#st teilo

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

Catholic Worldbuilding and the Wizarding World - Headcanons and More

If you've read All That Remains, my Regulus-Black centric work, you'll know I've incorporated Catholicism into my fics since then. The inspiration to incorporate Catholicism came from both @artemisia-black's Lacrimosa and Fiat justitia and her world building in D&D and Pietas, and @green-and-grey-kenaz's And he Drank.

Some caveats before I go on:

These are just headcanons of mine and things I've put into my fics. They work with the world but you don't need to accept them as canon or canon-compliant. Nor am I asking you to do so. I'm just excited to have this list put together of what I've done and the research that went into it.

There are other religions and faiths in the wizarding world. As Britain became more multicultural and diverse, it meant the purebloods and wizarding population did too.

This list is specifically for certain old-school Catholic families, particularly ones like the Blacks.

Catholic HCs and world building in my works:

Old-world pureblood families were Catholic. As the Roman Empire spread, witches and wizards from other areas hopped into Britain and converted Muggles and purebloods alike from paganism to Christianity. Wizarding world Jesus was a wizard; the Resurrection can still hold up as a miracle because no magic can reverse death.

When Hogwarts was founded in about 1000 AD, a chapel was installed inside the school. In my Regulus Black-centric work, I have the chapel and its tabernacle being a personal gift from Pope John XV to Salazar Slytherin in honor of the new school being built. 

Magical Catholic Mass isn’t terribly different from Muggle Catholic Mass. The key difference is that since purebloods/wizarding society tends to be more old-school than Muggles, purebloods never bothered to implement the vernacular changes of Vatican II. They still celebrate Mass in Latin. 

The Pope is always aware of magical Catholics, not unlike the Prime Minister knowing about wizards. There are wizarding bishops and cardinals buried in the catacombs in the Vatican.

Magical Catholics have their own dioceses; they’re bigger, geographically speaking, because there’s a much smaller wizarding population than the general population. 

Pureblood Squibs are sent to monasteries or convents. 

I’ve created several locations like St. Mungo’s to accommodate various parts of wizarding society. St. Mungo was a real Britonnic saint, so all these saints below are also Anglo-Saxon/British and I’ve incorporated them into my worldbuilding, particularly in my current longfic, Supernova. Again, these are all my creations - not actual canon. 

There is a privately-funded pureblood hospital called St. Teilo’s. It’s where purebloods go to avoid being treated by Muggleborn Healers or associating with Muggleborns in general. St. Teilo’s bio page.

I created a day school for pureblood girls called St. Leoba’s. In the context of my fic, Supernova, it’s where a lot of pureblood girls go to school before they go to Hogwarts, whose parents aren’t keen to educate them themselves. St. Leoba’s bio page. 

There is a long-term care home called St. Hugh’s Home for Hopeless Cases. It’s a poorly funded Ministry facility for wizards with long-term illnesses and inmates from Azkaban who have been Kissed. St. Hugh of Lincoln’s bio page.

Purebloods worship at St. Aelred’s Cathedral. St. Aelred of Rievaulx was a real monastic whose abbey is now in ruins in Northumbria. I weave that into my stories by having Muggles see the abbey in ruins, but purebloods can see a proper cathedral and that’s where they have Mass. St. Aelred’s bio page. 

St. Aelred also has an extensive graveyard, complete with private mausoleums for individual families. The Blacks have one of the grandest mausoleums. 

The stained glass windows and art in St. Aelred’s move like photographs and portraits. The crucifix appears to be ‘living’ with blood shining on Christ’s wounds. Purebloods think it’s neat.  

The Statute of Secrecy and the creation of the Church of England were tied together. The CoE was founded in the early 1500s. The Statute of Secrecy went into effect in the late 1600s. The rise in persecution against witches and wizards, particularly from Muggles associating Catholic practices with witchcraft in general, was one of the reasons why the Statute went into effect. As a result, this is one of the other reasons why purebloods are so resentful towards Muggles and Muggleborns, as most of them are Anglicans.

Most pureblood families aren’t necessarily devout. Cultural Christianity/Catholicism is fairly common, but even when it’s cultural, it’s still very much a way for purebloods to wield power, influence, and control. 

Like many Catholics, old-school purebloods really like their relics and/or more ‘gory’ mementos. You may be aware that Catholics venerate (not worship, not adore, more like honoring) relics of dead saints, such as fragments of bone, skin, blood, etc. Given the Black family’s cool collection of blood and other unusual items, it makes sense to me that pureblood Catholics are fully on board with collecting pieces of dead bodies and having their own reliquaries at home. 

The splitting of one’s soul is an act of violence against the sacred. I wrote a meta on Horcruxes and Soul-Splitting; I imagine that the most zealous purebloods would find horcruxes to be outright offensive, not because of the murders involved, but because of the disintegration of the soul. I would also like to highlight this meta written by @artemisia-black and @ashesandhackles, the Importance of the Soul. 

