Saint Brigid of Kildaire(Ireland)

 

St. Brigid of Kildaire

Our venerable Mother Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland (Brigit, Bridget, Bridgit, Bríd, or Bride; Irish: Naomh Bhríde) (c. 451-525) was an Irish nun, abbess, and founder of several convents. St. Brigid's feast day is February 1, and with St. Patrick of Ireland (March 17) and St. Columba of Iona (June 9), is one of the three patron saints of Ireland. The three are buried together in Downpatrick in County Down, deep within the famous Hill of Down.

Hagiography

Early life

The earliest extensive life of Brigid is the Vita Brigitae of Cogitosus and is thought to have been written no later than AD 650.

According to tradition, Brigid was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. According to her biographers her parents were Dubhthach, a pagan chieftain of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptized by St. Patrick. Some accounts of her life suggested that Brigid's mother was in fact Portuguese, kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave in much the same way as Patrick. Brigid was given the same name as one of the most powerful goddesses of the pagan religion which her father Dubhthach practiced; Brigid was the goddess of fire, whose manifestations were song, craftsmanship, and poetry, which the Irish considered the flame of knowledge.

Sainthood

Whether she was raised a Christian or converted in 468, as some accounts say, is unknown, but she was inspired by the preaching of Saint Patrick from an early age. Despite her father's opposition she was determined to enter religious life. Numerous stories testify to her piety. She had a generous heart and could never refuse the poor who came to her father's door. Her charity angered her father: he thought she was being overly generous to the poor and needy when she dispensed his milk, butter, and flour to all and sundry. When she finally gave away his jewel-encrusted sword to a leper, Dubhthach realized that perhaps her disposition was best suited to the life of a nun. Brigid finally got her wish and she was sent to a convent.

"La chapelle Sainte-Brigide" in Fosses-la-Ville.

Brigid received the veil from St. Mael of Ardagh and professed vows dedicating her life to Christ. She is believed to have founded a convent in Clara, her first: other foundations followed. But it was to be in Kildare that her major foundation would emerge. Around 470 she founded a double monastery, for nuns and monks, on the plains of Kildare or Cill-Dara, "the church of the oak," her cell being made under a large oak tree. As abbess of this foundation she wielded considerable power, but proved to be a wise and prudent superior.

Brigid was famous for her common-sense and most of all for her holiness: in her lifetime she was regarded as a saint. The Abbey of Kildare became one of the most prestigious monasteries in Ireland, famed throughout Christian Europe. In the scriptorium of the monastery, for example, the lost illuminated manuscript the Book of Kildare may have been created—if it was not the existing Book of Kells, as many suppose.

Death and impact

She died at Kildare around 525 and was buried in a tomb before the high altar of her abbey church. After some time her remains were exhumed and translated to Downpatrick to rest with the two other patron saints of Ireland, St. Patrick of Ireland and St. Columba of Iona. Her skull was extracted and brought to Lisbon, Portugal, by two Irish noblemen, where it remains. There is widespread devotion to her in Ireland where she is known as the "Mary of the Gael" and the veneration of St. Brigid was brought to Europe by Irish missionaries, such as Foillan, in the centuries after her death. In Belgium there is a chapel (7th-10th century) dedicated to Sainte-Brigide at Fosses-la-Ville.

Saint Brigid's Cross

St. Brigid's Cross

Similar to the association between St. Patrick and the shamrock, a cross made of rushes was linked with Brigid. Legend has it she made the cross from rushes she found on the ground beside a dying man in order to convert him. It is interesting that this legend does not appear in any of the oldest sources and to this day its origin remains lost in the oral tradition. It remains the custom in many houses in Ireland to have a St. Brigid's Cross in honor of the saint. The cross takes many forms and is technically classed by folk crafts experts as a "plaited"; however, the technologies utilized can extend beyond plaiting to weaving and other forms. According to tradition a new cross is made each feast day of St. Brigid (February 1), and the old one is burned to keep fire from the house, yet customs vary by locality and family. Many homes have multiple crosses preserved in the ceiling, the oldest blackened by many years of hearth fires. Some believe that keeping a cross in the ceiling or roof is a good way to preserve the home from fire which was always a major threat in houses with thatch and wood roofs.

Hymns

Troparion (Tone 1)

O holy Brigid, you became sublime through your humility,

and flew on the wings of your longing for God.

When you arrived in the eternal City and appeared before your Divine Spouse,

wearing the crown of virginity,

you kept your promise

to remember those who have recourse to you.

You shower grace upon the world, and multiply miracles.

Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.

Kontakion (Tone 4)

The holy virgin Brigid full of divine wisdom,

went with joy along the way of evangelical childhood,

and with the grace of God/ attained in this way the summit of virtue.

She now bestows blessings upon those who come to her with faith.

O holy Virgin, intercede with Christ our God

that He may have mercy on our souls.

Apolytikion (Tone 4)

Having learned of things divine by the words of Patrick,

thou hast proclaimed in the West the good tidings of Christ.

Wherefore, we venerate thee, O Brigid,

and entreat thee to intercede with God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion (Tone 3)

At the Church of the Oak, thou didst establish thy sacred monasteries

for those that took up the Tree of life,

even the Precious Cross, upon their shoulders.

And by thy grace-filled life and love of learning,

thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold and didst thereby nourish the faithful.

O righteous Mother Brigid, intercede with Christ, the True Vine, that He save our souls.

