Wisdom of Saints: St Cedd

The Feast of Cedd, Missionary, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Cedd, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St Cedd is another British saint for whom little is known apart from what was recorded by St Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. He was born around 620 and died in 664. He was born into the northern kingdom of Northumbria to a noble family, the eldest of four brothers of whom one was St Chad of Litchfield, and the other two who also became priests. They were all chosen by King Oswald to become a priest and monastic to evangelize the area, and was sent to be educated in Lindisfarne at the priory there under the instruction of St Aidan who was then the bishop of Lindisfarne.

He was ordained a priest in 653 and shortly after began missionary work. The pagan East Anglian king Peada converted to Christianity in exchange for the hand of the daughter of the King of Northumbria in marriage. St Cedd was asked to travel to the kingdom to instruct the king in the Christian faith and to convert the people. He had significant success over the next year, and eventually returned to Lindisfarne.

In 654, owing to his success in converting the people of East Anglia, he was sent to Essex, where again the King of Northumbria’s political actions had opened the door for Christian missionaries. St Cedd was sent by the bishop of Lindisfarne to convert the people there. He began his mission and established two monasteries and several churches there, and upon returning to Lindisfarne again later that year was consecrated Bishop of Essex. As Bede records:

Cedd, having received the episcopal dignity, returned to his province, and pursuing the work he had begun with more ample authority, built churches in divers places, and ordained priests and deacons to assist him in the Word of faith, and the ministry of Baptism, especially in the city which, in the language of the Saxons, is called Ythancaestir, as also in that which is named Tilaburg. The first of these places is on the bank of the Pant, the other on the bank of the Thames. In these, gathering a flock of Christ’s servants, he taught them to observe the discipline of a rule of life, as far as those rude people were then capable of receiving it.

He returned south with newfound episcopal authority, ordaining deacons and priests and continuing to raise up many monks in his two monasteries. He re-established St Paul’s, London as his Cathedral, becoming only the second Bishop of London since the first, Mellitus, had been expelled from London by the East Saxon pagans in 616 shortly after establishing St Paul’s, after he himself had arrived in England with St Augustine of Canterbury in 598.

While St Cedd continued his work in the south, he made frequent return visits to the north. On one of these in 658, he was introduced to King Aethelwald of Deira who had been instructed in the Christian faith by one of St Cedd’s other brothers who had also become a monk with him at Lindisdarne. Finding St Cedd to be a godly man, the King gifted him with land at Lastingham on which he asked St Cedd to build a royal monastery and mausoleum. St Cedd ultimately agreed, but demanded that no construction begin until the area had been cleansed by prayer and fasting. He undertook himself in Lent of 658 to fast forty days, and as St Bede records:

All which days, except Sundays, he prolonged his fast till the evening, according to custom, and then took no other sustenance than a small piece of bread, one hen’s egg, and a little milk and water. This, he said, was the custom of those of whom he had learned the rule of regular discipline, first to consecrate to the Lord, by prayer and fasting, the places which they had newly received for building a monastery or a church. When there were ten days of Lent still remaining, there came a messenger to call him to the king; and he, that the holy work might not be intermitted, on account of the king’s affairs, entreated his priest, Cynibill, who was also his own brother, to complete his pious undertaking. Cynibill readily consented, and when the duty of fasting and prayer was over, he there built the monastery, which is now called Laestingaeu, and established therein religious customs according to the use of Lindisfarne, where he had been trained.

St Cedd spent much of the rest of his life living at his monastery in Lastingham, administering his see from there. He is noted to have served at the Synod at Whiby in 664, under the Abbess Hilda, and supported the Synod’s decision to adopt Romanizing customs for the Catholic Church in the Realm of England in an effort to unify the various kingdoms. Shortly after the synod, a plague broke out in England, and St Cedd died. He was buried at Lastingham.

