David of Wales (500-589)

'Do the little things in life' ('Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd')*

A renowned teacher, Dewi Sant better known as David of Whales was the founder of 10 monastic communities. His main monastery was at Meneiva in Pembrokeshire. He looked to the model of the desert fathers and took a very austere approach. He lived a simple life, practiced asceticism and taught his followers to refrain from eating meat or drinking beer.

The Monastic Rule of David prescribed that monks pull the plough themselves without the aid of beasts; drink only water; eat only bread and vegetables with salt and herbs; spend the evenings in prayer, reading and writing. No personal possessions were allowed: to say "my book" was an offense.

" They should work so hard that they want only to love one another" he would say. David taught that someone wanting to become a monk should be made to wait out side for 10 days. After being treated with hostility if the candidate is patient through this ordeal he should be welcomed warmly.

He was anointed as a bishop by Patrick, presided over two synods and went on a number of pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

His last words to his followers were in a sermon on the previous Sunday. His biographer, Rhygyfarch relates these 'Be joyful, keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard I've done. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.'

*This quote by David of Wales is still a very well-known phrase in Welsh

living water reprint from 2008

Columbanus (543 - 615)

From the Instructions of St Columban

You, God, are everything to us

My brethren, let us follow this call. We are called to the source and fountain of life, by the Life who is not just the fountain of living water but also the fountain of eternal life, the fountain of light, the fountain and source of glory. From this Life comes everything: wisdom, life, eternal light. The Creator of life is the fountain from which life springs; the Creator of light is the fountain of light. So let us leave this world of visible things. Let us leave this world of time and head for the heavens. Like fish seeking water, like wise and rational fish let us seek the fountain of light, the fountain of life, the fountain of living water. Let us swim in, let us drink from the water of the spring welling up into eternal life.

  Merciful God, righteous Lord, grant that I may reach that fountain. There let me join the others who thirst for you, drinking living water from the living stream that flows from the fountain of life. Overwhelmed by its sweetness let me cling close to it and say “How sweet is the spring of living water that never runs dry, the spring that wells up into eternal life!.”

  O Lord, you yourself are that spring, always and for ever to be desired, always and for ever to be drunk from. Christ our Lord, give us this water as the Samarian woman once asked you, so that in us also it can be a spring of living water welling up into eternal life. It is an enormous gift I am asking – everyone knows that – but you, King of glory, have given great gifts in the past and made great promises. Nothing, after all, is greater than you; and yet you have given yourself to us and given yourself for us.

  Therefore we beg you that we should come to full knowledge of the thing that we love; for we pray to be given nothing other than you yourself. You are everything to us, our life, our light, our health and strength, our food, our drink, our God. Jesus, our Jesus, I beg you to fill our hearts with the breath of your Spirit. Pierce our souls with the sword of your love so that each of us can say truthfully in his heart, “Show me the one with whom my soul is in love, for by love I am wounded.”

  Lord, let me bear such wounds in my soul. Blessed is the soul that is wounded by such love and, thus wounded, seeks the fountain and drinks, thirsts even while it drinks: it seeks by loving, and the very wound of love brings it healing. May Jesus Christ, our righteous God and Lord, our true and healing doctor, deign to wound our innermost hearts with that healing wound. With the Father and the Holy Spirit he is one, for ever and for ever. 

Amen.

Saint Columban—the dove ( The name means dove or little dove in Latin. )of Christ The Irish missionary monk St. Columban (ca. 543-615) who traveled throughout Europe. He founded influential monasteries in France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/st-columban#ixzz2CgzaFhVB

graphics: top left Bibbio Italy

The Irish monks with their new, forceful kind of Christianity, stressing self-discipline and purity of life, presented a striking contrast to the complacent churchmen already living among the Franks. Columban spoke out repeatedly against the cruelty and self-indulgence of the kings and royal families, stressing the necessity of penance and introducing a new custom of frequent personal confession.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/st-columban#ixzz2CgzaFhVB

               bottom right. statue of St Columbanus in Bibbio

The Irish monks with their new, forceful kind of Christianity, stressing self-discipline and purity of life, presented a striking contrast to the complacent churchmen already living among the Franks. Columban spoke out repeatedly against the cruelty and self-indulgence of the kings and royal families, stressing the necessity of penance and introducing a new custom of frequent personal confession.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/st-columban#ixzz2CgzaFhVB

Monasticism ( 5) Pachomius ( 280 - 346 )

PACHOMIUS:  FOUNDER of  CHRISTIAN MONASTIC COMMUNITIES

Pachomius was born in Egypt around 290. According to his hagiography at the age of 20 he was he was swept up against his will in a Roman army recruitment drive, a common occurrence of the day. He converted to Christianity in 314  shortly after completing military service. . He then came into contact with a number of well known ascetics and decided to pursue that path. He sought out the hermit Palaemon as his spiritual tutor
                                                                       
  In about 320 after studying seven years with the Elder, he set out to live as a hermit near Tabennis, on the Nile in Upper (Southern) Egypt, in the district known as the Thebaid  This was in the same vicinity as Anthony of Egypt whose practices Pachomius imitated.  According to legend, he heard a voice  that told him to build a dwelling for the hermits to live in common.

