In Memory of ‘Petit Père’ Mgr Mael – Primate of the Orthodox Celtic Church

Mgr Mael

On Sunday Mgr Mael, Primate of the Orthodox Celtic Church, died at the age of 91 at the Monastery of the Holy Presence in St.Dolay, Brittany. In the 37 years since founding the Church he, along with the brothers and sisters, achieved an enormous amount – creating a beautiful sanctuary run on ecological principles and a thriving community, both ordained and lay. I was lucky enough to meet him first in 2010, and here is a photograph from a visit the following year that shows him standing beside an Awen Celtic Cross symbol, for he was a Druid too. He became a loved and respected elder for me – and had known my teacher Nuinn, who died a long time ago – in 1975.

A Dolmen of Mane-Kerioned, Carnac, Brittany

His funeral was on Thursday. The following day I visited the Dolmens of Mane-Kerioned not far from the monastery. In a dolmen with a great stone carved with many symbols, the light streamed in, as if from another world – a world that ‘Petit Père’, as he was affectionately called, was now entering.  I am going to paste in below a video clip of him talking – it’s in French and not of much interest I would imagine to most people – but this blog acts as a kind of personal journal and scrap book for me, and seeing and hearing him talk brings back such fond memories.