Holy Days . . .
Most of these Holy Days will be celebrated on a Wednesday at St Nicholas
4th Francis of Assisi c1181 – 1226
celebrated Wed 5th and at the Blessing of the Animals on Sunday 2nd
Francis was born in Assisi in Umbria, Italy, into a life a affluence and luxury. His father was a cloth merchant and his mother of noble birth. His education was basic and his young adulthood was spent among the rich and frivolous, although he was known to be generous and kind hearted. He was athletic and skilled in arms, and little interested in his father’s business.
He went to war first against a rival city state and was taken prisoner. During more than a year in captivity he caught a fever which led him to consider more deeply the purpose of his life. But on his release, he went back into battle. But becoming ill again, and prompted by a vision, he returned home in 1205.
Returning to his previous, riotous life-style, he found a subtle change had occurred and began to turn to prayer and seek solitude. Out on horseback, he encountered a leper. Despite his feeling of disgust, Francis embraced the leper and gave him money. On a pilgrimage to Rome he exchanged his clothes with a beggar.
Outside the town there was the ruined chapel of St Damian and Francis believed he should restore it. He took cloth from his father’s shop and rode on his horse to market where he sold both to raise money for the restoration. The priest of the chapel rebuffed him, and his father was so angry that Francis hid himself in a cave, emerging after a month in a squalid state only to be beaten and imprisoned by his father. On this occasion he was pelted by a mocking rabble as his father dragged him back to the town.
His mother set him free in his father’s absence who, on his return summoned Fracis to court to disinherit him. This was the seminal moment for Francis: he said ‘Hitherto I have called you my father on earth; henceforth I desire to say only Our Father in heaven’. Then, stripping himself naked, he found refuge in a monastery where he worked in the kitchens. Returning to Assisi, he with great difficulty restored St Damian’s, and two other chapels.
In 1208, while at mass he heard a gospel reading from Matthew chapter 10 that the disciples should go out without ‘no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff’. From that moment, Francis clothed himself in coarse woollen tunic tied with a knotted rope – three knots representing the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience – and preached a gospel of repentance and love.
He gathered many disciples, including his father! He went to Rome to gain recognition of his fledging order from the Pope who initially rebuffed him on the grounds of the impracticality of the life of complete poverty Francis promoted. However the Friars Minor, as Francis followers became known in honour of their perpetual humility, did receive his blessing. The Benedictine monastery at Monte Subasio gave Francis the chapel of St Mary of the Angels around the Franciscans built their huts.
In 1212 St Clare and St Agnes, her sister, joined Francis and he himself built her accommodation adjacent to St Damian’s which was the first house of the Poor Clares.
Francis made preaching trips to Syria, central Italy, Morocco and Spain. In 1217 he preached before the Pope; in his preaching in the towns and villages he received an astonishing degree of adulation to the extent that in 1221 he constituted the Third Order (the Second being the Poor Clares) as a life of devotion for followers who lived outside the monastic environment.
The size of the movement made re-organisation essential and Francis ceased to be general of the order and there was considerable acrimony. Francis continued to be profoundly influential through his continued life of simplicity and poverty, although he could also be provocative and autocratic! In 1223 he drew up the Second Rule which continues for Franciscans to this day.
The same year he introduced the idea of the Crib as a popular Christmas devotion. He also attempted to persuade the Emperor pass a law to protect the rights of animals (including Brother Wolf who attacked the sheep!). The following year, Francis was fasting with some companions on Holy Cross Day (September 14th) and after a vision received the Stigmata – the marks of Christ’s passion were physically imposed on Francis’ own body, his side, hands and feet. His health, already severely affected by overwork and self-mortification, declined and he lost his sight. In 1225, when visiting St Clare he wrote the famous Canticle of the Sun (translated in the hymn ‘All creatures of our God and King’).
He died at St Mary and the Angels, the place of his first profession in 1226 at the age of forty-five, writing the stanza in praise of Sister Death in the Canticle of the Sun shortly before he died. He was canonised in 1228 when the foundation stone when the foundation stone of the church of St Francis was laid by the Pope. There are two Franciscan houses in Canterbury – one Roman Catholic and the other Anglican.
