An Orthodox Educational Centre Remembering Saint Willibald
The spires of Eichstätt’s cathedral mark the grave of Celtic monastic Saint Willibald, whose missionary efforts transformed the Bavarian city into a regional heart of Christianity.
CC License by Martin Geisler.
Online Classes Survey
We are currently researching the possibility of offering online classes. We’d be delighted if you could share your input:
Umfrage zu Online-Kursen
Orthodox Educational Centre in Western Europe
With the prayers and intercessions of Celtic monastic Saint Willibald, we hope to establish an Orthodox Educational Centre. Though often curious about Orthodoxy, many Westerners struggle to find educational resources through which they can explore the Faith or find a personal context through which they can ask questions and receive answers. We thus hope to plant the seeds through which Orthodox educational resources are more readily accessible, and fruitful for Orthodox Christians in Ireland. This is still in an early stage and are open to God’s Will in the future development of these plans. For now, Catechism Classes take place in Clifden after Sunday Liturgy. For questions, please contact Fr. Robert here.
Interested in Online Orthodox Classes?
We are currently researching the possibility of offering online classes. If that sounds like an interesting idea, please participate in our survey:
Image from WikiCommons.
Image from WikiCommons
The Book of Kells, to the right, stands as an 8th century masterpiece of Hiberno-Saxon Art. On the left, a rendering of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople shows where Saint Willibald lived for two years.
Saint Willibald: Spanning Celtic and Byzantine Christianity
As a three year old, Saint Willibald († 787 AD) survived a deadly sickness when his father, the King, laid him at the foot of a crucifix and dedicated his life to God. Obedient to this promise, the Anglo-Saxon prince grew up educated according to Celtic monasticism. Around the age of twenty (ca. 720), he travelled to the Holy Lands. During his voyage, he explored Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, and the surrounding region. He even resided in Constantinople at its height. He lived there for two years, in the Church of the Holy Apostles. This magnificent church, now lost, bore witness to the faith of its builder, Saint Constantine the Great.
Saint Willibald later assisted his family, many of whom became saints themselves. Together, they spread Christianity in the Bavarian region of the Frankish empire. Thus, the world in which Saint Willibald lived offers a unique glimpse of the transition between the Classical antiquity and the Early Christian Church, most of whose texts came from Greek and Latin. Moreover, educated in Celtic Christianity and exploring the Byzantine Empire at its height, Saint Willibald’s experience of shared Christian faith bears witness to the seamless unity of the pre-Schismatic Christian Church.
Image from WikiCommons
