medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (2. May) is the feast day of:
Exuperius, Zoe, Cyriac, and Theodolus (d. c. 127) This was a
Phrygian couple and their two sons. All were slaves of a rich family
in Asia Minor. Legend says that they refused to participate in a
sacrifice when a son was born to their mistress and master, and as a
result were thrown into a furnace. (Such "furnace stories" have
always made me curious. How big would a furnace have been in Roman
times, anyway??)
Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373) Athanasius was one of the most
influential churchmen of late antiquity, and is a doctor of the
church. He was a native of Alexandria and in turn became a deacon,
priest and patriarch there (the last in 328). He was the greatest
champion of orthodoxy against Arianism, for which he was exiled five
times, as well as a great sponsor/encourager of monasticism.
Germanus the Scot (d. c. 460) According to a later tradition that
seems to show well the continental habit of claiming *every*
unidentified holy person as Irish, no matter how unlikely, Germanus
was from either Scotland or Ireland, made his way to Auxerre where
*that* Germanus converted him (Germanus appears in an awful lot of
these legends, too; he must have been a *very* busy man), and G the S
ended up as a missionary bishop who was martyred near Dieppe.
Vindemialis, Eugene, and Longinus (d. c. 485) Victims of the Vandal
Hunneric's persecution of catholic Christians in North Africa, all
three of these figures were bishops, tortured and then executed.
Ultan of Fosse (7th cent.) Ultan was an Irishman, brother of SS
Fursey and Foillan and was a monk with them in Norfolk. Then U.
moved to Belgium, where he was chaplain at the convent of Nivelles
before succeeding his brother as abbot of Fosse and Peronne.
Wiborada (d. 926) The first woman to win an official Roman
canonization (in 1047). Wiborada was a recluse attached to the
monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland. She was a famous prophet,
whose prophecies included a coming Magyar raid, allowing the monks of
St. Gall to get themselves and their possessions to safety. She
herself refused to break her vow of reclusion, and when the Magyars
arrived to find all their expected loot gone and nothing but this
nutty woman in a cell without a door they broke in and killed her.
(It's a very moving account in her first vita; I only discovered
later that the martyrdom section was copied almost verbatim from
Gregory of Tours' account of another recluse.)
Conrad of Seldenburen (blessed) (d. 1126) Conrad was from near
Zurich. He founded the monastery of Engelberg and became a lay
brother there. Still, he was the obvious person to send to Zurich
when it became necessary to defend the monastery's property
there---and it was there that the rival claimants murdered C. He was
venerated as a martyr.
Mafalda (blessed) (d. 1267) Majalda was a Portuguese princess,
married of at the age of 12 to Enrico I of Castile. The marriage,
however, was later annulled (for consanguinity) and M. became a nun
at Arouca near Oporto in 1216 (when she was 32). Her cult was
confirmed in 1792.
--
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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History Department
University of Southern Mississippi
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