Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints 
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900
1000 March 16 Gregory Makar monk  bishop of Nicropolis; Born in Armenia combining the severe life of a solitary
         with the missionary zeal of a great preacher, retired to Italy & France, healing miracles
(AC)
1000 March 23 Saint Felix of Montecassino Many miracles were recorded at his tomb OSB (AC).
1000 St. Athanasius the Athonite Abbot and founder  went to Mount Athos in Greece, where he aided Nicephoras
        Phocas, a longtime friend, in repelling the Saracens; there gushed forth a spring of water, which exists even now,
        in remembrance of this miraculous visitation.
1000 St. Virila Benedictine abbot; a miracle worker, and his life has been the subject of many traditions
1007 March 25 St Kennocha  Scottish nun of the convent in Fife several miracles God wrought on her behalf
1012 April 10 St. Macarius the Ghent Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia performing miracles throughout Europe
Gandávi, in Flándria, sancti Macárii, Epíscopi Antiochéni, virtútibus et miráculis clari. 

1012 St. Guy of Anderlecht; pilgrimage on foot to Rome and Jerusalem; patron of laborers and sacristans, and protector of sheds and stables.He is invoked to calm infantile convulsions 
1012 St. Colman of Stockerau  Irish or Scottish pilgrim martyred uncorrupt miracles
Apud Stokeráviam, in Austria, sancti Colmánni Mártyris.    At Stockerau in Austria, St. Colman, martyr.
1014 BD ISRAEL tomb was made famous by miracles venerated as a saint by the canons regular of the Lateran and in the diocese of Limoges
1016 St Simeon The Armenian earned a reputation for miracles, and charity
1018 March 30 St. Osburga many miracles reported at Her shrine
1022 March 16  Heribert of Cologne; devoted chief pastor of his flock; performed miracles, one caused a heavy
         rainfall  B (RM)

1026 The Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb burial place was glorified by miracles
1028 May 13 Euthymius the Illuminator performed many miracles He translated from Greek into Iberian (Karthvelian) the Bible 60 writings of the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, and liturgical books Abbot (RM)
Euthymius_of_Athos_the_translator
1030  St. Olaf son of Harold Grenske, a lord in Norway. Olaf Haraldsson, often called "the Fat", spent his youth as a pirate. He was baptized in Rouen, and in 1013, went to England to aid King Ethelred against the Danes. He returned to Norway in 1015, captured most of Norway back from the Danes and Swedes, defeated Earl Sweyn at the battle of Nesjar in 1016, and became king. He set about unifying and Christianizing his realm; miracles reported at his shrine.
1031 St. Emeric son of St. Stephen Hungary’s first Christian king  many miracles
1031 January 22 St. Dominic of Sora Benedictine abbot founder
 Soræ sancti Domínici Abbátis, miráculis clari.
       At Sora, the abbot St. Dominic, renowned for miracles.

         Born in Foligno, Etruria, Italy, he established monasteries in the old kingdom of Naples. He died at Sora, in Campania.
1038 St. Stephen the Great b. 977 Apud Albam Regálem, in Pannónia, item natális sancti Stéphani, Regis Hungarórum et Confessóris; qui, divínis virtútibus exornátus, primus Húngaros ad Christi fidem convértit, et a Deípara Vírgine, ipso die Assumptiónis suæ, in cælum recéptus fuit. Ejus vero festívitas quarto Nonas Septémbris, quo die munitíssima Budæ arx, sancti Regis ope, recólitur, ex dispositióne Innocéntii Papæ Undécimi.
    At Alba Regalis in Hungary, St. Stephen, King of Hungary, who was graced with divine virtues, was the first to convert the Hungarians to the faith of Christ, and was received into heaven by the Virgin Mother of God on the very day of her Assumption. By decree of Pope Innocent XI, his feast is kept on the 2nd of September, on which day the strong city of Buda, by the aid of the holy king, was recovered by the Christian army.
. His tomb was the scene of miracles

Sancti Stéphani, Regis Hungarórum et Confessóris; qui décimo octávo Kaléndas Septémbris obdormívit in Dómino.
    St. Stephen, king of Hungary and confessor, who fell asleep in the Lord on the 15th of August.

1040 Mar 03 St. Cunegundes Empress Patron of Lithuania virgin
Bambérgæ sanctæ Cunegúndis Augústæ, quæ, sancto Henríco Primo, Romanórum Imperatóri, nupta, perpétuam virginitátem, ipso annuénte, servávit; ac, bonórum óperum méritis cumuláta, sancto fine quiévit, et post óbitum miráculis cláruit. 
At Bamberg, Empress St. Cunegunda, who preserved her virginity with the consent of her husband, Emperor Henry I.  She completed a life rich in meritorious good works with a holy death, and afterward worked many miracles.

1045 ST SIGFRID, BISHOP OF Växjö: a spring bore Sigfrid’s name was the channel of many miracles
1045 St. Brithwald Benedictine bishop monk at Glastonbury visions and was a true prophet
1048 jan 25 ST POPPO, ABBOT; visited holy places at Jerusalem brought away many relics, enriched the church of our Lady at Deynze;  Marciánis, in Gállia, sancti Poppónis, Presbyteri et Abbátis, miráculis clari.
       At Marchiennes in France, St. Poppo, priest and abbot, renowned for his miracles.

1050 Blessed Bernold of Ottobeuren renowned as "the priest"a wonder worker, especially after his death ( OSB (AC)
1050 February 03 St. Anatolius Scottish bishop hermit miracles
1053 The Monk Lazaros of Galiseia was born in Lydia, in the city of Magnesium; The brethren buried the body of the
 Feast day Nov 7; saint at the pillar, upon which he had pursued asceticism. The saint was glorified by many miracles after his death

Romæ sancti Leónis Papæ Noni, virtútum et miraculórum laude insígnis.
    April 19 At Rome, Pope St. Leo IX, illustrious for his virtues and his miracles.
1065 March 08 St. Duthac Bishop of Ross Scotland venerated for miracles and prophecies
1066 St. Arialdus Martyr of Milan remains recovered ten months later uncorrupt and sweet smelling
1067 April 17 St. Robert of Chaise Dieu priest canon Benedictine abbot founder love of the poor hospices housed 300
        monks under the Benedictine Rule
;a collection of his miracles.
1069 March 11 St. Aurea famed for her visions and miracles
1070  July 06 St  Godeleva, Martyr The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles.
1073 St. Dominic of Silos Dec 20  Benedictine abbot defender of the faith many miracles were recorded of Dominic it
         was said that there were no diseases known to man not been cured by his prayers

1073 Saint John Gaulbert, July 12 Abbot entered the Order of St. Benedict laid the foundation of the Order of
        Vallombrosa founded several monasteries, reformed others eradicated simony no indigent person sent away
        without alms  dedicated to poverty and humility; never became a priest; he declined minor orders; known for his
        wisdom, miracles, and prophecies
1073 Dec 20 Blessed Gundisalvus (Gonzalo) of Silos, OSB (AC) many miracles were recorded of Dominic in the course of his work, and it was said that there were no diseases known to man not been cured by his prayers
1073 The Kiev Caves Icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos Aug 17 is one of the most ancient icons in the
         Russian Orthodox Church glorified by numerous miracles --
1677, 1709 1812.

1074 Saint Theodosius of the Caves Father of monasticism in Russia from youth led the ascetic life relics incorrupt
        miracles of food for the monk brethren

1075 Blessed Ekbert of Muensterschwarzach, OSB Abbot (AC)
        (also known as Egbert) a monk of Gorze and later the abbot of Munsterschwarzach, Bavaria, Germany (Benedictines).
1077 Saint Arcadius of Vyazma and Novy Torg relics of St Arcadius, glorified by miracles of healing
1077 May 23 St. Leontius, Bishop, missionary in Russia, born Greek, monk at the Caves of Kiev, Russia
In 1051, he became bishop of Rostov.

1080 St. David of Sweden Benedictine bishop; missionary to Sweden aid Bishop Sigfrid of Vaxio, who had lost his 3
         missionary nephews. Sigfrid sent David to Vastmanland, there David founded a monastery at Munktorp or
         Monkentorp; ruled mon­astery as abbot until becoming the bishop of Vastera Miracles were reported at his toem
1080 March 23 St. Aldemar Abbot miracle worker called "the Wise."
1080 June 12 Eskil (Eskill) bishop of Strangnäss remains were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were
         honored with miracles BM (AC)

1087 St Arnulf (Arnoul, Arnulphus) of Soissons French nobleman and soldier Many of the miracles wrought at his
        tomb were approved during a council held at Beauvais in 1121 OSB B (RM)
1090 May 15 ST ISAIAS, BISHOP OF Rostov; His preaching is said to have been reinforced by many miracles
1092 March 08 St. Veremundus Benedictine; abbot miracle worker; deep religious fervor; aid to poor defense of
        Mozarabic rite

1094 June 02 St. Nicholas Peregrinus Confessor, so called Peregrinus because of his constant pilgrimages Greek by birth miracles were claimed at his tomb
Trani, in Apúlia, sancti Nicolái Peregríni Confessóris, cujus mirácula in Concílio Románo, cui beátus Urbánus Papa Secúndus præfuit, recitáta sunt.
    At Trani in Apulia, St. Nicholas Peregrinus, confessor, whose miracles were recounted in the Roman Council under Pope Urban II.
1095 March 08 Ladislaus I of Hungary, King He fought just and successful wars against Poles, Russians, and the
        Tartars (RM)
renowned for his miracles even to this day
1096 March 28 Martyr Eustratius of the Caves martyred incorrupt relics found in a cave; worked many miracles
11th v. April 19 Saint Emma favored with the gift of working miracles
11th v. Jan 05 ST DOROTHEUS THE YOUNGER, Abbot; Among many miracles credited multiplied corn, saved from shipwreck a vessel far away out at sea and on another occasion by invoking the Holy Trinity to have caused a huge stone which crashed down during the building operations to rise unassisted and resume its proper place

1000 Gregory Makar monk  bishop of Nicropolis; Born in Armenia combining the severe life of a solitary with the missionary zeal of a great preacher, retired to Italy & France, healing miracles (AC)

1010 ST GREGORY MAKAR, Bishop of Nicopolis
ST GREGORY MAKAR, it is said, was born in Armenia and, desiring to serve God in solitude in a land where he was not known, he found, his way to a monastery near Nicopolis in Little Armenia and joined the community. The bishop of Nicopolis after some time attached him to his own person, ordaining him priest and en­couraging him to preach against prevailing heresies. Thus when this bishop died the clergy and people chose Gregory to be their shepherd. In that capacity he shone not only by his virtue and eloquence, but also as a wonder-worker, especially in healing the sick. Nevertheless he was not satisfied: he still longed for a solitary life and he feared that the adulation of his people would lead him to vainglory. He therefore left the city secretly, and in the company of two Greek monks made his way westwards, first to Italy and then to France.

At Pithiviers in the diocese of Orleans Gregory felt inspired to settle, and he built himself a hermitage and set about leading the life of a recluse after the Eastern manner, hitherto little practised in France. He abstained from all food on Mon­days, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and even on Tuesdays and Thursdays never ate till after sundown. His ordinary food was a handful of lentils, steeped in water and exposed to the sun, supplemented by a little barley bread and sometimes by a few roots eaten raw. Much as St Gregory wished to live in solitude, it soon became known that a holy hermit had settled at Pithiviers, and visitors began to throng to his cell. He worked many miracles of healing and gave wise spiritual counsel. The faithful brought him offerings, but these for the most part he distributed to the poor. For seven years St Gregory lived in his hermitage, combining the severe life of a solitary with the missionary zeal of a great preacher, and when he died the whole countryside was filled with lamentations.

The Latin Life of St Gregory has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii. See also Cochard, Saints de l’Eglise d’Orléans, pp. 384—393.

Died in Pithiviers, France, c. 1000-1010. Saint Gregory became a monk at a monastery near Nicropolis, Little Armenia. He was a successful preacher after his ordination by the bishop of Nicropolis, and chosen bishop of Nicropolis on the death of his predecessor. Desirous of living as a solitary, he went to Italy and then to France, where he lived as a recluse at Pithiviers in the diocese of Orléans. His reputation for spiritual wisdom and as a miracle healer spread and attracted crowds of people. He spent the last seven years of his life at Pithiviers and died there (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).
1000 Saint Felix of Montecassino Many miracles were recorded at his tomb OSB (AC).
Saint Felix was a Benedictine who lived his life in one of the daughter houses of Monte Cassino. Many miracles were recorded at his tomb. For this reason his remains were raised for veneration by the bishop of Chieti, Italy (Benedictines).
1000 St. Virila Benedictine abbot; a miracle worker, and his life has been the subject of many traditions
Although known largely through legend, he was definitely abbot of the monastery of St. Saviour, Leyre, in Navarre, France. He was a miracle worker, and his life has been the subject of many traditions.
Virila of Leyre, OSB Abbot (AC) Died in Navarre, c. 1000. The history of St. Virila is shrouded in the layers of the legends that developed around his name. Not much verifiable evidence endures except that he was a Benedictine monk of the Navarrese abbey of Saint Savior, Leyre (Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
.
1000 St. Athanasius the Athonite Abbot and founder  went to Mount Athos in Greece, where he aided Nicephoras Phocas, a longtime friend, in repelling the Saracens; there gushed forth a spring of water, which exists even now, in remembrance of this miraculous visitation.
He was born in Trebizond, Turkey, and studied at Constantinople. There he became a monk, going to St. Michael's Monastery in Kymina, Bithynia to join a laura. To avoid being named abbot of St. Michael's, Athanasius went to Mount Athos in Greece, where he aided Nicephoras Phocas, a longtime friend, in repelling the Saracens who were invading the region. Successful in this military campaign, Athanasius received financial backing from his friend to found a monastery on Mount Athos in 961.
When Phocas became emperor, Athanasius went to Cyprus to avoid being called to court, but Phocas sent word to him that he should return to his monastery In establishing the laura system, Athanasius made enemies of the monks already on the mount. Only imperial protection kept him safe from assassination at tempts.
In time, he served as abbot of fifty-eight communities of monks and hermits on Mount Athos. He and five monks were killed when the arch of a church collapsed.
Saint Athanasius of Athos, in holy Baptism named Abraham, was born in the city of Trebezond. He was orphaned at an early age, and being raised by a certain good and pious nun, he imitated his adoptive mother in the habits of monastic life, in fasting and in prayer. Doing his lessons came easily and he soon outpaced his peers in study.

After the death of his adoptive mother, Abraham was taken to Constantinople, to the court of the Byzantine emperor Romanus the Elder, and was enrolled as a student under the renowned rhetorician Athanasius. In a short while the student attained the mastery of skill of his teacher and he himself became an instructor of youths. Reckoning as the true life that of fasting and vigilance, Abraham led a strict and abstinent life, he slept little and then only sitting upon a stool, and barley bread and water were his nourishment. When his teacher Athanasius through human weakness became jealous of his student, blessed Abraham gave up his teaching position and went away.

During these days there had arrived at Constantinople St Michael Maleinos (July 12), igumen of the Kyminas monastery. Abraham told the igumen about his life, and revealed to him his secret desire to become a monk. The holy Elder, discerning in Abraham a chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, became fond of him and taught him much in questions of salvation. One time during their spiritual talks St Michael was visited by his nephew, Nicephorus Phocas, a military officer and future emperor. Abraham's lofty spirit and profound mind impressed Nicephorus, and all his life he regarded the saint with reverent respect and with love. Abraham was consumed by his zeal for the monastic life. Having forsaken everything, he went to the Kyminas monastery and, falling down at the feet of the holy igumen, he begged to be received into the monastic life. The igumen fulfilled his request with joy and tonsured him with the name Athanasius.

With long fasts, vigils, bending of the knees, with works night and day Athanasius soon attained such perfection, that the holy igumen blessed him for the exploit of silence in a solitary place not far from the monastery. Later on, having left Kyminas, he made the rounds of many desolate and solitary places, and guided by God, he came to a place called Melanos, at the very extremity of Athos, settling far off from the other monastic dwellings. Here the monk made himself a cell and began to live an ascetical life in works and in prayer, proceeding from exploit to exploit towards higher monastic attainment.

The enemy of mankind tried to arouse in St Athanasius hatred for the place chosen by him, and assaulted him with constant suggestions in thought. The ascetic decided to suffer it out for a year, and then wherever the Lord should direct him, he would go. On the last day of this year's length of time, when St Athanasius set about to prayer, a heavenly light suddenly shone upon him, filling him with an indescribable joy, all the thoughts dissipated, and from his eyes welled up graced tears. From that moment St Athanasius received the gift of tenderness , and he became as strongly fond of the place of his solitude as he had formerly loathed it.

During this time Nicephorus Phocas, having had enough of military exploits, remembered his vow to become a monk and from his means he besought St Athanasius to build a monastery, i.e., to build cells for him and the brethren, and a church where the brethren could commune of the Divine Mysteries of Christ on Sundays.

Tending to shun cares and worries, St Athanasius at first would not agree to accept the hateful gold, but seeing the fervent desire and good intent of Nicephorus, and discerning in this the will of God, he set about the building of the monastery. He built a large church in honor of the holy Prophet and Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, and another church at the foot of a hill, in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. Around the church were the cells, and a wondrous monastery arose on the Holy Mountain. In it were a trapeza (dining area), a hospice for the sick and for taking in wanderers, and other necessary structures.

Brethren flocked to the monastery from everywhere, not only from Greece, but also from other lands, simple people and illustrious dignitaries, desert-dwellers having labored in asceticism for long years in the wilderness, igumens from many monasteries and hierarchs wanting to become simple monks in the Athos Lavra of St Athanasius.
The saint established at the monastery a cenobitic monastic Rule on the model of the old Palestinian monasteries. Divine services were served with all strictness, and no one was so bold as to talk during the services, nor to come late or leave the church without necessity.
The Heavenly Patroness of Athos, the All-Pure Mother of God Herself, was graciously disposed towards the saint. Many times he was privileged to see Her with his own eyes. By God's dispensation, there once occurred such a hunger, that the monks one after the other quit the Lavra. The saint remained all alone and, in a moment of weakness, he also considered leaving. Suddenly he beheld a Woman beneath an ethereal veil, coming to meet him. "Who are you and where are you going?" She asked quietly. St Athanasius from an innate deference halted. "I am a monk from here," St Athanasius replied, and spoke about himself and his worries.

"Would you forsake the monastery which was intended for glory from generation unto generation, just for a morsel of dry bread? Where is your faith? Turn around, and I shall help you." "Who are you?" asked Athanasius. "I am the Mother of the Lord," She answered, and bid Athanasius to strike his staff upon a stone. From the fissure there gushed forth a spring of water, which exists even now, in remembrance of this miraculous visitation.

The brethren grew in number, and the construction work at the Lavra continued. St Athanasius, foreseeing the time of his departure to the Lord, prophesied about his impending end and besought the brethren not to be troubled over what he foresaw. "For Wisdom disposes otherwise than as people judge." The brethren were perplexed and pondered the words of the saint. After giving the brethren his final guidance and comforting all, St Athanasius entered his cell, put on his mantiya and holy kukolion (head covering), which he wore only on great feasts, and emerged after prolonged prayer. Alert and joyful, the holy igumen went up with six of the brethren to the top of the church to inspect the construction. Suddenly, through the imperceptible will of God, the top of the church collapsed. Five of the brethren immediately gave up their souls to God. St Athanasius and the architect Daniel, thrown upon the stones, remained alive. All heard the saint call out to the Lord, "Glory to Thee, O God! Lord, Jesus Christ, help me!" The brethren with great weeping began to dig out their father from the rubble, but they found him already dead.
1007 Kennocha  Scottish nun of the convent in Fife several miracles God wrought on her behalf  V (AC).
(also known as Kyle, Enoch) Saint Kennocha was a Scottish nun of the convent in Fife. Formerly she was held in great veneration in Scotland, especially in the district around Glasgow. Said to have been the only daughter of a wealthy family, she rejected the attraction of worldly goods and all suitors in order to pursue a life of prayer. By an extraordinary love of poverty and mortification, a wonderful gift of prayer, and purity or singleness of heart, she attained to the perfection of all virtues. She became famous because of several miracles God wrought on her behalf (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
1012 St. Macarius the Ghent Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia performing miracles throughout Europe.
Gandávi, in Flándria, sancti Macárii, Epíscopi Antiochéni, virtútibus et miráculis clari. 

1012 ST Macarius, or MACAIRE, OF GHENT
ST Macarius (Macaire) is popular throughout Flanders, where he is regarded as patron against epidemic diseases of all kinds. Very little is actually known about him but, as frequently happens in the case of uncanonized saints honoured locally, fiction steps in where history is lacking. He is supposed to have been archbishop of Antioch, and it is possible that the Macarius who about the year 970 was presiding over the church of Antioch in Pisidia may have nominated and consecrated this younger namesake as his successor. He was certainly never archbishop of Antioch in Syria. To escape the honours which threatened his humility—says the legend—he distributed all his property to the poor and went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There he was captured, tortured and imprisoned by the Saracens but making his escape he came to Europe, which he traversed, performing many wonderful miracles on the way. Thus he passed through Mainz, Cologne, Malines, Cambrai anal Tournai until he reached Ghent. All we can be sure about is that in this latter city a Macarius was hospitably received as a poor pilgrim by the monks of Saint-Bavon, who allowed him to remain in their hospice, and that he fell a victim to the plague which was ravaging the country. As the pestilence ceased directly after his death, as he had prophesied would be the case, he was held to have offered his life to God in expiation for the sins of the people.

