SAINTS OF BRITISH ISLES (continued)

ST.  COLUMBA of IONA (597)  Born to the Irish royalty, he became a monk. He was a spiritual student of St. Finian and was the spiritual teacher of other saints. In 563 he traveled to Scotland. He was exiled to Iona  where he founded a monastic community, serving as its abbot for twelve years.
He and the monks of Iona, including  St. Baithen of Iona and St. Eochod, then evangelized the Picts, converting many.

Because he spent so much of his life living on islands he is often pictured surrounded by birds.







ST. MUNGO (also known as ST. KENTIGERN) (603)  He was the Apostle to northwest England and southwest Scotland.  He was the grandson of Prince Lothus of Britain. He taught in Scotland for 13 years, living in great austerity. In 553  he was exiled during an anti-Christian uprising by local pagans. He fled to Wales, where he stayed with St. David of Wales. He founded a monastery at Llanelwy, serving as its first abbot. He returned to Scotland in 573, evangelizing the areas of Galloway and Cumberland, returning to Glasgow in 581 where he ministered to his people for the rest of his life.

Glasgow‘s Coat of Arms includes a bird, a fish, a bell and a tree, the symbols of St. Kentigern. The bird commemorates the pet robin owned by St. Serf, which was accidentally killed by monks who blamed it on St. Kentigern. St. Kentigern took the bird in his hands and prayed over it, restoring it to life.


 



ST. COLUMBANUS (615)  Not to be confused with St. Columba. He was a hermit, monk and missionary. He founded an abbey that was to be the source for evangelization throughout northern Italy for centuries to come. At the end of his life, he retired to a cave for solitude. His influence continued for centuries as those he converted handed on the faith, the brothers he taught evangelized many more, and his monks founded over one hundred monasteries to protect learning and spread the faith.

Susanne Iles

St. Columbanus always enjoyed being in the forests and caves, and as he walked through the woods, birds and squirrels would ride on his shoulders.










ST. KEVIN of GLENDALOUGH (618) Hermit, abbot and friend to many other saints including St. Columba. Noted as a man who did not always like the company of men, but was at home with the animals.

(Statue at Our Lady of Knock, Ireland)

There are several stories of his relationship to birds: Once during Lent, while he held his arms outstretched in prayer, a blackbird laid an egg in  St. Kevin’s hand. He remained in that position until the baby bird hatched. (He is almost always pictured with his blackbird).

(Clive Hicks-Jenkins)

In his old age, King O’Tool of Glendalough made a pet of a goose. As time passed, the goose also became aged and weak, and finally unable to fly. Hearing of St. Kevin’s sanctity and power, the pagan king sent for him, and asked that he make the beloved goose young. St. Kevin asked for a payment of whatever land the goose would fly over. As the goose could no longer take flight, the king agreed. When  St. Kevin touched the bird, it grew young, and flew over the entire valley that was used to found the monastery of Glendalough.


ST. CUTHBERT of LINDISFARNE (867) He was a shepherd who received a vision of St. Aidan of Lindesfarne entering heaven; the sight led St. Cuthbert to become a Benedictine monk at age 17 at the monastery of Melrose, which had been founded by St. Aidan. He became prior in 664.

He is sometimes pictured tended by eagles or swans or rebuking crows.







 


 ST. HUGH of LINCOLN (d. 1200) Born to the nobility he joined the Carthusians in 1160 and became abbot of the first English Carthusian monastery, which was built by King Henry II as part of his penance for the murder of  St. Thomas Becket.  His reputation for holiness spread through England, and attracted many to the monastery.

He loved all the animals in the monastery gardens, especially a wild swan that would eat from his hand and follow him about and yet the swan would attack anyone else who came near Hugh.

SAINTS AND THEIR BIRDS

People ask me in reference to this blog:  who are these Saints that related to birds??? For the first leg of our journey we start in the British Isles with some amazing women.

Br. Robert Lentz, OFM,’s beautiful image from ancient Celtic religious experience was God as a trinity of women. The Maiden gave birth to creation. The Mother nurtured and protected it, and the Crone brought it wisely to its end.  A raven accompanied the Crone as a symbol of life and death: though it ate dead things, it flew high into the heavens.

