St E and Me (Part III)

In my last post, I described just how much we’ve been able to accomplish through the intercessions of St Eanswythe, but in the midst of all that activity, at some point in the first years of this decade, someone in our parish community let me know that the relics of St Eanswythe—her bones—had been discovered.

As we all do now when we want information, I looked online, and, sure enough, over in the United Kingdom, in the village of Folkestone, in the Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, the bones of a young, Anglo-Saxon woman had been found.

Now this wasn’t the first time the bones had been uncovered. Back in 1885, when the interior of the church was being remodeled, the workers ran across a small lead casket that had been hidden in the wall. The casket contained bones, and while many local people immediately believed that the bones were those of St Eanswythe, that intuition wasn’t scientifically confirmed until 2020. That was when the experts at the Archeological Program of Christ Church Canterbury and at Queen’s University Belfast concluded that the bones were, indeed, those of a young Anglo-Saxon woman, aged 17-20, who died sometime after 653.

So why were her bones hidden in the wall?

They were placed there in November of 1535. That's because the King of England, Henry VIII, had decided to sponsor a new version of Christianity, one that dispensed with saints and relics. His officials destroyed all the saints’ shrines they could find, but when St Eanswythe’s shrine was torn down, some faithful folks hid her bones in the wall of the Church building.

Given that Henry’s new version of the Faith is now known as the Church of England, it’s not surprising that the same governmental agency that once tried to obliterate all traces of St Eanswythe is now a bit unclear as to what to do with her bones: Are they historical artifacts or religious objects? Do they belong in a museum or in a church?

But we Orthodox are not at all confused about relics. What to most people appear to be just skeletal fragments are, for us, a pledge of the resurrection. They testify to our ongoing connection with saints like our Holy Princess. So when I learned that the bones in Folkestone were the bones of St Eanswythe, I did what any good Orthodox priest would do.

I asked if we could borrow some of them.

Which, in Holy Orthodoxy, is not a weird request at all: The relics of saints are frequently shared between parishes or transferred from one community to another. These holy bones are often taken on tours, so that folks who will never be able to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of the saint will have an opportunity to pray before them. I figured the odds of a priest from Texas getting some loaner relics were pretty slim, but, as we sing in our semi-official state anthem, "When a Texan decides to take his chances, chances will be taken, that's for sure."

So, in the fall of 2022, I emailed the rector of the Parish of St Mary and St Eanswythe in Folkestone; I introduced myself; I told him our story, and I made the ask: I let him know that one of our iconographers, Martin Earle, resides in the UK, and that Martin would soon be traveling to visit our parish, and I assured him that Martin had agreed to transport a small fragment of the saint's bones from Folkestone to Cedar Park and then back again.

Back then, the rector of the parish was the Reverend Doctor John Walker. He responded quickly and kindly, but he said he would need to bump the request up the ecclesiastical chain of command. And what then transpired was a series of interactions that I can only compare to the dialogue between the Holy Patriarch Abraham and The Angel of the Lord in Genesis 18.

Abraham and the Three Angels (c. 1670-1674) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Image credit: Wikipedia

The clerical official with whom I was corresponding was very polite and his notes contained some of the most elegant bureaucratic writing I've ever encountered (imagine Charles Dickens working for the DMV). But he turned down our request for a loan. I then asked about the possibility of setting up some sort of discreet, after-hours live stream of the relics that we could coordinate with one of our services. Again, the response was a very refined No. So, I then asked if our good friend Martin could just travel to Folkestone and use his phone to stream some footage of the relics so they would be spared any sort of technological trouble.

And you guessed it, the answer was No.

Clearly, the Holy Patriarch Abraham is a much better negotiator than I. Nevertheless, St Eanswythe had the last word in this exchange (There's a reason why we say, Don't mess with the Princess). Because almost a year later, in 2023, we served our first All Night Vigil for her. That's exactly what it sounds like: a series of services that run all through the night. We did that on the evening of August 30/31, and twelve days later, we received this email from the Reverend Doctor John Walker:

From: Rev Dr John Walker
To: Fr. Aidan
Subject: Re: A Different Approach

Dear Fr Aidan

I am so sorry that we couldn't accommodate your request last year.

I wonder if you might be interested in being sent a piece of cloth that has touched the relics of Blessed Eanswythe? If so, let me have your address. I will also include you in some emails giving some information about a new reliquary being built for her.

Best wishes

John
Revd Dr John Walker
St Mary & St Eanswythe Folkestone

So we did receive a relic of our Holy Princess. It's what's technically called a secondary relic, which means it's not a fragment of bone, but material that has been blessed on her bones, but we were still very excited.

In fact, we were so excited, we responded by pretty much spontaneously funding a new reliquary for St Eanswythe. A reliquary is a container in which holy bones are kept. In the email included above, you'll notice that Father John made reference to the fact that the Parish of St Mary and St Eanswythe was raising money for a new reliquary. It just so happens that the week after we received our new relic, we were holding a parish discussion session about the design of our new temple; there were around 100 people present. Before the meeting, I had looked at the fundraising information from the Parish of St Mary and St Eanswythe; those folks needed to raise about $15,000 for the reliquary, but, for quite a while, the collection total had been stuck at right around $1,500.

So, during our meeting, I told the folks about our new relic; I let them know that the parishioners in Folkestone were raising money for a new reliquary for St Eanswythe, and, then, in true televangelist fashion, I told them to get out their phones and start pledging.

Okay, it wasn’t exactly like that, but all the necessary funds were raised in a matter of hours, and a few days later, we received an additional note from Father John:

From: Rev Dr John Walker
Subject: Thank you all so much!
To: Fr. Aidan, Fr. Andrew

Dear Fr Aidan and Fr Andrew

I would like to send thanks to you for the amazing generosity of your church members. What extraordinary kindness - we are overwhelmed here by your love and thoughtfulness. Please, please pass my thanks to those who have helped us, many of whom chose to remain anonymous.

And thank you both for your wonderful support.

Every blessing

Fr John
Revd Dr John Walker
St Mary & St Eanswythe Folkestone

So, St Eanswythe has not only blessed us with her guidance and support and prayers; we have blessed her by helping to provide her relics with a new home. And we now have lots and lots of friends in her home parish in Folkestone. More about that—and a local home for our Holy Princess—in the next installment of this amazing story....