Patron saint of england.

[Fouro]

Saint Edmund- 1st Patron Saint of England.

Edmund's body was interred at Beadoriceworth, the modern Bury St Edmunds. This place became a shrine of Edmund that greatly increased his fame. His popularity among the nobility of England grew and lasted. His banner became a symbol among the Anglo-Normans in their expeditions to Ireland and to Caerlaverock Castle. His crest was borne on a banner at the Battle of Agincourt. Churches and colleges throughout England have been named after St Edmund.
In 1348, Edward III founded a new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Garter, Edward made St George the patron of the Order and also declared him Patron Saint of England.
What became of Edmund?, During the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, his remains were removed to France where they remained until 1911. Today, they are kept in the chapel in Arundel Castle.
In recent years, moves were made in England to restore St Edmund as the Patron Saint of England, the attempt failed. The government led by Tony Blair the devil's deciple threw the petition out. However, St Edmund was named Patron Saint of the County of Suffolk in 2006. A second petition is ongoing but this will not be dealt with until well after the General Election of 2015
Incidentally, 82% of adults in England didn't know St Edmund was the original Patron Saint of England.

FOURO.

[gray_marian]

#10, For John

The early life of David
St David (or Dewi Sant in Welsh) was born on the South West coast of Wales, near the present day city of St Davids.

David is believed to have been born near the present day city that bears his name, in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales. The exact year of his birth is unknown, with estimates ranging from 462 to 515 AD.

Much of what we know about David comes from Rhygyfarch, the 11th century author who wrote the Life of Saint David. As it was written so long after the fact, its reliability is questionable. Additionally, the legend is woven with embellishments, which would have been undoubtedly inspiring to believers in centuries past.

We know that David was born into an aristocratic family. According to the legend, an angel foretold the birth of David to St Patrick 30 years before it happened.

Rhygyfarch wrote that he was the son of 'sanctus rex ceredigionis'. This is believed to be Sandde or Sant, prince of Powys and the son of King Ceredig, the founder of Ceredigion.

David was born to St Non at what is now Capel Non's, to the south of the city that bears his name. It is thought that Non was a victim of violation by Sandde after she resisted his initial advances. Non became a nun and was later canonised.

His mother is said to have given birth on a cliff top in the middle of a violent storm. The birthing process was said to have been so intense and fraught that her fingers left marks as she grasped a rock. As David was born a bolt of lightning from heaven is said to have struck the rock, splitting it in two.

Non named her son Dewidd, though local Dyfed pronunciation meant he was commonly called Dewi. David is an Anglicised variation of the name derived from the Latin Davidus.

Brought up by his mother in Henfeynyw near Aberaeron, David is said to have been baptised at nearby Porthclais by St Elvis of Munster. It is said that a blind monk, Movi, was cured after drops of water splashed into his eyes as he held David.

David was educated at a monastery, usually taken to be Whitland in Carmarthenshire, under St Paulinus of Wales. He is said to have cured his tutor of blindness by making the sign of the cross. Realising that David was blessed, Paulinus sent him off as a missionary to convert the pagan people of Britain.Saint David and religion

David was educated at a monastery, usually taken to be Whitland in Carmarthenshire, for at least 10 years under the tutelage of St Paulinus of Wales.

David is said to have cured his tutor Paulinus of blindness, by making the sign of the cross. Realising that his protégé was blessed, Paulinus sent him off as a missionary to convert the pagan people of Britain.

Soon after reaching adulthood, David was ordained a priest. He worked firstly in Wales and later on in the west of England and in Brittany, and is also believed to have visited Rome and Jerusalem. He is said to have founded 12 monasteries in southern Wales during the course of his travels.

David believed in a simple life. His monks rose at dawn to pray, and afterwards worked the fields around the monastery. They had to pull the ploughs themselves without the help of animals, and prayed as they worked.

