Thank you for this. I have been in London for a few days because of a family visit and even though I am overwhelmed and overstimulated to be traveling alone, I have walked into so many open churches and so happy to find the beauty inside. Yesterday I happened to walk by another church and I wondered, what sort of church it was. It turned out to be Russian Orthodox and I went inside. It was so magical. Stands of candles everywhere…. icons of course. No pews or seats. The aroma of incense.
A wonderful synchronistic moment as I have been so interested in finding out more about eastern orthodoxy thanks to you and a few other writers that I have discovered.
But then, you topped my favourite line with this one nearer the end:
"That’s what I call commitment. To those who say that ‘Christian civilization’ is built by warriors, politicians or people arguing on the Internet, I say: no, it was built by people like Annora."
Mark, I'm from B.C. though living in Oregon at the moment. My daughter lives in Kamloops and I was in Kelowna recently. Next time we're over that way we'll look for those churches. Thanks.
I want to visit Iffley now and the church. A great Sunday morning read . I visited the cell of Julian of Norwich ( I think it’s a recreation of the original, in the same space ) . I couldn’t quite believe that there was such a thing as an anchoress , and I know nothing about her teaching. But now I’ve heard about another one , it is starting to feel like they really did exist. That’s a huge shift in my way of thinking about medieval women about whom I know very little. Spiritual life sounds like it was very much alive for them and gave sustenance to their followers.
I never understood why Julian of Norwich was never beatified, ie made a saint! At least in the Roman Catholic church...the Anglican church has adopted her instead, but I think she is definitely a saint considering her writings, which contain messages of real hope and insights about God's love for mankind.
I’m a bit freaked out about being walled up… I don’t really understand that kind of commitment … but it’s all so interesting to read about, and I definitely understand the obsession with the green man.
Being walled up is a bit mind blowing even looking at it from a 600 year perspective Anchor esses had contact with the outside world through a window where people came for guidance and support and healing . Hard to believe these days people like that existed.
I have heard of Holy Men living in forests, but walled up?! Yes - hard to imagine that could happen and be thought well of. I can’t see it as a positive.
Anchoress seems like a good occupation for a widowed woman with her own mind who wants to keep it, and one who may not have unlimited resources, either. The religious orders used to offer bed and board for women who found themselves in this situation, although most of these women in France had no, or few, serious religious obligations.
Right now, my 98 year old mother-in-law is pretty walled up in her nursing home, and her full time occupation is being taken care of, which is not exactly to her taste, something I definitely understand. But my mother in law can not really go outside the place where she is being cared for, and NOBODY, but NOBODY would ever think of coming to see her for spiritual advice, support, and healing. She has her part to play in this situation, obviously, but it's not all her.. fault.
I learned a long time ago that the first document written about education in the Western world was written by a woman during the medieval period which we called THE DARK AGES for a long time, and most of us still think that they were dark, and certainly dark from the standpoint of what life looks like in a modern hospital or medicalized nursing home.
Being walled up... not being able to see anything but a small patch of blue or grey or black sky, not being able to run, or feel the bare earth....that would be pretty terrible, I think. For me, at least.
It’s interesting that you read “walled up” as confined and not able to leave. You’re not wrong, yet interestingly that’s not how I read it….I read it as secluded and peaceful. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time driving around the city.
Can we be sure Annora didn’t come out and walk around outside sometimes?
I think I agree, that if you look at her confinement as a way of turning inwards to the Divine and that was her focus then it seems to have paid dividends
Being walled up... when I was a small child my parents had to tuck me into bed for a long time. Nothing like the feeling of nice, crisp sheets pulled taut over you, particularly when you're afraid that creepy crawly things could get at you by climbing into your bed.
And I was not raving mad during our collective confinement madness, either. And I have spent too much time traveling around in busy, impersonal places now, so I can understand wanting to be in a peaceful secluded place. But... maybe Annora came out at night at least, a little, while nobody was looking. Maybe. I... hope so.
Her soul may have been exercised in the way of which the Psalmist writes, “I walk in spaciousness,” referring his life in God. Most of us have no idea of that kind of freedom.
I will have to look it up in a book that I can't find right now, but it was a treatise on education, and I don't think it was Julian of Norwich, and it was earlier than the 1300's, I think, if I remember correctly from the book.
