St Julius and St Aaron

The earliest recorded Christian martyrs in Britain other than Alban are Julius and Aaron. Our only problem is that we do not know when their martyrdoms occurred, or indeed where it happened. It has been accepted practice to date them during the Diocletian Persecutions of the early fourth century-indeed if one looks at the dates of martyred saints in the Church Calendar, one will find a high proportion of them are dated to the early years of that era. Hence it seems a reasonable assumption to date these British martyrdoms to this time.

However a closer study of the reign of Diocletian points to some difficulties with this conclusion. This was an era when there was not just ONE Roman Emperor but two and each of them had a deputy. Between the four of them they would govern the Empire with varying degrees of success.

Although it was Diocletian’s policy to persecute Christians-a policy he followed through vigorously, it was only effective in his half of the Empire which was the Eastern half. The Emperor who was responsible for the Western half of the Empire was named Constantius and he was somewhat blase about the persecution of Christians. In fact despite the common mental image of the Roman Empire continually persecuting the Church, generally speaking, persecutions were sporadic and sometimes even localised. Very rarely were they centralised and or even spread out uniformly across the Empire.

This means that it is very unlikely that Alban, Julius and Aaron were martyred during the fourth century. Various attempts have been made to date the events more accurately, but it seems that the nearest that can be identified is during the mid third century. There was an Empire wide persecution starting in AD249 under the Emperor Decius. This persecution continued sporadically through the time of Septimus Severus who forbade conversion to Christianity, until the death of the Emperor Aurelian in AD275. It is a reasonable assumption that sometime within that period of twenty-six years not only Alban, but Julius and Aaron testified to their faith by paying the ultimate price.

The names of the two saints are also intriguing. In one sense, apart from their Christian Faith, the only thing that we definitely know about these men is their names, so it is important to study and see if anything can be gleaned from them. The name “Aaron” is of interest as it is clearly Jewish. That perhaps suggests that he was a Jewish convert, although the name “Aaron” was a highly unusual name at that time in both Jewish and Christian circles. An alternative explanation is that the name was adopted at baptism in place of a more unacceptable pagan name. But why “Aaron”? One of the characteristics of pre-Anglo-Saxon British Christianity is the use of Old Testament names. Two of the most well known Saints from this era are St David and St Sampson, so it maybe that Aaron was a British born convert who adopted a Jewsih BIblical name in common with church practice at that time. The name “Julius”, on the other hand, was a fairly common one, especially among soldiers, both for family reasons and because enlisted men would often take the name of one of Rome’s greatest generals. It maybe then, that it is a reasonable assumption to make that Julius, at least, was a military man. Aaron remains more of an enigma.

In Gildas’ account, he describes the two saints as: “Aaron et Julianum legionum urbis cives”: “Aaron and Julius, citizens of the city of legions”. It then becomes important to define what the “city of legions” is. For all sorts of reasons, legonium urbis has been identified with Caerleon in South Wales, but it has also been pointed out that the phrase can also be used to describe other Roman settlements in Britain-for example: Chester Carlisle or Colchester. Indeed a strong argument has been put forward for the “city of legions” to have been Leicester.

So how are we to tackle this conundrum? If Aaron and Julius were indeed martyred in Caerleon, that would make them the Protomartyrs of Wales-making them powerful companions of Alban, Protomartyr of England. But there are no Saint’s Lives for Aaron and Julius. There is only one known reference to their actual Martyrdom and that is in The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth which describes the saints as “torn limb from limb and mangled with unheard of cruelty”. Geoffrey’s book is a strange hotch-potch of fact and fiction and whilst he is clearly using Gildas as a source for these events, one may wonder where he got his additional information from. Geoffrey was brought up, it appears, in the Monmouthshire area, and frequently refers to Caerleon in his writings, so he may well have had access to other sources now lost. But that may be balanced out by the fact that Gildas, who first reported the martyrdoms, was a monk on Flat Holm island, which is in the middle of the Bristol Channel. This means that he was near to Caerleon, geographically, and also in time to the events. Gildas only records the martyrdom, he does not go into details.

