Saint Andrew the Apostle

Andrew, whose name means “manly,” was the brother of Simon Peter and was born in Bethsaida, a village of Galilee. The Gospel according to John tells us that Andrew, a disciple of John the Baptist, was one of the two disciples who followed Jesus after John had declared of him, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). Andrew and the other disciple followed Jesus, and Andrew’s first act afterward was to find his brother and bring him to Jesus. For this reason, Andrew is given the title “the First-Called” by the Eastern Churches.

Though Andrew was not a part of the inner circle of disciples – Peter, James, and John, he is always named in the lists of the disciples. In Matthew and Luke, his name appears second, while in Mark and in the Acts of the Apostles he is listed after Peter, James, and John, as fourth in the list in company with Philip. Andrew appears prominently in several incidents in the Gospels. Andrew and Peter were fishermen, and in the Gospel according to Matthew Jesus calls them from their occupation, and they immediately respond to his call. Andrew was the disciple who brought the boy with the loaves and the fishes to Jesus for the feeding of the multitude.

The fourth century historian and bishop Eusebius writes that after Pentecost, Andrew preached in Scythia. Jerome and Theodoret locate his preaching in Greece (Achaia), and Nicephorus places him in Asia Minor and Thrace. The late second century Muratorian Fragment connects him with the writing of the Gospel according to John. A late tradition holds that he was martyred on November 30, c. 70 at Patras in Achaia. An ancient church still stands over the traditional site of his martyrdom. The earliest mention of his being crucified on an X-shaped (“Greek”) cross is from the tenth century. This tradition accounts for the X-shaped cross of St Andrew that appears in medieval and Renaissance iconography.

St Andrew’s body is said to have been taken to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople in 357 and later translated to the cathedral in Amalfi, Italy. The patriarchate of Constantinople grounds its claim to be an apostolic see (like Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome) on the tradition of his having been the first bishop of the Church at Byzantium, the older town which the emperor Constantine enlarged to found Constantinople. The Churches of Greece and Russia particularly give high honor to St Andrew, and because of a legend that certain of his relics were translated to St Andrew’s Church in Fife in the eighth century, he became a patron saint of Scotland (hence the appearance of the X-shaped Cross of St Andrew on the Scottish flag and on the British Union flag).

The feast of St Andrew was observed as early as the fourth century in the East and by the sixth century at Rome. The feast day determines the beginning of the Church year, since the First Sunday in Advent is always the Sunday nearest to St Andrew’s Day, whether before or after. In most liturgical books the sanctoral calendar begins with the commemoration of St Andrew the Apostle.

prepared from material from Lesser Feasts and Fasts
and from The New Book of Festivals and Commemorations
(Philip H. Pfatteicher, Fortress Press)

The Collect

Almighty God, you gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Lesson
Deuteronomy 30:11-14

[Moses said to the people of Israel] For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

Psalm 19
Caeli enarrant

The heavens declare the glory of God, * and the firmament shows his handiwork.

One day speaks to another, * and one night gives knowledge to another.

There is neither speech nor language, * and their voices are not heard;

But their sound has gone out into all lands, * and their words to the ends of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, * which comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run his course.

It goes forth from the uttermost part of the heavens, and runs about to the end of it again, * and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; * the testimony of the Lord is sure, and gives wisdom to the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart; * the commandment of the Lord is pure, and gives light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, and endures for ever; * the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; * sweeter also than honey, than the drippings from the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is your servant taught, * and in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can tell how often he offends? * O cleanse me from my secret faults.

Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins, lest they get the dominion over me; * so shall I be undefiled, and innocent of great offense.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, * O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

The Epistle
Romans 10:8b-18

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”

The Gospel
Matthew 4:18-22

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

_______________________________________________________

The scripture texts for the Lesson, Epistle, and Gospel are taken from the English Standard Version Bible. The Collect and Psalm are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (2019).

The icon of Saint Andrew the Apostle was written by and is © Aidan Hart and is reproduced at For All the Saints with his generous permission.

Clive Staples Lewis, Teacher of the Faith, 1963

C. S. Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 29, 1898. His father was a prominent barrister and his mother a mathematician. He spent miserable years at a number of boarding schools until he entered University College, Oxford in 1917. He was Tutor and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, when he was appointed Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge. Among his works of literary criticism are The Allegory of Love (1936), A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942), English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama, volume three of the Oxford History of English Literature (1954), An Experiment in Criticism (1961), and The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964).

