Saturday 25 Sept-2010: Finnbarrus, ADc610

When in Fowey, Cornwall, I was intrigued to see that the C of E Parish church there was St Finnbarrus' Church. I know Finbar from the Isle of Barra where he preached. He trained for the priesthood in Connaught where he was born and raised. Indeed, the Community he formed there is now the City of Cork. He is buried in the Anglican Cathedral of St Finnbarrus, Cork. But why Fowey - in Cornwall, of all places? I spoke to the flower ladies, preparing flowers for the next day services. Apparently, like all priests, he went on an Ad Limina visit to the Vatican to see the Pope and, like all travellers of those days, kept to the coastal routes so, he travelled from Barra, where he has a church and statue, via the west English coast, Fowey to France and thence to Rome.
The Parish Church, Fowey, was restored ion 1456 and named after this journeying missionary - Finnbar. I like the whimsy that he had a Scots, Hebridean accent and rolled his 'r's' - 'Finnbarrr', so they called it Finnbarrus' Church! I suspect though, that it is to do with the Latin form of his name. He was named in Erse as Fionn Bharr - white haired, because of the light colour of his hair. It is extraordinary, after all these years that he still has influence over our religious lives. There is a dediation also to him at the Scottish Episcopal Church in Dornoch.

The Pope's recent visit to the UK, and in particular to Glasgow and Edinburgh has received a mixed Press. The media, particularly the BBC over-rode services and the Pope speaking, to reel off the catastrophe of evil conducted by his priests and religious against children worldwide. Overall though, for RCs anyway, it was a boost to them, I feel sure. Pope Benedict came across as human and sensitive, with a sense of humour and an acute mind, in contrast to what our gutter Press and the RC Church usually put out, noyably from the Vatican, of a remote, distant, formal and dogmatic man with whom you cannot converse about anything. I am unsure that for us Episcopalians in SCotland and for Anglicans in England, that it will have any change for the future. The Pope continues to view all Christians as heretics and refuses Holy Communion to all, except RCs. We shall see, as they say.