Saint Aidan

Aidan of Lindisfarne, Bishop, 651

Join us today, Wednesday, August 31 at St. Alban's for Holy Eucharist at 12:10 p.m., or tonight for Evening Prayer to learn more about today's saint, Aidan of Lindisfarne. 

Zoom Evening Prayer & Study - 5:30 p.m. with Father Whit+

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The Collect:

O loving God, you called your servant Aidan from the cloister to re-establish the Christian mission in northern England: Grant that we, following his example, may use what you have given us for the relief of human need, and may persevere in commending the saving Gospel of our Redeemer Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel first came to the northern English in 627, When King Edwin of Northumbria was converted by a mission from Canterbury led by Bishop Paulinus, who established his see at York. Edwin's death in battle in 632 was followed by a severe pagan reaction. A year later, Edwin's exiled nephew Oswald gained the kingdom, and proceeded at once to restore the Christian mission. 

During his exile, Oswald had lived at Columba's monastery of Iona (see 9 June), where he had been converted and baptized. Hence, he sent to Iona, rather than to Canterbury, for missionaries. The first monk to preach was a man named Corman, who had no success, and returned to Iona to complain that the Northumbrians were a savage and unteachable race. A  young monk named Aidan responded, "Perhaps you were too harsh with them, and they might have responded better to a gentler approach." At this, Aidan found himself appointed to lead a second expedition to Northumbria. He centered his work, not at York, but in imitation of his home monastery, on Lindisfarne, an island off the northeast coast of England, now often called Holy Isle. With his fellow monks and the English youths whom he trained, Aidan restored Christianity in Northumbria, King Oswald often serving as his interpreter, and extended the mission through the midlands as far south as London. 

Aidan died at the royal town of Bamburgh, 31 August, 651. The historian Bede said of him: "He neither sought nor loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately to the poor whatever was given him by kings or rich men of the world. He traversed both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity. Wherever on his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if pagans, to embrace the mystery of the faith; or if they were believers, he sought to strengthen them in their faith and stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works." *

*The Lectionary, James Kiefer, http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Aidan.htm

Ward, Clitherow, and Line

Margaret Ward, Margaret Clitherow, and Anne Line, Martyrs, 1588, 1586, and 1601

The Collect:

Most Merciful God, who despises not a broken and contrite heart and has promised to fill those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; We humbly beseech you, remember not the sins and offenses of our ancestors, but grant that, like your servants Margaret Ward, Margaret Clitherow, and Anne Line, we may sanctify you in our hearts and be always ready to answer for our faith with meekness and fear; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

These three women were all executed for harboring Roman Catholic priests during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Margaret Ward was born in Cheshire around 1550. She was living in London in the service of a lady of the "first rank" when she learned of the severe maltreatment of Richard Watson, a priest confined at Bridewell Prison. She obtained permission to visit him. She was thoroughly searched before and after early visits, but gradually the authorities became less cautious, and she managed to smuggle a rope into the prison. Fr. Watson escaped, but hurt himself in so doing, and left the rope hanging from the window. The boatman whom Ward had engaged to convey him down the river then refused to carry out the bargain. Ward, in her distress, confided in another boatman, John Roche, who undertook to assist her. He provided a boat and exchanged clothes with the priest. Fr. Watson escaped, but Roche was captured in his place, and Ward, having been Fr. Watson's only visitor, was also arrested. Margaret Ward was kept in irons for eight days, but absolutely refused to disclose the priest's whereabouts. At her trial, she admitted to having helped Fr. Watson to escape, and rejoiced in "having delivered an innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves". She was hanged at Tyburn on 30 August 1588 along with Roche and four others. 

Margaret Clitherow was born in 1556, Her father was a respected businessman, a wax-chandler and Sheriff of York in 1564. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1574. She risked her life by harboring and maintaining priests, which was a capital offence. Her home became one of the most important hiding places for fugitive priests in the north of England. Local tradition holds that she also housed her clerical guests in the Black Swan Inn at Peaseholme Green, where the Queen's agents were lodged. In March 1586 the Clitherow house was searched. A frightened boy revealed the location of the priest hole. Margaret was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Roman Catholic priests. Although pregnant with her fourth child, she was executed on Lady Day, 1586, (which also happened to be Good Friday that year) in the Toll Booth at Ouse Bridge, by being crushed to death, the standard inducement to force a plea. Following her execution, Elizabeth I wrote to the citizens of York expressing her horror at the treatment of a woman. Because of her sex, she argued, Clitherow should not have been executed.