Lewis was raised an Anglican but rejected Christianity during his adolescence. (His mother had died when he was ten.) His journey from atheism led him to theism in a conversion experience in 1929 and from there to faith in Jesus Christ, sealed on September 22, 1931, when with his brother Warren, he received Holy Communion for the first time since boyhood. He described his gradual conversion in a book, Surprised by Joy, written in 1948 but not published until 1955. Lewis writes about his initial conversion experience: “I gave in, and admitted that God was God…perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” His conversion led to an outpouring of Christian apologetics in popular theology, among which are The Problem of Pain (1940), The Screwtape Letters (1942), Mere Christianity (1943), Miracles (1947), Reflections on the Psalms (1958), Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (1964); the seven-part Chronicles of Narnia; science fiction novels; and correspondence on spiritual matters with friends and strangers alike. His deep scholarship, clarity, and rapier wit made him perhaps the most effective and persuasive Christian apologist of the twentieth century.

In 1956 he married Joy Davidman Gresham, who had recently converted from Judaism to Christianity. Her death four years later led him to a transforming encounter with the Mystery of whom he had written so eloquently before and which he explored in A Grief Observed (1961), a classic expression of sorrow and Christian hope. Lewis died at his home in Oxford on November 22, 1963. The inscription on his gravestone, a quotation from King Lear, reads, “Men must endure their going hence.”

Lewis is commemorated in the calendar of the Anglican Church in North America on November 29.

taken from the New Book of Festivals and Commemorations (2008), alt.

The Collect (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2006)

O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old alike. Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant lift which is ours in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Kamehameha and Emma, King and Queen of Hawaii, 1863, 1885

In 1819, Kamehameha the Second, king of the recently-unified islands of Hawaii, sat at table with several female relations in his court, effectively nullifying the elaborate religious system of kapu (taboo) that governed the day to day lives of Hawaiians. This action brought about a crisis, as the king essentially overturned the traditional religious system by this simple act, leaving a void in Hawaiian culture. Within only a few months, Christian (Congregationalist) missionaries arrived in Hawaii from Boston aboard the Thaddeus. Stepping into the void created by Kamehameha’s rejection of traditional Hawaiian religion, the missionaries commenced the Christian conversion of the Hawaiian people.

Born in 1834, Alexander Liholiho was the grandson of Kamehameha the First, unifier of the Hawaiian islands and a brutal, if effective, pagan ruler to whom Kamehameha the Second had succeeded. Alexander received his education from the Congregationalist missionaries at the Chiefs’ Children’s School (later the Royal School) in Honolulu. After his primary education, he received legal training. Named by his uncle, Kamehameha the Third, to succeed him as king, it was thought that the young now crown prince would benefit from foreign travel, and at the age of fifteen he and several companions toured the United States, the continent of Europe, and England. While in England, Prince Alexander attended services of the Church of England and was favorably impressed by the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, which stood in contrast to the austerity and extemporaneity of the Congregationalist services with which he was familiar at home.

In 1855, Alexander succeeded his uncle and took the oath as King Kamehameha the Fourth. A year after ascending the throne, Kamehameha married Emma Rooke, granddaughter of the British royal adviser to Kamehameha the First and great-grandniece of that king. Concerned about the growing influence of American missionaries in Hawaii (a treaty to annex the Hawaiian islands to the United States had been proposed during his uncle’s reign) and recalling his experience of Anglican liturgy while on his foreign tour a few years previously, the king and queen wrote to Queen Victoria, inviting the Church of England to send missionaries to his kingdom. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce recommended that the mission include a bishop who could organize the church in Hawaii. With the approval of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States (prevented from providing any assistance by the outbreak of the War Between the States) and of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the mission was formed, and the Revd. Dr Thomas Nettleship Stanley was consecrated a bishop for Hawaii in Lambeth Chapel on the fifteenth of December, 1861. The new church was chartered as the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church and became the official royal church of Hawaii, with lands donated from the royal family’s own holdings.

Both the king and the queen were devoted to their people’s material and spiritual welfare. Kamehameha himself translated the Book of Common Prayer into Hawaiian, adding a preface explaining “the new teaching”. Kamehameha and Emma were particularly concerned for the healthcare and education of their people. When the Hawaiian legislature struck down an ambitious public healthcare agenda proposed by the king, the royal couple lobbied local businessmen, merchants, and other wealthy citizens to provide funds. Their efforts were overwhelmingly successful, and eventuated in the establishment Queen’s Hospital (now Queen’s Medical Center) in Honolulu, as well as a leprosarium for the treatment of leprosy patients on the island of Maui.

