Saint Guthlac holding the scourge (whip) given to him by Saint Bartholomew and a demon at his feet. The statue from the second tier of the Croyland Abbey's west front of the ruined nave; dates from the XVth century.
Saint Guthlac
(+ 714)
Il vécut d'abord comme un
véritable bandit en Angleterre. Mais il laissait toujours un tiers de
leurs biens à ceux qu'il dépouillait. A 24 ans, il voulut retrouver une vie
plus innocente et se fit ermite dans un îlot de l'estuaire du Wash. Les oiseaux
venaient l'entourer et chanter pour lui. Il s'y livra à de grandes austérités
et, sur son tombeau, s'édifia l'abbaye de Crowland.
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/6532/Saint-Guthlac.html
The quatrefoil above the West Door of the Croyland Abbey shows in relief scenes from the life of Saint Guthlac. The sculpture dates from the middle years of the XIIIth century.
Saint Guthlac de Croyland
Ermite en Est-Anglie
Fête le 11 avril
OSB
en Mercie v. 674 – †
Croyland, Lincolnshire, 11 avril 714
Autres mentions : 12
avril – 30 août – 26 août
Autre graphie :
Guthlac of Crowland
Tout ce que nous savons
de Guthlac provient d’une « Vie » de ce saint, rédigée au VIIIe
siècle, et assurément digne de crédit. Né vers 673, il était parent de la
maison royale de Mercie. Dans sa jeunesse, il prit part aux guerres de
succession, commandant une bande armée, attaquant les villes, massacrant les
ennemis, et se livrant en toute occasion au pillage. Il se convertit aux
environs de sa vingt-quatrième année et entra au monastère double de Repton,
que dirigeait alors l’abbesse Elfrida. Sa vocation le poussait à la vie
érémitique ; ayant reçu permission de l’abbesse, il s’établit, avec deux
compagnons, dans une île des Fens, marécages de l’est de la Grande-Bretagne,
autour de l’estuaire du Wash, lieu futur de l’abbaye de Crowland ou Croyland,
dans les environs de Peterborough. Peu à peu de nombreux disciples venaient
occuper des cellules voisines de la sienne. Bien que sa sœur, sainte Pègue,
vécût en anachorète tout près de lui, à Peakirk (Pega’s Kirk, « église de Pègue »),
il refusa toujours de la voir. Il devait pourtant, sentant la mort approcher,
l’inviter à son enterrement. L’abbesse de Repton lui envoya son cercueil. Il
mourut le 11 avril 714. L’abbaye de Crowland, fut construite en 716 par
Ethelbald, roi de Mercie, sur l’emplacement de la cellule de saint Guthlac.
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/guthlac-de-croyland/
Stained
glass panel depicting Guthlac of Crowland, in Crowland
Abbey
Saint Guthlac de
Croyland, ermite
Né en Mercie, vers 673; mort à Crowland, Lincolnshire, Angleterre en 714;
originellement fêté le 12 avril; fête de sa translation le 30 août, et on le
commémore aussi le 26 août.
Comme jeune homme de sang royal, du clan des Guthlacingas, Guthlac avait été
soldat 9 ans durant, combattant pour Ethelred, roi de Mercie. A l'âge de 24
ans, il renonça tant à la violence qu'à la vie du monde et devint moine dans la
double-abbaye de Repton, qui était dirigée par une abbesse appelée Elfrida.
Même en ces jeunes années, sa discipline était extraordinaire. Certains des
moines ne l'aimaient pas parce qu'il refusait tout vin et toute boisson
enivrante. Mais il passait outre des critiques et finit par gagner le respect
de ses frères. Après 2 ans dans le monastère, cela lui sembla un lieu trop
agréable. Lors de la fête de saint Barthélémy vers 701, il trouva un endroit
reclus, humide, désagréable, sur la rivière Welland, dans les Fens, qu'on ne
pouvait atteindre qu'en bateau, et il y vécut en ermite le restant de sa vie,
cherchant à imiter les rigueurs des anciens pères du désert.
Ses tentations rivalisèrent les leurs. Des sauvages sortirent de la forêt et le
battirent. Même les corbeaux lui volèrent le peu qu'il avait. Mais Guthlac
était patient, même avec les créatures sauvages. Petit à petit, les animaux et
les oiseaux commencèrent à lui faire confiance, comme à un ami. Un saint homme
appelé Wilfrid visita Guthlac un jour, et fut étonné de voir 2 hirondelles se
posant sur ses épaules, puis lui sautillant dessus. Guthlac lui dit :
"N'as-tu pas appris, frère, que celui qui aura mené une vie conforme à la
volonté de Dieu, les bêtes sauvages et les oiseaux lui deviendront intimes,
comme pour ceux qui quittent le monde, les Anges se rapprochent?".
Apparemment, Guthlac eut aussi une vision de saint Barthélémy, son patron. Il ne
restera pas seul dans son refuge : il aura plusieurs disciples, Saints Cissa,
Bettelin, Egbert, et Tatwin, qui auront une cellulle proche de la sienne.
L'évêque Hedda de Dorchester l'ordonnera à la prêtrise durant une visite. Le
prince exilé Ethelbald venant souvent le voir pour un conseil, apprendra de
Guthlac qu'il porterait un jour la couronne des Merciens.
A l'article de la mort, Guthlac fit quérir sa soeur, sainte Pega, qui était
ermitesse dans le même voisinage (Peakirk ou église de Pega). L'abbesse Edburga
de Repton lui envoya un linceul et un cercueil de plomb. Un an après sa mort,
le corps de Guthlac fut exhumé et trouvé incorrompu. Bien vite son tombeau,
dans lequel sa soeur avait aussi placé son Psautier et son fouet, devint
populaire. Lorsqu'ensemble, le roi Wiglaf de Mercie (827-840) et l'archevêque
Ceolnoth de Canterbury (qui avait été guérit par Guthlac de la fière paludéenne
en 851) devinrent ses fidèles, le culte de Guthlac grandit et se répandit. Un
monastère fut fondé sur l'emplacement de l'ermitage de saint Guthlac, qui se
développa en la grande abbaye de Crowland, dans laquelle ses reliques furent
transférées en 1136. Il y eut une nouvelle translation en 1196.
On peut aller de nos jours en pèlerinage sur le site, qui est très intéressant,
mais il ne reste hélas rien de l'époque du saint, car tout fut détruit par les
envahisseurs païens qui ravagèrent la région à l'époque. Ceux qui ont fréquenté
Cambridge se souviendront que leur université a été fondée sous l'inspiration
de l'abbé de Crowland, et comme le rappelle Sabine Baring-Gould, cela fait donc
de saint Guthlac le père spirituel de cette université.
La Vita de Guthlac fut rédigée en latin par Félix, un quasi contemporain.
D'autres furent composées en Vieil Anglais, en vers comme en prose. Avec saint
Cuthbert, Guthlac a été un des saints ermites les plus populaires dans
l'Angleterre d'avant la Conquête. (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Farmer,
Gill, Husenbeth).
Dans l'art, Saint Guthlac est dépeint avec un fouet en main et un serpnet à ses
pieds. Parfois on peut le voir
(1) fouetté par saint Barthélémy;
(2) ordonné prêtre par saint Hedda de Winchester;
(3) avec des démons le molestant et des Anges le consolant. (Roeder).
