St Maelrubha

[Andreas Moran]

Dear All,

My wife, her brother, Andrei (visiting from Moscow for a month), and I have just returned from holiday in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. At Applecross, we went to the site of the monastery founded by St Maelrubha (+722, Feast 21 April/4 May). On the site there is a gaunt 19th cent. Protestant church. We felt no grace or 'presence' there. But when we went to Loch Maree and saw the islet in the Loch where St Maelrubha lived and laboured, the grace was obvious. So, no doubt the saints of Britain are with us but perhaps a bit bored from so few people taking any interest in them!

[Paul Cowan]

An Icon of St Maelrubha (http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Maelrubha.htm)

And his Life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1el_Ruba). Sorry for the use of Wikipedia, but except for the Catholic New Advent site, I was unable to find anything else of him.

Paul

(Mike, I am trying to utilize your search techniques, but as you can see, you are still the master) :)

[John Charmley]

So, no doubt the saints of Britain are with us but perhaps a bit bored from so few people taking any interest in them!

Dear Andreas,

It sounds as though it was an edifying holiday. Yes, it is a shame that so few take an interest in the British Saints; I am glad to say that the British Orthodox Church is an exception to this sad state of affairs http://www.britishorthodox.org/saints_dir.php

Let us hope that as Orthodoxy spreads, we can remember its deep roots in these islands. Fr. Andrew Phillips with his Orthodox England also blazes the trail here.

In Christ,

John

[Michael Stickles]

So, no doubt the saints of Britain are with us but perhaps a bit bored from so few people taking any interest in them!

At least in St. Maelrubha's case, somebody's taking an interest -- the Applecross Historical Society (http://www.applecrossheritage.org.uk/christian.html) is working to "develop the Heritage Centre at Clachan, which records Maelrubha's achievements, and provide an insight into the culture of the people of this remote and unique peninsula." The page I linked has a few additional details about his life.

Also, Philip Coppens' website has a page on Isle Maree (http://www.philipcoppens.com/lochmaree.html)which details the pagan history of the island. In relation to this Coppen states that "there was a good reason why he [St. Maelrubha] chose Isle Maree as a refuge: it was where the religious competition was located, and thus the pagan sacred site had to be 'Christianised'."

Some more history (and speculation) about his life and remembrance can be found at the Island of Pabay page for St. Maelrubha (http://www.pabay.org/h_stmar.html).

Paul - don't worry, you did good; you'll get better at Googling with experience :-).

In Christ,
Mike

[Andreas Moran]

Thanks to those of you who have taken an interest! Perhaps St Maelrubha is not so bored after all!
My wife and her brother were intrigued that that area of the western highlands is called Ross. They wondered if this name had any connection with Rus. They often refer to what they call an arc from western Scotland through Scandinavia to Russia and the area of Kievan Rus as the area of common origin of Celtic, Scandinavian and Russian peoples. Some Russian faithful today take a great interest in the Church in the British Isles during the its 1,000 years.

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear all,

I'm not at all convinced that no one takes an interest in the British saints. They are a group of intense interest to a great many in Russia, as well as in the USA. Here in Britain, the Russian Orthodox Church has been working quite tirelessly - and especially of late - to have them more widely recognised throughout the Orthodox world, and to have many of them added to the official Russian Orthodox calendar.

In the USA, there are numerous groups dedicated to the furtherance of the British saints.

INXC, Matthew

[Anthony]

British and Irish... (Unfortunately nobody has yet come up with a generally acceptable word for "the islands" as a single geographical expression.)

[Andreas Moran]

Dear Matthew,

You are, of course, right. My wife's book is evidence of this. Is there a list of those saints of the British Isles who have been included in the Russian Church's Calendar? My impression is that the Greek Churches are lagging behind here. But I confess I didn't know about St Maelrubha before our Scottish trip.

Dear Anthony,

Isn't 'British Isles' the proper geographical expression for the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands?

[Tom Cook]

Is there a list of those saints of the British Isles who have been included in the Russian Church's Calendar?

Dear Andreas,

Here is a web page from the Diocesan web site.

http://www.sourozh.org/web/British_Orthodox_Saints

There was a conference, recently, at the Cathedral in London - The Saints of Britain and the Unity of the Church.

