medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (25. August) is the feast day of:
Genesius of Arles (d. c. 303) Genesius was a catechumen and public
notary. One day in court, when he was supposed to be writing down
the imperial edict against the Christians, G. refused to do so and
resigned. He then ran from town to town. He asked for baptism, but
was refused---tradition says he was either thought too young or the
risk was too great. Instead he told G. to go and get himself
martyred. He was caught and beheaded. Today was also in earlier
years the feast day of Genesius the Comedian, a fictitious character,
said to have converted during the course of a parody of the
Christians in which he was acting.
Mennas (d. 552) Mennas was an Alexandrian who became a priest in
Constantinople and was appointed patriarch in 536. He fought against
a number of heresies, including monophysitism---problematic since the
empress was a monophysite. This caused him a lot of trouble, and at
one point he even had to escape Constantinople by way of a series of
housetops.
Ebba (d. 683) Ebba the Elder was a Northumbrian princess, the sister
of St. Oswald. She refused to marry and founded a double monastery
at Coldingham. She was very pious. There's little evidence of an
early cult; she became popular in southern Scotland and northern
England in the twelfth century, after her relics had been
rediscovered.
Gregory of Utrecht (d. 775) Gregory was a native of Trier who became
a disciple of St. Boniface. Boniface sent him eventually to preside
over St. Martin's monastery in Utrecht, which became an important
missionary center.
Louis of France (d. 1270) Louis IX became king at the age of 12, in
1226. He was fortunate in his mother, Blanche of Castile, who held
things together for him and continued to do most of the ruling while
he went off to play on crusade. L. was deeply devout and noted for
his sense of justice. At the heart of his canonization, though, is
his two crusades. He died (of dysentery) on the second one, which
rated him canonization as a martyr. The revised *Butler's Lives of
the Saints* tells that when L. died his body was chopped up and
boiled in wine, after which the bones and the heart were taken back
to France.
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