| If we look at the lives or the works of Western Christians during the so-called " Dark Ages " , the period from about 450 to 1050, we are invariably struck by their intellectual and cultural weakness their unformed, immature, even crude, theological outlook. Whereas in the third and fourth centuries we are able to find great Fathers (Blessed Jerome, Blessed Augustine), making their theological contribution to the development of Orthodoxy in the West, and also those who were working to spread the influence of Eastern Orthodoxy in the West (St. Hilary of Poitiers, St. Martin of Tours, St. John Cassian), in the sixth to eleventh centuries, there is a breakdown in the intellectual and cultural growth of the West. There are few indeed at this time who can stand comparison with the great mystical theologians of the East, where the great Ecumenical Councils were held and where the Faith was being formulated. Rome itself fades as an intellectual centre at this time. The light of knowledge was kept in distant places, by St. Isidore in Spain, Bede the Venerable in Britain, Irish Christians, some of whom knew Greek. Their knowledge, however, was vastly inferior to that of the Eastern Fathers, and a man like John Scotus Erigena, who translated some of the 'Pseudo-Dionysius' into Latin in the ninth century, stands out like a beacon in the darkness of ignorance. The holy men and women of the West in the 'Dark Ages' are as different from the great Egyptian, Syrian and Greek mystics of the multi-cultural Orient as Carolingian or Anglo-Saxon iconography is from post-iconoclast Byzantine iconography. Yet, although there were social, political and economic divergences between East and West, the Church was One. There were local, cultural variations in the practice of the Faith, but at heart Christians were united in their confession of the Orthodox, Catholic Faith. The East was a new and flourishing foundation, intellectually and culturally climbing to its zenith, the West was a fallen Empire, isolated by the Mohammedans from the cultural riches of Constantinople. The West was politically crippled by pagan onslaughts and invasions, living without a great cultural or intellectual awareness of the Faith and searching anywhere for political and military support against its enemies. It was even willing to crown a Frankish king and set up a Western Empire for the sake of self-protection. Spiritual unity, however, remained. |
| Saint Ninian of Whithorn, Apostle of the Southern Picts, Wonderworker Commemorated August 26/September 8 Dmitry Lapa Saint Ninian (Ninia), a Briton by origin, is one of the most venerated saints of Scotland. He is commemorated as “Apostle of the Southern Picts.” Although few details of the life and activities of St. Ninian are known, in addition to ancient traditions several early written pieces of evidence about the saint have survived. Our great authority, the Venerable Bede mentions St. Ninian in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731). In the ninth century, an anonymous author wrote an account of St. Ninian’s miracles. Ailred of Rievaulx in the twelfth century and the Irish archbishop James Usher of Armagh early in the seventeenth century wrote about St. Ninian as well. The future saint was most probably born in the second half of the fourth century—perhaps in about 360. He belonged to the so-called “Roman-British” tradition of early British Christianity. His native land was most likely Cumbria; at least it is nearly certain that he was born south of Hadrian’s Wall in today’s northern England. His father, according to some sources, was a local Christian ruler. While still very young, St. Ninian very clearly began to feel a calling to Christianize his native country. According to tradition, after the saint went to study in Rome, he then visited Gaul where at his monastery in Tours he met St. Martin—a great missionary and father of monasticism of Gaul. There is an opinion that St. Ninian was consecrated bishop either in Rome or Gaul (and, if the latter, the consecration was probably performed by St. Martin himself). Remains of St. Ninian " s Chapel on Whithorn. Inspired by St. Martin’s example, in about 394 St. Ninian returned to Scotland where he made the Whithorn peninsula in the present-day region of Dumfries and Galloway (south-western Scotland) the centre of his missionary activities. From here the hierarch successfully preached to the Southern Picts and converted many of them to Christ. He obviously preached to Irish settlers in Scotland as well and his work among them was fruitful. There is no doubt that St. Ninian established his see at Whithorn and also founded a church and a monastery dedicating it to St. Martin. Historians suppose that it was St. Martin who sent skilled masons from Gaul to help Ninian build the church at Whithorn. Whithorn derives its name from the main monastery church whose walls had been built of stone covered with lime plaster, which was a great rarity in Britain at that time. The very name “Whithorn” can be translated as “lime washed church”, or “white house”, and throughout the medieval period this splendid church together with the whole diocese was known as “Candida Casa” (“white house” in Latin). The church was built in a Roman fashion and according to the best standards of the time. |
