St Patrick’s Breastplate

celtic trefoil

Also known as the “Lorica* of St Patrick”, this poem is most familiar to churchgoers in the metrical version by Cecil Frances Alexander. (She also wrote the texts for “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, “There is a Green Hill Far Away”, and “Once in Royal David’s City”.) In honor of the Saint, we present two . . . → Read More: St Patrick’s Breastplate

Remembrance Day

8th August 1918 by Will Longstaff

Song of Amiens Lord! How we laughed in Amiens! For here were lights and good French drink, And Marie smiled at everyone, And Madeleine’s new blouse was pink, And Petite Jeanne (who always runs) Served us so charmingly, I think That we forgot the unsleeping guns. Lord! How we laughed in Amiens! Till through the . . . → Read More: Remembrance Day

Telling the Bees

(An old Gloucestershire superstition)

by the Rev’d G. E. Rees., first published in the Westminster Gazette (1917)

They dug no grave for our soldier lad, who fought and who died out there: Bugle and drum for him were dumb, and the padre said no prayer; The passing bell gave never a peal to warn that . . . → Read More: Telling the Bees

Memorial Day

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, which originated after the American Civil War as a commemoration the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. Over the years, the name shifted to “Memorial Day”, as the scope expanded to include all American war dead.

Telling the Bees

(An Old Gloucestershire Superstition)

They dug no . . . → Read More: Memorial Day

Remembrance Day

Most Americans probably think of November 11 as Veterans Day, but a number are old enough to remember it as “Armistice Day”, marking the conclusion of World War I, the “Great War”. But to residents of the Commonwealth nations, it is Remembrance Day.

As part of their Remembrance Day observance, residents of the Commonwealth . . . → Read More: Remembrance Day