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entecost ~ Whitsuntide in England

Pentecost is the day on which the Holy Spirit is said to have entered Jesus’ disciples as described in Acts in the New Testament.  Considered the birthday of the Christian Church by early Christians, they included the holiday not just in celebration but in their architecture as well. Most Medieval cathedrals and great churches include a Holy Ghost hole–a small circular opening in the church roof that symbolizes the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the church.

In England this holiday is known as Whitsuntide.  Do you know what started on the Thursday before Whitsun that involved a pole, wooden horses and Morris Dancers?

 

 

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t. Audrey ~ June 23rd

Saint Audrey, or Ethelreda in Old English, is one of the most popular Anglo-Saxon women saints. She starts out life as an English princess (such as there were princesses in the mid-600s AD), but is fated from the get-go for sainthood. It runs in the family. Her sisters are Sts Ethelburga, Erconwald, Sexburga and Withaburga.

How, one might ask, can so many saints come out of one family?