What we do

Our objects are to understand more of the life and legacy of Fursey, and of the Celtic
spirituality that formed and developed his faith. We seek to do this by:

• holding a Celebration of the Feast of Fursey in Norwich on the Saturday nearest his feast day 16th January. For details of the 2013 celebration click here.
• inviting scholars to give The Fursey Lectures at the January celebration. Our aim is to publish these lectures as Fursey Occasional Papers for greater dissemination of their content. For details of those published to date click here
• holding an annual pilgrimage to Burgh Castle, in honour of St Fursey, on the first Saturday of October. Details of Previous pilgrimages and our 2012 pilgrimage
• researching the life of Fursey whose legacy remains to be more fully appreciated
• supporting work to further develop an understanding of Fursey's life and mission. To this end we raised the funding for the translation and publishing of the earliest surviving 8th century MS (Harley 5041) of the Life of Fursey which was originally written in the 7th century as 'Transitus Beati Fursei'
• visits and pilgrimages to places associated with Fursey
• organizing other special events

Fursey Lectures

2012 (ninth lecture): "Fursey’s Irish Origins: east or west?", by Professor Pádraig Ó Riain. Professor Pádraig is a prominent Irish Celtic scholar, and his research interests include hagiography, onomastics, Irish manuscripts and the Irish martyrological tradition. For almost 30 years he held the Chair of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork, and still remains very active in Celtic studies and research. 2012 marks the 1,380 anniversary of the arrival of St Fursey as the first named known missionary in East Anglia and the lecture explored the start of Fursey’s life in Ireland.

2011 (eigth lecture): "O Fursee pastor aime, o lucerna renitens: the Medieval Office of St Fursey", by Dr Ann Buckley of Trinity College, Dublin and was on the recently discovered manuscript containing a medieval Office for St Fursey. The Office is based on the Vita Secunda, an 11th/12th century Life of Fursey. This Life is attributed to Serlo and Robert, two monks of Argenteuil, who wrote it at the request of Arnoul, Abbot of Lagny (d.1106). The original manuscript (MS 944) is in the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal in Paris. Dr Buckley's lecture was illustrated with several extracts sung by members of the Norwich Cathedral Choir.

2010 (seventh lecture): "The Front Line: Early Christian Eastern England", by Professor Michelle P. Brown. With Professor Michelle's agreement we will not be publishing this lecture which was so visually based. Instead we recomend her book ' How Christianity Came to Britain and Ireland' which gives full information on this whole subject area; the book was re-issued in Paperback as 'Pagans and Priests: The Coming of Christianity to Britain and Ireland'. As a result of her visiting us on this occasion Michelle was also invited to preach the next day in Norwich Cathedral at the 10.30am Sung Eucharist. Her Address is available to read here.

2009 (sixth lecture): " Beyond Bede: The History and Archaeology of the East Anglian Missions", by Dr Richard Hoggett (Publications Officer for NAU Archaeology). This lecture continued our exploration of early Christianity of East Anglia.
The event also included a reading of the poem "Peregrinatio - A Commemorative Poem for Saint Fursey" by Mike Bannister

2008 (fifth lecture): “Guthlac of Crowland: a saint for England?”, by Professor Jane Roberts (University of London)

2007 (fourth lecture): "The Vita Fursei and its use by Bede and Aelfric", by Aine Casey (formerly University College Cork)

2005 (third lecture): "The Vision of St. Fursey and the development of Purgatory", by Dr Marilyn Dunn (University of Glasgow). The following day was St. Fursey's Feast Day and Fursey Pilgrim the Revd Canon David Abraham was invited to preach on him in Norwich Cathedral at the 10.30am Sung Eucharist. The Address is available to read here.

2002 (second lecture): "Fursey; pilgrim and visionary", by Dr Jonathan Wooding (University of Wales, Lampeter)

2000 (the Inaugural lecture): "The Life of St. Fursey": what we know, why it matters", by Dr Michelle P. Brown (British Library)

Preachers at the annual October Pilgrimage

Preachers from different Christian traditions are invited to address the gathering at the October Pilgrimage:

