From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
January 29th -St. Gildas the Wise, Abbot
d. 570
THIS famous man seems to have been born about the year 500, in the
lower valley of the Clyde. He must have travelled south at a somewhat
early age, and we may reasonably trust the tradition which describes
him as practising asceticism at Llanilltud. He was no doubt younger
than either St. Samson or St. Paul Aurelian, but all three, either simultaneously or successively, lived under St. Illtud, we are told.
How long Gildas remained in Britain cannot be determined, but the
terrible indictment of the scandalous lives of his contemporaries,
both ecclesiastics and laymen, which he left in his De excidio
Britanniae was written probably on British soil somewhere about the
year 540. Severely as this work has been criticized as a mere jeremiad
(even Bede calls it sermo flebilis, a pitiful tale) and as an often
incoherent patchwork of the most denunciatory texts to be found in
both the Testaments, it should be remembered that there is no reason
to suppose that the author's object was to write a history. On the
contrary, he tells us himself that his main purpose was to make known =E2=80=9Cthe miseries, the errors and the ruin of Britain=E2=80=9D.
He is often called "Badonicus" because he was born in the year the
Britons defeated the Saxons near Bath. He may have married and been
widowed, but he eventually became a monk at Llanilltud in southern
Wales, where he was trained by Saint Illtyd together with Saint Samson
and Saint Paul Aurelian, though he was much younger. Well-known Irish
monks, including Saint Finnian, became his disciples. He made a
pilgrimage to Ireland to consult with his contemporary saints of that
land and wrote letters to far-off monasteries. He seems to have had considerable influence on the development of the Irish church.
Around 540 he wrote the famous work =E2=80=9CDe excidio et conquestu Britanniae=E2=80=9D with the purpose of making known "the miseries, the
errors, and the ruin of Britain." The work laid bare and severely
criticized the lives of Britain's rulers and clerics, blaming their
moral laxity for the triumph of the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Although the fierceness of its rhetorical invectives has been criticized the wide
scriptural scholarship that it reveals is uncontested. It also shows
that he was knowledgeable about Virgil and Ignatius. This work was
cited by Saint Bede.
He is considered to be the first English historian. He lived as a
hermit for some time on Flatholm Island in the Bristol Channel, where
he copied a missal for Saint Cadoc and may have written =E2=80=9CDe excidio= =E2=80=9D.
Gildas made a pilgrimage to Rome and on his return founded a monastery
on an island near Rhuys (Rhuis or Morbihan) in Brittany, which became
the center of his cult. Though he lived for a time on a tiny island in
Morbihan Bay, he gathered disciples around him and does not seem to
have cut himself off entirely from the world; he did travel to other
places in Brittany. He is said to have died on the isle of Houat,
though this is uncertain.
The =E2=80=9CDe excidio=E2=80=9D, which very influential in the early Middl=
e Ages, may
not have been written entirely by Gildas. Some of it may have been a
forgery shortly after his time. The work serves as an example of the
classical and early Christian literature that was then available in
England. Gilda's writings were used by Wulfstan, archbishop of York,
in the 11th century in his Sermon of the Wolf to the English people
during the disordered reign of Ethelred the Unready.
The chronology of Gildas's life has been disputed. Some say that the
lives of two men of the same name have been confused. Some early Irish martyrologies commemorate his feast as does the Leofric Missal (c.
1050) and Anglo-Saxon calendars of the 9th through 11th centuries
(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Gill, Farmer, Walsh, White).
He is portrayed in art with a bell near him (White).
Taken from:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06557c.htm
See longer version found at:
http://www.cin.org/saints/gildas.html
Saint Quote:
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is half my life. The other half
consists in loving Jesus and winning souls for Him.
-- Saint Mary Hermina Grivot
Bible Quote:
Yet he was merciful; He forgave their iniquities and did not destroy
them. Time after time, He restrained his anger and did not stir up His
full wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze
that does not return. (Psalm 78:38)
<><><><>
To the Eternal Father
Father of mercy and God of all consolation, graciously look upon me and
impart to me the blessing which flows from this Sacrament; encompass me wit=
h
Your loving kindness and let this Holy Mystery bear fruit in me. I extol
Thee, almighty and all-merciful Father, I praise and magnify Thee for the superabundant mercy wherewith Thou has had compassion on me, cleansed me
from sin and admitted me to participate in this sacred union with Thee. May
it avail for the remission of my past sins, as a remedy of those which stil=
l
cling to me, and preventive of all which I might commit in future, You Who lives and reigns God for endless ages. - Amen.
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