Hill of Slane, Ireland
The second of November in the Holy Orthodox Church is the feast-day of Saint Erc of Slane, an Irish bishop who has significant connexions with Cornwall. A former druid and a convert of Saint Padrig the Enlightener, he was one of Ireland’s foremost missionary saints. He was also the elder brother of Saint Euny and Saint Ia of Cornwall, and accompanied them to that part of Britain.
Saint Erc [also in Cornish Erth, in Welsh Urith, sometimes incorrectly Herygh] was born in Ireland, most likely in Munster, sometime around the turn of the fifth century. He was a druid – a pagan priest – and a retainer in the employ of King Lóegaire mac Néill. It so happened that Saint Padrig was celebrating, together with his Christian converts, the Lord’s Pascha on the same night as the king’s court was celebrating Beltane. There was at that time a taboo on lighting any fire within a set distance from the king’s court, at any time that night before the king’s Beltane bonfire was lit. The Holy Fire of Saint Padrig’s Paschal Liturgy, however, was lit on high and could be seen throughout Tara, and it was brought forth before the King’s bonfire could be lit.
King Lóegaire was amazed at the brazenness of whomever could be flouting the law, and inquired of his closest advisors who might be doing it. The druids all told him that unless this fire was extinguished, his kingdom would be overthrown. A Herodian fear gripped the heart of the king, and he moved at once in force to quench the fire of Christ and to exterminate its bearers. The king went with his retainers and his chief druids, and set himself up a certain distance away from Padrig’s Paschal procession, and commanded that Padrig be brought forward to answer for what he had done. He also arranged it so that none of his retainers were to give Saint Padrig any mark of recognition or respect. However, Erc, who was among the retainers, as soon as he saw Saint Padrig, was moved to stand and hail the saint. Saint Padrig in turn blessed him, and from that point forward Saint Erc was a believer in Christ.
This was one of Saint Padrig’s many confrontations with worldly authority during his life, and the beginning of a long struggle between Padrig and Lóegaire which ended in Lóegaire’s baptism. For Saint Erc, however, this was also the beginning of a mission in which he would suffer like Paul on behalf of those who did not believe. Padrig made Erc at once a bishop of that place where they met, which was the hill of Slane. There, with Saint Padrig’s help, Erc established a church, a monastery and a school that would stand for the next six hundred years. This was the centre of his missionary work in Ireland. It was said that from here he tutored Saint Breandán of Clonfert.
Saint Padrig and Saint Breandán were not the only great Irish saints Erc was close to in life. He was also particularly fond of Saint Brigid of Kildare, for whose holiness, compassion and abilities Erc early formed the very highest of opinions. Saint Padrig saw Erc’s abilities in holding sway over a bishopric even from within his monastery, and sent him into Kerry, Clare and Connaught. Here Saint Erc taught the Gospel, healed the sick, aided the poor and baptised many new believers in Christ. By the end of his life, Saint Padrig had made Saint Erc responsible for most of the territory which is now included in the region of Munster.
Assuming Saint Erc to have been the same person as the Cornish Saint Erth, he also kept his brother Euny company in his voyage to Cornwall, and Saint Ia soon followed after them in her coracle made from a single leaf by the power of her prayers, only to reach the other shore before them. Saint Erc is credited with founding St Erth’s Church in the town of the same name in Cornwall, standing some four miles distant from St Ives, where his holy sister made her anchorage. Toward the end of his life, however, Saint Erc returned to Ireland and to Slane, and spent the remainder of his years in a solitary hermitage at the hill of Slane. This is where he reposed in the Lord on the second of November in the year 512. His feast day is kept on this day in Ireland as well as in the Moscow Patriarchate, where he is on the calendar of saints. Cornwall remembers St Erth on the thirty-first of October. Holy hierarch Erc, selfless and righteous confessor among the Irish and Cornish people, pray unto Christ our God for our salvation!
Apolytikion for Saint Erc, Tone 1:
Even in the darkness of heathendom,
Thou didst recognise the God-given authority of Ireland’s Enlightener,
O Hierarch Erc, and wast baptised at his hands!
Wherefore we beseech thee,
Pray to Christ our God that being blessed with the virtue of humility
We may be found worthy of æternal salvation.
St Erth’s Church, St Erth, Cornwall
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