The men were expected to remain silent unless praying or in an emergency. They ate only bread and vegetables, and drank nothing but milk and water. David himself drank only water. Despite his strict ascetic principles, David's piety and charisma was enough to unite his followers.

However, at one of his monasteries the life of austerity was so unpopular that the monks attempted to poison David. St Scuthyn is said (other accounts name St Aeddan) to have warned him of the danger after travelling from Ireland on the back of a sea-monster. David ate the poisoned bread after blessing it, and came to no harm.

A monk, abbot and bishop who later became archbishop of Wales, David did much to spread the Christian word throughout the land. He was active in suppressing the Pelagian heresy, the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that people are capable of choosing good or evil without divine aid.

He founded a monastery in around 550, where St David's, the United Kingdom's smallest city, stands today. It is said by some that two pilgrimages to St Davids are equal to one pilgrimage to the Vatican in Rome.

The most famous story relating to St David occurred as he preached to a large crowd at the synod of Llandewi Brefi. One of the crowd shouted, "We won't be able to see or hear him". The ground David stood on is said to have risen up so that he was standing on a hill, so he could be seen and heard by all.

David's last recorded words appeared in a Sunday sermon. Rhygyfarch, himself the son of a later Bishop of St David's, records the words as "Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us."

David is said to have lived for over 100 years, and died on Tuesday 1 March 589, in the week after his final sermon. He was buried in the grounds of his monastery, which was said to have been "filled with angels as Christ received his soul".

Throughout the Middle Ages David's shrine became a popular destination for pilgrims. In the 12th century he was made the patron saint of Wales, with his feast day on 1 March. He was officially recognised as a saint by Pope Callixtus II in 1123.

St David is often shown with a dove on his shoulder. The bird symbolises the Holy Spirit which gave David the gift of eloquence as he preached.



A History of St Andrew

Written by Michael T R B Turnbull, author of Saint Andrew: Myth, Legend and Reality

Saint Andrew (who is believed to have later preached around the shores of the Black Sea), was an agile and hardy Galilean fisherman whose name means Strong and who also had good social skills. He brought the first foreigners to meet Jesus and shamed a large crowd of people into sharing their food with the people beside them. Today we might describe him as the Patron Saint of Social Networking!

Having Saint Andrew as Scotland's Patron gave the country several advantages: because he was the brother of Saint Peter, founder of the Church, the Scots were able to appeal to the Pope in 1320 (The Declaration of Arbroath) for protection against the attempts of English kings to conquer the Scots. Traditionally, Scots also claimed that they were descended from the Scythians who lived on the shores of the Black Sea in what is now Romania and Bulgaria and were converted by Saint Andrew.

In the fascinating legend of The Voyage of St Rule from Greece to Scotland we can see the complicated spread of devotion to Saint Andrew - from Constantinople in modern Turkey, to St Andrews in Fife. St Rule (Regulus in Latin) and the six nuns and monks who took the long sea-journey with him, stands for the missionaries and monasteries who worked long and hard to bring the Good News to Britain. They lived in communities organised by a monastic Rule - hence the name St Rule or Regulus.

As Scotland slowly became a nation it needed a national symbol to rally round and motivate the country. Saint Andrew was an inspired choice and the early Picts and Scots modelled themselves on Saint Andrew and on one of his strong supporters, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, whose statue you can see today in York, where the he visited his father, a Roman General then trying to force the Picts to go back north.

Although a pagan who worshipped the Roman sun god Sol, Constantine later became a Christian and went on to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

It all began near Rome in 312 AD when, on the night of a make-or-break battle against a rival emperor, he saw the symbol X P (Greek for the first two letters of 'Christ') in the dazzling light of the setting sun and then had a dream in which he was promised victory. Constantine ordered his troops to hold the Christian cross at the front of the army, and won.

In a similar way, around 500 years later, King Angus of the Picts, facing a larger army of Saxons at Athelstaneford in what is now East Lothian in Scotland, was overwhelmed by a blinding light the night before the battle and, during the night, had a dream. The message he was given was that he would see a Cross in the sky and would conquer his enemies in its name.

