medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (16. October) is the feast day of:
Martinian, Saturian, and companions (d. 458) This is a group of four Roman
African brothers and a young woman named Maxima. They were all enslaved by
an Arian Vandal, and were caught in the persecution of catholic Christians
ordered by Genseric. The four brothers were all dragged to death by
horses; the woman managed to take refuge in a nunnery and died peacefully.
Balderic (7th cent.) Balderic was son of the Austrasian king Sigebert I.
He was the founding abbot of Montfaucon in Champagne, and also founded a
convent at Rheims.
Gall (d. c. 645) Gall was a monk of Bangor (Ireland), who went to the
Kingdom of the Franks with Columbanus. When C. was exiled from Francia,
Gall didn't go with him because of illness; legend says that C. then
ordered Gall not to perform any priestly function until C's death. Gall
became a hermit at the site where the great monastery of St. Gall was later
founded. A very attractive legend tells that Gall saved the neighborhood
from the ravages of a bear, making an agreement that the beast would be fed
gingerbread daily (or maybe just bread in the original version) and would
in return perform household chores like carrying wood.
Bercharius (d. c. 696) Bercharius became a monk at Luxeuil, but was sent
on from there to be first abbot of Hautvilliers. He then went on
pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land, and on his return founded the
monastery of Moutier-en-Der. He was stabbed to death by one of his own
monks, a man whom he had rebuked and who didn't take it well.
Lull (d. 786) Lull was an English monk, a relative of Boniface. He joined
Boniface's mission in 725 and became his main assistant. He succeeded
Boniface as archbishop of Mainz.
Anastasius of Cluny (d. 1085) Anastasius was a Venetian who became a monk
at Mt-St-Michelle, then left because of a simonist abbot and became a monk
at Cluny in 1066. In 1073 A. was commissioned by Gregory VII to go preach
to the Muslims in Spain. Somehow he survived this process for seven years,
afer which he returned to Cluny.
Gerald of Clairvaux (blessed) (d. 1177) A good day for contumacious monks.
Gerald was a Lombard who became a Cistercian monk, abbot of Fossanova, and
then in 1170 abbot of Clairvaux. While on a pastoral visitation at the
monastery of Igny, he was killed by a rebellious monk.
Hedwig of Silesia (d. 1243) Headwig (Jadwiga) was a daughter of the duke
of Croatia. She married the prince of Silesia at the age of 12; the couple
had seven children. H. and her husband encouraged religious life in
Silesia, bringing in the mendicant orders and founding the first nunnery in
the country at Trzebnica. After she was widowed, H. retired to Trzebnica,
although she never became a nun. H. was canonized in 1267.
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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