1411
Forced from his throne and threatened with murder, Edwin makes a curious bargain for his deliverance.
Deprived of his throne in about 604, King Edwin of Deira and Bernicia — later known as Northumbria — fled York and went south to Mercia, only to find his usurper, brother-in-law and mortal enemy, Æthelfrith, still pursuing him to the death. But a night-time visitor gave him a new hope, and a curious sign to remember it by.
Picture: © Paul Buckingham, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 8 2016
1412
A shy and unmusical stable-hand suddenly began to sing wise and moving hymns.
In 657, a monastery was founded in Whitby, in the Kingdom of Northumbria. It gave employment to several labourers, including an elderly stable-hand named Caedmon who would do anything to avoid singing.
Picture: © Paul Buckingham, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 5 2016
1413
The King of Syria goes on a mole-hunt, but Elisha does not seem to mind being his prime suspect.
Naaman, the Syrian general whom the Israelite prophet Elisha cured of leprosy, had not been long back home in Syria when his King was at war with his southern neighbour.
Picture: © Neithsabes, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 4 2016
1414
The strange-but-true story of a Lady Day tradition.
In the days of King Stephen (r. 1135-1154), Lady Tichborne in Hampshire warned her heirs never to fail in their charity to the poor. To do so, she said, would be bring the family line to an abrupt end, and six hundred years and one meddlesome magistrate later, her unlikely fears came true.
Picture: © Colin Smith, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 4 2016
1415
A man born blind is healed by Jesus, but finds himself a social outcast as a result.
Jesus has been avoiding Jerusalem, but now he has taken the fateful step. Immediately he engulfs himself in controversy by coming to the aid of a woman accused of adultery, and by appearing to claim to be God. When he heals a blind man on the Sabbath the Pharisees hope he has at last done something they can prosecute him for.
Picture: © Andrey Mironov, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted March 3 2016
1416
The legend of how Rome was settled gave rise to the March festival of Roman motherhood.
Romans began March, the month of the war-god Mars, by celebrating the ‘Matronalia’, a kind of mothers’ day with presents for the ladies and a day off for slaves. The strange juxtaposition of war and love was said to go back to the legend of how Romulus’s Rome was settled.
Picture: © Rob Campbell, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 3 2016