The Benedictine nun St. Milburga, (d. 715) was a daughter of the King of Mercia. Her mother was St. Ermenburga and one her sisters was St. Mildred.

Founding Wenlock abbey in Shropshire, England, she was known as a miracle worker and had a mysterious power over birds; they would avoid damaging the local crops when she asked them to. 

Another great Benedictine, St. Hilda of Whitby (d.680) was noted for the wisdom that drew kings to her for advice. As Bede the Venerable wrote: "All who knew her called her mother because of her outstanding devotion and grace". 

 

A local legend says that when sea birds fly over the Abbey they dip their wings in honor of Saint Hilda. She is often pictured with geese as she would stop them from eating the planted corn.

St. Ode was a blind Scottish princess who was miraculously cured of her blindness. She became a Catholic and  devoted her life to God. In a desperate attempt not to be made queen of her realm she fled to the Continent. 

 She traveled from one place to another, wherever she could find silence for worshiping. She is usually pictured with birds who warned her of the arrival of strangers.  Eventually she arrived in the Netherlands where she spent the rest of her days.

St Columba the Virgin is a 6^th C. saint of  Cornwall. She became a Christian when the Holy Spirit appeared to her in the form of a dove. She is one of the first saints to be pictured with a bird.

One of my favorites is the Benedictine nun St. Frideswide, daughter of Prince Didan. When a neighboring noble, Prince Algar, asked for her hand in an arranged marriage, Frideswide fled to Thomwry Wood, Birnsey, England where she lived as a hermitess, hiding in barnyards. She later founded Saint Mary’s and served as its abbess. The  monastery is now Christ Church College, (Oxford) and the church became Oxford Cathedral. 

(Daniel Mitsui)

She is usually pictured with birds of the fields and barnyards.

THE GOLDEN YEAR

February 10, the feast of St. Scholastica (twin to our founder St. Benedict) our Mother Prioress Therese celebrated 50 years of monastic vows. It was a quiet but joyous celebration for the Community and a few guests.  Mother left for our Abbey in Connecticut May 1 for a joint celebration on Mother's Day (May 13) with our Mother Abbess who also celebrates her golden jubilee this year. We will have a larger celebration at OLR for friends this summer.

Mother Prioress Therese

Most people do not realize that Benedictines profess three vows at Profession but not the three that modern orders take (obedience, poverty, chastity).  We take Obedience, Stability & Conversatio Morum:

    Obedience is to the Abbot, the Rule and the laws of the Church. It is attuning one’s spiritual ear to the voice of God in all situations and responding to His call.  

Tabernacle in OLR  Chapel

    Stability refers to a physical stability, meaning that we commit to life in a particular community and are not transferred around as in more active orders

    Conversatio Morum is conversion of one's life, not as something in the past but an on-going change, now and in the future. It is to remain open to change and transformation.

When pondering the Rule of St. Benedict, the one word that first comes to mind is BALANCE. His Rule is about moderation. A true psychologist (as was our American foundress) he understood the need for nourishing body, mind and soul.  The three vows we profess allow this balance in our lives as Benedictines in a modern world. They are the “glue” which bind us to Christ and the Community.

HOPE

My generation in the Abbey grew up on the poems of Charles Peguy, not known to many Americans, at least not in the early 70s. But our Abbess was raised in France and  so brought many things French with her, including literature, such as François Mauriac and Paul Claudel.

Charles Péguy (1873-1914) was a noted French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism, but, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he become a devout but non-practicing Roman Catholic in 1908. He seemed at times to be a "tortured"soul yet never lost his faith in the power of prayer. A year before he died one of his sons was ill with typhoid fever and there seemed to be no hope of saving him. But Charles prayed to the Virgin Mother:
                     You must do something for my children. I place them in your lap. I give them to you...

He died in battle, shot in the forehead, in Villeroy, Seine-et-Marne during World War I, on the day before the beginning of the Battle of the Marne.

