An introduction to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Christianity through their Saints and Traditions - CtS Youth Society talk

Transcript of CtS Youth Society talk 21/6/25

Transcript of the talk given for the Youth Society of Christ the Saviour on 21/6/25.

A question-and-answer session followed.

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Good afternoon everyone, the Youth Society invited me to give a talk to you all today, and since, in a few weeks with the Youth Society we will visit the relics of an Anglo-Saxon Saint in Folkestone, St.Eanswythe, the Youth Society Board suggested that I “Talk about the Celtic Saints Father”, in their characteristically vague yet charming fashion. Putting to one side the important fact that St.Eanswythe was an Anglo-Saxon and not a ‘Celt’, this request is certainly more specific than “Talk about Lent Father”, so we make excellent and blessed progress.

Today I will attempt to give a very brief introduction to the history of the establishment of Christianity in these blessed Islands, and try to give a flavour of both the ‘Celtic’ and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ traditions by exploring some of the lives of the Saints, some ‘Celtic’ prayers, and Anglo-Saxon poetry.

As the greatest Iconographer of the 20th Century, Photis Kontoglou of blessed memory, said, “For Christians, there does not exist a more effective teaching than reading the life of a saint… Orthodox people …have no need of theories and philosophies, but they do have need of holiness.” and as Saint Arsenios of Paros famously proclaims, “The Church in The British Isles will only begin to grow when she begins to again venerate her own Saints”

Brief historical overview

Let us begin by saying that, in the West, Orthodoxy can often be portrayed as a distant, exotic and mysterious set of theological principles and dogma wrapped up in a form of ascetism that is utterly alien. In the most extreme cases, it is portrayed even as the preserve of certain ethnic groups, such as Greeks or Russians. However, Orthodoxy in England, and the British Isles, has a glorious and sainted history, ranging from the Apostolic era to arguably as late as 1066, making Harold II, Harold Godwinson, not only the last crowned Anglo-Saxon King of England but also the last Orthodox Monarch of England. The Norman conquests led to the end of the ecclesiastical distinctiveness of the Church in England and the Latinization of England, and later, the British Isles. Before the process of Latinization occurred, it is generally considered that there were two distinct Christian traditions within the British Isles: Anglo-Saxon Christianity and ‘Celtic’ Christianity.

Regarding sources and further reading,

• St. Bede's brief introduction: late 7th to early 8th-century Priest-monk at Jarrow (twin monasteries of St. Peter and St. Paul), entered the Monastery aged 7, likely from a prominent family. Considered the “Father of English History”, he was the most important scholar of his time period. St. Bede was an Anglo-Saxon (Northumbrian), and he has a slight bias here, being critical of the ‘Celtic’ peoples and traditions at times, especially regarding the native British/Celtic Clergy's refusal to assist the Roman missionaries, such as St. Augustine et al. His ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ shows the Anglo-Saxon church and English nation being united and coming together over time under the various reforms.

• The 9th-century ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ is also a good source for further reading on this topic, along with ‘The Life of Saint Columba’.

Early Christian writers such as Tertullian and Origen mention the existence of the Church of Christ in the British Isles at least as early as the third Century. With our glorious and triumphant Protomartyr of Britain, St. Alban, accepting the crown of Martyrdom in 303/304 under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. According to St. Bede, St. Alban was granted the triumphant crown of Martyrdom in 304-5. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, St. Alban was martyred in 283. However, some sources suggest that this may have occurred as early as 209 under the persecution of Emperor Septimus Severus.

However, St. Bede also tells us that a King of the Britons, Lucius, wrote to Saint Eleutherius, the Pope of Rome, asking to be made a Christian in the year 156. His pious request was granted quickly, and the Britons began to convert to Christianity peaceably until the oppressive reign of Emperor Diocletian in ~284. Saint Bede tells us that Diocletian in the East and Herculius in the West, around ~ 302, “ordered all Churches to be destroyed and all Christians to be hunted out and killed... It was carried out without any respite for ten years, with the burning of churches, the outlawing of innocent people, and the slaughter of martyrs. But at length the glory of these Martyr's devoted loyalty to God was to light even Britain."

It is, therefore, during this persecution that St. Bede records the Martyrdom of St. Alban. When this persecution ended, St. Bede writes that, "faithful Christians, who during the time of danger had taken refuge in woods, deserted places, and hidden caves, came into the open, and rebuilt the ruined churches. Shrines of martyrs were founded and completed, and openly displayed everywhere as tokens of victory. The festivals of the Church were observed, and its rites performed reverently and sincerely."

The Western Roman Empire was falling into disarray by the late 4th Century, and the Romans began leaving Britain around ~380. By the time Rome was sacked in 410 by Alaric and the Visigoths, who were Arian heretics, the Romans had left Britain, and the age of Roman Britain was no more. What followed would be an intensely bloody period as the "Celtic" peoples of Britain and Ireland warred frequently with one another. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes had been raiding Britain from at least the early 5th Century. In ~450, the Angles and Saxons came to settle in Britain at the invitation of a King among the Britons, Vorigern, who offered the Angles and Saxons some land in return for protection. On arrival, the Anglo-Saxons "found the land fertile and the people cowardly", according to St. Bede. So the Angles, Saxons and Jutes conquered and subjugated the Britons with the notable exceptions of the lands that are now Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Anglo-Saxon Britain would henceforth be referred to as Engla land, 'The land of the Angles'. The Anglo-Saxons founded a Heptarchy of seven kingdoms in England: East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex.

In 595, Saint Pope Gregory the Dialogist sent a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, which included Saint Augustine of Canterbury, 'The Apostle to the English'; during these missionary efforts, the King of Kent Æthelberht converted to Christianity and was baptised in ~ 601 making him the first Anglo-Saxon Christian Monarch. King Æthelberht was considered a Bretwalda ('Britain-ruler', a King among the kings) and his influence did much to spread Christianity throughout Anglo-Saxon England. In a sense, this marks the widespread re-establishment of Christianity (Orthodoxy) within England and Britain, which would continue to grow and flourish despite infighting and Viking Raids, until the impious Norman invasion.

As a result of the previously mentioned persecutions, and the Norman invasion and subsequent conquest, we largely only have the names and hagiographies of Anglo-Saxon and British Saints between the 6th to the 11th Centuries. The period between these dates marks the beginning and end of the prior period in which Orthodoxy flourished in these Islands, and which we have existing records of.