| Vladimir Moss 92. SAINT THEODORE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Our holy Father Theodore was of Greek nationality, born in about 602 in St. Paul " s native city of Tarsus in Cilicia, and educated in Athens. Later, he was tonsured as a monk. When he was already an old man, Divine Providence led him to Rome, where the archbishop-elect of Canterbury, Wighard, had died from plague. Pope Vitalian was looking around for a suitable man to replace Wighard, and his choice fell upon a holy and learned African abbot named Adrian. But Adrian declined the offer, and suggested Theodore instead. The Pope accepted this suggestion, but on condition that St. Adrian, who knew the West well, accompanied St. Theodore to England. Then Theodore was ordained through all the degrees of the priesthood, and was consecrated archbishop on March 26, 668. Then, together with Adrian and the Northumbrian abbot, Benedict Biscop, he set out for Britain. On the way, in Paris, they met Bishop Agilbert, formerly of Dorchester-on-Thames. Finally, on May 27, 669, Theodore and his companions arrived in Canterbury. The new archbishop immediately appointed Benedict abbot of St. Peter " s monastery in Canterbury until 671, when Adrian was able to take over. In spite of his age and the fact that he was a complete stranger to his semi-barbarian diocese, St. Theodore acted with great vigour and success in the remaining twenty-two years of his earthly life, becoming, as the Venerable Bede wrote, «the first archbishop whom the whole of the English Church obeyed». He convened councils, consecrated bishops, disciplined offenders and travelled the length and breadth of the land on horseback. Together with St. Adrian, he founded the famous school of Canterbury, at which Greek, Latin, theology, literature, science and mathematics were taught, and which became the main fount of learning for English churchmen until the time of the Venerable Bede. It was thus under his leadership that the English Church entered upon the «golden age» of her existence, begetting a multitude of saints of both sexes and every station of life. Monastic life in particular reached a high pinnacle of excellence, and within a few years of St. Theodorés repose hundreds of English monks and nuns were pouring out of their newly-enlightened homeland to bring the light of Christ to their still-benighted kinsmen in Holland and Germany. |
| Orthodoxy’s Western Heritage: St. Alban the Martyr Today we celebrate the memory of St. Alban, Protomartyr of Britain. According to recent findings, St. Alban has been shown to be not only the protomartyr of Britain, but also the earliest martyr of Latin Europe of whom we know. Based on the eighth-century account of the Venerable Bede, hagiographers have placed St. Alban’s martyrdom in the early fourth century, during the fierce Diocletian persecutions. However, in a guide to St. Alban’s Cathedral, built over the site of his martyrdom, we find the following interesting information that, according to the work of Dr. John Morris of London, places the date of execution nearly a century earlier, to June 22, 209: “The search for the source on which Gildas, about 540, and thence Bede, about 700, drew for their accounts of the martyrdom was rewarded by the discovery in 1901 of a copy in Turin of Constantius’ life of St. Germaine, originally written in about 480…. Constantius gives the day of St. Alban’s execution as June 22nd, but not the year. He does, however, state that the Roman Emperor involved was Septimus Severus, and says: ‘Then the emperor Severus went to Britain… When it became clear that there were very many Christians there, with his customary fury he ordered them all to be put to the sword.’ Gildas, copying from this, apparently read ‘Severus’ as an adjective, and, in a gloss, supposed the emperor was the notorious anti-Christian, Diocletian. Bede omitted the ‘supposed’ and incorporated the gloss in the text and so the Diocletian dating became established.” “In any case, Dr. Morris points out, it couldn’t have been in that emperor’s time, because he ruled only in the East. Maximilian ruled the West of the empire and under him Constantius was responsible for Spain, Gaul and Britain. His wife, Helene, was a Christian. A contemporary account emphatically states that while this Caesar ‘showed willing’ by knocking down a few meeting places of the Christians, he killed none. |