On trouve au British Museum une magnifique Vita du 12ème siècle, illustrée, le
Harleian Roll Y.6, que l'on appelle habituellement le Guthlac Roll. C'est une
série de 18 ronds, des dessins pour vitrail, basés sur la Vita par Félix et
l'Histoire de Crowland par le pseudo-Ingulph.
Crowland a aussi plusieurs sculptures de sa vie datant du 13ème siècle. Le
sceau de l'abbé Henry de Crowland, 13ème siècle, montra Guthlac recevant un
fouet de saint Barthélémy pour écarter les attaques diaboliques (Farmer). Il
est vénéré dans le Lincolnshire (Roeder).
o "The Deserts of Britain"
o 4 endroits de lutte ascétique en Grande-Bretagne et les saints qui y oeuvrèrent : Saint Gwyddfarch, Sainte Melangell, Saint Cadfan, et Saint Guthlac
en anglais : http://www.nireland.com/orthodox/deserts.htm
Alternative Tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/yq4rn
en français : http://www.amdg.be/sankt/deserts.htm
o Acathiste à notre saint père Guthlac (en anglais):
http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/akaguth.htm
o "Saint Pega and Saint Guthlac in the South English Legendary"
par Alexandra H. Olsen
http://www.umilta.net/guthlac.html
SOURCE : http://home.scarlet.be/amdg/oldies/sankt/avr11.html
Scenes
from the life of Saint Guthlac showing the attack of the daemons.
Also
known as
Guthlac of Crowland
Guthlacus….
Guthlake….
formerly 12 April
30
August (translation of relics)
Profile
Born to the Mercian
nobility, the son of Penwald; brother of Saint Pega
of Peakirk. Soldier for
nine years in the army of King Ethelred
of Mercia; the freedom to loot led to him amassing a large forture. However,
in 697 he
had a conversion experience and gave up the violent life to become a Benedictine monk at
Repton under abbess Elfrida.
Known for his ascetic and strict habits. Hermit in
the Lincolnshire fens, living like the Desert Fathers in an inhospitable swamp
area rumoured to be the haunt of monsters and devils;
the abbey of Croyland was
built on the site of his hermit’s cell. Had
visions of angels, demons and Saint Batholomew,
to whom he had special devotion. Became friends with wild animals,
had the gift of prophecy, and his reputation for holines attracted many
would-be students including Saint Bettelin. Ordained by Bishop Hedda
of Winchester who
consecrated Guthlac’s cell as
a chapel so
he could celebrate Mass there.
Born
legend says that when he
was born, a shining hand surrounded by reddish-yellow light came down from
heaven and blessed the house
11 April 714 in
Croyland, England of
natural causes
initially buried, Saint Pega had
the body interred in a tomb
body found incorrupt
after a year
relics translated
to the re-built Croyland Abbey in 1136
relics translated
again in 1196
relics destroyed
in the 16th
century during the dissolution of the English monasteries
fighting a demon with
a scourge
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MLA
Citation
“Saint Guthlac of
Croyland“. CatholicSaints.Info. 28 February 2024. Web. 10 April 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-guthlac-of-croyland/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-guthlac-of-croyland/
Roundel
from the Guthlac Roll depicting various benefactors to St Guthlac's shrine,
including King Æthelbald of Mercia, Abbot Thurketel and Earl Ælfgar, circa 1210
Guthlac of Croyland, OSB
Hermit (AC)
Born in Mercia, c. 673;
died at Crowland, Lincolnshire, England, in 714; feast day formerly on April
12; feast of his translation is August 30 and there is a commemoration on
August 26.
As a young man of royal
blood from the tribe of Guthlacingas, Guthlac had been a soldier for nine
years, fighting for Ethelred, the King of Mercia. At age 24, he renounced both
violence and the life of the world and became a monk in an Benedictine double
abbey at Repton, which was ruled by an abbess named Elfrida.
Even in these early years
his discipline was extraordinary. Some of the monks in fact disliked him
because he refused all wine and cheering drink. But he lived down the criticism
and gained the respect of his brothers. After two years in the monastery it
seemed to him far too agreeable a place. On the feast of Saint Bartholomew
about 701, he found a wet, remote, unloved spot on the River Welland in the
Fens, which could be reached only by boat, and lived there for the rest of his
life as a hermit, seeking to imitate the rigors of the old desert fathers.
His temptations rivalled
theirs. Wild men came out of the forest and beat him. Even the ravens stole his
few possessions. But Guthlac was patient, even with wild creatures. Bit by bit
the animals and birds came to trust him as their friend. A holy man named
Wilfrid once visited Guthlac and was astonished when two swallows landed on his
shoulders and then hopped all over him. Guthlac told him, "Those who
choose to live apart from other humans become the friends of wild animals; and
the angels visit them, too- -for those who are often visited by men and women
are rarely visited by angels."
Apparently, Guthlac was
also had a vision of Saint Bartholomew, his patron. Nor was he entirely alone
in his refuge: He had several disciples, Saints Cissa, Bettelin, Egbert, and
Tatwin, who had cells nearby. Bishop Hedda of Dorchester ordained him to the
priesthood during a visit. The exiled prince Ethelbald, often came to him for
advice, learned from Guthlac that he would wear the crown of the Mercians.
When he was dying,
Guthlac sent for his sister, Saint Pega, who was a hermitess in the same
neighborhood (Peakirk or Pega's church). Abbess Edburga of Repton sent him a
shroud and a leaden coffin. A year after his death, Guthlac's body was exhumed
and found to be incorrupt. Soon his shrine, to which his sister had donated his
Psalter and scourge, began popular. When both King Wiglaf of Mercia (827-840)
and Archbishop Ceolnoth of Canterbury (who was cured by Guthlac of the ague in
851) became devotees, Guthlac's cultus grew and spread. A monastery was
established on the site of Saint Guthlac's hermitage, which developed into the
great abbey of Crowland, to which his relics were translated in 1136. There was
another translation in 1196.
Guthlac's vita was recorded
in Latin by his near contemporary Felix. Several others were composed in Old
English verse and prose. Together with Saint Cuthbert, Guthlac was one of
England's most popular pre-Conquest hermit saints (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Guthlac is
depicted holding a scourge in his hand and a serpent at his feet. At times he
may be shown (1) receiving the scourge from Saint Bartholomew; (2) being
ordained priest by Saint Hedda of Winchester; or (3) with devils molesting and
angels consoling him (Roeder). A magnificent pictorial record of his life
survives in the late 12th-century Harleian Roll Y.6 at the British Museum,
which is usually called the Guthlac Roll. This is a series of eighteen
roundels, cartoons for stained glass windows, based on Felix's vita and the
pseudo-Ingulph's history of Crowland.
Crowland also has several
13th-century sculptures of his life. Abbot Henry of Crowland's 13th-century
seal depicts Guthlac receiving a scourge from Saint Bartholomew for fending off
diabolical attacks (Farmer). He is venerated in Lincolnshire (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0411.shtml
Roundel
from the Guthlac Roll depicting Guthlac appearing to the Mercian king Æthelbald
in a dream, circa 1210
St. Guthlac
Hermit; born about 673;
died at Croyland, England,
11 April, 714. Our authority for the life of St. Guthlac is
the monk Felix (of
what monastery is
not known), who in his dedication of the "Life" to King
Æthelbald, Guthlac's friend, assures him that whatever he has
written, he had derived immediately from old and intimate companions of
the saint.
