Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

On the whole British people are happy with the title ‘Father Christmas’, a suitably neutral name for the central character in children’s Christmases, writes David Winter. In America, however, and by a process of cultural indoctrination increasingly in other English-speaking countries, the same red-coated and bearded fellow with his sack of presents is known as...

Have you ever stopped to consider that the very first martyr of the Christian Church (Stephen died c 35 AD) was a deacon?  (But no, he wasn’t worked to death by his church.)  It was Stephen, one of the first seven deacons of the Christian Church.  He’d been appointed by the apostles to look after...

Everyone knows that it was on the feast of Stephen that ‘good king Wenceslas looked on’.  After all, it’s in a Christmas carol – but why? There’s nothing about Christmas in it: a splendid young page who rustled up some flesh, wine and logs, an old man out in the snow (’deep and crisp and...

Most of us probably know that on December 26th (the Feast of Stephen) ‘Good king Wenceslas’ looked out, writes David Winter. We probably also know that the snow lay round about, ‘deep and crisp and even’. Beyond that, he’s just someone in a carol that’s not often sung nowadays. However, Wenceslas was a real person,...

The death of a very young child is perhaps the hardest grief of all to bear.  So the 28th December is a very poignant day in the church calendar.  It is when the worldwide Church joins with bereaved parents to grieve the loss of babies and young children.  For Holy Innocents day recalls the massacre...

Editor:  As Saints’ Days do not change from year to year, we have offered material on many of these days before.  The one with an asterisk is new this year. 1          All Saints’ Day 1          The first martyrs 2          All Souls’ Day 3          Hubert 4          Charles Borromeo – saint for those with a...

All Saints, or All Hallows, is the feast of all the redeemed, known and unknown, who are now in heaven. When the English Reformation took place, the number of saints in the calendar was drastically reduced, with the result that All Saints’ Day stood out with a prominence that it had never had before. This...

The first martyrs of Rome are recorded in the old Roman Martyrology, which states that: ‘At Rome, the birthday is celebrated of very many martyrs, who under the Emperor Nero were falsely charged with the burning of the city and by him were ordered to be slain by various kinds of cruel death; some were...

The early Church was slow to dedicate a liturgical day to offering prayers and masses to commemorate the faithful departed.  But in time prayers were offered on behalf of dead monks, that they might attain ‘the Beatific Vision’ through purification, which the Church later described as Purgatory.  Odilo, the powerful abbot of Cluny, (d 1049)...

The morality of hunting has made the headlines in recent years, but here at least was one man who was converted while hunting.  Hubert (bishop, d 727 AD) was out on Good Friday hunting stag when he came across a stag with a crucifix between its antlers.  This so shook him that he converted to...

Why should being a ‘lay’ person stop you from as full a ministry as being ordained?  Here is a saint for all lay people who suspect they can do as good a job…. Charles Borromeo was an Italian who lived in Milan from 1538 to 1584.   His uncle, Pope Pius IV, made him Archbishop of...

Back in 1605 Guy Fawkes managed to stow a good few barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords without anybody noticing.  He was part of a Roman Catholic plot to murder James 1 of England and his parliament at the state opening.  Fortunately, Guy Fawkes was found – and stopped – in time.