Petroc of Glastonbury: Review
The flame of the Celtic Church burnt brightly in Somerset between the sixth and seventh centuries. It is within this timeframe that Bruce Garrard has set his second of four books on the River Brue; an elegiac novel about a Glastonbury Monk, Petroc ap Belin.
Under the sorrowful watch of his Mother, Gwenifer, young Petroc leaves his family farmstead high on the Poldens and makes his way to the little monastic school in Glastonbury, fulfilling a solemn promise his father had made eight years earlier. The year is 647. He flourishes under the guidance of his teacher Myghal and makes good progress with the skills and knowledge he would need as a member of the brotherhood: Latin, scripture, draughtsmanship and the arts of carpentry, growing plants and bee-keeping. The intoxicating atmosphere of the Abbey’s Old Church illuminates Petroc’s pilgrim soul and fires the zeal of his heart.
Beyond the Abbey’s enclosure, the Brue is ever present, weaving its way through his growth and spiritual development, rising and falling with the seasons. The descriptions of the Brue regularly inundating the Levels and the journeys of the Monks across it are beautifully observed. They are the fruit of the author’s pre-dawn pilgrimages to the Brue to quietly note the changing seasons, skies, morning mists, herons, seagulls, starlings, butterflies and wild flowers. He draws us into the slow dimming of the Celtic Church, post the Synod of Whitby in 664, and the shock arrival of the Saxons.
Petroc’s deep desire to follow the path of the peregrinus and become a wandering saint, whose destination is to reach the dwelling place of God, echoes the hero’s journey. The nine months he spends in isolated retreat on the island of Martinsey are crucial to his spiritual development. The day he finally casts off in his coracle down the Brue and onto the choppy waters of the Severn Sea is reminiscent of St Columba, cast from the Derry coast into the perilous currents of the Atlantic Ocean.
Underpinning Bruce’s ambitious project is the Sufi mystic Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee’s ‘Four Point Plan’ to people who, understanding the concept of Spiritual Ecology, want to know ‘What can I do?’ in a world where environmental destruction is so wanton. Llewellyn offers a plan of: Witnessing, Grief, Prayer, Action. The first is the power of witnessing; to open our eyes to the changes around us. His writings on the River Brue are being shaped by this four point plan. ‘Witnessing’ was beautifully reflected in his first book ‘The River’ - a tightly observed, nettle strewn pilgrimage from its source to its mouth.
To explore the second stage of grief takes courage and Bruce found it a creative challenge to move from the comfort zone of non-fiction and place himself in the shoes of Petroc. Writing Petroc became a personal catharsis to heal the lost years of his own childhood when he was sent to boarding school at the age of eight - the same age Petroc arrived at the monastic school in Glastonbury. Eschewing the temptation to draw parallels with his own life, Bruce surrendered to the inevitable and wrote Petroc’s story ‘unfettered from by interruptions from mine’.
To return to Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee, whose teachings have inspired Bruce so deeply: ‘Our heart knows what our mind has forgotten — it knows the sacred that is within all that exists, and through a depth of feeling we can once again experience this connection, this belonging.’
Perhaps one of the best places to read this book and thoroughly immerse yourself in Petroc’s story would be to find a quiet spot in the Abbey’s grounds and allow your creative imagination to drift back in time to the Old Church with its simple cluster of wattled buildings and the candles, incense, chants and prayers of the monastic community.
Kevin Redpath
The flame of the Celtic Church burnt brightly in Somerset between the sixth and seventh centuries. It is within this timeframe that Bruce Garrard has set his second of four books on the River Brue; an elegiac novel about a Glastonbury Monk, Petroc ap Belin.
Under the sorrowful watch of his Mother, Gwenifer, young Petroc leaves his family farmstead high on the Poldens and makes his way to the little monastic school in Glastonbury, fulfilling a solemn promise his father had made eight years earlier. The year is 647. He flourishes under the guidance of his teacher Myghal and makes good progress with the skills and knowledge he would need as a member of the brotherhood: Latin, scripture, draughtsmanship and the arts of carpentry, growing plants and bee-keeping. The intoxicating atmosphere of the Abbey’s Old Church illuminates Petroc’s pilgrim soul and fires the zeal of his heart.
Beyond the Abbey’s enclosure, the Brue is ever present, weaving its way through his growth and spiritual development, rising and falling with the seasons. The descriptions of the Brue regularly inundating the Levels and the journeys of the Monks across it are beautifully observed. They are the fruit of the author’s pre-dawn pilgrimages to the Brue to quietly note the changing seasons, skies, morning mists, herons, seagulls, starlings, butterflies and wild flowers. He draws us into the slow dimming of the Celtic Church, post the Synod of Whitby in 664, and the shock arrival of the Saxons.
Petroc’s deep desire to follow the path of the peregrinus and become a wandering saint, whose destination is to reach the dwelling place of God, echoes the hero’s journey. The nine months he spends in isolated retreat on the island of Martinsey are crucial to his spiritual development. The day he finally casts off in his coracle down the Brue and onto the choppy waters of the Severn Sea is reminiscent of St Columba, cast from the Derry coast into the perilous currents of the Atlantic Ocean.
Underpinning Bruce’s ambitious project is the Sufi mystic Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee’s ‘Four Point Plan’ to people who, understanding the concept of Spiritual Ecology, want to know ‘What can I do?’ in a world where environmental destruction is so wanton. Llewellyn offers a plan of: Witnessing, Grief, Prayer, Action. The first is the power of witnessing; to open our eyes to the changes around us. His writings on the River Brue are being shaped by this four point plan. ‘Witnessing’ was beautifully reflected in his first book ‘The River’ - a tightly observed, nettle strewn pilgrimage from its source to its mouth.
To explore the second stage of grief takes courage and Bruce found it a creative challenge to move from the comfort zone of non-fiction and place himself in the shoes of Petroc. Writing Petroc became a personal catharsis to heal the lost years of his own childhood when he was sent to boarding school at the age of eight - the same age Petroc arrived at the monastic school in Glastonbury. Eschewing the temptation to draw parallels with his own life, Bruce surrendered to the inevitable and wrote Petroc’s story ‘unfettered from by interruptions from mine’.
To return to Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee, whose teachings have inspired Bruce so deeply: ‘Our heart knows what our mind has forgotten — it knows the sacred that is within all that exists, and through a depth of feeling we can once again experience this connection, this belonging.’
Perhaps one of the best places to read this book and thoroughly immerse yourself in Petroc’s story would be to find a quiet spot in the Abbey’s grounds and allow your creative imagination to drift back in time to the Old Church with its simple cluster of wattled buildings and the candles, incense, chants and prayers of the monastic community.
Kevin Redpath