The royal couple’s only son, Albert, died at the age of four in 1862, and Kamehameha died the following year, on the thirtieth of November. Some eight hundred teachers and schoolchildren walked to pay their respects to their departed monarch, and the king was buried according to the rites of the 1662 Prayer Book, the liturgical standard for the Church of Hawaii. Since Kamehameha had died on the feast of Saint Andrew, the first cathedral in Hawaii, constructed under the sponsorship of his brother, King Kamehameha the Fifth, was named for and dedicated to that apostle. (The cathedral has served as the cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii since the annexation of the islands to the United States.) Emma died in 1885, having dedicated the remaining years of her life to charitable endeavors.

prepared from various sources

The Collect (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1980)

O Sovereign God, who raised up Kamehameha and Emma to be rulers in Hawaii, and inspired and enabled them to be diligent in good works for the welfare of their people and the good of your Church: Receive our thanks for their witness to the Gospel; and grant that we, with them, may attain to the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

The image above is of a stained glass window in Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Honolulu, which includes Kamehameha and Emma in the lefthand panel.

Kamehameha and Emma are commemorated on this day in the calendar of The Episcopal Church but not in that of the Anglican Church in North America. However, given their importance to the establishment of Anglicanism in the Kingdom of Hawaii and the presence of the Anglican Church in North America in present-day Hawaii, I have included them here.

Catherine of Alexandria, Martyr, c. 305

Supposedly born to a noble family, Catherine was believed to have rejected marriage to an emperor because she considered herself to be a virgin bride of Christ. She protested against the persecution of Christians by the emperor Maxentius and was arrested and tortured by being broken on a wheel (later called a Catherine wheel), which broke down as she was being tortured, injuring bystanders. She was believed then to have been beheaded with a sword.

Along with these details, her Legend adds an episode in which she successfully disputed with fifty philosophers who were called in to convince her of the errors of Christianity.

There is no ancient veneration of Catherine, no mention of her in early martyrologies, and no depiction in early works of art (such as the mosaics in the S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna). Her veneration began in the ninth century at Mount Sinai, whence her body was supposed to have been transported by angels, though this may have been a misinterpretation of “monks.” The veneration built on her Legend, which strongly appealed to the imagination of artists, flourished throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly under the influence of the Crusaders and later of the Golden Legend. Sinai, Cyprus, Venice, and France are places where her veneration especially flourished, and in Germany she was considered one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

Catherine’s veneration was widespread in England, where sixty-two churches were dedicated to her. The earliest English Life was written in the thirteenth century, and the earliest recorded miracle play was one in her honor at Dunstable c. 1110. She is commemorated in the calendars of the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the Book of Common Prayer (1962) of the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.

prepared from material from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect (Of a Martyr)

Almighty God, you gave your servants the martyrs boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Clement, Bishop of Rome and Martyr, c. 100

Believed from very early on to have been a late first century bishop of the Church in Rome and disciple of the apostles Peter and Paul, Clement is known today mainly for his letter to the Church in Corinth known as the First Letter of Clement to the Corinthians. Written about the year 96, the epistle is an early and significant witness to the function and authority of the ministers of the Christian Church. It also demonstrates for the first time the effective intervention of a bishop of Rome in the affairs of another Church, and it provides evidence for the residence and martyrdom of Saint Peter and Saint Paul at Rome.

The occasion of the letter was the action of a younger faction at Corinth (ever the troubled, divisive church) who had deposed the older presbyters because of dissatisfaction with their ministration. The unity of the Church was being jeopardized by a dispute over its ministry. Clement’s letter sets out a hierarchical and organic view of Church authority, insisting that God requires due order in all things, that the deposed presbyters must be reinstated, and that the legitimate authorities must be obeyed. He writes, “You, therefore, the prime movers of the schism, submit to the presbyters, and, bending the knees of your hearts, accept correction and change your minds. Learn submissiveness, and rid yourselves of your boastful and proud incorrigibility of tongue. Surely, it is better for you to be little and honorable within the flock of Christ than to be esteemed above your deserts and forfeit the hope which he holds out.”