See the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i, where two Latin accounts of his life are printed. The first of these, by Erembold, a monk of Ghent, was written in 1047; the second, a very extravagant document, was produced in 1067 when his remains were more honourably enshrined. Cf. the volume of Aufsätze printed in remembrance of G. Waitz (1886), pp. 642 seq. There are some small popular lives of St Macaire in Flemish and in French, notably one by J. J. De Smet (1867).

     At Ghent in Flanders, St. Macarius, bishop of Antioch, celebrated for virtues and miracles.
He made a pilgrimage and was given welcome by St. Bavo of Ghent, Belgium, and the monks of Saint-Bavon. Macarius was captured by the Saracens but escaped and traveled throughout Europe performing miracles. He died in Ghent of the plague. He is patron saint against epidemic diseases and is also called Macanus of Antioch and Macaire.

Macarius of Ghent (RM) (also known as Macaire of Antioch) said to have been born in Antioch, Pisidia, and a bishop, who travelled westward as a pilgrim. He was received by the Benedictines of Saint Bavo in Ghent, in whose hospice he died of the plague then rampant in Belgium (Benedictines). Saint Macarius is portrayed as a Flemish bishop with three arrowheads. He may also be shown with his mitre and crozier on the ground to symbolize his resignation of the bishopric. He is venerated at Ghent and invoked against plague (Roeder).

1012 St. Guy of Anderlecht; pilgrimage on foot to Rome and Jerusalem; patron of laborers and sacristans, and protector of sheds and stables.He is invoked to calm infantile convulsions 
 Born near Brabant; died at Brussels, Belgium; c. 950-1012; feast day formerly on September 2.

Saint Guy, commonly called The Poor Man of Anderlecht, was the son of poor, but pious, parents who were richly blessed by their faith. They were not able to give their son a formal education, but were diligent in instructing him in the faith. They taught him the counsels of Saint Augustine that Christians should be detached from earthly possessions. Guy prayed throughout his life to be preserved from greed, to love poverty, and to bear all its hardships with joy. This detachment from the need to own, endowed the saint with love for his neighbor; he gladly fed the poor while he himself fasted and divided the little he had among them.

Legend says that when Guy grew to manhood, he was a farm laborer, who prayed as he plowed the fields, sometimes replaced at the plow by his guardian angel. He then wandered for a time until he arrived at the church of Our Lady at Laeken, near Brussels, whose priest was struck with his piety and hired Guy as sacristan. Guy gladly accepted the offer; and the cleanliness and good order that appeared in everything under his direction struck all who entered the church.

Like many other simple folk of every age, Guy was enticed by a merchant of Brussels to invest his small savings in a commercial venture, with the unusual motive of having more at his disposal to relieve the poor and leisure for contemplation. Unfortunately, the ship carrying their goods was lost leaving the harbor, and Guy, who had resigned his position as sacristan and been replaced, was left destitute. He recognized his mistake in following his own ideas and in forsaking secure and humble employment to embark, though with good intention, on the affairs of the world, and he blamed himself for the loss.

In reparation, Guy made a pilgrimage on foot to Rome and Jerusalem, wandering from shrine to shrine for seven years. Finally, he made his way back to Belgium and Anderlecht, where he was received almost immediately into the public hospital of Anderlecht and he died from exhaustion and illness.

His cultus did not arise immediately. In fact, his grave was forgotten until a horse uncovered it. The horse's owner hired two local boys to enclose the site in a high, solid hedge to ensure that others would not unwittingly trample on Guy's grave. The boys ridiculed the benefactor's act of reverence for the dead and were seized by strange stomach aches. Writhing in agony, they died. For some reason, this moved the local people to make pilgrimages to his grave and to build an oratory over it.
In 1076, a church was constructed and Guy's relics translated therein. Guy's sanctity was confirmed almost immediately thereafter by miracles wrought at his intercession. On June 24, 1112, a bishop acknowledged the relics with a grand ceremony and Guy's vita was composed. In 1595, the relics were enshrined in a new reliquary. During the 17th century, they were moved from place to place to escape pillage during wars. It seems that they were captured by the Protestants in the 18th century, although there is a "last acknowledgement of the venerable treasure" that occurred on September 11, 1851.

Over time his cultus increased locally, until now much folklore has accrued around his name and shrine, particularly associated with horses. Cabdrivers of Brabant lead an annual pilgrimage to Anderlecht until the beginning of World War I in 1914. They and their horses headed the procession followed by farmers, grooms, and stable boys leading their animals to be blessed. The description of the village fair that ended the religious procession sounds like fun. There would be various games, music, and feasting, followed by a competition to ride the carthorses bareback. The winner entered the church on bareback to receive a hat made of roses from the parish pastor (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Walsh).

In art, Saint Guy is depicted as a pilgrim with hat, staff, rosary, and ox at his feet. He might also be shown as a peasant or a pilgrim with a book (Roeder). Guy is venerated at Anderlecht, where he is considered the patron of laborers and sacristans, and protector of sheds and stables. He is invoked to calm infantile convulsions (Encyclopedia).
1012 St. Colman of Stockerau  Irish or Scottish pilgrim martyred uncorrupt miracles.
Apud Stokeráviam, in Austria, sancti Colmánni Mártyris.    At Stockerau in Austria, St. Colman, martyr.
in Austria while on the way to the Holy Land. Tortured and hanged as a spy, he edified everyone with his courage. His body remained preserved, and miracles were reported at his grave. The Austrians realized that Colman was a holy man, put to death by mistake. He became a patron saint of Austria.

1012 St Coloman, Martyr
In the beginning of the eleventh century the neighbouring nations of Austria, Moravia and Bohemia were engaged against each other in dissensions and wars. Coloman, a Scot or Irishman who was going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, arrived by the Danube from the enemy’s country at Stockerau, a town six miles above Vienna. The inhabitants, persuading themselves that he was a spy because, not knowing their language, he could not give a satisfactory account of himself, hanged him, on July 13 in 1012. His patience under unjust sufferings was taken as a proof of the sanctity of Coloman, and it was esteemed to be confirmed by the incorruption of his body, which was said to be the occasion of many miracles.
   Three years after his death his body was translated to the abbey of Melk. After a time St Coloman came to be venerated as a minor patron of Austria, and a quite imaginary royal ancestry was invented for him. He is the titular of many churches in Austria, Hungary and Bavaria, and is invoked for the help and healing of horses and horned cattle. On his feast the blessing of these animals takes place at Hohenschwangau, near Füssen.
The vita, attributed to Erchenfried, Abbot of Melk, has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vi, and has also been edited for Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. iv, pp. 675—677.  See further Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers (1923), pp. 143—145 and the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, vol. vi, c. 95. There is no evidence that St Coloman was in a strict sense martyred, and there has never been any formal canonization. On the folklore aspects of the case see Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, vol. ii, pp. 95-99.
1014 BD ISRAEL tomb was made famous by miracles venerated as a saint by the canons regular of the Lateran and in the diocese of Limoges
THIS holy Augustinian is venerated as a saint by the canons regular of the Lateran and in the diocese of Limoges, but little is recorded of him except vague and edifying generalities: “he gave a good example to all and was assiduous at the Divine Office, careful in attending to the wants of the sick, most careful in celebrating the Holy Mysteries according to the Church’s rites.
       He became a canon regular at Dorat in the Limousin, and was promoted to the office of precentor, from which he was taken to be official to Aldoin, bishop of Limoges, whom he accompanied to the French court. At the request of the canons he was sent by Pope Silvester II to be provost of the monastery of St Junian, in Haute-Vienne, and he restored this community both temporally and spiritually: destroying factions, reforming observance, and rebuilding their church. Bd Israel then returned to Dora where he had the formation of St Walter, afterwards abbot of L’Esterp, and took up again the duties of precentor. He died there on December 31, 1014, and his tomb was made famous by miracles.
A medieval Latin life was printed in 1657 by P. Labbe in his Nova Bibliotheca manuscriptorum librorum, vol. ii, pp. 566-567. As he is the presumed author of a poem on our Lord Jesus Christ, a short notice of Bd Israel is also given in the Histoire littéraire de France, vol. vii, pp. 229-230.
1016 St Simeon The Armenian earned a reputation for miracles, and charity.
Sr Simeon was said to have been an Armenian who in the year 982 started on pilgrimage and went to Jerusalem, and passed from thence to Rome.  Here he was accused of being a heretic, and by order of Pope Benedict VII he was examined, and declared to be orthodox.    For a time he wandered about Italy, then visited the shrines of St James at Compostela and St Martin of Tours, and so returned to Lombardy.   Already he had earned a reputation for miracles, and charity:  he greatly impressed the people of Mantua by playing unharmed with a lion which was being exhibited as a curiosity.  He settled at the Cluniac Benedictine monastery of Padilirone, where he passed the rest of his life.  The miracles attributed to him caused notice to be taken at Rome, and Simeon's cultus was allowed by Pope Benedict VIII.

The author of the Life of Simeon, which is printed by Mabillon and also in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vi, may have been a contemporary, but he seems to have been extremely credulous.  It is very questionable, then, whether we may trust his statement that in the course of his wanderings the saint visited " Britannia ".

1016 Simeon of Padolirone (the Armenian) (RM)
canonized by Benedict VIII. The Armenian hermit went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome, Compostella, and Saint Martin of Tours, working miracles as he went. Later he settled at the Cluniac Abbey of Padolirone near Padua, Italy, where he died (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1016 1018 St. Osburga many miracles reported at Her shrine
Abbess of a convent at Coventry, England, which had been founded by King Canute. Her shrine was a popular place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages because of the many miracles reported there.

Osburga V (AC)(also known as Osberga)Died c. 1016; feast day formerly March 28; cultus confirmed in the 15th century. Generally, she is thought to have been the first abbess of the convent founded at Coventry by Canute before he was recognized as king of England, although nothing is known for certain. Her shrine became the site of so many miracles that, in 1410, the clergy and people of Coventry requested that a feast be established in her honor, which was granted by a synod and is still celebrated in the diocese of Birmingham (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Farmer).

1022 Heribert of Cologne a devoted chief pastor of his flock performed miracles, one of which caused a heavy rainfall  B (RM)
 Colóniæ Agrippínæ sancti Heribérti Epíscopi, sanctitáte célebris.       At Cologne, St. Heribert, bishop, celebrated for sanctity.
(also known as Herbert) Born in Worms, Germany; died in Cologne on March 16, 1022.

As a boy, Saint Heribert was sent to the monastery at Gorze in Lorraine for his studies. Upon his return to Worms, he was given a canonry and ordained. Like so many prelates of his time, he was actively engaged in secular as well as church affairs and not much is known of his personal life. Heribert developed into one of the strongest and most distinguished German statesman of the age: by 994, he had become chancellor to Emperor Otto III.
Heribert was elected archbishop of Cologne in 998. In the depths of winter he took off his shoes and walked into the city where he was consecrated on Christmas Eve 999, and from that time on he always wore a hair shirt underneath the rich robes of an archbishop.
Even as archbishop his duties as chancellor did not end. As imperial chancellor, he travelled with the Otto to Italy and brought back the dead Otto's body to Aachen for burial.
He incensed the ambitious men who wanted to succeed Otto by refusing to hand over the imperial insignia until a new emperor had been properly appointed. Heribert was even imprisoned for a time by Duke Henry of Bavaria for his obstinacy. This man, who became Emperor Saint Henry II, bore a grudge against Heribert for many years, but in the end came to acknowledge the saint's wisdom and probity to the point that Heribert became Henry's chancellor, too.
At a time when many clerical statesmen forgot or neglected their spiritual duties under the pressure of serving the state, Heribert was a devoted chief pastor of his flock.
As archbishop he was a rich man; but his entire income was divided between the church and the poor, save for the little that was absolutely necessary for his own needs.
Heribert built the Benedictine monastery at Deutz (outside Cologne) on the Rhein (where he was buried on his death in 1021), was an active peacemaker, maintained strict clerical discipline, and is reputed to have performed miracles, one of which caused a heavy rainfall ending a severe drought and that causes him to be invoked for rain. Already during his lifetime Heribert was looked upon as a saint; after his death, his cultus was encouraged by the monks of Deutz. But the bull of formal canonization, attributed to Pope Saint Gregory VII, is now known to be a forgery, produced in the 17th century (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney).
In art, Saint Heribert is an archbishop calling down rain by his prayers. Sometimes he is shown with Emperor Saint Henry, kneeling before him (Roeder).
1026 The Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb burial place was glorified by miracles
St Boris (July 24) was a brother of the Great Prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054), and was baptized with the name Roman brother of the Great Prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054), his brother was baptized with the name David.
The murdered Prince Boris was buried at the church of St Basil the Great at Vyshgorod near Kiev.
Metropolitan John I of Kiev (1008-1035) and his clergy solemnly met the incorrupt relics of the holy passion-bearer Gleb and placed them in the church where the relics of St Boris rested. Soon the burial place was glorified by miracles. Then the relics of the holy brothers Boris and Gleb were removed from the ground and placed in a specially constructed chapel. On July 24, 1026 a church of five cupolas built by Yaroslav the Wise was consecrated in honor of the holy martyrs.

In later years, the Vyshgorod Sts Boris and Gleb church containing the relics of the holy Passion-Bearers became the family church of the Yaroslavichi, their sanctuary of brotherly love and service to the nation. The symbol of their unity was the celebration of the Transfer of the Relics of Boris and Gleb, observed on May 2.

The history of the establishing of this Feast is bound up with the preceding events of Russian history.
On May 2, 1069 the Great Prince Izyaslav, who had been expelled from the princedom for seven months (i.e. from September 1068) because of an uprising of the Kievan people, entered into Kiev. In gratitude for God's help in establishing peace in the Russian land, the prince built a new church to replace an older structure. Two Metropolitans, George of Kiev and Neophytus of Chernigov, participated in its consecration with other bishops, igumens, and clergy. The transfer of the relics, in which all three of the Yaroslavichi (Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod) participated, was set for May 2, and it was designated as an annual celebration.

Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Kiev during 1073-1076, made an effort to transform the Sts Boris and Gleb temple into a stone church, but he was able to build the walls only eight cubits high. Later Vsevolod (+ 1093) finished the church construction, but it collapsed by night.

The veneration of Sts Boris and Gleb developed during the time of Yaroslav's grandsons, often producing a peculiar pious competition among them. Izyaslav's son Svyatopolk (+ 1113), built silver reliquaries for the saints. In 1102 Vsevolod's son Vladimir Monomakh (+ 1125), sent master craftsmen by night and secretly adorned the silver reliquaries with gold leaf. Svyatoslav's son Oleg (+ 1115) outdid them. He was called "Gorislavich", and was mentioned in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign." He "intended to raise up the collapsed stone (church) and hired some builders." He provided everything that was necessary.
The church was ready in the year 1111, and Oleg "pressured and besought Svyatopolk to transfer the holy relics into it." Svyatopolk did not want to do this, "because he did not build this church."

The death of Svyatopolk Izyaslavich (+ 1113) brought a new insurrection to Kiev, which nearly killed Vladimir Monomakh, who had become Great Prince of that city. He decided to cultivate friendship with the Svyatoslavichi through the solemn transfer of the relics into the Oleg church. "Vladimir gathered his sons, and David and Oleg with their sons. They all arrived at Vyshgorod. All the hierarchs, igumens, monks and priests came, filling all the town and there was no space left for the citizenry along the walls."

On the morning of May 2, 1115, the Sunday of the Myrhhbearing Women, they began to sing Matins at both churches, old and new, and the transfer of relics began. The three were separated. "First they brought St Boris in a cart, and with him went Metropolitan Vladimir and his clergy." On other carts went St Gleb "and David with bishops and clergy." (Oleg waited for them in the church).

This separation was adhered to in future generations. St Boris was considered a heavenly protector of the Monomashichi; St Gleb, of the Ol'govichi and the Davidovichi. When Vladimir Monomakh speaks about Boris in his "Testament", he does not mention Gleb. In the Ol'govichi line, none of the princes received the name Boris.

In general the names Boris and Gleb, and so also Roman and David, were esteemed by many generations of Russian princes. The brothers of Oleg Gorislavich were named Roman (+ 1079), Gleb (+ 1078), David (+ 1123), and one of his sons was named Gleb (+ 1138).

From Monomakh were the sons Roman and Gleb; from Yuri Dolgoruky, Boris and Gleb; of St Rostislav of Smolensk, Boris and Gleb; of St Andrew Bogoliubsky, St Gleb (+ 1174); of Vsevolod Big Nest, Boris and Gleb. Among the sons of Vseslav of Polotsk (+ 1101) was the full range of "Sts Boris and Gleb" names: Roman, Gleb, David, Boris.

The Vyshgorod sanctuaries were not the only centers for the liturgical veneration of Sts Boris and Gleb. It was spread throughout the Russian land. First of all, there were churches and monasteries in specific places connected with the martyrdom of the saints, and their miraculous help for people; the temple of Boris and Gleb at Dorogozhich on the road to Vyshgorod, where St Boris died; the Sts Boris and Gleb monastery at Tmo near Tver where Gleb's horse injured its leg; a monastery of the same name at Smyadyno at the place of Gleb's murder; and at the River Tvertsa near Torzhok (founded in 1030), where the head of St George the Hungarian was preserved [trans. note: the beloved servant of St Boris was beheaded in order to steal the gold medallion given him by St Boris]. Churches dedicated to Sts Boris and Gleb were built at the Alta in memory of the victory of Yaroslav the Wise over Svyatopolk the Accursed on July 24, 1019; and also at Gzena near Novgorod where Gleb Svyatoslavich defeated a sorcerer.

The Ol'govichi and the Monomashichi vied with each other in building churches dedicated to the holy martyrs. Oleg himself, in addition to the Vyshgorod church, built the Sts Boris and Gleb cathedral in Old Ryazan in 1115 (therefore, the diocese was later called Sts Boris and Gleb). His brother David also built at Chernigov (in 1120). In the year 1132 Yuri Dolgoruky built a church of Boris and Gleb at Kideksh at the River Nerla, "where the encampment of St Boris had been." In 1145, St Rostislav of Smolensk "put a stone church at Smyadyno," at Smolensk. In the following year the first (wooden) Sts Boris and Gleb church was built in Novgorod. In 1167 a stone foundation replaced the wood, and it was completed and consecrated in the year 1173. The Novgorod Chronicles name the legendary Sotko Sytinich as the builder of the church.

The holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb were the first Russian saints glorified by the Russian and Byzantine Churches. A service to them was composed soon after their death, and its author was St John I, Metropolitan of Kiev (1008-1035), which a MENAION of the twelfth century corroborates. The innumerable copies of their Life, the accounts of the relics, the miracles and eulogies in the manuscripts and printed books of the twelfth-fourteenth centuries bear witness to the special veneration of the holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb in Russia.

[trans. note: Neither this account nor those of the individual feastdays give the details of their martyrdom. Perhaps it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the story, or perhaps it is too painful to recount. The saints chose not to take up arms to defend themselves, or flee to safety. In their final prayers, they refer to the Lord's voluntary suffering and death, as recorded by the chroniclers. Since they meekly accepted an unjust death for the sake of Christ, they are known as "Passion-Bearers."]
1028 Euthymius the Illuminator performed many miracles He translated from Greek into Iberian (Karthvelian) the Bible 60 writings of the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, and liturgical books Abbot (RM)
Euthymius_of_Athos_the_translator

The venerable Euthymius of Mt. Athos was the son of St. John of Mt. Athos, a military commander during the reign of King Davit Kuropalates, who abandoned the world to enter the monastic life. While St. John was laboring on Mt. Olympus, the Byzantine emperor returned a large portion of the conquered Georgian lands, but in exchange for this benefaction he ordered that the children of certain eminent aristocrats be taken to Constantinople as surety. Among his hostages was St. John’s young son, Euthymius. When John discovered that his son was being held captive in Constantinople, he departed immediately to appeal to the emperor for his release. Eventually John’s request was granted, and he took Euthymius back with him to the monastery. However, by this time the young Euthymius had already forgotten his native language.


1028 ST EUTHYMIUS THE ENLIGHTENER, ABBOT
This Euthymius was the son of that St John the Iberian who is noticed herein on July 12. As there narrated, Euthymius accompanied his father on his retirement to Mount Athos, and helped him in the foundation there of the famous monastery Iviron for monks from their native Iberia (Georgia).* [* The homeland of Joseph Stalin, vere Yugashvili, who was born near Tiflis.]

On the death of John about the year 1040, Euthymius succeeded him as abbot.

Under his care Iviron grew and prospered, attracting recruits from Palestine and Armenia as well as Iberia, and Euthymius had to weed out a considerable number of wealthy young men whose idea of the monastic life was that it was one of elegant retirement and repose. The biography of himself and his father, written by the hieromonk George the Hagiorite about 1040, devotes a good deal of space to common-form eulogy of the virtues of these holy men, but a reasonably living picture of St Euthymius nevertheless emerges.

He appears as a firm but not severe superior, who directed more by example than by precept and who knew the im­portance of keeping an eye on details. Remarkably enough for those days and a wine-drinking country, he was what is now called a teetotaller; but he was none the less careful that the wine ration, which each monk had with his dinner as a matter of course, should be of good quality and not unduly watered. Another practical point was that beardless youths should not be employed as workmen around the monastery: “I know that grown men must be paid higher wages, but it is better to spend more money than to expose our brethren to possible harm”.