2011: Fr James Walsh, Dean of the RC Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Norwich
2010: The Metropolitan Seraphim of Glastonbury, of the British Orthodox Church. His sermon can be read here, photographs viewed here and here
2009: The Rt. Revd Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia. His homily can be read here
2008: Fr Nicolas Jouy, Parish Priest of Peronne, France. His sermon can be read here
2007: The Rt. Revd Graham James, Lord Bishop of Norwich. His sermon can be read here
2006: The Revd David Hardiman, Baptist Minister and former County Ecumenical Officer for Essex and East London
2005: The Revd David Cornick, General Secretary, United Reformed Church. His sermon can be read here
2004: Major Ray Begley, Officer Commanding, Salvation Army Citadel, Norwich
2003: The Rt Revd David Atkinson, Bishop of Thetford
2002: The Very Revd Stephen Platten, Dean of Norwich. His sermon can be read here
2001: The Rt. Revd Peter Smith, Bishop of East Anglia
2000: The Rt. Revd Graham James, Lord Bishop of Norwich. His sermon can be read here
1999: The Ven. Martin Wallace, Archdeacon of Colchester
1998: Canon Eileen French, Chelmsford Ecumenical Officer
1997: The Revd Canon David Abraham, Vicar of St Matthew's, Norwich

Where sermons are shown as available on our site they are .pdf files and Adobe Reader is required to download them.
If you do not have Adobe Reader go to http://www.adobe.com for a free download.

Visits and pilgrimages

A fact-finding visit to France in 2003, was followed by a pilgrimage to northern France in 2004 – In the Footsteps of St. Fursey.
The group was based in Peronne, burial place of Fursey, and visited a number of places in the Picardy region where Fursey is recalled, among them the Frohen villages close to the place of his death. The group also visited Lagny-sur-Marne (east of Paris) where Fursey founded his French monastery. We were also privileged to be given access to the Treasury of Amiens Cathedral to view the 14th century Geuschart chasse given in honour of Fursey, and to see relics that they possess.

Visits have also been made to various churches in Norfolk and Suffolk that have windows and images of Fursey. This is an ongoing project. More research in both East Anglia and Ireland are planned.

Special events

In September 2007 as part of our 10th Year celebrations we organised an inspiring Day Workshop led by Canon Brendan O'Malley. Under the title "Lord of Creation: Celtic Christianity for today's world", Canon Brendan helped us to see how the rich resources left to us by the early Christians in these islands can be understood and used today.

In 2011 we arranged for the singing of "Vespers for the Feast of Fursey" in Norwich Cathedral on September 16th at 5.30pm. This was on the eve of the anniversary of the Feast of Translation when the Office was sung in 1256 at a translation of the relics of St Fursey at Peronne in the presence of King Louis IX and was its first use in modern times as an act of worship. The Office was discovered by Dr Ann Buckley while researching liturgical chant in honour of Irish saints throughout medieval Europe. For further information about the event click here. We are intending to publish a transcription and translation along with the music for this 13th century 'Office for Fursey' and are at present raising funds for the project. If you can help us in this we would be grateful to receive contributions, however small, towards the printing costs. For contact details click here.

For details of our celebration in April 2012 of the arrival of St. Felix and St. Fursey in East Anglia click here.

Displays

Burgh Castle church houses a display that provides information about St. Fursey, his mission and the Fursey Pilgrims. From time-to-time the display is used to support Fursey Pilgrim events in other locations. These have included:

Launch by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, of the book ‘Transitus Beati Fursei: a translation of an 8th century manuscript Life of St Fursey'. This event was hosted by the Bishop of Norwich, The Rt Revd Graham James. The display was used by the Fursey Pilgrims to show the Archbishop and the many guests the scope of their interest in the life and times of St Fursey.

Our picture shows Fursey Pilgrim Tony Sims talking to the Archbishop about the Display.

St. Mary's Aldeby, Norfolk. Bank Holiday Weekend 23rd–25th May 2009

The north-transept of St. Mary's is a chapel dedicated to St. Fursey. The Fursey Pilgrim's interest in this has led to the recent discovery of a Will dated 1494 that contains the earliest known reference to this dedication.
For the 2009 Art Alive event in Norfolk churches, St. Mary's included among their exhibits the Fursey Pilgrims Display along with additional material relating to the Will. A restoration programme for the chapel had been recently completed early in 2009 and the first act of worship there for a decade was held on the Sunday of this weekend. Fursey Pilgrims were among the congregation and one of their number, the Revd Canon David Abraham, preached on the Life of Fursey. We look forward to developing further this link with the St. Mary's congregation.