 An earlier ascetic named Marcus had created a number of proto-monasteries called "larves", or cells, creating a  community setting for those who were physically or mentally unable to achieve the rigors of Anthony's solitary life.

 Up to this point monastics were solitary. Sometimes groups of hermits lived near one another and met occasionally for worship and  encouragement. Pachomius was the first to organize a religious community holding its goods in common,  fixed hour prayer, and following a rule under the leadership of an an Abbott or abbess.  Pachomius himself was hailed as "Abba" (father) which is where we get the word Abbot from.

  Between 321and 323. he established his first community along with his brother John.  In a short time  they were joined by 100 monks.Eventually eleven monasteries following the Rule of Pachomius were founded in the Thebaid, two of them for women After 336,

  It is estimated that there were 3000 monasteries dotting Egypt from north to south. Within a generation after his death, this number grew to 7000 and then spread from Egypt to Palestine and the Judean Desert, Syria, North Africa and eventually Western Europe. Other sources maintain that the number of monks, rather than the number of monasteries, may have reached 7000.

  He is also credited with being the first Christian to use and recommend use of a prayer robe or chakti.   His Rule greatly influenced the later work of Basil the Great (14 Jun 379) and  Benedict (11 Jul 547) who are accounted the founders of Eastern and Western monasticism as we now it.

  He remained abbot to the cenobites for some forty years. When he caught an epidemic disease (probably plague), he called the monks together, strengthened their faith, and appointed his successor and died on may 14th 346.

Some Values of Celtic Christianity

• Love of nature and a passion for the wild and elemental as a reminder of God's gift.
• Love and respect for art and poetry.
• Love and respect for the great stories and higher learning.
• Sense of God and the saints as a continuing, personal, helpful presence.
• Theologically orthodox, yet with heavy emphasis on the Trinity, and a love and respect for Mary, the Incarnation of Christ, and liturgy.
• Thin boundaries between the sacred and the secular.
• Unique Church structure: there were originally no towns, just nomadic settlements, hence the church was more monastic rather than diocesan, resulting in quite independent rules and liturgies.
• Ireland was very isolated; it was hard to impose outside central Roman authority.
• Influenced much by middle-eastern and Coptic monasticism.
• Monasteries were often huge theocratic villages often associated with a clan with the same kinship ties, along with slaves, freemen, celibate monks, married clergy, professed lay people, men and women living side by side.
• While some monasteries were in isolated places, many more were at the crossroads of provincial territories.
• Women had more equal footing in ancient Irish law, thus had more equal say in church governance.
• Developed the idea of having a "soul friend" (anamchara) to help in spiritual direction.
• Invented personal confession.
• Oral word-based culture; most of the people were illiterate but had great memorization skills. They loved to hear great stories.
• A sense of closeness and immanence between the natural and supernatural.
• A mandate for hospitality.
• Emphasis on family and kinship ties.

Columbanus (543-615)

The Rule of Columbanus

Columbanus developed a monastic rule or set of guiding principles for life in his communities.  I n 627 Columbanus' Rule  was approved of by the Council of Macon for general monastic use outside the Celtic model. Before the close of the century it was superseded by the Rule of St. Benedict. For several centuries in some of the greater monasteries the two rules were observed.

It is much shorter than the Benedictine Rule, consisting of only ten chapters.The first six are concerned with obedience, silence, food, poverty, humility, and chastity. The first six chapters of the Benedictine code has much in common with these, except Columbanus' fasting is more rigorous.

Chapter VII deals in exacting detail with the daily Offices and how they will be ordered and employed in the life of the community. 

Chapter VIII explores the need for and use of discernment in the spiritual life.

Chapter IX is concerned with what Columbanus refers to as mortification more commonly understood by us today as death to self or surrender.

Chapter X regulates penances for offenses, and it is here that the Rule of St. Columbanus differs so widely from that of St. Benedict. The Celts developed the Penitential which were later adopted and expanded by the Roman Church. More on the original concept of penance in cletic monstic life.

