resigned his see rather than accept the Synod’s decision.  But he was allowed to nominate St. Eata (Oct. 26), a man who accepted the decision, as his successor.

            Through his writings, St. Bede brings to life for us today the monastic and secular life of seventh- and eighth-century Britain.  Most importantly, he has preserved for us the lives of many early saints of England – and that is a very precious legacy.

            St. Bede and all you holy Saints of Northumbria, pray to God for us!

                                                                                                                        James Read

 St. Oswald, Royal Martyr of Northumbria

             “Oswald’s great devotion and faith in God was made evident by the miracles that took place after his death.  For at the place where he was killed fighting for his country against the heathen [Aug. 5, 642], sick men and beasts are healed to this day.  Many people took away the very dust from the place where his body fell, and put it in water, from which sick folk who drank it received great benefit.  This practice became so popular that, as the earth was gradually removed, a pit was left in which a man could stand.  But it is not to be wondered at that the sick received healing at the place of his death; for during his lifetime he never failed to provide for the sick and needy and to give them alms and aid.  Many miracles are reported as having occurred at this spot, or by means of the earth taken from it; but I will content myself with two, which I have heard from my elders.

            “Not long after Oswald’s death, a man happened to be riding near the place when his horse suddenly showed signs of distress.  It stopped and hung its head, foaming at the mouth, and as its pains increased it collapsed on the ground.  The rider dismounted, removed the saddle, and waited to see whether the beast was going to recover or die.  At length, having tossed this way and that in great pain for a considerable time, it rolled on to the spot where the great king had died.  Immediately the pain ceased, and the horse stopped its wild struggles, then having rolled on its other side, as tired beasts do, it got up fully recovered and began to graze.  The traveller, an observant man, concluded that the place where his horse was cured must possess special sancitity, and when he had marked it, he mounted and rode on to the inn where he intended to lodge.  On his arrival he found a girl, the niece of the landlord, who had long suffered from paralysis; and when members of the household in his presence were deploring the girl’s diease, he began to tell them about the place where his horse had been cured.  So they put the girl in to a cart, took her to the place, and laid her down.  Once there she fell asleep for a short while; and, on awaking, she found herself restored to health.  She asked for water and washed her face; then she tidied her hair, adjusted her linen headgear, and returned home on foot in perfect health with those who had brought her.”