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).
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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).
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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).
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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.
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