Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Marmoutier on the Loire Alcuin, one of the king’s chosen intellectuals, receives the letter I am delivering from Lindisfarne, now shadowed in tragedy. He seems hesitant to open the seal of his friend the bishop. He holds it in his hand and studies the seal and folds of the envelope.Continue reading “#71.4, Tuesday, August 12, 2025”
Category Archives: Medieval
#71.3, Thursday, August 7, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Visiting the Monastery of St. Martin The monastery, Marmoutier, named to honor St. Martin whose shrine brings pilgrims to Tours was also renovated to keep up with the times. It is fully following the Rule of Benedict now. Even in places once Celtic, Benedictine Rule is used, because revisions in theContinue reading “#71.3, Thursday, August 7, 2025”
#71.2, Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Visiting Tours This journey, visiting the bones of my loved ones along my way, is really about finding the spiritual life and life again of those I once shared bread with. It is the joyful side of life — the weedy overgrown vines of remembrance. Dear God, thank you for thisContinue reading “#71.2, Wednesday, August 6, 2025”
#71.1, Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Visiting Metz Before I leave these hills and ride off on that journey to Tours, I take this day to follow the familiar creek and visit the hill that was once my family home. Mostly the stones that marked the fields are scattered now, and the house is inContinue reading “#71.1, Tuesday, August 5, 2025”
#70.15, Thursday, July 31, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Metz Metz is hardly as I remembered it. There are new walls and towers, and the once mud streets are paved in stones. But musicians still test their songs in the town plaza and probably the commoners still come dancing for the mid-summer celebration. It was a favorite venue forContinue reading “#70.15, Thursday, July 31, 2025”
#70.14, Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Aachen, Francia When I was a hermit at Tours new to the lands of Gaul, before the Merovingian kings were steeped in their own fratricides, Clovis was the head of that clan. He ruled from Aachen. And now these centuries hence, the lands of Burgundy, Aquitaine, Nuestra, and Austrasia areContinue reading “#70.14, Wednesday, July 30, 2025”
#70.13, Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Francia This horse and I are strangers to one another yet, so my traveling chatter is set loose on Creation itself. Dear God, thank you for the eternal flow of goodness – the river running down, always – the winds coming new across the grain fields – the stars andContinue reading “#70.13, Tuesday, July 29, 2025”
#70.9, Thursday, July 17, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery Brother Ealdwin speaks his gratitude to God for each of the monks who escaped the slaughter and here they have come back today. But things can never be as they were before the raid. The monks are grieving. We are seeing the devastation and the grief. We areContinue reading “#70.9, Thursday, July 17, 2025”
#70.8, Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery I came looking for the Gospel of John to read again John Chapter 15 because I wanted to remember Jesus dancing the vine dance or sitting at the table with us, all of us, the world of us, and saying, once again what he says so often, “We areContinue reading “#70.8, Wednesday, July 16, 2025”
#70.3, Thursday, July 3, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery Brother Ealdwin and I take the donkey cart to the shore to collect the bodies there for burial. The one accidental kindness left by the attackers was to trade the slave who I was, for a brother, who I am now, to be with this man throughContinue reading “#70.3, Thursday, July 3, 2025”
Lazarus Ink 