High Days and Holy Days in August 1
Ethelwold - the Saint of St
Ethelwold (c.912 - 84) did great things for
the church at St
Ethelwold began as a simple monk eager to restore the
Rule of Benedictine in When
in 963 Ethelwold became Bishop of Winchester, he replaced
the cathedral canons with monks, thus founding the first
monastic cathedral in the land. This was a uniquely
English institution, which remained until the Reformation. The
monastic reform quickly gained momentum: with the King’s
support, Ethelwold restored old monasteries such as
Milton ( Ethelwold
was austere, able and dynamic. Under his leadership, the
monks surpassed themselves in music, illumination and
writing. When Ethelwold set the monks to work with
the masons in the cathedral at Ethelwold’s’
monasteries also produced a surpassing new style of
illumination, and his school of vernacular writing was
the most important of its time: with accurate,
linguistically significant translations. A major
event of his episcopate was the consecration of
Winchester Cathedral in 980. ** 4
Oswald – a king with faith, courage and humility Many
Christians have indulged in fantasies from time to time
about doing something spectacular for God, which would be
remembered for centuries afterwards. Oswald, who lived
from 605 to 642AD, was in a position to do so. He was a
King, but in those times such a title exposed him to
danger as well as power. His father Aethelfrith was a
great warrior who laid the foundations of the great
kingdom of Northumbria. But Aethelfrith was killed by a
rival, and Oswald was only twelve years old when he
was driven into exile with his elder sister and two
younger brothers. For their own safety, all were taken to
Irish territory in the West of Scotland. The
three brothers were educated by the Christian monks on In his
famous book, The Ecclesiastical History of England, Bede
tells us that Oswald prepared to meet his enemies
Cadwallon and Penda in battle on a December night at
a place which is now called Heavenfield. His small
army was likely to be outnumbered and victory seemed
impossible. But that night, Oswald had a vision of St
Columba, the founder of Iona. Columba prophesied that
Oswald would be king, and reminded him of God's words to
Joshua at the river Jordan, "Be strong, and of good
courage......for you will be the leader of these people
as they occupy this land." Before
battle commenced, Oswald made a rough cross from two
young trees and held it upright until soldiers were
able to fill in the hole around it. Then he led his
army in a prayer that God would bring victory and
deliverance to his people. He also promised that if they
survived, he would send for missionaries from Iona to
bring the Christian faith to Northumbria. Oswald's
subsequent victory has become part of the region's
folklore, commemorated by the name of that battlefield
and the more permanent cross which now stands at
Heavenfield. Many leaders would have regarded such a
triumph as the high point of their career, advanced to
the royal palace and quickly forgotten their promise to
God. But Oswald remained faithful, and in due course St
Aidan arrived in the new kingdom and made Lindisfarne the
centre of his ministry. Now it
was time for Oswald to reveal a quality less frequently
associated with kings, but even more vital to the spread
of God's work. That quality was humility. As the sponsor
and protector of Aidan, he could easily have imposed his
own agenda on this new mission. Such a test came early,
when Aidan declined Oswald's offer of resources at
court in Bamburgh castle, and chose the remoter location
of Lindisfarne. Not only did Oswald accept the monk's
decision gracefully; he continued to spend many
uncomfortable weeks on the road acting as Aidan's
interpreter. His willingness to lay aside his kingly
privileges and play second fiddle to a spiritual leader
ensured that the Gospel spread quickly through the
new kingdom and transformed many lives. Within
a few years, dark times returned to Northumbria. Oswald
was slain in battle and his brother Oswin succeeded to
the throne. Penda continued to wreak havoc with his
marauding raids; on one famous occasion, Aidan
watched him attack the royal fortress as he prayed on the
Farne Islands, and it is written that his intercessions
caused the wind to change direction and beat back the
flames from the castle gates. But through it all, the
light of Christianity continued to flourish and grow.
