St. Alcmund of Hexham (Died AD 781)

Bishop of Hexham Died: 7th September AD 781 Little seems to be known about this man who became the seventh Bishop of Hexham in AD 767. After his death, in AD 781, Alcmund was buried beside St. Acca, outside the Abbey turned Cathedral Church. The location of the grave was forgotten during the Danish invasions; but, in 1032, the Saint is said to have appeared in a vision to a local man, bidding him tell Alured, the Sacrist of Durham, to have his body translated to a more suitable place. Following these instructions, Alured discovered the Saint's remains and enshrined them at Hexham. However, he retained a single bone to add to the relic collection at Durham. The deceased holyman was not happy and it was soon found that that his feretrum could not be moved until the bone was restored to its rightful place! After being laid waste in 1154, all the saintly relics of Hexham were gathered together in a single shrine, until finally scattered by the Scots, 150 years later.

Source AngloSaxon & Celtic Orthodox Church

St. Aebbe of Minster-in-Thanet (Died AD 694)

Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet Died: 19th November AD 694 at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent Domina Aebbe (often corrupted to Domneva), is usually known as Ermenburga, though this was said to be the name of one of her saintly sisters. The other two were St. Ermengitha and St. Etheldreda of Kent. Along with SS. Aethelred and Aethelbert of Eastry, they were the children of Prince Eormenred, a sub-King in Kent under his father, King Edbald. She married King Merewalh of Magonset and together they had at least three daughters - St. Mildred, Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet; St. Milburga, Abbess of Wenlock; and St. Milgitha, a nun at Eastry - and one son, Merefin, who died young, in the odour of sanctity. It seems likely that, during her time as Queen, Aebbe acquired some land now named after her at Abingdon in Berkshire. She may have been the ultimate founder of the great Abbey there, perhaps originally as a double monastery. She also has a church and a street dedicated to her in nearby Oxford. In AD 664, Aebbe's cousin, Egbert, succeeded to the Kentish throne. Worried about the Royal claims of the lady's two nephews - Aethlred and Aethelbert - and encouraged by a ruthlessly ambitious advisor named Thunor, he had the two lads brutally murdered. He later, however, repented for his hasty actions and, according to Saxon law, was obliged to pay weregild, or the 'price of blood' to the victims' next-of-kin. Egbert sent for Queen Aebbe, received her in great state and offered her whatever she chose to ask. The lady chose, as the blood ransom, a gift of as much land as her tame doe could run round in one course and the King consented. The spot chosen was the Isle of Thanet and there, in the presence of the King and his Court, Aebbe let loose the doe. Thunor, moved by envy and spite, tried to dissuade the King from giving up his lands at the instigation of a 'witch' and, being on horseback, set off in pursuit of the doe. He had scarcely started when the earth apparently opened up and swallowed him. The place, for centuries after, was called "Thunner's Leap." The doe continued her course and did not stop until she had encircled forty-eight ploughs of land. The King made a gift of all this to Aebbe and, after her husband's death, she built a monastery there, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and in memory of her brothers (AD 673). This monastery was called Minster and was soon filled by seventy nuns and ruled by Aebbe as the first abbess. She died there on 19th November AD 694. Edited from Agnes Dunbar's "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904). source AngloSaxon & Celtic Orthodox Church

St. Breaca (born c.486)

(Welsh-Breaga, Latin-Briacus, English-Breage)

St. Selevan's sister, Princess Breaca, left Dumnonia to become a nun at St. Brigid's foundation of Campus Breacae in Ireland. She later returned to her home Kingdom with Saints Sinwin, Germoe, Elwen, Crowan and Helen. She built churches first at Pencair, then Trenwith and Talmeneth. She finally retired to the village named after her, Breage. 

source AngloSaxon & Celtic Orthodox Church

The Wilton Cross

The Wilton Cross:Anglo-Saxon, AD 675-700 From Wilton, Norfolk, England A cross-shaped gold and garnet cloisonné pendant set with an Early Byzantine coin This pendant displays the reverse of a lightweight solidus of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (reigned AD 610-41), which can be dated to between 613 and 630.