Anne Line is believed to have been born circa the early 1560s in Jenkyn Maldon. At some time in the early 1580s converted to the Roman Catholic Church along with her brother William and Roger Line, the man she married in February 1583. Roger Line and her brother William were arrested together while attending Mass, and were imprisoned and fined. Roger Line was banished and went to Flanders. Around 1594 Father John Gerard, S.J., opened a house of refuge for hiding priests, and put the newly widowed Anne Line in charge of it, despite her chronic ill-health. For about three years Anne Line continued to run this house while Fr John Gerard was in prison. Line was arrested on 2 February 1601 when her house was raided during the feast of the Purification, also known as Candlemas. On this day a blessing of candles traditionally takes place before the Mass, and it was during this rite that the raiders burst in and made arrests. The priest, Fr Francis Page, managed to slip into a special hiding place prepared by Anne Line and afterwards to escape, but she was arrested. She was tried on 26 February 1601 and was so weak from fever that she was carried to the trial in a chair. She told the court that so far from regretting having concealed a priest, she only grieved that she "could not receive a thousand more." Line was hanged on 27 February 1601. *

* The Lectionary, via wikipedia - see http://satucket.com/lectionary/Ward-Clitherow-Line.html 

Martyrdom of John the Baptist

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

The Collect:

Almighty God, who called your servant John the Baptist to go before your Son our Lord both in life and death; grant that we who remember his witness may with boldness speak your truth and in humility hear it when it is spoken to us, through Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one God forever and ever. Amen.

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist commemorates the martyrdom by beheading of John the Baptist on the orders of Herod Antipas through the vengeful request of his step-daughter Salome and her mother Herodias.

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Herod, who was tetrarch, or sub-king, of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he reproved Herod for divorcing his wife (Phasaelis, daughter of King Aretas of Nabataea) and unlawfully taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip I. On Herod's birthday, Herodias' daughter (whom Josephus identifies as Salome) danced before the king and his guests. Her dancing pleased Herod so much that in his drunkenness he promised to give her anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. When Salome asked her mother what she should request, she was told to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Although Herod was appalled by the request, he reluctantly agreed and had John executed in the prison.

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also relates in his Antiquities of the Jews that Herod killed John, stating that he did so, "lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his [John's] power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise), [so Herod] thought it best [to put] him to death." He further states that many of the Jews believed that the military disaster that fell upon Herod at the hands of Aretas, his father-in-law (Phasaelis' father), was God's punishment for his unrighteous behavior.

None of the sources gives an exact date, which was probably in the years 28–29 AD (Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-27; Luke 9:9) after imprisoning John the Baptist in 27 AD at the behest of Herodias his brother's wife whom he took as his mistress. According to Josephus, the death took place at the fortress of Machaerus.*

* The Lectionary, via Wikipedia, http://satucket.com/lectionary/beheading_John_the_Baptist.html 

Last Sunday in August!

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Join us at church or “virtually” for worship this Sunday, August 28, 2022, The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: Proper 17, at St. Alban’s, St. Thomas’, St. Patrick’s, and Iglesia Episcopal La Esperanza de Familias Unidas.

Holy Eucharist, Rite Two
St. Alban’s - 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.*
St. Thomas' on the Bayou - 10:00 a.m.*
St. Patrick’s – 11:00 a.m.*

* These liturgies will be Live-Streamed on Facebook for those who choose to remain at home. Download a pdf of the leaflet to print or to use on your phone or tablet with this link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NqAKFgGQdFxFXT372fWKfq3Q2XQOpCqx/view?usp=sharing

Zoom Compline - All Welcome
Sunday - 8:00 p.m.

Join Zoom Compline
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We hope to see you all on Sunday!

