From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
April 10th - St. Beocca, Ethor (Hethor) and Companions, Martyrs
Died 870.
The year 870 was a terrible year for the Church in East Anglia. The
Viking army that had arrived in 865 became a permanent army of
occupation, and when they had amassed horses and supplies from the
English, they marched on York, where they settled until the end of the
century. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle for 870 records that the army rode
from York across Mercia into East Anglia, captured Thetford, and under
their chiefs Ingwar and Hubba, defeated and killed King Edmund. "At
the same time they came to Medehampstede (Peterborough) and burned and
beat it down, slew abbot and monks and all that they found there. They
made that which was very great such that it became nothing".
When they murdered St. Hedda and all the brethren at Peterborough,
they had already demolished the monastery at Bardney in Lincolnshire,
killing all the monks, and destroyed Ely, putting both communities of
men and women to the sword. The same thing happened at Benet Hulme in
Norfolk, where the holy Suniman was abbot, and at the abbey at Thorney
where they killed St. Torthred's community.
We have a vivid account of the extermination of the community at
Croyland in the history of Ingulf, a later abbot, who says that the
solemn mass was just ended as the Danes broke into the church, and the
clergy had not yet left the sanctuary. The Abbot Theodore, who was
celebrant, together with the Deacon and Sub-deacon were murdered in
their vestments and the acolytes were cut down in front of the altar.
A few escaped into the forest, but all who tried to hide in the
monastery were butchered, among them Askegar, the Prior, and two
venerable monks of a hundred years old, Grimkeld and Agamund.
The army, moving south, sacked the twin monasteries of Chertsey and
Barking founded by St. Erkonwald for himself and his sister St.
Ethelburga. All the nuns at Barking were slaughtered, and William of
Malmesbury tells us that 90 monks were killed at Chertsey, among them
Beocca, the Abbot, and Hethor, a priest.
All of these are venerated as martyrs. Their memories were kept alive
by chronicles and the writings of William of Malmesbury
Once the Viking horde was on the move, the Danes murdered and
plundered indiscriminately. They seemed to have a particular hatred
for those professing the Christian faith, and monastic establishments
were prime targets for their raids. By the time they reached Reading,
at the end of the year, their blood lust must have been sated, and
they wintered there (Bowen, Stanton, Farmer).
Saint Quote:
The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of
whose who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the
guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the
dead, and cried aloud: "Who will contend with me? Let him confront
me." I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised
men from their graves. Who has anything to say against me? I, he said,
am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy,
trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the
heights of heaven: I am the Christ.
-- Saint Melito of Sardis
Bible Quote:
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, Saying: The
scribes and the Pharisees have sittin on the chair of Moses. All
things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not. For they say, and do not. And all
their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their
phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes.=C2 (Mat 23:1-3,5)
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O my beloved Redeemer, if others will not give Thee a welcome, I
desire to welcome Thee into my poor heart. At one time, I, unhappily,
expelled Thee from my soul; but I now prize to have Thee with me more
than the possession of all the treasures of earth. I love Thee, O my
Saviour ; what power shall ever be able to separate me from my love of
Thee? Sin only ; but from this sin it is Thine to deliver me, by Thy
help, O my Jesus ; and thine too, by thy intercession, O Mary, my
Mother.
--From The Passion And Death Of Jesus Christ, by Saint Alphonsus de
Liguori:
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