The work of predilection of St Euthymius was the translation of sacred books from Greek into Iberian, and George the Hagiorite names over sixty for which the Iberian church was indebted to him. Among them were biblical commentaries, writings of St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Ephrem and St John Damascene, the Institutes of St John Cassian, and the Dialogues of Pope St Gregory the Great. One of his translations, from Iberian into Greek this time, has an interest for hagiology:  this was the so-called History of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat (Joasaph), im­aginary people whose names Cardinal Baronius unfortunately added to the Roman Martyrology (November 27). Naturally enough, St Euthymius found that his duties as abbot seriously interfered with his work of translation, and after he had directed Iviron for fourteen years he resigned his charge, on the plea that the church of his people was crying out for more books that only he could efficiently supply.

Unfortunately his successor in the abbacy precipitated disturbances between Iberians and Greeks among the monks, and St Euthymius was summoned to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine VIII to explain the situation. While there he was thrown from his mule and sustained injuries from which he died, on May 13, 1028. His body was taken back to Mount Athos, and eventually enshrined in the church of the All-Holy Mother of God.

For bibliographical notes, see July 12, loc. cit. A French translation of the life by George the Hagiorite was published in Irénikon, vol. vi, no. 5, vol. vii, nos. 1, 2 and 4 (1929—30). “Hagiorite” (the epithet is also given to St Euthymius’s father, St John) means Athonite, Mount Athos being commonly called in Greek Hagion Oros, the Holy Mountain. Iviron still exists as a monastery of the Orthodox Church, but Iberian monks have been long ago displaced by Greeks.

Soon St. John’s name was known in every monastery on Mt. Olympus, so the holy father withdrew with his son and several disciples to Mt. Athos, to the Lavra of St. Athanasius the Great, to escape the homage and praise. From his youth Euthymius received great grace from the Holy Spirit. While still a child he fell deeply ill, and his father, losing hope in his recovery, sent for a priest to bring him Holy Communion. Then he went into a church, knelt before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and began to pray for his son.
When he returned to his cell he was greeted by the pleasant scent of myrrh and the sight of his son, standing in perfect health.

Euthymius told his father that a magnificent Queen had appeared to him and asked him in Georgian, “What has happened to you? What has disturbed you so, Euthymius?”
“I am dying, my Queen,” he had said.
Then the Queen embraced him, saying, “Arise, do not be afraid, but speak freely in your native Georgian tongue!”
After this miraculous healing the Georgian language flowed from Euthymius’s mouth like water pouring forth from a clear spring, and the young man surpassed all others in eloquence.

Venerable John gave great thanks to God and explained to his son the meaning of the vision: “My son! Our country is suffering from a terrible shortage of books. But the Lord has bestowed upon you a gift, and now you must labor diligently in order to more abundantly recompence the Lord.”

St. Euthymius began his new task with great joy, and many people marveled at his success. St. Giorgi of Mt. Athos recorded the life of St. Euthymius, and his account mentions more than fifty works that he translated from the original Greek into Georgian. After St. John’s death, Euthymius succeeded him as abbot of the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos. (St. John had founded the Iveron Monastery with St. John-Tornike.) His leadership of the monastery brought with it many responsibilities, and Euthymius was obliged to continue his translations at night.

St. Euthymius performed many miracles. Once, while his father was still living, Byzantium was struck by a terrible drought. The earth became cracked, trees and vineyards withered, and all the vegetation dried up after four months without rain. St. John sent Euthymius and his brothers to the Church of the Prophet Elijah to celebrate an All-Night vigil.
 (During periods of drought Orthodox Christians have traditionally turned to the Prophet Elijah
 to bring rain as he did in the Old Testament
.)
During the Gospel reading a dark cloud formed in the sky, and at the moment Euthymius received Holy Communion it began to rain.
Once, during the Feast of the Transfiguration, the faithful of Mt. Athos saw Fr. Euthymius embraced by divine fire. The crowd of witnesses fell on their knees before him, but the saint calmed them, saying,
“Do not be afraid, my brothers; God has looked down on us, and Christ has glorified His feast!”
But the devil could not tolerate the godly labors of the venerable Euthymius and his brothers at the monastery, so he persuaded a certain beggar, who resembled a monk, to kill the holy father. When the killer approached Fr. Euthymius’s cell, two monks blocked his way. So the assassin slashed them with his sword. Upon hearing the noise, Father Euthymius came outside and served Holy Communion to his fallen brothers. The two monks were fatally wounded and crowned as martyrs of the Church, while the killer confessed his sin and died, greatly afflicted in spirit.
Later a monastery gardener attempted to murder St. Euthymius, but when he lifted his hand to strike the saint, it withered suddenly, and only the prayers of Fr. Euthymius could heal it.

St. Euthymius labored as abbot of the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos for fourteen years. His literary endeavors demanded much time and great effort, so, according to his father’s will, he appointed a certain George (later St. George of Mt. Athos, the Builder) his successor.  Then he locked himself in his cell and dedicated himself exclusively to his translations.

Once the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VIII (1027–1039) summoned Fr. Euthymius to his court. Before departing for Constantinople, the venerable father gathered his brothers, prepared for them a meal, and asked them for their prayers. Then, just before he left on his journey, he visited his childhood friend, the elder Theophan. When they were bidding each other farewell, Theophan embraced him tearfully, crying out, “What grief I am suffering, O holy Father, for I will not see you again in the flesh!” The elder’s prophecy was soon fulfilled.

The emperor received St. Euthymius with great honor. On May 8th, following the Liturgy for the feast of St. John the Theologian, St. Euthymius set off to visit a certain iconographer from whom he had earlier commissioned an icon. He was seated on a young mule and sent on his way. But along the road he was approached by a beggar, clad all in black, who asked alms of him. The venerable father reached into his pocket, but when the mule suddenly noticed the strange man by the roadside, he was frightened, lurched violently, and cast the holy father to the ground, killing him.
All of Byzantium mourned the death of St. Euthymius. His holy relics are buried in the Church of St. John the Baptist at the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos.

Born in Iberia (Georgia); died on May 13, 1028. Euthymius accompanied his father, Saint John the Iberian, to Mount Athos when his father brought him back from Constantinople, where he and other Iberian youths had been held hostage by the emperor. Euthymius helped his father build Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos for Iberian monks, and, about 1002, succeeded him as abbot.

After 14 years as abbot, Euthymius resigned to devote himself to his translations, which were of great service to the church. He translated from Greek into Iberian (Karthvelian) the Bible, some sixty writings of the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, and liturgical books. Summoned to Constantinople by Emperor Constantine VIII to explain the disturbances that were occurring between the Greek and Iberian monks, Euthymius met his death en route from injuries caused by a fall from his mule (Attwater, Delaney).
1030  St. Olaf son of Harold Grenske, a lord in Norway. Olaf Haraldsson, often called "the Fat", spent his youth as a pirate. He was baptized in Rouen, and in 1013, went to England to aid King Ethelred against the Danes. He returned to Norway in 1015, captured most of Norway back from the Danes and Swedes, defeated Earl Sweyn at the battle of Nesjar in 1016, and became king. He set about unifying and Christianizing his realm; miracles were reported at his shrine.

In Norvégia sancti Olávi, Regis et Mártyris.   In Norway, St. Olaf, king and martyr.

But the harshness of Olaf 's rule precipitated a revolt of the nobles in 1029, and aided by Canute of Denmark, they defeated him and forced him to flee to Russia.    He returned in 1030 and attempted to recover his kingdom, but was slain at the Battle of Stiklestad in Norway on July 29th. Though not too popular during his lifetime, miracles were reported at his shrine, and a chapel was built, which became the cathedral of Trondheim; it became a great pilgrimage center for all Scandinavia. He is one of the great heroes of Norway for his efforts to unify and Christianize Norway, of which he is patron. He was canonized in 1164
Olaf of Norway, King M (RM) (also known as Olave, Ola, Olao, Tola, Tooley) Born 995; died at Stiklestad, July 29, 1030; canonized in 1164. Saint Olaf was the son of a Norwegian jarl, Harald Grenske. At a precociously early age (about 12), Olaf was allowed to join a band of viking pirates. In the course of his rovings he fought for Richard of Normandy, and for Ethelred II in England against the Danes in 1013. In 1010, Olaf the Fat received baptism in Rouen, France, at the hands of Archbishop Robert. In 1015, at the age of 20, he returned to Norway and succeeded his father. He then proceeded to capture most of Norway back from the Danes and Swedes, defeated Earl Sweyn at the battle of Nesje in 1016, and became ruler of Norway.

After his brilliant military conquest, the recently baptized Olaf set about subjecting his realm to Christ. He brought Christian clergy from England and elsewhere into the country. One of these foreigners, Grimkel, was chosen bishop of Nidaros (Trondheim), his capital. On Grimkel's advice, Olaf published many good enactments and abolished ancient laws and customs contrary to the Gospel.
Unfortunately, like Saint Vladimir of Russia and Olaf Tryggvesson before him, he used force and bribery to destroy paganism and impose the new religion on his people. He attempted to unify the country, but some of his legislation and political objectives were not everywhere accepted. In fact, his rule caused widespread discontent. He was merciless to his enemies and so it was not long before the nobles revolted in 1029 and he was driven out by the Anglo-Danish King Knut (Canute). Olaf fled to Russia but returned to Norway in 1031 with a few Swedish troops in an attempt to regain his kingdom, but was killed in battle at Stiklestad on the Trondheim fjord.

In circumstances somewhat resembling those of Saint Eric of Sweden, Olaf Haraldsson became the national hero-saint of Norway. He was unpopular in his lifetime, but miracles were reported at his tomb on a steep sandbank by the River Nid, where he had fallen. Here a spring gushed out whose waters became credited with healing power and other miracles were reported. The following year Bishop Grimkel ordered that he was to be venerated as a martyr and that a chapel be built over the place.

He had been zealous for Christianity, albeit crudely, he had died what was called a martyr's death, and his name was made to stand for Norwegian independence. In 1075, his incorrupt body was enshrined in what became the cathedral of Nidaros (Trondheim), which replaced the chapel, and became a site of pilgrimage. During the Reformation his body was removed and reburied. His cultus was aided by the unpopular rule of Swein, Canute's son; Canute's death in 1035 resulted in the flight of many Danes from Norway and the accession of Olaf's son Magnus. Thereafter his cultus spread rapidly. Adam of Bremen (c. 1070) wrote that his feast was celebrated throughout Scandinavia.

In England, more than 40 ancient churches were dedicated in his honor (Saint Olave's) in London, York, Exeter, Lincoln, and elsewhere, especially in Viking areas, and his feast can be found on many English calendars including London, Norwich, Exeter, Winchester, York, and the monasteries of Ramsey, Sherbourne, Abbotsbury, Launceston, and Syon.

Olaf was a Christian name in England before the Conquest. In Gaelic it became Amlaibh (Aulag), from which the Hebridean surname 'Macaulay' derives. In English, the name was corrupted by the addition of a 'T' (elided from the final sound of 'saint') to become 'Tooley' (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Walsh).
In art, Saint Olaf is depicted as a king with a lance and covered cup or ciborium, who tramples on a crowned demon. Sometimes he is shown (1) enthroned, a man under his feet; (2) standing on an armed man; (3) with a halberd and dagger; (4) with a halberd and loaf; or (5) with a halberd and axe (Roeder). In English iconography Olaf is included on the seals of Grimby Abbey and Herringfleet Priory in Suffolk, on the 15th-century screen at Barton Turf in Norfolk, on an ivory crozier in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and in glass at York Minster. The most complete example is six medallions from Olaf's life in the Beatus initial of the 13th-century Carrow Psalter, which was written in East Anglia and can be found in the Walter's Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. 
He is venerated in East Anglia (Roeder) and the patron of Norway (Farmer).

1030  St. Olaf  the son of Harold Grenske, a lord in Norway, and after eight years of piracy and lighting succeeded to his father in 1010 at the age of twenty, at a time when most of Norway was in the hands of the Danes and Swedes.  These parts he conquered and then set about the subjection of the realm to Christ, for he himself had already been baptized at Rouen by Archbishop Robert; the work had been begun, but had not made much real progress, by Haakon the Good and by Olaf Tryggvason, whose methods of "evangelization" seem to have been preposterous and wicked.   In 1013 Olaf Haraldsson had sailed to England and assisted King Ethelred against the Danes, and he now turned to that country for help in his more peaceable task.  He brought over from England a number of priests and monks, one of whom, Grimkel, was chosen bishop of Nidaros, his capital.
   Olaf relied much on the advice of this prelate, and by his counsel published many good enactments and abolished ancient laws and customs contrary to the gospel.  Unfortunately, like St Vladimir of Russia and other princes who sought to convert their people, he was not content with exhortation, his zeal was often more than his prudence, and he used force without compunction. To his enemies he was merciless, added to which some of his legislation and political objects were not everywhere approved. Therefore many rose in arms, and, with assistance of Canute, King of England and Denmark, defeated and expelled him.   St Olaf fled, but returned with a few Swedish troops to recover his kingdom; he was slain by his rebellious and infidel subjects in a battle fought at Stiklestad, on July 29, 1030.
  The king's body was buried in a steep sandbank by the river Nid, where he had fallen ; here a spring gushed out whose waters became credited with healing power and the bishop, Grimkel, in the following year ordered that he was to be there venerated as a martyr and a chapel built over the place.  Miracles were reported at the shrine, and on the return of his son Magnus to power the veneration of St Olaf became widespread; in 1075 the chapel was replaced by a bishop's church, dedicated to Christ and St Olaf, which in time became the metropolitan cathedral of Nidaros (Trondhjem), which was, both as a building and a shrine, to Scandinavia what Canterbury was to England: and just as pilgrims to the one dismounted on Harbledown Hill to greet the first sight of England's greatest shrine, so pilgrims to the other did the like on what is still known as Feginsbrekka, the Hill of Joy.   During the middle ages the cultus of "the perpetual King of Norway" spread to Sweden, Denmark, the British Isles and beyond, and he is still regarded by Norwegians as the patron and national hero of his country.
  The name Tooley of a London street is a corruption of St Olaf's, and marks the former Scandinavian and Danish colony in Southwark; and the churches of St Olave in Hart Street and of St Olive Upwell in Old Jewry were named after him.
See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, where a text of the life by Archbishop Eystein is printed.  This and other documents are also given in Metcalfe, Passio et miracula b. Olavi (1881).  There is an English account by F. Vicary, Olav the King... (1887); a short life in French by C. Riesterer (1930);  a translation into French by 0. Sautreau of Snorre Sturluson's Saga of St Olaf (1930); and S. Undset's Saga of Saints (1934), pp. 87-148. See also F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943), pp. 396-399, etc.; and for Olaf's cultus in the British Isles articles by Professor Bruce Dickins in Saga Book of the Viking Society, vol. xii (1939), pp. 53-80, and in The Norseman, vol. ii (1944) no. 5.
 1031 St. Dominic of Sora Benedictine abbot founder
 Soræ sancti Domínici Abbátis, miráculis clari.
       At Sora, the abbot St. Dominic, renowned for miracles.

Born in Foligno, Etruria, Italy, he established monasteries in the old kingdom of Naples. He died at Sora, in Campania.
1031 ST DOMINIC OF SORA, ABBOT
IN the archives of Foligno in Etruria, the birthplace of this saint, it is stated that St Dominic’s intercession was frequently invoked as a protection against thunder­storms. There seems to be no indication of the origin of this practice. It may be due to some incident in his early life of which the record is lost, for authentic documents take up the story of his career from the time that he became a monk. The whole of St Dominic’s activities were devoted to the founding of Benedictine monasteries and churches in various parts of Italy, at Scandrilia, Sora, Sangro and in other towns. Each monastery that he founded was apparently given its own abbot, so that Dominic himself might be free to begin work in another place. The intervals between the various foundations were devoted to solitary prayer, until the saint received an intimation from God as to where he was to establish his next monastery. Yet in the midst of this busy life he found time to work for souls, and not infrequently the efforts he made to convert sinners were attended by striking miracles. Several of these are related by one who was probably an eye-witness, a monk named John, the disciple and constant companion of St Dominic. He died at the age of eighty in 1031 at Sora in Campania.
See the Acta Sanctorum, January, vols. ii and iii; Analecta Bollandiana, vol. (1882), pp. 279—322; and A. M. Zimmermann, Kalendarium benedictinum, vol. i (1933), pp. 114—117.
1031 St. Emeric son of St. Stephen Hungary’s first Christian king  many miracles
Born in 1007, he did not live to inherit St. Stephen’s throne, as he died in a hunting accident. His tomb at Szekesfehervar was a pilgrim’s site, and many miracles were reported there. He was canonized with his father in 1083.
Emeric of Hungary, Prince (RM) (also known as Henry or Imre). The only son of Saint Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary, and Gisela, the sister of Emperor Saint Henry II. Stephen planned to have Emeric succeed him as king and, for this reason provided him with a fitting education under Saint Gerard of Czanad (Gerard Sagredo or Saint Collert). Emeric gave promise of being a model king, but was killed prematurely in a hunting accident before inheriting the crown. Many miracles were reported at his tomb at Szekesfehervar, and he was canonized, with his father (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia). In art Saint Emeric is a prince, crowned and bearded, holding a lily and a dagger. At times he is with his father, Saint Stephen of Hungary. Other times he is shown before the altar with his wife, making a vow of continence, watched by Saint Stephen. Saint Emeric is venerated in Hungary and San Martino a Mensola, Florence, Italy (Roeder)
.
1038 St. Stephen the Great b. 977 Apud Albam Regálem, in Pannónia, item natális sancti Stéphani, Regis Hungarórum et Confessóris; qui, divínis virtútibus exornátus, primus Húngaros ad Christi fidem convértit, et a Deípara Vírgine, ipso die Assumptiónis suæ, in cælum recéptus fuit. Ejus vero festívitas quarto Nonas Septémbris, quo die munitíssima Budæ arx, sancti Regis ope, recólitur, ex dispositióne Innocéntii Papæ Undécimi.
    At Alba Regalis in Hungary, St. Stephen, King of Hungary, who was graced with divine virtues, was the first to convert the Hungarians to the faith of Christ, and was received into heaven by the Virgin Mother of God on the very day of her Assumption. By decree of Pope Innocent XI, his feast is kept on the 2nd of September, on which day the strong city of Buda, by the aid of the holy king, was recovered by the Christian army.
. His tomb was the scene of miracle

Sancti Stéphani, Regis Hungarórum et Confessóris; qui décimo octávo Kaléndas Septémbris obdormívit in Dómino.
    St. Stephen, king of Hungary and confessor, who fell asleep in the Lord on the 15th of August.


1038 ST STEPHEN OF HUNGARY
THE people whom we call Magyars came into the country of Hungary during the last years of the ninth century, settling in the land around the Danube from several districts to the east of it, under the general leadership of a chief called Arpad. They were a fierce and marauding people and met Christianity in the course of their raids into Italy, France and westward generally.

St Methodius and others had already planted the faith in Pannonia, but it was not until the second half of the tenth century that the Magyars themselves began to pay any serious consideration to the Church. Geza, the third duke (voivode) after Arpad, saw the political necessity of Christianity to his country, and (encouraged by St Adalbert of Prague) he was baptized and a number of his nobles followed his example. But it was largely a conversion of expediency, and had the usual result of such conversions: the Christianity of the converts was largely nominal. An exception to this was Geza’s son, Vaik, who had been baptized at the same time as his father and been given the name of Stephen (Istvan); he was then only about ten and so had not acquired pagan ways and fixed habits of mind. In the year 995, when he was twenty, he married Gisela, sister of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, better known as the Emperor St Henry II, and two years later he succeeded his father as governor of the Magyars.

Stephen was soon engaged in wars with rival tribal leaders and others; and when he had consolidated his position he sent St Astrik, whom he designed to be the first archbishop, to Rome to obtain Pope Silvester II’s approval for a proper ecclesiastical organization for his country; and at the same time to ask his Holiness to confer upon him the title of king, which his nobles had long pressed him to assume and which he now asked that he might with more majesty and authority accomplish his designs for promoting the glory of God and the good of his people. Silvester was disposed to grant his request, and prepared a royal crown to send him with his blessing, acting no doubt in concert with political representations from the Emperor Otto III who was then in Rome. At the same time the pope con­firmed the religious foundations which the prince had made and the elections of bishops. St Stephen went to meet his ambassador upon his return and listened, standing with great respect, to the pope’s bulls whilst they were read; to express his own sense of religion and to inspire his subjects with awe for whatever belonged to divine worship, he always treated the pastors of the Church with great honour and respect. The same prelate who had brought the crown from Rome crowned him king with great solemnity in the year 1001.* [* The alleged bull of Pope Silvester granting the title of Apostolic King and Apostolic Legate to St Stephen, with the right to have a primatial cross borne before him, is a forgery, probably of the seventeenth century. The upper part of the crown sent by the pope, fitted on to the lower part of a crown given to King Geza I by the Emperor Michael VII, is pre­served at Budapest.]

Firmly to root Christianity in his kingdom and to provide for its steady progress after his own time, King Stephen established episcopal sees only gradually, as Magyar clergy became available; Vesprem is the first of which there is reliable record, but within some years Esztergom was founded and became the primatial see. At Szekesfehervar he built a church in honour of the Mother of God, in which the kings of Hungary were afterwards both crowned and buried. This city St Stephen made his usual residence, whence it was called Alba Regatis to dis­tinguish it from Alba Julia in Transylvania.

He also completed the foundation of the great monastery of St Martin, begun by his father. This monastery, known as Martinsberg or Pannonhalma, still exists, and is the mother house of the Hungarian Benedictine congregation. For the support of the churches and their pastors and the relief of the poor throughout his dominions he commanded tithes to be paid. Every tenth town had to build a church and support a priest; the king himself furnished the churches. He abolished, not without violence, bar­barous and superstitious customs derived from the former religion and by severe punishments repressed blasphemy, murder, theft, adultery and other public crimes. He commanded all persons to marry except religious and churchmen, and forbade all marriages of Christians with idolators. He was of easy access to people of all ranks, and listened to everyone’s complaints, but was most willing to hear the poor, knowing them to be more easily oppressed and considering that in them we honour Christ who, being no longer among men on earth in His mortal state, has recommended to us the poor in His place and right.

