“The monks of Iona accepted the catholic way of life under the teaching of Egbert, while Dunchad was abbot [707-717], about eighty years after they had sent Bishop Aidan to preach to the English. The man of God, Egbert, remained for thirteen years on the island which he had consecrated to Christ, lighting once more, as it were with the gracious light of ecclesiastical fellowship and peace. In the year of our Lord 729, when Easter fell on 24 April, after he had celebrated a solemn mass in memory of the Lord’s resurrection, he departed to be with the Lord on the same day. … It was a wonderful dispensation of the divine providence that the venerable man not only passed from this world to the Father on Easter Day, but also when Easter was being celebrated on a date on which it had never been kept in those places.” (Bede, HE V. 22, McClure and Collins, p. 287)
It is interesting that Bede notes that Egbert had been on Iona 13 years, placing his arrival in 716 the very year that the monks had been driven out of Pictland and the same year that King Cenred, brother of Bede’s King Ceolwulf became King of Northumbria. Given that Bede credits Columba as the missionary (apostle?) to the Picts in his chronological summary (HE V.24), their expulsion from Pictland 52 years after their similiar expulsion from Northumbria is significant. Here Bede couldn’t help himself but to note that Egbert consecrated the island for Christ - meaning that St. Columba’s consecration of Iona had to be repeated.
I believe I have noted elsewhere that Bede is a bit loose on this date, manipulating it to suit his purposes. Here he wants to show Egbert’s coming to Iona with the explusion from Pictland. In HE III.4 he claims that the Columban calculations of Easter lasted until 715, 150 years after the coming of Columba to Iona. If he allows these dates to slide a little, then the 52 years since Whitby should be considered about 50 as well.
So Bede’s chronology in the summary of HE V.24 goes like this:
449: English arrive in Britain
565: St Columba founds Iona.
597: Augustine arrives in Britain, noting its roughly 150 years after the English arrive. [In III.4 he notes Columba dies about 32 years after arriving on Iona, ie. 597! - expressly not noted in the summary even though the summary notes he was the missionary to the Picts]
716: Egbert converts Iona to Roman Easter calculations (and reconsecrates the island!) about 80 years after Aidan arrives in Northumbria. [Therefore, Egbert converts Iona 150 years after Columba comes to Iona; Augustine converts the English 150 years after their arrival in Britain. Aidan's arrival about 80 years earlier nearly splits that time in half...]
Makes me wonder what kind of symbolism Bede saw in those 150 year intervals. It seems that it took both Iona and ‘the English’ 150 years to fully mature for Iona to come into the Roman fold and for the English church to produce missionaries, correcting the primary source of their own missionaries. The only symbolism I can think of that is 150 is the 150 psalms, but I may just have psalms on the brain. Given that the Irish divided their pslater into thirds of 50 pslams each; 50 years from Whibty to explusion from Pictland would also fit the symbolism.
Egbert is one of the few fellow Englishmen that Bede specifically called a saint in his History. The entry in the chronological summary actually calls him “St. Egbert”; he is the only one so designated in the summary. To me, the entry in the Greater Chronicle is the most remarkable considering how few Anglo-Saxons Bede records there. Bede is a little odd in which Englishmen (and women) who he includes in the Greater Chronicle: Kings Aethelfrith and Aelle, Aethelberht and Edwin, and saints Aethelthryth (with K. Ecgfrith), Egbert, Willibrord, Cuthbert, and his abbot Coelfrith. Many of these references are pretty slight, but Bishop Egbert’s entry is every bit as elaborate as Cuthbert or Willibrord. A further study of Egbert and his importance to Bede seems merited.
Skellig is the Irish monastery of Skellig Michael on island in the North Atlantic. Known for being one of the best preserved Irish monasteries but also one of the hardest to reach. It was built in 588 and not abandoned until the 12th century. You see it at one point in the video where there are a few buildings clinging to the side of an incredibly steep mountain face. The stone beehive cells you see in the video are either on Skellig Michael or of the type that were there.
