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St Bede says that Christ’s Transfiguration should remind us that we live in two worlds at the same time.
One day, Jesus took three of his closest disciples up a mountain, and there briefly revealed himself to them as he truly is. For St Bede, the 8th century Northumbrian monk, it was a reminder that the light of heaven comes to those whose hearts are in heaven.
Eusebius remembers the banner that Emperor Constantine carried into battle on the day he won his crown.
It was at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, on October 28th, 312, that Constantine — encouraged by the British legions — overcame his rival Maxentius and emerged as the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. In this passage, his friend and confidant Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, recalls what Constantine told him about his vision before the battle, and the banner that Christ told him to make.
In 664, a council at Whitby decided to align the traditions of the Northumbrian Church with those of Rome and Constantinople.
In 634, monk Aidan established a monastery on the ‘holy island’ of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. Aidan taught King Oswiu’s chaplains the traditions of the monastery founded by Columba, an Irishman, on Iona in western Scotland; but Oswiu’s Queen came from Kent, and her chaplains kept the Roman ways brought by St Augustine to Canterbury. At last, Oswiu could stand the bickering no more.
The Sheriff of Northumberland allows wealth and power to go to his head — and his digestion.
In the 680s, St Cuthbert was Bishop of Lindisfarne, an island just off the Northumberland coast, though he lived alone on neighbouring Inner Farne. His remains were later brought to Durham, where in 1093 a large priory was begun in his honour. Reginald, a monk in the priory, recorded dozens of miracles at Cuthbert’s Durham shrine, but some still went to Farne to seek his help.
Back in the 6th century, Mary was consumed by an addiction so compulsive that she would use and discard anyone to satisfy it.
St Mary of Egypt was a hermit of the Holy Land who made such an impression on England that Abbot Elfric (?955-?1022) left us a lengthy sermon on her extraordinary life. Her story remained a favourite long after the Norman Conquest, and the following account comes from a Martyrology customarily read out in Syon Abbey (long vanished, a victim of the Reformation) and printed in 1526.
John’s enduring influence is evident today in the rich sights and sounds of Christian liturgy.
St John Damascene (676-749) was Syrian monk and a contemporary of our own St Bede, both of them highly respected scholars with a deep love for Church music. John left us an exposition of Christian theology of enduring importance throughout east and west; he compiled a wealth of hymns, collects and prayers; and he saved Christian iconography everywhere from the hands of extremists.
Cynewulf encourages his listeners to remain committed to the Christian life, by reminding them of the reward that awaits them.
What shines out of every page of the New Testament is the promise of eternal life. In Christ, a narrative poem written in Old English sometime around 800, the poet Cynewulf drew together a number of Scriptural quotations to remind his listeners of the reward that awaits those who do not turn aside.