Celtic and Old English Saints 6 March =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Baldred of Glasgow * St. Balther of Tinningham * St. Billfrith of Lindisfarne * St. Cadroe of Waulsort * Ss.Cyneburga and Cyneswide, & Tibba * St. Fridolin The Traveller * St. Sezin of Guic-Sezni =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St.Baldred of Glasgow, Bishop ----------------------------------------- Died 756. Saint Baldred, a Scottish bishop said to have succeeded Saint Kentigern (Mungo) at Glasgow. He ended his life as a hermit on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Like a sentinel at the entrance of the Firth of Forth, just over a mile from North Berwick the great Bass Rock rises 460 ft out of the sea. To the east, towering over the cliffs of East Lothian, is Tantallon Castle, seemingly an impregnable stronghold for the Doublas family and there is an old proverb "Ding down Tantallon - Mak a brig to the Bass" showing that it was thought it to be as difficult to bring down the castle as it would to throw a bridge across to the rock. On this inhospitable island Baldred, who had once been a disciple of St. Kentigern, made his hermitage devoting himself to penance and prayer, with only the gannets for company. The missionary zeal that Baldred had learned in his years with St. Kentigern did not completely leave him and it is evident that he crossed over to the mainland and evangelized the areas round Aldham in Haddington and Tyningham where he had churches and there is a well that bears his name. His sanctity earned him a reputation for miraculous powers and there is a boulder near Aldham which it was believed that he used as a boat to cross to the rock. The Aberdeen Breviary recounts how he removed a dangerous reef, that had caused numerous wrecks, by standing on it and sailing it like a ship to a position where it would do no harm. His cave is near to the sea shore and on the Bass Rock the remains of his chapel are still visible. At Tantallon there are ruins of another chapel dedicated to him. St. Baldred died at Tyningham and was buried there but the monastery was destroyed by the Danes in 951. His relics were lost until they were discovered by Elfrid, a priest from Durham, in the twelfth century, who caused them to be enshrined with those of St. Bilfrid, a monk from Lindisfarne, and these two share March 6th as the commemoration of their translation (Bowen). Some identify him with Saint Balther, the hermit of Tinningham (Benedictines). St.Balther of Tinningham ----------------------------------------- (also known as Baldred, Balredus) Died 756. A monk-priest of Lindisfarne, Balther became an anchorite at Tinningham on the Scottish border, where he lived on Bass Rock, near North Berwick, surrounded by the sea. His relics were enshrined at Durham, with those of Saint Bilfrid (below), the anchorite (Benedictines). St. Billfrith (Bilfred) of Lindisfarne, Hermit -------------------------------------------------- Died c. 758. A monk hermit at Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumberland in northern England, Bilfred was an expert goldsmith. He bound with gold, silver, and gems the famous Saint Cuthbert's copy of the Gospels of Lindisfarne, written and illuminated by bishop Eaddfrid. In life and in death he was the centre of great popular veneration (Benedictines, Delaney). * * * St. Billfrid and the Lindisfarne Gospels c.756 Billfrid, before he became a hermit, was a distinguished goldsmith and was venerated as a saint during his life and after his death. St.Ethelwold commissioned him to make a cover for the precious Gospels of the Abbey at Lindisfarne. The history of this manuscript is known from a note written at the end of the book when the monks who guarded it and the body of St. Cuthbert were at Chester-le-Street. "Eadfrith, Bishop of the church at Lindisfarne, he first wrote this book for God and St.Cuthbert and for all the saints in common that are in the island, and Ethilwald, Bishop of those of Lindisfarne Island, bound and covered it outwardly as well as he could. And Billfrith the anchorite he wrought as a smith the ornaments on the outside and adorned it with gold and with gems, and also with silver over-gilded, a treasure without deceit". The Gospels were at Lindisfarne for almost two hundred years, but they were very nearly lost when the island was abandoned in 875 because of the Danish raids. Symeon of Durham describes the anguish of the monks when the ship carrying the Gospels was hit by a storm and the book sank into the depths of the sea. The Gospels were miraculously