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BY RUDYARD KIPLING
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About once in a generation a writer appears in the English-speaking world to capture in prose and poetry the essence of his time and place. Such a person was the Englishman, Rudyard Kipling, born in 1865 in India when the British Empire was at its zenith. At that time Britannia ruled the waves and claimed one fourth of the earth's surface as attested in pink on the maps of Mercator projection which adorned the walls of our classrooms. Kipling's works dealt with the world of Imperial Britain, its colonies, its wars and its common people. The sun never set on the British Empire - we were told - and we had assurance in the permanence and stability of the Empire even as the world moved toward war. Kipling died in 1936 when his beloved Empire, already much weakened by the large losses of men and wealth in World War I, was passing into its twilight and would soon suffer its final blow and dissolution in and after World War II.
One of Kipling's last poems, the subject of this page, was drawn from a 15th century manuscript then in the possession of The British Museum and now held as MS Orient, No. 652, folio 9 in The British Library. The manuscript contains a legend about an old Coptic Christian (1) priest at a church in Philae in Upper Egypt whose singular vocation to the Holy Virgin won him the ridicule of his parishioners and the admonishment of his bishop. The bishop forbade him to celebrate the liturgy in her honor whereupon Our Lady intervened with the bishop to restore the priest to his divine services. The poem was published in the MORNING POST in April 1935. Anomalously it dealt with a religious theme which was infrequent in Kipling's writings except for occasional references appropriate to his subjects. Perhaps he was moved, as we are, by the charm of the story.
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OUR LADY OF THE SACKCLOTHThere was a Priest at Philae, The others were ill-remembered, And the congregation mocked him, Kindly and wise was the Bishop. "Patience a little, it may be And the Priest obeyed and was silent, (Never again at the Offering Saintly and clean was the Bishop, Out of his zeal he was minded He gathered the cloth in secret But he had no skill in the making, Her feet were burned by the desert- She took the shears and the sacking, She passed in the white hot noontide, But - far from the smouldering censers- Far in the desert by Philae High she swayed on her camel, Low she leaned from her litter- "For again thou shalt serve at the Offering "Go in peace to the Bishop, |
FOOTNOTES
1) The Coptic Christian Churches in Egypt and Ethiopia derive from the ancient Apostolic Patriarchate of Alexandria founded by the Apostle, St. Mark. It contributed much to the dogmatic formulations of the Early Church and was the home of St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers who participated in the rise of monasticism in the Eastern Church. At the Council of Chalcedon in the 5th century the Patriarchate of Alexandria broke from the Patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Jerusalem in the controversy over the nature of Christ, rejecting the catholic teaching that Christ possesses two natures - one divine and one human - which are united in the single person of Jesus Christ. Thereafter the Copts were known as Monophysites. Today joint statements of faith regarding the nature of Christ with the Roman Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople have brought the Coptic Church into accord with the orthodoxy of Chalcedon, however union with the Catholic and Orthodox Churches remains elusive. The Coptic Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, formerly united are now independent of each other, both being governed by their respective patriarchs. The Coptic Church of Egypt is but a shadow of its former glory and hard pressed by militant Islam. The Coptic Church of Ethiopia is the State Church of that country but it too is hard pressed by Islamic militants in some regions of the country. For more information about the Copts, see the Web site of the Christian Coptic Orthodox Church at: www.coptic.net
2) We express our appreciation to THE KIPLING JOURNAL, house magazine of The Kipling Society, Harrow, Middlesex, England for providing us material for this page.
