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 we don’t acknowledge our sources, we are, in effect if not in intention, passing those ideas off as our own. That is dishonest and can lead to others making incorrect assumptions.

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

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

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 original notes, comments and translations. I hope I’ve made those lines adequately clear. 2019 update: I started this blog for myself and have been completely astonished, on coming back to it, to see how many readers it has. I hope all quotations are already obvious, cited, and linked where possible, and am checking and revising old entries to prevent any possible misunderstanding.

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
  • Butler’s Lives of the Saints and an online index to the lot
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • celtic-saints and its archive which I find easier to use
  • ABC Dunbar Saintly Women vol 1 A-L and vol 2 M-Z
  • Holy Trinity Orthodox calendar
  • Fr Christopher Klitou’s Orthodox Pages
  • Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae – Irish saints, and sister site Trias Thaumaturga on SS Brigid, Patrick and Colum Cille (Columba)
  • Orthodox England – not indexed 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 now archived, see versions up to 2014 via archive.org, without images.
  • 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

Acta Sanctorum link is to the January volume. Roger Pearse has enormously helpfully sorted out which volumes of which editions are available online – I’m still confused, but less lost!

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
David Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints
Patrologia Latina
Stanton’s Menology