Extended biography

Differing biographies written by different authors, give conflicting accounts of her life, however three of those biographies agreed that she had a slave mother in the court of her father, Dubhthach, a king of Leinster. Perhaps the most ancient account of her life is by St. Broccan Cloen:

Ni bu Sanct Brigid suanach
Ni bu huarach im sheire Dé,
Sech ni chiuir ni cossens
Ind nóeb dibad bethath che.

(Saint Brigid was not given to sleep,
Nor was she intermittent about God's love;
Not merely that she did not buy, she did not seek for
The wealth of this world below, the holy one.)

One, the "Life of Brigid" dates from the closing years of the eighth century, and is held in the Dominican friary at Eichstat in Bavaria. It expounds the metrical life of St. Brigid, and versified it in Latin.
Brigid's small oratory at Cill-Dara (Kildare) became a center of religion and learning, and developed into a cathedral city. She founded two monastic institutions, one for men, and the other for women, and appointed St. Conleth as spiritual pastor of them. It has been frequently stated that she gave canonical jurisdiction to St. Conleth, Bishop of Kildare, but, as the Catholic Archbishop Healy points out in Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars, she simply "selected the person to whom the Church gave this jurisdiction," and her biographer tells us distinctly that she chose St. Conleth "to govern the church along with herself." Thus, for centuries, Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superioress general of the convents in Ireland.
Brigid also founded a school of art, including metal work and illumination, over which Conleth presided. The Kildare scriptorium produced the Book of Kildare, which elicited high praise from Giraldus Cambrensis, but which has disappeared since the Reformation. According to Giraldus, nothing that he had ever seen was at all comparable to the book, every page of which was gorgeously illuminated, and he concludes by saying that the interlaced work and the harmony of the colors left the impression that "all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill."
Brigid is at times known as "the Patroness of Ireland" and "Queen of the South: the Mary of the Gael" by a writer in the "Leabhar Breac." Brigid died leaving a cathedral city and school that became famous all over Europe. In her honor St. Ultan of Ardbraccan wrote a hymn commencing:

Christus in nostra insula
Que vocatur Hivernia
Ostensus est hominibus
Maximis mirabilibus
Que perfecit per felicem
Celestis vite virginem
Precellentem pro merito
Magno in numdi circulo.

(In our island of Hibernia Christ was made known to man by the very great miracles which he performed through the happy virgin of celestial life, famous for her merits through the whole world.)

The sixth life of the saint is attributed to Coelan, an Irish monk of the eighth century, and it derives a peculiar importance from the fact that it is prefaced by St. Donatus, also an Irish monk, who became Bishop of Fiesole in 824. Donatus refers to previous lives by Ultan and Aileran. When dying, Brigid was attended by St. Ninnidh of Inismacsaint, who was afterwards known as "Ninnidh of the Clean Hand" because he had his right hand encased with a metal covering to prevent it ever being defiled, after being the medium of administering the last rites to "Ireland's Patroness."
Brigid was interred at the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral, and a costly tomb was erected over her. Over the years her shrine became an object of veneration for pilgrims, especially on her feast day, February 1. About the year 878, owing to the Scandinavian raids, Brigid's relics were taken to Downpatrick, where they were interred in the tomb of Patrick and Columba. The relics of the three saints were discovered in 1185, and on June 9 of the following year were reinterred in Downpatrick Cathedral.
In Ireland today, after 1500 years, "Mary of the Gael" remains a popular saint, and Brigid remains a common female Christian name. Moreover, hundreds of place-names in her honor are to be found all over both Scotland and Ireland, e.g. East Kilbride, Kilbride, Brideswell, Tubberbride, Templebride, etc. Places named Brideswell and Tupperbride commemorate in their names the presence of a sacred well ("Tobar" in Gaelic) dedicated to Brigid. Brigid's hand is preserved at Lumiar near Lisbon, Portugal, since 1587, and another relic is at St. Martin's Cologne.

Source

External links

• Venerable Brigid (Bridget) of Ireland (OCA)
• Bridget of Ireland (GOARCH)
• On Holiness, Authority, and St. Brigit of Kildare by Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald in The St. Nina Quarterly
• A Gift of Hospitality - Saint Brigid, Abbess of Kildare by Mary Dugan Doss (ROCA)
• Saint Brigid of Kildare icon and brief description
• A Brief History of the Irish Orthodox Church: Saint Brigid of Kildare
• St Bridget and St Cwyfan Parish Church, Dyserth (Anglican)
• St. Brigid's Catholic Church with St. Brigid's story
• St. Brigid in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1917)
• St Brigid: more detail from her legend (Episcopal)
• St. Brigid's Well, Liscannor
• Cache of "On the Life of St. Brigit (Leabhar Breac)"

Saint Brigid's cross

• St. Brigid's Cross
• Weaving St. Brigid's Cross

Legends about Saint Brigid

• The Vision of St. Brigid
• St. Brigid's Cloak
• St. Brigid and the Harps

The Ecclesiastical Roots of the Norman Conquest.-Part 1

The Beginning of the End

Now the Celtic Churches had had little to do with Rome – not out of antipathy, but because of distance and, especially, a long period in the fifth and sixth centuries during which the Celts had been cut off from the Church on the continent by the pagan invasions. In any case, Celtic Christianity owed as much to Eastern, Orthodox Christianity as it did to Rome.[1] By contrast, after the English were converted to Orthodoxy in the seventh century, they became perhaps the most fervent “Romanists” of all the peoples of Western Europe.