[maypoleman1]

9th February

St Teilo’s Day

St Teilo. Source: Orthodox Christianity website

Today is St Teilo’s Day. Teilo was a fifth century Welsh monk and bishop, possibly of royal descent, who became a leading figure in Welsh monasticism and also the Bishop of Llandaff, near Cardiff. He was particularly venerated in the Celtic areas of Britain that held out against the Anglo-Saxon invaders, and his cult therefore naturally extended to Britanny. A rather gruesome cure became associated with this Welsh saint. Apparently if one was afflicted with whooping cough, a cure could be obtained by drinking from Teilo’s holy well at Maenclochog in Dyfed. The only drawback to this was the curative waters had to be quaffed from Teilo’s hollowed out skull, or the cure would not work. To complicate matters, Teilo apparently had three skulls - located at Llandaf, his birthplace in Penally, and the place of his death, Llandeilo Fawr in Dyfed. This was explained by God wishing all three sites to have a (literal) piece of Teilo, so he effectively cloned the deceased saint’s head twice. The skull generally held to be the real thing now resides in Llandaff Cathedral, and no one attempts to drink from it.

It is hard to see this strange tradition having anything other than Celtic pagan roots, given the importance of heads to Druidic religion, and the belief that the skull had magical properties.

[fionamccall]

St Teilo's: a complete pre-Reformation church decoration scheme

It's year's since I've visited St Fagan's open air museum in Cardiff. Since my last visit more buildings have been added to the collection, and it is quite a trek to look at all of them. What I really wanted to see was St Teilo's which is a church originally sited in Llandeilo Tal-y-bont in Glamorganshire, and removed to St Fagan's in the 1980s, where it was opened to the public in 2007. The wall paintings have been safely put in storage and the church repainted and decorated as it would have been in 1530 and the overall effect is stunning, including rood loft, statues, doom and other painted texts, symbols and images throughout.

There is a squint for looking at the communion.

The decorations have either been copied from those at St Teilo's or from other churches in Wales.

It is hard to make a selection from the many images reproduced in the church but here are a few:

Representation of the trinity that the Protestant iconoclasts would have hated.

Warning against sabbath-breaking, similar to one at Nether Wallop in Hampshire.

The paintings telling the story of the passion disprove the idea that before the Reformation ordinary people were ignorant of the bible, although the inclusion of words of Latin text might have encouraged the belief that they were efficacious for magical purposes.

[mothmiso]

Llandeilo (2) (3) by hurlham

Via Flickr:

(1) A steeply raked street in Llandeilo, a town situated at the crossing of the River Towy by a 19th-century stone bridge. (2) Newton House is in the grounds of Dinefwr Castle, close to Llandeilo in West Wales. It was formerly the main residence of the Rice (Rhys) family, elevated to the peerage as the Lords Dynevor. The residence had been restored to an estate house of the later Victorian era into the early Edwardian period. It is surrounded by a deer park which was landscaped by Capability Brown. (3) St Teilo's Church stands on a site where there’s been Christian worship for nearly fifteen centuries dating back to the mission of St Teilo in the sixth century.     

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY ( March 1)

Among Welsh Catholics, as well as those in England, March 1 is the liturgical celebration of Saint David of Wales.

St. David is the patron of the Welsh people, remembered as a missionary bishop and the founder of many monasteries during the sixth century.

David was a popular namesake for churches in Wales prior to the Anglican schism, and his feast day is still an important religious and civic observance.

Although Pope Benedict XVI did not visit Wales during his 2010 trip to the UK, he blessed a mosaic icon of its patron and delivered remarks praising St. David as “one of the great saints of the sixth century, that golden age of saints and missionaries in these isles, and...thus a founder of the Christian culture which lies at the root of modern Europe.”

In his comments, Pope Benedict XVI recalled the saint's dying words to his monastic brethren: “Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.”

He urged that "St. David's message, in all its simplicity and richness, continue to resound in Wales today, drawing the hearts of its people to renewed love for Christ and his Church.”

From a purely historical standpoint, little is known of David’s life, with the earliest biography dating from centuries after his time.

As with some other saints of sixth-century Wales, even the chronology of his life is not easy to ascertain.

David’s conception is said to have occurred as a result of rape – a detail that seems unlikely to have been invented by later biographers, though it cannot (like almost all of the traditions surrounding his life) be established with certainty.

His mother Saint Nonna or Nonnita has her traditional feast day on March 3.

David appears to have been the cousin of his contemporary Saint Teilo, another Welsh bishop and monk.

He is described as a pupil of the monastic educator Saint Paulinus, who was one of St. Teilo’s teachers as well.

There are doubts, however, about the story, which holds that David and Teilo traveled to Jerusalem and were ordained together as bishops.

It is clear that David served as the Bishop of Menevia, an important port city linking Wales and Ireland in his time.

His leading role in two local councils of the Church is also a matter of record.

Twelve monasteries have their founding ascribed to David, who developed a reputation for strict asceticism.

His monks modeled their lives on the earliest desert hermits – combining hard manual labor, silence, long hours of prayer, and a diet that completely excluded meat and alcohol.

The monks did not use animals to take care of their fields. They relied only on bread, vegetables, and water.

One tradition places his death in the year 601, but other writers believe he died in the 540s.

David may well have survived to an advanced age, but evidence is lacking for the claim (made by his 11th-century biographer) that he lived to the age of 147.

Pope Callistus II canonized St. David of Wales in 1120.

[silvestromedia]

SAINTS SEPTEMBER 21 "There is only one tragedy in this life, not to have been a saint."- Leon Bloy

ST. MATTEW, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST From tax collector to Apostle and Evangelist: this is the arc of Saint Matthew's life. He was called Levi, which means “God's gift”. He was a contemporary of Our Lord Jesus. The Church celebrates him on September 21. Saint Matthew is the patron of bankers, accountants, and bill collectors.

