St Elidius, St Helen’s Scilly

St Elidius St Helens

We travelled from St Martin’s by boat having already visited St Theona’s chapel on Tean, it was one of those glorious Scilly days where the bright sunshine brought out the turquoise water and white sands. This is my third visit to St Elidius’ prayer oratory and I’m expectant. It was quite hard to find initially as the undergrowth was hiding the remains. But I was thrilled to suddenly see the waist high walls and then dropped down into the small circular enclosure. Once inside I settled to pray and listen. Much of what I received was highly personal and not for sharing. But here are some more general snippets of what happened.

Prayer oratory

I walked into the oratory and immediately was in the presence of an angel. I was aware of a strong presence of God and His peace. It’s strange how you can be outside the oratory walks and enjoying the glorious natural peace of the uninhabited island, full of nesting sea birds but on entering the sanctuary a whole deeper level of supernatural peace descends.

I am worshipping singing ‘In Your presence that’s where I belong’. Suddenly see an eagle’s head close to my face staring directly at me. I realise this is an eagle of revelation and go into an encounter which isn’t for sharing.

The presence of God in this place is so profound. There is a heavy weighty timeless presence. 

I am thanking God for this prayer cell when I sense the two angels I encountered on my very first visit twenty years ago are still present.  One is a startling emerald green and the other a vibrant turquoise. They are reverently bending low their wings outstretched covering the whole prayer cell in a canopy. The blue represents spiritual revelation and the green of God's healing.

It is hard to convey the awesome mystery of God’s presence in this isolated place. It is beautiful, profound, holy and sacred. It’s a place I would gladly stay longer but sadly the rising tide meant we had to make a hasty exit or be stranded overnight. I do hope I will one day return and maybe you will visit and have a precious time meeting with God in this thin place too.