Every year on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, the Community makes a Commitment to “take on” a work for the year.  This year:  TO LIVING MORE DEEPLY INTO THE GIFT AND MYSTERY OF HOPE, HOPE IN ALL THAT IS UNSEEN, UNKNOWN.  Mother Prioress quoted Charles Peguy’s poem on hope:
              But hope, says God, that is some
              Thing that surprises even me...
              That these poor children see how
              Things are going and believe that
              Tomorrow things will go better.
              That is surprising and it’s by
              Far the greatest marvel of our
              Grace...My grace must indeed be
              An incredible force.

Charles Péguy wrote this poem on hope, which he saw symbolized by his nine-year old daughter.

             Faith is a faithful wife.
             Charity is an ardent mother,
             But hope is a tiny girl...

             But my little hope is she   
             who goes to sleep every night,
             in that child crib of hers,
             after having said her prayers properly
             and who every morning wakes up and rises
         and says her  prayers with a new look in her  eyes…

Hummel

This simple but very long poem is a great meditation on the virtue of hope, which makes one ponder the word HOPE which we too often use without thought of its true meaning.

Hope answers our desire for happiness, a desire that God has implanted in every heart. It gives us strength so we will not become discouraged. It supports us when we feel deserted.

"Let us put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the HOPE of salvation." (1 Thess. 5:8)

'HILLYBILLY" SAINT

Recently Mother Prioress handed me an article about St. Gianna Molla. It was about the movie made of her life- which I had just seen- so not much news there, but what did interest me was an article on the backside by Msgr. David Liptak (editor of the Catholic Transcript- Hartford, Ct.), about Flannery O'Connor titled  Our "Hillbilly" Thomist. Having this past year read The Abbess of Andalusia - Flannery O'Connor's Spiritual Journey by Lorraine V. Murray, (which made the best-seller list), I  found the article compelling. Flannery read St. Thomas every night for 20 minutes and referred to herself as a "hillbilly Thomist”.

Years ago our Mother Lucia, who has a PhD from Yale in Literature, gave us a fascinating course on Flannery and her writings. Since then I have been a great fan. Her writings are not for everyone, yet now her novels and short stories are seen as profoundly religious in their inspiration. As Msgr. Liptak writes in his article, T.S. Eliot was "horrified" by some of her writings. Msgr. thinks she may have answered him: "you have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.

Cook- A Baptism (Flannery O'Connor)

Her Southern Gothic stories often relate of things uncomfortable and grotesque, although she insisted that her stories always had a very Catholic core. Beneath the ugly, violent and shocking events, the deepest meaning of Christian life emerges with themes of evil, suffering, grace, and redemption, while she examined questions of morality and ethics.

She wrote allegorical fiction about seemingly backward Southern characters, usually fundamentalist Protestants, who undergo transformations of character that to her thinking brought them closer to the Catholic mind. This transformation is often accomplished through pain, violence, and ludicrous behavior in the pursuit of the holy. However grotesque the setting, she tried to portray her characters as they might be touched by divine grace.

In spite of being handicapped by the debilitating disease of lupus from which she died at age thirty-nine, Flannery lived a fully abundant life giving us (in her many letters) wonderful spiritual insights on such topics as the Communion of Saints and grace in suffering.

At Andalusia (her family’s ancestral farm), she raised over 100 peafowl. Fascinated by birds of all kinds, she raised ducks, hens, geese, and any sort of exotic bird she could obtain, while incorporating images of peacocks into her books. She describes her peacocks in an essay entitled "The King of Birds." These magnificent creatures (which we know from first-hand experience to be at times noisy, dirty, and generally a pest), have become a metaphor for the author herself and for her work.

Christine Marie Larsen, artist

“To the melancholy this sound is melancholy and to the hysterical it is hysterical. To me it has always sounded like a cheer for an invisible parade.”

Her fame has spread since her death. Her Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was named the "Best of the National Book Awards" by internet visitors in 2009.

Flannery O'Connor in her writings, most especially her letters, show us a spiritual, brilliant woman, living her life to the fullest in relation to Christ. We can easily call her  SAINT!