There are many examples of Orthodox saints who lived very secluded lives, often after an inner revelation of their sinfulness which turned their heart to complete repentance. Saint Hesychius the Silent of Mount Horeb is but one example:
Regarding Yew trees in cemeteries surrounding small parish churches or even cathedrals: it is said they symbolise Christ's blood spilled on the cross - because the sap of yew trees is red, like blood. Given that some of those eye trees cannot possibly have been around since pagan times, they must have been planted, on purpose.
And yes, that sap is indeed blood red - I did check ...
Hi David. I live in the Apple universe and save all Paul’s posts there. Try this: click on the send button (the upwards-pointing arrow). Then click the Notes app (you might need to choose “more” to find it). In the notes app I have a folder labeled “Paul Kingsnorth”. It’s also possible to save the posts in the Apple Books app. That’s where I save Paul’s writing on The Machine. I hope this helps.
I do wonder about anchorites like Annora and what their experience of God was like. There must have been ceaseless prayer offered up and, although contained by physical walls…….just where was she in a spiritual sense? What did she see, what did God tell her even? God is out of time……so does He see all of time and everything in it at once? In her prayers, did Annora enter God’s ‘eternity’ and did she pray not just for her own time but for all future days as well? Are her prayers still active….even though she is long dead….might her prayers have transcended all time and might they still be covering us now?
A most enjoyable article on Iffley, and the windows are beautiful. (Is that a raven on the tree on the left-hand side, I wonder).
On the subject of yew trees, many Irish graveyards have them, as you know Paul. If you haven't already done so, I recommend a visit to Trim, Co. Meath, where, in addition to the famous castle, there are many ecclesiastical ruins. At one of them, Newtown church by the Boyne, the graveyard is teeming with yew trees. They have taken over. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Thanks for sharing this. While I'm not religious in a formal sense, I do appreciate the art, architecture, and music that was inspired by it. And as a scientist, I have a deep sense of awe about the mysterious, complex world in which we find ourselves.
A beautiful church, Paul, with beautiful stained glass windows, for Sunday morning, the Lord's Day. Thank you.
There are quite a few very old yew trees in my area, and they are impressive, and lovely to my eyes. Very slow growing trees, if my memory serves me well.
Lovely piece. It reminded me of a quote from Ronald Blythe's 'Word From Wormingford' about a night-time Lenten walk:
"On a light dark night I can just make out a Norman church whose windows, wrote Adrian Bell, ‘are no more than dream holes, the walls so thick that the light has the effect of being poured in through a funnel’. Well, that is how they liked it, our ancestors, a bright Saviour in a richly gloomy cave."
This essay on the Green Man put me in an entirely more serene place this morning. As everything of my parents' post-war assumptions crumbles around us here: sense of community, civil society and efforts at decency and quiet respectfulness toward the least of us, an 'economy' that falters without 'the promise' of limitless 'growth' and even church, which in my recent experience is 'expected' to 'support' the unrealistic expectations of that last thing on the list, at the expense of the former; as all that comes unraveled, the very notion of the Green Man holds for me. It holds in the face of your dastardly Normans' ruination of all they touched, and our bringing about the last of the Mohicans; and, the excuses* for maintaining an economy built on the enslavement of others. An enslavement that's taken on a more modern and insidious form now.
I find your current insights and writing to be paralleling those of our own transcendant Sarah Kendzior, an independent journalist in St Louis, just a day down the big river from me.
So, thanks for this.
Tim
*"Excuse": the skin of a reason, stuffed with a Lie.
Thank you for this. I have been in London for a few days because of a family visit and even though I am overwhelmed and overstimulated to be traveling alone, I have walked into so many open churches and so happy to find the beauty inside. Yesterday I happened to walk by another church and I wondered, what sort of church it was. It turned out to be Russian Orthodox and I went inside. It was so magical. Stands of candles everywhere…. icons of course. No pews or seats. The aroma of incense.
A wonderful synchronistic moment as I have been so interested in finding out more about eastern orthodoxy thanks to you and a few other writers that I have discovered.
Thank you Paul.
there's so much to enjoy in here.
I thought my favourite quote was,
"I need to keep hold of at least some subscribers, though, so I’ll stop talking about windows now. "
I think you have inspired me actually, to write a bit about new world churches from the land in which my own daughter was born:
the West Kootenays of British Columbia.
I lived there with my young family, three doors down from one of the oldest churches in Town:
Saint Andrew's:
https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=19029
Not much to look at against your offering here.
But really quite something for British Columbia, Canada.
The other oldest church in town, makes be blush a bit I admit:
Saint Mark's:
https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=19027
These just happen to be my first two given names.
