medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
St. Expedit is also invoked -- at least in Normandy, where we encountered
him -- in cases of medical emergency, and by schoolchildren hoping for quick
exam results. His statue in Lisieux seems to be patterned on that of the
Augustus of Primaporta, with the addition of the trodden raven and the
orator's raised hand holding a cross inscribed "hodie". The legend has it
that he was a Roman officer particularly good at getting supplies through.
The Wall Street Journal of April 15, 2004 ran an article on his new
popularity among "jobless Brazilians
needing fast action".
Elizabeth Parker McLachlan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phyllis Jestice" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 12:45 AM
Subject: [M-R] saints of the day 19. April
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Today (19. April) is the feast day of:
>
> Expeditus (?) Expeditus was one of a group of martyrs executed in
> Armenia. It seems to be a "pious fiction" that popular devotion to
> him started when a crate of holy relics sent from Rome to Paris got
> misidentified thanks to the label "expedito" written on the carton.
> Expeditus is the patron saint to be invoked by procrastinators. He
> appears in art trampling a crow (which cries out "cras, cras"
> (tomorrow), to which the saint triumphantly replies "hodie!"
>
> Ursmar (d. 713) Ursmar, who may have been a bishop, became abbot of
> Lobbes (Flanders) c. 689. He founded further monasteries and
> churches, and was a successful missionary.
>
> Alphege (d. 1012) Alphege was an Englishman who became a monk but
> left to become a hermit. He was appointed abbot of the monastery at
> Bath, but was appointed bishop of Winchester against his will in 984.
> In 1006 he went on to be archbishop of Canterbury. A rather austere
> churchman, but very good to the poor. When the Danes besieged
> Canterbury, A. refused to leave and was imprisoned when the invaders
> took the city. He refused to pay a ransom and was killed.
>
> Leo IX (d. 1054) The Alsatian Leo (originally named Bruno) was a
> relative of the German Salian dynasty and got speedy ecclesiastical
> preferment. He spent 20 years as bishop of Toul, actively reforming
> the diocese and introducing Cluniac customs. Then in 1048 he was
> elected pope (at the urging of Emperor Henry III), and was
> consecrated in early 1049. It is with Leo IX that the papacy really
> jumped on the bandwagon of the great eleventh-century reform
> movement. Leo was a very active pontiff, throwing his prestige into
> the fight against simony and clerical marriage and even traveling all
> over to drive the point home. He also got involved in a war with the
> Normans who had overrun southern Italy---he was captured and
> imprisoned for a time. He was also involved in a dispute with the
> patriarch of Constantinople---the beginning of the great East/West
> Schism. L. was canonized in 1087.
>
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