And a couple of weeks ago I went on a pilgrimage, organised by the Antiochian Church, to the Shrine of St Bertram in Ilam, Derbyshire.

Things are moving, I think.

[Andreas Moran]

Thanks, Tom. Are these saints to be included in the MP calendar do you know?

[Anthony]

Isn't 'British Isles' the proper geographical expression for the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands?

Dear Andreas,

That is certainly what I was taught, but I have heard that it is not accepted in Ireland. Also I am not sure if it applies technically to the Channel Islands. I am of course happy to be corrected on either of these points.

Thank you for starting this thread; I had never heard of St Maelrubha either, and not through lack of interest in the Celtic saints. I hope to be heading for Scotland myself next month.

[Kusanagi]

St Arsenios of Cappadocia says Orthodoxy will not grow here unless the people learn about their own Orthodox heritage.

[Tom Cook]

Thanks, Tom. Are these saints to be included in the MP calendar do you know?

Sorry Andreas, I don't know.

Here's an intersting blog dedicated to Anglo-Orthodox saints. I can't find St Maelrubha, though ...

http://anglo-orthodox-saints.blogspot.com/

[Kusanagi]

just found this

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=3507

Moscow, August 21, Interfax - The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church instituted a holiday to honor Christians who lived on the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and were canonized before the 1054 schism that divided Christendom into the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The holiday will be an annual event observed on the third Sunday after Pentecost in the Julian Calendar.

The Synod, which met on Tuesday, also ordered that these saints' names be included in the Menology after their Christian exploits have been studied.

The Synod's decision follows an appeal of March 3, 2007, in which the diocese of Sourozh, a Russian Orthodox diocese having the islands of Great Britain and Ireland for its territory, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, and its Holy Synod to institute a holiday for pre-1054 British and Irish saints.

[Father David Moser]

Here's an intersting blog dedicated to Anglo-Orthodox saints. I can't find St Maelrubha, though ...

Another website that is very good for seeing western Europe from an Orthodox perspective is Orthodox England (http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/hp.htm) If you go to this page, click on the "Orthodox Europe" button on the left and then as you scroll down you will see links for both an alphabetical and historical listing of western saints. This is one of the most complete lists of Western European (including those of the British Isles) saints that I know of.

Here is the listing for St Maelrhha:

Maelrubius (Maolrubha) Apr 21
+ c 724. A monk at St Comgall's monastery at Bangor, who went to Iona. He afterwards founded a church at Applecross on the north-west coast of Scotland.

Fr David Moser

[Tom Cook]

That's excellent! Thank you Father. The article 'Orthodox Christianity and the Old English Church' under Resources looks very interesting too.

[Matthew Panchisin]

That's great news.

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear Andreas, you wrote:


Is there a list of those saints of the British Isles who have been included in the Russian Church's Calendar?

I do not believe the Synod has yet determined which will be added to the calendar in the first instance, and which will be added later, as the gathering of further information on their lives, etc., continues.

INXC, Matthew

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear all, further details on this to be found here (http://www.sourozh.org/web/Holy_Synod_blesses_synaxis_of_the_saints_of_the_Br itish_Isles).

[Anthony]

The Russian Orthodox Church here also takes an active interest in the saints of Germany (many of whom were English or Gaelic missionaries). There are now a number of them listed in the long blessing (what is the proper name for it?) in our parish. I don't recognize all their names in their Church Slavonic form, apart from St Boniface.

[Nina]

There are now a number of them listed in the long blessing (what is the proper name for it?)

At the end of Liturgy? The dismissal?

[Olga]

The Russian Orthodox Church here also takes an active interest in the saints of Germany (many of whom were English or Gaelic missionaries). There are now a number of them listed in the long blessing (what is the proper name for it?) in our parish. I don't recognize all their names in their Church Slavonic form, apart from St Boniface.

The "long blessing" you refer to would be the Prayer of Intercession, sung towards the end of Great Vespers, and also at Matins, before the reading of the Canon(s).

I might add that a number of the editions of the St Herman's Calendar of the past ten tears have featured saints of western countries as the annual theme. Last year's was on saints of the German-speaking lands. Other editions have featured saints of Holland and the Low Countries, of Gaul (France), and of Scotland. The number of western saints listed in this calendar continues to grow every year.

