Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

– the Presentation of Christ in the Temple In bygone centuries, Christians said their last farewells to the Christmas season on Candlemas, 2nd February. This is exactly 40 days after Christmas Day itself. In New Testament times 40 days old was an important age for a baby boy: it was when they made their first...

– the busy evangelist Anskar (801-865) should be the patron saint of any Christian who loves doing mission… and who discovers that evangelists meet the most amazing people, and that their lives are full of surprises…. It was the 9th century, and Anskar had grown up in a noble family in Amiens. He decided to...

– brave bishop and martyr of Egypt When did you first encounter Christianity? If it was as an adult, then Phileas is a saint for you. His life shows that Truth matters, whenever you encounter it, but is also a warning that you need to count the cost of becoming a Christian. Phileas was a...

– courage in persecution Persecution of Christians in various countries is making the headlines these days. Believers facing such opposition might well find inspiration from the courage of the Japanese Christians of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The Jesuit Francis Xavier had first brought Christianity to Japan in 1549, when he persuaded Shimazu...

 – and the wild boar St Kew has nothing to do with gardens or the ‘Q’ of James Bond fame. This Kew was a girl who lived in Cornwall in the 5th century, and who should be the patron saint of girls with difficult older brothers. Kew’s older brother was a hermit who felt his...

– the persuasive sister Scholastica (d.c. 543) should be the patron saint of any woman who can bend her brother to do her will – no matter how ‘powerful’ that brother might seem to other people. For Scholastica’s brother was no less than the great monk Benedict, who founded the famous Benedictine order and lived...

– the poetic shepherd Caedmon (d 680) should be the patron saint of all farmers who enjoy humming to themselves as they do the lambing this Spring. For Caedmon of Whitby was a bit like David in the Bible; he grew up as a simple herdsman out on the hills who enjoyed composing songs and...

– a poem St Valentine’s Day, many believe, was named after one or more Christian martyrs and was established by Pope Gelasius 1 in 496 AD. Valentine of Rome was martyred about 269, and this day usually ‘belongs’ to him. The first recorded association of Valentine Day with romantic love (1382) is from Geoffrey Chaucer....

– a legend The Roman Emperor Claudius II needed soldiers. He suspected that marriage made men want to stay at home with their wives, instead of fighting wars, so he outlawed marriage. A kind-hearted young priest named Valentine felt sorry for all the couples who wanted to marry, but who couldn’t. So secretly he married...

There are two confusing things about this day of romance and anonymous love-cards strewn with lace, cupids and ribbon: firstly, there seems to have been two different Valentines in the 4th century – one a priest martyred on the Flaminian Way, under the emperor Claudius, the other a bishop of Terni martyred at Rome. And...

Cyril and Methodius are saints for anyone with good secular qualifications, who now suspects that God may be calling them to use those skills in His service. Cyril and Methodius were brothers, born into a wealthy family in Thessalonica, in 826 and 815 respectively. Their upbringing destined them for lives of respect and influence. Methodius,...

If you have something big to forgive, Sigfrid may be the saint for you. This monk from Glastonbury was sent by King Ethelred to Norway and Sweden in 995. The King of Norway, King Olaf, had recently converted to Christianity, and wanted help in converting his people. Sigfrid went first to Vaxjo in Sweden, taking...