27th October
St Odran’s Day
Source: AnaStPaul website
Today is St Odran’s Day. Odran was a sixth century Irish bishop and missionary who was a close companion of St Columba. The legend surrounding his death is one of the most extraordinary of that of all the early Christian saints. Columba built a new church on the island of Iona, but its foundations would not take. The only remedy for the collapsing building Columba could come up with was human sacrifice. Odran, by now an elderly man and who had long debated the nature of the afterlife with his mentor, volunteered to be the sacrificial victim, reasoning that this way he would find out the truth about Heaven and Hell. Odran was duly buried alive in the church’s new foundations. Sure enough, afterwards, the building stayed intact, so Columba ordered that Odran be retrieved from the ground. The monks dug and revealed the saint’s head, which immediately began talking, giving the nuanced message that Heaven was not all that it was cracked up to be and that the denizens of Hell were not universally miserable. Columba immediately brought an end to this heretical revelation by ordering the monks to cover his friend’s head before he could say any more.
Hunan sacrifice was most definitely not part of Christian tradition, but pagan religion frequently ensured the safety of new buildings by the killing of animals (and presumably before that, of humans) and burying them in the foundations. One can only assume that the story of Odran’s death was a repurposed pagan Celtic tale, which makes it a genuine curiosity. The fact that the story has a philosophical aspect only makes more intriguing.
This month also saw the brewing of the mighty October Ale in households across the British Isles. Fabulously strong, it was only brought out rarely in the autumn and winter months to warm the bellies of its drinkers, being kept locked away for the rest of the time.