An overview of ‘Saints’

As St. Bede tells us, there were countless other Saints and Martyrs, yet due to the tumultuous era in which they were on Earth, we do not know their names. Also, the 'cultus' of Saints in Britain, Anglo-Saxon England and 'Celtic Christianity' functioned differently from how we understand Saints in the Church today. To put it simply, the ‘cultus’ worked from the bottom up, the local congregation would regard someone a Saint and, if it was the will of the Holy Spirit, this ‘cultus’ would grow and develop and this is the mechanism by which the Holy Spirit would inform the Church of the Sainthood of an person. In our times, due to the development of the synodal institution of the Great Church of Christ, we have a more centralised and formal procedure, but this still must begin with local veneration. This local root of veneration is, of course, necessary as it tells of who a Saint is. A Saint is not someone who has been purified, illumined and deified alone, or by their own efforts. A Saint is someone who has been purified, illumined and deified, in, by, and through our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of which we are the living stones. In this sense, it is in Communion with all of us that these people become Saints, within the fullness of the Communion of the Church, they become sanctified, they become Holy.

One cannot be a Saint outside of the Church. Someone may do magnificent works and live in extreme asceticism and humility, like a modern-day Diogenes, but that will not make them a Saint, it will not make them Holy. It might make them appear ‘good’ to the world, whatever that means, but it will not make them Holy, and we are not called to be ‘good’ - we are called to be Holy. In John 17, our Lord in His High Priestly prayer prays, “that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You.” and continues “I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one - I in them and You in Me - that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.” We are called to, and our Lord longs for, our reconciliation, our Communion and our partaking of His Holiness. So we must understand that the Orthodox Christian is called to be Holy, to acquire the Spirit of Peace, not to be ‘good’. Good works, of course, will be the blessed and natural fruit of our journey towards holiness, but trying to be ‘good’ and not ‘bad’ must not be the objective of our lives.

The Icon of the Great Feast of Pentecost is a clear indicator of this. The Apostles sit in harmony in a Catechetical setting, but the Catechist's seat is left empty, or it is taken up by Panagia. The empty seat symbolises that now, after our Lord’s Ascension, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter and the teacher. The seat filled by Panagia, who remember is not a Bishop nor a Presbyter nor a Deacon nor an Apostle or Prophet she is simply a woman, shows us how the Holy Spirit comes to dwell amongst us all even the most simple and humble of us, this humility is of course typified by Panagia, who in her life of constant and total humility becomes the greatest human to exist and the gateway, the mother of our salvation. Panagia, translated directly, is all-Holy. We understand that Panagia is the most like Christ both physically - she is literally His mother - and spiritually, she is the greatest disciple - in terms of holiness, she best emulates His perfect example. So the Iconographer, by placing Panagia in the Catechist's seat, calls us to recognise this ultimate exemplar of the Christian ethos.

In the Church of Christ, the Holy Spirit descends upon us all, and we are all called to become united with the fire of the Holy Spirit - as our Lord says in Luke 12:49, “I have come to ignite a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” - there is a story from the Gerontikon that goes as such, “Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, If you will, you can become all flame.’”

Let us also be clear that we can only be Holy when in Communion with Christ, with the Church, with all Orthodox Christians. In the Divine Liturgy at the elevation, just before the beautiful gate was closed and the stone was rolled in front of the Tomb, we heard Father Thomas exclaim, “The Holy Gifts for the holy people of God!” and our chanters replied, “One is Holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.” So a Saint must be a person in Communion with this One Holy person, Jesus Christ.

A Saint’s holiness then is not their own, but rather it is derived from Christ, just as we Clergy do not have our own Priesthood, rather we administer the Priesthood of Christ on Earth. And the path to obtaining this holiness is reconciliation and Communion. The Saints show us that this holiness passes through the Church from its Head, which is Christ, through Communion, and that in Communion we are reconciled not just with God but also with one another, all of his Saints, and ultimately the entire created order. The Saints show us that we cannot save ourselves. We can only strive to enter more deeply and more intimately into Communion, and give our synergy to God. And in this way, we may pass through the stages of purification, illumination and journey on to our ultimate destination, the intended destination of every Orthodox Christian, Theosis.

We do not know the names of most Saints, and the Saints themselves, having grown in humility, are expert at hiding their Grace, and some go to the extreme effort of becoming fools for Christ, like St. Gabriel of Georgia whose holiness shone through even his most unusual actions, we have a certain catechumen in our Parish who is always very impressed by the stories of St. Gabriel doing somersaults and rolling on the floor on the Nave during the Divine Liturgy, which is very nice as long as he does not try to copy our dear St. Gabriel.

The anonymity of the Saints means that we may interact with them frequently without knowing; perhaps you were standing next to one in our Holy Nave earlier. We have examples of such ‘everyday’ saints. For example, St. Olga of Alaska was simply a presvytera and midwife; she lived a pious and simple life of humility and charity, and in this way, she entered into the Holiness of Christ. St. Nicholas Planas is another great example; we do not have time to speak about him today, but he is for us an Icon of the ‘simple Parish Priest’ and as Photis Kontoglou said, “The mark of Orthodoxy is simplicity of heart which brings faith.”

St. Seraphim of Sarov greeted everyone with a prostration and the words, “Christ is Risen! My Joy!”, the current reality of the person was not his joy but instead, he saw everyone's potential - what they were capable of being in Christ - and this was his joy, his sibling reconciled to Christ was his joy. If we dared to treat everyone in this way, with this amount of love for the one next to us, and with this amount of trust in Christ, our world would be a radically different place.

As Archbishop Anastasios of blessed and eternal memory tells us, “We are coworkers in the transforming energy of divine grace. Your place is not to be spectators of divine interventions and actions, but coworkers. This is a direct consequence of my Incarnation, of the constitution of the Church, of my "mystical Body," where you have freely accepted to become members. All of us, then, who belong to Him have both the privilege and the obligation to share actively in the transformation of the world. Beginning with ourselves. The life in Christ, to which we have been called, is a continuously transformative journey.”