This devotion sprang from the fact that it was to Rome, and specifically to Pope St. Gregory the Great and his disciples, that the Angles, Saxons and Jutes of Southern England owed their conversion to the Faith in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. From that time English men and women of all classes and conditions poured across the Channel in a well-beaten path to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome[2], and a whole quarter of the city was called “Il Borgo Saxono” because of the large number of English pilgrims it accomodated.[3] English missionaries such as St. Boniface of Germany carried out their work as the legates of the Roman Popes. And the voluntary tax known as “Peter’s Pence” which the English offered to the Roman see was paid even in the difficult times of the Viking invasions, when it was the English themselves who were in need of alms.

However, the “Romanity” to which the English were so devoted was not the Franco-Latin, Roman Catholicism of the later Middle Ages. Rather, it was the Greco-Roman Romanitas or Rwmeiosunh of Orthodox Catholicism. And the spiritual and political capital of Romanitas until the middle of the fifteenth century was not Old Rome in Italy, but the New Rome of Constantinople.[4] Thus when King Ethelbert of Kent was baptized by St. Augustine in 597, “he had entered,” as Fr. Andrew Phillips writes, “‘Romanitas’, Romanity, the universe of Roman Christendom, becoming one of those numerous kings who owed allegiance, albeit formal, to the Emperor in New Rome…”[5] Indeed, as late as the tenth century the cultural links between England and Constantinople remained strong.

We may tentatively point to the murder of King Edward the Martyr in 979 as the beginning of the end of Orthodox England. “No worse deed for the English was ever done that this,” said the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle[6]. And while it was said that there was “great rejoicing” at the coronation of St. Edward’s half-brother, Ethelred “the Unready”, St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, sorrowfully prophesied great woes for the nation in the coming reign.[7]

He was right; for not only were the English successively defeated by Danish pagan invaders and forced to pay ever larger sums in “Danegeld”, but the king himself, betrayed by his leading men and weighed down by his own personal failures, was forced to flee abroad in 1013. The next year he was recalled by the English leaders, both spiritual and lay, who declared that “no lord was dearer to them than their rightful lord, if only he would govern his kingdom more justly than he had done in the past.” [8]

But the revival was illusory; further defeats followed, and in 1017, after the deaths both of King Ethelred and of his son Edmund Ironside, the Danish Canute was made king of all the English. Canute converted to the faith of his new Christian subjects; and the period of the Danish kings (1017-1042) created less of a disruption in the nation’s spiritual life than might have been expected. Nevertheless, it must have seemed that God’s mercy had at last returned to His people when, in 1043, the Old English dynasty of Alfred the Great was restored in the person of King Ethelred’s son Edward, known to later generations as “the Confessor”.

It is with the life of King Edward that our narrative begins.

However, in order to understand the world of King Edward it is necessary briefly to review cultural and ecclesiastical developments on the continent of Europe, which began to influence England precisely in his reign. These included the rise of the heretical papacy and the growth of feudalism.

THE FALL OF ORTHODOX ENGLAND-

Vladimir Moss

Celtic Orthodox Brittany

Harold of England

King Harold II of England (ca. 1022 - October 14, 1066) was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. He was the son of Earl Godwin of Wessex, succeeded St. Edward the Confessor to the throne of England, but served as its king for less than a year, dying on the field of battle at Hastings in southern England in 1066, when England was invaded by William the Bastard ("the Conqueror"), Duke of Normandy. He ruled from January 5, 1066 to October 14, the day of his death. He is regarded by many Orthodox Christians as a passion-bearer or even martyr and as the last Orthodox king of England.

Harold II Godwinson of England
(Bayeux Tapestry)

Life

Early years

Harold's father was Godwin, the powerful Earl of Wessex. Godwin was himself a son to Wulfnoth Cild, Thane of Sussex, and had married twice. His first marriage was to Thyra Sveinsdóttir (994 - 1018), a daughter of Sweyn I who was king of Denmark, Norway, and England. His second wife was Gytha Thorkelsdóttir who was a granddaughter to the legendary Swedish viking Styrbjörn Starke and great-granddaughter to Harold Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway, father of Sweyn I. This second marriage resulted in the birth of two sons, Harold and Tostig Godwinson, and a sister, Edith of Wessex (1020 - 1075) who was Queen consort of St. Edward the Confessor.
Created Earl of East Anglia in 1045, Harold accompanied Godwin into exile in 1051 but helped him to regain his position a year later. When Godwin died in 1053, Harold succeeded him as Earl of Wessex (a province at that time covering the southernmost third of England). This made him the second most powerful figure in England after the king.
In 1058 Harold also became Earl of Hereford, and he replaced his late father as the focus of opposition to growing Norman influence in England under the restored Saxon monarchy (1042 - 1066) of Edward the Confessor, who had spent more than a quarter of a century in exile in Normandy.
He gained glory in a series of campaigns (1062 - 1063) against the ruler of Gwynedd, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who had conquered all of Wales; this conflict ended with Gruffydd's defeat (and death at the hands of his own troops) in 1063. About 1064, Harold married Edith, daughter of the Earl of Mercia, and former wife of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. By Harold, Edith had two sons - possibly twins - named Harold and Ulf, both of whom survived into adulthood and probably ended their lives in exile. Harold also had several illegitimate children by his famous mistress (or wife, according to Danish law), Ealdgyth Swan-neck (or "Edith Swan-neck" or "Edith Swanneck").

