ST. CAEDMON OF WHITBY (FEB. 11TH)

St. Caedmon in a Celtic Initial Illumination, Watching His Sheep, Holding the Scroll of Christ’s Revelation

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

In the days when England was still young in the faith, during the reign of the holy King Oswy of Northumbria, there lived a humble shepherd and herdsman named Caedmon. He was a servant at the great double monastery of Whitby, ruled by the wise and saintly Celtic Abbess Hilda. Though he labored among the animals, tending the beasts and watching over the monastery’s lands, he knew himself to be without skill in song. When his fellow laborers passed the harp around at feasts, singing of the great deeds of kings and warriors, he would quietly withdraw, ashamed of his lack of learning. 

One night, as he slept in the stables, a man of shining light appeared to him in a dream and called him by name: 

"Caedmon, sing to me a song."

Caedmon replied, "I cannot sing, and that is why I have left the hall."

But the heavenly visitor commanded him: "Sing to me of the beginning of all things."

At once, words poured forth from Caedmon’s lips, words of beauty and power, praising the God who made heaven and earth. When he awoke, he remembered the song and sang it before the brethren. Abbess Hilda, hearing of this marvel, summoned him and tested his gift with her spiritual discernment. Finding that he could, with divine aid, compose songs of holy truth though he had no learning, she received him into the monastery and bade him dedicate his gift to Christ. 

There, among the monks, he learned the sacred stories of Scripture and clothed them in the beauty of verse, composing hymns of Creation, of the Exodus, of the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of the Lord, and of the coming Judgment. Thus, the unlettered herdsman became the first known poet of the English tongue, a sign that Christ had claimed the land not only in its rulers and clergy but in its humble folk as well. 

St. Hilda First Hearing St. Caedmon Sing 

St. Caedmon and St. Bede, the Great Pillars of the English Patrimony

Contemporary Icon of St. Caedmon Blessing the Animals and Needy

9th Century Illuminated Manuscript Icon of St. Caedmon Playing His Harp

Modern Byzantine Style Icon of St. Caedmon

Caedmon’s Cross Detail

Caedmon’s Cross, Telling His Story in a Celtic Cross Memorial

In his old age, sensing his end was near, St. Caedmon asked to be taken to the infirmary, where he received the Holy Mysteries and rested in peace before Matins. So passed the first Christian poet of England, a simple shepherd, a divine channel of golden song, full of the grace of Our Lord, in the year AD 680. 

The Song of Creation

“Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard,

Metudæs maecti end his modgidanc, 

Uer uuldurfadur! suæ he uundra gihwaes,

Eci dryctin, or astelidæ!”

“Now we must praise the Guardian of Heaven,

the might of the Creator and His purpose,

the work of the glorious Father! How He, the Eternal Lord,

established the wonders of all things in the beginning!"

COLLECT 

O God, who didst inspire thy servant Caedmon with the gift of sacred song, and didst raise him up to proclaim thy glory in the tongue of his people: Grant that we, being likewise moved by thy Spirit, may evermore sing thy praises, both in our hearts and with our lips, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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