St. Thomas Dien, Roman Catholic Martyr of Vietnam. A native of Vietnam, he entered the seminary program of the Paris Foreign Missions but was put to death before he could complete his studies. Thomas was flogged and strangled. Feastday Sept 21

St. Hieu, 657 A.D. English abbess of Northumbria, England, who received the veil from St. Aidan. She governed Tadcaster Abbey, in Yorkshire. She may be identical with St. Bega or Bee.

St. Mabyn, 6th century. Welsh and Cornish saint, with Mabon and Mabenna. All are associated with St. Teilo. St. Mabenna was the daughter of Chieftain Brychan of Brecknock, Wales. They are all revered in various places that bear their names, but no details of their lives are extant.

St. Maura Troyes, Roman Catholic Virgin. - She was nobly born at Troyes in Cham pagne in the ninth century, and in her youth obtained of God by her prayers the wonderful conversion of her father, who had till then led a worldly life. After his happy death, Maura continued to live in the most dutiful subjection and obedience to her mother, Sedulia and by the fervor of her example was the sanctification of her brother Eutropius and of the whole family. Feastday Sept 21

St. Francis Jaccard, Roman Catholic Martyr of Vietnam. Born in Onnion, Savoy, France, Francis was sent by the Seminary for Foreign Missions in Paris to Vietnam in 1826. He was martyred by strangulation. Feastday Sept 21

Sts. Chastan Chastan, who had preceded him into Korea, surrendered to the authorities. They were bastinadoed and then beheaded at Seoul on September 21. During the same persecution, John Ri was bastinadoed and suffered martyrdom, and Agatha Kim was hanged from a cross by her arms and hair, driven over rough country in a cart, and then stripped and beheaded. In 1925, Laurence and his companions and many others, eighty-one in all, who had been executed for their faith, were beatified as the Martyrs of Korea. Feastday Sept 21

ST. PAMPHILUS, MARTYR ON THE VIA SALARIA ANTICAT. EUSTACHIUS, IN HIS CHURCH Placidus was a Roman general who had a vision of the Cross between a deer’s antlers, and heard a voice revealing himself as the Christ. He converted, with his wife and sons, and took the name Eustachius. The family was separated, and only reunited on the eve of their martyrdom, around the year 140.

ST. EPHIGENIA

[ikimono-clips]

Tenby Holyrood & St Teilo's Church – St Peter & St John by Dim Parcio

[blueboxphenomenon]

Cardiff Ghost Plague of 2008

On the 21st June, 2008 from 6:30am to 7:30am, there was a massive spike in daylight ghost sightings in Cardiff. Plotted on a graph, the sightings began close to the demolition site for St Teilo's Military Hospital and spread out in a radial pattern until abruptly halting around an hour later. Curiously, St Teilo's was plagued with ghost sightings in 1918. Many of the ward sisters attributed this to the soldiers' nerves, until they themselves saw the ghosts wandering the halls.

St Teilo's Military Hospital has long been regarded as haunted, but 2008 saw the greatest number of ghost sightings* not just in the abandoned hospital but in the whole Cardiff area with the 21st of June presenting a sudden spike in the early hours. The site has been quiet ever since. What could have caused this storm of paranormal unrest? Many theorise that Cardiff sits atop some kind of portal, and this may explain Torchwood's covert presence in the area. Are Torchwood the real Ghostbusters?

*Not counting the global "Ghost Shifts" of 2007, as these were not true ghosts

[richmond-rex]

I just wanted you all to know that when Henry Tudor was just a year old a Welsh poet, Dafydd Nanmor, wrote a poem invoking all—I mean, all—of the Welsh saints to protect him, plus additional, non-Welsh ones. These are the saints he asks to protect the child (in order of appearance): 

St Benedict and St Bernard, St Dyrnog, St Brothen and St Sulien and St Silin, St Buan, St Celynnin, St Beuno of Clynnog, St Cynin and his servants, St Cynan, St Asaph, St Cawrdaf, kinsman of Eudaf son of Caradog, St Collen, St Elian, St Cynwyd, Cynfelyn, St Cedwyn and St Cadog, St Cadfan and St Dyfnan, St Ust and St Dyfnig, St Caron and St Curig, St Patrick, St Pedrog, St Peris, St Cristiolus, St Dennis, St Dwynwen, St Peter, St John, St Gwynnen, St Padarn, St Gwynnog, St Fagan, bishop St Afan, Ifor, St Gregory, St George, St Môr and St Mwrog, St Clare, St Ilar, St Cynddylig, St Dominic, St Peblig, St Meilig, St Maelog, 

—(I’m not done)—

St Dochwyn and St Tecwyn, and St Tygwy, St Dochdwy, St Winifred and St Tyfrïog, St Derfel and St Dwyfel and St Gredifel, St Dogmael, St Daniel and St Dwynog, St Deiniol and St Seiriol and St Saeran, Dardanus, St Stephen, St Cynan, St Cynog, St Deiniolen, Llawdden, St Cathen, St Ceitho, St David of Mynyw, St Dyfaenog, St Tybïe, St Einion and St Non, St Tegla, St Agatha, St Anna, St Enoch, St Tanwg and St Trinio, St James, St Egwad, St Tysilio, St Lleuddad, St Tysul, St Llawddog, St Lawrence, St Mark and St Richard, St Luke, St Lambert, St Edward and St Tyfrydog, and St Tydecho, St Teilo and St Telyddog.