There is even an Irish saint from the 6th C who appeared a few years ago in the list of saints for September. He became the first bishop of Emly, and his name has several spellings: Ailbe, Albeus, and (I'm not joking!) Elvis. So here it is, folks, Elvis is a perfectly proper Orthodox name.
(but would any parent or Godparent be brave enough to take the plunge? :D Maybe in a century or two. Maybe.)

[Anthony]

Dear Nina, dear Olga,

Thank you for sorting out my disorientation. I was actually thinking of the Lity the other day, when it occurred twice.

Thank you too, Olga, for your sterling work on icons.

Anthony

[Andreas Moran]

St Ailbhe (Gaelic/Irish 'bh'='v') or 'Elvis' has a mention at the following site
www.mail-archive.com/irishcatholicchurch@yahoogroups.com/msg00540.html
which includes a troparion. What music you would put to the troparion is a diverting thought!

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

The "long blessing" you refer to would be the Prayer of Intercession, sung towards the end of Great Vespers, and also at Matins, before the reading of the Canon(s).


Yes, this sounds like the first of the Litya intercessions done during Vigil at the Great Vespers. This begins with the words, "Save O God Thy people and bless Thine inheritance". In this intercession the major saints of the Church at large are mentioned and then locally venerated saints. Other separate intercessions follow and then a similar intercession as "Save O God" (although some shorten the list of saints by this point) except that the first words are "O Master plenteous in mercy..."

At the Matins after the reading of the Gospel, "Save O God Thy people and bless Thine inheritance" is done again. One can see different practices here, but in many places if Matins was part of a Vigil ( ie the full list of saints was already said at the Great Vespers at Litya), then the list of saints is greatly reduced.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Anthony]

Just to continue this theme, which I think is a very good one, here is the cave in which St Drosdan (or Drostan or various other spellings) lived, near Aberdour on the south shore of the Moray Firth. He was one of the earliest Celtic missionaries to the area, and this is where he came ashore (probably from Iona via Inverness, though details are sketchy), and he later returned here as a hermit.

http://www.monachos.net/forum/memberimages/7158470d0cd88b2a7.jpg

[Andreas Moran]

Thanks, Anthony. The visitors' car park gives pause for thought . . .

[Anthony]

The visitors' car park gives pause for thought . . .

Obviously for all those Orthodox pilgrims....

Actually one very pleasing thing I found in Scotland was the presence of Orthodox parishes in little places where I least expected to find them. A few decades ago, as far as I know, there was only one Orthodox church in Scotland. I suspect this is due to Russian immigrants from the Baltic States, of whom there are now many in the Highlands.

[Andreas Moran]

I knew only of Glasgow and Edinburgh under MP - are there others??

[Anthony]

I saw Orthodox services being advertised in Fraserburgh and in Fort Augustus - both relatively out-of-the-way places, so I would be very surprised if the same wasn't true in Aberdeen and Inverness. I don't know what jurisdiction these would be.

[Hieromonk Ambrose]

Saint Maelrubha, Abbot of Applecross, Isle of Skye, Scotland
(Ma-Rui, Molroy, Errew, Summaryruff, also Sagart-Ruadh)
----------------------------------------------------
This little-known Saint was one of the most active of the numerous Irish
proselytizers who underwent the white martyrdom (self-imposed exile) in
what is now Scotland. Unfortunately there is no known extant life or
hagiography of this saint, so details of his life must be gleaned from
other sources. There are numerous citations of this Saint in various
Irish Annals and
Martyrologies.

St. Maelrubha was born near Derry, Ireland in 642. His father was of
the Cenel nEogain (the clan of Eoghan), making the saint eighth in line
of direct descent of the famous Niall of the Nine Hostages. According
to legend, Niall was responsible for the abduction of the St. Patrick to
Ireland from Britain. Regardless, this lineage made St. Maelrubha a
distant cousin of St. Columcille. His mother was of the Cruithne, a
Pictish race that settled in the north of Ireland, and a niece of St.
Comgal of
Bangor.