The following morning King Angus looked into the rising sun and saw the Saltire Cross in its blinding light. This filled him and his men with great confidence and they were victorious. From that time Saint Andrew and his Saltire Cross were adopted as the national symbols for an emerging Scotland.

The Saltire Cross became the heraldic arms that every Scot is entitled to fly and wear. However, its colour was not white at first but silver (Argent), as in heraldry white stands for silver.

The first time the colour of the Saltire is mentioned is in the Acts of Parliament of King Robert II in July 1385 where every Scottish soldier was ordered to wear a white Saltire. If the uniform was white, then the Saltire was to be stitched onto a black background.

Both William Wallace and King Robert the Bruce appealed to Saint Andrew to guide them in times of national emergency. The Saltire was flown on Scottish ships and used as the logo of Scottish banks, on Scottish coins and seals and displayed at the funerals of Scottish kings and queens - that of King James VI for example and of his mother, Mary Queen of Scots. At the Union of the Crowns in 1603, London was treated to the spectacle of Saint Andrew and Saint George on horseback, shaking hands in friendship. When King George IV visited Edinburgh in 1822 he was presented with a Saltire Cross made of pearls on velvet, within a circle of gold.

There is also a wider dimension. Saint Andrew and his relics at St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh provides Scots with a special link to Amalfi in Italy and Patras in Greece (where two Cathedrals named after the saint also hold his relics). The many St Andrew Societies worldwide, set up originally as self-help organisations for Scots who had fallen on hard times, form a network of Scots who are all united under the Saltire Cross of Saint Andrew. They give Scotland a European and worldwide dimension.



Video: St Andrew Scotland's Patron Saint/Not sure if link will transfer

Andrew was a Galilean fisherman before he and his brother Simon Peter became disciples of Jesus Christ.
2. He was crucified by the Romans on an X-shaped cross at Patras in Greece and, hundreds of years later, his remains were moved to Constantinople and then, in the 13th century, to Amalfi in southern Italy where they are kept to this day.
3. Legend has it that a Greek monk known as St Rule or St Regulus was ordered in a vision to take a few relics of Andrew to the ‘ends of the earth’ for safe keeping. He set off on a sea journey to eventually come ashore on the coast of Fife at a settlement which is now the modern town of St Andrews.
4. In 832 AD Andrew is said to have appeared in a vision to a Pictish king the night before a battle against the Northumbrians in what is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian. On the day of the battle a Saltire, an X-shaped cross, appeared in the sky above the battlefield and the Picts were victorious.
5. The Saltire, or Saint Andrew’s Cross, was subsequently adopted as the national emblem and flag of the Scots.
6. Andrew was first recognised as an official patron saint of Scotland in 1320 at the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath an appeal to the Pope by Scottish noblemen asserting Scotland’s independence from England.
7. The presence of Andrew’s relics in Scotland – a tooth, a kneecap, arm and finger bones – meant that St Andrews became a popular medieval pilgrimage site although they were destroyed in the 16th century during the Scottish Reformation.
8. In 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi gifted Andrew’s shoulder blade to St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. Pope Paul VI donated further relics in 1969.
9. Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Romania, and Barbados. Remnants of the cross he was crucified on remain in the St Andrew's Cathedral Patras in Greece. Saint Andrew was the first bishop there and then crucified by the Romans.
10. His patronage extends to fishmongers, gout, singers, sore throats, spinsters, maidens, old maids and women wishing to become mothers.

[happy daze john in oz]

Brian says he never slayed a Dragon, obviously he was never married.

St. Patrick is claimed to have removed all the snakes from Ireland, the fact is there were never any there

There was however a non Christian cult with an emblem on their cloaks looking very much like a snake.

In Tipperary there is a grotto known as St. Patrick's well, amazing as no one knew he was sick, and it is here according to local myth that he cast them out.



