Happy St. Guthlac's
My parents called to remind me that today is the Feast of St. Guthlac of Crowland (or Croyland). A young man of noble birth (and brother to another saint, a hermitess named St. Pege, or Pega), he became a Benedictine monk and later a hermit in the fens of Crowland. He drained them, wrestled with the demons who lived there, and finally was victorious, turning the swamps into beautiful and fertile land, as related in the excellent Life of St. Guthlac related by the esteemed, and late, Prof. Raymond P. Tripp, Jr. in the April 2001 Lion. Because of his life, he has been associated with Orthodox Ecology.
For my own part, I took his name when re-enacting Anglo-Saxon times because I felt sorry for the old fellow. A saint should be honoured by the naming of children for him, and his example should be something which others are called to follow—but no-one will name his child Guthlac, and very few will hear his story and be inspired by his example. Well, this is one small way to honour him and to perhaps influence other to in some small way follow his example.
The Troparion & Kontakion of St. Guthlac:
Father Guthlac you followed the ways of the prophet Elijah,
and the straight path of the Forerunner.
You became a dweller in the cisterns of Croyland
and in that wilderness brought forth fruit an hundredfold both conquering the demons and healing the sick.
Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
You abandoned royal estates and the life of a warrior to live by silence and prayer,
by this you inspired the English peoples, holy Father Guthlac.
Wherefore we acclaim you
as the father of English monasticism.
The lesson we learn from St. Guthlac’s example is two-fold: first, the holiness of monasticism; second, the holiness of reclaiming this fallen Earth for man’s goodly use. On the one hand, it is worthy to forsake the world and seek God alone; on the other, it is worthy to strive to tame the wild, to dispel sickness, and to bend uncouth nature to the service of man.
