Celtic and Old English Saints 24 February =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Ethelbert of Kent =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Ethelbert, King and Confessor ----------------------------------------------- The first of the Anglo-Saxons to receive the Christian faith was the premier king, or Bretwalda, of the Saxon confederation, respected not only as a grandson of Hengist but also as a great warrior. He married Bertha, a Christian Princess from Gaul, and agreed that she should continue to practise her religion and bring with her Luidhard, the Bishop of Senlis, as her chaplain. Ethelbert gave his Queen the ancient church of St.Martin in Canterbury, built in Roman times, which he restored. It stood outside the city walls and there is a small postern gate still there, known as the Quenin Gate, through which she passed daily to hear mass. His marriage made Ethelbert well-disposed towards Augustine when he arrived with his monks in the Isle of Thanet, but he was cautious. He would not meet these strangers except in the open air in case they should work upon him some magical charm, and so it was that he received Augustine seated under an oak tree with Bertha by his side. He listened to the words of the Gospel translated to him by an interpreter, and when they were ended he said that he could not immediately abandon all that he held sacred, but the Christian missionaries were free to preach in his kingdom. He gave to them a piece of land between the walls and St. Martin's, where the monks established their monastery, which became the great Abbey of SS Peter and Paul. The fourteenth century gate-house, known as the Fyndon Gate, has a figure carved on one of the battlementsof St. Ethelbert looking over his city. The king watched carefully the behaviour of these Christians and became convinced of the truth of what they preached, so on Whitsunday 597, with many of his nobles and subjects, he received baptism in the river Stour. Augustine went to France to be consecrated bishop, and on his return, Ethelbert presented him with his palace inside the walls, which was consecrated as the Cathedral Church of Christ. In fact this building was probably the basilica, or town hall, of the Roman town of Durovernum. The King retired to his palace at Reculver, another of the old Roman buildings, but continued to assist Augustine and his company by giving them land at Rochester, where another Cathedral was built, this time dedicated to St. Andrew. He also influenced his nephew Sabert, King of the East Saxons, to embrace the faith and to give the land on which to build St. Paul's Cathedral for London, which was probably an ancient Christian site on which the British had previously erected a church, then in ruins. In his letter to Ethelbert, St.Gregory bids him follow the example of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, in establishing the faith of Christ in his dominions. He ends with a blessing, "May grace from on high keep your excellency safe, my Lord Son". St. Ethelbert was to reign another twenty years after his conversion, and it is recorded that during that time he was always fair, never using pressure on any to become a Christian and only having greater affection for those who did, not showing them added favours. He died in 616 and was buried in SS.Peter and Paul with his Queen, Bertha, and the good Bishop Luidhard. The great tower, which stood at the west end of the Abbey Church, was called Ethelbert's Tower, and remained standing after the impious dissolution, amidst the ruins of the monastery, until 1822 when most of it succumbed to a violent storm (Bishop Browne, Baring Gould). Icon of Saint Ethelbert http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/ethlbert.htm Sources: ======== Baring-Gould, S The Lives of the Saints (15 volumes: John Hodges, 1882) Bowen, Paul. When We Were One: A Yearbook of the Saints of the British Isles Complied from Ancient Calendars. For All the Saints: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm An Alphabetical Index of the Saints of the West http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/saintsa.htm These Lives are archived at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints *****************************************
