Celebrate That Fact and Pray for Them and Teach Your Heart Out

 Durham Cathedral

A couple of things that keep me sane during Wisconsin's long winters are reading good books and watching interesting YouTube videos.

Because I thought it was such a great answer, I transcribed part of a YouTube video of a Wheaton Theology Conference. A young person had asked the question,

"Is teaching in the local church worth devoting my life to?"

N.T. Wright's answer was the following:

"Of course it’s worth devoting your life to teaching in the local church, if that is your primary calling. For some people, that is their primary calling.Some wonderful great teachers have devoted themselves to this. You just don’t know.  Who are these people you’re teaching? You have no idea what God is going to do through the glimmer of new insight that by God’s grace will come through your teaching into their hearts and lives.

"I live in a part of the world where we honor people like Cuthbert and Aiden and Bede. And Bede was a little boy in the monastery in Jarrow when they had the Plague. And the only two of them that were left were Bede as a little boy and one elderly monk. And they would sing the Psalms together. And Bede grew up to be the single great scholar in the Europe of his day : an astronomer, mathematician, Biblical commentator, etc. etc. etc.

"Who would have thought, seeing that monastery on the wild coast of northeast England, that here would be somebody that would be this great teacher, you just don’t know who you’ve got in your congregation. Celebrate that fact and pray for them and teach your heart out."

***

And since Wright is from northern England in the first place, and since he was Bishop of Durham from 2003-2010, he was able to pull that nifty little history lesson right off the tip of his brain, without hesitation. I loved that answer.

N.T. Wright is currently Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland -  and author of a gazillion books, of which Surprised by Hope, The Day The Revolution Began, Jesus and the Victory of God, The Meal Jesus Gave Us, Simply Christian...are just a mere fraction, and all worth keeping in your home library.

 

(You will find other posts about Cuthbert, Bede, and possibly even N.T. Wright if you type their names in the search box on my sidebar.) 

Have a blessed Lord's Day, friends.

Anglophile Friday - St. Cuthbert's Cross

My Valentine's present came early!

And this photo I took doesn't do the piece justice.

It is brighter and more beautiful in person!

The cross and chain together weigh 33 g/ 1.15 oz.

Mr. C. gave me an early Valentine's gift!  Okay, I'll admit that it's one of those presents where you thank your husband for something and you wait as he, with a far-off look in his eyes, tries to dredge up some flicker of  recognition... Some of you know what I mean. And I don't do that often and only when absolutely necessary. But ANYway, moving along:

I ordered this beautiful historic reproduction piece online after doing a search (and research) for St. Cuthbert's Cross, like the REAL one in the Treasury at Durham Cathedral, which we had the awesome privilege of seeing last October. No kidding, it is a real thrill to be in that newly-opened Treasury and viewing these artifacts that belonged to St. Cuthbert and are more than a thousand years old, along with others of the Treasury that are as old as the 2nd century. If you ever get to London, it's worth the train trip north to spend a night over (at least) in York (and see awesome York Minster Cathedral, making sure to attend Evensong service) and then the additional half hour by train to Durham and Durham Cathedral.

'So who is St. Cuthbert?' you might ask. This brief paragraph from Wikipedia will clue you in:  

"Cuthbert (c. 634 – 20 March 687) is a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in what might loosely be termed the Kingdom of Northumbria in the North East of England and the South East of Scotland."

St. Cuthbert

Icon, OCA

I was going to write a blog post on St. Cuthbert, but I remembered that I've already written a few, so I will give the links here for those who would like to read more about him and about Durham Cathedral, where his shrine is located. Check out:  Part A,  Part B, Part C, St. Cuthbert's Gospel (and then there are several other references to Durham that one can find by doing a search in the box on the blog sidebar, if you so wish). The blog posts are accompanied by several photos taken in March of 2015.

St. Cuthbert lived in the mid 7th century in northern England, and his bones, pectoral cross, fragments of his coffin, and vestments (along with many other early artifacts) are now on display in the Open Treasure at Durham Cathedral.

Of course no photography is allowed in the Open Treasure area, and the photos below were taken in the cathedral (by permit).

 A place to kneel and pray - at the shrine of St. Cuthbert

 Colorful tester above the shrine of St. Cuthbert

The photo below is the first room in the Open Treasure, which is well worth the price of admission.