Rita+, Rob+ and Whit+

Art from Clip Art, Steve Erspamer, Liturgy Training Publications – ltp.org

Gallaudet and Syle

Thomas Gallaudet with Henry Winter Syle, Priests, 1902 and 1890

The Collect:

O Loving God, whose will it is that everyone should come to you and be saved: We bless your holy Name for your servants Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle, and we pray that you will continually move your church to respond in love to the needs of all people; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Thomas Gallaudet was born in 1822, in Hartford, Connecticut. His mother, Sophia was deaf, and his father, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, was the founder of the West Hartford School for the deaf, which was the principal institution for the education of the deaf in America from 1806 to 1857 (the year of the founding of Gallaudet College in Washington, DC). The father had intended to become a priest, but had become an educator of the deaf instead. The son also intended to seek ordination, but was persuaded by his father to work for a while first as a teacher of the deaf. He did, and so met and married Miss Elizabeth Budd, who was deaf. He was ordained in 1851, and the next year established St. Ann's Church in New York, especially for deaf persons, with services primarily in sign language. As a result of his work, congregations for the deaf were established in many cities. (Alternatively, some congregations that are mostly hearing will have someone standing near the front and signing the service for the benefit of deaf parishioners.) Gallaudet died 27 August 1902. 

One of Gallaudet's students and parishioners was Henry Winter Syle, deaf from an early age, who had attended Trinity College (Hartford, Conn), St John's (Cambridge, England), and Yale. Gallaudet encouraged him to become  a priest, and in 1876 he became the first deaf person to be ordained  by the Episcopal Church in the United States. He established a  congregation for the deaf in 1888, and died 6 January 1890.*

*The Lectionary, James Kiefer, http://satucket.com/lectionary/Gallaudet&Syle.htm

 

Not Our Louis!

Louis, King of France, 1270

The Collect:

O God, you called your servant Louis of France to an earthly throne that he might advance your heavenly kingdom, and gave him zeal for your church and love for your people: Mercifully grant that we who commemorate him this day may be fruitful in good works and attain to the glorious crown of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Louis IX was born at Poissy on April 25, 1214. His father, Louis VIII, died when Louis IX was 11 years old; he was crowned King at Rheims on November 29, 1226. His mother and regent, Blanche of Castile, inspired his early religious exercises of devotion and asceticism. At age 20, Louis married Margaret of Provence, who bore him 11 children, 9 of whom lived past infancy. Blanche remained a major influence on her son Louis IX until her death in 1252.

A man of unusual purity of life and manners, he was sincerely committed to his faith and to its moral demands. Living simply, dressing plainly, visiting hospitals, helping the poor, and acting with integrity and honesty, Louis IX believed that the crown was given him by God and God would hold him accountable for his reign. 

During a campaign in 1242, King Louis became very ill. In an act customary of the piety and politics of his time and culture, he vowed if he recovered that he would lead a Crusade against the Muslims. Leaving his mother Blanche in charge of the kingdom, Louis led the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254). After an unsuccessful struggle, including capture by Egyptian forces, Louis IX went home to France.

Back in France, Louis’s piety inspired his patronage of the arts and encouraged the spread of Gothic architecture. One of his most notable commissions is Sainte-Chapelle (“Holy Chapel”), erected as a shrine for the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross, precious relics of the Passion of Jesus that Louis had purchased in 1239–41 for a sum twice the total cost of the chapel itself.

A deplorable aspect of medieval Christianity was its anti-semitism, and despite his attempts to cultivate holiness, Louis IX was complicit in official action against Jewish believers. Louis ordered the expulsion of all Jews engaged in usury and the confiscation of their property to finance his crusade. At the urging of Pope Gregory IX, Louis also ordered the burning in Paris in 1243 of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books and increased the power and authority of the Inquisition in France.

In 1270, Louis IX led the Eighth Crusade to Tunis. There, Louis developed “flux of the stomach” and died August 25, 1270.*

* A Great Cloud of Witnesses,  https://extranet.generalconvention.org/staff/files/download/19349 

Note: Louisiana was named after King Louis XIV when the land was claimed for France in 1862, and that is why, this is “Not Our Louis!”