July 22, 2003

We Do Not Know Where They Have Laid Him

Thanks to James at Paradosis for bringing up this topic.

Living in the UK, I am proximate to where the relics of many saints should be undisturbed. Thanks first to Henry VIII and second to the mop-up operations of Oliver Cromwell, there is hardly a bone to be found anywhere.

On November 14th, when we go to Cardiff to venerate our family patron St Dyfrig (the father of Welsh monasticism, predecessor and chief consecrator of St David), I find myself angry, irritated, and frustrated that we have been left with nothing but an empty tomb.

It feels like the grave of a family member has been desecrated. That's because it is the grave of a family member that has been desecrated. Did those who scattered these bones not consider that these were the remains of a brother or sister in Christ, even if they did not recognise them as a holy father in the faith or appreciate the latent power of the earthly tabernacle left behind? (Perhaps they weren't familiar with II Kings 13:21.)

It is the same everywhere I go. Churches are now proud to display the tombs of various saints, and in most cases they don't even bother to tell you that these are empty, unless you ask someone.

The only exception is when we pilgrimage to St David's. There are bones in a reliquary, but the Anglicans who own his cathedral go to great lengths to explain why it is doubtful the bones are those of the patron of Wales, though they were certainly important enough to have been hidden from Bishop Barlow's attempt to confiscate them, only to be re-discovered centuries later.

The verger who interrupted our veneration did admit that other bones in the reliquary were very possibly those of St Justinian. He also told us that Orthodox hierarchs contributed an interior case in which the bones are held and participated in the service when the relics were re-enshrined in the cathedral.

We last went to St David's when Mrs Holford was great with child. One thing the shrine smashers couldn't do was plug up the miraculous spring which appeared at the birth of St David. We gathered water from St Non's Well for Aidan David's baptism. Even when those with a purely mental Christianity would attempt to quench the sacramental work of the Holy Spirit touching earth with heaven in the cause of preventing "superstitions", the Spirit finds ways to reach us.

I'm still angry that they have desecrated the graves of my family.

Posted by david at July 22, 2003 11:38 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Hello David,

You make a very sad point...but a pleasant read none the less as i attempt to imagine all of England's ancient places.

Is it me or do Anglicans really take pleasure in reasoning themselves out of believing anything?

good post.

aaron

Posted by: aaron at July 23, 2003 06:17 PM