Celtic and Old English Saints 27 February =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Comgan, Abbot in Ireland * St. Alnoth of Stowe * St. Herefrith, Bishop of Lincolnshire =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Comgan, Abbot in Ireland (Cowan) ------------------------------------------------ Died c, 565. Abbot of Glenthsen or Killeshin in Ireland. St. Alnoth, Hermit and Martyr of Stowe ---------------------------------------- 700 AD. Mercia was the central Kingdom of the Anglo Saxon heptarchy and Weedon is usually considered to be the place nearest to the centre of England. King Wulfere had reluctantly given his only daughter Werburgh permission to enter the convent at Ely to be trained for the religious life, and King Ethelred, who succeeded his brother, thought she would be just the person to oversee the nuns of all the monasteries in the Kingdom of Mercia. He gave his niece lands at Weedon, Trentham and Hanbury on which to build convents. At Weedon, among the servants of the monastery, there was a herdsman named Alnoth. According to Goscelin in his 11th Century Life of St. Werburgh, he was a man of great piety and, although he was an unlettered serf, he practised his religion with simple devotion. Such men tend to attract to themselves bullying persecution by the more worldly and one day St. Werburgh saw her steward in a violent rage beating Alnoth for some supposed fault or neglect. She was convinced by God that the herdsman was innocent, but instead of using the authority of her birth and position she fell at the feet of the steward pleading with him to be merciful and so shamed him into more Christian and just behaviour. Alnoth led the life of a hermit in the woods of Stowe near Bugbrooke and there in his solitude he was murdered by some robbers, who infested the wooded country. They could not have killed Alnoth for his wealth because he had none, and the local people were sure that it was hatred of his faith and holiness of life that had motivated his murderers. He was regarded as a martyr and his tomb was a place of pilgrimage for centuries, those visiting it attesting to miracles and answered petitions. ******************************** Suppliers of Icons of Celtic Saints for the church or the prayer corner at home. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints/message/2875 ********************************* Sources ======== Stanton, R A., Menology of England and Wales (Burns & Oates, 1887) These Lives are archived at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints *****************************************