An Anglo-Saxon Cross Brooch

 

For Anglo-Saxonists with any streak of the romantic in them, the most pleasing find of the Trust's summer excavations must be the small cross found in the Cattle Market site, which is certainly a relic of Anglian York. It is gratifying enough to tearn of any finds at all being made outside the predictable area of the Minster for this hitherto archaeologically elusive period. But the discovery of this cross and related materials not only labels the Cattle Market region as a likely Anglian suburb of early date; it also offers a date within a momentous period of York’s church history.

The location of the cross was in the top of a well long since disused into which a wattle and daub wail had slipped. Domestic refuse containing vegetable matter and bones (but no pottery) had been thrown into the depression and among this lay the cross and two Anglo-Saxon coins.

The cross is of the Celtic type - closely paralelled in its shape among Irish and Manx stone crosses and decoration in Irish manuscripts or manuscripts showing strong Irish influence (see, for example, the two illustrations). The arms are equal in length and around their intersection is developed a circular decorative area which intrudes into the angles between the arms. It is about 32mm square and cast in bronze about 2mm thick. A slightly irregular edge has been turned back and beaten roughly down forming an uneven rim on the backside - which is completely undecorated and obviously not intended to be seen. On the back are two lugs standing about 7mm high, 5mm wide and 1mm thick, each pierced with a round hole. Thexe lugs are placed in such a way that the holes are not face to face so that a straight pin could be pushed through. Instead they lay in such a way that two separate pins or s staple-shaped fastener would be required. It is possible that the cross was sewn on to something - a hat or a robe. But the length of the lugs might suggest that it was intended to be fastened through a rigid material of substantial thickness: it might for example be a decorative detail from some object of wood or metal, rather than a personal brooch.

The decoration on the face of the cross is skillfully enough done by a cloisonne technique used by the Celts but highly characteristic of Anglo-Saxon workmanship. Within raised ‘walls’ of metal a symmetrical pattern is made of ‘cells’. Though on this cross these cells are now empty, it might be assumed, by the example of amply surviving instances of this technique, that they were originally filled with gems - for example garnet - or coloured enamel. Traces of a yellow substance like yellow enamel used in Anglo-Saxon ornament do in fact show in some of the cells, though these may prove to be natural chemical discolourings. The workmanship is not of the very highest order. Apart from the rough finish given to the back, there is a lack of perfect symmetry in the arms of the cross which do not match exactly in size. A small hole right through the bottom of one cell has a slight rim on the backside and a curve which suggests it was made by a clumsily tapped engraving tool.

The ends of the arms are not square, but bifurcated. The shape thus created is ideal for decoration with the interlace pattern so common in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art. But instead a very simple design has been chosen consisting of two crescent moon shaped cells back to back and filling the space between the centre medallion and the end of the arms. The centre piece itself is also simply though attractively designed. The single motif is repeated in each of the quadrants into which the circle is divided, thus forming a swastika-cross. The whole decoration is plain and sober, compared with the exuberance that can be expressed with interlace pattern, in Irish stone crosses of this period, or (nearer home) in the cross-patterns in the base of the Ormside Bowl (Yorkshire Museum).

The coins associated with the cross confirm the date which its form and decoration most strongly suggest: the 8^th century. Both coins are of silver mixed with bronze bearing on the reverse side the figure of a fantastic animal and on the obverse the name of king Eadberht of Northumbria.

Eadberht peacefully succeeded his cousin Ceolwulf (who abdicated to become a monk) in 737. Of his reign little is recorded, though he may be the Northumbrian king who gained great victories against the Strathclyde Britons (Welsh) and captured their royal city of Dumbarton just after the mid-8^th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that Æthelbald of Mercia harried Northumbira in the very year of Eadberht's succession, and that York was burnt down in 741, but otherwise Northumbrian affairs for this period barely feature there. Eadberht rules until 758 and then, like his cousin, entered a monastery, passing on the crown to his son Oswulf who, however, was murdered a year later by one of his own household. When Eadberht died in 768 he was, the Chronicle says, buried in York in the same chapel as his brother, Archbishop Egbert, who had died two years previously.

