medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (7. November) is the feast day of:
Herculanus (d. c. 547) Herculanus was bishop of Perugia. He was
beheaded by order of the Ostrogothic king Totila when they captured
the city during the course of the Gothic/Byzantine wars. H. was
probably a Syrian.
Florentius of Strassburg (d. c. 693) Florentius was an Irish priest
who went to Alsace and became a hermit. The story goes that he cured
a daughter of King Dagobert, who in return gave F. the wherewithall
to build a monastery at Haslach. H. became bishop of Strassburg in
c. 678.
Willibrord (d. 739) The Northumbrian Willibrord was a child oblate
at Ripon and spent 12 years studying at Irish monasteries. In 690 he
and eleven other English monks set out for Frisia as missionaries.
He founded the see of Utrecht and a number of monasteries, only to
have most of his missionary work undone when the anti-Christian (and
anti-Frankish) ruler Radbod regained control of the territory. So W.
started again, and was successful enough to get the title "apostle of
the Frisians" (although one wonders when the area really did go
Christian; they seem to have killed Boniface with great gusto in 754).
Engelbert (d. 1226) Engelbert was a noble German who became
archbishop of Cologne at the age of 30 (in 1217). He was deeply
engaged in politics and also rather ruthless in reforming his
archdiocese. In 1225 he got in a dispute with his own cousin,
denouncing him for stealing property from the nuns of Essen. The
cousin was so mad that he had E. waylaid and murdered.
John Duns Scotus (d. 1308) (blessed) A native of Duns (Berwick,
Scotland), John became a Franciscan scholar of such a high order that
he's gotten the historic nickname "the subtle doctor." He taught at
Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and Cologne during the course of his
career. His defense of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary
is the basis of the Roman Catholic position on the subject, which
became dogma in 1854. His cult was confirmed in 1993.
A modern saint: Peter Ou (Peter Wu Gousheng) (d. 1814) Peter is one
of the martyrs of China. He was one of the first converts in his
region, and became a zealous catechist in Szechuan. Imprisoned in an
anti-Christian reaction, he was tortured in an effort to get him to
renounce Christianity and was finally condemned for refusing to step
on a crucifix and strangled. He was canonized in October 2000.
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