Waterlooville
SACRED HEART PARISH
Waterlooville
| SAINTS FOR THE WEEK The calendar becomes somewhat thin in these days before Christmas. The virtues of St. Lucy (Dec 13) and St. John of the Cross (Dec 14) have been previously commented on in these columns. We would propose for your attention the lesser-known merits of: St. Edburga (Dec 13) [+751] abbess of Minster in Thanet (Kent, near Ramsgate), disciple of St. Mildred, who had founded the abbey; born into the royal house of Wessex, she was a skilled scribe, and prepared copies of texts for St. Boniface, the great English missionary to Germany. St. Nicasius (Dec 14) [+451], bishop of Reims in France, who when faced with an invasion of Huns stood at the door of his cathedral to intercede for the safety of his people and was beheaded, along with his own sister, Eutropia, a deacon and a lector; and … St. Mawnan (Dec 18) [date unknown]. This saint, whose name appears in place names around Falmouth in Cornwall, was apparently an itinerant Irish bishop with a fine line in cursing people who opposed him. When he sought absolution from St. Maelruain, abbot of Tallaght [Wicklow], and was refused, because he did not earn a living but depended on charity, St. Mawnan replied in typically robust manner: "Mark my words, the days will come when girls will speak impertinently, when there will be grumbling among the lower classes and lack of reverence to elders, when churches will be slackly attended and women shall exercise wiles". Are we now living with the fulfilment of St. Mawnan’s curse? |
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