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Friday, 03 July 2009 14:41 |
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OUR VILLAGE CHURCH's
PATRONAL SAINT - ST ANDREW
As many will know there are eight parishes in the Modbury Team, but infact there are only seven patronal saints. This is because 2 parishes have the same and this is Saint Andrew. Thus it seems most appropriate that the November Saint of the Month should be Saint Andrew, the patronal Saint of both East Allington and Aveton Gifford who is remembered on the last day of the month 30th. Saint Andrew was the first apostle to be called by Our Lord and he was responsible for informing his brother Saint Peter whom later became the leader of the apostles. Tradition has it that Saint Andrew founded a church at Byzantium and that he was crucified at Patras in Greece on an X shaped cross. Hence his emblem is a white saltire cross on a blue background. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, Russia, fishermen, and against gout and sore throats. As we welcome a new member, Mike Jefferies to the Modbury Team, who will become the new Team Vicar of Saint Andrew, East Allington, let us remember the missionary work of Our Lord's first apostle Saint Andrew and how we can work to extend God's Kingdom today.
David Scott
Churchwarden
SAINT OF THE MONTH
The English Monastic Saint In February there is a person who is remembered for founding English monasteries. Gilbert was born in 1083 in Sempringham, the son of the squire, and became the parish priest in 1131. He encouraged the vocation of seven women of the town and formed them into a company of lay sisters. A group of lay brothers also came into being and they all kept the Benedictine Rule. Gilbert was unsuccessful in his bid to obtain pastoral guidance from Cîteaux for the incipient communities and they came under the ambit of Augustinian canons, Gilbert himself becoming the Master. He was imprisoned in 1165 accused of assisting St Thomas Becket (remembered on 29 December) but was found innocent of the charge. At Gilbert’s death in 1190 on 4th February, aged 106, there were nine double monasteries in England and four of male canons only. It was the only purely English monastic foundation before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century. So as we remember St Gilbert let us attempt to live our lives in a more religious way devoting more time to be spent with God.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 02 February 2012 21:53 |