Guthlac was born of noble stock, in the land of the Middle Angles. In his
boyhood he showed extraordinary signs of piety;
after eight or nine years spent in warfare,
during which he never quite forgot his early training, he became filled with
remorse and determined to enter a monastery.
This he did at Repton (in what is now Derbyshire). Here after two
years of great penance and earnest application to all the duties of
the monastic life, he became fired with enthusiasm to emulate the wonderful penance of
the Fathers of the Desert. For this purpose he retired with two
companions to Croyland,
a lonely island in the dismal fen- lands of modern Lincolnshire. In this
solitude he spent fifteen years of the most rigid penance, fasting daily
until sundown and then taking only coarse bread and water. Like St. Anthony he
was frequently attacked and severely maltreated by the Evil
One, and on the other hand was the recipient of extraordinary graces and
powers. The birds and the fishes became his familiar friends, while
the fame of his sanctity brought
throngs of pilgrims to
his cell. One of them, Bishop Hedda (or Dorchester or
of Lichfield),
raised him to the priesthood and consecrated his humble chapel.
Æthelbald, nephew of the terrible Penda, spent part of his exile with the saint.
Guthlac, after his death,
in a vision to Æthelbald, revealed to him that he should
one day become king. The prophecy was verified in 716. During Holy
Week of 714, Guthlac sickened and announced that he should die on the
seventh day, which he did joyfully. The anniversary (11 April) has always
been kept as his feast. Many miracles were
wrought at his tomb,
which soon became a centre of pilgrimage.
His old friend, Æthelbald, on becoming king, proved himself a generous
benefactor. Soon a large monastery arose,
and through the industry of the monks,
the fens of Croyland became
one of the richest spots in England. The
later history of his shrine may be found in Ordericus
Vitalis (Historia Ecclesiastica) and in the "History of
Croyland" by the
Pseudo-Ingulph. Felix's Latin "Life" was turned
into Anglo-Saxon prose by some unknown hand. This version was first
published by Goodwin in 1848. There is also a metrical version
attributed to Cynewulf contained
in the celebrated Exeter Book (Codex Exoniensis).
Sources
Acta SS., XI, 37,
contains FELIX'S chronicle and extracts from ORDERICUS and the PSEUDO-INGULPH;
FULMAN, ed. Historia Croylandensis in R. S.; GOODWIN, Anglo-Saxon
Version of the Life of Guthlac (London, 1848); THORPE, Codex
Exoniensis (London, 1842); GOLLANCZ, The Exeter Book (London,
1895); GALE, edition of INGULPH, though old (1684), is still valuable.
Murphy, John F.X.
"St. Guthlac." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1910. 11 Apr. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07092a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Bryan R. Johnson.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07092a.htm
Roundel from Guthlac Roll, depicting St Guthlac in contemplation, circa 1210
The
life of Saint Guthlac (Manuscript from the XIIth century, British Museum
Library Board -- Harley Roll Y.6 [1])
Das
Leben des heiligen Guhlac (Manuskript aus dem 12. Jahrhundert, British Museum
Library Board). H. W. Koch: Illustrierte Geschichte der Kriegszüge im
Mittelalter, S. 142, Bechtermünz Verlag, ISBN 3-8289-0321-5
St. Guthlake, Hermit, and
Patron of the Abbey of Croyland
HE 1 was
a nobleman, and in his youth served in the armies of Ethelred, king of Mercia:
but the grace of God making daily stronger impressions on his heart, in the
twenty-fourth year of his age he reflected how dangerous a thing it is to the
soul to serve in wars which too often have no other motive than the passions of
men and the vanities of the world, and resolved to consecrate the remainder of
his life totally to the service of the King of kings. He passed two years in
the monastery of Repandun, studying to transcribe the virtues and
mortifications of all the brethren into the copy of his own life. After this
novitiate in the exercises of an ascetic life, with the consent of his
superior, in 699, with two companions, he passed in a fisher’s boat into the
isle of Croyland, on the festival of St. Bartholomew, whom he chose for his
patron, and, by having recourse to his intercession, he obtained of God many
singular favours. Here he suffered violent temptations and assaults, not unlike
those which St. Athanasius relates of St. Antony: he also met with severe
interior trials; but likewise received frequent extraordinary favours and consolations
from God. Hedda, bishop of Dorchester, visiting him, ordained him a priest. The
prince Ethalbald, then an exile, often resorted to him, and the saint foretold
him the crown of the Mercians, to which he was called after the death of King
Coelred, in 719. The saint, foreknowing the time of his death, sent for his
sister Pega, 2 who
lived a recluse in another part of the fens four leagues off to the west. He
sickened of a fever, and on the seventh day of his illness, during which he had
said mass every morning, and on that day, by way of Viaticum, he sweetly slept
in our Lord, on the 11th of April, 714, being forty-seven years old, of which
he had passed fifteen in this island. See his life written by Felix, monk of
Jarrow, a contemporary author, from the relation of Bertelin, the companion of
the saint’s retirement, with the notes of Henschenius; 3 Mabillon,
Acta Bened. t. 3, p. 263, n. 1. See also his short English-Saxon life, Bibl.
Cotton. Julius, A. X.
Note
1. Called in the English Saxon language Guthlacer of Cruwland. [back]
Note
2. St. Pega is honoured on the 8th of January. Her cell, near Peakirk,
stood at the extremity of a high ground, which juts out into the fenny level,
where is the chapel of St. Pega’s monastery. Here passed Carsdike, so called
from Carausius. It was projected by Agricola, and perfected by Severus to carry
corn in boats for the army in the North. It was conducted from Peterborough
into the Trent at Torksey, below Burton, whence the navigation was carried on
by natural rivers to York. Carausius repaired it, and continued it on the
borders of the fenny level as far as Cambridge, which he built and called
Granta. This place was the head of the navigation, and Carausius instituted the
great fair when the fleet of boats set out with corn and other provisions,
which is still kept, with many of the ancient Roman customs, under the name of
Stourbridge fair. See Stukeley’s Medallic History of Carausius, t. 1, p. 172,
&c. t. 2, c. 5, p. 129. [back]
Note
3. Ingolphus, the great and learned abbot of Croyland, who died in
1109, wrote a book on the life and miracles of St. Guthlake, which is not now
extant. His accurate history of the abbey of Croyland, from the year 664 to
1091, was published by Sir Henry Saville, but far more complete and correct by
Thomas Gale, in 1684. In it he relates, p. 16, that in the year 851, Ceolnoth,
archbishop of Canterbury, by having recourse to the intercession of St.
Guthlake, was miraculously cured of a palsy, after his recovery had been
despaired of. This miracle the archbishop attested in a council of bishops and
noblemen, in the presence of King Bertulf: upon which occasion, all who were
present bound themselves by oath to perform a pilgrimage to the shrine of the
saint at Croyland. After this miracle, great numbers seized with the same
distemper recovered their health, by resorting thither from all parts of the
kingdom to implore the divine succour through the intercession of his servant.
