| Vladimir Moss 25. SAINT CEDD, BISHOP OF LONDON Our holy Father Cedd, together with his brothers St. Chad, Cynebil and Caelin, were Anglian boys educated at Linsdisfarne by Saints Aidan and Finan. In 653, St. Finan baptized Peada, king of the Middle Angles at the king " s village of Wallbottle at Hadrian " s Wall in Northumberland. The king returned «full of joy» with four Northumbrian priests, one of whom was Cedd. The others were Diuma, who later became the holy bishop of Mercia and the Middle Angles, Betti and Addi. The apostolic work of these four men was very successful. However, King Oswy of Northumbria, who became overlord of Mercia after King Peadás death, then decided to send St. Cedd to the kingdom of East Saxons, which had reverted to paganism after the death of King Sebert and the expulsion of St. Mellitus, bishop of London, earlier in the century. And so, with the blessing of St. Finan, Cedd and another priest set off to re-evanglize the land, whose king, Sigebert, had just been baptized. This mission, too, was very successful, and soon St. Finan consecrated Cedd to the episcopate. As bishop, St. Cedd built churches and ordained priests and deacons in many places. Thus at Bradwell-on-Sea he built a church out of the rubble of a Roman fort which is still standing today. And he built another monastery at Tilbury, where an early Saxon immersion font that may well have been used by the saint still survives. The saint often returned to Northumbria to preach, and on one such trip, in 658, he was given land for the foundation of a monastery at Lastingham in Yorkshire. This came about through the intercession of Cedd " s brother Caelin, and the monastery was built by another of Cedd " s brothers, Cynebil. St. Cedd consecrated the monastery after fasting and praying for forty days. St. Cedd played an important part in the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ended the schism between the Celtic and Roman Churches in England. Although trained in the Celtic Church, he wholeheartedly accepted the Roman-Byzantine Paschalion. He acted as an interpreter between the Celtic and Roman parties. |
| St. Cedd of Lastingham Commemorated on January 7 Saint Cedd was a missionary and bishop who spread the faith throughout England during the seventh century. The eldest of four brothers, all of whom became priests, he was born in 620 AD into a noble Northumbrian family. At an early age, he began studies at the Lindisfarne Priory, where he became familiar with Irish monasticism. After pursuing further studies in Ireland, he was sent by Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne to evangelize the people of Essex. He baptized many of the locals, built several churches, and founded monasteries in Bradwell-on-Sea and East Tilbury. After his consecration to the episcopacy as Bishop of Essex, he reinstated Saint Paul " s in London as the main seat of his diocese. He remained fond of his northern homeland and made regular visits there. On one such occasion in 658, he was approached by King Aethelwald of Deira who, finding Saint Cedd to be a good and wise man, pressed him to accept a parcel of land at Lastingham in Yorkshire on which to build a monastery. Saint Cedd eventually agreed, laying the foundation stones after the parcel had been cleansed through prayer and fasting. He became the first Abbot of Lastingham and remained so while still ministering to his flock in Essex. Saint Cedd died in Lastingham during a great plague that also claimed the life of his brother Cynebil. Eventually, he was buried under the altar of a little stone church built at Lastingham in honor of the Mother of God. His relics were later transferred to the Litchfield Cathedral, which had been built by his brother Chad. The Orthodox Church in America 16 января 2017 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| About the year 664 Chad returned to England and was ordained priest, while Egbert remained in Ireland. In the same year Chad’s eldest brother, St. Cedd, who had founded and ruled the monastery of the Mother of God in Lastingham in Northumbria (now a village in North Yorkshire), died of the plague and Chad succeeded him as abbot. As Abbot of Lastingham Chad became famous as a holy man, meek in his conduct, versed in the Holy Scriptures and zealous in putting the words of the Gospel to life. Nearly at the same time young St. Wilfrid (a great missionary and apostle of Sussex) was appointed bishop of Northumbria. However, as a result of the plague, there were almost no bishops in the whole of England to consecrate him. So Wilfrid travelled to Gaul for his consecration but delayed there for several years. Time passed. King Oswiu, desperate for a bishop, sent Chad to Kent (to the very south), so that the Archbishop of Canterbury could arrange his consecration as a bishop for Northumbria. But reaching Canterbury, Chad learned that the holy Archbishop Deusdedit had reposed by that time and the new archbishop had not yet been appointed. From Kent Chad had to travel to the Kingdom of West Saxons where he was met by Bishop Wini who, together with two British bishops from Wales, performed his consecration. Chad returned to Northumbria and began to serve as the head of the diocese with the new center in York (then it bore the Roman name Eboracum). According to Bede, in his new post Chad dedicated all his