Below is the opening of The Rule of Columbanus:

Here begin the chapters of the Rule

1. On Obedience

2. On Silence

3. On Food and Drink

4. On Poverty

5. On Overcoming Vanity

6. On Chastity

7. On Choir Office

8. On Discernment

9. On Mortification (the death of self)

10. On the Monks Perfection ( and Penance)

Here begins the Rule for the Monks of Columbanus the Abbot.

First of all we are taught to love God with all our heart all our mind and all our strength our neighbor as ourselves: and then our works (the working out of loving God and neighbor in this case in context of the rule).

( ) parenthesis are my added explanation

Graphic: stain glass from the Bibbio Basilica

St Columba (521- 577)

The Rule of St Columba

1. Be alone in a separate place near a chief city, if thy conscience is not prepared to be in common with the crowd.

2. Be always naked in imitation of Christ and the Evangelists.

3. Whatsoever little or much thou possessest of anything, whether clothing, or food, or drink, let it be at the command of the senior and at his disposal, for it is not befitting a religious to have any distinction of property with his own free brother.

4. Let a fast place, with one door, enclose thee.

5. A few religious men to converse with thee of God and his Testament; to visit thee on days of solemnity; to strengthen thee in the Testaments of God, and the narratives of the Scriptures.

6. A person too who would talk with thee in idle words, or of the world; or who murmurs at what he cannot remedy or prevent, but who would distress thee more should he be a tattler between friends and foes, thou shalt not admit him to thee, but at once give him thy benediction should he deserve it.

7. Let thy servant be a discreet, religious, not tale-telling man, who is to attend continually on thee, with moderate labour of course, but always ready. Yield submission to every rule that is of devotion.

8. A mind prepared for red martyrdom [that is death for the faith].

9. A mind fortified and steadfast for white martyrdom [that is ascetic practices].

10. Forgiveness from the heart of every one.

11. Constant prayers for those who trouble thee.

12. Fervor in singing the office for the dead, as if every faithful dead was a particular friend of thine.

13. Hymns for souls to be sung standing.

14. Let thy vigils be constant from eve to eve, under the direction of another person.

15. Three labors in the day, viz., prayers, work, and reading.

16. The work to be divided into three parts, viz., thine own work, and the work of thy place, as regards its real wants; secondly, thy share of the brethen's [work]; lastly, to help the neighbours, viz., by instruction or writing, or sewing garments, or whatever labour they may be in want of, ut Dominus ait, "Non apparebis ante Me vacuus [as the Lord says, "You shall not appear before me empty."].

17. Everything in its proper order; Nemo enim coronabitur nisi qui legitime certaverit. [For no one is crowned except he who has striven lawfully.]

18. Follow alms-giving before all things.

19. Take not of food till thou art hungry.

20. Sleep not till thou feelest desire.

21. Speak not except on business.

22. Every increase which comes to thee in lawful meals, or in wearing apparel, give it for pity to the brethren that want it, or to the poor in like manner.

23. The love of God with all thy heart and all thy strength;

24. The love of thy neighbor as thyself.

25. Abide in the Testament of God throughout all times.

26. Thy measure of prayer shall be until thy tears come;

27. Or thy measure of work of labor till thy tears come;

28. Or thy measure of thy work of labor, or of thy genuflections, until thy perspiration often comes, if thy tears are not free.

From A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland II, i (London: Oxford University Press, 1873), pp. 119-121.