Nevertheless, these two saints have made an impact on the story of the Church in Britain. Interestingly, when Gildas refers to them in the company of Alban, he also makes reference to an unknown group of martyrs:

“Such were St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Julius, citizens of the city of legions, and the rest, of both sexes, who in different places stood their ground in the Christian contest”

One may argue that this group may have come from anywhere-no place of their martyrdom is mentioned. However, since Gildas is writing about the Church in Britain and and the martyrs he does mention by name are all from Britain, it is a reasonable assumption that they too are British and also from within that part of the island under Roman control (although to be fair, Tertullian, writing around 200AD states that the Gospel had been preached in the parts of Britain beyond the reach of the Romans).. Whilst we have no knowledge of their names, it seems that we can conclude that there was a significant Church in Britain in the Roman period, which had suffered severe persecution.

Why then are only Alban, Julius and Aaron mentioned by name? In Alban’s case we do not even know the name of the priest who witnessed to him-tradition apparently tells us that his name was Amphibalus. That tradition is recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose sources are not always clear. The name “Amphibalus” means “The cloaked one” and it has been suggested that the name was coined by Geoffrey because the mysterious priest was given a cloak by Alban. From this, the suggestion has been made that either Julius or Aaron was the priest that Alban found hiding from the authorities. The only problem we have with these traditions is that there is no way of knowing if they are the product of a fertile mind, the product of a now-forgotten oral tradition, or even of a now lost written tradition.

Interestingly, the names ‘Aaron’ and ‘Iilius’ are included alongside St Patrick and St Brigit among the invocations of saints in the margins of a document kept at St Gallen in Switzerland. It is a heavily glossed copy of Priscian’s Institutiones Grammaticae, a work which appears to have been made by Irish scholars from Leinster who passed through Wales on their way to the Continent in about the middle of the ninth century. The reference provides important evidence for the continuity of the influence of these two saints.

So how was that influence worked out?

The reason that Caerleon is the favoured site for the martyrdom of Aaron and Julius is due to the fact that there are records from medieval times which indicate churches and chapels dedicated to the saints in the Caerleon area. This is not to say that the evidence is irrefutable-as we have pointed out, one person has argued strongly that the site of the martyrdom is in fact Leicester and his arguments are very persuasive. However, Gildas when he mentioned the two saints does it in a way that implies firstly that Aaron and Julius were linked and secondly, that by using the phrase legonium urbis and not the proper name of the city, that they were well known to his readers. The logic of this is that Gildas’ readers would be aware of the veneration of the two saints and where that veneration was centred.

In a medieval document called “The Book of Llandaff”, there are a number of charters included. Charter number 225 records the grant of the territorium sanctorum martirum iulij et aaron (territorium of the martyrs Julius and Aaron) by the brothers Wulferth, Hegoi and Arwystl to Bishop Nudd. Research has shown that the charter dates back to the middle of the ninth century. The boundary clause attached to the charter locates the territorium on the south side of the River Usk immediately adjacent to Caerleon.

In the twelfth-century rubric the church is named as the Merthir Iun et Aaron. The place-name element merthyr belongs to an early phase of British Christian nomenclature-usually around the fourth century. It comes from the Latin plural martyres meaning ‘relics’, and came eventually to mean ‘a church or cemetery, holding the physical remains of a named saint or martyr’.The name of the territorium itself does not prove a connection with a primary cult site-that is the place of martyrdom, but the likely location of the church on Chepstow Hill overlooking Caerleon, on the edge of one its major cemeteries, is typical of Late Antique martyria on the Continent.

This church is later referred to in a charter created at Bec in Normandy after the middle of the twelfth century. The grant records how Robert Chandos, an Anglo-Norman lord, gave a church at Goldcliff, nine kilometres south of Caerleon on the edge of the Severn Estuary, to the monastery of Bec for the foundation of a priory. Included in the property which Chandos bestowed upon the priory were two churches: ecclesiam sanctae Trinitatis iuxta Karlium and ecclesiam Iulii et Aron. The former can be identified as Holy Trinity church, the benefice of the parish of Christchurch, and the church of Julius and Aaron must be the same as the Merthir Iun et Aaron of the Llandaff charter 225.

The final reference to the church of Julius and Aaron is in a deed of 1495, but now it is named the ecclesie Sancti Albon (the church of St Alban). Whilst to some, this change of dedication has been seen as evidence of a completely different church, an 1143 confirmation of the Goldcliff grant names the church ecclesiam sanctorum Iulii et Aaron atque Albani (the church of Julius, Aaron, and Alban). This triple dedication occurs again in 1201 in a confirmation of the charter by King John.