Aidan is rightly remembered as the missionary who brought
the good news to Northumbria, but he could not have
succeeded without Oswald, the man who was brave enough to
claim an earthly kingdom, yet obedient enough to play a
humbler role in advancing a heavenly one. Prayer
from the liturgy for St Oswald's day (August 5th),
written by the Northumbria Community: "I
place into your hands, Lord, the
choices that I face. Guard
me from choosing
the way perilous of
which the end is heart-pain
and the secret tear. May I
feel your presence at the
heart of my desire, and so
know it is for Your desire for me. Thus
shall I prosper, thus
see that my purpose is from You, thus
have power to do the good which endures." (Copyright
Northumbria Community Trust, 1996) **
** ** ** 6
The Transfiguration - or the day Jesus met Elijah
and Moses... The
story is told in Matthew (17:1-9), Mark (9:1-9) and Luke
( It was
a time when Jesus’ ministry was popular, when people
were seeking him out. But on this day, He made time
to take Peter, James and John, his closest disciples, up
a high mountain. In the fourth century, Cyrillic of
Jerusalem identified it as Mount Tabor (and there is a
great church up there today), but others believe it more
likely to have been one of the three spurs of Mount
Hermon, which rises to about 9,000 feet, and overlooks
Caesarea Philippi. High
up on the mountain, Jesus was suddenly transfigured
before his friends. His face began to shine as the
sun, his garments became white and dazzling. Elijah
and Moses, of all people, suddenly appeared, and talked
with him. A bright cloud overshadowed the disciples. Peter
was staggered, but, enthusiast that he was - immediately
suggested building three tabernacles on that holy place,
one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. But
God’s ‘tabernacling’, God’s dwelling
with mankind, does not any longer depend upon building a
shrine. It depends on the presence of Jesus,
instead. And so a cloud covered them, and a voice
spoke out of the cloud, saying that Jesus was his beloved
son, whom the disciple should ‘hear’. God’s
dwelling with mankind depends upon our listening to Jesus. Then,
just as suddenly, it is all over. What did it mean?
Why Moses and Elijah? Well, these two men represent
the Law and the Prophets of the Old Covenant, or Old
Testament. But now they are handing on the baton,
if you like: for both the Law and the Prophets found
their true and final fulfilment in Jesus, the Messiah. Why on
top of a mountain? In Exodus we read that Moses
went up That
day made a lifelong impact on the disciples. Peter
mentions it in his second letter, 2 Peter 1:16 - 19 -
invariably the reading for this day. The
Eastern Churches have long held the Transfiguration as a
feast as important as Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension and
Pentecost. But it took a long time for the West to
observe the Transfiguration. The feast starts
appearing from the 11th and 12th centuries, and the
Prayer Book included it among the calendar dates, but
there was no liturgical provision for it until the 19th
century. **
** ** ** 14
Maximilian Kolbe - Christian
witness amidst 20th century suffering Some
people’s lives seem to epitomise the suffering of
millions, but also to shine with a Christian response to
it. One such person was Maximilian Kolbe, 1894 -
1941, a Franciscan priest of Maximilian
was born at Zdunska Wola, near Living
in post-war Instead,
the tuberculosis gave Maximilian a sense of urgency - a
sense of the brief transitoriness of this life. He
knew his time was slipping away. Instead of teaching
history, he determined to do something to help the
Christians living in Soon,
the obsolete printing presses (which were operated by
Maximilian’s fellow priests and lay brothers) were
working overtime - the magazine’s circulation had
leapt to 45,000. Then the printing presses were moved to
a town near Then
in 1939 the Germans invaded Kolbe
was arrested by the Gestapo along with four friars.
They were taken to But
Maximilian Kolbe continued his priestly ministry. He
heard confessions in unlikely places, and smuggled in
bread and wine for the Eucharist. His sympathy and
compassion for those even more unfortunate than himself
was outstanding. Then
came the final scene in his hard life. At the end
of July, 1941, several men escaped from his bunker at the
camp. The Gestapo, in revenge, came to select
several more men from the same bunker who were to be
starved to death. A man, Francis Gajowniczek, was
chosen. As he cried in despair, Kolbe stepped
forward. “I
am a Catholic priest. I wish to die for that man.
I am old; he has a wife and children.” The
officer in charge shrugged his shoulders - and obliged. So
Maximilian went to the death chamber of Cell 18, and set
about preparing the others to die with dignity by
prayers, psalms, and the example of Christ’s Passion.
Two weeks later only four were left alive: Maximilian
alone was fully conscious. He was injected with
phenol and died on 14 August, aged 47. He was
beatified by Paul VI in 1971. In 1982 he was
canonised by Pope John Paul II, formerly Archbishop of
Cracow, the diocese which contains **
** ** ** * 28
Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) After St
Augustine of Hippo, whose feast-day in 28 August. He
lived and wrote in a time of social and spiritual chaos.
