Collins - Saints (Collins Gem)

Abbot
111067

Aelreds father and grandfather were both priests of Hexham, Northumbria, at a time before clergy were invariably celibate. As a teenager he served King David I in Scotland and, by the age of 24, he was Edinburgh Castles head steward. But, hearing that a group of eleven men had founded Britains first Cistercian monastery in Yorkshire, Aelred returned to England to join them. Elected abbot in 1147, he made Rievaulx one of the most powerful monasteries in Britain, and the original eleven swelled to a community of 650. Aelred upheld its standards by exercising uncommon gentleness and good sense. He travelled and wrote widely, especially on the spiritual value of common friendship. He died at Rievaulx, in an outhouse next to the infirmary. The monastic ruins are among the most romantically situated in Britain.

Feast: 3 February

Shrine: Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire

Writings: sermons, prayers, letters and the books On Spiritual Friendship and The Mirror of Charity

Virgin and Martyr
d. 3rd century. Canonised by early tradition

Few martyrs have been subjected to more graphically sexual tortures than Agatha. Born to wealthy Christian parents below Sicilys Mount Etna, she was a beautiful girl dedicated to virginity. After rejecting the amorous attentions of an official, Quintinian, she was confined in a brothel where her purity was miraculously preserved. In fury, Quintinian prosecuted her as a Christian and she was condemned to have her breasts torn away by pincers. These wounds were healed in a vision of St Peter, whereupon Agatha was dragged across burning coals until she died. These salacious details made her a favourite subject in art, often with her amputated breasts displayed on a plate. The similarity between these and loaves is said to have resulted in the blessing of bread on her feast day.

Feast: 5 February

Patron of bell foundries, nurses, Sicily, Malta

Causes: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fire, the protection of Sicily

Symbols in art: excised breasts on chafing dish, pincers, burning torch

Source:The Golden Legend

Virgin and Martyr
d. c.304

Agnes was born in Rome during Emperor Diocletians persecution of Christians. As with Agatha, she was a Christian girl who, at 12 or 13, refused to yield her virginity to an important pagan suitor. She was paraded nude through the streets to a brothel and, later, put to death by being stabbed in the throat, appearing afterwards to her parents with a lamb, symbol of youth and purity. At the monastery of St Agnes in Rome lambs are blessed each year, their wool dedicated to the weaving of papal vestments. Agness cult grew after her death and she is one of the earliest saints of her class to be venerated. Her own foster sister St Emerentiana was stoned to death while praying at Agness tomb.

Feast: 21 January

Patron of young girls, gardeners

Cause: charitable work

Shrines: a church raised above her tomb in the Via Nomentana, Rome, c.350; modern Rome has St Agnes- Without-the-Walls

Symbols in art: lamb, sword, palm

Source:The Golden Legend

A 15th-century representation of St Agnes with the Lamb of Christ, the symbol in art with which she is associated (Dagli Orti)

Abbot and Missionary
d. 651

An Irishman, Aidan was a monk of lona sent to evangelise Northumbria. He founded the celebrated abbey at Lindisfarne, from where, with the support of the local Christian king, Oswald, he travelled much, preaching and performing miracles and spreading the Christian message in the Celtic, as distinct from the Roman, style. Bede, by whose time the lonan Celtic forms were regarded as obsolete, nevertheless had high praise for Aidans goodness, gentleness and moderation.

Feast: 31 August

Shrine: Lindisfarne

Symbols in art: stag, torch

Source: Bedes History of England

Martyr
d. c.209

Regarded as the earliest English martyr, Albans dates are uncertain. He was a pagan Roman officer at Verulamium who, during an outbreak of anti-Christian persecution, sheltered a priest on the run and was converted by him. With the search party at the door, he changed clothes with the priest and was himself caught and beheaded. On the way to his death he is said to have parted the waters of the River Colne to enable a large crowd of onlookers to reach the execution place, Holmhurst Hill, which became the site of his shrine. It is now the cathedral of St Albans.