Nanmor also asks Mary, Gabriel, Sariel, Thomas, Uriel, Michael and Rhiniel to “allow Henry to grow old for a long time”. This is the same poet that prophesised that Henry Tudor would be king but died before he could see it happen.

[lailoken]

“There are numerous holy wells, even well into recent times, that have magical healing traditions involving the ritual use of human skulls. This is a tradition, surviving and adapted into modern era Christian usage from ancient pagan practice. The tradition at these wells, of drinking the curative waters from the interior of a human skull, would suggest that from the skull itself are imparted into the waters additional virtues, perhaps associated with life force, divinity and creation. Perhaps by such practices, the sacred, curative waters were believed to be enhanced and given extra potency by the virtues associated with the sacred cultic vessel of the skull/head.

The ritual use of human skulls at holy wells is a tradition that appears to have been at its strongest in Wales but is not an isolated one, for it is found also in examples of well tradition in Ireland and Scotland.

In Pembroke, West Wales, is perhaps the most widely renowned tradition of a skull's ritual use at a holy well which survived well into the 19th century. St Teilo’s Well was home to a healing tradition using the skull of the 6th century Bishop St Teilo of Wales, which was in the guardianship of the Melchior family who lived close to the well. Those seeking a cure had to receive and drink the waters, handed to them in the skull of St Teilo by a member of the Melchior family who had to have been born in the family home in order for the rite to be successful. Another Welsh well at which water was drunk from a human skull for healing purposes was Ffynnon Llandyfaen in Carmarthenshire. Here the practice was still extant by 1815.

The skulls employed in such rites were not always those associated with Christian saints or holy people. In Wester Ross in the North West Scottish Highlands, is the well of Tobar A' Chinn - meaning The Well of the Head. Here, the skull employed within the well's curative rites was believed to have been that of a woman who had committed suicide in the 18th or 19th century. As a suicide, the woman was buried outside the churchyard, later however, her skull is said to have appeared on the surface of the ground, indicating that it was possessed of miraculous powers. The skull was taken to the well, where it was housed in a stone container. Sufferers of epilepsy would resort to the well in search of a cure. There they would be instructed by the guardian of the well in the ritual procedure that was to be performed. This rite involved the circumambulation of the patient around the well in the direction of the sun three times. The well guardian would then draw water from the well in the skull from which the patient had to drink three times.

A particularly macabre skull ritual was performed on the Isle of Lewis. Here a cure for epilepsy might be performed by a skull being disinterred from a graveyard at midnight and brought to the home of the patient who then would drink water from it drawn from a holy well. The ritual was completed by the skull's return to the graveyard for re-interment.

The use of water in which saintly relics have been steeped for curative or protective purposes is an established tradition within folk magic, thus water did not always have to be drunk directly from a skull in order for the patient to partake of the virtues of the osseous vessel. In Aberdeenshire, in the parish of Marnoch, Banff, water in which the skull of St Marnoch had been washed was considered for many years a potent curative for the sick.”

—

Wisht Waters:

Aqueous Magica and the Cult of Holy Wells

by Gemma Gary

[churchcrawler]

St Teilo, Llandeilo Graban, Powys

[cypher2]

It's two days before Jess Fishlock flies back to America. She’s been back home in her native Cardiff for a month: the longest period she has been home for since she moved away to Holland aged 19 to pursue her football dream.

She’s 32 now.

The first thing she did after suffering a horrific anterior cruciate ligament injury was book flights to Cardiff.

Home acts as her stabiliser.

“Coming back to Llanrumney and being around my people, it just makes me feel safe,” she says.

Fishlock is a distinctively cool character. Wearing an almost entirely black outfit, the globally-recognised athlete is rocking ankle-skimming trousers, a black tee and leather jacket, with her trademark short blonde hair styled. In one pierced ear is a stud, in the other a gold cross hoop earring, and she wears a low silver chain around her neck.

Jess and Llanrumney

We’re probably within a 10-minute drive of Jess’ family home; the heart of the city suburb that acted as her playground during her childhood.

“I’m a Llanrumney girl, through and through, born and bred”, she proudly says.

“I have that rough side to me, I have that cheeky side to me, I’m fearless.

“I’m lucky because there was so much grass around so I was always playing loads of sports. I was one of six kids, so I was never alone, I was always getting into trouble with my brothers and sisters.

“The beauty of Llanrumney as well is my dad’s one of seven boys, all named Fishlock, all in Llanrumney. So I couldn’t get into too much trouble before my mum would get a phone call, and then I’d be found."

While at home, Jess admits she forgets that she's 'Jess Fishlock MBE': Wales’ most-capped footballer and one of the most recognisable Welsh athletes.

“I went over to watch one of the girls’ teams play the other day on the field and one of the girls just broke down in tears, just from seeing me. I didn’t even say anything to her.

“Her mum was like, ‘Why are you crying?’ She said, ‘I can’t believe it, Jess Fishlock’.

“When I’m home, I forget that.”

As if it’s what every professional athlete would have done, Jess adds, fairly nonchalantly: “So I took her to my house, actually, and gave her one of my shirts, because that’s what Llanrumney is.”

