A record of St. Cybi's Church, Holyhead : $b and the sermon preached after its restoration, 1879Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn
Religion
A record of St. Cybi's Church, Holyhead : $b and the sermon preached after its restoration, 1879
Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn
Sermons, English -- 19th century; St. Cybi's Church (Holyhead, Wales) -- History
The great Cromlech at Trefignedd and the fine Monoliths at Plas Meilw
also bear silent record to the existence of men, who, but for this
lasting evidence might well be deemed mythical. At that great Cromlech,
overlooking many miles of country, horrible scenes were enacted,
according to tradition, scenes too ghastly for description; and now,
cattle graze and children play in the sunshine among those giant stones.
Holyhead mountain has repeatedly been a witness to fierce struggles for
mastery between the natives and invaders, who from time to time landed,
and tried to make good their footing, on that wild picturesque coast,
guarded as it is to the west by jagged rocks, and with only here and
there a creek into which a boat might be pushed in calm weather. Even
now, with all the help that modern invention and careful thought can
give, there are tragic tales of shipwreck and loss of life on those cruel
rocks; and what must it have been in ancient times, when there was
nothing between daring men and death but their rough boats, which it
would take little to dash into a thousand atoms?
Doubtless in those early days the island was wooded, as trunks of trees
are found at low tide, half buried in the sand in Towyn-y-Capel Bay, on
the west coast. Possibly, under cover of these trees, marauders were
able to effect a landing unseen; but at present, when there is not a
single stick or shrub of any kind, this is difficult to realise. Still,
though the trees have perished, there remain the silent monuments of that
great race, which are found in almost every land; the same cromlechs, the
same monoliths, as exist in our own island, are traceable on the
Continent of Europe, especially in Brittany, and even in remotest India.
If to searchers after Druidical and Ante-Druidical remains Holyhead
affords such rich results, yet higher interest still attaches to its
early Christian records. In it, and in its neighbour Anglesey, are
traced some of the earliest evidences of the foundation of the Christian
Church, its collegiate bodies and its organization; and from this cradle
of the Church proceeded the men whose teaching appears to have
effectually superseded the dying religion of the Sun and the Serpent; for
we have evidence that a number of Druid priests were converted, and we
have no record of any bitter animosity against the preachers of the
Gospel.
Early legends affirm that James, the son of Zebedee, came with his mother
Salome into Britain, six years after our Lord’s Ascension, and preached
the Gospel to willing ears; others say St. Paul himself visited these
Islands after his imprisonment by Nero.
How far these legends are literally true is not of great consequence; the
certainty remains that the Gospel was preached throughout the country,
and that the fabric of the holy Church was raised and organized here
after the same manner as the Eastern Churches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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