Saint
Erkenwald enseignant ses moines, initiale historiée du Chertsey Breviary
(c.1300)
Saint Erconwald
Évêque
de Londres (✝ v. 693)
Issu d'une famille
princière d'Angle de l'Est, il utilisa une grande partie de sa fortune pour
fonder deux monastères, l’un pour les hommes, à Barking, qu’il gouverna
lui-même, l’autre pour les femmes, à qui il donna pour abbesse sa sœur Éthelburge. A
la mort de l'évêque de Londres en 675, il fut appelé à ce siège par saint Théodore, archevêque
de Canterbury. Il est réputé pour la grande sainteté de sa vie.
À Barking en Angleterre, l’an 693, le trépas de saint Erconwald, évêque de Londres, qui fonda deux monastères, l’un pour les hommes, à Barking, qu’il gouverna lui-même, l’autre pour les femmes, à qui il donna pour abbesse sa sœur sainte Éthelburge.
Martyrologe
romain
SAINT ERCONWALD (ERKENWALD), EVEQUE DE LONDRES, ABBE DE CHERTSEY
30
avril - 13 mai
Né dans l'Est-Anglie; né au Ciel à Barking, le 30 avril, vers 686-693; deuxième jour de fête le 13 mai. Erconwald était de sang royal, fils d'Annas ou Offa. En 675, Saint Théodore de Canterbury nomma Erconwald Evêque des Saxons de l'Est avec Londres pour siège, et s'étendant jusqu'à l'Essex et Middlesex. Son épiscopat fut le plus important dans ce diocèse entre celui de Saint Mellitus et celui de Saint Dunstan. Son tombeau dans la Cathédrale Saint-Paul était un des nombreux lieux de pèlerinage visités durant le Moyen-Age, où des miracles ont été rapportés par les papistes jusqu’au XVI° siècle, bien qu'on ne sache plus que peu de sa vie, sinon qu'il fonda un monastère à Chertsey dans le Surrey, qu'il gouverna, et un couvent à Barking dans l'Essex où il installa sa soeur Ethelburge comme Abbesse.
Erconwald est en partie l'auteur de la réconciliation entre Saint Théodore et Saint Wilfrid. A l'époque de Saint Bède, ces miracles furent rapportés à la suite du toucher du lit qu'Erconwald utilisa dans ses dernières années. A sa naissance céleste, les reliques d'Erconwald furent réclamées par Barking, Chertsey, et Londres; il fut finalement enterré dans la Cathédrale Saint-Paul de Londres, qu'il avait agrandie. Les reliques échappèrent à l'incendie de 1087 et furent placées dans la crypte. Le 14 novembre 1148, il y eut une nouvelle translation faite par les papistes vers un nouveau tombeau derrière le maître-autel, vers où elles furent à nouveau déplacées le 1er février 1326.
Dans l'art, on dépeint Erconwald comme un Evêque dans un petit 'char' (l'équivalent saxon d'un fauteuil roulant) dans lequel il a voyagé à cause de sa goutte. Parfois il y a une femme le touchant ou il peut être montré avec Sainte Ethelburge de Barking.
ou
On pense qu'il fut un des premiers convertis de la mission menée par Saint Mellitus. Erconwald fonda deux maisons religieuses, une sur chaque rive de la Tamise, selon un modèle qui sera ultérieurement adopté par Saint Benoît Biscop, quand il construira les Monastères jumeaux de Saint-Pierre, Moine Wearmouth et Saint-Paul, Jarrow. Erconwald devint Abbé de l'abbaye qu'il construisit à Chertsey, mais l'autre, à Barking, il la donna à sa soeur Sainte Ethelburge, rappelant Sainte Hildelid de France pour qu'elle l'entraîne à la vie religieuse et la direction d'un monastère double, de Moines et de Moniales. Sa soeur resta très proche à lui et plus tard, quand il deviendra Evêque de Londres, l'accompagnera régulièrement dans ses périples. Sur le tard, il sera handicapé par une crise de goutte et devra être aidé par un siège à roulettes, ancêtre du fauteuil roulant, et dont les restes sont conservés dans l'ancien Saint-Paul et montrés comme Reliques.
Lorsque Saint Cedd trépassa de la peste en 664, Erconwald, qui descendait de la maison d'Uffa, une famille royale des Angles d'Est, fut recommandé par le Roi Sebbi, à l'Archevêque Théodore, pour devenir le nouvel Evêque de Londres. Son ministère durant les onze années suivantes fut celui de la réconciliation. Il y avait encore quelques Bretons dans son diocèse, qui étaient restés après que les terres aient été envahies par les Saxons, mais les envahisseurs étaient la population prédominante. Ils avaient reçu la Foi chrétienne tout d'abord par le clergé romain envoyé par Saint Grégoire [le Grand], mais elle avait été affermie par les Moines de Lindisfarne sous Saint Cedd, qui étaient de l'Eglise celte, ce qui fait que son siège avait une tradition mixte. De plus, il y avait une certaine résistance aux réformes introduites par Saint Théodore, et Erconwald mena une action de guérison des divisions de l'Eglise anglaise dans son ensemble, à un point tel que la querelle entre Wilfrid et Théodore fut finalement réglée dans la maison d'Erconwald immédiatement avant la naissance au Ciel de l'Archevêque.