Back to school in Llanedeyrn, and the children - boys and girls, a mixture of ages - have entered the room.

'School's not for everybody - that's not a myth'

We’re at Jess’ former school, St Teilo's Church in Wales High School, although it's not the same building anymore. When Jess attended, the school was the other side of the hill but it’s now housed in a huge, modern, impressive home.

When telling her friends she was heading back here to speak to pupils, they had joked that she was brave.

In an interview published earlier this year, Jess had described her time at school as “hell on Earth”.

She’s here to set the record straight.

When setting her mind to doing some community work while home, she decided she absolutely wanted to return.

After her saddening comment was published, the school’s headteacher Ian Loynd dug out her email. When it pinged in her inbox, she knew going back was the right thing to do.

“Coming back here after me coming out and saying that school was hard for me, I don’t want this school to think it was because of them. It wasn’t, it was a time of my life and school isn’t for everybody - that’s not a myth.

“But although it was a very hard time in my life, it was still a school that I went to every single day, I got through it and it helped to mould me into who I am, whether that be great or bad experiences.

“You can’t just shut out all the bad stuff, because it’s the bad stuff that actually makes you a better person.”

She elaborates, and clarifies she wasn’t exactly the perfect pupil.

“I could have applied myself a little bit better in school, probably. But if you’re not comfortable somewhere, it’s hard to do that and I think that goes in any part of life.”

'Nothing about school helped me be me'

After the school talk, Jess shares a vivid memory that would make any listener uncomfortable, but if offers an honest insight into her school experience.

“Back then, the stairs wherever you went were segregated – boys only, girls only. And for someone like me at that point, I had short hair as I do now - which is far more acceptable nowadays than it was back then - you could only imagine what was being said in these stairwells.”

She would also go into the girls’ locker room and be told, “You’ve got short hair – you’re a boy”.

“At the time, when you don’t know what is actually going on with your own body, you don’t know, you don’t understand it because back then there was a rule that you couldn’t educate anybody on homosexuality, it was just ‘boy and girl’.

“They’re the most important years of your developmental life and everything that I was, in school I could not be.

“I couldn’t play football, I wasn’t really comfortable going from class to class because I’d have to go through these stairwells where I knew something was going to be said.

“Going into school every day there was nothing about it that helped me be who I am or who I wanted to be from a professional perspective, and who I was as a human. Just try to imagine that as an adult.

“And then try to imagine that as a child.”

Remarkably, she holds no bitterness.

“A generation of people went through the same stuff, it’s just I’m talking about it and I don’t want it to happen to anybody else.”

Jess says she knew she was gay around the age of 12.

“I knew really young. But knowing it and accepting it are two different things.”

She was terrified, not in herself, but of people knowing.

“Knowing it would be hard for my mum and dad, hard for my family, impossible for my grandparents and in a different kind of world, really, to the rest of society, now that is scary, especially for a 12-year-old.”

Sport, and nature-filled surroundings, acted as her respite.

“I was lucky because I would go out in the evening and I would play football.

“And then I would have a terrible day and then I would play football, and everything would be fine, and I’d go back to school. That was just what it was.”

When one of the pupils asks her how many league titles she’s won, she literally has to stop, look down and count.

“One sec,” she says, prompting a few giggles.

“I don’t know, more than 15.”

Every story starts somewhere.

And, for this double Champions League winner who has played in countries from Australia to Germany and France to America, her football story starts aged seven.

Elder sister Kathryn wanted to go to a summer football camp near Heath park. Jess had no interest, but it was either join in or stay in her bedroom.

Jess’ mum still has the picture of Jess that day that was published in the newspaper, where she has a mushroom haircut, ball in arms, looking at the camera.

Jess name-checks Cardiff City Ladies’ club chair Michelle Adams MBE and secretary Karen Jones MBE as pivotal figures who helped her.

She was allowed to train with teenagers at the club when she was seven years old, and then with the adults aged 12 onwards.

“I remember I’d be shouting and crying to my mum if I’d go to training and Karen and Michelle would say ‘you can’t train with them today, you have to train with the youth’. I would just bawl!”

Seattle Reign

Jess is settled in Seattle having played for the city club, Reign FC, for almost seven years.

For an athlete of her profile and success, she is astonishingly grounded.

Frequently acknowledging how others have guided her, she uses the word ‘lucky’ no less than 11 times during an hour-long interview to describe her journey.

But it hasn’t always been a smooth ride.

After dropping out of college to concentrate on making football her career, she got a job - working in customer services for a telecomms provider. She was working 40 hours per week aged 16 to be able to pay her way and afford her football equipment.

“If I went back, I’d probably change my decision, even though it’s worked out.”

A few years later, aged 19, Jess had moved to Holland to play for AZ Alkmaar. It was her first time living outside of Llanrumney, pretty much, and she wasn’t coping well three months in.

“I rang my mum, crying my eyes out, ‘I can’t do this, I hate it, it’s not what I wanted, it’s not what I thought it was going to be, I’m coming home’.

“Her response was, ‘You’re not coming home, but if you do come home, you’re not living here’.”

Her mum Sharon can’t believe she tells this story to other people, Jess comically concedes.

“She said, ‘Give it until after Christmas and if you don’t feel any better, I’ll fly you home’.”

