-
Saint Guinefort
Very few people have been given the honor of being venerated as a “Saint,” but only one dog has been fortunate enough to receive that distinction. He even has a feast day, which is on Aug. 22. His story dates back to around the 13th century. Historians say that Guinefort the dog saint assumed the name of an earlier human saint of the same name, but about whom very little is known, except that he was executed by being shot with many arrows. It is unclear how he became transformed into a Greyhound, but this is not uncommon in the history of saints. Many also believe that Guinefort might have…
-
Princess Olga of Kiev
When you think of a saint, most people think of a gentle, Godly person with great patience and faith. Princess Olga of Kiev proves that a saint can be a woman of God, but not take any crap either. No one is exactly sure of when Olga was born. Sources put it any where between 879 and 890. According to the Primary Chronicle, she was born in Pskov, a city northwest of Russia, to a family of Varyag origin. Varyag was the name given to Vikings or Norsemen who came to the area in the 8th and 9th centuries. Other sources say Olga was the daughter of Oleg Vershchy, the founder…
-
Elizabeth Barton – The Holy Maid of Kent
Figuring out what you believe is difficult in the best of times, but it was a hundred times worse at the court of Henry VIII. The king’s beliefs swung with the wind and whoever was standing next to him at the time. Like most kings, Henry did not take to disagreement, and in Henry’s case this was doubly true. In the 16th century, reformation was sweeping the continent and many thinkers were coming to question the Catholic Church. They either wanted to reform the Church or break completely from it, depending on who you talked to. Henry was staunchly against this, until it fit with his own plans. The gentry…
-
The Lonely Life of an Anchorite
In the medieval world, the power of prayer had a very real meaning. Monks and nuns retired from the world to pray, but for some of the faithful even this wasn’t enough. An anchorite was an extreme of withdrawing from the world for the religious faithful, and was held in awe in the Middle Ages. They followed the example of John the Baptist and withdrew completely from secular life into isolation to pray for the sins of the world. St. Cuthbert was said to wade into the freezing waters of the Celtic Sea to pray. To become an anchorite, one had to go through a strict ceremony where the last…
-
The Execution of the Stratford Martyrs
Following many years of religious turmoil, instigated in England by the Protestant reformation and aided by Henry VIII’s desire to put aside his wife Katherine of Aragon in favour of new love Anne Boleyn, a period of calm was achieved as religious matters settled down for the most part during the rule of Henry’s son the Protestant King Edward VI.Sadly, this calm was short-lived as Edward’s rule ended abruptly after just six years with his sudden death in 1553 at the age of 15. [...]
