Celtic and Old English Saints 6 May =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Edbert of Lindisfarne * St. Colman Mac Ui Cluasigh of Cork =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Edbert (Eadbert, Eadbeorht) Bishop of Lindisfarne ------------------------------------------------------- Died May 6, 698. When Saint Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, died in 687, he was succeeded by Saint Edbert. The venerable Bede wrote that Edbert was a man noted for his knowledge of the Scriptures and for his obedience to God's commandments, and especially for his generosity. Bede tells us that Saint Edbert every year "obeyed the law of the Old Testament by giving one tenth of all his cattle, his crops, his fruit, and his clothing to the poor." Eleven years after Cuthbert's death, his coffin was opened and the body was found to be incorrupt, the joints still pliable and the clothing fresh and bright. Edbert kissed the clothing that had covered the saint's body, then ordered that new garments be put on the saint and a new coffin made. The coffin, he said, must be given a place of honour. And he instructed his monks to leave a space under it for his own grave, which he filled within a very short time. Edbert imitated his predecessor in other acts of godliness, spending 40 days in solitary meditation twice annually (the Lent and before Christmas) on a small island, and building fine churches for the worship of God. He installed a leaden roof on the wooden church built by Saint Finan and dedicated to Saint Peter on Lindisfarne. Edbert lies, like Cuthbert, in Durham Cathedral, for the bodies of both saints were carried there in 875 after many years of being moved around to escape the marauders from Scandinavia (Benedictines, Bentley, Farmer, Husenbeth). St. Colman Mac Ui Cluasigh (of Cork) -------------------------------------------------------- Died 7th century. This Saint Colman was a professor at Cork. About 664, he wrote a prayer in verse (or 'lorica') seeking protection for the yellow plague that killed one-third of Ireland's population. He took his students to an island in the ocean to escape the pestilence. En route they chanted the prayer, which is believed to be the only extant writing from Finbarr's (f.d. July 4) school at Cork. The prayer was included in Kathleen Hoagland's "1000 years of Irish Poetry" published November 1999 (D'Arcy, Healy, Hoagland). Sources: ======== Benedictine Monks of Saint Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1966). The Book of Saints. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell. Bentley, J. (1986). A Calendar of Saints: The Lives of the Principal Saints of the Christian Year, NY: Facts on File. D'Arcy, M. R. (1974). The Saints of Ireland. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Irish American Cultural Institute. [This is probably the most useful book to choose to own on the Irish saints. The author provides a great deal of historical context in which to place the lives of the saints.] Farmer, D. H. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Healy, J. (1902). Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker. Hoagland, K. (ed.) (1950). 1000 years of Irish Poetry. New York: Devin-Adair Co. Husenbeth, Rev. F. C., DD, VG (ed.). (1928). Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. London: Virtue & Co. 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 ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