According to the caliphate of Boltonstan St. George will eventually be replaced by St. Heyou.

[Fouro]

In May 1982 the Sealink MV ST EDMUND was one of the various British merchant ships chartered by the UK Government for use in the Falkland Islands Task Force. The ship was despatche to Portsmouth for a quick 8 day refit, emerging with a helicopter pad aft, in place of her main mast. The ST EDMUND was one of Sealink's traditional two-class service between Harwich and the Hook of Holland. She acted as consort to the earlier ST GEORGE as the two UK contributions to the British/Dutch joint service. (Isn't it a coincidence the two patron saints names are mentioned again).
The MV ST EDMUND transported personnel of 5 Brigade and RAF detachments to the Falklands. Following the Argentinian surrender she provided Rest and Recreation facilities for British troops. On 30th June she transported Argentinian special category POW's, including Brigadier General Menendez to Puerto Madryn. Returning to the Falklands, ST EDMUND ferried troops and civilians to and from Ascension before taking up the role of Port Stanley accommodation ship.

FOURO.

[Fouro]

The St Edmund was purchased by the MOD after the Falklands War ended. There was a dispute between the NUS and the MOD regarding whether they would be paid "ferry" or "deep sea" rates of pay with the result that they went on strike. There was an urgency to get the ship back to the South Atlantic, so the MOD hatched a plot to take the ship over with a RN crew and sail it there without the NUS seamen. On Good Friday 1983, RN crewmen boarded the ship and within an hour of taking over the ship a Commissioning Warrant was read and the ship became the "HMS KEREN", thereby making it an offence for any member of the public, including NUS to step on board. After three days learning how the ship worked, they took it to the Tyne and anchored off South Shields for a further period of familiarisation before declaring to the C in C Fleet five days later, that they were ready to go. On learning they had got the ship functional, the NUS gave up their fight and asked for their ship and jobs back. The ship was brought back up the Tyne and berthed alongside one of the shipyards. It was then decommissioned and it became the MV KEREN. Enevitably there was a great deal of local and national press coverage at the time and the tabloids accused the RN of acting in a piratical way and highjacking the ship.

FOURO.

[cappy]

now that was an interesting read fouro......regards cappy

[j.sabourn]

100 years ago they would of Hijacked the union crew as well. The non union ships I worked on in the N.Sea , union delegates were not allowed on the ships. They were promptly removed by the police on being informed by the owners to do so. No union power there. That was in the 1980"s. No such things as pay scales for certain vessels, took the job or not. JS

[j.sabourn]

Progress in the British Mercantile Marine.... My own fortunes or misfortunes, In 1969 was on 32 pounds a day as Mate, in 1988 was on 32 pounds a day as master. That's real advancement. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

You are so right John, mate to master is progress, sorry about the pay. No inflation in those days I fear.

[John Arton]

Progress in the British Mercantile Marine.... My own fortunes or misfortunes, In 1969 was on 32 pounds a day as Mate, in 1988 was on 32 pounds a day as master. That's real advancement. JS

John S
On being made redundant in 1989 when C.P. folded I was mate on £1200 p/month.
Went as port captain/super with a Greek outfit on same pay but they paid 14 months salary per year as bonus.
2 years later joined Stolt Tankers as mate and got a pay rise to £1700 per month so I obviously stayed with them until enforced retirement due to suffering a stroke in 08 but they kept me on full pay until 2010 when I reached their statutory retirement age of 60.
C.P. were always good payers as shortly after I joined them in 67 they started a big fleet expansion and were matching Shell's pay rates but we were constantly being told by our Canadian bosses that shipping was un-economic investments until such time as after building up a fleet of some 50+ tankers, bulk carriers and container ships they virtually overnight pulled the plus on us, starting up Carnival and leaving the U.K. shipping with only their Canada Maritime container ships which only had the top 2 {Master and C/E} as Brits.
rgds
JA
rgds
JA