1066

In 1065 Harold supported Northumbrian rebels against his brother Tostig who replaced him with Morcar. This strengthened his acceptability as Edward's successor, but fatally divided his own family, driving Tostig into alliance with King Harald Hardrada ("Hard Reign") of Norway.
Upon Edward the Confessor's death (January 5, 1066), Harold claimed that Edward had promised him the crown on his deathbed, and the Witenagemot (the assembly of the kingdom's leading notables) approved him for coronation as king, which took place the following day, January 6.
However, the country was invaded, by both Harald of Norway and William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, who claimed that he had been promised the English crown by both Edward (probably in 1052) and Harold, who had been shipwrecked in Ponthieu, Normandy in 1064 or 1065. It was alleged that, on the latter occasion, William forced Harold to swear to support his claim to the throne, only revealing after the event that the box on which he had made his oath contained holy relics. After Harold's death, Normans were quick to point out that in accepting the crown of England, Harold had perjured himself of this oath.
Invading what is now Yorkshire in September, 1066, Harald Hardrada and Tostig defeated the English earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria at the Battle of Fulford near York (September 20), but were in turn defeated and slain by Harold's army five days later at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (September 25).
Harold now forced his army to march 240 miles to intercept William, who had landed perhaps 7000 men in Sussex, southern England three days later on September 28. Harold established his army in hastily built earthworks near Hastings. The two armies clashed near Hastings on October 14, where after a hard fight Harold was killed and his forces routed. According to tradition, and as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold was killed by an arrow in the eye. Whether he did, indeed, die in this manner (a death associated in the middle ages with perjurers), or was killed by the sword, will never be known. Harold's wife, Edith Swanneck, was called to identify the body, which she did by some private mark (the face being destroyed) known only to herself. Although one Norman account claims that Harold's body was buried in a grave overlooking the Saxon shore, it is more likely that he was buried in his church of Waltham Holy Cross in Essex.
After the Conquest, some of Harold's family fled to Kievan Rus', where his illegitimate daughter Gytha of Wessex married Vladimir Monomakh, Grand Duke of Kievan Rus', and is ancestor to dynasties of Galicia, Smolensk and Yaroslavl, whose scions include Modest Mussorgsky and Peter Kropotkin. Consequently, the Russian Orthodox Church allegedly recently recognized Harold as a martyr with October 14 as his feast day.

Legacy

A cult of hero worship rose around Harold and by the 12th century legend says that Harold had indeed survived the battle, had spent two years in Winchester after the battle recovering from his wounds, and then traveled to Germany where he spent years wandering as a pilgrim. As an old man he returned to England and lived as a hermit in a cave near Dover. As he lay dying, he confessed that although he went by the name of Christian, he had been born Harold Godwineson. Various versions of this story persisted throughout the Middle Ages, and have little claim to fact.
Literary interest in Harold revived in the 19th century with the play Harold by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1876) and the novel Last of the Saxon Kings by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1848). Rudyard Kipling wrote a story, The tree of justice (1910), describing how an old man who turns out to be Harold is brought before Henry I of England. E. A. Freeman wrote a serious history in History of the Norman Conquest of England (1870-1879) in which Harold is seen as a great English hero. By the 21st century Harold's reputation remains tied, as it has always been, with subjective views of the rightness or wrongness of the Norman conquest.

Saint Harold?

The Basis for Sainthood

The question of Harold's sanctity is a bit complex. History records that he led a moral life and was an honest and dutiful ruler for the English people. There probably is not, however, enough evidence of his personal sanctity based on the general conduct of his life in order for him to be numbered publicly among the saints.
Another question with regard to many western saints is the period in which they lived. That is, do they count as Orthodox saints of the old western Church based on living before the Great Schism? Regarding the British Isles, what is known about the state of the Church there at that time is that subsequent to the Norman Invasion in 1066, church life was radically altered. Native clergy were replaced, liturgical reform enacted, and a strong emphasis on papal church control was propagated. As such, it is probably safe to say that, prior to 1066, the church of the British Isles was Orthodox, and the Normans brought the effects of the Great Schism to British soil. As such, it is probably proper to regard Harold as having been an Orthodox Christian.
The principle question regarding Harold's sanctity is whether he died as a passion-bearer (one who faces his death in a Christ-like manner) or even a martyr at Hastings. The defense of England was certainly being undertaken for political and nationalistic reasons—Englishmen had no desire to be ruled over by a foreign king (having experienced it before), so they gladly followed their native monarch in defense of their homeland. Yet did they also die for their faith?

Papist Invaders versus Orthodox Christian Natives

Before he set out from Normandy, William had had a difficult time in getting his own Norman barons to follow him in his quest to gain the English crown. Most considered it suicide, if only because of the difficulty in making the crossing over the English Channel in the relatively primitive boats that they used. Thus, William had a problem in terms of gaining military assistance in his campaign. The solution to that problem was presented by one of his advisers, Lanfranc, a Lombard abbot and monastic teacher who had previously helped gain papal approval of William's uncanonical marriage to his wife, Matilda.
Lanfranc's solution (for which he was eventually awarded the position of Archbishop of Canterbury after the Conquest) came in the form of casting the invasion as a crusade to bring the English church into submission to the papacy. David Howarth, in his 1066 The Year of the Conquest, explains:

The invasion should not be seen as a merely secular conquest; its highest aim should be, or appear to be, the reformation of the English church. It should become a crusade, a holy war to bring back an errant church to Rome. Lanfranc himself, or the Norman church as a body, was willing to bring accusations against the church of England (p. 100).

