Celtic and Old English Saints 10 April =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Beocca of Chertsey * St. Paternus of Abdinghof =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Beocca, Ethor (Hethor) and Companions, Martyrs ------------------------------------------------- Died 870. The year 870 was a terrible year for the Church in East Anglia. The Viking army that had arrived in 865 became a permanent army of occupation, and when they had amassed horses and supplies from the English, they marched on York, where they settled until the end of the century. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle for 870 records that the army rode from York across Mercia into East Anglia, captured Thetford, and under their chiefs Ingwar and Hubba, defeated and killed King Edmund. "At the same time they came to Medehampstede (Peterborough) and burned and beat it down, slew abbot and monks and all that they found there. They made that which was very great such that it became nothing". When they murdered St. Hedda and all the brethren at Peterborough, they had already demolished the monastery at Bardney in Lincolnshire, killing all the monks, and destroyed Ely, putting both communities of men and women to the sword. The same thing happened at Benet Hulme in Norfolk, where the holy Suniman was abbot, and at the abbey at Thorney where they killed St. Torthred's community. We have a vivid account of the extermination of the community at Croyland in the history of Ingulf, a later abbot, who says that the solemn mass was just ended as the Danes broke into the church, and the clergy had not yet left the sanctuary. The Abbot Theodore, who was celebrant, together with the Deacon and Sub-deacon were murdered in their vestments and the acolytes were cut down in front of the altar. A few escaped into the forest, but all who tried to hide in the monastery were butchered, among them Askegar, the Prior, and two venerable monks of a hundred years old, Grimkeld and Agamund. The army, moving south, sacked the twin monasteries of Chertsey and Barking founded by St. Erkonwald for himself and his sister St. Ethelburga. All the nuns at Barking were slaughtered, and William of Malmesbury tells us that 90 monks were killed at Chertsey, among them Beocca, the Abbot, and Hethor, a priest. All of these are venerated as martyrs. Their memories were kept alive by chronicles and the writings of William of Malmesbury Once the Viking horde was on the move, the Danes murdered and plundered indiscriminately. They seemed to have a particular hatred for those professing the Christian faith, and monastic establishments were prime targets for their raids. By the time they reached Reading, at the end of the year, their blood lust must have been sated, and they wintered there (Bowen, Stanton, Farmer). St. Paternus of Abdinghof, Hermit ------------------------------------------------- Born in Ireland; died in Germany, 1058. Paternus was probably born in Ireland, but he travelled to Westphalia, and became one of the first monks at the monastery of Abdinghof in Paderborn founded by Saint Meinwerk (f.d. June 5). Wishing for solitude, he moved to a cell adjoining the abbey. He predicted that the city would be razed by fire within 30 days if the inhabitants did not turn from their sins, but he was mocked as a visionary. On the Friday before Palm Sunday in 1058, fires broke out simultaneously in seven parts of the city. The city and the monastery were destroyed. The monks escaped, with the exception of Paternus, who, refusing to break the vows of enclosure, remained in his cell and was killed. His death made a great impression on his contemporaries. The mat on which he died became an important relic because it miraculously escaped the flames (Benedictines, Montague, White). Sources: ======== Benedictine Monks of St. 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. Farmer, D.H. (1978). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints Clarendon Press, Oxford. Montague, H. P. (1981). The Saints and Martyrs of Ireland. Guildford: Billing & Sons. Stanton, R.A. (1887). Menology of England and Wales Burns & Oates. White, K. E. (1992). Guide to the Saints. NY: Ivy Books. 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 ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
