Ecumenical Patriarchate
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
The Orthodox Church of St. Cosmas & St. Damian
Ipswich Suffolk
British and Irish Saints
(Including saints having a connection with these lands)
"When the Church in the British Isles begins to venerate her own saints, then the Church there will grow" – St Arsenios of Paros. (1877)
AUGUST
%2C%20Hermit%20of%20Llangennith.jpeg)
1st St Cennydd (Kenneth), Hermit of Llangennith (6th).
Little is known for certain about St Cennydd. He is said to have been born disabled, was cured by St David of Wales, but then prayed for the cure to be cancelled for the sake of his humility. He lived the eremitic life at Llangennith, a remote settlement in the far western part of the Gower Peninsular in South Wales. There is a church dedicated to him at Llangennith.
1st St Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester (984).
He was born in Winchester and ordained by St Alphege on the same day as his friend, St Dunstan. Along with St Dunstan and St Oswald he worked for the restoration of English monasticism which had been virtually destroyed by Danish raids. He was consecrated Bishop of Winchester. He became known for replacing secular clergy with monks. His reforms were not popular and by the time of his death he became known as, ‘Father of Monks.’
5th St Oswald, King and Martyr (642).
He was King of Northumbria and is admired by St Bede writing some decades after St Oswald’s death; it is to Bede that we owe our knowledge of St Oswald. It was during a period of exile in Scotland that Oswald became a Christian, and he became very devout in his faith. The times were riven by wars, in one of which Oswald’s father was killed. Oswald, however, gained a victory over the Welsh king, Cadwallon. Oswald attributed his success to St Columba whom he saw in a vision and heard that he would be victorious. Oswald re-organised the kingdom and spread the Christian faith throughout. It was Oswald who established Lindisfarne (Holy Island) as a centre for the faith and St Aidan became its first bishop. The period of wars was not over, and Oswald was killed in a battle with the Mercian king, Penda, a pagan. After his death, miracles were reported, and Oswald was soon venerated as saint.
10th St Bertram, King and hermit of Mercia (8th).
Little is known for certain about Bertram. He was king of Mercia and a devout Christian. After his wife and child were killed by wolves, he gave up his kingdom and established a hermitage at Ilam in Staffordshire. He was famed in the locality for his wisdom and piety.
11th St Blane, Bishop of Bute (Dunblane) (late 6th).
Of Irish origin, St Blane evangelised the Picts of south-west Scotland. He established a monastery and several churches. The monastery thrived until it was destroyed by Norse attacks circa 800. Devotion to him was strong in Scotland until about the sixteenth century.
%2C%20first%20bishop%20of%20Killala%20and%20founder%20of%20Innismurray%20(6th)_%20_jp.jpg)
12th St Muredach (Murtagh), first bishop of Killala and founder of Innismurray (6th).
He was the founder of the monastery on the Island of Innismurray, a small island just off the coast of Co Sligo in north-west Ireland. Remains of the monastery still exist and show the characteristic style of stone, the huge thick stone wall around ‘beehive’ huts, and the rectangular church. The monastery is most remarkable.
14th St Fachanan, Abbot of Ross Carberry (c 600).
He is venerated throughout all Ireland. He is patron of the diocese of Ross, where he was probably the first bishop. He was born at Tulachteann, was one of the pupils of St. Ita, and founded the monastery of Molana on an island in the Blackwater, near Youghal. His great achievement was the establishment of the monastic school of Ross, at what is now Rosscarbery, in Co Cork, one of the most famous schools of Ireland, which flourished for three hundred years and survived in some form until the coming of the Normans. Fachanan suffered for a time from blindness, from which he recovered at the intercession of St. Ita's sister, who was about to give birth to St. Mochoemog. St Fachanan was revered as a ‘wise and upright man’, with a great gift for preaching.
_edited.jpg)
18th St Arsenios of Paros (1877).
This saint is mentioned because of the saying: ‘When the Church in the British Isles begins to venerate her own saints, then the Church there will grow.’ He spent the latter half of his life on the island of Paros.
20th St Oswin, King and Martyr (651).
All that we know of his life comes from St Bede who described him as ‘a man of handsome appearance and great stature, pleasant in speech and courteous in manner. He was generous to high and low alike and soon won the affection of all by his kingly qualities of mind and body so that even men of very high birth came from nearly every province to his service.’ Greatly loved by all, he ruled his province in Northumbria most successfully. But his cousin, Oswiu, wishing to gain land and power, quarrelled with Oswin and war ensued. Oswin, realizing that he was outnumbered, disbanded his army to avoid bloodshed, hoping to make good his claim at some future date. Accompanied by a single trusted soldier, he hid in the house of his best friend Hunwald. This earl, however, treacherously betrayed him to Oswiu, who ordered Oswin and his soldier to be put to death. This was on 20th
August 651. Oswin was a devoted friend of Aidan, apostle of Northumbria. Oswiu subsequently made penance by founding a monastery.
