St John Baptist Research Articles

Powstanie i działalność trzeciego zakonu św. Franciszka z Asyżu w Sokołowie Małopolskim do roku 1939

At the tum of the 19,h and 20th centuries lots of religious communities were founded in the St John Baptist parish in Sokołów Małopolski. One of the most important was the Third Order of St Francis. Its foundation was preceded by many years of endeavours. The very idea was propagated by the inhabitant of Sokołów, Katarzyna Koziarz, who became the member of the secular family of Franciscan family in Rzeszów in 1890. Since then morę and morę people from Sokołów had joined the Tertiary.At the beginning of the 20“’ century those who took steps to popularize the Third Order were Katarzyna Koziarz in Sokołów, Maria Ożóg and Małgorzata Maksym in Wólka Sokołowska and Katarzyna Bąk in Trzebuska while the parish priests, Franciszek Stankiewicz and Leon Szado did little for this matter. The members of the Third Order got involved in lots of activities such as sup- porting the building of the church, providing necessary things for the church and making mass of- ferings.Serious steps to found the Third Order in Sokołów were taken by the parish priest Ludwik Bukała. He organized monthly meetings for the Third Order members. He also established contact with the Bemardine Father, Wiktor Biegus, who 27 April 1936 came to Sokołów and became ac- ąuainted with the tertiaries in the parish. The permission for the canonical establishment of tertiary congregation was granted 4 May 1936 by the ordinary of Przemyśl, Bishop Franciszek Bard.The official foundation of the congregation in Sokołów took place 24 May 1936. The local tertiaries chose St Ludwik as their patron. The congregation govemment was constituted at the first meeting. The parish priest became the director of the community and Katarzyna Koziarz was ap- pointed the superior. On the day of the foundation there were about 100 members. In the first three years of the existence of the Third Order there were 30 people who received the habits and 28 who were admitted to the profession.After the canonical establishment of the congregation, the tertiaries became morę active. They provided the church with sacred appurtenances and fumishings, as well as organising public adora- tion of the Holy Sacrament. They would also wash liturgical linens and adom altars. In 1937 they bought a chasuble with the image of St Francis, and in 1939 they donated a banner with the images of Mother of God and St Francis. In addition, the tertiaries founded their own library with religious books and magazines.The congregation gathered for meetings in the parish church every month. Besides, they had occasional private gatherings. In the first years of the existence of the congregation there were 19 meetings of the Counsel. There were also two visitations of the Sokołów congregation held by Father Cyryl from Rzeszów 11 July 1937 and 6 August 1939. The activities of the tertiaries were hindered by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Innovations in AfL

The outstanding St John Baptist Primary School in Lewisham has some innovative approaches to Assessment for Learning. Fiona Aubrey-Smith met headteacher John Goodey to find out more

The Holy Thorn Ceremony: Revival, Rivalry and Civil Religion in Glastonbury

Glastonbury and Holy Ceremony Glastonbury is a small market town (population approximately 9000) that rises up steeply from Somerset Levels, an area of drained marshland, in south west of England. centre of town is dominated by ruins of once magnificent Glastonbury Abbey, one of most significant British pilgrimage destinations of Middle Ages until its dissolution at Reformation in 1539. Despite Abbey's demise, people continued to be drawn to town; throughout twentieth century, Glastonbury attracted increasingly numerous and varied spiritual seekers (Hexham 1981; Benham 1993; Bowman 1993; Prince and Riches 2000). Glastonbury's current status as a significant and sacred site for a great range of people is unparalleled in British Isles (Ivakhiv 2001; Bowman 2005), being variously considered Isle of Avalon, site of a great Druidic centre of learning, a significant prehistoric centre of Goddess worship, cradle of English Jerusalem, a communication point for alien contact, epicentre of New Age in England, and heart chakra of planet Earth. degree of legend and speculation surrounding town and its past is such that some refer not to Glastonbury's history, but its mythtory. Alternative spirituality in Glastonbury tends to be designated as such in implied contrast to Christianity, as if Christianity itself was a monolithic, tightly-defined phenomenon. As I have argued elsewhere, however (Bowman 2000), much of Glastonbury's success as a Christian centre has been built on what is often thought of as folk religion, defined by Yoder as the totality of all those views and practices of that exist among people apart from and alongside strictly theological and liturgical forms of official religion (1974, 14; 2001, 80), and many of myths and practices of alternative community relate to vernacular Christian tradition. Contemporary Christianity in Glastonbury is also varied, not simply in terms of denominational divisions, but in attitudes to Glastonbury's myths and their significance, degree of interaction there might be with alternative community, and how best to promote Christianity in twenty-first century. One of town's most significant myths is that St Joseph of Arimathea (the man who provided a tomb for Jesus) brought Christianity to Glastonbury, and planted there Holy that blossoms both in spring and in winter. Each December since 1929 a calendar custom has taken place in Glastonbury commemorating and celebrating this legend--the Holy Ceremony. By 1990s, when I first started to study it, there were three main elements to this custom: * cutting of sprigs from Holy outside Anglican church of St John Baptist in Glastonbury in presence of vicar of St John's and other clergy, Mayor, members of town council, children from Church of England St John's Infants School, and some of their parents and other relations. is cut by eldest child at St John's School. * (re)telling of legend--also contained in The Holy Thorn song [1] sung by children--that St Joseph of Arimathea came to Glastonbury, bringing with him Holy Thorn. * After ceremony, sending of sprays of Christmas flowering thorn to Queen. (It is widely believed that Queen has thorn on her breakfast table on Christmas Day.) This is very much a Gastonia custom, which attracts few outsiders. Local press and television are always in attendance, and photographs of cutter, vicar and Mayor beside tend to appear each year in local papers. In this article, I shall expand upon rather bald account already given to explore topic under three broad headings: story of Holy Thorn, ceremony based upon it, and significance of custom. …