Clement uses the terms “bishop” and “presbyter” interchangeably in the letter, and both internal and external evidence (e.g., the letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans) suggests that the episcopate not only at Corinth at the time but also at Rome was plural, that those Churches were ruled and overseen by a council of presbyter-bishops—so that Clement was probably one of the bishops of the Church in Rome at the time. It would not be until the middle of the second century that the single, or monarchical, episcopate of one bishop in a church surrounded by the presbyters and deacons, would arise at Rome. In Clement’s letter, it is the “rulers” of the church (the presbyter-bishops) who lead its worship and “offer the gifts” of the Eucharist, just as the duly appointed priests of the Old Testament cultus performed the various sacrifices and liturgies in their time. In setting out the bare lineaments of apostolic appointment of ministers in the churches, Clement lays the groundwork for Tertullian and Irenaeus of Lyons, who would uphold the apostolic succession of bishops and presbyters against the gnostics in the late second century: “The Apostles preached to us the Gospel received from Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was God’s Ambassador. Christ, in other words, comes with a message from God, and the Apostles with a message from Christ. Both these orderly arrangements, therefore, originate from the will of God. And so, after receiving their instructions and being fully assured through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as confirmed in faith by the word of God, they went forth, equipped with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, to preach the good news that the Kingdom of God was close at hand. From land to land, accordingly, and from city to city they preached, and from among their earliest converts appointed men whom they had tested by the Spirit to act as bishops and deacons for the future believers.”

In keeping with his organic view of the Church, Clement commends each Christian to his place in the whole Body of Christ, in words that recall the Apostle Paul: “Therefore the whole of our body be maintained in Christ Jesus, and let each submit to his neighbor’s rights in the measure determined by the special gift bestowed on him. Let the strong care for the weak, and the weak respect the strong; let the rich support the poor, and the poor render thanks to God for giving them the means of supplying their needs; let the wise man show his wisdom not in words but in active help; the humble man must not testify for himself, but leave it to another to testify in his behalf. He who is continent must not boast, knowing that it is another who confers on him the ability to remain continent. Let us therefore reflect, brethren, of what clay we were made, what and who we were when we entered the world, out of what grave and darkness our Maker and Creator has brought us into the world, where he had prepared his benefits before our birth. Since, then, we owe all these blessings to him, we are obliged to thank him in every way. To him be the glory forever and evermore. Amen.”

There is evidence that Clement’s epistle was read in the liturgy at Corinth around the year 170, and several ancient manuscripts include it in their canonical books of the New Testament, along with a second letter, erroneously ascribed to Clement (“Second Clement”), which is actually an early homily of unknown authorship on the character of the Christian life and the importance of penance. The text of Clement’s genuine epistle was lost to the Western Church during the Middle Ages (when Clement was thought of primarily as an early martyr) and was not rediscovered until 1628.

Aside from his authorship of this letter, we know little for certain about Clement. In fact, his name is not mentioned in the letter itself, which is addressed by “the Church of God…at Rome” to “the Church of God…at Corinth”. Despite this, Clementine authorship was not doubted in antiquity and has been called into question in modern times on only slender evidence. Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome state that the letter was written by Clement “as a representative of the Church of Rome”. Clement’s episcopate (presbyterate) probably fell sometime between the years 92 and 101. That he may have been of Jewish origin is inferred from his fondness for drawing heavily on the Old Testament for illustrative material. He has been identified by some with the Apostle Paul’s fellow laborer of the same name, mentioned in Philippians 4. Though the medieval Church remembered him primarily as a martyr, neither the place nor the manner of his death is known.

prepared from Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)
and The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1980)

Almighty God, you chose your servant Clement of Rome to recall the Church in Corinth to obedience and stability; Grant that your Church may be grounded and settled in your truth by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; reveal to it what is not yet known; fill up what is lacking; confirm what has already been revealed; and keep it blameless in your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

The quotations from First Clement are taken from Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation (edited by Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe).

Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, 230

Cecilia is a purported Roman martyr of the late third century, of whom almost nothing is known for certain. Her popularity is largely due to her late fifth-century Legend, according to which she was a young Christian patrician, who was betrothed to a pagan named Valerian. Cecilia, however, had already vowed her virginity to God and refused to consummate the marriage. Through her witness, both her husband and his brother, Tiburtius, became Christians, were arrested, and martyred under the emperor Alexander Severus. Afterwards, Cecilia buried the two martyrs and was brought before the prefect. Refusing to sacrifice, she converted her persecutors, and was sentenced to be suffocated in her bathroom. When this plan failed, a soldier was sent to behead her, but three blow failed to kill her immediately, and she survived half-dead for three days. Her house was later dedicated as a church by Urban, bishop of Rome (†230), who had strengthened her resolve.