That was another three months away.

“Obviously I got upset and hated my mum at that point in time, which she always says was the hardest thing for her.

“She wanted me to go home, of course she did, but she knew that was selfish of her to want me to come home, because she knew that I wanted my career more than I wanted anything.

“In three months, I was having the time of my life. I just turned a corner, I don’t know what it was, broke through it and signed a two-year deal.”

It’s clear to see how much family means to Jess. She envisages returning to Wales to live permanently at some stage: to be closer to them, and to enjoy being an auntie.

Jess says she learned one of the most important lessons in life from her parents when she told them she was gay.

“Their love for me never faltered and all they needed was education and understanding.

“That’s one of the best lessons of my entire life that my mum and dad have taught me, without knowing, is the ability to understand something and want to learn to understand something for the sake of somebody else, is the most powerful thing."

December 2018 saw the Wales footballer become Jess Fishlock MBE at Buckingham Palace for her services to football and the LGBT community. At the time, she said it meant so much more to receive it for both, and not just football.

In August this year, she was named in our Pinc List as the most influential LGBT+ person in Wales.

“It’s nice to be recognised for being visible and pushing the LGBTQ agenda, but I think I will always do that anyway.

“I think a massive part of LGBTQ ignorance and the darker side of it comes from a lack of understanding. I don’t think it’s genuine hate. I mean, that does exist, but I don’t believe that it is that, I truly believe it is a lack of understanding and visibility of what it means and what you feel and that kind of stuff.”

'Your influence on society won't stop when your career is over'

Jess is adamant that she could not just disregard her platform.

“Sports is at a point right now where so many more sportspeople are coming out and trying to change life things and politics, and that’s not a bad thing at all, but it is up to us to also be a little bit humble with that.”

Referring to her Reign FC teammate and USA World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe - who, along with her team, came in for a lot of negative attention during the Women's World Cup - Jess says: “When you get to that point, like Megan is now, winning games and winning these championships is amazing, but it’ll end at some point.

“What won’t end is your influence on society and your influence on the next generation.”

Jess agrees that the public reaction to the USA team speaks volumes about how sportswomen are generally expected to behave.

“I think they expect women to behave differently. I don’t think they expect women to have the little bit of arrogance to come and do a celebration, although it’s brilliant and it’s funny.

“And yet Ronaldo and Messi can take off their jerseys and hold their shirts up, but [USA star] Alex [Morgan] can’t sip a little bit of tea, which, by the way, was hysterical, and Megan can’t just pose after she’s just knocked out France. What is the problem with a female kicking ass, celebrating it, why does that bring you so much negativity?”

Wales' hopes for Euro 2021 and progress

She has missed the start of Wales’ new campaign as they bid to qualify for Euro 2021, being hosted in England. We won’t see her in a Welsh jersey again probably before April.

“Every day is like, ‘I’m going to retire’ and then, ‘Oh, I’m fine’, and then, ‘Oh no, I’m going to retire’ again. That’s kind of the everyday mental progress of it.

“But, physically, it’s fine. My biggest drive to get back is to put on the Welsh jersey again.

“I think if we were able to qualify for Euro 2021, I think it would change the nation. It would change the dynamic, completely, and ultimately that’s what we want to try to do.

“If we don’t qualify then we can really deem it as failure because we have a good enough squad, we have a good enough group to be qualifying for a major tournament."

Just one poignant sign of progress made in recent years is the surprise that players were given at a friendly against Italy back in January: having their names on the back of their shirts for the very first time.

It had been organised by FAW backroom staff, and how much this meant is not to be underestimated.

“People who we’d worked with for a few years behind the scenes, they were fighting it for us – I think that is more powerful than anything else.

“That means so much more to us than us going into a boardroom and trying to fight with the FAW, which we would never do. We have a great relationship with the FAW and Jonathan Ford.”

Beginning the previous campaign with a couple of hundred supporters per game, The Red Wall flourished as Wales’ hopes of qualifying for the World Cup grew over the last campaign, before their final test against the Lionesses saw them miss out. That match was watched by more than 5,000 fans inside Rodney Parade.

Addressing the increased interest, Jess says: “It’s huge.

“It’s what it should be, but ultimately it’s what it should be because of who we are and what we’ve done.

“It’s wrong for us to say this should just happen anyway, because there has to be an element of development and an element of success.

“You don’t just demand stuff because you’ve got a job. You have to work at it.”

There is a long way to go in terms of catching up with the growth, visibility and commercial aspect to the men’s game.

Given the generally inclusive, accepting and welcoming vibe in women’s football - and men’s football not exactly being known for such qualities - I ask if there are aspects of the game and what goes with it that Jess would not want to see inherited from the men’s game.

“A hundred per cent, and that’s one of our biggest fears in women’s football is that we’re going to grow it, and we want to grow it so fast, that we make the wrong decisions and then it becomes exactly like the men’s game. And we don’t want that. Categorically.

“People might read this who are in the women’s game and be like, ‘no’, but I’m telling you now we don’t want that.”

She cites racism, abuse at players and the negative side of social media.

“What is beautiful about the women’s game is that it is inclusive, it is relatively safe and, as we grow it, we have to keep that. It is the most important part of it as far as I’m concerned.”

It’s approaching the end of the school Q&A on a sunny Friday afternoon in September.