We have two connections with the Anglican Franciscans in Canterbury: Joyce Sandles was a Third Order Franciscan; Fr Tim’s Spiritual Director Br Colin Wilfred was a Franciscan.
Prayer of St Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
12th Wilfrid of Ripon Bishop and Missionary 634 – 709
Wilfrid was born into a wealthy Christian family in Northumberland. He was unhappy at home and entered service at the age of fourteen in the royal court where the Queen arranged for him to enter the monastery at Lindisfarne. The three years he spent there convinced him of the inferiority of the Celtic tradition of the monastery, so he set off for Rome to learn the Catholic traditions.
On the way home he stopped at Lyons where he stayed for three years, perhaps tempted by the luxurious life-style of the Archbishop whose wealth and power provoked jealousy and brought about his downfall: Wilfrid narrowly escaped death himself.
Royal favour gave him charge of a new and magnificent abbey at Ripon where he imposed the Roman traditions, prompting the Celtic tradition monks to leave. The Council of Whitby in 664 settled the argument between Celtic and Roman practices in favour of Rome, largely due to Wilfrid’s advocacy. He was elected Bishop of York to replace of the Celtic Colman, but choose to go abroad for consecration as he considered the English Celtic bishops to be suspect.
He once again stayed on in France and that, with a shipwreck when he finally returned in 666, caused Chad to have been made bishop in his place. Theodore of Canterbury took Wildrid’s part and Chad withdrew. Wildrid, although modest in his personal lifestyle, was very grandiose in his public ministry, building churches, restoring the cathedral, and sponsoring huge festivals which could last up to three days - a very different spirituality from his teacher Aiden at Lindisfarne. See last month.
He lost royal favour and his vast See of York was divided which sent Wilfrid off to Rome again for support. A bizarre mistake thwarted his enemies attempts to prevent him getting to Rome: he was travelling with Bishop Winfred who was arrested in stead due to the coincidence of names!
Wilfrid got judgement in his favour, but the Northumbrian king first imprisoned and then exiled him. (Wilfrid had encouraged his wife to go into a monastery and a life a chastity!). Wilfrid spent fifteen years as a missionary in Sussex during which time he was reconciled with Theodore of Canterbury and so able to return to York. But he was banished again and made a third and final trip to Rome.
Vindicated again, he returned to Northumberland, but to Ripon not York which he grudgingly accepted until his death three years later.
15th Teresa of Avila 1515 - 1582 celebrated in Friday Hour on 14th
Teresa was born in Avila in Spain. She was an accomplished and lively young lady, readily taking up the pious lifestyle of her parents. At the age of seven, she and her brother attempted to run away from home to seek martyrdom from the Moors (Moslems who had conquered the southern part of the country).
Her mother died when Teresa was only fifteen leaving a family of ten children. She was sent to be educated at an Augustinian nunnery which began her inclination to monastic life. Her father initially forbad it but when Teresa (with her brother!) ran away from home again to the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Avila he acquiesced.
Soon after her profession she became ill and nearly died. Her prayers to St Joseph gave her some relief, but severe ill health remained with her for the rest of her life.
Prayer was the centre of her spirituality. But after her illness, she found her devotional life barren for many years until she found herself able to open her soul directly to God, bypassing imagination and ego.
She began to experience vivid, ecstatic visions which were not readily accepted by those around her, some attributing them to the Devil! One who encouraged her to continue was St Peter of Alcantara, who was a great reformer of the Franciscans and was to have an important influence on Teresa.
Teresa wanted to have a more rigorous rule of life and gathering some of her fellow Carmelites decided under Peter’s influence to found a new house of Discalced Carmelites – ‘discalced means literally ‘unshod’ and suggests the life of a hermit in the style of the Desert Fathers.
The new house of St Joseph was in Avila and attracted a great deal of opposition from the Convent and towns people. However, when the dust settled Teresa found the happiness she sought and wrote one of her best known works the ‘Way of Perfection’. More new Discalced houses followed, some in conjunction with St John of the Cross who helped her reform the Convent of the Incarnation, where she had started.
