Tuesday, March 31, 2026
St. Brigid, Mary of the Gaels
Dcn. Seraphim tells us the life and miracles of Saint Brigid of Kildare — the only woman among Ireland's three patron saints, and perhaps the most beloved and mysterious of the three. Born around 451 to a pagan chieftain and a Christian bondwoman, Brigid enters the world between two religions and two social classes, marked from birth by a pillar of fire. Drawing on the earliest Latin Lives and the Old Irish Bethu Brigte, Dcn. Seraphim follows Brigid from her childhood of reckless generosity through her founding of the great monastery at Kildare, her miracles of abundance and healing, and her place in the hearts of the Irish as the Mary of the Gael.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
The Rock of St. Michael — A St. Patrick's Day Episode
For St. Patrick's Day, Dcn. Seraphim presents his own translation of a remarkable and little-known medieval Latin text: the Skellig Michael legend from the Regensburg Schottenlegende. In it, the saints of Ireland come to Patrick with a plea — the forests and caves and solitudes where they long to pray are crawling with venomous creatures and demons, and they cannot find peace. What follows is an account of spiritual warfare on an epic scale: Patrick summons a universal council of the saints, who march forth in ecclesiastical battle array against the hosts of evil, driving them step by step toward the western sea. At the climax, Patrick raises his hands like Moses against Amalek, his fingers burning like the unconsumed bush, and from a rock in the farthest ocean the Archangel Michael appears with companies of angels.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
The Psalter of the Quatrains, Canto I
Dcn. Seraphim introduces us to the Saltair na Rann, the great tenth-century Old Irish poem that retells the whole of salvation history — from the first day of creation to the last judgment — in 150 cantos mirroring the 150 Psalms. Deacon Seraphim reads his own translation of Canto I, the magnificent canticle of creation, in which an anonymous Irish poet synthesizes the Genesis account with the cosmological learning of the early medieval world to sing the making of heaven and earth, the separation of the elements, and the glory of the God who fashioned all things from nothing.
Thursday, March 5, 2026
The Teacher and the Twelve
Today, Dcn. Seraphim tells the story of Saint Finnian of Clonard — the "Teacher of the Saints of Ireland" — who traveled to Wales to study under the heirs of the British monastic tradition, then returns to found the great school at Clonard on the River Boyne. His students, known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, spread across the island founding monasteries: Ciaran at Clonmacnoise, Brendan the Navigator at Clonfert, Columba at Iona, and others who transformed Ireland from a mission field into the Isle of Saints.
Thursday, February 26, 2026
The Apostle of Ireland
Dcn. Seraphim tells us the story of Saint Patrick in his own words: a Romano-British boy is seized by Irish raiders and sold into slavery, where he discovers God on the cold hills of Ulster. After his escape, he hears the voice of the Irish calling him back to the land of his captivity. Drawing on Patrick's Confessio and Letter to Coroticus, Dcn. Seraphim explores the mystery of his return and the Trinitarian faith he planted in Irish soil.