EVICTION OF SAINTS

Shannon News, 19 April 1927, Page 4

EVICTION OF SAINTS

MADJE FOR OTMERS in prayer book NAMES MISSING 1 ~— ' LONDON, Feb. ,23. of saints of doubtful hishave been evicted from of the new draft Prayer ' The most familiar names them are those of St. Valensaid to have been a martyred priest—not a bishop, as the called him—whose feast reason —probably by connectHa' with some forgotten pagan —the favoured day for the of lovers' greetings;. St. H&spin, the patron of shoemakers Ht* Catherine of Alexandria, a ■rotiably legendary virgin martyr Hlliose torture on a spiked wh«el is Hommemorated by the name of a ■ifrtain variety of firework; and St. ■jctiolas, the '"Santa Glaus" of our Hplidhood, and patron of sailors, Mffwnbrokers, and thieves. only native English saint to be ■topped is Edward, the boy king Hlho was murdered at Wareham ,in Kofset in 978 by the hired assassins ■st-'his stepmother, and whose shrine w?s a famous resort Kfpilgrims in the Middle. Ages. Tbe# ■tlast on-May 3, quaintly named-The of the. Cross, commem■lraing the discovery of the True ■'Cross at Jerusalem by Helena, the ■sjritish.born mother of the Emperor ■B'onstantine th e Great, is excised. Several Famous Saints. HI-It will be a surprise to many that ■fit Patrick, the Apostle and Patron of Bfreland. has not previously been Rarffed in the Prayer Book. Several fcher famous British, saints are now ■Commemorated for the first time. ■•Tccse include Wulfstan of Worcester; ■Anskar, the first preacher of ChnsBtianity in Sweden; Cuthbert, of LindKfSfarne: Anselm, the greatest English ■theologian of the Middle Ages; Ald■ii'elm of Sherborne; Columba of Iona; ■ Oswald, the Northumbrian KSinian; the apostle of Galloway and ■rtho. Pennine country: Aidan; Theofclore of Tarsus, the Greekborn ArehB&i'shop of Canterbury; and Hilda, ■lbbess of Whitby. St. Thomas >.of, ' the first saint to be re■Amoved from the Calendar, by direct ■instruction of Henry VIII., has, howBr^C^Tvnot regained his place. ■ '■■ No' attempt has been made to. can- ■ '•onise modem Englishmen; the only ■B'namo not already generally recognised lsas that of a saint is Alfred the Great. figures famous in early ■Trchurch history havo been allotted a ■?|place; among them Antony,, the ■founder of monasticism in Egypt; ■fKpbiycarp. the disciple of St. John ■jfthe Evangelist and Bishop of Smyr'John Chrysostom; Leo the Great.. ■ of Rome against Attila; ■vAthanasius, the champion or ortlio-K'-Ydoxy in the, face of Arianism; MonKfica, Basil; Irenaeus of Lyons; Igna■T'ftius of Antioch. The Middle Ages ifrgive St. Catherine of Siena, the stigM-- matiscd ecstatic who did so much to to an end the "Babylonish capof the- Popes at Avignon; IfV; Benard of Claivaux, the preacher of I'lithe Crusades- and, most beloved of "i'saints. Francis of Assisi. *j/"" • Effect of a Printer's Error i% A perhaps unexpected name is that i\',/>f Clement of Alexandria, an early [} Father not recognised as a sa'nt by ffi.the Roman Church, and suspected of Pfcertain heretical tendencies. An inii'teresting innovation is the establish£"''inent of a feast of "Saints, Martyrs. f : "'and Doctors of the Church of Eng- % land," on November 8. ¥- ■ The removal of J3t. Alban's date !;; from Juno 17 to June 22 rectifies a j queer error in the Calendar of 1662. v -" The latter date was always accorded >v, to St. Alban in .pre-Reformation {' Calendars, and in the modern Roman ' :; Calendar; and the best reason that. -Y. has ever been found for the assign- ; , ment of the former day is that the \ "Roman figures XXII. were misread ■•- H by the compilers of the old Calendar : ;' as XVIT.