Clockwise from top left: Sts. Paternus of Wales; Guthlac of Crowland; Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury; Isidore, Bishop of Sevill;, and Mary of Egypt.
By Walt Garlington
♱ Our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt, 1/14 April
One of the greatest saints of the Church and an icon of the extraordinary fruits true repentance can produce. Our venerable mother Mary of Egypt was a desert ascetic who repented of a life of prostitution. She lived during the sixth century, and passed away in a remarkable manner in 522. The Church celebrates her feast day on the day of her repose, April 1; additionally, she is commemorated on the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, the fifth Sunday in Great Lent.
Source
For the original life of St. Mary by St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem
“Troparion — Tone 8“
The image of God was truly preserved in you, O mother, / for you took up the Cross and followed Christ. / By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away; / but to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal. / Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Mary, rejoices with the Angels.
“Kontakion — Tone 3“
Having been a sinful woman, / you became through repentance a Bride of Christ. / Having attained angelic life, / you defeated demons with the weapon of the Cross; / therefore, O most glorious Mary you are a Bride of the Kingdom!
Source
♱ St. Isidore, Bishop of Seville, 4/17 April
The brother of SS. Leander (27th February), Fulgentius (16th January), and Florentina (20th June). After succeeding St. Leander as Bishop of Seville in 600, he presided over several Councils, reorganised the Spanish Church, encouraged monastic life, and completed the Mozarabic Rite. St. Isidore was a prolific writer with many of his books still extent. In 619, St. Isadore convoked the Second Council of Seville, and in 633 the Fourth Council of Toledo. St. Isidore reposed in 636.
Source
A fuller account of his life: here and here
♱ St. Guthlac of Crowland, the Wonder-Worker, 11/24 April
St. Guthlac of Crowland (c. 673-714) is one of the greatest hermit-saints of the early English Church and is considered to be the most popular pre-Norman English saint after St. Cuthbert. Orthodox Christians call him “the English St. Anthony the Great.” Crowland Abbey Church, situated in the quiet village of Crowland in Lincolnshire close to the Cambridgeshire border in the district known as the Fens (the site of ascetic life of Guthlac) attracts Orthodox and other Christian pilgrims every year. The Fens is a low, flat area of parts of present-day Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, formerly well-known as a dominantly marshy region, though the swampland was reclaimed chiefly from the 17th to 19th century.
As is generally known, numerous desert fathers in ancient times, especially in Egypt, lived in deserts. However, the hermits of the British Isles chose small islands, shores, cliffs, sometimes forests, mountains and hills as their “deserts” as Britain does not have natural deserts. Guthlac was unique even for English saints as he preferred to live as a hermit, surrounded by dangerous and impassable bogs and swamps from all sides. His spiritual labors and experiences in all respects resembled the life of the venerable monks of the Egyptian deserts.
Here is a saint that many Southerners can certainly relate to (a saint of the swamps, living at quite a distance from his nearest neighbors). Knowing of him is, therefore, very valuable to us.
A full account of his life
Hymns and prayers to the Saint: Akathist and service
♱ St. Paternus of Wales, 15/28 April
Soon after Paternus’ birth his pious father with his wife’s consent moved to Ireland to lead a solitary life in prayer. The mother raised Paternus in great piety. When Paternus grew up he decided to follow in the steps of his father and, obtaining his mother’s permission and blessing, he set out to Wales together with a group of other young ascetics seeking the solitary life.
But the saint was destined to lead the life of a hermit for only a short time: soon, together with other monks, Paternus with the blessing of spirit-bearing elders founded the great Monastery of Llanbadarn Fawr (“the Great Monastery of Padarn”) near to Aberystwyth in the former county of Cardiganshire, which is now Ceredigion. Some 120 monks lived in this monastery under St. Paternus. Paternus was most probably not only the Abbot of Llanbadarn but also a bishop at the same time.
The saint was noted for his gift of inspired speech, love, compassion, mercifulness and humility. On making Llanbadarn Fawr the center of his mission, Paternus successfully enlightened the neighboring districts of Wales. The venerable father was Abbot of Llanbadarn for over 20 years, his community becoming one of the most celebrated centers of monastic life in line with Mynyw (Menevia in Latin) and Llandaff.
St. Paternus was himself for a long time venerated as one of the founding fathers of Welsh monasticism and the most illustrious saints of this land. He staunchly opposed paganism, which at that time was still practiced by the rulers of some neighboring small kingdoms in Wales. The saint tirelessly preached to them the Good News of Christ, not losing hope for the enlightenment of pagans and their eternal salvation. For his energetic labors toward the eradication of heathenism the holy man suffered much from slander, as pagan chiefs used to malign this innocent man.