Whether the English church was indeed errant can be debated. As with much of the Church at the time, corruption was certainly present, but that was by no means unique to England or therefore deserving of military invasion. Indeed, even considering how remote England's church was from Rome, it had for nearly 200 years collected and sent to Rome the offering known as Peter's Pence, and it had always encouraged pilgrimage to Rome by English Christians. As such, the church in England had been remarkably loyal to Rome. Howarth continues:

Perhaps its principal sin was merely to be different: much of its scholarship and all of its pastoral work were in English instead of Latin, and it was easy for other churchmen to suspect that schisms and heresies were hidden by such a barbarous language. But finally, whatever was said against it, the fact remained that the English then were a devoutly religious people and were satisfied on the whole that their church provided for their spiritual needs (ibid.).

Norman Conspiracy with the Pope

Despite the rather shaky grounds on which accusations of English ecclesiastical disloyalty were founded, this was the reason for the invasion which was submitted to the Pope. It was probably something of an afterthought for William's plan, and certainly neither William nor Lanfranc were in a position to judge the English church. Yet the excuse was precisely what the invaders—and the Pope—needed to further their cause, as Howarth says:

To William, it gave a chance of solving the problem of raising an army: he could promise land and booty to men who took part, but in a holy war the church could promise something more—salvation. To Lanfranc, it gave a chance to offer the Holy See an expansion of power it had been seeking in vain... Lanfranc could therefore ask for papal blessing of William's invasion and offer something in return: William's claim could be submitted to the judgement of the Pope. This would be the first time a pope had been asked to adjudicate a disputed royal succession, and would create a precedent of enormous importance to [Cardinal] Hildebrand... And the present Pope, as it happened, had once been [Lanfranc's] student at [the monastic college of] Bec (p. 101).

Hildebrand had previously been at the head of efforts to disentangle the election of popes from secular politics, thus bolstering the power and solidity of the papacy. (He was eventually elected pope himself, styled Pope Gregory VII, and is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.) Such an opportunity as Lanfranc's proposal presented to increase the papacy's influence over secular politics could not be missed. Being the most skilful politician at the Vatican, he saw to it that a papal court was held in Rome ("without the slightest reference to the facts," says Howarth on p. 102) at which Harold was entirely unrepresented. As Howarth says:

It is not recorded whether he was invited to send an advocate, but it is very unlikely. To ride from Rome to Bosham [where Harold was in England] and back again to Rome suggests a month on the road, and nobody was prepared to waste as much time as that. If he had been invited, he and the witan would certainly have answered, quite correctly, that the choice of a King of England had nothing to do with the Pope (p. 102).

The court ruled against Harold, and the Pope

accepted that William's purpose was to reform the church, he sent his blessing on this holy endeavour, a papal banner to carry into battle, and a ring for William to wear on the expedition which contained a relic of St Peter himself. There was one condition: it was understood that William would hold England as a vassal of the Pope. William had not the least intention in the world of doing anything of the sort; but he accepted the ring and the banner and said nothing. And those, as things turned out, were the most powerful weapons he took to England (ibid.).

Harold Rex Interfectus Est: Harold's Defeat at Hastings

Harold Rex Interfectus Est
"King Harold is killed"
(Bayeux Tapestry)

After Harold had returned from his brilliant defeat of Harald of Norway in the north of England, he learned quickly of the Norman invasion. He'd been suspecting it for some time, but it fell hard on the heels of victory at Stamford Bridge that he would have to defend his country in the south, as well.
Upon his return to southern England, he soon received word from William's forces that he had been excommunicated by the Pope and that the Normans carried papal blessing to invade England. All evidence suggests that this news utterly demoralized King Harold. While he had been a powerful commander against the Norsemen, upon hearing news of the alleged excommunication, he declared, "May the Lord now decide between William and me" (Howarth, p. 164), and before going to battle, "the terrible rumour was starting to spread that the King was excommunicated and the same fate hung over any man who fought for him" (ibid., 165).
Records of how the battle actually went suggest that instead of the dynamic fighting force Harold had inspired just days before, the English mainly stood in one place and were slaughtered. Harold had been transformed by his betrayal by the Pope, and his defeat by William (which from a purely military standpoint was by no means assured) marked the end of the ecclesial distinctiveness of the English church and its subsequent capitulation to Rome under Norman rule. Lanfranc himself, as Archbishop of Canterbury, led the Latinization and Normanization of the English church, while William brutalized the English people.

Harold's Cultus

Although history's record of Harold's defeat can be interpreted to suggest that King Harold and his men died in defense of the Orthodox Christian faith, aside from the undocumented allegation that the Church of Russia has glorified him, there is no record of a cultus developing around Harold. This fact is not necessarily evidence against his place among the saints, especially since the Norman domination of the English church would have utterly squelched the liturgical veneration of the fallen Saxon king.
In our own day, however, some Orthodox Christians—especially those who venerate the saints of the British Isles—have begun to regard Harold as being truly a saint, that he and his men died defending their land from invasion by a foreign faith. Perhaps we may someday see a service written to him and popular veneration grow in the Orthodox Church, especially among English-speaking Orthodox Christians.