It is said that one day, while the king was distributing alms in disguise, a troop of beggars crowding round him knocked him down, hustled him, pulled at his heard and hair, and took away his purse, seizing for themselves what he intended for the relief of many others. Stephen took this indignity humbly and with good humour, happy to suffer in the service of his Saviour, and his nobles, when they heard of this, were amused and chaffed him about it; but they were also disturbed, and insisted that he should no more expose his person; but he renewed his re­solution never to refuse an alms to any poor person that asked him. The example of his virtue was a most powerful sermon to those who came under his influence, and in no one was it better exemplified than in his son, Bd Emeric, to whom St Stephen’s code of laws was inscribed. These laws he caused to be promulgated throughout his dominions, and they were well suited to a fierce and rough people newly converted to Christianity. But they were not calculated to allay the discontent and alarm of those who were still opposed to the new religion, and some of the wars which St Stephen had to undertake had a religious as well as a political significance. When he had overcome an irruption of the Bulgarians he undertook the political organization of his people. He abolished tribal divisions and divided the land into “counties”, with a system of governors and magistrates.

Thus, and by means of a limited application of feudal ideas, making the nobles vassals of the crown, he welded the Magyars into a unity; and by retaining direct control over the common people he prevented undue accumulation of power into the hands of the lords. St Stephen was indeed the founder and architect of the independent realm of Hungary. But, as Father Paul Grosjean, Bollandist, has remarked, to look at him otherwise than against his historical background gives as false an impression as to think of him as a sort of Edward the Confessor or Louis IX. And that background was a very fierce and uncivilized one.

As the years passed, Stephen wanted to entrust a greater part in the government to his only son, but in 1031 Emeric was killed while hunting. “God loved him, and therefore He has taken him away early”, cried St Stephen in his grief. The death of Emeric left him without an heir and the last years of his life were embittered by family disputes about the succession, with which he had to cope while suffering continually from painful illness. There were four or five claimants, of whom one, Peter, was the son of his sister Gisela, an ambitious and cruel woman, who since the death of her husband had lived at the Hungarian court. She had made up her mind that her son should have the throne, and shamelessly took advantage of Stephen’s ill-health to forward her ends. He eventually died, aged sixty-three, on the feast of the Assumption 1038, and was buried beside Bd Emeric at Szekes­fehervar. His tomb was the scene of miracles, and forty-five years after his death, by order of Pope St Gregory VII at the request of King St Ladislaus, his relics were enshrined in a chapel within the great church of our Lady at Buda. Innocent XI appointed his festival for September 2 in 1686, the Emperor Leopold having on that day recovered Buda from the hands of the Turks.

There are two early lives of St Stephen, both dating apparently from the eleventh century, and known as the Vita major and the Vita minor. These texts have been edited in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. xi. A certain Bishop Hartwig early in the twelfth century compiled from these materials a biography which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. ii. Other facts concerning the saint may be gleaned from the Chronica Ungarorum edited in Endlicher’s Monumenta, vol. i. Although the supposed bull of Silvester II is certainly spurious, and although very serious doubts have been raised as to the genuineness of the crown alleged to have been sent by the pope, still there does seem to be evidence of special powers conferred by papal authority which were equivalent to those of a legate a latere. The belief, however, that St Stephen was invested with the title of “Apostolic King” is altogether without foundation. See e.g. the article of L. Kropf in the English Historical Review, 1898, pp. 290—295. A very readable, but rather uncritical, life by E. Horn (1899) has appeared in the series “Les Saints”. For more reliable and detailed information we have to go to such Hungarian authorities as J. Paulers, Mgr Fraknoi and Dr Karácsonyi. In a later volume of the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. ii, pp. 477—487, the Bollandists, when dealing with the life of Bd Emeric, have discussed many points which have a bearing on the history of the king, his father. Among the publications marking the ninth centenary of the death of St Stephen were F. Banfi, Re Stefano il Santo (1938), and B. Hóman, Szent István (1938); the last has been translated into German (1941). See also Archivum Europae centro-orientalis, vol. iv (1938); and C. A. Macartney, The Medieval Hungarian Historians (1953).

   St. Stephen the Great (-1038), was the son of the Magyar chieftain Geza, Stephen succeeded him as leader in 997. Already raised a Christian, in 996 he wed the daughter of Duke Henry II of Bavaria and devoted much of his reign to the promotion of the Christian faith. He gave his patronage to Church leaders, helped build churches, and was a proponent of the rights of the Holy See. Stephen also crushed the pagan counterreaction to Christianity, forcibly converting the so-called Black Hungarians after their failed rebellion. In recognition of his efforts, Stephen was anoited king of Hungary in 1000, receiving the cross and crown from Pope Sylvester II. The remainder of his reign was taken up with the consolidation of the Christian hold on the region. His crown and regalia became beloved symbols of the Hungarian nation, and Stephen was venerated as the ideal Christian king. Canonized in 1083 by Pope St. Gregory VII, he became the patron saint of Hungary.

Coming from the east under a chief called Arpad, a fierce, marauding people called Magyars invaded and conquered the central part of the Danube valley during the last years of the ninth century. King Stephen was of this race. The Magyars first learned of Christianity on sporadic raids into north Italy and France. In the middle of the ninth century the Thessalonian priests, SS. Cyril and Methodius, had planted the faith in Pannonia, to the south, and had translated the Bible into the native tongue. It was not for a hundred years, however, that the Magyars gave serious attention to the Church. This was in the time of Geza, the third duke after Arpad. He was shrewd enough to see the practical desirability of Christianity as a protection against the inroads of his Christian neighbors on either side. He had the choice of turning to the Eastern Church at Constantinople or to the Church of Rome. Although Rome was more distant, he chose the Western Church, in fear that if he accepted Christianity from the east his domain would be incorporated in the recently revived Eastern Empire, the boundaries of which extended to the Danube.
Geza's first wife was Sarolta, one of the few Magyar women who was truly Christian. Of this union was born, about the year 975, a son named Vaik, the future king and saint. His mother took great care of his early training, and he had excellent Italian and Czech tutors. Geza married as his second wife a Christian princess Adelaide, sister of the duke of Poland; at her behest, Adalbert. archbishop of Prague, came on a preaching mission to Hungary. Geza and his young son were baptized in 986, Vaik being given the name of the first martyr, Stephen; a number of the Hungarian nobles were baptized at the same time. For most of them it was a conversion of expediency, and their Christianity was, at the outset, merely nominal. The young prince, on the contrary, became a Christian in a true sense, and his mature life was spent spreading the faith and trying to live according to its disciplines and tenets.

At the age of twenty Stephen married Gisela, sister of the duke of Bavaria, the future Emperor Henry II. Since Hungary was then at peace with its neighbors, Stephen devoted himself to rooting out idolatry among his people. In the guise of a missionary, he often accompanied the Christian preachers; sometimes he had to check their tendency to impose the faith forcibly. There had recently been a migration of German Christian knights into the rich and fertile plains of Hungary. These newcomers took up land and they also labored to make converts of the peasantry. Many Magyars not unnaturally resented this infiltration, which they thought jeopardized their territorial rights and their ancient pagan customs. They rose in revolt under the leadership of Koppany, a man of great valor. Stephen met the insurgents himself, having prepared for battle by fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer, and invoking the aid of St. Martin of Tours, whom he had chosen as his patron. The historic meeting took place at Veszprem in 998, and though Stephen's forces were inferior in size to those of the rebels, with the help of the German knights he won a famous victory. Koppany was slain.

To give God the glory for his success, Stephen built near the site of the battle a monastery dedicated to St. Martin, called the Holy Hill, and bestowed on it extensive lands, as well as one third ,of the spoils of victory. Known since that time as the archabbey of Martinsberg, or Pannonhalma, it flourished down to modern times. It is the mother house of all Benedictine congregations in Hungary. Stephen now followed up his plans by inviting priests and monks to come from Germany, France, and Italy. They continued the work of taming the savage nation by teaching it the Gospel; they built churches and monasteries to serve as centers of religion, industry, and education. Some of them died as martyrs.

Hungary was still without ecclesiastical organization, and Stephen now founded the archbishopric of Gran, with five dioceses under it, and later the archbishopric of Kalocsa, with three dioceses. He then sent Abbot Astricius to Rome to obtain from Pope Sylvester II the confirmation of these foundations as well as of other things he had done for the honor of God and the exaltation of His Church. At the same time he begged the Pope to confer on him the title of king, that he might have more authority to accomplish his designs for promoting God's glory and the good of the people. It happened that Boleslaus, duke of Poland, at this same time had sent an embassy to Rome to get the title of king confirmed to him by papal ordinance. Pope Sylvester, persuaded to grant the request, had prepared a royal crown to send him with his blessing. But the special zeal, piety, and wisdom of Stephen of Hungary seemed to deserve priority. The Pope too may have been moved by political considerations, since the powerful German Emperor Otto II was at that moment in Rome. At any rate, he delivered this famous crown[1] to Stephen's ambassador, Astricius, and at the same time by a bull confirmed all the religious foundations Stephen had erected and the ordination of the Hungarian bishops. On his envoy's return, Stephen went out to meet him, and listened with reverence to the reading of the Pope's bull, bowing as often as the Pope's name was mentioned. It was this same Abbot Astricius who anointed and crowned him king with solemnity and pomp at Gran, in the year 1001.

To plant Christianity firmly in his kingdom and provide for its continued growth after his death, King Stephen filled Hungary with religious foundations. At Stuhlweissenburg he built a stately church in honor of the Mother of God, in which the kings of Hungary were afterwards crowned and buried. In Buda he founded the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, and in Rome, Ravenna, and Constantinople hospices for pilgrims. He filled Martinsberg with Benedictines, who, as we have seen, were notable for practical works and founded four other monasteries of the order, as well as con. vents for nuns. At Veszprem there was a convent for nuns of the Byzantine rite. One effect of the conversion of Hungary was that the road used by pilgrims and crusaders going to the Holy Land was made safer, since the valley of the Danube formed a natural highway for at least a part of the long, difficult journey. To support churches and pastors and to relieve the poor, Stephen started the collection of tithes, and every tenth town was required to maintain a church and support a priest. Stephen himself built the churches and the bishops appointed the priests. He passed edicts for the severe punishment of blasphemy, murder, theft, and adultery. He commanded his subjects to marry, with the exception of monks, nuns, and clergy; he forbade marriages between Christians and pagans. Easy of access to persons of all ranks, Stephen was always ready to listen to the complaints of the poor, knowing that in helping them he honored Christ. Widows and orphans he took under his special protection.

This democratic King would often go about in disguise in order to find out the needs of humble persons whom his officials might overlook. Once, while dealing out alms thus, a rough band of beggars crowded around him, pulled at his beard and hair, knocked him down, and snatched away his purse. The King took this indignity in good humor, without making known who he was. When his nobles heard of the incident, they insisted that he should not again expose himself to such danger. Yet he renewed his vow never to refuse an alms to anyone who begged of him.

The code of laws which King Stephen put into effect was well suited to control a hot- tempered people, newly converted to Christianity; but it was not at all pleasing to those who still opposed the new religion, and the wars which Stephen now undertook were religious as well as political. Stephen undertook the political reorganization of Hungary. He abolished the old tribal divisions and partitioned the land into counties, under a system of governors and magistrates, similar to that of the Western Empire. He also developed a kind of feudalism, turning the independent nobles into vassals of the crown, thus welding them into a political unity. He retained direct control over the common people. In 1025 there was a revolt led by a noble called Ajton, who was moving to transfer his allegiance to the Eastern emperor. Stephen mobilized his forces at Kalocsa and gained an overwhelming victory. After he had repulsed an invasion of Bulgarians, some of the Bulgarians returned, hoping to settle peaceably in Hungary. They were set upon by vengeful Magyars. Stephen straightway had a number of the Magyars hanged along the frontier, as a warning that well-intentioned strangers must not be molested. When Stephen's saintly brother-in-law, Emperor Henry II, died, he was succeeded by his cousin, Conrad II. Fearing Stephen's growing power, Conrad marched against him. A parley was arranged, and Conrad retired. This settlement, according to Stephen's subjects, showed the peace-loving disposition of their king.

The death of Stephen's son Emeric left him without a direct heir, and the last years of the king's life were embittered by family disputes and dark intrigues over the succession. Of the four or five claimants, the successful one was Peter, son of Stephen's sister, a ruthless woman who stopped at nothing to gain her end. Two of Stephen's cousins were no better and even conspired to have him killed. A hired assassin entered his bedroom one night, but the King awakened and calmly called out, "If God be for me, who shall be against me?" The King pardoned the assassin and his cousins as well. It is not surprising that "a time of troubles" followed the death of this great statesman and king; it lasted until the reign of St. Ladislas, some forty years later.

Stephen died on the feast of the Assumption, 1038. His tomb at Stuhlweissenburg became the scene of miracles, and forty-five years after his death Pope Gregory VII, at the request of Ladislas, ordered his relics enshrined and placed in the rich chapel which bears his name in the church of Our Lady at Buda. King Stephen was canonized in 1083. In 1696 Pope Innocent XI appointed his festival for September 2, the day on which Emperor Leopold won Buda back from the Turks. In Hungary his feast is still kept on August 20, the day of the translation of his relics. This saint merits the highest veneration for his accomplishments in both secular and religious matters, and, most especially, for having been an exemplar of justice, mercy, charity, and peace in a cruel age.

Endnotes: 1 The upper part of this crown, decorated with jewels and enameled figures of Christ and the Apostles, was later fitted on to the lower part of a crown given to King Geza I by the Eastern Emperor Michael VII, to form what is known as the Holy Crown of Hungary. It was recovered from the Nazis after World War II and placed in the custody of the United States Government.
Saint Stephen, Confessor, King of Hungary. Celebration of Feast Day is September 2. Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.
Provided Courtesy of:  Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Road Irondale, AL 35210 www.ewtn.com

August 16, 2010 St. Stephen of Hungary (975-1038) 
The Church is universal, but its expression is always affected—for good or ill—by local culture. There are no "generic" Christians; there are Mexican Christians, Polish Christians, Filipino Christians. This fact is evident in the life of Stephen, national hero and spiritual patron of Hungary.

Born a pagan, he was baptized at about the age of ten, together with his father, chief of the Magyars, a group who migrated to the Danube area in the ninth century. At 20 he married Gisela, sister to the future emperor, St. Henry. When he succeeded his father, Stephen adopted a policy of Christianization of the country for both political and religious reasons. He suppressed a series of revolts by pagan nobles and welded the Magyars into a strong national group. He sent to Rome to get ecclesiastical organization—and also to ask the pope to confer the title of king upon him. He was crowned on Christmas day in 1001.

Stephen established a system of tithes to support churches and pastors and to relieve the poor. Out of every 10 towns one had to build a church and support a priest. He abolished pagan customs with a certain amount of violence, and commanded all to marry, except clergy and religious. He was easily accessible to all, especially the poor.

In 1031 his son Emeric died, and the rest of his days were embittered by controversy over his successor. His nephews attempted to kill him. He died in 1038 and was canonized, along with his son, in 1083.

Comment: God's gift of holiness is a Christlike love of God and humanity. Love must sometimes bear a stern countenance for the sake of ultimate good. Christ attacked hypocrites among the Pharisees, but died forgiving them. Paul excommunicated the incestuous man at Corinth "that his spirit may be saved." Some Christians fought the Crusades with noble zeal, in spite of the unworthy motives of others. Today, after senseless wars, and with a deeper understanding of the complex nature of human motives, we shrink from any use of violence, physical or "silent." This wholesome development continues as people debate whether it is possible for a Christian to be an absolute pacifist or whether evil must sometimes be repelled by force.
Quote: "Although the Church has contributed much to the development of culture, experience shows that, because of circumstances, it is sometimes difficult to harmonize culture with Christian teaching.
    "These difficulties do not necessarily harm the life of faith. Indeed they can stimulate the mind to a more accurate and penetrating grasp of the faith. For recent studies and findings of science, history and philosophy raise new questions which influence life and demand new theological investigations" (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 62).
1045 ST SIGFRID, BISHOP OF Växjö: a spring bore Sigfrid’s name was the channel of many miracles.
THE history of St Sigfrid is somewhat obscure, owing to conflicting narratives. One account states that after King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway had been converted to Christianity (he was confirmed at Andover by St Alphege the martyr who then was bishop of Winchester), he asked the English king, Ethelred, to send him missionaries. Sigfrid, said to have been a priest of York (or possibly Glastonbury), went out from England as a missionary bishop, and with him also went two other bishops, John and Grimkel. They did not confine themselves to Norway, but passed on to Sweden which, after having been in part evangelized by St Anskar, had relapsed into idolatry. There they laboured under the protection of the archbishop of Bremen, and Sigfrid made his headquarters at Växjö.

The king of Sweden, whose name also was Olaf, was himself converted by St Sigfrid, who baptized him at Husaby in a spring which afterwards bore Sigfrid’s name and was the channel of many miracles. St Sigfrid continued his labours successfully for many years, and at his death was buried in the church pf Växjö. Tradition has added many details to the accounts of St Sigfrid’s labours. It is said that when he first arrived at Växjö he began by planting a cross and building a wooden church in which he celebrated the divine mysteries and preached. The twelve principal men of the district were converted by him, and one of them, who died almost immediately, received Christian burial and had a cross placed on his grave. So wonderfully did the truth spread, that within a short time the faith was planted in all Varend. The fountain in which St Sigfrid baptized the catechumens long retained the names of the first twelve converts, engraved on a monument. It is said that he ordained two bishops, for East and West Gothland. His three nephews, Unaman a priest, Sunaman a deacon, and Vinaman a subdeacon, were his chief assistants.

After a time, St Sigfrid entrusted the care of his diocese to these three and set off to carry the light of the gospel into more distant provinces. During his absence, a troop, partly out of hatred for Christianity and partly for booty, plundered the church of VaxjO and murdered Unaman and his brothers, burying their bodies in a forest and placing their heads in a box which they sank in a pond. The heads were duly recovered and placed in a shrine, on which occasion, we are told, the three heads spoke. The king resolved to put the murderers to death, but St Sigfrid induced him to spare their lives. Olaf compelled them, however, to pay a heavy fine which he wished to bestow on the saint, who refused to accept a farthing of it, notwithstanding his extreme poverty and the difficulties with which he had to contend in rebuilding his church. He had inherited in an heroic degree the spirit of the apostles, and preached the gospel also in Denmark. Sigfrid is said, but doubtfully, to have been canonized by Pope Adrian IV, the Englishman who had himself laboured zealously for the propagation of the faith in the North over one hundred years after St Sigfrid. The Swedes honour St Sigfrid as their apostle.

It would be impossible here to discuss the extremely intricate and contested history of the conversion of Sweden. It must be sufficient to refer to two valuable articles, the one by Edmund Bishop in the Dublin Review, January, 1885, especially PP. 182—189; the other by L. Bril, “Les premiers temps du Christianisme en Suede” in the Revue d’histoire ecclésias­tique, October, 1911. Both writers are agreed that Adam of Bremen, to whom commonly appeal is made as a primary authority, has to be used with great caution, it being his obvious purpose to glorify the share of the see of Bremen in the conversion of Scandinavia and to belittle the efforts made by English missionaries. Secondly, they both attach importance to the data furnished by the lives of Sigfrid, though it is admitted that the earliest of these dates only from the beginning of the thirteenth century and that they embody much which is purely legendary. The lives may best be consulted in the Scriptores Rerum Suecicarum, vol. ii, Pt 5, PP. 345—370; and cf. Trois légendes de St Sigfrid” in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lx (1942), pp. 82—90. The best account is said to be in Swedish, T. Schmid, Den hl Sigfrid (1931). On C. J. A. Oppermann’s English Missionaries in Sweden (1937), see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lvii (1939), PP. 162—164. There seems to be considerable doubt whether Sigfrid was an Englishman.
1045 St. Brithwald Benedictine bishop monk at Glastonbury visions and was a true prophet
benefactor of Glastonbury Abbey in England. Brithwald was a monk at Glastonbury when he was named bishop of Ramsbury in 1005. He eventually moved his see to Old Sarum. Both Glastonbury and Malmesbury abbeys were under his patronage. Brithwald had visions and was a true prophet.
1040 St. Cunegundes Empress Patron of Lithuania virgin
Bambérgæ sanctæ Cunegúndis Augústæ, quæ, sancto Henríco Primo, Romanórum Imperatóri, nupta, perpétuam virginitátem, ipso annuénte, servávit; ac, bonórum óperum méritis cumuláta, sancto fine quiévit, et post óbitum miráculis cláruit. 
At Bamberg, Empress St. Cunegunda, who preserved her virginity with the consent of her husband, Emperor Henry I.  She completed a life rich in meritorious good works with a holy death, and afterward worked many miracles.

1033 ST CUNEGUND, WIDOW
St CUNEGUND was piously trained from her earliest years by her parents, Siegfried of Luxemburg and his saintly wife Hedwig. She married St Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who gave her as a wedding present a crucifix of eastern workmanship which is said to be identical with one now existing in Munich. Later writers have asserted that they both took a vow of virginity on their wedding-day, and the story is accepted in the Roman Martyrology; but historians now seem to agree that there is no reliable evidence to corroborate the statement. In the middle of the eleventh century Cardinal Humbert knew nothing of the alleged celibate marriage he attributed their childlessness to divine punishment for what he regarded as Henry’s exploitation of the Church.

