Events Calendar 2010

 
"Glastonbury's finest hour... seemed a very powerful equilibration of Britain's pagan and Christian heritage. When it mattered, they functioned from a space of unity." Paul Weston. Mysterium Artorius, pp 112-3.
 

 

 

Thursday July 22nd: Feast of Maria Magdelena

 

11.00 am. Sung, Taizé liturgy on the site of the original shrine to Maria Magdelena, within the foundations of the Saxon, Saint Brighid chapel. A soft, light rain sprinkles the bread at exactly the moment it would have been consecrated by a priest (had one been present)!

 

Censing the offerings. Photo: Toby Hall

  

 
 

 

 

Sunday July 4th: Pilgrimage to Weissenau's Holy Blood relic

   

Blood-soaked soil from Golgotha, collected by Saint Mary Magdalen after the crucifixion, was given to Saint Arbogast's church in Strasbourg by her descendant, the Merovingian King Dagobert I, in 630 AD.

The relic was translated to Weissenau Abbey in 1283.

 
 

 

 

Sunday May 30: Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

The new Glastonbury-Taizé liturgy is sung for the first time first at Godney chapel, followed by a potluck feast. This is another of the prehistoric, sacred mounds and the site of another of the Twelve Hides' ancient seven churches.

The Holy Trinity is a pre-Christian concept that would have been honored by the iron-age Celts, who occupied the associated lake village, and was referred to by Plato in the Timaeus, c.400 BC.

  

 

 

Saturday May 22nd: Saturday of Souls/Memorial Saturday

A simple sunrise ceremony, re-membering the dead, is held at the memorial yew - in it's new location in the lower field.

 
 

 

County archaeologist, Bob Croft, gives lecture-tours of Bride's mound throughout the day. His announcement that the site is open to the public is followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony by the Queen's Lord-Lieutenant, Lady Gass, making accessibility to all official.

A new icon of Maria Magdelena is installed at her shrine on the summit.

 

  
 
 
 
Saint Brigid's chapel in the fourteenth century
  
 

Early May:

A tent, belonging to a young man who had been camping on Bride's mound for several weeks, is burned to the ground. It is not known if this was an accident or a deliberate act. The man's whereabouts or condition is unknown. Please contact us if you have any information.

  

 

 

Saturday May 15th:

The Eucharist is celebrated at Saint Margaret's for the first time since a moratorium on the sacraments was imposed some years ago. The sacred marriage is honored as key to universal healing, using the caducius as a symbol of divine union.

  

 

 

Sunday May 2nd:

Both the Magdalen shrine and Saint Margaret's chapel are broken into. Nothing is taken, and nothing is damaged except the locks and electrical supply box. A small, framed picture of the face of the Master is carefully placed on a bed of rose petals by the mysterious intruders.

  

 

 

Sunday April 11th: Feast of Saint Guthlac (d. 714)

   

The cult of Saint Guthlac, an Anglo-Saxon saint, once flourished in Glastonbury's Twelve Hides. One of it's seven churches, either Andrewsey or Martinsey, appears to have been dedicated to him.

Mass at St Mary's, Meare 11.00 am.

 

 

Wednesday March 24th: Feast of the Archangel Saint Gabriel and Octave of St Patrick

 

A makeshift altar rises in the centre of the chapel, the site of the original Mary Magdalene shrine, like a phoenix rising from the surrounding, blackened grass. Prayers of healing are offered at the present Magdalene Shrine at Saint Margaret's Chapel, Magdalene Street.

 

    
 

Tuesday March 16th: noon

The forces of Valhalla are unleashed after plans are made to violate Hylde Moer (the Elder-mother) by the felling of the seven elder trees (Wych Elm) at the entrance to the Chapel Field! Fire sweeps across the field, destroying more trees and dozens of saplings. It spreads northwards, across the summit of the mound and through the chapel. The sacred oak and yew, which stood to the east of the chapel as offerings to Brìghde and memorials to the dead, are removed without ceremony and replanted next to the sewage tank in the lower part of the field. Above them, the abomination of desolation stands in the east.

 

 

Thursday March 4th: Mid-octave of the Feast of Saint David

The last remaining trees donated by Welsh druids are planted on The Brides, fulfilling a druid promise. The chapel field, including the chapel site itself, is then mowed - carefully respecting the sacred trees.

 

Saturday February 27th: Maria Magdelena's shrine reopens

After a three month closure, the reopening of Saint Margaret's Chapel to the public includes the Magdalene Shrine in the adjacent, thirteenth-century almshouses. All are welcome to spend time in quiet devotion at these sacred places on Magdalene Street. The opening is synchronous with a special display of icons, by bridesmound.com, in the window of the gatehouse at the abbey's Magdalene Gate (now the main entrance to the abbey).

 

Tuesday, February 2nd: Candlemas

The fifth anniversary of the kindling of the perpetual Brighid/Avalon flame is honoured with a gathering on the summit of Bride's mound at 1.00 pm.

 

Thursday, January 14h: Pilgrimage to Saint Mary de Lode, Gloucester

 

Gloucester's first church was built on this site by King Lucius, who sent Ss Phagan and Dyfan to restore Joseph of Arimathea's wattle church in the second century. In a letter to King Lucius dated 168 A.D, Pope Eleutherius declines to accept jurisdiction on the basis that an established, apostolic church already exists in Britain.