St Cedd led a life destined for holiness. He was educated from an early age under the pious St Aidan of Lindisfarne and dedicated his life to the transmission of knowledge of God to others. He is commemorated as the evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons, and played a critical role in the spread of the Christian faith throughout many of the English kingdoms, and provided a lasting example through his monastic devotion for generations to come.

Wisdom of Saints: St Hilda of Whitby

Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680

O GOD Most High, the creator of all mankind, we bless thy holy Name for the virtue and grace which thou hast given unto holy women in all ages, especially thy servant Hilda; and we pray that the example of her faith and purity, and courage unto death, may inspire many souls in this generation to look unto thee, and to follow thy blessed Son Jesus Christ our Saviour; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

Details of St Hilda’s life are few and far between, with most of the account coming from St Bede’s history of the English Church in which he devotes a chapter to her life (Book 4, Chapter 23). Her story is notable for her piety, devotion to Scripture, her wisdom and role in the Synod at Whitby and finally by virtue of the fact that as a woman she retained the respect and influence that she did in seventh century Christendom.

St Hilda was born in 614 in Northumbria in England. Her father was Prince Hereric of Deira and her mother Lady Bregswith. Her father was the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria. Born pagan, King Edwin was converted to Christianity around 627 and the royal household followed suit, with St Hilda being baptised that year at the age of thirteen.

While there is justifiable scepticism over whether or not someone has truly come to faith when they are converted to Christianity as the result of a monarch of head of their household being converted, St Hilda demonstrated throughout her life a profound commitment to Christ, and deep wisdom that comes from God (Jas 1. 5; 3. 17). St Bede records that when Hilda was still young and at a point when they were living in exile under Cedric, king of the Britons, her mother, Lady Bregswith, had a dream in which her husband, Hereric, was taken away from her and she was searching for him. No matter where she looked, she couldn’t find him. Finally she found a necklace and as she examined it the necklace blazed with bright light that filled all Britain with its brilliance. The dream is considered prophetic of St Hilda’s life, as her love of Christ, the wisdom she gave and the exemplar life she lived shone forth Christ’s light throughout Britain.

While she is viewed as having a devout and chaste youth, it wasn’t until she had reached maturity that she became determined to fully dedicate her life to Christ. At the age of 33, St Hilda chose the consecrated life, having become a nun in the Benedictine order. She had originally sought to travel to the continent. St Bede describes her determination, saying she sought, “to live an exile for our Lord’s sake… so that she might the more easily attain her eternal heavenly home.” St Bede goes on to record that St Aidan of Lindisfarne, known as the Apostle of Northumbria due to his missionary work throughout Northumbria, called on St Hilda to establish monasteries in Northumbria rather than simply living abroad. While himself a bishop, St Aidan was firmly rooted in the monastic Celtic traditions which had Christianised Britain from Iona in the north, rather than in the Roman tradition which had begun at Canterbury in the south.

St Hilda remained in Northumbria, and her noble upbringing aided in her establishment of a number of successful monasteries throughout the region. She was first made Abbess of the monastery called Heruteu (modern Hartlepool). There she earned an even greater reputation for piety and devotion to God. While she herself was Benedictine, she organized the monsastery using the traditions of St Columba and the Rule of the Irish Church. After some time as Abbess there, she established a new double monastery called Streanaeshalch, known more commonly as Whitby in 657. It was established under the same strict disciplines and Rule of Life as her previous monastery had been governed, but in this case the double monastery provided both for monks and nuns. Hilda as Abbess was considered both just, fair and wise, and as her reputation, particularly for wisdom, grew she began to be sought out for counsel by all manner of people, from bishops to kings.

She was extremely devoted to the study of Holy Scripture—a notable commonality among many of the wisest of saints—and it should be no surprise that no less than five of the monks who entered her monastery would eventually go on to ordination and consecration as bishops.