Ethelbald, coming to the crown, had founded there a monastery. He had caused
great stakes and piles of oak to be driven into the ground in this swampy
place, and the quagmire to be filled up with earth brought from the country
called Upland, eight miles distant. This foundation being laid, he erected a
church of stone with a sumptuous monastery. This building was utterly destroyed
by the Danes in 870, of all the monks and domestics, only one boy escaping to
give the world an account of this massacre and devastation; in which the bodies
of Cissa, priest and hermit, St. Egbat, St. Tatwin, St. Bettelina, St.
Etheldrith, and others, were reduced to ashes. Some few monks still chose their
residence there among the ruins, till Turketil, the pious chancellor to King
Edred, in 946, rebuilt the abbey. This great man was cousin-german to three
brothers who were all successively kings, Athelstan, Edmund, and Edred, being
son of Ethelward, younger brother to their father Edward the Elder. To all
these three kings he had been chief minister at home, and generalissimo in all
their wars abroad, and had often vanquished the Danes and other enemies. When
Analaph had rebelled and usurped the kingdom of Northumberland, with a numerous
army of Danes, Norwegians, Scots, Picts, and Cumbrians, mostly idolaters, and
put King Athelstan to flight at Bruntford in Northumberland; Turketil rescued
him out of danger by defeating the enemy with his Londoners and Mercians, and
killing Constantine, king of the Scots. The Emperor Henry, Hugh, king of
France, and Lewis, prince of Aquitain, sent ambassadors with letters of
congratulation for this victory, and rich presents of spices, jewels, horses,
gold vessels, a part of the true cross, and of the crown of thorns in rich
cases, the sword of Constantine the Great, in the hilt of which was one of the
nails with which Christ was crucified, &c. Turketil was afterward sent by
King Athelstan to conduct his four royal sisters to their nuptials; the two
first to Cologne, to the Emperor Henry, where one married his son Otho, the
other one of his princes: the third he accompanied to King Hugh, whose son she
married; and the fourth was given in marriage to Lewis, prince of Aquitain. The
chancellor was enriched by these princes with many precious relics and other
presents; all which he afterward bestowed on the abbey of Croyland. Having long
served his country, and subdued all its enemies, he earnestly begged of King Edred
leave to resign his honours. The king, startled at the proposal, threw himself
at his feet, entreating him not to forsake him. Turketil, seeing his sovereign
at his feet, cast himself on the ground, and only rose to lift up the king: but
adjuring him by the Apostle St. Paul, (to whom the religious prince bore a
singular devotion,) he at length extorted his consent. Immediately he
dispatched a crier to proclaim through all the streets of London, that whoever
had any demands upon Turketil, he should repair to him on a day, and at a place
by him assigned, and he should be paid: and that if any one thought he had ever
been injured by him, upon his complaint, he should receive full satisfaction
for all damages, and three-fold over and above. This he amply executed: then
made over sixty of his manors to the king, and six to the monastery of
Croyland. Being accompanied thither by the king, he there took the monastic
habit, and was made abbot in 948. He restored the house to the greatest
splendour; and, having served God in it twenty-seven years, died of a fever in
975, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. It was his usual saying, which he
often repeated to his monks: “Preserve well the fire of your charity, and the
fervour of your devotion.” Croyland, pronounced Crouland, signifies a desert
fenny land. The monks, with incredible industry, rendered it fruitful, joined
the island to the continent, and raised several stupendous works about
it. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume IV: April. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/4/113.html
Roundel
from the Guthlac Roll, depicting Guthlac building a chapel at Crowland, circa 1210
Saint
Guthlac. Etching by G.F. Storm, 1842, after C.A. Stothard.
St. Guthlac
(c.AD 673-714)
St. Guthlac was the son
of Penwald, a minor prince from the Royal Mercian House of Icling, and his
wife, Tette. Born around AD 673, he was a serious child, not given to boyish
pranks. Yet upon reaching manhood at fifteen, he decided to become a soldier of
fortune. He collected a great troop of armed followers around him and,
together, they ravaged the countryside, burning, raping and pillaging as they
went. For nine years, Guthlac carried on with this thoughtless way of life
until, one night, he had a heavenly dream that instilled him with love and
compassion for his fellow man. He made an oath to dedicate his life to the
service of the Lord and, in the morning, bade his companions farewell. He
forsook his accumulated wealth and went off to join the dual-monastery at
Repton in Derbyshire, where he received the tonsure from Abbess Aelfthrith.
After two years in the
monastery, Guthlac began to long for the more secluded life of a hermit. So,
having acquired leave from the monastic elders, he departed for the great Fens,
north of Cambridge. Unlike the well drained arable land of today, the Fens were
then a labyrinth of black wandering streams, broad lagoons and quagmires with
vast beds of reeds, sedge and fern. The islands amongst this dismal swamp were
a great attraction for the recluse.
Guthlac was directed to a
particular one of these islands by a local man named Tatwin. Many people had
attempted to inhabit it before, but none had succeeded, on account of the
loneliness of the wilderness and its manifold horrors. The twenty-six year old
Guthlac eagerly rose to such a challenge and arrived in a little boat at his
new home of the "Crow Land" on St. Bartholomew's Day. He surveyed the
area a while before returning to Repton for supplies and building materials with
which he returned with the help of two servants. St. Guthlac found an ancient
tumulus on the island, against which he built himself a hermitage. He resolved
to wear only skins and ate only barley bread and drank water each day. For a
while, he was disturbed on his little island by a number of the native British
inhabitants who dragged him into the swamp and beat him. In the dark night,
Guthlac imagined he was attacked by horrible monsters. There were other dangers
closer to home however. Guthlac's servant, Beccel, was shaving him one day,
when he was seized by a desire to cut his master's throat and install himself
in his cell, that he might instead be honoured by the locals as a holyman.
Luckily, the perceptive Guthlac saw the temptation within and shamed the
offender into confession and repentance.
Guthlac was a tall trim
man. He was mild, engaging, tolerate, modest, patient and humble. These many
virtues were recognised by the Fenland wildlife. All the wild birds came to him
and fed from his hands. Ravens, though at first tormenting him by stealing
letters and gloves from his visitors, later, seized with compunction at his
reproofs, brought them back. As Wilfrid, a holy visitant, was once conversing
with him on his island, two passing swallows flew down onto the saint's
shoulders and burst into song. Guthlac believed that, "With him who has
led his life after God's will, the wild beasts and wild birds are tame."
After fifteen years in
the Fens, Guthlac was seized by an alarming illness while at prayers in his
chapel. Beccel ran to his side and tended him; but the holy man was dying. He
hung on for another eight days, giving his servant detailed instruction for his
burial by his sister, Pegge, in a lead coffin and a sheet given him by Abbess
Edburga. He died on 11th April AD 714 and the great Abbey of Croyland grew up
around his grave.
SOURCE : http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/guthlac.html
Legends
of Saints and Birds – Saint Guthlac and the Ravens
He of whom I write was a
hermit, who had his dwelling in desolate mid-England. This bleak fen district
was indeed the “dismal swamp,” where black streams wandered, oozing in stagnant
morasses round the roots of the alder and willow trees. Reed and sedge grew
there amidst the floating peat – all that remained of the vast forests of oak,
hazel, and yew, which had sunk beneath the sea as year upon year passed by.
