The Day of Saints - Day 26, Non/Nonna (revised)

An icon of Saint Nonna (Non)

I ventured in to the parish church of St Nonna at Alternun not knowing quite what to expect. I found it another of those most beautiful of spiritual spaces, again a place to sit in silence, and contemplate. Whilst travelling to different parts of Cornwall during this sabbatical it has been an uplifting delight to discover in certain places a palpable sense of God's presence. I didn't rush away.

Space and time for contemplation

Having visited, I was also unnerved by the contrast between the experience of being in the church and the violent story of a defining moment in Non, the patron Saint's life. It is said that she was raped by Sant, a king in the region of Cardigan in Wales. She is said to have lived a celibate life before and after, but whilst pregnant and close to the time of the birth the pain she experienced was said to have been so intense that her fingers left marks as she grasped a rock beneath her. The stone itself split asunder in sympathy with her, it is said. The child went on to be Saint David, patron saint of Wales. It is thought possible that later in her life she travelled to Cornwall and she is the patron of Pelynt in Cornwall where there is a well preserved under her name, and her relics were, until the Reformation, venerated at Alternun (a named derived from 'the altar of St Non').

A poem that invites reflection on the impact of the resurrection of Christ on our lives (source unknown)

I told a friend at the end of last week that I was fearful of tackling the subject matter. How can we speak of things we know little if anything of, without being trite and offensive, or of things that are so extreme they become almost taboo? It is a very hard question. Recently, I read Bernhard Schlink's post-Holocaust novel The Reader. Sir Peter Hall, reviewing the novel wrote that at last here was something that 'objectifies the Holocaust'. It seems to me that there is as much danger, if not more, in putting discussion beyond possibility than in risking to begin the conversation.

I decided to try rather than back away. As I sat at my computer this morning, ideas came, and congealed around the phrase, persona non grata, ( a 'person not appreciated', seen as an alien etc ), and with rejecting being a 'nonperson' because of a greater sense of belonging to God. The violation of rape, suffering dreadful existential objectification is to do great violence to a person's sense of self, identity and well-being. Recovery from rape where it is possible generally consists of themes of reaching out, reframing the rape, and redefining the self ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_and_aftermath_of_rape#Recovering_from_a_rape ) and yet 'the process of recovering from a rape differentiates among survivors for their own individual reasons' (ibid).

I have imagined Non as a victim beginning to reframe what happened and the first glimmers of hope in the renewed perspective. Believing in a God who redeems, I cannot give up on this hope, even if when writing about such trauma putting it into words will always feel insufficient and trite. I have divided what I've written in to three sections, to lessen the haste moving through, but is it even possible to write a poem long enough that it moves sufficiently slowly from pain and suffering towards greater wholeness and restoration that it avoids being trite or superficial? I find it very hard to say. However, as I say above, is the greater risk not to speak of it at all?

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FOR NON

[Poem replaced - see now Day 35]

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'I love being...' More material for contemplation at Alternun.