What has been suggested is that during the medieval period, veneration of Sts Aaron and Julius began to decrease, and that relics of St Alban were brought to Caerleon as veneration for Alban increased. This would seem a logical thing-Gildas had referred to all three saints in one sentence, and it has already been remarked that during the MIddle Ages there had been a suggestion that the name of the priest who converted Alban, Amphibalus, was a pseudonym and that in fact Amphibalus was either Aaron or Julius (the suggestion had in fact come from a Life of St Alban and St Amphibalus, written by one William of St Albans). In a reference to the Church in 1495, it is just referred to as the Church of St Alban.

It is further speculated that the relics of Aaron and Julius had been present in the territorium, but at some point were moved to the Church of the Holy Trinity and the territorium became a chapel of ease for the main parish church.This would give a reason why the dedication was changed to just Alban.

Today there is no visible evidence of the territorium, but overlooking the Roman remains of Caerleon is a hill called Mount St Albans. A will of 1624 refers to this hill by that name and it is felt by local archaeologists that it is a reasonable assumption that it was on this hill that Aaron and Julius’s relics rested, indeed it may well be that this was actually the site of their Holy Martyrdom

There is also further evidence, albeit circumstantial. The presence of an incubation ritual¹ at Holy Trinity church in the hamlet of Christchurch hints at the possibility of some form of continuity within the parish. The cult focused on a tombstone commemorating a John Colmer and his wife Isabella which dates from 1376.. As late as the early-nineteenth century it was believed that the stone was ‘supposed to cover the mortal remains of a reputed saint or saints’ and people would ‘resort to it on the eve of the Trinity Sunday, and some other festivals, in the hope of being relieved from their infirmities, by reposing all night upon the tomb.

This is of course speculative, and there is no “smoking gun” which links the incubation ritual with Sts Aaron and Julius, nevertheless it is intriguing that two such phenomena should exist so close to one another.

Aaron and Julius are likely to remain within the shadows of Early British Christianity with very little to draw on about their lives. Nevertheless, they must have had a significance In their time which has been lost to us today. Perhaps it is time for their importance to be recognised and for them to be restored to their rightful place alongside Alban as Protomartyrs of Wales?

1 An Incubation Ritual or Cult is one where a person will be healed if they sleep on the top of the tomb of a saint.

St Fremund

The Legend

Fremund was the son of the great King Offa of Mercia, the one who built the famous “Offa’s Dyke” which marks the border between England and Wales, and his queen Botilda. It is said that Fremund’s birth was foretold by a child, who died when he was three days old. Fremund was baptized by Bishop Heswi, and apparently performed many miracles, and converted his parents. King Offa later resigned his kingdom to his son, who, after governing a year and a half, forsook the throne to serve God in a desert place. Fremund, accompanied by Burchard, the man who afterwards wrote the life of his life, and another attendant, embarked on a vessel, sailing fromCaerleon-on-Usk, and went to a small island called Ylefage, which has been identified withLundy Island in the Bristol Channel. On his arrival, he found that the island was infested by demons. No doubt Fremund dealt with them because he lived there for seven years, living an ascetic life on fruits and roots.

During this time, the Viking king Ivar the Boneless and his brother, Hubba, led The Great Heathen Army to ravage England, an action which included puttingthe great Christian King Edmund the Martyr to death. King Offa sent twenty nobles to seek his son throughout England, and when they found him, they implored him to help. Fremund was granted a vision in which it was revealed that each of the twenty nobles would appear as a thousand soldiers to his enemies. Fremund went with them and they, with Fremund and his attendants, fought and defeated 40,000 of the enemy in a great battle atRadford Semele in Warwickshire. But, whilst he prostrated himself in thanksgiving to God for the victory, a man called Oswi, formerly one of King Offa’s commanders, but who had defected to the enemy, cut off Fremund’s head. The blood spurted out over Oswi, who immediately begged for absolution and forgiveness, which the head pronounced. Fremund then rose and carried his head some distance, a spring burst forth, Fremund washed his wound, fell prostrate and expired.

After his death Fremund’s body was taken to Offchurch in Warwickshire (Offchurch is thought to be where King Offa had his palace) for burial and his tomb became a place of pilgrimage for those seeking healing. In about AD 931 his remains were taken to Prescote near Copredy in Oxfordshire. Later, around 1207-1210, some of his relics were removed from Prescote to a new shrine in Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire, but his shrine at Prescote continued to be venerated until early in the 16th century. Sadly, his shrines at both Prescote and Dunstable were destroyed in the 1530s during the English Reformation.