Trees, torn down by flood and storm, dammed the waters back upon the land.
Will-o’-the-wisp lights shone forth by night, warnings which were needless, for
no travellers set foot in this land of marsh and mud, where even the sky seemed
less blue than in fairer climes.
Yet to this fen came
Guthlac, monk of the monastery of Repton, having permission to seek that
wilderness for which his soul longed. And he asked of one called Tatwin, who
dwelt on the edge of the fenland, whether he knew of any land in that morass
which might serve him for a dwelling. Then Tatwin told him that there was,
indeed, an island, yet because of its loneliness no man dare live there.
“Strange tales,” said Tatwin, “are told of this land. Demons torment those who
dwell there, making the dreary night a terror with their howlings.”
“I fear no demons,” answered
Guthlac, “so show me the way thither.”
So they rowed through the
fens until they came to the island called Crowland or Croyland, known to few
but Tatwin. On the Feast of Saint Bartholomew did Guthlac first see the place
where he was to dwell all his life.
Now, after he had settled
there he was tormented at night by strange noises; fierce-eyed, hairy men, with
teeth like horse-tusks, having crooked shanks and deformed feet, came to him.
And they tugged and pulled him from his hut, leading him to the fen, where they
let him sink in the dark waters, or dragging him through reed and thorn until
his body was torn and bleeding, or carrying him on great wings through the cold
regions of the air until he fell trembling and shivering, so chill he was.
These, then, were the demons of which Tatwin had spoken; yet some folk hold
them to have been naught evil, but simply the cries of the water-wolf, and the
moaning of the wind in the alder trees, which were thought to be the shrieks of
demons by those whom the marsh fever had laid low. And, maybe, the burning heat
and trembling cold of an ague fit caused Guthlac to imagine he was being
dragged through brambles or carried through the cold air. But he persevered and
dwelt on in that land.
Now, the wild birds of
the fens came to him, and he fed them. We are told how the ravens teased him,
for they came to steal from the men who sometimes came to Guthlac for the
teaching he was ever ready to give to them.
Over the fens came the
ravens, with their necks and feet drawn in; they floated high in the air,
steady and self-possessed, then on a sudden off they flew, swooping down upon
Guthlac and his friends.
“Cawruk! cawruk!” they
cried, then flew off with some treasure. But Guthlac told them that it was not
kind to do this, whereat the ravens listened, sitting upon the alder boughs,
and it seemed as if they understood the Saint, for after having communed with
each other, they flew down with what they had taken, giving it back to the
Saint. Therefore Guthlac praised the ravens, and the ravens bowed their heads
and flapped their wings, making obeisance to him.
Now, one day a holy man
named Wilfred came to visit Guthlac. He sat speaking with him on that island in
the dismal swamp, when the ravens came, as was their wont, crying “Cawruk!” And
Wilfred deemed those cries to bode evil, but Guthlac told him not so. “The
raven speaks but after his kind,” saith he, “and willeth no ill to any. The
good God gave them those hoarse voices and clothed them with sombre feathers.
Blessed be His Holy Name who hath given us eyes to see, and wit to perceive the
beauty of yonder raven’s wings as the sun shines upon them.” And another time
two swallows came to Guthlac, perching upon his shoulders. They lifted up their
voices, singing joyously. Then said Wilfred, for he chanced to be there again:
“I marvel at these birds.
Tell me wherefore comes it that the wild birds so tamely sit upon thee?”
To whom Guthlac made
reply:
“Hast thou not learned,
Brother Wilfred, in Holy Writ, that with him who has led his life after God’s
will the wild beasts and wild birds are tame?”
Thus dwelt Guthlac in the
fens. After his death monks came to the isle whereon he had dwelt, and driving
great piles deep into the morass, they built the great Abbey of Croyland that
abbey which became a sanctuary for all who were desolate and oppressed.
Wherefore let us give thanks to God who gave Guthlac grace to persevere, and
ourselves learn not to be lightly turned from well-doing. For had the Hermit
Guthlac forsaken this place where he proposed to lead a holy life, in prayer
serving God, because of night fears or marsh fever, the Abbey of Croyland would
not have been built.
– taken from Legends
of Saints and Birds by Agnes Aubrey Hilton
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/legends-of-saints-and-birds-saint-guthlac-and-the-ravens/
St.
Guthlac: the parish church of Astwick The exterior of this church shows that it
was once a cruciform church. The arch over the entrance was once the opening
into the south transept. This is the view from the roadside gate.
Miniature
Lives of the Saints – Saint Guthlake, Hermit
Article
Of royal birth, but of a
wild and adventurous disposition, Guthlake at the age of fifteen joined a
robber band, and became famous through the kingdom of Mercia for his daring
deeds. One night, after nine years of this life, as he lay awake in the forest,
new thoughts of death, the vanity of earth, and the joys of heaven stirred his
heart; whereupon, waking his companions, he bade them choose another chief, as
he had vowed himself to the service of Christ. Tearing himself from their
entreaties and embraces, he exchanged his arms for the dress of a rude peasant,
and humbly begged admittance into the abbey of Repton. There he did penance two
years, when, moved by the example of the desert Saints, he withdrew to the
marshes of Lincolnshire to lead a hermit’s life. In this solitude he suffered
the most terrible assaults from the evil spirits. They cast him into foul
swamps, reproached him incessantly with the sins ofhis youth, and once seemed
to have brought him to the mouth of hell itself. But Guthlake was stronger in
his weakness than in the most brilliant days of his youth. He prayed
constantly, and when quite worn out drove the devils off by the name of Jesus,
and made frequent acts of hope. He died, in 714, in the odour of sanctity, at
the age of forty-seven, and the famous abbey of Croyland rose over his grave.
Every good thought is the
whisper of grace in our hearts. Listen and instantly obey, lest you grieve and
extinguish the Holy Spirit of God.
How indispensably
necessary to me is Thy grace, O Lord, in order to begin, to continue, and to
accomplish what is good! For without it, I can do nothing; but in Thee I can do
everything by the strength of Thy grace. — Imitation of Christ
It was a dreary and
fearful waste to which God called Guthlake, but it became a holy and refreshing
sanctuary before he died. Morning and night an angel visited him, and whispered
the secrets of heaven to him as he knelt in prayer. The lower creatures obeyed
him. The birds and the fishes came at his call and ate out of his hand, while
the swallows would perch on his head and knees, and let him help them to build
their nests. To one who expressed surprise he said, “Know ye not that all
created beings unite themselves with him who unites himself with God?”
If you be willing, and
will hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land. – Isaiah
1:19
MLA
Citation
Henry Sebastian Bowden.
“Saint Guthlake, Hermit”. Miniature Lives of the
Saints for Every Day of the Year, 1877. CatholicSaints.Info.