Egbert has a much more definite and distinguished place in English history than his brother, for he it was who, with the powerful support of the Venerable Bede, persuaded the Pope to send once more the archbishop’s pallium which had been intended for Paulinus a century earlier, but which Edwin’s death in war and the flight of Paulinus forestalled. The text of the letter still survives which Bede wrote to Egbert at York on 5 November 734, advising him that if only Egbert would make certain reforms in his bishopric it was most likely that York would at last be raised to metropolitan status as had been expressed purpose of Pope Gregory when he sent Augustine to convert the English. And so it was, in the year of Bede's death, 735 Egbert became the first archbishop of York, and the Roman hierarchy of the church in Northumbria was now complete, as it had been long since in the South. Yet the Celtic church, which had played such a fundamental part in the Christianisation of the North, but had been in retreat since its defeat at the Synod of Whitby in 664, left its legacy in Northumbria - not in the form of church organisation and practice but in that sense of the beauty of holiness so pronounced in Northumbrian religious art, as in the great stone crosses and the illuminated gospel books.

The small cross from the Cattle Market site is a memento of the York which Bede knew and visited where Celtic met Roman under the patronage of Anglo-Saxon kings.

S.A.J. Bradley

Biography of St. David, Patron Saint of Wales

By David Nash Ford

S T.   D A V I D
The Holiest Son of Wales

Born: AD 487at Carfai, Pembrokeshire 
Died: 1st March AD 589 at St. Davids, Pembrokeshire

The life-story and legends of St. David are largely based on his biography written by one Rhygyfarch in the late 11th century. He is generally accepted as having been the son of a lady of noble Irish birth living in Dyfed. Lady Nonby name, she had taking on a religious life, joining the convent at Ty Gwyn near Whitesands Bay. However, her beauty brought her to the attention ofSandde, a prince of the adjoining Kingdom of Ceredigion, while he was travelling nearby. His advances were, of course, vehemently rejected but the Royal lord would not take no for an answer and forced his passions upon the unfortunate Non.

The poor girl fell pregnant with the future St. David: a man of such holiness that even from the womb he, apparently, performed miracles. For an old story tells how, during her pregnancy, Non entered a certain church to listen the preaching of the local priest - he is said to have been St. Gildas but he was somewhat younger than David - and immediately the man was struck dumb. Because her child was soon to excel all religious teachers, the cleric found himself unable to continue whilst in the great man's presence.

He was eventually born in the middle of a violent storm at Caerfai, on the coast just south of Mynyw (St. Davids), where a ruined chapel still marks the very spot. Traditionally, this was around AD 462, though recent work by Carney suggests AD 487 to be a more likely date. Non named her son,Dewidd, but he was commonly called Dewi from the local Dyfed pronunciation. David is an English version taken from the Latin, Davidus. He was brought up, by his mother, in Henfeynyw (Vetus Rubus) near Aberaeron and, at a young age, was baptised by his maternal cousin, St. Eilfyw. David may have been educated by St. Colman of Dromore, but seems unlikely.

David was greatly attracted to the Welsh Church and, when he became a man, he was soon ordained a priest. He travelled to the island of Wincdi-Lantquendi (possibly Whitland) in order to study under St. Paulinus of Wales. He stayed there for at least ten years, but is also said to have studied underSt. Illtud at Llanilltud Fawr (Llantwit Major) around this time. David was a star pupil and even cured Paulinus of his blindness.

Our saint then began to travel the country, evangelising as he went. He is said to have founded twelve monasteries in Southern Wales, though many of these are erroneous later claimants. PC Bartrum suggests that possible genuine foundations may have included Glasgwm (Elfael), Colfa (Elfael), Llangyfelach (Gwyr), Llanarthne (Ystrad Tywi) and Betws (Ystrad Tywi). He also visited the court of King Proprius of Ergyng - probably King Peibio Clafrog - and cured his blindness too.

