Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

Some women have power, and some women are good. When a woman with power is also good, she can achieve an astonishing amount. Margaret of Scotland has been called ‘The Pearl of Scotland’, but she began life in Hungary about 1045. She was born to the expatriate English prince Edward the Exile, and so was...

Danger of torture, assassination, lootings, floods, famines and epidemics… life in France in the 6th century was as turbulent and violent as many of the world’s hot spots are today.  In the midst of all this Gregory (539 – 94) was born into a senatorial family who lived in the Auvergne.  He grew up seeing...

Here is a saint for any young person who has a generous heart and a desire to please God, but who gets rather badly used by adults who should know better. Elizabeth was born in 1207, a princess in the kingdom of Hungary. When she was four, she was sent to the court of the...

Hilda played a key role in the early English Christian church, and she may even have been the first to encourage the writing of Christian poetry. She was born a princess, into the Deiran (Northumbrian) dynasty, and her sister became Queen of the East Angles, with whom the Deiran had connections. In those days East...

If you are going to any concerts before Christmas, spare a thought for St Cecilia (2nd century) – the patron saint of musicians. Cecilia is one of the most famous of the Roman martyrs of the 2nd century.  As far as is known, she was born a noble lady of Rome who, despite her vow...

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 6th October     19th Sunday after Trinity 13th October   20th Sunday after Trinity 20th October   21st Sunday after Trinity 27th October   22nd Sunday after Trinity / Bible Sunday 3rd November  4th Sunday before Advent   High Days & Holy Days Editor:  As saints don’t go away, we add to them each year...

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 –...

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...