Wednesday 12 September 2012

SS Guy of Anderlecht, Eanswida

Today we thought we'd celebrate a couple of proper saints.

Eanswida refused to marry a Northumbrian prince (I'm guessing she objected to his love of pigeons, whippet-racing and black pudding. Instead she went to Folkestone - which is about as far away as you could from Northumbria and still be able to speak Old English - where she founded a monastery. Then died a decade later.

So much for Eanswide. I'm guessing there's so much more we don't know.

Then there's St Guy of Anderlecht. Having received his name early on, he was spotted by a talent scout from an Amsterdam monastery, and became St Guy of Ajax.

After impressing in the qualifying rounds of a Champions' League campaign, he was the subject of a big-money transfer to become St Guy of Chelsea. However after a succession of abbots had to leave after falling out with the patron, St Guy no longer fitted in and became St Guy of the Arsenal.

As his spiritual fitness declined in his 30s, he moved monasteries again - becoming successively St Guy of Bolton, St Guy of Blackburn and St Guy of Nottingham Forest. Eventually, returned to monastery of his youth. So he spent the last f his praying days as, once again, St Guy of Anderlecht.

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