October 12th - St. Edwin
Edwin, born in 584, was a prince of the Royal family of Deira in England.
His father, King Aelle, was deposed, and Edwin was forced to flee and was
raised in exile.
Once Edwin, a pagan, met a stranger who predicted the restoration of his
kingdom if he would promise to do whatever would be taught him regarding
his
own salvation. Edwin promised and the stranger, laying his hand upon his
head, bade him remember that sign. Shortly after that incident, due to
diverse political and military cir***stances Edwin recovered the Kingdom
of
Deira, and afterward became King of all Northumbria, one of the seven
parts
into which England was divided at that time.
When his first wife died, he married the Catholic Princess Ethelburga,
daughter of the King of Kent. He agreed that she should be allowed to
practice her religion and promised to study the truths of the Catholic
Faith. He also welcomed to his court St. Paulinus, Archbishop of York and
chaplain of the Queen, who began to exercise influence over him. An
attempt
on Edwin's life was made, but he was saved by a minister who took the
dagger
blow directed against him. The same night his wife gave birth to a
daughter,
Enflaed. That child became the first Catholic baptized in his kingdom.
Touched by these two things, Edwin promised to convert if he would win the
war against the King of the West Saxons. He conquered this King on the
battlefield, and stopped wor****pping the idols and began to take
instruction
from St. Paulinus. To encourage him, Pope Boniface V sent a letter and
gifts, but Edwin remained pagan. St. Paulinus continued to teach him, but
the King did not convert.
One day, the Archbishop approached the King, laid his hand on his head,
and
asked him if he remembered that sign. Edwin recalled the stranger from
time
past; quite moved he repented of his former life, converted, and was
baptized on Easter 627. He became an exemplary Catholic and an apostle of
his people. He also helped the Catholic Faith to be spread in other
Kingdoms
of the English Heptarchy.
Penda, a powerful pagan King of Mercia, in alliance with the Welsh Prince
Cadwallon invaded Northumbria. At the battle of Hatfield Chase, on October
12, 633, they defeated and killed St. Edwin.
Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)
There would be many things worthy of comment in the life of St. Edwin,
King
and warrior, but I will draw only one im****tant point to your attention.
Normally, when we study this period of Europe's foundation, we see that
there were glorious men, like Clovis, who by the merit of their Baptism
won
many battles, defeated all their enemies, and brought their peoples to the
Faith. They did not oblige their peoples to believe, but their example and
arguments convinced them to convert and embrace the Catholic Faith. Those
glorious men ended their lives in an aura of splendor that represented the
dawn of the Middle Ages.
But in the life of St. Edwin, even though he won many battles and
converted
numerous people, he ended his live defeated, his kingdom invaded.
After the long and difficult work of St. Paulinus to convert him, St.
Edwin
embraced the Faith with sincerity; he also helped to convert many others
and
died in defense of the Faith.
The fact that his life ended with defeat gives me the op****tunity to
remind
you that we also must pass through defeats in our fight against the
Revolution.
Many of us have a triumphalist mentality whereby we imagine that we should
never suffer a defeat. We think that we should make continuous strong
blows
against the Revolution, going from battle to battle in victory. This march
against our enemies is seen as a kind of military parade, conquering all
the
enemies with grandeur and arriving on the next chapter of History - the
Reign of Mary - without a single scar on our bodies.
This mentality is very wrong, and the life of St. Edwin is a model for us
to
understand how life is not like this. Not only he, but Our Lord Jesus
Christ
was defeated from a human point of view. Our Lord was rejected,
persecuted,
thrown into prison, violently beaten, crucified, and killed. Almost all of
his friends and disciples abandoned Him; at the foot of the Cross He had
only one apostle and a few women who continued loyal to him. This was all
that remained of His lifetime of apostolate. That is, humanly speaking,
His
death represented a complete failure.
We know, however, that from that defeat our Redemption came; we know that
sharing the merit of the Passion, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of
Christians. Its fecundity produces the repentance of those who abandon the
Catholic cause and their true contrition and return, as happened with the
Apostles. It also attracts the hardest sinners to the good path. The
Catholic blood shed in the defense of the Faith has this virtue. This is a
very im****tant and elevated principle that we should never forget, that
should be a source of constant encouragement in our spiritual lives.
There is also another simpler and less elevated principle: If we enter a
battle in which we cover the enemy with blows, it is absolutely normal
that
we also should receive many blows. If our fight has some victories, it is
normal that it also have some defeats. Such defeats are also a part of
war.
Whoever thinks differently is outside of reality, is living in a dream
world
where he will have many unpleasant surprises.
I had a German fraulein who was governess of my sister and me when we were
children. I remember that during World War I she was indignant when the
English pilots bombed Berlin. "O those arrogant English!" She used to
exclaim. "How dare they bomb Berlin! They have no right to do that!" I did
not share her indignation, because I thought her argument was void. In
fact,
if the Germans were bombing London and Paris, I could not understand why
the
English and French pilots should not also bomb Berlin. If you attack the
house of your neighbor, your neighbor acquires the right of
counter-attack.
It is the principle of legitimate self-defense. It is absolutely normal.
It
is the basic law of war.
So, defeats should be accepted as normal in our fight. They should not be
cause for surprise or discouragement. Our fight is a work of dedication to
the Catholic cause that, as in any fight, seeks the final victory. But
before that victory comes, we must have defeats - and we already have had
many. A manly spirit faces the defeats, re-starts again from zero, even
from
below zero, and continues the fight for Our Lady.
Elias the Prophet, for whom we have a special devotion and who in many
senses is our model, will one day come to fight against the Antichrist. It
will be the most glorious fight in History. He will challenge that Man of
Sin in a public polemic and leave the Antichrist speechless. For this
reason, he will be killed and his body along with Enoch's will be exposed
in
a public square for three days. Only after this spectacular defeat will
Our
Lord come and with a whisper from His Divine lips, defeat the Antichrist.
These are principles that should always be in our minds. The life of St.
Edwin gave us the op****tunity to recall them. Let us ask him to obtain for
us the grace of fortitude and perseverance in our fight against the
Revolution either in victory or in defeat.
See pictures at:
http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j198sd_Edwin_10-12.html
Saint Quote:
[It] is not enough to pray, Thy kingdom come, but to work, so that the
Kingdom of God will exist among us today.
--Blessed Ursula Ledochowska
Bible Quote:
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we
are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
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The Prayer for Courage
Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous,
teach me to serve You as You deserve:
to give and not count the cost,
to fight and not heed the wound,
to toil and not seek rest,
to labor and not seek reward,
save that of feeling that I do Your will. - Amen.
-Saint Ignatius of Loyola
**Don't forget to pray the Stations of the Cross on Fridays
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