As The Oxford Dictionary of Saints notes, unfortunately this story is unsupported by any near-contemporary evidence. Cecilia is not mentioned in the fourth-century Depositio Martyrum nor in the writings of Jerome, Ambrose, Damasus, or Prudentius, all of whom were particularly interested in the martyrs. While may similar Legends embellish the memory of some historic person, in the case of Cecilia even her existence is doubtful, unless one accepts that a church in Trastevere called the titulus Ceciliae and founded by a Roman matron named Cecilia is the basis of the story. However, contemporary evidence suggests that the martyrs associated with Cecilia were historical persons. Cecilia is commemorated in the calendars of the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the Book of Common Prayer (1962) of the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.

Cecilia’s supposed remains, with those of her companions, were translated by Pope Paschal the First in the early ninth century to the church in Trastevere.

Cecilia has been most famous as the patron of musicians since the sixteenth century, the origin of which seems to be an antiphon taken from her Acts: “as the organs (at her wedding feast) were playing, Cecilia sung (in her heart) to the Lord, saying: may my heart remain unsullied, so that I be not confounded.” At the foundation of the Academy of Music in Rome in 1584 she was chosen as its patroness. John Dryden wrote a “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” and Alexander Pope an “Ode for Music on St. Cecilia’s Day.” The traditional account of her life is also famous as the Second Nun’s Tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Henry Purcell composed his Hail, bright Cecilia! (or Ode to St. Cecilia) using the text of a poem by Nicholas Brady, itself based on Dryden’s poem; and George Frederick Handel composed his cantata, Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, using Pope’s text. Her principal emblem in iconography and art has since the sixteenth century been an organ or some other musical instrument, though she appears without such an emblem in ancient representations such as the sixth-century mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna and in the Roman frescoes in the catacomb of Callixtus and in the Church of S. Maria Antiqua.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints and other sources

The Collect (For Church Musicians and Artists)

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants on earth who seek through art and music to perfect the praises of your people. Grant them even now true glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

_____________________________________________________

The image of Cecilia above is from the procession of virgin martyrs in the frescos of S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. The image below is of a detail in a stained glass window designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

Edmund, King of East Anglia and Martyr, 870

Born of Saxon stock, Edmund was brought up as a Christian and became king of the East Anglians before 865. In 869 to 870 an army of Vikings, led by Ingwar, invaded East Anglia. Edmund led his army against them but was defeated and captured. He refused to renounce the Christian faith or to rule as Ingwar’s vassal. He was then killed, whether by being scourged, shot with arrows, and then beheaded, as the traditional account relates, or by being “spread-eagled” as a sacrifice to the gods in accordance with Viking practice elsewhere. His death took place at Hellesdon in Norfolk, and his body was buried in a small wooden chapel nearby. Around 915 his body was discovered to be incorrupt and was translated to Bedricsworth, later call Bury St Edmunds. In 925 King Athelstan founded a community of two priests and four deacons to take care of the shrine. His veneration grew through the years, with its fulfillment of the ideals of Old English heroism, provincial independence, and Christian sanctity. By the eleventh century his feast figured prominently in monastic calendars in southern England and later in that of Sarum (referring to the liturgical practice of the Diocese of Salisbury, used widely in England). His relics were again translated in 1095 to a large new Norman church and re-enshrined in 1198.

His iconography includes an arrow (often a golden arrow), the supposed instrument of his martyrdom, or else a wolf, believed to have guarded his head after death.

adapted from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect

O God of ineffable mercy, you gave grace and fortitude to blessed Edmund the king to triumph over the enemy of his people by nobly dying for your Name: Bestow on us your servants the shield of faith with which we can withstand the assaults of our ancient enemy; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

The icon of St Edmund the Martyr was written by Helen McIldowie-Jenkins and has been reproduced at For All the Saints with her generous permission.

Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680

“In the following year, that is the year of our Lord 680, Hilda, abbess of the monastery of Streanaeshalch, of which I have already spoken, a most religious servant of Christ, after an earthly life devoted to the work of heaven passed away to receive the reward of a heavenly life on the seventeenth of November at the age of sixty-six. Her life on earth fell into two equal parts: for she spent thirty-three years most nobly on secular occupations, and dedicated the ensuing thirty-three even more nobly to our Lord in the monastic life. She was nobly born, the daughter of Hereric, nephew to King Edwin. With Edwin she received the Faith and sacraments of Christ through the preaching of Paulinus of blessed memory, first bishop of the Northumbrians, and she preserved this Faith inviolate until she was found worthy to see her Master in heaven….”

Thus the Venerable Bede introduced his account of the life and death of Hilda, abbess of Whitby, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Related to the royal families of Northumbria and of East Anglia, Hilda, whose parents had lived in exile in the British enclave of Elmet (West Yorkshire), became a Christian at the age of thirteen, instructed and then baptized by Paulinus, the missionary bishop of Northumbria. Chaste and respected, she lived at the king’s court for twenty years, at which point she decided to enter the monastic life. She intended at first to journey to Gaul and join her sister in the convent at Chelles, near Paris, but Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, impressed with her holiness of life, gave her a small plot of land on the banks of the River Wear, where she lived according to the monastic rule with a few companions for a year.

Aidan then appointed her abbess of Heruteu (Hartlepool), where she established the rule of life that she learned mostly from Irish sources, based perhaps in part on the Rule of Columbanus. She became renowned for her wisdom, eagerness for learning, and devotion to the service of God. In 657 she founded (or reorganized) the monastery at Whitby (known then as Streanaeshalch) as a double monastery based on Gallic examples, where both nuns and monks lived in strict obedience to Hilda’s rule of righteousness, mercy, purity, peace, and charity. Known for her prudence, kings and nobles as well as ordinary folk sought her advice and counsel. Whitby soon established a reputation for learning, and those living under her direction studied the Scriptures and occupied themselves in good works so diligently that many were found qualified for ordination. Five monks under her rule became bishops of the Church in England, one of whom continued his studies in Rome before returning to England to become a bishop. Caedmon, a lay servant at Whitby, so delighted Hilda with his poetry that she encouraged him to become a monk and to continue singing his inspired poetry. Bede tells us that all who knew Hilda called her Mother because of her devotion and grace. She was an example of holy life not only to members of her own community, but she also led to salvation and brought about the amendment of life many who lived at some distance from Whitby, as they heard about her inspiring industry and goodness.

In 663, Whitby was the site of the famous synod convened to decide between Celtic and Roman practices that were dividing the Church in Northumbria. Hilda favored the Celtic position, but when the Roman position prevailed she was obedient to the synod’s decision. At the end of her life, Hilda was afflicted by a prolonged illness that Bede tells us was intended that her strength might be “made perfect in weakness.” On the last day of her life, the seventeenth of November, 680, she received Holy Communion early in the morning and summoned her nuns to her deathbed, urging them to maintain the Gospel of peace among themselves and with others.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
and Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1980)

O God of peace, by whose grace the abbess Hilda was endowed with gifts of justice, prudence, and strength to rule as a wise mother over the nuns and monks of her household, and to become a trusted and reconciling friend to leaders of the Church: Give us the grace to recognize and accept the varied gifts you bestow on men and women, that our common life may be enriched and your gracious will be done; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

_______________________________________________________

The icon of Saint Hilda of Whitby was written by and is © Aidan Hart, and is reproduced at For All the Saints with his generous permission.

The quotation from the Venerable Bede is from The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Penguin Books 1990).

Malcolm Guite has written a sonnet on St. Hilda that I commend to your reading.

Elizabeth of Hungary, Renewer of Society, 1231

Born at Pressburg in 1207, the daughter of King Andrew (András) the Second of Hungary, Elizabeth (Erzsébet) was brought up in Thuringia and in 1221 married Louis (Ludwig) the Fourth, Landgrave of Thuringia. Ardent, passionate, and handsome, she enjoyed a married life of extraordinary happiness, bore three children, and was generous to a fault. Louis was sympathetic to her extravagant almsgiving and allowed her to spend her dowry in providing for the poor. During a famine and epidemic in 1226, while he was in Italy, Elizabeth sold her jewels and established a hospital for the sick and the poor, and she opened the princely granaries to supply their needs.

In 1227 Louis went on crusade under Frederick the Third, and in less than three months he died of plague. Elizabeth was first incredulous, then distraught almost to the point of insanity. His death was a turning point in her life.

