From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   May 20th - St. Ethelbert, Martyr   
      
   The cathedral church of Hereford is dedicated in honour of St. Mary and St.   
   Ethelbert, and this Ethelbert, who was venerated, apparently for no   
   sufficient   
   reason, as a martyr, was the son and successor of Ethelred as king of the   
   East   
   Angles. The young king, desiring to perpetuate his line, presented himself   
   before his powerful neighbour, King Offa of the Mercians, at Sutton Walls in   
   Hereford-shire, intending to ask the hand of his daughter, Alfreda, in   
   marriage.   
      
   According to the story, Ethelbert was received with outward courtesy, but   
   after   
   a few days was treacherously murdered for "reasons of state" ; the Saint   
   Albans   
   chroniclers, anxious to save the good name of their reputed founder, put all   
   the   
   blame for this assassination on the machinations of Offa's wife, Cynethryth.   
   Ethelbert's body was roughly buried on the bank of the river Lugg at Marden,   
   his   
   severed head being contemptuously kicked about. In consequence of a vision,   
   the   
   remains were afterwards taken up and buried in a "fair church" at Hereford,   
   and   
   the ill-used head is said eventually to have found a resting-place in   
   Westminster Abbey.   
      
   Among the miracles reported at the victim's intercession was one at "Bellus   
   Campus", no doubt Belchamp-Otten, in Essex, where the parish church is   
   dedicated   
   in honour of St. Ethelbert and All Saints. His feast, as a martyr, is still   
   observed in the dioceses of Cardiff (which includes Herefordshire) and North   
   ampton.* [* It is difficult to forbear wondering on what principles some of   
   the   
   saints included in the propers of English dioceses were chosen during the   
   last   
   century.]   
      
   It must be confessed that John Brompton, whose account is printed in the   
   Acta   
   Sanctorum, May, vol. v, is not a very satisfactory authority, but the   
   Bollandists apparently had also before them a transcript of a manuscript   
   account   
   by Giraldus Cambrensis, which was hope lessly damaged in the Cottonian fire   
   of   
   1731. There is, however, a later manuscript text of this life in the library   
   of   
   Trinity College, Cambridge (B. II. 16), which is printed in the English   
   Historical Review, vol. xxxii (1917), pp. 222-236; there also M. R. James   
   prints   
   an anonymous passio from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. 308,   
   probably   
   "the oldest form of the Hereford story of St. Ethelbert that has yet been   
   produced". For a description of these and other sources, see James, loc.   
   cit.,   
   pp. 214-221. From Edmund Bishop's notes on the English calendar in Stanton's   
   Menology it is clear that St. Ethelbert had a considerable cultus as a   
   martyr;   
   he was represented in the paintings at the English College in Rome. Consult   
   further the account furnished in that undeservedly neglected work, W. B.   
   MacCabe's A Catholic History of England, vol. i, pp. 683-697, and the   
   appendix   
   to A. T. Bannister, The Cathedral Church of Hereford, pp. 109-114. See also   
   R.   
   M. Wilson, The Lost Literature of Medieval England (1952), pp. 106-108.   
      
      
   May 20th - Ethelbert of East Anglia M (AC)   
      
   Died near Hereford, England, in 793. King Ethelbert had a considerable   
   cultus   
   during the middle ages, although some, such as William of Malmesbury, have   
   misgivings about the continuance of his veneration. He was murdered at   
   Sutton   
   Walls in Herefordshire, apparently for dynastic reasons at the instigation   
   of   
   the wife of Offa of Mercia.   
      
   His pious vita, written by Giraldus Cambrensis, tells us that Ethelbert was   
   a   
   man of prayer from his childhood. While still very young, he succeeded his   
   father Ethelred as king of East Anglia and ruled benevolently for 44 years.   
   It   
   is said that his usual maxim is that the higher the station of man, the   
   humbler   
   he ought to be. This was the rule for his own conduct.   
      
   Desiring to secure stability for his kingdom by an heir, he sought the hand   
   of   
   the virtuous Alfreda, daughter of the powerful King Offa. With this in mind,   
   he   
   visited Offa at Sutton-Wallis, four miles distance from Hereford. He was   
   courteously entertained, but after some days, treacherously murdered by   
   Grimbert, an officer of king Offa, through the contrivance of queen   
   Quendreda   
   who wanted to add his kingdom to their own.   
      
   His body was secretly buried at Maurdine of Marden, but miracles revealed   
   its   
   hiding place. Soon it was moved to a church at Fernley (Heath of Fern), now   
   called Hereford. The town grew around the church bearing Ethelbert's name   
   after   
   King Wilfrid of Mercia enlarged and enriched it.   
      
   Quendreda died miserably within three months after her crime. Her daughter   
   Alfreda became a hermit at Croyland. Offa made atonement for the sin of his   
   queen by a pilgrimage to Rome, where he founded a school for the English.   
   Egfrid, the only son of Offa, died after a reign of some months, and the   
   Mercian   
   crown was translated into the family descended of Penda (Attwater,   
   Benedictines).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In the way of virtue, there is no standing still; anyone who does not daily   
   advance, loses ground. To remain at a standstill is impossible; he that   
   gains   
   not, loses; he that ascends not, descends. If one does not ascend the   
   ladder,   
   one must descend; if one does not conquer, one will be conquered.   
   --St. Bonaventure   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth   
   in   
   me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and   
   believeth   
   in me shall never die. Believest thou this?   (John 11:25-26)   
      
      
   <><><><><>   
   MARY, GUARDIAN OF THE FLOWERS   
      
   In a garden of souls stands a Lady so fair,   
   She caresses each petal growing weak from despair,   
   Breathes the strength down upon them,   
   Brings the waters of life,   
   Feeds the plants that have weakened   
   From the earth's constant strife.   
   The flowers spread out in colors profuse,   
   Each a bud a fair promise of heavenly use.   
   Tender hands take the bent stalk   
   Grown weak from the flight,   
   From the darkness of soil that has shut out the light.   
   Turned the blossoming petal with soft tender hands,   
   To face up to the Light that shines down from His land   
   Sprinkles stardust to cover the flowers with grace   
   As they grow on the path   
   That leads straight to the place.   
   Where the fairest of Flowers sits next to Her Son,   
   As She welcomes you all   
   From a mission well done!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)