A fuller account of his life
♱ Eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa, 16/29 April
Martyrs in Saragossa in Spain under Diocletian and the prefect Dacian. Prudentius, who lived in Saragossa a lifetime later, described their martyrdom.
Source
Prudentius’ Hymn IV about these martyrs, in his “Crowns of Martyrdom“
♱ St. Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, 19 April/2 May
A monk at Deerhurst in Gloucestershire in England, then Abbot of Bath, he became Bishop of Winchester in 984 and thirtieth Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005. He was greatly loved by his flock and during the Danish invasion of 1011 he was urged to pay a ransom. He refused, was taken prisoner and martyred in Greenwich, the only Orthodox Archbishop of Canterbury to be martyred. His relics were enshrined in St. Paul’s in London and later in Canterbury.
Source
A fuller account of his life
♱ St. Beuno, Abbot of Clynnog Fawr, 21 April/4 May
Our holy father Beuno was born in the second half of the 6th century in the Welsh kingdom of Powys (according to another tradition – in the present-day western English county of Herefordshire, which at that time was part of Wales) and most likely was a grandson of a Welsh prince. As a young man, Beuno was taught in Herefordshire and learned the monastic life in the famous Bangor Monastery that had been founded by the holy Bishop Deiniol of Bangor (today the village Bangor-on-Dee in the Borough of Wrexham in north-east Wales).
In about 616 Beuno founded his main monastery at Clynnog Fawr in the historic region and modern county of Gwynedd in northwest Wales. Owing to the tireless labors of the monks of Clynnog Fawr, most of North Wales was enlightened with the Gospel. Beuno was ordained priest at Bangor and then was invited to become its abbot. In all the venerable man established no fewer than nine monastic centers in Wales and all of them became famous.
It was said of Beuno that he was stern with stubborn sinners but was full of mercy and compassion for penitents and those who suffered. Towards the end of his life, Beuno was rewarded by the Lord with the gift of discernment and was able to penetrate into the depths and mysteries of the spiritual world. Throughout his life, Beuno worked numerous miracles of healing. He was also a very active and extremely successful missionary, his preaching of the Word of God reached many corners of Wales and south-west England. Among the contemporary theologians Beuno was famous for his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
A fuller account of his life
♱ St. Maelrubha of Applecross, 21 April/4 May
St. Maelrubha (Maolrubha) has been venerated as one of the apostles of the Picts in Scotland and of Skye—a mountainous island in the Inner Hebrides. Maelrubha was born in 642 in Ireland in what is now County Londonderry. The future saint was descended from King Nial of Ireland and his mother was a niece of the saintly abbot Comgall of Bangor. He took up monasticism and until 671 lived and studied in Bangor Monastery in present-day County Down. It was there that he was ordained a hieromonk.
Wishing to imitate St. Columba of Iona, who had lived 100 years before him, Maelrubha decided to evangelize the pagan Picts in Scotland. Thus, in the year 671, together with a group of monks he moved to Scotland where he first lived on the famous Isle of Iona. In the Scottish lands the saint of God led a perfect ascetic life and was noted for his piety, learnedness, and the many miracles that he performed. In the first two years of his life in Scotland, Maelrubha travelled extensively in the Argyll region in the west where he founded many churches; there are sites dedicated to the saint in those places to this day.
St. Maelrubha was the founder of the monastery of Applecross (the original name: Aber Crossan) on the very northwestern coast of Scotland in the present-day Highland region. At that time it was the land of the Picts. The date of the foundation of Applecross monastery is 673. It was from there that the revival of monastic traditions in Scotland began. Later a notated Paschal table was produced there. The very name “Applecross” is derived from an old Gaelic word meaning “sanctuary.” Originally this monastery of St. Maelrubha was surrounded by crosses marking the border of the monastic settlement.
Unfortunately, only one of those crosses partly survives within a farm. According to the annals of the time and other sources, Applecross was a significant Christian and monastic center of that time from whence the Orthodox faith and Gaelic culture spread rapidly over the north of Scotland.
A fuller account of his life
For complete lists of Orthodox Saints of our Southern forefathers of Africa and Western Europe for April, visit Dr. John Hutchison-Hall and Fr. Andrew Phillips’ Orthodox England.
Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer and editor of the website Confiteri: A Southern Perspective. This longtime Southern Baptist, then Anglican, was united to the Orthodox Church in 2012 and makes his home in Louisiana where he attends a GOA parish.