Photo via Durham Cathedral website

This area was the monks' dormitory

Opened to the public in the summer of 2016, the Open Treasure includes St. Cuthbert's wood coffin and awesome gold and garnet pectoral cross (the reproduction of which is shown in the first photo above), an ivory comb, portable altar, vestments later gifted to the shrine, and the sanctuary knocker (or ring). About the sanctuary ring: If someone had committed a particularly serious offense, they could knock on the cathedral door and be given 37 days of sanctuary to either reconcile with their pursuers or flee. (The right to sanctuary was abolished in 1624.) The original sanctuary ring is in the Open Treasure, and there is a replica on the door of the cathedral. (see below)

 Fall of 2017

Sanctuary Ring

   

Open Treasure
St. Cuthbert
photo via
https://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/open-treasure

Durham Cathedral

stands high above the River Wear
October, 2017

Just a sampling of the work by

www.historicjewelleryreproduction.uk.com

A bit about the process of making these reproductions, from the catalog that came with my order:

"Depending on the complexity and fragility of the piece, RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanizing) liquid rubber is poured onto or around it. The catalyst within the rubber cures it within a 24 hour period. Every nuance of detail is picked up by the rubber. The mould is then coated with an electro-conductive chemical spray and immersed in a tank of acidic Copper Sulphate. An electrode of pure Copper is lowered into the solution and attached to a power supply.

"A current is passed from this anode through the solution to the mould, which is wired up to be the cathode, thus completing the circuit. This creates ionic deposition, i.e. the copper travels through the solution from the solid copper block and deposits onto the mould. We build up a working thickness of 1.0 - 1.5mm.

"Any excess metal is removed, the pieces are filled and fitted together to create a solid representation which is then used as a master pattern for cire perdue (lost wax) casting. It sounds quite simple, doesn't it? It isn't."

Um, actually, it sounds extremely complicated, but WOW does it make a beautiful work of art!

Also from the catalog: "...many museums and individuals around the world and even the British Library have had the confidence to allow me to make reproductions of their artifacts."

I can't wait to see what Mr. C's going to get me for my birthday, coming up in August!   LOL

***

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Durham Cathedral - Part C - The Venerable Bede...and giveaway reminder.

Tomb of the Venerable Bede 672 AD - 735 AD.

in the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathedral

From Durham World Heritage site, re. the Galilee Chapel, which contains Bede's tomb:

"Built in the 1170s, [the Galilee Chapel] was originally planned as an extension to the eastern end of the Cathedral, which was always full of pilgrims and therefore cramped. However, due to a change in the level of the bedrock from the rest of the Cathedral, the walls kept on cracking during the construction and all attempts to build it at the eastern end of the Church seemed to fail. This was taken as a sign of divine intervention, and it was built in its current location at the western end of the Cathedral instead."

Bede: Living At The Monastery at Jarrow

St. Paul's Church, Jarrow

Home of the Venerable Bede

 18 miles NNE of Durham

If you zoom in on the map, you will be able to see where this is in relation to Durham.
Durham is just a half hour by train from York (York Minster),
York is just 2 hours by train from London.
SO worth the trip! 

If you click on the 'Satellite Imagery' square on the lower left
and then zoom in, you will be able to see the ruins of the monastery.

From Justus.Anglican.org

"Bede was a monk at the English monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow, in Northumbria. From the age of seven, he spent all his life at that monastery except for a few brief visits to nearby sites. He says of himself: 'I have devoted my energies to a study of the Scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching, and writing have always been my delight.'"

Just to place this on the timeline of your mind, Bede was 15 years old when St. Cuthbert died, and lived 48 years beyond the time of St. Cuthbert (last week's post).  He became a deacon at 19, a priest at 29, and after his ordination wrote commentaries on the Scriptures, as well as writings on geography, arithmetic, and astronomy. He wrote two accounts of the life of St. Cuthbert, one in prose and one in verse, along with his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. 

