660  St Landericus, Or Landry, Bishop Of Paris
During the reign of Clovis II and in the year 650 St Landericus became bishop of Paris. He was a very earnest and devout man, distinguished especially by his great love of the poor; to relieve them, during a time of famine, he sold not only his personal possessions, but also some of the vessels and furniture of the church. Before his day the only facilities for the care of the sick poor of Paris were provided by a few little hostels, matriculae, dependent for their upkeep from day to day on casual alms. To St Landericus is attributed the foundation of the city’s first real hospital, near Notre-Dame, and dedicated under the name of St Christopher. It subsequently developed into the great institution which was famous in later ages as the Hôtel-Dieu. In 653 Landericus signed an exemption of the newly estab­lished abbey of St Denis from episcopal jurisdiction. The date of the death of St Landericus is uncertain, but it cannot have taken place earlier than 66o, for in that year a monk named Marculf dedicated to him a collection of ecclesiastical formulae which he had compiled under his instructions.

9th V. Bd Olive Of Palermo, Virgin And Martyr

The story of Bd Olive, or St Olive as she is generally styled, belongs to the realm of pious fiction, and it is through the religious drama that her cultus seems to have been propagated in Italy. Her feast, however, is observed to this day in the diocese of Carthage, as well as in Palermo. In a fifteenth-century codex in the library of the cathedral of Palermo, her legend is given in nine lessons. A beautiful Christian maiden of thirteen, she was carried off from her home in Palermo by the Saracens, who conveyed her to Tunis. At first, in consideration of her noble lineage, she was allowed to live in a cave near the city; there she effected a number of cures. But when it came to light that Mohammedans were being converted by her to the Christian faith, she was arrested and subjected to various tortures. She was shut up in a dungeon without light or food; she was scourged until her flesh was cut tc the bone; she was extended on the rack and torn with the iron comb; she was plunged into boiling oil. As she emerged from her steaming bath, unhurt but saturated with oil, she was stretched again upon the rack and executioners were directed to set light to her with torches; the burning brands fell from the hands of the men, who were instantaneously converted. Finally, Olive was beheaded, and her soul was seen to escape from her body in the form of a dove, which soared up to Heaven.

When he could no longer work, a citizen called James Castagnolis gave him a room in his house and, when necessary, food. Usually, however, Bd Henry subsisted on the alms of the charitable, which he shared with beggars, never holding anything over from one day to the next. Even extreme bodily weakness in ad­vancing age could not keep him from God’s house and from visiting all the churches within walking distance of Treviso. He died on June 10, 1315. His little room was immediately thronged with visitors eager to venerate him and to secure some fragment of his possessions, which consisted of a hair-shirt, a wooden log which had been his pillow, and some cords and straw that had served as his bed. Extra­ordinary scenes were witnessed after his body had been removed to the cathedral. The people broke into the basilica at night, and the bishop and the podestà, roused from their sleep, were obliged to go and protect the body by putting a wooden palisade round it. No fewer than 276 miracles, said to have been wrought by his relics, were recorded within a few days of Bd Henry’s death by the notaries appointed by the magistrates: they occupy thirty-two closely printed columns of the Acta Sanctorum. The cultus of Bd Henry was confirmed by Pope Benedict XIV.

When they repented, the monk then freed them. The memory of St Silvanus is celebrated also on August 28, and on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

The Monk Siluan, Kievo-Pechersk SchemaMonk, asceticised in the Farther Caves during the XIII-XIV Centuries. One time, by the power of his prayer, he held fast to the spot robbers, who had come into the monastery garden, and for three days they were not able to move. When they repented, the monk then freed them. The memory of the Monk Siluan is celebrated also on 28 August and on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent.

1386 Bd Bonaventure of Peraga, Cardinal of The Holy Roman Church
The first member of the Augustinian Order of Hermits to be raised to the dignity of a cardinal was Bonaventure Baduario. He belonged to one of the leading families of Padua, and was born at Peraga at a short distance from the city. Having received the Augustinian habit at an early age, he was sent to the University of Paris, and when Pope Innocent VI established a theological faculty at the University of Bologna, Bonaventure was one of the earliest occupants of a chair. In addition to his teaching he wrote a number of treatises and commentaries, and he was interested in profane as well as in sacred literature. Community of tastes and mutual attraction led him to form a close friendship with the poet Petrarch, whose funeral oration he preached. In 1377 he was chosen prior general of his order: the following year he was created cardinal of St Cecilia. On several occasions he acted as ambassador for Pope Urban VI during the Schism. He always stoutly defended the rights of the Church, and in so doing came into conflict with his kinsman, Francis, Prince of Carrara, who was the ruler of Padua. On the occasion of a visit to Rome, as Bonaventure was crossing the Tiber to visit the Vatican, he was struck by an arrow and killed. The perpetrator of the deed was never identified, but it was generally believed that the murder had been committed by order of the Prince of Carrara.

