St. Mildred of Minster-in-Thanet

Joyous feast! Today we celebrate the memory of our Holy Mother Mildred, Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet in Kent, a county in southeastern England. St. Mildred was born to the king and queen of Magonset and sent at an early age to Chelles, France, for her education. While there a young nobleman, supported by the abbess of the monastery in Chelles where St. Mildred resided, tried to force the Saint to marry him.

Although she endured great suffering and even tortures at the hands of the abbess St. Mildred remained firm in her refusal, and eventually fled Chelles for England, where she joined the abbey of her mother, St. Ermenburga, in Minster-in-Thanet and was tonsured a nun by Archbishop St. Theodore of Canterbury. After St. Ermenburga's death St. Mildred was elected abbess of Minster-in-Thanet due to the sisterhood's great love for her.

After 38 years as abbess St. Mildred died of a long and painful illness on this day in 732. She became even more popular after her death than she had been in her life, eclipsing even St. Augustine of Canterbury in veneration. In 1033 the Saint's relics were translated to Canterbury, and a portion of her relics were later translated to Deventer in the Netherlands as well. More on her life can be found here. May St. Mildred's blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Hedda of Winchester

Joyous feast! St. Hedda served as Bishop of the West Saxons or Wessex in southwestern England in the 7th century, having been elected to the episcopacy from the Monastery of St. Hilda where he had labored as a monk. Initially dwelling in Dorchester, St. Hedda later transferred his seat to the town of Winchester.

During St. Hedda's episcopacy King Ina of Wessex convened a national council of bishops and elders to enact a code of laws by which to govern the West Saxon kingdom, with St. Hedda and another saint of his day being credited with a great deal of the code's provisions. St. Hedda reposed not long after this in 705, and his tomb quickly became known as a place of miracles.

More on St. Hedda's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Bede

Joyous feast! St. Bede was an 8th century English monk who is well known to us today for the many copies of his historical and exegetical writings that have survived. More on his life can be found here. May St. Bede's blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Ethelbert the Royal Martyr

Joyous feast! St. Ethelbert was a king of the East Angles known for his great piety and humility. Although he desired to remain celibate he bowed to the pressures of his court to marry and went to nearby Mercia to court the daughter of its king. The Mercian king, fearful of his daughter's love for St. Ethelbert and her urgings that he accept the Saint as his overlord, had his visitor beheaded and buried anonymously. A heavenly light shone where the Saint's relics were buried, however, and they were taken and enshrined in Hereford and London. More on the St. Ethelbert's life and legacy can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Dunstan of Canterbury

Christ is risen!!! Joyous feast! St. Dunstan is one of the lights of the Roman Orthodox Church in England. He successively lived as a monk in Glastonbury and (Ghent in the Netherlands), served as a royal counselor in England, became Bishop of Worcester in 957, and finally was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 961. He takes much of the credit for the revival of monasticism in 10th century England and fell asleep peacefully in Canterbury in 988. More on St. Dunstan's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) to Visit Metro Detroit

Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diocleia will be visiting metro Detroit this month at the invitation of Metropolitan Nicholas (Pissare) of Detroit of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to speak at St. John the Baptist's Church in Sterling Heights, St. Nicholas' Church in Ann Arbor, Holy Cross Church in Farmington Hills, and Sts. Constantine and Helena's Church in Westland. A schedule of events can be found here.

Interview with Fr. Andrew Phillips

One of the priests less than pleased with the state of worldwide Russian Orthodoxy today, Fr. Andrew Phillips, recently gave an interview in which he criticized the American Orthodox Church (OCA) as a bankrupt "Cold War relic" that would soon be asking to return to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate (an idea that I did not hear given any real support even when many American Orthodox were advocating the election of Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) as First Hierarch of the OCA). More on that and other fascinating opinions on the state and future of Orthodoxy in the United Kingdom and the wider world here :-).