Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days

– 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...

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...

– 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...

– 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....

– founder of SPCK Thomas Bray was once called a ‘Great Small Man’, with good reason. This diminutive 18th century English clergyman (1658 – 1730) not only helped to establish the Church of England in Maryland, but he was also founder of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in 1698 and the...

– who’s for pancakes?     by David Winter Why do we have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, as we call it today? And what is Shrove Tuesday? And why do thousands of people feel it rewarding to race along a street somewhere tossing pancakes from their frying pans as they go? Well, the answer...

– Pancake Day Ever wonder why we eat pancakes just before Lent? The tradition dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, when Christians spent Lent in repentance and severe fasting. So on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the church bell would summon them to confession, where they would be ‘shriven’, or absolved from their sins, which gives...

– in Jerusalem by David Winter Ash Wednesday introduces the Christian preparation for Easter, which normally coincides with Passover, the major Jewish celebration of the year. It’s near Easter because Jesus was crucified at Passover, having just shared this very meal with His disciples. Passover celebrates and recalls the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt....