by The Laird o’Thistle
October 26 2008
The end of October and the beginning of November is an anciently sacred time among peoples of Celtic descent – Bretons, Gallicians, Welsh, Cornish, Scots, and Irish – marking the turning of the year. In Scotland the seasonal “quarter” day, occurring about halfway between the equinox and solstice, is traditionally called Samhain. It marks the transition from the summer/autumn half of the year into the winter/spring half. The old belief is that at this time of year the wall between the worlds is at its thinnest, and so it is a time when the spirits of the dead can return to visit their old homes and families. Out of this ancient belief, the medieval Christian Church created the Feast of All Saints (November 1) and of All Souls (November 2). And also out of this arose the folk traditions of Halloween (the Eve of All Hallows/Saints on October 31). Some of these latter customs also attached themselves to the celebrations of Guy Fawkes Day / Bonfire Night on November 5. In whatever ever form, though, this is the season of the dead.
In observance of the season, I thought it might be of interest to note some saints – somewhat broadly defined in a couple of instances – that are closely associated with various royal lines of the British and Scottish monarchies from ancient times right down to some recent near relations of the current royal family. The list that follows does not include the patron saints of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (St. George, St. Andrew, St. David, and St. Patrick respectively) for the simple reason that they were not of the royal kindred. Instead, the saints found here were of royal origin and lineage. I have listed them in historical order, with the date of their feast, and a brief description of each. (Individuals who have never been officially canonized by one of the major Christian bodies – Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican – are shown with their names in bold italics.)
St. Columba (Colmcille) – Feast day (F.d.) June 9. He died in 597 C.E. at Iona. A member of the royal clan of the Scots of Dalriada in Ulster descended from the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages, Columba was the founder of the monasteries of Derry and Durrow in Ireland. In 563 he was exiled from Ireland, supposedly for having caused a war for refusing to hand over an unauthorized copy he’d made of a borrowed manuscript. (Does that make him the patron saint of copyright infringement?) He settled on the island of Iona in the Hebrides, having made sure on landing that he could not see the shores of Ireland, as ordered by those who banished him. From Iona, he became the evangelist of the Scottish Highlands, with exploits including the first recorded encounter with the Loch Ness Monster. He also brought about the conversion of Brude, King of the Picts, who resided at Inverness. Columba’s cousin and eventual successor at Iona, St. Adamnan (ca. 627-704, F.d. September 23) wrote the major life of Columba, and was a major figure in the Celtic Christian mission. The restored abbey at Iona is now the home of the Iona Community which is related to the Church of Scotland, and the island remains a pilgrimage site.
During Columba’s era, a colony of the Scots of Ulster was being established in Argyll, and Columba presided as the “sacring” of his kinsman Aidan mac Gabhran, the first High King of Scots in what we now know as Scotland. The current royal family are descendants of Aidan, and thus collateral descendants of St. Columba. The chief representative of the Kindred of St. Columba also retains the right to crown the King or Queen of Scots. In medieval times this privilege descended to the MacDuff branch of the royal lineage, and it now is held by the Duke of Hamilton who has borne the crown of Scotland before the Queen on several occasions during her reign.
St. Kentigern (Mungo) – F.d. January 14. He died in 612. St. Mungo (“most dear”) is said to have been a grandson of the legendary King Lot of Lothian and Orkney and his wife Morgause, who was King Arthur’s half sister. (Lot is possibly to be identified with the semi-historical ruler Leudonus who resided at Traprain Law near Edinburgh.) That would also make St. Mungo a nephew of the legendary Sir Gawain, one of the heroes of the quest for the Holy Grail.
In any event, Mungo is credited with the founding of the church at Glasgow and served as a missionary evangelist along the west coast of the Scottish Lowlands down into Cumbria. He also spent a time of exile in Wales, at which point he became the teacher of St. Asaph.
St. Asaph – F.d. May 11. He lived in the sixth century C.E. Reputed to have been a grandson of the north British king Pabo Post Prydain, Asaph was a student of Kentigern and succeeded Kentigern as bishop at Llanelwy in Wales. In the middle ages the name of the see was changed to St. Asaph’s, and so it remains.
St. Ethelbert of Kent – F.d. February 23. He lived ca. 560 to 616 C.E. He welcomed St. Augustine, founder of the Latin mission to England, in 597 and established him and his colleagues at Canterbury. Ethelbert was baptized became the first of the Saxon kings to convert to Christianity and assisted in the evangelization of Kent and neighboring kingdoms. He was the third “Bretwalda” (head king) of the Saxons. He is a distant ancestor, via a female descendant, of the current royal family.