I’ve been browsing through Paul Foracre and Richard Gerberding’s Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography 640-720 (Manchester, 1996) this Easter break and I came across a curious account in the Life of St Geretrud.
Geretrud was the daughter of Peppin I and his wife Itta, born in about 621, and the first solidly saintly ancestor of the Carolingian dynasty. After the death of Peppin, his widow Itta and their daughter Geretrud founded the monastery of Nivelles where Geretrud spent the remainder of her life. Geretrud became abbess at age 26 and after a relatively quiet tenure died at the age of 33. She was succeeded by her niece Wulfetrud in about 653. The house of Nivelles therefore became one of the earliest Carolingian houses.The painting to the right is a Flemish painting of St Geretrud from Wikipedia commons.
In the contemporary vita written for the saintly Geretrud we can see the ruthless political pressures and manipulations that surround young noble girls. Geretrud’s desire to be the Bride of Christ confounds most of these pressures.
One of the few times that we can see Geretrud and her mother Itta intervening in political matters is when they give refuge and aid to Abbot Foillan when Erchinwald expels the former East Anglian missionaries from Peronne where St Fursey was buried. Sheltering Follian from such a powerful enemy was probably at least suggested by Geretrud’s brother Grimoald I, a major rival of Erchinowald. According to the ‘Nivelles Supplement (to the Vita Fursei) on Foillan’(written 650-657), Geretrud’s mother gave the Irish missionaries refuge and helped them establish the Irish monastery of Fosses. When Foillan disappears, it is Abbess Geretrud who sponsors the long search for him. His body was found after 77 days of searching and brought to her monastery of Nivelles and presented to the conspirators Bishop Dido of Pointiers and her brother Grimoald I. Grimoald and Dido then personally carry Foillan’s body on their shoulders to Fosses for burial.
Foillan’s murder just as Grimoald and Dido were planning the exile of Prince Dagobert raises questions. Was Foillan’s murder planned because he opposed Dagobert’s exile? Was Foillan murdered because he was part of the plot by those loyal to Dagobert? Grimoald and Dido seem particularly upset by his murder. Did Geretrud expect her brother’s involvement and ensure his contrition? The result seems fairly certain; Follian’s murder made the Irish of Fosses more willing to help in the plot and Dagobert was exiled to Ireland.
None of this business with Foillan is mentioned in the Life of St. Geretrud, written after the execution of her brother Grimoald for treason. The holy virgin Geretrud is not to be tarnished with her brother’s crimes. Yet, the Irish still left a trace on the Life of St Geretrud. As Geretrud is dying she sends for the hermit of Fosses (usually considered to be Ultan, Foillan’s brother) to ask when she will die. The hermit of Fosses responds saying:
“‘Today is 16 March, tomorrow during the solemn mass the maidservant of God and virgin of Christ, Geretrud, will go forth from her body. And say this to her, let her neither fear nor be alarmed concerning her death, but may pass on joyously because blessed Bishop Patrick with the chosen angels of God and with great glory are prepared to receive her. Go now quickly.’” (p. 326)
He goes on to tell her and she accepts this joyfully. Just as the hermits prophesies, during the mass the next day Geretrud dies just as the mass finishes on March 17th in her 33rd year of life.
To the Irish attached to Nivelles and at Fosses Geretrud’s death on the feast of St Patrick must have seemed a very favorable event supporting their continued association with Nivelles and the Carolingian family. Not only had Geretrud befriended Foillan and company when they were driven from the shrine of St Fursey at Peronne, she had sponsored the search for Foillan’s body, ensured that he was properly buried and then died herself on the feast of St Patrick. The Addendum Nivialense de Fuilnano also shows us that it was appended to the Life of Fursei at Nivelles between 650 and 657, the tenure of Geretrud or her niece Wulfetrud. This suggests that the cults of Fursey and Foillan were valued at Nivelles from Geretrud’s time.
