“may this great plague pass by me and my friends, and restore us once more to joy and gladness”
Feeling a powerful kinship with this scribe from 1350 today.
OTD (Christmas Eve), 670 years ago
[For example, a note on p. 36 gives the text a definite fourteenth-century date and a Mac Aodhagain provenance to this manuscript:
It is one thousand three hundred and fifty years tonight since Jesus Christ was born, and in the second year of the coming of the plague to Ireland was this written and I myself am full twenty one years old….and let every reader in pity recite a ‘pater’ for my soul. It is Christmas Eve tonight, and under the protection of the King of Heaven and earth I am on this Eve tonight. May the end of my life be holy and may this great plague pass by me and my friends, and restore us once more to joy and gladness. Amen. Pater Noster. Aed, Mac Concubair mac Gilla na Naem, Mic Duinnslebe Mic Aodhagain wrote this on his father’s book the year of the great plague.
The following year he wrote at the top of the same page:
It is just a year tonight since I wrote the lines on the margin below; and, if it be God’s will, may I reach the anniversary of this night many times. Amen. Pater Noster.
Translation by R.I. Best.]
Thank you for transcribing the image! I always forget to do that.
It is just a year tonight since I shared this… may we reach the anniversary of this night many times.
From MS 1316, Trinity College Dublin:
You can see Aodh Mac Aodhagáin’s notes at the top and bottom of the page.
Our God is the God of all men, the God of heaven and earth, of the sea and the rivers, God of the sun and the moon and all the stars, the God of high mountains and low valleys;
God above heaven and in heaven and below heaven, He has His dwelling in heaven and earth and sea and in everything that is in them. He breathes in all things, makes all things live, surpasses all things, supports all things; He illumines the light of the sun, He consolidates the light of the night and the stars, He has made wells in dry earth and dry islands in the sea and stars for the service of major lights.
He has a Son, coeternal with Him, similar to Him; the Son is not younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than the Son, and the Holy Spirit breathes in them; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not separate.
Good morning to hermits, navigators, women raised by cows, runaway swineherds, vigilante beekeepers, white cows with red ears, exiled penitents, and the Loch Ness Monster.
St. Gall Gospel, The Crucifixion. Illuminated by Irish monks around 750 AD it is now preserved in the Library of the Monastery of St. Gallen in Switzerland
Monasticism out here is just [prays] [bakes bread] [reads a Psalm] [prays] [illuminates a gospel] [complains in Ogham in the margins] [pets a cat] [prays] [gets attacked by Vikings] [prays]
Pope Francis and Catholicos KarekinII release dovesat the Khor Virap monastery towards Mount Ararat in Armenia.
and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. - Genesis 8:11
So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dovefrom the ark. The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noahknew that the water was abated from the earth. Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; but she did not return to him again. - Genesis 8:11
Thefirst saint In the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Virgin Sandukht, who was martyred for her faith, she was the daughter of the Armenian King Sanatruk in the first century AD.
The Armenian Church observes the Feast of St. Thaddeus the Apostle and St. Sandukht the Virgin. This Story sheds light on the early days of Christianity in Armenia.
St. Thaddeus and Saint Bartholomew, two of the twelve holy apostles of Jesus Christ, were charged by Saint Peter, leader of the disciples, to spread Christianity in Armenia in the 1st century A.D. St. Thaddeus converted King Abgar V the Black, the first Christian king and a historical Armenian ruler of the kingdom of Osroene, holding his capital at Edessa. A vassal of the kingdom of Armenia. The king along with Thaddeus baptised and converted of all the people of Edessa. Here St. Thaddeus built a church and ordained priests and deacons.
After leaving Edessa, the apostle traveled to northern Armenia, bearing the spear of christ given him by Peter and a letter from King Abgar. He finally arrived at the town of Shavarshan, where King of Armenia Sanatruk lived. Thaddeus preached in people’s homes, in hidden underground chambers, in marketplaces, and in the streets.
Sandukht learned about Christ, when her nurse confessed her commitment to the Christian faith, the princess sparked by curiosity, disguised herself as an ordinary woman and followed her nurse to a Christian gathering. Intrigued, Sandukht continued attending the Christian gatherings. The Christian faith made such an impact on Sandukht’s life that she decided to convert. She declared her belief in Christ and was baptized, But when the king’s spies reported the news to her father, Sanatrouk was enraged. In an attempt to discourage his daughter, he promised to allow her to marry the man she loved, an exceptional horseman named Zareh, and to enjoy life in a comfortable palace, surrounded by endless riches.
Sandukht declined his offer of this extravagant life, infuriated by his daughter, the king sentenced the princess to jail. Zareh visited her in prison, begging her to return to him and to her old Armenian faith, but nothing could sway Sandukht. Meanwhile, the news of Sandukht’s imprisonment spread throughout Armenia. Increasingly, people began to accept the Christian faith, and they prayed for Sandukht’s release. Even some of the king’s soldiers became believers and converted. Further enraged, yet mostly moved by the love for his daughter, the King summoned Sandukht from prison to give her a last chance to renounce her new faith and to claim allegiance to her father and his pagan gods. He asked his daughter to choose between the crown and the sword,either she would renounce Christianity and serve as a pagan princess or face death.
Sandukht chose the sword, knowing that Christianity would soon blossom in Armenia. The young princess was ordered to be executed. During this difficult time, she drew strength from St. Thaddeus, who encouraged her to be firm, reminding her that she would soon be with her Saviour. Thaddeus was also executed by the king. Zareh was among the many Armenians who were moved by Sandukht’s faith, and who also converted to Christianity. King Sanatruk continued the orders for the executions of Christians, including Zareh. Their sacrifice planted the seeds of the Christian faith in Armenia
Legends say that immediately after one of the soldiers thrust his sword into the holy virgin’s heart “a sweet fragrance filled the air and a light shone from heaven in the form of a fiery pillar that hovered over Santoukhd’s body for three days and three nights.” More than two thousand people that witnessed these events, it is said, all converted and were baptized that night. St. Sandukht’s body was buried and entombed by St. Thaddeus at the same site. St. Sandukht was martyred on the 15th of December.
