The baptism of St Æthelberht King of Kent by St Augustine of Canterbury in 601 was in many ways the beginning of the conversion of England. Æthelberht’s son, Eadbald was a pagan, but his sister St Æthelburga was a Christian, as was his wife who ensured that her daughter Eanswythe was baptized and raised in [...]
Archive for July, 2009
St Eanswythe of Folkestone
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon on July 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
St Ælfheah (Alphege) of Canterbury
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anglo-Saxon, Mediaeval on July 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Ælfheah, or Alphege (954 –1012), was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be martyred. He became a monk at Deerhurst at a young age, and then moved to Bath where he embraced the solitary life of an anchorite. His holiness and asceticism resulted in his election as Abbot of Bath Abbey, and he came to [...]
St Irenaeus of Lyons
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Late Antiquity on July 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Had the feast of SS Peter and Paul not been transferred from tomorrow, last Sunday would have been the memoria of St Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 135-200) Irenaeus was confronted by the challenge of Gnosticism – a highly sophisticated form of syncretistic esotericism which had latched onto Christianity and in which guru-like teachers initiated their [...]