Eventually, David returned to Henfeynyw where he met up with his relation, Bishop Gwestlan. The two were neighbours and companions for some time, before the Welsh patron moved on to nearby Rhoson Uchaf (Rosina Vallis) near Mynyw (St. Davids). He was accompanied by a number of disciples, including Aeddan, Teilo and Ysfael, and together they founded the monastery of Mynyw (St. Davids). An Irish chieftain, named Bwya, living at nearby Castell Penlan, was not best pleased at this invasion of monks and plotted to drive them out. His wife sent her maidservants to bathe naked in the River Alun and tempt David and his followers, but the clerics were far from impressed. Misfortune soon befell the Irish couple and David was able to settle down without further harassment.

By this time, David's fame as a spiritual leader was becoming widespread throughout Britain. He became known as 'the Waterman' - David Aquaticus (Dewi Dyfyrwr) - because he encouraged his followers to live drink and bathe in cold water. He attracted pupils from many walks of life, including retired monarchs like St. Constantine of Dumnonia. From Mynyw (St. Davids), they spread the Word of God, travelling across the country and especially to Ireland. St. Aeddan crossed the Irish Sea and founded the monastery of Ferns from where a premonition warned him that David was about to be poisoned. He sent his companion, Ysgolan, to save the great saint from assassination; which he did. Other Irish visitors included Bishop Barre to whom David lent a miraculous horse which carried him home across the sea!

David then decided to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with SS. Teilo and Padarn. It is said that they were there consecrated bishops by the patriarch. Upon his return to Wales, in AD 545, David was persuaded by SS. Deiniol, Bishop of Bangor Fawr, and Dyfrig, Bishop of Ergyng (and said to be Archbishop of Wales) to attend the Synod of Llandewi Brefi, which had been convened to discuss disipline within the church and to stamp out thePelagian Heresy. St. Paulinus of Wales had recommended his old pupil, since his six-foot stature made him ideal for addressing the vast crowds. The story goes that David spoke so eloquently before his peers that a hill miraculously raised up beneath him. Dyfrig resigned his Archiepiscopate in David's favour; and he moved the cathedral from Caerleon to his own foundation at Mynyw (St. Davids). The elderly St. Gildas is said to have disputed the appointed, but SS. Cadog and Finnian of Clonard ruled in favour of David. In fact, it is unlikely that an archiepiscopal see existed in Wales at this time, but David's monastery does seem to have eclipsed the influence of the more easterly church. A second synod, of Victoria, was summoned some years later, in AD 569, to re-assert the anti-pelagian decrees agreed at Brefi.

It was possibly around this period that David is said to have visitedGlastonbury in Somerset. He had learnt of the abbey's great sanctity and wished to dedicate the building. However, upon his arrival, he apparently had a dream in which the Lord appeared to him and declared that he had already dedicated the church in honour of his mother, St. Mary. So, David decided instead to extend the so-called 'Old Church' erected by St. Joseph of Arimathea and erected a more extensive building to the east.

David died at Mynyw (St. Davids) on Tuesday 1st March AD 589 and was buried in his cathedral, where his relics are still venerated to this day. He must have been extremely old.

ENGLAND`S OLDEST HAUNTED CHURCH

Here Haunted Earth visit the oldest church in England of St Peter Ad Murum at Bradwell Juxta Mare, (Bradwell on Sea), Essex. Reputedly 1,350 years old, the church was built from the ruins of the abandoned Roman Shore Fort of Othona by St Cedd when he converted the East Saxon tribes of Essex to Christianity. The church is modelled on an early Coptic Christian design that originated in the former Christian countries of Syria and Egypt. For many years the church was used as a cow barn until 1920 when it was re-consecrated and opened to the public. Will Haunted Earth make contact with spiritual presences that still abound there? Tune in to find out. FOOTNOTE: Today the area is threatened by the presence of 10 off-shore wind turbines, and the re-opening and expansion of nearby Bradwell Nuclear (Magnox) Power Station which although closed by the government in 2002 they now want to re-open and increase it`s operation in the near future. The future of this area of outstanding natural beauty looks very bleak. Κατηγορία: