Praising God in Devon

Dearest friends, St. Dunstan was a renowned and well loved Archbishop of Canterbury (his memorial is on Monday this week). He was so loved that for the better part of two centuries he was easily England’s favourite Saint – and between him and St. Edmund – was a favourite to become the patron Saint of England. In the end of course England chose St. George, which makes St. David the only native of the country for which he is the…

Dearest friends, Our Lady of Fátima is a title given to the Virgin Mary following her apparitions to three shepherd children—Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto—in Fátima, Portugal, in 1917.  Between May and October, Mary appeared six times, delivering messages emphasising prayer, repentance, and devotion to God.  She identified herself as the “Lady of the Rosary,” urging the children to pray the Rosary daily for peace and to make sacrifices for sinners. The apparitions included three…

Dearest friends, May is here and with it comes the tradition of honouring Our Lady – not just for a day, or even a few days – but for a whole month. Buy why do we do this? The tradition goes back centuries, but as with many of the traditions surrounding Our Lady it found its modern form in the medieval period.  May was seen as a month in which the darkness of winter had finally been expelled and the…