Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

The last Sunday in November is the last Sunday of the church year, and in some ways the most important. Why?  Because everything else in the Christian year looks BACK on what happened 2000 years ago. The Sunday of Christ the King looks FORWARD to what we can expect next….  the return one day of Jesus...

Catherine is thought to have been a noble girl who lived in the 4th century.  She was persecuted for her Christianity, and despised marriage with the Emperor because she was a ‘bride of Christ’.  According to the legend, Catherine was no push-over intellectually, either:  she disputed successfully with 50 philosophers who were called in to...

The apostle Andrew (d. c.60) is patron saint of Scotland.  According to the gospel of Matthew,   Andrew and his brother Simon Peter were the very first two disciples whom Jesus called.   ‘Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’  (Matt 4:18,19) Without more ado, they obeyed.  ‘At once they left their nets...

Andrew, whose feast day ends the Christian year on 30th November, is probably best known to us as the patron saint of Scotland, though his only connection with the country is that some of his bones were reputedly transported in the 8th century to Fife and preserved at a church in a place now named...

Sundays of the Month Editor:  Continuing our new feature, as we thought you might find it helpful to know what the Sundays of each month are called… 4th October – 18th Sunday after Trinity 11th October – 19th Sunday after Trinity 18th October – 20th Sunday after Trinity 25th October – Last Sunday after Trinity...

Think of Piccadilly Circus, and that small statue of the angel poised with bow and arrow. Most people think it stands for Eros.  It does not. It stands for Anteros, his brother, the god of selfless love.  It is a memorial to the greatest Christian Victorian philanthropist, politician and social reformer of his generation –...

Theresa of Lisieux (1873-97) should be the patron saint of teenage girls and young women who want to make the most of their lives, despite being constrained by family and school or work. Theresa grew up in a strict, devout Roman Catholic middle-class family in France, one of four sisters.  Her father was a watch-maker. ...

If you’ve ever prayed for the ill children of non-Christian friends, then you are following in the steps of Remigius (d.533). Remigius was bishop of Reims late in the 5th century, and the king’s son was ill.  The queen, Clotild, was a Christian, but the king of the Franks, Clovis I, was not.  Then Remigius...

The teaching of Jesus encourages us to believe in guardian angels.  He once said, ‘See that you do not look down on one of these little ones.  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.’  (Matthew 18:10) The existence of angels was suggested in various...

With Islamic State’s current savage persecution of Iraqi Christians in mind, here are two saints for this autumn:  Hewald the Black and Hewald the White (d.c. 695).  These 7th century Anglo-Saxon priests were living peacefully in Frisia among the Old Saxons, worshipping the Christian God by daily Mass on a portable altar, and reverently devoting...

Just about the only thing most people know about Francis of Assisi is that he talked to the birds. Church-goers also know the popular hymn based on his famous prayer, ‘Make me a channel of your Peace’, which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana. However, Italy’s patron saint, whose feast day is this...

You’ll have heard of Giovanni di Pietro di Bernadone, although he is more probably familiar as Francis of Assisi. On 4thOctober we will mark 800 years since his death; such was his fame, influence and holiness that he was declared a saint by the pope less than two years after his death. Francis was born...