Upon the death of the Emperor Otto III, Henry was elected king of the Romans, and his coronation by St Willigis at Mama was followed, two months later, by that of his wife at Paderborn. In 1013 they went together to Rome to receive the imperial crown from Pope Benedict VIII.

In spite of her exemplary life, Cunegund is said by the hagiographers of a later age to have become the victim of slanderous tongues, so that even her husband’s confidence in her was momentarily shaken, Feeling that her position required her vindication, the empress asked to be allowed the ordeal by fire, and walked unscathed over red-hot ploughshares. Henry was eager to make amends for his unworthy suspicions, and they lived thenceforth in the closest union of hearts, striving in every way to promote the glory of God and the advancement of religion. But this story too is insufficiently supported.

It was partly at the instigation of St Cunegund that the emperor founded the monastery and cathedral of Bamberg, to the consecration of which Pope Benedict came in person, and she obtained for the city such privileges that by common report her silken threads were a better defence than walls. During a dangerous illness she had made a vow that if she recovered she would found a convent at Kaufungen, near Cassel, in Hesse. This she proceeded to do, and had nearly finished building a house for nuns of the Benedictine Order when St Henry died.

Her later bio­graphers relate a quaint story about the first abbess. It appears that the empress had a young niece, called Judith or Jutta, to whom she was much attached, and whom she had educated with great care. When a superior had to be found for the new convent, St Cunegund appointed Judith and gave her many admonitions and much good advice. No sooner, however, did the young abbess find herself free, than she began to show symptoms of frivolity and lax observance. It was soon noticed that she was ever the first in the refectory and the last to come to chapel, and that she was a gossip and listened to tales. In vain did her aunt remonstrate with her. The climax came when she failed to appear in the Sunday procession and was found feasting with some of the younger sisters. Filled with indignation St Cunegund sternly upbraided the culprit, and even struck her. The marks of her fingers remained impressed upon the abbess’s cheek until her dying day, and the marvel not only converted her, but had a salutary effect upon the whole community.

On the anniversary of her husband’s death in 1024 Cunegund invited a number of prelates to the dedication of her church at Kaufungen. There, when the gospel had been sung at Mass, she offered at the altar a piece of the true cross, and then, putting off her imperial robes, she was clothed in a nun’s habit, and the bishop gave her the veil. Once she had been consecrated to God in religion, she seemed entirely to forget that she had ever been an empress and behaved as the lowest in the house, being convinced that she was so before God. She feared nothing more than any­thing that could recall her former dignity. She prayed and read much and especially made it her business to visit and comfort the sick. Thus she passed the last years of her life, dying on March 3, 1033 (or 1039). Her body was taken to Bamberg to be buried with her husband’s.

It is to the contemporary chroniclers, rather than to the relatively late biography of St Cunegund, that we must look for a trustworthy statement of the facts of her life. The latter is under suspicion of having been written with a view to her future canonization, which even­tually came about in the year 1200. J. B. Sägmüller, in particular (Theologische Quartalschrift, 1903, 1907, 1951), has shown good reason for doubting that the childlessness of the emperor and empress was due to any compact between the parties to live together as Mary and Joseph; cf. A. Michel in the same, vol. xcviii (1916), pp. 463—467. The biography, in varying forms, has been edited in the Acta Sanctorum (March, vol. i) and by G. Waitz in MCII., Scriptores, vol. vii. There are popular but rather uncritical modern lives of St Cunegund written by Toussaint and by H. Muller, the latter including an account of both St Henry and St Cunegund in one narrative. Cf. Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. iii, p. 539.

The father of St. Cunegundes was Sigfrid, first Count of Luxemburg. After a pious education, she was married to St. Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who, upon the death of Emperor Otho III, was chosen King of the Romans. St. Cunegundes was crowned at Paderborn in 1002. In 1014 she went with her husband to Rome and became Empress, receiving together with him the imperial crown from the hands Pope Benedict VIII. Though married, she lived in continence, for, with her husband's consent, she had made a vow of virginity before marriage. Calumniators accused her of scandalous conduct, but her innocence was signally vindicated by Divine Providence, as she walked over pieces of flaming irons without injury, to the great joy of the Emperor. Her husband, Henry II, died in 1024, leaving his widow comparatively poor, for she had given away nearly all her wealth in charitable works. In 1025, on the anniversary of his death, and on the occasion of the dedication of a monastery which she had built for Benedictine nuns at Kaffungen, she clothed herself with a poor habit, adopted the veil, which she received from the hands of the Bishop, and entered that same monastery. Her occupations consisted in prayer, reading, and manual labor, and thus she spent the last fifteen years of her life. She died in 1040, and her body was carried to Bamberg, where it was laid near that of her husband, St. Henry.
1048 ST POPPO, ABBOT; visited holy places at Jerusalem brought away many relics, enriched the church of our Lady at Deynze;
 Marciánis, in Gállia, sancti Poppónis, Presbyteri et Abbátis, miráculis clari.
       At Marchiennes in France, St. Poppo, priest and abbot, renowned for his miracles.

ST Poppo was born in Flanders in 978, and was brought up by a most virtuous mother, who died a nun at Verdun. In his youth he served for some time in the army; but even in the world he found meditation and prayer to be sweeter than all the delights of the senses, and he renounced his profession and the marriage arranged for him. He previously visited the holy places at Jerusalem and brought away many relics, with which he enriched the church of our Lady at Deynze. He also made a pilgrimage to Rome, and some time after took the monastic habit at St Thierry’s, near Rheims. Richard, Abbot of Saint-Vanne, one of the great monastic reformers of the age, met Poppo about the year 1008, and found in him a man singularly well fitted to assist him in this work. Not without great difficulty he managed to get Poppo transferred to his own monastery, and then used him to restore observance in several abbeys, Saint-Vaast at Arras, Beaulieu, and others. St Poppo, who gradually became independent of Richard of Saint-Vanne, seems, on being appointed abbot of Stavelot, to have acted as a sort of abbot general to a whole group of monasteries in Lotharingia. In these he was revered and preserved admirable discipline. He was much esteemed by the emperor, St Henry II, and he seems in many political matters to have given him prudent counsel. He died at Marchiennes on January 25 in 1048, at seventy. St Poppo received the last anointing at the hands of Everhelm, Abbot of Hautmont, who afterwards wrote his life, or, more correctly, revised the longer biography composed by the monk Onulf.
A critical edition of the life which we owe to Onulf and Abbot Everhelm is to be found in the folio series of MGH., Scriptores, vol. xi, pp. 291—316. See also the Acta Sanctorum for January 25 Cauchie in the Biographie Nationale, vol. xviii, pp. 43 seq.; and a sketch by M. Souplet, St Poppon de Deynse (1948).  
1050 Blessed Bernold of Ottobeuren renowned as "the priest"--and a wonder worker, especially after his death ( OSB (AC)
A monk-priest of Ottobeuren in Bavaria, Germany, Bernold was renowned as "the priest"--and a wonder worker, especially after his death (Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
.
1050 St. Anatolius Scottish bishop hermit miracles
Anatolius left his see and Scotland to make a pilgrimage to Rome. He became a hermit at Salins, France. Another tradition states that Anatolius was a bishop in Galicia, Spain.

Anatolius of Salins B (AC)(9th? or) 11th century. A Scottish or Irish bishop who went as a pilgrim to Rome and settled as a hermit at Salins in the diocese of Besançon, Burgundy, about 1029. He live the rest of life in a mountain retreat overlooking a favorite stopover of Irish pilgrims near the oratory of Saint Symphorian. At a later date a church was built in his honor at Salins. His biographer said that it would be impossible to enumerate all the miracles he worked in his lifetime (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Kenney, O'Hanlon).
1053 The Monk Lazaros of Galiseia was born in Lydia, in the city of Magnesium; The brethren buried the body of the saint at the pillar, upon which he had pursued asceticism. The saint was glorified by many miracles after his death;

As a youth educated and loving God, Lazaros became a monk at the monastery of Saint Sava, the founder of great ascetic piety in Palestine. The monk spent ten years within the walls of the monastery, winning the love and respect of the brethren for his intense monastic effort.

Ordained presbyter by the Jerusalem Patriarch, the Monk Lazaros returned to his native country and settled not far from Ephesus, on desolate Mount Galiseia. Here he was granted a wondrous vision: a fiery pillar, rising up to the heavens, was encircled by Angels, singing: “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered”
. On the place where this vision appeared to the saint, he built a church in honour of the Resurrection of Christ and took upon himself the feat of pillar-dwelling. Monks soon began to flock to the great ascetic, thirsting for wise spiritual nourishment by the Divinely-inspired word and blessed example of the saint. Thus arose a monastery.

Having received a revelation about his impeding end, the monk related this to the brethren, but through the tearful prayers of all, the Lord prolonged the earthly life of Saint Lazaros for another 15 years.

The Monk Lazaros died at 72 years of age, in the year 1053. The brethren buried the body of the saint at the pillar, upon which he had pursued asceticism. The saint was glorified by many miracles after his death.
1054 Leo IX "the pilgrim pope" - reformer deacon a stern bishop holy man & army officer attempted stopping the schism  (RM)
Romæ sancti Leónis Papæ Noni, virtútum et miraculórum laude insígnis.
    At Rome, Pope St. Leo IX, illustrious for his virtues and his miracles.
1054 ST LEO IX, POPE St Benedict, who touched him with a cross was completely cured severe blood-poisoning
ALSACE, at that period a part of the Holy Roman Empire, was the birthplace of St Leo IX in the year 1002.  His father Hugh, who was closely related to the emperor, and his mother Heilewide were a pious and cultured pair of whom it is recorded, as though it were somewhat unusual, that they spoke fluent French as well as their own German tongue.
At the age of five, Bruno, as he was called, was sent to a school presided over by Berthold, Bishop of Toul. He displayed exceptional abilities and was placed under the special charge of a much older cousin, Adalbert, afterwards bishop of Metz. One experience of his boyhood made a profound impression upon the future pope. He was on a visit to his home when he contracted severe blood-poisoning caused by the bite of some reptile. While he lay between life and death he had a vision of St Benedict, who touched him with a cross, and when he came to himself the boy found that he was completely cured.
His studies ended, he was appointed to a canonry of St Stephen’s, Toul. When in 1026 the Emperor Conrad II went to Italy to quell a rebellion in Lombardy, Bruno, although now a deacon, was given command of the corps furnished by the aged bishop of Toul. His success in handling the men gave him a reputation for military skill which, in the light of future events, was perhaps unfortunate. While the army was still in Italy, Bishop Heriman died and the clergy and people of Toul immediately elected Bruno to be his successor. On Ascension day, 1027, amid the rejoicings of the people, he entered Toul to be enthroned in the cathedral over which he was to rule for twenty years. His first pastoral work was to enforce a stricter mode of life amongst his clergy, regular as well as secular. Inspired, no doubt, by his grateful devotion to St Benedict, he held the religious life in the utmost veneration, and did much to revive discipline and fervour in the great monasteries of his diocese, into which he introduced the reform of Cluny.
In the summer of 1048 Pope Damasus II died after a pontificate of twenty-three days, and the Emperor Henry III chose his kinsman Bruno of Toul as his successor.  He set out for Rome, stopping at Cluny on the way, where he was joined by the monk Hildebrand, afterwards Pope St Gregory VII. His nomination having been endorsed in due form, Bruno was enthroned, taking the name of Leo IX, early in 1049.
For many years the growing evil of simony in the Church had been exercising the minds of good men, lay as well as ecclesiastical. The mischief had reached such alarming proportions that it needed a strong hand to grapple with it. But Leo had no hesitation. Shortly after his accession, he called a synod in Rome which anathematized and deprived beneficed clergy guilty of simony, besides dealing sternly with the relaxation of the rule of celibacy. The collegiate life, which as a young man he had helped Bishop Heriman to uphold at Toul, he now recommended to the secular clergy throughout the Church. Moreover, as he was quite aware that to bring about the reforms he required would necessitate something more than the mere issue of orders from Rome, he embarked upon a kind of visitation of Western Christendom in order that he might personally enforce his regulations and arouse the conscience of those in authority. Besides the reformation of morals, which was his principal theme, he urged the extension of preaching and the better rendering of the sacred chant, an object dear to his heart.
In another sphere of activity St Leo was confronted with the necessity of condemning the doctrines of Berengarius of Tours, who denied Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. Twice more did the energetic pope cross the Alps, once to revisit his former see of Toul and on the other occasion to attempt a reconciliation between Henry III and King Andrew of Hungary—well was he called Peregrinus apostolicus, “the Apostolic Pilgrim”.
Leo obtained for the patrimony of St Peter possession of Benevento and other territories in southern Italy, thus ultimately increasing the temporal power of the papacy. To himself they proved only a great embarrassment, for they were ravaged by the Normans. He led an army against the invaders, but was defeated and captured at Civitella and was detained for a while by his captors at Benevento. This was a blow to Leo’s prestige, and St Peter Damian and others criticized him severely—if battles were necessary, they said, they should be fought by the emperor, not by the vicar of Christ.
This was the time chosen by Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, to accuse the Western church of heresy on the ground of certain points of discipline and ritual practice in which it differed from the Eastern church. Pope Leo answered in a long and indignant but not immoderate letter, and it was characteristic of him that he then began to study Greek the better to understand the arguments of his accusers. But though this was the beginning of the final separation of Christian East and West, St Leo did not live to see the further developments that followed the arrival in Constantinople of the legates whom he sent thither. His health was by this time shattered. He ordered that his bed and a coffin should be placed side by side in St Peter’s, and here he passed away peacefully before the high altar on April 19, 1054.
“Heaven has opened for the pontiff that this world was not worthy to keep:
the glory of the saints is his “, declared Didier, abbot of Monte Cassino, and in so saying he was echoing the voice of the multitude. All mourned him, seventy miraculous cures were claimed within forty days of Leo’s death, and in 1087 Bd Victor III confirmed the popular canonization by ordering the mortal remains of St Leo IX to be solemnly enshrined.

It was Leo who first promulgated the proposal to vest the election of future popes exclusively in the Roman cardinals—a suggestion which became law five years after his death. Amongst the monarchs with whom St Leo maintained friendly relations was St Edward the Confessor, whom he authorized to refound Westminster Abbey in lieu of a pilgrimage he had undertaken to make to Rome. During his pontificate King MacBeth is said to have visited the Holy See—perhaps in expiation of his crimes.

The sources for the life of St Leo IX are much too varied to be enumerated in detail. It must be sufficient to give a general reference to BHL., nn. 4818—4829, and to the notice prefixed to the excellent summary of this pontificate in Mgr H. K. Mann’s Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages, vol. vi, pp. 19—182. For the ascetical aspects of the pope’s life the earlier portion of Wibert’s biography is particularly valuable, and so also are the docu­ments published by Fr A. Poncelet in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxv (1906), pp. 258—297. Though ignorant of these last-named materials, 0. Delarc’s book, Un pape alsacien (1876), may still be recommended for its thorough grasp of the conditions of the time E. Martin’s volume, St Leon IX, in the series “Les Saints”, is a convenient handbook. For anyone who wishes to make a study of the subject the works of Martens, Drehmann, Hauck and Brucker, written from quite different standpoints, would also have to be consulted. L. Sittler and P. Stintzi, St. Lion IX (1950), is a useful series of studies and excerpts, some with special reference to Alsace.
Born in Alsace, France, in 1002; died in Rome, April 19, 1054; canonized in 1087.
Pope Leo, baptized Bruno, curiously combined the life of a holy man with that of an army officer. He was a deacon when Emperor Conrad II, his cousin, invaded Italy. In spite of his holy orders, Bruno readily joined the emperor's army and fought valiantly. While still a deacon and a soldier, Bruno was chosen to be bishop of Toul in 1026 when he was visiting there.

During his 20 years as prelate of Toul, he was known as a stern bishop, who disciplined lax priests and brought order into the monasteries of his diocese. Then in 1048 he was elected pope. He took his spiritual advisor, Hildebrand (later Pope Saint Gregory VII), with him to Rome.

What he had done formerly on a small scale he attempted to apply to the whole Church.  First he began in earnest to reform the curia.  Leo combatted simony, enforced celibacy among the clergy, encouraged development of the chant and the liturgy, condemned Berengarius, and strove to prevent the schism between the Eastern and Western churches that was being engineered by Emperor Michael Coerularius.  Then, he tirelessly travelled throughout western Europe to enforce his reforms, and became known as the pilgrim pope.
Wherever he went he called together the bishops and clergy in councils, inspiring them to follow his lead.

Leo IX decided to consolidate the material position of the papacy by adding parts of southern Italy to his territories, but this proved to be his undoing. The Normans invaded these new territories; the warrior pope himself led an army in their defense- -an action that caused even Saint Peter Damian (1001dr of Church 1072) to criticize him. Unfortunately, too, the Normans defeated him. Pope Leo IX was captured at Civitella and imprisoned at Benevento. Although his captors declared themselves to be the pope's loyal subjects, they did not release Leo for several months.

In prison Leo began to learn Greek, in an attempt to understand better the teachings of the Eastern Church, which was now split from Rome.   But his health was failing. On his release, the pope ordered his bed to be placed in Saint Peter's Basilica next to a coffin. There he died (Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia).
1065 St. Duthac Bishop of Ross Scotland.
An Irishman by birth, he was venerated for miracles and prophecies. He is recorded to have predicted the Danish invasion.
Duthac of Ross B (AC) Died 1065. An Irishman by birth, Saint Duthac became bishop of Ross in Scotland, where his memory is preserved in several place names, e.g., Kilduthie (Benedictines).
1066 St. Arialdus Martyr of Milan remains recovered ten months later uncorrupt and sweet smelling
Also called Arialdo. A noble of the Milan region and born in Cutiacum, Italy, Arialdus studied at Laon and Paris, France, before becoming a canon. He preached against the abuses in the city and was excommunicated by Bishop Guido, but was reinstated by Pope Stephen IX. Bishop Guido, who was finally suspended, was guilty of simony and immorality. His allies slew Arialdus and threw his body into Lake Maggiore. The remains were recovered ten months later, uncorrupt and sweet smelling, and carried to Milan Cathedral. There the remains were on public display before being interred in the cathedral. In 1067, Pope Alexander II declared Arialdus a martyr.

Arialdus of Milan M (AC) cultus approved in 1904. Deacon Saint Arialdus distinguished himself for his zeal against the rampant simony of his time, chiefly in Milan. For this reason, he was first excommunicated and, after much persecution, killed by the party of the simonious archbishop of Milan (Benedictines).
1067 St. Robert of Chaise Dieu priest canon Benedictine abbot founder love of the poor hospices housed 300 monks under the Benedictine Rule;a collection of his miracles.
In monastério Casæ Dei, Claromontánæ diœcésis, in Gállia, sancti Robérti Confessóris, qui ejúsdem monastérii cónditor et primus Abbas éxstitit.
    In the monastery of Chaise-Dieu, in the diocese of Clermont, St. Robert, confessor, the founder and first abbot of the monastery.

1067 ST ROBERT OF CHAISE-DIEU, ABBOT
The founder and first abbot of the monastery of Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne was Robert de Turlande, who after a blameless youth was raised to the priesthood, becoming a Canon of the church of St Julian at Brioude. His fervent charity showed itself in his zeal for the public worship of God as well as in his devotion to the sick poor. At one time he contemplated assuming the religious habit at Cluny, but he never seems actually to have taken the step. In order to obtain guidance as to his vocation he made a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome. Upon his return he was consulted by a knight called Stephen, who was anxious to know what he ought to do to expiate his past sins. When St Robert advised him to leave the world to serve God in the solitary life, Stephen promptly declared himself quite ready to do so, provided Robert would accompany him. This appeared to the saint to be the direct answer to his prayer for light, and he acknowledged that he had for some time been considering the matter.
Stephen set to work enthusiastically, and not only won a second recruit in the person of another knight, but also discovered a suitable place for their settlement in a deserted spot beside a ruined church some five leagues from Brioude. Here they built themselves cells, and embarked on a life of prayer and of manual work, which soon provided for their simple wants and enabled them to assist the poor. Within three years, the fame, of the hermits had attracted so many disciples that it became necessary to organize a monastery. People came forward with donations, and buildings arose which developed into the great abbey of Chaise-Dieu, with 300 monks to whom St Robert gave the Benedictine rule. Chaise-Dieu became the mother-house of other monasteries, but in 1640 the congregation was absorbed in that of Saint-Maur.
The Life of St Robert was written within thirty years of his death by Marbod, bishop of Rennes. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii (under April 24), and by Mabillon (Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., vol. vi, part 2, pp. 188—197). There is also, ibidem, another sketch of his history by Bernard, a monk of Chaise-Dieu, with a collection of his miracles. Cf. Bulletin Historique a scientifique d’Auvergne, 1906, pp. 47, 72, 82, 116.
Born in Auvergne, France, he was originally known as Robert de Turlande. After becoming a priest and canon of St. Julian’s in Brioude, he founded a hospice, earning distinction for his care of the poor. He then gave himself over to the spiritual direction of St. Odilo at Cluny, France. After making a pilgrimage to Rome, he was moved to give up his life at Cluny and to settle near Brioude, Auvergne, with a fellow hermit, a former knight named Stephen.
There he attracted followers and built the abbey of Casa Dei to house the burgeoning community of three hundred monks.

Robert of Chaise-Dieu, OSB Abbot (RM) (also known as Robert de Turlande) Born in Auvergne, France; died 1087 (or 1067?); canonized in 1095. Saint Robert de Turlande, descended from Saint Gerald of Aurillac, was a canon of Saint Julian's Church at Brioude. He was noted for his love of the poor, for whom he founded a hospice.
After spending many years at Cluny under Saint Odilo and having made a pilgrimage to Rome, Robert retired to the solitude near Brioude in Auvergne where he attracted many followers.

