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"Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon"-"A nation without a language is a nation without a heart" Welsh Proverb

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Monday, September 8, 2014

On 9th September 1953, Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas handed the barely completed script for the play for voices Under Milk Wood to the BBC before embarking on a reading tour of the United States. His intention was to revise the script before its first broadcast. However, Dylan died during the American tour and was never able to edit the play.
An omniscient narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants ...of a fictional small Welsh fishing village Llareggub ("bugger all" backwards). They include Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, relentlessly nagging her two dead husbands; Captain Cat, reliving his seafaring times; the two Mrs Dai Breads; Organ Morgan, obsessed with his music; and Polly Garter, pining for her dead lover. Later, the town awakens and, aware now of how their feelings affect whatever they do, we watch them go about their daily business.
There is no doubt that Dylan based many of these characters on the inhabitants of Laugharne, a small seaside town in Carmarthenshire where Dylan had lived for several years. It is the author of this post's small claim to fame that the character of Captain Cat was based on Great Uncle Johnny, a retired sea Captain who was almost blind, and who spent many hours conversing with Dylan Thomas in Laugharne.
 

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Today is the feast day of Saint Dunod

7th September

Today is the feast day of Saint Dunod

Saint Dunod - was a late 6th - early 7th century Abbot of Bangor on Dee, who attended the meeting of Welsh Bishops with Saint Augustine of Canterbury at 'Augustine's Oak' and is the only... Welsh ecclesiastic mentioned by name by Bede.

Saint Augustine and the meeting at Augustine's Oak;

Before the withdrawal of the Roman legions Britannia had already converted to Christianity and had been in regular contact with Rome, however after the pagan Anglo Saxons invaded c449 and the subsequent expansion of their Kingdoms in England, Christianity was mainly restricted to Wales and Cornwall and the Christian church developed in relative isolation from Rome, it was centred on monasteries instead of bishoprics, it had a different calculation for the date of Easter and the style of the tonsure haircut that clerics wore was different.

In 595 Pope St. Gregory the Great decided to send missionaries to Britain (known as the Gregorian mission), to try and bring the Christian Britains back into the fold and also to try and convert the pagan Anglo Saxons. He chose Augustine, a respected prior of a monastery in Rome, along with thirty monks to carry out his mission and in 597 Augustine arrived in Britain and held a meeting with the Anglo Saxon King Ethelbert, who although did not convert immediately, was impressed enough to let them continue to preach, however Ethelbert did convert later that year along with thousands during a christmas day mass,

Augustine was consecrated Bishop of Cantebury, he is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church. As Augustine mission continued succesfully and more missionaries arrived from Rome, they consecrated pagan temples for Christian worship and turned pagan festivals into feast days of saints.

However Augustine failed to extend his authority to the Christians in Wales and Cornwall and as Pope Gregory had decreed that these Christians should also submit to Augustine, in 603, Augustine and Ethelberht summoned all the British bishops to a meeting, at Augustines's oak on the border between Somerset and Gloucestershire.

These bishops retired early to confer with their people, who, according to Bede, advised them to judge Augustine based upon the respect he displayed at their next meeting. When Augustine failed to rise from his seat on the entrance of the British bishops, they refused to recognise him as archbishop and the old Church chose isolation over reconciliation. But perhaps the more significant factors preventing an agreement,were the deep differences between Augustine and the British church and the fact that Augustine's efforts were sponsored by an Anlgo Saxon king, whose Kingdoms were aggressively expanding to the west.

Photo: 7th September

Today is the feast day of Saint Dunod

Saint Dunod - was a late 6th - early 7th century Abbot of Bangor on Dee, who attended the meeting of Welsh Bishops with Saint Augustine of Canterbury at 'Augustine's Oak' and is the only Welsh ecclesiastic mentioned by name by Bede.

Saint Augustine and the meeting at Augustine's Oak;

Before the withdrawal of the Roman legions Britannia had already converted to Christianity and had been in regular contact with Rome, however after the pagan Anglo Saxons invaded c449 and the subsequent expansion of their Kingdoms in England, Christianity was mainly restricted to Wales and Cornwall and the Christian church developed in relative isolation from Rome, it was centred on monasteries instead of bishoprics, it had a different calculation for the date of Easter and the style of the tonsure haircut that clerics wore was different.

In 595 Pope St. Gregory the Great decided  to send missionaries to Britain (known as the Gregorian mission), to try and  bring the Christian Britains back into the fold and also to try and convert the pagan Anglo Saxons. He chose Augustine, a respected prior of a monastery in Rome, along with thirty monks to carry out his mission and in 597 Augustine arrived in Britain and held a meeting with the Anglo Saxon King Ethelbert, who although did not convert immediately, was impressed enough to let them continue to preach, however Ethelbert did convert later that year along with thousands during a christmas day mass,

Augustine was consecrated Bishop of Cantebury, he is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.  As  Augustine mission continued succesfully and more missionaries arrived from Rome, they consecrated pagan temples for Christian worship and turned pagan festivals into feast days of saints.

However Augustine failed to extend his authority to the Christians in Wales and Cornwall and as Pope Gregory had decreed that these Christians should also submit to Augustine, in 603, Augustine and Ethelberht summoned all the British bishops to a meeting, at Augustines's oak on the border between Somerset and Gloucestershire.

These bishops retired early to confer with their people, who, according to Bede, advised them to judge Augustine based upon the respect he displayed at their next meeting. When Augustine failed to rise from his seat on the entrance of the British bishops, they refused to recognise him as archbishop and the old Church  chose isolation over reconciliation.  But perhaps the more significant factors preventing an agreement,were the deep differences between Augustine and the British church and the fact that Augustine's efforts were sponsored by an Anlgo Saxon king, whose Kingdoms were aggressively expanding to the west.