Coincidence?
well yes actually.
Such things exist under the sun ;)
But then, you topped my favourite line with this one nearer the end:
"That’s what I call commitment. To those who say that ‘Christian civilization’ is built by warriors, politicians or people arguing on the Internet, I say: no, it was built by people like Annora."
your friend till the end;
-mb
Please do write more about it!
My phone does not like the links you posted for some reason.
My family spent a lot of time in the West Kootenays when I was growing up, so it has a special place in my heart.
You're invited to my substack, friend.
free, and a safe place for your phone to like what's going on, at last!
;)
warmly;
-Vasilios
Mark, I'm from B.C. though living in Oregon at the moment. My daughter lives in Kamloops and I was in Kelowna recently. Next time we're over that way we'll look for those churches. Thanks.
Hi Jeanne;
thank you for sharing this!
well I still go back and forth a bit- beloved friends in Kaslo area, and great fishing and hiking too. :)
I've visited Oregon only once; my kind of westcoast beauty.
Kamloops and Kelowna are both very familiar- the life given to me has been rather gypsy. :)
thanks again for taking time to say hello.
warmly;
-Mark
I want to visit Iffley now and the church. A great Sunday morning read . I visited the cell of Julian of Norwich ( I think it’s a recreation of the original, in the same space ) . I couldn’t quite believe that there was such a thing as an anchoress , and I know nothing about her teaching. But now I’ve heard about another one , it is starting to feel like they really did exist. That’s a huge shift in my way of thinking about medieval women about whom I know very little. Spiritual life sounds like it was very much alive for them and gave sustenance to their followers.
I never understood why Julian of Norwich was never beatified, ie made a saint! At least in the Roman Catholic church...the Anglican church has adopted her instead, but I think she is definitely a saint considering her writings, which contain messages of real hope and insights about God's love for mankind.
I’m a bit freaked out about being walled up… I don’t really understand that kind of commitment … but it’s all so interesting to read about, and I definitely understand the obsession with the green man.
Being walled up is a bit mind blowing even looking at it from a 600 year perspective Anchor esses had contact with the outside world through a window where people came for guidance and support and healing . Hard to believe these days people like that existed.
I have heard of Holy Men living in forests, but walled up?! Yes - hard to imagine that could happen and be thought well of. I can’t see it as a positive.
Anchoress seems like a good occupation for a widowed woman with her own mind who wants to keep it, and one who may not have unlimited resources, either. The religious orders used to offer bed and board for women who found themselves in this situation, although most of these women in France had no, or few, serious religious obligations.
Right now, my 98 year old mother-in-law is pretty walled up in her nursing home, and her full time occupation is being taken care of, which is not exactly to her taste, something I definitely understand. But my mother in law can not really go outside the place where she is being cared for, and NOBODY, but NOBODY would ever think of coming to see her for spiritual advice, support, and healing. She has her part to play in this situation, obviously, but it's not all her.. fault.
I learned a long time ago that the first document written about education in the Western world was written by a woman during the medieval period which we called THE DARK AGES for a long time, and most of us still think that they were dark, and certainly dark from the standpoint of what life looks like in a modern hospital or medicalized nursing home.
Being walled up... not being able to see anything but a small patch of blue or grey or black sky, not being able to run, or feel the bare earth....that would be pretty terrible, I think. For me, at least.
It’s interesting that you read “walled up” as confined and not able to leave. You’re not wrong, yet interestingly that’s not how I read it….I read it as secluded and peaceful. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time driving around the city.
Can we be sure Annora didn’t come out and walk around outside sometimes?
I think I agree, that if you look at her confinement as a way of turning inwards to the Divine and that was her focus then it seems to have paid dividends
Being walled up... when I was a small child my parents had to tuck me into bed for a long time. Nothing like the feeling of nice, crisp sheets pulled taut over you, particularly when you're afraid that creepy crawly things could get at you by climbing into your bed.
And I was not raving mad during our collective confinement madness, either. And I have spent too much time traveling around in busy, impersonal places now, so I can understand wanting to be in a peaceful secluded place. But... maybe Annora came out at night at least, a little, while nobody was looking. Maybe. I... hope so.
Her soul may have been exercised in the way of which the Psalmist writes, “I walk in spaciousness,” referring his life in God. Most of us have no idea of that kind of freedom.
I believe that it was Julian of Norwich who was the first published woman, which would have been in the 1300s - incredibly early!
