Celtic Advent December 17th St. Brioch (Brioc) of Brittany
Celtic and Old English Saints on-line has 2 choices for today. One is St. Judicael, whose brother Judoc (Josse or Joyce) I had written about several days ago, so that seemed redundant.
I started to google St. Brioch and got lots of pages about pastry...fortunately, like most early Celtic saints he has several name variations. Here is what I found out:
St. Brioc is considered one of the major saints of Brittany. The abbey-church he founded at St. Brieuc is part of the great pilgrimage route to sites of the Breton saints. He lived primarily in the late 6th century, having come originally from Cornwall. The earliest extant account of his life was not written until the 1100's and has a lot of chronologic inconsistencies in terms of other saints or rulers that Brioc encountered.
That having been said, Brioc, like many of the Celts, travelled back and forth between Brittany, Wales and Cornwall. He travels specifically seem to be focused on evangelism of pagan areas. He is reputed to have converted several local kings and their subjects.
One source I read indicated that on a trip back to Cornwall he converted his previous pagan parents. (However, another source indicates that the parents were visited by an angel at the time of Brioc's birth, causing their conversion).
The early Celtic Christians were masters of evangelism. How they were able to accomplish what they did has always fascinated me. The Roman Empire, although become more and more Christian prior to Constantine, was really pushed over into Christianity by the decree of the Emperor that Christianity was now the state religion. Spain and South and Central America were largely evangelized at sword point (convert or die). The Celts, on the other handddd, were not evangelizing from a position of power, but from a position of weakness. Patrick, who converts Ireland, was a former slave of the Irish. The Celts in Britain are attempting to convert their conquerors, the Anglo-Saxons.
George Hunter has written a marvelous book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, that contrasts the Roman versus the Celtic methods. Without repeating everything he states, it seems like Celtic evangelism has much more in common with the modern inner-city missional movements or with Mother Theresa in Calcutta: Move into the neighborhood; try to understand the local culture; engage in service to the local needs; have simple services of worship to which the locals you serve can be invited.
Although raised in the church, I went through a long period of agnosticism until my late 30's. During that time period, the "threatening" kind of evangelism totally turned me off ("You don't want to burn in hell do you? You better come to our church to be saved.") Discovering Celtic Christianity coincided for me with an introduction to contemplative prayer. The Celtic aspect had a major emphasis on the goodness of creation, on service, on humility. The contemplative prayer discovery led me to a sense of peace and the overwhelming, irresistable love emanating from God. The combination was a 1-2 punch to get me out of my agnostic phase. Maybe that is why, in Advent, I am continuing to blog about these Celtic saints...I owe them! And the blogging itself often leads into a contemplative time...
Lord, thank You for saints like Breoc and the "gentle" way that they brought You into the hearts of new believers. Thank You for the continued resurrence of interest in the Celtic way of evangelism. We certainly need it. Amen
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