The What Augustine
was born at Tagaste, in modern After
a long interior conflict, vividly described in his ‘Confessions’,
Augustine was converted and baptised a Christian in 386-7.
He returned to Augustine
had a brilliant mind, an ardent temperament and a gift
for mystical insights. Soon his understanding of the
Christian Revelation was pouring forth in his many
voluminous writings. So
what did he write? Most famous is ‘The
Confessions’, the sermons on the Gospel and Epistle
of John, the De Trinitate and the De Civitate Dei. This
last, ‘The City of God’, tackles the
opposition between Christianity and the ‘world’
and represents the first Christian philosophy of history.
Many
other works were undertaken in his efforts to tackle
various heresies: Manichaeism, Pelagianism, or
Donatism, and led to the development of his thought on
Creation, Grace, the Sacraments and the Church. Augustine’s
massive influence on Christianity has mainly been for the
good. Few others have written with such depth on
love, the Holy Trinity and the Psalms. (The
preamble to the marriage service in the BCP is closely
based on Augustine.) But his views on
Predestination and some of his views on sex (that it is
the channel for the transmission of Original Sin) have
since been mainly ignored by the Church. As
bishop, Augustine fearlessly upheld order as the **
** 31
Aidan - the man who brought Christianity to August
31st is the feast of St Aidan, who brought Christianity
to northern In 635
he came to Oswald's
invitation was not immediately successful. The first
missionary from The
monks made the long journey to offered
them lavish hospitality and assumed that they would found
their community there. However, the brothers realised
that to live under the king' s protection would make it
difficult to avoid the world's temptations and establish
a rapport with the local people. They saw the tidal Aidan
was much loved as a teacher and evangelist; though stern
in his own self-discipline, he was prepared to travel to
the most inaccessible villages, where he cared for the
local people with compassion and gentleness. In time his
influence grew and noble people joined the stream of
visitors to After
Oswald's death in 642, his brother Oswin succeeded him as
king. Oswin was concerned about Aidan's habit of walking
everywhere. The saint was ageing rapidly, his body
weakened by years of harsh fasting and exposure to the
elements. Oswin wondered what would happen to him one day
on the road, and also he felt that such a lowly means of
travel was not appropriate for a bishop. So he gave Aidan
one of his finest horses, complete with a beautifully
worked saddle and bridle. Aidan
did not feel able to risk offending the king by spurning
his generosity, but he rode out of the palace with a
heavy heart. He knew that people would relate to him
differently now that he had the trappings of affluence,
and that it would be dangerous to stop and rest with such
valuable belongings beside him. The king had intended to
give him comfort, but his gesture had had the opposite
effect. Aidan had learnt that possessions, and the need
to protect them, make it more difficult to follow God
with an undivided heart. The story goes that he gave the
horse, complete with saddle, to the first beggar he met
outside the palace gates. A more
pragmatic Christian might have reasoned that keeping on
the right side of Oswin would lead to opportunities that
were too valuable to risk. Indeed, the king was angry
when he heard what Aidan had done. "That horse was
fit for a king, not for some vagabond," he protested.
"I could have found you an old nag if you wanted to
give it away." Aidan's reply was simply, "What
do you think, O King? Is the son of a mare worth more in
your eyes than that son of God?" There
was an awkward silence; then the King removed his sword,
knelt at Aidan's feet and asked his forgiveness. When he
returned to the banqueting table, it was with a beaming
smile. Sadly, he too was to perish in battle shortly
afterwards; these were violent times. Yet Oswin, whose
culture demanded that he should appear all-powerful in
the eyes of his followers, had been publicly humbled by
the integrity of a simple monk who had challenged his
values. What
would it be like if contemporary leaders were equally
open to God's influence, and if there were more Christian
leaders of Aidan's strength of character? Today, we read
that Governments are eager to work alongside churches in
welfare initiatives, and that the cash-strapped Church of
England is considering the unthinkable indignity of
asking its bishops to sacrifice their chauffeur-driven
cars. Will such stories stand the test of time? Over a
thousand years after his death, a statue of Aidan stands
in the churchyard of St Mary's on The
rector of that church is David Adam, who has brought
Aidan to public attention through his excellent
biography, "Flame in my Heart", and his well-known
books of Celtic prayers. It seems that, for once,
obedience to God has brought a rich and lasting harvest. Flame
in my Heart: St Aidan for Today by David Adam, Triangle
Books, 1997 |