St. Edwin of Northumbria – F.d October 12. He died in 633 C.E. Edwin was the first Christian king of the emergent Saxon kingdom of Northumbria (which combined the older territories of Deira and Bernicia). He was also the fifth Bretwalda of the Saxons. Edwin converted to Christianity in 627 through the combined influences of St. Paulinus of York and of his Christian wife Aethelburga of Kent. Edwin was killed in a battle with the pagan king Penda of Mercia and the British (Welsh) king Cadwallon of Gwynedd in 633, and came to be venerated as a saint. He was shortly thereafter succeeded by his nephew St. Oswald.
St. Oswald of Northumbria – F.d. August 5. He died in 642 C.E. Oswald became a Christian at Iona while in exile during the early part of his life. In 633 he defeated and slew Cadwallon of Gwynedd, and became king in Northumbria. He was the sixth of the seven known Bretwaldas. He became the patron of a Celtic mission from Iona under the leadership of St. Aidan, through which the Christianization of Northumbria progressed. It was at this time that Lindisfarne, just off the Northumbrian coast at the modern border between England and Scotland, became the second major “holy island” associated with the Columban Celtic mission in Great Britain.
Oswald went so far as to accompany Aidan on preaching tours, with the king himself serving as Aidan’s translator. He was slain in a battle with old Penda of Mercia in 642, and shortly thereafter came to be venerated as a saint. Miracles attributed to him included typically Celtic tales of a sacred tree and the springing forth of a holy well. His original shrine was at Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire, with some of his relics later being housed at Durham and at Gloucester.
St. Hilda of Whitby – F.d. November 17. She lived from 615 to 680. A grandniece of St. Edwin of Northumbria, Hilda became a nun under the influence of St. Aidan. She founded the Celtic-style double or mixed Abbey of Whitby in 657 and served as its Abbess until her death. The great council that decided whether the north English churches would follow Celtic or Latin traditions was held at Whitby in 664, and though she personally favored the Celts Hilda abided by the decision which favored the Latins. In modern times Hilda has come to be regarded as a patron saint of women’s education.
St. Ethelreda (Audrey) – F.d. June 23 (October 17 in the Book of Common Prayer). She lived 630 to 679. One of several saintly daughters of King Anna of the East Angles, she founded and served as abbess of the double monastery at Ely, where the current Ely Cathedral stands. Her sister St. Sexburga (F.d. July 6) was the wife of King Erconbert of Kent, and later an abbess. Sexburga is an ancestress of the current royals.
St. Edmund – F.d. November 20. He lived from 841 to 869 C.E. Chosen as a young man to be the (last) king of the East Angles, Edmund was captured and slain by a pagan Viking host in 869. According to one legend, he was tied to a tree and shot with arrows until he appeared “like a thistle covered with prickles” after which his head was struck off. It is also said that his severed head later revealed itself to friendly searchers by shouting “Here! Here!” When found, the head was being guarded by a wolf, the totemic royal animal of East Anglia. His body was enshrined at the place that became known as Bury St. Edmunds, which became a major pilgrimage site and was deeply venerated by English kings up to the time of Henry VIII. According to some, he was regarded as the patron saint of England until being overshadowed by St. Edward the Confessor.
Alfred the Great – F.d. October 26. Alfred lived from ca. 849 to ca. 899 C.E. The King of Wessex who became the first King of the “English,” Alfred the Great was a warrior who led the struggle against the Danes. He also established much of the foundational English justice system that evolved into the Common Law. Alfred was a scholar, who personally translated a number of religious, historical, and theological works into the English of his era because many of the clergy and others had become ignorant of Latin in the long era of struggle with the Viking invaders. Upon his death, King Alfred was buried at Winchester, though his remains were ultimately moved and eventually scattered and lost. He is a direct ancestor of the current royal family. Though not recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church, Alfred is venerated at a saint by the Orthodox Church and is commemorated in the calendar of the Anglican Communion.
St. Edward the Martyr – F.d. March 18. He lived from ca. 962 to 978. Edward was the son of the Anglo-Saxon king Edgar the Peaceful. Succeeding to the English throne at about age 13, the notably pious young king was assassinated by retainers of his rival half brother, supposedly at the instance of his stepmother. His body was eventually enshrined at Shaftesbury, and he was venerated as a saint and martyr even though his unjust death was not in the cause of religion per se. The young saint-king’s relics were hidden at the time of the Reformation and rediscovered in 1931. They eventually passed into the possession of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, and are now enshrined in the St. Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking. Edward was the second king to be crowned according to the coronation rite created by St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, which is the basis of the ceremony as continued down to the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.