With the help of a penitent knight named Stephen, founded Chaise- Dieu. More buildings soon arose to accommodate all of Saint Robert's disciples. These developed into the great abbey of Casa Dei (House of God) or Chaise-Dieu (Chair of God). At its height Chaise-Dieu housed 300 monks under the Benedictine Rule.
It also became the motherhouse of an important Black Benedictine congregation (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia).
1069 St. Aurea famed for her visions and miracles.
ST AUREA, VIRGIN (c. A.D. 1100)
         WHEN Spain lay under the Moorish yoke it became the custom for those Christians who desired to live the religious life to build their monasteries in desolate mountain fastnesses where their conquerors seldom troubled to molest them. One of these was San Millán de la Cogolla above the Upper Ebro in the diocese of Calahorra.
         It was primarily a Benedictine abbey for men but, as was not unusual at the time, there was a settlement for women a short distance away, and these women were under the direction of the abbot of La Cogolla. Down below, in the village of Villavelayo, lived a couple, Garcia Nunno, or Nunnio, and Amunia his wife, with their daughter Aurea. Constant study of the Holy Scriptures and meditation on the lives of St Agatha, St Eulalia and St Cecilia determined her to devote herself to God in the religious life, and she sought admittance to the convent of San Millán.
         Receiving the habit she lived a life of complete abnegation as a solitary. Aurea was rewarded by a vision of her three patron saints who assured her of God’s approval and promised her a crown of glory; the fame of her penances and miracles spread, and her assistance and intercession were eagerly sought. She became the victim of a painful disease, dying in her mother’s arms, in the presence of the monk who wrote her life, tier mother, who did not long survive her, was buried by her side.
        The evidence is not very satisfactory. Mabillon in the Annales says nothing of St Aurea
         but a summary account is in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii.

Aurea was a native of Villavelayo, Spain. During the Moorish occupation of Spain, she became a nun at a nearby Benedictine San Millan de la Cogolla abbey and lived as a solitary famed for her visions and miracles.
Aurea of San Millán, OSB V (AC) (also known as Oria) Saint Aurea, a Spanish virgin, was a hermit attached to the Benedictine abbey of San Millán de la Cogolla in La Rioja, Spanish Navarre. Her spiritual direction was provided by Saint Dominic of Silos. Her mother, Saint Amunia, joined her before her death at the age of 27 (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

1070 St  Godeleva, Martyr The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles.
According to the narrative written by a contemporary priest, Drogo, the story of Godeleva is an example of that wanton persecution and cruelty shown towards an innocent victim which is as shocking to reasonable, not to say Christian, human beings as it is unexplainable; no adequate motive is given or even suggested for the behaviour of the offender at first, though afterwards his desire to get rid of his wife is clear enough.
Godeleva was born at Londefort-lez-Boulogne about 1049, of noble parentage. She grew up beautiful both in person and character, and was particularly beloved by the poor, to whose welfare she constantly devoted herself. At age eighteen she married a Flemish lord, Bertulf of Ghistelles, who conducted his bride home, where she was received with insults by his mother; apparently she had had other plans for her son, and was furious that he had disregarded them in favour of this girl from the Boulonnais.
Bertulf, the days of the wedding festivities yet unfinished, deserted Godeleva, leaving her in charge of his mother, who was not content with petty persecutions, but treated her who should have been mistress of the house with fanatic brutality. She at length contrived to escape and returned to her parents, who took the case to the count of Flanders and the bishop of Tournai. It was ruled that Bertulf should receive back his wite, and henceforward treat her properly, which he promised to do.
   But once she was back at Ghistelles, Bertulf was first indifferent and then again openly violent to her, and to get rid of her he resolved on more direct action. First of all he shammed penitence and a desire for reconciliation, with the object both of averting suspicion from himself and to enable him the more easily to entrap the girl.   Then at the appointed time Godeleva was induced by a trick to go out of the castle by a back-door at night; she was seized by two of Bertulf's servants and smothered by having her head held down in a pond, with a thong drawn tight round her neck.   When she was dead, the ruffians replaced her body in bed, meaning it to be supposed she had died a natural death.  It was obvious that she had not, but Bertulf had absented himself in Bruges at the time of the crime and Godeleva's parents were unable to bring it home to him. He at once married again, but his wickedness haunted him, and he ended his days in a monastery at Bergues- St-Winoc.
   The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles, and the sudden recovery of sight by Bertulf's blind daughter by his second wife was attributed to her intercession.   In 1084 her body was dug up and enshrined in the church, which is still a place of pilgrimage, the people drinking the water of her well and appropriately invoking her intercession against sore throats.
    It is difficult to see why (except in popular estimation) Godeleva is venerated as a martyr: she did not endure death for any article of the faith or for the preservation of any Christian virtue or for any other act of virtue relating to God-unless indeed her supernatural patience finally provoked her husband to his wicked violence.
The Bollandists in the Acts Sanctorum (July, vol. ii) have treated St Godeleva at great length, printing not only the life by Drogo, but also another, more diffuse, narrative of her history. A copy of the formal verification of the saint's relics made when they were elevated in 1084, shortly after her death, has been preserved, and its authenticity has been established by the tattered fragments of a later deed which recites it.  This was found when the shrine was examined in 1907.  See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xliv (1926), pp. 102-137, for an earlier text of the Drogo vita, ed. by Father Coens, and vol. lxii (1944), pp. 292-295; and also the charming little book of M. English, Les quatre couronnes de Ste Godelieve de Gistel (1953) .
1073 Dominic (Domingo) of Silos  one of the most famous monks of his century set up a scriptorium at Silos that was soon producing some of the finest Christian books that Spain has ever seen, including the magnificent Apocalypse now housed in the British Library renowned for rescuing Christian slaves from the Moors. Numerous miracles were attributed to him, including healings of all kinds More miracles were attributed to his prayers after his death, especially with regard to pregnancy the famous founder of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans OSB, Abbot (RM)
 In Hispánia deposítio sancti Domínici de Silos Abbátis, e sancti Benedícti Ordine, miráculis in captivórum liberatióne celebérrimi.
      In Spain, the death of St. Dominic of Silos, abbot of the Order of St. Benedict, renowned for the miracles which he had wrought for the liberation of captives.
Born in Cañas, Navarre (now Rioja), Spain, c. 1000; The child of Spanish peasants, Dominic was destined to become one of the most famous monks of his century. He began life working on the family farm. Then the monastery of his choice accepted him, and he became a Benedictine of San Millán de Cogolla. He was a model pupil and a devoted member of the community. After Dominic was ordained a priest, he served as novice master and eventually his fellow monks elected him as their prior.

At this point in his placid and yet busy life the greed of King García III of Navarre interrupted Dominic's career. García claimed that some of the monastic estates really belonged to him. So savagely did the king persecute Dominic for strenuously defending the monastery's rights that eventually the prior and two other monks fled for protection to King Ferdinand I of Old Castile. Fortunately, Ferdinand recognized the saint's worth.

King Ferdinand had suzerainty over the monastery of San Sebastian [(now Santo Domingo), Silos, in the diocese of Burgos--a house that had been for some time in spiritual torpor. He asked Dominic to take over as abbot. When the saint arrived at Silos he found that the monastery's finances were totally awry, the buildings dilapidated, and the ranks of monks decimated to six. Inspired by the ideals of the famous Abbey of Cluny, he and his two companions from San Millán de Cogolla accepted the challenge.
The decayed buildings of San Sebastian's monastery were restored. The cloisters of the abbey--a gem of Romanesque architecture--stand to this day as the best monument to his enterprise.
The former shepherd boy loved the great illuminated manuscripts of the Church--books of liturgy, the Psalms, the Scriptures, and books of prayer. He set up a scriptorium at Silos that was soon producing some of the finest Christian books that Spain has ever seen, including the magnificent Apocalypse now housed in the British Library.
The fame of Dominic's holiness and learning spread, and attracted so many monks that the whole monastery soon had to be enlarged. He was renowned for rescuing Christian slaves from the Moors. Numerous miracles were attributed to him, including healings of all kinds. Rich men and women began to endow the monastery. And by the time Dominic died in 1073 the monastery of San Sebastian, Silos, was one of the greatest in the land. At his death, the monastery had 40 monks and many other resources including a flourishing gold and silver workshop that made possible extensive charity to the local poor.
Not only was the monastery a great one, Dominic became one of the most beloved of the Spanish saints. Three years after his death, on January 5, Dominic's body was translated into the church, which was the equivalent of local canonization. Churches and monasteries were dedicated to him from 1085.
More miracles were attributed to his prayers after his death, especially with regard to pregnancy. Dominic's abbatial staff was used to bless Spanish queens and it remained by their bedside until they had a safe delivery. At his shrine Blessed Joan de Aza de Guzmán prayed to conceive the child whom she called Dominic, after the abbot of Silos. Today's saint's namesake became the famous founder of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans (Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Farmer).
St. Dominic is represented as an abbot surrounded by Seven Virtues. Sometimes he is a mitered abbot enthroned with a book, a veil tied to his crozier. Venerated in Spain. Patron of shepherds and captives. Invoked against insects and mad dogs (Roeder).
1073 St. Dominic of Silos Benedictine abbot defender of the faith.

 December 20, 2009St. Dominic of Silos (c. 1000-1073) 
It’s not the founder of the Dominicans we honor today, but there’s a poignant story that connects one Dominic with the other.

Our saint today, Dominic of Silos was born in Spain around the year 1000 into a peasant family. As a young boy he spent time in the fields, where he welcomed the solitude. He became a Benedictine priest and served in numerous leadership positions. Following a dispute with the king over property, Dominic and two other monks were exiled. They established a new monastery in what at first seemed an unpromising location. Under Dominic’s leadership, however, it became one of the most famous houses in Spain. Many healings were reported there.

About 100 years after Dominic’s death, a young woman made a pilgrimage to his tomb. There Dominic of Silos appeared to her and assured her that she would bear another son. The woman was Joan of Aza, and the son she bore grew up to be the "other" Dominic—the one who founded the Dominicans. For many years thereafter, the staff used by St. Dominic of Silos was brought to the royal palace whenever a queen of Spain was in labor. The practice ended in 1931.

Born in Canas, Navarre, Spain, circa 1000, he entered the Benedictines at San Millan de Ia Cogolla. King Garcia III of Navarre challenged him when he became abbot of the monastery, and Dominic refused to surrender part of the Benedictine lands to the crown. For this he was exiled, going to King Ferdinand I of Castile and Leon, who made him abbot of St. Sebastian Abbey at Silos, now called St. Dominic’s. Dominic reformed the abbey, built the cloisters in Romanesque style, and started a scriptorium that became famous throughout the region. One of the most beloved saints in Spain, Dominic also rescued Christian slaves from the Moors. Dominic’s shrine is noted for its place in the birth of Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers. Dominic de Guzman’s mother begged for a child there. Dominic was also noted for miracles of healing.
1073  Saint Anthony Pechersky Ukrainian hermit on Mt. Athos in Greece returned to Ukraine built a hermitage in Kiev became the "Caves of Kiev," first Ukrainian monastery founded by Ukrainians  gift of clairvoyance and wonderworking.
Born in 983 in Ljibeck in the Ukraine, Anthony went to the famed monastic community on Mt. Athos in Greece to become a hermit, remaining there for several years. He returned to the Ukraine and built a hermitage in Kiev. The site became the "Caves of Kiev," the first Ukrainian monastery founded by Ukrainians. Land for the monastery was given to Anthony by a local prince. He founded another monastery in Chernagov but died in the Caves of Kiev. Anthony is called one of the fathers of Ukrainian monasticism.

Saint Anthony of the Kiev Caves was born in the year 983 at Liubech, not far from Chernigov, and was named Antipas in Baptism. Possessing the fear of God from his youth, he desired to be clothed in the monastic schema. When he reached a mature age, he wandered until he arrived on Mt. Athos, burning with the desire to emulate the deeds of its holy inhabitants. Here he received monastic tonsure, and the young monk pleased God in every aspect of his spiritual struggles on the path of virtue. He particularly excelled in humility and obedience, so that all the monks rejoiced to see his holy life.  The igumen saw in St Anthony the great future ascetic, and inspired by God, he sent him back to his native land, saying, "Anthony, it is time for you to guide others in holiness. Return to your own Russian land, and be an example for others. May the blessing of the Holy Mountain be with you.
Returning to the land of Rus, Anthony began to make the rounds of the monasteries about Kiev,
but nowhere did he find that strict life which had drawn him to Mt. Athos.
Through the Providence of God, Anthony came to the hills of Kiev by the banks of the River Dniepr.
The forested area near the village of Berestovo reminded him of his beloved Athos. There he found a cave which had been dug out by the Priest Hilarion, who later became Metropolitan of Kiev (October 21). Since he liked the spot, Anthony prayed with tears, "Lord, let the blessing of Mt. Athos be upon this spot, and strengthen me to remain here." He began to struggle in prayer, fasting, vigil and physical labor. Every other day, or every third day, he would eat only dry bread and a little water. Sometimes he did not eat for a week. People began to come to the ascetic for his blessing and counsel, and some decided to remain with the saint.
Among Anthony's first disciples was St Nikon (March 23), who tonsured St Theodosius of the Caves (May 3) at the monastery in the year 1032.
The virtuous life of St Anthony illumined the Russian land with the beauty of monasticism. St Anthony lovingly received those who yearned for the monastic life. After instructing them how to follow Christ, he asked St Nikon to tonsure them. When 12 disciples had gathered about St Anthony, the brethren dug a large cave and built a church and cells for the monks within it.

After he appointed Abbot Barlaam to guide the brethren, St Anthony withdrew from the monastery. He dug a new cave for himself, then hid himself within it.
There too, monks began to settle around him. Afterwards, the saint built a small wooden church
in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God over the Far Caves.
At the insistence of Prince Izyaslav, the igumen Barlaam withdrew to the Dimitriev monastery. With the blessing of St Anthony and with the general agreement of the brethren, the meek and humble Theodosius was chosen as igumen. By this time, the number of brethren had already reached a hundred men. The Kiev Great Prince Izyaslav (+ 1078) gave the monks the hill on which the large church and cells were built, with a palisade all around. Thus, the renowned monastery over the caves was established. Describing this, the chronicler remarks that while many monasteries were built by emperors and nobles, they could not compare with those which are built with holy prayers and tears, and by fasting and vigil. Although St Anthony had no gold, he built a monastery which became the first spiritual center of Rus.

For his holiness of life, God glorified St Anthony with the gift of clairvoyance and wonderworking. One example of this occurred during the construction of the Great Caves church. The Most Holy Theotokos Herself stood before him and St Theodosius in the Blachernae church in Constantinople, where they had been miraculously transported without leaving their own monastery. Actually, two angels appeared in Constantinople in their forms (See May 3, the account of the Kiev Caves Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos). Having received gold from the Mother of God, the saints commissioned master architects, who came from Constantinople to the Russian land on the command of the Queen of Heaven to build the church at the Monastery of the Caves. During this appearance, the Mother of God foretold the impending death of St Anthony, which occurred on July 10, 1073.
Through Divine Providence, the relics of St Anthony remain hidden
1073 Dominic (Domingo) of Silos  one of the most famous monks of his century set up a scriptorium at Silos that was soon producing some of the finest Christian books that Spain has ever seen, including the magnificent Apocalypse now housed in the British Library renowned for rescuing Christian slaves from the Moors. Numerous miracles were attributed to him, including healings of all kinds More miracles were attributed to his prayers after his death, especially with regard to pregnancy the famous founder of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans OSB, Abbot (RM)
 In Hispánia deposítio sancti Domínici de Silos Abbátis, e sancti Benedícti Ordine, miráculis in captivórum liberatióne celebérrimi.
      In Spain, the death of St. Dominic of Silos, abbot of the Order of St. Benedict, renowned for the miracles which he had wrought for the liberation of captives.
Born in Cañas, Navarre (now Rioja), Spain, c. 1000;

The child of Spanish peasants, Dominic was destined to become one of the most famous monks of his century. He began life working on the family farm. Then the monastery of his choice accepted him, and he became a Benedictine of San Millán de Cogolla. He was a model pupil and a devoted member of the community. After Dominic was ordained a priest, he served as novice master and eventually his fellow monks elected him as their prior.

At this point in his placid and yet busy life the greed of King García III of Navarre interrupted Dominic's career. García claimed that some of the monastic estates really belonged to him. So savagely did the king persecute Dominic for strenuously defending the monastery's rights that eventually the prior and two other monks fled for protection to King Ferdinand I of Old Castile. Fortunately, Ferdinand recognized the saint's worth.

King Ferdinand had suzerainty over the monastery of San Sebastian [(now Santo Domingo), Silos, in the diocese of Burgos--a house that had been for some time in spiritual torpor. He asked Dominic to take over as abbot. When the saint arrived at Silos he found that the monastery's finances were totally awry, the buildings dilapidated, and the ranks of monks decimated to six. Inspired by the ideals of the famous Abbey of Cluny, he and his two companions from San Millán de Cogolla accepted the challenge.

The decayed buildings of San Sebastian's monastery were restored. The cloisters of the abbey--a gem of Romanesque architecture--stand to this day as the best monument to his enterprise.

The former shepherd boy loved the great illuminated manuscripts of the Church--books of liturgy, the Psalms, the Scriptures, and books of prayer. He set up a scriptorium at Silos that was soon producing some of the finest Christian books that Spain has ever seen, including the magnificent Apocalypse now housed in the British Library.

The fame of Dominic's holiness and learning spread, and attracted so many monks that the whole monastery soon had to be enlarged. He was renowned for rescuing Christian slaves from the Moors. Numerous miracles were attributed to him, including healings of all kinds. Rich men and women began to endow the monastery. And by the time Dominic died in 1073 the monastery of San Sebastian, Silos, was one of the greatest in the land. At his death, the monastery had 40 monks and many other resources including a flourishing gold and silver workshop that made possible extensive charity to the local poor.

Not only was the monastery a great one, Dominic became one of the most beloved of the Spanish saints. Three years after his death, on January 5, Dominic's body was translated into the church, which was the equivalent of local canonization. Churches and monasteries were dedicated to him from 1085.

More miracles were attributed to his prayers after his death, especially with regard to pregnancy. Dominic's abbatial staff was used to bless Spanish queens and it remained by their bedside until they had a safe delivery. At his shrine Blessed Joan de Aza de Guzmán prayed to conceive the child whom she called Dominic, after the abbot of Silos. Today's saint's namesake became the famous founder of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans (Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Farmer).

St. Dominic is represented as an abbot surrounded by Seven Virtues. Sometimes he is a mitered abbot enthroned with a book, a veil tied to his crozier. Venerated in Spain. Patron of shepherds and captives. Invoked against insects and mad dogs (Roeder).

1073 St. Dominic of Silos Benedictine abbot defender of the faith
Born in Canas, Navarre, Spain, circa 1000, he entered the Benedictines at San Millan de Ia Cogolla. King Garcia III of Navarre challenged him when he became abbot of the monastery, and Dominic refused to surrender part of the Benedictine lands to the crown. For this he was exiled, going to King Ferdinand I of Castile and Leon, who made him abbot of St. Sebastian Abbey at Silos, now called St. Dominic’s. Dominic reformed the abbey, built the cloisters in Romanesque style, and started a scriptorium that became famous throughout the region. One of the most beloved saints in Spain, Dominic also rescued Christian slaves from the Moors. Dominic’s shrine is noted for its place in the birth of Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers. Dominic de Guzman’s mother begged for a child there. Dominic was also noted for miracles of healing.
1073 Saint John Gaulbert, Abbot entered the Order of St. Benedict laid the foundation of the Order of Vallombrosa founded several monasteries, reformed others eradicated simony no indigent person sent away without alms  dedicated to poverty and humility. He never became a priest, in fact, he declined even to receive minor orders  known for his wisdom, miracles, and prophecies
In monastério Passiniáno, prope Floréntiam, sancti Joánnis Gualbérti Abbátis, qui fuit Institútor Ordinis Vallis Umbrósæ.
    In the monastery of Passignano, near Florence, Abbot St. John Gualbert, founder of the Order of Vallombrosa.
 The city of Florence gave to the world Saint John Gaulbert. Although he enjoyed the benefits of an early Christian education, his youthful heart was soon attracted to the vanities of the world. A painful incident was the means God made use of, to open his eyes. Hugo, his only brother, had been murdered and St. John had resolved to avenge his death. On a certain Good Friday he met his enemy in a place where there was no escape for the latter. St. John drew his sword and would have killed his adversary on the spot, but the latter threw himself on his knees begging him by the passion of Jesus Christ to spare his life. St. John was touched at the words, embraced his enemy, entered a church and prayed with many tears for the pardon of his sins.
He now entered the Order of St. Benedict, in which he made such great progress in virtue that after the death of the Abbot, the monks wished to impose this dignity upon him, but the Saint absolutely refused to accept it. Sometime later, he left the monastery with one companion in quest of greater solitude.
Having visited the hermitage of Camaldoli, he finally settled at Valle Ombrosa in Tuscany. Together with two hermits whom he found there, he and his companions built a small monastery, observing the primitive rule of St. Benedict. Thus was laid the foundation of the Order of Vallombrosa. The humility of the saint was such that he would never be promoted, even to Minor Orders. His charity for the poor caused him to make a rule that no indigent person should be sent away without an alms. He founded several monasteries, reformed others, and succeeded in eradicating the vice of simony from the part of the country where he lived. He died on July 12, 1073, at about 80 years of age.

