medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I serve in a cathedral, which is also the only Byzantine-style building (I just found a high school art page featuring the mosaics of the church) anywhere near here, so we frequently get visitors, sometimes groups of students or members of some church or another (usually confirmation classes of adolescents who really couldn't care less if they tried). If they come to visit on a Sunday, we have them come during Orthros (Matins) and I'll duck out of the altar to meet with them and give them a quick orientation before the service (sometimes they'll stay for coffee hour--which features really lousy coffee--to ask questions and that sort of thing, but usually the kids are hungry and have never been to a service like that, including one that is so long, so they take off immediately). 

We also do tours during the week. In fact, there is a school that has about 70 students in their pre-IB curriculum that wanted to bring them in for a tour on Friday, but since that's Great and Holy Friday, we had to say no. I've done that tour before ... it's fun, but I'm really about the only one of our tour guides who could manage it because I'm a teacher and I've worked with knuckleheads that age enough that I can deal with 70-80 13- and 14-year-olds. 

One of my favorite tours, actually, was a couple of years ago. There is a STEM-oriented camp at a local university for high schoolers who were going to be the first in their families to go to college. It was a hot summer day, so I was underdressed for church, so I threw on my cassock and exorasson. The first thing a kid said to me was, "Cool jedi robes," so I knew I had my own tribe (there's a reason I teach gifted). We have a really cool icon of the Creation of Adam in the baptistery and one of the kids asked about the mandorla (I can't seem to find a good picture). I replied, "God made a tear in space-time and stepped through to interact directly with His creation;" the kids got it. After the tour, a number of them told the director of their camp to find me a job (I had just lost my teaching job at the time) and also indicated that they wanted to come the next day for the service. The group that actually got up in the morning to come the next day was considerably smaller, but we had a great discussion after liturgy.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Cormack, Margaret Jean <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

I regularly give an assignment where students are required to visit a church other than their own denomination and report on its appearance, the service, etc. One of the things I ask about is "welcoming".

Depending on what they have grown up with, I get responses corresponding to both of the below.

On the one hand "really welcoming" in a nice way (this, by the way, often in African American churches, my students mostly being white, and in spite of the horrors at Mother Emanual last summer)

"Guests were asked to stand up and identify ourselves" - some students do this, others don't.

"It was really formal, no one paid any attention to me, didn't seem friendly at all."

"I was relieved that I could just be there and not "do  anything""
Meg

 

From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Anne Willis [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 7:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] St Amphibalus (was hair relics?)

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

We once had a very vicious comment in our visitors’ book from someone who had visited for quiet prayer, and felt that they had been ‘assaulted’ by the welcome and the offer of leaflets from the stewards

 

OTOH I can still feel the disappointment when I was ignored in a church I visited when my mother was dying

 

Very difficult

 

Anne

From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Madeleine Gray
Sent: 27 April 2016 11:19
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Subject: Re: [M-R] St Amphibalus (was hair relics?)

 

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

I do just occasionally wonder how the Protestant Reformation martyrs would feel about being commemorated like this!

And I do sometimes feel that people are happier about taking part in things in cathedrals precisely because they are big and anonymous. We are encouraged to welcome newcomers to our parish churches, make them feel welcome, talk to them ... but I do wonder whether can be counter-productive.

And how does this relate to the dynamic of community worship in the medieval period?

Maddy

---

Prof. Madeleine Gray
University of South Wales
http://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk
http://twitter.com/heritagepilgrim

'The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living' (T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding)

 

On 27/04/2016 10:47, Rosemary Hayes-Milligan and Andrew Milligan wrote:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

I'm reminded by my friend at St Albans that

 

Amphibalus is one of our new nave screen sculptures (along with St Alban, Alban Roe (reformation Catholic martyr) George Tankerfield (reformation Protestant martyr) St Elizabeth Romanova, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Oscar Romero

 

St Albans is clearly (along with other Anglican cathedrals?) enjoying resurrecting pre-Reformation customs.  I gather the cathedrals are very lively where parish churches are not.

 

Rosemary Hayes

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Subject: Re: [M-R] St Amphibalus (was hair relics?)

 

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Thank you, Maddy and Rosemary for filling in the gaps of my knowledge.  And thank you Johns Briggs and Dillon for enhancing my appreciation of my always-beloved Terry Pratchett.  And yes, it took me some googling, but I got the joke!

 

Erica  

 

http://www.ericaobey.com

Coming in September, The Lazarus Vector

 

From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Madeleine Gray
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 2:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] St Amphibalus (was hair relics?)

 

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

OK - this is mainly based on Jeremy Knight's article 'Britain's Other Martyrs: Julius, Aaron and Alban at Caerleon' in Alban and St Albans: Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology, ed. Martin Henig and Phillip Lindley, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions xxiv, 2001. (Jeremy always said the late lamented University of Wales, Newport would have been better calling itself the University of Caerleon-upon-Usk.) 

Amphibalus is the name traditionally given to the priest who was sheltered by Alban in Verulamium and converted him to Christianity. Alban eventually disguised himself as Amphibalus, wearing the priest's cloak (which may be the origin of the name) and was martyred in his stead. According to later tradition Amphibalus went back to Caerleon, where he converted Julius and Aaron, but eventually returned to Verulamium and was martyred near there. His relics were 'miraculously' discovered in the late C12 and installed in a reliquary in St Alban's. This was damaged in the Reformation but reconstructed in the C19 and has recently been restored.

There is also a long-standing tradition of a connection between St Alban and Caerleon, possibly an offshoot of the cults of SS Julius and Aaron there. Jeremy Knight suggests Alban's link with Caerleon may actually have derived from the acquisition of some of his relics. Robert de Chandos's c 1113 grant of Christchurch near Caerleon to his abbey of Bec and its dependent priory at Goldcliff included the ecclesiam Julii et Aaron. When the charter was confirmed by the future Henry II in 1143 the martyrium was described as Ecclesiam Sanctorum Julii et Aaron atque Alban. Levison in 'St Alban and St Albans', Antiquity 16 (1941) pointed out that St Alban's relics were translated in 1129, there were links between St Albans and Bec through Abbot Paul of St Albans and his cousin Lanfranc, and it was possible that a fragment of the relics became available.
Geoffrey of Monmouth then picked up on the story, when he described King Arthur wearing his crown at Whitsun in Caerleon. He said Caerleon had two great churches, a nunnery in honour of Julius and a house of regular canons dedicated to St Aaron, plus the third metropolitan cathedral of Britain with a university at which the chair of theology was held by St Amphibalus. The Caerleon museum catalogue in 1909 listed a photograph of a statue of St Amphibalus and described him as a native of the town!

Or was he just the first academic gown?

Maddy

---

Prof. Madeleine Gray
University of South Wales
http://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk
http://twitter.com/heritagepilgrim

'The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living' (T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding)

 

On 26/04/2016 14:42, Erica Obey wrote:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

I would very much like to hear more about this St. Amphibalus myself.

 

Erica

 

http://www.ericaobey.com

Coming in September, The Lazarus Vector

 

 

Anglican attitudes to relics are interesting to say the least. The Dean of St Albans is apparently keen to get a relic of St Amphibalus, mythical prof at my university of Caerleon upon Usk - I did ask what it would actually mean to him but he didn't answer.

 

Sorry, but this sounds remarkably Hogwarts-ish.... 

 

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