Inconsistencies

The story has a number of historical inconsistencies. History records Offa’s wife as Cynethryth not Botilda and the Botilda name is not mentioned in any charter or by any chronicler. Bishop Heswi, or Oswy as the name is written inJohn Lydagte’s Metrical Legend, cannot be identified. Offa died on 29 July 796 and was succeeded by his sonEcgfrith, “Who had been anointed king in his lifetime” according to medieval historians William of Malmesbury and Aethelweard. Ecgfrith died the same year as Offa and so none of the legends fits the history on these points. King Edmund was martyred in November 870, seventy-four years after the death of King Offa. It would seem that the connection with the Danish Invasion is more probable than that with Offa, and so Fremund should be perhaps dated to the mid 9th century.

Why should we honour St Fremund as a Bedfordshire Saint?

In the third and fourth century, a word entered the Brythonic language, which was the native language at that time of Britain, from the Latin. The word was originally from Greek and entered Latin because of the growth of Christanity. From there it was adopted by the Christians of late-Roman Britain into their local language. The word was “martyr” (in Greek it is “μάρτυρας”, but that is neither here nor there). The word means “a witness” and came to refer to those who had paid the ultimate price for their faith. In Brythonic the word was written “merthyr”. However its meaning changed slightly. Instead of meaning “a witness”, it came to mean a place where a saint’s relics had been placed. You will all have recognised the word which makes up the first part of the name of the Welsh town “Merthyr Tydfil”. The name comes from the fact that not only was Tydfil, a Princess of the Welsh Royal Family, martyred there, but also that a church was built there to protect her relics.

It is because Fremund’s relics were brought to Dunstable and they found a home in Bedfordshire that we are able to call him a “Bedfordshire Saint”. Our county was blessed by his holy relics, may he continue to pray for us before the Throne of God.

Sadly at the moment, no icon of St Fremund exists.

St Elen of Caernarfon

For many people the name “St Helen” means the Mother of Constantine, but in fact Britain has another Helen, one whose links with these islands are much more clearly defined. This Helen has much in common with the other Helen and because of the supposed links that Constantine’s mother has with the island of Britain, the two are often confused.

The second Helen is differentiated from the first by being called “of Caernarfon”. Caernarfon is of course a town in the north of Wales and Helen is given that epithet because her father was Eudaf Hen king of the North Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd. Gwynedd appears to be a stronghold of Christianity in the Sub-Roman period and Caernarfon, under its Latin name of Segontium was one of its main towns and traditionally the home of St Elen. Incidentally the name Eudaf in Welsh means “strong of will”. Unfortunately, Geoffrey of Monmouth “Latinised” his name to “Octavius”-a name which means “eighth”-far from the original meaning. “Hen” means “old”. Clearly that personality trait that was so obvious in Eudaf was passed down the family line; Eudaf had at least three children, one was Conan Meriadoc who founded Brittany (Little Britain) another was Moruawr who apparently was the ancestor of King Arthur and of course Elen. It is safe to say that all of them had a remarkable influence on the history of the peoples of these islands of ours.

As befits a princess of a ruling house, Elen married a man called Magnus Maximus. Maximus had been born in Northern Spain and was the son of the Roman General Flavius Julius Eucherius. Maximus had a steady career in the army, eventually being assigned as General to Britain in AD381. At the same time the then Emperor in the West, Gratian, began to be unpopular, due to his support for a tribe called the Alans over Roman citizens, The Alans were an Iranian-speaking tribe who had suffered under attacks by Attila and his Huns and were trying to find a place of safety away from these terrible people within the safety of the Roman Empire..

Maximus felt that it was incumbent upon him as Emperor, albeit the junior one of the four to do something. Maximus gathered his troops and all the other soldiers Britain could spare and left for the continent in AD383. Suffice to say that Maximus won his war with Gratian and ruled the Western Empire from Trier. Sadly neither Maximus nor the British soldiers he had taken with him ever returned to Britain, an action which was to have consequences in years to come. Sadly Maximus was killed in battle in AD388.