22nd St Sigfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth (c 688).
This saint was Abbot of Wearmouth Monastery which was a short distance to the south of the famous Monastery of Jarrow where St Bede spent his life. The place is now called Monkwearmouth, a town on the banks of the River Wear in the north-east of England. Of St Sigfrid, Bede writes: ‘He was a man well skilled in the knowledge of Holy Scripture, of most excellent manners, of wonderful continence, and one in whom the virtues of the mind were in no small degree depressed by bodily infirmity, and the innocency of whose heart was tempered with a baneful and incurable affection of the lungs.’ He was assisted by Benedict. When both men were near their departure from this life, they sent for Ceolfrid, Abbot of St Paul’s Monastery at Jarrow, and asked him to rule both monasteries. Ceolfrid, a saint, did so.
23rd Martyr Tydfil of Merthyr (480).
She was the daughter of a local king and had several sisters, all of whom led spiritual lives. Tydfil set up a monastic community, becoming renowned for her kindness and benevolence. Tydfil is reported to have been killed by pagans circa 480AD as she knelt praying. She was buried in the town she had made her home. So, in essence, ‘Merthyr Tydfil’ means ‘the martyrdom of Saint Tydfil’. The town is in central south Wales at the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
23rd Martyr Ebba the Younger, Abbess of Coldingham (Northumbria 870).
Very little is known of this saint, other than that she was martyred with her community at Coldingham by the Danes in 870.
25th St Ebba, Abbess of Coldingham (Northumbria 683).
St Ebba, the daughter of King Ethelfrith of Northumbria, fled to Scotland with her brothers St Oswald and St Oswy, when their father died in battle in 616 against King Edwin. She received the monastic veil from St Finan at Lindisfarne. With the generous help of her brother, Ebba founded a convent on the Derwent, named Ebchester, after her. She also established the double monastery at Coldingham in the marshes of Scotland’s Berwickshire. This holy abbess governed Coldingham’s nuns until her death, basing their organisation on that of Whitby.
29th St Sebbi, King of the East Saxons (c 694).
Sebbi was King of England's East Saxons. His contemporary St Bede describes him as a ‘soldier of the heavenly kingdom’ who ‘preferred a retired, monastic life to all the riches and honours of a kingdom,’ devoting himself to frequent prayer, and acts of mercy. He even had a mind to abdicate his throne and become a monk, but his wife would hear none of it, unwilling to be separated from him. Nonetheless, when after thirty years, as King Sebbi fell gravely ill, he advised his wife that they should both devote their remaining time to God. His wife thereupon consented to let him spend his final days in a monastery. He died peacefully three days after experiencing a vision that had foretold the day of his death.
31st St Eanswythe, Virgin of Folkestone (c 640).
This saint is remarkable for the fact that her relics have survived to this day, and lie in the Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe in Folkestone, Kent. Eanswythe was a princess of the Kingdom of Kent. Her father was Eadbald, who ruled Kent from 616 to 640. Eanswythe, with her father's support, founded the Benedictine Folkestone Priory. While the monastery was under construction, a pagan prince came to Kent seeking to marry her. Eanswythe, however, refused the match. Instead, Eanswythe lived at the monastery with her companions in the monastic life.
31st St Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne (651).
One of the best-known saints of Orthodox England, Aidan was of the generation before St Bede who wrote a very detailed account of his life and work. He came from Ireland and spent some time at Iona. He then went to Northumbria to re-vitalise the Christian faith there. He founded the great monastery of Lindisfarne and was the first bishop there. Inspired and inspiring, he travelled much and ministered to all, from kings and nobles to the poor and slaves. In his mission he was supported by the pious king of Northumbria, Oswald. The tomb of St Aidan is in the church bearing his name, at Bamburgh, just south of Lindisfarne.
31st St Cuthberga, Queen of Northumbria, first abbess of Wimborne (c 725).
Wimborne Minster is a small town in Dorset and often considered to be the typical quintessentially English country town with its beauty, riverside setting, and long history. It was here that St Cuthburga established a monastery in 705. A member of Wessex royalty, she was the daughter, wife, and mother of kings. She established a double monastery which subsequently became an abbey church or minster. For twenty years, she lived a life of great austerity for herself, yet was gentle and kind to the sisters. The sisters’ part of the monastery became well known for its piety and attracted many who wished to train there. The Minster has been repaired and embellished over the many centuries and is now dedicated to St Cuthburga.