St. Edward the Confessor – F.d. October 13. He lived from ca. 1004 to 1066. The Confessor was the son of Ethelred the Unread (ill-counseled), in whose interest Edward the Martyr was assassinated. He was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, reigning from 1042, in the wake of whose death the Norman Conquest occurred. Edward lived a life of deep devotion and was notable for his generosity to the poor. Late in life he refounded and endowed Westminster Abbey, on what was then a small island in the Thames. He was regarded as the patron saint of England up until he was displaced by St. George in the fourteenth century under Edward III, and he is said to continue to be regarded as the patron saint of the royal family.
St. Edward the Confessor is the only English saint whose remains are still housed in their medieval tomb/shrine. That surviving shrine dates from the 13th century and is to be found behind the high altar at Westminster Abbey in the area that serves as a sort of “retiring room” for the Sovereign during the coronation ceremony. It is also where the historic coronation chair is regularly housed. The historic crown used solely at the coronation itself is called St. Edward’s Crown, even though it was only created in the 17th century for the coronation of Charles II. (Oliver Cromwell having destroyed the historic English regalia.) The Imperial State Crown worn by the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament also contains a sapphire believed to have belonged to the Confessor.
St. Margaret of Scotland – F.d. November 16. She lived ca. 1045 to 1093. A grandniece of St. Edward the Confessor, Margaret became the principal heir of the Saxon royal line after the death of her brother. It was long believed that her mother, Agatha, was a near relation of St. Stephen of Hungary, but other recent research suggests that Agatha may have been a daughter of Yaroslav I of Kievan Rus. If so, that would make Margaret a great-granddaughter of St. Vladimir, the royal founder of the Russian church, and a grandniece of Sts. Boris and Gleb (also known by their baptismal names, Roman and David), two of Vladimir’s sons. In any event, Margaret had a rather surprising number of relatives who became saints, and in her offspring, the descendants of the Kindred of St. Columba (her husband’s ancestry) are conjoined with the lineage of the various Saxon saints in the lineage of the house of Wessex.
Shortly after the Norman Conquest, Margaret found refuge in Scotland, where she married King Malcolm III (i.e., Malcom Canmore, the slayer of Macbeth) in 1070. Margaret and Malcolm had a large family, including four sons who became Kings of Scots, and a daughter Matilda who married Henry I of England and passed the Saxon heritage back into the English royal family. Margaret was deeply religious and used her influence to bring the Scottish Church more fully into line with standard Roman Catholic practice. She founded Dunfermline Abbey, which served for many generations as the principal burial place of Scottish royalty including herself and her eventual descendant Robert the Bruce. She is also commemorated in the tiny St. Margaret’s Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, the oldest surviving edifice in the castle and the place where she is believed to have died.
The late Princess Margaret, who was born at Glamis Castle in 1930, was named in honor of her saintly ancestress.
David I of Scotland – F.d. May 24. He lived ca. 1084 to 1153, and was King of Scots from 1124. David was the sixth and youngest son of Malcolm III and St. Margaret. Having spent much of his life before coming to the throne in England, he was close friends with St. Ailred of Rievaulx. David introduced many civil and ecclesiastical reforms in Scotland, and so generously endowed the several monasteries that he found that his descendant James VI / I referred to him as “ane sair sanct” to the Crown.
David I was never officially canonized but was widely venerated as a saint by the Scottish people. One of the legends of St. David has him skipping mass one day to go hunting – supposedly even a saint needs the occasional day off – only to be charged by an apparitional stag with a cross between its antlers. On the site of that encounter, David founded the Abbey of Holyrood, which eventually became the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the Queen in Scotland. And to this day an antlered stag’s head donated by the Queen adorns the facade of the Canongate Church adjoining Holyroodhouse.
Waltheof of Melrose – F.d. August 3. He lived 1095 to 1159. Waltheof was the stepson of David I of Scotland via his wife’s previous marriage. Becoming a churchman and monk early in life, Waltheof transferred to the relatively new Cistercian Order at Reivaulx in 1143. In 1148 Waltheof was named as the second Abbot of Melrose in the Scottish borders. One legend tells how he had a vision of the infant Jesus as he held the consecrated communion wafer in his hands during mass on a Christmas morning. His reputation for saintliness grew rapidly in the wake of his death, but he was never officially canonized. His second successor, Jocelin, commissioned the Life of St. Waltheof which helped to establish and perpetuate the de facto cultus of Waltheof at Melrose.