Well here we are… its holy week and Brendan and company sight land once more. As we should have expected on Maundy Thursday they return to the Isle of their Steward for the second time. As this is the second time Brendan and company has passed holy week and Easter on their voyage the Navigatio does not elaborate on the details as much. All phases of their journey through holy week and Easter reflect the life of Christ. The steward who meets them on Maundy Thursday lives out the steps of the Feast of the Last Supper, washing their feet and providing them with a banquet. They celebrate the somber rites of Good Friday with him. On the morning of Holy Saturday they once again embark from the Isle of the Steward now knowing they will meet the great fish. As in the previous year they find the ‘island’ with the cauldron they left the year before but know that they are on the back of the great fish. I think it is important to stress that the Latin text calls it a fish not a whale. The fish is the symbol of Christ and it is Christ who will carry them on his back during the darkest day of the year, Holy Saturday, while Christ is in the tomb. Here the pass the Easter Vigil. On Easter morning they will set sail again leaving the fish behind as they proceed to the Isle of the Birds, who we know from their previous visit are the manifestation of angels who continually sing praises to God throughout Eastertide. So I will leave you here until the arrival of Eastertide…
“And on the very night that St Patrick was celebrating the Passover, they were partaking of the worship of their great pagan festival. Now there was a custom among the pagans — made clear to all by edict — that it would be death for anyone, wherever they were, to light a fire on the night before the fire was lit in the house of the king (ie the palace of Tara). So when St Patrick celebrating the Passover lit the great bright and blessed divine fire, it shone clearly and was seen by nearly everyone living on the plain of Tara. And those who saw it viewed it with great wonder. All the elders and nobles of the nation were called in the king’s presence and he spoke to them. ‘Who is this man who has dared to commit such a crime in my kingdom? Let him perish by death!” And the answer from those around him was that they did not know. Then the wise men answered: “‘O king, life forever!” This fire, which we see lit this might before the fire of your own house, must be quenched this night. Indeed, if it should not be put out tonight, it will never be extinguished! You should know that it will keep rising up and will supplant all the fires of our own religion. This one who lit it, and the kingdom he bringing upon us this night, will overcome us all — both you and us– by leading away everyone in your kingdom. All the kingdoms will fall down before it, and it will fill the whole country and it ’shall reign forever and ever.’”
[The king and men confront Patrick to try to kill him but he and his followers escape. The king sees only 8 deer and one fawn in the darkness...]
“The next day, which [for us] was the Day of the Passover [Easter Day], was for the pagans the day of their greatest festival…. While they were eating and drinking in the place of Tara,…Patrick with only five companions appeared among them, having come through ‘closed doors’ in the way we read about Christ. He went there to proclaim and demonstrate the holy faith in Tara in the presence of all nations.” (Davies and O’Loughlin trans, Celtic Spirituality, Paulist press, 1999, p. 99-100, 102)
Theology as narrative at its best. As Thomas O’Loughlin describes it in his Celtic Theology (2000, p. 107):
“Muirchu had a few uncertain traditions about Patrick, but he had one theological certainty: the changing of people from being not-the-people-of-God to being part of Christ was the drama of the Paschal Mystery; the Paschal Mystery was entered through the drama of the liturgy, so the story of his people was the story of Easter Night. From his perspective as theologian/churchman could he have provided a more fitting origin story — a people reborn in the great event of Christian rebirth– for his people’s faith?”
Muirchu never calls Patrick’s fire a bonfire that is our assumption. The divine fire that Patrick lights represents the Paschal candle lit during the Easter vigil symbolizing the light of Christ in the world. Just as Muirchu claims that every fire in the kingdom was to be lit from the king’s pagan fire, every candle used during the easter vigil is lit from the paschal candle. Muirchu wrote for and was read by primarily monastics who would have immediately recognized this divine light as the paschal candle that they light every Easter Vigil. This candle is known to go back to at least the time of Jerome in the 4th century. Paschal means passover, and Muirchu calls Patrick’s Easter Vigil his celebration of Passover. In early medieval literature, including the Historia Brittonum, Patrick is consistently linked with Moses.
