| One step to heaven |
|
|
| Written by Carolle Doyle, 2006 | |
|
Page 1 of 2 Even in the 21st century, Britain’s ancient holy places continue to attract pilgrims. Carolle Doyle followed in their footsteps. There was a time, some 800 years ago, when spring heralded the beginning of the pilgrimage season. The land was criss-crossed with pilgrimage routes linking churches and shrines, holy wells and great cathedrals. The Reformation swept the pilgrims away but the holy places remained.Many were desecrated, their stone and wooden images of saints were cast down and only scholars and clergy remembered the glory of their past. Yet the idea of pilgrimage has never quite forsaken the land, our holy places are still there and today we visit them in increasing numbers. We go to the great cathedrals for their architecture and their history rather than as shrines, although the tomb of Thomas à Becket still draws us to Canterbury just as it did in Chaucer’s time. Yet there are other holy places where the fabric between Heaven and earth is thin and where, since time immemorial, people have come to find peace and healing. The islands of Iona in Scotland, Bardsey in Wales and Lindisfarne in England are all ‘thin’ places where it is easy to perceive Heaven. Islands, by their very nature, are removed from our world. They seem to float on the edge of our consciousness as, in reality, they lie away from the land. Lindisfarne, that holy island of Northumbria, is such a place. St Aidan first came here from the island of Iona in 635. He built a monastery and gathered monks around him and together they set out to convert Northumberland to Christianity. Rising starWhen Aidan died in 651 AD, a 17-year-old youth, sent to watch over sheep in Northumberland’s wild hills, saw a light descend to earth and return to the night sky. Had he witnessed the ascent of St Aidan’s soul to heaven? Cuthbert certainly thought so, for the event changed his life. He became one of England’s greatest saints, revered during his life, prayed to as a worker of miracles after his death.Cuthbert came to Lindisfarne where he carried on the work of St Aidan. Accounts tell us that he had the gift of healing and that the sick came in ever increasing numbers to the island, but Cuthbert wished to live the life of a hermit and for some years he lived on the more remote island of Inner Farne where legends grew up around him. It was said that like the desert fathers who sought communion with God in the wilderness, he had a special relationship with the wild creatures of the island. Otters played around his feet and eider ducks to this day are known familiarly as “cuddy ducks” – a shortened form of the Saint’s name. St Cuthbert was far too charismatic a figure to be left in peace as a hermit. Oswald the King of Northumberland visited the saint who reluctantly agreed to become Bishop and reconciled the practices of the Celtic Church and Rome. He was buried on Lindisfarne in 687 at a time when the monks were busy about their greatest work, The Lindisfarne Gospel, that marvellous, illuminated manuscript that is one of the wonders of the world. Go to Lindisfarne today, making sure that you consult the timetable for safe crossing of this tidal causeway (see photo), and you too can discover something of the peace of the place. The ruined priory was built in the 11th century some centuries after the Vikings sacked and burned down St Aidan’s original buildings. The priory, in its turn, was a victim of the Reformation and now its great stone arches lie open to the wide Northumbrian sky. Heaven so close...If Lindisfarne and Iona are ‘thin places’ then so is the church of St Melangell, nestled in the Pennant valley in mid-Wales. In the words of Ezekiel Hamer, who was vicar there at the end of the 18th century, “There is not more than one step between our valley and heaven.”
|
