From the Parish Priest

What do the following people have in common: Barnabas, Alban, John the Baptist, Peter, Thomas, Mary Magdalene and James?

The answer's two things. First that they are all saints of the Christian Church, and second that their feast days or anniversaries are all in June or July.

The Christian calendar, since the very first believers, has given a day to each saint so that they are honoured once a year. There are in fact thousands of saints in all, so some of them have to share a day, and others only get their feast day recognised in certain countries. St. George, for example, is patron of England, Germany and parts of Russia, so he is commemorated in those countries, but he's not remembered in Wales or Scotland.

But what is so great about these early Christians that they get a day dedicated to each of them? It's almost by accident that saints days were included in the calendar.

When the Church was still very young, it was seen as a temporary institution - temporary not because of its inability to keep going, but temporary because the believers expected Jesus to return straight away. He had come back at the resurrection and so it was quite natural that they waited for him to return after the ascension. He didn't of course, and the early Christians started to look towards the apostles and first disciples to lead them. People like Peter and Paul, Matthew and John, and indeed some of those listed earlier.

But a major problem was then reached. These disciples themselves started to die and in order to maintain the memory, the teaching and the instructions of these people, they were honoured in lots of different ways. Drawings and carvings were made of the saints, stories were written down, paintings of their actions were put on Church walls, like the one at Idsworth, and later stained glass windows, statues and icons were made all in an attempt to teach people not so much about the saints themselves but about their faith in Christ.

With so much emphasis on these people, it wasn't long before churches and places were named after them - either the saint who had begun the Church in a particular place or a favourite saint of the people living there. Our Church is named after George, and like those early churches, he's our patron.

Do we pray to the saints? No, we don't pray to saints but we can ask them to pray for us and to join our prayers with theirs. That's exactly the same as phoning a friend and asking them to help with writing a letter or with some shopping. Saints are there to help us and to pray for us. They're members of the Church who have died and now form that great company of heaven ™ the Church exists both sides of death.

From the earliest times of the Christian faith the Church has days set aside for these people ™ men and women throughout history and in all different countries of the world who can teach us and help us as we try to follow their example of devoting ourselves to serving Christ and his Church.

Fr. Mike.