La sainteté et le tempérament d'artisan de paix d'Erconwald lui ont valu une place de prédilection dans le coeur des Londoniens. On rapporte aussi nombre de miracles. Un curieux récit a été conservé sur comment, pendant la reconstruction de Saint-Paul, un cercueil fut découvert contenant le corps d'un homme portant une couronne et avec un sceptre dans sa main. Il n'y avait pas d'indication sur qui était cet homme en parfait état de conservation et, le lendemain, Saint Erconwald célébra la Divine Liturgie pour lui, puis demanda au cadavre qui il était. Le cadavre lui répondit aussitôt qu'il avait été juge de New Troy, un nom légendaire pour Londres, et parce qu'il était si renommé pour ses jugements exemplaires il avait reçut le nom de roi des Juges. L'Evêque lui demanda où il était maintenant, et le juge répondit que parce qu'il était mort sans le Baptême, il s'était vu refuser l'entrée dans la Ville Eternelle. Saint Erconwald en fut si affligé qu'il commença à pleurer, disant combien il aurait souhaité pouvoir le baptiser au Nom du Père, et du Fils et du Saint-Esprit. Une partie des larmes tombèrent sur la face du juge vertueux, et d'un grand cri de joie, il remercia le Saint de l'avoir libéré de son état terrestre par le lavement avec les larmes au Nom de la Trinité, et aussitôt son corps se désintégra en poussière.
Saint Erconwald s’endormit dans le Seigneur à l'Abbaye de sa soeur à Barking, et il y eut une dispute entre les Prêtres de Saint-Paul et les Moines de Barking concernant le lieu où il fallait l'ensevelir. Un grand orage éclata au dehors, la rivière déborda, mais le soleil perça à travers les nuages, indiquant un chemin doré vers la Cathédrale. Son corps fut enterré dans la crypte, mais quand l'église fut reconstruite en 1148, il y eut une translation par les papistes dans un tombeau derrière le Maître-Autel. C'était un des lieux de pèlerinage préférés par les papistes jusqu'au seizième siècle. On conserva son jour de fête au 30 avril, avec grand faste. Le 14 novembre, on fête la Translation de ses Saintes Reliques.
April 30
St. Erkonwald, Bishop of London, Confessor
HE was a prince of the royal blood, son of Annas, the
holy king of the East-Angles, or, as some say, of a certain prince named Offa.
The better to disengage himself from the ties and incumbrances of the world, he
forsook his own country, and retired into the kingdom of the East-Saxons, where
he employed his large estate in founding two great monasteries, one at
Chertsey, in Surrey, near the Thames, 1 the other for nuns, at Barking in Essex; 2 of this latter he appointed his sister Edilburga abbess. The former he
governed with great sanctity, till he was forced out of his dear solitude by
King Sebba, in 675, and consecrated bishop of London by St. Theodorus. He much
augmented the buildings and revenues of St. Paul’s, and obtained for that
church great privileges from the king. Dugdale, in his history of that
cathedral, proves that it had originally been a temple of Diana, from many
heads of oxen dug up when the east part of it was rebuilt, and from the
structure of the chambers of Diana, near that place. Bede bears witness that
God honoured St. Erkonwald with a great gift of miracles, and that his
horse-litter, or chips cut off from it, cured distempers to his own time: and
his sanctity has been most renowned through all succeeding ages. He sat eleven
years, according to his old epitaph, which Mr. Weever has preserved. 3 His tomb in the cathedral of St. Paul’s was famous for frequent
miracles, as is mentioned by Bede, Malmesbury, &c. His body was removed
from the middle of the church, by a solemn translation, on the 14th of
November, in 1148, 4 and deposited above the high altar, on the east wall. Dugdale 5 describes the riches and numerous oblations which adorned his shrine,
and laments 6 that they had lately seen the destruction of this magnificent church,
which was the glory of our nation; the monuments of so many famous men torn to
pieces, and their bones and dust pulled out of their graves. In which barbarous
search the body of the holy King Sebba was found embalmed with perfumes, and
clothed with rich robes: also several bishops in their proper habits. But, says
that diligent author, I could never hear that they found more than a ring or
two with rubies, and a chalice of no great value. He adds: Under part of the
choir was the subterraneous parish church of St. Faith, called S. Fides in
Cryptis. At the change of religion, the body of St. Erkonwald disappeared, in
1533, says Weever. 7 F. Jerom Porter, in his lives of the English saints, testifies, that it
was then buried at the upper end of the choir, near the wall. No mention is
made of it in any accounts since the new fabric was erected. See Wharton, Hist.