Both Teresa and John suffered considerable opposition from the more traditional ‘Calced’ Carmelites – John was kidnapped and imprisoned! Both were mystics whose ecstatic experiences were open to misinterpretation. It was while receiving Holy Communion from John that Teresa experienced ‘Spiritual Marriage’ with Christ – the total giving of herself to spiritual union with Jesus.
Her book The Interior Castle takes up this theme of union with God through prayer, a deep devotional intimacy in which one’s true integrity as a child of God is experienced. The spiritual life is a journey to the centre where the fullness of the Trinity dwells.
Teresa died on the 4th October 1582, the year the new calendar was introduced, removing the 5th – 14th October that year. Hence her feast day was set as 15th October.
18th Luke – Evangelist celebrated on Wed 19th
Tradition has it that Luke was born at Antioch, a coastal town prominent in the story of the early church. With Phoencia and Cyprus, it became a refuge for Christians dispersed by persecution in Jerusalem after the martydom of Stephen. Acts 11:19ff
A thriving gentile Church growing in Antioch drew the attention of the Apostles in Jerusalem who sent Barnabas, who in turn invited Paul to join him there. It was in Antioch the follwers of Jesus were first called Christians.
It seems Luke was a gentile convert and certainly a doctor Colossians 4:14. He became a companion of Paul on his missionary journeys, possibly assisting Paul in his recurrent illnesses. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke to take the story of Jesus on from his gospel into the period of the early church until the arrival of Paul in Rome. The narrative in Acts changes between third (‘he, they’) and first (‘we’) person, indicating the events at which Luke was personally present. Twice he includes himself at Troas: the first in about 51AD Acts 16:10 and seven years later on Paul’s third missionary journey Acts 20:5.
Although apparently not present with Paul in his first imprisonment in Macedonia, he stays close to his friend, Paul, imprisoned in 61AD in Rome when everyone else has deserted him. 2 Timothy 4:11 Legend has that, after Paul’s beheading, Luke preached in Italy, Dalmatia and Macedonia before himself being martyred hung from an Olive Tree in 84AD.
Luke’s gospel was probably written after Matthew and Mark, and before John and probably after 80AD. Luke writes in refined Greek, the best on the New Testament. In the Acts of the Apostles, where he is free to write prose without using existing written sources that lie behind much of the gospel narrative, Luke achieves work comparable with the Greek classics.
His gospel contains eighteen parables not found in the other gospels, including the Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son. The birth narratives exalt the role of Mary, providing the sole source of the Magnifcat and Hail Mary. Prayer is an important theme.
St Luke is the patron saint of doctors – his reputation as a painter of icons is purely legendary!
26th Alfred the Great King of the West Saxons 849 – 899
Alfred lived during the harrowing time of the Viking raids. In 867 they took York and also overran East Anglia and Mercia. Only the West Saxons remained independent and in 870 they came under attack.
Alfred’s older brother Aethelred was king and although they achieved victory at Ashdown in 871, Aethelred went on to die in battle. At the age of twenty-one Alfred became king. By 878 he was hiding in the Somerset marches watching and planning. (It was in this period he supposedly allowed the cakes to burn, as legend tells!).
Using his base for guerrilla attacks, he defeated the Viking army at Edington in May 878. Wisely he negotiated a treaty which divided England into northern and eastern Danelaw, with West Mercia, Wessex and Kent under Saxon rule. He reorganised the army and navy, and set up defensible burghs throughout the kingdom to keep the peace. Winchester was his royal seat.
Alfred was a profoundly religious man, giving half of his income to found religious houses which acted as centres of education, and care of the sick and poor. The Viking marauding had destroyed learning which in turn prevented good government and a proper justice system.
Alfred himself was an accomplished scholar in Latin and organised the translation of text books in history, philosophy and of course theology. He produced a new legal code and set in motion the momentum that would eventually unite all of England under one government.
His passion was a love of Christ. Bishop Asser recorded: ‘He learnt by heart the ‘daily round’, that is, the services of the hours, and then certain psalms and prayers; these he collected in a single book, which he kept by him day and night.’
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