“I would love to say I went to all my classes, but I didn’t. Don't listen to Jess Fishlock! But I’m not going to lie to you and say I was the best student in the world, I wasn’t.”

There’s the cue from the FAW’s media officer that it might be a good point to end the visit.

She laughingly agrees.

The headteacher explains there is a ban on mobile phones in the building, but makes an exception for selfies and pictures in honour of their special guest, to which Jess seems delighted and breaks into a cheeky smile.

“Breaking all the rules, I am back in school! Nothing’s changed!”

Let’s hope she carries on breaking every rule she sets her mind to.

Katie Sands | Wales Online Oct 6, 2019

[esonetwork]

Timestamp #TW16: To the Last Man

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/timestamp-tw16-to-the-last-man/

Timestamp #TW16: To the Last Man

Torchwood: To the Last Man (1 episode, s02e03, 2008)

  A story of love and loss across time.

Cardiff, 1918: At the climax of World War I, Gerald Kneale and Harriet Derbyshire of the Torchwood Institute are investigating reports of ghost activity at St. Teilo’s Military Hospital. Heading into the ward, they see a bright light and a glimpse into the future where Tosh and a soldier named Tommy are huddled. Tommy tells the 1918 Torchwood team that they need to take his earlier incarnation from the recovery ward to ensure his existence in the future.

Cardiff, 21st century: Tosh dances about in her home as she gets ready for work, then goes to the Hub where Torchwood Three is about to awaken Tommy Brockless from cryogenic hibernation. Apparently, they have to revive him every twelve months, and Tosh is able to calm him down when he comes back to life.

Tommy settles in for a meal with the team, complimenting Tosh on her dress while he eats. Later on, during his examination, he recites name, rank, regiment, and parents’ death dates. Elsewhere, Jack briefs Gwen on the events from 1918 where time zones were colliding. Agents Kneale and Derbyshire left orders sealed with a temporal lock, and when the time is right, Tommy’s presence will prevent the temporal collision from spreading to the rest of the world.

Tosh takes Tommy outside for a day in the world while Gwen looks into the 1918 Torchwood team. Gwen decides to investigate the hospital. She finds a man with a missing leg who vanishes and a team of firemen who intend to demolish the building. Jack arrives soon after and theorizes that the workers may have released psychic trauma that has charged the Rift. As the workers continue to tear into the building, Jack feels a burst of energy and sees a man being wheeled down the hallway. Gwen sees an injured man in a chair being tended to by a nurse. Unlike all of the other ghost sightings, however, this time the nurse notices her. Gwen’s not supposed to be here, she says as she chases her back.

Tommy and Tosh share drinks over a pool game. Tommy sees news from hostilities in Iraq on the television and laments the fact that there is always a war somewhere. He asks if the human race is worth saving, and Tosh immediately says yes. He feels a bit of the psychic energy from the hospital before the pair head to the boardwalk. Tommy gives Tosh a kiss, but she returns some mixed signals before kissing him back. It’s evident that they’re falling for each other, but before anything else can happen, Jack calls them to the Hub.

Demolishing the hospital is the trigger.

After a briefing, the team heads for the hospital to start setting up rift monitors. Owen cautions Tosh about her relationship with Tommy, telling her that he doesn’t want to see her get hurt. Gwen calls them with a strange note from the 1918 report: “Through a hole in the external wall, we hear the roar of great engines. Outside is a woman in strange armor, ripping a Union Jack, perhaps some future heroine of the Empire.” Owen spots a car advertisement through a hole in the wall matching the description. Today is the day, punctuated by the Rift monitors alarming.

On cue, the temporal lock lifts and Jack reads through his orders from 1918. The instructions are for Tommy and Tosh: Tommy needs to be ready to jump through the fracture when it opens, leaving present Tommy trapped in the past after sealing the fracture with a Rift Manipulator.

Separately, Jack tells Tosh that Tommy will die three weeks after returning. His mind will revert to the way it was before being frozen, shell-shocked from the war, and he will be executed for cowardice. Tosh protests, but she has no choice.

Ianto pulls Tommy’s hospital attire out of storage, preparing him for his trip. Tommy then joins the rest of the team in the Hub and wonders what to do with the rest of his time. Tosh offers to take him to her place for the night. Back at the Hub, Ianto asks if Jack could return to his own time as well, but Jack wouldn’t want to sacrifice all of the amazing things he’s done since leaving home.

Both couples consummate their respective relationships, but Tosh’s is bittersweet.

At 6:30 am, the Rift monitors alarm and ghosts begin to appear. Tommy hears the 1918 Torchwood team speaking to his past self, realizing that Torchwood took him for this purpose, and he begins to question his role in this operation. He says that Torchwood is no better than the Army, knowing that if he goes back, he’ll be headed back to the front.

Tosh comforts him as the fracture begins. They find themselves in 1918 and Tosh tells Tommy that he has to step up and save the universe. He issues his orders to Torchwood 1918. before Tosh kisses him goodbye. Tommy heads to bed like he’d never been away.

Tommy watches as Torchwood 1918 takes his previous self away. As he climbs into bed, he doesn’t trigger the device. Tosh engineers a psychic projection so that someone can remind him to use the key. Tosh volunteers since Tommy trusts her the most. Once projected into the past, she helps him to activate the key and seal the fracture.