ST JOHN GUALBERT was born at Florence towards the end of the tenth  century, the son of a nobleman.  Hugh, his elder and only brother, was murdered by a man reputed to be his friend, and John conceived it to be his duty to avenge his brother.   Under the influence of his resentment, heightened by the sorrow and persuasion of his father, he listened to the voice neither of reason nor of religion.  The motive of revenge is criminal if it be present even in demanding the just punishment of an offender; much more if it push men to vindicate their own cause themselves by returning injury for injury and by wreaking wrongson those that inflict them.   But John was persuaded that his honour in the world required that he should not suffer so flagrant an outrage to pass unpunished.  One day he came upon the murderer in so narrow a passage that it was impossible for either to avoid the other.  John drew his sword and advanced upon the defenceless man, who fell upon his knees, his arms crossed on his breast.   The remembrance
of Christ, who prayed for His murderers on the cross seized the heart of the young man; he put up his sword, embraced his enemy, and they parted in peace.
  John went on his road till he came to the monastery of San Miniato, where, going into the church, he offered up his prayers before a crucifix.   And as he continued his prayer the crucifix miraculously bowed its head, as it were to give a token how acceptable were the sacrifice of his revenge and his sincere repentance.  Divine grace so took possession of his heart that he went to the abbot and asked to be admitted to the religious habit.  The abbot was apprehensive of his father's displeasure; but after a few days John cut off his hair himself, and put on a babit which he borrowed.
    John devoted himself to his new state in the dispositions of a true penitent, so that he became entirely a new man.  When the abbot of San Miniato died John, apparently on account of a scandal concerning the abbatial succession, left the house with one companion in quest of a closer solitude.  He paid a visit to the hermitage of Camaldoli, and while there decided to make a new foundation of his own. This he did in a pleasant place near Fiesole, called Vallis Umbrosa, where with his companions he built a small monastery of timber and mud walls and formed a little community serving God according to the primitive austere rule and spirit of St Benedict.  The abbess of Saint Ellero gave them ground on which to build.  The saint added to the original Rule of St Benedict certain constitutions, one of which was the provision of conversi, lay-brothers, and the abolition of manual work for choir-monks.   Vallombrosa was perhaps the first monastery in which the institution of conversi appeared.
The life of this congregation was one of great austerity, and for some time it flourished and established other houses; but though it still exists it now numbers but few monks.
St John Gualbert feared no less the danger of too great lenience and forbearance than of harshness, and was a true imitator of both mildness and zeal of Moses, whom the Holy Ghost calls "a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth ".
 His humbleness would not allow him to receive even minor orders; he was zealous for poverty, and would not allow any of his monasteries to be built
on a costly or imposing scale, thinking such edifices not agreeable to a spirit of poverty.  His kindness to the poor was not less active than his love for poverty.
He would have no poor person sent from his door without an alms, and often emptied the stores of his monasteries in relieving them; in a famine he supplied, sometimes by miracle, the multitudes of people that flocked to Rozzuolo.
   The saint was endowed with the spirit of prophecy, and by his prayers restored many sick persons to health.  Pope St Leo IX went to Passignano on purpose to converse with him and Stephen X had the greatest esteem for him. Pope Alexander II testified that the whole country where he lived owed to his zeal the extinction of simony, for John's enthusiasm for the purely contemplative life did not prevent him and his monks from taking an active part in putting down that disorder, which was rife at the time.
  St John Gualbert died on July 12, 1073, the only certain date in his history, being eighty or more years old.     Pope Celestine III enrolled him among the saints in 1193.
The materials for St John's life are in a sense abundant: see the long list in BHL., nn. 4397-4406. Still we do not get from them much significant detail. The earliest is that by Bd Andrew of Strumi (d. 1097): unfortunately the only manuscript is mutilated.  Another biography, by Bd Atto, must have been written within half a century of the saint's death. Perhaps another narrative belonging to the twelfth century, which was edited by Davidsohn in his Forschungen sur alteren Geschichte von Florenz (1896), is not the least valuable of our available sources.  Curiously enough this last omits all reference to the pardon accorded to the murderer, from which incident St John's conversion is said to date.  The two lives first named are printed in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. iii, and that by Andrew of Strunii has been re-edited in the folio continuation of MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxx, part 2 (1929).  There is a popular sketch in Italian by D. F. Tarani (1903), and see Lugano, L'Italia Benedettina (1929). pp. 307-356.
John Gualbert (Gualberto), OSB Vall. Abbot (RM) Born in Florence, Tuscany, Italy,
c. 993; died at Passignano (near Florence) in 1073; canonized in 1193.
   Because of his birth into the noble Visdomini family, John Gualbert had no more thought of following a life of austerity and humility than did his noble Florentine friends and companions. Bred to be a soldier, he spent his time in worldly amusements. Indeed, so far from intending to follow the precepts of Our Lord, his one over-riding ambition was to avenge the murder of his elder brother, Hugh. To him this was a matter of justice and, more importantly, a matter of honor.
I   t happened that one Good Friday as he was riding through a narrow pass on his way to Florence, Gualbert came face to face with the man he had been seeking. The man was alone and there was no means of escape. Gualbert drew his sword and moved forward, but at his approach the murderer, in a gesture not so much of supplication as of despair, fell to his knees, threw out his arms and commended his soul to God.  Gualbert hesitated, and as he looked down on his victim he was suddenly reminded of the image of Christ suffering on the Cross and of the forgiveness which Our Lord had asked for those who murdered him. Sheathing his sword, he embraced and forgave the man. Having pardoned his brother's murderer, he saw the image of the crucifix miraculously bow its head in acknowledgement of Gualbert's good action and they separated in peace.  Continuing his journey, Gualbert went to the monastery of San Miniato del Monte in Florence where, as he prayed before the crucifix, he was filled with divine grace. He asked the abbot for permission to be admitted. But the abbot delayed, fearing the anger and resentment of Gualbert's parents. To demonstrate the seriousness of his call, Gualbert shaved his head himself and put on a habit that he had borrowed.
   For the next few years he remained at San Miniato, leading the life of a penitent and hoping to end his days there; but when the abbot died and the new one bribed his way to office, he left in disgust. (Other sources say that he left with a companion to find solitude when it looked likely that he would be appointed abbot.) He wanted to find a life untouched by the current abuses in the Church: clerical concubinage, nepotism, and simony. For a while he stayed with the Camaldolesi at Saint Romuald's abbey, but then decided to make an entirely new foundation.

   The abbess of Sant'Ellero gave him some land in the Vallis Umbrosa (Vallombrosa), about 20 miles east of Florence near Fiesole; and there, with the help of a few companions, he built a small and unpretentious monastery of timber. The monks followed the austere rule of Saint Benedict to the letter, except for a special provision admitting conversi, or lay- brothers who could take on the manual labor and free the choir monks for contemplation and more prayer.  He was dedicated to poverty and humility. He never became a priest, in fact, he declined even to receive minor orders. Vallombrosa inspired other communities with its hospices for the poor and sick. These became part of his new order under John's rule, in spite of rival claims to jurisdiction. In this and other ways John became involved in the reform movement in the Church, for which he was commended by popes.
   Other monasteries were established, but in all cases Gualbert insisted that the buildings should be constructed as modestly and cheaply as possible and that the money saved should be given to the poor. Indeed, his zeal for charity was such that he often gave away all the monastery's supplies to the poor who came to its gates. The area in which the first monastery was located was wild and barren, but the monks planted fir and pine trees and transformed it into a parkland.
   Gualbert was known for his wisdom, miracles, and prophecies. Pope Saint Leo IX, travelled specially to Passignano to speak with him, as did Stephen X. Pope Alexander II attributed the eradication of simony in his country to him. Though respected and visited by popes, Gualbert retained his humility. He died aged about 80. The congregation of Vallombrosan Benedictines that he founded spread chiefly throughout Tuscany and Lombardy, but it still exists today and includes more than six monasteries (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, White).
   In art, Saint John Gualbert is an elderly Vallombrosan abbot with a tau-staff, book and heretic under foot. At times, he may be shown (1) with the devil under foot; (2) enthroned among Vallombrosan monks, tau staff and book of rule in hands; (3) kneeling before a crucifix, which bows towards him; (4) present at an ordeal by fire of Saint Peter Igneus; (5) watching a luxurious monastery carried away by a flood; or as a young man forgiving the murderer of his relative (Roeder). A fine altarpiece in Santa Croce, Florence, depicts four scenes from Saint John's life (Farmer).
John Gualbert is the patron on foresters and park keepers (White).
1073 Blessed Gundisalvus (Gonzalo) of Silos, OSB (AC) many miracles were recorded of Dominic in the course of his work, and it was said that there were no diseases known to man not been cured by his prayers
Gundisalvus was one of Saint Dominic's monks at the Benedictine abbey of Silos, Spain (Benedictines).
1073 ST DOMINIC OF SILOS, ABBOT
This Dominic was born at the beginning of the eleventh century at Cañas in Navarre, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. His people were peasants, and for a time he followed their way of life, looking after his father’s flocks among the foothills of the mountains. This work encouraged his taste for solitude and quietness, and he soon became a monk at the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. He made great progress in his new state, was entrusted with works of reform, and became prior of his monastery. In this office he came into conflict with his sovereign, Garcia III of Navarre, because he refused to give up some possessions of the monastery, which were claimed by the king. Garcia at length drove Dominic and two other monks away, and they were welcomed by Ferdinand I of Old Castile, who sent them to the monastery of St Sebastian at Silos, of which Dominic was appointed abbot. The monastery was in a remote and sterile part of the diocese of Burgos, and was in a state of extreme decay, both materially and spiritually. Under the government of St Dominic this decay was arrested, then the house began to progress, and eventually he made it one of the most famous in Spain. Many miracles were recorded of Dominic in the course of his work, and it was said that there were no diseases known to man not been cured by his prayers.
The Roman Martyrology refers to the belief that Christian slaves among the Moors, to the number of three hundred, were liberated when they called upon God in his name. Dominic died on December 20, 1073.
    St Dominic of Silos is especially venerated in the order of Friars Preachers, because a century less four years after his death, he appeared, according to the tradition, to Bd Joan of Aza who had made a pilgrimage from Calaroga to his shrine, and promised her that she should bear another son. That son was the founder of the Preachers, and he was named Dominic after the holy abbot of Silos. Until the revolution of 1931 it was the custom for the abbot of Silos to bring the staff of St Dominic to the royal palace whenever a queen of Spain was in labour and to leave it by her bedside until the birth had taken place.
There is a life by a monk, Grimaldus, who purports to be a contemporary. This has been printed, with a few slight omissions, in Mabillon, vol. vi, pp. 299—320. A metrical life by Gonzalo de Berceo (edited by J. D. Fitzgerald in 1904), which was written about 1240, adds little to our historical knowledge but is perhaps the earliest verse composition in Castilian speech. Much interest has been taken in St Dominic since the treasures of the library of Silos have become known: see, for example, M. Férotin, Histoire de l’Abbaye de Silos (1897); A Andrea in the Boletin de la real Academia Española, vol. iv (1957), pp. 172—194 and 445—458; L. Serrano, El Obispado de Burgos y Castilla primitiva (1935), vol. ii; and a short life by R. Alcocer (1925).
1073 The Kiev Caves Icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is one of the most ancient icons in the Russian Orthodox Church glorified by numerous miracles -- 1677, 1709 1812.
The Mother of God entrusted it to four Byzantine architects, who in 1073 brought the icon to Sts Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves. The architects arrived at the monks' cave and asked, "Where do you want to build the church?" The saints answered, "Go, the Lord will point out the place.  How is it that you, who are about to die, have still not designated the place?" the architects wondered. "And they gave us much gold."

Then the monks summoned all the brethren and they began to question the Greeks, saying, "Tell us the truth. Who sent you, and how did you end up here?"
The architects answered, "One day, when each of us was asleep in his own home, handsome youths came to us at sunrise, and said, 'The Queen summons you to Blachernae.' We all arrived at the same time and, questioning one another we learned that each of us had heard this command of the Queen, and that the youths had come to each of us. Finally, we beheld the Queen of Heaven with a multitude of warriors. We bowed down to Her, and She said, 'I want to build Myself a Church in Rus, at Kiev, and so I ask you to do this. Take enough gold for three years.'"
"We bowed down and asked, 'Lady Queen! You are sending us to a foreign land. To whom are we sent?' She answered, 'I send you to the monks Anthony and Theodosius.'"
"We wondered, 'Why then, Lady, do You give us gold for three years? Tell us that which concerns us, what we shall eat and what we shall drink, and tell us also what You know about it.'"

"The Queen replied, 'Anthony will merely give the blessing, then depart from this world to eternal repose. The other one, Theodosius, will follow him after two years. Therefore, take enough gold. Moreover, no one can do what I shall do to honor you. I shall give you what eye has not seen, what ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man (1 Cor.2:9). I, Myself, shall come to look upon the church and I shall dwell within it.'"

"She also gave us relics of the holy martyrs Menignus, Polyeuctus, Leontius, Acacius, Arethas, James, and Theodore, saying, 'Place these within the foundation.' We took more than enough gold, and She said, 'Come out and see the resplendant church.' We went out and saw a church in the air. Coming inside again, we bowed down and said, 'Lady Queen, what will be the name of the church?'"

"She answered, 'I wish to call it by My own name.' We did not dare to ask what Her name was, but She said again, 'It will be the church of the Mother of God.'
After giving us this icon, She said,
'This will be placed within.'
We bowed down to Her and went to our own homes, taking with us the icon we received from the hands of the Queen."

Having heard this account, everyone glorified God, and St Anthony said,
"My children, we never left this place. Those handsome youths summoning you were holy angels, and the Queen in Blachernae was the Most Holy Theotokos. As for those who appeared to be us, and the gold they gave you, the Lord only knows how He deigned to do this with His servants. Blessed be your arrival! You are in good company: the venerable icon of the Lady."
For three days St Anthony prayed that the Lord would show him the place for the church.
After the first night there was a dew throughout all the land, but it was dry on the holy spot. On the second morning throughout all the land it was dry, but on the holy spot it was wet with dew. On the third morning, they prayed and blessed the place, and measured the width and length of the church with a golden sash. (This sash had been brought long ago by the Varangian Shimon, who had a vision about the building of a church.) A bolt of lightning, falling from heaven by the prayer of St Anthony, indicated that this spot was pleasing to God. So the foundation of the church was laid.
The icon of the Mother of God was glorified by numerous miracles.
Two friends, John and Sergius, sealed their friendship before it. After many years John fell mortally ill. He gave part of his wealth to the the Caves monastery, and he gave Sergius the portion for his five-year-old son for safekeeping. He also entrusted his son Zachariah to his guardianship. When Zachariah turned fifteen, he asked for his inheritance, but Sergius persisted in saying that John had distributed everything to the poor. He even went into the Dormition church and swore before the wonderworking icon that he had taken nothing.

When he attempted to kiss the icon, he was not able to come near it. He went to the doors and suddenly shouted, "Sts Anthony and Theodosius! Let me not be struck down for my dishonesty. Entreat the Most Holy Theotokos to drive away the multitude of demons which torment me. Let the gold and silver be taken away. It is sealed up in my granary." Zachariah gave away all his inheritance to the Caves monastery, where he also himself was tonsured a monk. From that time, no one would take oaths before the wonderworking icon (March 24).
More than once the icon defended the land from enemy invasion. In 1677, when the Turks laid siege to Chigirin and danger threatened Kiev, they carried the icon around the city for almost the entire day of August 27. The Mother of God blessed Russian armies going to the Battle of Poltava (1709). In 1812 they carried the icon around Kiev again. The icon is commemorated twice during the year: May 3 and August 15.
1077 Saint Arcadius of Vyazma and Novy Torg relics of St Arcadius, glorified by miracles of healing
from the city of Vyazma of pious parents, who from childhood taught him prayer and obedience. The gentle, perceptive, prudent and good youth chose for his ascetic feat of being a fool-for-Christ. He lived by alms, and slept wherever he found himself, whether in the forest, or on the church portico.

His blessed serenity and closeness to nature imparted to the figure of young Arcadius a peculiar spiritual aspect and aloofness from worldly vanity. In church, when absorbed in prayer, St Arcadius often wept tears of tenderness and spiritual joy. Though he seldom spoke, his advice was always good, and his predictions were fulfilled.

An experienced guide, St Ephraim the Wonderworker of Novy Torg (January 28), helped the young ascetic to avoid spiritual dangers while passing through the difficult and unusual exploit of foolishness. After this the people of Vyazma witnessed several miracles, worked through the prayers of Blessed Arcadius, but the saint fled human fame and traveled along the upper Tvertsa River. Here St Arcadius shared the work with his spiritual guide St Ephraim, and with him founded a church and monastery in honor of the holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb (May 2).

Entering into the newly-built monastery, St Arcadius became a monk and took upon himself the exploit of full obedience to his spiritual Father, St Ephraim. St Arcadius never missed Liturgy and he was always the first to appear for Matins together with his spiritual guide. After St Ephraim's repose (January 28, 1053), St Arcadius continued to pursue asceticism in accord with the last wishes of his Elder, dwelling in prayer, fasting and silence.
After several years, he also fell asleep in the Lord (December 13, 1077).

In 1594, a chapel dedicated to St Arcadius was built in one of the churches of Vyazma. A combined celebration of Sts Arcadius and Ephraim was established by Metropolitan Dionysius in the years 1584-1587. The relics of St Arcadius, glorified by miracles of healing, were uncovered on June 11, 1572, and on July 11, 1677, they were placed in a stone crypt of Sts Boris and Gleb cathedral in the city of Novy Torg (New Market). In 1841, the left side chapel of Sts Boris and Gleb cathedral church was dedicated in honor of St Arcadius. The solemn celebration of the 300th anniversary of the uncovering of the holy relics of St Arcadius took place in the city of Novy Torg in July of 1977. He is also commemorated on August 14 and June 11 (Transfer of his relics).
1077 St. Leontius, Bishop, missionary in Russia, born Greek, monk at the Caves of Kiev, Russia
In 1051, he became bishop of Rostov.
Uncovering of the relics of St Leontius the Bishop and Wonderworker of Rostov
1077 ST LEONTIUS, BISHOP OF ROSTOV, MARTYR Helped by the gift of miracles, he is said to have brought paganism to an end around Rostov; St Leontius was distinguished as "the hieromartyr", that is, the martyr who was a priest. Russian usage commemorates him at the preparation of the holy things in the Byzantine Mass,

This Leontius, who was a Greek from Constantinople, was the first monk of the Caves of Kiev to become a bishop, when soon after the year 1051 he was given charge of the eparchy of Rostov. He was one of a line of remarkable missionary bishops of this see, and though he received much persecution at the hands of the heathen he was reputed to be more successful in their conversion than any of his predecessors. Helped by the gift of miracles, he is said to have brought paganism to an end around Rostov, but in view of the mission of St Abraham fifty years later this can hardly be the case (unless St Abraham has been wrongly dated).
St Leontius died in or about 1077, and because of the ill-treatment he suffered from the heathen he has ever been venerated as a martyr. It is said that two laymen, Varangians, were the first to die for the Christian faith in Russia, in the time of St Vladimir the Great, and St Leontius was distinguished as "the hieromartyr", that is, the martyr who was a priest. Russian usage commemorates him at the preparation of the holy things in the Byzantine Mass.
From Martynov's Annus ecclesiasticus Graeco-Slavicus in Acta Sanctorum, October, xi. Cf. St Sergius, September 25, and bibliography.

The celebration of the Synaxis of the Rostov and Yaroslav Saints on May 23 was established by resolution of His Holiness Patriarch Alexis I (+ 1970) and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, on March 10, 1964.

Saint Leontius, Bishop of Rostov, is commemorated today with the other Rostov saints. He reposed on May 23, 1073, and his holy relics were uncovered in 1164

1080 St. David of Sweden Benedictine bishop; went as  missionary to Sweden aid Bishop Sigfrid of Vaxio, who had lost his three missionary nephews. Sigfrid sent David to Vastmanland, and there David founded a monastery at Munktorp or Monkentorp; ruled that mon­astery as abbot until becoming the bishop of Vastera Miracles were reported at his tomb

David of Munkentorp, born in England , OSB B (AC) (also known as David of Sweden); the feast of his translation is June 25 on some calendars. Tradition names David an English Benedictine, who had a passionate desire to give his life to Christ through martyrdom. When he heard of the death of Saint Sigfrid's three nephews--Winaman, Unaman, and Sunaman--he offered himself to the saint and was sent to Sinenga in Vastmanland. Eventually he founded a Benedictine abbey (Monkentorp or Munkthorp), which he governed as abbot. He is said to have been the first bishop of Västeräss (Vasteras). David worked strenuously to evangelize the region and died peacefully in old age. Miracles were reported at his tomb (Benedictines, Farmer).