It should be noted that as an Abbess in the Celtic tradition, she was the supreme authority in the area, above even the bishops. This historical development stemmed from the missionary reality that bishops were based in cities which were connected by roads, whereas when St Patrick arrived in Ireland there were no cities or roads and so it was the monasteries that he formed which became central to the administration and maintenance of faith. When St Columba brought to the faith to Iona, that monastic-based form of Christianity began to spread throughout Britain, and was the tradition in which St Hilda had been raised.

This placed St Hilda in an important position when her monastery played host to the Synod at Whitby in 664, a synod convened to seek to determine the future of the Church in the region and whether it would continue in the Celtic tradition or would seek to adopt the more Roman styled Christianity which had arrived in Kent. St Hilda herself was a supporter of her own tradition, though the Synod ultimately sided with Rome.

In 673 and for the remainder of her life, she was afflicted with a painful illness. St Bede described it, saying God gave:

her holy soul the trial of a long infirmity of the flesh, to the end that, according to the Apostle’s example, her virtue might be made perfect in weakness. Struck down with a fever, she suffered from a burning heat, and was afflicted with the same trouble for six years continually; during all which time she never failed either to return thanks to her Maker, or publicly and privately to instruct the flock committed to her charge; for taught by her own experience she admonished all men to serve the Lord dutifully, when health of body is granted to them, and always to return thanks faithfully to Him in adversity, or bodily infirmity.

Her ability to endure and rejoice in suffering and her continued faith and rejoicing in the midst of great physical pain was an example to many, and again helped to bring many to faith in Christ by her example.

St Hilda was a patron of the arts and writing, beyond promoting learning, particularly study of the Scriptures, and some of the only words of her own in existance are a poem attributed to her, which if not written by the saint herself, certainly exemplifies her faith and teachings:

Trade with the gifts God has given you.
Bend your minds to holy learning,
that you may escape the fretting moth of
littleness of mind that would wear out your souls.

Brace your wills to action
that they may not be the spoils of weak desires.

Train your hearts and lips to song
which gives courage to the soul.
Being buffeted by trials, learn to laugh.
Being reproved, give thanks.
Having failed, determine to succeed.

Wisdom of Saints: St Benedict of Nursia

Feast of Benedict, Abbot of Monte Cassino, Italy, c. 540

O ALMIGHTY God, who willest to be glorified in thy Saints, and didst raise up thy servant Benedict to shine as a light in the world: Shine, we pray thee, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth thy praises, who hast called us out of darkness into thy marvellous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Benedict of Nursia is considered to be the founder of monasticism in the Christian West. St Benedict founded the Benedictine Order in the 6th century, setting the tone for Western monasticism, and creating an enduring tradition which remains popular throughout the West to this day. A good deal is known about his life from the Dialogues of Pope St Gregory the Great.

St Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy. The son of a Roman noble, St Benedict moved with his family to Rome where he received his education. Around the age of twenty, he became convinced of the need to abandon the lifestyle he was growing into in Rome, and which he saw among his companions. Instead, he turned to the Gospels and sought to dedicate his life exclusively to God. Ultimately this led him to leave Rome, not to take the hermit’s path, but rather to find somewhere away from the temptations and sin on display in the Roman capital. After a brief period living in a small town 30 miles from Rome with a servant he had brought with him. There his first recorded miracle took place, as he miraculously restored a piece of earthenware his servant had accidentally broken. As news of this miracle spread, he grained significant notoriety throughout the town. This attention on him eventually convinced him to take the hermit’s path, and he moved to a cave in some nearby mountains where he lived a more ascetic lifestyle for the next three years, supported only by the abbot Romanus who had a monastery near St Benedict’s cave.

Even in seclusion, he earned a reputation for his pious asceticism and devotion to God. This eventually led to him being asked to become the abbot for a nearby monastery at Vicovaro. He ultimately agreed and went with them for a time. He attempted to impose a more rigid discipline on the monastery emulating his own more ascetic lifestyle, but soon after the monastery’s monks came to regret their invitation to St Benedict to lead them. They found it difficult to follow his strict rules, and ultimately attempted to poison him. Although they failed, St Benedict realised that his tenure as leader was not working out and he returned to his cave.