Sources

• 1066 The Year of the Conquest (1977) by David Howarth (ISBN 0880290145)

Orthodox Autocephalous Church of British Isles(England-Ireland-Scotland-Wales)

 

 

Would be interesting, Archbishops,Priests and simple Orthodox Christians from Global Orthodox Christendom to think that is necessary to became an Ethnic-Native Autocephalous Orthodox Church of British Isles,for people from England,Scotland,Ireland and Wales, a Holy Archetype based on Celtic and Anglosaxon Orthodox Church before the great schism in 1054 and the Norman invasion in 1066,we want your opinion.

Eastern Orthodox Churches in Great Britain

The Russian Orthodox Church - the Diocese of Sourozh covers Great Britain and Ireland.Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia - also has a diocese that covers Great Britain and Ireland. The Greek Orthodox Church - Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, led by His Eminence Gregorios,that covers England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland as well as Malta. The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch - has 14 parishes and 8 missions within the Deanery of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Christian Orthodox Tradition in England.

MERCIA

The Sandbach Crosses

Mercia is the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom south of the Kingdoms of Northumbria and Cumbria.
It is possible that some sub-Roman British Christian communities survived the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons; but apart from that Mercia remained pagan till 7C.
Paeda, the son of Penda the pagan king of Mercia, was a sub-king of the Middle Angles in East Mercia. In 653 He sought the hand of Alchfled daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria. A condition of the marriage was that Paeda became Christian.
Oswiu sent 4 priests from Lindisfarne to Mercia with his daughter: St Cedd, St Betti, Diuma and Adda. There is a tradition that they baptised him at Sandbach in Cheshire where crosses were erected to commemorate the event.
Diuma became Bishop of the Mercians in 660.

Chad's Holy Well Lichfield

Oswiu later, in 669, sent St Chad. As the new Bishop of the Mercians St Chad moved his seat from Repton to Lichfield, building a monastery with monks from Lastingham, on land given by King Wulfhere,
The monastery lay just north of Stowe Pool where the present Church of St Chad now stands. The holy well was used for baptism. He also obtained land to found a monastery at Barrow in Humber.
St Chad carried on very much in the style of St Aidan and St Cuthbert. He died of the plague in 672.
His relics were rescued from the Reformation and are now in the Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham.

Mercia in the time of St Chad

Peterborough, (Medeshamstede) a strategic centre in the East of Mercia, also had became one of the first centres of Christianity in Mercia. Paeda provided for the foundation of the monastery in 655.

The Hedda Stone is the grave slab of St Hedda, a later abbot of Peterborough martyred by the Danes

The coffin lid of St Betti at Wirksworth with various scenes from the life of Christ with apostles, one of the finest pieces of Anglo-Saxon carving

St Betti evangelised the area around Wirksworth in Derbyshire. He died about 670 and is buried beneath the chancel. His coffin lid has been found decorated with scenes from the life of Christ.

St Wilfred, at a time when he was unwelcome in Northumbria, from 660 onwards, founded monasteries in Mercia: at Oundle and probably Brixworth (above), both in Northamptonshire. He went even further afield making foundations al Evesham in Worcestershire, Wing in Buckinghamshire, Withington in Gloucestershire, and Selsey in Sussex.
A Saxon crypt is still preserved at Wing.
King Ethelred, the next king of Mercia, controled Lindsey -present-day Lincolnshire. He endowed the monastery of Bardney on an island in the marsh east of Lincoln in 697. He abdicated and became the first abbot.
Ethelred was married to Osthryth, the daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria and uncle of St Oswald. They gave relics of St Oswald to the monastery and were themselves enshrined there Another monastic foundation was made at Partney. St Aldwyn was abbot there and his brother St Ethelwine (Elwin) (700) was the second Bishop of Lindsey.

Burial place of St Hybald
St Hybald is described by St Bede as 'a most holy and austere' man. He was a close friend of St Chad and may have been a monk in the Irish tradition at Iona and Lastingham. He may have founded his own monastery at Hibaldstowe in north Lincolnshire on an island in the marshes close to the Humber. No trace of it remains, as it was probably made of wood. St Hybald was buried in Hibaldstow church.
A large stone coffin was found under the floor of the chancel in 1866 complete with skeleton. It is likely this is the coffin of St Hybald and reburied when the new floor was relaid.

Expansion of Mercia into Greater Mercia in 7/8C.
With the decline of Northumbria, Mercia became the centre of the other Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms - the hub of 'greater Mercia'
The pattern in Mercia was the same as in Northumbria: Kingdom and Church developed together and royals provided for monasteries.

At the other end of the spectrum were always the hermits. St Hardulf (7C) is said to have used the cave known as the 'Anchorite's church' near Ingleby in Derbyshire. He was buried at nearby Breedon.
The cave was also used by a monk called Bernard in mediaeval times.
King Ethelred founded the monastery at Breedon-on- the-Hill in present day Leicestershire
in 676.
Some splendid 8-9C Saxon scultures can be seen inside the church at Breedon.
Tatwine (734), the future Archbishop of Canterbury, was a monk here.
There were three other saints besides St Hardulf buried, perhaps hidden away in a crypt.