This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM's Nativity Sermon

I behold a new and wondrous mystery!
My ears resound to the shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but loudly chanting a heavenly hymn!
The angels sing! The archangels blend their voices in harmony!
The cherubim resound their joyful praise! The seraphim exult His glory!
All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth and man in heaven. He who is above now, for our salvation, dwells here below; and we, who were lowly, are exalted by divine mercy.
Today Bethlehem resembles heaven, hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices and, in the place of the sun, witnessing the rising of the Sun of Justice!
Ask now how this was accomplished, for where God wills the order of nature is overturned. For He willed He has the power. He descended. He saved. All things move in obedience to God.
Today, He Who is born. And He Who Is becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man - while not relinquishing the Godhead that is His.
And so the kings have come and they have seen the heavenly King that is come upon the earth, not bring with Him angels, nor archangels, nor thrones, nor dominations, nor powers, nor principalities, but treading a new and solitary path, He has come forth from a spotless womb.
Yet He has not forsaken His angels, nor left them deprived of His care, nor because of His incarnation has He ceased being God.
And behold the kings have come that they might serve the Leader of the Hosts of Heaven;
Women, so that they might adore Him Who was born of a woman so that He might change the pains of child birth to joy;
Virgins, to the Son of the Virgin . . .
Infants that they might adore Him Who became a little child, so that out of the mouths of infants He might perfect praise;
Children, to the Child Who raised up martyrs through the rage of Herod;
Men to Him Who became man hat He might heal the miseries of His servants;
Shepherds to the Good Shepherd Who has laid down His life for His sheep;
Priests, to Him Who has become a High Priest according to the order of Melchisidech;
Servants to Him Who took upon Himself the form of a servant that He might bless our stewardship with the reward of freedom;
Fishermen to the Fisher of humanity;
Publicans, to Him Who from among them named a chosen evangelist;
Sinful women to Him Who exposed His feel to the tears of the repentant woman;
And that I may embrace them all together, all sinners have come, that they might look upon the lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world!
Since, therefore, all rejoice, I too desire to rejoice! I too wish to share the choral dance, to celebrate the festival! But I take my part, not plucking the harp, nor with music of the pipes nor holding the torch, but holding in my arms the cradle of Christ!
For this is all my hope! This is my life! This is my salvation! This is my pipe, my harp!
And bearing it I come, having from its power received the gift of speech, I too, with the angels sing: "Glory to God in the Highest," and with the shepherds: "and on earth peace to men of good will."

Columbanus and the Delopment of Monasticisim

Columbanus one of the greatest missionaries and  monastic community builders of the Celtic church initiated a revival of spirituality on the European continent. He left Ireland in 590 with 12 monks. The Merovingian king Guntram granted him land in the Vosges Mountains in Gaul, where he established several monasteries, including the great intellectual and religious house at Luxeuil (.(nearFontaine, France).

Luxeuil became a monastic hotbed. From its walls went out many who carried the Gospel and Columbanus' monastic vision  into France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. There are said to have been sixty-three such men (Stokes, Forests of France, 254). These disciples of Columbanus are accredited with founding over one hundred different monasteries (ib., 74).

Columbanus' example of monastic and missionary enterprise became the protoype so eagerly followed by such English and Irish Saints  as Killian, Virgilius, Donatus, Wilfrid, Willibrord, Swithbert, Boniface, and Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne who  Columbanus preceded to Europe.

 He composed a comprehensive rule for monks, The Monastic Rule of St. Columbanus is much shorter than the Benedictine Rule, consisting of only ten chapters.  The first six chapters the  Benedictine and Columbian  codes cover the same issues,obidence, silence food, poverty, humility, chastity and fasting. The rule was approved by the council of Macon in 627. By 700 it was surpassed in usage by  the longer and  less austere rule of St. Benedict. For several centuries in some of the greater monasteries the two rules were observed conjointly.

Near the end of his life and travels Columbanus established a monastic community at Bibbio in Italy where he founded a library. The Bibbio community became a hub of faith and learning for all of Europe.

composed from several sources

check out Columbanus' Living Water thumnail bio

Photos : The basilica of San Colombano in Bibbio Italy and the rish chapel of St. columbanus as St Peters Basilica

Praying and Singing the Psalms (part 1)

Praying and sing the psalms

Jesus himself would have been raised to recite and sing the psalms, a tradition that was already a thousand years old when he was born. Jesus often responded to questions about himself and his mission through reference to the psalms, most poignantly in his last words on the cross: in Matthew, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Psalm 22:1); and in Luke, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Psalm 31:5).

The early Christians, followed this Jewish tradition. By the third century A.D. this practice was firmly in place in the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers whose ascetic experiments in the deserts of Syria and Egypt constitute the most powerful and sustained exploration of the path of inner transformation ever to have arisen in Christianity.

The psalms became the hymn book of the desert and laid the ground work for nearly two thousand years of spiritual practice. They were incorporated into monastic life through the daily office. Benedict in the early 6th century explained in his rule how his monks were to daily pray the psalms.

"The psalms are the path you must follow," said St. Romuald, the 11th-century founder of the Camaldolese Benedictine order, "--never leave it."

For centuries followers of Christ have processed their own spiritual journeys through them. When we pray or sing the psalms, we are walking on a well-trod path.

http://www.prayerfoundation.org/athanasius_praying_the_psalms.htm

Graphic: A Dead Sea Scroll manuscript containing the Psalms

Columbanus (543- 615)

Cloumbanus born in 543 at Nobber, County Meath, is perhaps the first of the classic Irish archetypes - the exile who travels overseas, lives a rich and full life yet constantly longs for his native shore.

