Pilgrim

Citing sources, not only of quotations but of all background material, is for everyone, not just for academics. Full and correct citation, as far as we can make them, is important for several reasons:

1) plagiarism and copyright – if you don’t acknowledge your sources, you are, in effect if not in intention, passing those ideas off as your own. That is dishonest.

2) scholarly generosity – your readers should be able to follow the trail of your research back to your sources, so that they can see how your ideas developed, and continue their own learning.

3) common courtesy – you’ve benefited from the work of others, so you ought to acknowledge that help and share it with more people through your work.f

If you find material on this site helpful to your own writing, please cite it and link back to the relevant page. I do. Most of what is written here is not original research or even original opinion, but (obviously) a collection of research resources with occasional notes, comments and translations. I hope I’ve made those lines adequately clear.

Here is a list of research resources I use regularly to compile my posts on early British and other western saints – saints’ lives, troparia and other prayers, icons.

• Acathistes et offices orthodoxes – see the ‘Racines orthodoxes’ (Orthodox Roots) posts for early western saints. Site in French. Original troparia for a growing number of British saints!
• Aidan Hart Icons
• Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation – English translation at Medieval Sourcebook
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• celtic-saints and its archive which I find easier to use
• Holy Trinity Orthodox calendar
• Orthodox England – woefully indexed (not at all) but FULL of information, so use Google advanced domain-specific search where necessary. See below for links to saints for each month.
• Orthodox Prayers on Twitter and Facebook
• St George Orthodox Information Service
• Under the Oak – Irish saints
• Western Saints Icon Project
• wikipedia and orthodoxwiki
• Yorkorthodox – calendar changes monthly
• Lots and LOTS of saints’ lives in French from the VCO

Thanks to blog reader Luke for two more sources of troparia and kontakia for some British and Irish saints:

• Michael Purcell’s Menologion program
• the Celtic Arc, a Russian site about the history of the Celtic Church. Calendar entries and associated hymns are in English, but the calendar apparatus and most of the rest of the site are in Russian.

Orthodoxengland‘s calendar of western saints by month:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Printed sources available online – free access except where indicated

S Baring Gould & J Fisher, The lives of the British saints; the saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish saints as have dedications in Britain
vol 1 Aaron – Byrnach
vol 2 Cadell – Ewryd
vol 3 Faustus – Mynno
vol 4 Nectan – Ystyffan

Baring Gould – The Lives of the Saints
vol I – January
vol II – February
vol III – March
vol IV – April
vol V – May
vol VI – June
vol VII – July 1
vol VIII – July 2
vol IX – August
vol X – September
vol XI – October 1
vol XII – October 2
vol XIII – November 1
vol XIV – November 2
vol XV – December
vol XVI – Index and Appendix

O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints
vol 1 January
vol 2 February
vol 3 March
vol 4 April
vol 5 May
vol 6 June
vol 7 July
vol 8 August
vol 9 September
Unfortunately, Canon O’Hanlon didn’t finish the volumes for the rest of the year. perhaps one day someone will write up his research notes…

Analecta Bollandiana
Butler’s Lives of the Saints and an online index to the lot
ABC Dunbar Saintly Women vol 1 A-L and vol 2 M-Z
David Farmer Oxford Dictionary of Saints
Patrologia Latina
Stanton’s Menology