A SAINT FOR BOY'S TOWN

When I was a child I can remember my Father contributing on a regular basis to Boy's Town. It was his favorite charity though he never told us why. Years later when I attended Creighton University in Omaha I had many occasion to visit the campus of this wondrous facility, just for a quiet green place to study. Of course we all saw the movie with Spencer Tracy & Mickey Rooney which only added to the greatness of this place.

Just this past March Father Flanagan’s process for canonization was opened.

SERVANT of GOD EDWARD JOSEPH FLANAGAN was born in 1886 at Leabeg, County Roscommon, Village of Ballymoe, Ireland. It is believed that  he was born prematurely, leading to his family's fear that he would not survive. Perhaps due to his condition at birth, Edward was frail and often struggled with illnesses throughout his entire life. In spite of this he had great determination to accomplish the Lord’s will. In a letter to a friend he wrote, "You also may not know that I was the little shepherd boy who took care of the cattle and sheep. That seemed to be my job as I was the delicate member of the family and good for nothing else, and with probably a poorer brain than most of the other members of the family." The family had a farm and sometimes he and his father would pray the Rosary in the rain and rosaries in hand go together looking for lost sheep.

He was clearly formed for his life long mission work during the days of his youth in Ireland. "The old-fashioned home with fireside companionship, its religious devotion and its closely-knit family ties is my idea of what a home should be. My Father would tell me many stories that were interesting to a child -stories of adventure, or the struggle of the Irish people for independence. It was from him I learned the great science of life and heard examples from the lives of saints, scholars and patriots. It was from his life I first learned the fundamental rule of life of the great Saint Benedict, 'pray and work.'"

He immigrated to America in 1904, with his sister Nellie staying with his mother's relatives until he began his studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He then entered Dunwoodie Seminary in Yonkers for the Archdiocese of New York. In the first year of his studies he contracted double pneumonia and because of his weak lungs was unable to fully recover. He had to leave the seminary for at least a year. He moved to Omaha, in 1907, to live with his brother, Father Patrick Flanagan, with Nellie nursing him back to health.

After studies and many set-backs, he was ordained in 1912. His first assignment was in O’Neill, Nebraska, where his brother had spent his first parish assignment after his arrival in Omaha in 1904. Six months later, in Holy Week Father Edward was transferred to St. Patrick’s Church in Omaha to assist the ailing pastor. On Easter Sunday, a violent tornado struck Omaha, destroying one third of the city and killing 155 leaving hundreds homeless, and many without work.

For the next two years, Fr. Flanagan ministered to the needs of those affected by the tornado, later founding a shelter for homeless men. During the first Great War he decided to make a study of the juvenile justice system. In the summer of 1917, he took seven boys from the courts, met with them three times a week establishing a routine for them. He now knew the course his life would take and with the permission of the Bishop Jeremiah Harty, moved five boys, ages eight to ten, into his first home. 6 months later he had 32 boys in a larger building and by Christmas, there were over 100 boys in the home and soon the capacity of 150 boys was reached. With help from the Mother-Superior of the Notre Dame Sisters, and many well-trained teachers, he began a school for the boys. In 1921, he received the deed to Overlook Farm, constructed five buildings for his boys, and was able to move them to their new home. Overlook Farm is now the incorporated Village of Boys Town.

While obviously quite busy with his life Father was a man of prayer and encouraged every boy to pray; his famous quote is, "Every boy should pray; how he prays is up to him."

More than 6,000 youth were under his direct care during his lifetime. U.S. Presidents and other world leaders sought his counsel. He advised, was studied and inspired other clergy and youth care workers throughout the world. Eighty-nine programs across the globe are directly inspired by his example. Boys Town is currently a national leader in caring for children and families through its treatment for behavioral, emotional and physical problems.

"He ain't heavy, Father, he's m' brother!"

 He prophesied before his passing in Berlin in 1948, "That the work will continue you see, whether I'm there or not, because it's God’s work, not mine."  He died at the age of 61 of a heart attack.

Father Flanagan believed that every child could be a productive citizen if given love, a home, an education and a trade, and accepted boys of every race and creed. He is quoted as saying, “There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.”