Cardinal Bonaventure’s claims to the title Blessed seems a little doubtful, though his own order venerated him as a martyr shortly after his death. The Bollandists, in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. ii, have compiled an account based mainly on T. de Ferrera’s Alpha­betum Augustinianum. In modern times, D. A. Perini has published a small volume, Il b. Bonaventura Baduario-Peraga (1952).

1419 Bd John Dominici, Archbishop of Ragusa and Cardinal; instrumental in helping to end the great schism, Amongst the almost contemporary records of Bd John Dominici which have come down to us are a short biography written by one of his most famous sons— St Antoninus, archbishop of Florence—and a portrait painted by another—Fra Angelico—on the walls of San Marco. A Florentine of humble parentage, born in 1376, John received the Dominican habit at the age of eighteen in the priory of Santa Maria Novella, in spite of some opposition caused by his lack of education and a tendency to stammer. An unusually retentive memory and great persever­ance enabled him soon to remedy these defects and he became one of the leading theologians of his day as well as an eloquent preacher. In addition to commentaries on the Holy Scriptures and one or two treatises, he wrote laudi or hymns in the vernacular. For twelve years after completing his studies at the University of Paris he taught and preached in Venice. He was then prior of Santa Maria Novella and elsewhere. At Fiesole and in Venice he founded new houses for men-and in the latter city he established the convent of Corpus Christi for Dominican nuns. He it was who contributed most to the reform movement in Italy, introducing or restoring the strict rule of St Dominic in several priories, with the approval of the master general, Bd Raymund of Capua. It should be further noticed that he took the keenest interest in the Christian education of the young and that he was one of the first to detect and resist the pernicious tendencies of the new paganism that was growing up with the humanists. In 1406 he attended the conclave which elected Pope Gregory XII, and he afterwards became confessor and adviser to that pope, who created him archbishop of Ragusa and cardinal of San Sisto.

By encouraging Pope Gregory to resign—as the only possible means of inducing the antipopes likewise to forego their claims—Bd John was instrumental in helping to end the great schism, and it was he who conveyed Gregory’s resignation to the Council of Constance. The next pope, Martin V, appointed him legate to Bohemia and Hungary, charged especially with the duty of counteracting the influence of the Hussites. He found Bohemia in a turmoil: public opinion had been roused to the verge of frenzy by the execution of John Huss; and King Wenceslaus would not take the repressive measures advocated by the nuncio. As he could do nothing there, Dominici passed on to Hungary, but he caught fever soon after his arrival and died at Buda on June 10, 1419. His cultus was confirmed in 1832.

In the Acta Sanctorum, two lives are printed: one, a short memoir by St Antoninus of Florence; the other, of much greater length, by John Caroli. Unfortunately this last is not very accurate or reliable. But a good deal has been written otherwise concerning Bd John’s life and work, particularly in relation to the later phases of the great schism. See especially the articles of J. Hollerbach in the Römische Quartalschrift for 1909 and 1910, and H. Finke’s Acta Concilii Constantiensis. Bd John’s two works on education, Lucula Noctis (new ed. by E. Hunt, U.S.A., 1940) and Regola del governo di cura familiare, are of notable importance in the history of pedagogy. He also wrote a very edifying tractate of an ascetical character, II Libro d’amore di caritâ. Consult further the preface of Fr Coulon to his edition of the Lucula Noctis (1908), and Fr Mortier’s Histoire des Maitres Généraux OP., vols. iii and iv; with Taurisano’s Catalogus Hagiographicus OP.

1715 Saint John, Metropolitan of Tobolsk and All Siberia Wonderwonder teacher of the Latin language Kiev Spiritual Academy monasticism at the Kiev Caves "How ought man to conform his will with the will of God?"
The Wonderwonder, in the world was named John Maximovitch, and he was born in the city of Nezhino in 1651. His father Maxim Vasil'evich and mother Euphrosyne had seven sons, of which John was the eldest. Upon his completion of the Kiev-Mogilyansk College (afterwards the Kiev Spiritual Academy), the future hierarch emerged from it as a teacher of the Latin language. Thereafter, in 1680, he accepted monasticism at the Kiev Caves monastery and became absorbed in inner spiritual activity. With the general consent of the brethren, the young monk was given the obedience of preaching. From this period he demonstrated an exceptional eloquence. He attached a special significance to inner religious knowledge. The chief theme of his life can be defined at a stroke as, "How ought man to conform his will with the will of God?" He developed this theme both in his preachings, and in his subsequent missionary service. In answer to it appeared the work, published towards the end of his long ascetic life, and entitled "Heliotropion" or "Sunflower," or "Conforming the Human Will to the Divine Will." Of the many works of the holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, this work gives a very thorough answer to this great question of Christian soteriology.