Although Elen seems to have spent a lot of her time in Britain clearly she did follow her husband to the continent. Both St Gregory of Tours and Sulpicius Severus record that she and her husband met St Martin of Tours. This must have been at the time when there were problems with a heretic called Priscillian, who disturbed the church in Spain, which was part of Maximus’s realm in the late fourth century. The heresy had been condemned at the Council of Zaragoza in AD380 but Priscillian had continued to challenge the findings of the Council and St Martin, as Bishop of Tours was involved in a subsequent council-that of Bordeaux in AD384, which condemned Priscillian. We know that St Martin met with the Emperor Maximus.at that time. Elen and Maximus were married for seven years and we know that Elen had five children.

These children were named:: Custennin, Peblig, Anwn Dynod, Gratianna and Severa..

Anwn in particular seems to have remained in Britain when his father left to impose his claims on the continent. The British appear to have recognised the rights of Maximus’ sons, and Anwn became a powerful man in South-West Wales during the late 4th century. He may have become a decurion of Moridunum (modern Carmarthen), capital of the Civitas Demetarum.

Anwn’s full Roman name was Antonius Donatus Gregorius, hence he is sometimes referred to as Dynod or, mistakenly, Anwn, King of Greece. Although he probably died before the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain (AD 410), he was held in high-esteem by the local people which enabled his son,Ednyfed, to establish a royal dynasty in that area of South West Wales.

Gratianna married the King of Dumnonia (a sub-Roman kingdom that covered modern day Devon and Cornwall) whilst Severa married Vortigern, king of Powys who first invited the Saxons to Britain as mercenaries.

Peblig, sometimes known by his Roman name of Publicius, became a monk and established a church in the settlement near to Caernarfon that became known as Llanbeblig (in Welsh the name means “Church of St Peblig). Together with his mother Elen, Peblig traditionally introduced the Gallic form of Monasticism into Britain.

Finally Custennin, the eldest surviving son of the British Emperor Magnus Maximus. Little is known of him for sure, but there are indications that he probably ruled one of the post-Roman divisions of Wales, like his brothers.

Custennin lived at a time when the Roman administration was breaking down. With the collapse of his father’s play for Imperial power in AD388, he and his brothers took control of his late powerbase in Wales, apparently dividing it up between them.Anwn took the South-West andOwain, the South-East. What titles they used are unknown. They would not have called themselves kings-the use of that word is a later invention. Perhaps they were something like provincial governors. Publicus had entered the church and had no interest in government. But where did Custennin hold sway? The obvious place to look is in Northern Wales.

. History tells us that in the time of Cunedda Wledig (a British overlord who lived in the early 5th century), the area, that was by then called Gwynedd, was fully controlled by Irish invaders. But previously, Caer-Segeint (Caernarfon), the chief city in the area, was closely associated with Constantine’s mother, St. Elen, and her family. We know that his brother, St. Publicus, set up a church adjoining the old Roman fort there and another brother, Owain, from South Wales, is said to have died in the area. All indications are that Maximus’ family continued to control Gwynedd at the end of the Roman period, before the Irish arrived and swept them aside. One final piece of evidence shows that the local man of authority was almost certainly Custennin and that Caernarfon was his powerbase. A lost stone, which for many centuries stood outside the old Roman fort is recorded by Nennius: ‘”Constantine…..his tomb” is shown near the city which is called Caer Segeint, as letters tell which are on the stone of his tumulus’. Custennin is the same name as Constantine in the Brythonic language spoken at the time. One of the reasons for confusing St Elen with St Helena is that they both had a son called Constantine.

Despite only living in Britain for a short time, Maximus had made a significant impact on the British way of life. Much of what we know about him and Elen is recorded in The Dream of Macsen Wledig, which is one of the tales associated with theMabinogion a collection of Welsh legends. It is the Mabinogion which links Elen with Caernarfon-or Segontium as it was known then . Macsen Wledig is the name that her husband is known as in Welsh and, presumably, in the original Brythonic language that would have been spoken in England at that time. Elen is remembered for having her husband build roads across her country so that the soldiers could more easily defend it from attackers, because of this , Elen is also called Elen Luyddog (Elen of the Hosts). Even today the main road from Aberconwy on the Welsh north coast to Carmarthen on the Wesh south coast is called Sarn Helen after her.

St Elen was clearly a force to be reckoned with. Four of her children became rulers or were married to rulers in their own right. A fifth son dedicated his life to the Church. She worked hard to improve her country making it safer for all to live there. St Elen of Caernarfon pray for us.