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury – F.d. May 28. She lived 1473 to 1541. Margaret Plantagenet was a niece of King Edward IV, and thus a first cousin, once removed, of Henry VIII. She and her family became the objects of royal wrath when her son Reginald, later a Cardinal and the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke out strongly against Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Arrested in 1538, aged 65, Lady Margaret was charged with treason and brutally executed in the Tower of London in 1541. She was buried in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower. Regarded as a martyr, she was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. She has not yet been canonized, and is properly “Blessed Margaret Pole.”
Elizabeth I – Remembered on March 24. She lived from 1533 to 1603. I include her in this list as, in a sense, the actual royal founder of the Church of England as it still exists. Having survived the religious and political turmoil of her father’s, brother’s, and sister’s reigns, Elizabeth embraced a moderately Protestant establishment of religion after succeeding to the throne in 1558. Forced by international politics to crack down on Catholics in the course of her reign, Elizabeth expressed her loathing of the necessity of forcing the religious conscience of that segment of her subjects. On the other side of the spectrum, she had little patience with the early Puritans who constantly sought to force her to a more radical Reformation. One of her less well-known efforts was to order the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh, Wales being the Tudor family’s ancestral homeland. A number of prayers composed by her for her own use give some insight into her own personal religiosity.
Scholarly studies also show how Queen Elizabeth adapted traditional iconography and other aspects of devotion to the “Blessed Virgin” Mary into her own propagation of her image as the “Virgin Queen.” The success of such efforts are seen in the way in which she and her reign came to be venerated as a great “golden age” even by later Puritans, and on down the generations in Britain, the U.S., and throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth.
Mary Queen of Scots – Remembered on February 8. She lived from 1542 to 1587. The Catholic cousin (first cousin, once removed) of Elizabeth I, Mary Stewart was Queen of Scots from her infancy. Devoutly Catholic, but quite tolerant for her times, she had to face the fierce opposition of Scottish Protestants led by the grim reformer John Knox (a man who even tried the patience of John Calvin!). Mary was accused – probably falsely – of the death of her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Fleeing from a coup led by her illegitimate half-brother (and covertly supported by Elizabeth I) she took refuge in England in 1567. Imprisoned by Elizabeth, she proved a constant threat to her cousin’s throne and remained the focus of Catholic England’s hopes. Finally caught out in a plot against Elizabeth, Mary was executed in 1587. At her execution, she dressed in the color of martyrdom, and many Scottish and English Catholics regarded her as a martyr and candidate for sainthood. But that has never come to pass. After succeeding Elizabeth in 1603, Mary’s son James VI / I had a splendid tomb built for his mother in Westminster Abbey, immediately adjoining that of her rival Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth II is the thirteenth generation in direct descent from Mary of Scotland to sit on the British throne.
[Readers may note that the Laird o’ Thistle does not like the recent suggestion of moving Mary’s remains back to Scotland. There’s a sort of wonderful ironic justice in the fact that she lies next to Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey.]
Charles I – Remembered on January 30. Charles lived from 1600 to 1649. He was the second son of James VI / I, and became King of England and Scotland in 1625 (his elder brother having pre-deceased their father). A believer in “divine right” and royal absolutism, Charles was also a devotee of the “high church” movement towards greater authority for bishops, and more liturgical and aesthetic elaboration and beauty in worship. Charles’ ill-advised policies resulted in him dealing with simultaneous civil wars in Scotland, Ireland, and England. In the end, he was executed by order of Oliver Cromwell and the English Parliament. His remains were interred in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the anniversary of Charles I’s execution was added to the calendar of holy days observed in the Church of England, and it remained there until 1859. The “Society of King Charles the Martyr” remains active, with Lord Nicholas Windsor (the younger son of the Duke of Kent) listed as one of its principal patrons. Ironically, Lord Nicholas is actually a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, via his mother, but is not a direct descendant of Charles I. (The current royal family descends via Charles I’s sister, Elizabeth, the “Winter Queen” of Bohemia.)
Tsar Nicholas II and his family – F.d. July 17. The last Tsar of Russia, along with his wife Alexandra, their son Alexei, their daughters Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia, and several of their attendants were executed by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918. Despite the political complexities of the events leading to the collapse of the Tsarist regime, the sincerely devout Nicholas and Alexandra have been canonized by two branches of the Russian Orthodox Church, along with their children and attendants. In 1981 they were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. In 2000 they were recognized as saints by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, but under the designation of “Passion-bearers” (i.e. sharers of the sufferings of Christ) rather than as martyrs. The remains of the entire group, except for those of Alexei and one of the daughters, were discovered in 1991. In 1998 they were ceremonially interred in St. Petersburg, in a chapel in the church where other members of the Imperial Family were traditionally laid to rest.