Last week, we celebrated the Sunday of All Saints, where we commemorate all the Saints from all ages, including those whose participation in the Holiness of Christ has not been openly revealed to us, according to the perfect will of God. There are some people we believe strongly are Saints, and we pray in anticipation that the Holy Spirit might confirm the feelings of our heart. For example, there is little doubt in the minds of many Orthodox Christians that Elder Ephraim of blessed memory was a holy man, Father Seraphim Rose of blessed memory is frequently spoken of in such terms, and a recently reposed Hierarch of our Church, it would seem, was divinely inspired.

Summary of the historical overview

However, conjecture aside, what we must remember is that whether we know the names of the Saints or not, they certainly know our names and they know us deeply and intimately when we are in frequent Communion with Christ and His Church. So we can be assured that all the Saints of these Islands pray for us Orthodox and assist us in our mission of returning the True and ancestral Faith to the people of these Islands. We do not need their names because a great day is coming when we will see them all in their glory.

It is worth noting that in the West before, during and after the Schism (and certainly during and after the "reformation"), material records, Icons, manuscripts, Relics and Liturgical devices were often actively destroyed. The Latinization of the 'English Church' after the Norman Conquest was a swift and brutal affair in which the Clergy and traditions were forcibly removed and dismantled. For example, the cultus of Harold Godwinson (the last crowned Anglo-Saxon King of England, our last Orthodox Monarch) who fell in battle defending an Orthodox nation from heterodox invaders (the Latin, or rather Frankish, Normans) was never recognised as a Saint, despite clearly being a Passion bearer and Martyr, as his ‘cultus’ or veneration was suppressed by the impious Frankish Normans. ROCOR now include Harold of England, our last Orthodox Monarch, in their records of British Saints along with his grandfather Alfred the Great and many others.

The fundamental point here is that the authentic Christian Tradition of these Islands is not ‘Anglicanism’ or even so-called ‘Roman Catholicism’, but is Orthodoxy. So we are not engaged in a missionary effort to new lands, as we see in North and South America or Australia, for example, but rather it is a mission of re-evangelisation and as we mentioned earlier, a return to the ancestral Faith of these Islands.

‘Celtic’ Christianity

The older of the two great traditions of these Islands is the ‘Celtic’ one. We often hear about the ‘Celtic’ Saints or the ‘Celtic Church’, but there is really no such thing as the 'Celtic Church' or even 'Celts'. The term 'Celt' is a catch-all phrase we use to understand the myriad groups/tribes of people who inhabited the majority of the British Isles (and other parts of France and Northern Europe) before the Anglo-Saxon conquest. So 'Celtic' is an imprecise, modern term really, and one that - having criticised and disparaged - I will now continue to use at length.

The Celts had been in contact with Christianity since the arrival in the 1st Century of St. Aristobulus, Bishop of Britain, who interestingly for our Community came to Britain from Cyprus and who is mentioned very briefly in the Epistle to the Romans where Apostle Paul writes, “Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.” In the first Century, the Celts were frequently ready converts to Christianity, for a multitude of reasons, not least being that their particular strands of paganism were often amenable to Christianity, and their druidic spiritual leaders were no strangers to the intense ascetism present in early Christianity. Celtic Christianity is very similar to the Christianity we see in the early centuries in Greece, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria etc. Britain and Ireland were also frontier regions of the Empire, and that wildness encouraged a similar radical ascetic approach we see in the deserts of North Africa, the Islands of Greece and the Near East. The ascetism and transitory nature of the Clergy and monastics in particular is similar to the East, where there were dendrites or tree dwellers, hermits living in caves and wandering pilgrims.

Also, Celtic Christianity had at its core the concept of the Anam Cara, which translates literally as ‘Soul-friend’. This relates directly to the core concept within Orthodox Spirituality of the ‘Spiritual Father’. That these two virtually identical concepts developed independently of one another, at opposite ends of the Christian world, is quite striking. It is also striking that this concept did not exist generally in the West, and certainly once the West began to indulge seriously in Scholasticism, eventually demoting the Holy Spirit, this concept of the ‘Charismatic’ Spiritual Father is notably absent. The great Celtic Saint, Bridget of Kildare, says, “anyone without a soul-friend is a body without a head” In a similar way, we Orthodox would consider trying to make spiritual progress without any form of spiritual guide a treacherous path.

While Christianity would have existed in pockets among the Celtic tribes in Ireland before the missionary work of St. Palladius (who was the first great missionary to the Irish - 431), St. Patrick (432), St. Finian, St. Brendan, et al. We do not know much about this ancient Church. We do know that the Celtic tribes were relatively transient groups, so they would have likely spread Christianity among the Islands.

Early British/Irish, what we call Celtic, Christianity, in particular, was characterised by, among other things, a great sense of spontaneity, wildness or we might say foolishness for Christ, widespread monasticism (despite monasticism being born on the other side of the roman Empire) that was intense yet also heavily integrated into society, spiritual freedom, and a great openness to both the physical and spiritual worlds. There was a deep connection to the natural world (‘thin places’); the beehive cells (Clochán huts) at Skellig Michael are a testament to this; the monastics followed the pious example of the bee even down to their dwellings. As St. John Chrysostom tells us, “The bee is more honoured than other animals, not because it labours, but because it labours for others.”

In the Celtic tradition, monasticism was held as a great ideal. In Ireland, particularly, the Celtic Abbot exercised a great degree of authority and spiritual influence not just over his Abbey and monks but over the surrounding lands. It was even often the case that the Abbot was not necessarily ordained a Priest or Bishop. It has been said that the Church in Ireland functioned under a monastic structure of authority, rather than an Episcopal structure, with various dioceses led by Bishops as we are used to.

Monasticism was itself also seen as something ‘permeable’, people would move freely in and out of the monastic life. For example, as a child, one might enter the Monastery to learn and then leave as an adolescent, living their life and then returning in their older age to complete their days again as a monk or nun. This permeable monasticism integrated the monastic system very closely with the day-to-day life of people. The ecclesiastical community was completely intertwined with the community at large. This system also led to a highly educated and pious population, who then brought forth incredible works of art, the form known as insular art, particularly famous for its illuminated manuscripts, such as the Great Book of Kells.

Penance was also a key feature among the Church in Ireland, where, after confession, a series of quite specific penances were given privately, and then carried out privately. This was quite a strictly held tradition, and it became the basis of the current-day Latin penances.

