Saints and Stones: Saints - Wales Resources

Web Resources
Print Resources

Web Resources (Alphabetical by Title)

Early British Kingdoms
One of David Nash Ford's websites, great for a number of things but especially for biographies and well-known and obscure saints from different parts of England, Scotland, and Wales.





New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
More than 11,000 articles on Catholic topics, including biographies of saints, monasteries, abbeys, churches, monastic orders, monastic schools of learning, among other essential topics. Not limited strictly to ecclesiastical issues, it records all that Catholics have done, not only in behalf of charity and morals, but also for the intellectual and artistic development of mankind, chronicling what Catholic artists, educators, poets, scientists and men of action have achieved.

Orthodox Wiki
OrthodoxWiki is a free-content encyclopedia and information center for Orthodox Christianity that anyone can edit. The English version was started in November 2004. OrthodoxWiki is not affiliated with Wikipedia. The chief and founding administrator is Fr. John, a priest of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). The purpose of OrthodoxWiki is to present an encyclopedia of Orthodox Christianity as represented by the mainstream Chalcedonian churches ("Eastern Orthodox").


Wikipedia
Wikipedia -- from wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia -- is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project written collaboratively by volunteers that currently ranks among the top ten most-visited websites worldwide.The vast majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Contains several hundred useful pages on specific saints, holy sites, churches, monasteries, abbeys, among others, which are most useful to this website.


Print Resources (Alphabetical by Author)

Dana Delap
Celtic Saints
Andover, Hampshire: Pitkin Guides, n.d.

This small pamphlet traces the Celtic Saints from Ireland to Northumbria, Whitby, Wales, and Europe. It traces the origins of Celtic Christianity and has a chapters on the monastic vocation and the Celtic inheritance. Included is a useful list of the major saints and a map showing the locations of Celtic Christian sites.






Eleanor Shipley Duckett
The Wandering Saints of the Early Middle Ages
New York: Norton, 1964

An excellent book on the wayfaring Celtic Saints in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and Brittany in the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries, including chapters on Celtic missionaries in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries to Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.






David Hugh Farmer
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005 ed.

More than 1,300 saints are profiled in this most readable, extensive, and indispensable reference work. Farmer's compilation of saints includes all English saints, all saints of whom there is or was a notable cult, and well-known and lesser-known saints from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the rest of Europe. A most useful appendix of the principal patronages of saints, plus an index of the main iconographical emblems of saints, another of places, and a calendar of feast days is included.




Britain's Pilgrim Places
London: Lifestyle Press Ltd., 2000

Britain's Pilgrim Places captures the spirit of 2,000 years of history and heritage. It covers 500 holy places and 48 major pilgrimage routes throughout England, Scotland, and Wales. A very valuable resource from the British Pilgrimage Trust.






Martin and Nigel Palmer
The Spiritual Traveler - England, Scotland, and Wales:
The Guide to Sacred Sites and Pilgrim Routes in Britain
Mahwah, New Jersey: HiddenSpring, 2000

While other books have toured British monasteries and churches, the Palmers go one step further by exploring the entire sacred landscape: holy wells, sacred cities, and plant and animal life, and includes detailed descriptions of cathedrals, pilgrim roads, henges, druids' circles, shrines, monasteries, ruins, graveyards and martyrdom sites. Unfortunately, the book is marred by the author's constant and annoying editorializing.


Elizabeth Rees
Celtic Saints: Passionate Wanderers
NY: Thames & Hudson, 2000

Using archaeological and literary evidence, Elizabeth Rees presents the fascinating stories of some of the best known Celtic saints--St. Patrick and St. Bridget in Ireland, St. David in Wales, St. Columba in Scotland, and St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert in Northumbria--as well as lesser-known monks, nuns, missionaries, and martyrs. From St. Michael's Mount in the south to Iona and Lindisfarne in the north, the author takes us on a spiritual tour of the sacred places where the saints chose to pray, preach, and study.


John Watney
Celtic Wales
Andover, Hampshire: Pitkin Guides, n.d.

This small pamphlet is a tour of Wales from its beginnings from the Bronze Age and the arrival of the Celts to the "Age of the Saints" from the 6th-12th centuries. It also covers subjects such as Celtic life, the Druids, early and late Celtic art, hillforts and warriors, the Roman conquest and after, and literature and language. An appendix lists the sites discussed.






Peter N. Williams
The Sacred Places of Wales: A Modern Pilgrimage
Bloomington, Indiana: 1st Books Library, 2001

This small book takes one on a journey around Wales, from Tintern Abbey in the southeast to the shrine of St. Winifred in Holywell in the northeast. It covers many of the ancient burial grounds, but is mainly centered on the six cathedrals of Wales: St. Woolos, Llandaff, Brecon, St. David's, Bangor, and St. Asaph.



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