'Guard the True Faith:
Worship the Holy and Undivided Trinity'
St. Aethelheard
   
    "Archbishop of Canterbury and Abbot of Louth

                    Champion of the Church in trouble times
                    O Father Bishop Aethelheard
                    Teach us to guard the True Faith
                    And worship the Trinity
                    Holy and Undivided
                    Pray to the Lord that our souls may be saved".

Troparion to Saint Aethelheard in Tone Four

Feast Day
May 12th

Icon of St. Aethelheard from the inconostasis in Louth.

Download the Troparion to Saint Aethelheard

There was a monastery in the centre of the market town of Louth, Lincolnshire, as early as the 7th century AD.

It was here that Aethelheard was Abbot. At this time, the Christian Church in Britain was part one universal Christian Church, before the division between East and West in AD 1054.

Early Christian missionaries to Britain had brought the faith as it had been taught by the Apostles and established by the Holy Fathers: it was this faith that St. Aethelheard defended throughout his life.

He was made 15th Archbishop of Canterbury in  AD 792 and for the next nine years found himself in the midst of political turmoil. Peace was eventually restored to Canterbury and henceforth St. Aethelheard determined to maintain the Universal Faith unchanged. He insisted that all bishops sign a declaration of faith in the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
'Guard the True Faith: Worship the Holy and Undivided Trinity'.

When Archbishop Aethelheard died on 12th May 805 AD he was mourned as a great and holy man. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage until it was suppressed as part of the Normanisation of England in the 11th century.


"Holy Father Aethelheard, pray to God for us."


When Aethelheard was Abbot in Louth, there was one Universal Christian Church

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Priest: Father Michael Harry
Tel: 01507 358487
Email:
orthodox@btinternet.com