The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): JanuaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
"That prelate, therefore, complying with the King's desires, chose
himself a place to build a monastery among craggy and distant mountains,
which looked more like lurking places for robbers, and retreats for wild
beasts, than habitations for men. The man of God, desiring first to
cleanse the place for the monastery from former crimes, by prayer and
fasting, that it might become acceptable to our Lord, and so to lay the
foundations, requested the King to give him leave to reside there all
the approaching Lent, to pray. All which time, except Sundays, he fasted
till the evening, according to custom, and then took no other sustenance
than a little bread, one egg, and a little milk mixed with water. This,
he said, was the custom of those of whom he had learnt the rule of
regular discipline; first, to consecrate to our Lord, by prayer and
fasting, the places which they had newly received for building a
monastery or a church. When there were ten days of Lent still remaining,
there came a messenger to call him to the King; and he, that the
religious work might not be intermitted, on account of the King's
affairs, entreated his priest, Cynebil, who was also his own brother, to
complete that which had been so piously begun. Cynebil readily complied,
and when the time of fasting and prayer was over, he there built the
monastery, which is now called Lestingan,[32] and established therein
the religious customs of Lindisfarne."
At this time, owing to the influence of S. Wilfrid, who had been
established at Ripon by Alchfrid, son of King Oswy, a great split was
forming in the Church, which made itself felt even in the Royal family.
All the missionaries of the north had been brought up in Iona, or
Lindisfarne, and followed the Keltic ritual; Wilfrid, ordained by a
French bishop, introduced Roman ways. Oswy had been baptized and
educated by Keltic monks, and followed the usages of the Mother Church
of Iona; but his wife, Eanfleda, had learned in exile Roman ways, and
she brought with her to the court of Oswy a Canterbury priest--Romanus
by name, and Roman in heart--who guided her religious exercises. Two
Easter feasts were thus celebrated every year in the same house; and as
the Saxon kings had transferred to the chief festivals of the Christian
year, and especially to the Queen of Feasts, the meeting of assemblies,
and the occasion which those assemblies gave them of displaying all
their pomp, it is easy to understand how painful it must have been for
Oswy to sit, with his earls and thanes, at the great feast of Easter, at
the end of a wearisome Lent, and to see the Queen, with her maids of
honour and her servants, persisting in fasting and penance, it being
with her still only Palm Sunday.[33] To settle this difference, and
prevent a rupture, the King convoked a parliament at Whitby, in 664. In
this parliament Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Cedd, Bishop of the East
Saxons, who had at this time re-established the episcopal see of London,
and S.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account