St Mary Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire

Saxon Saints. Breedon

St Bertram's Shrine at Ilam

St Bertram was an 8C Mercian prince who went to Ireland to marry. A wolf killed his wife and child, and in grief Bertam spent his life as a solitary in prayer at Ilam in Derbyshire. His shrine is in the church at Ilam and nearby is his cave and 2 holy wells

The crypt at Repton

Repton in Derbyshire was the site of another double monastery of royal foundation and ruled by an abbess.
St Werburga (699), daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia, is the first recorded abbess of Repton. She was taught by St Etheldreda at Ely. She was buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire, her body later found to be intact. But in 9C her body was moved to Chester to escape the Danes.
St Alnoth was a hermit who lived at Weedon in Northamptoinshire. He was murdered by 2 robbers about 700, regarded as a martyr and buried at Stowe near Bugbrooke, also in Northamptonshire

The well at Binsey , Oxon

St Frideswide (727) was an Anglo-Saxon princess and abbess at Oxford where Christ Church now stands. Her shrine is also there. The nuns at Binsey had to fetch water from the Thames at some distance. St Fridewide prayed for a holy well which can still be seen at Binsey
St Osburga founded a convent at Coventry in the West Midlands about 700.
The Irish St Modwenna founded a convent at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire in 7C.
St Cyneburg (710) and St Cyneswith founded a monastery at Caistor in Lincolnshire.
St Edburga (7C) was a daughter of King Penda of Mercia, who became a nun at Bicester, Oxfordshire. The base of her shrine can still be seen in Stanton Harcourt St Egwin, the third bishop of Worcester founded the monastery at Evesham about 709. He is buried there.

The Place of St Etheldreda's Shrine, Ely

St Etheldreda (Audrey) was the daughter of King Sigebert and was baptised by St Felix. After 2 non-consummated mariages she became a nun at St Ebbe's monastery at Coldingham. She returned south and founded the monastery of Ely. She died in 679. St Sexburga, her sister and next abbess organised a new shrine for her. In the Cathedral, an inscription on the floor marks the site of the shrine.
There is a wall painting of St Etheldreda in the church at Willingham near Ely and on 6 screens n East Anglia
In the painting a red wound is show on her neck where a tumour was removed from her neck. When her body was exhumed 17 years later the wound made by surgery had healed.

Crowland Abbey

There was a hermitage on the island of Thorney in the Cambridgeshire fens in 7C, but who lived there we do not know
St Guthlac was a Mercian royal who became a monk at Repton, and then a hermit on the isle of Croyland in the fens in Lincolnshire. An abbey arose there after his death in 714. St Cissa joined him and succeeded him. They were buried side by side.
St Pega (719) was St Guthlac's sister. She also became a recluse at nearby Peakirk. There is an 11C church there with mediaeval wall paintings.
St Aelfthryth was a daughter of King Offa of Mercia who became a virgin recluse in the marshes of Crowland Abbey. She died about 795.

St Milburga's Holy Well Much Wenlock, Shropshire.

St Milburga (716) was the daughter of the king of the Mercian sub-kingdom of

Magonsaete, who became abbess of Much Wenlock in Shropshire. There is another well at Stoke St Milborough
She was sister to Mildrith, a nun at Minster in Thanet, and to St Myldgitha, a nun in Northumbria.
St Alcmund was a Northumbrian royal. A good man, he died in battle about 800 and was regarded as a martyr. He was buried at Lilleshall in Shropshire but, due to the Danes, his body was moved to Derby. His sarcophagus was found when building roads; it can be seen in Derby museum. There is also his holy well in Derby.
St Wistan, a Mercian royal, was murdered in 849 for upholding Christian marriage and was buried in the crypt at Repton. Miracles increased his fame and he was moved to Evesham

EAST ANGLIA

The Kingdom of East Anglia was formed in 520 by uniting the North and South Angles. The height of its power began after 616 when the Northumbrians were defeated. But the Mercians defeated the East Angles in the 640's and King Offa of Mercia took control in 794.

The Roman walls at Burgh Castle, site of St Fursey's monastery
St Sigeburt became the first Christian king of the East Angles about 630. He had met St Felix when in exile in France and invited him to evangelise in his Kingdom.
St Felix, a monk in the continental Irish tradition, was consecrated as bishop by St Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury. He may have settled at Dunwich in Suffolk. Monasteries were founded at Bury St Edmunds and Soham. He died in 647
The Irish St Fursey made a monastery probably at Burgh Castle near Great Yarmouth. The Irish St Gobain helped him.
St Sigebert (635) became a monk and refused to fight to defend the kingdom and is regarded as a martyr St Botolph (680) built a monastery at Ikenhoe on the river Iken in the estuary of the river Alde. A fine cross shaft remains.

The Kingdom of Essex was formed in 527 to the south of East Anglia. It lasted until 825 when it was ceded to Wessex. King Saebert became a Christian with encouragement from his uncle King Ethelbert of Kent, though the kingdom relapsed into paganism.
St Cedd founded monasteries at Tilbury and Bradwell-on-sea. The Mercian King Wulfhere became overlord and sent one of his bishops to reconvert them.
St Erconwald became bishop of London in 675. He founded a monastery at Barking for his sister St Ethelburga, and another at Chertsey in Surrey for men.