energies to maintaining the truth and purity of the Church through humility, moderation, and learning. He walked from cottage to cottage, from settlement to settlement, visiting many villages, towns and fortified localities in his diocese. Wherever he went, he preached the Gospel, travelling not on horseback but only on foot. In this he certainly imitated St. Aidan, both of whom evangelized after the example of the Apostles. He tried to teach the ways and customs of his brother Cedd, who was regarded as a saint, to the local population. The inhabitants of Yorkshire came to love this self-sacrificing and earnest bishop. At last, Wilfrid returned to England after four years of absence. Seeing that a new bishop had been appointed for his see, he humbly retired to Repton Monastery in Yorkshire which he had himself founded. |
| Vladimir Moss 28. SAINT CHAD, BISHOP OF LICHFIELD AND MARYTR-PRINCES WULFAD AND RUFINUS OF MERCIA Our holy Father Chad (Ceodde) was born at the end of the sixth century in Northumberland. He was a disciple of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne. After a period in Ireland spent in asceticism, he was appointed Abbot of Lastingham in Yorkshire in succession to his brother, St. Cedd. In 664, Bishop Tuda of York died of the plague, and it fell to King Oswy of Northumbria and his son, the Sub-King Alchfrid, to appoint a successor. His choice fell on St. Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, who was sent to France to be consecrated to the episcopate. However, since St. Wilfrid was away for a long time, King Oswy sent to Canterbury for consecration Chad, «a holy man,» as the Venerable Bede writes, «modest in all his ways, learned in the Scriptures, and careful to practise all that he found in them. With Chad the king sent a priest named Eadhaed, who later, during the reign of Egfrid, became Bishop of Ripon. On arriving in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had died, and that no successor had been appointed. They therefore went on to the province of the West Saxons, consecrated Chad as bishop [in 666] with the assistance of two bishops of the British, who [kept] Pascha contrary to canonical practice between the fourteenth and twentieth days of the moon. For at that time, Wini [Bishop of the West Saxons] was the only bishop in all Britain who had been canonically consecrated. «When he became bishop, Chad immediately devoted himself to maintaining the truth and purity of the Church, and set himself to practise humility and continence and to study. After the example of the Apostles, he travelled on foot and not on horseback when he went to preach the Gospel.; for he was one of Aidan " s disciples and always sought to instruct his people by the same methods as Aidan and his own brother Cedd.» In May, 669 St. Theodore «the Greek» arrived at his see in Canterbury. He told St. Chad that he considered his Episcopal consecration to be uncanonical, to which the saint humbly replied: «If you know that my consecration as bishop was irregular, then I willingly resign the office; for I have never thought myself worthy of it. Although unworthy, I accepted it solely under obedience.» Impressed by this reply, St. Theodore assured him that he would not have to give up his office, and himself corrected his consecration. St. Chad then returned to his monastery in Lastingham. |
| An icon of St. Owin (Owen) of Mercia There were future prominent Church figures and saints among the disciples of Chad and among those who knew him, we should mention: St. Owen of Mercia (feast: March 4), 2 St. Hibald of Lindsey (feast: December 14), 3 and the holy passion-bearers brothers Wulfhad and Ruffin. 4 Besides, it is known that Chad instructed the young St. Werburgh who later became the illustrious abbess of three Mercian convents and patroness of Chester. Shortly before his repose, Chad contracted the plague, which was rife and rampant in the England of that era. Bede describes his death with this very moving account. Once St. Owen, mentioned above, was alone in Chad’s hut while all the other brethren had left, and the bishop himself was praying in the church. Suddenly Owen heard extraordinarily pure and joyful singing; it was moving in the air from the east and reached the church and penetrated it. Half an hour later the same sweet choir of voices reappeared—it “went out” of the church through the roof and slowly ascended to heaven. Astonished, Owen left the hut. At once Chad called upon him and the other monks to gather around him and informed them that the day of his repose was near. He invoked them to follow all monastic rules with undiminished diligence and constancy, to practice all that he had taught them both by word and deed, and to imitate the lives of the Fathers of olden times. He said: “A beloved guest has visited me today in order to take me from this world. So, please, pray for me before my meeting with the Lord, and do not forget to prepare for your own departure to Him by fasting, prayer and good works, for we never know when we may die.” When the other monks had left, Owen asked Chad about the unusual singing he had heard. And Chad replied: “These were the holy angelic powers that descended from heaven to warn me that they would return in seven days to take my soul with them. But I beg you not to tell anyone before my death.” And his words came true. He caught the plague and got weaker every day. On the seventh day the holy man received Communion for the last time and his pure God-loving soul departed his body for eternal bliss. At the moment of his death St. Egbert in Ireland, many miles away, in a vision saw the soul of St. Cedd (who had reposed eight years before) ascending from Paradise with an assembly of angels and taking the soul of Chad with them in great glory. |