Episcoporum Londin, p. 16; and Maitland, Hist. of London, b. 2, p. 486; also
the notes of Papebroke upon the life of St. Erkonwald in Capgrave, Apr. t. 3,
p. 780; and Leland, Collect. t. 1, p. 22 and 23.
Note 1. Chertsey
(anciently Ceortesei) monastery was founded by St. Erkonwald, about the year
666. The abbot and ninety monks being killed, and the abbey burnt to the
ground, during the Danish wars, it was refounded by King Edgar and Bishop
Ethelwold, to the honour of St. Peter. At the dissolution, it was valued,
according to Speed, at £744 13s. 4d. per ann. See Monast. Anglic, t. 1, p. 75,
and Bishop Tanner, Notit. Monastica, p. 534. [back]
Note 2. Barking
nunnery was founded by the same saint, in 675, or, according to the
Chertsey-book, in 666; but was not the first nunnery in England, as Weever,
Dugdale, (in Warwicks, p. 1077,) and Newcourt assert; for that of Folkestone in
Kent was founded in 630 by Eadbald, king of Kent, and his daughter, St.
Eanswithe, was made first abbess, as Bishop Tanner takes notice. Barking
nunnery was valued at the dissolution at £1084 per annum, which would be now
eight times as much. Those authors are mistaken, who call Barking the richest
nunnery in England, those of Sion and Shaftsbury being much richer. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
IV: April. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/4/304.html
According to an ancient epitaph, Erconwald ruled the Diocese of London for eleven years. He is said to have eventually retired to the convent of his sister in Barking, where he died 30 April. He was buried in St. Paul's, and his tomb became renowned for miracles. The citizens of London had a special devotion to him, and they regarded with pride the magnificence of his shrine. During the burning of the cathedral in 1087 it is related that the shrine and its silken coverings remained intact. A solemn translation of St. Erconwald's body took place 14 Nov., 1148, when it was raised above the high altar. The shrine was robbed of its jewels and ornaments in the sixteenth century; and the bones of the saint are said to have been then buried at the east end of the choir. His feast is observed by English Catholics on 14 November. Prior to the Reformation, the anniversaries of St. Erconwald's death and translation of his relics were observed at St. Paul's as feasts of the first class, according to an ordinance of Bishop Braybroke in 1386.
Saint Erconwald of London
Also known as
May have been related to
royalty. Benedictine
monk.
Founded Chertsey
Abbey in Surrey, England,
and served as its first abbot.
Founded a convent
at Barking, Essex, England;
his sister, Saint Ethelburga
of Barking, served as its abbess.
Appointed bishop
of the East Saxons by Saint Theodore
of Canterbury in 675;
his see was in London.
Suffered from severe gout,
but continually travelled
through his diocese.
His shrine
was a pilgrimage
site in the Middle Ages, and the sick
were miraculously
cured
by touching the chair he used for travel.
St. Erconwald
Bishop of London, died about 690. He belonged to the princely family of the East Anglian Offa, and devoted a considerable portion of his
patrimony to founding two monasteries, one for monks at Chertsey,
and the other for nuns at Barking in Essex. Over the latter he placed
hiss sister, St. Ethelburga, as abbess. He himself discharged the duties of superior at Chertsey.
Erconwald continued his monastic
life till the death of Bishop Wini in 675, when he was called to the See of London, at the instance of King Sebbi and Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. As monk and bishop he was renowned for his holiness of life,
and miracles were wrought in attestation of his sanctity. The sick were cured by contact with the
litter on which he had been carried; this we have on the testimony of Venerable Bede. He was present in 686 at the reconciliation
between Archbishop Theodore and Wilfrith. King Ini
in the preface to his laws calls Erconwald "my bishop". During his episcopate
he enlarged his church,
augmented its revenues, and
obtained for it special privileges from the king. According to an ancient epitaph, Erconwald ruled the Diocese of London for eleven years. He is said to have eventually retired to the convent of his sister in Barking, where he died 30 April. He was buried in St. Paul's, and his tomb became renowned for miracles. The citizens of London had a special devotion to him, and they regarded with pride the magnificence of his shrine. During the burning of the cathedral in 1087 it is related that the shrine and its silken coverings remained intact. A solemn translation of St. Erconwald's body took place 14 Nov., 1148, when it was raised above the high altar. The shrine was robbed of its jewels and ornaments in the sixteenth century; and the bones of the saint are said to have been then buried at the east end of the choir. His feast is observed by English Catholics on 14 November. Prior to the Reformation, the anniversaries of St. Erconwald's death and translation of his relics were observed at St. Paul's as feasts of the first class, according to an ordinance of Bishop Braybroke in 1386.