The Celtic monastics frequently established their cells and monasteries on the wild Western sides of the Islands, facing the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean rather than the protected Eastern side. For the Christian Celts, life was seen as a pilgrimage for the love of God - ‘peregrinatio pro amore Dei’ - or even in stronger terms, exile for the love of God. They followed what God put in their heart; they established monastic communities on boats, in caves, wells, and forests.

Life was a continuous search for tangible experiences of God, ultimately a search for the experience of and participation in the Kingdom of God. The whole world, understood as having been touched by God’s grace, was seen as a mystical landscape, a place of constant and unending ‘theophany’ or revelation; God was recognised as being everywhere and in all things. With this outlook, everything became a mystical doorway or ladder into a heavenly realm. There was not such a strict or hard barrier to the spiritual realm as we perceive in the modern West, rather there was seen to be a penetrable membrane between the two worlds, and frequently it was the ‘charismatic’ hermit, or fool for Christ, that was revered as the figure on the fringe or the frontier of these two worlds, one earthly, the other divine. And some places were considered very ‘thin places’ where this barrier was very slight; normally, these places were connected with places of great natural awe and beauty. Of course, we see and feel the same thing, maybe now under these trees, maybe at the Monastery in Essex, maybe somewhere else. But we should all know that feeling. The world was not seen as a ‘disenchanted’ plain material place, as it is in the West and as Western Christianity does, and increasingly so after the Reformation. - It is interesting that Latin seminarians initially take a two-year course of Philosophy, before they begin to study in any depth Theology, which is called Pre-Theology. This supposes that the basis of Theology is rational Philosophy, and that one cannot properly understand Theology without a foundation in classical Philosophy. A supposition we Orthodox would certainly reject.

Yet as we read in Psalm 69, “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” This is possible because, as Psalm 64 explains, “You have visited the earth and saturated it; you have enriched it abundantly.”

For the Celts, the ascetic, the pilgrim, the missionary, or the wanderer were the ones frequently straddling this barely noticeable barrier.

The Celtic tradition truly sought to emulate Christ and to join Him by any possible gateway. Saint Brendan, with his floating Monastery, is a powerful example of this radical existence. So the otherworldly fool for Christ, the Holy ‘madman’ who truly sought to emulate Christ, and the ascesis of the Blessed Forerunner and our beloved Panagia, became a foundational centre of their radical faith and their otherworldly church.

Saint Cormac of the Sea

Today, we commemorate St. Cormac of the Sea, who is often referred to as a ‘Holy Failure’; this very notion in and of itself can explain quite well the particular Phronema of the Celtic Tradition.

His life is described in The Life of Columba, the hagiography of Saint Columba, the founder of the Abbey on Iona. St. Cormac goes on three great journeys seeking a distant pagan land to which he might bring the Gospel or a barren and deserted land on which he might live as a hermit. He fails each time, being turned back by storms and tempests. On the first voyage, he is denied any opportunity for success by God, as he, or perhaps one of his monastic brethren, had set off on his mission without the blessing of his spiritual father.

Through his failures, however, Saint Cormac was united with Christ. Just as it is with us, in our failures and bearing our shame, we meet and interact with the One who truly bears our shame, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Just as the Father of the Prodigal does not let his son walk and knock upon the door of his house in shame, the Father runs out to meet the Prodgial Son in his shame, embraces him in his shame and takes it and all the failings of the son, upon himself, in the open for all to see. We do not find our Lord in our so-called successes; we meet him when we bear our failures and bravely ascend our own Cross, and find that He has already willingly taken our place.

Saint Patrick and Saint Fursey’s Lorica

Saint Patrick is a Saint who should require no introduction, revered as the Apostle to the Irish. He is the renowned and greatly beloved British missionary to the Irish in the 5th Century. St. Patrick was born in a village most likely located around the mouth of the River Severn, in modern-day Wales or South West England. When he was around 16 years old, his village was raided, and he was taken as a slave to Ireland. He laboured as a pig herder in County Antrim, at a place called Slemish, where there is a 437-meter-high extinct volcano, and during this time he learnt Gaelic. He lived largely in solitude during his six years of captivity on the ex-volcano and would spend this time in prayer. It is said our Lord granted him two visions in this period. The first told him he would one day return home, the second told him a ship was ready and waiting for him. He walked to the coast and boarded the ship that returned him to Britain and his parents. After studying in Gaul and being consecrated a Bishop, he would return to Ireland in 432, finding great success as a missionary, by the Grace of God.

St. Patrick wrote a famous prayer, ‘The Lorica (or breastplate) of Saint Patrick’. The ‘Liber Hymnorum’, an 11th-century collection of hymns and writings kept in Dublin, gives this account of how Saint Patrick used the prayer;

‘Saint Patrick sang this when an ambush was laid against his coming by Loegaire, that he might not go to Tara to sow the faith. And then it appeared before those lying in ambush that they (Saint Patrick and his monks) were wild deer with a fawn following them.’

Tara was the traditional inauguration place of the pagan Irish High Kings. Loegaire, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, was the pagan High King of those days and a great opponent of St. Patrick. This mystical cloaking, giving the appearance of deer, is why the prayer is sometimes called ‘The Deer’s Cry’. However, the Old Irish ‘fáeth fiada’ most properly relates to a ‘mist of concealment’. However, again, we see the Tradition’s closeness with nature.

The term Lorica or Breastplate relates directly to Ephesians 6:14; “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”

There are other examples of Lorica, or protective, prayers in Celtic Christianity. For instance, Saint Fursey, whom I am very blessed to say comes from my ancestral lands of County Galway, on the West Coast of Ireland, and who is the first recorded Irish missionary to England (7th Century) -the reverse journey of St.Patrick, see how intertwined our beautiful Islands are- also has a ‘breastplate’ prayer attributed to him.

The Lorica of Saint Fursey,

The arms of God be around my shoulders,

the touch of the Holy Spirit upon my head,

the sign of Christ’s cross upon my forehead,

the sound of the Holy Spirit in my ears,

the fragrance of the Holy Spirit in my nostrils,

the vision of heaven’s company in my eyes,

the conversation of heaven’s company on my lips,

the work of God’s church in my hands,

the service of God and the neighbour in my feet,

a home for God in my heart,

and to God, the father of all, my entire being.