From Britannica.com

 "In 731/732 Bede completed his Historia ecclesiastica. Divided into five books, it recorded events in Britain from the raids by Julius Caesar (55–54 bc) to the arrival in Kent (ad 597) of St. Augustine. For his sources he claimed the authority of ancient letters, the “traditions of our forefathers,” and his own knowledge of contemporary events...It remains an indispensable source for some of the facts and much of the feel of early Anglo-Saxon history."

Benedict, founder and abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory was responsible for its extensive library, resources used by Bede. During Benedict's travels to Rome, he acquired volumes that he brought back to the monastery. I can't help having visions of him dragging that carry-on through Heathrow.

When Bede died, he was buried at Jarrow, but in 1022 his bones were buried alongside St. Cuthbert's relics at Durham Cathedral until they were moved into the Galilee Chapel in the 14th century. 

Galilee Chapel: Slender Columns, Zigzag Arches

Hammerbeam ceiling

Just-barely-visible remains of 13th or14th century fresco paintings

(see next photo also)

Whitewashed during the Reformation,

the whitewash was scraped off during the Victorian Era,

taking much of the paint with it.

The pictures depict Christian martyrs

Beautiful zigzag on arches,

very different from arches in the main cathedral 
(See last Friday's post)

Okay, this is all I can tell you about Bede, and I hope most of it is true.

***

Happily moving on from the Venerable Bede, we have a birthday at our house today, and it's not mine:

He's still a pretty cute kid!

***

Last Day to Enter my Natural Soap Giveaway!

Ends tonight at 10 PM.

Winners will be announced on Saturday morning.
Enter Giveaway on YESTERDAY'S POST

Have a great weekend, everyone!  

Check back tomorrow for giveaway winners.

Next Friday I promise to get out of the cathedral...for a while.

Durham Cathedral, Part B - Anglophile Friday

 

Sadly, in my haste to share with you my exciting revelation about The Dun Cow in last Friday's post, I neglected some pretty important information, without which one might be tempted to jump to the conclusion that the whole bit about the monks carrying St. Cuthbert's coffin from place to place was just one more installment of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  It wasn't.

First of all, the year was A.D. 875 when the monks left Lindisfarne with the remains of St. Cuthbert, sacred vessels, and books. The monks were not wandering aimlessly, but fleeing from murderous invading hoards who would desecrate and destroy. The fact that St. Cuthbert was a spiritual father to the monks in NE England, and that any manuscript would have been precious, it stands to reason that they would flee to protect themselves and their holy charge. The went from one monastery to the next, staying for a while, sometimes many years, before moving to another. 

When St. Cuthbert's coffin was opened in 1104, the small 7th century Latin translation of the Gospel of John was found, believed to be the oldest intact book produced in Europe. It was sold to the British Library in 2011.

View St. Cuthbert Gospel
British Library Digitized Manuscript

I should have waited for Mike from A Bit About Britain or James from J_on_Tour to write a post on Durham Cathedral.* Either would do a much better job with the history. So be looking forward to that. You might even coax them. Tell them that I sent you over to twist their arms. :-)

 Looking east toward rood screen, quire, and chancel

A privilege to stay for Evensong Service, where we sat in the quire

 Choir, chancel, east rose window

 You can tell I was quite taken with the varied patterns of the columns
(Photos by Mr. C.)

 Modern tester over St. Cuthbert's shrine

 Shrine of St. Cuthbert

Until the mid-16th century, the tomb was ornate, high off the ground, and bejeweled. Today's is a much simpler arrangement, thanks to Henry VIII.  Note, in the background, the headless statue of St. Cuthbert. In their zeal to get rid of 'idols,' some forgot that idols are anything in our lives that we place ahead of God.

Much more to come, I'm afraid. We still haven't gotten to The Venerable Bede.
Tune in next week.

*It was a special treat for Mr. C. and me to meet bloggers Mike, his lovely wife, and James at Durham Cathedral, spending the afternoon touring the cathedral and attending Evensong. The natives were, indeed, friendly, and we so enjoyed our time with them.


Have a great weekend, everyone!

***

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Durham Cathedral, Part A - Anglophile Friday

It was an overcast and cold day, and I'm sure everything is more beautiful once the trees have leafed out and the flowers are in bloom, but we feel so privileged to have visited this town and cathedral.

Durham Cathedral, north side

The foundation stone of the current cathedral was laid in 1093.