| Tweet Нравится Venerable Frideswide, Patroness of Oxford Commemorated October 19/November 1 (Repose) and February 12/25 (Translation of Relics) Dmitry Lapa An icon of St. Frideswide of Oxford For over 1000 years St. Frideswide (also spelled Frithuswith, Fritheswithe, Fritha, Fris) has been venerated as the patron saint of Oxford (“oxen ford”) in England and for over half of millennium, as the heavenly patroness of Oxford University and its students. However, very little genuine information on this saint survives. There is no early Life of St. Frideswide (whose name means “peace-strong”). Although she was a contemporary of the Venerable Bede , he does not mention her in his History of the English Church and People because he did not have informants on that part of Mercia where she lived. The historian William of Malmesbury related the story of St. Frideswide early in the twelfth century, which was followed by other Latin versions of her Life in the same century; but the best known of them is the account made by Robert of Cricklade, Prior of St. Frideswide’s Monastery in Oxford between 1150 and c. 1175, who was a very prolific author. The thirteenth-fourteenth century hagiographic work known as the South English Legendary also contains a narration dedicated to Frideswide’s life. In the modern age the life of this saint was thoroughly researched by Professor John Blair. All of the medieval stories have numerous discrepancies as to minor details of Frideswide’s life, yet they agree on the major facts and events associated with such an important saint. Let us recall them. The future saint was born about 680 (according to another version, about 665) in western Oxfordshire, which was then a province of the large early English kingdom of Mercia , near the border with the kingdom of Wessex . Her father’s name was Dida (other forms: Didan and Didda), and her mother bore the name Sefrida (Saethryth). In all probability her parents were pious Christians. Dida was a sub-king of Mercia who ruled the area which included western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames in the same region. As a child little Frideswide was given by her parents to a woman of holy life called Elgitha, who brought her up at Didcot in Oxfordshire. |
| I am reliably told that in some parts of the Protestant world the feast we Orthodox are now celebrating is called “Resurrection Sunday”. Though it used to be universally known there as “Easter”, apparently some people in the Evangelical Protestant world are reluctant to use the term “Easter” because they believe the word has pagan connotations and a pagan past. The actual history of the word is somewhat obscure. The Venerable Bede, an eighth century English church writer, gave his opinion that the word had been the name of an Anglo-Saxon deity, but no historical paperwork survives to corroborate this. There is Germanic word related to sunrise and spring, and the dawn of springtime was called “Eostremonath”, “Easter month”. Anyway, if there ever was an Anglo-Saxon goddess by the name of Eostre or Ostara or something like it, that deity is long gone—far too long gone to cast much of a shadow over the Christian celebrations of today. In many places of the world, the feast of Christ’s death and resurrection is known as Pascha. Thus the French called the feast “Paques”, the Spanish call it “Pascua”, the Romanians call it “Pati” and the Italians call it “Pasqua”—all related to the Greek/Latin “Pascha”. Tempting as it is to relate the Greek word “Pascha” to the Greek word meaning “to suffer” (πσχω/ pascho ), it is actually the transliteration of the Hebrew word pesach , meaning “to pass over”, to skip”. The word is found in Exodus 12:13, which says that when God sees the blood of a slaughtered lamb obediently daubed on the lintels of the homes of the Hebrews, He will pass over those houses so that the destroyer sent to destroy the firstborn in the homes of the Egyptians will not destroy them. The feast commemorating this deliverance was accordingly called “Pesach”, “Passover”. In Matthew 26:2, the name of this Hebrew feast is transliterated as πσχα/ pascha , which word found its way into other languages similarly transliterated. English-speaking Orthodox therefore refer to the feast of our Lord’s death and resurrection as “Pascha”. |