Tosh laments Tommy’s sacrifice as she packs his modern era clothes away. Jack thanks her as she leaves. Outside, Owen tells her that she saved the world. Tosh disagrees: Tommy saved the world.

But she wonders if humanity is worth it.

  It was great to see Naoko Mori in the spotlight as Tosh. The last episodes with her in a major role were Greeks Bearing Gifts and Captain Jack Harkness (also a time shift episode involving a world war), and they are few and far between. We also get a good look at the Torchwood Institute as it would have functioned closer to its inception.

There was a humorous callback to Doctor Who with Tommy’s remark about how silly it would be to save the world in pajamas. The Tenth Doctor embraced that silliness just after his regeneration.

Overall, this story was a breath of fresh air in a franchise that often deals with darkness and drama. It handled weighty issues like sacrifice and historical approaches to PTSD while letting the sun in for a little bit. That is much appreciated.

  Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

    UP NEXT – Torchwood: Meat

    The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (March 1)

Among Welsh Catholics, as well as those in England, March 1 is the liturgical celebration of Saint David of Wales.

St. David is the patron of the Welsh people, remembered as a missionary bishop and the founder of many monasteries during the sixth century.

David was a popular namesake for churches in Wales prior to the Anglican schism. His feast day is still an important religious and civic observance.

Although Pope Benedict XVI did not visit Wales during his 2010 trip to the U.K., he blessed a mosaic icon of its patron and delivered remarks praising St. David as “one of the great saints of the sixth century, that golden age of saints and missionaries in these isles, and...thus a founder of the Christian culture which lies at the root of modern Europe.”

In his comments, Pope Benedict XVI recalled the saint's dying words to his monastic brethren:

“Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.”

He urged that St. David's message, in all its simplicity and richness, continue to resound in Wales today, drawing the hearts of its people to renewed love for Christ and his Church.

From a purely historical standpoint, little is known of David’s life, with the earliest biography dating from centuries after his time.

As with some other saints of sixth-century Wales, even the chronology of his life is not easy to ascertain.

David’s conception is said to have occurred as a result of rape – a detail that seems unlikely to have been invented by later biographers, though it cannot (like almost all of the traditions surrounding his life) be established with certainty.

His mother, Saint Nonna or Nonnita, has her traditional feast day on March 3.

David appears to have been the cousin of his contemporary Saint Teilo, another Welsh bishop and monk.

He is described as a pupil of the monastic educator Saint Paulinus, who was one of St. Teilo’s teachers as well.

There are doubts, however, about the story that David and Teilo traveled to Jerusalem and were ordained together as bishops.

It is clear that David served as the Bishop of Menevia, an important port city linking Wales and Ireland in his time.

His leading role in two local councils of the Church is also a matter of record.

Twelve monasteries have their founding ascribed to David, who developed a reputation for strict asceticism.

His monks modeled their lives on the earliest desert hermits – combining hard manual labor, silence, long hours of prayer, and a diet that completely excluded meat and alcohol.

The monks did not use animals to take care of their fields and lived off only on bread, vegetables, and water.

Though the exact date of his death is not certain, tradition holds that it was on March 1 (601 or 589), which is the date now marked as Saint David's Day.

The monastery was said to have been "filled with angels as Christ received his soul."

David may well have survived to an advanced age, but evidence is lacking for the claim (made by his 11th-century biographer) that he lived to the age of 147.

Pope Callistus II canonized David of Wales in 1120.

[silvestromedia]

Saint of the day July 02

St. Oudaceus, 615 A.D. Welsh bishop, also called Oudaceus and Eddogwy. Supposedly the son of a local leader in Brittany and the nephew of St. Teilo, he was raised in Wales. Oudaceus entered the monastic life, and succeeded Teilo as abbot of Llandeilo Fawr, Carmarthenshire. He later became a bishop, and is considered one of the four saints to whom the cathedral of Llandaff, Wales, is dedicated.

Bl. Eugenia Joubert, Roman Catholic Nun. She taught catechism to children and died of tuberculosis at age 28. Feastday: July 2

Sts. Processus and Martinian, Roman Catholic Priest Martyrs. They joined the Apostles Peter and Paul in the Mamertine Prison in Rome before their executions. A spring flowed miraculously in the prison, and Processus and Martinian, both wardens, were baptized in the miraculous waters. Their relics are preserved in St. Peter’s Basilica. Feastday: July 2

[queerwelsh]

Bob Woods was mentioned previously on this blog as a ‘lifelong activist’ who was included on this year’s Pinc List:

‘Bob has been a lifelong LGBT+ activist in both his personal and professional life. A highly respected children’s social worker with Barnardos, he also fostered through the Albert Kennedy Trust. He has played a key voluntary role at St Teilo’s Church in Wales School in Llanedeyrn, Cardiff, promoting respect for difference. He has been an inspirational role model for young people which has given them the confidence to be frank about their sexuality and the confidence to say so in public and amongst their friends and family. Bob is dedicated to his adopted trans daughter and continues to encourage young political activists to take up the fight for respect whatever someone's sexual orientation.This year he was awarded the Lily Summers Prize by Welsh Labour in recognition of his lifelong dedication to LGBT+ causes.

Bob sadly passed away this week, on Friday, the 20th of September. He will be remembered for his dedication to activism, to the LGBT+ community, and for his wonderful love for his trans daughter, which was beautiful to see.