h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's apparently a church dedicated to her.

She is reported to be connected with the Isle of Ely, and Exning, Suffolk.

verifiable information on 7th Century people might be hard to come by.

I promise not to write a Guide article on her.

I think that church was the one in Exning.

I remember the time I visited Assisi. I expected to see Saint Francis' artifacts. I got more than I counted on: There was a place for Saint Clare as well.

I remember reading about the way the Church changed some of the facts to make their saints seem saintlier.

There's information on the saints. There's even a Mass (Missa Gaia) that uses Saint Francis' 'Brother sun, sister moon" litany. Whether it is authentic or not I can't say. I like the way it was set to music.

I like the Donovan version a lot. But 'All Creatures of Our God and King' is good, too.

In the grotto of St John the Divine on the island of Patmos. I'm sitting there quietly. The tour guide, a pleasant young lady, comes in with a gaggle of tourists.

'And this is where Hagios Ioannis wrote the Apocalypse,' she lectured them. 'See that rock shelf? He rested his hands there while he prayed. And his amanuensis propped the book on the shelf and wrote while he dictated.'

American man in group, 'How do you know this?'

Tour guide, sternly, 'It's TRADITION.'

Me, (choking back laughter).

I'll bet they picked out that cave sometime around 1100, and have been showing it to pilgrims ever since. I tried to talk the guys we hung around with on Samothraki into opening an 'Apostle Paul Hotel', but they didn't even know he'd slept there. Not really Bible readers...but Dimitri the Shepherd's dad rode over on his donkey to open the museum for us. The one with the plaster cast of the Winged Victory of Samothraki which the French stole.

I've just listened to Donovan's "Brother sun, sister moon." I like it.
The part of "Missa Gaia" I like is "Blue green hills of earth."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN7iPUVJfqI

Using the wolf calls as the thematic material for "Kyrie" is unusual
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYW3tgB10Wg

When my choral group did "Missa Gaia," we had Paul Winter there. This had its drawbacks.

I'm writing a guide entry on Karl Jenkins' "The Armed man: a mass for peace." Ironic, isn't it, that he hoped to usher in a millennium of peace. That was April 2000. Then there came 9-11-2001

When you said 'Blue Green Hills of Earth', I thought of Robert Heinlein. But I see it's a different lyric and one of my favourite vocalists, Susan Osborn.

I don't know this Karl Jenkins, or his piece. Looking forward to the guide entry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBLTngmUgWQ

This became very popular in the U.K. early in this century. It spread across the world, and still gets regular performances. Jenkins found himself one of the ten most popular "classical" composers in the U.K., and the only living one. The CD went gold.

My entry has not been submitted (it's not ready to submit yet), but it's at my personal space.

There are at least two other full performances listed at youtube. San Francisco, Boston, Jerusalem, London, and many other cities have mounted performances.

Last August, Jenkins conducted a virtual singalong version.
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/jenkins/virtual-choir-orchestra-perform-the-armed-man/

This could give you an introduction to what Jenkins was trying to do.