When Cyril (c. 376-80 – 444) died, one of his theological opponents, Theodoret of Cyrus, remarked that he pitied the demons in hell as they would henceforth have to live with Cyril of Alexandria, and suggested that an enormous stone should be placed over his tomb in case (having made hell too hot to hold [...]
Archive for June, 2009
St Cyril of Alexandria
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Late Antiquity on June 27, 2009 | 4 Comments »
St Æthelthryth (3) – prayers
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
June 23rd is the feast of St Æthelthryth (Ethelburga). The Orthodox, who often seem to have a greater appreciation of England’s earliest saints than we Catholics do, have composed some texts specially suited to the occasion, which are available here and here.
St Æthelthryth (2) – Bede’s Poem
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
June 23rd is the feast of St Æthelthryth (Ethelburga; Audrey) who lived from around 636-679. The normally restrained historian Bede was so impressed by her that he was moved to verse (Ecclesiastical History, III,20): Trinity,Gracious, Divine, Who rulest all the ages; favour my task, Trinity, Gracious, Divine. Let Maro sound the trumpet of war, let [...]
St Æthelthryth (Ethelreda) of Ely
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
June 23rd is the feast of St Æthelthryth (Ethelreda; Audrey) who lived from around 636-679. St Bede writes about her as follows (Ecclesiastical History, III,19): King Ecgfrith took to wife Æthelthryth, the daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, of whom mention has been often made; a man of true religion, and altogether noble [...]
SS Edwin and Æthelburga
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 19, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Born in around 585, Edwin was the son of King Ælle of Deira (southern Northumbria), whom he succeeded at an early age, but in around 604 was deprived of his throne by King Æthelfrith of Bernicia (northern Northumbria) who thereby became King of all Northumbria, and went into exile – first in Gwynned, then in [...]
St Stanisław of Szczepanów
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Mediaeval on June 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Stanisław was born at Szczepanów in 1030 in southern Poland, and studied at a cathedral school in Gniezno (which at the time was the capital of Poland), before traveling abroad to further his education. Having returned to Poland, Stanisław was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1072, at the behest of Pope Alexander II he [...]
St Edmund the Martyr
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Aged just 14, Edmund was crowned King of East Anglia on 25 December 855 by St Humbert at Burna (modern Bures St Mary in Suffolk). For the next fourteen years he reigned quietly but justly, modeling himself on King David – so much so, in fact, that he withdrew for a while to his royal [...]
St Augustine of Canterbury
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 16, 2009 | 3 Comments »
The life of St Augustine of Canterbury, born in Rome but forever associated with the evangelisation of the English Church, is inextricably linked with that of St Æthelberht of Kent (the subject of yesterday’s blog post). Augustine was prior of Saint Andrew’s monastery on the Coelian Hill when, in 596, Pope St Gregory the Great [...]
St Æthelberht of Kent
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on June 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Born in Kent (an Anglo-Saxon kingdom as the south-east corner of England) in around 560, Æthelberht, who was the great-grandson of Hengist (the first Saxon conqueror of Britain) became King of Kent some time between 580 and 590, and soon exercised the supremacy of a “bretwalda” over all the Saxon kings south of the Humber. [...]
St Antony of Padua
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Mediaeval on June 14, 2009 | 5 Comments »
June 13th was the feast of St Antony of Padua. Born in Lisbon (Portugal) in 1195 into a noble family with connectiona at the court of King Alfonso II, Fernando Martins de Bulhões chose at the age of 15 to become an Augustinian canon at the monastery of San Vincente (near Lisbon) before relocating to [...]