recovered through the intervention of St.Cuthbert and St. Billfrid, the former appearing in a vision to one of the monks telling them to search the shore at low tide. This they did and, after searching for more than three miles, they came across the book, its gold and jewels gleaming and the pages unharmed by its immersion in salt water. At Chester-le-Street the monk Aldred translated the Latin into the Northumbrian dialect, writing the words beneath the Latin script and so making the first English version of the Gospels. It was treasured at Durham until the Dissolution, when the cover was melted down, but the book itself is now in the British Museum. St.Billfrid's relics were discovered after a vision by a priest, Alfred Westow, and translated to Durham where he is commemorated with St.Baldred on March 6th also (Graham). Painted Labyrinth - the World of the Lindisfarne Gospels You can 'turn the pages' of the Lindisfarne Gospels now! We have selected 40 of the most beautiful pages from the manuscript. http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/forthcoming_1.html * * * St. Cadroe (Cadroel) of Waulsort, Abbot ------------------------------------------------- Died 976. The son of a Scottish prince, Saint Cadroe was sent to Ireland to be educated at Armagh. He came to England and is said to have saved London from destruction by fire. Then he passed over to France and took the Benedictine habit at Fleury. Shortly after he was made abbot of the new foundation of Waulsort on the Meuse and finally called to Metz to restore Saint Clement's (Benedictines). Ss.Cyneburga (Kyneburga) and Cyneswide (Kuneswide), & Tibba --------------------------------------------------------------------- Died c. 680. Cyneburga and Cyneswide were daughters of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia who fiercely opposed Christianity. Cyneburga married a Northumbrian prince and later became abbess-founder of Dormancaster (now Castor) in Northamptonshire, and was succeeded by her sister as abbess.Tibba was their near kinswoman, who joined them in the convent. Their relics were enshrined in the abbey of Peterborough, where the trio are particularly venerated (Attwater, Benedictines, Gill). This group is portrayed in art as two abbesses and a nun, sometimes they are shown with the Abbey of Castor (Roeder). St. Fridolin of Sackingen, Abbot ---------------------------------------------------- Died c. 650. Saint Fridolin, the Irish Wanderer, gained his nickname in the 7th century by his endless journeyings--through Gaul, Germany, and Switzerland. He began his missionary work in Poitiers, France. An assiduous founder of monasteries, Fridolin also found the body of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, which had been lost when the Vandals destroyed the monastery in that city, and restored the church itself. He became devoted to St. Hilary and established other monasteries under his patronage, including the abbey of Sackingen. Started as a school for young boys on an island in the Rhein, Sackingen was no sombre place. Here Fridolin happily encouraged the boys to play many different sports. He also established an Irish-influenced abbey at Chur, Switzerland, where stones sculpted in the Irish fashion can still be seen. His vita was recorded by a monk of Sackingen five centuries after his death; however, he claimed to have based it on a much earlier biography. He is venerated as the apostle of the Upper Rhein and on his feast, the houses of Sackingen are decorated with the flags of Germany, Switzerland, and Ireland (Benedictines, Bentley, Montague). Saint Fridolin is depicted in art as an abbot leading a skeleton by the hand, a pilgrim with a staff and book (Roeder). He is patron of Alsace, Glarus, Sachingen, and Strasbourg and is invoked for fine weather (Roeder). St. Sezin of Guic-Sezni, Bishop --------------------------------------------- Died c. 529. Saint Sezin was a native of Britain who laboured in Ireland at the time of Saint Patrick and then crossed over to Guic-Sezni in Brittany, where he is said to have founded a monastery and where his relics are now venerated (Benedictines). Sources: ======== Benedictine Monks of Saint Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. Bowen, Paul. When We Were One: A Yearbook of the Saints of the British Isles Complied from Ancient Calendars. Graham, Frank. Lindisfarne or Holy Island Roeder, H. (1956). Saints and their Attributes, Chicago: Henry Regnery. 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 ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
