Intron Varia Ar Sklerder

One of the reasons I so enjoy Father H (and share his posts) is the odd bits of liturgical trivia he posts on. This is a great example!

From Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment

On May 14, 1893, the coadjutor bishop of Plymouth, Bishop Graham, "solemnly inaugurated the festival of  ... 'Our Lady of Light, Spouse of the Holy Ghost', recently granted by Rome; the feast to be kept on the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension"* [which is oldspeak for today]. In that year, May 14 was the Sunday after Ascension.

That is what the heading to this post means. Intron is Breton for Lady (current orthography omits the first of the Ns). Varia is for Maria. Sklerder (modern orthography: sklaerder [masc] or sklaerded [fem]) means Light; clarity. In the Cornish Language, the word (inferred in 1938 by Nance from Breton and Welsh, but the root is in Tregear), is clerder; in Welsh, claerder [masc]. (Does this come from the Latin clarus/claritas via middle English and old French; or is it a really old Latin importation like ecclesia or molina, which slipped directly into the "Celtic" dialects in the Roman period and then evolved? Some philologist out there must know ...)

Are you sitting comfortably, or have I discombobulated you already? Either way, I'll begin.

Once upon a time there was an old Cornish baronet called the Reverend Sir Henry Trelawny (Yes! of that family!). He, with his daughters, had lived at S Pol de Leon in Brittany; nearby was a shrine of Intron Varia ar Sklerder. Apparently, his daughters became Catholics before he did, influenced by the teachings of S Louis Grignion de Montfort (who loved the Breton devotion to our Lady of Light). Eventually, aided by an inquisitive mind, and fruitful contacts with French emigre  clergy, Sir Henry followed them, and in 1830 (he preceded the Newmanomania!) was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome. (It was his third ordination; he had been a Congregationalist minister before his Anglican ordination!)

His daughters had converted their Cornish domestic chapel into a Catholic chapel; but, after his death in 1834, his heir, I gather, returned it to Anglican worship, The daughters, fortified by their Father's 'last wishes', built a Chapel on the estate for our Lady of Light (opened in 1843, October 6). There the devotion flourished. But as that Catholic generation died out, the position of the shrine became precarious until a convert called Richard de Bary rented the property (1876-1894; his wife was a Mostyn ... ?? from the Flintshire Recusant family??). The new Chapel was restored and a beautiful statue, in the style later to be popularised by the cultus of our Lady of Fatima, was placed within it. That brings us up to Bishop Graham (vide supra; de Bary had died in 1891).

Difficulties ensued; Mrs de Bary had to take the statue away, and Cardinal Vaughan suggested that Clacton on Sea in Essex would be a good place for the Shrine and the devotion. And so, if you go to that faintly brash seaside resort, you will find this 'Breton' shrine with its fine statue still in existence (sadly, the church's Sanctuary was wreckovated in the late 1990s; see my earlier [May 10] post  headed "The A G Swannell Library").

INTRON VARIA AR SKLERDER, PEDIT EVIDOMP

is Breton for Our Lady of Light, Pray for us. Practise saying it!! Do so for the rest of the day!!!

In Cornwall, the name Sklerder survives: it is what Sir Henry and his daughters renamed their ancestral estate. The Mother Foundress of the Anglican 'Franciscan Servants of Jesus and Mary' had a vision of our Lady of Light in the Anglo-Catholic village of St Hilary in West Cornwall; a statue of our Lady of Light followed the community to Posbury St Francis in Devon ... last autumn, the convent site was sold off, and what has become of that Statue, I do not know.

Yet more things I do not know: What exactly did Rome grant in 1893 for liturgical use on this Sunday Before Pentecost? A perfunctory computer search through the indexes of Acta Sanctae Sedis didn't give me any joy.

If anybody does go there, I would be interested to know if the statue of S Louis Grignion de Montfort survived the wreckers. He stood ... or rather, strode forwards ... directly to the left of the (now-destroyed) pulpit.

When Clacton's District Council acquired a Grant of Arms in 1938, the Motto was Lux Salubritas Felicitas (the arms also incorporate the Scallop shell of pilgrimage). I wonder if this is another of those 'pure coincidences' in which non-believers often superstitiously believe. Or perhaps some crafty Catholic ...

*Some, but not most, information is taken from Fr C Wilson's Our Lady of Light, 1953. The Internet will give you interesting information about this devotion in other parts of the world.