medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (13. August) is the feast day of:
Hippolytus of Rome (d. c. 235) Hippolytus was a
native of Rome, head of a
rigorist faction that argued that people guilty of
serious sin could not be
absolved. He was elected anti-pope in opposition to
Pope Callistus I (also
a saint). He ended up consigned to slave labor in
the Sardinian mines by
the Roman authorities, and martyred (also in the
mines was Pope Pontian,
who shares H's feast with him). He was an important
ecclesiastical writer.
Cassian of Imola (d. 304?) Prudentius tells that
Cassian was a
schoolmaster at Imola, martyred in the reign of
Diocletian by being handed
over to the tender mercies of his students---who
stabbed him to death with
their pens. His cultus was confined to local
observance in 1969,
apparently because of the odd notion that his death
is improbable. Having
taught for 14 years now, I'm inclined to believe
it's all true.
Radegund (d. 587) Radegund was a Thuringian
princess, captured by the
Franks and married to King Clothar I in 536. He was
a rotten husband, and
she left him in 542, becoming a nun at Noyon and
going on to found a
convent at Poitiers.
Maximus the Confessor and companions (d. 662)
Maximus was a noble of
Constantinople who became a monk at Chrysopolis. In
628 he and a disciple
named Anastasius moved to Africa, and while there
publicly opposed the
monothelite doctrine supported by the emperor---then
he went on to Rome and
supported Pope Martin I in the same stand. He and
Martin were both seized
in 653, tried at Constantinople, and exiled. Since
he refused to accept
silence, M's tongue and right hand were amputated.
M. was a major
theological and spiritual writer.
Druthmar (d. 1046) Druthmar was a monk of Lorsch,
imposed as abbot of
Corvey by Emperor Henry II (who accused the monks
there of being
degenerate). He imposed a reforming discipline on
the abbey peacefully.
Nerses Klayetsi (d. 1173) Nerses became head of the
Armenian church (the
"catholicos") in 1166. He tried unsuccessfuly to
unite the Byzantine and
Armenian churches, and won the nickname "the
gracious" for his goodness and
pleasant poetic and hymn-writing style.
Gertrude of Altenberg (blessed) (d. 1297) The
daughter of Elizabeth of
Hungary and Louis IV of Thuringia, Gertrude was
educated at Altenberg (a
Praemonstratensian convent) and became abbess there
at the age of 21, a
post she held for half a century.
Radegund of Wellenburg (d. c.1300) The subject of a
popular cult in
Bavaria, this Radegund was a domestic servant near
Augsburg. A charitable
woman, one day she set off for a neighboring
hospital to visit the
sick---and was eaten by hungry wolves.
Dr. Phyllis Jestice
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