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Editor:  As the church year does not change, much of this material has appeared before.  New material is marked with an asterisk. 1          St David’s Day (two options) 2          Chad – Bishop of Lichfield and missionary c 672 4          Casimir 5          Eusebius 7          Perpetua and Felicitas 8          Woodbine Willie *NEW   8          Felix...

1st March is St David’s Day, and it’s time for the Welsh to wear daffodils or leeks. Shakespeare called this custom ‘an honourable tradition begun upon an honourable request’ – but nobody knows the reason.  Why should anyone have ever ‘requested’ that the Welsh wear leeks or daffodils to honour their patron saint? It’s a...

On 1st March Wales celebrates its patron saint, David – or, in Welsh, Dewi or Dafydd. He is indisputably British, and is revered wherever Welsh people have settled. As with most figures from the so-called ’Dark Ages’ (he lived in the sixth century), reliable details about his life are scarce, but there are enough for...

Chad (d 672) should be the patron saint of any modern bishop whose consecration is questioned by another bishop.   Chad was consecrated a bishop, then deposed – and then re-consecrated! It all began when Oswiu, king of Northumbria, made him bishop of the Northumbrian see.   But due to a scarcity of appropriate bishops, two dubious...

Casimir is a good patron saint for anyone whose father drives them crazy.  For he did not let an unhappy background stop him from becoming the person he wanted to be.  Yet Casimir’s father, the King of Poland back in 1458, was no picnic as a dad. For if you think your teens were difficult,...

Eusebius is the saint for you if you believe in the Bible, and also in providing hospitality.  He was born of a good family in Cremona, Italy, in the fourth century, and felt called to become a monk.  As Eusebius was ascetic by nature, he sought out St Jerome in Rome, who advocated an austere...

This story could come straight out of modern Africa.  Perpetua was a young married woman of 22 who had recently become a Christian.  But the authorities had forbidden any new conversions, and soon she and some other catechumens were arrested and sentenced to death.  This was not under Islamic State, nor Boko Haram, but under...

Here’s a ‘saint’ that the Church of England remembers from the 1st World War –  the Revd. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy MC,  or ‘Woodbine Willie’, as everyone knew this popular, much-loved army chaplain on the Western Front. Studdert Kennedy (27th June 1883 – 8th March 1929) had been born in Leeds as the seventh of nine...

East Anglia is blessed with a rich Christian heritage.  Just two examples: at more than 650, Norfolk has the greatest concentration of ancient churches in the world, and at 500, Suffolk has the second greatest density of medieval churches.  And that is not to mention all the churches in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire… And it all...

A number of years ago the hit film Slumdog Millionaire touched millions of people with its story of a youngster triumphing against all the odds.  Dominic Savio did the same thing.  In fact, he is a good patron ‘child saint’ for children today who struggle to get anywhere in life. Savio (1842 – 57) was...

St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.  If you’ve ever been in New York on St Patrick’s Day, you’d think he was the patron saint of New York as well… the flamboyant parade is full of American/Irish razzmatazz. It’s all a far cry from the hard life of this 5th century humble Christian who...

Many people know that Joseph was the father of the most famous man who ever lived, but beyond that, we know very little about him. The Gospels name him as the ‘father’ of Jesus, while also asserting that the child was born of a virgin. Even if he wasn’t what we call the ‘biological’ father,...