2 March 2015. Web. 10 April 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/miniature-lives-of-the-saints-saint-guthlake-hermit/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/miniature-lives-of-the-saints-saint-guthlake-hermit/
Іканапіс
XXI стагоддзя
Дызайн
Алены Мядзведзь. Іканапісцы Вольга Шаламава, Аляксандр Чашкін і Антон Дайнека
Peinture
d'icônes du 21e siècle
Conception par Alena Medvedz. Peintres d'icônes Olga Shalamova, Alexander Chashkin et Anton Daineka
Stamp of Belarus - 2018 - Colnect 767163 - Contemporary Icon Art in Belarus
Stamp
of Belarus - 2018 - Colnect 769947 - Saint Guthlac of Croyland
St Guthlac
of Crowland
April 11, 2009 by Mark Armitage
St. Guthlac holding the
whip given to him by St. Bartholomew and, a demon at his feet. (The statue from
the second tier of the Croyland Abbey's west front of the ruined nave; dates
from the XVth century).
Born of royal blood in
the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia around 673, Guthlac joined the army of King
Ethelred of Mercia aged fifteen – which in practice involved a good deal of
burning, raping and pillaging.
Aged twenty four, he
renounced military life and entered the double monastery (i.e. a monastery with
male and female wings) at Repton (in modern Derbyshire). His enthusiastic
asceticism (he spurned all alcoholic drink) earned him first the hostility and
later the respect of his brethren.
After a couple of years
he decided that the relative comfort of the monastery did not fulfil his
spiritual needs, and, seeking to imitate the lifestyle of the desert fathers of
old, he retired to Croyland (modern Crowland in Lincolnshire) –a wet, abandoned
and utterly miserable island in the River Welland in the East Anglian fens,
which in those times were a wilderness of black streams, meres and quagmires,
rank with reed and sedge and fern, in order to create for himself a very
English equivalent of the Egyptian desert.
In order to understand
the desert fathers (and hence Guthlac) we need first to appreciate their
theological presuppositions. For the desert fathers, Christ had won a decisive
victory in the war against Satan and his demons, but the skirmishing continued,
and the Church was constantly under attack from demons who, though the war was
lost, were determined to prolong the fighting.
Ascetics went out into
the desert because it was here that the demons could be directly confronted.
The primary purpose of this confrontation was not so much the personal
sanctification of the monk as the protection of the world which the monks had
left behind from demonic attack.
A figure like Guthlac,
accordingly, effectively left a worldly army (of sorts) in order to enlist in
spiritual army, and, in withdrawing into the remote wilderness of the Fens, he
was not so much escaping from the world as going out to do battle on behalf of
God’s Church.
His biographer Felix
(writing within living memory of Guthlac’s own life) recounts how he
constructed a cell out of a plundered barrow, dressed in animal skins and,
for his daily rations, consumed nothing more than a scrap of barley bread and a
small cup of muddy water after sunset (all of which inevitably led to
bouts of ague and marsh fever).
As if these self-inflicted
hardships were not sufficient, Guthlac was beaten up by wild men (at first
Guthlac thought they were monsters) – native Britons who dragged him off his
island and beat him up in the swamp – and he also had to endure the
depradations of the wild animals and birds who threatened his everyday
existence (crows and magpies stole what few possessions he had, and also stole
letters and gloves from his visitors).
Finally, however, in the
best tradition of the desert fathers, he befriended the birds and animals, to
the extent that a visiting holy man beheld two swallows landing on his
shoulders and hopping all over him. Guthlac is said to have remarked that
“those who choose to live apart from other humans become the friends of wild
animals; and the angels visit them, too – for those who are often visited by
men and women are rarely visited by angels”.
Guthlac was not entirely
alone in his Fenland wilderness, but, like the great desert fathers, aggregated
a group of disciples who inhabited cells nearby (Saints Cissa, Bettelin,
Egbert, and Tatwin). Bishop Hedda of Dorchester paid him a visit and ordained
him to the priesthood, and the exiled prince Ethelbald came to him for advice
(Guthlac prophesied – accurately – that Ethelbald would eventually wear the
Mercian crown).
Guthlac died in 714 in
the compamy of his sister Saint Pega (a local hermitess). A year later his
exhumed body was found to be incorrupt, and in the following century his shrine
became the centre of a growing cult visited by King Wiglaf of Mercia (827-840)
and Archbishop Ceolnoth of Canterbury (miraculously cured of ague by Guthlac in
851). A monastery grew up on the site of Saint Guthlac’s hermitage, and this in
turn evolved into Crowland Abbey, where his relics were brought in 1136.
SOURCE : https://saintsandblesseds.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/st-guthlac-of-crowland/
The parish church
of Crowland and, the west front of the ruined nave of the Croyland Abbey.
Wednesday 11 April 2012
St Guthlac, Warrior and Hermit
11 April is the anniversary of the death in 714 of St Guthlac, a soldier who
took up the life of a hermit at Crowland in the Lincolnshire fens, and
subsequently became one of Anglo-Saxon England's most important saints. Guthlac
was born into a noble Mercian family and began his life like any other
Anglo-Saxon nobleman, as a warrior; his was the Mercia of the
newly-discovered Staffordshire
Hoard, a kingdom of great wealth and power, and we might imagine Guthlac
carrying weapons adorned like this. Inspired by
"the valiant deeds of heroes of old", according to his biographer
Felix, Guthlac fought in the army of the king of Mercia, and spent his youth as
leader of a warband. And then one night, at about the age of twenty-four, he
went to bed brooding on his usual concerns:
[W]hen... Guthlac was
being storm-tossed amid the gloomy clouds of life's darkness, and amid the
whirling waves of the world, he abandoned his weary limbs one night to their
accustomed rest; his wandering thoughts were as usual anxiously contemplating
mortal affairs in earnest meditation, when suddenly, marvellous to tell, a
spiritual flame, as though it had pierced his breast, began to burn in this
man's heart. For when, with wakeful mind, he contemplated the wretched deaths
and the shameful ends of the ancient kings of his race in the course of the
past ages, and also the fleeting riches of this world and the contemptible glory
of this temporal life, then in imagination the form of his own death revealed
itself to him; and, trembling with anxiety at the inevitable finish of this
brief life, he perceived that its course daily moved to that end. He further
remembered that he had heard the words: 'Let not your flight be in the winter
neither on the sabbath day.' As he thought over these and similar things,
suddenly by the prompting of the divine majesty, he vowed that, if he lived
until the next day, he himself would become a servant of Christ.
Felix’s Life of Saint
Guthlac, trans. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1956), pp.81-3.
"He contemplated the wretched deaths and the shameful ends of the ancient
kings of his race in the course of the past ages, and also the fleeting riches
of this world and the contemptible glory of this temporal life" - in other
words, he lay in the dark and thought about the chief theme of Anglo-Saxon
heroic poetry, which is that earthly glory is splendid and beautiful but is
always passing into nothingness.
What stories did he reflect on, if Felix's description has any basis in reality? It would be wonderful to know. Perhaps the tales of his ancestors in the tribe of the Guthlacingas, or the kings of the royal line of Mercia - but those stories are all lost to us, and we can only speculate. Whatever it was, the sudden awareness of death brought about a great change in Guthlac: he gave up his military life and became first a monk at Repton and then a hermit at Crowland, exchanging battles with the king's enemies for fierce struggles against demons. His story was vividly brought to life by a later Crowland artist, working probably at the beginning of the thirteenth century, who produced a series of pictures illustrating Guthlac's life on a long roll of parchment (now British Library Harley Roll Y. 6). Above is Guthlac bidding farewell to a soldier's life; then we see him receiving the tonsure at Repton:
The Crowland artist has fudged the truth here in showing Guthlac receiving the
tonsure from a bishop; Repton was a double monastery (i.e. for men and women)
under the rule of an abbess, and the Life is clear that Guthlac
received the tonsure under Abbess Ælfthryth. I wrote about Repton, still a
fantastically evocative place for imagining Guthlac's Mercia, here.
