Celtic and Old English Saints 23 June =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Mochaoi of Nendrum * St. Etheldreda of Ely =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Mochaoi, Abbot of Nendruim, Baptised by Saint Patrick (Moeliai, Moelray, Melray) ------------------------------------------------------- Born in Ireland; died c. 493. Saint Moeliai was baptized by Saint Patrick, who appointed him abbot over Nendrum, where he had Saints Finian and Colman among his disciples (Benedictines). ________ St Mochaoi has been anglicised as St Mahee pronounced Mah hee with the stress on the ee. His monastic site is at Nendrum on Mahee Island. Mahee island is now linked to another island and to the mainland by causeways that can take a single car. It is a lovely drive there, the hedgerows are in bloom with wild flowers and fuscias and the clear water of Strangford lough was smooth and windless. The Nendrum monastic site has a small carpark for about 8 cars. The first thing you realise is how high it is up the island which is itself a submerged drumlin - the advancing iceflows rounded the landscape to make this part of Ireland look like a basket of eggs - and this egg along with others got flooded. The monastery is on the highest peak and is surrounded by an outer wall or cashel and an inner cashel. There is a causeway bridge up to the first level between the two cashels and it is believed that this would have been a hive of activity. Although the monastery is quiet today, in the 5th century the waterways of Ireland were the main roads so the monastery was likely to have been a thriving community. To enter the inner cashel one has to walk in single file through a small passageway, probably this was some form of defence as was the round tower of which only the stump remains. The remains of the church are clearly seen and face due east. At the South west corner the old sundial has been reconstructed. There is a graveyard just beyond the west door and if you go beyond the inner cashel wall again on the west side there are the foundations of many round monastic cells. Various photographs of the island and of the church, round tower, etc http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/nendrum.shtml http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/product.aspx?ProductID=2877 St. Etheldreda (Audrey), Queen of Northumbria, Abbess of Ely's Double Monastery ------------------------------- (also known as Audrey, Athelthryth, Ethelreda, Edilthride, Ediltrudis, Edeltrude) Born in Exning, Suffolk, England; died at Ely, 679. "Now Etheldreda shines upon our days, Shedding the light of grace on all our ways. Born of a noble and a royal line, She brings to Christ her King a life more fine." --The Venerable Bede To her friends and family, this once most famous female Anglo-Saxon saint was Etheldreda. To poor people she was Audrey, and the word "tawdry" originally came from the cheap necklaces that were sold on the feast of Saint Audrey and which were believed to cure illness of the throat and neck. This was because Etheldreda had suffered from neck cancer, which she attributed to divine punishment because she was once vain enough to wear a costly necklace. She had a huge tumour on her neck when she died, but, according the Saint Bede, when her tomb was opened by her sister Saint Sexburga, her successor as abbess at Ely Abbey, ten (or 16) years after her death, her body was found incorrupt and the tumour had healed. Etheldreda was a woman of noble birth, the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia, and sister to Saints Sexburga, Ethelburga, Erconwald, and Withburga. She was born in a time when the religious were uncompromising in their desire for complete conversion of their lives to God. To Etheldreda prayer, Holy Communion, and works of mercy were essential features of her faith in Jesus Christ. From her youth she devoted herself to piety, purity, and humility. Though she seemed destined for the cloistered life, twice Saint Etheldreda was married and released from these unwelcome ties. At the age of 14, Etheldreda was married to Tonbert. Now some saints have run away from marriage when they felt called to the vowed religious life, but Etheldreda trusted in God. She accepted the wedding calmly and found that Tonbert was equally devout and was happy that they should live in continence. After three (or five) years together, Tonbert died. For a time she enjoyed the solitude of the island of Ely, which had been part of her dowry, but for reasons of state she married again. Her second husband, Egfrid, son of King Oswy of Northumbria, was just a boy at the time. Etheldreda, though still young herself, treated him as her son or brother, rather than as a husband. She taught him the catechism and directed his spiritual growth, clearly trying to prepare him to accept a marriage of continence. But after 12 years of this relationship, Egfrid, grown to manhood, tried to make her his wife in fact as well as in name. This alarmed Etheldreda, who then sought the counsel of Archbishop Saint Wilfrid of York. He released her from her marriage and advised her to withdraw to the Benedictine abbey of Coldingham. At last she was able to fulfil her heart's desire. She took the veil at Coldingham under Saint Ebba. At first Egfrid tried to persuade Wilfrid to order his wife to return to him, but without success. In 672, she founded a double monastery, where the present Ely Cathedral now stands, and ruled it as abbess. Egfrid dispatched armed men to Ely in an attempt to force her to return, but the expedition was unsuccessful. After the time she founded Ely, Etheldreda ceased to wear clothing of fine linen and dressed only in woollen garments. Except at Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany, she washed only in cold water. Only when she was ill or on great church festivals did she eat more than one meal a day. She prayed for those who did not pray and often kept vigil in the church from midnight until dawn. Seven years after the foundation of Ely Abbey, she died of the plague. Saint Bede wrote a long hymn in praise of Etheldreda who, judging from the number of churches dedicated to her and calendars containing her name, must have been the most revered of all Anglo- Saxon women saints. This is partly due to the number of miracles that resulted from her intercession, which made Ely an important pilgrimage site (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopaedia). In art, St. Etheldreda is crowned, holding a crosier, book, and a budding staff. Sometimes she may be pictured (1) asleep under a blossoming tree; (2) with a book and lily; (3) as a fountain springs at her feet; and (4) as the devil flees from her (Roeder). Etheldreda is the patroness of Cambridge University (Roeder), and those suffering from throat and neck ailments (Bentley). Service to our Holy Mother Audrey, Abbess of Ely http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/saudrey.htm A 20th-century banner with her image on a University of Pennsylvania page: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs2/Images/Christian/ely.jpg Sources: ======== Attwater, D. (1958). A Dictionary of Saints. New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons. [Attwater 2] Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. Bentley, J. (1986). A Calendar of Saints: The Lives of the Principal Saints of the Christian Year, NY: Facts on File. Encyclopaedia of Catholic Saints, June. (1966). Philadelphia: Chilton Books. 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 ***************************************** ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
