ORTHODOX PILGRIMAGE: ROOTS OF ORTHODOXY IN N.W. EUROPE (UPDATE)

One of the most shocking things new converts to Orthodox Christianity realize, is that there was a period in time when all Christianity was Orthodox by default. Before the Papal universal supremacy of Rome, at the time that the Bishop of Rome's diocese was the entirety of what is today Western Europe and simply one of the five equal sees in Christianity: Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome. Before the Great Schism of 1054 and before Luther's 14th century's push for what turned out to be essentially, modernity in spirituality. The memories of this early Church in the 3rd to the 8th Centuries AD have been as good as erased from history. When an unfortunate reminder pops up, usually in the guise of a reference to an early saint no one has ever heard of, this is written off as, 'early Roman Catholicism'.

Nov. 11, 2025 The Orthodox Pilgrim: The life of St. Bede, told at his own monastery of Jarrow. More details. 

I once chanced on a Flemish blog about the early Church in the Low Countries. Unfortunately I lost the link and never found it again. 

However the Russian oriented news blog, "Orthodox Christianity" (Home page) has a number of good articles on the early Church that bear looking into. 

- The Low Countries (link)
- Germany (link)
- Ireland (link) (part 1, part 2)
- The Founders of the Orthodox West (link)

Father Andrew Stephen Damick and Deacon Seraphim recently went on pilgrimage to England and Scotland on behalf of Ancient Faith Radio. They teamed up with Father Jacob Siemens who has a diocese in Wales. We reported on part of their progress to and from the Holy Isla of Iona (link). 

In the video above Deacon Seraphim reads from the life of Saint Bede at his own monastery of Jarrow. Here Father Jacob Siemens on the pilgrimage to Saint Bede (video). 

Below Deacon Seraphim recounts the story of Saint Mungo, or Kentigern from his burial chamber in the cathedral of St. Mungo in Glasgow.

Nov. 4, 2025 The Orthodox Pilgrim: The Life of St. Mungo (Kentigern) in His Burial Chamber. More details. 



Nov. 17, 2025 The Orthodox Pilgrim: The Life of St. Hilda, told at her Abbey of Whitby. Details. 



Nov. 14, 2025 Euan Michael: Britain's Orthodox Christian Roots.

Update: Celebrating their first anniversary in episode 24 of The Great Tales, Father Andrew and Deacon Seraphim, fresh from pilgrimage in Scotland and Northumbria, present two stories from the lives of the British saints.

Nov. 21, 2025 The Great Tales - Two Pilgrim Tales [Ep. 24].

The first, from the writings of the Venerable Bede, is the story of how St. Cædmon of Whitby went from shoveling… well, you know… as a shepherd to writing the earliest known English hymnography. We will hear his famed poem in Old English, as well as the Latin of Bede, and learn something of how Old English monastic culture worked.

The other tale is from the life of St. Oran, a monastic of the mission of St. Columba of Iona. In his story, the old gods of Iona demand the live burial of a man in order to allow the foundation of a Christian chapel to be laid. Oran volunteers, but Columba objects. What are we to make of this strange tale that seems more pagan than Christian?



Oct. 3, 2017 Kontakion of St. Romanos the Melodist - Today the Virgin gives birth.

More stories of The Great Tales podcast on the playlist here. 

- More on Father Andrew Stephen Damick, Deacon Seraphim Rohlin, Eastern Orthodoxy, Christianity, Western Orthodoxy -