A True Easter
The Synod of Whitby 664 AD

Benedicta Ward

Sister Benedicta Ward gives an illuminating account of the background to and details of a meeting held in 664 AD at Whitby in the North of England to discuss the date on which Easter should be celebrated. It has often been presented as a clash between Irish and Roman missionaries representing two different kinds of Christianity, but in fact the traditions were mingled and there was no clear cut division of nationalism among the participants. This book shows that there is always more beneath topics discussed than appears on the surface. At the Council of Whitby, all were agreed in their devotion to Easter as the central feast of the Resurrection, and so it was by looking together towards Jesus as the risen Lord that they were able to resolve the difficulties caused by a difference between calendric calculations.

The author is Reader in the History of Christian Spirituality at the University of Oxford. Among her many published works are The Venerable Bede and High King of Heaven, together with Fairacres Publications on Christian pilgrimage, the Desert Fathers, Bede and the Psalter and St Cuthbert.

Fairacres Publication 151

ISBN- 978-0-7283-0170-2

Price £3.00

This publication belongs in the series Living Tradition