Feast of the Saints of the Isles: Celebrating the Holy Men and Women of Britain

Yesterday, in the Orthodox Christian calendar (Old, Julian), we celebrated the Feast of All Saints of the Isles — a day set aside to honour the holy men and women who shone forth from the British Isles in the early centuries of the Church. It is a feast that speaks deeply to my heart as an Orthodox iconographer living and working in Britain. These saints — often local, monastic, and ascetic — are not distant historical figures, but living intercessors and luminous examples of sanctity rooted in our very soil.

If you are drawn to Christian art and the visual theology of the Church, today’s feast offers a particular joy: to dwell on the lives of the British saints — our English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish forebears in the faith — and to reflect on how their holiness can be expressed through iconography and creative devotion.

A Feast for the Isles

The Feast of the Saints of the Isles is relatively recent in its liturgical observance — formally included in the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1972, and now celebrated by many Orthodox jurisdictions in Britain and beyond. Yet its spirit is ancient. It gathers together in one celebration the multitude of local saints who lived and laboured for Christ on these islands before the schism of 1054, when East and West were still united in one Church.

The feast is kept on the second Sunday after Pentecost, following the universal Feast of All Saints. Just as that great feast celebrates the whole communion of saints who have been glorified throughout the world, today we focus more particularly on the saints of our own land — the “local saints,” as the early Church would have understood them.

These are the men and women who brought the Gospel to our shores, who lived as monastics, missionaries, bishops, hermits, and martyrs. Their stories are woven into the very hills, rivers, and towns of our islands — many of their names still preserved in place-names, old churches, and ancient holy wells.

Saints of the Isles: A Cloud of Witnesses

The list of saints commemorated today is long and beautiful. Though not exhaustive, the feast includes:

• St Alban, the first recorded British martyr
• St Patrick, the apostle to Ireland
• St David of Wales, the gentle teacher and monastic leader
• St Columba of Iona, whose missionary zeal helped bring the faith to Scotland
• St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, known for his asceticism, love of nature, and miracles
• St Aidan of Lindisfarne, the humble monk who evangelised Northumbria
• St Bede the Venerable, the historian and scholar who gave us so much of our early Christian memory
• St Hilda of Whitby, abbess and spiritual mother
• St Brigid of Kildare, a shining light of Irish monasticism and compassion
• St Ninian, an early missionary bishop to the Picts

...and countless others: known and unknown, men and women, clerics and laypeople, royalty and farmers, scholars and anchorites. Each in their way bore witness to the Gospel with lives of holiness, courage, and grace.

Why This Feast Matters Today

In our modern world, it can be easy to think of sanctity as something that belongs to far-off places — Mount Athos, the Egyptian desert, or the catacombs of Rome. But the saints of the Isles remind us that holiness took root here, in this land. These were not exotic heroes from elsewhere; they were local people transformed by grace. Their holiness was not foreign, but indigenous.

For those of us in the Orthodox Church in Britain, this feast affirms something profoundly important: that Orthodox Christianity is not alien to these islands. It was here, in the first millennium, that the Church flourished in its undivided fullness. And today, as Orthodoxy grows in Britain once again, the saints of the Isles stand as spiritual ancestors — not only as models of Christian life but as living intercessors who understand the challenges, the culture, and the spirit of our land.

Iconography and the Saints of the Isles

As an iconographer, this feast also renews my creative vision. Christian art is not merely decorative — it is theological, spiritual, and liturgical. Icons are windows to heaven, and through them, the saints reveal Christ to us.

Painting icons of the British saints is one of the greatest joys and responsibilities of my studies and work. It requires research, prayer, and attentiveness to tradition — especially when we don’t have clear visual prototypes for many of these early saints. Unlike the more canonised and standardised icons of Greek or Russian saints, many of the saints of Britain lived before widespread visual representations became the norm.

But here, too, lies an opportunity. The iconographer is called to collaborate with tradition — to bring forth new images that are faithful, reverent, and inspired. In painting icons of St Cuthbert, St Aidan, St Hilda, or St Brigid, the artist aims to express both the rootedness of their lives in British soil and the transcendence of their life in Christ.

There’s also a symbolic richness to these British saints that lends itself to iconographic storytelling: the deer of St Cuthbert, the birds of St Kevin, the flaming monastery lamp of St Brigid, or the learned scroll of St Bede. Their lives are deeply sacramental — full of creation, prayer, and divine presence.

Remembering Our Heritage

In remembering the English saints and British saints today, we do not indulge in nostalgia. Rather, we reclaim a heritage of holiness that continues to nourish the Church. These saints were not perfect — but they were real, and their sanctity grew out of the ordinary soil of life: monasteries, mission journeys, teaching, solitude, and service.

They remind us that becoming a saint is possible here today — in our towns, in our parishes, in our hearts. We are not spiritual orphans. We are heirs to a great inheritance of faith, beauty, and sacrifice.

A Call to Prayer and Art

So today, on this Feast of the Saints of the Isles, I invite you to:

• Learn more about one or two of these saints and ask for their prayers.
  
  
• Visit a local church or site associated with a saint — a holy well, a ruined monastery, or even a quiet place where a hermit once prayed. I have included below some beautiful places to visit in Chester associated with our local female saint, St. Werburgh, the patron of Chester.
  
  
• Commission a hand-made icon of a British saint who you are drawn to for your own prayer corner at home!

May the prayers of the Saints of the Isles strengthen us. May their lives inspire us to live more fully in our own time and place. And may their icons — old and new — continue to radiate light in our churches, homes, and hearts.

Warmly,
Emma Rae Rhead
Artist and Iconographer | Rhead Icons
www.rheadicons.com

 

Chester Cathedral (formerly Abbey of St Werburgh)

The Lady Chapel houses the restored shrine of St Werburgh—a 7th-century Mercian princess, abbess, and patron saint of Chester. Her relics were brought here in 907 and venerated in medieval times

What to see:

• • A beautifully reconstructed 14th‑century shrine in the Lady Chapel
    
  • Carvings and misericords in the quire depicting scenes from her life.
    
  • The Refectory’s east window portrays St. Werburgh surrounded by royal ancestors.

St Werburgh’s Roman Catholic Church (Grosvenor Park Road)

Dedicated to the same saint, this active parish features a prominent statue of St Werburgh above its entrance—but in a 19th‑century revival Gothic setting

What to see: Although more modern in origin (1873–75), its architecture and statue-making still celebrate Werburgh’s legacy.


Starting Point of the Two Saints Way Pilgrimage

Chester marks one end of the Two Saints Way, a 92-mile pilgrimage route linking the shrines of St Werburgh (Chester) and St Chad (Lichfield)

What to experience: One can begin a mini-pilgrimage right from Chester—walking through the city’s medieval streets and countryside to trace the steps of our saints.

War Memorial Figures at Cathedral Grounds

The Chester War Memorial, located near the cathedral, features a carved figure of St Werburgh among other British saints such as St Alban and St David.

What to see: These niche sculptures highlight Chester’s civic remembrance intertwined with spiritual heritage.

Image used in this post is of Saint Patrick and copyright Rhead Icons and not to be reproduced or used without express written permission.