Special Days in March 2025
1st March: Saint David’s Day
On 1st March, Wales celebrates its patron saint, David - or, in Welsh, Dewi or Dafydd. He is revered wherever Welsh people have settled. As with most figures from the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ (he lived in the sixth century), reliable details about his life are scarce, but there are enough for us to form a picture of a formidably austere, disciplined and charismatic leader, who led the Church in Wales through turbulent years and fought tenaciously for the faith.
He lived Ireland for a time and early records describe a meeting of Irish church leaders with three Britons, one of them called Bishop David. On moving to Wales he founded a monastery at Menevia, in Pembrokeshire. This became the site of St David’s Cathedral and the settlement which is now the smallest city in the United Kingdom. From Menevia David embarked on preaching and teaching missions across Wales. At a famous Synod of the Church, held at a Carmarthenshire village called Brefi (today Llandewi Brefi), he preached passionately against the Arian heresy.
David’s monks avoided wine and beer, drinking only water. Indeed, he and they lived lives of rigorous austerity and constant prayer, in the manner of the Desert Fathers of the Eastern Church. The date of David’s death is disputed - either 589 or 601. It wasn’t until the 12th century that he was generally accepted as the patron saint of Wales, and pilgrimages to St David’s were highly regarded in the following centuries - including two made by English kings, William I and Henry II.
It’s traditional for Welsh people to wear daffodils (or leeks!) on St David’s Day although the origin for it is not known.
5th March: Ash Wednesday; mourning our sins
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. But why 'Ash' Wednesday? The reason has to do with getting things right between you and God, and the tradition goes right back to the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites often sinned. When they finally came to their senses, and saw their evil ways as God saw them, they could do nothing but repent in sorrow. They mourned for the damage and evil they had done. As part of this repentance, they covered their heads with ashes. For the Israelites, putting ashes on your head, and even rending your clothes, was an outward sign of their heart-felt repentance and acknowledgement of sin. (See Genesis 18:27; 2 Samuel 13:19; Job 2:8, 30:19; Isaiah 58:5; Jeremiah 6:26; Jonah 3:6)
In the very early Christian Church, the yearly 'class' of penitents had ashes sprinkled over them at the beginning of Lent. They were turning to God for the first time, and mourning their sins. But soon many other Christians wanted to take part in the custom, and to do so at the very start of Lent. They heeded Joel's call to 'rend your hearts and not your garments' (Joel 2:12-19). Ash Wednesday became known as either the 'beginning of the fast' or ‘the day of the ashes’.
The collect for today goes back to the Prayer Book, and it stresses the penitential character of the day. It encourages us with the reminder of the readiness of God to forgive us and to renew us.
The Bible readings for today are often Joel 2:1-2, 12–18, Matthew 6: 1-6,16 – 21 and Paul’s moving catalogue of suffering, "as having nothing and yet possessing everything." (2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10)
The actual custom of 'ashing' was abolished at the Reformation, though the old name for the day remained. Today, throughout the Church of England, receiving the mark of ashes on one’s forehead is optional. Certainly, the mark of ashes on the forehead reminds people of their mortality: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return..." (Genesis 3:19)
The late medieval custom was to burn the branches used on Palm Sunday in the previous year in order to create the ashes for today.
The Collect for Ash Wednesday is:
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
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Have you done something which haunts you?
A reflection at the start of Lent
Do you ever worry that your past failings mean that God will not accept you now? Some of us have done many things which we regret, things that have caused us, or others, great pain.
We’ve given our children short shrift, we’ve betrayed our marriage partners, we’ve been dishonest at work, we’ve been ruthlessly greedy and ambitious, no matter what the cost to anyone else. And now the memory of the wrong we’ve done lingers, and makes us ashamed. Our past failings make us very reluctant to turn to God. Why should He forgive the damage we have done?
If you think this way, then you have a big surprise waiting for you: God isn’t like that. You haven’t yet encountered His GRACE. God knows all about you, and most of all He knows you need His help. Jesus said that He came into the world to reach sinners, to help anyone who turns to Him in true repentance to find forgiveness, and a new start.
You can’t do anything to turn yourself into a good person. But you don’t have to. All that God asks of you is that you turn to Jesus in prayer, and say you are sorry, and ask Him to forgive you, and to put His Spirit within you. Then you find His GRACE – which means His loving-kindness, beginning in YOUR life. Just try it.
Today let God begin to set you free from the past!
5th March: Eusebius
Eusebius was born in Cremona, Italy, in the 5th Century and is not to be confused with others saints with a similar name! He was well educated and believed that Christianity should be an ascetic religion. On hearing that Saint Jerome also advocated an austere lifestyle, Eusebius travelled to Rome to meet him and they became life-long friends. At that time, Jerome was secretary to Pope Damasus who commissioned him to produce for the Western church a translation of the Bible in Latin.
As Christianity was still growing there were different kinds of teachings and heresies, and disagreements were common. Eusebius was a loyal friend of Jerome and became involved in Jerome’s theological disputes.