| Holy Hierarch Chad of Lichfield, Apostle of Mercia, Wonderworker Commemorated: March 2/15 Dmitry Lapa An icon of St. Chad of Lichfield (by Aidan Hart) St. Chad (Ceadda) was born in the early seventh century and reposed on March 2 (according to the old calendar), 672 or 673. Pious English people, especially ordinary folk, have deeply loved and venerated this saint for more than 1300 years as one of their protectors. His veneration is similar to that of Sts. Aidan and Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and Swithin of Winchester; he lived absolutely in the same spirit with them. Thirty-three ancient parish churches and several holy wells across England are dedicated to him, in addition to numerous modern Anglican and Catholic dedications. The name “Chad”, which is perhaps of old Welsh origin and means “battle”, remains a boy’s baptismal name both in the UK and the USA to this day. Who was this saint? Most of the information on St. Chad’s life can be found in the work by the Venerable Bede of Jarrow, The History of the English Church and People , written in 731. St. Chad from time immemorial has been venerated as the apostle of Mercia, the largest of seven early English kingdoms, which was inhabited mostly by Angles. The Kingdom of Mercia (meaning “borderlands or marches”) existed from 527 till 879 and stretched from the North Sea shore in the east to the River Severn and the Welsh border in the west. During its domination it comprised (fully or partially) the territories of the present-day counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, the present West Midlands, north Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire and parts of today’s Greater Manchester and Merseyside. An icon of Sts. Aidan and Chad (by Aidan Hart) Chad was the youngest of four brothers, all of whom devoted their lives to the service of God. Their names were St. Cedd (who became a bishop and preached in Mercia and Essex; feast: October 26), St. Cynibil (a priest, feast: March 2), Caelin (a priest) and St. Chad who also became a bishop. They were born and brought up in the kingdom of Northumbria in the north of England. As a boy and adolescent Chad studied under St. Aidan, the apostle of Northumbria, in his most famous Lindisfarne (Holy Island) Monastery in the Irish tradition. Later, after Aidan’s death in 651, the young Chad together with other ascetics, among whom was St. Egbert, 1 moved to study in Ireland, most probably at the great Rathmelsigy Monastery. There they lived the monastic life, persevered in prayer and fasting and were absorbed in the contemplation of the Holy Scriptures. |
| Преподобная Эбба, игумения Колдингемская Память 25 августа/7 сентября (преставление) и 2/15 ноября (перенесение мощей) Дмитрий Лапа Происхождение и ранние годы Витраж с изображением прп. Эббы Колдингемской (фото с сайта «Early British Kingdoms») О жизни святой игумении, некогда почитавшейся по всей Шотландии и Северной Англии, которую упоминал преподобный Беда Досточтимый (Venerable Bede) в «Церковной истории народа англов» (кн. 4, гл. XIX, XXV), сохранилось мало сведений. Преподобная Эбба (Ebba, Ebbe, Aebbe), известная также как Эбба Старшая, родилась около 615 года в англо-саксонском королевстве на севере Англии. Ее отцом был король Этельфрит (Aethelfrith), правивший Берницией (Bernicia) с 593 года и Дейрой (Deira) с 604 года до своей смерти в 616 году . Среди ее братьев были святой Освальд-Мученик (Oswald the Martyr) и Освиу (Oswiu) – будущие короли Нортумбрии. Когда отец Эббы погиб в битве при Ботри в южном Йоркшире, ее мать Аха отвезла всех детей в гаэльское королевство Дал Риада (Dalriada), основанное ирландскими поселенцами на северо-западе Шотландии в конце V века. Преподобная Эбба была еще младенцем. Тем временем королем Нортумбрии стал дядя Эббы по материнской линии святой Эдвин (Edwin) , который лишь много лет спустя обратится ко Христу. Дал Риада тогда была бастионом Православия (в противоположность Пиктавии (Pictland) в остальной части Шотландии и Нортумбрии на севере Англии, где процветало язычество) – там основывались духовные и монашеские центры, самым известным из которых был островной монастырь Иона (Iona) , основанный ирландцем преподобным Колумбой (Columba) в 563 году. Находясь под защитой королей Дал Риады и впитав в себя ирландские духовные традиции, преподобная Эбба и ее семья обратились ко Христу и приняли Святое Крещение. Возвращение в Нортумбрию и основание монастыря Колдингем В 630-е годы, когда ее брат святой Освальд занял трон Нортумбрии и стал поборником Православия, Эбба решила вернуться на родину и помогать ему в деле просвещения нортумбрийцев, большинство из которых были язычниками. В 635 году по приглашению святого Освальда в Нортумбрию приехал ирландец святитель Айдан (Aidan; бывший воспитанник Ионы) и основал великий монастырь на острове Линдисфарн (Lindisfarne), где процветали православное монашество, ученость и культура. |