Amen.

We see a prayer that is in its character deeply Orthodox and could easily have been written by a Saint from the Holy Mountain or the Deserts of Syria. The Lorica of Saint Patrick, which I will read shortly, highlights very well the unique, but deeply Orthodox, character of the Celtic Church that St. Patrick would, by the Grace of God, and with his fellow Apostles and missionaries, raise up in the richly blessed and verdant Island of Ireland. The authentic Christian tradition of these Islands, its piety, its deep connection with nature, and its familiarity and closeness with the spiritual world are all contained within the prayer.

+ The Lorica of Saint Patrick, Apostle to Ireland +

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,
In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.

I arise today, through
The strength of heaven,
The light of the sun,
The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The speed of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the Earth,
The firmness of rock.

I arise today, through
God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and near.

I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel and merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.

Salvation is the Lord's
Salvation is the Lord's
Salvation is Christ's
May thy salvation, Lord, be always with us!
Amen.

Anglo-Saxon Christianity

While Anglo-Saxon Christianity shares some similarities with Celtic Christianity, it differs in several notable ways. Anglo-Saxon Christianity carried perfected versions of its previous pagan culture, just as Celtic Christianity did and the Christianity of Greece does. For Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Christianity, the role of the natural created world was very important; this was something that was carried over and perfected from their pagan traditions. When St. Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet in 597 and first arranged a meeting with then King Aethelbert, the King insisted on it being outdoors, where his gods were, as he was concerned that the Christian St. Augustine might ‘work his magic’ on him inside a building.

While this connection to nature was similar, the Anglo-Saxons' culture was more industrial than the mainly agricultural culture of the Celts; their culture was also much more centralised, stable, and martial. As we will see, their prayers and poetry highlighted the Kingly nobility of Christ, and His role as a great Spiritual Warrior is emphasised, in keeping with the great Germanic tradition of Epic Sagas.

St. Gerald of Mayo

The cultural differences between the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts are summarised quite nicely in the life of a Saint called St. Gerald of Mayo. Mayo is a county in Ireland but St. Gerald was an Anglo-Saxon of Northumbria and a monk of the Abbey on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, which had itself been established by St. Aidan an Irish monk from the Abbey on the Holy Island of Iona, which had been established by another Irish monastic, St. Columba. At the Synod of Whitby in 664, the Northumbrian King Oswy ruled in favour of the Latin calculation of the date of Pascha, meaning he had directly ruled against the Celtic method of calculating the date for Pascha. This led the Abbot of Lindisfarne, St. Colman, to leave the Holy Island and return to Ireland, along with 30 of the monks of Lindisfarne, many of them Anglo-Saxons. During 668, St. Colman, St. Gerald, and the other monks settled on Inishbofin, which translates to ‘island of the white cow’, in modern Galway, some 8 km off the coast of Connemara.

Disagreements emerged almost immediately between the Irish and Northumbrian monks, primarily due to the Northumbrians' frustration with the Irish monks leaving Inishbofin during the summer to preach on the mainland, while they remained on the island, working, developing the Abbey, and growing food. The Irish monks would then return in the winter and happily partake of the fruits of the Anglo-Saxon monks' labours. This conflict may have been exacerbated by differing agricultural traditions, particularly the Irish practices of pastoral nomadism, which would have been alien to the Anglo-Saxons. There was also a well-established tradition among the Irish monks of both wandering and returning frequently to their ancestral lands to preach the Gospel. While the Anglo-Saxons would have taken care not to wander and to attend to the Monastery's maintenance.

This led to St. Colman moving the Anglo-Saxon monks to County Mayo in 670, where another Abbey was founded, and St. Gerald was the first Abbot. This Abbey was known as “Mayo of the Saxons”, St. Bede tells us of the Abbey, “This monastery is to this day (~731) occupied by English monks … and contains an exemplary body who gathered there from England, and live by the labour of their own hands (after the manner of the early Fathers), under a rule and canonical abbot, leading chaste and single lives.” The Abbey at Mayo became famous for its library, production of manuscripts and as a centre of learning. St. Gerald reposed in the early 8th Century and was buried at the Monastery.

Saint Cuthmann of Steyning

St. Cuthmann of Steyning is an unassuming Saint of our Church, but one very close to my heart. He is an Anglo-Saxon Saint, local to us here in the Southern parts of England. His Hagiography is wonderful and demonstrates the strength and robustness of faith of the Anglo-Saxons. To summarise very briefly, he was a shepherd who fell into poverty after his father's death. Depending on the charity of others, he resolved to wander Southern England with his mother, who was disabled or paralysed, in a type of one-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.

When the cart finally broke down, St. Cuthmann decided to construct a Holy Temple on that very spot and remain there with his mother. Finally, the barrow broke at a place called Steyning, and despite having no resources or training, our Saintly young man got to work constructing both a hut for him and his mother and a Holy Temple, for the glory of God. After much time and many tribulations, the Saint had almost completed his labour, so let us join our Holy young man as he is about to finish constructing the roof of the Holy Nave;

'The Holy man was concerned with numerous works in constructing the basilica, in erecting the wooden columns, and in connecting them together with the rafters. However, it happened on a certain day that a unique beam of wood (the king post) was so struck by an accidental blow that it became bent, and what was previously invaluable, was abandoned afterwards as thoroughly useless for work.

While the Saint, and the others also, were all lamenting over the loss, behold, in no time at all a pilgrim on pilgrimage came to them, and he said to them, “Why are you all sad?” To whom Cuthman replied, saying, “The perpendicular (king post) to be joined to the existing timber has been accidentally put out of alignment, and we are afflicted with weariness and loss.” To which the pilgrim replied, “‘To those who fear God, nothing is lacking.’

Stretch out your hand also; let us take it apart, set it up in the right position, and make it straight.” And so it was done. This having been done, Cuthman threw himself immediately at the man’s feet, saying, “I entreat you, Lord, to tell me, 'Who are you?’”

“I,” he said, “am He, in whose name you are building this church; but you will become a sharer of perpetual memory and glory in this.” And so at once, he disappeared from their sight.'” - The Life of St. Cuthmann (translated R.Pearse ‘20)

It is a beautiful story that forms the final part of the Saint’s Hagiography, and the concluding blessing given by our Lord stirs great emotion.