Then we see Guthlac, looking pensive, arriving at Crowland in the wilds of the
Lincolnshire fens, on St Bartholomew's Day 699:
(Compare the same scene rendered in stone at Crowland). Guthlac established a hermitage for himself in an earthen mound, and there he underwent many trials, including being assailed by devils which were vividly imagined by the Crowland artist:
He overcame the devils with the help of St Bartholomew, his patron, and became a miracle-worker and counsellor to kings. You can see illustrations of all this in the Guthlac Roll.
After he died and was buried at Crowland, a monastery was later founded at the site of his hermitage. As well as the Life written by Felix, there are two Old English poems about him, and a post-Conquest account, produced by Orderic Vitalis at the direction of the monks of Crowland, who were ever enthusiastic workers in Guthlac's cause. This is what Crowland Abbey looks like today, a magnificent structure even now it's half in ruins:
Here, and at a number of other churches named for him in Lincolnshire, Guthlac
was long venerated. And thus, in fleeing glory, he won himself fame which has
lasted 1300 years.
SOURCE : https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/04/guthlac-warrior-hermit.html
Saint Guthlac, parish church
of Crowland, Lincolnshire.
San Guthlac Eremita
674 - 714
Nato principe nel regno
di Mercia, Guthlac, dopo una giovinezza avventurosa tra le armi, si convertì
alla vita monastica, distinguendosi per rigore ascetico e avversione all'alcol.
Attratto dalla vita eremitica, si stabilì in un'isoletta paludosa del Crowland,
dove condusse un'esistenza austera ispirata a Sant'Antonio Abate. Superate
prove e tentazioni, incluso l'attacco di misteriosi "mostri", Guthlac
acquisì fama per la sua santità e il dono della profezia, attirando visitatori
illustri come il vescovo Edda e il principe ereditario Atebaldo. La sua
biografia rimarca la sua imperturbabilità di fronte a rabbia, ansia e
tristezza. Presagendo la propria morte, invitò al funerale la sorella Santa
Pega. La sua tomba divenne meta di pellegrinaggi, alimentati dalla miracolosa
guarigione del vescovo Ceolnoth. Dedicatigli dieci luoghi di culto in
Inghilterra, le sue reliquie furono traslate nel 1136 nell'abbazia di Crowland,
eretta sul luogo della sua cella.
San Guthlac fu uno dei numerosi principi del regno inglese della Mercia ad essere elevati alla gloria degli altari. Nato nel 674, in giovane età con alcuni amici intraprese la carriera militare, compiendo così violenze e razzie. Quasi tutte le guerre in cui fu coinvolto, che si combatterono sul confine con il Galles, gli guadagnarono un invidiabile bottino, nonché la fama di grande condottiero. Trascorsi nove lunghi anni, arrivò per Guthlac il tempo della conversione che si concretizzò con l’ingresso nel monastero Repton nel Derbyshire. Secondo la “Vita” che narra la sua vicenda, il principe monaco si contraddistinse tra i suoi confratelli per l’ascetismo estremo e la profonda avversione all’alcolismo. Dopo due anni sentì però la chiamata alla vita eremitica ed a tal scopo gli fu proposto un luogo tanto lugubre a tal punto da essere odiato da tutti. Nel 699 si ritirò dunque con qualche compagno in questa isoletta delle paludi del Crowland per il resto della sua esistenza terrena. Assunse principalmente come modello di vita Sant’Antonio Abate, uno dei più grandi Padri del deserto.
Dovette superare numerose prove e tentazioni e subì l’attacco da dei cosiddetti “mostri”, identificanti probabilmente i discendenti dei britanni che si erano rifugiati in quella zona durante le invasioni dei sassoni. Divenuto famoso per la sua vita austera e per aver ricevuto il dono della profezia, si trovo a dover ricevere un numero sempre crescente di visitatori, tra i quali il vescovo Edda di Lichfeld, che lo ordinò sacerdote, ed il principe ereditario di Mercia Atebaldo. Dalla sua biografia si può notare come Guthlac non abbia mai manifestato rabbia, ansia o tristezza. Avendo predetto il giorno della propria morte, poté invitare al funerale sua sorella Santa Pega, anch’essa eremita.
Morto dunque nel 714, la sua tomba divenne immediatamente meta di pellegrinaggi
ed il fenomeno aumentò in seguito in seguito alla miracolosa guarigione dalla
malaria del vescovo Ceolnoth di Canterbury avvenuta nell’851. Una decina di
luoghi di culto gli furono dedicati in Inghilterra. Nel 1136 le sue reliquie
furono traslate nell’abbazia di Crowland, edificata ove sorgeva la sua cella.
San Guthlac è considerato uno degli eremiti inglesi più famosi della sua epoca.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92326
Icon
of St Guthlac of Crowland
Den hellige Guthlac av
Croyland (~674-714)
Minnedag: 11.
april
Den hellige Guthlac (lat:
Guthlacus) ble født rundt 674 i Mercia i England. Han var sønn av Penwald og
hans hustru Tette og kom fra Mercia-grenen av slekten Guthlacinga og var av
kongelig blod og i slekt med kongehuset i Mercia. I sin barndom var han svært
alvorlig og viste uvanlige tegn på fromhet. Men da han var rundt 15 år, ble han
soldat i hæren til kong Ethelred av Mercia (675-704), og den sene
middelalderkatalogen over engelske helgener, Catalogus Sanctorum
Pausantium in Anglia fra 1200-tallet, kalte ham robustus depraedator.
I ni år hadde han stor
suksess i det som blir kalt en militær karriere, men som med større rett kan
beskrives som et liv viet til røveri og vold. Nesten alle hans kamper fant sted
langs grensen til Wales, og han bygde seg opp en stor formue. Han fikk åpenbart
ry som leder, for hans ledsagere kom fra alle kanter.
Men som 24-åring ga han i
697 opp dette livet etter en natt tilbrakt i kontemplasjon, og han bestemte seg
for å bli munk i Repton i det som nå er Derbyshire. Det var et dobbeltkloster
hvor noen konger av Mercia var gravlagt, styrt av abbedisse Elfrida (Ælfrith).
Da han avla løftene, ga han en tredjedel av sitt krigsbytte tilbake til ofrene.
Guthlacs biograf forteller at han var temmelig upopulær i begynnelsen på grunn
av sine strenge vaner, spesielt sin totale avholdenhet fra rusdrikker, men han
ble bedre likt etter hvert.
Etter et par år som munk
følte han imidlertid et kall til et liv i ensomhet i etterligning av
ørkenfedrene. Han fikk høre om et sted i The Fens i Lincolnshire som var så
dystert og hjemsøkt av onde ånder og monstre at ingen turde å bo der. Det var
Croyland (nå Crowland), et fuktig område ved en sving på elva Welland i The
Fens, et sted som bare kunne nås med båt. Navnet kommer fra gammelengelsk cru
lande, «vilt land».