| Статистика Беда Достопочтенный Беда Достопочтенный (Досточтимый; лат. Beda, англ. Bede) (ок. 672 или 673 — 27 мая 735) — бенедиктинский монах в монастыре святого Петра в Нортумбрии и в монастыре святого Павла в современном Джарроу (англ.). Написал одну из первых историй Англии под названием «Церковная история народа англов» (лат. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, англ. Ecclesiastical History of the English People), которая принесла ему славу «отца английской истории». Беда был прозван «достопочтенным» (venerabilis) вскоре после своей смерти. В 1899 году Беда был канонизирован папой Львом XIII в качестве и католическая церковь назвала его одним из «учителей церкви». Биография Уже на восьмом году жизни он поступил в монастырь Уирмаут, где пробыл до 691 года, получив там превосходное научное образование. Отсюда он перешёл в соседний, подвластный Уирмауту монастырь Джарроу (основан в 681), где на 19-м году жизни стал дьяконом и в 702 году — священником. С этого времени начинается его писательская деятельность, состоявшая, главным образом, в толковании отдельных книг Ветхого и Нового Завета. На одре болезни он закончил перевод Евангелия от Иоанна на англосаксонский язык, диктуя его своим ученикам. Умер 27 мая 735 и похоронен в монастыре Джарроу; впоследствии останки его перенесены в Даремский собор. Сочинения Беда написал очень многие ценные для его времени комментарии к Священному Писанию, кроме того, гомилии, жития некоторых святых, гимны, эпиграммы, сочинения по хронологии и грамматике. Полные собрания его сочинений изданы в Париже (1544 и 1554), Базеле (1563) и Кельне (1612 и 1688). Главное его сочинение, беспристрастно обработанное по летописям «Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum» в 5 книгах, переведенное Альфредом Великим на англосаксонский язык, остается одним из важнейших источников древнейшей истории Англии до 731 года. Беда тщательно и критическим образом подбирал источники для своей истории. Для хронологии важно сочинение Беды «De sex aetatibus mundi», в котором им впервые введено летосчисление Дионисия Малого до и после рождества Христова, принятое потом в большинстве средневековых летописей. Он также внес изменения в Вульгату, и его версия официально использовалась католической церковью до появления Новой Вульгаты в 1979 году. Беда также выдумал имёна Трёх Волхвов, посещавших младенца Иисуса: Каспар, Балтазар и Мельхиор. В Новом Завете эти имена не упоминались, однако благодаря Беде вошли в Священное предание. Текст полного собрания сочинений Беды с английским переводом его исторических трудов издан Минье (Париж, 1858, 6 т.); нем. пер. Вильдена, Шафгаузен, 1866). См.: Gehle, «De Bedae Venerabilis vita et scriptis» (Лейден, 1838); Wrights, «Biographia britannica litteraria» (т.1, Лондон, 1843); K.Werner, «Beda der Ehrwürdige» (Вена, 1875). Библиография |
| Комментарии к вступительной статье Беда Достопочтенный. Церковная история народа англов К предыдущей статье 1 В мировой научной традиции закрепилось несколько форм этого uмehu-Beda, Bede, Baede и др. Мы употребляем форму, наиболее близкую к англосаксонскому произношению. 2 См. с. 193. 3 См. с. 6. 4 Б. Колгрейв насчитал в тексте «Истории» всего 32 ошибки, из них 22 встречаются в цитатах из других источников. 5 Bede. The Ecclesiastical Hismory of the English people. Oxford, 1969. P. XVII (далее Bede, 1969). Другими книгами были «Утешение философией» Боэция, «Пастырское правило» папы Григория и «История» Павла Орозия. 6 См. с. 27. 7 English Historical Documents. Vol. 1. London, 1968. P. 358, 365. 8 Ibid. P. 701. 9 Ныне этот так называемый Codex Amiatianus хранится во Флорентийской библиотеке. 10 См. с. 193. 11 См. с. 206. 12 Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. London, 1990. P. 33 (далее Bede, 1990). 13 По легенде ослепший Беда попросил ученика отвести его к людям, чтобы он мог проповедовать им. Вместо этого ученик привел его на берег моря, и слепец долго читал проповедь волнам. Когда он закончил, волны по Божьему велению ответили «аминь». 14 Bede,1969. P. XXIV. 15 Ibid. P. XXVII. 16 Тацит. Анналы, III, 65. В кн.: Тацит, Корнелий. Соч. в 2 тт. Том 1. М. 1993/Пер. А.С. Бобовича. Беда почти дословно цитирует эти слова в предисловии к «Истории». 17 Bede, 1990. P. 26. 18 См. с. 11. 19 English Historical documents Vol. 1. P. 363. 20 См. с. 54. 21 См. с. 43. 22 См. с. 87. 23 См. с. 144. 24 См. с. 140. 25 См. с. 66. 26 См. приложение. 27 Существуют факсимильные издания этих манускриптов: The Moore Bede/Ed. P. Hunter Blair. Copenhagen, 1959; The Leningrad Bede/Ed. O. Arngart. Copenhagen, 1952. 28 Baedae Opera Historica. Vol. 1-2. Oxford, 1896 (repr. 1956). 29 Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English people/Ed. and tr. B. Colgrave, R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford, 1969. 30 Les martirologies historiques du Moyen Age/Ed. H. Quentin. Paris, 1908. 31 Bedae Opera de temporibus/Ed. C. W. Jones. Cambridge (Mass.), 1943. 32 Wallace-Hadrill J. M. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History: a Historical Commentary. Oxford, 1988. 33 Webb J. F., Farmer D. H. The Age of Bede. London, 1988. 34 Blair P. H. The World of Bede. London, 1970; Blair P. H. Venerabilis Bede. London, 1979. Продолжение Ссылки по теме Церковно-Научный Центр «Православная Энциклопедия» По Благословению Святейшего Патриарха Московского и Всея Руси Кирилла © Православная Энциклопедия, 2001–2024. Все права защищены © Сделано в Stack Group , 2008–2024 |
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