David is said to have been an English monk who had a passionate desire to give his life for Christ by martyrdom.  When he heard of the death at the hands of the heathen of St Sigfrid's three nephews, he offered himself to the English mission in Sweden which was trying to rebuild the spoiled work of St Anskar.  He came to St Sigfrid, who was bishop at Växiö, and was sent to Västmanland; here he laboured for the conversion of the people, and to help in the work established a monastery, whence the place was afterwards known as Munktorp.  He gave himself whole-heartedly to his mission, with great success; he received the gift of miracles and the even more valuable gift of tears-but the grace of martyrdom for which he longed was denied him.  He lived instead to a considerable age and died peacefully, his sanctity being again confirmed by miracles at his tomb.  David is commonly said to have been the first bishop of Västeras, and is one of the saints of whom it was told that he hung a garment on a sunbeam- in this case, his gloves. Davis, where he lived for a time, gets its name from St David.
There is a short life printed in the Scriptores rerum Suecicarum, vol. ii, pt. r, pp. 408-411. See also C. J. A. Oppermann, English Missionaries in Sweden (1937), pp. 112-117; and cf the note to St Sigfrid, under February 15 herein
1080 St. Aldemar Abbot miracle worker called "the Wise;"  became so popular because of the miracles he performed that he was recalled to Monte Cassino
Born in Capua, Italy, he became a monk in Monte Cassino and was called to the attention of a Princess Aloara of the region. When she built a new convent in Capua, Alder became the director of the religious in the established house. He performed many miracles in this capacity.
Aldemar was reassigned by his abbot to Monte Cassino, a move that angered the princess. As a result, Aldemar went to Boiana, Italy, where a companion involved in the dispute tried to kill him.
Aldemar fled into the region of Bocchignano, Abruzzi, where he founded several more religious houses.

Aldemar the Wise, OSB, Abbot (AC) Born at Capua, Italy; died c. 1080. Saint Aldemar became a monk at Monte Cassino. From there he was sent to Saint Laurence's convent, Capua, as spiritual director but he became so popular because of the miracles he performed that he was recalled to Monte Cassino. Aldemar founded the Abbey of Bocchignano in the Abruzzi and several other houses that he ruled with much success.   He was also a great lover of animals (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1080 Eskil (Eskill) bishop of Strangnäss remains were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were honored with miracles BM (AC)
feast day formerly June 13. Eskil is said to have been an Englishman and a relative of Saint Sigfrid, whom he accompanied on the latter's mission to reconvert Sweden, whose people had returned to paganism following the death of Saint Ansgar. Sigfrid consecrated him bishop of Strangnäss. Eskil preached the Gospel with some success in Södermanland, until the heathens reacted after the murder of the friendly king Inge. Then, because he had protested against an idolatrous festival and called down a violent storm that destroyed a pagan altar and its sacrifices, he was stoned to death by the people at Strangnäss. His body was buried on the spot where he died. Within a short time a church was built there in which his sacred remains were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were honored with miracles. Prior to the Reformation, Saint Eskil was greatly honored in Sweden, and the place where he was buried, Eskilstuna, was named after him (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
1080 Eskil (Eskill) bishop of Strangnäss remains were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were honored with miracles BM (AC) feast day formerly June 13.

1080 St Eskil, Bishop And Martyr
The name of St Eskil does not appear in the Roman Martyrology, but until the Reformation he was honoured in northern Europe as one of the most illustrious martyrs of Scandinavia. He was said to be English, a kinsman of St Sigfrid, whom he accompanied on his mission to reconvert Sweden which had almost entirely lapsed into paganism since the death of St Anskar, its first apostle, in the ninth century. He was consecrated bishop at Strängnäs, and from that circum­stance later writers have described him as bishop of Strängnäs; but the see was not founded until 1245, and Eskil was probably a regionary bishop. He laboured with success in Södermanland, making many converts during the reign of King Inge, who encouraged and supported the missionaries. Inge, however, was murdered, and under Sweyn the Bloody a pagan reaction set in. A great heathen festival was held at Strängnäs which was attended by many who had professed to be Christians:
<>St Eskil hastened to the assembly and appealed to the people to abandon their pagan rites. Finding them deaf to his remonstrances he is said to have appealed to God to give a visible sign that He alone was the true God. Instantly a violent storm arose which destroyed the altar and its sacrifice, while sparing the bishop and his attendants. The pagans ascribed this wonder to magic and by the king’s orders they stoned the saint to death. The place where his body was laid in 1082 is called after him, Eskilstuna.

There are two medieval lives (neither very satisfactory), both of which may be found in Scriptores rerum Suecicarum, vol. ii, part i, pp. 389—404. See also the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iii, and especially S. Lindquist, Den helige Eskils biskopsdöme (1915), and Toni Schmid, in Scandia, vol. iv (1931), pp. 102—114. A short English account is in C. J. A. Oppermann, English Missionaries in Sweden (1937), pp. 103—111; but on this book see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lvii (1939), pp. 162—164.

Eskil is said to have been an Englishman and a relative of Saint Sigfrid, whom he accompanied on the latter's mission to reconvert Sweden, whose people had returned to paganism following the death of Saint Ansgar. Sigfrid consecrated him bishop of Strangnäss. Eskil preached the Gospel with some success in Södermanland, until the heathens reacted after the murder of the friendly king Inge. Then, because he had protested against an idolatrous festival and called down a violent storm that destroyed a pagan altar and its sacrifices, he was stoned to death by the people at Strangnäss. His body was buried on the spot where he died. Within a short time a church was built there in which his sacred remains were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and were honored with miracles. Prior to the Reformation, Saint Eskil was greatly honored in Sweden, and the place where he was buried, Eskilstuna, was named after him (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).

1087 Arnulf (Arnoul, Arnulphus) of Soissons French nobleman and soldier Many of the miracles wrought at his tomb were approved during a council held at Beauvais in 1121 OSB B (RM)
Born in Flanders; died at Oudenbourg (Aldenburg), Bruges, Flanders (Belgium), in 1087. Arnulf was a French nobleman and soldier who rendered distinguished service to King Robert and King Henry I, when, about 1060, he entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint Médard in Soissons. After a while he obtained his abbot's permission to live as an anchorite in a narrow cell, where he devoted himself to prayer and penance for three years.

He would have loved to continue in that state but God had other plans for the lowly monk. First, he was summoned to succeed Ponce as abbot. The cenobitic community was far too lax when he had retired into his cell; in his absence it had declined further into worldliness and simony. He accepted the office only reluctantly. In fact, there is a legend that says he asked for a day in which to come to a decision about accepting it. During that time he tried to escape, but was caught by a wolf and forcibly returned before he went very far.

In 1081, he was chosen by the council of Meaux to become the next bishop of Soissons. When deputies announced the decision of the council to Arnulf, he responded: "Leave a sinner to offer to God some fruits of penance; and compel not a madman to take upon him a charge which requires so much wisdom." Nevertheless, he was compelled to undertake the burdensome position.

With incredible zeal Arnulf tried to fulfill all the obligations of his office. When he found himself unable to correct certain grievous abuses among. He was probably not a very effective administrator or politician; perhaps it was simply a saint's sharper self-knowledge, rather than just humility, that had made him unwilling to accept the office. A little less than two years after his installation, he was driven from his see by an intruder. Fearing that the fault laid within himself, he resigned rather than fighting to regain possession of his episcopal chair. Thereafter he founded Oudenbourg Abbey in the diocese of Bruges, Belgium, where he died in sackcloth and ashes.

Many of the miracles wrought at his tomb were approved during a council held at Beauvais in 1121. His relics were enshrined in 1131, and are still preserved in the church of Saint Peter at Oudenburg. His name is very famous throughout the Low Countries and in France (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).

In art, Saint Arnulf is portrayed as a bishop wearing a coat of mail under his cope. At times the image may include (1) a fish with a ring in its mouth; (2) a burning castle that Arnulf is blessing; or (3) Arnulf washing the feet of the poor (Roeder). This patron of music, millers, and brewers is venerated at Remiremont. He is invoked to find lost articles (Roeder).
1092 St. Veremundus Benedictine abbot miracle worker deep religious fervor his aid to poor defense of the Mozarabic rite
Born in Navarre, Spain, he joined the Benedictines at the abbey of Our Lady of Hirache and eventually was elected abbot, succeeding his uncle, Munius. Under his leadership, the monastery became quite influential in the religious life of the region. A miracle worker, Veremundus was much sought after as a royal counselor. He also was known for his deep religious fervor, his aid to the poor, and traditionally is reported as feeding three thousand at an abbey during a famine. He was also famous for his successful defense of the Mozarabic rite.

Veremund(us) of Hirache, OSB, Abbot (AC) Died 1092. Like his uncle in Navarre, Veremund was a Benedictine at the abbey of Our Lady of Hirache. He eventually became abbot, and during his abbacy the monastery was reckoned the most influential religious center of Navarre. Saint Veremund himself was the advisor of its kings. He was remarkable for his charity towards the poor and for his zeal for the accurate recitation of the Divine Office. In the controversy concerning the use of the Mozarabic rite, he won for it the approval even of the Roman see which was suppressing it. He also performed miracles (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1094 St. Nicholas Peregrinus Confessor, so called Peregrinus because of his constant pilgrimages Greek by birth miracles were claimed at his tomb
Trani, in Apúlia, sancti Nicolái Peregríni Confessóris, cujus mirácula in Concílio Románo, cui beátus Urbánus Papa Secúndus præfuit, recitáta sunt.
    At Trani in Apulia, St. Nicholas Peregrinus, confessor, whose miracles were recounted in the Roman Council under Pope Urban II.
THE traditional histories of St Nicholas Peregrinus are untrustworthy, and nearly everything they profess to tell us of his early life is probably fabulous. All that can be positively stated about him is that he was a pious and simple-minded young Greek who landed in Italy as a perfect stranger. There, after remaining for a time at Otranto and wandering from one place to another in Apulia, he fell ill and eventually died at Trani. Clad in a single garment which reached only to his knees, he had gone about bearing a cross in his right hand and crying aloud wherever he went, "Kyrie eleison!" In a wallet he carried apples and other things with which he would please the children who flocked round him and echoed his chant. Often he was roughly handled as a vagrant or a madman, but after his death he came to be venerated because of the miracles believed to be worked by his intercession. On the strength of the cures reported at his grave, he was canonized by Pope Urban II.
Such legendary materials as are available have been printed by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, as also by Ughelli, ltalia Sacra, vol. vii, pp. 894-906. See, further, A. di Jorio, Della Vita di S. Nicolao Pellegrino (1879), and H. Günter, Die christliche Legende des Abendlandes (1910), pp. 15-22. For his canonization, see E. W. Kemp, Canonization and Authority (1948), pp. 67-68 and 163-165.
Called Peregrinus because of his constant pilgrimages, he went to Italy and earned considerable fame by wandering throughout the countryside carrying a cross and declaring Kyrie eleison, being joined by crowds, especially made up of children, who repeated the same declaration. Nicholas died at Trani at the age of nineteen and was considered to be demented. Within a short time, however, miracles were claimed at his tomb, and he was canonized in
1098 by Blessed Pope Urban II.
 At Trani in Apulia, St. Nicholas Peregrinus, confessor, whose miracles were recited in a Roman Council over which Pope St. Urban II presided.
Nicholas the Pilgrim (Peregrinus) (RM)
Born in Greece, 1075; died in Trani, Italy, 1094; canonized in 1098. As a teenager, Nicholas migrated from his homeland to Apulia in southern Italy. He wandered through the streets carrying a cross and crying "Kyrie Eleison." Crowds of children would follow him, repeating the same cry. Although he was often treated as a lunatic, when he died at the age of 19, so many miracles were worked at his tomb that he was canonized almost immediately (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1095 St. Wulfstan Bishop reformer died while daily ritual wash feet of 12 poor men
 Wigórniæ, in Anglia, sancti Wulstáni, Epíscopi et Confessóris, méritis et miráculis conspícui; qui ab Innocéntio Papa Tértio inter Sanctos relátus est.
      At Worcester, England, St. Wulfstan, bishop and confessor, conspicuous for merits and miracles.  He was ranked among the saints by Innocent III.

Wulfstan (1008-1095)+, also called Wulstan and Wolstan. Born at Long-Itch ington, Warwickshire, England, he studied at the abbeys of Evesham and Peterborough, received ordination, and joined the Benedictines at Worcester. Wulfstan served as treasurer of the church at Worcester, was prior of the monastery, and finally was named bishop of Worcester in 1062. After overcoming initial doubts about his ability to hold the office of bishop, he demonstrated such skill after the Norman Conquest that he was the lone bishop to be kept in his post by William the Conqueror (r. l066-l087). For the next three decades, Wulfstan rebuilt his cathedral, cared for the poor, and struggled to alleviate the harsh decrees of the Normans upon the vanquished Saxons. Wulfstan died while engaged in the daily ritual of washing the feet of a dozen poor men. He was canonized in 1203.
1095 Ladislaus I of Hungary, King He fought just and successful wars against Poles, Russians, and the Tartars (RM) renowned for his miracles even to this day
Varadíni, in Hungária, sancti Ladislái Regis, qui claríssimis miráculis usque ad diem hodiérnum corúscat.
    At Grosswardein in Hungary, the holy king Ladislaus, greatly renowned for his miracles even to this day.
Also known as Lancelot, Lalo, Laszlo: Born in Neustra, Hungary, July 29, 1040; died at Nitra, Bohemia, July 29, 1095; canonized in 1192 by Pope Celestine III. Laszlo of the house of Arpad, son of King Bela, was elected king of Hungary in 1077 by the nobles. He followed in the footsteps of Saint Stephen I of Hungary. Immediately he was faced with the claims of a relative and son of a former king, Solomon, to the throne, and defeated him on the battlefield in 1089. He developed the power of his young kingdom. He fought just and successful wars against Poles, Russians, and the Tartars.

  Laszlo supported Pope Gregory VII in his investiture struggle against Emperor Henry IV, and Rupert of Swabia, Henry's rival. Laszlo married Adelaide, daughter of Duke Welf of Bavaria, one of Rupert's supporters. While Laszlo encouraged Christian missionaries and fostered Christianity within his dominions, allowed religious freedom to the Jews and Islamics within his realm.
    He was distinguished personally for the justness of his rule and the virtue of his life. In 1091, Laszlo marched to the aid of his sister, Helen, Queen of Croatia, against the murderers of her husband. When she died childless, he extended the boundaries of his kingdom by the annexation of Croatia and Dalmatia despite objections from the pope, the emperor in Constantinople, and Venice.
    In 1092 at the Synod of Szabolcs, Laszlo promulgated a series of laws on religious and civil matters. He was chosen to lead the armies of the first crusade but before he could go he died. In a sentence, Laszlo was the ideal national hero. He is venerated for his zeal, piety, and moral life. In 1192, his relics were enshrined as those of a saint in the cathedral he had founded at Nagyvarad (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney). In art, Saint Ladislaus is portrayed as an armored king with a banner bearing a cross and a halberd. He may be shown (1) on a battlefield; (2) attacking a Tarter who is carrying off a lady; (3) between SS. Stephen of Hungary and Emeric; and (4) two angels with swords near him. He is the patron saint of Hungary (Roeder).

St Ladislaus Of Hungary
IF Hungary owed the establishment of its monarchy and the organization of its church to St Stephen I, it was almost equally indebted to another sainted king of the same house of Arpad. For Ladislaus extended its borders, kept its enemies at bay, and made it politically a great state. But it is not for such activities that men are canonized (if, indeed, Ladislaus ever was formally canonized, which appears to be doubtful); and it is for his private life and work for Christianity that reverence is due to his memory.

After a childhood and youth whose background was political intrigue and dynastic violence, Ladislaus (Laszlo) came to the Hungarian throne in 1077; but his rights were contested by his kinsman Solomon, whom eventually he defeated in battle. The young prince was said to be the embodiment of the outward graces and inner virtues of the ideal knight of chivalry. Towering head and shoulders above the crowd, he had the strength and courage of a lion, combined with a courteous affability that endeared him to all. His piety, which was as fervent as it was well balanced, expressed itself in his zeal for the faith, in the punctilious fulfilment of his religious obligations, in the strictness of his morals, and in the austerity of his life.
Entirely devoid of personal ambition, he accepted the dignity thrust upon him from a sense of duty. In pursuance of a policy dictated alike by his religious and his patriotic instincts, Ladislaus allied himself closely with Pope Gregory VII and the other opponents of the German emperor, Henry IV.
He espoused the cause of Henry's rival, Rupert of Swabia, and married Adelaide, the daughter of Rupert's chief supporter, Duke Welf of Bavaria. Within the boundaries of Hungary itself he had to face repeated invasions from the Kumans and others, but he successfully repulsed them all and did his best to win barbarian tribes to Christianity and civilization; at the same time he allowed civil and religious liberty to the Jews and the Ishmaelites, i.e. Mohammedans.
It was at his solicitation that King Stephen I, his son Emeric, and the martyred bishop Gerard
were recognized by the Holy See as worthy of veneration as saints.
   Ladislaus governed with a firm hand in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs, as was seen at the diet of Szabolcs and when, in 1091, his sister Helen, the widowed queen of Croatia, appealed to him for help against the murderers of her husband. He marched in, restored some sort of order, and established the see of Zagreb. When Helen died childless he annexed Croatia and Dalmatia, in the face of remonstrances from the emperor at Constantinople, the republic of Venice and the Holy See. Nevertheless Blessedd Urban II looked for his help in organizing the First Crusade, and it was Ladislaus who was chosen by the kings of France, Spain and England to be the commander-in-chief of that expedition. However he was not destined to march with the rest, for he died rather suddenly at Nitra in Bohemia in 1095. He was fifty-five years old.
   The body of St Ladislaus was taken for burial to Nagy Varad (Oradea Mare in Transylvania)-to the city and the cathedral which he had founded. From the moment of his death he was honoured as a saint and a national hero, and his deeds have formed the theme of many popular Magyar ballads and tales. His relics were solemnly enshrined in 1192.
The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. vii, print a set of liturgical legendae, accompanied with the usual historical dissertation. A more reliable source is probably the life edited by S. L. Endlicher, in his Rerum Hungaricarum Monumenta Arpadiana (1849), pp. 235-244, and 324-348. See also Archiv foster. Geschichte (1902), pp. 46-53, and an article, "St Laszlo ", translated by E. Lindner in the Ungarische Revue for 1885. are several lives published in Magyar, of which that by J. Karacsonyi (1926) is said the best. See also Revue archeologique, 1925, pp. 315-327, and C. A. Macartnt Medieval Hungarian Historians (1953).
1096 Martyr Eustratius of the Caves martyred incorrupt relics were found in a cave and worked many miracles
Born in the eleventh century at Kiev into a wealthy family. As an adult, he received monastic tonsure at the Kiev Caves monastery, after giving away all his possesions to the poor. St Eustratius humbly underwent obediences at the monastery, strictly fulfilling the rule of prayer and passing his days in fasting and vigilance.

In 1096 the Polovetsians captured Kiev and ravaged the monastery of the Caves, doing away with many of the monks. St Eustratius was taken into captivity, and was sold into slavery with thirty monastic laborers and twenty inhabitants of Kiev to a certain Jew living in Korsun.

The impious Jew tried to make the captives to deny Christ, threatening to kill those who refused by starving them. St Eustratius encouraged and exhorted his brother Christians, "Brothers! Let none of us who are baptized and believe in Christ betray the vows made at Baptism. Christ has regenerated us through water and the Spirit. He has freed us from the curse of the Law by His Blood, and He has made us heirs of His Kingdom. If we live, we shall live for the Lord. If we die, we shall die in the Lord and inherit eternal life."

Inspired by the saint's words, the captives resolved to die of starvation, rather than renounce Christ, Who is the food and drink of Eternal Life. Exhausted by hunger and thirst, some captives perished after three days, some after four days, and some after seven days. St Eustratius remained alive for fourteen days, since he was accustomed to fasting from his youth. Suffering from hunger, he still did not touch food nor water.
The impious Jew, seeing that he had lost the money he had paid for the captives, decided to take revenge on the holy monk.
The radiant Feast of the Resurrection of Christ drew near, and the Jewish slave owner was celebrating the Jewish Passover with his companions. He decided to crucify St Eustratius. The cruel tormentors mocked the saint, offering to let him share their Passover meal. The Martyr replied, "The Lord has now bestown a great grace upon me. He has permitted me to suffer on a cross for His Name just as He suffered."
The saint also predicted a horrible death for the Jew.
Hearing this, the enraged Jew grabbed a spear and stabbed St Eustratius on the cross. The martyr's body was taken down from the cross and thrown into the sea. Christian believers long searched for the holy relics of the martyr, but were not able to find them. But through the Providence of God the incorrupt relics were found in a cave and worked many miracles.
Later, they were transferred to the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves monastery.

11th v. Saint Emma favored with the gift of working miracles
11th century. Emma, widow of Ludger, was favored with the gift of working miracles. She supported the poor of Bremen (Encyclopedia).
11th v. ST DOROTHEUS THE YOUNGER, Abbot; Among many miracles credited multiplied corn, saved from shipwreck a vessel far away out at sea and on another occasion by invoking the Holy Trinity to have caused a huge stone which crashed down during the building operations to rise unassisted and resume its proper place
TREBIZOND, on the Black Sea, was the birthplace of St Dorotheus the Younger, who is also known as St Dorotheus of Khiliokomos. He came of a patrician family, but ran away from home at the age of twelve to escape from a marriage that his parents were forcing upon him. After wandering for some time he reached the monastery of Genna at Amisos (the present Samsun), in Pontus, where he received the habit from the Abbot John. He became a pattern of monastic virtue and was raised to the priesthood. Besides being endowed with the gift of prophecy he was frequently rapt in ecstasy.
   One day when he was on an errand outside the monastery, a mysterious stranger told him to found a community on a mountain near Amisos, at a spot that he indicated, and to dedicate it to the Holy Trinity. Dorotheus was loath to leave his brethren, besides being uncertain as to the nature of the call, but his abbot bade him obey. The saint accordingly began to build, having at first only one companion to assist him. Other disciples soon gathered round him and he became the abbot of a great monastery to which he gave the name of Khiliokomos. Among many miracles with which he is credited he is said to have multiplied corn, to have saved from shipwreck a vessel far away out at sea and on another occasion by invoking the Holy Trinity to have caused a huge stone which crashed down during the building operations to rise unassisted and resume its proper place.
The text of the Greek life written by his disciple John Mauropus is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i.