This element of the story, of course, serves as a loving instruction that not only does our Lord never abandon us, but that we need always to maintain synergy with, and trust in, Him. No matter what events occur in our lives, (‘good’ or ‘bad’ as we myopically consider them), these things are for our perfection. Man is a heavenly plant, as St. John Chrysostom says, we must orient ourselves towards the one that nourishes us, that gives us life. Just as the plants turn their faces to the Sun, we must endeavour to orient ourselves prayerfully towards God, towards the light of our Lord, and cooperate with Him in full trust.

As St.Paisos tells us, "Completely have trust in God, leave everything in His hands, and believe that His love will act for your own benefit. Then God will take care of everything because there is nothing He cannot do; everything is easy for Him."

If we do not allow ourselves this trust in God, in His Goodness, and in His providence, which is a form of cooperation, do we not find ourselves consumed by anxiety, by stress and the temptation of stress?

This is because, as Saint Porphyrios reminds us, "Lack of trust in God causes us stress. “What does stress, nerves, mental illness mean? We do not put ourselves in the love of God and the devil comes to cause us tremendous stress. Stress is a disease of the soul and does not depend on material shortage."

Everything has a spiritual root. Let us then not turn our orientation inwards and, for matters of pride and ego, enter into synergy or cooperation with the evil one (which is what sin ultimately is) but rather trust in God fully and strive to enter into synergy and cooperation with our Lord.

If we can do so, no matter the struggle we may feel or the tribulations that we experience, we know instinctively that He is with us. Because all is His providence, all is according to His perfect will, and all that comes to us is for our perfection. And so, just when all seems too much for us, the burden is almost too great, and our own ‘King Post’ is bent, broken and seems unusable, and we fall to our knees in weariness like the blessed Saint Cuthmann. Then suddenly, at that moment, our Lord appears. Often in an unexpected guise, as the one we consider the other, the outsider, the stranger, and immediately, without struggle and in a completely majestic manner, He resolves our problems. Having alleviated our burden most unexpectedly, it seems He leaves us as swiftly as He arrived, leaving us richly blessed and spiritually fortified for our further labours.

In Psalm 55:22, we read, “Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”

So, remember the life of Saint Cuthmann; It is a confession that our Lord will never give us a burden we cannot carry and that just when it all seems too much, our Lord appears and showers us with His blessings and great mercy.

As we read in 1st Corinthians 10:13, “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”

The Dream of the Rood

The Dream of the Rood is widely considered one of the earliest poems in the English Language Corpus, along with Cædmon’s Hymn, which is regarded as the earliest and dates to the mid-7th Century. The author, St. Cædmon, according to St. Bede, was an illiterate cowherder who one night experienced a vision and was subsequently gifted with the charisma of song, became a monk, a celebrated poet, and hymnographer. He is considered the first English Poet, so English poetry begins with the Theoria of St. Cædmon, and if you consider who follows in the Canon of English poetry, not least of all, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Blake, Byron, Keats, Poe, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and T. S. Eliot, its divine origins are unsurprising.

St. Cædmon’s Hymn goes as follows;

“Now let us praise Heaven-Kingdom's guardian,

the Maker's might and his mind's thoughts,

the work of the glory-father-of every wonder,

eternal Lord. He established a beginning.

He first shaped for men's sons

Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator;

then middle-earth mankind's guardian,

eternal Lord, afterwards prepared

the Earth for men, the Lord almighty.”

In this wonderful short hymn, we see already the important notions of might, “the Maker's might” and of our Lord as the spiritual warrior King, “Heaven-Kingdom's guardian”.

The authorship of The Dream of the Rood is often attributed by scholars to St. Cædmon of Whitby, or to another Anglo-Saxon poet of the 7th Century, due to the style and structure of the text’s Old English. The word ‘rood’, from which we have our word ‘rod’, is an archaic term for ‘Cross’ or specifically, ‘Crucifix’.

On the Ruthwell Cross, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon Stone Cross that now stands at Ruthwell church in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, parts of the poem are engraved in Anglo-Saxon runes.

According to the translation of the 19th Century Anglo-Saxon Scholar, J M Kemble, the top and right hand side reads as such;

ᛣᚱᛁᛋᛏ - ᚹᚫᛋ - ᚩᚾ - ᚱᚩᛞᛁ . - ᚻᚹᛖᚦᚱᚨ - ᚦᛖᚱ - ᚠᚢᛋᚨ - ᚠᛠᚱᚱᚪᚾ - ᛣᚹᚩᛗᚢ

Krist - wæs - on - rodi. - Hweþræ - þer - fusæ - fearran - kwomu

ᚨᚦᚦᛁᛚᚨ - ᛏᛁᛚ - ᚪᚾᚢᛗ. - ᛁᚳ - ᚦᚨᛏ - ᚪᛚ - ᛒᛁᚻ.

æþþilæ - til - anum. - ic - þæt - al - bih[eald].

"Christ was on the cross. And there hastening from far came they to the noble prince. I beheld all that."

The full version of the text can be found in a 10th-century poetic Codex, known as the Vercelli Book, as it is housed in the Capitular Library of Vercelli, Italy.

+ The Dream of the Rood +

Listen! I will speak of the sweetest dream,

what came to me in the middle of the night,

when speech-bearers slept in their rest.

It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree

raised on high, wound round with light,

the brightest of beams. All that beacon was

covered in gold; gems stood

fair at the Earth’s corners, and there were five

up on the cross-beam. All the angels of the Lord looked on;

fair through all eternity; that was no felon’s gallows,

but holy spirits beheld him there,

men over the Earth and all this glorious creation.

Wondrous was the victory-tree, and I was stained by sins,

wounded with guilt; I saw the tree of glory

honored in garments, shining with joys,

bedecked with gold; gems had

covered worthily the Creator’s tree.

And yet beneath that gold I began to see

an ancient wretched struggle, when it first began

to bleed on the right side. I was all beset with sorrows,

fearful for that fair vision; I saw that eager beacon

change garments and colors––now it was drenched,

stained with blood, now bedecked with treasure.