Among the family group, the young Tsarevich Alexei (who was not quite 14 years old at the time of his death) has excited the most devotion, and claims of some miracles. The remains of Alexei and his sister (probably Marie) were discovered in 2007 and positively identified the spring of 2008. Plans for their interment in St. Petersburg have not yet been announced.
A memorial church has also been erected on the site of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, where the family was executed.
As is well known, Nicholas II was a first cousin of George V via their Danish mothers. Empress Alexandra (Alix of Hesse) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and was the sister of Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, Prince Philip’s grandmother. Prince Philip and his family are thus among the closest relatives of these Romanov saints.
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia – F.d. July 5 (old Orthodox calendar) / July 18 in the common calendar. She lived from 1864 to 1918. Princess Elizabeth (Ella) of Hesse was a sister of Tsarina Alexandra, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She married the Grand Duke Sergei of Russia, an uncle of Nicholas II, in 1884. They had no children of their own. Sergei was an intensely religious man, and his wife became deeply devoted to the Orthodox faith which she adopted at the time of her marriage. A few years after Sergei was assassinated in 1905 she founded the Convent of Sts. Martha and Mary in Moscow, and became its Abbess. In the ensuing years, she and her sisters worked tirelessly among the poor and sick Arrested in May 1918, Elizabeth and several other members of the extended imperial family were executed on July 18, 1918. She and others were beaten and thrown alive down a mineshaft and abandoned to die. Hymns and prayers were heard from the shaft after the captives had been thrown in, and when the bodies were found it appeared that Elizabeth had been able to bandage some of the wounds of her fellow-sufferers.
Elizabeth was elevated to sainthood by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981. In 1992 she was made a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church, and designated a “New-martyr.” Her remains were ultimately interred at the St. Mary Magdalene Convent on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, a church that she and her husband had helped build. Her other principal shrine is her Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow, at which there is a reliquary containing a small portion of her remains, brought there in 1984. She is also one of ten 20th Century Martyrs honored with statues at the west doors of Westminster Abbey in London.
Like Empress Alexandra, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth was a great-aunt of Prince Philip.
Princess Alice (Princess Andrew of Greece) – This is Prince Philip’s mother, who died on 5 December 1969 at Buckingham Palace. Her life was marked by years of exile, estrangement from her unfaithful playboy husband, and struggles with deep depression. Having a deep interest in religion and spirituality, Princess Andrew founded a short-lived Orthodox religious order in her later years. Initially interred in the royal crypt at Windsor, in 1988 her remains were moved to the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, close by the relics of her aunt, St. Elizabeth Feodorovna. Having saved a Jewish family from the Nazis in wartime Greece, she was designated one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel in 1994. Although not an official saint, and unlikely ever to become one, Princess Andrew was deeply devoted to her faith and also to the memory of her aunt.
Out of the preceding list a “calendar” of the saints related to the House of Windsor emerges as follows:
January 14 – St. Kentigern (Mungo), d. 612
January 30 – King Charles I, d. 1649
February 8 – Mary, Queen of Scots, d. 1587
February 23 – St. Ethelbert, King of Kent, d. 616
March 1 – St. David (Dewi), patron saint of Wales
March 17 – St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland
March 18 – St. Edward the Martyr, d. 978
March 20 – St. Cuthbert [Not royal, or a patron saint, but he’s “my guy!” eh?]
March 24 – Queen Elizabeth I, d. 1603
April 23 – St. George, patron saint of England
May 11 – St. Asaph, sixth century
May 24 – David I, King of Scots, d. 1153
May 28 – Blessed Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, d. 1541
June 9 – St. Columba (Colmcille), d. 597
July 6 – St. Sexburga, d. 699
July 17 – Tsar Nicholas II and his family, d. 1918
July 18 – Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, d. 1918
August 3 – Waltheof, Abbot of Melrose, d. 1159
August 5 – St. Oswald, King of Northumbria, d. 642
September 23 – St Adamnan, d. 704
October 12 – St. Edwin, King of Northumbria, d. 633
October 13 – St. Edward the Confessor, d. 1066
October 17 – St. Ethelreda (Audrey), d. 679
October 26 – Alfred the Great, d. 899
November 16 – St. Margaret of Scotland, d. 1093
November 17 – St. Hilda of Whitby, d. 680
November 20 – St. Edmund, King of the East Angles, d. 869
November 30 – St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland
December 5 – Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, d. 1969
I wish to all to whom they apply a happy Halloween and Samhain, and also blessings for the commemorations of All Saints and All Souls. May it be a time of affectionate remembrance of your own beloved families and friends who have passed through the veil.
Yours Aye,
– Ken Cuthbertson