Soon after the Pope’s death Jerome decided to leave for the Holy Land, and Eusebius begged to accompany him. At Antioch they were joined by two female friends of Jerome’s and together they made a pilgrimage to all the places connected with the earthly life of Jesus. Later, they decided to make their home in Bethlehem where Jerome continued with writing, studying, and overseeing a monastery.
Jerome noticed that the vast number of pilgrims to Bethlehem were extremely poor, so he committed himself to building a hostel for them. Eusebius was asked to go to Croatia and Italy to raise money for the building project and sold his own property at Cremona to help with finances.
Theological disputes continued and Eusebius is believed to have returned to Rome to convince Pope Anastasius I to condemn the writings of Origen. In 400 AD, Eusebius returned to his native Cremona but it is not known if he stayed there until his death or if he returned to Bethlehem to become the abbot and spiritual leader of the church there.
Wherever Eusebius spent his last years, he continued to support Jerome’s interests and they regularly wrote to each other exchanging theological books and commentaries. Eusebius died in 423 and it is thought he is buried alongside Jerome in Bethlehem.
Eusebius lived at a time when understandings of Christianity were still developing. He was devoted to God’s word and sought to live following Christ’s humility and servanthood.
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17th March: St Patrick
St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. If you’ve ever been in New York on St Patrick’s Day, you’d think he was the patron saint of New York as well... the flamboyant parade is full of American/Irish razzmatazz.
It’s all a far cry from the hard life of this 5th century humble Christian who became in time both bishop and apostle of Ireland. Patrick was born the son of a town councillor in the west of England, between the Severn and the Clyde. But as a young man he was captured by Irish pirates, kidnapped to Ireland, and reduced to slavery. He was made to tend his master’s herds.
Desolate and despairing, Patrick turned to prayer. He found God was there for him, even in such desperate circumstances. He spent much time in prayer, and his faith grew and deepened, in contrast to his earlier years, when he “knew not the true God”.
Then, after six gruelling, lonely years he was told in a dream he would soon go to his own country. He either escaped or was freed, made his way to a port 200 miles away and eventually persuaded some sailors to take him with them away from Ireland. After various adventures in other lands, including near-starvation, Patrick landed on English soil at last, and returned to his family. But he was much changed. He had enjoyed his life of plenty before; now he wanted to devote the rest of his life to Christ. Patrick received some form of training for the priesthood, but not the higher education he really wanted.
But by 435, well-educated or not, Patrick was badly needed. Palladius’ mission to the Irish had failed, and so the Pope sent Patrick back to the land of his slavery. He set up his See at Armagh and worked principally in the north. He urged the Irish to greater spirituality, set up a school, and made several missionary journeys.
Patrick’s writings are the first literature certainly identified from the British Church. They reveal sincere simplicity and a deep pastoral care. He wanted to abolish paganism, idolatry, and was ready for imprisonment or death in the following of Christ. Patrick remains the most popular of the Irish saints. The principal cathedral of New York is dedicated to him, as, of course, is the Anglican cathedral of Dublin.
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19th March: Joseph the Carpenter, descendant of King David
Many people know that Joseph was the father of the most famous man who ever lived, but beyond that, we know very little about him. The Gospels name him as the ‘father’ of Jesus, while also asserting that the child was born of a virgin. Even if he wasn’t what we call the ‘biological’ father, it was important to them that he was a distant descendant of the great King David - a necessary qualification for the Messiah.
It’s obvious that Joseph (usually described as a ‘carpenter’) was not wealthy, because he was allowed to offer the poor man’s sacrifice of two pigeons or turtle doves at the presentation of his infant son. No one expected eloquence or wisdom from this man’s son. Jesus was born into an unremarkable family, with a doubtless hard-working artisan as His father. There would have been few luxuries in that little home at Nazareth.
Matthew begins his birth narrative with the bald statement that Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she became pregnant ‘with child from the Holy Spirit’. Joseph was not apparently privy to the divine intervention in her life, and so drew the obvious conclusion: it was another man’s child. However, he was not the sort of man who wished to disgrace her publicly, so he resolved to ‘dismiss her quietly’ - end their engagement without fuss, we might say.
However, at that point Joseph had a dream in which he was told by ‘an angel of the Lord’ not to hesitate to take Mary as his wife, because the child conceived in her was ‘from the Holy Spirit’, and that the baby was to be named ‘Jesus’ (‘saviour’) because He will ‘save His people from their sins’. On waking, Joseph did as he had been instructed and took Mary as his wife.
So far as Joseph himself is concerned, we can be pretty sure of a few things. In human, legal terms he was the father of Jesus, he was a carpenter and he had probably died before Jesus began his public ministry. The little we are told suggests a devout, decent and sensitive man, one who shared Mary’s anxiety when the 12-year-old Jesus went missing in Jerusalem, and who presumably taught his son the trade of a carpenter.
Joseph has become an icon of the working man - there are many churches nowadays dedicated to ‘Joseph the Worker.’ He can stand in the calendar of saints for the ’ordinary’ person, a straight-forward craftsman who never expected or chose to be in the spotlight of history. He did what he could, and he was obedient to everything that he believed God required of him. To do the ‘ordinary’ thing well, to be kind, caring and open to guidance: these are great gifts, and Joseph seems to have had them in abundance.
