‘A Trinity of Saints’

 

The joy and warmth of spring

Are freely flowing

In the month of May

And reach their greatest height

At the end of

Þrimilcemonað¹

With the celebration

Of a trinity

Of England’s Saints –

Augustine, Aldhelm, Bede –

Three separate lives

Making up a single life

That established

The Christian Faith

Among English folk.

 

From Sicily

Through St Andrew’s in Rome,

To Canterbury

And all of Kent,

St Augustine –

The Apostle,

Enlightener,

The Father-Farmer –

Sowed the sacred seed

Of the Gospel

In the hearts of

King Ethelbert and all his realm,

And nourished by the sweet dew

Of the Holy Ghost

Brought forth a miraculous

Harvest of mystical

Stems and fruits that quickly

Spread in the following years

To every corner

Of the English lands

And knit them together

Into one body

With a common Faith,

Making them one gleaming

Golden field of wheat

Nourished by a

Single Holy Root.

 

The first-fruits of that

Fertile growth in Wessex lands,

Aldhelm – bishop, abbot;

Learnèd in classical tongues

And other lore; lover

Of riddles; poet, preacher,

Teacher, harper, singer;

Gentle shepherd who

Wooed the wayward

Back to Church; renowned

Ascetic; strong in prayer,

Mighty in miracles;

Multiplier of churches

And monasteries

For the faithful;

He made sturdy,

Steadfast, the God-born stalks

Of St Augustine’s field.

 

One of the choicest

Of those early fruits,

Venerable Bede,

Northumbrian-born,

Monastically raised

At Wearmouth-Jarrow,

Nurtured by Saints,

Excelling, in turn,

In telling others

Of their blessèd lives,

In explaining the meaning

Of Holy Scripture,

In expounding

The history

Of Christian England;

He was like God’s seal

Upon her, confirming

His abiding presence

Amongst her people.

 

But now the three-jeweled crown

Has fallen from our heads;

The flames of unbelief

Have scorched the fruitful field;

Hope and joy have given

Way to emptiness, despair,

The desire for death.

 

Yet the abundant love

Of their divinely-woven

Fellowship, an image

Of the Divine communion

Of the Life-Creating

Trinity, beckons us

To grasp again

The festive, saintly crown

And root ourselves

In the fire-blasted field

That St Augustine planted

Centuries ago,

Restoring our communion

With our ancestors,

Our God, and our Saints.

 

1 ‘Three Milk Month’, the name given to May by St Bede because the cows could be milked three times a day due to the great amount of grass, etc., for them to feed upon (from Mr Eadmund Dunstall’s Englisc Calendar for May).

***

Lives of these three English Saints may be found at the following web pages:

St Augustine

https://orthochristian.com/94050.html

St Aldhelm

https://orthochristian.com/113504.html

St Bede

https://orthochristian.com/104073.html

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!