Muirchu says that Patrick went to Tara to speak to all the nations this is because the King of Tara was the High King of Ireland and representatives from most of the kingdoms of Ireland would have been present for the greatest pagan festival of the year.
As far as the king mistaking Patrick and his followers for deer in the darkness recall that the prayer known as St Patrick’s Lorica (Breastplate) is also known as “The Deer’s Cry“.
Somehow I think Muirchu would have been very pleased by the convergence of Patrick’s feast day with Holy Week.
Everything we know of Cynefrith is found in the Anonymous Life of Coelfrith, his brother. Here we learn (indirectly) that both Cynefrith and Coelfrith were kinsmen of King Oswine of Deira. It is clear that, following Irish fashion, Gilling was passed through blood relatives from its first abbot Trumhere, whom Bede describes as a close kinsman of King Oswine (HE III.24). Gilling was founded as penance (or weregeld) for Oswiu’s ordered execution of Oswine with the intention that the monks would pray for the soul of the victim Oswine and the murderer Oswiu.
The Anonymous Life of Coelfrith says that their father had held “a very noble office in the royal comitatus” (ch. 34). Given that Cynefrith was old enough to become abbot of Gilling within the first decade of its founding, the royal comitatus that his father participated in was probably that of King Oswine. If he had also served King Oswald before him, he may have been able to remain among the landed nobles, now elderly, under Oswiu — thanks in part of Oswine’s refusal to fight Oswiu. By preventing his thanes from engaging Oswiu in battle, Oswine may have allowed them to remain in fairly good standing with Oswiu. At least there wouldn’t have been blood debts to pay for Bernicians recently killed.
Ceolfrith’s Life tells us that he enters Gilling in c. 660 at about age 18 and that his brother Cynefrith had already turned over the abbacy to their kinsman Tunberht, who was the abbot who received Coelfrith. (The alliteration between the names Trumhere and Tunberht is hard to miss…) Now, we know that the first Abbot of Gilling, Trumhere became Bishop of Mercia in c. 658 and probably handed off the abbacy to a kinsman Cynefrith about that time, so Cynefrith’s term as abbot of Gilling was probably very short. The monastery had only been founded in c. 651.
According to the Life, “Cynefrith himself was lured away to Ireland, partly by his strong attraction to the study of Scripture and partly by his desire to serve the Lord in a freer manner with more opportunity for prayer and affectionate devotion.” It goes on to relate that not long after Coelfrith joined Gilling, his brother and others in Ireland died, probably in the plague that reached Ireland about 664. He may have been with the community of Lindisfarne-trained monks led by Egbert of Iona (including Chad and Aethelhun of Lindsey). When Coelfrith decides to set aside his duties as abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow in 716, the Life asserts that he is imitating his brothers desire for a contemplative life and voluntary exile for the Lord.
This all suggests that the story of Coelfrith’s family, their nobility and his kinship with other notable figures was common knowledge in his monastery. Coelfrith and Cynefrith’s Irish trained origins may have also helped Wearmouth-Jarrow straddle the Irish vs Roman tensions in Northumbria. For example, if Chad had indeed been in Ireland with Cynefrith, this could have helped relations between Wearmouth-Jarrow and Lastingham.
I think Cynefrith is also the answer to a very important question at Wearmouth-Jarrow in their sorrow of 716-720, that is: why did he leave us? It is obvious from the Life of Coelfrith and Bede’s writings that his monks were extremely attached to him, and yet he left them. Belief that he was imitating his brother may have given them some comfort. Not having Ceolfrith’s grave as a continuing source of comfort must have cut them deeply. There seems little doubt that if they had his body they would have tried to establish his cause for sainthood. What does it tell us that Bede left a homily for the feast of Benedict Biscop, but not for Coelfrith?