St. Maelrubha entered the monastery at Bangor, Ireland in his youth and
departed for the land of the Northern Picts in 671. In the Felire of
Aengus his mission is recorded, "Into Scotland with purity after leaving
every happiness went our brother Maelrubba". He probably put in
initially on the isle of Islay and worked his way up the west coast of
Scotland over the course of the next two years. He eventually settled
in Appurcrossan, now known as Applecross, and in 673 St. Maelrubha
established his famous monastery that was his base in converting the
Picts to Christianity.

If one goes on placename dedications, this athlete for Christ roamed far
and wide. Sites bearing his name, or some form of his name, range as
far north as Loch Broom, as far south as Islay, as far west as Harris,
and up the Great Glen toward Inverness.

>From his monastery Maelrubba founded many churches in the glens and
islands of north-west Scotland, but the Gaelic place names make it
difficult to distinguish between the dedications to Maelrubba and those
to the honour of Our Lady, the suffix of endearment Mo or Ma almost
always being added to his name. His name, shorn of the suffix, means
"the red priest". Certainly the chapel on the island in Loch Maree,
where there is also a spring of water with healing powers, is one of his
foundations, and the Celtic cross in the churchyard at Kilmory Knap by
Loch Sween is in his territory. In the Middle Ages the area round his
abbey at Applecross was privileged, and even now the parish in Gaelic is
A'Chromraich, The Sanctuary.


St. Maelrubha fell asleep in the Lord in the year 722 at the advanced
age of eighty, and although the Irish traditions are that he died of old
age, the Scottish assert that he was killed by the Danes, the Black
Gentiles. In the Aberdeen Breviary the legend says that he died at
Urquart in the Black Isle, on the eastern side of the county of Ross and
Cromerty, and for three days he lay severely wounded comforted by
angels. A bright light hovering over the dying saint attracted a priest,
who was able to give him the viaticum, and later a church was built over
the place. His body was buried in his church at Applecross, and a carved
stone markes the site of his grave.


Due to the proximity of Applecross to the Isle of Skye and his numerous
works on the island, St. Maelrubha is considered to be the patron saint
of the southern and central portions of the island (St. Columcille has
the upper portion). On his journeys to the island from Applecross, St.
Maelrubha most likely put in at Ashaig in the Strath district. This
location is considered to be one of the earliest Christian sites on the
island and there is a stone-covered well bearing his name, Tobar na
Marui, at the site.

According to accounts, in his advanced years St. Maelrubha tried to rise
from sitting one day by grabbing ahold of a branch of an ash tree. While
rising, the tree was uprooted and a spring gushed forth and the water
from this spring possessed healing powers. Another tree stood close to
the well upon which the Saint would hang a bronze bell to gather the
faithful. As with the well, the bell possessed miraculous powers in that
it would ring of its own accord when the Saint was preparing to speak.
It was also at that location that the Saint would mount the Rock of the
Book, Creag naLeabhair, known today as the Pulpit Rock. There is
another healing spring associated with this Saint on an island in the
Loch Maree (Maree is the anglicization of the Scots' Gaelic Maoil
Ruibhe, of Maelrubha).

There is another location farther down the Strath district on Skye, on
the Strathaird peninsula, that bears the Saint's name. This site is
known as Kilmarie (again, an anglicization of the Scots Gaelic.) All
that remains of the site today is a small
enclosed burial ground. Nearby is a cave where, according to local
accounts, St. Maelrubha would preach to the faithful in inclement
weather. Finally, there is also a small loch close to the Kilmarie where
the Saint was said to have subdued a creature like that of the Loch Ness
(cf. Vita Columbae by Adam, book 2, section 27
http://www.usu.edu/~history/norm/columb~1.htm ).

Following the Saint's repose, the land for six miles around his
monastery was considered sacred and protected. Today the land is called
in Gaelic A'Chomraich, The Sanctuary. The staff of the Saint was
believed to have existed at Kilvary in Argyll. Guarding this staff was
the duty of the Dewars of Scotland. Unfortunately, the staff
disappeared around the time of
the Reformation in Scotland.

This Life kindly supplied by Maelrubha Donley

o Site of Saint Maelrubha's church
http://www.cushnieent.force9.co.uk/photogallery1.html


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