Rundt 700 – legenden sier
at det skjedde på den hellige apostelen Bartolomeus'
minnedag den 24. august 699 – ble Guthlac eneboer der sammen med noen få
ledsagere. Han valgte Bartolomeus til sin skytshelgen og der bodde han resten
av livet, og hans liv lignet ørkenfedrenes. Ubehagelighetene inkluderte angrep
fra det han kalte «monstre», men som trolig var etterkommere etter keltiske
briter som hadde søkt tilflukt i The Fens under de saksiske invasjonene. Han
ble også utsatt for voldsomme fristelser fra djevler, men han ble trøstet av
visjoner av engler og sin skytshelgen Bartolomeus.
Som andre eneboere
utviklet Guthlac nære forbindelser med fugler og dyr, og han klaget ikke på de
tyvaktige vanene til kråker og skjærer, «for mennesker burde være et eksempel
på tålmodighet til og med for ville dyr». En hellig mann ved navn Wilfrid
besøkte en gang Guthlac og ble forbløffet da to svaler landet på skuldrene hans
og hoppet rundt på ham. Guthlac fortalte ham at «de som velger å bo borte fra
andre mennesker, blir venner med de ville dyrene; og englene besøker dem også,
for de som ofte blir besøkt av menn og kvinner, blir sjelden besøkt av engler».
Til tross for sin
isolasjon ble Guthlac berømt for sin askese og for sine profetiske evner, og
han fikk stadig flere besøkende. En av dem var den hellige biskop Hedda av Winchester,
som presteviet ham og konsekrerte hans beskjedne kapell. Hans biograf sier at
ingen noen sinne så ham sint, opphisset eller trist. Etter femten år som eremitt
visste han at døden nærmet seg i 714. Reptons abbedisse, den hellige Edburga av Repton,
skal ha sendt ham et likklede og en blykiste (selv om hennes dødsår vanligvis
angis til rundt 700). Han inviterte sin hellige søster Pega, som bodde som
eneboerske i det nærliggende Peakirk (= Pega's church), til sin begravelse. Dit
kom hun sammen med Guthlacs disipler, de hellige Cissa, Bettelin, Egbert
og Tatwin,
som bodde i celler i nærheten.
Guthlac døde den 11.
april 714 og ble gravlagt i jorden i all enkelhet, i henhold til hans eget
ønske. Men en kult startet øyeblikkelig, slik at hans søster Pega ønsket å
gravlegge ham på nytt på en mer passende måte. På årsdagen for begravelsen ble
graven åpnet, og Guthlacs legeme ble da funnet uten tegn til forråtnelse.
Guthlacs kult hadde sitt sentrum rundt hans grav i Croyland, hvor Pega hadde
gitt hans psalter og svøpe, som hun hadde arvet. Kong Ethelbald (Æthelbald) av
Mercia (716-57), som hadde vært en nær venn av den hellige, fikk graven bygd
opp og dekorert på passende vis. Allerede på Bartolomeusdagen i 716 la kong
Ethelbald ned grunnsteinen til et kloster til ære for Guthlac. Ethelbald hadde
besøkt Guthlac mens han var tronpretendent, og eneboeren hadde da profetert at
han ville bli rettmessig konge. Ethelbald avla da løfte om at han i tilfelle
ville bygge et kloster i Croyland, og dette løftet holdt han.
Den mest troverdige kilde
til informasjon om Guthlac finner vi i en biografi skrevet på latin mellom 730
og 740 av den angelsaksiske munken Felix – vi vet ikke hvilket kloster han kom
fra. Han dediserte biografien til Guthlacs venn, kong Ethelbald, og forsikret
ham at alt han hadde skrevet, hadde han hørt fra gamle og nære ledsagere av
Guthlac. Felix forteller at da den hellige ble født, steg en skinnende hånd
omgitt av et gulrødt lys ned fra himmelen og velsignet huset hvor han ble født
før den steg opp til himmelen igjen. Det ble også forfattet biografier på
gammelengelsk i prosa og vers.
Guthlac må nest etter den
hellige Cuthbert
av Lindisfarne regnes som den mest populære eremitten før den
normanniske invasjonen i 1066, men det må innrømmes at en rekke hendelser i
Felix' biografi ligner svært mye på episoder i den hellige abbed Antonius' liv og
i den hellige Beda
den Ærverdiges biografi om Cuthbert.
Guthlacs minnedag er 11.
april (tidligere 12. april), med en translasjonsfest den 30. august og en
minnedag (commemoratio) den 26. august. Kulten ble snart populær, og
blant dens tilhengere var kong Wiglaf av Mercia (827-40) og erkebiskop Ceolnoth
av Canterbury (833-70), som ble kurert for malaria av helgenen i 851. Festen
spredte seg snart over hele Mercia og til Westminster, St. Albans og Durham, og
ble etter hvert alminnelig i hele landet. Minst ni gamle kirker og et kloster
ble viet til ham.
Det opprinnelige
klosteret ble ødelagt av danskene i 870 og den hellige abbed Theodor og
hans store kommunitet ble myrdet mens de feiret messe. Det neste klosteret ble
brent ned i 1091. Det tredje klosteret på stedet ble påbegynt i 1113, men ble
delvis ødelagt av et jordskjelv i 1118 og en brann i 1143. Guthlacs relikvier
hadde i 1136 blitt overført til den klosterkirken som ble bygd på stedet for
hans celle, og skrinet ble utsmykket med gull, sølv og juveler. En annen
translasjon fant sted i 1196. Et segl som tilhørte Henrik de Longchamp, abbed
av Croyland mellom 1191 og 1236, viser apostelen Bartolomeus som gir Guthlac en
svøpe. Denne var ikke for selvpisking, men for bruk som et defensivt og offensivt
våpen mot djevelske angrep. Klosteret ble delvis revet ned etter oppløsningen
av klostrene under kong Henrik VIIIs (1509-47) reformasjon på 1500-tallet. Bare
nordskipet, som i dag brukes som sognekirke, og klokketårnet er bevart.
Guthlacs grav ble så fullstendig ødelagt at det aldri siden ble funnet noen
spor av den eller av relikviene.
Et unikt billedmateriale
fra Guthlacs liv er bevart på British Museum. Den kalles «Harleian Roll Y.6»
eller vanligvis «Guthlac-rullen» og er en velum-rull med 17 ½ runde bilder som
hvert er rundt 15 cm i diameter. De viser scener fra hans liv og stammer fra
andre halvdel av 1100-tallet. Rullen ble trolig laget for abbeden i Croyland og
bildene kan ha vært skisser til glassmalerier. En skulptur i klosteret i
Crowland viser Guthlac som holder en pisk og med en slange ved sine føtter.
Kilder: Attwater/John,
Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Bentley, Butler (IV), Benedictines, Bunson, Cruz (1),
KIR, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN, Infocatho, earlybritishkingdoms.com,
churchmousewebsite.co.uk, peterborough.net - Kompilasjon og oversettelse:
p. Per Einar
Odden - Opprettet: 1998-05-06 00:13 -
Sist oppdatert: 2006-01-01 17:22
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/guthlac
Voir aussi : http://www.umilta.net/pega.html