| Archaeologists examining one of the most ancient churches in Britain Dmitry Lapa London, January 17, 2014 St. Piran " s Oratory. Photo taken between 1892 and 1909 Archaeological excavations on the site of one of the most ancient surviving Christian shrines of Britain will soon begin. This is St. Piran " s Oratory (Chapel) near Perranporth, Cornwall, in the south-west of England, reports Sedmitza.ru , citing KIPA/Apis . The building, constructed in the 5th or 6th century, was covered with sand and surrounded by a concrete silo in 1980 to protect it from foul weather. Now the specialists have given the " green light " to carry out excavation work, which is to begin in February or March of 2014. The Oratory of St. Piran is considered to be the oldest stone Christian church in Britain. Its remains were discovered late in the 18th century. In 1835 and 1843 the first excavation work was carried out here, during which several human skeletons were found, one of them headless. According to the tradition, the oratory was built by Holy Abbot Piran (+ C. 480, commemorated March 5/18), who is venerated as the patron-saint of Cornwall, along with St. Petroc and the Holy Archangel Michael. The flag of Cornwall, depicting a white cross on a black background, is called " St. Piran " s flag " . St. Piran came to these lands from Ireland. According to tradition, Irish pagans tied a millstone around his neck and threw him off the cliff into the stormy sea. The sea calmed immediately and St. Piran reached the sandy beaches of Cornwall, which are called Perranzabuloe today. St. Piran had lived as a hermit near Padstow until the local Christians came to know about him. They came to him and asked him to found the monastery that came to be known as Lanpiran. St. Piran became its abbot. St. Piran is considered the patron-saint of tin mining. Cornwall was known for its tin production even before its occupation by the Romans. The historical tin mining district is known as the “stannaries”, from the Latin word for tin. According to the tradition, the saint was buried in Perranzabuloe. Afterwards his relics were discovered and distributed to different churches. The oldest church building in England, which has remained almost completely intact, is the tiny Church of St. Peter " s-on-the-Wall, in the little town of Bradwell-on-Sea, in the county of Essex. This church was built by Holy Hierarch Cedd, enlightener of Essex, in 654. The oldest wooden church in England is St. Andrew " s Church in the village of Greensted in Essex. The walls of its wooden nave date back from the 9th or 10th century. This church also claims to be the oldest existing wooden church building in the world and one of the most ancient wooden structures in Europe. Dmitry Lapa 21 января 2014 г. Смотри также Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Bede gives us a rather full account of the proceedings, with St. Wilfrid acting as spokesman for the universal “Roman” date kept by the Church throughout the world, and St. Colman, Bishop of Northumbria, for the “Irish” date, which traditionally had the authority of the Apostle and Evangelist John, and was used by the northern Irish, St. Columba, and the Iona monastics. (Although, even within the “Irish” usage, there were a variety of observances.) Interestingly, this was not the practice of all of the Irish. The southern Irish had already changed to the universal Church dating of Easter. St. Wilfrid did not deny the sanctity of Columba, nor did he think that the Ionan way of keeping Easter was seriously harmful if they were unaware of the rest of the Church’s unanimity in observing the universal date. Once they were aware, however, that they alone were keeping another date, they should acquiesce. Whitby Abbey Most of those on the “Irish” side agreed to use the universal date of Easter, including St. Cuthbert, St. Hilda, St. Bosa, Sts. Cedd and Chad. Only Bishop Colman and his monks (both English and Irish), out of loyalty to St. Columba and their tradition, could not submit to the decision and left for Ireland. This wasn’t a matter of ethnicity, but of where people stood on the calendar question. It wasn’t an issue after that. Even the northern Irish, to whom Colman and his monks went after leaving Northumbria, voluntarily changed their practice within fifty years. Iona itself adopted the universal dating of Easter in 716 and Whitby was only resurrected as an issue by Protestant reformers at the time of the Reformation. It’s extraordinary how people now get so worked up about the Synod of Whitby. It would be understandable if it were about something fundamental, like the sermons that have gone on in Durham in recent years, with an Anglican bishop speaking of the Resurrection as “a conjuring trick with bones.” This is an important divergence from the fundamentals of the Faith, but how a monk cuts his hair is not. |
