High Days and Holy Days
Dec
1 Eloi – a patron saint for the Euro?
It’s
nearly four years since
Eloi’s
craftsmanship and friendship with the king made him very
wealthy. He gave much of his money to the poor, built a
number of churches, ransomed slaves, and founded a
convent in
Dec
3 Francis Xavier - the seasick missionary who
struggled with languages
Ignatius
Loyala sent his friend and follower Francis Xavier (born
1506) to the Orient as a missionary. What a missionary!
Imagine David Livingstone, Billy Graham and the Alpha
Courses rolled into one. His mass conversions became
legendary – he baptised 10,000 people in one month
and in just ten years of work was credited with 700,000
conversions.
Xavier
became the most famous Jesuit missionary of all time,
working so hard that he had only a few hours’ sleep
each night. He was known as ‘the Apostle of the
For
the next seven years he worked among the Paravas in
southern
In
1549 he ventured on to
Wherever
Xavier sailed, he left after him numerous organised
Christian communities. Not bad for a man who suffered
seasickness and had trouble in learning foreign languages!
Xavier
died in 1551, on his way to
Dec
6 St Nicholas
Father
Christmas is as old as
Since
the 6th century St Nicholas has been venerated in both
East and West, though virtually nothing is known of his
life. Some believe he may have been one of the fathers at
the Council of Nicea (325), imprisoned during the Emperor
Diocletian’s persecution.
According
to legend, Nicholas was an extremely generous man. He
revived three schoolboys murdered by an innkeeper in a
tub of pickles. He rescued three young women from
prostitution by giving their poverty-stricken father
three bags of gold. (Hence the use of three gold balls as
the pawnbroker’s signs.)
Over
the centuries many, including children, sailors,
unmarried girls, pawnbrokers and moneylenders have
claimed him as their patron.
Perhaps
it was on account of S Nicholas’ generosity that in
recent centuries children began to write little notes
sometime before 6 December, to tell him about the toys
they specially wanted. These notes were then left on the
windowsill at night - or else on a ledge in the chimney.
But St
Nicholas Day chanced to lie in the magnetic field of a
much more potent festival.... and after awhile his
activities were moved towards Christmas. Then in
The
most popular result of the cult of St Nicholas has been
the institution of Santa Claus. He is based on Nicholas’
patronage of children and the custom in the
Dec
21 Winter Solstice
A
Midwinter festival has been a part of life since pre-Christian
times. When the hours of daylight are fewest, the warmth
of the sun weakest, and life itself seemingly at a
standstill, our ancestors, the pagan peoples of
Perhaps
they believed that the dying sun could be enheartened by
fire, and the life of the buried seed assured by the
presence of evergreen branches.
With
the advent of Christianity, the Spring gods became
identified with Christ, and the birthday of the sun with
the birthday of the Light of the World.
The
early church father Tertullian did not approve of
Christmas decorations. “Let those who have no light
in themselves light candles!... You are the light of the
world, you are the tree ever green....” But by the
time of St Gregory and
By
1598 one John Stow of
Dec
25 Christmas Day
Why
does it begin at
The
hour was first chosen at
Certainly
in recent times, Holy Communion at
As for
Christmas itself, let Matthew tell it his way (Matthew 2:
1 – 11)
Christmas
– according to the Gospel of St Matthew
Now
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of
Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east
to
When
Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled,
and all
Then
Herod, when he had privately called the wise men,
inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to
When
they had heard the king, they departed; and lo, the star,
which they saw in the east, went before them, till it
came and stood over where the young child was. When they
saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And
when they were come into the house, they saw the young
child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped
him: and when they had opened their treasures, they
presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and
myrrh.
*26
December St Stephen (died c 35 AD)
Have
you ever stopped to consider that the very first martyr
of the Christian Church was a deacon? (But no, he wasn’t
worked to death by his church.)
It was
Stephen, one of the first seven deacons of the Christian
Church. He’d been appointed by the apostles to look
after the distribution of alms to the faithful poor, and
to help in the ministry of preaching.
Acts 6
and 7 tells us all that we know of his life, and the
passages seem to suggest that he was an educated
Hellenistic Jew. Certainly Stephen’s famous
challenge to the Jews reveals him to have been learned in
the Scriptures and the history of Judaism, besides being
eloquent and forceful.
Stephen's
proclamation on the day of his martyrdom pulled no
punches. He told the Jews that God did not depend on the
Stephen
then challenged his hearers for resisting the Spirit and
for killing the Christ, as their fathers before them had
killed the prophets. The Jews were so outraged by this
that they stoned Stephen on the spot for blasphemy.
As he
died, Stephen saw a vision of Christ on God's right hand.
The men who were witness to the stoning placed their
clothes at the feet of Saul (afterwards Paul), who (to
his deep regret later) consented to Stephen's death.
By the
fourth century Stephen had his own feast day in both East
and
Early
on the Church made Stephen the patron saint of deacons.
In the late Middle Ages he was also invoked against
headaches (?!).
In