And yet, lying there a long while,

I beheld in sorrow the Savior’s tree

until I heard it utter a sound;

that best of woods began to speak words:

“It was so long ago––I remember it still––

that I was felled from the forest’s edge,

ripped up from my roots. Strong enemies seized me there,

made me their spectacle, made me bear their criminals;

they bore me on their shoulders and then set me on a hill,

enemies enough fixed me fast. Then I saw the Lord of mankind

hasten eagerly, when he wanted to ascend upon me.

I did not dare to break or bow down

against the Lord’s word, when I saw

the ends of the Earth tremble. Easily I might

have felled all those enemies, and yet I stood fast.

Then the young hero made ready—that was God almighty—

strong and resolute; he ascended on the high gallows,

brave in the sight of many, when he wanted to ransom mankind.

I trembled when he embraced me, but I dared not bow to the ground,

or fall to the Earth’s corners––I had to stand fast.

I was reared as a cross: I raised up the mighty King,

the Lord of heaven; I dared not lie down.

They drove dark nails through me; the scars are still visible,

open wounds of hate; I dared not harm any of them.

They mocked us both together; I was all drenched with blood

flowing from that man’s side after he had sent forth his spirit.

“Much have I endured on that hill

of hostile fates: I saw the God of hosts

cruelly stretched out. Darkness had covered

with its clouds the Ruler’s corpse,

that shining radiance. Shadows spread

grey under the clouds; all creation wept,

mourned the King’s fall: Christ on the cross.

And yet from afar men came hastening

to that noble one; I watched it all.

I was all beset with sorrow, yet I sank into their hands,

humbly, eagerly. There they took almighty God,

lifted him from his heavy torment; the warriors then left me

standing drenched in blood, all shot through with arrows.

They laid him down, bone-weary, and stood by his body’s head;

they watched the Lord of heaven there, who rested a while,

weary from his mighty battle. They began to build a tomb for him

in the sight of his slayer; they carved it from bright stone,

and set within the Lord of victories. They began to sing a dirge for him,

wretched at evening, when they wished to travel hence,

weary, from the glorious Lord––he rested there with little company.

And as we stood there, weeping, a long while

fixed in our station, the song ascended

from those warriors. The corpse grew cold,

the fair life-house. Then they began to fell us

all to the Earth––a terrible fate!

They dug for us a deep pit, yet the Lord’s thanes,

friends found me there…

adorned me with gold and silver.

“Now you can hear, my dear hero,

that I have endured the work of evil-doers,

harsh sorrows. Now the time has come

that far and wide they will honor me,

men over the Earth and all this glorious creation,

and pray to this sign. On me the Son of God

suffered for a time; and so, glorious now

I rise up under the heavens, and am able to heal

each of those who is in awe of me.

Once I was made into the worst of torments,

most hateful to all people, before I opened

the true way of life for speech-bearers.

Lo! the King of glory, Guardian of heaven’s kingdom

honored me over all the trees of the forest,

just as he has also, almighty God, honored

his mother, Mary herself,

above all womankind for the sake of all men.

“Now I bid you, my beloved hero,

that you reveal this vision to men,

tell them in words that it is the tree of glory

on which almighty God suffered

for mankind’s many sins

and Adam’s ancient deeds.

Death He tasted there, yet the Lord rose again

with his great might to help mankind.

He ascended into heaven. He will come again

to this middle-earth to seek mankind

on doomsday, almighty God,

the Lord himself and his angels with him,

and He will judge—He has the power of judgment—

each one of them as they have earned

beforehand here in this loaned life.

No one there may be unafraid

at the words which the Ruler will speak:

He will ask before the multitude where the man might be

who for the Lord’s name would taste

bitter death, as He did earlier on that tree.

But they will tremble then, and little think

what they might even begin to say to Christ.

But no one there need be very afraid

who has borne in his breast the best of beacons;

but through the cross we shall seek the kingdom,

every soul from this earthly way,

whoever thinks to rest with the Ruler.”

Then I prayed to the tree with a happy heart,

eagerly, there where I was alone

with little company. My spirit longed to start

on the journey forth; it has felt

so much of longing. It is now my life’s hope

that I might seek the tree of victory

alone, more often than all men

and honor it well. I wish for that

with all my heart, and my hope of protection is

fixed on the cross. I have few wealthy friends

on Earth; but they all have gone forth,

fled from worldly joys and sought the King of glory;

they live now in heaven with the High Father,

and dwell in glory, and each day I look forward

to the time when the cross of the Lord,

on which I have looked while here on this Earth,

will fetch me from this loaned life,

and bring me where there is great bliss,

joy in heaven, where the Lord’s host

is seated at the feast, with ceaseless bliss;

and then set me where I may afterwards

dwell in glory, have a share of joy

fully with the saints. May the Lord be my friend,

He who here on Earth once suffered

on the hanging-tree for human sin;

He ransomed us and gave us life,

a heavenly home. Hope was renewed

with cheer and bliss for those who were burning there.

The Son was successful in that journey,

mighty and victorious, when he came with a multitude,

a great host of souls, into God’s kingdom,

the one Ruler almighty, the angels rejoicing

and all the saints already in heaven

dwelling in glory, when almighty God,

their Ruler, returned to his rightful home.

---

The poem reflects the unique culture of Anglo-Saxon Christianity, its focus on the Kingly aspect of Christ, and the emphasis on the heroic nobility of the sacrifice. It is also interesting to see the marked difference to the culture of Celtic Christianity, as the poem is written in the typical form of Germanic “heroic poetry”, akin to, for example, the epic “Beowulf”. Our Lord is present as a valiant and noble warrior-King who willingly climbs upon the Cross to do His salvific work. This is reflected in Holy Scripture as our Lord says in John 10:18, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” and in our tradition the resurrectional hymns talk of Christ taking pleasure in ascending the Cross in flesh, and the Kontakion of the Exaltation of the Cross says our Lord was, “Lifted up on the Cross of [his] own will,”

And also importantly, the Cross itself is portrayed as a noble, stoic, and courageous hero who steadfastly does his great duty. The personification of the Cross gives not only a clear link to the Celtic tradition but also to our Eastern tradition. As in the ‘Prayer to the Cross’, which I am sure you are all very familiar with as part of your prayers before sleep, we appeal and speak directly to the Holy Cross. We pray, “O most precious and life-giving Cross of our Lord, help me,” We see here that Christians have always understood that nothing around us is simple. The uncreated energies of our Lord touch all things, and as the Celtic Saints endlessly highlight, the spiritual world is much closer than we think it is. These notions are not pagan; rather, they are the completion of the shadowy half-truths that existed in pagan belief, just as Judaism and the Old Testament are completed by Christ and the New Testament, so too are any gems lifted out of the dirt of pagan belief. In Matthew 8:26-27, there comes a storm over the lake in which Christ and His disciples are sailing, our worried Apostles wake the Lord, and then we read, “He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Our Lord spoke to the winds and the waters, and they listened to Him. This, of course, shows us something about Christ and His two natures, but also importantly, it tells us something about the winds and the waters. Evidently, there is more to winds and waters than meets our eye. And Christ’s great victory on the Cross is not just a victory for mankind, but it is a victory for all creation.