The church built by St Cedd in 654 at Bradwell on sea Essex

St Withburga's burial site and holy well

She was an East Anglian royal, sister of St Ethelburga of Ely, who founded a monastery at Dereham in Norfolk. She died in743. It is said her body was found to be intact. There is a holy well on the site of her burial

WESSEX

Wessex was the kingdom of the west Saxons in south west England from 6C on.
Settlements of Jutes on the Hampshire coast were acquired in 7C.
St Birinus, a Frank, was commissioned by the Pope to convert the West Saxons in 634. He baptised King Cynegils about 640. He became bishop of the West Saxons at Dorchester-on-Thames. St Oswald of Northumbria acted as god-father. The Kingdom expanded westwards into Somerset. Later Devon and Cornwall were taken, though areas north of the Thames were lost to Mercia.
Winchester became the seat of the bishop.
St Cuthburga (718) was sister of Ine, King of Wessex and the first abbess of the double monastery at Wimbourne in Dorset
Wimbourne became the great centre for evangelism in Germany. St Boniface's mission was supported by St Walburga and St Leoba and by St Walbuga's two brothers St Willibroord and St Winibald.
This was he second great wave of missionaries to the continent from Ireland and Britain, and as such an outstanding contribution to the Living Tradition.

The 10/11C church at Bradford on Avon begun by St Aldhelm

The Irish St Maeldub (675) lived at Malmesbury (named after him). St Aldhelm lived as a monk under him, became abbot and founded monasteries at Frome in Somerset and Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire. He was also a great scholar, writing works in both prose and poetry.
He also became the first Bishop of Sherbourne in 705. He was revered as a saint after his death.
He was deputed to bring about a change in customs in the British churches of Devon and Cornwall.
St Bertwald was made the first Anglo-Saxon bishop of Glastonbury in 667.
St Richard was a minor king in Wessex in 8C but he abdicated his throne to go on pilgrimage on the continent. He was the father of the great continental evangelists, St Willibrord, St Willibald, St Winibald and St Walburga. He died in Italy.

St Wite's (9C) shrine in Whitchurch Canonicorum. Her relics have survived intact in the shrine. Her holy well can be visited in nearby Morcombelake

The first Council of Clovesho, in 742, "diligently enquired into the needs of religion, the Creed as delivered by the ancient teaching of the Fathers, and carefully examined how things were ordered at the first beginning of the Church here in England, and where the honour of the monasteries according to the rules of justice was maintained".
The second Council in 747 shows the close union of the Anglo-Saxon church with the Church of Rome in all things, and in particular with regard to the celebration of the Liturgy, the Offices and Commemoration of the Saints
St Ethelhard, abbot of a monastery at Louth, Lincolnshire, was made Bishop of Winchester sometime after 759, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 793-805.
Lichfield had been set up as a rival to Canterbury at the request of King Offa of Mercia, so there was much debate as to which was the greatest.
At the fifth Council of Clovesho in 803 it was decreed that there should not be another archiepiscopal see in the south to rival Canterbury. It was also decreed that every bishop elect should submit a profession of orthodoxy.
The seven Councils of Clovesho held between 742 and 825 show an impressive will in the Anglo-Saxon Church and in its Kingdoms to work together to maintain true faith and good order.

The Danish conquests

The Danes, driven by the increase of population at home, began to attack Britain about
800. But by 865 some of them began settling in northern and eastern England, in an area ruled by the 'Danelaw' and included, in the East Midlands, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford.
St Edmund became King of East Anglia in 856. The Danes put him to a cruel death in 869. Within a generation the Danes were venerating him as a saint.
A shrine was built at Bury St Edmunds and the town grew as a place of pilgrimage.
Northumbria fell in 867, East Anglia in 869, Mercia in 874 and Wessex was brought to its knees. Alfred became King Wessex in 871 and when he finally defeated them in the late 880's, a condition of surrender was that the Danes became Christians. He died in 899
The Danes, as a deliberate act of aggression, wiped out every monastery in the land. That is why there is now so little left to see of this period.
This is not the first time the Living Tradition has been blotted out by war. This happened for example to the church in North Africa.
Booklet no 17 considers the revival of the church in England

Boisil or Boswell

Feast day: February 23 Abbot of Melrose Abbey, Scotland, d. 664. Almost all that is known of St. Boisil is learnt from Bede (Eccles. Hist., IV, xxvii, and Vita Cuthberti). He derived his information from Sigfrid, a monk of Jarrow, who had previously been trained by Boisil at Melrose. St. Boisil's fame is mainly due to his connection with his great pupil, St Cuthbert , but it is plain that the master was worthy of the disciple. Contemporaries were deeply impressed with Boisil's supernatural intuitions. When Cuthbert presented himself at Melrose, Boisil exclaimed "Behold a servant of the Lord", and he obtained leave from Abbot Eata to receive him into the community at once... When in the great pestilence of 664 Cuthbert was stricken down, Boisil declared he would certainly recover. Somewhat later Boisil himself as he had foretold three years before, fell a victim to this terrible epidemic, but before the end came he predicted thatCuthbert would become a bishop and would effect great things for the Church. After his death Boisil appeared twice in a vision to his former disciple, Bishop Ecgberht. He is believed, on somewhat dubious authority, to have written certain theological works, but they have not been preserved. St. Boswell's, Roxburghshire, commemorates his name. His relics, like those of St. Bede, were carried off to Durham in the eleventh century by the priest Ælfred. In the early Calendars his day is assigned to 23 February, but the Bollandists treat of him on 9 September.