High Days and Holy Days
1
All Saints’ Day
All
Saints, or All Hallows, is the feast of all the redeemed,
known and unknown, who are now in heaven. When the
English Reformation took place, the number of saints in
the calendar was drastically reduced, with the result
that All Saints’ Day stood out with a prominence
that it had never had before.
This
feast day first began in the East, perhaps as early as
the 5th century, as commemorating ‘the martyrs of
the whole world’. A Northern English 9th
century calendar named All Hallows as a principal feast,
and such it has remained. Down the centuries
devotional writers have seen in it the fulfilment of
Pentecost and indeed of Christ’s redemptive
sacrifice and resurrection.
The
saints do not belong to any religious tradition, and
their lives and witness to Christ can be appreciated by
all Christians. Richard Baxter, writing in the 17th
century, wrote the following:
He
wants not friends that hath thy love,
And made converse and walk with thee,
And
with thy saints here and above,
With whom for ever I must be...
As for
my friends, they are not lost;
The several vessels of thy fleet,
Though
parted now, by tempests tost,
Shall safely in thy haven meet...
The
heavenly hosts, world without end,
Shall be my company above;
And
thou, my best and surest Friend,
Who shall divide me from thy love?*
1,255
ancient English churches were dedicated to All Saints - a
number only surpassed by those dedicated to the Virgin
Mary.
*(Maurice
Frost (ed.), Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and
Modern (
1
The first martyrs
The
first martyrs of
At
Rome, the birthday is celebrated of very many martyrs,
who under the Emperor Nero were falsely charged with the
burning of the city and by him were ordered to be slain
by various kinds of cruel death; some were covered with
the skin of wild beasts, and cast to the dogs to be torn
asunder; others were crucified, and then when daylight
failed used as torches to illuminate the night. All
these were disciples of the apostles and the first fruits
of the martyrs whom the Holy Roman Church sent to their
Lord before the apostles’ death.
2
All Souls’ Day
The
early Church was slow to dedicate a liturgical day to
offering prayers and masses to commemorate the faithful
departed.
But in
time prayers were offered on behalf of dead monks, that
they might attain “the Beatific Vision” through
purification, which the Church later described as
Purgatory. Odilo, the powerful abbot of
At
least four ancient English dedications are known, the
most famous of which are
In
bygone centuries All Souls’ day was certainly
uncomfortable for anyone who had wronged a person who had
then died. For it was believed that souls in
purgatory could appear on earth on this day, in the form
of ghosts, witches or toads, to haunt anyone who
had wronged them in life.
On a
more cheerful note, it was also believed that you could
help the dead on this day by almsgiving in cash or in
kind. Some of these beliefs seem to have been
caught up in the popular customs of Halloween.
When
the Reformation came, the Protestants disregarded the
idea of Purgatory, and this feast day remained with the
Roman Catholic Church.
3
Hubert and the stag
With
hunting very much in the public mind at the present, here
at least was one man who was converted while hunting.
Hubert (bishop, d 727 AD) was out on Good Friday hunting
stag when he came across a stag with a crucifix between
its antlers. This so shook him that he converted to
Christianity, and went on to become Bishop of Tongres-Maestricht.
History does not tell us if he killed the stag or not, or
if he ever hunted stag again.
4
Charles Borromeo - the un-ordained archbishop
Why
should being a ‘lay’ person stop you from as
full a ministry as being ordained? Here is a saint
for all lay people who suspect they can do as good a job….
Charles
Borromeo was an Italian who lived in
5
Guy Fawkes – an early terrorist
If
modern security at the Houses of Parliament seems a bit
weak to you, take heart, it’s never been much better.
At least last year’s purple flour bombs on Tony
Blair and several hunt protestors running into the House
of Commons didn’t intend any real harm. Back
in 1605 Guy Fawkes managed to stow a good few barrels of
gunpowder under the House of Lords without anybody
noticing. He wasn’t a member of Al-Quaeda,
he was part of a Roman Catholic plot to murder James 1 of
England and his parliament at the state opening. Fortunately,
Guy Fawkes was found in time.
5
The Kea to toothache?
Kea
was an early Christian and a monk from a good family who
left
11
Armistice Day
At 11.00
a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918,
after four and a quarter years of war, the guns at last
fell silent on the battlefields of Europe as Germany
admitted defeat and signed an armistice.
13
Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850 – 1917)
– first saint of
In the
aftermath of the terrorist attack on
13
Remembrance Sunday
High
Streets everywhere will blossom with red poppies this
month: everyone from toddlers in prams to grannies will
be wearing one. By Remembrance Day more than 33 million
are expected to be sold around the county by an army of
many thousands of volunteers. The money raised will
help our ex-Service people and their dependants. To
achieve all that takes more than flower power.
We
have recently completed the bloodiest century that the
world has ever known. More people died in
wars last century than ever before in the history of
mankind. Many millions of those died fighting
fascism or communism.
How
many will die this coming year in our war with
international terrorism?
25
Catherine of
Catherine
is thought to have been a noble girl who lived in the 4th
century. She was persecuted for her Christianity,
and despised marriage with the Emperor because she was a
‘bride of Christ’. According to the
legend, Catherine was no push-over intellectually, either:
she disputed successfully with 50 philosophers who were
called in to convince her of the errors of Christianity.
Catherine
protested against the persecution of Christians by
Maxentius, and then she herself was tortured: broken on a
wheel (later called Catherine wheel), but the machine
broke down, injuring bystanders. Catherine was then
beheaded.
This
legend strongly appealed to the Middle Age imagination.
Catherine became the patron of young girls, students,
philosophers, nurses and craftsmen such as wheelwrights,
spinners and millers.
In
27
Advent
With
Advent, the Church’s year begins anew as we wait for
the birth of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
As we
begin Advent, here are some apt words from William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Some
say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated
The bird of dawning singeth all night long,
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy tales, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
Or
this Celtic prayer from Poems of the Western Highlanders
Jesu
MacMary, at dawn-tide, the flowing,
Jesu MacMary, at ebb-tide, the going:
When our first breath awakes,
Life’s day when darkness takes,
Merciful God of all, mercy bestowing,
With us and for us be,
Merciful Deity,
Amen, eternally.
30
St Andrew’s Day (d. c.60)
Andrew
is a good patron saint for those of you holding a
Christmas party this year - and who hope you have rightly
estimated the amount of food you’ll need. Andrew
was the disciple who, when faced with 5,000 people to
feed, brought a boy to Jesus who had two small fish and
five barley loaves. When Andrew wasn’t being
wildly optimistic with the catering arrangements, he was
out fishing with brother Peter and friends James and John.
This
New Testament apostle and martyr was brother of Simon
Peter. He was a fisherman by trade, his home was at
In all
the Gospel lists of apostles his name is among the first
four; he is specially mentioned for his share in the
feeding of the 5,000 and in the episode of the Greeks who
wished to meet Jesus. (John12:20-2)
It is
not certain where Andrew preached the Gospel, where he
died, or (even in Chrysostom’s time) where he was
buried. The most ancient written tradition links
him with
There
was a notable cult in the West. His feast was
universal from the 6th century; churches were dedicated
to him from early times in
After
the fall of
In art
Andrew is depicted with a normal Latin cross. The
saltire cross (X), commonly called St Andrew’s
Cross, which represents