| Over the past 150 years, the relics of a number of early English saints have either been miraculously rediscovered or returned to England from other countries. There are numerous cases of miracles through these saints’ prayers and apparitions of them to people. Thus, St. Botolph of Iken more than once rescued travelers from imminent death in a visible way; the residents of the tiny town Dorchester-on-Thames near Oxford, where relics of the Apostle of Wessex St. Birinus are kept in the abbey church, have seen him at night walking along the streets as if guarding his flock; likewise, residents of Beverley near York have seen the holy Hierarch and Wonderworker John of Beverley walking in the town. He is a great intercessor for his people who saved the place from destruction many times; the Venerable Bede has appeared to people (including one Orthodox bishop) near his shrine at Durham Cathedral; miracles, including a vision of an angel, have occurred in the Church of St. Mary in Lastingham where the relics of St. Cedd of Essex rest. And these are only some cases of miracles. Also, in 2013, the possible relics of the Holy and Righteous King Alfred the Great were uncovered in the church of St. Bartholomew in Winchester. These remains are now being examined by scientists. The Lord is speaking to us through His faithful servants in our difficult and unstable times, when many people and even entire nations urgently need to remember and return to the life and merits of their pious, Orthodox forebears. St. Mary " s Church in Norton Cuckney, Nottinghamshire One of the next revelations, we believe, will be a miracle connected with St. Edwin, one of the first Christian kings of Britain who gave his life for Christ in battle with pagans. Two years ago a group of archaeologists started large-scale work in the village of Cuckney (also Norton Cuckney) near the town of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, where workers under the Norman Church of the Mother of God had discovered earlier skeletons dating from the Saxon period. All of them lay in rows, feet facing eastwards, about 200 in number, and, to all appearance, are skeletons of soldiers. |
| St. Chad " s Church in Freehay, Staffordshire Anglican churches dedicated to St. Chad can be found in the town of Holt on the River Dee in county Wrexham, Wales; in Toronto, Canada; and in Chelsea, Australia. London once had a famous St. Chad’s well in St. Chad’s Place near King’s Cross. Indeed, London had no fewer than twenty holy wells in ancient times, most of which were connected with the River Fleet. St. Chad’s well was extremely popular for healing many diseases, and due to this the saint was proclaimed as the patron of sacred wells and springs. There are several surviving holy wells of St. Chad in England, though some of them are called simply “Chad well” and it is not evident that all of them are named after our saint. They can be found in Lastingham (two other wells there are dedicated to St. Cedd and St. Owen); in Chadkirk in Greater Manchester near the town of Stockport (people used to bring small figures of sore body parts to this well); in Twyning near the town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire; in Chadwell Heath in Essex (in fact it is a replica of the original well); near the village of Bedhampton in Hampshire; near the tiny town of Clun in Shropshire; at Tinedale Farm in Lancashire; in the town of Midsomer Norton in Somerset; in Hammer (formerly Chadhill) over the Welsh border and others. Holy Hierarch Chad, pray to God for us! c. 639-729, feast: April 24. An important Church Father of that time. He prepared several monks for preaching in Germany and also encouraged the monks of Iona to adopt the Orthodox calculation of Easter. St. Owen, or Owin, reposed in c. 680. He was a steward from the household of St. Etheldreda of Ely. Afterwards he left everything and joined Lastingham monastery as a simple monk and later moved to Lichfield with St. Chad. Although not very able in learning the Scriptures, he excelled as a monastery worker and gained holiness. At least one church is dedicated to him. He became an abbot in Lindsey, famous for his ascetic life, gift of prayer and miracles, reposing in about 690. Three churches are dedicated to him in Lincolnshire, for example, in the village of Hibaldstow where he was buried and where the coffin with his supposed relics was discovered in the nineteenth century, and has been kept there ever since. |
| Vladimir Moss 37. SAINT DIUMA, BISHOP OFMERCIA Our holy Father Diuma was of Irish origin. He was one of four priests who were sent by St. Finan, bishop of Lindisfarne, to evangelize Mercia after the baptism of King Peada. The other priests were St. Cedd, the future bishop of London, Betti and Adda. The apostolate of these four men was most successful. When Peada died in 654, King Oswy of Northumbria ruled Mercia for a few years; and in this period Diuma was consecrated bishop of the Mercians and Middle Anglians by St. Finan. He worked mainly among the East Anglians and died in a district called Infeppingum in the year 658. He was buried at Charlbury in Oxfordshire. St. Diuma is commemorated on December 7. Holy Father Diuma, pray to God for us! (Sources: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, II, 2; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 107) Читать далее Поделиться ссылкой на выделенное |
|
|
