Book Review: Christ The Golden-Blossom by Douglas Dales

Christ The Golden-Blossom: A Treasury of Anglo-Saxon Prayer by Douglas Dales

This book is a collection of various prayers and bits of biography from the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, roughly from AD 600 (missionaries from Rome arrive in Kent/Canterbury) to 1066 (the Norman Conquest ends the Anglo-Saxon rule). The book is split into several parts. The first part gives various prayers for the liturgical seasons of the year, from Advent to Trinity Sunday (a few weeks after Pentecost). The second part covers the feast days of Anglo-Saxon saints, following the calendar year. This section has more biographies (which makes sense), typically taken from Anglo-Saxon documents (like the writings of the Venerable Bede). A final section lists various sites where visitors/pilgrims can see period architecture, art, and tombs of saints. There's also an appendix with further readings.

The book makes for an interesting devotional. It would be easy to have two bookmarks to keep track of the two chronological tracks. I read the book straight through as part of my Lenten reading in 2021 and enjoyed it that way as well. Each prayer or story is short, less than a page long. The prayers seem very much like modern liturgical prayers. I had an easy time imagining the prayers being used during Mass on saints feasts or in the Divine Office. Every five or ten pages, the book has a piece of art from the period, often a page of an illuminated Bible manuscript. I am a big fan of those designs, so naturally I liked that a lot.

Recommended as a good prayer resource.

A sample of the art, the start of Psalm 102, a lament of the Suffering Servant, from a Psalter made in Canterbury circa AD 1015.

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