I read 'It's well worth a visit if you're in Durham...' on TripAdvisor. Really? If you just happen to be in Durham?? Actually, it's well worth traveling by train from London to see this stunning cathedral, a glorious testament to the message of Christ, and to reflect upon the fact that there has been a Christian presence on this spot since A.D. 997.

Durham Cathedral, exterior, east

Durham Cathedral, northeast

 Today I'm only going to show a few exterior photos (some of which Mr. C. took) because first I want to tell you 'why' the cathedral was built where it is. While we were standing outside the cathedral, I saw a street sign, 'Dun Cow Lane,' on a house across from the cathedral,  And, because my brain gets stuck on stuff like that, it mattered to me. 'What's the Dun Cow?' I remember asking. I was determined to find out what it was all about.

After we got home, I picked up my Kindle with it's copy of Bell's Cathedrals - Durham, to read aloud to Mr. C. as we were traveling to Minneapolis to visit our granddaughter. Voila! There it was, The Dun Cow.

So here's the story, because I know you're dying to find out. St. Cuthbert was a monk, bishop and hermit* of Lindisfarne who lived in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria. Anyway, leaving out a lot of important information, we'll get on to the part about him dying. It just so happened that we were there on the weekend of the March 20 St. Cuthbert Festival. He died on March 20, A.D. 687, and I still don't know why they memorialize the date of someone's death. My guess is that they don't know a lot about his birth day.

*Some Christians thought that leading a solitary life would make them more spiritual. It didn't work out so well for a lot of people; rather, it made some of them pretty strange, and actually isn't in line with Christ's teaching, but who am I to argue with St. Cuthbert.

Excerpts from Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Episcopal See. (You can get the Kindle edition FREE from Amazon!)

'Obediently to his own request, his body was wrapped in a linen cloth...and placed in a stone coffin...[and] was interred in the church at Lindisfarne...In A.D. 698 the monks disinterred his remains in order to place them in a specially-prepared wooden coffin.'

More than 150 years went by, and I'm embarrassed to say that my uncouth ancestors, the Danes, repeatedly brought trouble to their shores. The monks feared for their lives and the safety of the holy relics, so they fled from there in A.D. 875, taking the remains of St. Cuthbert, sacred vessels, and books. (I totally get that.) They wandered throughout northern England and Ireland, carrying their saint, etc. with them (reminds me of a Brother Cadfael episode, which, by the way, was based on history).

Bear with me. I am getting to the point, however circuitous a route I may be taking.

While they were on the east side of [Durham], 'they could not with all their Force remove his body further, for it seemed fastened to the Ground.' The monks fasted and prayed for guidance as to where they could settle with their saint.

'...it being revealed to Eadmer, a virtuous Man, that he should be carried to Dunholme, where he was to be received to a Place of Rest.'  

 Much to our relief, the natives were friendly

Unfortunately, they didn't know where Dunholme was, and evidently, like most men, didn't like asking directions, but...

'...as they proceeded, a Woman wanting her Cow, called aloud to her Companion, to know if she had seen her? Who answered, She was in Dunholme.'

You can imagine how relieved the monks must have been to hear this news. They arrived at Dunholme in the Year 997. For nearly three hundred years, generations of monks had been carrying that coffin from place to place. What an example of devotion and perseverance!

The Dun Cow

Image from DurhamWorldHeritageSite.com

'The Dun Cow: Arrived at Dunholm they raised a "little Church of Wands and Branches" to protect the sacred relics until a building more worthy of such a charge could be erected. This was the beginning of the Cathedral and City of Durham.'

Bell's Cathedrals is full of fascinating, detailed information about the Cathedral, and it is so much fun to read, having been there and able to picture the parts of the cathedral and architectural detail it describes. I'm learning new definitions for words, e.g. that 'lozenge' doesn't only refer to a tablet to soothe a sore throat.

BTW, George Gently fans might be surprised, as I was, to learn that the filming of the shoot-out in Gently in the Cathedral actually was shot in the nave of Durham Cathedral, (educational purposes, I'm sure) but I learned that from The Guardian, not from Bell's Cathedrals.

Durham Castle (left) and Cathedral

MUCH more to follow.

***

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This post is linked to:

InSPIREd Sunday