His biographer Jonas of Bibbio tells us that he was a handsome lad who fleeing youthful temptation sought out Sinell, Abbot of Cluaninis in Lough Erne as a soul friend. Under Sinell's instruction, Columbanus composed a commentary on the Psalms.

Eventually he moved to the recently established monastery in Bangor and under abbot Comgall embraced the monastic life. Around the age of 40 Columbanus felt God was calling him to bring the Gospel to far away lands. Intially his intention desire was ignored by his community at Bangor, but after much persistence consent was given.

In 590 Columbanus with a group of twelve set sail for Brittany. He travelled across France, and with the support of the Frankish king Childebert, he founded a small monastery at Annegray The abott and his monks led the simplest of lives. Every where they went people were struck by their humble and Christ like character.

Eventually his relationship with the royal family grew frosty and after a twenty year sojourn was forced to leave France with a band of brothers.

In his sixties he founded a monastery in the wild Apline edges of what is now Switzerland and then set out down the Rhine. Eventually he headed over the Alps into Northern Italy, leaving behind his old companion Gall to continue founding communities.Well received at the royal court in Milan Columbanus was given permission to found a monastery in Bobbio, in the Appenines south west of Piacenza.

Jonas recalls Columbanus carrying huge wooden beams as he worked to restore the ruined church he'd been given. By this time in his seventies his health began to fail. He died in Novenber 615, around a year after he'd arrived in Italy.

Within 50 years of his death there were over 100 foundations with ties to Columbanus's hub communities in Luxeuil and Bibbio. He also left behind an invaluable collection of his writings, including letters, sermons and monastic rules.

The collapse of the Roman Empire, the invasion of barbarians, and the state of the cultural and religious life at the time left a spiritual void in Europe that was ripe for such a band of preacher monks. Lead by Columbanus they cut a swath through France Switzerland Austria Germany and Italy, establishing celtic style monastic communities. Transforming Europe as they went.

David of Wales (500-589)

A renowned teacher, Dewi Sant better known as David of Whales was the founder of 10 monastic communities. His main monestary was at Meneiva in Pembrokeshire. He looked to the model of the desert fathers and took a very austere approach. He lived a simple life, practiced asceticism and taught his followers to refrain from eating meat or drinking beer.

The Monastic Rule of David prescribed that monks pull the plough themselves without the aid of beasts; drink only water; eat only bread and vegetables with salt and herbs; spend the evenings in prayer, reading and writing. No personal possessions were allowed: to say "my book" was an offence.

" They should work so hard that they want only to love one another" he would say. David taught that someone wanting to become a monk should be made to wait out side for 10 days. After being treatedwith hostility if the candidate is patient through this ordeal he should be welcomed warmly.

He was annointed as a bishop by Patrick, presided over two synods and went on a number of pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

His last words to his followers were in a sermon on the previous Sunday. His biographer, Rhygyfarch relates these 'Be joyful, keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard I've done. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.'

'Do the little things in life' ('Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd') is today a very well-known phrase in Welsh

Anthony of Egypt (251-236)

Anthony the founder of Christian monasticism and the 1st of the desert fathers was born to wealthy parents who died before he was twenty. After hearing a homily from the gospel that directed "go sell all you have give it to the poor and gather up your treasure in heaven" he did exactly that. On procuring care for his younger sister he sought out a holy man as a mentor and moved away from his home town.

After that, Anthony went into a more remote mountain country, where he spent the next 20 Years. Around 305, at the request of other ascetics he founded a monastery for them at Fayum.
The monasteries that Anthony founded were more like communities of hermits who had separate dwellings. They gathered for common work and devotions. Occasionally Anthony himself would visit and counsel the monks out of his own rich experience. "Do every action as if it were the last in your lives,", "The Devil dreads fasting, prayer, humility and good works.", "If prayer becomes too difficult, turn for a while to manual labor."

In 311, Emperor Maximinus started a fresh persecution of Christians. During that time Anthony came out of the desert to live in Alexanadrea and encourage the followers of Christ in that city to endure the hardship with humility and love.

When Anthony took ill and bade a gentle farewell to his monk companions he instructed them to bury his body in an unmarked grave to avoid his body becoming an object of veneration. He died quickly and calmly of old age at 105.

His monastic rule of has served as the basis for countless monasteries. The chief source of information on Anthony comes from his contemporary Athanasius's "The Coptic life of Anthony".

for more info about Anthony of Egypt go to
http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Anthony_of_Egypt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great