Feast of St. John the Baptist


Re-badging pagan places of worship as churches, as outlined in Gregory the Great's 7th C Letter  to Mellitus, made a great deal of sense in the conversion of  East Anglia. To what extent modern church dedications reflect the choice of a feast days to coincide with and replace pagan festivals is a moot point. 

 The spandrels above the west door  -  a lamb and flag on one side and the eagle on the other - a and the two empty niches of St. John the Baptist, Coltishall  reveal its original dual dedication. 




That would have been very handy if  there was a pre-existing tradition of marking midwinter (St. John the Evangelist) and midsummer (St. John the Baptist).

We cannot know, but we might guess,  that the tradition of midsummer fires that continues in some parts of the U.K, was part of a wider (pre-Christian?) tradition marking  all the solstices and equinoxes with fire. So one can imagine our yet to be converted Anglo-Saxon forebears having their festivals at the same times and the same place. 

And they would not have been alone in this. Further down the river is Belaugh where the church dedication is to St. Peter, which is another midsummer dedication. One understanding of the name Belaugh might be another clue. Bel = Shining  and leigh = a clearing. It is easy to imagine people lighting a fire on that high place above the river.

The Autumn Equinox fire tradition,  re-badged as Guy Fawkes Night, is the most widely observed today. The church dedication that matches is All Saints.  All Saints, Horstead is just up river.

 A continuation of this fire tradition into Christian times - at Christmas and The Feast of St. John the Evangelist, in the winter,  on the Feasts of the Birth of John the Baptist and St. Peter at midsummer; and at All Saints-tide, with its remembrance of the dead - could be understood as Christian Good News bringing light. 

 So that then and now Christians join their voices with John the Baptist's dad on the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, dear old Zecharia , and give thanks that  "light has  lighten the Gentiles."  In particular the Christian people of these Broadland rivers.

 Churches with dedications to St. John abound beside Broads rivers.  The church founded by St. Felix at Reedham in the 7th C is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. St. Felix had chosen an abandoned Roman fort as his Broadland base signalling thereby the Church's links to Rome.  Maybe this too was a dual dedication mirroring the dual dedication of the Papal Basilica of St. John, Lateran in Rome.

 Romanitas, interest in all things Roman,  continued to be a concern of  the Church in East Anglia into Norman times as can be seen in the Romanesque architecture of the Norwich Cathedral.  It can also be seen in the oldest part of Coltishall church building where reused Roman brick features.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Day of the Rest of My Life

Image
 I have not posted much of late. I have been struggling. Between completing the pioneering work on a possible Withburga Way between Holkham and Dereham in the summer of 2022 and today my health has gone downhill in alarming way. I'll never walk the route in a couple of days, nor yet in 3.  I'll never walk it.  The rapid onset Pulmonary Fibrosis has left me struggling for breath putting my boots on let alone walking.  Yesterday, I went to St. Benet's Abbey , ate my picnic lunch in the car park and set myself the challenge of walking from the car park to the Abbey ruins. It is 0.35 miles and uphill all the way from from the Gate House to the old rugged cross that marks the site of the high altar at the summit. The hill looked quite daunting -  "Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?" I sang under by breath. Stopping often to catch my breath, slowly one foot in front of the other, I got closer to the summit. There before the cross, wind in my hair, it felt as if the b
Read more

North Elmham

Image
I’d come to North Elmham pursuing a mystery. Did the Bishops of Elmham from Bedwinus in the 7th century to Herfast in the 11th have their cathedral in Norfolk or  Suffolk?  North or South Elmham? I’d followed a circular walk I’d found in the  Norfolk Health Heritage and Conservations Walks  leaflet (You can get hold of one from Norfolk County Council or on-line at www.countrysideaccess.norfolk.gov.uk .)  It took me through parkland,  along quiet lanes and ended up at the parish church  (Well worth a visit in its own right!) My final destination was indicated by a brown tourist sign. Uncompromisingly it asserts “Saxon Cathedral”! But when you get to the ruins and read English Heritage’s helpful interpretation boards there’s no certainty at all.  What you see are earthworks and  ruins of a castle built by Henry Despencer,  the fighting Bishop of Norwich. He was famous for putting down the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. A man not without enemies, Henry had obviously felt the need of
Read more

Buckenham Rook Roost

Image
Beneath a winter sky the sun sinks slowly in the west . Wrapped against the cold -  and rapt by the beauty - I pondered on the generations before me who had stood and watched as day turned to night. Millions of sunsets and millions upon millions of the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve .  I found myself signing with the Psalmist: You appointed the moon to mark the seasons and the sun knows the time of its setting, You make darkness that it may be night in which the beasts of the forest creep forth (Psalm 104) Across the darkening marsh the whistles and murmuring of widgeon quietened, a thin mist rose and deer emerge from the woodland  to graze beneath a reddening sky.  All this was but the overture to the evening’s main event. I had come to see a wild life spectacular which is repeated every night during the winter period and the station platform was the grandstand from which to view it. From far and wide streamed “ in a countless host” each as black a clergyman’s cassock and eac
Read more