Edmonds, Columba. "St.
Erconwald." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 2 May 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05517a.htm>.
Saint Erconwald of London
Also known as
- Earconvaldo
- Erkenwald
- Erkenwold
- Erkonwald
- The Light of London
- 13 May
- 14
November translation of his relics
- 24
April on some calendars
- 30
April on some calendars
Born
Died
- c.686
in London,
England
- interred
in Saint Paul’s Cathedral,
London
- re-interred
in the crypt following the fire of 1087
- relics
translated to a new shrine
on 14
November 1148
- relics
translated to a new shrine
on 1
February 1326
Patronage
Representation
- bishop
in a small chariot, which he used for travelling
his diocese
- with Saint
Ethelburga
of Barking
Erconwald of London, OSB B
(also known as Erkenwald)
Born in East Anglia; died in London, c. 686; second feast day on April 30. In 675, Saint Theodore of Canterbury appointed Erconwald bishop of the East Saxons with his see in London. His shrine in Saint Paul's Cathedral was a much visited pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, but little is known of his life except that he founded a monastery at Chertsey in Surrey and a convent at Barking in Essex. He appointed his sister, Ethelburga, abbess of the latter, while he governed the former. Erconwald took some part int he reconciliation of Saint Theodore with Saint Wilfrid (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia). Erconwald is portrayed in art as a bishop in a small 'chariot' (the Saxon equivalent of a bath chair) in which he travelled because of his gout. Sometimes there is a woman touching it or he may be shown with Saint Ethelburga of Barking (Roeder). Erconwald is invoked against gout (Roeder).
SOURCE :
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0513.shtml
ERCONWALD of LONDON
The great Anglo-Saxon St.
Erconwald was a kinsman of King Offa of Mercia and came into a considerable
amount of wealth from the patrimony left to him by virtue of his royal
connections, which he used to found a monastery and a convent in Essex. Over
the convent he placed his sister, Ethelburga, who later became a saint as well.
Erconwald himself led the solitary life of a monk until in 675 he was called by
King Sebbi and the Archbishop of Canterbury to fill the vacant See of London.
Erconwald was known for his extraordinary sanctity, and Bede
attests that many were healed who came in contact with the litter on which he
was carried in his old age. During his episcopate he obtained many privileges
for his See from the king and enlarged the flock in London considerably.
Erconwald died in 690 and
was buried in the cathedral of St. Paul's in London, where many miracles
happened at his tomb. In 1087 the cathedral was ravaged by a fire, but the
linen cloths on his tomb miraculously remained intact. So esteemed was
Erconwald in the late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman periods that in 1148 his
relics were translated to the High Altar. A decree of 1386 ordered the feast of
Erconwald's death and the translation of his relics to be celebrated as a feast
of the first class in England. At the time of the English Reformation, all the
jewels of his tomb were plundered and the relics themselves lost, though it is
rumored that they now rest under the east altar, though it is far from certain.
Erconwald's Feast Day is 30 April, with translations being celebrated on 1 February and 13 May. He is the patron saint against gout.
St. Erconwald, ora pro nobis!
SOURCE : http://www.unamsanctamcatholicam.com/history/79-history/159-erconwald-of-london.html
Saint Erconwald
Saint Erconwald
Bishop of London (693)
Our
father among the saints Earconwald of London (also Ercenwald or Erkenwald) was
bishop of London in the Anglo-Saxon Church of England during the latter decades
of the seventh century. He came to be called “The Light of London”. His feast
day is April 30. He is also commemorated for the translations of his relics on
February 1 and May 13.
Earconwald
was born about 630 of noble origin at Lindsey. Otherwise little is known of his
early life. He founded two monasteries in 661, one for men in Chertsey in Surrey,
of which he became the abbot, and a second for women in Barking, of which his
sister St. Ethelburgh was the abbess. In 675, he was appointed Bishop of London
by Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury.
King
Ine of Wessex named Earconwald as an advisor and participant in the writing of
the code of law promulgated by King Ine. Earconwald also had a significant role
in the evolution and drafting of the Anglo-Saxon charters including the charter
by King Caedwalla for a minster (church) in Farnham.
Earconwald
is also credited with the conversion to Christianity of King Sebba of the East
Saxons in 674.
Earconwald
died in 693 and was buried at Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. During the
Middle Ages his grave was a popular shrine for pilgrimages. However, it was destroyed
with other tombs at the cathedral during the Reformation. (more)