In Romans 8:21-22, we read, “because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now”. In Isaiah 55:12 the great prophet writes, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” It has always been understood, then, that all of creation groans and all of creation rejoices.

The Holy and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord is not a simple, mute piece of wood. By extension, the world around us is not some simple ‘disenchanted’ place but it is touched by God’s uncreated energies and, especially since the Theophany of our Lord it is a place that is permeated by the Grace of God, as our Lord descended into the Jordan and sanctified those waters that run out into all the world. St. John Chrysostom says that, “God made this wondrous and altogether harmonious creation for no one else but for you. So beautiful and so vast, diverse, sumptuous, sufficient, useful, and in every way profitable, being sustenance and support for the body, wisdom for the soul, and a suitable path to the knowledge of God - He made it for you.” Our Holy Father points out that the entire world is an opportunity for reconciliation and interaction with God; this is its purpose.

As we heard, the poem depicts a vision experienced by the author of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord and specifically of Christ on the Cross. Initially, the author sees the Holy Cross gleaming, golden and bedecked with jewels, “I saw a most wondrous tree raised on high, wound round with light, the brightest of beams. All that beacon was covered in gold; gems stood fair at the Earth’s corners, and there were five up on the cross-beam.” This glorious and triumphant vision of the Cross is well known to virtually the entire world, and every Orthodox Christian carries this reality of the Cross with them at all times around their neck.

Then the Holy Cross itself speaks to the author, and the author’s vision and perception of the Holy Cross change, and he sees the Holy Cross as a rough piece of wood, impaled with nails and drenched in blood. The author’s perception of the Holy Cross flitters between these two truths: “I saw that eager beacon change garments and colours–now it was drenched, stained with blood, now bedecked with treasure.” Every Orthodox Christian also knows this reality intimately; it was recently brought before our very eyes during Great and Holy Week. The blood-stained Cross, the place of tears, agony, and sorrow, is simultaneously the glorious, gleaming, and triumphant path to our salvation.

The Cross describes the Myrrhbearers, Panagia, St. John the Theologion, and those who courageously stood at the foot of the Cross as “warriors” who took Christ’s body down from him, “then left me, standing drenched in blood, all shot through with arrows.” The Cross then says, “And as we stood there, weeping, a long while fixed in our station, the song ascended from those warriors” I doubt you will find a more accurate depiction of our heroic Myrrhbearers, those most elite spiritual warriors of our Lord.

The Cross speaks of Panagia, saying our Lord, “honoured me over all the trees of the forest, just as he has also, almighty God, honoured his mother, Mary herself, above all womankind for the sake of all men.” Panagia is spoken of as the mother of Salvation, and the Cross the Gateway of Salvation.

The Cross tells of how it was taken unjustly by the enemies of our Lord, planted on a hill and used to bear criminals. The Cross shares the victimhood of Christ; the Cross appears as an Icon of the suffering of Christ. “They mocked us both together; I was all drenched with blood”, says the Life-Giving Cross of our Lord. This is the life and experience of the Church militant, this is the life of the Saints, of the Martyrs, of the Clergy, of the Monastics, of Motherhood, of Fatherhood, of celibacy, of asceticism, of widows and widowers, this is the life of Orthodox Christians. It is a path of pain, humiliation, mockery and suffering.

The Cross also tells us, “But no one there need be very afraid who has borne in his breast the best of beacons; but through the cross we shall seek the kingdom, every soul from this earthly way, whoever thinks to rest with the Ruler.” and our author remarks, “Then I prayed to the tree with a happy heart, eagerly, there where I was alone with little company. My spirit longed to start on the journey forth; it has felt so much of longing. It is now my life’s hope that I might seek the tree of victory… my hope of protection is fixed on the cross… May the Lord be my friend, He who here on Earth once suffered on the hanging-tree for human sin; He ransomed us and gave us life, a heavenly home. Hope was renewed with cheer and bliss” This is also the life and experience of the Church militant, this is the life of the Saints, of the Martyrs, of the Clergy, of the Monastics, of Motherhood, of Fatherhood, of celibacy, of asceticism, of widows and widowers, this is the life of Orthodox Christians. It is a path of hope, joy, blessings and peace.

When we gaze upon the Life-Giving Cross of our Lord, we see and know the blood-stained wood made to stand at the place of the skull, and we also see and know the glorious and gleaming beacon of hope and joy. Just as when we look at our Lord on the Cross we see the suffering servant, the humble lamb that was led to the slaughter, and we also see the triumphant, victorious and glorious King of Kings, the noble and eager spiritual warrior who willingly ascended the Cross as a brave combatant, seeking to redeem mankind.

Conclusion

It is my hope that through exploring the lives and works of some of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Saints, you can see the similarities and distinctions between the two ancient traditions of these blessed Islands, as well as with our tradition. Of course, this is an enormous topic, and we did not even explore the lives of St. Cuthbert, who is among the greatest of the Saints of these Islands, St. Brendan the Navigator, St. Bede, St. Colman, St. Petroc or St. Piran, to name just a few titans of our Faith. For next time, perhaps.

Let us pray to the Lord our God that the radical, devoutly foolish, otherworldly love and faith of the Celtic Saints and that the rigour, profound piety and faultless dedication of the Anglo-Saxon Saints may consume all of us and these Islands once again, that all may confess you as the giver all of good things, for yours is the Glory with your Father, who is without beginning, and your all Holy, Good and Life-Giving Spirit both now and ever, and to the ages of ages, Amen!

- Rev. Dcn. Charalambos

GLORY TO GOD FOR ALL THINGS!