He began to earn a reputation as a miracle worker, and the number of recorded miracles attributed to him in this period are many. This attracted followers in sufficient numbers to establish twelve new monasteries in the region. In 530 he began construction of his own personal monastery at Monte Cassino in a site where he had previously destroyed a pagan temple to Apollo. In these monasteries, he began working on the development of his Rule which would be used to organize the monastic communities he had established.

The Rule he developed was based on the use of common sense, moderate asceticism, prayer, study of the Scriptures and the saints, work and a life lived in community in obedience, stability (the Rule provided for a regular daily schedule of work, prayer and rest) and the use of the Divine Offices.

He remained the Abbot at Monte Cassino until his death, but has been immortalised by his Rule.

The Rule of St Benedict is the surviving record of the Rule of Life monks in his monasteries were required to live by, but far beyond sketching out the life of a secluded monk, they are an excellent guide to the mink of pious Christian living. In the Book of Common Prayer, after the Catechism is a supplementary instruction section, at the end of which is this exhortation:

Every Christian man or woman should from time to time frame for himself a RULE OF LIFE in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel and the faith and order of the Church; wherein he may consider the following:
The regularity of his attendance at public worship and especially at the holy Communion.
The practice of private prayer, Bible-reading, and self-discipline.
Bringing the teaching and example of Christ into his everyday life.
The boldness of his spoken witness to his faith in Christ.
His personal service to the Church and the community.
The offering of money according to his means for the support of the work of the Church at home and overseas. (BCP, 555)

This exhortation contains within it a framework for a Rule of Life wholly consistent with the Rule of St Benedict.

The first suggestion is regular attendance to public worship, especially to receive the Holy Eucharist. For St Benedict’s monks, this was not necessarily possible as most monks (including St Benedict himself) were nor ordained and could not themselves celebrate the Eucharist. They were still required to attend Sunday mass and receive communion, but all monks were required to communally pray the Daily Offices. St Benedict explains why:

We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that “the eyes of the Lord are looking on the good and the evil in every place” (Prov. 15:3). But we should believe this especially without any doubt when we are assisting at the Work of God... Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in sight of the Godhead and of His Angels, and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice. (RoB, Ch. XIX)

The second area the BCP encourages the creation of a Rule is in prayer, reading of Scripture and self-discipline. The Rule of Benedict requires prayer multiple times a day. In the first chapter it describes the character of a good monk as a person of prayer, “And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He who has now deigned to count us among His children may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds.” Similarly, Scripture was read constantly. Included in the Rule was the provision that no meal should go without Scripture reading, and therefore the monks were to establish a schedule for a regular rotation of readers. The only interruption allowed would be if the Superior of the monastery wanted to briefly interrupt the reading to explain part of it. Finally, self-discipline was at the core of the Rule, which provided for poverty of monks, limits on food and clothing to avoid becoming too ostentatious (historically, some monks maintained lavish lifestyles despite vows of poverty because their monasteries became rich and the fine clothes and food the monks enjoyed technically belonged to the monastery itself and did not violate their personal vows of poverty).

The remaining four suggestions in the BCP are all related. Living a Christ-like life, speaking the Word of God boldly (in the way Christ taught), offering service to the Church and community (again in the model of Christ), offering money according to your means, as Christ taught. In the Rule of Benedict, there are a number of requirements that relate to these particular aspects of the Christian life. Chapter 4 of the Rule provides for a list of 61 “instruments of Good Works.” These include various instructions of Christ, including the Beatitudes, a summary of the Decalogue, and other rules related to the asceticism prescribed by St Benedict.

St Benedict’s rule remains in common use throughout the Western world by Christian monastics, but it also provides a guide for a Rule of Life for any Christian.