I will have to look it up in a book that I can't find right now, but it was a treatise on education, and I don't think it was Julian of Norwich, and it was earlier than the 1300's, I think, if I remember correctly from the book.
Maybe Christine de Pizan?... Who wrote several books in this time frame..'The Book of the City of Ladies'.
There are many examples of Orthodox saints who lived very secluded lives, often after an inner revelation of their sinfulness which turned their heart to complete repentance. Saint Hesychius the Silent of Mount Horeb is but one example:
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2045/10/03/102848-venerable-hesychius-of-mount-horeb
Quite a few women who were former prostitutes chose this ascetic path as well. Saint Pelagia the Penitent is but one example:
https://orthochristian.com/86957.html
Regarding Yew trees in cemeteries surrounding small parish churches or even cathedrals: it is said they symbolise Christ's blood spilled on the cross - because the sap of yew trees is red, like blood. Given that some of those eye trees cannot possibly have been around since pagan times, they must have been planted, on purpose.
And yes, that sap is indeed blood red - I did check ...
Thank you, Paul. I wish I could find a way to collect, annotate, and save these postings, but the Apple universe seems designed to thwart that.
Hi David. I live in the Apple universe and save all Paul’s posts there. Try this: click on the send button (the upwards-pointing arrow). Then click the Notes app (you might need to choose “more” to find it). In the notes app I have a folder labeled “Paul Kingsnorth”. It’s also possible to save the posts in the Apple Books app. That’s where I save Paul’s writing on The Machine. I hope this helps.
I do wonder about anchorites like Annora and what their experience of God was like. There must have been ceaseless prayer offered up and, although contained by physical walls…….just where was she in a spiritual sense? What did she see, what did God tell her even? God is out of time……so does He see all of time and everything in it at once? In her prayers, did Annora enter God’s ‘eternity’ and did she pray not just for her own time but for all future days as well? Are her prayers still active….even though she is long dead….might her prayers have transcended all time and might they still be covering us now?
I really hope so!
A most enjoyable article on Iffley, and the windows are beautiful. (Is that a raven on the tree on the left-hand side, I wonder).
On the subject of yew trees, many Irish graveyards have them, as you know Paul. If you haven't already done so, I recommend a visit to Trim, Co. Meath, where, in addition to the famous castle, there are many ecclesiastical ruins. At one of them, Newtown church by the Boyne, the graveyard is teeming with yew trees. They have taken over. I've never seen anything quite like it.
How moving!
Thanks for sharing this. While I'm not religious in a formal sense, I do appreciate the art, architecture, and music that was inspired by it. And as a scientist, I have a deep sense of awe about the mysterious, complex world in which we find ourselves.
I love that church and have visited it twice.
A beautiful church, Paul, with beautiful stained glass windows, for Sunday morning, the Lord's Day. Thank you.
There are quite a few very old yew trees in my area, and they are impressive, and lovely to my eyes. Very slow growing trees, if my memory serves me well.
Lovely piece. It reminded me of a quote from Ronald Blythe's 'Word From Wormingford' about a night-time Lenten walk:
"On a light dark night I can just make out a Norman church whose windows, wrote Adrian Bell, ‘are no more than dream holes, the walls so thick that the light has the effect of being poured in through a funnel’. Well, that is how they liked it, our ancestors, a bright Saviour in a richly gloomy cave."
This essay on the Green Man put me in an entirely more serene place this morning. As everything of my parents' post-war assumptions crumbles around us here: sense of community, civil society and efforts at decency and quiet respectfulness toward the least of us, an 'economy' that falters without 'the promise' of limitless 'growth' and even church, which in my recent experience is 'expected' to 'support' the unrealistic expectations of that last thing on the list, at the expense of the former; as all that comes unraveled, the very notion of the Green Man holds for me. It holds in the face of your dastardly Normans' ruination of all they touched, and our bringing about the last of the Mohicans; and, the excuses* for maintaining an economy built on the enslavement of others. An enslavement that's taken on a more modern and insidious form now.
I find your current insights and writing to be paralleling those of our own transcendant Sarah Kendzior, an independent journalist in St Louis, just a day down the big river from me.
So, thanks for this.
Tim
*"Excuse": the skin of a reason, stuffed with a Lie.
The Green Man is also a central image in the mystical art and poetry of Hildegard von Bingen (in her case, a literally green-coloured man).
That Holy Ghost dove stained glass window; that’s going to be with me for a very long time. Thank you so much.