Her brother-in-law Henry, regent for her young son the Landgrave Herman, drove her from the court. Some advisers wished her to marry again, but she refused. In 1228 she settle at Marburg under the spiritual direction of her confessor, Conrad of Marburg, whom she had known since 1225. Conrad’s direction was domineering and severe, and he made Elizabeth dismiss her favorite ladies-in-waiting, for whom he substituted two harsh companions, who would punish her with slaps in the face and with blows from a rod.

Already attracted to their piety and special charism by her longtime concern for the sick and the poor, Elizabeth became a Franciscan tertiary, expressing her ardor in a love of poverty, the relief of the sick, the poor, and the aged by building and working in a hospital close to her modest house. She made ample provision for the education of her own children (her son Herman was deposed by Henry and sent into exile as well). She occupied herself with such tasks as spinning and carding, and cleaning the homes of the poor and fishing to help feed them. She refused an offer to return to Hungary, preferring to live out her life in resilient exile, a life of self-denial and service to the poor that lasted only two or three years. She died on the sixteenth of November 1231 at the age of only twenty-four, exhausted by her austerities. She was canonized only four years later by Pope Gregory the Ninth, and her relics were translated to the Church of Saint Elizabeth in Marburg where they remained until they were removed to an unknown place by Philip of Hesse in 1539. With Louis of France, Elizabeth shares the title of patron of the Third Order of Saint Francis.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
and Lesser Feasts and Fasts (1980)

The Collect (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1980)

Almighty God, by your grace your servant Elizabeth of Hungary recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world: Grant that we, following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln and Renewer of Society, 1200

Born into a noble family at Avalon, near Grenoble in Burgundy, Hugh received his education and made his profession in the priory of the Augustinian Canons at Villarbenoit. At twenty-five he joined the Carthusians, the strictest contemplative order of the Church at the time, at their major house, the Grande Chartreuse. He became procurator of the house around 1175 and was invited by King Henry the Second of England to become prior of his languishing Carthusian house at Witham, Somerset, founded by the king in reparation for the murder of Thomas Becket. The Charterhouse was insufficiently endowed and had been ruled by two unsuitable priors in succession. Under Hugh the monastery soon flourished and attracted several distinguished monks and canons to its membership.

In 1186, Henry chose Hugh as Bishop of Lincoln, but he refused to accept because he believed the election was uncanonical. Eventually he undertook to rule this, the largest diocese in England at the time, reluctantly and only in obedience to the prior of the Grande Chartreuse. To serve him in the task of overseeing his diocese, Hugh chose worthy and learned men as his canons, to several of whom, as archdeacons, he delegated much of the government of the diocese.

Hugh was reputedly the most learned monk in England, and he revived the schools of Lincoln to such an extent that the writer Gerald of Wales considered them second only to those of Paris. He rebuilt his cathedral, damaged by an earthquake, sometimes aiding the workmen with his own hands. He held synods and visitations, traveled ceaselessly to consecrate churches, confirm children, and bury the dead. His justice was proverbial, and he was appointed to act as a judge-delegate by three popes in succession, for some of the most important cases of his time. The king also appointed him to act in his court. Hugh was austere but gentle, intransigent but tender. He was always a friend of the oppressed and the outcasts, especially lepers (whom he tended himself), and he risked his life in riots to save Jews from death.

Hugh was the friend and critic of three Angevin kings: Henry the Second, John, and Richard the First. He excommunicated royal foresters and refused to appoint courtiers to Church benefices, and he never shrank from reproving the king for unjust exactions from his people. He refused to raise money for Richard’s foreign wars, yet Richard said of him, “If all bishops were like my Lord of Lincoln, not a prince among us could lift his head against them.”

After visiting his home and various monasteries in France, Hugh fell mortally ill in his London house. On his deathbed he gave instructions regarding the completion of his cathedral and his own funeral arrangements. He died on the sixteenth of November, 1200.

One of his sermons, on care for the dead, has survived as have several of his sayings. One of the latter was that lay people who practiced charity in the heart, truth on the lips, and chastity in the body would have an equal reward in heaven with monks and nuns. In 1220 he was canonized by Pope Honorius the Third, the first Carthusian to receive this honor.

prepared from The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

The Collect (Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1980)

O holy God, you endowed your servant and bishop Hugh of Lincoln with wise and cheerful boldness, and taught him to commend the discipline of holy life to kings and princes: Grant that we also, rejoicing in the Good News of your mercy, and fearing nothing but the loss of you, may be bold to speak the truth in love, in the name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.