Life of Coelfrith in Anglo-Saxon Saints and Heroes, Clinton Albertson, ed. Fordham University Press, c. 1967.
Last time we dropped in on Brendan and company, they were just setting sail from the Isle of St Ailbe where they had spent Advent and the Christmas season. They sailed throughout Epiphany season with no excitement or land in site. As they enter the Lenten season, their food and water starts to dwindle and three days after their supplies run out, land is sighted.
They land on the island where they find a pure well with plants and roots growing in a circle around the well. From the ‘well’ was a stream full of fish running to the sea. Brendan instructs the brothers to take only what they need and no more. Some brothers take one cup of water, others two or three. They all fall asleep and are unable to be awakened for one, two or three days depending on how many cups of water they took. Brendan rebukes the brothers for taking more than they need and instructs them to fill the boat with just enough fish, roots and water for them to eat once every three days, drink only one cup per day, and no more until Maunday Thursday. When the boat was filled they set sail toward the north.
After three days sailing, the wind dropped and the sea became so smooth it was as if it was coagulated. Realizing that they were unable to row any further, Brendan orders the brothers to put up the oars and let the sail down, they would wait for the wind and go wherever God directs them. They sailed on relying on the wind alone for the next 20 days, when the wind changes direction and blows eastward until Maundy Thursday. They maintain their discipline always eating only every third day.
~~~
So what do we learn from Lent in the Navigatio? Brendan and company must rely solely on the direction and provision of God. When they reach the coagulated sea, usually interpreted as a slushy, nearly frozen ocean, they must rely completely on God to guide them. Their oars will get them nowhere in the slush. Their limited provisions also put them in a forced fast. This fast places them again at the mercy of God because such slim provisions mean that they will be near starvation if they do not reach their Maundy Thursday destination on time. Indeed, this may be the challenge of the coagulated sea. Had they fought the sea with their oars rather than relying on the wind of God they would not have reached their destination on time and would have starved. The fast also tests their discipline to make their provisions last.
One of the interesting things about this section is the utter absence of Ash Wednesday. There is absolutely no notice of the beginning of Lent at all. Brendan and company spend about four days overall on the island and then go on for about 20 days before Maundy Thursday. So, they must be nearly half way through lent when they arrive on the island. Wooding dates the Latin Navigatio to about c. 730-830, suggesting that Ash Wednesday was not a major commemoration yet by then.
WRJ Barron and GS Burgess, Eds. The Voyage of St Brendan: Representative Versions of the Legend in English Translation. Exeter Press, 2002. Latin legend introduced by Jonathan Wooding and translated by JJ O’Meara.
Well here we are… its holy week and Brendan and company sight land once more. As we should have expected on Maundy Thursday they return to the Isle of their Steward for the second time. As this is the second time Brendan and company has passed holy week and Easter on their voyage the Navigatio does not elaborate on the details as much. All phases of their journey through holy week and Easter reflect the life of Christ. The steward who meets them on Maundy Thursday lives out the steps of the Feast of the Last Supper, washing their feet and providing them with a banquet. They celebrate the somber rites of Good Friday with him. On the morning of Holy Saturday they once again embark from the Isle of the Steward now knowing they will meet the great fish. As in the previous year they find the ‘island’ with the cauldron they left the year before but know that they are on the back of the great fish. I think it is important to stress that the Latin text calls it a fish not a whale. The fish is the symbol of Christ and it is Christ who will carry them on his back during the darkest day of the year, Holy Saturday, while Christ is in the tomb. Here the pass the Easter Vigil. On Easter morning they will set sail again leaving the fish behind as they proceed to the Isle of the Birds, who we know from their previous visit are the manifestation of angels who continually sing praises to God throughout Eastertide. So I will leave you here until the arrival of Eastertide…
