The struggle to compose and then have accepted and celebrated services to the ancient Orthodox Saints of the ex-Roman Catholic and ex-Protestant countries of Europe has been a very long one. Much opposition had to and sometimes still has to be overcome and all had to be done in conditions of deprivation and opposition. Nearly all the services to the major saints of Western Europe were composed between 1980 and 2015, though a few date back before this, in part through the blessed inspiration of St John of Shanghai and Western Europe (+ 1966).

Of the 64 services we propose to edit, 53 were composed by my late friend, the brilliant and prolific translator of the Church’s liturgical treasury, Monk Joseph (Isaac/Edward) Lambertsen. He composed most of the services to local Western saints on my commission, as I knew that his health was already failing, and that he was very busy, engaged with the composition of many other services to saints of all lands and ages, as well as with translations. Isaac worked quickly and always humbly, sending me his services for checking, suggestions and then electronic publishing.

Six of these services (All the Saints of the Isles, All the Saints of the Western Lands, St Alfred, St Audrey, St Edmund and St Felix), were composed by myself to long-beloved local saints between 1998 and 2015, though in part they go back before that, three services (St Patrick, St Brigid and St Edward) were composed by the late Valeria Hoecke and translated by Monk Joseph, one (to St Botolph) by the monks of the Transfiguration Monastery in Boston in 1992 and one (to St Rumwold) by Rumwold Leigh from London.

For many years available in an unedited form on the orthodoxengland website, it has long been time to edit and present these services in a homogenous form for use in the British Isles and Ireland. Time has been in short supply and it will be a labour of love over the next few years to bring all the services to the same standard, that set by the brilliant translations of Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), master of Byzantine Greek and liturgical English. This means eliminating the language of the neophyte, that curious mixture of artificially archaic English and its Latinate Victorian vocabulary and grammar and untranslated foreign literalisms, and so inculturating the services for the 21^st century. Our services are intended for use in the local liturgical English in use in the British Isles, without an alien phraseology and sectarian idiom.

Thus they will be put into the standard liturgical English, as used in our parishes in these islands. Apart from this change, there are occasional historical inaccuracies and typos and above all the many changes made to formating, spelling and punctuation. Of the 62 individual saints whose services we project to edit, 50 are connected with England (though 8 are not English), 5 with Ireland, 4 with Wales and 3 with Scotland. To some extent this reflects the interest in native Orthodoxy shown by people in each of these countries, with much greater interest being shown in England.

We dedicate this Menaion to the eternal memory of our pioneer, Monk Joseph (Lambertsen) (1949-2017). Eternal Memory!

Archpriest Andrew Phillips,

St John’s Orthodox Church,

Colchester,

England

St Edmund’s Tide

20 November/3 December 2020

1151st Anniversary of St Edmund’s Martyrdom

Contents

 All dates are given first according to the Church calendar, and then according to the civil calendar. Services in bold have already been edited.

Volume I – September to March

1. 16 / 29 September – St Ninian
2. 16 / 29 September – St Edith of Wilton
3. 19 September / 2 October – St Theodore of Tarsus
4. 7 / 20 October – St Osyth of Chich
5. 10 / 23 October – St Paulinus of York
6. 12 / 25 October – St Edwin the Martyr
7. 12 / 25 October – St Wilfrid of York
8. 19 October / 2 November – St Frideswide of Oxford
9. 25 October / 7 November – St John of Beverley
10. 26 October / 9 November – St Alfred the Great
11. 26 October / 9 November – St Cedd of Essex
12. 3 /16 November – St Rumwold
13. 3 / 16 November – St Winifred of Wales
14. 7 / 20 November – St Willibrord (Clement) of Utrecht
15. 17 / 30 November – St Hilda of Whitby
16. 20 November / 3 December – St Edmund the Martyr
17. 3 / 16 December – St Birinus of Wessex
18. 12 / 25 December – St Finnian of Clonard
19. 12 / 25 January – St Benedict of Wearmouth
20. 14 / 27 January – St Kentigern of Glasgow
21. 15 / 28 January – St Ita of Ireland
22. 29 January / 11 February – St Gildas the Wise
23. 1 / 14 February – St Brigid of Ireland
24. 3 / 16 February – St Werburga
25. 25 February / 10 March – St Ethelbert of Kent
26. 28 February / 13 March – St Oswald of Worcester
27. 1 / 14 March – St David of Wales
28. 2 / 15 March – St Chad of Lichfield
29. 8 / 21 March – St Felix, Apostle of East Anglia
30. 17 / 30 March – St Patrick of Ireland
31. 18 / 31 March – St Edward the Martyr
32. 20 March / 2 April – St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Volume II – April to August

33. 10 / 23 April – Martyrs of Chertsey
34. 11 – 24 April – St Guthlac of Crowland
35. 19 April / 2 May – St Alphege the Martyr
36. 29 April / 12 May – St Erconwald of London
37. 3 / 16 May – St Brendan the Voyager
38. 19 May / 1 June – St Dunstan of Canterbury
39. 25 May/7 June – St Aldhelm of Sherborne
40. 27 May / 9 June – St Bede the Venerable
41. 28 May / 10 June – St Augustine of Canterbury
42. 30 May / 12 June – St Walstan of Taverham

Falling in June or July

43. All the Saints of the Isles
44. All the Saints of the Western Lands
45. 1 / 14 June – St Wite of Dorset
46. 3 / 16 June – St Kevin of Glendalough
47. 5 / 18 June – St Boniface of Crediton
48. 9 – 22 June – St Columba of Iona
49. 17 / 30 June – St Botolph of Iken
50. 17 – 30 June – St Nectan of Hartland
51. 22 June – 5 July – St Alban of Verulamium
52. 23 June / 6 July – St Audrey of Ely
53. 2 / 15 July – St Swithin of Winchester
54. 8 / 21 July – St Edgar the Peaceful
55. 13 / 26 July – St Mildred of Thanet
56. 1 / 14 August – St Ethelwold of Winchester
57. 2 / 15 August – St Plegmund of Canterbury
58. 5 /18 August – St Oswald the Martyr
59. 10 / 23 August – St Bertram of Ilam
60. `17 / 30 August – St James of York
61. 23 August/5 September – St Ebba of Coldingham and Companions
62. 25 August/7 September – St Ebba of Coldingham
63. 31 August/13 September – St Aidan of Lindisfarne
64. 31 August/13 September – St Eanswythe of Folkestone