Today, 13 August, is the feast of ...
* Hippolytus, martyr (c. 235) - according to the acta of st Laurence (cf
FEAST 10 August), this was the officer in charge of Laurence when he was
in prison, and was by him converted and baptized; in keeping with
someone whose name means 'loosed horse', he was sentenced to be torn
apart by horses
* Cassian of Imola, martyr (date unknown) - a teacher, Cassian was
condemned to be thrown naked in the middle of his 200 pupils, who were
ordered to stab their master with their iron pens; the pupils carried
out the order - there may be a moral in this
Last year Pardon Tillinghast reminded us that John Scotus Eriugena was
stabbed to death by his students at Malmesbury in the 9th century? But
then his mordant Irish wit was famous.
* Simplician, bishop of Milan (400) - good friend of Augustine;
succeeded Ambrose as bishop of Milan
* Radegunde (587) - wife of Clotaire I, son of Clovis; she left the
court and became a deaconess, then an abbess in Poitiers. She had two vitae
written about her: one by Baudoniva, a nun in the convent of Poitiers,
and the other by the poet and bishop Venantius Fortunatus (Translations of
these two vitae can be found in Jo Ann McNamara, ed. *Sainted Women of
the Dark Ages,* Durham and London, 1992.)
* Maximus the Confessor, abbot (662) - a leading exponent of Byzantine
mysticism, author of many works (including the *Mystagogia*, an
explanation of liturgical symbolism)
* Wigbert, abbot (c. 738) - an Englishman, who died in his abbey of
Fritzlar (near Cassel); body was translated to monastery of Hersfeld by
st Lull
* Nerses Klaietsi (1173) - Katholikos of the Armenians
* Novellone (1280) - pious self-scourging shoemaking tertiary
Franciscan; buried in cathedral of Faenza
* Gertrude of Altenberg, virgin (1297) - third daughter of st Elizabeth
of Hungary; 'took the cross' during seventh Crusade, but did so
spiritually, via prayers and penances of her community
* John of Alvernia (1322) - from Fermo in the Marches of Italy, but
lived for many years on the mountain of La Verna (where Francis received the
stigmata)
* Vincent of L'Aquila (1504) - Franciscan lay-brother who died at San
Giuliano; had gift of prophecy
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Dr Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
phone: +44(0)117-928-8168
fax: +44(0)117-929-7850
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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