Frilsham

803 Gift in free alms by Matilda Peche (Peche), lady of Frilsham (Fridlesham), widow, for the health of her soul and for the souls of Sir Nicholas Peche her father, Alice Peche her mother, Sir Oliver Deyncort and Sir Walter de Rideware her husbands deceased, Sir Ralph Peche, Hawise his wife, Nicholas and John the donor's sons, Alice her daughter, Roger de Rideware and Alice his wife, Richard le Wales, and all her ancestors [etc.], to Reading Abbey of all the land which she had in the vill of Frilsham called La Hide, which she bought from Nicholas Butler (le Boteler) of Reading and Juliana his wife and John Flawel of Chichester (Cicestr'), which they had bought from Roger Willard; saving to herself a parcel [of land] which she bought from Margery, widow of Walter Wilard, for the term of Margery's life. To be held with all appurtenances and the homage and service of Robert Black (Niger) and whatever belonged to her from the said Robert or his heirs, by rendering annually to her and her heirs a root of ginger and a rose at the nativity of St John Baptist for all service, suits of court, secular exaction and demand, saving hidage, scutage and all other foreign service which is due from the said land. Warranty. For this the monks have received Matilda, her ancestors, successors and children in all benefits of the conventual church of Reading in perpetuity. Sealing[1270]Bff 211v–212r; C ff 127v–128r

The Originality of the Anglo-Norman Hospitallers' Riwle

The Originality of the Anglo-Norman Hospitallers' Riwle The first Master of the Hospital, Blessed Gerard, was from the outset a custos or guardian of a hospice for pilgrims to Jerusalem founded by merchants from Amalfi and placed under the patronage of St John Baptist. It was located on the Muristan and stood near two other Amalfitan edifices, the Convent of St Mary of the Latins and the Convent of St Mary Magdalene. In the same neighbourhood was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. During Gerard's guardianship concerns for lodging travellers gradually gave way to concerns for succour to the sick and needy in general, on whom Gerard and his helpers waited in the manner in which servants would attend the needs of their lords. Raymond du Puy became the second Master in c. 1120. During his magistracy of some forty years the Order extended its operations from the Middle East to Europe, through the priory established on the continent at Saint Gilles in the South of France. The details of this expansion and the rising importance of the Order need not detain us, but Raymond's initiatives and leadership played a major part in it all. Another measure of his abilities was the codifying of the tenets and commandments of his Hospitallers into a Regula. The collection process must have been undertaken between the years 1120 and 1153, the first date being Raymond's election to the magistracy, and the terminus ad quern being a confirmation of the Regula by Eugenius III (1145-1153) towards the end of his pontificate. The oldest extant copy of the Latin Regula is in the Swiss cantonal library at Aarau where it is no. 7 among the archives from the Leuggern commandery. The date assigned to the codex is c. 1253. The nineteen clauses treat the three vows of profession (I-II), altar service and visits to the sick (III), alms collecting and preaching (IV-VII), varieties of self discipline required of brethren (VIII-XIII), observances at a brother's demise (XIV), an injunction to obey the tenets strictly (XV), attendance on the sick (XVI), altercations among members (XVII-XVIII), wearing the Cross on the habit (XIX). Whether this received structure, at least a hundred years later than the lost original, is the first, intermediate or final version from Raymond's hands cannot be determined with any certainty. Scholars have pointed out that clause X V is a logical conclusion to all that went before. One also wonders why clause XVI was not included with III, and the supervenient discipline of XVII attached to VII-IX. All indications are that XVI-XIX were added to an original structure, and this implies a later date; hence there were at least two stages of composition of the Regula. The wearing of the Cross is alluded to in Eugenius' confirmation c. 1153, suggesting that by that date the Regula had reached the extent it has in the Aarau codex. There is a late thirteenth-century version of Raymond's work, perhaps better known because of the circumstances surrounding its publication. 64 K.V. Sinclair Boniface VIII (1294-1303) issued it in 1300 as part of his confirmatory Bull Culminis apostoli solio9 to the Knights of the Hospital regrouped on Cyprus after the Fall of Acre. They had lost their archives in that ignominious defeat. The principal textual differences seem to reflect changes in practices within the Order in the intervening period. For example, Aarau clause VIII mentions Deinde pannos ysambrunos et galambrunos ac fustiana...prohibemus, while Boniface replaces the specific twelfth-century types of cloth by more general terms: Deinde pannos religione vestre non congenos...prohibemus. In clause IX the Aarau text identified the punished and the punisher. If the sinner is a cleric, then he is to be beaten by a cleric; if a lay person is the sinner, he may receive a beating from a cleric or his nominee: a magistro suo clerico, si clericus fuerit qui peccaverit, verberetur, si vero laycus fuerit a clerico vel ab eo cui clericus injunxerit, corrigiis vel virgis durissime flagelletur et verberetur. By 1300 punishment in this context was only by the commander or by other brethren...

Book Review: The Founders of Clewer. The Centenary Book of St John Baptist Clewer

Book Review: The Founders of Clewer. The Centenary Book of St John Baptist Clewer