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21st March: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury & Reformation Martyr
If you have ever been caught up in a great event at work, which has gone on to change your own life, then Thomas Cranmer is the saint for you. He was the first ever Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, following King Henry VIII’s decision to pull away from Rome, and set up the Church of England (C of E).
Born in Nottingham in1489, Thomas Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533. He was adviser to both Henry VIII and Edward VI. He helped Henry with the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and along with Thomas Cromwell, supported the principle of Royal Supremacy (where the king is sovereign over the Church in his realm).
Under Edward VI, Thomas Cranmer made major reforms to the C of E. He put the English Bible into parish churches, compiled the first two versions of the Book of Common Prayer, and worked with continental reformers to change doctrine on everything from the Eucharist and veneration of saints.
But kings and queens, like American presidents, change, and the Catholic Queen Mary I was determined to wipe out Protestantism. Thomas Cranmer was imprisoned for two years, found guilty of heresy, and burned at the stake on 21st March 1556.
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24th March: Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador
Oscar Romero was a bit of a modern Thomas Becket – loyal to the authorities until he was given great responsibility for the Church. Then, like Becket, there was trouble. In Romero’s case, it all began when he was born Cuidad Barrios in El Salvador back in 1917. Devout from a young age, he was ordained in 1942, and became a parish priest in the diocese of San Miguel.
For 25 years Romero worked hard in his parish, where he was a traditional priest, very conservative, ascetic, and devoted to the Virgin Mary. In 1967 he was appointed Secretary to the Episcopal Conference of El Salvador. He was elevated to be Bishop of San Salvador and then Bishop of Santiago de Maria. An admirer of the conservative Opus Dei movement, Romero firmly opposed any liberation theology.
Then in 1977 Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador. The Salvadorian government saw him as a safe pair of hands for the job. But they were in for a shock. For Romero’s new responsibilities made him look afresh at the relationship between Church and State in El Salvador. He did not like what he saw. Romero saw that social unrest and poverty were the direct result of government repression, and even worse, that the Church played its part in the on-going violence of Salvadorian society. After the murder of several outspoken priests and then the expulsion of several allegedly Marxist Jesuits, Romero felt compelled to speak out.
The right-wing Latin American governments were well used to priests who worked with the poor speaking out against them. But this was the first time that an Archbishop had raised his voice, and they were furious. But Romero became a champion of liberation theology. He condemned government violence and championed the right of the poor to economic and social justice. He even wrote a pastoral letter from the Salvadorian bishops, supporting proportionate counter-violence towards the oppressive right-wing regime. When, nonetheless, he also still tried to act as a mediator between the rival groups, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
For several years Romero received death threats from both left- and right-wing paramilitary groups. Finally, while celebrating Mass, he was shot through the heart by a government assassin. It was 24th March 1980, and 40 more people died in the gunfire and explosions at his funeral. The Church worldwide mourned for him.
30th March: Mothering Sunday
The honouring of mothers goes back to Roman times. In the Spring, there were pagan festivals to honour Cybele, Mother of all the Gods. Other celebrations paid tribute to Mother Earth.
From the Middle Ages, in England, it became traditional for outdoor labourers and craftsman to have a day off in Lent. Later, domestic servants were also given short leave to visit their mother and family. These brief holidays became an opportunity to go to church. This might have been their home church or their nearest cathedral. The Services at the ‘mother’ church symbolised the coming together of families. The term ‘Mothering Sunday’ dates from the 16th century.
‘Mother's Day’ is a secular festival. It originated in 1908 after Anna Jarvis held a church memorial service for her mother in West Virginia, USA. She was a peace activist; a nurse for wounded soldiers in the American Civil War and founded Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna wanted people to honour the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. Before she died Anna regretted the commercialism that followed and expressed that this was never her intention.
Many mothers are mentioned in the Bible along with interesting stories about them. These include Eve, Hagar, Leah, Ruth and Bathsheba to mention only a few. A few times God enabled childless women to have a baby: Rachel, Rebekah, Manoah’s wife (unnamed) and Hannah who eventually gave birth to Joseph, Jacob, Samson and Samuel respectively. There was also Sarah, wife of Abraham, who aged 90 became the mother of Isaac. 
It is possible that these miraculous births were remembered by the Virgin Mary. She was certainly aware that her elderly relative was pregnant. These events foreshadowed angel Gabriel’s announcement that Mary was going to have a baby. Then added “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
Mothering Sunday is celebrated on the Fourth Sunday in Lent and called ‘Mid-Lent’. It was also called ‘Refreshment Sunday’, when the rigors of Lent including the fast were relaxed for a day of family rejoicing. In some places the day was called Simnel Day, because of the sweet cakes called simnel cakes traditionally eaten on that day.
In recent years Mothering Sunday resembles America’s Mother’s Day with families going out to Sunday lunch and generally making a fuss of their mother on the day.